House of Commons Hansard #12 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was chair.

Topics

Canada-U.S. RelationsAdjournment Proceedings

10:35 p.m.

Gaspésie—Les-Îles-de-la-Madeleine Québec

Liberal

Diane Lebouthillier LiberalMinister of National Revenue

Madam Speaker, the softwood lumber industry is a priority for the Government of Canada.

This industry is the economic backbone of many communities across the country and is a key part of Canada's forestry sector that contributed more than $25 billion to the GDP in 2020 and employed nearly 185,000 workers. We can be proud of our softwood lumber industry, and our government is a strong advocate for its interests.

I must say that Canada is particularly disappointed that the United States decided to unfairly increase the tariffs it imposes on most Canadian softwood lumber producers. These unjust tariffs are hurting Canadian communities, businesses and workers.

My colleague, the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, was in Washington last week to meet with U.S. congressional leaders and stakeholders to advocate for Canadian interests and to raise issues of concern regarding softwood lumber. On November 18, the Prime Minister also spoke to the U.S. President about this matter. The Minister of Foreign Affairs also laid out Canada's position in her meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State on November 12. Meanwhile, senior Canadian officials have been conveying this message to their American counterparts at every opportunity.

I can assure the member that we are working tirelessly with the U.S. government to arrive at a positive solution to this conflict.

We remain convinced that a negotiated settlement is not only possible but in the best interests of both countries. As a Quebec minister, I am shocked that one of our businesses, Resolute Forest Products, is being charged combined duties that are higher than what other companies are being charged. That is just not acceptable.

Canada is asking the United States to stop charging these unfair and unjustified tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber products, but the United States has shown no interest in serious discussions to find a mutually acceptable solution.

Finally, I wish to reiterate that the Government of Canada will continue to vigorously defend Canada's softwood lumber industry by seeking recourse under chapter 19 of NAFTA and chapter 10 of CUSMA and through the World Trade Organization.

In the past, neutral and independent tribunals ruled that the U.S. allegations were unfounded, and we firmly believe that the same thing will happen this time.

Canada-U.S. RelationsAdjournment Proceedings

10:40 p.m.

Conservative

Eric Melillo Conservative Kenora, ON

Madam Speaker, the fact of the matter is that the status quo is simply not working. The government members continue to say that they have raised this issue. They continue to say that they are disappointed with the decision by the United States. What is very unclear at this point is what the government is actively doing to address the situation, and when Canadians can expect to see results.

The workers in my riding need the government to succeed on this. All of Canada needs the government to succeed on this. While we continue to wait for a ruling under CUSMA, each day becomes less and less stable for workers in my riding. I urge the government, and I urge the minister, to go beyond the nice words and show the concrete action they are taking to address this situation.

Canada-U.S. RelationsAdjournment Proceedings

10:40 p.m.

Liberal

Diane Lebouthillier Liberal Gaspésie—Les-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC

Madam Speaker, over the last six years, hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs have been threatened each time, and we have taken action accordingly.

Our position is very clear. No, and I mean no, duties should be imposed on Canadian softwood lumber exports. We will continue to work closely with forestry workers and stakeholders, and I want to reassure them that we will always be there to defend their interests, their families and their communities.

I want to emphasize that we will continue to challenge and press our U.S. counterparts to rescind this unfair and unwarranted trade action.

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

10:40 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Madam Speaker, my riding of Vancouver East has the third largest urban indigenous community in the country. We also had the largest homeless encampment in this country. That encampment has now been taken down, but people are still homeless on the streets and I see tents everywhere. The winter months are here; it is wet and it is cold.

The most glaring omission from the national housing strategy was an urban, rural and northern “for indigenous, by indigenous” housing strategy. As the CHRA indigenous caucus pointed out, Canada’s distinctions-based indigenous housing strategy left a huge gap for 87% of indigenous peoples living off reserve and had called for the government to address this huge housing gap.

The proposal for a fourth strategy calling for specific programs and investments for urban, rural and northern indigenous peoples backed by budget measures was supported unanimously by indigenous and non-indigenous members of the CHRA. That was back in 2018. Despite the Liberals saying that they are committed to a “for indigenous, by indigenous” urban indigenous housing strategy, we have yet to see one materialize.

Budget after budget, the Liberals failed to deliver. In response to budget 2021, Robert Byers, chair of CHRA indigenous caucus, said the absence of such a strategy in budget 2021 is a disgrace. Tim Richter, president and CEO of the CAEH, and co-chair of the government’s National Housing Council called it “the most glaring disappointment”.

In this throne speech, there was zero recognition of the need for a “for indigenous, by indigenous” urban, rural, northern housing strategy, despite the fact that the core housing need for indigenous households is the highest in Canada. The Northwest Territories is at 22.3%, Yukon at 24.1% and Nunavut is at 44.3%.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer most recently reported that 124,000 indigenous households are in core need, including 37,500 who are homeless in a given year. The annual affordability gap is $636 million. Winnipeg has the highest number of indigenous households in need of housing estimated at 9,000, and Vancouver is second at 6,000.

We also know that indigenous peoples are 11 times more likely to use a homeless shelter. The latest point in count shows that 7,000 indigenous persons are in shelters or unsheltered across 61 communities.

We need the government to stop with the talking points. It is time to take action. I am calling on the minister to include a “for indigenous, by indigenous” urban, rural and northern housing strategy and the creation of a national housing centre designed and run by indigenous housing providers in this fiscal update.

It is absolutely essential for the government to take action. If the government seriously wants the community to believe that reconciliation is the top priority for the government, it needs to take action. I do not want to hear from the government members who get up to pat themselves on the back to say what a great job they are doing. They do not have to look far to know what I am saying is true. All they have to do is come to my riding in Vancouver East and I will take them down to the streets. They will see for themselves—

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

10:45 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

The member's time is up. She will have one minute for rebuttal.

We will allow the hon. Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion to respond.

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

10:45 p.m.

York South—Weston Ontario

Liberal

Ahmed Hussen LiberalMinister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for Vancouver East for highlighting the deep and urgent levels of housing needs among indigenous peoples.

As the member noted, indigenous peoples are overrepresented among the homeless population. This is the case in virtually all of Canada's major cities. I can assure the member and all Canadians that we are fully committed to co-developing an urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy. This will include a national indigenous housing centre. With this centre, indigenous peoples will oversee federal indigenous housing programs once fully realized.

In our discussions with first nations, Inuit and Métis partners, they have told us that they want a strategy that will advance reconciliation, a strategy that is for indigenous peoples and led by indigenous peoples. Our government agrees, and that is what is driving our work with our indigenous partners to develop this urban, rural and northern strategy.

Even as we work toward this strategy, we continue to respond to the deep and urgent needs for housing across the country.

For example, we prioritized funding to indigenous peoples through the $2.5 billion rapid housing initiative. In fact, in the first round of this program, close to 40% of all units created under the rapid housing initiative will benefit indigenous peoples. We will soon be able to share news on the second round of this program, which will ultimately create at least 9,200 permanent, affordable homes for our most vulnerable populations.

We have also responded to the urgent need for more shelters and transitional and supportive housing for indigenous women and children fleeing gender-based violence. Earlier this month, our government announced more than $724 million to build and support the operation of at least 38 shelters in addition to 50 transitional homes across Canada, including in urban areas and the north. This follows the previous initiative we announced last June to build 12 shelters across Canada.

In addition to these most recent investments, we continue to track strong progress through our national housing strategy programs. More than $72.5 billion in investments have been delivered through this strategy, and, as I said, we have prioritized indigenous and northern housing needs across all aspects of the national housing strategy. In addition to that, we have earmarked $638 million in specific funding to ensure indigenous peoples living in urban, rural and northern communities have better housing outcomes now and for generations to come.

We will continue to deepen and expand our investments in housing. In the recent Speech from the Throne, we have also announced plans for new programs that will be designed to give more access to housing wherever families are on the housing continuum. This includes a proposal to set up a $4 billion housing accelerator fund to help municipalities clear up development backlogs so that projects can get off the ground more quickly. It also includes a rent-to-own program that would give more families a chance to make their dream of home ownership a reality.

This is an important part of our commitment and we will continue, as I said, to prioritize housing for indigenous peoples through the national housing strategy. In fact, it is through that lens that we make these investments. However, I agree with the hon. member that we have to make more progress to ensure we have a distinct urban, rural and northern indigenous housing strategy, and that can only be done with and led by indigenous peoples.

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

10:50 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Madam Speaker, I am sorry, but the fact is that the Liberal government has promised this for four years and it has not delivered. It is not even in the throne speech. He mentioned the need for a for indigenous by indigenous urban, rural and northern housing strategy. The measures that the minister mentioned just now will not provide support to indigenous peoples in core need. That is the reality.

If the minister truly believes in what he said just now, that the government is going to implement a for indigenous by indigenous urban, rural and northern housing strategy along with a housing centre, will he advise that there will be commitments in the fiscal update coming up on December 14? The minister has to show action, not just talk about it.

HousingAdjournment Proceedings

10:50 p.m.

Liberal

Ahmed Hussen Liberal York South—Weston, ON

Madam Speaker, we have shown action. The hon. member only has to look at the projects that have been approved through the first round of the rapid housing initiative. She can look at the fact that 38%, almost 40%, of all the successful projects under the rapid housing initiative went to indigenous people.

The hon. member chooses to ignore the $638 million dedicated to urban, rural and northern indigenous housing. She chooses to ignore the fact that we are the government that has invested the most amount of money in affordable housing in the history of the Northwest Territories and unlocked federal dollars for the Yukon and Nunavut.

We will continue to do more, but absolutely we have made a lot of progress as well.

EmploymentAdjournment Proceedings

10:50 p.m.

Conservative

Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC

Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to be here at this very late hour to be granted an adjournment debate on the labour crisis.

The government's recent economic recovery speech said it was committed to leaving no worker or region behind, yet nowhere in the speech was there a single mention of the labour shortages that thousands of small and medium-sized businesses face. Leaving small businesses adrift is a roadblock to our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As the member of Parliament for Kelowna—Lake Country, my local businesses are feeling the crunch of not having the staffing levels necessary to offer their goods and services like they are used to.

Jason Davis, who operates the Okanagan branch of a security company, told me that a significant drop in employee candidates has left the company running at a loss. They estimate losing over $100,000 in contractually guaranteed revenue because of lost staffing coverage. That is in addition to the hundreds of thousands more they have been forced to incur in penalties for not meeting contractual obligations, higher costs of recruitment and the inability to take on any new work. This is similar to stories I hear from many business owners. Working in security, they are able to see how labour shortages have been damaging to their sector and the many other businesses they work with.

However, employers like Jason are not coming to my office just to talk about difficulties. They are coming to me with solutions. He has suggestions on the temporary foreign worker program, and this side of the House has similarly looked at offering solutions to tackling this labour crisis. Along with the chairman of the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association, I have already sent a letter to the Minister of Immigration asking him to extend working visas that have expired for people already in Canada. This is an easy fix, yet so far we have received no response and the government is silent. Ignoring our warnings on this labour crisis will not make the problem disappear. It will leave our recovery on the rocks.

Statistics Canada said that in September there were over one million job vacancies. During that same month, there were about a million people on the CRB. RBC Economics reported that one in every three businesses is grappling with labour shortages. A report from the government's own Business Development Bank says that 55% of entrepreneurs struggle to hire the workers they need.

We do not have to let this country run into a growing iceberg. We can choose to take action to ensure our recovery lifts up all businesses and workers. We can ensure that Canadians continue to be employed at good-paying jobs that support their communities with affordable goods and services. We need to get people who are able to work back to work.

We can keep Canadians spending at small businesses by tackling skyrocketing inflation, which is escalating gas and grocery bills. We can strengthen our supply chains by ensuring Canadian warehouses, ports and trucking companies have the staff to meet their needs. We can address the increasing debt that small businesses are currently carrying, with an average of $170,000 in new debt. We can address rising costs for small businesses by halting federal payroll tax increases.

I urge the government to take note of these and the many more ideas expressed by my colleagues across partisan divides. Rushed legislation like Bill C-2 will not solve staffing shortages. I ask the government to work collaboratively in the House to tackle the growing labour shortage threats that are crippling small business and impeding our economic recovery.

EmploymentAdjournment Proceedings

10:55 p.m.

Edmonton Centre Alberta

Liberal

Randy Boissonnault LiberalMinister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance

Madam Speaker, I know the hon. member's riding very well, having spent a lot of time there as a business person before entering politics, and from training for an Ironman triathlon in the region, which feels like it was almost half a lifetime ago. It was certainly back in the days when I had more hair.

Moving on to other things, the member opposite raises an important issue. It is a whole-of-government preoccupation for us. I have had conversations with the Minister of Immigration on this. I think if we can set the table with 106% of jobs recovered since the lowest point in the pandemic, 154,000 jobs reported as added to the Canadian economy in the last month, and all of the hours that were lost during the pandemic having also been recovered. Those are important elements to put on the table as we get into the matter.

There is no more important economic policy for Canada today than finishing the fight against COVID. That also impacts who we are able to bring here and how we are able to address the labour shortage. I think Bill C-2 is an important piece of this puzzle, because it contains targeted business and income supports, including the emergency lockdown supports we need to fight omicron.

If we take a step back and look at when the crisis hit, our government rapidly rolled out a full range of effective broad-based programs to support Canadians through our greatest economic shock as a country since the Great Depression. These actions were necessary and unprecedented in our lifetime.

All across the country, these programs have been lifelines for workers and businesses. They protected millions of jobs and hundreds of thousands of Canadian businesses through the worst of the pandemic.

However, those emergency measures were always meant to be around just long enough to help people get through the crisis. Fortunately, we are now moving into a new phase that promises to be very different from the dark days of our fight against COVID‑19.

Thanks to one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, most businesses are safely reopening and employment is now exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

We know there are still workers and businesses whose livelihoods are being affected as a result of pandemic-related restrictions on their activity. That is why it is important to pivot to our support measures. It is a move to more targeted measures, which will provide help where it is needed most and continue to create jobs and growth while prudently managing government spending.

Some may wonder how we can tell when we have reached a turning point in Canada's economic recovery from the COVID recession. Allow me to highlight the markers of our government's successful economic response plan, which have brought us to where we are today.

In last year's throne speech, our government promised to create one million jobs, a goal we achieved in September of this year when Canada recovered all of the jobs lost at the lowest point of the COVID‑19 recession. That is a total of three million jobs recovered since the spring of 2020.

Shops and businesses are open, and Canadians are doing their part to make sure we have a safe reopening. They are rolling up their sleeves, getting their shot and following public health advice. This is an important part of the overall plan to get Canadians back to work to fully recover from the COVID‑19 pandemic.

We understand and appreciate the member opposite's concern, and we are working with a whole-of-government approach to address it.

EmploymentAdjournment Proceedings

11 p.m.

Conservative

Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC

Madam Speaker, let me again remind the government why small business labour shortages in our economy matter. Small businesses represent about 70% of Canadians employed in the private sector. Out of every 20 businesses employing Canadians, 19 are small businesses. They are the greatest driver of innovation and prosperity in this country and are the ground level for our economic success.

Statistics Canada's most recent survey of business conditions shows more than one in four businesses expect its profitability to decline by the end of the year. The government's inaction on this labour crisis will only cause more stress to entrepreneurs working longer hours and more businesses folding in the new year. Keeping Canadians employed in good-paying jobs should be an essential priority for the government, but without a small business sector that is thriving, not just barely surviving, those jobs will not be there to go back to.

EmploymentAdjournment Proceedings

11 p.m.

Liberal

Randy Boissonnault Liberal Edmonton Centre, AB

Madam Speaker, I ran a small business before entering politics, and I ran the same one in between politics. I understand job creation. I understand the challenges entrepreneurs are facing from coast to coast to coast. I understand the particular challenges that operators in the tourism sector are facing.

This government has been there for small businesses. We proved that during the pandemic. We will be there until the pandemic is over. We will ensure a robust economic recovery so that all entrepreneurs, their families and the people they employ understand that, when the chips are down, the Liberal government has their backs.

EmploymentAdjournment Proceedings

11 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 2 p.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 11:02 p.m.)