Debates of March 23rd, 2021

Veterans Affairs

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Fredericton, for her intervention and the work she does to represent veterans.

Although the 2020 season of remembrance was very different than what we are used to because of the pandemic, that did not prevent us from taking a moment to remember our fallen soldiers and those who bravely served to defend the peace and freedom that many Canadians helped protect during all those years.

We are particularly thankful for the Royal Canadian Legion for the ceremony it led at the National War Memorial and to Canadians for heeding advice to stay home during this difficult time and to celebrate Remembrance Day online. While events around the country were naturally scaled way back, I hope our veterans still felt the enormous appreciation we have for them even if it had to be conveyed differently this past year.

November is a time to reflect, but by no means does our acknowledgement of Canada's veterans limit itself to just a few weeks a year.

We work all year round to ensure that our veterans receive the support provided by military services and get the assistance they need.

As we all know, 2020 was a difficult year, especially for veterans and the organizations they tend to turn to for assistance and advice.

To help veterans, we put in place a $20-million emergency fund for organizations that support veterans just before Remembrance Day. Groups such as the Legion, ANAVETS, VETS Canada, the True Patriot Love Foundation and others have incurred significant deficits because of the pandemic.

While Legion and ANAVET branches have been able to apply for funding through the Dominion Command, other organizations apply for funding through the Veteran Affairs website at veterans.gc.ca. Through the support fund, we have made money available so that they could continue to operate to provide veterans and their families with the essential services that they count on.

As for the member's comment on homelessness, I want to say that one homeless veteran is one too many. Veterans, like all other Canadians, deserve safe and affordable housing.

When Veterans Affairs Canada learns about a veteran experiencing homelessness, the department takes immediate action to give them the support they need and works with its partners to help the individual find appropriate housing. There is also a veterans emergency fund to help them and their families buy food, find housing and stay safe when their well-being is at risk due to a financial emergency.

Finally, it goes without saying that the number of veterans waiting on claims is simply too high, but I want the member opposite, everyone in the House and all Canadians to know that our government is doing everything possible to bring these numbers down and accelerate decision-making. The strategy we introduced last June to reduce wait times included a $192-million funding commitment to keep the 168 decision-makers hired through budget 2018 and to hire another 350 employees dedicated to reducing the wait time.

We expect these new hires to have a significant impact on—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

Order. The hon. member for Fredericton.

[Jenica Atwin, Green, Fredericton, NB]

Madam Speaker, remembering the sacrifices of veterans is one thing. Responding to their current urgent needs is another.

If I may, here is a list of presumptive diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure, some of which Canadian veterans and their families are grappling with: chronic lymphatic leukemia, soft tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, chloracne, respiratory cancer, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, early-onset transient peripheral neuropathy, porphyria cutanea tarda, type 2 diabetes, and spina bifida in offspring of exposed individuals.

Agent White and Agent Purple were also sprayed in my community, along with glyphosate and DDT. Citizens were told these chemicals were just about safe enough to drink. Workers cleared fallen brush with their bare hands, fresh after a spray, while the children played in smoke clouds behind the application trucks. The contracted companies wanted to save a few bucks by cutting corners and increasing chemical concentrations. Now it is these citizens who are paying the price.

Will the government do what is right? Will it uphold the duty of care for veterans and their families? Will they undertake—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada will always support the brave men and women who have served in uniform.

The country we have today was built on the backs of those who chose to put the well-being of their fellow citizens ahead of their own by willingly assuming the risks that are inherent in military life.

We owe them so much. We can never forget what our veterans and fallen soldiers have done for us, and in return we must always be there to support them in their post-service lives.

Finance

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here this evening to take part in the adjournment debates, which are always very interesting.

I asked the Minister of Finance when the next federal budget would be tabled. They let the cat out of the bag today: it will be on April 19. Canadians have been waiting two years, and the federal government will finally deign to present them with a budget.

It is important to remember that the 10 Canadian provinces and all G7 countries have been transparent with their people. They have not been afraid to table budgets despite the pandemic and its attendant inconveniences.

When I asked my question, I said that if a family went to a bank to ask for a loan but refused to produce its financial statements, the bank would of course say no. The problem with the Liberal government is that, when it goes to the bank to ask for a loan, it approves its own request. Naturally, we are very afraid that, in the upcoming budget, it will respond to its own request very generously.

We already know that the Liberal government has asked to increase Canada's debt ceiling by $663 billion—not $663 million, mind you, but $663 billion—without presenting a plan to Canadians, a plan to reopen our economy.

We often wonder why the government is waiting until April 19 before presenting Canadians with its first budget in two years. To me, the answer is quite simply that the government is not ready. It wants to present a budget once a majority of the population was vaccinated.

Unfortunately, because of past bad decisions, because of a bad vaccine procurement agreement with a Chinese company, and after putting all its eggs in one basket and being unable to procure vaccines before or at least at the same time as the other G7 countries, we are now lagging behind. That is why we learned today that the next federal budget will be brought down on April 19.

What do we expect to find in that budget?

We expect to find a plan to reopen the economy that will rely above all on vaccinating the majority of Canadians. Unfortunately, we know that we will not be able to meet that objective at the same time as the other countries, because the government procrastinated.

However, other measures definitely need to be implemented. The next budget should have fewer slogans and a lot more money for workers and families.

It is important to protect jobs, especially during this period of economic recovery. Now is not the time to reimagine our economy, as we have heard the Prime Minister say so often. It is time to place our trust in the stable and traditional jobs that have existed in Canada for a long time, because those people deserve to get their jobs back.

The post-pandemic period is not the time to choose who will be the winners and losers, which workers will be favoured by a government and which ones will be overlooked during the next few years.

It is important for the next budget to send a clear message to all Canadian workers, especially women who were seriously impacted by the recent pandemic, such as those working in health care, retail and all highly affected sectors that had to close their doors, that their government has not forgotten them.

We are expecting a true economic recovery plan in the April 19 budget. The minister is promising the budget of her life. Given her past performance, I am immensely worried for the future of my grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Madam Speaker, I am a little saddened that I do not see the hon. member's usual photo of the House of Commons behind him, as it is a good reminder of where we would all like to be in person.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this issue. As the member mentioned, the budget will be delivered on April 19. I do take objection to his comments that we are not providing a level of transparency. As he knows, the finances of the government, and the expenditures, are done through the estimates process, which he has participated in in his various committees. As well, there was a fall economic statement delivered back in the fall. It is now spring, and we are still debating the implementation bill of the previous economic statement.

I am hoping that as we move forward, in terms of the budget, we will have a more rapid debate so that we can deliver the types of programs that we have been delivering to Canadians to help them. That is what it is going to take to allow us to come rolling back after COVID-19.

We have been there for the nearly nine million Canadians who have accessed the CERB, more than 850,000 businesses that have accessed CEBA, the more than 5.2 million employees whose wages were supported by the emergency wage subsidy, and the more than 143,000 organizations that have used the rent subsidy.

We have been there for them from the start, and we will continue to be there for them.

We are already seeing the results. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Canadian economy grew by more than 10% annualized. That is better than what we saw from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. Furthermore, employment recovered nearly all the ground lost in the second wave with the unemployment rate at its lowest since March 2020.

This is good news. It shows that we have done exactly what need to be done. We have been deliberate, prudent and responsible. We have sought to be transparent with Canadians.

Last July, we presented the economic and fiscal snapshot, which provided predictions for the economic situation on that. As I mentioned, building upon that, in November we presented the fall economic statement, which included even more extensive financial information and projections. We have offered an extensive five-year fiscal forecast, which took into account varying scenarios.

The hon. member mentioned vaccines. We are well on our way. We had promised Canadians six million vaccines by the end of March. We are missing that target, and instead are exceeding it by more than 50%. We are well on our way to 37 million doses by the end of June, and more than enough to vaccinate everyone by the end of summer.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his kind words about my background when I am in my riding office. It is a reminder that the House must work for the good of all Canadians and take all Canadians into consideration. Now is not the time to capitalize on a post-pandemic economic recovery, after everyone has suffered. It is not the time to think up new methods and to pick winners and losers.

My colleague mentioned the economic statement. He was very careful to avoid saying we have gone two years without a budget, while many other governments and countries have presented budgets to their citizens. This is important, and it is also important that the next budget focus on the economic recovery so that all Canadians can have equal opportunities to succeed and get ahead.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Madam Speaker, once again, the budget will be presented on April 19. Our priority is and remains the fight against COVID-19.

From the beginning of the pandemic, the government has used every tool and has done everything in its power to crush the virus and mitigate its economic harm. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity with budget 2021 to build an economy that is better, stronger, more inclusive and more resilient for our communities, families and the next generations.

We look forward to delivering on just that.

The Environment

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Madam Speaker, I will begin by acknowledging that I am speaking from the traditional territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation, which is among the Coast Salish nations of southern Vancouver Island. Hych'ka Siem.

I also want to start by congratulating my hon. colleague, although I am not sure if I should congratulate him since he was already the parliamentary secretary for transport. Now he gets to debate me in the late show, because he is the parliamentary secretary for environment and climate change.

The question I asked of the hon. Minister of Environment and Climate Change on December 8 related to Canada essentially exercising the loophole on our shipment of plastic waste to other countries. Long ago, we entered into the Basel Convention on hazardous waste, which prevents the export of hazardous waste to other countries except under certain conditions and with their prior, informed consent. In our move to eliminate ocean plastics, Canada and countries around the world worked to amend the Basel Convention such that plastics on their way to be recycled in other countries could be treated on different levels: as hazardous materials or acceptable for shipment to other countries. At a certain level, annex II plastic waste requires prior and informed consent.

The problem here, as I put it to the Minister of Environment on December 8, is that Canada has entered into an agreement with the United States, which has never ratified the Basel Convention. It is not a party to the convention, and that has created a loophole allowing the U.S. to send non-conforming plastic waste to other countries.

The Minister of Environment answered my question by confirming that the United States is not a party to the Basel Convention, which was part of my question, and then he went on to say that the agreement between Canada and the United States dealt with waste vis-à-vis our two countries. However, that does not deal with the U.S. exporting further to non-OECD countries.

There is an increased level of concern about Canada exploiting this potential loophole, and there are things we could do about it. We could ensure that we amend our agreement with the United States to specify that it must deal exclusively with non-hazardous plastic waste as scheduled under annex IX of the Basel Convention. We could ratify the Basel ban ourselves to ensure that no plastic waste is exported to non-OECD countries. We could extend our manufactured plastic waste strategy under schedule 1 of CEPA to actually enact our ban on single-use, non-essential plastic. We could expand our integrated management plan and our approach for plastic products.

There is much more we could do to ensure that the side agreement Canada has executed with the United States creates all the same protections for the export of plastic products from Canada to the United States as would be the case if the United States has ratified the Basel Convention. We are not able to say that today. There is more to be done to ensure there is no loophole.

While on the subject of plastic waste, I think we need to expand beyond single-use plastics to look at polystyrene, which has many uses in a marine context. Wharves and buoys break down very quickly. These bits of styrofoam, or polystyrene, in our waters and on our beaches are a real threat to marine life, but they are not necessarily categorized as single-use products. They are more durable, but they break down. They are really a threat.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Madam Speaker, Canada played a leadership role in the negotiation of the Basel amendments on plastic waste during the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention and supported their adoption. Canada considers these amendments as very important, as they are key to strengthening controls on exports of certain plastic waste, leading to cleaner trade of plastic waste globally and contributing to a reduction of marine litter.

I am very pleased to inform the House that Canada accepted the amendments on December 29, 2020. As a result, since January 1, 2021, Canadian exporters must obtain export permits to be able to export these plastic wastes to parties to the convention. The consent of the importing country is required before an export permit will be issued. All parties to the convention have now accepted these important amendments, except for Turkey. This means that a global framework for controlling the transboundary movement of these plastic wastes is now in place. This represents an important safeguard to allow parties to deny the import of plastic waste subject to the convention, including prohibiting imports from non-parties.

The fact is that the Basel Convention states that parties to the convention wanting to trade waste subject to the convention with a non-party must enter into an agreement with that country that is a non-legally binding instrument or that is a legally binding instrument. Both non-legally binding and legally binding instruments can satisfy the requirements of the convention. Such instruments must respect the obligations of the convention, and the traded waste must be managed in an environmentally sound manner.

As we know, the U.S. is not a party to the Basel Convention. Basel parties around the world can allow imports of plastic waste covered by the convention from the U.S. only if they have entered into an arrangement or agreement with the U.S., as required by the convention. Since Canada trades plastic waste with the United States, and in accordance with its obligation under Basel, Canada concluded an arrangement with the United States for the environmentally sound management of non-hazardous waste traded between the two countries.

The arrangement applies between only Canada and the United States. Plastic waste covered by the Basel Convention and destined to a party to the convention is subject to Canadian regulation and requires an export permit, which will only be granted if the importing party consents to the import. This is the case even if the waste ships through the United States.

There is no free pass for exports of controlled plastic waste from Canada to Basel parties when going through the United States, securing a commitment that non-hazardous waste traded between Canada and the U.S. is and will continue to be managed in an environmentally sound manner, as is at the heart of this arrangement. This arrangement is based upon the legislative and other measures put in place by the countries and, as such, is consistent with the Basel Convention provisions and allows trade to continue freely between our countries.

There is significant environmental gains in allowing plastic waste to move freely across the Canada-U.S. border. These include access to feedstock for recycling operations in Canada, recycling in the U.S. of plastic waste that would otherwise be landfilled in Canada and reduced incentives to export overseas. Canada's ratification of the Basel plastic waste amendments, along with the arrangement with the United States, mean that vulnerable countries can refuse to accept Canadian exports of plastic waste. It also fosters enhanced recycling in Canada and reduces plastic waste that can be sent to a landfill site in Canada.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am sure the parliamentary secretary will not be surprised if I continue to maintain that Canada has not taken every step it needs to take and is capable of taking under the Basel Convention in order to ensure that bilateral trade with the United States is not just fully compliant with Basel, but goes beyond it, to ensure there are no loopholes for Canada's plastic waste, especially that which could be considered hazardous, from being exported to non-OECD countries.

I do want to make a more general statement that the notion that plastic can be recycled is largely dubious. A lot of Canadians separate their waste and want to see it recycled. Glass, aluminum, paper and paper products are largely of value and these materials are recycled, but plastic materials degrade very quickly. There is very limited access to actual recycling it. We need to take control of the matter and make sure we move off—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Madam Speaker, Canada is committed to ensuring that exports of plastic waste have regulations. That is why we have accepted and implemented the Basel Convention amendments on plastic waste. Canada and the U.S. have measures in place for the environmentally sound management of that waste. We are leveraging the mechanism available under the Basel Convention to continue to trade with the U.S.

The arrangement between Canada and the U.S. does not override regulatory obligations on Canadian exporters. Any waste covered by the convention shipped from Canada to a party to the Basel Convention is subject to our regulation and requires prior consent. Our government is acting responsibly by ensuring that countries consent to imports while fostering recycling and reducing plastic waste landfilling.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

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

(The House adjourned at 7:05 p.m.)