Debates of April 26th, 2021

Financial Statement of Minister of Finance

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Madam Speaker, the one aspect of the national housing strategy that is really good is the rental construction financing initiative. However, the reality is that we have a supply shortage in Canada and we need to do more through taxation measures to produce even more building.

The Liberal program focuses a lot on social housing, but it does not address those who do not want to live in a social housing unit and want to have something offered by the private sector. We should use the private sector to build more housing in Canada. Right now the taxation code is not as amenable to that as it could be.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, I work with my hon. colleague on the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, where we just finished a housing study.

In regard to housing, I know he talked about home ownership. One of the things we just reviewed was the urgent need for affordable, accessible social housing, particularly for indigenous people in urban areas. I wonder if he would like comment on the need for affordable, accessible social housing in urban centres.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Madam Speaker, as I mentioned in my speech related to AHMA, federal money for indigenous people would be better spent if we empowered indigenous Canadians to take control over their own housing needs.

Right now, we have too much of an Ottawa-knows-best approach and we need to empower indigenous Canadians both with home ownership and with a new co-op arrangement, for example, to give them the tools they need to meet their housing needs. We are not doing enough right now, and we can make a lot of changes to do that better for indigenous Canadians.

[Paul Manly, Green, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Madam Speaker, the member highlighted a lot of issues with affordable housing. This is not something that happened overnight. We have seen free trade agreements and we have seen an openness to foreign direct investment in Canada for pretty much anything. If one wants to buy it, here it is, and now it has happened with our housing market.

We have seen money laundering and tax evasion schemes with our housing market. I have heard from the member's other colleagues who say they do not believe we need to restrict foreign direct investment. Does he believe that is the key to solving this housing crisis?

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Madam Speaker, we need to take actions at the federal level to ensure Canadians have a better chance of home ownership. As the housing shadow minister, I am committed to provide hope to Canadians to get into the market. Canadians need to come first over foreign buyers.

The member is right to point out many people who are say living in Victoria, Burnaby or Nanaimo have been left out because they were outbid by a foreign buyer. That is not acceptable in Canada. Canadians need to come first.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Madam Speaker, the member did give some solutions and when we talk about the budget, it is really important. One of the things I am hearing from economists is that this budget has an extra $100 billion of stimulus in it that the economy may not need right now, especially with the Americans' spending. I am worried about the quantitative easing, the stimulus and the concern about inflation.

I remember when friends of mine who graduated just four years earlier than I did paid $100,000 less for a home. Could he comment on this extra amount of stimulus and the idea of hyperinflation?

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am not an economist, so I am not going to go very deep into the quantitative easing program, but I do know that we are seeing record inflation as it relates to housing. We need to get that under control, and that starts with the Government of Canada getting its spending under control and putting forward a reasonable pathway to balance budgets to protect the long-term interests of Canadians. The member's grandchildren, my children—

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

Resuming debate, the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality.

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be here today to discuss budget 2021, a transformative agenda that values the work of women and recognizes the contribution of women in creating a more sustainable and resilient economy.

I will be sharing my time today with my colleague, the member for Surrey Centre.

Budget 2021 is a feminist plan. It is a plan built from the continuous advocacy of Canadian women all across our country from coast to coast to coast, and for the first time in our country's history, it was tabled by a woman.

We have long understood that supporting women's safety, prosperity and leadership will help ensure a truly inclusive post-pandemic recovery.

All throughout the last year, we have heard from front-line organizations and women's rights advocates who have been doing the heavy lifting throughout this pandemic. I am proud of this gender-progressive plan, because I know it will make a difference for millions of women and under-represented Canadians.

It has now been over a year since COVID-19 first impacted our communities. This has been a hard time for everyone, but it has been particularly difficult for those who are already marginalized, vulnerable or struggling.

Women, girls, LGBTQ2 people, youth, indigenous people and minority groups have been hit the hardest by COVID-19.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, women have faced job losses, reduced work hours and have had to take on most of the additional unpaid care responsibilities at home. In the early stages of the pandemic, women lost jobs at almost twice the rate of men. This was particularly true for young women and younger people in general. More than a year later, women are still struggling. During the second and now the third wave of COVID-19, as the public restrictions have tightened again, women have lost jobs again at nearly double the rate of men.

In times of greater isolation, we have seen an increase in intimate partner violence as well as unprecedented barriers for those seeking help. Let us pause and think about what this really means.

When the world shut down, it took away safe locations for women to access outside their homes. It created new barriers for child care, employment loss and took away community supports. In the third wave of the pandemic, the problem is only getting worse for these women. Rates of gender-based violence have increased somewhere between 20% to 30%, and the severity of violence experienced by women has intensified.

The prevalence of gender-based violence means that it is happening or has happened to someone near us. It means that it is happening in my community and it is happening in other members' communities too. If any of the women or girls we know are indigenous, living with a disability, lesbian, bisexual or trans, then they are at an even greater risk.

From the onset of this pandemic, our government has been there for Canadians. We have provided the support they need to continue to make ends meet while staying safe and healthy. We also took action in providing $100 million in emergency funding to women's shelters and sexual assault centres to help them accommodate public health measures and to keep their doors open during this crucial time. This funding supported over 1,000 organizations and another 500 are receiving long-term funding. Six million people have benefited from their important work.

We know that women's safety has to be the cornerstone of all progress. Budget 2021 reflects that commitment.

This budget includes significant, historic investments to address and prevent gender-based violence. We are committing $601.3 million over five years to continue work on the national action plan to end gender-based violence. This includes $200 million over two years to support gender-based violence organizations; $105 million over five years to enhance a gender-based violence program with a focus on initiatives that engage men and boys, combat human trafficking, support at-risk populations and survivors and provides support for testing and implementing best practices; $14 million over five years for a dedicated secretariat to coordinate the ongoing work toward the development of an implementation of a national action plan to end gender-based violence; $11 million over five years for gender-based violence research and knowledge mobilization; $55 million over five years to support gender-based violence prevention programming led by indigenous women and LGBTQ people; and $30 million over five years for crisis hotlines to serve the urgent needs of more Canadians to prevent the escalation of gender-based violence.

It is impossible to speak about gender-based violence without acknowledging the disproportionate violence, systemic racism and the long-standing structural and inequalities faced by indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, and LGBTQ2 people in Canada. It is an injustice that simply cannot continue.

This budget includes $2.2 billion over five years and $106.9 million ongoing to support initiatives to preserve, restore and promote indigenous culture and language, foster health systems free from racism, support culturally responsive of policing, develop an indigenous justice strategy to address systemic discrimination, enhance support for indigenous women and LGBTQ organizations, and work with indigenous partners to monitor and to measure the progress.

We are also taking action to support a more diverse and inclusive Canada through targeted measures to promote LGBTQ equality, promote LGBTQ rights and address discrimination against LGBTQ communities both past and current. This includes investing $15 million over three years for a new LGBTQ2 projects fund. This will support community-informed initiatives to overcome key issues facing the LGBTQ communities, such as assessing mental health services and employment support.

Earlier this year, courageous women have been sharing their stories of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces and unfortunately, these stories are not new. For 30 years, women have been advocating for cultural change. This was highlighted in the Deschamps report. Now we are at a pivotal point where we can actually make it happen.

This budget also includes $236.2 million over five years and $33.5 million per year ongoing to the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada to support the contributions to the national action plan to end gender-based violence and expand their work to support survivors and eliminate sexual misconduct and gender-based violence in the military.

Our government had committed that there was no recovery without child care, and we are delivering on that. The budget makes a generational investment of $30 billion over five years and $8.3 billion ongoing to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system.

Only weeks ago, a Conservative member introduced back door anti-abortion legislation. Women are tired of this debate. Women and women alone have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. To provide every person in Canada with equal access to sexual and reproductive health resources and services, no matter where one lives, budget 2021 commits $45 million to improve access to sexual and reproductive health care support, information and services for vulnerable populations.

Since we know that being able to stay home and stay safe is not an option for everyone, we are investing $2.5 billion in additional funding over seven years and $1.3 billion in reallocating funding to support a wide-range of affordable housing initiatives. That includes $1.5 billion to address the urgent housing needs of vulnerable Canadians; $315 million over seven years to help low-income women and children fleeing violence with their rent payments; and $250 million in reallocated funding to support the construction, repair and operating costs of an estimated 560 units of transitional housing and shelter spaces for women and children fleeing violence.

Women still face unique and systemic barriers to starting and growing businesses, so to help women entrepreneurs adapt their businesses to meet current and future challenges, we are committing up to $146.9 million over four years to strengthen the women entrepreneurship strategy.

To provide affordable high-quality, high-speed Internet to everyone in Canada, including those living in rural, northern and remote communities, we are investing an additional $1 billion over six years for the universal broadband fund. That is bringing us one step closer to reaching our goal of connecting 98% of Canadians all across the country by 2026 and all Canadians by 2030.

As we celebrate our progress, we recognize that there is still a lot more to do.

We know there can be no recovery from the pandemic if we do not address the systemic challenges and inequalities facing women. They have been amplified through this past year—

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

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Madam Speaker, my question to the parliamentary secretary is about an issue important to our Canada-U.S. relationship. It relates to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the bilateral agreement that was agreed to.

In that agreement, Canada is to pay 31% of sea lamprey control costs and 50% of costs associated with science, fisheries management, collaboration and administration. Unfortunately, Canada only currently pays approximately $10 million, which is only 28% of sea lamprey control, and 0% for the science and fisheries management. In effect, this means Canada has not even paid for the sea lamprey control being undertaken in Canadian waters.

When the minister's office was asked if the Liberal government was going to meet the national funding commitment for this in budget 2021, she confirmed it was not. When the Liberal budget is spending over $350 billion, why is it failing to meet our bilateral commitment?

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his passion. I am sure there are many female fishers involved in this. I will get an answer from the minister responsible and get back to him.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Madam Speaker, I listened closely to the parliamentary secretary's speech, and I thank her for her speech.

She talked about the health of society's most vulnerable members, such as members of the LGBTQ2+ community and women. My understanding is that Ottawa intends to take care of the health needs of the most vulnerable people.

Does the parliamentary secretary not trust Quebec and the provinces to take care of the health needs of the most vulnerable? I believe that is within their jurisdiction.

Is that why her government refused to grant Quebec's only request, which was to increase health transfers to 35% on an ongoing basis?

Did she and her government refuse to increase health transfers because she does not trust the governments of Quebec and the provinces on health matters?

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Mr. Speaker, our government has supported many organizations throughout Quebec with our emergency response funding. We will continue to, and we will work with all communities from coast to coast to coast to make sure that funds for LGBTQ people get in the right areas and do the work that is needed for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last Thursday, Justice Phillip Sutherland of the Ontario Superior Court found once again that provisions criminalizing sex work are unconstitutional. In Parliament, there was supposed to be a review of the former Bill C-36, but it was never started.

Since the vast majority of sex workers in Canada are women, and since these provisions make it unsafe to work as a sex worker, when will the government move to decriminalize sex work, as has now been twice required by the Supreme Court of Canada?

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his advocacy and work on this very important file.

One thing I have been doing in my role, along with the minister, is having consultations from coast to coast to coast as we develop the national action plan. One of the pillars is about doing just that. We have heard from workers and are looking forward. As the member knows, funds to support the national action plan were put in the budget, and it is a pillar in there. We look forward to having his input as we get it across the finish line.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary mentioned the Liberal child care and day care program. The Liberals have been promising this since 1993. There is an old saying: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me six, seven or eight times, shame on me.”

We really do not believe they are going to come through with this. Their plan does not take into account the difference between rural and urban and the cultural differences in Canada. Some parents want to do things a bit differently.

Does she not agree that it would be better, instead of waiting years to develop this program, to give the money directly to parents so that parents have a choice in the raising of their children?

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague may or may not know, I come from a very rural riding. Its land mass is bigger than Switzerland, and it has over 200 small communities. A rural lens does need to be put on this.

In my province of Newfoundland, there is supplemented day care, but it is not reaching farther afield into the really rural communities. That is where it needs to be, and working with the provinces and territories, we will develop a plan that provides choices for individuals and families to best meet their needs when coming up with a child care program.

We have heard a lot about this at the FEWO committee. For the plan, we need to work with all provinces, territories and municipalities and take into consideration cultural differences and, of course, the impacts of being in really rural and remote areas and urban centres.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I will start by acknowledging that budget 2021 was presented in the House by Canada's first female Minister of Finance. I congratulate the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance for continuing to break down the barriers faced by women in the workplace. I thank everyone involved in the creation of this budget, including the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, for their hard work to support all communities represented in the House and to create this comprehensive recovery plan for jobs, growth and resilience.

It is hard to know where to start and what to highlight in this extensive plan. Budget 2021 contains something for everyone. It has everything from proposing an early learning and child care plan to extending COVID support to supporting foreign workers.

Over the last few months, I have asked the constituents of Surrey Centre to write to me with their top concerns for our community, which I will highlight today. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to respond to this request. The pile was high.

The top five concerns included affordable housing, support for seniors, the environment, public safety and addressing gun violence, and mental health and addiction care. I am very proud to say that budget 2021 addresses each of these issues and many more that are important to Canadians, especially those in my riding.

I am going to begin at the end of my list because addressing the mental health of Canadians is an all-encompassing issue for which budget 2021 lays out a comprehensive plan to address.

We have seen across the country the impact that the pandemic has had on the mental health and general well-being of Canadians. The budget provides a plan for wide-ranging support that will contribute to the overall well-being of Canadians and is going to be extremely important as we move forward with recovery from the pandemic and with ongoing efforts to create a more equal Canada.

By some estimates, the rates of anxiety and depression in Canada during the pandemic have been some of the highest we have ever seen. We also know that there has been a sharp increase in drug use and overdoses reported in British Columbia and other regions of the country. The loss of jobs, economic decline, isolation and an overall sense of uncertainty have left many Canadians trying to cope the best they can with the grief and loss of loved ones and with losing the way of life we lived only 13 months ago.

The release of the Wellness Together platform has supported millions of Canadians with their mental health. I am sure all of my colleagues in the House can agree that the $62 million proposed for the continuation and expansion of this successful resource is a very important investment as we continue to find ways to support the mental health of Canadians across the country. However, we know that this mental health support needs to come in addition to improving well-being across a broad range of issues for Canadians. That is why I am pleased to see that this budget is using both social and economic factors to address the mental health challenges faced by Canadians.

Social and economic factors like good jobs, the environment, safe and supportive communities, social inclusion, income equality and high-quality health care are highly important to the overall well-being of Canadians. To address the opioid crisis and problematic substance use, the budget is proposing additional support for the substance use and addictions programs that support harm reduction, treatment and prevention at the community level. The budget also proposes working toward a crisis hotline, as well as an extension to funding for a kids helpline. I know this funding would lend significant support to organizations on the ground that are working to reduce drug use in our communities.

Finding and securing affordable housing has been a long-standing challenge for many individuals and families in Surrey. Over the last year, we have seen an increase in housing prices and The Economist has recently said that Canada has the fastest rising housing prices in the G7. That is a concern for many of my constituents who are looking to find affordable housing in a market where the demand exceeds the available supply. Funding for the national housing co-investment fund and the rental construction financing initiative, as well as $612 million to end homelessness, will help Canadians find safe and affordable homes.

The past year has been challenging for seniors across the country, and I have heard from many seniors in my riding throughout the pandemic who are having a tough time. Our government is committed to supporting seniors, and I am receiving some great feedback regarding the support in budget 2021 directed toward seniors, which includes $90 million to help seniors stay in their homes and increasing old age security for pensioners 75 and over. Many of the seniors who reside at Kinsmen Lodge, many of my friends at the Royal Canadian Legion's Whalley branch and countless others will benefit from the additional $500 payment and the 10% increase to OAS for pensioners aged 75 and over, which starts in July 2022.

The urgency to address climate change has only become more apparent as a result of the pandemic, and we know that we must continue to change the way we live and how much we consume in order to slow down global warning. The budget contains a plan to create a centre for innovation and clean energy to scale up clean technologies and help Canadians make their homes greener with retrofits. We have promised to conserve 25% of our lands and oceans by 2025, create jobs in a green economy and reduce pollution, and will provide $5 billion over seven years to the net-zero accelerator. Also, the $56 million in funding proposed for working with countries like the U.S. to create standards for zero-emission vehicle charging and refuelling stations will be beneficial as we expand our access to EV charging stations at community centres and ice rinks, building more green infrastructure for our communities, like those right here in Surrey Centre.

Budget 2021 also includes $101 billion in proposed investments as part of the Government of Canada's growth plan to create good jobs and support a resilient and inclusive recovery. In March, I had the opportunity to host the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness at a round table discussion with organizations in Surrey that work to address and prevent gang violence in the city. They emphasized the need for more funding for local projects that address the particular needs of the community.

As a member of the justice committee, I have learned about the urgent need to address domestic violence and controlling and coercive behaviour. The budget proposes more than $60 million to advance a national action plan to end gender-based violence, $200 million to support gender-based violence organizations and more than $40 million to implement legislation to address gun violence and fight trafficking and smuggling.

A broad-based plan that supports Canadians in all aspects of their lives is what we all need to recover from the pandemic. I believe that this budget lays the groundwork for a comprehensive and inclusive recovery plan for jobs, growth and resilience in Canada.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I noted that, with great care, the hon. colleague from Surrey Centre characterized this budget as having something for everyone. In fact, I believe there are 270 spending measures in it.

Would he not agree that this budget should more appropriately be a plan for Canada's recovery so that the debt on our kids and grandkids is not so large, rather than an election budget for finding money for everyone?

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that is a great question from my hon. colleague across the way. Our approach has differed from the Conservatives' approach. What the member and members of his party proposed would have meant people taking on huge debts through their credit cards and lines of credits and borrowing against their homes at higher interest rates than are available to governments, or the provinces would have had to deal with this.

Our government chose a direction that cost the lowest amount for Canadians with the lowest interest rate. We took the burden upon ourselves as a taxpayers' government to help those who needed it the most: SMEs and people who lost jobs. The recovery has been working so well that most of those who lost jobs in the biggest recession or contraction we have seen since the Second World War have gotten their jobs back. However, we have more work to do, and we will continue to fight for Canadians and make sure they have a recovery.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, earlier, my colleague said in his speech that this budget contains something for everyone. Sorry, that may be true, but that is like me buying my son a geranium for his birthday when he asked for a bike. This budget may contain something for everyone, but it is not what people wanted. The federal government is using this budget to meddle in everyone's business.

First, there is the matter of day cares and the fact that we still do not know whether Quebec will receive unconditional compensation. Then there is high-speed Internet, an issue on which the Liberals recently joined forces with the Government of Quebec, since the latter had a better plan. The Canada-wide standards that the federal government wants to implement in long-term care homes are yet another example of interference in provincial jurisdictions. Quebec and the provinces wanted just one thing from this budget: an ongoing, unconditional increase in health transfers.

I will speak candidly to my colleague and give him an opportunity to take back what he said, correct himself or clarify. What, exactly, does this budget contain for Quebec and the provinces?

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians in Quebec, just like those in British Columbia, all expect their federal government to be there for them in their times of need. If Saskatchewan gave us health care, British Columbia gave us carbon pricing, and Quebec gave us a great role model and a great model for child care.

Our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance has already said that we will be reimbursing its fair share to Quebec for the great model of providing affordable child care for its citizens and residents. I am hoping that other provinces will quickly adapt and join the federal government in taking this share and making sure people like those in Surrey Centre or Montreal or Sherbrooke all get the same type of affordable child care so that children are taken care of, their parents can go to work, and everyone gets something from this budget.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, there is a bit of a theme from my colleagues across the House and around the House this afternoon. The member spoke about having something for everyone. The Conservatives mentioned that there was too much for people. The Bloc mentioned there were the wrong things for people.

I want to ask a question about a group of people who were completely abandoned by the government, completely left behind despite what we heard in the throne speech. Where is the support for people living with disabilities? Why are they always forgotten by the Liberal government?

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for her passion for those with disabilities and those in need.

We have had great legislation brought forward to give more access for those who have disabilities, under the accessibility act. We have given compensation for those who were in need, those who have lost their jobs during the pandemic, many disproportionately due to disabilities.

As my colleague across the street from me, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, has passionately advocated for these rights, I can assure Canadians that this government will always look after the rights of those in need, including those who suffer from disabilities or accessibility issues.