House of Commons Hansard #97 of the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was election.
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Speaker, if you will indulge me, I would like to wish my wife a happy 10-year anniversary.
The first petition I would like to table is in support of Bill S-204, a bill that has just passed the Senate. It would make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ for which there has not been consent.
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Speaker, the second petition highlights the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and calls on the government to make use of the Magnitsky act to target officials who have been involved in the horrific persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and to hold them and other abusers of human rights in China accountable.
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Speaker, the third petition highlights the human rights situation in Ethiopia, in particular in the Tigray region, but emerging concerns respond to human rights issues happening throughout the country. Petitioners are seeking greater engagement by the government in response to these issues, including short-, medium- and long-term election monitoring in Ethiopia, as well as engagement with the Eritrean government about its involvement in Tigray.
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Speaker, the fourth and final petition I am presenting today is about Bill C-6. Petitioners are looking for reasonable amendments to that bill that would fix the drafting problems with the definition of conversion therapy used in that bill. Petitioners do support efforts to ban conversion therapy once the definition has been corrected.
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present two petitions this morning.
The first petition is in regard to Bill C-6 as well. There is great concern from the petitioners that the definition does need to be corrected. If it was, they would certainly support the bill. Their concern is around the way it basically overrides the choices of LGBTQ2 Canadians concerning sexuality and gender by prohibiting access to professional or spiritual support that is freely chosen in limiting their sexual behaviour or detransitioning.
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Mr. Speaker, the second petition calls upon the House of Commons to pass a Criminal Code prohibition of sex-selective abortion. It is in response to Bill C-233. This is legal in Canada. It is antithetical to our commitment to human rights and equality between men and women. Many polls show that the vast majority of Canadians want to see this in our laws, and Canadian health care professionals are recognizing as well that this is a problem in Canada.
Paul Manly Green Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present two petitions today that were initiated by constituents in Nanaimo—Ladysmith.
In the first petition, the petitioners are concerned that the British Columbia government has not followed through on promises, on an expert panel to protect old-growth forests in British Columbia. They are calling upon the government to work with the provinces and first nations to immediately halt logging of endangered old-growth ecosystems; fund the long-term protection of old-growth ecosystems as a priority for Canada's climate action plan and reconciliation with indigenous peoples; support value-added forestry initiatives in partnership with first nations to ensure that Canada's forestry industry is sustainable and based on the harvesting of second- and third-growth forests; ban the export of raw logs and maximize resource use for local jobs; and ban the use of whole trees for wood pellet biofuel production.
Paul Manly Green Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Mr. Speaker, in the second petition, the petitioners note that natural time-tested immune system essentials and holistic health practices do not receive enough attention for their role in preventative health care. They are calling upon the government to educate and empower Canadians on holistic approaches to optimize and maintain their natural immunity and well-being; cover practices for health sustainability and wellness care under the Health Act, including chiropractor care, massage therapy, acupuncture and naturopathic medicines; and support, promote and enhance Canadians' access to holistic health services and natural products.
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 566, 567, 569 and 571.
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
With regard to the Western Economic Diversification’s Regional Relief and Recovery Fund, since the program was launched: (a) how many applications have been received; (b) how many applications have been approved; (c) what is the total dollar value of disbursements to approved applicants; (d) what is the average dollar value per approved applicant; (e) what is the average processing time for applications; and (f) what is the target processing time for applications?
Question No.566Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings
Ahuntsic-Cartierville Québec
Liberal
Mélanie Joly LiberalMinister of Economic Development and Official Languages
Mr. Speaker, the regional relief and recovery fund, RRRF, provides critical support to businesses and organizations that are not eligible for other federal government COVID relief measures and was designed to be a backstop for businesses that may have fallen through the cracks, to help them continue to pay expenses and protect jobs. Demand for this program has been consistently high in western Canada and accounts for nearly half of all applications received to date. This is especially true in Alberta, which has been hit concurrently by the COVID-19 pandemic, a years-long decline in the oil and gas industry, and several natural disasters.
The statistics provided below reflect the portion of the RRRF delivered directly by Western Economic Diversification, WD, and do not include information on Community Futures and other third party delivery of this program in western Canada.
The statistics below cover the period from the launch of the RRRF in May 2020 to March 18, 2021.
In response to (a), WD has received 10,295 applications.
In response to (b), WD has approved 4,578 applications. Applicants may be declined support through the RRRF program for a number of reasons related to their eligibility, with slightly different criteria for applications below $60,000 and above $60,000. Eligibility criteria common to both types of applications include, but are not limited to, having fewer than 500 full-time employees, FTEs; operating in Canada; being operational as of March 1, 2020; being located in western Canada, defined as British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba; and having suffered financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full details of the eligibility criteria for requests up to $60,000 can be found at https://www.wd-deo.gc.ca/eng/20060.asp, under step 1. Applications over $60,000 up to $1 million are also subject to additional assessment on ongoing financial viability, as well as a competitive process that weighs their expected impacts on the western Canadian economy. Full details of the criteria for applications over $60,000 can be found at https://www.wd-deo.gc.ca/eng/20061.asp.
In response to (c), $299,950,204 has been disbursed to approved applicants, leading to the preservation of almost 23,000 jobs.
In response to (d), the average is $65,519 per approved applicant.
In response to (e), the average is 41 business days to process applications, calculated from the date that the application is received in the portal to the date that a funding decision is finalized.
In response to (f), WD has maintained and exceeded the service time standard for all WD-delivered programs, which is under 90 business days for a funding decision.
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
With regard to all pandemic relief programs and small businesses: (a) how many small businesses have opened since March 2020; (b) how many of the small businesses in (a) have successfully applied for any the pandemic relief program; (c) how many person hours of preparation and filing do the Canada Revenue Agency’s new multiple T4 reporting periods require of small businesses; (d) how much has it cost small businesses to comply with the new multiple T4 reporting periods; and (e) what efforts were taken to align T4 reporting periods with calendar months?
Rachel Bendayan LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business
Mr. Speaker, in response to (a), according to estimates data on business openings and closures collected by Statistics Canada, there were 134,730 new entrants, that is, opening businesses that were not active in a previous month, in the Canadian market between March 2020 and December 2020. This represents an average of 13,473 new firms per month. From January 2015 to December 2019, on average, about 15,000 businesses were created in the business sector on a monthly basis. The number of new entrants reached a low of 9,535 in May 2020, but more new businesses have steadily entered the business sector since, reaching an amount of 16,972 in December 2020, 13.1% higher than observed in February 2020.
It should be noted that these numbers are for all businesses, not only small businesses. However, entrants are overwhelmingly likely to be small businesses, with the vast majority of businesses having one to four employees when they begin operations.
In response to (b), through the COVID-19 economic response plan, the Government of Canada took immediate action to help Canadian businesses affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, from helping keep employees on the job to increasing cash flow and providing support to help pay rent.
To date, several important measures remain in place to provide support that would help the hardest-hit businesses safely get through the spring and cover costs so they can continue to serve their communities and be positioned for a strong recovery, including the Canada emergency wage subsidy, which helps employers retain and quickly rehire workers previously laid off; the Canada emergency rent subsidy, which provides direct and easy-to-access rent and mortgage interest support to tenants and property owners; lockdown support, which provides additional rent relief to organizations that are subject to a lockdown and must shut their doors or significantly restrict their activities under a public health order issued under the laws of Canada, or a province or a territory.
It is not possible to determine how many of the 134,730 new entrants since March 2020 have accessed pandemic relief, as program data does not identify the year eligible businesses receiving aid were opened, only the total number of businesses receiving aid and their sectors. As a result, the two databases are not comparable.
The Government of Canada is unable to quantify the information requested in (c), (d) and (e). Producing and validating a comprehensive response to this question is not possible in the time allotted and could lead to the disclosure of incomplete and misleading information.
Scot Davidson Conservative York—Simcoe, ON
With regard to environment impact assessments conducted by the Department of Environment and Climate Change and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, since January 1, 2019: (a) how many requests for assessments have been (i) received, (ii) accepted, (iii) turned down; (b) who requested each assessment in (a) (for example the public, the federal government, the municipal government, etc.), broken down by (a)(i), (a)(ii), (a)(iii); and (c) what are the details of each impact assessment conducted or concluded since January 1, 2019, including the (i) requestor, (ii) summary of the project assessed, including the location, (iii) date the assessment was completed, (iv) findings?
Question No.569Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings
North Vancouver B.C.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson LiberalMinister of Environment and Climate Change
Mr. Speaker, members can refer to the following website for information related to Q-569: https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluations.
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
With regard to the decision by the government to remove the international designation from the Regina International Airport and the Saskatoon International Airport: (a) on what date did the government make the decision posted in Transport Canada’s Advisory Circular No. 302-032 to remove the international designation from the airports in Regina and Saskatoon; (b) on what date did the Minister of Transport become aware that the airports in Regina and Saskatoon were being stripped of their international designation; (c) will the Minister of Transport reverse this decision, and, if not, why not; (d) did the government conduct any studies or assessments on the financial harm such a decision may bring to Saskatchewan, and, if so, what were the findings; (e) what impact does the government project that removing the international designation from these airports will have on the number of international flights arriving in or departing from these airports; (f) what other Canadian airports are losing or potentially losing their international designation; and (g) for each airport in (f), what is the specific reason why the government is considering removing its international designation?
Question No.571Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings
Mississauga Centre Ontario
Liberal
Omar Alghabra LiberalMinister of Transport
Mr. Speaker, in response to parts (a) and (b), advisory circulars, ACs, issued by Transport Canada, help the civil aviation community understand how to comply with current regulations and standards in aviation. The advisory circular No. 302-032 outlines the minimum requirements needed per the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, convention to be designated as international and published as such in aeronautical publications. Transport Canada did not remove the international designation from the Regina and Saskatoon airports. In fact, the department has no information to confirm that these airports were ever formally designated as stated in the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, convention. Advisory circulars issued by Transport can be found at the following link: https://tc.canada.ca/en/aviation/reference-centre/advisory-circulars.
In response to part (c), Transport Canada did not remove the international designation from the Regina and Saskatoon airports. If these airports submit the necessary information to confirm that they meet all the relevant specifications for designation as stated in the ICAO convention, they will be provided the designation.
The response to part (d) is no, because the Regina and Saskatoon airports have not been denied access to the designation, nor have they been denied from operating international flights from their airports. The advisory circular outlines the minimum requirements needed per the international ICAO convention to be designated as international and published as such in aeronautical publications.
The response to part (e) is none, as those airports, regardless of their designation, can support international flights, provided that they make specific arrangements with the agencies required to support flights: customs, immigration, security, etc.
In response to parts (f) and (g), Transport Canada did not remove the international designation from any airports. The advisory circular has a list of airports for which the department has information to confirm that these airports are already formally designated as stated in the ICAO convention. Those airports that wish to be designated international are invited to make an application as outlined in the advisory circular, and those that meet the requirements will be designated international.
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, if the government's responses to Questions Nos. 568, 570 and 572-574 could be made orders for returns, these returns would be tabled immediately.
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
With regard to sole-sourced COVID-19 spending between November 25, 2020, and March 18, 2021: (a) how many contracts have been sole-sourced; and (b) what are the details of each such sole-sourced contract, including the (i) date of award, (ii) description of the goods or services, including the volume, (iii) final amount, (iv) vendor, (v) country of the vendor?
(Return tabled)
Kerry Diotte Conservative Edmonton Griesbach, AB
With regard to expenditures on communications professional services (codes 035, 0351, and 0352) since December 1, 2020, broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation, or other government entity: what are the details of each expenditure, including the (i) date, (ii) amount, (iii) vendor, (iv) description of goods or services, (v) whether the contract was sole-sourced or competitively bid?
(Return tabled)
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
With regard to federal grants and contributions to Respon International Group, since January 1, 2018, broken down by department, agency or other government entity: (a) how many grants or contributions have been allocated; (b) what are the details of each grant or contribution, including the (i) amount or value of the federal contribution, (ii) program under which the grant was provided, (iii) summary of purpose or project description; and (c) do the terms and conditions of these grants or contributions specifically prohibit the advocacy of the recipient on behalf of a foreign government, and, if not, why not?
