Debates of June 10th, 2021

Commissioner of Lobbying

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

It is my duty to lay upon the table, pursuant to section 10.5 of the Lobbying Act, a report on investigations from the Commissioner of Lobbying.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(h), this report is deemed to have been permanently referred to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Pursuant to paragraph 90(1)(b) of the Parliament of Canada Act, it is my duty to present to the House the annual report of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner in relation to the Conflict of Interest Act for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)h), this document is deemed to have been permanently referred to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.

Pursuant to paragraph 90(1)(a) of the Parliament of Canada Act, it is my duty to present to the House the annual report of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner in relation to the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(a), this document is deemed to have been permanently referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

Government Response to Petitions

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary 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, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8)(a), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to seven petitions. These returns will be tabled in an electronic format.

Reducing Barriers to Reintegration Act

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-31, An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Grande Prairie—Mackenzie, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the second report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Questions of Conflict of Interest and Lobbying in Relation to Pandemic Spending”.

The committee wishes to highlight the fact that throughout this study it faced many challenges related to the appearance of witnesses and the procurement of documents. While appearances before committee are normally done through invitation, which witnesses normally voluntarily accept, some witnesses only appeared before this committee after the summons was issued, or the threat of summons, in this case.

In addition, the committee is of the view that some of the witnesses' responses to requests for documents or written answers to questions are incomplete. Despite all the documents and written responses received, the committee believes that there are still many questions to be answered.

We would like to take note of the non-appearance of ministerial staff before committee following the motion adopted in the House of Commons on March 25, 2021. Those staff included Rick Theis, the Prime Minister's director of policy and cabinet affairs; Amitpal Singh, the Deputy Prime Minister's policy adviser; and Ben Chin, the Prime Minister's senior adviser. We would also like to note that the Prime Minister refused the invitation to testify before the committee.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

I would also like to take this moment to thank the clerk and the analysts for their diligent work under frustrating circumstances.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, while I am pleased to have the opportunity to follow our committee chair, the member for Grande Prairie—Mackenzie, and present our supplementary opinion to the ethics committee report on conflicts of interest in the government's pandemic spending, what we saw through the study and the subsequent reports was that the Liberals' filibuster of 20 meetings of the committee after the government's shutdown of Parliament was clearly an attempt to cover up their corruption. The extent that they went to really saw no bounds.

As detailed in our supplementary report, Canadians deserve a government that is committed to good, ethical governance, one that does not lay out the red carpet for their friends and help them skip the queue and get to the inside track in Ottawa. Canadians deserve a government that is going to stand up for them. They deserve a government that is not going to go to any length by shutting down Parliament and filibustering at committees.

If that is what we are going to expect from the government, and we saw and heard that from the government House leader today when he put on a performance at a press conference, with all of that being said and with a view to not hearing any more from the corrupt government today, I move:

That this House do now adjourn.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Point of order.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Unless it is a technical problem, there is not much we can do. I am afraid we cannot have a point of order.

The question is on the motion.

If a member of a recognized party present in the House wishes to request a recorded division, or that the motion be adopted on division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

The hon. member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to request a recorded division.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Call in the members.

Before the Clerk announced the results of the vote:

Committees of the House

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, the rules established for voting via the app were that all members voting by app must be in Canada and could not be abroad. It is my understanding that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance was in fact outside of Canada at the G7 meetings. We noticed that she voted today. I want to ask if she can confirm if she is, in fact, within the country. I am sure she would not want her vote to be counted if she voted contrary to the rules.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, to this point of order, I have been informed that the Deputy Prime Minister was, indeed, in the country when she cast her vote.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Unfortunately, there is no way for me, as Speaker, to know whether the member actually voted out of the country or in the country. At this point in time, I will allow the vote given the fact that I anticipate members do know the protocols and have voted accordingly.

(The House divided on the motion, which was negatived on the following division:)

Vote #138

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I declare the motion lost.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, a point of order. I believe you received a notice regarding my motion for concurrence but you did not call it.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I do apologize for that. I would invite the member to propose his motion now.

Foreign Affairs and International Development

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, I move that the third report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, presented on Friday, February 26, be concurred in.

I will be sharing my time, Madam Speaker.

I appreciate the opportunity to address this important report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, which relates to international development and to the situation globally in light of vulnerabilities created in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Canadian response to those events. This is a four-part study and the committee has decided to present interim reports on each part of the study.

Earlier this week, the second report was tabled, which is very interesting. It contains a joint supplementary report among all the opposition parties, the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc, highlighting, in particular, the plight of Canadian children who are detained in northern Syria. That is the second report as far as this COVID study.

The report I am requesting concurrence in is the third report of the committee.

The first report in this study deals with a different set of issues. It deals broadly with vulnerabilities created by the COVID-19 pandemic and Canada's response to it.

In the Conservative Party, we recognize and appreciate the important role that international development plays. First and foremost, our engagement with respect to international development is an expression of our belief in universal human dignity and of our commitment to the advancement of justice. It is a core principle for us, recognizing the importance of engagement in the area of international development and stemming from that basic motivation to seek the advancement of justice, especially for the world's poorest and most vulnerable.

We also recognize that strategic advantages come from international engagement, and a recognition of the strategic dimension should not supersede the commitment to justice that is involved. We recognize that in a world where hostile revisionist powers are increasingly using the language of aid to exert greater influence and to advance their autocratic objectives, our engagement in open-handed friendship with the peoples of the world in a way that expresses our commitment to justice, freedom, autonomy and human rights is the right thing to do. It also has strategic advantages for us.

Our party has also been very clear in articulating a commitment to not reduce aid levels and in articulating a commitment that emphasizes partnership in international development. For too long there has not been enough attention to the people who are struggling to develop and improve their circumstances, really as the heroes of the stories. The heroes of the stories are not those from developed countries giving resources. The heroes of these stories are the people themselves who have autonomy, who have choice, who seek the expansion of their own rights and abilities. We can support them in the effort to remove those barriers.

When I look at the particulars of the report in front of us, we heard from many excellent witnesses, and many important issues were raised as a part of that study. I want to focus on three issues that come out of this report. The first one I want to address are aid levels.

Recommendation 8 in the report calls for the government to effectively be more transparent and to articulate its intentions with respect to aid levels as a percentage of gross national income. Generally speaking, the international standard for measuring commitment to international development is how much countries can contribute as a percentage of gross national income. This metric is important because some people like to talk about their commitment to aid in terms of nominal dollar value. However, I think all members of the House understand, or should understand, that as a result of inflation, the value of a dollar gradually decreases over time and also that a country's capacity to contribute shifts as a result of gross national income.

This is why the general standard with respect to international development is to assess the commitment of countries, of governments, as a percentage of gross national income, not in raw dollar numbers. Even if somebody is over time contributing slightly more in terms of raw dollar numbers, in substance they may be contributing less.

When the government talks about international development, it says that it is increasing aid level amounts. While that may be true in nominal dollar terms, that is not true as a percentage of gross national income. Aid levels over the years, since the Prime Minister took office, have been cut in terms of a percentage of gross national income. The consistent levels under the last Conservative government, but also the government of Brian Mulroney, were higher than they were under Liberal governments, measured in the way these things are measured, as a percentage of gross national income. The Liberals like to talk about their commitment to international development, but, in fact, in real and meaningful terms, they have not really been where they need to be.

The other thing to note, though, about this measurement is that when there is a dramatic drop in gross national income, that can lead to the increase in apparent contribution in aid levels measured as a percentage of gross national income. Although we have been critical of the government for this cut in aid levels as a percentage of GNI, we do not want it to achieve this level by simply presiding over significant reductions in our gross national income. As a result of its failures on the economy, frankly, there is a risk of doing this, that instead of increasing our contribution to the world, we would be increasing the apparent contribution simply by seeing our gross national income go down, and that is not a particularly good thing either.

This report calls for the government to be transparent about what its plans and intentions are with respect to aid levels as a percentage of GNI. Unfortunately, we have not seen that transparency, and we did not see a commitment to that transparency in the government's response to this.

The second issue I want to talk about is direction and control. Direction and control is a structure by which charities are required to be in full direct and control of monies that they receive to maintain the qualification of those resources as part of their charitable status. Canadian requirements around direction and control are relatively unique in the world. Other countries emphasize that charities have to be accountable for the resources they spend. Being accountable for those resources does not mean they have to be in total control of how those dollars are spent.

Let me make this concrete. If a Canadian charity is working on a project in a village somewhere overseas, the gold standard in terms of development would be to give as much autonomy and control over that project to local people and have the international organization, the Canadian charity, come along as a partner and supporter, recognizing the need to build and support autonomy for the local community with respect to its delivery of this program.

The direction and control requirements that the CRA imposes are not only extremely expensive with respect to the requirements around compliance, they effectively take dollars away from international development by requiring charities to spend more money on tax lawyers. They also run counter to the values of local autonomy and partnership that are supposed to be part of what effective international development looks like.

The Conservatives have been consistent in calling for reforms to the direction and control system. I have asked the minister about this. I have also specifically raised the question of Bill S-222 from Senator Omidvar, a bill that seeks to reform the system.

I call on the government, again, to articulate its position, and there is a strong unanimous recommendation in this report for the government to, as quickly as possible, reform the direction and control system.

I wanted to talk a bit about COVAX, but maybe I can get to that in questions and comments.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

There seems to be an issue with hon. member's microphone. I would ask him to unplug his mike and plug it back in before I go to questions and comments.

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Madam Speaker, at the end of my hon. colleague's speech, he mentioned COVAX, which we know is an important program. Could I give him a couple of extra minutes to explain the importance of the COVAX program?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for Cariboo—Prince George for the excellent work he does on so many issues.

Canada is the only G7 country to be drawing from the COVAX program, and this reflects what has been a real failure on the part of the Government of Canada to effectively make vaccines available to Canadians. The government likes to talk about how it is doing the first dose as well as this—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

There is a point of order.

[Caroline Desbiens, Bloc, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Madam Speaker, there is no interpretation.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The problem seems to have been resolved.

The hon. member can restart his response.