Debates of June 10th, 2021

Post-Secondary Education

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth]

Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure the member and all Canadians that our government will remain focused on all Canadians, including students and youth. Today, we could have been debating waiving interest on student loans. We could have been extending the rent subsidy and wage subsidies. However, we have the Conservatives in the opposition playing political games.

We will remain focused on delivering for Canadians. That is why, exactly as the member is asking, waiving interest on student loans is in budget 2021, and it is within the budget implementation act. I would encourage her to talk to her Conservative counterparts to get the debate—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for St. John's East.

Public Safety

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the public safety committee heard that the continued use of solitary confinement in Canadian prisons amounts to torture under international law. Black and indigenous people are severely over-represented in Canadian prisons, as a result of more than a century of systemic racism, and are therefore more likely to be subject to this torture. Lack of transparency, oversight and direction have allowed it to continue. It must stop. Torture must stop. Systemic racism must stop.

When will the Liberal government end state-sponsored torture of Canadian citizens in our prisons?

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

Mr. Speaker, through the act formerly known as Bill C-83, we are ending administrative segregation. We will continue to work to further develop systems to serve our communities more equitably. We value the work preformed by the independent external decision-makers who review inmate cases on an ongoing basis and issue decisions that are binding upon correctional services.

We will continue to work to ensure that administrative segregation is ended and replaced by the legislation that we have brought forward.

Indigenous Affairs

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, although day scholars were able to seek compensation under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement for physical and sexual abuse suffered while attending residential schools, they were not able to seek compensation for the experience of attending Indian residential schools because they returned to their homes at night.

The Sechelt and Tk'emlúps Indian bands challenged this in court as two of the plaintiffs in the Gottfriedson Indian residential scholars class action. Yesterday, after a journey that took over a decade, our government announced that a settlement has been reached with the survivor and descendant class members in the class action.

Can the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations update the House on this important milestone for day scholars?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his leadership and his advocacy. Yesterday's announcement does take us another step closer to bringing meaningful resolution and healing for our day scholar survivors and their descendants. After years of advocacy, this agreement is a testament to their dedication and resilience, and their courageous effort should be recognized.

The agreement combines individual compensation for harms experienced in attending a residential school as a day scholar with investments to support healing, wellness, education, language, culture, heritage and commemoration for survivors and descendants. This is an important step forward.

Housing

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Mr. Speaker, for many families in my riding, the dream of home ownership is just that: a dream. The Liberals' answer is the first-time home buyers' incentive, but it has been a failure and few Canadians are using it. The worst part is the latest idea to raise the program's max home price to $722,000. This is completely tone deaf, and will obviously change nothing for my community.

Do the Liberals know how much the average home in South Surrey and White Rock costs?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Families]

Mr. Speaker, we have done a lot in the national housing strategy to ensure that Canadians are assisted with their housing needs. We introduced the first-time home buyers' incentive, which will help families achieve the dream of home ownership. The Conservatives have never been leaders in affordable housing solutions for Canadians.

They do not support the national housing strategy, which is working. It is like choosing to swim across a crocodile-infested river because one does not want to use the bridge out of fear that the bridge will fall down, even though the bridge is working, in this case the national housing strategy. It does not make sense, and Canadians see right through that.

Health

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Mr. Speaker, every day, I hear heartbreaking stories from my constituents who have been separated from their families and loved ones by the lengthy and extended border closure with the United States. Some have missed family funerals. Others cannot cross to look after their elderly parents or a sick family member. Grandparents are forfeiting precious time with their grandchildren. Nearly 15 months into this pandemic, no formal plans for the safe reopening of our border crossings have been announced.

Does the Liberal government not care about the human impacts it is having on my constituents by its inaction?

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, of course we care. Our entire government has been working throughout this pandemic to care for Canadians, to keep them safe throughout a global pandemic, which many of us have never seen before. All of the measures that we have put in place have been done with the advice from scientists, experts and doctors, with the purpose of stopping the spread of COVID-19 and saving lives.

We made an important announcement yesterday in regard to lifting restrictions. We need Canadians to keep doing that hard work, keep getting vaccinated, and we will see life return to normal—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George.

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

Mr. Speaker, last week, the CRTC announced it will start consultations on a three-digit national suicide prevention hotline. We do not need more consultations. We do not need more inaction. Help should only be three digits away. The government could have introduced legislation immediately after passing our motion to bring 988 to Canada, six months ago.

The government has the power to get this done right now. Instead, what it did was pass the buck. It failed to act and passed it to the CRTC. Why?

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. One of the first commitments we made in our mandate was for additional support for provinces and territories, specifically around mental health supports. This is something we have been committed to not just throughout the pandemic, but every single day of our mandate we have been working to help support the mental health needs of Canadians. It is something that can be seen again in budget 2021.

We will continue to work in terms of creating a three-digit mental health support line, but in the meantime we will not take lessons from the Conservatives, because we have been there every step of the way—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George.

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

Mr. Speaker, it has been 181 days since we passed this motion, 181 days of inaction. Every 24 hours, 11 Canadians die by suicide. A further 275 attempt it. Using those numbers, in the 181 days nearly 2,000 Canadians have died by suicide. A further 50,000 have attempted suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death of young children in Canada.

Will the Liberal government commit to passing my bill, Bill C-294, today and help save lives, finally take action and finally bring 988 to Canada, yes or no?

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, we know that any life lost to suicide is one life too many. This is precisely why we did not just act in the last 188 days. We have acted over the last five years to bring the mental health supports and the investment that provinces and territories have asked for. We provided throughout the pandemic the funding needed to create wellnesstogether.ca. Over a million Canadians have accessed mental health supports that the member opposite flippantly misses, but this is real help, helping real Canadians access the help they need.

We are going to continue to invest in more ways. We will not—

Justice

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the CBC informed us this morning that the Liberal government has stopped using its Liberalist for judicial appointments. The Bloc Québécois has been asking for this for years. Naturally, I thank the minister for accepting our arguments.

However, not everything has been resolved. The appointment process is still not impartial because all ministers, including the Prime Minister, have a say in the selections. The Liberals have stopped using the Liberalist, and that is a good thing. Now they must stop choosing judges who are Liberals. When will the minister establish an impartial appointment process?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, when our government was elected in 2015, we put in place a more rigorous, open and accountable system that better reflects Canada's diversity to appoint outstanding judges to our institutions.

Appointments are always merit-based. They are also based on the needs of the various benches, the expertise of the various candidates and the recommendations of the independent judicial advisory committee. We are proud of the judges we have appointed since implementing our system. They have diverse backgrounds and political affiliations.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the judges' competence is not in question here; the partisan appointment process is.

The Bloc Québécois is savouring its victory over the Liberalist, but that is just the first step. So long as the party in power is able to interfere in the process and put their buddies in senior positions, the credibility of the judicial system is compromised.

The Liberals appoint Liberals, the Conservatives appoint Conservatives, and justice takes a back seat. This needs to stop.

Will the minister accept my offer to create a committee to recommend an impartial judicial appointment process?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite knows full well that the committees are masters of their own proceedings. They are independent and make their own decisions.

Accordingly, we cannot dictate what a committee decides to study. That said, we are working on meeting the needs of the courts by appointing highly competent judges to our institutions who reflect Canada's diversity. This process has been very successful.

Our government has so far appointed more than 400 exceptional legal minds from all backgrounds and political affiliations to the judiciary.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, at Mikes, a restaurant in Lévis, there are four workers; Serres Laliberté in Sainte-Claire has four workers; and IPL in Saint-Damien has 24 workers.

The recovery is critical, but our businesses are facing a labour shortage. The temporary foreign worker program, while essential to their survival, is also a veritable obstacle course.

Instead of the lofty rhetoric, when will the minister finally do something to align his program with Quebec so that the workers, who are ready and waiting, can come and work in our businesses?

[Peter Schiefke, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, we are working closely with our Quebec counterparts on this and many other files.

Over 34,000 foreign workers have already arrived in Canada for the 2021 farming season, including over 14,000 in Quebec. These results speak for themselves, and we will continue to provide the labour that Quebec needs to support the economic recovery.

Forestry Industry

[Rob Morrison, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has not had a softwood lumber agreement with the United States since the fall of 2015, and the current government neglected to negotiate it into the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. Hundreds of thousands of Canadian workers, many in Kootenay—Columbia, rely on the softwood lumber industry to put food on the table for their families.

When will the Prime Minister act to protect these jobs by removing the softwood tariffs?

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Minister of Small Business]

Mr. Speaker, let me begin by saying unequivocally that the duties imposed by the U.S. on Canada's softwood lumber are both unwarranted and unfair. I have raised this issue at every opportunity possible, including with President Biden, Ambassador Tai and the commerce secretary, Secretary Raimondo. As we have always done, we are going to vigorously defend our softwood industry, as well as the hundreds of thousands of workers that it employs.

Indigenous Affairs

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Red Deer Indian Industrial School was one of the first iterations of what would become the residential school system. Like residential schools, terrible things occurred there. According to records, 20% of the students who were sent there never made it home. The school was closed in 1919, and it is not included in the list of 139 residential schools in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's findings.

Can the government ensure that groups like the Remembering the Children Society will also be eligible for funding to find the unmarked graves that are believed to be at the site?