Debates of Jan. 31st, 2022

Seniors

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. Minister of Seniors.

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Minister of Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, I think we can all agree how challenging this pandemic has been for seniors, particularly the most vulnerable.

That is why we are working extremely hard to strengthen income security for seniors, including through the increases to the GIS, which have helped over 900,000 low-income seniors. We also know that seniors who access income supports did so because they needed it during this crisis. They should not be penalized for it now, and that is why we are making a major investment through a one-time payment for those seniors affected. We have always been there for seniors, and we will always continue to have their backs.

Housing

[Iqwinder Gaheer, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my constituents in Mississauga—Malton are worried about the rising cost of housing. They want to see federal leadership to create more affordable housing. Unfortunately, while our government delivers that leadership through the national housing strategy, Conservative Party members continued to repeat disinformation about a non-existent home equity tax in right-wing media last week.

Can the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion please set the record straight again in the House on the Conservative disinformation about a home equity tax?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Mississauga—Malton for his advocacy on affordable housing. I want to welcome the opportunity to remind those spreading misinformation that our government is not considering charging capital gains or surtaxes on primary residences. Any suggestion otherwise, including from the Conservative Party, is absolutely false.

While they continue to make up claims, we will focus on making sure each and every Canadian has access to a safe and affordable place to call home.

Ethics

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, just because the Prime Minister dressed up in racist costumes so many times he cannot remember them all does not mean every single Liberal is a racist. Just because the Prime Minister tried to help a corporation avoid prosecution after it stole from some of Africa's poorest people does not mean all Liberals are racist. Just because about a half-dozen Liberal MPs who are racial minorities have complained about his treatment of them does not mean all Liberals are racist. That is guilt by association.

Why does the Prime Minister not opt instead for personal responsibility?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I hope I have been clear in all of my comments that I respect the hon. colleagues on the other side, just as I believe they respect the colleagues that are on this side, the work we do and the people we are. There are times in our political discourse where we see things that are abhorrent, and all I would ask is that we call it out equally.

When I saw swastikas on the street and when I saw what had happened, I felt it was time to move on. What I would ask is this: Instead of trying to inflame the situation, let us de-escalate the situation and work together to find a way to stop the lockdown of this city, so that citizens can move forward with their lives and any legitimate grievances can be fairly heard.

The Economy

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I agree. We should always call out evil symbols and the individuals who are individually responsible for putting them up. I remember a January 2018 event at which the Prime Minister stared straight at a swastika and, instead of condemning it, said, “Thank you for coming, sir.” We on this side condemn evil symbols whenever they are used.

I respect the member. I just wish his government would respect the thousands of people who are fighting for their livelihoods right now and trying to do their best to get this country back on track.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, we are in a time of global crisis, a time when so many are being adversely affected by this pandemic, and our hearts go out to every one of them. The way in which we have discourse for each other will define this moment for all of us.

Those who are peacefully protesting have made their point. It is time to go home and do it a different way than continuing to lock down this city and continuing to do what is happening. It is deeply disturbing for Canadians to see the way this city and our symbols are being treated.

I would ask the Conservatives to also join with us to ask that they go home. Let us do this responsibly. Let us have responsible dialogue. I respect the member opposite. Let us do this the right way.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the Liberals have shown no respect for the people. This country right now is like a raw nerve, and the Prime Minister is jumping up and down on it again and again with his inflammatory rhetoric. We are talking about people who have 14-year-old kids who are suicidal after two years of lockdowns.

I just spoke to a waitress whose business was wiped out by lockdowns. I am talking to truckers, who have been delivering foods to our plates throughout this. These are the very people, honest, hard-working and shirt off their backs types of people, that the Prime Minister keeps attacking.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, again, I encourage the member to just think, as he is talking about de-escalating and having civil discourse, about his tone and how he is approaching this issue.

This is a time that is incredibly delicate. We are in a moment in which a raw nerve is being touched. How we talk to each other and how we deal with one another—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Order, please.

I am going to interrupt the hon. government House leader and just wait until everything calms down.

I will let him start from the top, because I did not have a chance to hear it all. I am sure the hon. member for Carleton, who asked a question, wants to hear the answer. We are just not hearing anything because of the noise.

The hon. government House leader, please proceed.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have an instinct, and that instinct is that Canadians expect us today, when they are seeing what has happened over this weekend, to watch the dialogue in this chamber. They expect us to be as respectful as possible, to dial down our rhetoric and our language, to engage with one another and to find an off-ramp from the escalation that has occurred. This is not healthy.

In a healthy democracy, we have respectful debates that do not involve some of the things we have seen. All I am asking for is for us to engage in a constructive way. If we could attempt in this place and at this hour to be equal to that, I hope we can move forward on that basis.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more. I was at an overpass as the truckers went by, and what I saw were cheerful, patriotic and optimistic Canadians who want their freedom back and want their livelihoods back. They are standing up for their fellow Canadians: the 60% of families who fear they cannot feed themselves, the 28-year-old kid living in mom's basement because he cannot afford a home and the small businessman wiped out by endless lockdowns by incompetent politicians.

These are the people who are standing up and fighting for their livelihoods and their freedom. Why will the government not finally stand with them?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I have a fundamental difference, and that is that I do not believe my enemy is across the aisle. I believe that our enemy is this pandemic and that we need to end this pandemic, get everybody vaccinated, and move forward in such a way that the concerns he is talking about, being affected by a global crisis, mean that they are supported.

This is a time of collective trauma. It requires us to be compassionate, to work with one another and to understand that our common enemy is the virus and not one another.

Foreign Affairs

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

Mr. Speaker, the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing is this Friday. The entire world will be celebrating the glory of China, even as the country commits genocide against Uighurs, its own people.

We cannot blame the athletes. It was this government, not them, that decided the games could go ahead in China.

Will this government at least muster the courage to finally acknowledge that what is happening in China is real and that the Uighur people are being subjected to genocide?

[Pascale St-Onge, Liberal, Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. This is my first time rising in the House, and I appreciate the opportunity to greet my constituents in Brome—Missisquoi.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee are responsible for deciding whether we will participate in the Olympic Games. Our athletes, the two committees and other countries decided to send athletes to the Olympics in China.

Our government has been clear and consistent. We have always maintained that we support democracy and human rights. That is why, in co-operation with our allies, we will not be sending an official delegation—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Order. The hon. member for Lac-Saint-Jean.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is strange that Canada is participating in a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics, yet this government is unable to tell us why. It does not have the courage to tell us that it is because China is committing genocide against the Uighur people. It does not want any investigations into it. It did not want the games to be delayed or moved. It has agreed to a diplomatic boycott, but it refuses to tell us why.

Is this Canada's diplomatic role?

Is this what the Prime Minister had in mind when he told the world that “Canada is back”?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we take the allegations of genocide against the Uighur people in China very seriously. That is why we have always expressed these concerns, that is why we are not sending political representatives to the Beijing Olympics, which begin on Friday, and that is also why we have asked the UN human rights committee to investigate the matter.

I would therefore like to correct my colleague, who says that we are not showing leadership and are not investigating the issue. On the contrary, we want to get to the bottom of this extremely concerning issue.

Taxation

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last month the Associate Minister of Finance said, when it came to payroll tax hikes, that businesses “can afford this”.

How completely out of touch is this comment with small businesses? Considering the government went ahead with these tax hikes despite 30-year, record-high inflation rates, we have to assume the government believes that businesses can afford these as well.

Could the minister tell us how historically high inflation rates have to be before the government stops increasing taxes on small businesses?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to supporting small businesses, it is a bit rich of the Conservatives to presume to offer our government any advice at all. After all, before Christmas, when the omicron wave was rising, it was the Conservatives who opposed Bill C-2, a bill that included a lockdown insurance policy for small businesses and Canadians.

The Conservatives voted against it. Thank goodness they failed. Otherwise, our small businesses would have no support today.

Pensions

[Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Conservative, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, record inflation, coupled with the government's brutal GIS clawback, has financially crippled many of Canada's hard-working seniors, forced to spend their golden years in the labour market just to make ends meet.

Our vulnerable seniors need to know that Ottawa is listening. That is why the Conservative opposition called on the government to reverse the CPP tax hike.

When will the government stand up, rise up, lean in to Canada's hard-working seniors and help them meet their basic—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. minister.

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Minister of Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, seniors have worked all their lives, and they deserve to feel safe and financially secure later in their life.

That is why the government is delivering on its promise to increase the OAS by 10% for those 75 and older, strengthening the support for all Canadians later in life. Since 2015, we have restored the age of eligibility for OAS to 65. We have increased the GIS for single seniors and strengthened the CPP. During the pandemic we provided direct and immediate support for seniors. As always, we will be there for them.