Debates of Oct. 18th, 2022

Small Businesses

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

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to rise today to recognize Small Business Week.

I have always been impressed by the spirt of entrepreneurs and small business owners, many of whom invest their lives in their dream businesses with the hope that their idea will become a success.

One of these people in my community of Kingston and the Islands is Dave McNamara. Dave opened the Union Kitchen + Cocktails months before the pandemic began. Despite the hardships that would follow, not only did Dave ensure the success of his new venture, but he went on to open another restaurant this past summer. An instant hit in the downtown area, Baja Craft Kitchen offers unique Mexican dishes.

Business owners like Dave exist throughout our country. They are the backbone of our economy and this week we salute their incredible grit and determination.

Anti-Semitism

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to add my voice of disgust to the shocking news that the Prime Minister knew about disgusting, anti-Semitic hate that was being spread and funded by the government for a month before any action was taken. The worst part is he took action only after he got caught and exposed for doing nothing.

I may not be of Jewish faith, but as a Christian, as a voice in this House and simply as a human being, I feel an obligation to call out and condemn this shameful silence. Why, at a time when anti-Semitic acts here in Canada and around the world are on the rise, did it take a month for the Prime Minister to do anything? It is clear that he knew, and it is clear that he did nothing until he was caught.

I stand with Jewish leaders in condemning the deafening silence of our Prime Minister. We need to be united in confronting anti-Semitism when we see it, every single time. Shame on the government and shame on the Prime Minister.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, silence. That is what Canadians heard from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Canadian Heritage after it was discovered that more than $500,000 was granted in public contracts to a public anti-Semite racist and bigot. Silence. Deafening silence.

This individual has tweeted some of the most heinous and vile things imaginable. He called Jewish folks human bags of feces. He said that they should be shot in the head. I see a smirk across the way, and that is shameful. He labelled Black and indigenous people as house slaves. He repeatedly called francophone speakers frogs. This is who the government hired to teach Canadians about anti-racism.

All of this horrific and shocking news was made evident, but what is perhaps most abhorrent is the fact that the Prime Minister did nothing for one month. There was a whole month of deafening silence. The point—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation.

Economic Development in Argenteuil—La Petite‑Nation

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on October 11, I had the pleasure of welcoming nearly 100 people to my conference on economic development in my riding of Argenteuil—La Petite‑Nation. Participants came from the municipal, agricultural and tourism sectors, chambers of commerce and industry, as well as community organizations.

I would like to thank my colleague, the member for Hochelaga and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion. Everyone appreciated her participation. As we know, economic recovery is one of our government's priorities, and I strongly believe that we must work closely with key players in the field.

The topics discussed during the workshops were the environment, tourism, agriculture, jobs, high-speed Internet access, municipal financing, housing and the role of organizations in the regional economy. We had frank discussions about local concerns, about the challenges related to rural living. This conference helped me gain a better understanding of the issues. That is exactly what we will be working on in Argenteuil-La Petite-Nation.

Gender-Based Violence

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

Mr. Speaker, with the pandemic came a spike in calls to frontline agencies for help with domestic violence. Like the pandemic, that increase has not faded away.

In the previous Parliament and again this June, the justice committee unanimously recommended that the government bring forward legislation to make coercive and controlling behaviour in intimate partner relationships a criminal offence as one additional tool to help fight intimate partner violence.

Unfortunately, when the government tabled its recent response, there was no sense of urgency. In Canada, we continue to see a woman killed by an intimate partner, on average, every six days, and coercive and controlling behaviour is almost always a precursor to this physical violence.

In the face of government inaction, New Democrats will be seeking other ways to make sure victims and survivors get access to the help they need, with both improved access to support and making coercive and controlling behaviour a criminal offence in my private member's bill, Bill C-202.

I ask all members of the House to continue to support concrete action to address the ongoing scourge of intimate partner violence in Canada.

Québec Capitales Baseball Team

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec City is not just about hockey. It is also about baseball.

On September 18, the Québec Capitales won the Frontier League championship with a 2-1 victory over the Schaumburg Boomers.

The Capitales previously racked up seven Can-Am League championships, but this win is extra special because it is the Capitales' first season with the Frontier League. What an electrifying debut.

All season long, the players treated their fans to outstanding games, and the entertainment, along with Capi the mascot, was the icing on the cake. Capi is all about the hugs. We should talk to my office manager about that.

Fans know they will always have an amazing time. Manager Patrick Scalabrini and president Michel Laplante are a big part of the team's success. We are already looking forward to next year.

Congratulations to the Québec Capitales.

Government Contracts

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

Mr. Speaker, who got rich? That is the question.

The Prime Minister paid $54 million for a malfunctioning, intrusive and economically destructive ArriveCAN app, which developers have since shown could have been built over a weekend for less than $250,000. Canadians deserve to know the truth. They deserve to know what happened.

Parliament's Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates will be investigating this scandal as to how taxpayers were taken to the cleaners by this costly cover-up.

I am calling on the Bloc and especially my NDP counterparts to help us find out which Liberal signed off on this epic case of greed and abuse, and more importantly, who got rich doing it.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

[Lisa Hepfner, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in 2016, Kim MacDonald was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today, this Hamilton Mountain resident and popular Weather Network personality, friend and fighter is five years cancer free.

Kim did not emerge from this ordeal unscarred, but some would say she is now more powerful. Through Breast Cancer Canada, Kim bravely shared her story and made her private struggle public. She bared her chest post double mastectomy, and she showed us how the scars were transformed into gorgeous sunflower tattoos. Kim identifies with sunflowers because they stand strong and follow the sun.

I am grateful to honour Kim today to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One in eight women will be diagnosed in their lifetime, so they should get screened and ask questions.

As someone who just lost her father to cancer, I want to thank Kim for being a shining role model, for standing strong, following the sun and showing us what beautiful really means.

The Economy

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the cost of government is increasing the cost of living. The wasted $500-billion money-printing inflationary deficit is driving up the cost of the goods we purchase and the interest we pay. Inflationary taxes are making it more expensive for our businesses and workers to produce these goods and services. Next year, Canadians will be paying $3,000 per family because of this inflation caused by the Prime Minister.

When will he reverse his inflationary policies?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the Conservative Party leader really wanted to be there for families who need help in these difficult times, he would support our proposal to help low-income families with dental care and rental assistance. Not only is he not supporting these measures to help low-income families, he is blocking them in the House of Commons. It is one thing to disagree with our proposals to help families and quite another to try to prevent that money from getting into the pockets of the families who need it.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the help for housing he is bragging about will go to almost no Canadians, and those who will get it will get, at most, 500 bucks. These days, one cannot even rent a doghouse in the backyard for that amount of money. The reality is that the Prime Minister has presided over the worst housing bubble on planet earth. UBS says that Vancouver is more overpriced than New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Los Angeles, which are all places with more people, more money and less land.

Will the Prime Minister get the gatekeepers out of the way and stop printing money to inflate our housing market?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the official opposition makes a big show of being concerned about families, but if he actually wanted to support low-income families he would step up and support our measures to give more money to low-income families for the cost of dental care for their kids or to help the 1.8 million Canadians who would benefit from additional help on the housing benefit. The reality is that not only does the Leader of the Opposition not support those measures to help low-income families with real money this fall, but he is blocking their passage in the House, preventing anyone from getting that money.

Taxation

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this is the Prime Minister who is blocking people from actually getting a house. It is $2,000 to rent an apartment in Canada these days, and the average price is $1 million for a home in Toronto. Now he wants to make it more expensive to heat homes by tripling the carbon tax. Even the Liberal premier in Newfoundland and Labrador has said that rural seniors will struggle to keep the heat on.

Will the Prime Minister show some mercy for those people who are struggling to heat their homes and cancel his plan to triple the tax?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition's obsession with attack politics means that he is not supporting measures that are focused on helping low-income families pay for the cost of dental care for their kids with an extra $1,300 over the next two years or an extra $500 for low-income renters that would hit about 1.8 million Canadians across this country. He flip-flopped and reversed himself and supported our GST credit, which is supporting Canadians, but not only is he not supporting concrete measures for dental and rental, but he is actually blocking their passage in the House.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the question was about home heating. This Prime Minister wants to triple, triple, triple the tax on seniors for the crime of heating their homes in February. It is not a luxury to heat one's home in Canada in the wintertime, yet the Prime Minister wants to punish people for doing it. Forty per cent of Atlantic Canadians are living in energy poverty, yet the Prime Minister wants to hit them all with a big fat tax hike.

If he is not going to back down on his plan to triple the tax, will he at least have the decency to exempt home heating this winter from that tax hike?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is important that as we debate in this House we ground ourselves in facts. The reality is that an average family in this country receives more money from our putting a price on carbon pollution than it pays. It is support for families, even as we fight climate change. In the leader's own riding, families have received, including last Friday with the latest cheque, a total of $550 because of the climate action incentive. We will continue to fight climate change. We will continue to put more money in the pockets of families.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, the Prime Minister is imposing this carbon tax hike on all 10 provinces and three territories. Six provinces will not get any rebate at all. Even in the remaining four, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has shown that the majority of people pay more in taxes than they get back in rebates. It has all been a falsehood.

Furthermore, the Liberals have not hit a single, solitary climate target since they took office. Finally, it is a little rich for the Prime Minister to call little old ladies in rural Newfoundland and Labrador polluters for heating their homes in the winter when he makes them pay for him to jet around and go to Costa Rica in the middle of the summer.

Why would he not halt the high carbon hypocrisy?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, while the Leader of the Opposition focuses on me, I will stay focused on Canadians.

That is why we are moving forward with a price on pollution that puts more money in the pockets of average families and that does not help the wealthiest Canadians. We know that Conservative politicians on the other side of the aisle are always looking to give tax breaks and advantages to wealthy politicians. They still think trickle-down works. We are seeing, across the Atlantic, how that does not work.

We have made investments in Canadians, supporting those who are most vulnerable and those in the middle class. We will continue to do so. Why are the Conservatives continuing to block dental and rental supports for low-income Canadians?

Public Services and Procurement

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we finally learned that the lucrative Roxham Road contracts awarded to a Liberal donor were worth $28 million. I say “finally” because we have been asking about this for a year. The government has been dodging questions and denying access to information requests for a year. Under pressure, the government finally disclosed how much the contracts known to the media were worth, but it did not disclose the contracts themselves.

We know that there are other contracts, namely for hotels. If the government has nothing to hide, why is it refusing to disclose all of the Roxham Road contracts?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we are ensuring that our immigration and refugee systems remain robust and humane. That is why we invested in the necessary facilities.

The decisions regarding contracts were made by public servants, as was mentioned yesterday in committee. The Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, is the one that contacted the property owner. The contract involved the only property possible under the circumstances, and the CBSA was already using it to intercept and process irregular border crossers. The rental agreements were negotiated based on fair market value to arrive at a competitive price.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government is withholding information about the Roxham Road contracts on the grounds of “national security”. What nonsense.

In order to offer untendered contracts under the pretext of national security, the law states that there must be a disaster or a threat to life. Roxham Road is neither of those.

Yesterday, the fine Liberal donor who got $28 million in contracts disclosed in committee that it was the government itself that insisted that these clauses in the contracts remain confidential. That is very suspicious.

Is the Liberal donor who got the $28 million just the tip of the iceberg?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as we heard in committee yesterday, it was the Canada Border Services Agency that contacted the owner and negotiated the contracts. This included the only land available given the circumstances, and the CBSA was already using it to intercept people crossing the border irregularly. The lease agreements were negotiated to reflect current prices, and this was done independently, by civil servants.

The Economy

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance admitted what the experts are saying: It is highly likely that we are going to have a recession here in Canada. However, the government does not have a plan.

We need a plan because people are going to suffer. People are going to have a hard time making ends meet. They are going to lose their jobs.

Will the government deliver a plan or will it do nothing until people are suffering?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our government has taken action from day one.

When we came to Parliament this fall, the first thing we did was introduce the GST credit bill, which will help 11 million Canadian families. Even the Conservatives have decided to support it.

After that, we introduced dental care for low-income families and assistance for low-income renters. We know there is more to do. We will keep working so we can be there for Canadians. We will keep working with all parliamentarians to do what needs to be done to help people going through tough times.