Debates of Oct. 28th, 2022

The Economy

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, we would all agree that our colleague is bringing forth an important issue. We are all seized with the fact that the price of food in this country has been increasing. That is why we took action. Earlier this year, I asked the Competition Bureau to look at whether there have been any unlawful practices in this country. More recently, I demanded that it start an investigation to make sure that we monitor what is going on in the market.

What matters to Canadians is that we took action. I spoke to the CEOs of the large grocery chains in this country to make sure they lower prices for Canadians, because this is a matter in which everyone should do their part to lower prices for families.

[Scott Aitchison, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot believe how tone deaf that answer is. He is talking about cellphone bills when people cannot afford to eat and heat their homes. This coalition would have people believe that more inflation-causing borrowing to give Canadians $500 to help them pay for thousands more dollars in groceries, thousands more dollars for heating their homes and thousands more to pay their mortgages is actually a solution. It is like the left hand does not know what the far-left hand is doing.

How many Canadians have to lose their homes before the Liberals get it and cancel their inflation-causing borrowing?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, maybe my English is not so good, but one thing I said was that I spoke to the CEOs of the grocery chains in this country. I also spoke to the telcos to make sure that we would reduce prices for Canadians should this merger go forward.

Beyond that, this is not a political issue. We are concerned. They are concerned. Every Canadian is concerned. What matters to Canadians is that we all do our part. We asked the grocery stores to do their part. We asked the producers to do their part. I have even called on the companies that have increased prices at this time when Canadian families are struggling. We will fight for Canadians every step of the way.

Housing

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this government's inflationary spending is forcing Canadians to tighten their belts. Imagine a family in Canada with a $400,000 mortgage. If they renew at 5.5%, they will have to shell out an additional $20,000 a year.

Will the government give Canadian families some breathing room?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely agree with my Conservative colleague that Canadian households are struggling right now. That is why we doubled the GST/HST credit for 11 million Canadian households. That is also why we, on this side of the House, voted for measures that will put more money back into the pockets of Canadian families.

I still do not understand how the Conservatives can stand up in this House and say that Canadians need our help but then turn around and vote against the support measures we are proposing.

Taxation

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians do not want a partisan response, they want action. The cost of mortgages is going up, the price of gas is going up, the cost of groceries is going up, the cost of heating fuel is going up and everything else is going up.

Will the Liberal government commit to not raising taxes for all Canadians?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I think that my colleague is getting excited because next week we are going to unveil our economic update, which will be fiscally responsible. We have one of the lowest deficits in the world. Our deficit is 1%.

We were fiscally responsible with our budget in April, and we always will be. We will be there for Canadians, to help them get through this period of economic instability.

The Environment

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this week the UN released another devastating report on climate change. It compiled the action plans of all the countries that signed the Paris Agreement and warned that the world is far, very far, from the global warming target of 1.5°C. In fact, the world is on track for at least a 2.5°C increase even if the countries do follow their plans. Canada just announced in Washington that it wants to fast-track projects so it can export oil and gas to Europe.

Does the minister understand that when the UN asks us to do more, that means it wants us to make more of an effort, not make more oil and gas?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her question, although I find it somewhat perplexing. Radio-Canada recently published an article under the headline “Woodland caribou: [the Bloc leader] draws the ire of biologists”. It said that the Bloc leader had expressed doubts about the science behind the decline of the caribou.

On this side of the House, we believe in the science of climate change. We believe in environmental science. That is why we are proposing serious measures to fight climate change.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that the minister did not understand the question. I was talking about oil. On Sunday, the minister was on the program Les coulisses du pouvoir where he was asked about Canada's plan, announced in Washington, to fast-track oil and gas projects. The minister could have put the toothpaste back in the tube and said that, no, Canada would never do that in the midst of a climate crisis.

Instead, he explained how he, as environment minister, could advise oil and gas companies to help them get through the assessment process faster. Just how many other oil projects does he intend to approve?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, when the leader of the Bloc Québécois was the Quebec environment minister, he bypassed the environmental assessment for the McInnis Cement project in the Gaspé. He also bypassed the environmental assessment and the public consultations on Enbridge's Line 9B reversal and the environmental assessment, his own law, on drilling in Anticosti.

I do not think the Bloc Québécois has any lessons to give anyone in the House on environmental assessments.

Government Priorities

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

Mr. Speaker, I thought the Prime Minister loved vacations, whether visiting the Taj Mahal, flying to private islands, surfing on Truth and Reconciliation Day or spending $6,000 a night on a hotel room in London. At the same time, his over-priced arrive scam app kneecapped Canadian tourism, and now he is forcing Canadians to cancel a visit to grandma or a trip across town by tripling the carbon tax.

How is it fair for the costly coalition to overtax Canadians and block their travel while continuing to fund the Prime Minister's extravagance?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, throughout the pandemic, the government put in place the measures necessary to protect the health and safety of Canadians. We made sure that we introduced CERB, wage subsidies and rent subsidies to keep businesses alive to make sure we could protect workers.

At the border, we also put in place the measures that were necessary to facilitate travel to keep our economy going, and that included ArriveCAN to protect the health and safety of those travellers who were coming into Canada. We will always use evidence, science and medicine as the bedrock of our decisions while Conservatives fight a war against it every day.

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

Mr. Speaker, they also made sure they found a hotel in London that cost $6,000 a night. I am seriously trying to imagine what they could get for $6,000 a night. It must have been an incredible time.

Did champagne come out of the faucet, or was he busy planning his leadership campaign? Did the bill include the cost of bail for the Minister of Environment? I am sure it was such a wild time that Bill Morneau could have written a whole book about it. Could the House know once and for all, if any sleeping took place, who slept at the $6,000-a-night hotel room?

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the official Canadian delegation to the Queen's funeral included the Governor General and former prime ministers. All members of the official delegation, including two Conservative prime ministers, stayed at the same hotel, a hotel that could accommodate the delegation's size during extremely high demand. As always, our government made every effort to ensure that spending on official trips is responsible and transparent.

Justice

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

Mr. Speaker, this morning, in a stunning decision, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a Criminal Code requirement that sex offenders be automatically added to the sex offender registry. This should terrify every woman, every victim of sexual assault and every parent in this country. We cannot spare a moment to fix this massive public safety issue. What will the Liberals do to guarantee that every single sex offender is always on the national sex offender registry?

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, obviously, we as a government stand in support of survivors of sexual assault and sexual violence. It is important that our criminal justice system treat and punish offenders in the system.

We had the Supreme Court decision this morning. It is complex. There are a couple of different aspects to it. We are looking at it carefully, and we are looking at options of how to move forward.

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

Mr. Speaker, any woman, any victim of a sexual assault and every parent in this country should be very concerned about that lack of a definitive statement on a guarantee that every single sex offender in this country would always automatically listed on the sex offender registry. That should be a given, and that should be an easy statement for the minister to commit to the House to fix this problem immediately.

I will ask again: What will he and these Liberals do to ensure that every single sex offender, repeat or not, is always on the sex offender registry? This should be a given.

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, last spring, when it was a question of the extreme-intoxication defence, I moved immediately to make sure that we had legislation in the House to fix that gap.

These are complex issues. The decision came down this morning. There are a number of important and different aspects to the decision. We will support victims. We will look at the possible options that we have moving forward, and we will move forward.

The Economy

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, families are being forced to turn to food banks at record rates because they cannot keep up with rising food prices. People are angry that their wages stay the same while rich CEOs are driving up costs to make millions.

The Liberals have a responsibility to support Canadians. Instead, they have let CEOs hide their massive profits behind inflation. When will the Liberals tackle corporate greed in the grocery sector to help families with their food bills?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of measures in our budget that will ensure that everyone pays their fair share in this economy, but I do agree with the member opposite that Canadians are seeing higher prices at the grocery store, which is why our government took action. In addition to doubling the GST tax credit for 11 million households in this country, the Competition Bureau has indicated that it will take action, thanks to the demands of this government.

As well, thanks to the actions of our government, many supermarkets across this country will be freezing prices at the cash register. In some cases, they have already frozen prices. These are measures that will support Canadians.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it was thanks to the demands of the NDP.

While Canadians struggle to put food on their tables, grocery giants are picking their pockets to line their own on Bay Street. In the first two quarters of 2022, grocery stores made an average of $1.5 billion while workers' wages stayed the same. That is twice as much as the prepandemic profits.

This year, food bank use rose to the highest levels in Canadian history, yet rich CEOs keep cashing in. It is despicable. When will the Liberal government curb the appetite of corporate greed so Canadians do not have to continue to go home hungry?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, we share the indignation of my colleague on the other side. Obviously, we all want to do our part to bring prices down for Canadians. The difference is that, on this side of the House, we take action to make that happen.

The first thing I did was a few months ago. We asked the Competition Bureau to look at unlawful practices in a sector. More recently, which my colleague should remember, I wrote to the Competition Bureau to ask it to start an investigation. In addition to that, I called the CEOs themselves and asked them to do their part for Canadians. Canadian families are hurting, and they need to do their part. The CEOs are doing their part, and we are doing our part. All members need to do their part to bring prices down for Canadians.

Foreign Affairs

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Mr. Speaker, at a time when the rules-based international order and democracy are threatened, relations with our American counterparts are more important than ever. This week, the Minister of Foreign Affairs announced the first official visit to Canada by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs inform the House of the importance of this visit for Canada-U.S. relations?

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Whitby for his work. More than ever, Canada and the United States are united as allies, partners and friends. During this important visit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Secretary Blinken had the occasion to discuss the crisis in Haiti, the situation in Iran, the Arctic, investing in the Indo-Pacific and our continued collaboration on holding Russia accountable for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

We will continue to face the world’s challenges, together, with one of our most important allies.