House of Commons Hansard #135 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was pcrc.
Terry Duguid LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Mr. Speaker, like the hon. member, I am from the Prairies, and no region of the country has been hit harder than the Prairies. There was not just one, but two $1-billion floods. There were one-in-300-year weather events and the worst drought in over 50 years, which devastated farmers.
The costs of climate change are rising. The Conservatives are in denial. They need to get serious about climate change.
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Mr. Speaker, as we recover from the pandemic, we must address existing challenges that were made worse for many people in Canada over the past two years.
This week, I was happy to learn that the Minister of Health and the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions announced an agreement with Quebec that will continue to support improved access to home care as well as mental health and addiction services.
Can the minister tell us more about this agreement?
Carolyn Bennett LiberalMinister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Lac‑Saint‑Louis for his excellent work, especially on palliative care.
The $270-million agreement announced Monday will help address these gaps and provide Quebeckers, especially young people, with better access to mental health, prevention and addictions services.
This agreement is vital because our government is continuing its efforts to ensure that Canadians have better access to mental health services and good-quality and timely support services for addictions.
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Mr. Speaker, everything the Liberal government touches gets broken. Fifty-four million dollars was spent on an ArriveCAN app that could have been built for $250,000. There were 10,000 people wrongly sent into quarantine because of this faulty app, which caused them mental duress and financial hardship. Inflation, house prices, rent, groceries, overdoses and violent crime are all at generational highs.
Will the Liberals stop trying to build back better and leave things as they found them?
Adam van Koeverden LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport
Mr. Speaker, the government will never apologize for trying to be better. Progress is based on better. The kind of chaos that Conservative members are trying to pursue is the enemy of progress.
From the beginning of this pandemic, we have been there for Canadians. We have been there to support them with wage subsidies and with CERB. We are supporting them through rental supports and dental supports. Just a couple of weeks ago, we doubled their HST return rebates. Next year, we are going to be there with dental supports for their kids.
The party opposite is all about slogans and no solutions.
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals break everything they touch. Darryl is a small business owner in Saskatchewan. He has waited 11 months to hire a foreign worker, but he is stuck in limbo waiting for final approval. He is not alone. Fifty-seven per cent of the files in the system are beyond the acceptable processing timeline set by the government. Now it wants to add another 500,000 applicants to the existing backlog of 2.4 million people.
When will the Liberals quit breaking everything they touch, so that Darryl can finally get the help that he needs?
Irek Kusmierczyk LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment
Mr. Speaker, temporary foreign workers are absolutely vital to the Canadian economy. Employers should be able to obtain decisions on whether they can hire TFWs in a timely manner. We are taking additional measures to address labour shortages, including removing the cap on low-wage positions for employers in seasonal industries. We are extending LMIA validity from nine to 18 months, expanding flexibility for LMIA applications in low-wage occupations, and we are increasing the maximum employment duration for high-wage and global talent streams from two to three years.
We will continue to work with employers to ensure their solutions meet their needs.
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Mr. Speaker, unfettered access by incarcerated individuals to spiritual guidance from prison chaplains is a key component of recovery and plays an important role in reducing the chance of reoffending. Equitable access to this guidance across faith groups is also a charter right. Therefore, it is disturbing to learn that incarcerated Canadians from a number of faiths, including over 1,000 Muslims, have no access to chaplain services in their own faith.
Why has the Liberal government broken the prison chaplain system and allowed this situation to develop?
Marco Mendicino LiberalMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, in fact, I have been in touch with a number of colleagues on both sides of the House regarding this issue. I assure my colleague that we are in touch with Correctional Service of Canada so that those inmates who are fulfilling their sentences are able to exercise their rights under the charter during this season.
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
Mr. Speaker, as Canadians feel the impacts of the climate crisis from extreme heat and wildfires to floods and storms, there is immense urgency to build resilient communities. Yesterday marked another important step forward to equip Canadians to face the mounting impacts of the disrupted climate with the release of Canada's national adaptation strategy.
Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change tell the House how this strategy will help to protect people and communities from coast to coast?
Terry Duguid LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Fredericton for her long and strong environmental advocacy.
Our government has launched Canada's first-ever national adaptation strategy to help protect communities from coast to coast to coast with $1.6 billion in new investments and 84 focused actions. Taking measures to adapt can save lives, avoid damage to communities and spur innovative technologies and jobs. Adapting to climate change requires all orders of government, the private sector and Canadians to work together to build resilient communities and a stronger economy.
Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Mr. Speaker, this week, a group of terminally ill cancer patients and their doctors came to Ottawa calling for regulations for the medical use of psilocybin. Using psilocybin can alleviate clinical depression, anxiety, chronic pain and people's dependence on substances like opioids and alcohol. This could even mean fewer medical assistance in dying requests in the future. The government has the tools to help people lessen their pain and to help improve their treatment, but the Liberals are not using them.
When will the Liberals provide the needed funding for research and clinical trials for psilocybin so that doctors can treat people's chronic suffering?
Carolyn Bennett LiberalMinister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health
Mr. Speaker, our government is prepared to use every tool available to address mental illness of Canadians, and it recognizes the need to explore all possible treatments. While psychedelics have shown promise in clinical trials, further research is still needed and we are funding that.
Currently, the best way for patients to access psilocybin is through their participation in a clinical trial. Alternatively, patients can talk with their health care provider to inquire about the possibility for them to submit a special access program request to receive a prescription and be supervised. Last, patients can request an exemption on compassionate grounds when other paths are unsuitable.
Kevin Vuong Independent Spadina—Fort York, ON
Mr. Speaker, we have pretend Chinese diplomats operating pseudo police stations in Canada and intimidating Chinese Canadians. We know of China's interference in our electoral process. There are also Chinese spies infiltrating Canadian businesses. A wealth of evidence also points to the Iranian regime stalking and intimidating Iranian Canadians. Our country has many exemplary citizens who left China and Iran to live in a free Canada.
Is the government going to continue its do-nothing approach with the undiplomatic actions of China and Iran, or will it act to finally stand up for our citizens?
Marco Mendicino LiberalMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, we are exhausting every effort and are remaining on guard against foreign interference. We have heard the RCMP make very strong pronouncements about these so-called police stations. That is why we declared the entirety of the Iranian regime to be under IRPA. This will ensure that Canada can never be a safe haven for the suborning or supporting of any kinds of transgressions against human rights. We will always stand up for human rights, both here and around the world.
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand to present a petition from Single Seniors for Tax Fairness. This petition was signed by 35 Canadians but could effect change that would better the lives of thousands of single seniors in Canada.
The petition calls for the government to make changes to the current tax system for seniors, which currently favours couples with numerous ways to lower taxes, while single seniors have none. Of the six million seniors in Canada, over one-third are single, and many of those are women. This petition calls on the government to offer tax benefits to single seniors equal to those now in place for senior couples.
I support this petition and thank Jane Robertson and Katherine Cappellacci from Single Seniors for Tax Fairness for meeting with me and many other MPs from all sides of the House, a large majority who support the need for tax fairness for these single seniors.
Mike Morrice Green Kitchener Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise to present a petition today. The petitioners recognize that housing unaffordability and homelessness are twin national crises. They also note that the financialization of housing inflates Canadian real estate prices, and that corporations, numbered companies and real estate investment trusts are rapidly buying up affordable units and flipping them to market rate units.
Petitioners call on the Government of Canada to take significant action. They list eight specific actions the government could be taking, including redefining affordable housing to match a definition that reflects the economic realities millions of Canadians face. They encourage the government to create regulations with respect to real estate investment trusts, among others.
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
Bill C-20. Second reading
The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-20, an act establishing the public complaints and review commission and amending certain acts and statutory instruments, be read the second time and referred to a committee.
Public Complaints and Review Commission ActGovernment Orders
Winnipeg North Manitoba
Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, we recognize that Bill C-20 is a piece of legislation that really does make a difference. We are taking a look at the RCMP and ensuring there is an independent commission to reinforce public confidence in our RCMP when we get bad apples, but it also extends out to Canada's border control. Again, a vast majority, whether they are RCMP officers or border control officers, do a fantastic job seven days a week, 24 hours a day for Canadians, but we need to recognize that there are bad apples and within that group, there is a need for this legislation and for the independent commission.
Can I get the member's thoughts on the importance of enforcing public confidence in our institutions?
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Winnipeg North for the promotional message on behalf of Bill C-20 and the apparent work of his government.
We support Bill C-20 for some of the reasons he outlined and other reasons we have articulated in our interventions on this piece of legislation, but there is something the Liberals still have not talked about. The question was asked in question period today and was not answered. There is a 92% increase in gang-related homicides. That is an alarming statistic. That is of concern to people in my community and communities all across Canada. That is causing women, children and all people in every community to be concerned for their safety. There are no answers from the government on this. We have seen that trend, because of its soft-on-crime policy.
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to this debate and I want to make a comment in response to the member for Winnipeg North, who has intervened several times to talk about bad apples among, basically, our border officers. I take exception to that, as someone who serves on the border, in view of the stress, the anxiety and the way our CBSA officers were treated during the pandemic, when there was no plan to even actually vaccinate them and it was left to be addressed border crossing by border crossing.
They have had a high degree of problems related to collective agreements that were never signed on time and never negotiated in good faith with the government.
I find it, quite frankly, offensive, with regard to these men and women who are on the front line every single day, under incredible stress and pressure, that the member for Winnipeg North is continually obsessed with pointing out that there are some so-called bad apples.
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Windsor West is in a bordering community, a very important border, where a large percentage of the Canada-U.S. trade crosses each day. The hon. member for Windsor West knows full well the impact that CBSA officers have and what they are dealing with every day.
We agree. We need to have fluidity and resiliency in our supply chains. He raises some good points that the government should consider at committee, on reflection on this piece of legislation.