Debates of Nov. 30th, 2022

Democratic Institutions

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the question is whether he has been briefed since November 7 about whether or not a foreign power funnelled money to Canadian federal candidates, yes or no?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said a number of times in the House, to this moment, I have not. In all the briefings I have received, there has never been information around candidates receiving money from China in the 2019 election or in the 2021 election. We have independent public servants who are engaged to oversee the integrity of elections. They confirmed the elections did complete themselves with full integrity.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, did the Prime Minister ask for briefings on the allegations that were in the November 7 story, yes or no?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I know the member opposite, who sat in a cabinet, understands the importance of respecting national security guidelines. On top of that, I know the member opposite understands how important it is to ensure the integrity of our elections, because he was the minister for elections integrity under that previous government. However, under that previous government, while he was making reforms to our elections act, he did absolutely nothing on foreign interference.

What we did was bring in a number of mechanisms and a number of new tools to ensure the integrity of our elections.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister wakes up in the morning, reads a story that says a foreign government funnelled money to Canadian federal candidates, and he cannot tell us if he picked up the phone or face to face asked his officials if these allegations were true.

We will move on to a next question. The Prime Minister said yesterday when I asked if there was any electoral interference from a foreign government that there was none that “significantly changed the outcome of the election.”

Was there any interference, to his knowledge, yes or no?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, like I just said, Canada and most of our allies are regularly subject to foreign interference from various states, including China, on an ongoing basis and including during our elections. That is something the member opposite would know if he had paid attention when he was minister of elections, and also if he were to ask his two colleagues who are previous leaders of the Conservative Party from 2019 and 2021, whose teams were briefed before, during and after those elections on foreign interference.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister denies Chinese interference in and influence over the Canadian government. He said in English that there was little or no significant influence over the 2019 election. I wonder at what point interference is considered to be little, medium, a lot, dangerous or too much.

In 2016, within 48 hours of a Chinese bank being granted the right to operate in Canada, $70,000 from Chinese communities were deposited in the riding of Papineau.

Is this interference or influence?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague raises an important question: Should politicians who make partisan accusations decide whether or not there was problematic interference in our democracy during the election? That is why we leave it up to our intelligence services and experts in the public service. I have created a committee that is responsible for taking an independent and objective look at the electoral system to ensure the integrity of our elections, and that is what it did during the 2019 and 2021 elections.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let me make better use of my 35 seconds. In 2016, the Liberal coffers in Papineau, the Prime Minister's riding, got a $70,000 boost from the Chinese communities of Toronto and Vancouver. Around that same time, a new bank was created specifically to serve Chinese communities in Canada.

Looking back, was that interference or influence?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, interference in our democratic processes and our elections is an extremely important and crucial issue. I realize the hon. member is attacking the integrity of our institutions. Canadians can trust the process we set up to oversee the integrity of our elections. I can assure Canadians that, despite the ongoing reality of interference in our country, our democratic institutions and our elections were not affected.

Health

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Guylaine Larose, a pediatrician at CHU Sainte-Justine, is saying she has never seen the emergency room so busy. She has never seen so many children in respiratory distress, so many exhausted doctors and nurses, and so many distraught parents. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister sits back and does nothing.

When are the Liberals going to wake up and offer help, like they did during the pandemic, to save our health care system?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we on this side of the House respect provincial jurisdictions. We are well aware of how much Canadians are suffering because their health care systems are overwhelmed and struggling to meet the demand. That is why we are here to work with the provinces and territories to improve health care system outcomes. Yes, we are here with more money, but we are also here with more tools to ensure that our systems can improve and remain public, to meet the expectations of Canadians.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, leadership means finding solutions, not hiding behind excuses.

We have another serious threat to our health care system in the form of Danielle Smith's sovereignty act in Alberta. Albertans are worried about their health care system, and the act is going to do nothing to deal with the problem. In fact, it might make things even worse. People in Alberta are worried that Danielle Smith will use the sovereignty act to undermine Canadian laws, like the Canada Health Act, and make patients pay to access hospital services.

What is the Prime Minister doing to stop Danielle Smith from destroying health care in Alberta? What is he doing to protect health care so Albertans get the care they need?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I can very much understand why so many Albertans are preoccupied with the premier's choice to bypass the legislature in order to advance her agenda, but on this side of the House we will remain focused on standing up for Albertans on working constructively with anyone who wants to advance better jobs and a cleaner environment for Albertans, and who wants to work to ensure that they are getting quality health care services with real results and real outcomes.

We are going to continue to work with all Albertans to deliver a brighter future for them.

The Economy

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Governor of the Bank of Canada says that because deficits spilled over longer than they needed to, inflation went on longer than it needed to as well. As a result, the average cost to a Canadian is $3,500. Now, yesterday, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said that the Liberal government has brought in $50 billion in brand new inflationary spending, contradicting the claim that the Liberals would “keep their powder dry”.

Why are they spending more and making Canadians pay more?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition has made it very clear that he disagrees with our focus on supporting Canadians. He made it crystal clear by standing and voting against support for families who could not otherwise afford to send their kids to the dentist. That demonstrates the priorities of the Conservative Party to not be there for Canadians and to attempt austerity as a way of moving forward.

We demonstrated during the pandemic that by being there for families, small businesses and communities, not only did we get through the pandemic but we ended up with a stronger economy.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, austerity is when one in five Canadians have to skip meals because they cannot afford groceries. That is the austerity that meant 1.5 million Canadians literally had to go to a food bank in a single month. What is the NDP solution? It is to vote with the Liberals to raise home heating bills by applying the carbon tax and tripling it. This coming winter, we are expecting a 100% increase in home heating bills.

Will the Prime Minister cancel his plan to raise the tax and take all taxes off home heating altogether?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, what the member opposite just demonstrated is that he does not understand that what he has been talking about from the very beginning is austerity. It is withdrawing and not being there to support Canadians who need it, in the hopes that it will somehow make everything okay.

What Canadians saw during this pandemic and what Canadians are seeing during this recovery is that by being there in targeted, measured ways, through things like making sure every family can afford to send their kids to the dentist and like making sure we are giving a top-up to the lowest-income renters, we support people in difficult times, something the Conservatives do not do anything about.

Public Safety

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of difficult times, the Prime Minister's policies have given us a 32% increase in violent crime and a 90% increase in gang crime. Murder rates are now rising again this year, year after year.

What is his solution? It is to ban Grandpa Joe's hunting rifle. In fact, he wants to ban hundreds of thousands of hunting rifles and spend hundreds of millions of dollars doing it. Why will the Prime Minister not leave hunters alone and go after the real criminals?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have been very clear that we are not targeting law-abiding hunters and fishers. We are not going after shotguns or rifles. We have banned military-style assault weapons. Unfortunately, Conservative politicians continue to mislead Canadians, to base things on fear and to be focused on making assault weapons legal again in this country.

We will continue to take the necessary measures to keep Canadians safe while respecting the rights of law-abiding Canadians. That is what Canadians expect, and that is what we have been doing.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, I get my information from the amendment that the Prime Minister's government tabled in the committee. I have it right here, a list of the firearms that he wants to ban. It includes the Webley & Scott wildfowl gun, fowl as in wild turkeys and wild ducks. That is right in the list that his government put forward of guns he wants to ban.

Why is he more concerned with protecting wild turkeys from hunters than he is concerned about protecting Canadians from criminals?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we see once again that the Conservative Party is deep in the pockets of the American gun lobby. The reality is Canadians know that we can and will continue to respect law-abiding hunters—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I am looking to the whips for some support, and I think I got it.

The hon. Prime Minister from the beginning.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, once again we see the extent to which the Conservative Party of Canada is in the pocket of the gun lobby. We will continue to move forward in responsible ways while respecting the choices of law-abiding hunters and fishers and people who use guns responsibly to continue with their rifles and shotguns, while at the same time preventing those military-style assault weapons that were designed to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time from being used in this country.

The Conservatives continue to try to bring those back. We still stand strongly on better gun control.