Debates of Dec. 13th, 2022

Carbon Pricing

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, what we will not support is the waste of the current Liberal government.

We know that Atlantic Canadians are suffering. They are going to pay $7,000 more this year to heat their homes, and the Liberal carbon tax plan is only going to make it worse.

The Government of Nova Scotia released its own plan this week, which will reduce emissions by 53% over the next several years. This goes well beyond the plan of the Liberal government, which we know continues to fail to meet emissions targets.

Will the Liberal government stop forcing its failed carbon tax plan on Atlantic Canadians?

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Minister of Rural Economic Development]

Mr. Speaker, I love to get up and talk about Atlantic Canadians, where I am from, because I was so proud when my hon. colleague behind me was in Halifax. In his riding, we announced the $5,000 grant for Canadians, and Atlantic Canadians especially, to get off oil heat. That is going to help many people in Atlantic Canada and in my riding of Long Range Mountains. It is a grant to get off oil, which is what we all need to do.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, obviously the Government of Nova Scotia does not agree. The PC Party there has put out a no carbon tax for Nova Scotians petition for people to sign, because of the Liberal government's plan. It clearly realizes that the plan continues to fail over and again.

With the punishing carbon tax, Nova Scotians are going to pay $2,200 more in 2025 and $3,100 more by 2030. When will the failing Liberal government stop punishing and crushing Atlantic Canadians with the carbon tax?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, with due respect to my hon. colleague, his mathematics are simply off. He ignores the fact that the program has been designed to put more money into the pockets of eight out of 10 families than any fuel charges would cost them. In addition, we have created a new $5,000 grant program, which is going to help people in my community transition from oil for home heating to heat pumps and that is going to potentially save them thousands of dollars a year. Every step of the way we have been focused on developing programs to put more money into the pockets of families in need.

Whether it is seniors, students, workers or households, we are going to continue to be there for people in their time of need. I would beg the Conservatives, for once, to join us in supporting ordinary families.

Health

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

It is groundhog day, Mr. Speaker. Once again, on Friday, all of the premiers of Quebec and the provinces called for a meeting with the Prime Minister on increasing health transfers. They costed their needs 27 months ago and are calling for a meeting. For 27 months, the Prime Minister has been ignoring them. For 27 months, their ability to provide health care to the public in our hospitals has been declining.

The Prime Minister is leaving everyone at an impasse to the detriment of patients and health care workers. Will he call this essential meeting on health care funding with his counterparts in January?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for raising that issue.

The situation has indeed been very difficult for sick people, patients and workers across the country, including Quebec, for many months now. The situation was exacerbated by COVID-19, and the demographic pressures are such that, for the past few years, we have been seeing increased pressure on our health care workers and patients across the country. That is also what will happen in the long term. That is why we need to do things differently. Sending unconditional transfers to the provincial finance ministers is not a health care plan.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, enough with the analysis. What we want is results. However, as long as Ottawa is withholding money, there will be no results.

The real reason for the impasse is that Ottawa does not want to pay 35% of health costs. Ottawa wants to shatter the provinces' consensus in order to negotiate individual agreements on the cheap and invest as little as possible.

While our hospitals are stacking people on stretchers because of a lack of beds, while children are being sent 500 kilometres away for treatment, does my colleague really believe that this is the time to be concocting ways to invest less in health?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, reinvesting in health is exactly what we have been doing for several years now with COVID-19.

An additional $72 billion was invested in the Canada health transfer. In the last few weeks, there has been an additional $2 billion allocated to reduce delays in treatment, surgery and diagnosis and an additional $9 billion for mental health, home care and long-term care.

On top of that, we promised there would be more. That is already a lot of money. We need to do things differently because that is what Canadians and Quebeckers need.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, ongoing transfers are what is needed. Everyone knows that.

As the Prime Minister digs in his heels and refuses to engage with his counterparts on the subject of health care funding, 784,000 people are on waiting lists to see a medical specialist and 160,000 people are awaiting surgery. Nearly a million Quebeckers need care but cannot get it because there are not enough resources.

Can the Prime Minister explain to those one million Quebeckers why just meeting with his counterparts to talk about health transfers is too much to ask of him?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague heard the Minister of Health's answer about the major investments our government has made in the health care system. That is good news.

As everyone knows, we are prepared to make more investments across Canada. We know Canadians are worried about the public health care system. We are in talks at several levels with the provinces and territories. We will find our way to an agreement and higher funding levels that will produce the kind of results Canadians expect from their investment.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal-created immigration application backlog is at over two million applications. People are waiting to reunite with family, spouses, children or parents. They are waiting for work permits and waiting for health care, and now we find out that tens of thousands of these applications were sent to immigration officers who do not even exist. These are people who have not worked for Immigration Canada in years, so these applications are just sitting there. Nobody has been working on them.

Who is going to explain this incompetence, apologize and fix this mess?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer clarity to families seeking to be reunited and workers seeking economic opportunity in Canada. We are going to process every case in our inventory.

With respect to the hon. member's allegation, I can reassure people that the issue of codes for inactive employees is simply a reflection of the way we manage the inventory. Every single case is attached to a code that has been sent to a relevant processing facility.

While I am on my feet, I am pleased to share that earlier this month, we set a record for the largest number of newcomers ever settled in Canada. This is good news for Canada, good news for our economy and great news for our communities.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this is another example of how Canadians are paying for the Liberals' incompetence, mistakes and mismanagement. To them it is just codes, but there are real families behind these applications. People are waiting to reunite with loved ones and waiting for health care, yet the Liberals are making more announcements.

I am asking now how they are going to fix the mess of all these applications, which have just been sitting there while people are waiting for their lives to continue. Who is going to apologize for these applications?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's allegation that files are resting with officers who do not exist is unequivocally false. We will process every one of those applications.

I am pleased to share that as a result of the investments we have made to hire more than 1,250 people, to embrace technological solutions and to relax administrative procedures, we have, in the last few months alone, reduced the number of cases in our inventory by more than 300,000. That is more than 300,000 people in the last few months who are now reunited with family and are here making a difference in our communities and helping support our local economy.

We are the party that is going to continue to support newcomers because we believe it serves the national interest and is the right thing to do.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration has assigned more than 59,000 immigration applications to 779 inactive employees. Some of those officers have not even been employees of the department since 2006. What is most disturbing about this whole affair is that the Liberal government does not seem to care. Even the minister does not seem to think this is all that serious.

Will the minister apologize to the thousands of families who were waiting in vain for their turn to come to Canada?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. colleague suggests the minister does not think this is serious; the minister does not think it is true. The allegation they are making on the floor of the House of Commons simply belies the facts of the situation.

When officers leave the IRCC, we maintain their codes so we can trace who touched employees' files. It is the responsible thing to do, and we convert those codes to make sure that files actually go to where they are going to be processed.

We are going to continue to do what we can to reduce the number of cases in our inventory. We have seen immense progress, reducing it by more than 300,000 in the last few months alone. Just this month, we set a record for the largest number of newcomers ever to be settled in this country, and that is a positive thing.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if I understand correctly, the minister is saying that CBC News is reporting fake news. That is what it sounds like to me. It is being reported in the news this week that 59,000 cases were transferred to 779 employees who no longer work there. On top of that, we are also learning that CBC News warned of problems at the beginning of the year. However, the minister never said anything about it. There was never a word from him about anything.

Meanwhile, we get so many requests in our offices. People have no idea what is going on. Our immigration system is deeply flawed. Can the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship at least apologize to the people who have been waiting, in many cases, for years?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure every person who has an application in the system that they can expect their case to be processed in accordance with the laws of Canada. I thank the hon. colleagues of this House who have supported some of the measures that boosted the funding available to process cases more quickly, because it is having a serious and positive impact.

This month, we set a record for the largest number of newcomers ever settled in this country. Over the past few months, we have reduced the number of cases in our backlogs by more than 300,000. We are back to the service standard we enjoyed before the pandemic for study permits already. Early in the year, we will achieve the same for work permits.

We are on the right track. We are going to continue to make the necessary investments to get people into our communities because it is good for our communities and good for Canada.

National Defence

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today, the Minister of National Defence tabled her response to the Arbour report. Women in the armed forces who have faced years of misogyny and sexual misconduct have heard before that there is a plan and that change is coming.

Justice Arbour did the work. She reviewed thousands of documents and did hundreds of interviews to come up with her 48 recommendations, but she now fears the government response today missed the mark. Today's response has more reviews, more studies and more delays.

After ignoring so many reports and recommendations, why should service members believe that this time will be different?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, this time is different. It is my intention and the Department of National Defence's intention to implement all 48 recommendations of the Arbour report. In fact, we have begun doing that and we will continue until it gets done.

We are putting our shoulders to the wheel. This is important for moral reasons and operational reasons as we continued to grow a Canadian Armed Forces where every member feels protected and respected when they put on a uniform for this country.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister says assigning immigration applications to agents who are no longer working at IRCC is ordinary process and part of inventory management. That means the Liberals are deliberately assigning applications to officers knowing that they do not work there anymore. Close to 60,000 applicants have been in a state of limbo, some for as long as 15 years, unable to move forward with their lives.

What does the minister have to say to the families whose lives are being destroyed when their files are deliberately sent to oblivion for processing?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, as always, I thank my hon. colleague for her concern for the well-being of newcomers and people seeking to access the Canadian immigration system. It is very important that we provide clarity to families seeking to be reunited, as well as the workers seeking to improve their economic outlook by coming to Canada for opportunities.

There are applications that were tied to officers who no longer work for our department. We maintain the codes of those officers in order to trace the cases, but when those workers leave IRCC, we convert the codes in a manner that allows us to send those cases to the location where they can be most effectively processed. This is a strategy we use to make sure we can process files quickly, and I want to reassure people that every file will be processed.

Infrastructure

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last Friday, in partnership with the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto, the federal government announced a combined investment of $1.5 billion for the TTC's Bloor-Yonge station expansion and rehabilitation project. Can the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities please update this House on the improvements we will see at the station and the importance of making transit more accessible and reliable for all Canadians?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I think all members recognize the extraordinary work done by our colleague in Toronto.

When transit is accessible, easy to use and on time, more Canadians will use it. The investments our government is making in transit are making it more reliable, safer to use and more able to keep up with the increased ridership and population over time.

That is why I was happy to announce the $1.5-billion Bloor-Yonge subway improvement project, which will provide Toronto residents with access to safe, fully accessible and modern stations that are equipped to handle increased ridership. I know how excited members are about this great project.

Firearms

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, a young man who was caught with a prohibited weapon loaded with 72 rounds of ammunition managed to avoid prison thanks to a Liberal law, which of course was supported by the Bloc Québécois and the NDP. There is no longer a minimum sentence for this type of crime in Canada. On the one hand, the government lets criminals roam free and, on the other hand, it wants to penalize honest gun owners by passing Bill C‑21. Talk about a double standard.

Will the Liberals go after the real criminals and leave hunters alone?