Debates of Dec. 14th, 2022

COVID-19 Emergency Response

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians, like the Canadians in Mississauga—Lakeshore, recognize the rhetoric from the Leader of the Opposition for what it is. The Conservatives are proposing cuts in Canadian pensions, proposing cuts for EI and proposing to do less for Canadians who need it. They voted against supports to make sure that families could send their kids to the dentist this year and next.

These are the kinds of things the Conservatives continue to propose in their “cuts and austerity” approach. On this side of the aisle, we will continue to be there to support Canadians who need it, because that is who are we are as Canadians. We support each other.

Carbon Pricing

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this is from a Prime Minister who is deliberately driving up home heating bills this winter. Home heating bills are expected to double right across the country. Forty per cent of Atlantic Canadians live in energy poverty. Rural Canadians in northern Ontario who are forced to heat with oil will have to pay more as well. Now the Liberal-NDP plan is to raise prices further by tripling the carbon tax.

Will the Prime Minister tell us exactly how much his carbon tax will cost the average Canadian family in higher home heating bills this winter?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the carbon price in Atlantic Canada does not kick in until the spring, so it will not cost them any more this winter. If he had actually paid attention, instead of sharing disinformation with Canadians, he would know that.

The reality is that we are delivering a price on pollution that makes sure we are not only protecting our future against climate change but we are also putting more money in the pockets of hard-working Canadians to support them through this transition. That is what a price on pollution does. That is what it will continue to do. It will support Canadians while we fight climate change.

Health

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

Mr. Speaker, how about a little holiday spirit? The Prime Minister got a generous invitation from the provincial premiers. It is like a family gathering. Maybe they will talk to him about an old aunt who is sick. They will talk about how expensive it is. He will find it tedious, but one does not turn down that kind of invitation. It is simply not done.

In the spirit of the holidays, will the Prime Minister accept the invitation of Quebec and the provinces?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, no other prime minister in our country's history has met with the provincial premiers to discuss a health crisis more than I have.

I will continue to meet with the premiers regularly. I am looking forward to sitting down with the Premier of Quebec in a few days to talk about Quebeckers' concerns and discuss how we can continue to work together. We know that our health care systems need improvement. The federal government will be there to support the provinces while they make those improvements. We know how important this is to families across the country.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is confusing a party with a face-to-face meeting, and I am not sure which would be more difficult. I am certain he is more gracious than that.

Premiers have a lot to say when they talk amongst themselves. They have cousins on stretchers in hospital hallways, an uncle waiting for kidney surgery, a friend named Guy who has pneumonia and is afraid of catching COVID-19, and my son, or his son, or someone else's son who may be grappling with a serious mental health issue. Soon, the premiers will be getting angry.

Is the Prime Minister really sure that he does not want to meet with them?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we know how much Canadians need improvements to our health care services. Too many people do not have access to family doctors. Too many people have to wait months, even years, for appointments for their mental health emergencies. People continue to wait on waiting lists for far too long.

The federal government has invested an additional $72 billion in health care systems in recent years, and we will be there to invest more money. Quebeckers and all Canadians know that it does not just take money, it takes results, and that is what we are working on with the provinces.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we have a crisis in our health care system that is impacting children. Children are suffering. The Prime Minister says that because of an impasse with the premiers, he cannot do anything. I want to remind the Prime Minister that he promised, in the last election, to hire 7,500 more nurses and doctors. It is a promise that, if it was kept, would absolutely help in dealing with this crisis.

My question is this: Did he mean what he said?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have all heard from across the country how Canadians need access to family doctors, how Canadians need access to better mental health services more quickly and how Canadians need to see shortened wait times and an end to surgery backlogs. That is exactly what we are committed to.

We have been working with the provinces. Our health minister has been directly engaged with his counterparts over the past many months to ensure that, as we invest more in health care across this country, we are delivering results and outcomes that Canadians can count on.

That is what Canadians want. That is what we are going to be delivering.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, when I am Prime Minister, I will keep my promises.

Another promise—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Anthony Rota]

Order. I know everybody is excited that Christmas is coming. It is a week and a half or two weeks away. I would ask everybody to calm down and take a deep breath.

The hon. member for Burnaby South.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, for the folks over here, when I am Prime Minister, I will keep my promises, absolutely.

There is another promise that the Prime Minister made that would certainly help the crisis in our health care system. He promised a guaranteed—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Anthony Rota]

Order.

The hon. member for Burnaby South. We will try one more time.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we know there are some people in this chamber who like the number three, so when I am Prime Minister, I will keep my promises.

There is another promise the Prime Minister made that would certainly help in this health care crisis. He promised a guaranteed wage of at least $25 an hour for long-term care workers. This would help free up spaces in the hospitals so that seniors could go into long-term care homes and get the proper respect and treatment that they need.

Did the Prime Minister mean what he said, or was he hoping that a fight with the provinces would mean that he would not have to deliver on this promise either?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as we demonstrated through the depths of the pandemic, the federal government is going to step up and is going to continue to step up to support Canadians and to support the essential frontline workers. While all of us take a little time away from our work with our families and communities, they are going to continue to work long hours in hospitals and in seniors care homes. We are going to continue to work with the provinces in terms of making sure that wages are raised for our frontline workers.

The federal government will be there to do its part. We need to make sure we are recognizing those people who are heroes day in and day out and who care for our most vulnerable.

Firearms

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister sent out his public safety minister today, we thought to back down on his hunting rifle ban. Instead, he gave a rambling endorsement of the same policy. He announced that his rural MPs from across the country, including rural Newfoundland, support the ban on hunting rifles. The Prime Minister has tried to deny that he is banning those rifles, even though first nations have said so, his experts have said so and his own caucus members have said so.

Will he stand in the House today, really look us in the eye and tell us that there are no hunting rifles on his banned list?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we made a commitment to Canadians a number of years ago to ban assault-style weapons from this country. There is no place for guns designed to kill the largest number of people as quickly as possible in this country. That is why we are moving forward with an amendment that ensures assault-style weapons are banned not only in the past, not only in the present but also in the future.

We are going to carefully work with hunters, farmers, caucus members and all parliamentarians from rural areas to ensure we get that list right. All Canadians want to see less gun violence in this country, and that is what we are going to deliver.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, that is not what he is doing. He is banning firearms that, in many cases, are not even semi-automatic. These are firearms that have to be re-chambered every single time. They are deliberately created for hunting and sustenance.

The Assembly of First Nations has unanimously spoken against this ban on hunting rifles, as have numerous experts and now members of his own caucus. They all agree that his ban does not target weapons that are designed to kill people. It targets weapons that are for the legitimate Canadian tradition of hunting.

Will he announce he is backing down from attacking our hunters today?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard clear concerns from first nations, Métis and Inuit partners. Our intent with this legislation is to target guns designed for the battlefield and not the ones commonly used for hunting. As I have mentioned, the Minister of Public Safety is taking the time to get this right, and that means consulting with partners to make sure we are not capturing weapons we should not be.

Part of that process is showing up to meet with indigenous leaders. That is something the leader of the official opposition failed to do last week when he had an opportunity to sit down with AFN chiefs.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, I have been meeting with first nations leaders from across the country, and they have been unanimous in their desire to protect their millennia-old tradition of hunting. That requires, in the modern sense, the use of hunting rifles. The Prime Minister's government has tabled 300 pages of banned hunting rifles before a Canadian parliamentary committee. He is wasting hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, targeting the legitimate hunting tools of rural people and first nations.

Why does he not put that money into securing our borders and fighting crime instead?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the government that the Leader of the Opposition was a part of, before we took office in 2015, cut close to a billion dollars from our border services and police services across the country.

We, on the contrary, have been investing to restore that funding, even as we move forward with close to a billion dollars for keeping our communities safer. We also have invested massively in our border protection. We ensured, for example, that last year we were able to collect double the number of illegal firearms trying to cross our borders than the year before.

We will continue to protect our borders. We will continue to protect Canadians. We will continue to move on gun control.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, there is no question that his policies are more expensive than our policies, but they have delivered poorer results. Today violent crime is 32% higher than when he took office and that includes a massive increase in gang violence.

The head of the Toronto Police Service said that 82% of the firearms that are used in crime in Canada's biggest city come smuggled in from the United States of America. They are not brought here by hunters from Cape Breton or rural Alberta.

Once and for all, will the Prime Minister stop wasting money on hunters and go after the real criminals instead?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the last Conservative government, of which its leader was a key part, slashed nearly a billion dollars from our police and our borders. We are building back that capacity. We have invested nearly a billion dollars to end gun violence and keep guns out of the hands of criminals since 2018 alone. That includes another $137 million for the CBSA in the fall economic statement to fight gun smuggling and trafficking, and it is working.

We doubled the number of guns interdicted at the border last year, as compared to the year before.