Debates of Feb. 11th, 2022

Health

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for North Okanagan—Shuswap.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, at the fisheries committee, officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency could not identify who in government is responsible for ensuring imported seafood is not caught illegally or by using exploited workers. Illegal harvesting and the use of exploited workers are despicable. The government needs to get serious about stopping these activities.

Why is the government not able to identify who is responsible for ensuring that fish and seafood imported to Canada is not caught illegally and is free of exploited labour?

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries]

Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. friend, who I sit with on the fisheries committee.

First and foremost, in terms of focusing on where our product comes from, how it gets there and how healthy it is, the government believes in a couple of things. It believes in science, it believes in process and it believes in getting things right. Over the past six years, we have been doing that. There is room for improvement and we recognize that. That is why we embrace a study on seafood labelling, and that is why we focused on it in the last—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Chatham-Kent—Leamington.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Madam Speaker, Canadians are calling for leadership in moving from pandemic to endemic and managing the country as it learns to live with COVID. In another example of poor management, public health policy is now set against immigration legislation. As of February 28, some guest workers who legally came to work in our country will have their working permits expire and they will not be allowed to leave. This creates the situation for illegal immigration, as individuals may enter Canada unvaccinated and now know they can stay.

To the minister, is this intentional?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Madam Speaker, it is essential when it comes to Canada's immigration system that we have a rules-based process to protect the integrity of the system and to ensure that those who are coming to Canada meet the requirements of admissibility to Canada. It is also essential that we work with the Minister of Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada to put in place protections that will protect our communities and our residents against the spread of COVID-19.

I look forward to continuing my work with the Minister of Health and any member of the House who has questions about the integrity of our immigration process and the need to protect Canadians, including through ensuring adequate coverage of vaccination right across the country.

Housing

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Madam Speaker, $1.7 million is not the price of a house in Hollywood Hills, California. That is the average home price in the town of Caledon in my riding. It is up 35% in one year. The government will say it is spending all kinds of money doing this and doing that. I have a message from my constituents: It is not working.

When will the government realize that what it is doing is having no effect? It is an absolute disaster. When will it do something to help Canadians afford a home?

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion (Housing)]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

Once again, it is hard to take the Conservative Party seriously when, last week, it again voted against one of the measures we put forward to give all Canadians access to housing.

The budget for the national housing strategy is $72 billion over 10 years. That is the biggest investment the government has made in years.

I would invite my colleague to contribute to all the measures we will be putting forward, including the first-time homebuyer incentive—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue.

Health

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Madam Speaker, people are bitter about this winter's lockdowns, and I am not talking about the truckers. I am talking about the people who are following the rules and were proud to make sacrifices to protect the most vulnerable.

This winter, we feel like we are paying the price for decades of federal underfunding in the health care system. The chronic underfunding in health is almost as much to blame as the virus for causing the system to break down during the pandemic.

Will the government finally take action and increase health transfers to cover up to 35% of costs?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport]

Madam Speaker, that is a very important question, so I will answer it in English.

Our government has invested incredible amounts of money to ensure that we have been able to get through this COVID-19 pandemic. We have provided $63.7 billion to support Canada's health response, including $14 billion for vaccines and $5.3 billion for PPE and medical health equipment. In 2020 and 2021, the Government of Canada provided $41.9 billion in cash to support the provinces and territories through the Canada health transfer—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Madam Speaker, that is precisely the elephant in the room.

The health care system has become fragile because it is underfunded by the federal government, which bears a huge share of the responsibility in this. We now have a duty to rebuild the health care system to ensure this never happens again. That is the provinces' responsibility.

This is essential if we are to provide citizens with the care they deserve and for which they pay taxes. It is also absolutely crucial to ensuring that we will never again have to resort to lockdowns in order to protect a system.

Can we paddle in the same direction? Will the government increase health transfers to meet the demands of Quebec and the provinces?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport]

Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his important question.

During the election campaign, we committed $25 billion over five years, which means more support for health care. The provinces and territories will receive over $47 billion through the Canada health transfer in 2021-22, and the territories will receive $500 million to help them prepare and—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Calgary Forest Lawn.

Foreign Affairs

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Madam Speaker, last August a 17-member Canadian Forces evacuation operations advance team arrived at Ali Al Salem Air Base near Kuwait City so it could link up with the U.S. and U.K. teams already on the ground in Kabul to save Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban. They sat idle for days awaiting orders to deploy, wasting precious time to evacuate Afghans, with many losing their lives. Why?

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Madam Speaker, we will not stop until we have gotten every remaining Canadian out of Afghanistan, and we continue to engage with all—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Can we listen to the answer, please?

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Madam Speaker, this issue continues to be of the highest priority to the Canadian government. We will continue to work with allies and with affected people until we have brought all Afghan Canadians home, as well as any of those who have helped us as Canadians in our forces. We will continue to work until we have brought over 40,000 people to Canada.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Madam Speaker, I will tell members why since the government's answers are absolutely useless. The government was more focused and had a higher priority on saving itself and on triggering a selfish and unnecessary election. While our allies were collectively evacuating over 70,000 people, the government told its own Liberal MP to mind his own business when he pleaded with the PMO to help those Afghans. Canada has not even met 20% of its target to help fleeing Afghan refugees. This is despicable.

The government has damaged Canada's reputation and honour. Will it accept any responsibility—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Madam Speaker, our Canadian Armed Forces did everything we asked of them under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Canada was part of an air bridge with our allies that saved as many people as we could. Our armed forces worked around the clock to evacuate as many people as possible for as long as conditions permitted, including our former interpreters and local staff and citizens of allied countries.

Under the leadership of the Minister of Immigration, we are committed to bringing 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Madam Speaker, experts, NGOs and veterans have all been critical in their analysis that one of the leading reasons for Canada's failure last summer in saving Afghans' lives was due to a lack of leadership and not having one Liberal minister assigned as the lead department. Testimony this week at the Afghanistan committee indicates nothing has changed, as many of the ongoing issues cross Global Affairs, Immigration and Public Safety.

My question is simple. Would the lead minister responsible to coordinate the solutions to this ongoing humanitarian-aid crisis please stand up?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to clarify that I have been appointed as the lead minister responsible for the resettlement of 40,000 Afghan refugees. I am further pleased to share that hundreds of Afghan refugees have arrived on 20 different commercial flights in the past few weeks and we are seeing a regular pace of arrivals.

With or without the co-operation of Her Majesty's loyal opposition, we will move forward and we will not waver until we achieve our goal of successfully resettling at least 40,000 Afghan refugees, which represents one of the most substantial commitments of any country in the world.