Debates of March 2nd, 2022

The Environment

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, in the last Parliament, Lenore Zann, former member for Cumberland—Colchester, introduced a landmark bill, Bill C-230, to develop a federal strategy for environmental racism and a move toward environmental justice.

The environment committee, after widespread support in this place, studied the bill and made amendments. I recently had the honour to reintroduce it as Bill C-226 in order to work toward getting the bill passed.

I ask this: Will parliamentarians in the House work together to ensure passage of this important bill, and will the government support the bill once again?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her question and want to also thank Lenore Zann, the former member for Cumberland—Colchester, for her important work on this bill in the previous Parliament. We know that the impacts of climate change are felt more acutely by marginalized and minority groups and that the bill would ensure that environmental racism was addressed and prevented.

I have mandated the Minister of Environment to develop an environmental justice strategy. Our support for the bill is part of our plan to seriously address this issue.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I am afraid that is all the time we have for today.

I want to address something before we get to the points of order.

The hon. member for Oakville North—Burlington yesterday brought up that the member for Miramichi—Grand Lake shouted out some words. I was not quite sure, so I looked it up and I got, “yesterday, the Public Safety Minister even said that protesters were rapists”. That is what the hon. member said. I thought that was kind of severe, so what I did is I went back and I saw what the hon. Minister of Public Safety said. He said: “Secondly, respectfully, there were Ottawans who were subjected to intimidation, harassment, threats of rape and those were all supported by...” and it went on like that.

I do not want to belabour this, but I do want to bring everyone's attention to when debate is happening in the House. Please pay attention to what is being said in the House so that we cannot be accused of misinterpreting what one has said or another. To all of you, I want you to pay attention, please.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I believe if you were to seek it, you would find unanimous consent for the House to adopt the following motion: That the House oppose any federal electoral redistribution scenario that would cause Quebec or any other province or territory to lose one or more electoral districts in the future, and that the House call on the government to act accordingly.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

All those opposed to the hon. member moving the motion will please say nay.

[An hon. member]

Nay.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

There is no unanimous consent.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

On Monday I asked a question of the Minister of Natural Resources about oil that is being imported to Canada from Russia. He responded that crude was no longer being imported to Canada since 2019. I would like to table, with unanimous consent, documents from Statistics Canada that show in 2021 almost $400 million of oil was imported from Russia into Canada.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

All those opposed to the hon. member moving the motion will please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.

Book of Solidarity with Ukraine

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Parliamentarians wishing to convey a message of support for Ukrainian members of parliament and to the Ukrainian people are invited to sign the book of solidarity created for that purpose.

Messages can be inscribed in a book in the House of Commons lobbies through Monday, March 14. Messages can also be submitted online.

A memo will be going out to all MPs today with a link to the virtual book. The signed book will be sent to Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine.

The House resumed from March 1 consideration of the motion.

Opposition Motion—Representation of Quebec in the House of Commons

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

It being 3:18 p.m., pursuant to an order made on Thursday, November 25, 2021, the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the opposition motion regarding the business of supply.

Call in the members.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #33

Business of Supply

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I declare the motion carried.

I wish to inform the House that because of the deferred recorded division, Government Orders will be extended by 14 minutes.

International Trade

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), and in accordance with the transparency requirements set out in the policy on tabling of treaties in Parliament, I am pleased to present to the House of Commons the Government of Canada's negotiating objectives for negotiations toward a free trade agreement between Canada and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Government of Canada intends to commence negotiations by holding a first round of negotiations with ASEAN as soon as practicable, but in accordance with the policy, the first round will take place no earlier than 30 days from today.

While I am on my feet, I move:

That the House do now proceed to orders of the day.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

If a member of a recognized party present in the House wishes to request a recorded division or that the motion be adopted on division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

The hon. opposition House leader.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we would like a recorded division.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Call in the members.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #34

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I declare the motion carried.

Motion that debate be not further adjourned

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, in relation to the consideration of Government Business No. 9, I move:

That the debate be not further adjourned.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Pursuant to Standing Order 67.1, there will now be a 30-minute question period.

I invite hon. members who wish to ask questions to rise in their places or use the “raise hand” function so that the Chair has some idea of the number of members who wish to participate in this question period.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, 41 years ago in October, Ronald Reagan famously turned to then-president Jimmy Carter and said, “There you go again.”

Well, here we go again.

On the 39th sitting day of this Parliament, this is the fifth time the government has invoked closure on debate, on something as important as an oversight committee. The government decided to take extraordinary powers by invoking the Emergencies Act. The least they should expect is extraordinary scrutiny and oversight.

Conservatives proposed a purpose-built committee to look after the legislative mandate of what the committee was required to do, and yet the government has turned this into a fiasco. What they are proposing in this motion is absurd.

We came back with an amendment, and yet still the hammer falls.

Canada's Conservatives will do everything we can to get to the bottom of this, including the purpose for the invocation of this act, what led up to it and why the government decided to do it.

Why is the government covering this up? Why does the government not want to get to the bottom of this by having a committee that is structured similarly to other oversight committees in Parliament?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I was in opposition when former prime minister Harper used closure all the time, so the hon. member's indignation is a bit surprising. It was used over 100 times, so I suppose he has now had a change of heart on its use.

That notwithstanding, in this particular case the hon. member knows how important it is that we move to have this oversight body put into place as quickly as can be done.

The hon. member knows as well that it was his party, unfortunately, that took the position of cheerleading the illegal activities that took place outside and demonstrated no impartiality with respect to this matter. Therefore, we thought it was appropriate, not that we would chair the committee and not that the official opposition would—