Debates of May 19th, 2022

Winner of Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

While I am standing up, I will make a comment for anyone in the lobbies or outside the lobbies. Let us tell our friends who happen to be out there to keep the noise down, because it does bleed over into this chamber. As much as we are having fun and laughing at certain jokes and being happy to see each other, we are having serious moments here in the House of Commons.

The hon. member for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski.

Clifford Evans

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Mr. Speaker, today I want to pay tribute to Clif Evans, who passed away earlier this month. Clif was known for being many things: a hotelier, the mayor of Riverton, MLA for Interlake, ministerial assistant to former minister Steve Ashton in the NDP government and, most recently, an invaluable member of our constituency team.

Clif accomplished a lot. He was a strong mayor and an MLA who fought for all his communities, his legacy including flood protection, highway improvement and support for fishers.

Clif was a proud New Democrat. Even though he was on the receiving end of a PC vote-rigging scandal in the 1990s, he had an incredible ability to reach across the partisan divide. He was proud of his work with the Association of Former Manitoba MLAs.

What we will always remember about Clif is how he connected with people and how he was welcomed in so many rural communities and first nations, where he was like a member of the community. Clif was also a great mentor and a mentor to many. Clif was one of my mentors. I was proud to work with Clif Evans and proud to have known him. He will be missed by many.

World Bee Day

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on May 20 we celebrate World Bee Day.

This year, this day is especially significant because many of our beekeepers lost a large percentage of their bees, with mortality rates of up to 80%. No producer can afford such a loss.

Producers held a press conference yesterday to sound the alarm. They need support. Higher temperatures due to climate change are having a devastating impact and producers are asking for emergency assistance. We must be there for them.

We must also find long-term solutions to save our precious pollinators. Our crops depend on them. That is why I moved a motion in that regard in committee.

Bees play a key role in the environment, agriculture and food. It is our duty to protect them.

Vaccine Mandates

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, with the perpetuation of his punitive vaccine mandates, the Prime Minister is in fact prolonging the pain of COVID. The hypocrisy is evident and everyone is watching. His mask is on in Canada, but it is off when he is gallivanting around the world. His mask was on when he met with Prince Charles yesterday in Ottawa, but it was off when he met with the Queen in England. Instead of inspiring confidence and strength, he continues to stoke fear and division.

Many Canadians are asking why. Well, I suppose it is because he is more easily able to control people when he keeps them worried and fearful. Talk about an abuse of power.

The Prime Minister keeps telling Canadians that he is following the science and listening to experts, but two questions arise: What science and which experts? The provinces have followed the science and have lifted the mandates. Countries around the world have done the same. Therefore, the question is this: Is there some secret science that the Prime Minister is privy to that he is not letting the rest of us into?

The reality is this, folks. Canadians deserve better. Canadians are calling on the Prime Minister to put aside his obstinate ways and act in the very best interest of Canadians. It is time to lift the mandates.

Vyshyvanka Day

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today is Vyshyvanka Day, the day of the Ukrainian embroidered shirt, and today I am very proud to be wearing the vyshyvanka that my grandparents Ivan and Olena made for me many years ago.

In the past, I have worn this shirt to honour my grandparents and celebrate my heritage, but this year is different. For Ukrainians, the embroidered shirt is not just a garment, but a sacred emblem of Ukrainian culture, tradition and history since ancient times. The embroidery tradition has been passed on from generation to generation of Ukrainians, as has the desire for freedom and the courage and resolve to fight for it. Ukrainians have demonstrated that courage and resolve since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

This year, on Vyshyvanka Day, people around the world are wearing a Ukrainian embroidered shirt to show their support for the people of Ukraine. This year, we not only honour our ancestors and we not only celebrate Ukrainian heritage, but we stand even more firmly with the Ukrainian people. I have never been prouder to wear my vyshyvanka.

Slava Ukraini.

Health

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

Mr. Speaker, for two years now, Canadians have been making sacrifices to combat COVID‑19. They stayed home. They got vaccinated in large numbers. They got tested. They wore masks.

Two years later, the majority of governments have listened to the science and lifted the health measures to give their citizens a bit of a breather. All the governments have done so, except one. Just one government refuses to acknowledge all of the sacrifices that people have made. Why is that?

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

Mr. Speaker, we know more about COVID‑19 now than ever. That said, we have come a long way since March 2020.

We have safe, effective vaccines and we have high vaccination rates. Our government will continue to make decisions informed by science and will adjust its guidelines and public health measures as this wave of the virus evolves.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' ideological stubbornness, which is not supported by science or any recognized scientific opinion, is hurting Canadians.

What is happening in Canada's airports clearly shows that this NDP-Liberal government is out of its depth, and travellers are the ones paying the price. They are the ones who have to wait in huge lineups and who are being held captive on planes for hours.

This chaos was foreseeable, but once again the Liberals did not see it coming and did not do anything. Oh yes, they are doing one thing. They are blaming travellers. When will the Prime Minister lift the public health restrictions in airports?

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

Mr. Speaker, we have testing and surveillance tools that allow us to identify new variants of concern and track the spread of this virus. We also have new treatments that can help patients from getting seriously ill.

The Conservatives have a choice to make today.

Government Programs

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

Mr. Speaker, let us take stock of the government's record: passports, chaos; Service Canada, chaos; immigration, chaos; employment insurance, chaos; House management, chaos; border management, chaos; inflation management, chaos.

Everything this Liberal government touches is a dismal failure. Can the minister responsible for this chaos please rise?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Minister of Families]

Mr. Speaker, as we know, we were in a pandemic for two years. We are now in a period of transition. Canadians followed the rules. They did everything they could to keep themselves and their friends safe.

We thank Canadians. The Government of Canada will be there to help them. We are putting measures in place to ensure that Canadians receive the services they need.

Airline Industry

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is another day, and there are more horror stories from Canada's airports. While the Minister of Transport blamed out-of-practice travellers for the bottlenecks at those airports, the parliamentary secretary now says that it is a global phenomenon. It is not.

The government has not acknowledged any responsibility. It still has not shared any specific advice it claims to have for the restrictions in the airports.

When will the government apologize to all of the travellers who have missed their flights due to its incompetence?

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, we understand how frustrating it is for Canadians to experience long lines and delays at airports. Canadians can rest assured that we are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. As I said earlier in the House today, we have hired approximately 400 new screening officers who are currently in different phases of their training across the country. We are taking affirmative action by forming working groups with CATSA, CBSA, PHAC and other aviation partners, and they are meeting multiple times a week to find and address the bottlenecks leading to these delays.

We ask that Canadians remain patient as we work hard with CATSA and the air sector to find a solution.

Health

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the airports across the country are still grinding to a halt, and the government says that it is people's fault. There are people who are waiting months and months for passports, while the government tells them they have to line up at 4 a.m. For basic government services, the government says it is sorry and to take a number. The parliamentary secretary has said testing 4,000 travellers a day and keeping four million Canadians from domestic travel is based on public health advice.

What specific advice has she seen that nobody in this House has?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Minister of Families]

Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge that after two years of staying home and making sure that they are doing everything they can to protect themselves and their loved ones, Canadians now want to travel.

We understand that there is a huge demand. There are unprecedented volumes, in fact volumes we have not seen since 2006, when the United States asked Canadians to have a passport to travel there. We are doing everything we possibly can to ensure that Canadians can access those services in a timely fashion, and we will continue to maintain these measures so that Canadians can have access to these services.

Official Languages

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government has decided to appeal the court ruling on the unconstitutional appointment of a unilingual anglophone lieutenant governor in Canada's only bilingual province, but not everyone in the Liberal caucus agrees. Three New Brunswick MPs, or half of the province's Liberal MPs, have since had the courage to speak out against this decision.

Does the Minister of Canadian Heritage find that his colleagues who are defending French in New Brunswick are just a bit too radical?

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Mr. Speaker, our government is firmly committed to protecting and promoting Canada's beautiful official languages. That is why, on March 1, I was so pleased to be able to introduce Bill C-13, which seeks to modernize the Official Languages Act. We will do our job. I hope that the Bloc Québécois and all parties will help us pass this bill.

Our government is committed to ensuring that all lieutenant governors appointed in New Brunswick will be bilingual going forward.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on the one hand, there are Liberal members defending French in New Brunswick. On the other, there are Liberal MPs protesting the defence French in Quebec. It is pretty much the same gang that refused to recognize French as the official language of Quebec. It is the same gang that is criticizing the Bloc Québécois because we want private, federally regulated businesses in Quebec to be subject to Bill 101, and yet it is the Bloc that is considered radical. It really is nonsense.

Who will the Prime Minister listen to, those fighting for French or those fighting against it?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, members of the Bloc Québécois regularly speak. They have the right to do so because they are real Quebeckers. Liberal members who speak to the same issue do not have the right. The Bloc is deciding who is a real Quebecker and who is not; that is where they become radicalized.

They are also becoming radicalized when they say that, if someone asks a question about Bill 96, they are against Bill 101. We support Bill 101. We have always supported it, and that is our party's position.

They say that a person who takes part in a march wants to anglicize Quebec. No, we are there to defend French and respect the anglophone minority.

The Economy

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last month, inflation hit a 31-year high at 6.8%. Meanwhile, wages increased by an average of just 3.3%. I doubt anyone needs a diagram to understand the resulting decrease in purchasing power.

The worst part is that while the big chains are making hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, everyone's grocery bills are going up by 9%. More and more families are turning to food banks.

When will the Liberals tax the excessive profits of big grocery stores and oil companies?

When will they double the GST tax credit?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we know that inflation is partly caused by Putin's illegal war in Ukraine. That is why we are focusing on affordability for Canadians.

We have cut taxes for the middle class twice and raised them for the wealthiest 1%. We created the Canada child benefit and made sure it was indexed to inflation.

We have been focused on affordability.

Taxation

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting that when we bring up inflation, the government likes to talk about things it did five or six years ago, but the fact of the matter is that we are experiencing record inflation now.

We are experiencing that in a context in which a number of companies, including oil and gas companies right now, are receiving huge windfalls. The question is this: Is the government prepared to tax that excess profit and return it to Canadians in the form of an additional GST rebate or not? Yesterday we saw the Liberals side with the Conservatives to vote against a measure like that.

We want to know, are the Liberals going to get with the program and provide relief to Canadians now?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we know that inflation is taking a toll on the lives of Canadians and their pocketbooks. That is why, once again in this tax season, the basic personal income amount has grown again: another 500 bucks in the pockets of Canadians. A family right now that has been able to take advantage of our child care benefit in Alberta will save almost $6,000 a year. We have indexed the Canada child benefit to inflation.

We are focused on affordability and the needs of Canadians.

The Economy

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the last time we saw the price of groceries jump 10% was in 1981, when another big tax-and-spend Liberal prime minister was in office. What was his name again? It is like déjà vu.

Doug Porter, the chief economist at BMO, said that inflation “is spreading much more broadly, and at clear risk of getting firmly entrenched”.

Will the Liberal government acknowledge today that its big tax-and-spend policies are entrenching inflation? When will it start to address the cost-of-living crisis that we are in?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, one of the first things we did when we formed government in 2015 was to lower the taxes on the middle class twice and tax the wealthiest 1% more. In budget 2022, we have increased taxes on Canada's banks.

The illegal war in Ukraine that Putin has started is driving up inflation. If the Conservative Party is serious about supporting Canadians, it can start supporting smart legislation and smart results, stop blocking the BIA and finance, get it to a vote and put money in the pockets of Canadians.