Debates of May 20th, 2022

Justice

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Madam Speaker, this is about criminal justice policy that actually keeps our communities safe. I want to invite the member opposite to listen to the very profound testimony of the president of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers, as well as the South Asian Bar Association. They speak to the desperate impact of our current criminal justice system on racialized and indigenous people, and I really reject the premise of the question posed by the member opposite.

Official Languages

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Madam Speaker, while Quebec is in the midst of debating Bill 96, Ottawa is trying to thwart one of the bill's main measures.

Ottawa's Bill C‑13 would prevent Quebec from applying the Charter of the French Language to federally regulated businesses. We need to protect the French language in Quebec, yet Ottawa is protecting the English language at work. On top of that, the Liberals are in a rush. They just moved closure on Bill C‑13 to limit debate as much as possible.

Is this because they are afraid Quebeckers will rally against this bill, which does not protect the right language in Quebec?

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

Madam Speaker, our government is firmly committed to protecting and promoting the French language across the country, including in Quebec.

We are also committed to supporting official language minority communities. This is why we are moving forward with an ambitious bill that has more teeth. We want to rectify the situation in Canada.

I hope that the Bloc Québécois and all stakeholders will help us pass this bill.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Madam Speaker, when she talked about the bill having teeth, the minister failed to mention something important. Bill C-13 allows businesses to voluntarily become subject to the Charter of the French Language. She is well aware of the difference between voluntary and mandatory.

If Bill C‑13 passes, Bill 96 will apply to businesses only if they so choose. I find it hard to believe this was not prearranged, knowing how plenty of Liberals feel about protecting French. The reality in Quebec is that it is French that must be protected.

Does the minister understand that she is actually protecting the anglicization of workplaces with Bill C‑13?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Madam Speaker, the Liberal members' position on French is crystal clear: It must be protected, promoted and valued. It is a beautiful language that all of us will defend.

What concerns me is the radicalization of the Bloc. It claims that Liberal members from Quebec are not Quebeckers, that they are just Canadians. The Bloc members are Quebeckers, but all the others are Canadians.

There are Liberal members from Quebec, who were elected in Quebec by Quebeckers. They too are Quebeckers, and they have just as much right to speak as the Bloc members.

Government Programs

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

Madam Speaker, there is a groundswell of anger. Thousands of people are frustrated, worried, anxious and sometimes desperate. Why?

The reason is that the federal government is incapable of answering their questions or processing their files. The number of horror stories is growing. Whether it is immigration, passports, visas or employment insurance, the government seems incapable of taking action within a reasonable period of time. This has disastrous consequences for people's lives.

When will the Liberals commit the resources required to quickly respond to Canadians' requests?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Minister of Families]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his question.

We understand Canadians' frustrations at this time. We have been receiving an unprecedented number of passport applications, and we are responding. We are in a transition period. We are hoping to emerge from the pandemic. We understand that we must put in place the resources required to meet demand, and we will keep these measures in place.

Public Safety

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Speaker, the delay of the Huawei decision compromised our intelligence sharing with allies and compromised the competitiveness of our domestic telecom industry. Canadians deserve a real answer about why their national security and privacy were put at risk. It took three years to announce a ban, and Huawei is still operating in Canada. The government wasted precious time, and now it asks us to wait even longer for legislation that will finally protect Canadians and close this embarrassing chapter for our country.

Why is the government failing to prioritize the national security and privacy of Canadians?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Madam Speaker, this gives me the opportunity to come back to the announcement we made yesterday.

This has never been about a race. This is about national security. What we announced yesterday is our intention to exclude equipment and services from Huawei and ZTE from the 5G telecommunication network in Canada. This is in the best interest of Canadians. This is protecting our national security, and it will ensure the resilience of our telecom sector for generations to come.

Taxation

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

Madam Speaker, across Canada, residents depend on police, fire and EMS services. These services, funded by tax dollars, are facing high gas and diesel prices to fuel their vehicles, which are on the roads in every community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cost of fuel is in many cases blowing past emergency service budgets. Taxpayers in these communities cannot afford additional increases in their property taxes to pay for these added costs.

Why will the Liberals not scrap the carbon tax or lower the GST on fuel, not just to help Canadian families that are suffering from high gas prices, but for emergency services as well?

[Terry Duguid, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Madam Speaker, Conservative politicians are making a lot of misleading claims about the price on pollution. Here are the facts: 70% of the gas price increase is due to crude oil prices going up, largely because of Russia's illegal war on Ukraine, and another 25% of the price is the result of provincial taxes and refining margins. That is 95%. As the hon. member will know, eight out of 10 families get more back in the climate incentive than they pay at the pump.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Madam Speaker, that is more misinformation from the government, which refuses to deal with the issue of gas taxes.

Volunteer fire stations in Nova Scotia are feeling the burn of its bad policies. The Chester Volunteer Fire Department in my riding, thanks to skyrocketing diesel costs, has doubled its fuel budget. Higher gas means reduced spending on training and vital equipment to keep our communities safe. The Liberals are forcing our volunteer fire services to pick between fuelling their trucks and purchasing life-saving equipment.

Will the government cut its excessive gas taxes to help our fire departments survive?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Madam Speaker, first, there is absolutely no guarantee that these companies will pass on any savings to Canadian consumers if we do what the Conservatives propose. Second, on this side of the House, we do believe that climate change is real and we know that we need to act now to ensure that we do not pay huge amounts to meet the climate change catastrophe that is at our doorstep.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Madam Speaker, volunteer firefighters across Canada are called away from anniversaries, birthday parties, their jobs, family and Christmas dinners to respond to emergencies and save people's lives. They do this proudly and we thank them for their sacrifice. Unfortunately, retention for these firefighters is very low for municipalities because the cost and burden are so high.

Will the government respond to their emergency and give them gas tax relief for municipal budgets?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Madam Speaker, I am quite surprised that we are receiving any questions related to the economy after a week in which the Conservatives fired their finance critic and seemed to have forgotten to hire a new one. Why did they fire him? It is because he thought it was a bad idea for the Conservatives to impugn the reputation and independence of the Bank of Canada. Perhaps he also thought it was a bad idea to outsource our monetary policy to Bitcoin.

If the Conservatives would like to see real economic policy that will put money back into the pockets of Canadians, they only have to open their copy of the budget.

Seniors

[Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Conservative, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Madam Speaker, page six of the Liberal platform promised to develop a safe long-term care act to ensure that seniors are guaranteed the care they deserve no matter where they live.

It has been seven and a half months. Where is it?

[Darren Fisher, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors, Lib.]

Madam Speaker, I find it so ironic when Conservatives stand up in the House and pretend to support seniors. Since 2016, they have voted against nearly every single measure that our government has proposed for seniors. To give an example, there was the GIS top-up benefit of $947 annually for the most vulnerable single seniors, the majority of whom are women, and they voted against it.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order. It is very hard for individuals in the galleries and individuals listening to the TV or radio to hear what is going on when there is so much noise. I would ask members to hold on to their thoughts until it is their turn to ask a question.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Darren Fisher]

Madam Speaker, I have more: enhancing the CPP by 50% for future retirees. The Conservative Party voted against that. Seniors know who has been there for them and it is not the Conservative Party of Canada.

[Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Conservative, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Madam Speaker, clearly the member has not read page six of his platform, but I have.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that Canada has failed its seniors, especially those in our long-term care facilities. The conditions that many seniors find themselves in are deplorable.

What steps is the government taking to address the appalling conditions in our long-term care facilities?

[Darren Fisher, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Seniors, Lib.]

Madam Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to highlight the challenges of long-term care, including gaps in infection prevention and staffing. I personally have seen these challenges. Our government has made significant investments, including $4 billion to help the provinces and territories improve the standard of care in those facilities and $41.9 billion in cash support to the provinces and territories through the Canada health transfer.

We will keep working with the provinces and territories so that we can fight COVID-19 together.

Housing

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Madam Speaker, deficits, monetary expansion and consumer taxes, like the carbon tax, all drive up inflation, and nowhere is this more obvious than in Canada's housing market, where the price of housing went through the roof at a time of massive job loss and shrinking GDP during the pandemic. The government's response has been to pat itself on the back while a generation of Canadians give up on home ownership.

When will the government get serious about reducing inflation, especially in housing?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion]

Madam Speaker, we know that we need to increase housing supply in this country to give more Canadians the opportunity of home ownership. We also know that we need to help first-time homebuyers with a tax-free savings account so they can buy their first home. We have banned foreign ownership of Canadian residential real estate to free up more homes for Canadian first-time homebuyers.

We have all these measures, and even more investments in affordable housing, but the Conservatives oppose them. They can stand up here and talk about housing all they want, but when it comes to actually doing something about it, they have no ideas and they vote against ours all the time.

Agriculture and Agri-Food

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

Madam Speaker, today is World Bee Day, but there is nothing to celebrate because Quebec's bees are dying. Their mortality rate is 60%. An average mortality rate of 60% is unbelievable.

Bees play an essential role in pollination, and our crops depend on them. On Wednesday, farmers sounded the alarm and called for emergency aid for the sector. No agricultural producer can face a catastrophe of this magnitude on their own.

Will the government provide immediate assistance?