Debates of May 9th, 2022

Passport Canada

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a report from October 2021 states that the government was bracing for a surge of passport applications. Fast forward to seven months later and clearly it did not brace well enough.

Wait times have become so outrageous that people are offering a service to wait in line for passport renewals. One of my constituents was recommended by Service Canada to line up at 1:00 a.m. Constituents are also being charged extra processing fees, meaning that a $160 10-year passport is now costing Canadians $315.

If the Liberals knew, why are Canadians paying the price for the Liberals' inability to prepare?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Minister of Families]

Mr. Speaker, as I have mentioned many times in the House, we are experiencing an unprecedented increase in the demand for passports. After two years, Canadians understandably would like to travel again, but that means that when everyone is applying at the same time, it is a lot for the system to handle.

That being said, we have ensured that we have hired additional people. We have opened on evenings and weekends. In fact, this past weekend, 12 centres were open to service folks, and we have ensured that every wicket will now be open in passport offices to make sure that we are serving Canadians as well as possible.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the passport process has become a nightmare to thousands of Canadians. Tyler and Ira from Dawson Creek, through no fault of their own, had to travel 14 hours and spend hundreds of dollars to get their passports, just hours before their trip. What used to be a simple task of completing a passport form is now causing sleepless nights, unnecessary stress and huge expense to those who just want a break from the past two years of this Prime Minister's lockdowns.

When will the minister end the nightmare?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Minister of Families]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly understand that this is very frustrating for Canadians, but when we have people who are all asking to renew a passport at the same time, it is unprecedented. We did ensure that we had hired 500 additional passport officers ahead of time. We changed it so that 303 Service Canada—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

Order. The hon. minister might want to restart her answer.

The hon. Minister of Families, Children and Social Development.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, I understand that this is frustrating for Canadians and that after two years of staying home, Canadians want to travel. However, when everyone is applying at the same time, there is unprecedented volume that is happening. To accommodate this, we have hired 500 additional passport officers and enabled Canadians to apply not just to passport offices but at the 303 Service Canada offices across the country. We have also opened passport offices through the evenings and into the weekends. We opened 12 centres over the weekend.

People are working overtime and doing everything they can, because at the end of the day, Service Canada employees want to service Canadians.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Mr. Speaker, last week the minister bragged about her visit to the Saskatoon “out-of-Service Canada” office, yet, after her visit, the daughter of my constituent, Viktoriia, still cannot get a passport, because they lost her birth certificate. By contrast, the Bangladesh High Commission sent six people to Saskatoon on the weekend, and they processed 800 passports in two days.

How is it that a foreign government can get more done in two days than this minister can in two months?

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Minister of Families]

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say to the people working at Service Canada who have been working overtime and weekends and doing everything they can to service Canadians, “Thank you.” They are under extreme stress because of the overwhelming volume of passports that they are working really hard to process. I know, as I visited the folks at Service Canada in Saskatoon and they spoke about the good working relationship they have with that member of Parliament. At no point would I ever want to disparage the incredibly hard-working public servants who are working around the clock to serve Canadians.

Public Safety

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the epidemic of gun violence continued Saturday night. Two shootings left one man dead and five injured in Laval and Montreal. In the meantime, in Montérégie, the biker gangs were having a grand old time. Four hundred Hells Angels were partying and laughing about the federal government's failure to deal with arms trafficking and to take action against criminal groups.

People are fed up. Is it not time to create a registry of criminal organizations and to crack down on them?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, I would first like to express my sympathies for the victims of this tragedy. We are investing more than $300 million over five years, including $40 million for the RCMP to fight smuggling, $15 million for tracing and more than $21 million to equip the CBSA to stop all illegal firearms. I was in Montreal almost a month ago discussing more concrete measures with the mayor of Montreal.

On this side of the House, we have a good understanding of the firearms problem and we want to work with the Bloc Québécois to fix it.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that money is being spent on ways to do nothing or to justify doing nothing.

Quite simply, what we need is a registry of criminal organizations. If it can be proven that someone belongs to an organization that is on the registry, then it would be an offence. Gone would be the 400-person Hells Angels parties, the intimidation and the shows of force. If someone boasts about belonging to a criminal organization, they will end up in the back of a police car. It is as simple as that.

Montreal is flooded with illegal guns that are creating victims week after week. Are government members not sick of watching criminals having parties on TV?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague, and that is why we are taking concrete measures and have banned AR‑15s and two other military-style weapons.

That is why we are making investments in Montreal, in Quebec, with the mayor of Montreal, to protect young people and vulnerable populations. We will do more with the Bloc Québécois and all members of the House.

Health

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, when I say “ArriveCAN”, what words come to mind? “Unreliable”, “frustrating”, “ageist”, “broken” and “painful” are just some of the words constituents of mine have used. The app is so difficult that some seniors are having to cancel trips to funerals, weddings and the birth of grandchildren. They are facing massive fines and mandatory quarantine, all because of a government app.

After two long years, seniors in this country deserve a lot better from the government. It is time to end the mandatory use of the loathsome ArriveCAN app and allow Canadians to travel freely once again.

What are the Liberals waiting for?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's concerns with regard to ArriveCAN, and of course we work with the CBSA to ensure that as an application it is smooth and efficient, but there are also other words to attribute to ArriveCAN, which are that it is an important tool to protect Canadians.

We will continue to ensure we work with my hon. colleague, along with all other communities, to ensure that trade and travel continue to increase and make sure our economy is going again. That is what our goal is, and that is what we will continue to do.

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

Mr. Speaker, Gail and John from the South Shore of Nova Scotia were refused entry into Canada upon their return from Florida, in spite of having vaccine proof and their passports. These Canadians were denied entry because they had not filled out the “no ArriveCAN” app. Like many Canadians, they do not have smart phones. Canadians are being hoisted on the government's phone petard.

Why is the government not allowing Canadians to come home if they do not have a smart phone?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, as I said to my hon. colleague last week during question period, we are prepared to work with him and other members of the chamber to ensure that ArriveCAN is smooth and efficient. We are open to receiving feedback. We are not only working with members opposite; we are working with members on this side of the House. The reason we introduced the app was to protect Canadians, and of course now that trade and travel are going again, we will see more individuals come at the border and we will see to it that their experience is consistent with best practices of the CBSA.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, for once, could the government acknowledge the issues affecting all Canadians, not just those who have an iPhone or those who have access to a lot of information, but all Canadians?

There are issues with the ArriveCAN app. There are issues for those who fill it out correctly as well as for those who do not have access to an iPhone or the Internet.

Could the government consider the fact that, as the member for Louis-Hébert said, not everyone have access to a computer all the time? Could the government have a project, a program, that works for all Canadians?

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said multiple times already, we are working with the Canada Border Services Agency to strengthen border access and address the difficulties with this program.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our government has focused on Canadians' health and safety by relying on the most recent scientific data. As we have said, since the start of the pandemic, Canada's border measures will remain flexible and adaptable, guided by science and prudence.

International Development

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we know that the pandemic has disproportionately affected women, especially the millennial women and girls. This is much more true for women and girls in the global south, for whom the pandemic has reversed decades of hard work in the development gains. Could the Minister of International Development tell us how Canada is going to ensure that all women, adolescents and children not only survive this pandemic but thrive?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to women's health as a long-standing priority. That is why I recently announced $40 million in additional funding to support the Global Financing Facility's “Reclaim the Gains” campaign, bringing Canada's total contribution to $190 million. The funds will help lower-income countries improve the resilience of their health systems and reverse the impact of COVID-19. Canada sees the GFF as a critical part of strengthening country-led health systems and reinforcing sexual and reproductive health rights as core components of the health care system.

Agriculture and Agri‑Food

[Damien Kurek, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Canadian farmers feed the world, but the Liberals are crippling our ag sector. From increasing the regulatory burden to the carbon tax, opposition to much-needed tax reform, pushing for the displacement of meat and the talk of mandated reductions in things like fertilizer, Canadian farmers are facing the full brunt of a leftist ideological crusade.

Why is the government sandbagging the family farms and ranches in Canada? Will the minister today commit to scrapping her proposed nitrogen fertilizer mandated reductions?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, once again, I want to assure the House that we are working closely with various representatives from across agricultural sectors to see how we can help them deal with these input costs, which are particularly high this year. In fact, that is why we have improved the advance payments program.

Rail Transportation

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, regardless of the language, there was no answer there.

On January 24, 2022, the Minister of Transport affirmed that Via would be back to full operations. However, it appears that this promise is broken, as the Via route 651 is not being put back to restoration and the Liberals will not even tell us when. When will route 651 be fully restored?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, let me share with the hon. colleague and all Canadians the excellent news. We are investing in Via to increase public transportation for Canadians. One of the largest investments in Canada's history is the high-frequency rail that is going to connect Quebec and Ontario. We are also investing in other routes in the country. We are committed to supporting rail across the country, either through Infrastructure Canada or through Transport Canada. We look forward to working with our colleagues on delivering on that.