Debates of Dec. 13th, 2023

Appointment of Clerk

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and I am sure if you seek it, you will find that Bill C-234 would lower the cost—

[Some hon. members]

No.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am further contributing to the point of order raised by the member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman in regard to Standing Order 18 and decorum. I just wanted to point out for the member that there were only 34 Liberals here when, he claims, all these votes occurred. I would like to know whether the member wants to say which Liberals voted that way.

The House resumed from December 11 consideration of the motion that Bill S-210, An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

It being 3:31 p.m., the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded on the motion at second reading stage of Bill S-210 under Private Members' Business.

Call in the members.

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

Vote #609

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I declare the motion carried. Accordingly, the bill stands referred to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.

(Bill read the second time and referred to a committee)

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During the vote call in the House on a very important vote to protect young people from pornography, the member for Pontiac rose to vote in favour and then rose to vote against. I would like you to verify that she did indeed vote and I hope she voted in favour.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I thank the hon. member for Portneuf—Jacques‑Cartier for raising that question.

Upon further verification with the table officers, I can assure the member that the vote was recorded only once.

The House resumed from December 12 consideration of the motion.

Canadian Aviation Regulations

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on Motion No. 96, under Private Members' Business.

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

Vote #610

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I declare the motion carried.

I wish to inform the House that because of the deferred recorded divisions, Government Orders will be extended by 27 minutes.

Message from the Senate

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I have the honour to inform the House that a message has been received from the Senate informing this House that the Senate has passed the following bill, with amendments, to which the concurrence of the House is desired: Bill C‑234, an act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.

Copies of the amendments are available at the table.

Awarding of Contract to Boeing—Speaker's Ruling

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am now prepared to rule on the question of privilege raised on December 1, 2023, by the member for Saint-Hyacinthe─Bagot regarding allegedly misleading information shared by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence.

In his intervention, the member alleged that the House had been misled about the process to replace the Aurora aircraft. The member noted that, when the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Public Services and Procurement were asked about this matter in the House on November 24 and 28, 2023, they both answered that the decision to award a sole-source contract to Boeing had not yet been made. Yet, according to the member, a newspaper article published on November 29 revealed that the government knew by then that the contract had been awarded. In the member's view, the government's answers were knowingly inaccurate and effectively misled the House.

However, the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader explained that the responses from the minister and the parliamentary secretary were accurate at the time they were provided, as the government’s final decision was not made until the evening of November 28. Given the circumstances, he concluded that the House could not have been misled and that there are no grounds to find a prima facie question of privilege.

The House is therefore faced with two versions of events. One is based on an article published in a newspaper. The other was provided by the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader; this version indicates that, based on the sequence of events, no misleading information was provided.

In cases such as this, the Chair’s role is strictly limited to determining whether a member deliberately misled the House during the proceedings.

In order to find a prima facie question of privilege, three criteria must be met. These criteria are set out in numerous decisions issued by previous Speakers, including one delivered by my predecessor on May 11, 2021, on page 7022 of the Debates, and I quote:

First, the statement must effectively be misleading or manifestly contradictory; second, the author of the statement must know, in making the statement, that it is false; third, the member intended to mislead the House.

As members can tell, the threshold for showing that the House was deliberately misled is very high. This is because the consequences of such allegations can be quite serious.

Accordingly, the Chair carefully reviewed the statements the minister and the parliamentary secretary made during Oral Questions.

The Chair understands how important it is for members to receive the most reliable and accurate information possible in order to carry out their duties. However, the Chair could not find evidence that the minister and the parliamentary secretary contradicted themselves or intended to hide information or mislead the House.

As a consequence and in keeping with the many precedents on such matters, I cannot in this case find a prima facie question of privilege.

I thank all members for their attention.

Government Response to Petitions

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8)(a) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to three petitions. These returns will be tabled in an electronic format.

International Trade

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Minister of Export Promotion]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2) and in accordance with the enhanced transparency requirements relating to new free trade agreements introduced in the policy on tabling of treaties in Parliament in 2020, I am pleased to notify the House of Commons of the government's intent to initiate negotiations for a Canada-Ecuador free trade agreement. The Government of Canada intends to commence negotiations with Ecuador no earlier than 90 days from the date of this notice.

Interparliamentary Delegations

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on its 145th assembly and related meetings in Kigali, Rwanda, from October 11 to 15, 2022.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the following reports: the report of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association respecting its participation in the second part of the 2023 ordinary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, in Strasbourg, France, from April 24 to 28; the report of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association respecting its participation at the meeting of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., from April 25 to 26; the report of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association respecting its participation im the extraordinary meeting of the Standing Committee for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Reykjavik, Iceland, on May 15; and the report of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association respecting its participation in the third part of the 2023 ordinary session of PACE in Strasbourg, France, from June 19 to 23.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, five reports: the report of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group on the Council of State Governments' Midwestern Legislative Conference in Wichita, Kansas, from July 10 to 13, 2022; the report of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group on the Council of State Governments East's 61st annual meeting, in Manchester, New Hampshire, from August 14 to 17, 2022; the report of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group's on its bilateral visit with the United States Senate in Washington, D.C., from May 15 to 16; the report of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group's on the annual meeting of the Western Governors' Association in Boulder, Colorado, from June 26 to 28; and finally, the report of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group on the Council of State Governments' Midwestern Legislative Conference in Detroit, Michigan, from July 9 to 12.

While I am on my feet, I want to thank the members for this work. In many instances, these meetings took place during members' vacation time. I want to thank them for attending to this most important relationship. I also want to acknowledge and thank senators Klobuchar and Crapo for their generous and warm welcome to our delegation while in Washington.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the chair of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, the hon. member for Avalon, I will present the following two reports.

I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 12th report, entitled “Ecosystem Impacts and Management of Pinniped Populations”. For the folks at home, pinnipeds are sea lions.

I also have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 13th report, entitled “Foreign Ownership and Corporate Concentration of Fishing Licences and Quota”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to these reports.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to table the Conservative supplementary report on ecosystem impacts and management of pinniped populations. The report was completed because Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans believe that the main report does not represent the urgency required to deal with the management of pinnipeds fast enough to save fish stocks on all three of Canada's coasts. Witnesses at this study, the mackerel study and the science study all stressed that paying lip service to pinniped predation, as the Liberals have over the last eight years, is simply not enough.

We call on the government to commit to an education campaign to raise awareness of the ecological disaster that has occurred as a result of the imbalance caused by exploding seal and sea lion populations in Canada's coastal regions. This report also calls on the federal government to start lobbying in conjunction with its awareness campaign to gain access to international markets and promote pinniped products to help feed the millions of malnourished as part of Canada's foreign aid program.

The committee heard it loud and clear. The time for action is now.

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

Mr. Speaker, Conservative members on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans submitted our supplementary report to this study on foreign ownership and corporate concentration of fishing licences and quota because Canada's fisheries are shared common resources owned by the citizens of Canada.

The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and her department are mandated to manage and conserve Canada's fisheries for the sustained benefit and prosperity of Canadians, not foreign entities. In the committee study, we learned how the government is severely failing to protect Canadian harvesters who have been forced to pay for the government's failure.

Laws and regulations on the east coast are not being enforced, leaving harvesters vulnerable to exploitation that should have and could have been shut down and eliminated years ago. On the west coast, the government has failed to even establish laws and regulations to protect harvesters and fisheries from foreign ownership and corporate concentration. The committee delivered recommendations to the government in 2019, but the government has failed to deliver on those recommendations.

Conservatives hear Canadian harvesters on all coasts and see the threats they are facing. We will continue to fight to ensure that Canadians can access and earn prosperity from the shared resources of Canada's fisheries.

Canada-People's Republic of China Relationship

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. Speaker, as chair of the committee, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth interim report of the Special Committee on the Canada-People's Republic of China Relationship, entitled “The Exposure Of Canadian Investment Funds to Human Rights Violations in the People’s Republic Of China”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

International Trade

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 14th report of the Standing Committee on International Trade, entitled “Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade: Some Canadian Perspectives”.

I want to thank the members of the committee, as well as the committee clerk and the analysts, for their hard work.