Debates of Feb. 3rd, 2023

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Madam Speaker, my colleague is proposing a solution that simply shifts the problem somewhere else. It is not a good solution. It is essential to have an international strategy that is established in collaboration with the Province of Quebec.

We are going to continue to work with our provincial counterparts in Quebec, as we have done to support efforts to provide housing for asylum seekers and as we have done to support health care for asylum seekers. I have a meeting this afternoon with Minister Fréchette to discuss some of these issues, and I look forward to continuing our partnership to collaborate as we move toward a long-term solution with a modernized safe third country agreement with the United States.

Health

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, Canadians cannot get their sick children care because our hospitals are struggling with staffing shortages. Nursing vacancies are up by 494% since the Liberals took office. That is almost 29,000 unfilled nursing positions in hospitals and clinics across the country.

In the last election, the Liberals promised to hire thousands of health care workers. Incredulously, they have done the opposite. Why is the Prime Minister letting staffing shortages get worse and failing to protect Canada's universal public health care, which is so important to Canadians?

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

Madam Speaker, we share the deep concerns that Canadians have regarding the significant challenges that our health care system is experiencing, and we recognize that urgent actions are necessary to address the current health care worker crisis. In fact, in the health committee, we have just finished our study on the human resources challenge in health care.

We are continuing to work with the provinces and territories to deliver real results for people through better access to family health teams, including more doctors and more nurses where there are not enough; better access to digital health information; better mental health care; and help to age with dignity. These are things Canadians need. We will always be here to support and stand up for our public universal health care system.

Firearms

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Madam Speaker, every community deserves to feel safe, and that is what Bill C-21 was originally intended to do: end handgun violence. Instead, the Liberals introduced amendments at the eleventh hour that would make it harder for indigenous people, farmers and hunters to support their families and put food on their tables. Today, the Liberals finally dropped the amendments that the Assembly of First Nations said would go against its treaty rights.

Will the minister apologize for the mess he made with these amendments?

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety]

Madam Speaker, we are committed, and we promised Canadians that we would take action on gun violence. On the particular amendments the hon. member has referred to in Bill C-21, an important bill that would deal with gun violence, I will acknowledge there was not enough consultation. There were not enough conversations with indigenous peoples across the country. That is why we are committed in our committee to listening to the concerns and to making sure that our legislation is one that will protect public safety and keep Canadians safe. I look forward to working with the hon. member.

Public Services and Procurement

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Madam Speaker, after eight years and over $100 million spent, the government is still not admitting its close relationship with Dominic Barton and McKinsey, but close friends have dinner at each other's homes. Close friends embrace each other warmly when they greet each other.

Canadians know how close the Liberal government and McKinsey & Company are, so why does the government not just admit it and tell us how much it has spent on McKinsey & Company?

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Madam Speaker, on Tuesday at the government operations committee, OGGO, this member and her colleagues came to try to prove two things. One was that Dominic Barton was a close personal friend of the Prime Minister. Number two was that Dominic Barton was involved in McKinsey getting contracts from the government. They failed abjectly.

Dominic Barton said he was not even a friend of the Prime Minister, he does not even have his phone number, he never socialized with him and he was never involved in McKinsey securing contracts from the government. That was failure by the Conservatives on Tuesday.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Madam Speaker, after eight years, we know that the Liberal government has spent at least $100 million on contracts with McKinsey, but it is still trying to hide how much it has spent on the total amount for contracts. Canadians are demanding answers. Therefore, on Monday, we are going to ask at committee, again, how much it has actually spent on contracts with McKinsey & Company. However, before then, I am going to give Liberals another chance today.

How much have they spent on contracts with McKinsey & Company and Dominic Barton?

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Madam Speaker, as the hon. member heard, Dominic Barton has been gone from McKinsey for years and is no longer a shareholder at McKinsey, so Dominic Barton's name should not be part of that.

Public Services and Procurement Canada is responsible for $104 million of contracts with McKinsey since 2015. There are other smaller contracts that have been given by other departments.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, the government is very unsure and we get new numbers often. I expect that we will get a new higher number on Monday. However, we will be unsure if we can take the government at its word, because it continues to shovel money out the door to its insider friends at McKinsey. Public servants said that they have been treated to some colourful presentations, but not much else. After eight years of the Liberals, they are more than happy to keep shovelling that money, with no value to Canadians.

The question still stands, and we did not get the final and full answer: Can the parliamentary secretary tell us how much money they gave their insider friends at McKinsey?

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Madam Speaker, the answer to that question is generally zero because there are no insider friends who got any money.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, the question is this: Who is lying? The Prime Minister said that Dominic Barton was his friend. Dominic Barton said that he is not the Prime Minister's friend, and I do not blame him. I would not admit that was a friendship either.

McKinsey is a company that helped track down and punish Saudi dissidents, people who were critical of their government there. McKinsey is a company that helped supercharge the opioid crisis and that paid bonuses to pharmacists who were responsible for overdose deaths.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Madam Speaker, I am proud to be a friend of that hon. member because we can, across party lines, still agree on a lot of things, and I think that is important here. A lot of times we yell and scream at each other, and it is important to say that people are able to work together despite their differences.

With respect to the global question of that, we do need to look at our integrity regime to see if companies responsible for bad acts abroad should not be eligible for government contracts. That is one of the things that OGGO is looking at, and I look forward to working with the hon. member on that question.

Health

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

Madam Speaker, my thoughts this morning are with the 300 workers at Medicago who find themselves unemployed today because the Quebec City-based pharmaceutical company is closing its doors.

Two years ago, the Liberal government invested $173 million of taxpayers' money in this company to develop a vaccine. The vaccine was produced, but it was not recognized by the WHO, and it never will be because cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris was one of Medicago's shareholders. The WHO never recognizes the work of cigarette manufacturers in this area.

How could the government be so negligent?

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

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

We are currently working to save the jobs, the technology and the intellectual property. That is the priority today. We are in problem-solving mode.

Yesterday, I was in contact with the mayor of Quebec City and our colleagues in Quebec City. I was even in contact with the president of Mitsubishi in Japan. One thing is certain: We are in problem-solving mode to preserve the jobs, because the priority today is the people in Quebec City for whom this issue is top of mind. We want to work with them, and we will be in problem-solving mode for the next few weeks.

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

Madam Speaker, if the government had been in “double-checking mode”, it would not have to be in problem-solving mode today.

In 2003, the WHO determined that companies partly owned by tobacco makers should not receive subsidies or recognition. This is exactly the situation Medicago is in. This agreement dates back to 2003 and was signed by the Government of Canada.

On December 23, the Minister of Health told the newspaper Le Soleil that he was surprised by the WHO's decision. That makes no sense, because the agreement dates back to 2003. There was no way this was going to be approved.

Medicago was awarded $173 million. How much of that money went into the pockets of the Philip Morris company? Can we have any assurance that this money—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

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

Madam Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague, for whom I have enormous respect, as he knows, that we were in “prevention mode” at the time. It is important to remember that, at the time, there was not enough scientific data to know what kind of vaccine was needed to fight COVID-19.

Canada was one of the few countries in the world to invest in the various families of vaccines to ensure the health and safety of Canadians. As I said this morning, this is not the time for recrimination; it is the time for problem solving. That is exactly what we are doing.

Last night I talked to CEOs from across the country until almost midnight to try to find a solution and save the jobs, technology and intellectual property.

Employment Insurance

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Madam Speaker, employment insurance delays are longer than ever. Currently, one-quarter of EI applications take extra time to process, and more than half of those take over 50 days. That means people with no income are waiting 50 days.

Officials even advised people without jobs to use food banks or get their partner to support them. The kicker is that, while all this is going on, the minister has been cutting her employees' hours of work.

When will she do something about this fiasco?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.

When Canadians lose their jobs and when Quebeckers lose their jobs, we know that they rely on the EI system to be that first point of contact for them. We know that some people have been experiencing delays during this time. We have been working very carefully with those claimants to ensure that they get their payments.

With regard to the staffing issues, the minister said quite clearly yesterday that we are addressing this. We want to make sure that first point of contact for Quebeckers or for any Canadian calling an EI call centre is that they get the service they need. We have committed to working with Service Canada to ensure that full employment is in place.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Madam Speaker, what people are going through with EI right now is a fiasco. It is just like the passport crisis, only this time, the federal government's victims are not waiting to travel, they are waiting to buy groceries. Service Canada is more like “no-service Canada”.

This government is just lurching from one crisis to the next. It is over here putting out one fire while two more are breaking out over there.

When will the minister make sure Service Canada can actually provide services to people?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families]

Madam Speaker, the EI program is currently coming out of its annual winter peak period, and the department fully mobilized its workforce to get clients paid as quickly as possible. In 2022-23, the average wait time was 24 days for Canadians across the country, and 76% of EI payments were made within 28 days, which was within the standard.

We know people are waiting. We know it is a sensitive issue, which is why we are ensuring that claimants who are experiencing delays are getting the service they need.

Justice

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Madam Speaker, after eight years of the current Prime Minister, the bail system is broken. The Liberals implemented soft-on-crime catch-and-release bail policies that put violent and repeat offenders out on the streets and endanger public safety. Everyone but the Liberals seems to recognize what a disaster this has been. All 13 premiers, police associations and victims are calling on the Liberals to fix their broken bail system.

Why will they not?

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

Madam Speaker, Canadians deserve to be safe and to feel safe. We all have a role to play in protecting communities.

The laws on bail are very clear. If the accused poses a serious risk to public safety, they should be denied bail. At our direction, federal officials have been working for months with their provincial and territorial counterparts to develop ways to keep Canadians safe. We need lasting solutions that are tough when they need to be tough, but also that address underlying issues like mental health, addiction and homelessness.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Prime Minister, the Liberals' catch-and-release bail policies have cost lives, including a young OPP constable who was murdered last December in the line of duty by a violent career criminal who was out on bail. Notwithstanding that he was facing serious charges such as assaulting a police officer, now a police officer is dead.

How many more lives need to be lost before the Liberals finally wake up and fix their broken bail system?