Debates of April 18th, 2023

Ethics

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as the Leader of the Opposition knows very well, we have been friends with the family in question for 50 years. We have always worked with the Ethics Commissioner to ensure that all the rules are followed.

If the Leader of the Opposition were really concerned about the cost of living for Canadians, he would be supporting our budget, which is there to give Canadians more money in these difficult times. There is the grocery rebate that we are asking the House to fast-track. There is also direct support for dental care, but the Conservatives voted against that.

We will continue to be there for Canadians.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, because of the galloping inflation the Prime Minister has caused, two-thirds of Canadians say they are cutting back on summer vacations, and one-quarter say they have cancelled their vacations altogether. However, they will still have to pay for someone else's vacation, $160,000 of taxpayer expenses for the Prime Minister to go down to a private villa, the luxurious villa of a super-rich Trudeau Foundation donor for which the nightly cost is as much as $9,000.

How much did the Prime Minister pay for his accommodations at this luxurious villa?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our family has been good friends with this family for about 50 years. As always, we work with the Ethics Commissioner to make sure that all rules are followed.

If the Leader of the Opposition was truly concerned about affordability for Canadians, he would be voting to support our budget, which puts forward concrete measures to help Canadians from coast to coast to coast. He would be fast-tracking the grocery rebate through this House to make sure we could deliver, as quickly as possible, help to 11 million Canadians, and he would not have stood to vote against the dental care supports, which already help 250,000 young people right across this country.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, to be clear, this is a villa that rents out, commercially, for as much as $9,000 per night. If any other Canadian had stayed there, that is what they would have had to pay, and they would have had to pay for their own airfare, not having a private jet.

The Prime Minister wants us to believe that these Trudeau Foundation donors offered him a $9,000-a-night vacation for nothing. We know nothing is free. This is about influence and power for the super-rich.

Why will the Prime Minister not answer? How much did he pay in accommodation per night at this luxurious villa?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I guess the Leader of the Opposition struggles with the concept of friendship.

My father was godfather to one of their kids. Their father was godfather to one of my brothers. This is 50 years of friendship. Of course, we worked with the Ethics Commissioner to make sure all the rules were followed.

If the Leader of the Opposition wants to talk about friendships, let us talk about the fact that he is running to his American billionaire tech giant friends to attack the local news that Canadians are relying on. Shame on him for going after Canadian content, Canadian news and Canadian things that people care about.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the only thing Canadian about the Prime Minister's vacation is the tax dollars forced to pay for it.

The Prime Minister refuses to answer the question. He knows that these powerful interests are buying influence while making the Prime Minister more out of touch with the people on whom he is imposing his inflationary taxes and deficits. This is consistent with having already been found guilty of taking a quarter-of-a-million-dollar vacation from a billionaire who was seeking a government grant from him.

If the Prime Minister has nothing to hide, will he tell us, did he take these $9,000-a-night villas for free?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as the Leader of the Opposition knows well, there are certain security protocols that the RCMP needs to follow for all prime ministers, regardless of political parties or partisan stripes.

Again, if the Leader of the Opposition genuinely cared about affordability for Canadians, he would be voting in favour of our dental benefits, which are helping hundreds of thousands of kids right now and would help millions of Canadians into the future, but he voted against it. He voted against tax cuts for the middle class while we raised them on the wealthiest 1%. Now, he is running to his American billionaire buddies to go after local news for Canadians. That is not what Canadians—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this is from a guy who took a $160,000 taxpayer-funded trip to a private villa, for which there is no security reason he could not pay for his own room. He took a $6,000-a-night vacation in London and two weeks in Costa Rica in the middle of the summer. He went surfing in Tofino on truth and reconciliation day at taxpayers' expense, and he got a guilty verdict for staying at billionaire island.

The Prime Minister is out of touch, and Canadians are out of money. When will he stop with these vacations and start working for the people in this country?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the Conservative leader cared as much about Canadians as he does about partisan attacks, he would actually be stepping up to support our delivery of direct benefits to Canadians. He continues to stand against the child care agreements, down to $10 a day in six provinces and territories across the country, already saving Canadians right across the country hundreds and hundreds of dollars every single month. He would be standing in favour of the dental care supports we are sending to hundreds of thousands of kids, instead of continuing to vote against them. He would be accelerating the delivery of the grocery rebate to help 11 million Canadians—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Beloeil—Chambly.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, friendship really matters. There is an old saying in Quebec that a friend is a friend.

I am not going to ask questions that the Prime Minister is not going to answer. I will assume that he knew that the Green family contributed to the Trudeau Foundation before going on vacation with them. I will move on to the ethical point.

Can he tell the House, Quebeckers and Canadians the cost of the accommodation where he stayed, and whether he personally paid, out of his own pocket, for the stay?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our families have been friends for 50 years. However, when it comes to friendships and for other vacations, we always consult the Office of the Ethics Commissioner to ensure that all the rules are followed.

That is what Canadians expect, and that is what we do every time. It is important to follow the rules, and that is exactly what we did.

Democratic Institutions

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner also should have been told that the Trudeau Foundation had just received a donation.

In another example, the Chinese government wanted to donate $1 million to the University of Montreal—not out of friendship; we are not naive—so it went through Zhang Bin. Rather than protecting Quebec's largest academic institution, the Trudeau Foundation took a $200,000 cut and asked for a statue of Trudeau senior.

Will the Prime Minister admit that it is completely inappropriate for him to make any decisions on the issue of Chinese interference, and will he defer to the House?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times, I have had no direct or indirect involvement with the foundation that bears my father's name for 10 years.

Employment

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadian families and workers have been hard hit by inflation. Do members know who was not hard hit by inflation? It is CEOs. CEOs have made record salaries. In fact, the average CEO in our country makes 241 times more than the average employee. This is outrageous. Canadians are frustrated by it, and they have the right to be.

Will the Prime Minister realize that life is not all sun and beaches and that we need to support our initiative to make sure we can raise the salary of workers and tackle this inequality?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have been, and will continue to remain, committed to making sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes. We know the cost of living continues to be a real concern of Canadians. Even with inflation coming down, with more good news today, we know that the cost of groceries remains too high. That is why we are moving forward with the grocery rebate for 11 million Canadians in a targeted way that will not contribute to inflation, and that is why we are hoping that all members in this House accelerate this grocery rebate, so we can deliver it to Canadians who need it as quickly as possible.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the Liberals are out of touch with the reality of Canadians.

Our idea is simple: If a company like Loblaws can afford to pay its CEO, Galen Weston, 431 times more than its employees, that company can afford to invest more in our society. If that company wants to pay less in taxes, it can always raise workers' wages.

Will the Prime Minister support our initiative to increase workers' wages?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, one of the first things we did was raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% in this country so we could lower them for the middle class. We continue adopting measures that help those who truly need it, ensuring we stopped, for example, sending benefit cheques to millionaire families. We will continue to be there to help people—by providing the grocery rebate, for example—and we are asking everyone in the House to help fast-track the delivery of those benefits. I hope that all parliamentarians will speed up the process to ensure that Canadians who need this help receive it as soon as possible.

Ethics

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians got sky-high heating, grocery, rent and mortgage bills this holiday season while the Prime Minister was sky-high in a private jet to another rich Liberal crony's private estate in the Caribbean on the taxpayer dime, who happens to be a massive Trudeau Foundation donor.

This out-of-touch, trust-fund Prime Minister does not understand or feel the pain that his inflation caused, as 1.5 million Canadians are going to a food bank in a single month. Will the Prime Minister stand up today and apologize for using taxpayers' money to vacation at a Trudeau Foundation donor's estate?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, on the point of poverty, when that party was in power, there were 2.7 million more people who were in poverty than there are today, and that includes 800,000 children.

If a prime minister is to travel, there has to be security, so I would ask members of the party opposite this: Is their position that there should be no security for a prime minister who travels on vacation with his family, or is their position that a prime minister should never take a vacation with his family?

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, he could have paid for his own vacation. I guess the Prime Minister went on vacation so Canadians would not have to. As Canadians pay $2,200 a month for rent, the Prime Minister stays in lavish, $6,000-a-night hotel rooms. One in five Canadians is skipping meals, while the Prime Minister gets to charge $55,000 for groceries. Sixty-two per cent of Canadians have to scale back on vacations, while the Prime Minister charges Canadians to vacation on a huge Trudeau Foundation donor's estate.

I just have a simple question: Which high-priced Liberal consultant gave this stupid advice, or was this another one of the Prime Minister's tone-deaf decisions?

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I just want to ask members to be judicious in the language being used in the chamber on both sides, whether they are asking the question or answering it.

The hon. government House leader.

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member across is well aware, this government has taken a series of measures to help those who are dealing with the global impact of inflation, and the party opposite has voted against every single one of those measures and continues to oppose measures like the important grocery rebate that we put forward.

However, I would say this to members of the party opposite. I get that they do not like the Prime Minister. I get that they have personal animosity and partisan attacks that they want to level against him, but I would ask them again: Do they believe that a prime minister should not be able to travel at Christmas with his family, or do they believe that he should not have security when he does so?

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, all we are saying is that he should pay for his own vacations and not stick taxpayers with the bill.

While Canadians were experiencing the chaos that his mismanagement of the airport system caused, the Prime Minister got to skip the queues and jet down on yet another Caribbean vacation. The Prime Minister never has to pay for the terrible policies that his decisions make. Other Canadians have to pay for the higher cost of the fuel they put in their cars; he does not. He also does not have to pay for his own home heating fuel, and now we are finding out that he does not even pay for his own vacation.

Treasury Board guidelines say that he should reimburse at least the commercial cost. Did he?