Debates of April 21st, 2023

Liberal Party of Canada

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal government, it is clear it is running out of steam. As Canadians struggle with the cost of living crisis, the Prime Minister is struggling to explain his latest $81,000 free stay at a Liberal insider's villa in Jamaica and struggling to justify why he needed a $6000-a-night room in London with a butler.

On this side of the House, though, Conservatives are focused on helping Canadians with the real solutions to fix what the Liberals and the NDP have broken: capping government spending to get inflation under control; addressing the crime wave with jail, not bail, for repeat violent criminals; forcing gatekeepers to get out of the way; and, finally, building new housing and establishing a blue seal national testing standard to fix the doctor and nurse shortage. Of course, we will scrap the terrible carbon tax to lower the price on everything.

Canadians are simply tired of how out of touch the Liberals are and they are getting on board with our Conservative plans to address the issues in the country.

Better is always possible. Conservatives are delivering real ideas.

John O'Connor

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, it is with sadness and deep appreciation that I rise to honour and remember my dear friend Dr. John O'Connor, better known in Dartmouth—Cole Harbour as Dr. Jake.

A former high school quarterback, paddler, skier and runner, one would be hard-pressed to find a sport that Jake did not enjoy. In fact, late in his life, we would still see him jogging by our house each day.

Jake began his medical career as a physician with the Royal Canadian Navy and then served our community as a beloved and distinguished family physician for over four decades. He was instrumental in establishing the Dartmouth General Hospital, where he then served as chief of staff and head of the emergency department.

Jake was a true steward of the Shubenacadie Canal. He fundraised for the Shubenacadie Canal Commission and gave so much of his time ensuring its protection and its enhancement. In turn, the beautiful parks and waterway gave him the sanctuary that he deserved.

My thoughts and gratitude are with his family, especially with his wife Barbara, who kindly shared Dr. Jake with us for all these years.

Labour

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

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is spending $21 billion more on the public service than when he took office. It takes a special kind of incompetence to spend 50% more on the bureaucracy but to give Canadians worse service, with 150,000 workers out on strike, the largest public sector strike in 40 years.

How will the Prime Minister fix the government and the public service that he has broken?

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, our public servants and the Public Service Alliance of Canada provide valuable services that are important to Canadians. The government certainly values their work. We are committed to reaching an agreement with the Public Service Alliance of Canada that is fair to government employees and also reasonable for Canadians. There is a competitive deal on the table, and I am really proud to say that both parties are continuing to negotiate in good faith. Canadians expect both parties to reach an agreement.

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

Mr. Speaker, why does the Prime Minister not stand up and answer? I will tell the House why. It is because the Prime Minister will not stand up for Canadians. He will not stand up for Canadians who are stuck in passport—

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

I just want to make sure that we cannot say whether someone is in the chamber or not in the chamber.

The member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.

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

Mr. Speaker, why does the Prime Minister not stand up to answer the question? He will not stand up because he will not stand up for Canadians. He will not stand up for Canadians who are stuck in passport lines. He will not stand up for Canadians who are stuck in airports. He will not stand up for the 700 men and women in uniform who are without heat and hot water as a result of his failures.

When will the Prime Minister finally stand up for Canadians and fix what he has broken?

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, in spite of your admonition and trying to encourage the member not to do indirectly what he cannot do directly, it is almost symbolic of how the Conservatives treated the public service when they were in government. Public servants remember very well how the Conservatives had abrogated their rights and provided terrible working conditions, and they got no value for it.

The Liberal government believes in public servants. We believe in good-faith negotiations. We are there. We are providing important services to Canadians, as Canadians saw through the pandemic and as they saw through many things, and providing things that would help us deal with the current inflation. This is good news for Canada.

Democratic Institutions

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

Mr. Speaker, only the Liberal government would call the largest public service strike in 40 years “good news” for Canadians: long lines at our passport offices, good news for Canadians; record delays at our airports, good news for Canadians; having hundreds of men and women in uniform at CFB Petawawa without heat and hot water because of Liberal incompetence, good news for Canadians.

The Liberals are not in it for Canadians, and that is exactly why this morning, when we tried to call Alexandre Trudeau from the Trudeau Foundation to committee to talk about how he signed for a $200,000 cheque from Beijing as part of an influence operation to get access to the Prime Minister, which they did in fact get, they sent their Liberals in to block it.

When will the Liberals stand up for Canadians?

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the question of what happened at the committee today, committees, as members know, are masters of their own destiny. The committee chose not to go forward and support what the Conservatives had brought forward. It was unanimous, with the exception of the Conservatives, to not go forward with that, because we have important things to discuss, not to engage in these drive-by smears that the Conservatives like to engage in.

Labour

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister wrote a long letter to public service employees in 2015, promising to bargain with them in good faith, yet he is the only prime minister in 40 years who has failed at the task.

Worse still, he is the only prime minister to have managed to hike the cost of the public service by 50% in the span of eight years, to $21 billion, while still failing to prevent 150,000 employees from going on strike. That takes a special level of incompetence.

How does he plan to explain this monumental failure to everyone affected by this incompetence?

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, we believe that public servants do important work for Canadians, and we agree that they have the right to strike if they are in a legal position to do so.

What is important is to have the opportunity to negotiate in good faith. That is what we have been doing. In contrast, when the Conservatives were in power, they denied public servants the right to strike and forced them to go back to work.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is time for the Prime Minister to stand up before Canadians and answer for his incompetence. We know he does not like to show up for work. He has never had to work. He has never had to stand in line to get a passport nor worry about whether or not he could go on vacation in Jamaica. He has never had to wait in airports because he travels by private jet. He has never had to worry about paying bills at the end of the month because he has never had to balance a budget.

When will the Prime Minister finally work on fixing all the problems he has created in the past eight years?

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, we are in a situation where public servants are in a legal strike position. That is important, but even more important is that the two parties, the employer and labour, are at the bargaining table and they are negotiating in good faith. The negotiations are going well. Unlike the Conservatives, we will allow the negotiations to continue at the table.

Air Transportation

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Air Canada is abandoning Quebec's regions and it is high time the federal government got involved. Even the Alouette aluminum smelter back home, the largest in America, has written to Air Canada because its lax attitude is threatening the company's operations. Air Canada is currently cancelling one out of five flights to Sept‑Îles and not a single flight leaves Baie‑Comeau anymore.

Air Canada abandoned the regions long ago, and the federal government has been condoning it for too long. What will Ottawa do to ensure that the regions have reliable and accessible air service?

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to maintaining a fair level of competition in the airline industry. This industry supports Canada's economy, trade and tourism. It is essential to connecting Canadians and communities in a country as large as ours.

Our government will always do everything in its power to ensure that carriers provide flights to Canadians across the country, especially to remote or northern communities that often rely exclusively on the airline industry for travel and to receive essential goods and services.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, commitments also require action. For competition to exist, there must be more than one player. The federal government needs to guarantee accessible and reliable air transportation in the regions, but it is doing exactly the opposite with this budget. It is raising airport taxes to cover security. In other words, not only is it doing absolutely nothing to ensure the reliability of Air Canada flights, it is putting upward pressure on the price of regional flights. Ottawa is going to charge us more for increasingly unreliable flights.

Rather than laughing from their seats, will the Liberals back down, stop making matters worse and start coming up with solutions for air travel in the regions?

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her important question.

We will continue to ensure that airports across the country have the resources they need and that Canadians have access to an efficient air sector. We remain committed to continuing our conversations with all airlines to come up with better solutions for all Canadians.

Automotive Industry

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today the government announced $13 billion for a new Volkswagen electric vehicle battery plant. It has $13 billion for a private company, but it is dragging its heels for a fair contract for government workers. This deal is about accountability, and it is imperative that we put workers at the heart of any agreement. The government needs to ensure good-paying union jobs, or at least a commitment from Volkswagen that it will be allowed to be a union shop, in writing.

What will the government do to make sure that it is Canadian workers, not Volkswagen CEOs and shareholders, who will benefit from this deal?

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, our government has been very successful in bringing investments to Canada that are creating jobs and growing economic activity across the country.

That Volkswagen has chosen Canada for its very first battery factory in North America is proof of that success, and we are very proud of it. Volkswagen's historic investment of $7 billion is a major vote of confidence in our workers and in our growing battery ecosystem, and it shows that Canada's work to become the world's green supplier of choice is working.

I welcome the member to get on board.

Climate Change

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are fed up. The Liberals keep saying one thing about protecting our planet, but then they do the opposite. Yesterday, we learned that the minister has dropped the ball on the Liberals' own promise for two billion trees, is not protecting vital species and is not on track to meet Canada's emissions targets. Canada cannot wait any longer for the environment minister to actually do his job, instead of cozying up to oil and gas executives.

When is the environment minister going to stop working to protect the profits of Canada's biggest polluters and start protecting our planet?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I am really happy that the member opposite has asked me a question about the work we are doing on the environment, because it allows me the opportunity to share some goods news, which is that our national inventory report on emissions, which we put out last week to the UN, shows that we are bending the curve on emissions. In fact, our emissions are below prepandemic levels. They are below 2005 levels.

We are doing the hard work, and we are getting it done.

The Economy

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the cost of government is driving up the cost of living. After years of inflationary spending by the government, Canadians cannot afford to put food on the table or to heat their homes, yet the Prime Minister was off jet-setting to Jamaica on yet another luxury vacation. This is just another example of a prime minister who cannot or will not try to understand the realities of hard-working Canadians.

When Canadians are choosing between heating and eating, the Prime Minister is choosing between Jamaica and the Bahamas. When will the out-of-touch Prime Minister realize that money does not grow on trees, not that his government is competent enough to plant any?

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to affordability, no Canadian should be forced to make the decision between buying groceries and going to the dentist, but budget 2023 actually takes care of both. We are delivering a grocery benefit, which the member supported, and I thank him for it. It is going to help 11 million Canadians, and over 50% of our seniors are going to benefit. There is also a dental benefit, which has already benefited over 250,000 children. As we expand it through this budget process, millions of Canadians will benefit. That is something that even the Conservatives can smile about.

Carbon Pricing

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are struggling with the rising cost of living, particularly with the impact of the carbon tax, which is making it more expensive for Canadians to heat their homes or simply go to work. Canadian families and businesses cannot afford the tripling of the carbon tax, and now the environment minister is musing about $265 a tonne. Canadians already cannot afford $65 a tonne. It is not an environment plan; it is a tax plan. Enough is enough.

When will the government stop punishing hard-working Canadians and axe its cruel carbon tax?