Debates of April 25th, 2023

Foreign Affairs

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to table a very important document for the House, and for you.

Pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), and in accordance with the requirements set out in the current policy on the tabling of treaties in Parliament, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the treaty entitled “Agreement between the Government of Canada on the one hand and the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark together with the Government of Greenland on the other hand on the maritime and land boundaries in the area between Greenland and Canada”, done at Ottawa on June 14, 2022. If I may, I would like to point out that this essentially marks the official end to the whisky war between Canada and Denmark.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), and consistent with the current policy on the tabling of treaties in Parliament, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the treaty entitled “Amendments to the 1996 Protocol to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972”, adopted at London on October 7, 2022.

Transport, Infrastructure and Communities

[Peter Schiefke, Liberal, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, entitled “Reducing the Impact of Commercial Shipping on Shoreline Erosion in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Corridor”.

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

Justice

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition signed by Canadians who are calling on the government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override the Supreme Court of Canada's Bissonnette decision, which struck down a law passed by the previous Harper Conservative government that gave judges the discretion to apply consecutive parole ineligibility periods to mass murderers. As a result of the Liberal government's inaction, the sentences of some of the worst killers in Canada have been significantly reduced. The petitioners are calling for action.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I too rise on behalf of Canadians with a petition regarding the same case my hon. colleague mentioned, the Bissonnette decision of the Supreme Court.

Canadians believe this is an unjust decision. It puts the interests of some of Canada's worst criminals ahead of the rights of their victims. Reoccurring parole hearings can traumatize the families of victims of mass murderers over and over again.

The government has tools at its disposal to respond, including invoking the notwithstanding clause. Therefore, the undersigned in this particular petition urge the Minister of Justice to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override this decision.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Speaker, similarly, I rise to present a petition like the one my colleagues spoke about. It involves invoking the notwithstanding clause to override the Bissonnette decision. This petition was signed by Canadians who are interested in this.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to table this petition on behalf of Denman Islanders from my riding. They are calling on the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to persevere in her restorative aims and use all tools in the sustainable fisheries framework to postpone licensing any further shellfish aquaculture facilities located in or near herring spawning and rearing habitat until an ecosystem-based assessment is completed, especially in Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel. They ask that the industry establish a record of effectively managing its own gear and equipment, pay for the cleanup costs of the tons of plastic debris it produces annually and develop, with first nations, a co-management plan for Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel.

Post-Secondary Education

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I stand today to table a petition on behalf of the graduate students of Canada, who are calling upon the Government of Canada to increase the number and monetary amounts of tri-council scholarships to better support graduate students. The value and number of scholarships offered by the tri-council has not changed in two decades. Alongside this, the cost of living in Canada is at historic highs, and graduate students and precarious researchers, who are our brain trust, are living at or below the poverty line.

Corporate Social Responsibility

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition on behalf of some of my constituents, including Ms. Brouillette and Ms. Nguyen, two active citizens who are involved in Development and Peace. They came to deliver this petition to me in person.

The petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to adopt legislation on due diligence for human and environmental rights that would require companies to prevent any negative impact on human and environmental rights throughout their global operations and supply chains, that would set out significant consequences for companies that fail to exercise adequate due diligence and report on it, and that would establish a statutory right for persons harmed to seek justice in Canadian courts.

Oil and Gas Industry

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to present a number of petitions to the House today.

The first petition is on an issue that is important in my riding. It is the issue of foreign oil being imported into Canada. The petitioners note that Alberta in particular and Canada in general have the potential to produce more of the world's most environmentally friendly oil using high labour standards that are higher than those in other countries, yet we have a continuing situation in which we are importing oil and gas products from other countries. The petitioners therefore propose that Canada work to eliminate imports of foreign oil and gas into Canada, create more jobs and build a better economy for workers who are part of Canada's energy sector.

Human Rights

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is in support of Bill C-257, which is a private member's bill that I have put before the House. It responds to the problem of political discrimination, which is about people being discriminated against on the basis of their political views. The petitioners note that Canadians have a right to be protected against discrimination on the basis of their views and that it is fundamental to Canadian democracy when people are free to express their political views without fear of discrimination. Therefore, they ask the House to support Bill C-257 and defend the right of Canadians to peacefully express their political opinions.

The next petition I am presenting deals with the ongoing arbitrary and illegal detention of Huseyin Celil. Mr. Celil is a Canadian citizen who has been detained in China, sadly, for substantially more time than Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor were detained. They were released after an unjust detention of 1,000 days. Mr. Celil, at the time of the writing of this petition, had already been in detention for more than 5,000 days. He is a Canadian citizen, an activist for Uyghur human rights and a father of four sons, the youngest of whom has sadly never met his father because Mr. Celil's wife was pregnant at the time of his detention.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to take the following actions to seek to address the situation: demand that the Chinese government recognize Mr. Celil's Canadian citizenship and provide him with consular and legal services in accordance with international law; formally state that the release of Huseyin Celil from Chinese detainment and his return to Canada are a priority of the Canadian government of equal concern as the unjust detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor; appoint a special envoy to work on securing Mr. Celil's release; and seek the assistance of the Biden administration and other allies around the world in obtaining Mr. Celil's release, as was done in the case of the arbitrary detention of the two Michaels.

Hong Kong

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling deals with the situation in Hong Kong and the concerns about free and fair trials, judicial independence and a lack of rule of law in Hong Kong.

Those who have been involved in the democracy movement in China have been subject to politicized prosecution aimed at suppressing their legitimate democracy activity. Canada's immigration and refugee law seeks to render inadmissible Canadians who have been involved in criminal activity abroad. The petitioners note the need for exceptional treatment of those who are otherwise law-abiding and freedom-loving citizens but have been subject to arbitrary criminalization of their democracy activity.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to recognize the politicization of the judiciary in Hong Kong and its impacts on the legitimacy and validity of criminal convictions; to affirm its commitment to render all national security law charges and convictions irrelevant and invalid in relation to inadmissibility rules in Canadian immigration; to create a mechanism by which Hong Kong people with pro-democracy movement-related convictions may provide an explanation for such convictions and on the basis of which government officials could grant exemptions to Hong Kong people who would otherwise be deemed inadmissible on the basis of criminality; and to work with other like-minded democracies to waive criminal inadmissibility of Hong Kong people convicted for political purposes who do not otherwise have criminal records.

Medical Assistance in Dying

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, next I am tabling a petition that raises significant concerns about proposals to legalize euthanasia for children, that is, to allow the killing of children by our medical system. The petitioners highlight in particular the comments of Louis Roy of the Collège des médecins du Québec, who recommended euthanasia for babies, that children and infants be killed.

The petitioners find the proposal for legalizing infanticide in Canada from a representative of that college to be deeply disturbing. They call on the government and the House to block any attempts to legalize the killing of children in Canada.

Charitable Organizations

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, next I am tabling a petition from citizens concerned about the government's proposals to politicize charitable status determination in Canada. They note a proposal in the Liberal Party election platform to deny charitable status to organizations with convictions that are different from those of the Liberal Party as it relates to the issue of abortion.

The petitioners note that the effect of this would be to deny charitable status to hospitals, houses of worship, schools, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations that do not share the government's views on those issues. The government has previously used a values test to discriminate against worthy applicants to the Canada summer jobs program. This would be a kind of recapitulation of that proposal.

The petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to protect and preserve the application of charitable status on a politically and ideologically neutral basis, without discrimination on the basis of political positions or religious values, and to affirm the right of all Canadians to freedom of expression.

Military Chaplaincy

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the final petition I am tabling is in some respects similar to the last one. It deals with discriminatory proposals made by the Minister of National Defence advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination. Its final report, released in early 2022, effectively called for the exclusion from military chaplaincy of clergy that are part of religious traditions that have a different view on certain issues from that of the Government of Canada.

The petitioners note that discrimination on the basis of religion is wrong and a violation of the charter. They therefore call on the government and the House to reject the recommendations on chaplaincy in the Canadian Armed Forces final report of the Minister of National Defence advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination, and to affirm the right of all Canadians, including Canadian Armed Forces chaplains, to freedom of religion.

Questions on the Order Paper

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

Mr. Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 1304, 1305, 1308, 1310, 1313 and 1315.

Question No.1304—

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

With regard to the government's Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program: (a) what are the processing times of applications, overall and broken down by sector; (b) as of March 7, 2023, how many applications were still awaiting a decision; (c) of the applications in (b), how many were received by the government more than (i) 30 days, (ii) 60 days, (iii) 90 days, (iv) six months, (v) one year, ago; (d) for each application that has been pending for more than 90 days, what are the details, including the (i) name of the applicant, (ii) date the application was received, (iii) reason for the delay, (iv) date by when a decision will be made; (e) what are the details of all funding delivered to date under the program, including, for each recipient, the (i) name, (ii) amount, (iii) location, (iv) project description or the purpose of funding; and (f) what is the total amount of funding provided to date?

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), the average processing timeline for applications received through a call for proposal is 22 weeks. However, this can vary quite significantly based on the volume of applications received and the complexity of the program. Applications received through the sectoral workforce solutions program are processed at the same time and are not broken down by sector.

With regard to part (b), as of March 7, 2023, all applications that were received through the sectoral workforce solutions program’s 2022 open call for proposals are still pending a decision.

With regard to part (c), all applications were received one year ago.

With regard to part (d), given that the process for the sectoral workforce solutions program’s 2022 open call for proposals is still ongoing and no funding decisions have been made, the department cannot disclose information on the applications that were received. On February 6, 2023, the department sent an email to all applicants that applied under the 2022 open call for proposals to inform organizations of the delay and indicate that they will be informed as soon as funding decisions have been made.

With regard to part (e), Employment and Social Development Canada, or ESDC, shares information related to successful applicants in a funding process, which is like a call for proposals, on the proactive disclosure website, found at https://search.open.canada.ca/grants/. ESDC cannot share information on unsuccessful funding applicants with third parties, including members of Parliament.

With regard to part (f), to date, $410 million has been invested in 21 projects through the sectoral workforce solutions program to help key sectors of the economy implement solutions that address their current and emerging workforce needs.

Question No.1305—

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

With regard to the monitoring of social media accounts of opposition members of Parliament by officials at Health Canada: (a) how many bureaucrats are currently assigned, as part of their job, to monitor these social media accounts; (b) which member's accounts do they monitor; and (c) what are the details of how they were assigned to monitor such accounts, including who issued the directive or assignment to monitor the accounts and on what date?

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

Mr. Speaker, while the communications and public affairs branch, or CPAB, does monitor social media for health-related issues and topics, the monitoring of specific social media accounts of opposition members of Parliament by officials is not part of the mandate of CPAB. As a result, CPAB concluded that producing a comprehensive response to this question would not be possible.

Question No.1308—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

With regard to border crossings (land, bridge and tunnel) between Canada and the United States and the operations and facilities of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA): (a) what is the cost of overall operations of the CBSA at each border crossing location; (b) what are the operating and maintenance costs for buildings and facilities used by the CBSA at each border crossing; (c) how is the cost to (i) operate CBSA services, (ii) maintain buildings that are used by the CBSA, at each border crossing location paid for and by whom; (d) are there any agreements or other mechanisms where (i) border crossings provide financial support or services free of charge to CBSA or other government entities, (ii) CBSA or other government entities provide financial support or services free of charge to the border crossing, including buildings and facilities, and, if so, what are the details of each instance; and (e) for the new Gordie Howe Bridge crossing, how are the services and buildings and facilities maintenance for the CBSA going to be paid for and by what mechanism, since it is the only public-private partnership border crossing owned by the federal government?

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

Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, is unable to respond to this question, as the agency’s financial systems do not track costs by individual border crossing.

With regard to part (b), the CBSA does not pay for the maintenance or operating costs for the ports of entry that are deemed legislated facilities provided by the owner of those facility under section 6 of the Customs Act. At these ports of entry, the CBSA is only responsible for providing border service officers and the CBSA’s operating equipment. The agency’s financial systems do not track costs by individual border crossing.

With regard to parts (c)(i) and (ii), the agency’s financial systems do not track costs by individual border crossing.

With regard to part (d)(i), the CBSA does not pay for the maintenance or operating costs for the ports of entry that are deemed legislated facilities, which are provided free of charge by the owner of those facility under the requirements set out in section 6 of the Customs Act and in the Health of Animals Act, Plant Protection Act, Quarantine Act and the immigration and refugee protection regulations. With regard to part (d)(ii), there is an arrangement between The Federal Bridge Corporation Limited and the CBSA for the provision of facilities at the Cornwall port of entry.

With regard to part (e), under section 6 of the Customs Act, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, or WBDA, is the responsible entity, which is required to provide the buildings and facilities for the CBSA. Questions on the facility and funding should be directed to the WDBA.

Question No.1310—

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

With regard to what will happen following the coming into force of Bill C-208, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (transfer of small business or family farm or fishing corporation), from the 43rd Parliament: (a) when will the government set a coming into force date for the new act; (b) as of what date will transactions be affected by this act; (c) what directives is the government issuing for accountants and other individuals affected by the new act regarding the (i) time when this act must start being applied, (ii) way in which to interpret this act; and (d) how will the act be applied to transactions that begin before the coming into force date, but are not concluded until after the coming into force date?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-208 has been in force since June 29, 2021. The Canada Revenue Agency published guidance on this matter on April 20, 2022.

Budget 2023 announced proposals to strengthen the intergenerational business transfer framework. Information about the timing and details of the proposed measures is publicly available in the budget’s supplementary information on tax measures in the 2023 budget plan, under the section “Strengthening the Intergenerational Business Transfer Framework”. These proposed measures would apply to transactions that occur after December 31, 2023. Transactions that occur after Bill C-208 came into effect and before 2024 would continue to be subject to the rules introduced by Bill C-208.

Question No.1313—

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

With regard to the Prime Minister's comments on February 23, 2023, that "there are so many inaccuracies in those leaks" in reference to recent media stories about election interference: (a) what specific information reported in the stories is inaccurate; and (b) what proof, if any, does the Prime Minister have that the information cited in (a) is inaccurate?