Debates of April 26th, 2023

Housing

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, when Canadians are forced to live in tents, or spend $2,500 to rent a single room in a townhouse or are stuck in their parents' basement until they are 35 years old, he better believe I am going to fight for more housing. It would be nice if he fought for someone other than himself and his gatekeeper friends.

The Prime Minister's solution is to build up these municipal gatekeeping bureaucracies with federal, deficit-financed tax dollars, which means it will be even slower to get anything built. Why does he not link the number of dollars that cities get for infrastructure to the number of houses they allow to get built?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we remember well that member's approach on fighting municipalities, fighting with experts, fighting with Elections Canada, fighting with anyone he could, and did that deliver for Canadians? Absolutely not. Right now, he is fighting against local news for Canadians. What does he have against local Canadians, against local municipalities?

The reality is, we will continue to be there to work collaboratively to build a stronger future and to invest in the kinds of things that we are delivering for Canadians while he continues to propose cuts and fights that lead nowhere.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, actually, I delivered housing costs that were half of what they are right now. Those are the results. Sometimes we have to fight for the people, the common people, and rely on the common sense of the common people to get things done.

Right now, we have the biggest housing bubble in the G7 even though we have the most land per capita to build on. The solution is to incentivize municipalities to speed up permits so that we can build more homes.

Why does the Prime Minister not link the number of dollars cities get for infrastructure to the number of houses they allow to get built, require every federally funded transit station to have housing around it and sell off federal buildings to build homes that people can afford?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, he wants to pretend he fights for ordinary Canadians, but he is not fighting for St. Thomas right now. He is not fighting for communities that need investment, that need opportunities to build those communities, to be there to support schools and after-school programs and hospitals and businesses in the kind of ecosystem it gets when one has a big investment like Volkswagen landing once again, after the Ford plant left under his leadership.

We are moving forward on delivering for Canadians. One of the great ways to make sure Canadians can better afford their homes is to have good-paying jobs, which again, with their attacks on unions and the middle class, they are not going to deliver.

Official Languages

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, our official language minority communities are facing multiple challenges. As a proud former provincial minister of Acadian affairs and francophonie, I am well aware of what community organizations need in order to address labour shortages, educational requirements, and so much more.

I was pleased to attend this morning's announcement regarding the new action plan for official languages, a road map for the next five years.

Could the Prime Minister tell the House about some of the measures included in the new action plan for official languages?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Halifax West for her question and for her hard work.

This morning we unveiled our new action plan for official languages. It includes historic investments to protect and promote our official languages. With this plan, we are investing over $4 billion in targeted areas such as francophone immigration, the educational continuum and the shortage of bilingual workers.

Unlike the Conservative Party, which wants to cut access to local and French-language news, our government is once again standing up for linguistic minorities across the country.

Ethics

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, at a time when a family has to pay $2,500 just for one room in a house, when 1.5 million Canadians are accessing food banks and others are asking for medical assistance in dying because they are too poor to go on living after eight years of this Prime Minister, the Prime Minister is going to New York again, after billing taxpayers $6,000 for a hotel room in London.

Will the Prime Minister show some respect for the people who pay his bills and announce today that he will repay the $6,000 for the hotel room in London?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, while the leader of the Conservative Party continues to attack me, I will continue to attack the challenges Canadians are facing.

That is why, in the 2023 budget, we are announcing a grocery rebate to help 11 million Canadians with the cost of groceries. We are providing dental care to low- and modest-income Canadians who do not have insurance, because we know that it improves their quality of life and reduces the pressure on household budgets. We will continue to be there while the Conservatives vote against these measures.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, after sending 1.5 million people to the food bank, forcing families to spend 2,500 bucks to rent a single room in a townhouse and causing the highest food price inflation in a generation, he is off to New York to celebrate again. This is the same Prime Minister who spent $6,000 on a single hotel room for a single night at taxpayers' expense.

Will he show a little decency and announce today he will pay that $6,000 back to Canadian taxpayers?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, while the member opposite continues to make misleading, unfounded personal attacks on me, I will continue to focus on delivering for Canadians, things he does not want to talk about like the dental care benefits they voted against that are delivering dental services to 250,000 kids so far and they keep going. They do not want to talk about the $10-a-day child care that is being delivered in six out of 13 provinces and territories right now, with child care fees cut in half, saving thousands of dollars for average families across the country. These are the things we are going to continue to invest in.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, he has already admitted it was him who stayed in that $6,000-a-night room. He tried to cover it up for months, but he got caught, and now Canadians know that while they are eating at food banks, while they are skipping meals and while they are crammed into one bedroom in a townhouse he is spending $6,000 of their tax dollars per night on a single room.

I will make him a deal. I will never raise this issue again if he stands today and announces he will pay the money back. Will he do that for Canadians?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to see the lengths to which the Conservative leader will go to not talk about our budget and to not talk about child care, which he stands against and which has saved hundreds of dollars a month for Canadians across this country. He will not talk about it because he is ideologically opposed to child care, or at least part of his team is. He will not talk about dental care being delivered for low-income Canadian kids. These are things he voted against as well. They are things that are helping Canadians. They are things he will continue to stand against, and he will look for anything he can do to talk about anything other than things that would help Canadians.

Pensions

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

Months after an election where pensions were never mentioned, Stephen Harper, in 2012, shocked the world when he announced at the World Economic Forum—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Order. I just want to point out that just because there are no questions left today for certain people, that does not mean there is no carry-over to the next one. Scrambling them a bit might be the next process we have to go to.

The hon. member for Mississauga—Lakeshore from the top, please.

[Charles Sousa, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is right. Stephen Harper shocked the world at the World Economic Forum, saying that major transformations were coming to seniors pensions. This meant raising the age of retirement from 65 to 67 and forcing vulnerable Canadians to work longer before having access to their hard-earned pensions.

Can the Prime Minister please update the House on what our government has done to fix that reckless mistake?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Mississauga—Lakeshore for his tireless advocacy and his hard work.

Indeed, one of the very first things we did when we took office was cancel the Harper Conservatives' plan for seniors and bring the age of retirement back down to 65. Instead of cutting OAS and GIS payments as they did, we raised them, and that led to us having the lowest poverty rates among seniors in the world. Now, we are trying to get the new grocery rebate legislation through the Senate to make life more affordable for seniors. We hope the partisanship of today's Conservative Party in the Senate will not be an obstacle to helping Canadians retire with financial security.

Labour

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this is getting ridiculous.

As the cost of groceries increases, the price of housing spikes and we are in a period of unprecedented inflation, the Prime Minister swears he understands how difficult this is.

The facts show that he does not understand anything. It is just bad theatre.

Will this Prime Minister finally take the situation seriously, cancel his trip and do whatever it takes to offer a fair contract to the workers?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we have put an offer on the table via our negotiators that presents a level of compensation that is equal to what a third-party expert had recommended as a good solution. It is a good starting point for the negotiations in the coming days. The work will continue.

In the meantime, I should point out that the first thing we did was lower taxes for the middle class and increase them for the wealthiest 1%. The NDP sided with the Conservatives in voting against that measure.

Youth

[Alain Rayes, Independent, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Speaker, everyone knows how valuable and important the Canada summer jobs program for students is in supporting our municipalities, community organizations, day camps, small businesses and farms.

It is especially vital for our young people as it helps them prepare for the labour market by giving them opportunities in their field. That is particularly true given the current labour shortage and inflationary crisis.

The Prime Minister and the Liberal government boast about wanting to support young people. I would ask them to explain why the budgets and subsidies for student jobs were cut by one-third this year.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, during the pandemic, we increased the funding for the Canada summer program to help young people.

Now that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, we are bringing the funding back to prepandemic levels, with a bit of an increase. We invested even more in different programs to help young people.

Young people no longer have to pay interest on their federal student loans. We made bigger investments in programs and bursaries for them. We will continue to be there for young people.

I thank my colleague for his very good question.

Applicability of Standing Order 18 to Statement by Member—Speaker's Ruling

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I am now prepared to rule on the point of order raised on April 25 by the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan concerning the statement made the same day about the monarchy.

Standing Order 18 states the following, and I quote:

No member shall speak disrespectfully of the Sovereign, nor of any of the royal family, nor of the Governor General or the person administering the Government of Canada.

As stated at page 431 of House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, during Statements by Members, provided that guidelines are respected, I quote, “Members who are not Ministers can address the House for up to one minute on virtually any matter of international, national, provincial or local concern.”

Statements must therefore respect these guidelines. They may touch on the institution of the monarchy itself or its institutional role in our system of government. As has always been the case, they cannot, however, contain disrespectful remarks directed at the sovereign.

After having considered the matter, the Chair finds that the statement respected the guidelines for Statements by Members and Standing Order 18.

I thank the members for their attention.

[Jake Stewart, Conservative, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to table with the House page 3 of the Parliamentary Budget Officer's latest carbon tax report, which shows the carbon tax will cost Canadians more than they get back in rebates. Because we know this is factual, we know we will have unanimous support.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

All those opposed to the hon. member's moving the motion will please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.