Debates of April 26th, 2023

Carbon Pricing

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I want to remind the hon. members to maybe take direction from their whips. They should look at them and listen to them.

The Right Hon. Prime Minister, from the top.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party of Canada continues to refuse to understand that we cannot have a plan for the future of the economy if we do not have a plan to fight climate change. They continue to mislead Canadians, to confuse the issue and to harm workers across this country.

Volkswagen is choosing to invest in Canada. Rio Tinto is making investments in Canada. ArcelorMittal is investing in Hamilton. If these things are happening, they are happening because of the leadership that Canadians, the Canadian government and Canadian workers are showing in tackling climate change and building a stronger future.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, he does not have an environmental plan; he has a tax plan. Since he brought in the carbon tax, he has not succeeded in reaching a single emissions reduction target. That is because taxing people for something they have no choice but to use does not change the environment. Canadians have to drive and heat their homes. Instead of putting the burden on himself, the Prime Minister chooses to put it on the working class, 60% of whom will pay more in taxes than they get back in rebates.

Why does he not cancel his hypocritical, high-flying lifestyle and the tax at the same time?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition has a significant task ahead of him in convincing Canadians over the next couple of years that it would be better for them if we did not fight climate change, if we did not show leadership on the environment and if we did not make investments in cleaner technologies. He will have a significant task convincing people in St. Thomas that it is a waste of money to be investing in the Volkswagen plant.

These are the kinds of things he is going to have to try to convince Canadians of. All the fancy rhetoric he tries to use will not fool Canadians. The reality is that Canadians know the environment and the economy go together.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the big task I have ahead is cleaning up the mess that he will leave me.

He wants me to hold a big parade for him because he has made another promise. This is the guy who said that he spent billions of dollars on the Infrastructure Bank but has not completed a single project. He said it would only cost $7 billion to build the Trans Mountain pipeline. It is up to $30 billion, and it is not even built. He said his $89 billion of spending on housing affordability would make things affordable, but house prices have doubled.

Why is it that the more he spends, the worse things get?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we know the Conservative instinct is to cut. That is what the Conservative Party has always done. That is what the Conservative government did in years past. It cut veterans services, initiatives that supported the fight against child poverty, housing programs, and pensions. It cut everything it could because that would somehow lead to growth. Well, it did not.

What has led to growth is investing in the middle class, and the people working hard to join it, and cutting taxes for the middle class while raising them for the wealthiest 1%, which the Conservatives voted against. Most recently, when we were delivering dental care for low-income Canadian kids, the Conservatives voted against it.

We will continue to be there for Canadians.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister continues to be in the way of Canadians. He wants to bring in a 41¢-a-litre tax on Nova Scotians, which he claims will help the environment. Meanwhile, a project that would have actually helped the environment, the sustainable marine project, would have used tidal energy, the waves of the ocean, to generate electricity. That project has been cancelled because the Prime Minister's federal bureaucracy was too slow and incompetent to approve it. Now the company is getting up and leaving.

How does this sound? Why does the Prime Minister not get out of the way of Nova Scotians, let them generate clean electricity, and cancel the carbon tax that is on their backs?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have worked with provinces, initiatives and proponents across the country on historic investments in clean energy to transition toward decarbonizing our traditional energy sources. This is what we will continue to do to ensure that Canada is ready for the opportunities and investments that are coming in to create great jobs for workers right across the country.

That is what our budget is focused on, creating those great jobs for the middle class in critical minerals, in manufacturing, in CCUS, in energy, in a range of things that are going to position Canada as that supplier of energy and resources the net-zero world needs.

Democratic Institutions

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

Mr. Speaker, I personally have nothing against Mr. Johnston. If I remember correctly, he was the debates commissioner when one of his moderators called Quebeckers racist, and he refused to apologize. We all remember that fondly.

He still has ties to the Trudeau Foundation. The Trudeau Foundation took a cut from a donation made to the University of Montreal. The Prime Minister's brother signed a contract on behalf of the Trudeau Foundation that was irregular, to say the least. Thirty people at the Trudeau Foundation have resigned.

I do not believe that the Prime Minister knew nothing. Maybe he is a good actor, but does he realize that he does not have the independence to call an inquiry—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I know everyone in the House must be surprised and shocked. Apparently the Bloc Québécois does not like David Johnston.

David Johnston has demonstrated his integrity, his dedication to Canada over not just a few years, but decades of service to Canadians, to our institutions. He is exactly the right person to take an independent look at all the infrastructure and all the programs that we have in place to combat foreign interference, and to reassure Canadians that everything is being done.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate, but he has close ties to the Trudeau Foundation.

The Trudeau Foundation is an incubator for Liberal circles, often unbeknownst to those who once supported it but now regret it, including some scholarship recipients.

The government and the Prime Minister are tolerating interference in our institutions and the intimidation of some Canadian citizens of Chinese origin.

Does the Prime Minister not realize that when people talk about the Prime Minister in China, they are laughing at him and at us?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we see how excited the Bloc Québécois is about attacking Pierre Elliott Trudeau's legacy, my father's intellectual legacy.

The reality is that we will always encourage intelligent and engaged debate in this country. That is one of the things that this foundation is doing.

I cannot say more because, as the hon. member knows very well, it has been 10 years since I have had any direct or indirect involvement with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Firearms

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is continuing his crusade against hunters, indigenous peoples and farmers in Canada by trying to ban hunting rifles.

He seriously thinks that a hunter from Saguenay is responsible for shootings in downtown Montreal. That is ridiculous.

Why not target the real criminals instead of targeting our indigenous peoples and our hunters in the regions?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, again, we are seeing the NRA spokesperson making things up. It will be three years next month since we got rid of assault-style weapons in Canada. It is now illegal to use them, buy them or sell them. The Conservative Party of Canada wants to bring these assault rifles back, but we will not allow that to happen. That is why I am calling on everyone in the House to support Bill C‑21 when it comes back to the House.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, members just witnessed, once again, the demagoguery of a Prime Minister who divides to distract. He calls indigenous Canadians in Nunavut, who hunt for sustenance, Americans. He calls our patriotic farmers, who use rifles for pest control, Americans. He calls decent, hard-working, law-abiding citizens, who have never broken a law in their lives, Americans because they disagree with his plan to ban hunting rifles.

Will he stop dividing to distract and start going after the real criminals?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the length to which the Leader of the Opposition will go to try to pretend that he is not in the pocket of the NRA is quite humorous. The reality is that the talking points they are putting out there are completely disconnected from any reality.

Three years ago, we made the decision to render assault-style weapons, weapons designed to kill the largest number of people as quickly as possible, illegal in our communities in this country. We banned them from being bought, sold or used. This is what we are continuing with. This is what he stands against.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, he put all the resources into going after licensed law-abiding, trained and tested firearms' owners, who are statistically the least likely people to commit a crime. Meanwhile, he has turned loose onto our streets repeat violent offenders who have committed literally dozens of violent offences. In Vancouver, under his bail regime, the same 40 people had to be arrested 6,000 times. That is what he has brought to our streets: crime, chaos, drugs and disorder.

Why will he not start going after the real criminals with common sense in our justice system?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if Conservative Party members were serious about going after crime, they would support our freeze on handguns. They would support the fact that we have banned assault-style weapons, which is something they continue to avoid, dodge, and spread misinformation and disinformation on.

The reality is that we have continued to invest in police when the Conservative government before me cut services and funding to police. They cut services to CBSA. They cut initiatives that actually kept Canadians safe, and now they are just in the pockets of the NRA.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, he banned BB guns, paint guns and the hunting rifles of indigenous and rural Canadians, but enough about that. Let us just have the facts. Under the Conservative government, violent crime went down 22%. Under the Prime Minister, it has gone up 32%. There has been a 92% increase in violent gang crime under the Prime Minister. Those are the facts.

Will he listen to the facts and the common sense and go after the real violent criminals, instead of targeting law-abiding rifle owners and hunters?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite wants to look at numbers, he should perhaps look at the number of assault-style weapons purchased by Canadians under the 10 years of Stephen Harper's government. He would see the challenges we are facing right now.

The fact is—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I am sorry. I am going to have to interrupt the Right Hon. Prime Minister again. I am having a hard time hearing his answer. I know there are some people who get excited when we talk about certain items. I would like for them to take a deep breath.

Now that everybody has taken that breath, the Right Hon. Prime Minister can begin from the top, please.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, members cannot be serious about keeping our communities safe if they stand against gun control. That is consistently what the Conservatives have done, by spreading misinformation and disinformation when we are going after assault-style weapons, putting a freeze on handguns, and not going after law-abiding hunters and fishers.

They are using that to try to scare people, when the reality is that keeping Canadians safe requires a multi-faceted approach. It means investing more in CBSA, which has doubled the number of interdicted guns coming across the border.