Debates of June 2nd, 2023

Tourism Industry

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order. If members want to have cross-debate, they should leave the chamber.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order on both sides.

The hon. member for Essex.

Carbon Pricing

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Madam Speaker, the Liberals already have one carbon tax in place, which will add 41¢ to a litre of gas. Carbon tax 2 would add another 17¢ to a litre of gas. If we add the GST on top, that is an extra 61¢ added to a litre of gas.

When will the NDP-Liberal costly coalition realize that it is out of touch and that Canadians are out of patience and out of money?

[Terry Duguid, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Madam Speaker, the Conservatives campaigned on putting a price on pollution, but what the Conservatives never want to talk about is the cost of climate change.

There are 1,600 fires burning in our country at the moment. People from the suburbs of Halifax are being evacuated. The costs of climate change are real and they are rising. When are the Conservatives going to get serious about climate change?

Agriculture and Agri-Food

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Madam Speaker, after eight years of this Prime Minister, Beauce businesses are struggling to find employees. SMEs and agricultural businesses are starting to close their doors because of the backlog at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the endless paperwork.

Since my arrival in 2019, I have been asking for the streamlining of labour market impact assessments. With an unemployment rate of 1.9% in my region, we need help filling important positions.

Why are the Liberals refusing to help Beauce businesses?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Madam Speaker, the opposite is true. Agricultural producers in Quebec and across Canada know that our government is there to help them. I am in constant communication with them. Yesterday, I met again with the president of the Union des producteurs agricoles, and I can say that the process of bringing temporary foreign workers to Canada went quite well this year.

We continue to work with my colleagues at Employment and Social Development and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to improve this process.

Official Languages

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Madam Speaker, the Commissioner of Official Languages has once again been flooded with complaints. Air Canada is on the podium once again, with 276 complaints about its inability to serve customers in French.

Let us talk about this year's gold medalist, the federal government. Some 714 complaints were filed against Ottawa for ignoring French in its bilingual public service job postings. That is more than triple the number of complaints from last year.

How can we expect companies like Air Canada to do better when this is the example being set by the federal government?

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his question. I would also like to thank the Commissioner of Official Languages for the report he released this week. We accept his recommendations.

As Minister of Official Languages, I am very pleased with the work we have accomplished so far. We recently passed Bill C‑13. We were able to get all parties in the House onside to support this bill. Once again, we look forward to the final step in the legislative process, royal assent. Let us not forget that we have also made historic investments in our action plan, specifically $4.1 billion to support our official language minority communities and to combat the decline of French.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Madam Speaker, of course we will be monitoring the impact of Bill C‑13 on companies like Air Canada. However, in the case of the federal public service, the employer responsible is every single minister here in the House. They do not need Bill C‑13 to ensure that French is respected. All they have to do is stop treating their francophone employees like second-class citizens.

Will the Liberals send a clear message to the senior public service that there will be severe consequences unless the situation of French improves dramatically in the coming months?

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Madam Speaker, let us be very clear. We are the first government to recognize the decline of French in this country. That is why we are moving forward with a bill that is ambitious, that has teeth. It does not stop there. We have made historic investments in our action plan, namely $4.1 billion to ensure that the federal government will do its fair share to protect and promote French across the country. Let us also not forget that the Commissioner of Official Languages will now have many more tools to do his job and to ensure that he plays the role of watchdog to protect our official languages.

Justice

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

Madam Speaker, we all know the facts. Violent crime is up 32%. Gang-related killings are up 92%. Worst of all, 10 police officers have been killed in the line of duty in recent months.

It is clear that the Liberals' soft-on-crime agenda has failed again. The only thing the divisive Liberal government has united Canadians on is how bad the bail system is after it broke it.

Why is it that, every time the Liberals are in charge, hard-working citizens and law-abiding gun owners are punished, while dangerous repeat offenders get to ride the merry-go-round of the revolving door of justice?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Madam Speaker, Canadians deserve to feel safe and be safe.

That is why introduced Bill C-48, a targeted reform to our bail laws, designed to focus on violent repeat offenders, gun and knife violence, and intimate partner violence. This bill is the product of collaboration with the provinces and territories.

I want to quote from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which said, “We are convinced that the legislative changes put forth in Bill C-48 will go a long way to help eliminate the preventable harm and senseless tragedies attributable to violent and repeat offenders across Canada.”

I invite the Conservative Party—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Kelowna—Lake Country.

Public Safety

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Trudeau government—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member knows that she cannot name individual members of Parliament or ministers, by either their first names or their last names.

The hon. member for Kelowna—Lake Country.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal government, violent crime is up 32%, and our most vulnerable citizens are some of the most impacted.

People are in desperate situations, without being able to afford basic necessities, with high inflation, with rent costs doubling, and with mental health and addiction issues rising.

It was just yesterday, in the House, that I spoke about the issue of homelessness being on the rise and safety concerns surrounding homeless encampments. This morning, we heard about the death of a woman following a reported shooting at a tent encampment in Peterborough.

When will the government take public safety seriously?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Madam Speaker, I would like to just repeat what I was saying earlier.

With Bill C-48, introduced a couple of weeks ago, we have nearly unanimous support from across provinces, as well as from police leadership. I want to quote again from the statement from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which said that it commends the federal government for acting on the urgency for legislative change and for recognizing that the proposed amendments are important. The statement also says, “We are convinced that the legislative changes put forth in Bill C-48 will go a long way to help eliminate the preventable harm and senseless tragedies attributable to violent and repeat offenders across Canada.”

Justice

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Madam Speaker, since the Prime Minister took office, violent crime has increased by 32%. As an aside, I would just like to remind the House that the Conservative government lowered the crime rate by 23%.

This situation is a direct result of this Liberal government's soft-on-crime policies. It is incredibly easy for criminals to get out on bail.

Will the Prime Minister finally get the message and make changes to stop the revolving door in our prison system? One would think these offenders were staying at a hotel.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Madam Speaker, Canadians deserve to feel safe and to be safe.

That is why we introduced Bill C-48, a targeted reform to update our bail laws, designed to focus on violent, repeat offenders, gun and knife violence, as well as intimate partner violence.

If I may, I will repeat what I said earlier. This is from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

The officials said the following about Bill C-48: We appreciate the fact that the minister worked with the party to introduce this common-sense bill that responds to concerns—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order. The hon. member for Pontiac.

News Media Industry

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Madam Speaker, Bill C‑18 on online communications requires web giants to pay their fair share to local media when they profit from their work. That makes sense. However, Facebook does not want that.

When Australia introduced a similar bill, the web giants even tried to use intimidation tactics. Now they are doing the same thing in Canada and California.

Today, we find out that Facebook is doubling down on its bullying tactics and preventing thousands of Canadians from accessing their news.

I would like to know how the government plans to react to these grotesque bullying tactics.

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Pontiac for the question and her hard work. She is absolutely right. Facebook wants once again to bully Canadians and is now blocking news on its platform for many Canadians. That is schoolyard bullying.

Facebook seems to think that Canadians are going to be scared and are not going to ask web giants to pay their fair share. Our door is open to making appropriate changes. We are not going to be intimidated and we are going to demand that the web giants pay their fair share.

Correctional Service of Canada

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Madam Speaker, Corrections Canada tells us that offenders who find jobs in the community are three times less likely to reoffend. This is true, but it is also irrelevant because there is zero statistical correlation between participation in CSC's job-creating programs and getting post-incarceration work. Here is why: Instead of recognized third party vocational certifications, CSC issues informal statements of achievement that have all the authority of the ribbons issued at a children's bicycle-decorating contest. Will the government fix this problem?