Debates of Sept. 28th, 2023

Health

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, it seems that, as usual, the opposition is behind the times and is offering nothing when we address this critical issue. Thankfully, we have other members of the House who do. We would invite them to work with us rather than continuing to promote fear and stigma.

We have been working with B.C. since 2018 on litigation against big pharma and those who enabled them. We were part of the Purdue settlement in 2022. At the government's request, B.C. also amended its legislation to reinforce the federal government's participation in these class actions.

Get on board and get up to speed.

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

We should make sure that we speak directly to the Chair when we do that rather than the member.

The hon. member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, fatal overdoses from opioids and other illicit drugs are now the leading cause in the deaths of children aged 10 to 18 years. We are talking about children's deaths here, so the NDP members can heckle me all they want.

It is actually the NDP that should be ashamed, because these kids had their whole lives ahead of them. This costly coalition's insistence on decriminalization means that these kids' lives have been cut short. It is shameful that this NDP-Liberal government will not end its radical agenda.

When will it keep our kids safe?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I was in Barrie this summer on International Overdose Awareness Day, and I spoke to Christine Nayler, the mother of Ryan, who said that harm reduction is health care.

We are saving lives. The member knows perfectly well that safe supply is highly regulated and that diversion of supply is illegal in this country.

We will use every tool we have to save lives and reverse the tide of the overdose crisis. I suggest that the member work with us rather than restigmatizing people and putting them in the shadows instead of getting them the help they need.

Justice

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Mr. Speaker, Penny Boudreau choked her 12-year-old daughter to death in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. She claimed Karissa had run away, but when Karissa's body was found, Penny was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. This child murderer has now been granted another pass to leave prison. Karissa will never live her life, but her murderer is free to live hers.

Can the Liberals tell my community where the justice is in this?

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, crimes such as this are truly horrific. I think it is important to remember that, in this place, it is our job and our duty to all Canadians to ensure we have a criminal justice system that is robust but not partisan, and members opposite should not use heinous crimes for partisan gain.

I welcome members opposite to work with us on the public safety committee when it comes to ensuring a victims' rights focus, but we will not play games with the public justice system. Instead, we are going to make it safe for all Canadians.

Foreign Affairs

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my constituents in Scarborough—Agincourt, Armenian Canadians and those across the country have been expressing their concern over the devastating situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh have spent almost a year without fuel, food or medicine because of the blockade of the Lachin corridor. There is now an exodus of Armenian refugees with the resumption of military activity by Azerbaijan, in violation of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.

Could the Minister of International Development please outline what measures the Government of Canada is taking to respond to this situation?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of International Development]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Scarborough—Agincourt for her strong advocacy on this issue.

We have been following, as a government, the deteriorating situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. This is a situation that also impacts Armenian Canadians. Earlier this morning, I announced that Canada is providing $2.5 million to the Red Cross to provide food, emergency health care, protection services and other essential life-saving assistance to more than 60,000 refugees caught in Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

We continue to call on Azerbaijan to respect the ceasefire, ensure humanitarian access and protect civilians.

Climate Change

[Mike Morrice, Green, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, while climate change-fuelled wildfires burned over 175,000 square kilometres of area across the country this year, oil and gas companies are gouging Canadians at the pumps and raking in record-breaking profits.

The Liberals have already imposed a windfall profit tax on banks and life insurance companies. The Greens have put forward a motion to apply this same tax to the oil and gas industry to help fund proven climate solutions. Will the minister commit to this responsible, reasonable measure and tax those most responsible for the crisis?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity]

Mr. Speaker, the Canada recovery dividend was a pandemic program, and it was a one-time tax program for banks and life insurance. Since then, we have continued our work to eliminate inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that are encouraging smart government investment, because that is going to increase Canada's global competitiveness.

In budget 2023, our government also announced our $120-billion clean economy plan to grow Canada's clean economy to create well-paying jobs and careers for workers right across Canada. Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in our country will ensure that government programs and spending support the energy sector and are aligned with our ambitious climate goals.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, what we have seen in the state of California is that the five big oil companies are now being sued for active disinformation on the climate crisis and false promotion of both natural gas and petroleum as a solution. What we see is the big tobacco moment, where the companies are now being held accountable for this disinformation, which is, of course, supported by the Conservatives and the Conservative leader.

Is the government considering going after big oil for disinformation, as the State of California is doing, holding these companies accountable and making them pay for the massive damage they have done to our forests, our communities and our children's future?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity]

Mr. Speaker, on a day when we are confronted with climate change denial and actions to bring us back to a Harper era, when Harper called the Kyoto accord a “socialist” regime, it is actually heartening to hear from members in the House who are following through on their commitments from the last election, where we all ran on a commitment to price carbon.

I appreciate the question from my colleague opposite. I will look into the issue, and we will have a conversation off-line.

[The Speaker, Louis Plamondon]

Thank you for welcoming me. I am very grateful for your unanimous agreement to grant me the honour of being the interim Speaker for five days. I will remember this forever.

During my long, 39-year career, I will no doubt have been the longest-serving member of Parliament but the shortest-serving Speaker.

We will now proceed to the weekly statement by the House leader of the official opposition.

Business of the House

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, thank you for recognizing that it has been a difficult few days. While your tenure will not be long, I hope it will be smooth. As such, I will make my intervention today as simple as possible for the chair occupant. I am sure you will do a great job over the next few days. I am not sure a five-day tenure will qualify you for a portrait in the hallway, but I will leave that to you to negotiate with the clerks.

I am wondering if the government House leader could inform the House as to the business for the rest of this week and the next.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate you on your appointment, even though it is temporary, but I would also like to thank you, on behalf of the government, for agreeing to serve as interim Speaker to ensure an smooth transition while we await the next Speaker of the House of Commons. Thank you for taking on this role as dean of the House.

Tomorrow, we will begin the second reading debate on Bill C‑50, the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act. On Monday, the House will stand adjourned to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. When we return on Tuesday, the first order of business will be the election of a new Speaker. When we resume our work that day, we will continue the second reading debate on Bill C‑56, the Affordable Housing and Groceries Act. On Wednesday, we will resume debate at second reading of Bill S‑12, an Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Sex Offender Information Registration Act and the International Transfer of Offenders Act. If the debate on Bill C‑56 is not completed, we will resume second reading debate on Thursday. On Friday, we will proceed to second reading of Bill C‑49, an Act to amend the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic Accord Implementation Act.

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

Opposition Motion—Carbon Taxes

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to extend my congratulations to you on your new position. I have always had an incredible amount of respect for you, ever since the first time I entered the House in 2015. You, being the dean of the House, resided over, and have since resided over, all elections of the Speaker. It is nice to see you filling this role. We greatly appreciate you doing that during the time of need of the House.

I will pick up where I left off in my speech prior to question period. I was pointing out what I saw as the rich hypocrisy that tended to come from the other side of the House when it came to pricing pollution. As I indicated during my speech, all members of the Conservative caucus, who sit here today, and many of those from before them, ran on pricing pollution, some dating back to Stephen Harper's time.

What I find to be even richer than that is the fact that some members of the House, in particular the member for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, were part of a government that supported pricing pollution and introduced pricing pollution. That member went on to give a long speech in the British Columbia legislature about how effective pricing pollution was and how well it was working in British Columbia.

I am sure the member felt quite confident when he ran in the 2021 election on the plan that Erin O'Toole had put forward at the time. I am sure he thought it was the right plan, because he had seen this successfully work in British Columbia. Now he is with a new Leader of the Opposition who does not feel the same way, and he has suddenly changed his tune. Indeed, he rose in the House earlier today and asked a question specifically on this topic, as though he never made those comments or took those positions in the past.

I find it extremely difficult to give any credibility on this issue to the Conservatives. They tend to do exactly what the member for Timmins—James Bay was saying earlier, which is to look for any opportunity to exploit individuals, in particular individual hardships, in order to utilize that for some kind of political gain. We continually see that.

I would like to touch on my comments with regard to the Atlantic accord. What we do know is that both in Nova Scotia and in Newfoundland, the premiers have been calling on the government to install legislation, to give the opportunity for Atlantic Canada to benefit tremendously, economically and environmentally, but in particular economically, on a new opportunity to produce wind energy in Atlantic Canada, offshore. This is where the future is going.

People can put their head in the sand and pretend that the future still remains in oil and gas. They can die by that sword by insisting that it is the only option and the only form of energy that will ever be required, or they can get with the times, open their eyes and see what is going on throughout the world, see what is going on just in our country alone with respect to that transition.

Even if, as Conservatives have said many times in the past, they are not in favour of that Atlantic accord, even if they still believe that oil and gas is the only way to go, why would they not be in favour of unlocking the opportunities of Atlantic Canada to potentially prosper off a new form of energy? We would think that Conservatives would at least say they do not believe it will ever happen but we should go ahead and try. They will not even do that.

That is how beholden they are to oil and gas, generally speaking, and to the industries that are profiting billions of dollars every year. For some reason, the Conservatives are absolutely relentless in their quest to shutter any opportunity of any kind of new technology that does not involve the extraction of fossil fuels from the ground. I find that extremely troubling.

I always thought that eventually the Conservatives would come around, that eventually they would say that since 10 out of every 100 cars in Canada being sold are electric cars now, it is probably going in that direction. However, it seems as though the Conservatives, at every possible opportunity, absolutely claw onto and grasp at every last little straw in an attempt to hold onto the fossil fuel industry, as though it is the only thing here for their survival.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Mr. Speaker, while St. Peter denied Christ three times, the Atlantic Liberal MPs denied the harmful effects of the carbon tax on their constituents 23 times.

Based on Canadian averages for carbon emissions per kilometre, my hon. colleague across the way created 75 kilos of carbon emissions this morning when his daddy drove his papers to Ottawa for him. I wonder if the member knows that documents can be scanned and emailed, and that would cause no carbon footprint.

Does the member take full responsibility for the carbon he created this morning in a useless fashion?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am so proud to have this opportunity to talk about how my father, who is 81 years old, and my mother, who is 77 years old, purchased their first electric vehicle six months ago. I have no doubt that my father, with his dog in the back seat, drove to Prescott in his electric vehicle.

If anyone can convince my parents, who are 81 and 77 years old, that the future is in electric vehicles, if someone can teach them how to drive an electric vehicle and see the joy they have in using it, I am convinced that anybody can do the same thing.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have a very simple question for the member.

Can he tell us about the clean fuel regulations that his government adopted on July 1? I would like him to tell the House, first, if his government asked the Bloc Québécois to support it and, second, if the House had to vote on it.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that we have brought forward an incredible amount of legislation to reduce our carbon emissions. I took some time in my speech, albeit before question period and not everybody was in the House at the time, to explain exactly where the emissions had been reduced. The only—

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

I have to interrupt the member. There is a problem with interpretation.

We will pause briefly to figure out what is going on. We are now good to go.

The hon. member for Kingston and the Islands.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, our government has brought forward a number of initiatives that have lowered carbon emissions. Perhaps a number of colleagues were not in the House before question period, but I specifically talked about the impacts that they had. The one area that is keeping the number up, not allowing us to meet our objectives, is the oil and gas sector, specifically. It is the only area where GHG emissions have continued to increase.

I am calling on the government to bring in significant, bold caps when it comes to emissions. That is what is going to give us the ability to continue to see the downward trajectory.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I was not here before question period, so I missed most the member's speech. I would like him to repeat the details about how much the carbon tax affects the price of food, for example. I have heard from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, for instance, that it increases the price of food by 0.15% compared to the 80¢ increase I see at the gas pumps at home because of the greed of oil companies.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there are a whole bunch of things going on when we talk about the inflation of food prices. For example, in the United States, 20% of the market share of groceries is with Walmart. That is a lot, right?

In Canada, 43% is with Loblaws. When we start to develop these monopolies and other practices, we are going to naturally start to see anti-competition acts that will inflate the prices. Yes, we can point to that. We can also point to the global impacts of what is going on. Ukraine produces 15% of the world's grain, what happens when that all of a sudden stops? That is going to increase the price.

Conservatives want people to believe that it is just a price on pollution that is contributing to it. Sure, that is their angle. They have been at it for months and months now, but I think the vast majority of Canadians realize that these situations involve more complex variables and it is not as simple as their one-liners and three-word slogans they spout out so much.