Debates of Jan. 29th, 2024

Finance

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this government has been in power for eight years, and in that time, the debt has doubled, inflation has hit a new record and not one single budget has been balanced. The Bloc Québécois has given its full support to all of that.

We Conservatives will balance the budget. How? We will get rid of wasteful Liberal spending on things like ArriveCan and the unused $54 million. Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for this fiasco and hand over the reins to people with good sense?

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Following the previous response and before I give the floor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, I would like to remind the House that the Chair has issued a statement about associating a given political party with an unacceptable regime.

In the interest of maintaining decorum and respect in the House, it is very important not to associate a party with regimes that are not well regarded.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance has the floor.

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

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to public finance, it is important to be clear and tell Canadians the truth. That is why it is important to quote objective arbiters, such as credit rating agencies, which are still giving Canada a AAA credit rating.

What Canadians and Quebeckers should be asking about the Conservative austerity ideology is, “Where will they be making cuts?”

Housing

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians work hard to pay their rent and afford to buy a house. The Leader of the Opposition believes that partisan sloganeering and attacking municipal leaders will somehow cause more homes to be built.

On this side of the House, we know that the federal government is responsible for focusing its efforts on making housing more affordable.

Could the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance explain how the measures contained in last fall's economic statement will allow for more homes to be built faster?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. Our government knows that we need to build more homes faster. That is why the economic statement includes a $15-billion investment for new loans through the apartment construction loan program, which will build 100,000 new homes over the next few years.

We are removing the GST on new co-op housing projects. We will keep working to build more homes faster.

Ethics

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, it is clear that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. He gave us three different versions of his Jamaican vacation. First, he claimed he was paying all the expenses for his family's stay. Second, he claimed he was staying at no cost at a location owned by a family friend. Then he claimed that he and his family stayed with friends.

All three different versions cannot be accurate at the same time. Which version did he tell the Ethics Commissioner?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and his family took a Christmas vacation. Before the trip, the office of the Ethics Commissioner was consulted on the details to ensure the rules were followed. The Prime Minister and his family then proceeded with the trip and all the rules were followed.

Public Services and Procurement

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

Mr. Speaker, after eight years, senior public servants have spoken out about lies and abuse of process in the arrive scam scandal. We have now learned that shortly after their critical whistle-blowing testimony, these senior public servants were put on leave without pay. They were told they were under investigation less than three weeks after their testimony and they were suspended before the investigation had even concluded.

The NDP-Liberal government is punishing public servants for their ArriveCAN testimony.

What are these Liberals trying to hide with this retaliation and intimidation of witnesses?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, senior officials of the Canada Border Services Agency who are responsible for ensuring that all the appropriate contracting practices are followed have appeared before the committee. My conversation in early January with the president of CBSA was to the effect that we should share with the committee looking into this information obtained by the internal audit.

CBSA is doing its important work to ensure that everyone is responsible for following the rules. It has called in the police where necessary, has done internal audits and will continue to do all of this to ensure taxpayer value.

Public Safety

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister is just not worth the chaos and crime. Canadian businesses across the country are being extorted by international gangsters because of the NDP-Liberal government's ideological, soft-on-crime policies.

Businesses and family homes are being shot at. In Edmonton, since November, over a dozen houses under construction by different home builders have been burnt down.

It was the Liberal government that made it easier for criminals to get bail and allowed for shorter jail terms by scrapping mandatory minimum sentences.

When will the Liberals start cracking down on serious crime?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to bail, what I would underscore is the unanimity with which the House spoke on amending the bail provisions so that we could keep communities safe. That was a sign of success in terms of what parliamentarians, when we co-operate on community safety, can achieve.

What we continue to do is keep addressing crime as the top-most priority of our government. That means keeping communities safe. That means protecting victims. We will continue to do that with respect to various issues that are facing Canadians, including the auto theft summit, which is coming up in a few short days.

Small Business

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this week marks Red Tape Awareness Week. I would like to thank all the small businesses in my riding that have continued to show entrepreneurship and work hard to foster economic development in Canada.

We know that many of these businesses face administrative challenges in day-to-day operations, and our government has been there every step of the way to listen and adapt regulations to better suit their needs. The Conservative Party claims to care for small businesses, yet calls supports for businesses inflationary.

Could the President of the Treasury Board please tell the House how our government is supporting small businesses to build a stronger economy for all Canadians?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy. We stood with small businesses during and after the pandemic, including in terms of reducing credit card transaction fees, establishing a program for small businesses in federal procurement and assisting the tourism sector.

Unlike the Conservatives, who have no plan to reduce red tape, we will continue to stand with small businesses with Bill S-6. It is at second reading. We are bringing it back before the House. We will create an efficient and effective economy for all small businesses.

The Environment

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are worried about the climate and they expect their government to take action.

People are struggling to pay their bills, yet oil and gas CEOs are polluting our planet while raking in record profits and bonuses. In some cases, they have upped their own salaries by 75%.

For far too long, the Liberal government has been stacking the deck in favour of billionaires at the expense of Canadian workers and the environment.

Will the Liberals rein in these obscene bonuses by making oil and gas CEOs pay what they owe?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome back my hon. colleague to the House. I agree with her. I think that the profits of these companies must be addressed in the House and that is what our government is doing by putting in place measures like no other country in the world has.

We have put forward the world's most ambitious target to reduce methane emissions, a very powerful greenhouse gas, and reduce them by at least 75% by 2030. We have eliminated fossil fuel subsidies, the only country in the G20 to have done so. We are also in the process of putting a cap on the emissions of the oil and gas sector.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we are on a theme of Liberal promises that keep being broken.

Here is a question. We have Bill C-50, which is the sustainable jobs act, which kicked down the road coming up with a sustainable jobs plan until December 31, 2025. It then went to committee, where all the Liberal MPs present and all the NDP MPs present voted to extend that deadline to December 31, 2040.

Could the hon. minister tell us how this is going to be fixed? Can it be repaired? It so reminds me of Bismarck: Laws are like sausages, better not to watch.

[Jonathan Wilkinson, Liberal, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, following months of Conservative filibustering and obstructionist tactics, the Conservatives proposed over 21,000 amendments to the sustainable jobs act in an attempt to stop workers from getting a seat at the table. When it came to a vote on these amendments, the committee was chaotic. The Conservative members were actually shouting overtop of each other. A handful of the thousands of Conservative amendments were passed by the committee in the chaos.

I encourage the Green Party leader to review the nine amendments that I have put on the Notice Paper which address and rectify this issue now.

Presence in Gallery

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I wish to draw the attention of members to the presence in the gallery of the Hon. Lauri Hussar, Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Estonia; the Hon. Daiga Mierina, Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia; and the Hon. Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

Oral Questions

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, during question period, I heard the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the member for Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, say that I insulted Magdalen Islanders.

I invite everyone to listen to what was said here in the House. I would like the member to withdraw her remarks because I never said anything unkind about Magdalen Islanders.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

That is verging on debate, but I will review the transcripts of the House of Commons.

The hon. member for Montcalm on a point of order.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have two points of order.

Would you please remind the member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis that members may not knowingly mislead the House? The Bloc Québécois voted against the Liberal budget. We do not support it.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

That is a matter of debate.

The hon. member for Montcalm on a point of order.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, next time I will make it a proper question of privilege, as I have previously done in the House.

I am sorry to have to say this, Mr. Speaker, but before the holidays, you unfortunately did not have control of the House, and that interfered with my parliamentary privilege to hear questions and answers during question period. What is more, it also infringed on my right to have and preserve healthy hearing. Again today, I am of the opinion that you have lost control of the House. I could hear neither the questions nor the answers unless I turned the volume up to a level that affected the health of my hearing.

I would ask you to resolve the problem quickly, because it is my right to be able to understand what is going on in question period without risking damaging my hearing.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am very grateful to the member for Montcalm for his intervention. It gives me another opportunity to remind all members that they must remain silent when they do not have the floor, when the Chair has not given them the floor in the House of Commons. This is very important for the sake of order and decorum, but as the member for Montcalm pointed out, it is also a health issue. We need to avoid a situation where MPs have to turn up the volume to hear questions and answers properly in the House of Commons.

It is a duty that falls to all of us.