House of Commons Hansard #362 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was privacy.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, I propose to cut bureaucracy and taxes. Let us axe the sales tax on new homes, saving up to $50,000 on a new home. That is a savings of almost $2,700 per year in lower mortgage payments. By contrast, the Prime Minister offers a multi-billion dollar housing bureaucracy in Ottawa that his own housing minister admits does not build homes.
Why will the Prime Minister not listen to his own housing minister and accept my common-sense plan to axe the tax and build the homes?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, one of the most fundamental responsibilities of any Canadian prime minister is the safety of Canadians. Unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition has failed at his responsibility to keep his own MPs safe from foreign interference.
I have asked the security services to figure out a way to give some information to the Leader of the Opposition so he can actually fulfill his responsibility of protecting Canadians, including those within his own caucus. It would be easier if he got his security clearance, but I have asked them to give him some information nonetheless.
HousingOral Questions
The Speaker Greg Fergus
I would ask the hon. member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman to please not take the floor.
The hon. Leader of the Opposition has the floor.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, I know that the Prime Minister has told his caucus that he is not sleeping. He is pulling his hair out with stress because of his caucus' revolting against him. Now he is spreading tin-hat conspiracy theories rather than answering the question.
Eighty per cent of Canadians now believe that home ownership is only for the very rich after the Prime Minister has doubled the cost of housing in nine years. I came forward with a common-sense plan to axe the GST on new homes, saving up to $50,000 on a new home.
Why will the Prime Minister not accept my plan to axe the tax and build the homes?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Conservative Party just put forward a plan to cut billions of dollars of investment in housing across the country.
However, in regard to issues of national security, it is extraordinarily difficult to have a leader of the Conservative Party refuse to get the necessary security briefings that will allow him to protect his own MPs and indeed protect our Canadian democracy. Therefore I have asked security services to figure out a way to share some information, perhaps even some names, with the leader of the Conservative Party so he can take action and protect his members.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Mr. Speaker, here is how to lose at politics.
Fully 80% of the population is asking the Prime Minister to increase old age security for seniors aged 65 to 74. Every party voted in favour of it, even his own. Thanks to the Bloc Québécois, the Prime Minister had a unique opportunity to make things fair for seniors, make 80% of people happy and stay in power. He could have killed three birds with one stone. Instead, he chose to abandon seniors, say no to 80% of the population and risk an election. That is zero out of three.
Now does he understand why nobody wants him around anymore?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, our government invested in seniors by enhancing the guaranteed income supplement by 10%, by increasing old age security for seniors aged 75 and up and by putting in place a dental care program for nearly one million seniors across the country, which is making a huge difference. The Bloc Québécois chose to vote against that dental care program.
If the Bloc Québécois is taking suggestions on how to be popular in politics, I would suggest that it provide dental care to seniors who need it. That might be a good thing to do, rather than following the Conservatives' lead and voting against our seniors.
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister could have helped one million Quebec retirees by working with the Bloc Québécois. Instead, he abandoned them to get back together with the NDP, the party that had kicked him out and changed the locks. He went crawling back to a party so out of touch with Quebec that its lone Quebec MP is desperately looking for an out with the City of Montreal. I feel sorry for Montrealers. The Prime Minister could have chosen one million Quebeckers. Instead, he chose 25 MPs, 96% of whom are from outside Quebec.
Does he understand that we do not need a secret ballot to know that no one in Quebec trusts him anymore?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, it is understandable for Quebeckers to be worried when they see that the Bloc Québécois has the support of the Conservative Party.
The reality is that we are here to invest in seniors. We were there with dental care, though the Bloc Québécois and the Conservative Party voted against it. We were there to increase the GIS by 10% for the most vulnerable seniors. It was one of the first things we did as a government. The Bloc Québécois and the Conservative Party voted against it. We were there to increase OAS for seniors aged 75 and over, because they have more costs to bear. The Bloc Québécois voted against it.
Jagmeet Singh NDP Burnaby South, BC
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about women. In Alberta, Danielle Smith, the premier, is privatizing health care and giving it to Covenant.
Covenant refuses to give abortions. That is clearly a violation of the Canada Health Act. Does the Prime Minister agree, yes or no?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, we are the government that has stood up for women's rights unequivocally across this country, including pulling back transfers to provinces where abortion services and reproductive health were not being delivered. At the same time, we are moving forward with more ways to protect women's rights.
Just yesterday, we presented a ways and means motion that would mean that pregnancy crisis centres would have to disclose whether or not they are actually offering the full suite of reproductive services and rights to women, or whether they would to leave women without support and without choices at an extremely delicate time.
Jagmeet Singh NDP Burnaby South, BC
Mr. Speaker, it is “her body, her choice”, not “her body, the Conservative Party's choice”.
The Conservatives have revealed more cuts. This time, they want to cut the affordable housing accelerator fund, and now the Bloc Québécois is prepared to support them. The Bloc Québécois had power, but has still done nothing to resolve Quebec's housing crisis.
People need affordable housing, not infighting. Will the Liberals finally wake up?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on the first part of my hon. colleague's question about the fact that the Conservative Party continues to attack women's rights.
I have questions concerning Conservative members from Quebec who stand silently by while anti-choice members of the Conservative Party attack women's rights. We are witnessing the regression of women's rights all over the world, and the Conservative Party is encouraging that through the members it elects.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois leader has literally made no gains for Quebeckers, no gains for seniors, and no gains for farmers. However, he voted nearly 200 times to keep this Prime Minister in power. He voted in favour of $500 billion in inflationary, bureaucratic, and deficit spending. All the while, Quebeckers are impacted by a doubling of housing costs.
Will the Prime Minister agree to call an election so that Quebeckers can vote for my plan to eliminate the GST on housing?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, I pointed it out in English, but I will repeat it in French. We know that one of the fundamental responsibilities of every elected member of the House is to protect the safety and well-being of all Canadians. However, having inexplicably decided not to get his security clearance, the Conservative leader is putting Canadians at risk, including some of his own MPs.
That is why I have asked intelligence services to share as much information as they can with the Conservative leader so that he can better protect his MPs, despite the fact that, for some unknown reason, he is still refusing to get his security clearance so he can learn what exactly they need.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, we would have thought that after the Prime Minister doubled housing costs, doubled the debt, doubled gun crime and now doubled food bank use, the NDP would be pulling its support. After all, its leader said that the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people, yet there he is, still in power. He does not even have the confidence of his own Liberal MPs, but he seems to still have the confidence of the sellout NDP leader.
Will the costly carbon tax coalition stand up in front of Canadians and let people vote in a carbon tax election for change in the future?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, watchers of Canadian politics will remember that last year, Conservative Party members got up pretty much every time they could to talk about national security, to talk about it in a partisan way but to talk about it every chance they could get. Now that we have offered the Leader of the Opposition a security clearance so he can be fully informed on national security, all they have been able to do is to make political attacks and ask questions of other parties.
Why has the Leader of the Opposition chosen to not get a security clearance when the safety of his own MPs is in the balance?
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, it looks as if the Prime Minister is worried about his personal political security as his MPs are revolting and trying to push him out of the job, so he is desperately trying to change the channel on the questions I have asked. I think that is unfair though. Those MPs helped the Prime Minister double housing costs, double the debt, double gun crime and double food bank use.
Why will the Prime Minister not turn around, look his MPs in the eye and say that they should stand up for their own record and his and face the music in a carbon tax election?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, no responsibility by the government is more important than keeping Canadians safe. That is why our security services every single day take actions and work hard to keep Canadians safe.
It is inexplicable to our security services that they cannot let the leader of the Conservative Party know about the threats facing him, his party and our democracy because he refuses to get a security clearance. I have asked the security agencies to look at ways to share at least some information with him, and perhaps some names, so he can protect his colleagues.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, if he wants to release the names, he legally can do it now on the floor of the House of Commons. Will he do it?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, now we are getting somewhere. The Leader of the Opposition is actually engaging on the issue of national security. Unfortunately, he is willing to put at risk the agents, the officers and the sources who are are putting their lives at risk to keep Canadians safe.
There is a reason we do not disclose classified information in places where our adversaries are watching and paying attention, but we can release many names and much information to him if he would only get his security clearance so he will be able to keep his own team members safe from foreign interference.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, he will not release the names, because he knows that he and his party are compromised, and he will not answer my question, because right now 24 of his MPs are rebelling against him. They are asking for a secret ballot to fire him. However, as I say, that is not fair. Every one of those MPs helped the Prime Minister create 1,400 homeless encampments in Ontario. Every one of them voted to quadruple the carbon tax. They cannot just throw him out. He cannot just run away. They need to face the music.
Why will we not have a carbon tax election now?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, for well over a year in the House, just about every question from the Leader of the Opposition was about national security, about foreign interference. We called a commission of inquiry. We have offered security clearances to all leaders. Indeed, the leaders of the Green Party, the NDP and the Bloc have all done the responsible thing; they got their security clearances and top-secret briefings from our security services.
The leader of the Conservative Party chooses to play the pettiest form of politics instead of stepping up on his responsibilities as leader: protecting Canadians, protecting his MPs and protecting our institutions.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, with housing comes security. In Quebec, the cost of housing has doubled. In Montreal, the cost of rent has tripled after nine years of this Prime Minister, who builds bureaucracy, who prints money, who broke the immigration system and who collected taxes from corrupt companies. That is why I proposed a common-sense solution: eliminate the GST on housing. The Prime Minister says he prefers to invest money in bureaucracy. I want to lower taxes for homebuyers.
Can we have an election on the issue of eliminating the GST on housing?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are extremely perplexed right now.
We know full well, based on stereotypes in any case, that the Conservatives are concerned about law, order, crime, national security and defence. They bring it up all the time during elections, but when there is a real threat to Canadians' security and even the security of his own members, the Conservative leader refuses to get his security clearance and refuses to take his responsibilities for public safety seriously.