Debates of Oct. 31st, 2024

The Economy

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

Mr. Speaker, today is Halloween, and the Liberal bogeyman has been scaring Canadians for nine years. It is making our families, seniors and children poorer. With the complicity of the Bloc Québécois, it is forcing our families to beg for food. An article in today's La Presse entitled “La crise silencieuse” or “the silent crisis” talks about the numbers at Moisson Montréal. This Montreal food bank has seen a sharp increase in demand, with requests for food reaching one million per month. Unfortunately, 14% of these requests are coming from students.

Why are the leader of the Bloc Québécois and the Prime Minister more interested in feeding the bureaucracy in Ottawa than in helping Quebeckers feed their families?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, it is astounding to hear Conservative members talk about the importance of taking care of children when the Leader of the Opposition says that supporting the Breakfast Club, La Cantine pour tous and elementary school teachers in my colleague's riding is nothing but bureaucracy.

How can my Conservative colleagues from Quebec sit there while their Conservative leader insults the Breakfast Club partners, for example, and calls them bureaucratic?

Dental Care

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader came to Quebec City and solemnly promised to fund a hypothetical third link, even though no one knows how much it will cost or if it is even feasible. However, he has no qualms about promising to take dental care away from the nearly 10,000 young and not-so-young people in Sainte‑Foy, in my riding, who have benefited from it over the past year. We now know that more than one million Canadians are benefiting from the Canadian dental care plan that we introduced and that the Conservatives are threatening to cut.

Could the Minister of Public Services and Procurement explain how this program is benefiting Canadians from coast to coast to coast?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, it is Halloween, and the Conservative leader is an amazing magician. He told Radio‑Canada that the Canadian dental care plan does not exist. He made 800,000 seniors' Canadian dental care plan cards disappear in Quebec alone. He says it does not exist, so he cannot say why he is against the Canadian dental care plan when 20,000 seniors in the riding of our Conservative colleague from Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis have a Canadian dental care plan card in their pockets.

How is the Conservative leader going to make those 20,000 cards disappear on Halloween night?

Mental Health and Addictions

[Ryan Williams, Conservative, Bay of Quinte, ON]

Mr. Speaker, nine months ago, Belleville, Ontario, was rocked by an opioid crisis, with 36 overdoses in only 48 hours. The Prime Minister said he would be there for Belleville, Ontario, but after nine months, there has not one more dollar for infrastructure. There are no more treatment beds, and just last week in Belleville, there were 11 overdoses in only two hours. How many more months does Belleville, Ontario, have to wait for any support for mental health from the Prime Minister?

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I would ask the hon. member for Orléans to not take the floor unless recognized.

The hon. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

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

Mr. Speaker, as the member well knows, I visited Belleville and met with the mayor and all stakeholders involved because every loss of life in Belleville, or in any community across this country, is tragic. That is exactly why we launched the emergency treatment fund, which is already open and accepting applications from municipalities and indigenous communities across the country.

We are there for communities each and every day. Harm reduction and treatment, all of these tools, are health care. We will stand by communities and save lives.

[Ryan Williams, Conservative, Bay of Quinte, ON]

Mr. Speaker, while Belleville is waiting for any dollars from the federal government, the city has been paying dollars to the federal government. The City of Belleville council this week released a report. It showed that, over the last five years, the city has paid $1.5 million to the carbon tax, and it is getting no refund. This money could have gone to supporting mental health. It could have paid for the renovations for its hub for mental health. Not only that, but when the Prime Minister quadruples that tax, Belleville is going to pay $5 million in five years.

Why would the Prime Minister not give that money back to Belleville, or better yet, call a carbon tax election so Belleville and its residents could decide how to spend their money on mental health?

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

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear: Actions speak louder than words. When the Conservatives were in power, they cut the drug treatment fund by two-thirds.

Let me ask this of the member: Why does he allow the leader of the Conservatives to use those who struggle with addiction and substance use as props in fundraising rather than standing by those who need help? Why do Conservatives advocate to close safe consumption sites, which have saved 58,000 lives?

The Conservatives do not care. They will not invest in what is needed. On this side of the House, we are fighting to save lives. Shame on them for criminalizing people who need health care.

Public Safety

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberals, crime is up and churches are being targeted. A Winnipeg neighbourhood saw a 61% increase in crime. Churches are having to pay thousands of dollars for repairs and security. One church had to put up an eight-foot barbed wire fence to keep criminals out. A woman was victim to an armed carjacking while leaving church, and two people died last month after a church was set on fire. In fact, 30 churches have been burned to the ground over the past few years, and countless more have been vandalized in Canada.

When will the Liberals stop blocking the Conservative bill, Bill C-411, which would specifically hold arsonists accountable for church burnings?

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

Mr. Speaker, we believe that in this country everyone deserves to be safe where they go to school and where they pray. Safety in our communities is of utmost importance. This is why we have provided more funding to help religious institutions and places of worship right across this country put in place additional measures to help keep them safe. We are deeply committed to this. This is not something the Conservatives own because we are investing in our communities to keep all places of worship safe.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians from different ethnic backgrounds are now scared that they could be the target of violent crimes by foreign nations. The RCMP believes agents from India have been targeting the Sikh community with bullying, blackmail and even plots to kill some of them. Foreign interference is a serious issue, and all of us need to work together to protect Canadians.

Could the Minister of Emergency Preparedness guide the House on the best way to protect Canadians?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the allegations made by the RCMP over the intimidation, extortion and murder by a foreign government on Canadian soil should be taken seriously by all parties. We owe it to the Sikh community and to all Canadians to put partisanship aside and work on solutions to assure the integrity and sovereignty of our country. That is why it is deeply disturbing that the Conservative leader still refuses to get a security clearance. Why is he willing to put our democracy and the security of Canadians at risk?

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Mr. Speaker, London families with loved ones trapped in Sudan have been failed by the government. It has been eight months since the Liberals announced a program to bring families in Sudan to safety, but only five applications have been approved. As the humanitarian crisis in Sudan gets worse, more and more people will die. Londoners were promised by the government that their family would have a path to safety.

Will the minister fix his failed program so families can save their relatives before it is too late?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, the member knows well that we worked with families to devise this program. She also knows well, or should know, that since the war broke out, we have facilitated the departure of 9,000 people from Sudan. In this particular program, we will continue to reunite families and work to make sure that they come to Canada in safety.

Foreign Affairs

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

Mr. Speaker, we have an unspeakable tragedy of a Canadian mother of six, known only as F.J., whose six children were repatriated to Canada, but the government refused to allow their mother to travel with them. She is now dead in a Turkish prison.

I ask the hon. government members here, the Minister of Public Safety and the minister for international affairs, if will they follow the requirements of justice to have an immediate, independent investigation into F.J.'s death and immediately repatriate all remaining Canadian detainees in northeast Syria.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her compassion and for her concern for people around the world. It is well noted and respected.

My thoughts are indeed with children who have already endured so much in this particular situation. We are well aware of the reports, and we are treating the situation with the utmost seriousness and with the sense of urgency it absolutely deserves.

Unfortunately I am not able to comment further due to privacy concerns, but we will continue to keep the House updated.

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

Medical Assistance in Dying

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

It being 3:19 p.m., the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion to concur in the second report of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying.

Call in the members.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #874

Committees of the House

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I declare the motion carried.

I wish to inform the House that because of the deferred recorded division, Government Orders will be extended by 12 minutes.

Business of the House

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

Mr. Speaker, it being Thursday, it is time for the Thursday question. I note that the calendar is just about to change over to November. That means the government has kept Parliament paralyzed through the latter half of September and all of October, and now tomorrow will be the third month it would rather tie up the business of the House with a privilege motion on the refusal to hand over evidence to the RCMP in its $400-million corruption scandal.

The government has had a lot of time to go through hard drives and file folders, to go through all the documents that are surrounding the sordid affair where Liberal-friendly board members funnelled taxpayers' dollars into their own companies. I hear from constituents every day who want to know who got rich, who knew it was happening and what the government is doing to get their money back. It all starts with the RCMP's being able to do its job.

I would like to ask someone from the government side what the business of the House might be, should the government finally comply with the lawful production order and let Parliament get back to work.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, over the past few weeks, the Conservatives have been preventing members of Parliament from doing their job. As former senior legal counsel in the Office of the House of Commons Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel Steven Chaplin wrote in The Hill Times this week:

It is time for the House of Commons to admit it was wrong, and to move on. There has now been three weeks of debate on a questionable matter of privilege based on the misuse of the House’[s] power to order producing documents.

He goes on to say:

In short, there must be an underlying parliamentary purpose or function to support what amounts to a summons for the production of documents. In this case, an order for departments and agencies to provide documents to the RCMP through the law clerk is completely untethered to any parliamentary business, and therefore lacks any constitutional—or legal—basis, including any basis in parliamentary law.

He ends with a stark warning, indicating:

It is time for the House to admit its overreach before the matter inevitably finds it way to the courts which do have the ability to determine and limit the House’s powers, often beyond what the House may like.

The House has been held hostage by the official opposition. There is only one party that is obstructing the work of Parliament; that is the reality. As I have shared many times in the chamber, the government supports the motion the Conservatives themselves moved, in which—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for Perth—Wellington is rising on a point of order.