House of Commons Hansard #350 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was liberals.
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Mr. Speaker, in all of our conversations with researchers and students, there is one thing that everyone agrees on: The solutions to many global problems can be found through science and research.
Can the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry inform the House of the work that our government is doing to support our researchers in areas such as climate change and food science?
François-Philippe Champagne LiberalMinister of Innovation
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent work. We all benefit from investments in science and research. Thanks to the work of the Minister of Finance, in the last budget, we invested $800 million in 24 organizations that are working on the biggest challenges facing the world today.
Everyone is delighted by the fact that, more recently, Canada joined Horizon Europe, the biggest research project in the world. Our young researchers, teachers and students will now be able to work with our colleagues in Europe. Let us seize this opportunity, let us be ambitious and let us make Canada a leader in research and science.
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Mr. Speaker, after nine years of NDP-Liberals, taxes are up, costs are up, crime is up and time is up. What else is up? The number of kids needing to use a food bank is up.
The London Food Bank is already helping over 16,000 people every month. More and more post-secondary students are going hungry. Thanksgiving is this weekend and many families will be going without because the cost of the carbon tax is making food too expensive.
If the Prime Minister is so convinced on his carbon tax, why will he not call a carbon tax election?
Jenna Sudds LiberalMinister of Families
Mr. Speaker, we all suffer when some of our fellow Canadians are suffering.
We have made some historic investments, including in 2016 when we brought in the Canada child benefit, which is providing support to over 4.3 million families each and every month. An allowance goes in their bank account every month to help with the basics. This is how we are fighting for and supporting Canadian families.
Lianne Rood Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Mr. Speaker, of course the Laurentian elites would not understand. They do not know what it is like to be a parent living paycheque to paycheque, trying to feed their family.
Constant NDP-Liberal tax hikes and inflationary spending mean that one million Ontarians had to use a food bank last year because they could not afford to buy food. In Middlesex-London, that means that 23,000 kids are going hungry.
What parents really want is to give their kids a good Thanksgiving, so will the Prime Minister give Canadians what they want and call a carbon tax election?
Jenna Sudds LiberalMinister of Families
Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House we are focused on fighting for Canadian families. What does that mean? It means making a billion-dollar commitment to families and children across this country to bring forward a school food program that will feed over 400,000 children each and every year. We have already seen progress with Newfoundland and Labrador on board with putting it forward in their schools.
I look forward to more provinces and territories signing on so we can ensure that kids have food at school.
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Mr. Speaker, after nine years of this Liberal government, young Canadians and Quebeckers are suffering. The high cost of living is causing despair across the country.
Some 1.3 million Quebeckers are food insecure and, on top of that, they cannot find work. In a country like Canada, that is shameful. Quebeckers have had enough of this centralizing, inflationary Liberal government but the Bloc Québécois still insists on keeping it in power. It is unbelievable.
Will the “Liberal Bloc” give young Quebeckers a break and stop supporting this Liberal Prime Minister, who is ruthlessly making them poorer?
Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalMinister of Public Services and Procurement
Mr. Speaker, “ruthlessness” is indeed the Conservative policy for how to treat Quebec families, including in my colleague's riding.
His Conservative leader thinks that helping families whose children go to school on an empty stomach in the morning and feeding them before school starts is bureaucracy. He said it is just bureaucracy. Would he like to invite his Conservative leader to explain to Moisson Kamouraska, for example, in his own riding, why helping children in those schools is just bureaucracy?
Joanne Thompson Liberal St. John's East, NL
Mr. Speaker, in 2012, the Conservative prime minister travelled to the World Economic Forum in Davos to announce the plan to raise the retirement age to 67. The Conservative plan, supported by the Leader of the Opposition, would have taken away OAS from one million Canadian seniors who turn 65 this year.
Can the minister of seniors share how the government has defended Canadians' right to retire at 65 and what further supports for seniors are at risk of Conservative cuts?
Steven MacKinnon LiberalMinister of Labour and Seniors
Mr. Speaker, my colleague is chair of our seniors caucus. The Conservatives' World Economic Forum agenda tried to turn Canadians' two best years of retirement into their two worst years of work by raising the retirement age to 67. We reversed it.
Their World Economic Forum wish list would cut our $1,000-increase to the GIS that helps nearly a million seniors. It would cut rent relief for vulnerable seniors and would kick 2.5 million seniors off the Canadian dental care plan. The World Economic Forum agenda will not pass.
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Mr. Speaker, for three years the Liberals have allowed a company in Union Bay to break apart a massive ship in the high tide zone without its being in a self-contained floating dry dock. This is despite objections of the province, local communities and first nations. Nowhere else in the world would this unregulated chaos be allowed to take place. A recent provincial inspection found that the operations are discharging effluent more than 100 times the limit for copper and more than 13 times the limit for zinc.
What will it finally take for the federal government to step in and put an end to dangerous, unregulated ship-breaking?
Mike Kelloway LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries
Mr. Speaker, as the member opposite knows, there is a federal responsibility but there is also a provincial responsibility. There is a responsibility to collaborate on every piece of what the member opposite talked about. We are going to continue to uphold our end on the DFO side. We ask the province to do the same.
Kevin Vuong Independent Spadina—Fort York, ON
Mr. Speaker, today is the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. On that horrific day, Hamas killed over 1,200 people, including eight Canadians, and over 200 were taken hostage. At home, in one year there have been nearly 5,800 incidents of hatred and anti-Semitism, including Samidoun posters today for a Toronto event under the heading “Long live October 7.”
The government's pathetic condemnation of Hamas with no action on domestic pro-Hamas supporters does nothing to end violence and intimidation.
Will the government give up its veiled support for terrorist sympathizers? The safety of our citizens is the only priority.
Arif Virani LiberalMinister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, I will agree with one thing the independent member just said: “The safety of our citizens is the only priority.” That is why we have a national action plan to combat hatred. That is why there is a bill on the legislature floor right now, Bill C-63, that would target online radicalization that leads to anti-Semitism.
How does somebody get to the point where they are targeting a Jewish day school, a Jewish day care or a Jewish synagogue? They are radicalized online. The same bill has augmentation of penalties for willful promotion of anti-Semitism, public incitement of hatred and advocating genocide. It is a bill that not every party in the chamber supports, and it is what we need to get behind.
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
Colleagues, there have been discussions among representatives of all parties in the House and I believe there is consent to observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the attack in Israel one year ago.
I invite hon. members to rise.
[A moment of silence observed]
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
Colleagues, as I said during question period, there is a matter to which I would like to return. After reviewing the transcript, in one of his questions the Leader of the Opposition used language that was very similar to language that was found unparliamentary in the past. Earlier this year, a member accused the Leader of the Opposition of pandering to a regime I think most of us would find odious. That member was asked to withdraw that comment.
In his question today, the Leader of the Opposition accused the Minister of Foreign Affairs of something similar. As I have said before, there are ways to make our points without resorting to these types of comments.
I would ask that the Leader of the Opposition withdraw his comment at the earliest opportunity.
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order.
One of the concerns that we have expressed in the past is related to your ruling. We support your statement, and we want to ensure that all members are treated equally and that the leader of the Conservative Party not be allowed to speak until he has actually given a formal apology.
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
The Chair has already made a declaration. I think that addressed those points. I invite all members, if they have questions, to read that.
The hon. member for Thornhill is seeking unanimous consent.
Melissa Lantsman Conservative Thornhill, ON
Mr. Speaker, today marks the first extremely dark anniversary of October 7, 2023, when terrorists carried out the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
After consultation with parties, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move:
That the House:
Unequivocally reaffirms Israel's right to defend itself from terrorists who attack it,
Expresses support for the victims of the October 7th attack, their families and the people of Israel,
Calls for the immediate release of the 101 hostages still being held captive,
Condemns the grotesque rise in antisemitism and hate towards Jews in Canada over the past year, and
Condemns Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist entities which must be eliminated.
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
All those opposed to the hon. member's moving the motion will please say nay. It is agreed.
The House has heard the terms of the motion. All those opposed to the motion will please say nay.
(Motion agreed to)
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. On September 26, the Speaker said the following in the House:
The House has clearly ordered the production of certain documents, and that order has clearly not been fully complied with.
You then went on to say that you “cannot come to any other conclusion but to find that a prima facie question of privilege has been established”.
I would like to table the—
The House resumed from October 3 consideration of the motion.
Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with DisabilitiesCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings
Liberal
The Speaker Liberal Greg Fergus
It being 3:17 p.m., the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion to concur in the 20th report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.
Call in the members.