Debates of Oct. 8th, 2024

Reference to Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment]

Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, the Leader of the Opposition spoke to the Canadian Police Association and said, “All of my proposals are constitutional. We will make them constitutional, using whatever tools the Constitution allows me to use to make them constitutional. I think you know exactly what I mean.” He was talking about the notwithstanding clause. We have seen Conservative provincial governments override, using the notwithstanding clause, the rights of workers and the rights of minorities. We hear the RCMP saying they have severe charter concerns about this production order.

Could the hon. colleague speak about the RCMP's charter concerns about this production order?

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, here we go again, the Liberals are trying to deflect and distract. We are here debating a question of privilege because the government, the Prime Minister, has failed to follow the will of Parliament. As I spoke about in my speech, the only place that happens is in dictatorships. The last I checked, Canada was not a dictatorship. We are all elected to serve the people who elected us, not the other way around.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Madam Speaker, the member talked about the challenges Canadians are facing day in and day out, yet we know that Conservatives voted against dental care, they voted against pharmacare, they voted against investments in public housing, and they have not supported our push for tax fairness and calling on greedy corporations to pay their fair share, yet they claim to stand up for Canadians who are suffering.

Why do the Conservatives continue to pretend they stand up for everyday Canadians and vote against them every chance they get?

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Before I allow the hon. member the time to respond, the hon. member for South Shore—St. Margarets has a point of order.

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

Madam Speaker, we are debating the production of documents ordered by the Speaker, right now, and the obstruction of the government in providing those. I did not hear any of that referenced in that member's question, so I would ask for relevance.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Again, the hon. member is fully aware that, during debates, there is some latitude. I did raise this a while ago, as well, but I do want to remind members that the question should be relevant to the question of privilege before the House. I appreciate the hon. member bringing it forward.

I will allow the hon. member for North Okanagan—Shuswap to respond, if he so wishes.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, I will take the question from the NDP member, even though it was not on the question of privilege, and show how it really relates to the question of privilege, a different question of privilege. We are here for Canadians, the Canadians who are suffering under the increasing carbon tax, the increasing taxation and the rising inflation caused by the Liberal-NDP government. We have a Prime Minister and his insiders who are using their privilege to decide where taxpayer money goes instead of going back to the Canadians who really deserve it.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for North Okanagan—Shuswap for his intervention. As a fellow British Columbian, it is always good to see someone from B.C. in this chamber. The question is simple. The government says that there are charter issues around privacy with giving the RCMP documents that they have withheld from this production order that was voted on and passed by the House of Commons. I think the RCMP is a fine organization. If we go to its website, it actually falls under the Privacy Act.

Does the member of Parliament for North Okanagan—Shuswap believe the RCMP is perfectly capable of handling privacy concerns as it carries out its functions to make sure that we have a strong and safe Canada?

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, the question was: do I trust the RCMP with the privacy concerns around this issue? Absolutely. I have family members who served, I have a lot of friends, gotten to know a lot of people, and there have been members in the House who have served in the RCMP. I want to thank them at this time for their service.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Madam Speaker, it is a great day in this place when Conservatives are speaking to the government's fiscal accountability. I just wish they had done that when it came to their own government.

At the time of Stephen Harper, there were scandals galore and we saw the Conservatives shut down investigative proceedings into these issues all the time. The New Democrats, on the other hand, believe in financial accountability and in ensuring that we have strong trust in our public institutions. The Conservatives seem to only care about financial accountability if it means scoring political points.

If the Conservatives were to form government, would they keep the same appetite for fiscal accountability, unlike during the time that Harper was prime minister?

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Edmonton Griesbach for that question on fiscal accountability.

My recollection is that the last NDP leader who talked about fiscal accountability is no longer around. The party basically turfed him because he talked about balancing the budget. Since then, the New Democratic Party has sided with a Liberal government with out-of-control spending to form an NDP-Liberal coalition that has spent more money and created more debt than all other governments in Canada combined.

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

Madam Speaker, the hon. member for North Okanagan—Shuswap gave an insightful speech. As he was a businessman before he entered this place, he has great insight into what happens when there are issues with an employee who absconds with funds.

The Auditor General only did a selective audit of 226 of 420 transactions in the audit period, just half the sample, and found 82% were conflicted. Do you think the government is refusing to release these documents because it does not want the rest of the documents out there because of what they will reveal about Liberal corruption?

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member is not asking me that question. He should address his questions and comments through the Chair.

The hon. member for North Okanagan—Shuswap may provide a brief answer. We are out of time, but I will allow him to respond.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to that.

As a former business owner, I never had the privilege or opportunity to be audited, but I have talked to many businesses that have been audited by the Government of Canada, by the CRA. If it found that 40% or 50% of transactions were questionable, it would not stop there. It would go after every last individual transaction to make sure it found every last tax dollar it could take from a business and turn it over to the government. Why is that not happening here?

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Having reached the expiry of the time provided for today's debate, the House will resume consideration of the privilege motion at the next sitting of the House.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Finance

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Madam Speaker, I have a late show again tonight and it is predicated on a question I asked back in May after the government's budget on the accumulating deficits it has drawn on this country. Parliamentary secretaries for the government at that time told me that there was no problem as Canada was still very highly rated in the world with the best fiscal record.

Let us address some of that in this question here. Canada now has a growth rate of about 1.2%. That is 1.2% per year, according to international bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Monetary Fund, which is not exactly stellar considering that the OECD itself is about 3.8% a year. We have to do better in this country.

However, more than that, if we really look at these numbers, Canada has a huge productivity problem, such a productivity problem vis-à-vis the United States, our main trading partner, that between 2022 and 2023, the U.S. economy GDP per capita actually went up by 3.6%, whereas in Canada our GDP per capita went down by over 5%. How did that happen? That happened because of bad economic policies that, frankly, punish successful companies across Canada.

Also, we still grow our GDP, but we have not grown our GDP per capita because we have 2.4 million new Canadians. If we look at GDP per capita, minus 5% plus, that would mean we are actually in a recession. Did we avoid a recession by saying there is a whole bunch more people and, of course, people mean spending and spending means GDP? It is the nature of what the economy is. That is not the way to run an economy.

Our economy is falling down as far as our productivity goes, as far as the value add that we earn as a country. Now, this is interesting because 10 years ago, in 2013, looking at our productivity in Canada vis-à-vis the United States, Canada's GDP per capita at that point was about 98% of the U.S.'s GDP per capita. What is it now? It is 66% per capita, so it has fallen down by almost a third vis-à-vis our main trading partner. That is a disastrous decade that the Liberal government has foisted upon this country.

However, looking forward, which is the most important thing, we have to look at how this country reverts back to being a productive economy and how we actually get back to a standing in the world where we are once again a world leader.

Ray Dalio is a fund manager, a very important hedge manager in the United States, who is well regarded as far as his views on income equality and its importance in the economy. He looked at Canada in a realm of 35 countries and assessed us at number 26 out of 35, as far as our growth over the next 10 years goes. That was because of all kinds of issues, including the lack of education funding and the lack of ability to actually grow the country, but primarily the excessive debt we have built into the economy. He looked at Canada's 1.2% growth per year over the next 10 years. The top, of course, is India at 6.3% annual growth. The nine countries below Canada are all difficult European countries. We know that Europe's economy is in the sewer and is not going to emerge for quite a while because of bad energy policies.

I am going to ask the government this again: When is it going to address the stress it has caused in the financial markets and actually stop spending so much? The government has a spending problem and needs to get a hold of it to address inflation before it punishes Canadians even more than it already has.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Madam Speaker, I did not have an opportunity to respond to any questions during question period today, because the Conservatives have no economic questions.

I am so grateful to the member for Calgary Centre for his question tonight because in fact the Bank of Canada is leading the G7 in interest rate cuts. Canada was the first G7 country to lower interest rates for the very first time. We were also the first country among all of the G7 peers to cut interest rates for the second time, and yes, we were the first G7 country to cut interest rates for the third time.

I will tell the House why this is good news for Canadians. It is helping business owners, those who have loans and those who do not. It is helping Canadians who have a mortgage coming up for renewal, and it is helping people looking to buy a very first home.

What else is helping Canadians buy a first home? It is the reforms that our government just announced. For example, we are expanding eligibility for 30-year mortgage amortization to all first-time homebuyers and also, importantly, to all buyers of new builds. This will help reduce the cost of monthly mortgage payments and help more Canadians buy a home.

What else is helping Canadians buy a first home? It is the first home savings account that we introduced to allow prospective homebuyers to save up to $40,000 completely tax-free in order to put a down payment towards their first home. In fact, 750,000 Canadians have already taken advantage of the program and opened their account.

What else is helping Canadians? For 19 consecutive months, wage growth has outpaced inflation, which means that even taking into account global inflation and even taking into account affordability pressures, Canadians are still better off today than they were five years ago. They are taking home larger paycheques, even taking into account inflation.

Talking about inflation, I must tell Canadians the truth: Inflation is down to just 2%. The fact that my Conservative colleague is bringing up a question he posed last May shows that the Conservatives are not following the inflation numbers. Inflation is exactly at the target rate that the Bank of Canada had set for itself.

The member opposite seems concerned about inflation, but I would remind him that it was 2% in August, which is right in the middle of the Bank of Canada's inflation target range. Indeed, inflation has been within the Bank of Canada's target range all year.

Moreover, wages have outpaced inflation for 19 consecutive months, meaning that Canadian workers are now receiving higher paycheques on average than they were before the pandemic. That is even with taking inflation into account.

Experts also predict that Canada's GDP will grow the fastest among all our G7 peers in 2025. This shows that the Canadian economy is strong and resilient, and it shows that the economic plan we have put in place is fiscally responsible.

While the Conservatives continue to call for cuts to the supports Canadians depend on, our plan will allow the next generation to realize the dream of buying their first home.

On our side of the House, on the Liberal government side, we know that Canada is stronger when everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Madam Speaker, Canada has dropped its interest rate. The Bank of Canada has dropped it three times in a row now, and Canada has led the world because Canada's economy is leading the world in going down. Of course, we are entering an absolute recession, and not just a GDP-per-capita recession. The recession is on the horizon. I hope it does not happen. Nevertheless, something is on the horizon here: an economy that has stalled and has been stalled for a long time. We can take a look at the 1.2% growth, which is not the type of growth this country should be going through.

Here is the issue. Canadian government debt now is 107% of GDP, which the parliamentary secretary will refute because she is monkeying around with the numbers. In addition, Canadian debt per capita, household debt, is 132% per capita. We have a debt problem in Canada. It is going to land on the backs of Canadians one way or another. Will the government please address this and stop loading more debt onto the backs of Canadians?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Madam speaker, unfortunately my Conservative colleague seems to be cheering on the idea of a recession, which would be bad news for Canadians.

In fact, as I have explained, Canada is projected to have the highest growth rate of our G7 peers in 2025, which is just next year. I would also note that the Conservatives' desperation for bad economic news is not working very well for them, because Canadians understand that they are in fact in a strong economy and are seeing their wages increase.

I would like to correct the member, who mentioned yesterday, I believe, that the Conservatives are enjoying making a comparison to Alabama's GDP. Canada's GDP is $2.138 trillion. Alabama's is $242 billion. Therefore if anybody is monkeying around with the numbers, it is my colleague from Calgary Centre.

I do wish to end simply by stating that our government will continue to fight for vulnerable Canadians while maintaining a fiscally responsible frame.

Public Safety

[Kevin Vuong, Independent, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Madam Speaker, inaction is a choice. The Liberal government's intentional decision to do nothing and allow Samidoun to not only continue to operate on Canadian soil but enjoy tax exemptions on its income as a federally registered non-profit is reprehensible.

Since my initial question to the government on September 20, calling for it to take action to ban Samidoun, arrest leader Khaled Barakat for inciting violence and hatred, and list Samidoun as the terrorist organization that it is, October 7 has passed. On that sombre day, when our Jewish brothers and sisters were grieving the most heinous, horrific and deadly attack on Jews since the Holocaust, what did Samidoun do? It celebrated.

It put up posters for a rally in my city of Toronto under a headline of “Long live October 7”. In Vancouver, it glorified terrorism by literally chanting, “we are Hamas and we are Hezbollah”; these are literal terrorist groups. It also desecrated our Canadian national flag by lighting it on fire. When is enough, enough?

This terrorist-affiliated, terrorist-supporting organization does not even bother to hide it anymore. Before, it would at least pretend to not hate Jews and just claim it was all about anti-Zionism. It just hated Zionists, which, unfortunately, we know is code for Jews. However, every incident of hatred left intentionally unanswered by the government has emboldened the organization.

On October 7, in addition to celebrating literal terrorist groups, Samidoun chanted, “Death to Canada. Death to the United States. And death to Israel.” The people at Samidoun have shown us who they are, and one of the things they have shown us is not only that they hate Jews, but they hate Canada and Canadians.

Why does the government make the choice to allow them to turn Canada into their base of operations to promote terrorism and hatred? Inaction is a choice, and the intentional decision to allow these blatant acts of hatred and incitement of violence is a choice by the Liberal government that puts Canadians in danger. What will it take for the government to stop choosing to allow this to continue?

Being a doormat is not a policy, and the government's tepid condemnation of hate on our soil, with claims of “this is not who we are” or “hate has no place in Canada”, is worthless, when it, with all the resources and authority available to it as a G7 national government, does nothing.

I am not even calling for Canada to be the first to take action. Germany has banned Samidoun, and Khaled Barakat is banned from the entire European Union of 27 countries. Nearly a whole fricking continent will not allow this terrorist supporter onto its soil, yet he is free to spew hatred here in Canada. What am I missing? Is Khaled Barakat a Liberal super donor? Is he a member of the Laurier Club? Is he about to be appointed a board member of SDTC, the Liberal government's green slush fund?

Instead of slushing around, the government should be flushing this hateful organization. My question to the parliamentary secretary is simple: Will it ban Samidoun, yes or no?

[Lisa Hepfner, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Spadina—Fort York has raised some concerns around Samidoun, so I will take this opportunity to state that the Government of Canada is deeply concerned by the issue of hate against Jewish communities. Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or hate in any form is unacceptable.

Hate propaganda and hate crimes are taken very seriously by all orders of government in Canada. The federal government, heads of police services, and provincial and territorial partners have all been meeting regularly to discuss policing collaboration and the best way to ensure safety and security for communities during these challenging times. As a government, we encourage all those affected by hate propaganda to contact their local law enforcement, as well as their local elected officials, should they have any safety concerns revolving around hate speech or actions in a community.

We have taken several actions to combat anti-Semitism and hate in Canada. In November 2023, we appointed the second special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting anti-Semitism. In addition, we recently appointed the first special adviser on Jewish community relations and anti-Semitism. We also renewed Canada's anti-racism strategy to continue the fight against racism, and we introduced Canada's first-ever action plan on combatting hate. In budget 2024, we proposed $273.6 million over six years, starting this year, with $29.3 million ongoing to advance this action plan. The funding will support community outreach and law enforcement reform, tackle the rise in hate crimes, enhance community safety and security, counter radicalization and increase support for victims.

With regard to designating an organization as a terrorist entity, as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety reminded the House today, the minister has already referred the listing of Samidoun to our national security experts and asked for an emergency and urgent review. As my hon. colleague knows, the listing process is iterative. The environment has changed since October 2023, and the public safety department and portfolio agencies continue to monitor and assess national security threats against Canada and Canadians constantly.

I want to be clear: The Government of Canada takes any and all allegations of criminal activity, terrorism or violent extremism in Canada extremely seriously, and we have a number of tools available to address them. They include conducting investigations with a view to laying charges under the Criminal Code, and when applicable, using peace bonds, no-fly listings, the revocation of passports and terrorist listings.

Whether to list or delist an entity under the Criminal Code is determined as a result of a rigorous process that is based on evidence, intelligence and the law. It involves cross-government consultations, used to ascertain whether an entity meets the threshold for listing as set out in the Criminal Code. I cannot comment on the process of listing a specific organization, but I can assure the member that the Government of Canada is taking the necessary actions to keep Canadians safe from violent extremism and terrorism. We will continue to work with all our partners to counter national security threats and to uphold democracy. This government stands firm in actions to protect Canadians and its belief that it is wrong to direct hatred, violence and intolerance towards those of diverse faiths and social groups. These acts will not be tolerated in Canada. We can build a better future together.

[Kevin Vuong, Independent, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Madam Speaker, that response was reprehensible, with more empty words and platitudes. I would say that it was a joke, but this is no laughing matter; it is an issue of safety for Canadians. How seriously does the government take something if it does literally nothing?

Canadians do not need another action plan; they need action. The Liberals are boasting about another review when this organization has talked about how they have links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another terror organization on Canada's designated terror list. I do not want a list of stuff that the government can do but has not done.

When will the government take action? More importantly, if something happens, will the government take responsibility for its inaction?

[Lisa Hepfner, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada is firm in its stand against hate and against terrorism. As a government, we are deeply concerned by the issue of hate against Jewish communities. Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or hate in any form is unacceptable and has no place in this country.

The government encourages all those affected by hate propaganda to contact law enforcement, as well as local elected officials, if they have safety concerns revolving around hateful speech or actions in a community. As my colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety reminded the House today, the minister has already referred the listing of Samidoun to our national security experts and asked for an emergency and urgent review.

As a government, we have taken the action necessary to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of hate in Canada, and we will continue to do so. We will continue this work to keep Canadians safe.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Arpan Khanna, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Madam Speaker, we had a consensus on immigration. It was never a controversial topic. We had the best immigration system in the world; it was the envy of the world. It was a system that brought in the brightest and the best. It was a system that had integrity. It was a system that worked for newcomers and Canadians who have been here for generations. However, after nine years of the Liberal-NDP government and five immigration ministers in that time, we have seen our immigration system fall apart. Our system is now full of chaos, full of fraud and full of abuse.

What is most concerning for me is that the current immigration minister wakes up every single morning, goes to the media and says that he is alarmed with what is going on, that he is shocked with his own department's failings. Do not take my word for it. His own colleagues have said the system is a mess and is out of control.

We have seen a record number of people in the low-wage stream of our TFW program. We have seen chaos in our international student program. We have students coming to our country for degrees that we do not need from colleges that do not exist. Recently, we saw a massive surge in asylum claims after the changes the government made.

Canada's population growth is at about 3.4%. That is not sustainable. Again, do not take my word for it. The Prime Minister himself has said that Canada's immigration rate has grown “beyond what Canada has been able to absorb”. These are record numbers, and they put pressure not only on housing, services and health care, but also on the labour market for our youth. We saw a 14% youth unemployment rate this past summer because of folks coming here through the low-wage stream and abusing that process. Greedy corporations were also abusing it.

This is not a problem that started today. The government was warned by officials that its reckless policies would cause a housing crisis and would put pressure on our health care system. The government ignored it.

In 2018, the government removed the police clearance certificate requirement for temporary residents coming to our country. Recently, we found out from a media investigation, a story that came out, that government officials were told to skip over crucial vetting for the temporary foreign worker program.

This is weakening our system. It is jeopardizing our country. It is not only putting Canadians at risk, but also breaking a system that was once the envy of the world, a system that everyone wanted to copy, a system that had integrity.

My question for the minister is very simple. We have seen new ministers. We have seen new announcements. We have seen a lot of photo ops. However, we have not seen any changes to our country's immigration system. Why is the minister so negligent? Why has he broken Canada's immigration system, which is not only causing chaos for newcomers but also hurting Canadians?