Debates of Nov. 1st, 2024

The Economy

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberal government is just not worth it.

Just this week, the Calgary Food Bank reported more people needed it than ever before. It has had a 200% increase since 2019 and 30% increase in the last year. Nearly 40% of them were employed, higher than the national average. Constituents like Kim write me to say that the coalition will cost them their house, mode of transportation and any semblance of quality of life that they have left.

Will the Prime Minister give Canadians relief and call a carbon tax election?

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and to the Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I have one word: hypocritical. That is what we call it when people say they care about something and then do the exact opposite.

It is like when Conservatives say they care about people who have to use a food bank, but then want to cut a program that is going to feed 400,000 more kids per year. It is like when Conservatives say they care about violent crime, but then want to make it easier for criminals to get guns. It is like when Conservatives say they care about foreign interference, but their leader will not even step up to get a security clearance to protect Canadians.

We cannot believe anything the Conservatives say in the House.

[Branden Leslie, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years, it is clear the NDP-Liberal government is simply not worth the cost.

Food Banks Canada now states that the need for its services is spiralling out of control. In Manitoba, use of food banks has increased 122% since the pandemic, with over 50,000 people relying on them each month. The CEO of Harvest Manitoba said that this is “absolutely unprecedented”, yet the NDP-Liberal government plans to raise the cost of food further by quadrupling the carbon tax.

When will the Prime Minister simply end the pain and let Canadians vote in a carbon tax election?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity]

Mr. Speaker, the hunger report from Food Banks Canada is an important document, and I hope my colleague opposite actually reads it, because it made four recommendations: rebuild the social safety net, invest in truly affordable housing, support lower-income workers and address the northern and remote food insecurity issue. It is 108 pages, but it does not mention the carbon tax once. Why? It is because Food Banks Canada knows that the Canada carbon rebate achieves those four things. It invests in lower-income Canadians. It makes sure that food insecurity is addressed for communities.

If the member opposite wants to quote the food banks, he ought to read the report and make the same recommendations the poverty elimination experts do.

Public Services and Procurement

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

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' indigenous contracting scandal is the biggest Liberal scandal yet. The Liberal government used the indigenous contracting program to send money to well-connected, non-indigenous insiders using shell companies, shady joint ventures and outright fabrication. Indigenous leaders say that most of those who benefited from this program are shell companies.

Will these fraudsters and their Liberal enablers be held accountable, and will they pay back the money they took from taxpayers and real indigenous businesses?

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

Mr. Speaker, indigenous partners have been absolutely clear on this point: Indigenous procurement programs have been essential to supporting indigenous businesses and entrepreneurs and creating jobs at indigenous-led businesses. Initial reports show that the government is exceeding the 5% targets. We are already speaking with first nation, Inuit and Métis partners, business leaders and financial institutions to figure out what is working, what is not working and how we can make it even better.

Dental Care

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Mr. Speaker, one million Canadians are now receiving care under the Canadian dental care plan. This plan is changing the lives of Canadians and helping them get access to the dental care they need. Conservatives voted against this.

Can the minister share with the House what he is hearing from Canadians about the Canadian dental care plan and why this plan is here to stay?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, it is one million in six months, which is fantastic. It is connecting people to care all across the country. I want to thank the member for Bonavista—Burin—Trinity for his incredible advocacy.

We were in Clarenville together and were able to talk on the ground about what this meant for people in his riding. By connecting them to care, they get the dignity of a smile they can be proud of and get preventative care. Afterward, I went to Gander. We talked to Dr. Redmond, who found three oral cancers in the last number of months that would not have been found.

This is saving lives. This is giving people dignity.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has the longest coastline in the world, but the Liberals have abandoned our coasts and coastal communities, just as the Conservatives did. Recently, the Liberals cut the ghost and derelict fishing gear cleanup fund, closed lighthouses, cut funding to deal with invasive green crab and are still allowing a massive ship to be dismantled in a sensitive ecosystem. This is only a snapshot of all their failures for coastal communities.

When is the minister going to stop letting coastal communities down?

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries]

Mr. Speaker, members will not be surprised that I have the opposite view on that. In fact, if we look at coastal communities in British Columbia, we are putting forward a transition for farmed salmon in B.C. We are taking things seriously. We are not pontificating on what is wrong and making judgments. We are curious about what British Columbians need. What they need are good paying jobs. They need a government that takes safety seriously. That is so important.

There is a lot in the question that I would like to unpack. I wish I had 10 more minutes because I would have 10 more minutes of answers on what the government is doing well.

Housing

[Mike Morrice, Green, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last fall, the government gave an HST exemption to for-profit developers of rental units to help address the housing crisis but left out non-profit affordable home ownership builders like Habitat for Humanity. In my community, Habitat's Kehl Street build would have had an extra million for affordable units had this been in place. The federal government could pay for it by ending tax exemptions for large corporate investors that buy up existing units and raise rents.

Will the government include this important measure in the fall economic statement?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his advocacy for Habitat for Humanity. I recently had a meeting with them as well because they opened a new ReStore in Milton. I congratulate Habitat for Humanity and thank them for building thousands and thousands of homes for Canadians. I would also like to thank the member from the Green Party for his advocacy on co-operative housing.

Since this is the last question, I would like to congratulate my mom on 30 years of co-operative housing work in Mississauga. She is retiring on Sunday. We need more co-op housing in Canada. We need more co-op housing workers. We need more community coordinators like my mom Beata. I congratulate my mom on 35 years.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I congratulate the hon. member's mom as well.

I see the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre standing on a point of order.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, during my question in question period, the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, while his Conservative bros giggled around him, heckled me in this chamber. I have had to remind this member before to calm down on his toxic masculinity. I am asking for him to control his inner macho man and apologize.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

While I appreciate the help, I will remind everyone to maintain decorum in the House.

Government Response to Petitions

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8)(a), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's responses to six petitions.

These returns will be tabled in an electronic format.

Industry and Technology

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

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 20th report of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, entitled “Potential anti-competitive behaviour in Canada's e-Transfer ecosystem”.

Medical Assistance in Dying

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have three petitions to table today.

The first petition is on medical assistance in dying or euthanasia and is from constituents in my riding. The petitioners are asking for the Government of Canada to stop the expansion of medical assistance in dying or euthanasia to those whose only underlying condition is mental illness.

Democratic Institutions

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from folks in my riding, made at the time of the Stampede. I am tabling it a little late on their behalf.

The petitioners are asking for the House to hold another non-confidence vote and, should that vote be successful, to hold an election within 45 days.

Falun Gong

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the third petition draws the attention of the House to the continued practice by the CCP to persecute Falun Gong practitioners with transnational repression, including in Canada.

The petitioners are drawing the attention of the House to the fact that the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning organ harvesting abuses in the PRC and has called on the Government of China to immediately end the practice of harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience. I will also draw the attention of the House to the fact that a Canadian, Zuo Li, has been targeted by the CCP with continued repression.

The petitioners are asking Canadian Parliament to do the following: pass a resolution to establish measures to stop the CCP regime's crime of systematically murdering Falun Gong practitioners for their organs, amend Canadian legislation to combat forced organ harvesting and publicly call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in the People's Republic of China.

Diplomatic Relations

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table a petition from a group of concerned citizens who are raising an issue related to foreign interference and the plight of Hong Kongers in Canada.

The petitioners note that the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Canada enjoys diplomatic and immunity privileges. This is largely a result of the “one country, two systems” rule. Under the national security law in Hong Kong, basic rights and basic laws in Hong Kong no longer exists.

The petitioners note that a senior employee of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in the U.K. was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service in foreign interference matters contrary to various sections of the National Security Act. The petitioners further note that evidence was presented that the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in the U.K. was directly involved in paying defendants to conduct hostile activities targeted at the Hong Kong diaspora in the U.K., which included hostile surveillance, acts of deception and forcing entry into a residential address.

Canada has been a safe haven for Hong Kongers fleeing political oppression since 2019, including Canadian-born pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who had been issued bounties by Hong Kong police for violating widely condemned Hong Kong national security laws. To that end, the petitioners are calling for the Canadian government to end the diplomatic privileges and immunity of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Canada.

Climate Change

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

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise virtually today because I am hovering near where my new granddaughter was just born. That is not part of the petition.

I am very pleased to present a petition that does relate to motherhood. It is from an unusual group of petitioners; they are all physicians who are also mothers. The petitioners, as physicians and as mothers, ask the House to pay attention to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's special report about 1.5°C. It was actually issued in the fall of 2018 and set out the parameters that the world will have to meet to avoid going over dangerous tipping points that put the future of our children and grandchildren at risk.

Petitioners ask the government to be cognizant of the imperatives to meet the Paris Agreement targets to reduce emissions dramatically and quickly, to avoid going over a 1.5°C global average temperature increase, which puts the future of human civilization at risk.

Medical Assistance in Dying

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition. Petitioners note that the government's planned expansion of MAID in cases of mental illness where that is the sole underlying condition would put vulnerable Canadians at risk because it is impossible to determine irremediability, as well as to distinguish between suicidality and a rational request for MAID.

Accordingly, petitioners call on the House to stand with vulnerable persons and permanently scrap the reckless expansion of MAID to those with mental illness as the sole underlying medical condition.

Falun Gong

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

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the good people of Central Okanagan.

I present a petition today in regard to Canadians who are concerned about the Communist government in Beijing and its targeting of the people of the Falun Gong community, specifically for human forced organ harvesting, which is an incredibly disgusting practice. I think that, as Canadians, we would all agree that someone should not be targeted for their faith, but as this gruesome practice is being done, petitioners would like a variety of things accomplished. I will simply say that they would like their parliamentarians to amend Canadian legislation to combat forced organ harvesting.

As well, petitioners call, obviously, for the end of persecution of people of faith like the Falun Gong group.

Salmon Fishery

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of coastal people and Vancouver Islanders. The petitioners are concerned about migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks, which are under serious threat from pathogens, pollutants, and sea lice originating from open-net fish farms. This was highlighted in the Cohen commission.

Petitioners cite that wild salmon support first nations cultural traditions and complex ecosystems, including contributing to coastal forests, which produce the oxygen we breathe. In spite of the serious risk of PRV that it poses to the migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans refuses to screen for domestic PRV and stop the transfer of farmed salmon known to be infected with PRV. Last, the Pacific salmon runs on the British Columbia coast are in a state of emergency.

Petitioners are calling for the government to immediately stop the transfer of PRV-infected smolts into open-net salmon farms, complete the transitioning of open-net salmon farms to be land-based closed containment by 2025 and, last, to develop a transition plan that supports communities, workers, suppliers and all who are impacted by the open-net salmon farm industry.