Debates of Dec. 11th, 2024

Housing

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it is the holidays. Winter is here and people are dying. At a time when people should be gathered around the table, under a warm roof, four Edmontonians have died on the streets. Last winter, over 100 people lost a limb due to frostbite. Liberals have let people in Edmonton down. They are either too weak or do not care to stand up to Conservative Premier Danielle Smith's cuts to Edmonton's social services.

Why is the Prime Minister, just like the Conservatives, standing by while Edmontonians freeze?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have put significant amounts of money forward for the provinces to tackle the issue of encampments and to tackle homelessness. We have made historic investments in increasing housing and decreasing homelessness. Provinces have been varied in their response to be willing to work with the federal government.

That is why we are working directly with the City of Edmonton and Mayor Sohi to move forward on supports to fight homelessness in Edmonton, just as we are right across the country. It takes investment, compassion and partnership, and that is what we are doing.

Indigenous Affairs

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

Mr. Speaker, since 2015, our government has made reconciliation with indigenous people one of the most crucial priorities for Canada. We have made important progress from returning unceded land back to communities, making aggressive investments in housing, reforming health care and eliminating almost 150 long-term boil water advisories across the country.

Would the Prime Minister tell Canadians what more we as a government can do to support reconciliation?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking the member for Northwest Territories for his tireless advocacy and his leadership. We introduced the first nations clean water act to ensure clean drinking water for generations to come and give first nations the tools to manage their own drinking water infrastructure.

It was shameful that, in the presence of chiefs gathered from across the country, members of the Conservative Party voted to refuse to send that bill to the Senate. They stood against us sending Bill C-61 to the Senate. Shame on them. We need to solve drinking water for generations to come.

Mental Health and Addictions

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the weak Prime Minister has lost control of our borders. He started by teaming up with the British Columbia NDP to decriminalize fentanyl. He has kept 80% of fentanyl precursor ingredients legal. He allows 99% of shipping containers to come into our country uninspected. He passed Bill C-5, which gives house arrest to the kingpins who produce that poison.

Will the Prime Minister reverse his radical liberalization of drugs so that not one more mother will have the heartbreak of losing a child to an overdose?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the toxic drug epidemic has been hitting hard in communities right across the country and, indeed, across North America. That is why we have been stepping up by using an evidence-based, compassion-based, public health-based approach to solving the opioid epidemic and the toxic drug crisis. We are going to continue to lean on scientists, researchers and compassionate frontline workers as we invest to support Canadian families from coast to coast to coast.

It is not more ideology proposed by the Leader of the Opposition that is going to solve this. It is the careful application of reasonable responses.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, it is the Prime Minister's weird, woke, liberalization ideology that has caused the 47,000 deaths and the 200% increase in overdoses.

However, just like the Prime Minister has lost control of the drugs, he has lost control of immigration. Do not take my word for it. The Globe and Mail said that the Liberal government “lost control of Canada's immigration system”, highlighting that there are now 30,000 people who have been ordered deported that the Prime Minister has now lost track of. What is his plan to find them and deport them?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, despite the Leader of the Opposition trying to pretend it is not true, Canada remains the best country in the world, and the fact that we are facing significant challenges, like other places around the world, does not take away from that.

We will continue to roll up our sleeves. We will continue to defend Canada's interests, defend Canada's borders and work with our partners in the United States. The Leader of the Opposition cannot help talking down Canada and Canadians. We are going to work with Canadians, with provinces, in a team Canada approach and protect Canada's structures and systems.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, we have the best country with the worst Prime Minister. He is weak, woke and wasteful, and he has lost track of 30,000 people who have been ordered deported but have now vanished. Now, we have millions of other people who are going to come up for exit when their permits and visas expire over the next year and a half, and the Prime Minister will not tell us what the plan is to get people out of the country who are not supposed to be here.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians continue to have confidence in immigration as a good thing for our economy, a good thing for our country, because they know we have a strong and rigorous immigration system that adjusts, depending on the needs and the opportunities for Canada to grow and integrate more people. That is what we are continuing to defend. That is what we fight for every single day.

While the Leader of the Opposition talks down Canada, talks down Canadians and puts partisan attacks ahead of reasonable policy solutions, we are going to do the work necessary to protect Canadians and protect our immigration system.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, that is another weak response from a weak Prime Minister who has lost control of our immigration system.

Three Chileans who are in Canada illegally escaped from a holding centre in Laval. In addition to these three fugitives, there are nearly 750 foreigners in Quebec who are considered to be dangerous but who this government is incapable of deporting. What is more, apparently the government has literally lost track of 30,000 people who have been ordered deported.

What is the plan to deport them?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, over these past few years, we have made considerable investments in our border security agency. We have made investments in our police forces.

That is in contrast to the Conservatives, who laid off 1,100 border officers when they were in power. They made cuts to our police services. They made cuts to our border services. They chose to reduce Canada's security while encouraging sales of ever more dangerous firearms.

That is why we made it impossible to buy assault-style weapons, and we will continue to protect Canadians.

Leader of the Conservative Party

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have a bit of a strange question for the Prime Minister. The Conservative leader is taking advantage of his position to say all kinds of things about the Bloc Québécois, Quebec and me. He is doing this while cravenly refusing the many invitations I have issued again and again for over a year to debate me publicly. Today, he has gone a step further.

Is the Prime Minister not concerned that the Conservatives are firmly determined to push the Bloc Québécois even further toward independence?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am well aware that members of the Bloc Québécois, like all other parliamentarians in the House, do not take what the Conservative leader is saying very seriously. In fact, very few Quebeckers take this Conservative leader seriously, in light of his position against women's rights, his support for making assault-style weapons legal again and his wish to get rid of the dental care program, which has already helped hundreds of thousands of Quebeckers.

We are here to invest by working with our Bloc Québécois and NDP colleagues to help people. The Conservatives just want to pick fights.

Government Priorities

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, a House of Commons committee is attacking Quebec. The Minister of Immigration is attacking Quebec's premier. The Conservatives' question box is clearly empty, since they have repeated the same thing eight times. The government has not had any answers for a long time, and we are no longer dealing with the challenges that we should be dealing with in this Parliament.

Is it not time for us all to heartily wish each other a merry Christmas, because we have the right to do so? We can see each other again when it is time for an election.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am always willing to wish everyone in the House and across the country a merry Christmas, but we still have work to do.

We have to present the economic update, which will provide help for Quebeckers and Canadians. It will include investments in our future, while we are dealing with challenges with the Americans. We have work to do during the upcoming spring parliamentary session to add people to the list of those who are eligible for dental care. We are here to provide free prescription contraceptives and free insulin to those who need it. We have work to do, and we are going to do it for Canadians.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, it is time for an election.

Yesterday, the Bloc Québécois voted several times against an election. It voted to keep this government in power. There is going to be a debate and the leader of the Bloc Québécois is going to have to deal with the fact that the Conservatives want to eliminate the GST on new housing and the Bloc does not. The leader of the Bloc Québécois wants to create more federal bureaucracy by supporting this government. We want to get rid of it. That is the choice Quebeckers will make.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

We are hearing more questions that have nothing to do with the administration of the government, but I see that the right hon. Prime Minister is rising to respond.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in the House, we voted in favour of Canada's action plan on combatting hate, in favour of the national Holocaust remembrance program, in favour of the Canada housing benefit. However, the Conservatives voted against. We voted in favour of the veterans emergency fund and in favour of the national strategy for the protection of children from sexual exploitation on the Internet. However, the Conservatives voted against.

I recognize that parliamentarians from other parties voted in favour of these good things. The Conservatives continually vote against the interest of Canadians, against direct help for those who need it.

Labour

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this is a weak Prime Minister who has lost control of spending, debt and inflation. Workers are now forced to fight to make up lost wages. That is why, last year, Canada had more strikes than in any year since 1981, that is, since the last Trudeau was breaking the country and its economy. Canadians are now suffering because they cannot get their donations to charities, small businesses cannot get their payments and the economy is losing millions.

Will he sit the two sides down, get a deal and put an end to this dreadful strike?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, unlike the Conservative Party, whose attacks on unions are well documented, from Bill C-575 and Bill C-377, its anti-union bills that the Leader of the Opposition voted for, to continually choosing to use back-to-work legislation, as it did time and time again, we believe that the best deals happen at the bargaining table, which is why the minister has gotten the two sides of Canada Post together to try to find a solution that will work. We know that small businesses are hurting. Canadians in rural and remote areas are hurting. We will continue to look to help them, and we will get this resolved the right way.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, this weak Prime Minister has lost control. He has lost control of spending, debt and inflation. This has forced workers to fight for wage increases. Last year, we had the highest number of strikes since 1981, when his father broke the economy. Now the strike at Canada Post is turning out to be very costly for non-profit organizations and small businesses. It is costing our economy a lot of money.

When will the Prime Minister listen to both sides and reach an agreement to end this strike?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party of Canada's hostility towards workers and unions is well documented. I do not need to revisit that.

We will continue to ensure that the best agreements are reached at the bargaining table. That is why we encourage both sides to keep working on it, because, yes, small businesses are suffering, NPOs need postal services, and Canadians living in rural and remote areas depend on Canada Post.

That is why we are working to find solutions to try to resolve the situation.

Public Safety

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last week marked the 35th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre. Quebeckers and Canadians across the country mourned the 14 women who were killed in a sadistic act of gender-based violence.

In recent years, mass shootings have caused unbelievable tragedy in many communities, such as Portapique, Truro and Quebec City.

Can the Prime Minister explain the measures that are being taken by the government to protect Canadians against armed violence?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Saint-Laurent for her question and for her hard work.

Unlike the Conservative leader, we always choose Canadians' safety over the gun lobby. That is why we are taking assault-style firearms out of our communities through the buyback program.

Let us be clear. We will always condemn violence against women through measures such as red-flag legislation and funding to prevent gender-based violence. We will always be there to defend women and to help put an end to family violence. The Conservatives will be there to make sure that there are more guns.