House of Commons Hansard #387 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was policy.
FinanceOral Questions
The Speaker Greg Fergus
I am going to ask members, please, and in particular the member for Portage—Lisgar as well as the member for Abbotsford, not to take the floor unless recognized by the Speaker.
I am going to invite the right hon. Prime Minister to start again.
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, the challenge faced by the Leader of the Opposition is he spent so long explaining to Canadians that everything is broken that when things start to get better, he refuses to actually help Canadians. He has voted against a tax break for Canadians over the next few months. He has voted against the dental care that has helped already well over a million Canadians. He is stuck in a place where, as Canadians are starting to come through the difficult times the global economy has put them in, he needs to continue to talk down Canadians, talk down our economy and scare people into voting for him. It will not work.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Bloc Québécois again voted to authorize an additional $21 billion in federal spending by this centralizing government, in other words, a total of $500 billion in inflationary, centralizing and Liberal spending, more power for the government here in Ottawa and less money in the pockets of Quebeckers.
What did the Prime Minister offer the leader of the Bloc Québécois to convince him to support big deficits, big bureaucracy and the enormous inflation the federal government is imposing on Quebec?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the question that Quebeckers and all Canadians should be asking instead is why did the Conservative Party vote against Kids Help Phone, against funding for affordable housing, against military help for Ukraine, against funding to combat auto theft in Canada, against support for victims of hate crime, against dental care and against the national school food program.
The question is not why parliamentarians supported that, it is why the Conservative leader stands against Canadians.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, that money will never do what he is saying it will do. It will only serve to bulk up the bureaucracy in Ottawa, as usual.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois said that he has to support the government's spending by voting for tax credits or else the government will simply stop operating, much like in the United States, but we are not in the United States. Here, if a vote fails, the government does not stop running. There is an election, which gives people a choice.
Will the Prime Minister pay to give the leader of the Bloc Québécois some training on how the parliamentary system works?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, we are starting to get used to the Conservative leader's contempt for government members, but the fact that he is beginning to treat other members of Parliament, other opposition leaders, with contempt shows his real approach, which is not worthy of this chamber or of the responsibility that we all have to defend the interests of Canadians.
He cannot explain why he voted against a tax holiday for Canadians. He cannot explain why he voted against dental care for seniors. Instead, he is choosing to attack and insult. Canadians deserve better.
Yves-François Blanchet Bloc Beloeil—Chambly, QC
Mr. Speaker, are higher education institutions free like the Prime Minister says? That is a good question.
What we do know is that education falls under Quebec's jurisdiction, and it is up to Quebec to decide what happens in Quebec schools.
As in the previous question, what I want to know is whether the Prime Minister is siding with the students and teachers of sex education in Quebec schools, or whether he is siding with those who wish to intimidate them and engage in religious fearmongering.
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, regardless of the various jurisdictions across the country, which we do respect, the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all Canadians are protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that freedom of expression, freedom of thought and freedom of belief are respected across our country.
Obviously, we respect the work that the provinces are doing to run their education systems, but we will always be there to defend these fundamental freedoms for everyone, particularly vulnerable children.
Yves-François Blanchet Bloc Beloeil—Chambly, QC
Mr. Speaker, examples of courage are few and far between in this Parliament.
I want to remind everyone that there is a provision in the Criminal Code that allows people to spread hate and incite violence under the guise of religion.
If he does not have the courage to do anything else, will he at least put an end to the religious exemption and stop allowing hate propaganda and incitement to violence on religious grounds?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, spreading hate and encouraging violence are still illegal in Canada. That is why we expect our police forces and courts to be there to protect the public and enforce the law.
The federal government will always be there to protect and defend the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of belief and freedom of thought in Canada.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Prime Minister and the entire Liberal caucus voted against taking the GST off new homes, which would have saved up to $50,000 for a young couple trying to buy a home and almost $3,000 a year in lower mortgage payments, and would have stimulated an extra 30,000 additional homes built. Even the Prime Minister's own housing adviser said that this was the best housing policy he has seen in a generation.
Why does the Prime Minister insist on taxing the young people who are struggling to pay the doubling housing costs, which he has brought since he took office?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have long learned that, whenever Conservatives make promises, they have to look at the small print. What the Leader of the Opposition actually proposed was to cut billions of dollars' worth of investments to municipalities across the country to create more density, to accelerate the construction of homes and to cut bureaucracy and red tape. Indeed, members of the Conservative Party have been advocating to invest in their communities and send money to their mayors, and the Leader of the Opposition wrote a letter in their names saying that none of them want those investments in housing. Shame on him.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, he is again imagining things. His program does not build homes; it builds bureaucracy. The only density is in his head.
Our policy was—
HousingOral Questions
The Speaker Greg Fergus
No, I will ask the Leader of the Opposition to withdraw that statement and to rephrase his question.
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Mr. Speaker, it is in his imagination. That is all.
The Prime Minister wants to tax people up to $50,000 when they are buying a home so he can give more money to the very bureaucrats who block homebuilding. It is not that his housing funds do not help. It is worse. They actually block new homebuilding with more bureaucrats.
Why do we not follow my plan to slash the bureaucracy, axe the tax and build the homes?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the problem with what the Conservative leader is saying, leaving aside the childish insults, is that his own MPs are going behind his back, pleading to the minister to please send investments to build more homes to their municipalities, and complaining behind his back to the CBC that they cannot stand up for their communities. MPs are supposed to be their communities' voices in this place, but he gives them a rap on the knuckles if ever they dare be anything but his voice in their communities.
HousingOral Questions
The Speaker Greg Fergus
I am going to ask the hon. member for Niagara Falls to please not take the floor when not recognized.
The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Bloc Québécois voted against eliminating the GST on homes.
I would like someone to explain this to me. A self-proclaimed sovereignist party wants to take money out of the pockets of young Quebeckers who are buying homes and give it to the most centralizing government in history, the big bad feds.
Why is a sovereignist party supporting the concentration of power and Quebeckers' money here in Ottawa?
HousingOral Questions
The Speaker Greg Fergus
That question is not relevant to the administration of government, but I see that the right hon. Prime Minister is rising to answer it.
I hope that this will not become a trend.
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, what the members of the Bloc Québécois and the Conservative members from Quebec understand is that the $1.8 billion that the federal and provincial governments are investing in the housing accelerator fund is helping to create more density, to accelerate the construction of homes and to cut bureaucracy and red tape.
The Conservative members from Quebec are not allowed to talk about that or about how harmful the $1.8 billion in cuts that the Conservative Party is proposing will be, because they are afraid of their leader.
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, we want to put up to $50,000 in the pockets of a young Quebec family buying a house, after Liberal programs have managed to double the cost of housing and, in fact, triple the cost of rent in Montreal.
The Bloc Québécois is voting to feed the federal bureaucracy with Quebeckers' money. The Conservative Party is the only party that wants to help young Quebeckers be sovereign and keep money in their pockets.
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, this federal government sent $900 million to Quebec to build more homes, reduce bureaucracy, accelerate housing construction and cut the red tape, but the Conservative leader is proposing to take that money away from Quebec.
These young Quebeckers who need affordable homes and opportunities are not going to see any construction under a Conservative government because the Conservatives want to cut investments in housing. That is what people voted against.
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Mr. Speaker, the special interlocutor, the AFN, the Canadian Medical Association and the victims ombudsperson are calling for legal mechanisms to end residential school denialism, but the Liberal Attorney General is missing in action when it comes to the rise of extremism against indigenous people. He has failed to protect survivors and their families from violence. Inciting hate is not free speech.
Will the Prime Minister heed these calls and adopt my bill, Bill C-413, to protect survivors and their families from the incitement of hate?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, we agree. Incitement to hatred and incitement to violence are not free speech. We need to make sure that the path of reconciliation that this country is on is walked on by everyone.
That is why we have stepped up significantly in our anti-racism strategy while we continue to work with that member on her private member's bill and move forward to make sure that everyone who believes in the better future for Canada, despite all those who continue to attempt to deny residential schools, hold together and prevent denialism from happening.