Debates of Feb. 7th, 2024

Housing

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our housing ambition can be best summed up by the Conservative member for Dufferin—Caledon who said that it seems that every day our Minister of Housing has a new program, a new announcement or a new cheque for Canadians. That is exactly right.

We continue to work hand in hand with Canadians and with municipalities across the country, municipalities he would rather insult, to get more homes built faster. The investments we are making, including things like taking the GST off purpose-built rental housing, which the Conservatives voted against, will continue to create more homes for Canadians right across the country.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, people cannot live in announcements and programs; they need homes that have walls, floors and ceilings. The Prime Minister doing another selfie in front of a construction site will not do that. In fact, construction was down 28% in December.

After eight years of the Prime Minister's promises and spending, will he accept our common-sense plan to build homes and not bureaucracy?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, just last week I was in Kitchener–Waterloo making an announcement for the housing accelerator program for Waterloo.

What the Leader of the Opposition seems to have missed is that we were standing in a freshly completed building for seniors. In fact, $33 million of funding from the federal government a few years ago allowed that building to be built today.

We are building things today that people are moving into in the coming weeks. We are announcing how we are building things for tomorrow, while he just chooses to insult Canadians, insult mayors and insult our intelligence.

Justice

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

Mr. Speaker, the government wants a three-year extension on its deadline to comply with a ruling on medical assistance in dying for mental illness. Imagine what will happen if the Conservatives form government. That is not what we want, but the alternative is not much better. Just imagine what will happen if the Conservatives come to power: They would delay MAID forever and a day. They would never act on it.

Does the Prime Minister realize that he is acting as though he is afraid of the religious right?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we could not agree more that a Conservative government would pose a threat to fundamental rights and freedoms. At the same time, when it comes to medical assistance in dying, we understand how difficult and personal a choice this is. We have a duty to protect the most vulnerable while respecting fundamental rights and freedoms. That is why, with regard to advance requests for people with mental health issues and for minors, we have been holding and will continue to hold in-depth discussions and consultations before going any further.

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

Mr. Speaker, indeed, there is a solution to consider. With the support of the Quebec National Assembly, Quebec has proposed that the Liberal government's legislation include a conditional provision allowing Quebec or any other interested province to authorize advance requests for medical assistance in dying. If that happens, the three-year extension would then be acceptable because Quebec could proceed according to the values of Quebeckers.

Is the Prime Minister willing to agree to Quebec's proposal?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I pointed out, the issue of advance requests was raised a number of years ago and has been identified as one of the important but difficult discussions we need to have as a society.

Could someone make an advance request to receive medical assistance in dying if their condition reaches a certain point, even if they are unable to consent to it? This is a difficult and important issue.

I welcome Quebec's debates on the issue. We are going to pursue our discussions on that.

Grocery Industry

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister could learn a lot from the young women I met earlier today, who are struggling to put food on the table. They are living a struggle that he has never had to face. They are getting ripped off by corporate grocery stores, and the Prime Minister has let it happen for over two years.

Will the Prime Minister get serious now about taking on corporate greed by supporting my bill to reduce the price of groceries?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, right now, with the fall economic statement, we are proposing significant measures to increase competition in the grocery sector. Many of them are ideas that we are in alignment with the leader of the NDP on. We believe in moving forward with greater competition in the grocery sector. That is something the NDP and the Liberals agree on.

It is not something Conservatives agree on; their chief strategist is actually on the Loblaws' payroll. They choose to promote disinformation and misinformation while defending big grocers. On this side of the House, we will stand up for Canadians.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, both the Liberals and the Conservatives have a history of letting rich CEOs off the hook. We can change that today.

The Prime Minister could learn a lot from the young women I met earlier today who are struggling to make ends meet. They are living a life he has never had to face. While they are being gouged by the major grocery chains, the Prime Minister is siding with the CEOs.

Will the Prime Minister vote in favour of my bill to bring down grocery prices?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the NDP's efforts to increase competition in the grocery sector, because we really believe in that. We have included measures in our legislation that correspond to the measures proposed by the NDP. We absolutely believe in increasing competition in the grocery sector. That is something the NDP and the Liberals agree on.

The Conservatives would rather listen to their lobbyist buddy who works for Loblaw and defend the interests of major grocery retailers, instead of fighting on behalf of Canadians to bring down grocery prices.

Public Safety

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this Prime Minister, he is not worth the crime caused by his automatic catch-and-release policies for car thieves and his mismanagement of the ports.

Mark Roos had his Dodge Ram stolen. According to the AirTag he put in his truck, it was at the port of Montreal. He knows it is there. However, according to port security, they cannot go find the truck because there are not enough scanners.

Will the Prime Minister agree to my common-sense plan and buy 24 scanners to find the Dodge Ram?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, organized crime is responsible for the rise in auto theft across the country. The Conservative Party's attacks on Bill C-5 and Bill C-75 are simply not the solution or the way to solve this problem.

We will continue to invest in the fight against auto theft with, for example, $121 million for the Government of Ontario.

We will continue to work with the CBSA to increase its staff. We are there to do our part.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the question was about scanners at ports.

After eight years, the port authorities are only scanning or inspecting 1% of shipping containers leaving our ports. That led to the case where Mark Roos had his 2021 Dodge Ram stolen. Luckily, he had an Apple AirTag, so he could follow its transit to the port of Montreal, where he knows it to be. He called the cops and the port authority, both of which said that they do not know which box it is in, so they cannot find it.

Why will the Prime Minister not accept my common-sense plan to buy 24 scanners so we can scan the boxes, find the Dodge Ram and give it back to Mark?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this would perhaps be a little more credible from the Conservative Party if it had not cut 1,000 CBSA officers when it was last in government. Conservatives proposed to cut 400 more, if they had the 2015 election.

The reality is that we restored every single border officer they cut and added 800 more. We are continuing to do the necessary work. We recovered 1,800 stolen vehicles last year. We will continue to do—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I ask members to please keep their comments to themselves until they have the floor to ask or answer questions.

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, while Conservatives cut frontline border services officers, along with cuts to the RCMP and cuts to police forces across the country, we invested in them. We are going to continue to do that, with $121 million for Ontario and more investments for port and border security.

We are going to continue to step up and keep Canadians safe.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, we know the Prime Minister's strength is not math, but the facts are that, when we took office, there were about 12,000 people working as CBSA officials. When we left office, there were over 14,000. To help the Prime Minister with the numbers, 14,000 is more than 12,000.

It is true that we cut back office bureaucracy and high-priced consultants, which he has let balloon. That is why, after eight years, he has increased auto theft by 32%. Will the Prime Minister accept our common-sense plan to cut high-priced consultants and hire more frontline inspectors?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot help but smile when the Leader of the Opposition talks about high-priced consultants, because his campaign is being run by a high-priced consultant for Loblaws. When he stands in this place and across the country, wrenching his heartstrings about the prices that Canadians are paying for groceries, his top adviser is in the pocket of Loblaws, giving him the same talking points as she gave Galen Weston when he appeared at a parliamentary committee. If Canadians are going to believe the Leader of the Opposition, he needs to come clean with who is funding his organizations.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, he is sure getting desperate if he has to blame Conservative campaign workers for the fact that he raised food prices, especially when the Prime Minister's new marketing director, Max Valiquette, did marketing for Loblaws for four years. Don Guy, the Prime Minister's chief pollster, works for GT&CO, which collects cheques from Loblaws. Dan Arnold, his other pollster, also get cheques from Loblaws. Are they the ones who forced him to quadruple the carbon tax on our food?

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Order. I know it is Wednesday and members are very keen to hear the answer to this question, so I will ask them to restrain themselves while the right hon. Prime Minister answers.

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we can tell it is Wednesday because, this morning, the members of the Conservative caucus got to hear directly from Jenni Byrne, who sits in their caucus with them, giving them advice. That is exactly where they are coming from, when she is actively on the Loblaws payroll while at the same time feeding lines to the Leader of the Opposition about food prices and concocting a theory around carbon pricing and grocery prices that, as the member for Regina—Lewvan pointed out yesterday, has no basis in fact. We see the kind of torque he chooses to pull.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, he makes it too easy. He talks about caucus meetings and Loblaws. Get this, Mr. Speaker: The Prime Minister had someone who is his director of caucus services, named Julie DeWolfe, who is now a lobbyist for Loblaws. Not only that, but he digs up a lot of dirt. His chief dirt digger, Kevin Bosch, left his office so that he could go and work as a lobbyist for Loblaws. Would the Prime Minister like us to continue going down the list of all his Loblaws lobbyists?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is quite something to watch the flailing of the Conservatives right now as they do anything to try to distract from the fact that their campaign manager, the Leader of the Opposition's top adviser, still gets contributions and paycheques from Loblaws. This is an issue, when he has stood up and pretended to care about food prices. When we have heard the exact same talking points come out of Galen Weston's mouth as out of the Leader of the Opposition's mouth on some invented connection between the price on pollution and grocery prices, we know exactly who is behind the Conservative Party.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

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

Mr. Speaker, former minister Lametti and other members of the Liberal Party openly considered the idea of opening up the Canadian Constitution. As it happens, Quebec is considering—warning, I am about to use a dirty word—a referendum. Yes, it is considering having a referendum on repatriating all powers in the area of immigration.

Why does the Prime Minister not talk to the Quebec government and give it all the powers so that we can finally have an immigration policy by Quebec, for Quebec?