Debates of May 3rd, 2024

Mental Health and Addictions

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

We are getting a lot of yelling back and forth, and I would appreciate it if members could keep it down. I am hearing a lot from all sides of the chamber. I want to make sure that we keep the volume down as we debate these important issues.

The hon. member for Kelowna—Lake Country has the floor.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, if the member thinks that the B.C. experience with open public drug use is so great, then why is she not advocating for it in her own province?

I was talking to a resident from my community just a couple nights ago who told me that she came around the corner from her apartment to be faced with something that burnt her eyes. People were openly using drugs on the street. She is rightfully concerned about what she is being exposed to. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.

After nine years of the Prime Minister, enough is enough. Why are the Liberals not being honest with Canadians and just end their drug policies?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, that question has been asked many times and answered many times by my hon. colleague, the minister.

I want to know something. The member is a female member of her caucus. This morning, a headline reads, “Conservatives don’t rule out using notwithstanding clause beyond criminal justice matters”. Fifty years ago, Roe v. Wade was enacted in the U.S., and women have lived under that protection in the U.S. for 50 years. For 42 years—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

Order. This goes all ways. Members need to keep it down so I can hear the questions and the answers.

The hon. government House leader has the floor.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, for 50 years, women in the U.S. have lived under the protection of Roe v. Wade. For 42 years, women in Canada have lived under the protection of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Conservatives will now not rule out using the notwithstanding clause beyond criminal justice matters.

Will the member stand in her place to tell us what rights she intends to take away from women?

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the Liberal-NDP Prime Minister, it is clear that he is not worth the crime, the chaos, the drugs or the disorder.

As a result of his extremist drug policies, we have open drug use in front of an elementary school in Langley, discarded needles at a playground in Willoughby and crack smoking at a bus stop in Brookswood.

People from Langley want to know when the Prime Minister is going to end his extremist experiment to legalize hard drugs, such as cocaine, fentanyl and opioids.

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I will say this again: We have to approach the opioid crisis and the illegal toxic drug supply with compassion, science, evidence and health care. On this side of the House, we all want the same thing, which is public safety and access to public health care services so that people do not die alone.

We are approaching the issue of public consumption with urgency, working with the B.C. government on its requested amendments to its proposal. B.C. asked for this exemption. We will continue to work with it hand in hand because families are demanding it of us. They do not want to lose their loved ones.

On this side of the House, we will save lives.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the result are in, and they are a disaster, with 2,500 opioid—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

Order. If I need to shut things down over here, then I need to shut things down over there. Let us try to keep the chatter down.

The hon. member for Langley—Aldergrove has the floor.

[Tako Van Popta, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the results are in. They are a disaster, with 2,500 deaths last year and six, on average, every day this year.

The Liberal minister responsible for hard drug use says that she is waiting for more information from B.C., but the B.C. government says that it has given her all of the information, as if 2,500 drug deaths in one year is not enough data to go on.

Canadians want to know why Liberals are misleading them. When are they going to put an end to this disastrous, failed drug use experiment?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, that question has been asked and answered. B.C. has been making adjustments to its pilot project. Of course, we are supporting that.

I had no luck with the last member. Let me ask this member if Conservatives will not rule out using the notwithstanding clause—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

Order.

As I have said before, if I need to shut the noise down in one corner of the room, then I need to shut it down in the other corner of the room. Please let the hon. member respond so that we can get on to the next question.

The hon. government House leader may continue, from the top.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, of course, B.C. is making adjustments to its pilot project, and we are supporting it in that endeavour. The member should be under no ambiguity about that.

However, the member is ambiguous, just like his previous colleague, about which charter protections his party would rip up. Is it reproductive rights? Is it the right to a fair trial? Is it the right to free expression?

That member, that party and that leader need to get up to tell Canadians exactly which fundamental charter rights they will be taking away from Canadians.

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

Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the Prime Minister is clearly not worth the cost. His minister responsible for hard drugs on the streets is misleading Canadians.

She said that the Liberal government is waiting for more information from B.C. on if it should reverse its decision that allows cocaine, opioids and fentanyl in parks, playgrounds and hospitals. The B.C. NDP government confirmed that it answered, within hours, the government's request for more information.

Why is the Liberal-NDP government misleading Canadians, and why can it not just end its disastrous drug policy?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, that member needs to unplug from the wall, replug and reboot. He is not listening to the earlier questions.

We have told them, very clearly, that B.C. has requested changes, and we are working with B.C. to make those changes.

Maybe that member will tell us, specifically, which freedoms and which rights described in the 42-year-old Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which Canadians cherish, he will be advocating for removing from Canadian women and from Canadian people. Is it the freedom of expression? Is it reproductive rights?

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the member that his government illegally invoked the Emergencies Act, removing civil liberties from Canadians. After nine years of radical NDP-Liberal government drug policies, and with the toxic drug deaths in B.C. reaching a 380% increase, the number of children aged 10 to 18 who have died from overdoses has increased by more than five times. Opioids and illicit drugs are now the leading cause of death of youth aged 10 to 18 in B.C.

Will the Prime Minister end his radical drug policies, or will he continue to show he is simply not worth the cost?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, Minister of Labour and Seniors]

Mr. Speaker, there are right ways to go about things, and then there are explosive, dramatic and catastrophic ways to go about things. In talking about using the notwithstanding clause, the Leader of the Opposition's response was, “All of my proposals are constitutional, and 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 says. “They will happen, and they will stay in place.”

For anybody like me, who has a right that was afforded to him because of this charter in my lifetime, these are chilling words that they—

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

The hon. member for Repentigny.

Oil and Gas Industry

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2021-22. That is why the advisory board appointed by the Minister of Environment himself is issuing a warning: Climate policies work when they exist.

In other words, they do not work when they do not exist, for example, in the oil industry, where emissions continue to rise. Emissions are going to skyrocket with the opening of the Trans Mountain pipeline, a new dirty oil pipeline, on Wednesday, given that there is no emissions cap on oil.

When will the minister rein in oil companies instead of opening pipelines?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I would invite my colleague to carefully read the report that was published yesterday because it states that Canada's greenhouse gas emissions are 44 million tonnes less than they were before the pandemic in 2019. That is equivalent to taking 13 million vehicles, or half of Canada's vehicle fleet, off the roads.

The last time that greenhouse gas emissions were so low in Canada, Connor McDavid from the Edmonton Oilers had just been born, O.J. Simpson was on trial and the google.com domain name had just been purchased.

Our plan is working. We need to continue to fight climate change.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the minister was quite proud to say that Canada was “the only major oil producer in the world that has proposed putting a cap on these emissions”. The key word here is “proposed” instead of “imposed”.

I would remind the minister that he once was more ambitious than simply being better than Russia or Saudi Arabia when it comes to progressive policies. While he is proposing to do better than them, he is opening a brand-new pipeline: Trans Mountain.

When will there be any action on reducing, not increasing, emissions?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague that if she bothered to read the report, she would see that our record between 2019 and 2021 is the same as Germany's or even Italy's and that it is better than that of the United States of America.

We are not talking about Russia or Iran here, but the United States of America. Our performance on fighting climate change is better than our neighbour to the south.

We have tabled the consultation document to impose a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. I have said that we would have draft regulations this year and final regulations by next year.