Debates of June 4th, 2024

Labour

[Anita Anand, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, that is not true. We are at the table. We are pursuing talks because an agreement that is fair to taxpayers and public servants is crucial.

We are always there for the public service and for a very just and equitable agreement. We are there.

Northern Affairs

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Uqaqtittiji, Nunavummiut already pay some of the highest airfares in the world. The lowest airfare in 2023 from Ottawa to Grise Fiord was over $11,000. Even worse is that baggage fees recently went up, ripping off northerners even more. This is all happening under the Liberals' watch, when they promised that airline costs would not go up in the north.

Flights are a lifeline in Nunavut. Why is the government letting airlines gouge Nunavummiut for essential travel?

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Minister of Northern Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we know that affordability is front and centre in everything we do all over Canada, especially the north. We have brought forward $10-a-day child care for affordability. Nunavut was the first province or territory to take advantage of that. Certainly, affordability is front and centre. We realize that the cost of travel may be high. We are looking into ways to make it more affordable.

Women and Gender Equality

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

Mr. Speaker, every single Conservative MP voted against pharmacare to provide universal access to contraception, and the party's own caucus members have expressed anti-choice rhetoric. One Conservative member has referenced the legislation as “focusing on wiping out or tapering off the population”.

Could the Minister of Health please share how the Conservative member is missing the point of the legislation and how her remarks can be harmful for women and gender-diverse Canadians?

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, we know that over half of the Conservative caucus has been confirmed as being anti-choice and being against a woman's right to choose. We also know that 100% of Conservative MPs voted against free contraception for women.

When a member makes such comments, it becomes clear that, if they are both against abortion and against access to contraception, they are against a woman's right to choose and have autonomy over her own body. It is not Conservative MPs who should tell women whether they should or should not start a family; it is women themselves who must always make that decision.

Innovation, Science and Industry

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the explosive Auditor General's report proves that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost or corruption. The NDP-Liberal government knew conflict of interest policies were not being followed and did absolutely nothing. With $76 million green-lit by Liberal-appointed directors, never to be seen again, Canadians deserve so much better.

If the minister knew about these conflicts, why did he not take his job seriously and fire the directors?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I actually welcome the question from the member, because it seems that the Conservatives have not really listened. The moment we heard of allegations, when they were asleep, we launched the investigation. We launched the investigations by Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton and McCarthy Tétreault. Once we had done so, we suspended funding to the organization. The chair of the board and the CO resigned. We demanded an action plan by management.

We are committed to restoring the funding to the firms. We are committed to having more governance, and we are committed to ensuring that there will be trust in a new organization.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the minister did nothing for 48 months, even though he had officials sitting in the meetings. The Auditor General's explosive report on the NDP-Liberal green slush fund shows that personal friends of the Prime Minister funnelled obscene amounts of money into their own pockets. The Auditor General confirmed that, an incredible 186 times, with almost half of all the green slush fund projects, Liberal swindlers voted themselves hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to their companies.

Will the Prime Minister call in the police and make these Liberal swindlers pay back this money?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, it seems that there were a lot of people on their side sleeping at the switch. What I have said is very clear. We received allegations and we investigated. We investigated. We made sure that we would get to the bottom of this. We suspended the funding to the organization. The chair of the board and the CO resigned. We made sure that there would be a management plan in place.

We want to restore confidence. We expect everyone to adhere to the highest governance. That is why we are proposing a new model of governance that would make sure that public funds are disbursed with the level of governance that all Canadians expect.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of this Liberal-NDP-Bloc government, which is not worth the cost or the corruption, the Auditor General tells us that Sustainable Development Technology Canada violated its conflict of interest policies 90 times and awarded $359 million to 10 projects that were not eligible. This is yet another example of the Liberal government's mismanagement.

Why is this government not careful, and why does it waste so much of taxpayers' money?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, now the member for Lévis—Lotbinière is waking up.

As I said, we received allegations in February 2023. In March 2023, we launched an investigation with an arm's-length organization that was created by Parliament 20 years ago.

Following the report submitted to us by an accounting and law firm, we took appropriate action and suspended funding. The board chair resigned. The head of the organization resigned.

We will be there to restore confidence and to ensure that our SMEs can get funding to counter—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The hon. member for Lévis—Lotbinière.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this minister is asleep at the switch. The Auditor General has discovered that $76 million in funding was awarded to projects with ties to Liberal cronies. Greasing palms and enriching Liberal cronies shows a complete lack of ethics and responsibility. This is another scandal.

Why are conflicts of interest and money for cronies commonplace in the Liberal government?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, everyone in the House can recognize the member for Lévis—Lotbinière's theatrical talents, but the reality is simple. I have said it before, and I will say it again so that everyone on that side of the House and the Canadians watching us can hear it: The most important thing is integrity.

That is why, when we received allegations, we launched an investigation. We made sure to suspend the funding until we received the findings. The CEO of the organization has stepped down. The chair of the board of directors has stepped down.

We are proposing a new governance model to restore confidence and ensure that we can support SMEs in Canada's green technology sector.

Public Services and Procurement

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General's report on the contracts the government awarded to McKinsey has just been released. There were 97 contracts totalling more than $200 million. Most importantly, the report reveals that 71% of those contracts were awarded non-competitively. Nine of the 10 departments and eight of the 10 Crown corporations involved broke the rules. The Auditor General even goes so far as to say that this is a common problem.

How can the Liberals simultaneously increase the size of the public service by 40% while depending on untendered contracts with private firms?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, this is another great opportunity to thank and congratulate the Auditor General on her important work. Her conclusions, of course, are similar to those we have been hearing in recent months. These conclusions have enabled us, over the past few months, to take those previous findings into account and take action to put an end to standing offers with McKinsey and all other similar companies. We are also introducing stricter and more legitimate requirements for all other government departments to do their own contracting.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General's report also shows that the use of McKinsey has exploded since the Liberals came to power. That did not go unnoticed. For many of these contracts, the departments were unable to prove that these consultants had the necessary security clearance. Meanwhile, McKinsey had its paws all over public services, immigration, Trans Mountain and even defence.

How can the Liberals stand by and let their own rules be circumvented, even when it comes to security?

[Jean-Yves Duclos, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right to draw attention to two things. The first is security. The second is spending.

Let us begin with spending. The President of the Treasury Board has been very clear over the past few months. We are reducing professional services contracts by 15% to give the public service even more latitude and capacity to serve Canadians.

When it comes to security, the Auditor General was very clear. She said that we needed more information and more capacity to store and share this information at the appropriate time.

Carbon Pricing

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years, another gag order victim of the Liberal-NDP Prime Minister has come forward. This time, it is his own Parliamentary Budget Officer, who revealed yesterday that there was a secret government document that would lambaste and completely put to shame the claims on the carbon tax scam. This secret report would confirm most Canadians are worse off in this scam than what they get in phony rebates, and emissions have gone up.

Will the Liberal-NDP Prime Minister lift the gag order on the PBO so that Canadians and everyone can know what they already know, which is that the Prime Minister and this carbon tax scam are not worth the cost?

[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 Parliamentary Budget Officer does important and essential work, and we thank him for the update. Recently, he had an update on his website, saying that the last estimate he had done was based on faulty information, and we thank him for correcting the record. It confirms what we have known all along, what economists and independent organizations across the country have been saying, which is that eight out of 10 Canadians are better off with federal carbon pricing.

The reason the Conservatives are so bent out of shape about this is because it re-emphasizes the fact that carbon pricing both lowers emissions and the Canada carbon rebate supports affordability.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, maybe the Liberals are gagging the PBO because they are ashamed he is going to reveal that this carbon tax scam is not worth the cost and it will confirm that a majority of Canadians are worse off in this scam than what they get back in phony rebates.

If the Liberals do not want to ungag him and they do not want to release the report, why do they not just call a carbon tax election so that Canadians can decide whether they want to keep this scam or axe the tax under a common-sense Conservative government?

[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 Conservatives have clung to this flawed scenario and they refuse to correct their own misinformation on this very important subject.

I would recommend that the Leader of the Opposition maybe go to Carleton over the summer and brush up on his mathematics. However, it is very clear that it is probably elementary school he needs to go back to. We are talking about adding and subtracting. Conservative math just is not adding up these days. However, I want to reassure Canadians that on July 15, the Canada carbon rebate will be arriving in their bank accounts or in their mailboxes.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, everybody knows in Canada, except for maybe the NDP-Liberal coalition, that they pay more in the carbon tax than they get back in a rebate. It turns out that even the government knew. Even the Prime Minister knows. We know that because the PBO said that.

When will the government finally release this report and end the carbon tax cover-up?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we know, and Canadians know, that eight out of 10 Canadians get more money back with the carbon rebate. However, there is someone who is being gagged, and that is an MP who sits in the House of Commons, the MP for Peace River—Westlock. He had the temerity to say out loud what the majority of Conservative MPs believe, which is that a woman should not have the right to choose. Now we know that those Conservatives, who campaigned on a price on pollution and are disavowing it, will do the same thing with—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The hon. member for Malpeque.