House of Commons Hansard #344 of the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was leader.
Mark Holland LiberalMinister of Health
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to subsection 3(1) of the Federal Framework on Autism Spectrum Disorder Act, I have the pleasure to table, in both official languages, the framework for autism in Canada.
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-413, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (promotion of hatred against indigenous peoples).
Mr. Speaker, today I rise to table an act to amend the Criminal Code regarding the promotion of hatred against indigenous peoples. If passed, this bill will add to the Criminal Code the offence of wilfully promoting hatred against indigenous peoples by condoning, denying, justifying or downplaying the harm caused by the residential school system in Canada, calling irrefutable historical facts into question, a genocidal project that was recognized as such unanimously in the House.
Survivors and their families deserve to heal from this intergenerational tragedy and be free from violent hate. We cannot allow their safety and well-being to be put further at risk.
All parliamentarians must stand firm against all forms of damaging hate speech, including the denial of the tragedy of residential schools in Canada. At a time of increasing residential school denialism, including from some parliamentarians, I note that survivors, their families and communities need protection and a platform to share our history.
In honour of Orange Shirt Day, I extend this gift to them on behalf of me and all of my colleagues. May they find justice and healing in the protection of their stories.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Madam Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition today on behalf of Canadian citizens regarding the Hong Kong pathways that have been established by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
There are two streams, stream A and stream B, and as of January 2024, there are over 15,000 permanent residency applications, leaving over 8,000 in a backlog. The processing time has exceeded the stipulated 6.5 months, creating all kinds of hassles and problems for the petitioners.
The petitioners ask that IRCC uphold the priority processing guidelines as outlined; create a mechanism to issue minor study permits to children, ensuring that their well-being is safeguarded; and allocate additional admission targets to the Hong Kong pathways to effectively address the backlog.
Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK
Madam Speaker, my second petition is on behalf of Canadians who believe the Islamic Republic of Iran is using extreme violence to terrorize political opponents, including the peaceful participants in the Women, Life, Freedom movement. The Islamic Republic of Iran has, alarmingly, increased executions.
The petitioners are calling for the Government of Canada to redouble its pressure on Iran to protect the universal right to life, call for an immediate moratorium on executions, call on the supreme leader to hold his officials fully accountable for their role in all human rights abuses, and publicly assure the people of Iran of Canada's support for their civil and political rights.
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Madam Speaker, today I would like to table a petition on behalf of Canadians who are concerned about the situation in Sudan, where 25 million people, 14 million of whom are children, need immediate humanitarian assistance and support. Alarmingly, 17.7 million people, more than one-third of the country's population, are facing acute food insecurity issues under a warning of potential famine.
More than 8.6 million people have fled their homes since the conflict started, including families of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Nearly 230,000 severely malnourished children in refugee camps are facing death in the coming months if they do not get food and health care, with 13 children dying each day according to recent reports by Doctors Without Borders.
This petition has several calls to action, including implementing temporary processing measures for Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers recognized by the UNHCR to be offered resettlement to Canada; granting temporary visas for evacuees to travel; urgently pushing the two rival factions to impose a temporary ceasefire to ensure the safe and adequate delivery of humanitarian aid; and calling upon bordering countries to open secure corridors to facilitate humanitarian aid, in addition to several other requests.
Dan Mazier Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
Madam Speaker, it is always an honour to present a petition on behalf of my constituents. I rise for the 45th time on behalf of the people of Swan River, Manitoba, to present a petition on the rising rate of crime.
Community members of Swan River are struggling with the rising rates of crime in their area and feel the threat this crime poses on the community's safety and economic stability. In the last nine years, violent crime has risen by 32% and gang-related homicides by 92%. The people of Swan River demand to be heard, since in the last five years, the town's crime severity index has increased by over 50%.
The people of Swan River are calling for jail, not bail for violent repeat offenders. The people of Swan River demand that the Liberal government repeal its soft-on-crime policies, which directly threaten their livelihoods and their community.
I support the good people of Swan River.
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to table a petition today on international flights.
In the last decade, the growth in Canada's Indo-Canadian community has been fairly incredible to see and has had many different benefits. In good part as a result of that, but also because of the interests of non-Indo-Canadian community members, we have seen a much higher demand for international flights going to Europe and, in particular, directly to India from Winnipeg.
The petitioners have signed this petition in the hope that the federal government, the provinces, airport authorities and airlines will give extra consideration to that growth and look at having more direct flights.
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Madam Speaker, Canadians from across the country, along with a coalition of over 250 feminists and women's organizations, are urging the government to protect women, children and all survivors of intimate partner violence from accusations of parental alienation in family courts. The petitioners outline that parental alienation is a discredited and unscientific theory used in family court to silence survivors of family violence and often goes against children's wishes. The petitioners would like the government to amend the Divorce Act to make accusations of parental alienation inadmissible in parenting time disputes.
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Madam Speaker, I would ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Motion
moved:
That, given that, after nine years, the government has doubled housing costs, taxed food, punished work, unleashed crime, and is the most centralizing government in Canadian history, the House has lost confidence in the government and offers Canadians the option to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola.
There was a time when every young person in Canada could hope to one day own their own home, a place to call their own, where they could raise a family. There was a time when those young people could dream of a positive future for their children. They could think that one day their children would be able to fulfill the dream of buying a home, that they would live in a country where they could make their hopes and dreams come true and become what they wanted to be, whether here or elsewhere.
Sadly, that is no longer the case. Unfortunately, too often, young families are turning to food banks because they can no longer afford groceries at the end of the month. Today's young families are worried about the safety of their children. That is the case in Montreal, where people are worried about sending their children to day care because supervised injection sites have set up shop next door to schools and day cares. Today, young families are even struggling to find a place to live because the cost of housing has doubled over the past nine years as a result of this Liberal government's policies, which were supported by the Bloc Québécois.
The Canada that most of us here aspired to no longer exists, all because of this Prime Minister's nine years of inflationary, centralizing and disastrous policies. Now he is being propped up by the Bloc Québécois and the NDP.
Like me, the majority of Quebeckers and Canadians are probably extremely disappointed today. They are extremely disappointed because this Prime Minister is not currently at Rideau Hall, in front of the Governor General, asking for the dissolution of his government. He would have to make that request in English, by the way, because the Governor General still does not speak French.
That is what should have happened. That is what Canadians wanted. That is what Quebeckers wanted. Unfortunately, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois would rather stay the course, to borrow one of the Prime Minister's favourite phrases. They would rather see Quebeckers and Canadians go further into debt. They would rather watch the cost of everything, from food to housing, keep going up. They would rather implement policies that allow criminals to stay home watching Netflix than put them behind bars. This is the sad reality today, and it is the result of the NDP and Bloc's shameful decision to vote against this motion of non-confidence in this bad government. It is a bad government for Quebeckers. It is a bad government for all Canadians.
It is surprising to see that the Bloc Québécois chose to support this government that is bad for Quebec, considering it was the Bloc leader himself who said on May 23: “The government has two choices then. It can hold off on its aggressive centralization agenda, its abuse of the fiscal imbalance and abuse of spending power until the end of its mandate, which would normally run until late 2025, or it can call an election now to try to obtain that type of mandate”. On May 23, the leader of the Bloc Québécois wanted an election because this government was interfering in provincial responsibilities, because this government was bad for Quebec. Suddenly, yesterday, the Bloc Québécois chose to prop up the most centralist, controversial, spendthrift government ever, a government that is bad for Quebec.
I would like to quote again from the leader of the Bloc Québécois's May 23 speech. He said the Liberal Prime Minister “has no right to dupe Canadians or the parties in the House. As I said before, if the Prime Minister is so interested in the jurisdictions of Quebec and the provinces, he can go off and pursue a career in provincial politics, preferably in Ontario.” We certainly do not want him in Quebec.
Yesterday, the Bloc members had the opportunity to send the Prime Minister off to make the leap to provincial politics. Yesterday, they had the opportunity to stand up for Quebeckers and put their money where their mouths are. It is time to walk the talk, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, that is not what they did. The Bloc Québécois made its choice. It saved this bad Liberal government. It had an easy choice to make yesterday. It had a choice between putting Canadians ever deeper in debt, doubling the cost of housing and increasing the cost of food, and calling an election to bring in a common-sense government, a government that will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.
Why do we need to axe the tax? Canadians are earning less and paying more for nearly everything because of this Prime Minister's deficits and inflationary taxes. The costly “Liberal Bloc” has added $500 billion in inflationary spending. The Bloc voted to keep the Prime Minister in place 188 times, and it did it again yesterday. Because of these taxes, Canadians have less money in their pockets and their paycheques are getting weaker and weaker. Canada's per capita GDP has declined for the fifth quarter in a row. It has fallen 3.6% since 2022. By comparison with our neighbours to the south, their per capita GDP has risen 4.5% since 2022. Talk about a gap. To put it more simply, had Canada simply kept pace with the United States over the past two years, our economy would be 8.5% higher. This represents an extra $6,200 per Canadian per year.
It is important to put more money in Quebeckers' pockets while rejecting policies that would cost them more. We know this government is obsessed with making Canadians and Quebeckers part with more and more of their money, including through gas taxes. The Bloc Québécois is fine with Quebeckers paying more in gas taxes. With carbon tax 2, the Bloc Québécois wants Quebeckers to pay an extra 17¢ a litre. There is just no denying that. Bloc members have been very clear. According to them, even that is not enough. They want to radically increase gas taxes for all Quebeckers and Canadians. The reality is that the Bloc Québécois shares the same views, goals and agenda as the Liberals.
The Journal de Montréal reports that food insecurity is no longer a problem that only affects the poor. La Presse reports that one in 10 Quebeckers uses food banks and that Quebec's food banks serve 872,000 people each month. Yesterday, the Bloc Québécois voted to continue down this path. As I said earlier, we need to build the homes. To me, it is mind-boggling that the Bloc Québécois wants to keep standing in the way of young people's dreams of home ownership. Canada's inflation in the house price-to-income ratio is higher than any other G7 country. We need an election so that Quebeckers can put a roof over their heads.
We need to fix the budget and implement measures like finding a dollar of savings for every dollar we propose to spend on a new program. That is common sense. We cannot keep piling debt on our generation and on the next seven or eight generations as well. As for inflation, Quebec leads the pack. Finally, to stop the crime, I think the Bloc Québécois should quit going after law-abiding hunters and try to join the Conservative Party's efforts to target the real criminals and keep them behind bars. The time has come for a common-sense Conservative government.
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Burlington Ontario
Liberal
Karina Gould LiberalLeader of the Government in the House of Commons
Madam Speaker, I have a lot of respect for my colleague. I consider him a very honourable member, and for that very reason, I cannot understand why he is telling only half the truth when he talks about the price on pollution. As a member from Quebec, he knows full well that this does not apply to Quebec.
Why will he not be honest with Quebeckers about the actual policy?
Why does he keep repeating the same comments as his leader, who is not being honest with Canadians?
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order.
It is unparliamentary to tell the House that a member is not being honest. I would ask the House leader to withdraw that comment.
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Madam Speaker, on that point of order, it would be entirely appropriate to reference the fact that the Leader of the Opposition did not make a speech on this, which is what was said. That is part of this point of order, Madam Speaker, and I would suggest that you reflect on that.
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order.
I am very concerned, and my personal thing is that we have a Leader of the Opposition who wants to bring down the government, but he is missing. I am just worried something happened to him. Maybe he got stuck at Dairy Queen this morning. Should we send out a—
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes
Order. There is another point of order.
The hon. member for Battle River—Crowfoot has the floor.
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Conservative
Damien Kurek Conservative Battle River—Crowfoot, AB
Madam Speaker, the member for Kingston and the Islands has not given a speech since he was forced to retract and apologize for a statement he made on Twitter. Therefore, it is quite ironic that he would be criticizing which member of the opposition is legitimately giving a speech—
The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes
That is a point of debate.
In order for the House to function properly, we need members to be debating the legislation that is before the House. We need to make sure that they are careful with the wording that they use. I want to remind members they are not able to say indirectly what they cannot say directly, so I would just ask the hon. government House leader to withdraw that comment.
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Liberal
Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON
Madam Speaker, I withdraw it with regard to the individual in question but not with regard to how they are speaking about the policy.
The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes
I would just ask the hon. member to withdraw with no explanation. That is all I ask.
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Liberal
Opposition Motion—Confidence in the GovernmentBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Madam Speaker, the fact is that, according to Statistics Canada, crime and homicide rates have risen 28% over the last nine years. Sexual assaults are up 75%. Gang murders have nearly doubled. Auto theft is up 34% after nine years under Justin Trudeau. I apologize. I meant to say under this Prime Minister. It is up more than 100% in Montreal, more than 100% in Ottawa-Gatineau and 59% in Quebec.
The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes
The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons is rising on a point of order.