Andy Fillmore

[The Environment, February 16th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, after a decade of inaction and years of lost opportunities, we are finally taking the steps required to protect our planet for our children and grandchildren.

Under our plan, each province has the flexibility to decide how to implement the price on carbon, based on their regional context and how they use those revenues. I have outlined just a few steps that Saskatchewan could take, including completely eliminating the sales tax in Saskatchewan. That would certainly be a job creator.

Carbon pricing is just one element of the pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change. Our focus will remain on taking real, concrete, and lasting action to reduce our emissions, grow our economy, and create good, middle-class jobs across Canada and certainly in Saskatchewan.

[The Environment, February 16th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, it does in fact bring me joy to rise in the House today to talk about our government's plan to put a tax or price on carbon pollution and to speak about how it will help Canada's middle class.

It is not conjecture, but rather we know that pricing carbon pollution is the most effective way to reduce emissions and to create a clean-growth economy. For this reason, it is a key part of our government's pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change.

Carbon pricing will provide certainty and predictability for Canadian businesses. It will encourage businesses and Canadians alike to reduce emissions and help Canada transition to a low-carbon economy. Because it is predictable and gradual, carbon pricing will drive innovation and attract investment capital to Canada to create the middle-class jobs of tomorrow and beyond.

Again, this is not conjecture. British Columbia's introduction of a carbon price demonstrates this well. Studies show that carbon pricing reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the province while its economy, including a thriving clean-tech sector, grew faster than that of the rest of Canada. Not only that, but as a result of the B.C. revenue-neutral price on carbon, middle-class families got a tax cut of 5% for the two bottom tax brackets. Today, B.C. has the lowest overall personal taxes in the country, thanks to its carbon tax.

In Alberta, the carbon price will provide financial support for those who need it most, covering 60% of households. These rebates, which will start in July, will put up to $520 in the pockets of middle-class families, and that is cash, not conjecture.

This is why our plan gives all provinces and territories the flexibility to decide how they implement a price on carbon pollution. They can use the revenue as they see fit, including supporting middle-class families in ways similar to the B.C. and Alberta examples that I just gave.

The member for Regina—Wascana has represented his constituents in this House for over 24 years, with considerable success and aplomb, I might add. He knows well the benefits Saskatchewan can see from introducing a carbon price. For example, with a carbon price of $20 per tonne, Saskatchewan could reduce personal income taxes by over one-third, and cut its provincial sales tax by two-thirds. At $30 per tonne, Saskatchewan could completely eliminate sales tax. How about that for protecting the environment and growing the economy?

By putting a price on the things that we do not want, like pollution, provinces can do things that middle-class Canadians want and need, like reducing taxes and creating good, middle-class jobs.

[Democratic Reform, February 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the platform included many elements of electoral reform, and it certainly also included engaging with Canadians to make such important decisions. Engaging as many Canadians as possible in the conversation around electoral reform is something that we have taken very seriously, as I have just enumerated.

It was what Canadians expected us to do before embarking on fundamental change to our democracy. Listening to Canadians is also something that the government is committed to doing across a range of files and issues. As our government has indicated on numerous occasions, any major change to the way we cast our vote would require the broad support of Canadians.

The government remains committed to strengthening and protecting our democratic institutions. We are moving to accomplish that goal.

[Democratic Reform, February 9th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, our government believes that electoral reform, indeed all democratic reform, should be about pursuing the broadest public interest possible. We believed and we continue to believe that potential reforms must be judged by how they will help Canadians. This is why the Prime Minister said that we are not prepared to move forward with something so fundamental as reforming our electoral system without the broad support of Canadians.

Listening to Canadians is absolutely fundamental to our role as parliamentarians, and this is why the government initiated a national consultation process on electoral reform last spring. First, we asked a special all-party committee of the House of Commons to study the issue. The special committee consulted broadly with relevant experts and organizations and conducted a national engagement process that included travelling to every province and every territory and hearing from 196 experts and 567 open-mike participants, and receiving 574 written submissions and more than 22,000 responses to its e-consultation survey.

We also asked MPs to hold their own town halls to hear the views of their constituents, and MPs held 170 such town halls. The government held public meetings in every province and every territory to hear directly from Canadians, and we sought to ensure that every Canadian could have his or her view heard through an innovative online engagement and educational tool that asked Canadians what values and what principles they wanted to see reflected in their voting system. More than 360,000 people in Canada took the time to participate and have their views heard in this important initiative, and I urge all of my fellow MPs to read the report.

As the Minister of Democratic Institutions has noted, it is clear that despite all of these important efforts to listen to Canadians, the broad consensus needed for change of this magnitude simply does not exist. The government respects and is thankful for all those Canadians who came forward and took the time to share their thoughts about our democracy and have their voices heard. When we hold public consultation we have to be ready to listen to what we hear, and we listened to what we heard.

This of course does not put an end to the important work our government is doing to strengthen our elections and build confidence in our democratic institutions, and I would like to highlight three of the government's priorities moving ahead. First, we will be continuing to move forward with Bill C-33 to make it easier for eligible voters to participate in elections as well as to improve electoral integrity. Second, the minister will be working with her colleagues, the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to help protect our voting system from the threat of hacking. Third, notwithstanding that Canada already has one of the best-regulated political finance regimes in the world, we will take steps to make fundraising even more open and even more transparent.

These are only a few of the items in the mandate letter of the Minister of Democratic Institutions. Our hard-working colleagues on the procedure and House affairs committee are also doing important work to review the Chief Electoral Officer's recommendations for improving the electoral process.

Clearly, there is still much work to do to further enhance our electoral process, and I look forward to supporting these efforts to reinforce Canada's strong democratic foundations.

[Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Awards, February 7th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, today we are joined on Parliament Hill by the recipients of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada's top research award. It is my distinct pleasure to note that this year's winner of our country's highest award for science and engineering research, the Herzberg Canada Gold Medal, is from my riding, the great city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dr. Jeff Dahn of Dalhousie University is Canada's leader in battery research. Over the course of his career, he has helped pioneer the lithium-ion battery that is used in mobile technologies around the world. However, it gets better. In June of 2016, Dr. Dahn entered into a collaboration with Tesla, where he will use his expertise to improve electric vehicle performance. I would like to mention that this is the first time Tesla has ever collaborated with a university researcher.

I proudly invite all members of the House to join me in applauding Dr. Dahn on this special occasion, and to once again congratulate all of the talented NSERC award recipients we have with us today.

[Democratic Reform, February 6th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I want to be very clear. This government fundamentally believes that more Canadians should have the ability to vote. We are committed to enhancing participation by Canadians in the democratic process, as evidenced in the updated mandate letter for the Minister of Democratic Institutions.

I certainly appreciate the member opposite's commitment to this issue. Coming back to the reason we are having this discussion this evening, I will again say that we have tabled legislation in this House that, if passed, would enable more than a million new electors living abroad to vote.

We appreciate that many non-resident citizens care deeply about voting in Canadian federal elections. I, and many others in this House, look forward to debating Bill C-33.

[Democratic Reform, February 6th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to the issue raised by the member for London—Fanshawe back in October, which is why we are here this evening. That is the issue of non-resident Canadian citizens voting in federal elections. I would like to start by saying that this government is firmly supportive of enhancing electoral participation of all kinds.

The right to vote is a fundamental democratic right, enshrined in section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The constitutional enshrinement of this right reflects the centrality of voting in our democratic system, as well as its essential link to Canadian citizenship. The charter protects and promotes the right of each citizen to play a meaningful role in the political life of our country. As Chief Justice McLachlin stated in the Saskatchewan Electoral Boundaries reference, “the Canadian tradition as one of evolutionary democracy moving in [gradual] steps toward the goal of universal suffrage...

The special voting rules in the Canada Elections Act, which set out how non-resident Canadian citizens may vote, constitute one such step. Before 1993, the only non-resident Canadians who were able to vote in federal elections were generally members of the Canadian Forces and the federal public service. The special voting rules marked a watershed moment in the enfranchisement of non-resident citizens. Introduced in 1993, the rules extended, for the first time, voting to non-resident citizens who did not fall under the two exceptional categories.

At the time, after much debate in this place, Parliament saw fit to impose three limitations on non-resident voting: namely, first, a requirement of prior residence in Canada; second, a requirement that the non-resident elector have resided outside of Canada for fewer than five years, with certain exceptions; and, third, the requirement that the elector intended to resume ordinary residence in Canada at some point in the future.

After the latter two limits were challenged in July 2015, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that the five-year cut-off and the requirement of an intent to return constituted reasonable limitations on the right to vote under section 1 of the charter. That judgment has been appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. On October 20, the Attorney General of Canada filed her factum defending the right of Parliament to make the choice that it did in 1993 as being within the bounds of constitutionality.

The Minister of Democratic Institutions is firmly committed to enhancing the participation by Canadians in the electoral process. That is why we have just introduced Bill C-33, legislation that, if passed, will enable electors who have lived for more than five consecutive years outside of Canada to vote, and electors will not need to state their intent to return.

The government believes that Canadian democracy should be inclusive and in tune with the realities of an increasingly interconnected world. I look forward to the hon. member's contribution to the discussion when we debate Bill C-33 in this House.

[Public Safety, December 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, as you know, our hometown of Halifax has recently seen a troubling string of gun-related violence. When our community is hurting like this, it can be difficult to know what the next step should be.

A young man in Halifax has come through at a time when his community needs him most. Quentrel Provo is an anti-violence activist and the founder of Stop the Violence. After the tragic killing of his cousin Kaylin, Quentrel began his years-long quest to spread the love through Halifax and beyond, not only through his Stop The Violence clothing brand, but through initiatives like the Stop the Violence march and the #SpreadLoveChallenge social media campaign.

In difficult times such as these, Quentrel and other dedicated anti-violence activists have shown strong community leadership in Halifax, and we are deeply grateful for it. I thank Quentrel for stopping the violence and spreading the love.

[Canadian Heritage, November 28th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, every day the devoted team at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, one of six national museums, brings life to the story of over one million immigrants who landed at the Port of Halifax between l928 and 1971.

Over the next 12 months, many positions will become available on the boards of all six of our national museums. Could the Minister of Canadian Heritage tell us how she plans to fill these positions?

[Infrastructure, November 21st, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, infrastructure investments we make today have potential to lock in future greenhouse gas emissions, in many cases, for years. This is why I brought my private member's Motion No. 45 to this House. It is because we know we must reduce infrastructure-related GHGs now in order to combat climate change over the long term.

Can the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities update this House on what the government is doing to reduce the GHG footprint of Canada's infrastructure today and in the future?