Bev Shipley

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I always appreciate questions that the concern small business people, particularly in agriculture.

I just do not get it. I know it is coming from the NDP. The New Democrats have a little trouble comprehending the financial aspects of a $9 billion or $10 billion benefit that the TPP would bring if we get it signed. We have to get it signed or those numbers will drop because people lack the confidence in their companies to invest. It is pretty simple stuff.

I agree that with anything we do, we should always do it alongside our businesses so they have the resources and the research behind them to add value to whatever the product. When we were in government, we involved others in our cluster funding for research. We brought industry, the public, and businesses to the table with the researchers and the universities so they could work together to determine what was the best way forward to add value and prosperity to their industry.

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard about trade deficits and trade surpluses and about what they did and what we have done. We were told many times that there was a great balance between trade surpluses and trade deficits. They all create jobs. We want to remember that this is about creating jobs.

I will take a different analogy. Why, when we were in government during the greatest recession since the Great Depression, did we have a trade deficit? The Government of Canada of that day, the Conservative Party of Canada, dealt with the economy in such a strong manner that the people in Canada had the resources to buy from those countries because we still had the money in our pockets. Those countries that went through the recession did not have the money to buy what we had in Canada. On the plus side, Canadians did well in respect to other countries. In fact, that is likely the main reason why we had a deficit in exports as compared to a surplus.

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George.

It is an honour to come to this House to speak to something that is quite significant for my riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. I am going to focus on my riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, which is in southwestern Ontario. It is a little bigger than the province of Prince Edward Island. Prince Edward Island is a beautiful province, as is the riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. It is made up of small towns, small businesses, and energetic people. The largest urban area has 14,000 people. I know that in some of the ridings around here, members can jump on a bicycle and go around their riding in 15 minutes. They likely have as many constituents in a couple of high-rises that I may have in my whole riding.

Let me tell members the significance of the trans-Pacific partnership. I happened to be on the international trade committee at the time of the trade discussions on CETA and the TPP, and also the agriculture committee. International trade, agriculture, and Lambton—Kent—Middlesex have so much in common. The business of my riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex is agriculture and includes many of the supporting industries that make agriculture so significant and also very successful. They have had successful years because we as a Conservative government always took the lead in determining what we could do for those industries and manufacturers in our province and in our country. What is the purpose of these trade agreements?

I want to thank the member for Abbotsford, the previous minister of international trade, so much. A comment came from across the aisle a little while ago about the new international trade minister travelling around. I think she might want to stop some of the travel to the vanity shows in Hollywood and actually call the previous minister, the member for Abbotsford, to find out how to work with countries around the world and successfully walk through win-win situations for those countries involved, including Canada, to sign some 46 trade agreements.

I will go back to the start. What is the purpose of these agreements?

Actually, to boil it down—and that is what I like to do; in my business of agriculture, we like to get to the point—it is about jobs. We create trade. That is what the trans-Pacific partnership and CETA are about. To my colleague across the way who took the credit for COOL, I am glad that somebody bought the pen for them so that they can sign the work that was done that got COOL resolved. That is actually what they are doing now. Whether it is with CETA or the TPP, we need to just give them the pen, because all the work has been done, to get the job in place, so that people in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, in fact in all of Ontario and across this country can move forward, be competitive, and be a part of the largest trade pact in the world.

The NDP actually does not support any trade, but I want to talk about the significance of what the Liberals are creating by delaying moving forward on this. It is all about investments.

In Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, and across this country, we have investors of all sizes. We have investors who come in and make parts for the auto industry. In my riding, they make parts for the aerospace industry. They do not sell directly to the aerospace, car, or truck manufacturers; rather, they make the parts for a company that further produces an end product. Every day they get up, go to work, do their job. They work with this. If we continue to build trade, these companies in our ridings will continue to grow.

In my riding, there was a small tool and die manufacturer, a family-run business, which made parts for the auto industry. It was a third-generation family, and the youngest had taken the lead responsibility for the business. When the recession came, they announced the expansion of their business. I said to the grandfather, the founder, “This is quite amazing to think that this is off the main roads of Ontario and Middlesex centre. How does this work? We are in a recession and you are actually expanding.” He said, “It's because of that young guy over there”, and he pointed to his grandson. “He researched what we could do with respect to ventures for small businesses to grow and open markets so that we could be competitive with our production and get into markets that were not hindered as much by certain tariffs.”

We went through this whole debate with respect to the trans-Pacific partnership. I sat on the committees. I will focus on agriculture because it is my passion and because all of the businesses in my riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex benefit from it. The auto industry is also doing amazingly well, but they do amazingly well when agriculture does well because agriculture tends to buy a number of vehicles, as do the agriculture equipment dealers. I want to touch on how important it is for these businesses to have access to opportunities to move forward.

At committee we heard from Ontario stakeholders, commodity organizations, the Grain Farmers of Ontario, and the beef, pork and canola farmers from across Canada, anything in agriculture, from direct producers to those who were in processing. I will admit that some of the processors were faced with the challenge of being able to meet some of the demands. I think we need to fix some of those terms with respect to labour. We all agree on that.

My time for debate is wrapping up, so I will close by saying that this is an opportunity for the Liberal government, the Government of Canada, to step forward and be a leader. It is not the time to take away from investments. It is not the time to take away credit from those investors who are waiting. They say that Ontario is an opportunity, and that Canada is an incredible opportunity. We have seen that in past trade agreements.

My plea to members is this. I see some members of the agriculture committee sitting across the way. I appreciate that they have taken the time to be a part of this, because we know the significance of this agreement to our greatest and largest industry in Canada right now. Therefore, I would just ask that they use their influence not only with the Prime Minister but also with the trade minister to put the pen to paper and get it done so that investment and growth in this great country can proceed with another great trade agreement.

[Ethics, May 11th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am amazed that he is criticizing the Ethics Commissioner for making the comment about what she can do and what she cannot, because the Minister of Agriculture hired his chief of staff, a major stakeholder in one of the largest egg producers and processing companies in Canada. Now she is prohibited from supporting supply management, the egg industry, and any trade issues, particularly around the trans-Pacific partnership.

Why did he leave supply management and free trade in the hands of an individual who is not allowed to talk about them?

[Ethics, May 11th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. We now have a Minister of Agriculture, and his chief of staff cannot talk about eggs, cannot talk about supply management, and cannot even talk about the trans-Pacific partnership.

If she has been involved in any of these files in the last six months, it is a conflict of interest.

That is what we knew from the beginning. The minister refused to listen to us. How can the minister assure farmers and processors that his chief of staff has not been using this job for personal gain?

[Petitions, May 5th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, this petition is with respect to Molly matters.

Canadians want Parliament to know about the tragic story of Cassandra Kaake, who was 31 and pregnant when she was murdered in Windsor, Ontario, a little over a year ago. Tragically there will be no justice for Cassandra's preborn baby Molly, who was also killed in that violent attack. That is because in criminal law in Canada a preborn child is not recognized as a separate victim in attacks against its mother.

This petition calls on Parliament to pass legislation that would allow a separate charge to be laid in the death or injury of a preborn child when the child's mother is a victim of a crime.

I have heard lots of comments about justice being needed for Molly.

[Criminal Code, May 3rd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, there have been a number of times that this debate, or close to this debate, has been on this floor. As recently as 2010, this issue around assisted suicide or assisted dying was turned down, not unanimously, but almost unanimously, in this House.

When I said “by the stroke of a pen”, I actually meant that. It was never a desire of the people in the past Parliament to endeavour to move our medical people to committing suicide acts with patients. It was the stroke of a pen that would change Canada forever, because once someone is euthanized, it is irreversible.

[Criminal Code, May 3rd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I apologize that I did not catch the question the first time.

Clearly the objective in this country should be to encourage life, not to encourage taking life. My point would have been to make a direct commitment to make sure that we have true palliative care in this country.

Second, because of the Supreme Court decision, it needs to be clear that there will never be what is said in this document about returning to discussions on minors and those with mental illness. We need to be as tight and protective of the vulnerable, seniors, and our youth as we can, and to make explicitly sure that those who have a moral and ethical bar are not made in any way to perform a duty in which their oath as a medical practitioner was never allowed to take them until this judgment came down.

[Criminal Code, May 3rd, 2016]

I apologize that I did not get your question.

[Criminal Code, May 3rd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to talk to this issue. In my 10 years here, this has likely been one of the most sensitive, most compassionate and emotional discussions I have had with my constituents in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex.

Let me start with a little background. Bill C-14 is an act to amend the Criminal Code to allow assisted dying, so we can allow someone under the law to kill someone else. It sort of catches me in the pit of my stomach, quite honestly. Section 241 of the Criminal Code talks about counselling or aiding suicide. It says:

Everyone who

a. counsels a person to commit suicide, or

b. aids or abets a person to commit suicide,

whether suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.

That is what Canada has been built upon in terms of the desire to not have people help people kill themselves.

In February of last year, the Supreme Court of Canada gave all the exemptions to this Criminal Code. The Criminal Code now gives an exemption for medical assistance in dying, so no medical practitioner or nurse practitioner can be charged. There is an exemption for people aiding the practitioner. If the doctor is doing it, and a nurse practitioner is helping, they are exempt from any charges.

The pharmacist who provides the cocktail, whether injected by the doctor or prepared so the patient injects it on his or her own, is exempt from any criminal charge.

There is an exemption now for a person aiding a patient. No person commits an offence if he or she does anything at another person's explicit request.

The coverall is that if there is a mistake made, no charges can come forward.

I find it quite extraordinary that with the stroke of a pen, nine judges made a decision to take a criminal law in the country and turn it 180 degrees, now make something that was criminal a health remedy. We now have to encourage people to take someone else's life.

I find it quite hypocritical that we are talking about assisted suicide, assisted death at this time. We like to use comforting words so it does not really mean we are actually giving someone the authority to kill someone else, but that is what we are doing. That is what the Supreme Court told us we have to do. At the same time, we have a national strategy on suicide prevention.

I am not sure where the government is on that discussion at this time, but I find the two of them are running in opposite directions. When my colleagues talked about first nations, we have all read about the issues. We are all up in arms and disturbed when we see not only individuals but groups coming together to commit suicide.

One of the key things in any long-term care is palliative care. We have heard this from just about everyone. Many of us have talked about our experiences or someone we know. I can also speak of that.

My parents died of cancer. Anyone who knows someone who has had bone cancer knows of the pain that comes with it. Maybe back then though, when my parents were suffering and succumbed to cancer, there was true palliative care. In their cases it never crossed their minds to ask for some sort of assistance to terminate their lives, let alone ask to have their doctor either provide or give them the solution to take their lives.

We talk a lot about palliative care, where it is and how it will be funded. We have the governing party saying that it is in the budget. The member from Winnipeg said it was in the budget. It has not been produced. We know it is not in the budget. If we read the preamble, we might read between the lines, if one has a visionary mind that there might be money for it. There just is not. It is not in the legislation. It is not in the budget. I am afraid it is a lone wolf out in the desert saying it.

We need to take some lessons from other countries, like Belgium and the Netherlands. Belgium started this 15 years ago. It was very secure so patients did not get on a slippery slope. However, now it is estimated that 32% of those patients never gave their consent for their euthanasia. We are told it now increases by about 47% per year.

As palliative care dollars drop, the desire to have something to take the pain away, which palliative care could look after, goes to assisted suicide.

I have some serious concerns about this. I talked about palliative care. I also do not see where there is any protection for doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners. Nor is there protection for institutions that have a moral conscience, an ethical bar that will not allow them. I have talked to doctors and nurses. A nurse had asked me if this was true. I said we would have to wait for the legislation. She said that if it were true, she would be out of it. She could not kill someone or be part of the euthanization of someone. A doctor who took an oath to protect lives said that he never took any oath to take away life.

Does the government have a vision in the future? This raises a huge issue, because on page 2 of the bill, it says:

...the Government of Canada has committed to develop non-legislative measures that would support the improvement of a full range of options for end-of-life care—

...giving rise to requests by mature minors, advance requests and requests where mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition.