Ed Fast

[Disaster Assistance, December 13th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I will ask the minister this again and this time I would like a real answer. He decided that only the Red Cross is worthy of receiving matching funding, yet B.C. has been devastated by this flooding disaster. Thousands are without homes. We need all hands on deck. The Salvation Army, the MCC, Archway, Samaritan's Purse, the United Way, the Abbotsford Disaster Relief Fund and even the churches and gurdwaras all stepped up to help, yet all have been snubbed by the minister. Will he now reverse course and announce they too will receive matching funding, yes or no?

[Public Safety, December 6th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, failing to act is compromising national security. Last month, the minister met with President Biden's technology adviser to collaborate and talk about national security. There was a lot of talk but no action by the minister. Meanwhile, our telecoms have spent close to a billion dollars on Huawei equipment and now want to have taxpayers compensate them for that. Can members imagine that?

Will the minister say no to compensation? Will she finally say no to Huawei?

[Public Safety, December 6th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, last week, I asked the government when it would make a decision on banning Huawei. I have received no answer, so I am going to try again. Canada's most trusted security partners, including the U.S., have banned the use of Huawei technology in their 5G networks. Our country is the only one yet to say no to Huawei.

The Prime Minister promised to make this decision before the 2019 election. Here we are three years later, with another election behind us, but still no decision. When will the government and the minister make a decision?

[Public Safety, December 2nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the minister's kind words, but he needs to pay attention to this file. It is time he banned Huawei. All of our allies have banned Huawei, yet Canada stands all alone in waffling on the issue. For over two years, the government has promised a decision, which is going to come in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, our telecoms have spent billions of dollars on Huawei equipment.

When will the minister finally grow a spine and say no way to Huawei?

[Public Safety, December 2nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, Canada’s most trusted partners, the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, have all banned Huawei equipment from their 5G networks because of espionage and national security concerns, yet there is one country that stands alone in not having said no to Huawei. It is Canada.

For years the Prime Minister has promised a decision regarding Huawei, but as usual, he has failed to deliver. Why does he not take this seriously, and when will he finally say no to Huawei?

[Softwood Lumber Dispute with the United States, December 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I think the member is rewriting history. I was there, as he was, but I was on the government side. I have reviewed that agreement very carefully, and I was responsible for renegotiating or extending it for two years when it expired.

First, the lumber industry across Canada embraced this agreement. It saw it as the best outcome it could hope for given U.S. intransigence. Second, on the $1 billion, again, the member does not recall this quite correctly. Half of the money went to the American industry and the other half went into a shared fund that was used jointly by Canada and the United States to promote the lumber industry. It was $500 million for that jointly administered fund, and then another $4.5 billion for Canadian producers. I see that as a good-news story.

[Softwood Lumber Dispute with the United States, December 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know if the member recalls that back when the softwood lumber agreement was negotiated and settled under a previous Conservative government, every softwood lumber province across the country had agreed with it. All producers across the country were onside. Industry was onside. Governments were onside. This was a big win for Canada.

Can members imagine $4.5 billion U.S.? The equivalent of that today is $6 billion and it came back to our producers. Instead of the government keeping that money, which I am sure the Liberals would have done, we as the Conservatives said that the rightful owners of that refund were the producers themselves. The member should be celebrating that victory rather than scolding us.

[Softwood Lumber Dispute with the United States, December 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, it is very easy to answer that. The softwood agreement expired shortly before the election. It was in October 2015 that it expired. In fact, our Liberal friends across the way were making all kinds of promises about how they would extend and renew the agreement. They said they had a much better relationship with the United States. Today we know that was all bunkum. It was all a fabrication. The Liberals had no relationship with the United States.

Today we know our relationship with the United States is a failed relationship under the current Liberal government. It is sad to see when we think that under Stephen Harper we had such a strong relationship. Now, under three successive presidents of the United States, the Prime Minister has been unable to achieve anything on the bilateral trade front.

[Softwood Lumber Dispute with the United States, December 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by saying that I will be splitting my time with the member for Calgary Nose Hill.

I would like to provide the counterpoint to what we have just heard from the Liberal side, because we have to distinguish fiction from fact. The truth is, there is a long history to this dispute, going way back to at least 1982. It was a Liberal government under Paul Martin that finally tried to bring peace to the woods. This was called the war of the woods because we had ongoing battles between the United States and Canada on the softwood lumber issue. Unfortunately, Paul Martin failed to get a deal done, to get peace in the woods. His trade minister, Jim Peterson, failed to get an agreement for Canadians.

Then we had an election in 2006. Stephen Harper was elected prime minister of our country and he did something remarkable. He reached across the aisle and asked David Emerson to cross the floor and join his cabinet. He had one main task, and that was to resolve the lumber dispute. David Emerson had deep roots in the softwood lumber industry. He knew it well. Stephen Harper knew that David Emerson could get the deal done, and guess what? He did it successfully.

In fact, he was remarkably successful. He negotiated a seven-year softwood lumber agreement and bought peace for seven years. He also negotiated a potential two-year extension. On top of that, he negotiated a $4.5-billion U.S. repayment to Canada that went back to the softwood lumber producers in Canada. It was a big win for Canada. It was a big win for the Conservative government under Stephen Harper because it brought us that peace we needed in the woods.

That softwood lumber agreement needed to be ratified in the House through a ways and means motion, and guess what? The Liberals voted against it in 2006. Only one Liberal voted in favour of it: Joe Comuzzi. He boldly stood up against the duplicity of the Liberals at the time. We later ended up renewing that agreement, so we had a total of nine years of peace between Canada and the United States.

Today we find ourselves in a situation. For the last six years, the Liberal government, the finance minister and the Prime Minister have been continually promising to resolve this dispute.

In fact, I have here a CBC article going back to March 12, 2016. The headline is “[Canada's trade minister] heralds ‘real breakthrough’ on softwood lumber negotiations”. That was six years ago. That trade minister was quoted as saying, “We have now managed to get the Americans to the table, we have managed to raise attention to this issue at the very highest levels.” She went on to say, “I don't want to downplay to anyone the complexity—the fiendish complexity—of the softwood lumber issue [but] this was a real breakthrough.” That was six years ago. What happened to that breakthrough?

Time after time, when we ask questions in the House about how those negotiations are going, we are told we are going to get a deal, yet it has been six years. That, by any definition, is failure, especially when we compare it to the standard the Harper government set in negotiating nine years of peace in the woods. For six years we have had a war in the woods and that war continues. In fact, today we are in a situation where the U.S. has doubled tariffs on softwood lumber exports from Canada.

Shame on the government. Shame on the Prime Minister. Shame on the finance minister, who was trade minister when she made those bold statements. I know we can do better and Canadians deserve better.

[Disaster Assistance, November 30th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister announced that the government would match flood relief donations only for the Red Cross. Local agencies with actual boots on the ground that are helping displaced families have been denied matching funding. The Salvation Army, the Mennonite Central Committee, Archway and churches are feeding and housing victims and cleaning up the mess left behind by the floods, yet none will receive matching funding. Why?

Will the Prime Minister now commit to matching funds for all qualified agencies that are helping out the flood victims?