Joël Godin

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Montcalm for his comments.

Indeed, we should not be playing yo-yo with people. The number of active cases is on the rise in the Lower St. Lawrence region of Quebec. The provincial government is adjusting its strategy. The people in this region were asking to be moved from the orange zone to the yellow zone. If the numbers keep rising, they will be put in the red zone.

I understand that we should not be playing yo-yo. However, we can set benchmarks. The people of the Lower St. Lawrence can understand that. The infection rate in this region is very low, and the people of this sector, this area, enjoyed a privilege, but now must adjust. There are no demonstrations in the streets of the Lower St. Lawrence region.

We do not want to play yo-yo; we want to give Canadians hope.

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear colleague. I appreciate his question. If he can practise his French, I can practise my English.

Yesterday, TVA relayed the following comment on femicide: “It is a frightening situation.” Who said that? It was the mayor of the second-largest city in Canada, Montreal. It is a huge problem and we do not see what is happening in homes across Quebec and Canada.

It is clear that we need to provide some hope and that is why I talk about hope in my speech. Hope does not mean having a plan with very specific criteria saying we are going to open at this hour and close at that hour. However, can we at least have some guidelines, some indication to help us see what is coming? I trust Canadians. We are smart enough to make up our own minds and respect the guidelines put in place by the federal government.

Maybe the government is waiting until Thursday, procrastination day, to table something on Friday, since Thursday will be a day off. We know that the government has taken a lot of days off. I hope that all parliamentarians will vote in favour of our motion so that we can get a plan that gives hope to all Canadians.

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Repentigny.

We moved a motion today calling on the government to take concrete action, come up with a response plan and give Canadians hope. If that is called procrastination in my colleague's riding, Repentigny, then I do not understand.

Procrastinating is being on the job and constantly putting off things and tasks, either because you do not want to do them or out of cowardice. I have to say that my colleague's comment is not really relevant considering the speech I gave.

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Fundy Royal, New Brunswick, for his very interesting speech.

I would add that he is doing a great job in the official opposition shadow cabinet. I would therefore like to thank my esteemed colleague from the beautiful riding of Fundy Royal, which is not as nice as Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, but is beautiful nonetheless, because it is our neighbour.

I think it is always important to reread a motion so that people watching know what we are talking about. Today's motion reads as follows:

That, given that,

(i) COVID-19 restrictions have had serious economic and mental health impacts on Canadians,

(ii) COVID-19 restrictions have been advised by the federal government, including specifically by the Prime Minister on three separate occasions in November of 2020, as temporary measures to alleviate pressure on the public healthcare system,

(iii) public health tools, such as rapid tests, shared data on how COVID-19 spreads and vaccines, have not been positioned as permanent solutions to replace COVID-19 restrictions by the federal government, including in areas of federal competency like air travel and border restrictions,

(iv) the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom have both released public plans for economic reopening, while Canadian officials have not yet given Canadians clarity on when regular economic and social life will be able to resume,

the House call on the government to table within 20 calendar days, following the adoption of this motion, a clear data-driven plan to support safely, gradually and permanently lifting COVID-19 restrictions.

I know that there were some great initiatives. Not everything was tossed in the trash. Some things were done right, but now we need to make adjustments.

Canadians need hope. They need it even more during this unique, historic, unprecedented time, a time we hope is not to be repeated. The risk remains great, however. This situation has been going on for a little over a year. We are in a public health crisis, and everything has been disrupted.

Let us give Canadians clear information. Let us give them hope. It is the government's job to put forward a responsible plan for Canada's economic reopening. I want to stress the word “responsible”. It is in capital letters right here in my speech. We are not calling for an irresponsible reopening. We are asking for a responsible plan.

The President of the United States has released his plan. The same is true of the British Prime Minister. I would remind the House that our Prime Minister here in Canada has been in power for six years. The President of the United States has only been in the position for two months. He was elected in November, but took office in January.

The Liberals better not try to blame the weather or COVID-19, although COVID is being blamed for a lot these days. A new president in the United States took two months to submit a plan, while in Canada we are still dragging our feet. We are trying to move forward, but it seems to me that this government is not very proactive. Even South Korea, Germany, France and many other countries have released stimulus packages.

Let me be clear. This is not about asking the federal government to impose guidance on the provinces. The official opposition believes that it is up to the federal government to issue guidelines, because the lockdowns and restrictions were put in place to give the federal and provincial governments time to find permanent solutions.

We have the vaccines, we have the rapid tests and we have the variant tests. We finally have everything we need to present a clear plan to Canadians—everything except a government capable of recognizing that our people desperately need a plan of hope.

Under the circumstances, Canadians have been very resilient and very co-operative. I think they deserve to have transparency and a plan. Having a plan does not mean opening the doors wide and letting everyone rush into agricultural fairs and movie theatres. Having a plan means having deadlines and benchmarks. Also, a plan can be adjusted. That is part of planning. We need to have this starting point.

As the representative of the people of my riding, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, I, like every Canadian, believe we need hope.

It has been over a year now. People around the world are celebrating the first anniversary of this bug that has unfortunately infected the entire globe.

We are talking about a plan to support gradually and permanently lifting COVID-19 restrictions. As I just said, this is a gradual plan. It is not about going in blind or being irresponsible. It is about developing a data-driven plan, and these data exist. The idea is not to put our health in jeopardy or diminish protections for Canadians. The idea is to give Canadians hope.

There are indicators to meet in order to gradually reopen. Some provinces use a colour-coded system, in which the colour changes in relation to the number of people who are hospitalized, the number of deaths or the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. These are indicators and benchmarks. We all experienced the first wave, and we adjusted. We came out of lockdown last summer and then went back into lockdown in the fall, but now can we have some hope?

I remind members that back in spring 2020, the provincial governments gave us hope. We can therefore ask that the federal government table a plan within 20 days. What we are asking for today is very simple. We want a data-driven plan to support safely, gradually and permanently lifting COVID-19 restrictions. The current government has no vision.

Last April, the members of the official opposition pressured the government to significantly increase support for small businesses and workers. At that time, the Conservatives promised to keep pressuring the government with respect to CERB. We kept that promise, because it was important to ensure that Canadians could quickly get the help they needed throughout this pandemic.

From the start of this crisis, the members of the official opposition have said that in addition to dependability, Canadians needed clarity and leadership in times of crisis. One year later, that is still true. Now, Canadians need clarity and leadership regarding when and how the restrictions can be lifted.

Fittingly enough, this Thursday is International Procrastination Day. Procrastination is the tendency to keep putting things off until later, either in one specific area of daily life or in general. I think the government will have no trouble embracing this concept, since it is always putting things off until later. We see it in all of our rankings, which are constantly dropping. Canada was leading the way on many indicators, but now our rankings keep dropping. It is embarrassing to see Canada dropping in the rankings of the number of people who have been vaccinated under the current Liberal government.

I want to remind the House of a bit of history. It was this Liberal government that prorogued Parliament last summer, in the midst of a crisis. Was that to serve Canadians properly, or was it to protect itself from the damaging effects of the WE Charity scandal? The answer is simple: The government wanted to serve its own interests.

In the midst of a crisis, the government shut down Parliament for two months. Was that responsible? How can we trust this government?

There is plenty of evidence to show that our businesses, including those in Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, need help and need to know what is happening.

Here is a short message I received from a business about opening the borders:

Dear Member of Parliament,

We would like to tell you about a major problem.

Company X operates internationally, and much of our revenue comes from outside Canada.

Canada must open its borders to business now. The problems associated with the extended border closure are getting serious. If we want to keep competing with the U.S. on a level playing field, the borders must be reopened as soon as possible.

Thank you for your attention.

Cordially,

It is signed by the company owner.

Here is another example. A company was benefiting from the commercial rent subsidy in the spring. The building owner was eligible, but now the business owner who is renting premises to the company is not eligible because the tenant is not at arm's length. The father could do it in the spring, but now the son cannot.

In closing, I just want to say that we need a clear plan, just to give people hope. We need a responsible plan that can be adjusted if the incidence of variants rises.

[Employment Insurance Act, March 11th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I salute my colleague, and I want him to know that I really appreciate his work and his question.

I feel compelled to answer him very clearly, and I will be blunt. No, the current Liberal government is not capable of properly managing public funds and the economic recovery of our country.

[Employment Insurance Act, March 11th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia. I especially appreciate her environmental awareness, and I salute her.

My answer is that, yes, we need to fix the situation the Liberals have created. Now we need to sit down and figure out how to do that. I do not know the details of the negotiations that took place between the Bloc Québécois and the Liberal Party. There seems to be some political and strategic jousting going on to set the stage for the next election campaign.

I would turn the question back on my colleague. What behind-the-scenes pact or deal did the Bloc Québécois make with the Liberal Party of Canada?

[Employment Insurance Act, March 11th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to echo my colleague from Timmins—James Bay's compliment on your excellent work. You have earned it. I appreciate your work as Speaker of the House and occupant of the chair.

I would like to begin by responding to the point of order raised by my colleague from Kingston and the Islands. I do not think my colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan was ill-intentioned. It happens to us all. Unfortunately, technology being what it is, mistakes happen. Still, I do want to point out that we have made major progress and quickly adapted to this new technology and a hybrid Parliament.

Moving on, I will now answer the question posed by my colleague from Kingston and the Islands. This is not a jurisdiction issue, but is he admitting that his government is incompetent? The program that was supposed to help businesses pay their commercial rent was created by the federal government and is under federal jurisdiction.

The provisions of this program as it appeared last spring were legitimate, but poorly constructed. The government should have simply done a copy-paste. If I may offer some advice after the fact, the government should have hung on to the arm's length eligibility criteria with safeguards. There was nothing wrong with them. The government should have included them in the version of the program that was launched in the fall. Unfortunately, yet again, the government improvised and went too fast.

The thing is, it is possible to do things both fast and well. Sadly, the government is incapable of doing that, and my colleague from Kingston and the Islands may have publicly admitted that the government is incompetent.

[Employment Insurance Act, March 11th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to rise on a point of order before I respond to the point of order raised by my colleague from Kingston and the Islands.

However, it seems as though there is someone else online. Can we make sure that everyone's microphone is on mute?

[Employment Insurance Act, March 11th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I would like to acknowledge my colleague, the opposition transport critic. That was an excellent speech. I would also like to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Chilliwack—Hope, in B.C.

Today we are debating Bill C-24, an act to amend the Employment Insurance Act, the Canada Recovery Benefits Act and another act in response to COVID-19.

The past year has been an unusual one, so I want to spare a thought for everyone who has suffered because of COVID-19, for all those we have lost. I also want to take this opportunity to extend my condolences to everyone who lost a loved one or family member. I want them to know that they are in my thoughts. They have had to mourn under very unusual circumstances. My thoughts are with them today, but I want to remind everyone that they must remain in our thoughts every day, not just today.

We need Bill C-24 because the Liberal government was too hasty and did not do its job properly in September. Still today, the government continues to improvise. We know that we are in the midst of a pandemic, but we can still do things right even if we have to act quickly. We can do two things at the same time and do them properly and intelligently so that our efforts are successful and ill-conceived bills do not have to be fixed and reworked.

My colleagues and I are ready to work to improve the bill, and we have always been clear about that. Unfortunately, the government wants to make us look like the villains, the bad guys. I find that rather strange since we have been ready for six weeks.

My colleague, the House leader for the opposition and member for Louis-Saint-Laurent, has asked the government House leader countless times to introduce this bill. The Liberal government's political strategy has been to have us play the bad guys. Are they doing that in their own political interest or in the interest of Canadians? To me, the answer is obvious.

On January 2, we condemned the government's decision to extend the Canada recovery sickness benefit, commonly known as the CRSB, to Canadians returning home from holiday travel.

The government told people not to travel, but those who decided to head south for a little sun were given a two-week lockdown and $1,000 upon their return in the form of the CRSB. I am not criticizing those travellers, because they were allowed to travel. It is the government that did not do its job properly.

I will quote my colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles who said, “If nothing is done, if the government does not take action, millions of dollars, billions of dollars will be at stake. People who would not normally be entitled to receive [the CRSB] will get it because this is a botched program that was poorly thought out and is being poorly enforced.”

I repeat, the government is improvising. This is more wasteful spending. The Prime Minister ultimately acknowledged the flaw in the bill.

On January 5, during his first press conference of the year, the Prime Minister said that the intention was never to send a cheque to those who decided to travel despite the public health advisories. He went on to say that those who travelled south would not be entitled to this financial assistance. On January 29, in front of his house on Sussex Drive, he announced he was fixing the situation with travellers who can receive $1,000 in financial assistance after travelling south.

Now on March 11, today, we are finally talking about it in the House of Commons. It is shameful because it was first brought up on January 5 and was clearly announced at a press conference on January 29. It took a long time for this to be brought before the House. It just shows the government's incompetence and inability to react quickly and conscientiously.

As I mentioned, the Conservatives are ready to work to help facilitate the business of Parliament, and yet, clearly, the Liberals' current strategy is to blame us by accusing us of filibustering. That is completely false.

I want to go back to September 28, 2020, when a bill was introduced. Today we are debating Bill C-24, which aims to fix that legislation. A tremendous amount of time has passed between the two.

In September 2020, with the help of the NDP, the Green Party and independent members, the Liberals succeeded in limiting debate in Parliament.

It should be understood that if the Conservatives oppose the bill, hard-working Canadians who need help will accuse us of not wanting to offer them financial assistance. We would then be seen as the bad guys. If, on the other hand, we support the bill, we will be accused of taking the government at their word and wanting to rush through the process.

In times of crisis, we need to be able to compromise and to have faith in the government and its team to provide adequate financial assistance and programs. If adjustments need to be made afterwards, we can do so quickly.

This government has proven to be incapable of responding, by a multitude of metrics. This government is not able to stay ahead of the pack. It has not yet announced a recovery plan, while many countries announced theirs several months ago.

The United States has a new president, and it took him just a few days to announce his economic recovery plan.

Canada's Prime Minister, who was elected in 2015 and who is in his second term, has not managed to present an economic recovery plan. That is not reassuring.

I also want to talk about the commercial rent assistance program. In the spring, this program was originally designed for landlords, which proved to be a monumental failure. It took the government six months to adapt and come up with a new program, which now provides rent assistance to tenants.

Back in the spring the government set some very detailed eligibility criteria, which included arm's length tenants. That criterion has been left out of the renters' assistance program.

In my riding, a young business owner was entitled to assistance through his landlord in the spring, but due to the arm's length relationship criterium, he was not entitled to assistance in the fall.

I asked the minister to remedy that. Is that going to take another six months?

Meanwhile, the business owner, who wants to participate in the economic recovery, is unfortunately not getting the financial help he needs to get through the crisis. He will not be able to share in the prosperity of our country's economic recovery. I find that outrageous.

I would like us to take advantage of the current situation to encourage and invite the government to act quickly to give tools and carefully targeted assistance to those who really need it.

This government's problem, if I may so, is that it is cowardly. It implements universal programs but without the accountability and rigour needed to specifically respond to the needs of Canadians and business owners who want to participate in the economic recovery.

[Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, March 10th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona.

I hope the next few times I will speak with you in English.

I will speak French for now, but I too am working very hard to learn our great country's other official language.

Let me say that you are right. We could be taking meaningful action. Bill C-12, the bill we are debating, does not address the concerns or propose any quick, tangible measures.

I would like to remind my colleague of the Conservative Party of Canada's record from 2006 to 2015, when our government made major investments through the eco-energy innovation initiative. These are meaningful steps the Conservative Party took at the time, but the problem has not been solved yet, and we are all aware that it is going to take a collective effort.

When it comes to recycling, everyone is making an effort to achieve results, yet 65% of the recyclable items that Canadians go out of their way to put in blue bins end up in the landfill. There is a structural problem that we need to address.

That is the type of meaningful action we need to be taking.

I would like to reassure my colleague that we can take meaningful action to get results for the sake of our environment, both here in Canada and around the globe.