Justin Trudeau

[Intergovernmental Relations, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I refuse to take lessons from a member of Stephen Harper's government that refused to hold first ministers' meetings for almost the entire duration of their time in office.

I have sat down with the premiers regularly, individually and collectively, to work together, to listen to their concerns, to move forward on important issues, like internal trade, to move forward on important issues that matter to all Canadians, like creating jobs and lowering unemployment rates. At the same time, we know that protecting the environment and working with indigenous peoples is the only way to get projects built the right way.

[Intergovernmental Relations, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, this all stems from a deep misunderstanding between the Conservatives and the Liberals.

We think the only way forward in this country, on resource projects, on growing the economy, is to fold in the environment, to respect indigenous peoples, in our thinking, in our processes.

The Conservatives still want to barrel through, ignoring environmental voices, ignoring indigenous peoples. That did not work for 10 years of Stephen Harper, but Conservatives are doubling down right now.

On this side, we are going to get things built.

[Pharmacare, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, one of the major differences between the NDP and the Liberal Party of Canada is that we listen to the experts and we know how to do things the right way.

The NDP makes many fine promises that it will never be able to keep because it does not have a plan.

The Liberal Party listens to the experts, like Dr. Hoskins and his report, to identify the best way forward. That approach has lifted 825,000 Canadians and 300,000 children out of poverty in recent years.

We know that the way to help Canadians is to listen to the experts and create a good plan.

[Pharmacare, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, over the past four years, we have acted concretely on a broad range of measures to make lives easier for Canadians, not just the kind of wishful thinking that the NDP specializes in but serious, tangible measures like half a billion dollars toward the high cost of drugs for rare diseases and moving forward on a Canada drug agency that is going to be able to lower prices across the country.

We are putting more money in the pockets of the middle class with the Canada child benefit, which has lifted hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty. We are investing in housing—

[Pharmacare, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, no Canadian should have to choose between medication and food. That is why we accept the report by Dr. Hoskins and the advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare. We are building on commitments going back to 2015 and made concretely in budget 2019 to improve access to necessary medications, which has already had an impact on Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

This report is an important step to lay the foundation of a national pharmacare program for us. We are going to continue to make sure that Canadians can afford their medication as we move forward with a national—

[Pharmacare, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, no Canadian should have to choose between medication and food. We accept the report by Dr. Hoskins and the advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare.

We are building on the commitment we made in 2015 and in budget 2019 to improve access to necessary medications. This report is an important step in the potential development of a national pharmacare program. To us, medicare and prescription drugs are for people, but sadly we know that for the Leader of the Opposition, this is always about privatization.

[Natural Resources, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives need to be the ones who are careful with the truth because the Kinder Morgan anchor loop, which is the pipeline they refer to consistently as having been built, goes nowhere near a port. We know that we need, and we have needed for a long time, to get our oil exports to markets other than the United States. For 10 years, the Conservatives failed because they ignored environmental concerns and they did not work with indigenous peoples.

We are now putting forward a pathway to do exactly that in Bill C-69, which is going to get projects built the right way. That is what the industry wants. That is what Canadians want. That is what we need to do to grow the economy.

[Natural Resources, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' obliviousness to the facts is actually mind-boggling. For 10 years, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives could not get projects built because they marginalized environmental voices and ignored indigenous peoples. We knew that the only way to move forward was to improve the system around which we approve and move forward on projects and give clarity to investors. That is why we are moving forward with Bill C-69: because we know we are going to be able to get projects built by working with indigenous peoples and protecting the environment.

[Intergovernmental Relations, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the fundamental responsibility of any Prime Minister, indeed, anyone who aspires to be prime minister, is to defend national unity and keep the country together. The Leader of the Opposition should condemn the Conservative premiers who so blithely stated and made claims about threats to national unity if they do not get their way. The issue at hand is Conservatives do not think that in order to move forward with resource projects, one has to be mindful of the environment and one has to partner with indigenous peoples. We disagree. Indeed, we think it is the only way to move forward.

[Intergovernmental Relations, June 12th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, once again, it is his Conservative premier friends who brought up the issue of national unity if they did not get their way. This comes from a fundamental difference of opinion between Conservatives and Liberals on how to move forward on resource projects. We believe, particularly having seen the failure for 10 years of Stephen Harper, the only way to move forward is to protect the environment, is to create partnerships with indigenous peoples. They disagree and they want to double down on Stephen Harper's failed approach. We know that the environment and the economy must go together in the 21st century.