Justin Trudeau

[International Trade, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank the Conservative member for standing up for supply management. I know that not everyone on the other side of the House supports it.

We all agree that protecting supply management is a priority for our government and Canadians. We will continue to protect supply management and support our farmers, particularly our dairy farmers who work hard every day to provide Canadians with a clean and healthy product.

[Science, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Scarborough—Agincourt for her work on her file.

We are delivering on our promise to restore science to its rightful place in Canada. We are strengthening Canada's labs and classrooms with the largest investment in fundamental research in Canada's history.

I am looking forward to seeing the amazing work of our youngest researchers and scientists later today and invite everyone to come and join. Unlike the Harper Conservatives, we celebrate, promote and believe in science-based decision-making.

[Veterans Affairs, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, here is something we saw for 10 years that the Conservative government did not acknowledge. When a man or woman serves in Canada's Armed Forces or in the RCMP, their whole family serves with them. We have made it a priority to not only improve benefits and services for our nation's veterans but for their families as well. Since 2016, investments have totalled $10 billion for veteran programs and services, including the hiring of over 470 staff to increase delivery capacity.

In regard to the tragic and terrible case the member opposite mentioned, due to laws around privacy and confidentiality—

[National Defence, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I know I am not the only one in this House who finds it a little bit rich that the Conservatives are complaining about procurement processes, when they completely botched our fighter jet procurement process from the beginning.

The Conservatives completely failed to get the equipment needed to our armed forces. They created the capability gap.

We are fixing that. We are ensuring that the men and women in uniform who serve this country are given the equipment they need, and are not just used for photo ops, like the Conservatives did every damn time.

[National Defence, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, as the member well knows, after a decade of Conservative cuts, we are proud that our government is making landmark investments in the Canadian Armed Forces.

There has never been a better time for Canadians to join Canada's defence team. We are taking action to boost retention of our women and men in uniform, including with tax breaks, and with more than $6 million a year for support and services for military families.

We have introduced initiatives to speed up recruitment and training to ensure our Royal Canadian Air Force has all it needs to accomplish its mission.

[Veterans Affairs, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, this government recognizes that we have a sacred obligation to support our veterans and their families, and that includes investments in mental health.

We have invested, over the past three years, about $10 billion in helping our veterans, in supporting their families, in moving forward on veterans' mental health benefits and supports, in reopening shuttered Veterans Affairs offices. We recognize that there is still more to do.

We are working hard to meet the expectations and the needs of the veterans who have served this country so excellently for so many years. We will continue to be there for them.

[Veterans Affairs, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, as we will see from investments of close to $10 billion in our veterans over the past three years, the mental health and well-being of veterans and families is a priority for this government.

We have heard from the veterans community that this is an important issue to them, so in budget 2018, we expanded the medical expense tax credit for recognizing costs for psychiatric service dogs for 2018 and future years.

Being based in evidence is important to us, so we are currently funding three research initiatives related to service animals. We continue to monitor the research to ensure that we are making the best decisions to support our veterans.

[Natural Resources, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, what folks in the energy sector understand very clearly is that there is no path forward for our energy sector unless we also protect the environment and unless we build partnerships with indigenous peoples. The old ways of doing things failed for 10 years under the Conservatives. We now know that being respectful and thoughtful about how we move forward is what Canadians expect. That is exactly what we are going to do. While they are still worried about suddenly putting a price on pollution, we know that moving forward responsibly is the only way to get things done in this country.

[Natural Resources, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, here is the difficulty for Conservatives. They have actually spent the past three years telling us that we should not be doing so much on the environment, we should not be fretting about consultation with indigenous peoples, but that we should just plow ahead like Stephen Harper did. He did not succeed in 10 years of trying to plow ahead. What we have heard from the court recently was that it was good that we were doing consultations and working with indigenous people and that it was good we were taking seriously the science, but we need to do a little more. That leaves the Conservatives on the wrong side of history, and we are going to do things the right way.

[Natural Resources, September 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, just to correct the record a bit, as a government we have expanded export capacity for the Alberta Clipper project, we approved the Nova Gas pipeline, the Line 3 replacement project, the Arnaud apatite mine, Woodfibre LNG and the Ridley Island propane terminal.

We are moving forward on getting projects done and getting them done the right way, which both respects indigenous peoples and works in partnership with them. We are working to make sure that the environmental science and the protection of our ecosystem is front of mind. We know from 10 years of failure by the Conservatives, because of their narrowing of the scope of projects, that we need to restore the confidence of Canadians.