Justin Trudeau

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, January 31st, 2011]

With regard to the Minister of National Revenue, Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, what are the exact, line-by-line details of all travel and hospitality expenses incurred by the Minister and all exempt staff since January 1, 2009?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, January 31st, 2011]

With regard to all federal funding in the riding of Papineau for fiscal years 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010: (a) how many projects received funding from all departments or agencies over this period; (b) what projects received funding from all departments or agencies over this period; and (c) what was the value of the projects that received funding from all departments or agencies over this period?

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 31st, 2011]

With regard to the Minister of Labour, what are the exact, line-by-line details of all travel and hospitality expenses incurred by the Minister and all exempt staff since January 1, 2009?

[Standing up for Victims of White Collar Crime Act, December 14th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, it seems that every time the Conservative government tries to bring in a tough on crime bill, it jumps immediately to mandatory minimum sentences. The member made some strong comments about why mandatory minimum sentences would not be particularly effective in this case. I would like him to repeat them. It is important that we emphasize just how tough on crime, according to the government, is not really smart on crime.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, there is a difficult challenge in getting the balance right. The difficulties are so great and the needs so pressing in the immediate, that, yes, we need to ensure we give every bit of concrete present help that we possibly can. However, we must do it in a way that we build the capacity for the long term and we get Haiti back on its feet so it has the strength of the robust infrastructure to make it through whatever the gods or nature chooses to throw at it in the coming years.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, my community in Papineau is filled from La Perle Retrouvée to all the different organizations and individuals who are helping, who are offering their help, or filling containers with clothes. After the hurricanes, it was particularly noticeable. There was a huge amount of help, more help in many cases than Haitians knew what to do with. The logistics involved is often overwhelming.

Canadians and people in Montreal and in my riding have been exceedingly generous with their thoughts, with their prayers and with their money as well to try to help Haiti.

That is an important piece of it. It will help through the short term. However, it is the difference between offering someone a fish and teaching them how to fish. We need to ensure we work with the Haitian people and the Haitian government to wean them off the need for constant intervention internationally and start building a strong and proud nation that we know Haitians deserve and Haitians can create.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about an extremely important issue. I would just like to say that I will be splitting my time with the member for Honoré-Mercier.

I would like to start by paying tribute to my colleague and good friend, the hon. member for Bourassa, for all the work he has done on this issue. Throughout this crisis, since this horrendous event on January 12, he has been there for our colleagues and friends in the Haitian community in Montreal and Haiti, just as he always will be. His has been a very strong voice during this crisis, and he has always been present. It is thanks to him that we can have this debate this evening. It is important that we show our friendship for the Haitian people, and all the parties have done that this evening.

Our Haitian friends have gone through a few extremely difficult years. Their country was devastated by natural disasters, from deforestation to systemic poverty to the four back-to-back hurricanes in 2008 that caused enormous damage. Just when the country was starting to rebuild and get back on its feet again, the earthquake hit on January 12, causing over 250,000 deaths and making more than 1.5 million people homeless. They were literally in the street because they did not want to go back into their homes, which were still standing, for fear they would collapse on them.

Now, nearly 12 months later, cholera is ravaging the Haitian population. More than 2,000 people have died, and tens of thousands are at risk. On top of all that, Haiti is in the midst of a human and political crisis. The elections that were just held were rife with irregularities. Two candidates made it through the first round of voting to the run-off, which sparked a wave of violence throughout the country. Haitians do not believe or trust these results. They want a recount. They want to know that their votes will count, but they are not confident they will. With all the violence and instability in the country, the humanitarian aid so many Haitians depended on has almost stopped flowing, which is obviously making things even worse.

This country is experiencing catastrophes of near biblical proportions on many fronts, such as weakened infrastructure, epidemics, malnutrition, violence and anarchy as a result of a lack of respect for police forces. However, in my opinion, the greatest catastrophe is the total loss of the sense of community, of that essential trust that exists and must exist between a people and its leaders. That trust forms the foundation of the social contract. The people of Haiti do not believe that their government can offer them services and that it is there to help and serve them. When we talk of governance, we know that Haitians are worried about the elections that are currently underway. They cannot trust that their vote was properly counted or that the will of the people was represented by this vote. But governance problems go deeper than that. Haitians have lost all hope that their government will be there for them, that it will provide the safety and prosperity that any community should be able to expect from its leaders.

In my riding of Papineau we have a big Haitian community. Since I was elected two years ago, but even before that when I was a candidate, I have had the great pleasure of spending time with and befriending a number of members of that community. I have discovered even more than what I already knew, that Haitians are a passionate, proud people who are full of hope and full of life. They are a people who are interested in politics and in the future of their community and their society.

The people of Haiti have lost all confidence in their government's ability to provide services or even offer minimal stability. Tonight we are talking about Canada's role. We are very proud of our country, one that has always intervened with military might, whether during the first world war or the second. Our diplomacy has had an impact on the United Nations. And then there are the positions we took during the cold war and in support of nuclear disarmament. Canada has provided development aid around the world. It has always been there to spread justice and create more opportunities in the poorest countries of the world. Canada has always been there, supplying solutions to the world.

And that is why we are so proud of our country. Haiti has always been a good friend to Canada and vice versa. Because of our diaspora and our friendships, we have suffered with them throughout these difficult years. It is our duty to be there during these difficult times, and we must respond to their needs.

This evening we have spoken a lot about the desperate, essential and immediate needs. We have to be present during the elections and help find solutions to restore the public's confidence in its democratic institutions. The public needs a president who reflects the will of the country. It is important that the exemplary generosity that Canadians have shown in the months following the earthquake be validated by spending the money we promised them and targeting aid adequately.

There are many things we can do with regard to agriculture to rebuild the foundation of this country. There are things we must do with regard to civil society and the status of women. The hon. member for Winnipeg South Centre spoke warmly and knowledgeably about the situation of women in Haiti and the importance of involving them. To me, essentially, this is how we will help Haitians regain confidence in their government's ability to provide services.

There are tens of thousands of different agencies working in Haiti—NGOs, local agencies, international agencies. They are all there to help Haitians. That is great, but we are creating a country that does not believe it can help itself. It has lost faith in itself.

Like my colleagues from Montreal east, I have the opportunity to spend time with many members of the Haitian community. We see to what extent these people can and want to improve the situation. We have to work with the NGOs in order to make the government accountable and to provide expertise from our diaspora to encourage Haitians to count on their government and to believe in their government. It is not up to Canada, the United Nations, the United States, or the Red Cross. It is up to Haitians to stand up and restore this pearl of the Antilles to its glory days.

[Situation in Haiti, December 13th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, the question I have for the parliamentary secretary is that in an emergency debate such as this, we are all of us presenting our opinions, our reflections and our concerns about a very important issue.

One of the things I was hoping to hear from the parliamentary secretary tonight in his speech, which was unfortunately cut short by him, was how exactly he feels Canadians can help in getting the Haitian people to regain their confidence in their own institutions, in their own government?

So much of their lives are taken up by international partners and international organizations that are providing, in many cases, the basic services that the state has not been able to provide, and I think one of the things we need to do going forward is to make Haitians once again believe that their own government, and therefore they themselves, will be capable of taking themselves forward through the 21st century.

I would like to hear from the parliamentary secretary on how he is hoping to achieve just that.

[Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, December 7th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I do not think this particular bill would have a tremendous impact on the number of people going to their members of Parliament for advice, help and knowledge. That is not what this bill would specifically address.

However, what I certainly hope this bill would be able to do is reduce the number of people who come to my office, worried and extremely troubled because they have spent an awful lot of money on someone who made them promises that he or she had no business making and actually gave them extremely bad advice that has hindered them in their process of immigrating to Canada, and sometimes gave them such bad advice that they ended up with a big red x that would bar them entirely from ever being able to immigrate to Canada, all because of the work of an unscrupulous immigration consultant.

While I am sure our MPs' offices will still be busy helping people through the process the way our offices are supposed to, as an interface between the federal government and our constituents, I certainly hope that the amount of people who have been hurt, harmed and devastated by unscrupulous immigration consultants would certainly decrease in terms of the cases we see in our offices.

[Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, December 7th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C-35 at third reading. Everyone knows that our country was built on immigration. People came from all over the world to try to build a new life. In some ways, it was easier to come to Canada in the past. There was certainly less paperwork 100 or even 50 years ago. Now, the process is complicated and strict. We want to ensure that the people we welcome into Canada are the best and that they have a lot to offer to help build a good, strong society.

That is why it is so disheartening to have seen that, for so many years, there have been immigration consultants who have been taking advantage of vulnerable people who want to improve their lives, who want to travel across the seas to start a new life and instead end up defrauded and taken advantage of by unscrupulous consultants.

That is why the bill and various projects around cracking down on unscrupulous consultants have come through various committee studies and we finally arrive at this point where we are bringing forward a framework for the minister to pick a new, and hopefully more effective, governing body around immigration consultants.

As my hon. colleague mentioned, this was a model of co-operation among all parliamentarians. There was a clear desire on behalf of Canadians to see Parliament work together to create a more robust structure that was going to care for these vulnerable people, people looking for help in a very big decision and process, that of coming to Canada.

We agreed in principle across the House that something needed to be done. On this side, we are still a little bit worried that the establishment of the recommendation from the immigration committee upon which Bill C-35 was built, which talked about creating a stand-alone regulator, was not entirely followed and is instead still just done through regulations.

However, I think the intent of the bill is clear and the effectiveness of what we have in place will move forward to protecting Canadians.

The essential part of the bill is that it gives more power to go after people who are consulting and offering advice at the earliest stages of an application process. The larger scope of the bill will allow us to protect people even before they have submitted a firm application, which was an important loophole to close.

On the other issues we brought forward as amendments, the Liberal Party was pleased to present the amendment that actually doubled the fines to $20,000 for a summary conviction, and up to $100,000 from $50,000 for anyone convicted of being an unregistered immigration consultant.

There was an excellent discussion in committee around the role and the responsibilities of immigration consultants in Quebec.

We concluded that, without taking anything away from the federal government's power, any immigration consultant working in the province of Quebec who wants to recommend an immigration opportunity in Quebec must be familiar with the immigration system in that province. The primacy of the federal government in this area in maintained, but we recognize that in Quebec, it is extremely important to be able to speak French to interact with the Quebec government. In addition, the consultant must be familiar with the particularities of the process in Quebec to be able to give good advice to those who would like to become citizens of this country.

We also managed to get rid of the short title. In consultations, it came back time and time again from consultants that they were actually offended and felt that naming the bill around the problem, which is the crooked consultants, actually demeaned and belittled the work of legitimate consultants. So we depoliticized the short title of the bill, which was a victory.

In general, the bill puts forward more powers of accountability for, and better relationships between, the minister's office and the eventual regulator. It provides for the sharing of information.

Unfortunately, one of the concerns we have, which is beyond the scope of this bill, is that in our mind there are still not enough resources for the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP to go after those who are not registered consultants and are still operating as, as we call them, ghost consultants, without being qualified or being able to guarantee that they are offering proper services to these vulnerable people who want to emigrate to Canada.

Ultimately, Bill C-35 is just an initial step in allowing the minister to create a new governing body for immigration consultants. It provides a very general framework. It provides a few important key issues. However, push is going to come to shove in the coming months when the government and the minister actually settle on who is going to be the next governing body for immigration consultants.

We have to make sure that we do not just end up with the same problems once again. We have to make sure that there is going to be a strong governance framework around this new consultant body. We have to make sure, if we stick with the same organization that will be articulated in a new way, that the same problems do not come back. We have to make sure that if we have a new and completely different governing body than the one existing right now, we do not fall into the same old traps and have the same ineffectiveness and problems that we have right now.

That is going to be where the opposition parties will watch closely what the government and the minister do and hopefully will engage and help shape the decision in such a way that people will truly be protected by this set of regulations governing immigration consultants.

The members of the committee worked together. We had differences and concerns that were hammered out. It was, as the parliamentary secretary has said, a model of co-operation and of trying to do right by Canadians on this important issue. It is something that I was very pleased to be able to be part of, and it is something that I know we can be proud of as parliamentarians, that on important issues, from time to time, we are able to work together.

I think the spirit of collegiality and co-operation is important and I certainly hope it extends to other bills and other issues on which we can find agreement in principle and not just tweak in committee but improve in committee, as my hon. colleague has said.

For all of these reasons, the Liberal Party is very happy to support Bill C-35 at third reading. We hope that it will be quickly passed by the other chamber so that Canadians will be protected when we have our new regulator for immigration consultants.