Ken Hardie

[Flooding in British Columbia, November 24th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I have a question on a different part of the community infrastructure, but I want to congratulate the member for his very obvious grasp of the essential elements in his communities. I think they are being well served.

Based on experience I had a long time ago when I was on the radio in Kamloops, we broadcasted to Merritt and we broadcasted to Princeton. If anything happened, people could turn on the radio and find out what was going on.

How did the broadcasters perform in your communities during this emergency?

[Flooding in British Columbia, November 24th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, it is good to see you in the chair. I guess there will be no more fisheries committee for you.

We have heard an impassioned plea from the hon. member for government to step in and do things, and government can indeed do that. One of the things we have to be mindful of is the continuity of effort. This reminds us that governments are there at the pleasure of the people. If the people decide a government is not doing the right thing or if they disagree with it, they change governments, and anything that had been done to that point might be thrown away.

What is the hon. member's assessment of the working through process that Canadians are doing? Of course we need to adapt, and nobody will disagree, but are we also ready to do those things that in the future will not keep us adapting? Are we ready to actually address the root causes of the things that are causing the difficulties we are facing right now? Where does he see the public, Canadians, on that issue?

[Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees, November 24th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, if I go into the lobby over here, I know all but one person has been double-vaccinated. I know the one who is not, and there is a darn good reason for it.

Does the hon. member not agree that he is playing Russian roulette every time he goes into that lobby over there? He does not know who he is mixing with or who could have something nasty, especially when the opposition House leader has indicated that a person who is unvaxxed is more likely to transmit the disease to somebody else.

I am wondering this. What kind of risk management does my colleague use to deal with this?

[Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees, November 24th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I sat in the House yesterday and one of the member's colleagues stood and raised a question of privilege, saying that it really offended her privilege to have to be in the House, cheek by jowl, with people who might make her sick. What does he say to her?

[International Mother Language Day Act, June 23rd, 2021]

moved for leave to introduce Bill S-211, An Act to establish International Mother Language Day.

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to introduce Bill S-211, an act to establish international mother language day throughout Canada on February 21 each year.

Our country is blessed with great diversity. Protecting, preserving and celebrating the cultural importance of mother languages enriches that diversity, especially the more than 60 aboriginal languages spoken in Canada.

I would like to recognize Mr. Aminul Islam of Surrey, a tireless advocate to establish this day in Canada; Senator Mobina Jaffer of British Columbia, who sponsored the bill in the other place; and my colleague, the hon. member for Surrey Centre, who graciously seconded this bill.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Committees of the House, June 21st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, entitled “Pacific Salmon: Ensuring the Long-Term Health of Wild Populations and Associated Fisheries”. This report complements our committee's 2019 study, “West Coast Fisheries: Sharing Risks and Benefits”, which recommended actions to ensure equitable access to Canada's common resource. This report today recommends steps to ensure there will be wild salmon to catch.

I would like to echo the comments of my colleagues in thanking our analysts for preparing an excellent report. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

[Business of Supply, June 17th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, sexual harassment is not a new phenomenon in the forces. It has been going for a very long time, and it did not start in 2015.

In the 10 years that Stephen Harper was rime minister, how many senior officers left the forces because of allegations of sexual misconduct?

[Digital Services, June 17th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, during the pandemic we have seen how important our digital capacity is in order to respond to the urgent needs of Canadians. Our government rose to the occasion and ensured that they received the benefits and the programs they needed in a timely fashion. We do know, though, that there is more work to be done.

Can the Minister of Digital Government update this House with her plans to continue the important work in providing critical digital delivery of services to Canadians?

[Business of Supply, June 17th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate the hon. member for her speech because she can speak from a point of experience. Certainly the empathy that she has is shared by many in the House, but the Conservative motion and the opposition support for it are even worse than that old joke: Give him a fair trial and then hang him. We cannot even be that charitable. This is not a fair trial.

This is not a fair recounting of what this minister has done, which no minister before him had done or was willing to do in spite of the fact that we are dealing with a rot in the military that has been established for a very long time. The member would know this. It began way before this minister came into his position.

We agree that it is this minister's job to fix whatever happened in the past for whatever reason it happened in the past. However, the member appears not to be aware of the things that minister has done and is doing. She simply discards them. Can she comment on that?

[Business of Supply, June 17th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the issue of service before self is an interesting one. I think what we are getting here today is not being done in the service of Canada, but in the service of the Conservative Party. It is looking for somebody to beat up on, which is a very political act.

There have been misdeeds in the Canadian military, but this is not new. This was going on well before the member and I, and others, were elected in 2015. As she noted, some of this came to light through the work of committees. Where were those committees and where was the leadership of the government to permit that kind of activity and questioning the first time that General Vance's name and questions came up? Where were the committees then?

What should we prescribe as a process going forward to ensure that committees, ministers and MPs will be properly aligned to make sure this will be dealt with and dealt with effectively so that it does not happen anymore?