Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I appreciate the comments that there should be great latitude, but there should be even a small degree of relevance. We have been patiently waiting for that and I do not hear any relevance in the speech.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2015, with 46% of the vote.
Business of Supply February 6th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I appreciate the comments that there should be great latitude, but there should be even a small degree of relevance. We have been patiently waiting for that and I do not hear any relevance in the speech.
Business of Supply February 6th, 2018
Madam Speaker, the member well knows the topic of today is on the unethical behaviour of the Prime Minister, and a call for compensation. This is not what the member is speaking on.
Business of Supply February 6th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I listened intently. The member said that what the Prime Minister did was ethical, yet the Ethics Commissioner said what the Prime Minister did was illegal. Compensation is a very important component of doing what is ethical. If someone does something wrong, he or she should make it right.
The motion today asks the Prime Minister to pay back money that was unethically used. There would not have been a cost for the RCMP if the trip had not happened. This unethical trip should not have happened and there would not have been a cost for security. The right thing to do, and the smart thing to do, would be to pay the money back.
Would the member not agree that this is the ethical thing to do?
Business of Supply February 6th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The member well knows what the topic is. He has referenced it and then has used it as an opportunity to abridge to a different topic on the economy. We all support a strong economy, but relevance needs to be maintained.
Business of Supply February 6th, 2018
Madam Speaker, my colleague said that the Prime Minister took responsibility. In good parenting, as in responsible government, there would be restitution if someone took responsibility for his or her an action. If a child took a toy from another child, we would say that it was wrong, that the child should not have done that. We would then tell that child to give the toy back. Children do not say that they have taken responsibility for it, but that they will keep the toy. That is not taking responsibility. It needs to include restitution of the wrong.
The Prime Minister often has said something with which I agree. Not only is it the right thing to do, to pay the money back, but it is the smart thing. Would the member agree that it is the smart thing to do?
Petitions February 1st, 2018
Mr. Speaker, the second petition also refers to Bill C-14 and highlights the issue of conscience protection.
The petitioners point out that committees heard testimony from numerous witnesses with respect to the importance of conscience protection for health care professionals, physicians, nurses, and institutions. The petitioners state that they should be protected from coercion or intimidation with respect to providing assisted suicide. Sadly, this is happening in British Columbia, the first province to permit this, which is forcing hospice facilities to have assisted suicide and euthanasia.
The petitioners call on the government for legislation which would cover conscience protection.
Petitions February 1st, 2018
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present two petitions today.
The first petition is related to palliative care. In this petition the petitioners highlight the importance of palliative care. They point out the passage of Bill C-14, the assisted suicide euthanasia bill, and the importance of palliative care being available to every Canadian resident that needs it. They also point out that the person must be able to clearly choose life or death.
The petitioners also point out that palliative care never hastens or prolongs death but makes the person comfortable in the last hours of life.
Tobacco and Vaping Products Act January 30th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for her work in her community. I think we can all agree that having healthier bodies in Canada is a goal to which we should aspire.
Reducing the amount of tobacco products being used, consumed, or smoked is a goal. I am very concerned with the government's goal of allowing children to legally have 15 joints of marijuana in their pocket, which right now could be confiscated. The government's ill-conceived plan to allow children to walk around with 15 joints each is a very dangerous precedent. I do not see it happening anywhere else in this world.
We need to work as a House to make sure Canadians, particularly our children and our seniors, are as healthy as can be.
Tobacco and Vaping Products Act January 30th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I would remind the member that statistics can be used in many different ways. The same statistics can be used to make one point for this group and a different point for another group.
Those who argue that plain packaging is actually reducing the number of people using tobacco products are using the statistic that the sales, the legal sales, have gone down. They are accepting that argument, but then they are saying that we do not want to accept that the contraband may be going up.
As I said in my speech, I do not know if they are going up. There was a study, and the member does not agree with the way that research was done, but it would be very difficult to accurately determine what percentage contraband has gone up, and to know who to ask to find out. Would we ask the people who are selling it illegally? No. Would we talk to the customers? Maybe. It is a very difficult statistic to get.
The encouragement I give to the member is to use statistics scientifically and honestly, and to come at this with an open mind so that we can make good decisions.
Tobacco and Vaping Products Act January 30th, 2018
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock.
I want to give a shout-out to the member for Cariboo—Prince George. He has had some very difficult health issues and may be watching today. This is an important issue for him too. I hope he is doing well and is back with us very quickly.
Bill S-5 has two objectives. One is to deal with the packaging of tobacco products, and we have just heard a presentation from the Liberal member on plain packaging. The other part of the objective of Bill S-5 is to regulate e-cigarettes and the vaping industry.
I want to begin by talking about plain packaging. I want to thank the Liberal member who just spoke for his work in this place, but what was shared and what has happened in Australia has been referenced a number of times by the member. I would encourage him and members of the health committee to approach this with an open mind.
Keeping tobacco products out of the hands of our children and young adults and seeing the use of tobacco products reduced even more I think is a goal of all of us. There is a very clear link between some catastrophic health problems that go along with the use of tobacco products. Whether they are inhaled through smoke, or chewed, they do bad things to the human body. There is no argument on that. The argument is on packaging.
I will not say which government gets the credit for this because as politicians we all want to get credit for good things that happen, but the facts are that we are at an all-time low of the use of tobacco products in Canada. That is a good thing. It probably was the former Conservative government that got it done, but I do not want to take the credit.
A moment ago there was discussion about the importance of enforcement. What enforcement body has helped us achieve that great goal of reduced use of tobacco products in Canada? It is stores right across Canada that ensure tobacco products are in a covered, locked, age restricted way so children do not get tobacco products from the stores. When they are covered and out of sight behind flap doors, customers do not see them. They have to be opened up and customers will request what they want. If they are an adult, they can have access to it. Children cannot have cigarettes or tobacco products because of our stores and merchants, which do a very good job. We have achieved this lowest in the use of tobacco products in Canadian history.
Having plain packaging is required in Bill S-5, which was authored from the Senate by an independent Liberal senator. I want to thank the senator for the work and for sending the bill to the House. The question on packaging is whether it will make a difference. Will it reduce tobacco use even more? We have heard about the Australia example.
Definitely the amount of legal tobacco products that have been sold in the period since 2012 has gone down. Therefore, there is a deduction that because the amount of sales of labelled tobacco products has gone down, the use has gone down.
In the KPMG study that the member referenced, at the same time, we have seen the change in the pattern of purchase. A number of young people have asked where they could get cheaper tobacco products when they went to the plain packaging. Also, the KPMG study showed that there has been a dramatic increase in contraband, illegal tobacco products. Therefore, the argument that there has been a reduction is really on very shaky ground. It may have gone down. I do not know. I know that the legal sales have gone down, but the illegal sales have gone up. This is why throughout the debate today often the question of contraband tobacco has come up, which I think is a very important part of the discussion.
If plain packaging does not make a difference in the actual use of the tobacco products, if that is the end result, the truth part that comes out in the study, then why would we do this? If it would make a difference, then, obviously, plain packaging has a strong argument to make. However, if it does not make a difference, why head in that direction?
I think most members will support Bill S-5 going to the health committee to do a study. However, for my Liberal colleagues across the way who are all excited about endorsing Bill S-5—and the previous member said that plain packaging was essential—I do not think that is going into this with an open, scientific mind. Minds are already made up, and I would caution against that. The witnesses called have to be not witnesses who are going to say what they want them to say, but esteemed people, such as scientists and statisticians, who will give us the information we need to make good decisions in the House. I encourage that.
At this point I will remain open to finding out the truth and the facts on whether this will make a difference. If it will, then we should support it. If it would not make a difference, and there could be an argument that it would make it worse, then we should not go in that direction.
The next issue that arises from Bill S-5 is vaping, e-cigarettes, which has been around for a number of years, but not that long. The argument in favour of e-cigarettes and vaping is that it is less damaging and less harmful to our health. Instead of inhaling a product that has been ignited, we would be breathing in products that have been vaporized. There are different contraptions, and I think that now, over the years, they are in generation five. Therefore, they are getting better and bigger. Actually, the bigger they get, the hotter the vaping, and more chemicals can be created that can be harmful to our health.
Sadly, in the metro Vancouver area where I live in beautiful Langley, we were saddened to hear on the news that there was a young 14-year-old boy from Delta, Kyle Losse, who had passed away. His family heard a noise in the washroom. They found Kyle dizzy, and he had fallen, and there was an e-cigarette vaporiser on the floor. They took him to the hospital, and I believe less than a week later he passed away. They believe he was vaping nicotine.
People can vape all kinds of products in these e-cigarettes. It can be nicotine, which is a drug, or things that taste wonderful. One can vape marijuana. The advantage for youth in vaping is that one does not have the bad breath smell that one does with smoking. It is very difficult for parents to know that a youth has been vaping marijuana products, because there is no odour. They would have to be a drug expert, like a DRE, training with the police.
We are living in a new world, with new challenges. Should vaping be regulated? Absolutely; I do not see a problem with that at all.