Marty Morantz

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I have been listening to this debate carefully today, and government members consistently say there are jurisdictional issues and that we should not be telling the provinces what to do, because the provinces will have to decide what to do, and we should not be interfering in provincial jurisdiction; hence, the government cannot have a plan at the federal level. That is essentially the message.

I was just looking on Joe Biden's website, where he posted a plan called “The Biden Plan for an Effective Reopening that Jumpstarts the Economy”. The United States is a republic. It has 50 states with different jurisdictions. It has a federal government that has its own jurisdictional issues as well. If a country like the United States can do it with 50 states and other territories, why can Canada not publish a plan just like President Biden did?

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the same question I asked another Bloc member earlier. I realize there are jurisdictional issues, but it just seems to me that the whole issue of reopening comes down to the rate of vaccination, in which Canada has seriously lagged behind other countries.

Does the member not think that the government needs to take responsibility and admit its failure in this regard?

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his insightful comments during his speech.

I know that so far the debate has been somewhat muddying the waters around jurisdictional questions. I think we all understand that provinces have their own jurisdictions and that the federal government has its jurisdiction, but really what the motion is about is that Canadians, as a whole, including Québécois, want to get their lives back.

Would the member agree that the main thing that provinces and the federal government can do to get life back to normal is to get vaccines into the arms of its citizens?

I just pulled up a list. Canada ranks behind France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, the UAE and, of course, Israel in getting its population vaccinated.

Would the member agree—

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, March 22nd, 2021]

With regard to the government’s decision to grant a travel exemption to family members of Meng Wanzhou: (a) on what date was the exemption granted; (b) which minister signed off on the exemption; (c) why was the exemption granted; (d) did the family members also receive an exemption from the 14-day quarantine requirement and, if so, why was such an exemption granted; and (e) has the government provided any other travel exemptions since April 1, 2020, for family members of individuals awaiting extradition and, if so, how many were granted, broken down by month?

[Questions on the Order Paper, March 22nd, 2021]

With regard to the impact of interest rate hikes on the government’s finances: what are the Department of Finance’s projections on the amount of interest the government will have to pay to service the debt in each of the next 10 years under the (i) current interest rate levels, (ii) increased interest rate levels, broken down by rate?

[Employment, March 22nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, thousands of students across Canada are struggling to find summer employment in the middle of a pandemic. Families in my community are trying to make ends meet, and students need jobs to pay for their education. Last year, the Liberal government's brilliant solution to this problem was to try and pay their friends at WE Charity half a billion dollars.

Instead of paying their friends again this year, will the Liberals commit to supporting students by increasing funding for the Canada summer jobs program as Conservatives have called for?

[Petitions, February 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I present a petition on behalf of concerned Canadians in my community about the mistreatment of the Falun Gong practitioners in China.

For over 21 years, the Chinese Communist regime's corrupt officials have orchestrated the torture and killing of many who practise Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline promoting the principles of truth, compassion and tolerance, and harvest their organs for the regime's organ transplant trade.

The Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, also known as the Magnitsky act, sanctions foreign officials responsible for gross human rights violations or acts of corruption.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to deploy all legal actions, including freezing assets and barring entry to Canada against the 14 individuals identified by name in this petition and any others committing these acts.

[International Development, February 22nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, on January 27, I asked if the Prime Minister would suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, given anti-Semitic classroom materials being distributed to Palestinian students. UNRWA claimed this was all just a big mistake and that offensive materials had been replaced with content adhering to UN values, so the current government just continued with its funding.

New reports show anti-Semitic materials are still being distributed to students. Given this, will the government finally suspend funding to UNRWA and find alternative mechanisms for Palestinian aid?

[Business of Supply, February 18th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I would gladly take the 20 seconds.

[Business of Supply, February 18th, 2021]

I have to say, Mr. Speaker, that I find the question very concerning because it tells me that the member is blind to the facts that are before him. We do not need the foreign affairs subcommittee to tell us what we already know. We need to be working with our international allies, but we should be first out of the gate, not in the middle of the pack and not last.

We should do, for example, what Brian Mulroney did. He stood virtually alone, as I said in my speech, on the world stage to seek the freedom of Nelson Mandela and end apartheid in South Africa. That is the leadership this country needs, not months from now after the foreign affairs committee has studied it, but today, this afternoon. I urge the member to vote for this motion when it comes up for a vote.