Paul Manly

[Criminal Code, December 2nd, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we are the only country with universal health care that does not have universal pharmacare. There are people in this country who cannot afford their medicine. When they cannot take their medicine, their health declines, and when their health declines, they end up on a downward spiral. We end up with people who end up in situations where death becomes foreseeable.

Why do the Conservatives not support a universal pharmacare program to make sure we take care of people while they are alive and they get the things they need to live a good life and be healthy?

[Criminal Code, December 2nd, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I have been working with the Diversability community here in Nanaimo—Ladysmith for a number of years. I did consultations with its members about this legislation as well, and what I hear often is that they live with a form of legislated poverty. They are deprived of a lot of things other Canadians enjoy.

To have a fair country, what we need to be doing is taxing some of these billionaires who have reaped huge benefits during the pandemic, the 20 billionaires and their $28 billion in additional profits, to even out the playing field and take care of those who are most vulnerable in our communities.

I am wondering whether the hon. member would stand with me and ask that we tax the billionaires and spread out some of that wealth so people can live with dignity in this country.

[Criminal Code, December 2nd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I put forward some amendments to the bill during the committee process. One of them was calling to ensure that people were not in a state of decline because of deprivation, social disadvantage, lack of support or perceived discrimination. There are things we can do to help people while they are alive. Some of those we have called for are a guaranteed livable income to ensure people have a good quality of life and universal pharmacare to ensure people have access to their medicines. We know that when people do not have access to medicine, their health declines.

The Conservatives do not support these things. They do not support taxing the billionaire class. That is about economic Darwinism, everybody for themselves, letting people be deprived of their medicine, letting people live on the streets and live in poverty.

Why does the member not want to take care of people? That is what I would like to know. Why does the member not support a guaranteed livable income and universal pharmacare, so we can take care of people while they are living?

[International Trade, December 2nd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, indeed, the Canada-China FIPA was a Conservative agreement. It was a terrible agreement, and we need to get investor-state dispute settlements out of every agreement that we have around the world.

There have been calls in Parliament for party leaders and members to sign a trade agreement with India. What about Prime Minister Modi's campaign to disenfranchise 195 million Muslims in that country? What about the oppressive and anti-democratic actions taken by the Indian central government in Kashmir and the jailing of journalists?

Canada must take democracy, human rights and the environment into consideration when deepening trade relations with other countries. We must hold ourselves and our trade partners to a higher standard. Let us work toward an international system of trade that we are proud to leave our children and grandchildren.

[International Trade, December 2nd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, Canada has trade relationships with democratic countries that have standards and regulations that exceed our own. We also have trade relationships with undemocratic countries that have terrible track records on human rights, labour standards and environmental protections. Canada should strive to lead the world in creating a model of trade that respects human rights and labour rights and that raises health, safety and environmental standards. These rights and standards must be enforceable.

Last month, I wrote a letter to the Minister of International Trade requesting a halt to the Mercosur trade negotiations while the Bolsonaro government in Brazil continues to encourage the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon is called the lungs of the planet because it draws in massive amounts of carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. Its survival is essential to our survival. Destruction of the rainforest also threatens the existence of the Amazon's indigenous people.

This is serious, but what is Canada's record on deforestation? As I speak, the last of the old-growth, big-tree rainforests on British Columbia's coast are being logged. Since colonization, indigenous people have been subjugated through policies of cultural genocide as resources have been systematically stripped from their lands. Now that the banquet has been devoured, first nations have been invited to the table to help justify eating the last crumbs, clear-cutting the last big trees.

These carbon-sequestration giants cannot be replaced, just as the Amazon rainforest cannot be replaced. Brazil is missing its climate target commitments to protect the Amazon. Canada has signed on to nine different international climate agreements, created plans for none of them and met none of the targets. Canada is a climate laggard.

I ask the government to suspend the Mercosur trade talks and hold the Brazilian government to account, but I could rightly ask the Brazilian government to do the same: Suspend the trade talks and hold the Canadian government to account for its environmental transgressions.

In 2012, the Harper Conservative government signed the Canada-China FIPA. This lopsided agreement gives Chinese state-owned corporations the right to challenge Canadian laws and policies in secretive investor-state tribunals when those laws and policies get in the way of their profits. Chinese state-owned corporations are heavily invested in our oil and gas sector. How can we effectively fight climate change when we are bound by this anti-democratic agreement for 31 years?

However, this is not the worst FIPA of the almost 40 that Canada has signed, at least not if we look at it from a different perspective. This is because in most cases Canada is the economic giant in the agreement, and it is Canadian corporations, mostly mining and fossil-fuel companies, that are challenging laws and policies in other countries, such as Romania, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, etc. Right now, Canadian corporations have over $10 billion in investor-state dispute settlement cases against low-income countries. We must eliminate investor-state dispute settlements in all of our international agreements.

Then there is Canada the arms dealer. Half of our weapons exports are to Saudi Arabia, and those weapons are being used against their own citizens and in the brutal conflict in Yemen. We sell weapons to a long list of countries, including Turkey, Algeria, Egypt, India and Israel, which are involved in regional conflicts either directly or by proxy. Canadian weapons fuel and enable conflicts and human rights violations around the world.

We have a mythology about ourselves as Canadians, and I wish it were actually true. Let us take a clear-eyed look in the mirror, examine our historical and current trade practices and hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard—

[Business of Supply, December 1st, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I want to say I support this motion. I think our health care workers have been doing extraordinary work under stressful situations and it is about time the government got back to providing proper transfers for health care.

I agree with the hon. member that we should be looking at demographics with respect to these health transfers. In my region, we have a large number of seniors. People come to Vancouver Island to retire.

One thing not mentioned is infrastructure. We have aging health care infrastructure in Canada. It is stressful for workers to work in older buildings that do not meet the requirements of modern health care. I wonder if the member agrees the government should be putting money back into infrastructure for our health care system and hospitals. It abandoned funding for health care infrastructure. Should the federal government be putting money into health care infrastructure again?

[Persons with Disabilities, December 1st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, December 3 is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In Canada, people with disabilities are forced to live in legislated poverty. Benefit clawbacks prevent them from earning a modest living.

Veterans Affairs Canada has a backlog of almost 50,000 disability benefit applications and people with disabilities are still being charged outrageous fees for help in applying for the CPP disability tax credit.

Will the government develop a national disability strategy so people with disabilities in Canada can live with dignity?

[Fall Economic Statement, November 30th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with a lot of what the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby has said. We need to close tax loopholes. We need to tax the billionaires. We need to deal with web giants and tax them properly. That is how we will pay for the programs we want, such as universal pharmacare, child care, taking care of our citizens with programs like a guaranteed livable income. I agree with them 100% about the Trans Mountain pipeline and the waste of money when we are dealing with a climate emergency.

My question is about funding that the federal government has put into another pipeline project, the Coastal GasLink project and LNG Canada to export fracked gas for a number of multinational corporations. There is nothing Canadian about LNG Canada. It is a bunch of foreign multinationals that are getting huge tax breaks from the NDP government in British Columbia, but also from the federal government.

I would like to know if he agrees with that and if we should just ban fracking and put an end to this climate-destroying process of energy extraction.

[Fall Economic Statement, November 30th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, the member says he supports climate action and dealing with the climate emergency that we all voted we were in last year.

I would like to ask him about the proposal that the Liberals have, straight out of the Green Party documents, of creating a national energy grid to tie the provinces together. I would note that there was a geyser hit for geothermal in Saskatchewan that could put lots of former oil drillers to work, transferring their skills as we work through a just transition to make sure those workers have good-paying jobs, as we work towards the energy future and leave the fossil fuel era behind.

I just wonder what he thinks about this proposal that the Liberals have put forward, and what his ideas are in terms of clean, green energy in this country.

[Petitions, November 30th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to table e-petition 2837, which was put forward by constituents in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith.

The petitioners are really concerned about the ongoing use of the waters surrounding the Southern Gulf Islands as a free parking lot for freighters. They point out that the freighters are causing damage to this environmentally sensitive ecosystem. They are very concerned about the freighter collision this spring, recent incidents of anchor dragging and the potential for a serious disaster involving these ships.

The petitioners are calling upon the Government of Canada to eliminate the 33 commercial anchorages throughout the Southern Gulf Islands, to improve the grain supply chain and terminal infrastructure, evaluate the transport of U.S. thermal coal through the Port of Vancouver and implement efficient international shipping standards, such as the just-in-time arrival computer system, to better facilitate trade and the Canadian economy.