Paul Manly

[Petitions, October 28th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present e-petition no. 2729.

This was brought forward by people who suffer from environmental sensitivities, which affect approximately 3% of Canadians.

The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to create an international classification of disease designation code in Canada for environmental sensitivities so that those affected may have access to medical care. They want to include environmental sensitivities as a disability that must be accommodated on all relevant documents and forms in governmental departments and organizations that administer social assistance, housing, medical, and other public services, and to ensure all indoor public spaces are declared fragrance-free.

[Criminal Code, October 27th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. member, 100%, that sexual orientation and gender identity, SOGI, rights are human rights; and we need to go further as parliamentarians to protect people from homophobia and from horrible practices like the practice of conversion therapy, which is not a therapy it is torture.

In going further, would the member like to see a complete ban? The legislation says that adults going through conversion therapy against their will is banned, but would the member like to see a complete ban of this so-called therapy?

[Criminal Code, October 26th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, indeed, this is a very important subject. Someone's sexual orientation cannot be changed through some conversion process.

The hon. member talked about banning a number of times. The legislation talks about forced conversion therapy being illegal. However, I am wondering about coercion. People who are of age get coerced into doing things by other members of their family, based on their finances or their situation in life. An hon. member talked about someone applying for a job.

I am just wondering about banning this practice outright, not having definitions for forced conversion therapy or figuring out what coercion would look like, just banning it outright.

[Petitions, October 26th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present today e-petition 2471. This e-petition is about body cameras for the RCMP.

The petitioners note that body cameras are a feasible way of improving police accountability. It can alter the behaviour of people aware that their actions are being recorded and reduce violence. Body cameras protect police officers from liability when they are the target of false accusations and protect citizens from false police testimony. They improve accountability resulting in greater trust, leading to greater public co-operation with the police, and they can be used for powerful evidence in courtrooms to provide greater detail and accuracy than memory alone.

The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to grant the RCMP funding for body cameras and the associated costs, such as data storage, to equip nearly all personnel interacting with the public, with rare exceptions such as for undercover officers, with this technology. In addition, as deemed best, funding should be either additional to the RCMP's budget, a proportionate deduction from the RCMP's budget to cover the expense, or a combination thereof.

[Health, October 22nd, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, when we fail to understand the importance of mental health, we pay a price as society in loss of employment, family breakdown, stress-related diseases, addiction, homelessness and crime. Mental health care such as counselling should not be a luxury for those can afford it or a late intervention for those who are already in crisis.

Will the government implement a national mental health strategy and fully include mental health care under the Canada Health Act?

[Criminal Code, October 21st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I have a quick personal story. I witnessed the medically assisted death of my 90-year-old aunt a few months ago. I witnessed the process, the consultation and everything else, and it was a very caring, loving ceremony. What I have been hearing from constituents is that people with disabilities want to live with dignity, so they are feeling left out in a lot of ways. They are concerned about MAID but want to see better supports for people with disabilities, better supports for palliative care and better supports for people who are struggling in life.

I would like to ask the minister: what kind of measures is she putting in place? We have people with disabilities—

[Petitions, October 21st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present Petition e-2794. The petitioners see that we are in a climate emergency and want the government to treat it like the emergency that it is. They call upon the government to update Canada's climate action targets to reflect science and the IPCC 2018 report. They want the government to begin to implement carbon price increases at $25 per tonne, per year, past 2022. They want the government to establish a panel of experts to review the yearly carbon price increments and ensure that they meet Canada's climate action targets, and they want the government to ensure that Canadians become fully aware of the carbon price rebates through regularly issued cheques or direct bank deposits.

[The Environment, October 20th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, the methane budget is spent. We have already released too much of it into the atmosphere and we must act now to stop these emissions, not just lower them. For all the reasons I have outlined, many jurisdictions around the world have either placed moratoriums on fracking or banned it outright, including France, Germany, Bulgaria, Scotland, the United Kingdom, Tunisia, the State of New York and the State of Vermont, and the list keeps growing.

The idea that exporting fracked gas to China will help them lower emissions has been exposed as an outright lie. When will the Canadian government study the research and stop supporting this fallacy? It is time to ban fracking, because the only thing we should be accelerating is our transition to renewable energy. Our children and our grandchildren deserve nothing less.

[The Environment, October 20th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, on October 6, I asked this government if it would ban the destructive practice of gas fracking in Canada. In his response to my question, the Minister of the Environment stated that the government will exceed its 2030 emissions targets. It is important to point out that the current 2030 targets are woefully inadequate. Exceeding a target that is too low is not a win; it is a failure.

The minister also stated that the government has introduced regulations to reduce methane emissions. I appreciate the acknowledgement that the federal government has a role in regulating the extractive practices of the energy industry. This is especially true when those practices poison aquifers and airsheds and release climate-destroying pollutants into the atmosphere.

Fracking is a process for extracting methane that cannot be controlled. Reducing methane emissions at the wellhead does not make fracking a safe and acceptable practice. Fracking leaks toxic chemicals into aquifers and groundwater, releases pollutants into airsheds, releases methane into the atmosphere and increases seismic activity and earthquakes.

Methane is not a transition fuel. It is a climate change accelerator. When methane is leaked into the atmosphere, for the first 20 years, it is 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. The practice of fracking poses a direct and immediate threat to our future and the future of our children and grandchildren.

Using chemical fingerprints, researchers have linked the significant spike in methane emissions to the boom in shale and oil and gas fracking. This spike is linked to the accelerated pace of climate change. An estimated 30 million abandoned oil and gas wells around the world are leaking methane. Methane leaks represent as much a threat to climate change as burning coal to generate electricity. The provinces are not talking about new coal plants. Why are they so fired up about gas fracking?

Many jurisdictions that are serious about climate change are banning fracking and the installation of natural gas in new neighbourhoods and buildings. They know that methane is a climate killer.

After climate change, water and air pollution represent the biggest threat to human health from fracking. Fracking uses huge amounts of water and creates massive amounts of toxic waste water. People who live near fracking operations have had their wells poisoned, leading to increased disease in humans and animals. Fracking releases poisonous hydrocarbons into airsheds, representing another serious health threat.

Fracking has been shown to increase earthquakes. In northwest B.C., fracking in the vicinity of dams on the Peace River is putting the integrity of those dams at risk. The increased seismic activity could lead to the catastrophic failure of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, the Peace Canyon dam, and it threatens the integrity of the Site C dam, which is under construction on geologically unstable ground. Ironically, the Site C dam is being built to provide cheap, subsidized power to the fracking industry and the LNG industry, which, if continued, could lead to the failure of that dam or a cascading failure of the dams upstream.

Ideally, we should have legislation that regulates against illogical decisions, such as building a dam in a geologically unstable area to support an industry that causes earthquakes, but we cannot regulate for common sense.

Any government that is serious about arresting climate change and protecting the health of its citizens would ban fracking.

[Business of Supply, October 20th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to know why the WE money, this $900 million, did not go to students and to non-profits. It could have gone to the Canada summer jobs program, where students would have been paid at least minimum wage, rather than $10 an hour, which is what the volunteer program did. What happened to that $900 million? How is the government working to help students and non-profits now?

I put the suggestion in as soon as the WE scandal broke. I sent letters to ministers saying to put that money into Canada summer jobs. I could spend a couple of million dollars in my riding right away on people who need work and non-profits who need workers. What happened to the money?