SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 14 - Dec/9/21

Ms. Rachel Blaney

Dec/9/21 7:32:34 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, the NDP agree to apply the vote and will be voting yea.

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Mr. Mike Morrice

Dec/9/21 7:32:43 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, the Greens also agree to apply the vote and will be voting in favour.

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Mr. Kevin Vuong

Dec/9/21 7:32:50 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply the results of the previous vote, voting in favour.

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The Speaker

Dec/9/21 7:33:12 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

I declare the motion carried.

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The Speaker

Dec/9/21 7:34:01 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

When shall the bill be read a third time? By leave, now? Some hon. members: Agreed.

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Hon. Mona Fortier (President of the Treasury Board, Lib.)

Dec/9/21 7:34:01 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

moved that the bill be read the third time and passed.

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The Speaker

Dec/9/21 7:34:01 p.m.
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If a member of a recognized party present in the House wishes to request a recorded division or that the motion be adopted on division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

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Hon. Steven MacKinnon

Dec/9/21 7:34:16 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, as we gather for the last time in this way on this fine December evening, I believe if you seek it, you will find agreement to apply the results from the previous vote to this vote, with Liberal members voting yes.

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Mr. Blake Richards

Dec/9/21 7:34:20 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, we agree to apply the vote, and the official opposition votes no.

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Mrs. Marilène Gill

Dec/9/21 7:34:27 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois agrees to apply the vote and will vote in favour of the motion.

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Ms. Rachel Blaney

Dec/9/21 7:34:34 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, the NDP agree to apply and will be voting yea.

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Mr. Mike Morrice

Dec/9/21 7:34:44 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, the Greens agree to apply the vote and will be voting in favour.

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Mr. Kevin Vuong

Dec/9/21 7:34:49 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply the results of the previous vote, voting in favour.

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The Speaker

Dec/9/21 7:34:56 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-6

I declare the motion carried.

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The Speaker

Dec/9/21 7:35:11 p.m.
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Re: Bill S-223 Bill S-216 Bill S-214

I have the honour to inform the House that messages have been received from the Senate informing this House that the Senate has passed the following bills to which the concurrence of the House is desired: Bill S-214, An Act to establish International Mother Language Day, Bill S-216, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources of a registered charity), and Bill S-223, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (trafficking in human organs).

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Ms. Lianne Rood (Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC)

Dec/9/21 7:39:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on November 30, I asked the minister why the Liberal government was always leaving rural Canadians behind, and I did not receive an answer to that question. In fact, what I did receive was a bunch of talking points on what the government hopes to accomplish with broadband by 2030. While I certainly will not downplay the importance of a well-formulated plan for rural broadband, what the government is offering is not that. There are many questions that deserve an answer, such as why 2030 was chosen as the target year. If rural Canadians are important to the government, then why not set a target for 2025, which is what the Conservatives proposed? That is not all. I also wonder why the government is only targeting 5010 megabytes per second, a speed that certainly is not fast when compared with urban centres, which can have speeds of a gigabyte available. What about the cost of broadband in rural areas? Constituents are calling my office about this all the time. They are very frustrated because they are paying upwards of $1,000 a month for their cell phone bills because there is no high-speed Internet available. People are trying to work from home and take their time to do school from home, and they just cannot stream into the video options without using cellular data. I want to know what the government's plan is to deal with affordability and stability. There is no accountability for service providers, which take the federal funding for projects bringing broadband to rural areas and then delay the last mile. Why is there no accountability to get that last mile finished? Given the government's record on managing other affordability crises, I am really skeptical of any grand promises of help from the government. Rural Canadians have little choice than to wait and rely on action from the government when they are consistently faced with a downward spiral for their livelihoods. Allow me to name a few priorities for the minister that go beyond broadband, priorities that would also make a difference in the lives of rural Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Our migration from urban areas is driving the need for housing support and infrastructure. With municipalities unable to run a deficit, they often struggle to meet demands for such resources without assistance from provincial or federal governments. Where does the minister stand on committing funding to partnerships with municipalities in need? It should come as no surprise that small businesses are a concern to rural Canada because they are the backbone of our economy. In rural Canada, a shortage of labour hurts the small community businesses that provide goods and services to towns. If it hurts small towns, it hurts our agriculture sector and our natural resource sector. It is a domino effect that will also affect revenue from exports. Without fixing this problem quickly, it will compound. We need to be taking measures to encourage work in rural Canada to help our economy thrive. What is the minister doing to address the labour shortage to help get people into these vacant jobs?

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Mr. Stéphane Lauzon (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Rural Economic Development, Lib.)

Dec/9/21 7:43:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to respond to the comments made by the member for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex regarding rural economic development. It is somewhat ironic that this matter is being raised by the Conservatives, who delayed Internet expansion for a decade. The current crisis has highlighted the need for all Canadians to have access to fast and reliable Internet, no matter where they live. Canadians living in rural and remote communities identify a lack of high-speed Internet as the number one issue for them reaching their full economic potential. Since 2015, improving connectivity has been the top priority for our government. In fact, our government has invested 10 times more than all previous governments combined, including the Conservatives. We have a plan to connect every Canadian across the country. I will tell the member how we are delivering on that plan. Since 2015, our government has invested a total of $7.2 billion for improved broadband access. When I was elected in 2015, that was the first file the rural caucus worked on, and we had several meetings about community access issues. Taken together, those investments will ensure that 98% of Canadians are connected to high-speed Internet by 2026 and 100% by 2030. Our government committed to bridging the digital divide from the start. Projects are under way to connect nearly 900,000 households. I had the opportunity to travel all over Canada and Quebec to make joint announcements with Ontario and Quebec. The connect to innovate program launched in 2016 is an example of what we are doing. The program's funding is directed primarily at creating new basic infrastructure in rural and remote communities across Canada. Building that infrastructure is the modern equivalent of building roads to rural and remote areas, and it will connect these communities to the global economy. We recognized the vital importance of good connection and moved the Canadian connectivity file forward for our businesses, for education, for health care at home and for everything else. The connect to innovate program will bring new or improved high-speed Internet access to more than 975 rural and remote communities, more than triple the 300 communities initially targeted, which includes 190 indigenous communities. The universal broadband fund is the government's latest effort to support the expansion of high-speed Internet access across the country. This $2.75‑billion program to improve Internet access is the largest broadband investment in Canadian history. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of connecting communities. That is why we acted quickly through the universal broadband fund. We heard all kinds of stories during the pandemic about people using the Internet to break their isolation. That demonstrated that the Internet is now a necessity.

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Ms. Lianne Rood

Dec/9/21 7:47:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his response. However, I must emphasize the importance of these concerns. Something the Liberal government needs to understand is that we are all Canadians regardless of geography and where we live, and we are all deserving of equal representation. Here are a few concerns directly from my riding. A professor at Western University has written in to say he cannot offer his students the same services he did before the pandemic because of a lack of reliable Internet. Parents calling me are at their wits' end, frustrated that their children cannot receive a proper education or access online school because of poor Internet quality. It is unacceptable that rural Canadians cannot connect to high-speed Internet and that the voices of rural Canadians have not been heard by the Liberal government. I will continue to raise the concerns of rural Canadians and fight for their issues until we get solutions.

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Mr. Stéphane Lauzon

Dec/9/21 7:48:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have heard the Conservatives say that they are listening to rural communities across Canada, even in the riding of my colleague across the way. I am rather pleased to hear that the member is protecting or trying to define the need for high-speed Internet. Our government developed the rural economic development strategy with the goal of supporting the economic recovery. For education, as I said earlier, we focused on the resilience of rural regions across Canada, not just in one riding.

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Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)

Dec/9/21 7:49:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the chance to speak tonight with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on the topic of the climate crisis and fossil fuel subsidies. In my community, no matter what neighbourhood I am in, the sentiment is the same: What is the point of anything else if we are not ensuring we have a safe climate future for our kids, nieces, nephews and grandkids, recognizing this is our last chance to ensure that we do so? We are already seeing these impacts every day across the country. Recently there was the mudslides and flooding from B.C. to the east coast. This is a reminder that we must listen to scientists, indigenous leaders and young people who are calling for parliamentarians to act immediately, which will require bold and transformational action to reduce emissions by what scientists tell us is required to keep the possibility of 1.5°C alive, our fair share being 60% by 2030. How are we doing on this? A couple of weeks ago, the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development released a scathing report, in which he wrote, “We can't continue to go from failure to failure; we need action and results, not just more targets and plans.” As of now, Canada's emissions have continued to increase since 2015, as of the most recent inventory, and we are the worst performer of any G7 country. One obvious reason is that we continue, in the midst of a climate emergency, to subsidize fossil fuels to the tune of approximately $17 billion domestically in 2020, including over $5 billion for the building of the Trans Mountain pipeline. The report pointed to one example with a clear opportunity to improve the onshore program of a so-called emissions reduction fund. Launched in November 2020, part of Canada's COVID-19 emergency response plan, the government saw the onshore program as a way to help the energy sector deal with lower oil prices during the pandemic. It was designed to support emission reduction efforts by providing financial support to struggling companies in this sector. This is the important part. It offered up to $675 million to oil and gas companies to maintain employment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with a particular focus on methane. To date, the government has funded 40 projects via this $675-million fund without verifiable emissions reductions, two-thirds of which actually led to increased oil and gas production. The good news is that we have only spent $134 million of the $675 million to date. Now we have an opportunity to use these funds for real climate action, for significant emissions reductions, by creating good jobs, for example, in retrofitting buildings, retraining workers in oil and gas and supporting their transition in a just economy. Could the parliamentary secretary share what the government intends to do to ensure that the remaining $541 million actually reduces emissions?

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