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Feb/1/22 12:35:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I cheered for that program when it was first announced by Stéphane Dion, the former environment minister, in 2005. Former finance minister Ralph Goodale had it in his budget. It is great to see it back and it is great to see it expanded to include such things as putting on solar panels, but it is far too small. We really need to be restoring housing stock and municipal, institutional and commercial buildings as well. Every building in this country needs a retrofit and needs it as fast as possible, so the program needs to be expanded dramatically.

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Ms. Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia—Lambton, CPC)

Feb/1/22 12:36:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for her continued passion on climate change. One of the things I have noticed, though, is that—

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Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne

The Deputy Speaker

Feb/1/22 12:36:36 p.m.
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On a point of order, the hon. member for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles.

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Mr. Luc Desilets (Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, BQ)

Feb/1/22 12:36:50 p.m.
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Point of order, Mr. Speaker. With all due respect, it seems to me that there is an imbalance in the way you are recognizing members in the House versus those who are participating virtually. I have raised my hand several times now, and I do not know if we are in your blind spot or what, but I would like to be treated fairly. All MPs are equal. Nobody wants this situation. We would all like to be there in person, but now other parties are getting an advantage because they have far more members present in person than we do.

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The Deputy Speaker

Feb/1/22 12:37:25 p.m.
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I thank the hon. member for his intervention, and I can assure him that I do see all the members. I am trying my best to involve all members who are online or here in the House, and to ensure that all political parties are well represented. Some of the Bloc Québécois members in the House sometimes get up at the same time, so I do my best. The member for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles will be next in line to ask a question. The hon. member for Sarnia—Lambton.

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Ms. Marilyn Gladu

Feb/1/22 12:37:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, I thank the member for her passion. She is calling for us to accelerate our efforts to address climate change, but I would say that the government has not even met its existing 2030 targets. It is not on track. I do not know how many of the billions of trees it has started to plant, but it seems there is nothing but rhetoric coming from the other side. Would the member agree?

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Feb/1/22 12:38:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is a tough one. I cannot agree that the government has done nothing. It is putting in place programs and measures that at least should get the direction right. We often say, and this is true, that the Government of Canada, regardless of which political party is in power, has never hit a target it set. However, it is worse than that: It has never gotten the direction right. So far, no matter how many commitments are made to reduce emissions, they continue to go up. I think we are going to begin to see emissions coming down, but that is not nearly good enough because the measure of our success is not whether we have fooled enough people to win another election. The measure of our success is whether we have met what the science demands of us to hold within a carbon budget. The window is rapidly closing on holding on to a livable world, and that is why I will give the government credit for doing something. However, I cannot claim it is doing nearly enough.

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Mr. Luc Desilets (Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, BQ)

Feb/1/22 12:39:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am always happy to listen to the Green Party member talk about climate change and other files, and climate change is what her speech was mainly about. I know she is a compassionate and intelligent woman, and I would like to hear what she thinks about increasing health transfers so that they cover 35% of expenditures. All of the provinces in this country are calling for that. They need that increase in order to cope with the current situation. Along with the environment, health is at the top of the agenda.

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Feb/1/22 12:40:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the Bloc Québécois member for his kind and generous words and for his question. I think we also need to talk about the health threats resulting from climate change. I mentioned the people who died as a result of the heat waves. I agree with the Bloc Québécois that the federal government and the provinces need to collaborate more to protect our public health care systems. Our provincial public health care systems have been under increasing stress since the pandemic began two years ago, and the crisis continues to grow.

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Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)

Feb/1/22 12:41:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak with respect to some reflections on the Speech from the Throne. I would like to focus on our priorities where there is the opportunity to work constructively with the governing party and, in fact, with all parliamentarians to make progress. These are the priorities the government has put forward in the Speech from the Throne and those I have heard about time and time again from folks in my community in Kitchener. I would like to start with housing. In the Speech from the Throne, the governing party speaks about being committed to working with partners to get real results. I want to start with what that looks like in my community. In the last year, we did a study on the number of unsheltered folks, which has now risen to over 1,000 people living rough and unsheltered, which is three times as many as in the last point-in-time count study. When we look at those who are hoping to purchase a home, we find that back in 2005, the cost of purchasing a home in Kitchener was three times higher than the median annual income. In 2021, that rose to 8.6 times higher. The possibility of purchasing a home, and I know this is the case for so many across the country, is increasingly becoming completely out of reach. For those on the wait-list for affordable dignified housing, that wait-list is now upward of almost eight years. Can members imagine waiting eight years to get access to housing? I spoke with a woman this past summer who said she was lucky to get access to affordable housing, but there is mould in her unit, and she knows her landlord has no incentive to do anything about it. We need to be addressing not just the affordability but also the quality of dignified housing. Homes should be for people to live in, as opposed to commodities for investors to trade. To do that, we will need to address the rules of the game. For example, we need to get back to investing in non-market, subsidized, public and co-op housing. Back in the early eighties, for example, 8% of new rental units constructed were co-op housing. I lived in a co-op myself over many years and had the experience of what quality and dignified housing co-ops can be. If we look at 2020, we see that fewer than 1% of rental units constructed were co-op housing. We could look at taxation. For example, there are investors who are merely purchasing a property to speculate and take many years to eventually flip a home. We could put in place a graduated tax on those house flippers and use the revenue to reinvest in more affordable housing. We could be looking at what BMO has also called for, which is putting an end to the blind bidding process. I look forward to working with the government to make progress, meaningful progress, on addressing the cost of housing. In the throne speech, there was also talk of addressing the cost of living, which made reference to the Canada child benefit and to addressing child care. While I celebrate those initiatives, we also need to recognize a group of Canadians who are disproportionately living in poverty. They are Canadians living with disabilities. In fact, the word “disability” was not in the throne speech once at all. We know the governing party had previously introduced legislation and introduced the Canada disability benefit. This benefit would uplift up to 1.5 million Canadians who are currently living in poverty. We know Canadians across the country support it, as 89% of Canadians already support the Canada disability benefit. Back in Kitchener, for folks with disabilities who have access to the Ontario disability support program, the shelter allowance they are receiving is $497 a month. How many apartments could someone afford in Kitchener on $497 a month? The answer is none whatsoever. This is why we need to be focused on a moral imperative to lift up Canadians living with disabilities and ensure they have access to a dignified life across the country. With respect to mental health in the throne speech, there is talk of focusing on mental health in the same way we focus on physical well-being because they are inseparable. I could not agree more. We are in the midst of a shadow pandemic with respect to mental health and that is why we need to see increased commitments to mental health funding while recognizing the overdose crisis we are also in the midst of as a result of a poisoned drug supply. In Kitchener, we had 99 preventable deaths across the Waterloo region last year alone, which is the second-highest number we have had. There are groups, including the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, who are making clear calls for decriminalizing simple possession while also working towards a safer supply. These are the policies that were not mentioned in the throne speech that I would encourage the governing party to consider, recognizing the shared interest in making progress on mental health and addictions, and saving lives across the country. This brings me to the final point. To echo comments heard earlier from the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands with respect to addressing the climate crisis, we have to simply follow the science. We are past the time for talking about whether one plan is better than another party's plan. The fact is that does not matter. All that matters is whether we choose to hold on to the possibility of keeping within the maximum of a 1.5°C increase in global temperatures. This is true for people across my community, young and old, who are together saying that enough is enough. We have a moral imperative to ensure we provide a safe climate future for our kids, our nieces, our nephews and our grandkids. In the words of Greta Thunberg, “Either we do that or we don’t.... Either we prevent 1.5 degree of warming or we don’t.... Either we choose to go on as a civilisation or we don’t.” We have that opportunity today. We could be saying that maybe this is not the right time to be investing $18 billion in subsidies to fossil fuels or purchasing and expanding a pipeline to further export more emissions around the world. Instead, we could be using those same funds, such as the funds that were announced just last month for an emissions reduction fund that actually increased oil production. We could also use this new tax credit for carbon capture and storage. Each of these is just another subsidy to fossil fuel interests that we could be repurposing to make the choice to invest in a just transition for workers on the front lines. We could be using these, in respect to comments earlier, to build on the Canada green homes grant. The $5,000 a month is a great start. Let us retrofit every building in the country and create millions of jobs as we do it. Let us take the kind of action we all know is required if we are going to be honest about the science and follow through. My aspiration is to continue to work with all parliamentarians in this place and recognize that we have that shared interest in listening to the folks in our communities who are calling out to rise past the partisanship and whatever one party has called for versus another, and simply be honest about what scientists, young people and indigenous leaders have been calling out for. Whether that relates to the cost of housing, the mental health crisis, lifting folks out of poverty or addressing the climate crisis, we have to not just do some good, but go at the pace scientists tell us is required.

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Mrs. Julie Vignola (Beauport—Limoilou, BQ)

Feb/1/22 12:50:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up on something my colleague talked about at the beginning of his speech, namely social housing. There is a desperate shortage of housing that is not only affordable, but also economically viable for most families. We talk about affordability meaning 10% less. I am not sure whether it is the same in his riding as it is in mine, but corporations, sometimes foreign, are building condos that go for $2,500 a month for a two-bedroom unit. Even with an affordability framework and 10% off, is that viable? The answer is no. What solutions would my colleague propose to ensure that our fellow citizens have access to sustainable and truly affordable housing?

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Mr. Mike Morrice

Feb/1/22 12:51:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Beauport—Limoilou for her important question. I will switch to English so that I get the words just right. It is so important that we talk about not only the investments but also the policies required for not just affordable housing, but dignified and quality housing. I look forward to a longer conversation with her and other colleagues to talk not only about the investment but also the policies required. I mentioned some on taxation, for example. I also mentioned co-op housing and other options around public and subsidized housing to ensure that they are truly affordable, as well as dignified.

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Mr. Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP)

Feb/1/22 12:52:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Kitchener Centre for his focus on climate and housing in his speech. I am certainly hearing from folks in Elmwood—Transcona who are struggling to access housing that is within their budget. I am also hearing not just from people who are struggling at the poverty line who cannot find housing, but also from folks who in their time had good middle-class jobs and were able to afford a home for their family. They are now unable to imagine how their children will be able to afford a home. I wonder if the member can speak a little to some of the actions that the government could take to try and cool the housing market. Some actions were even in the Liberals' own platform, but we have not seen them moving on that with a sense of urgency so far in this Parliament. Also, it is clear that we need a massive investment in not just affordable housing, as the definition of which too often puts housing still out of reach for people, but also in rent-geared-to-income housing. I wonder how we could use a major capital campaign to build those units, and do it in a way that is responsive to the climate crisis, ensuring that it is done in a way that creates the most possible housing within reach for the people who need it in a way that creates the least possible emissions.

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Mr. Mike Morrice

Feb/1/22 12:53:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Elmwood—Transcona for the question and for his advocacy in this place, particularly for seniors. To the questions the member asked around housing, and I did not have a chance to mention this in my speech, but seniors across the country, who are often living below the poverty line, are looking at the rising cost of housing with anxiety. They are wondering whether they will be able to continue to afford the housing they live in. The member asked about policies the government could take. One example, which the government has talked about, is a vacancy tax. We could put in place a meaningful tax on homes that are purchased by investors who have no interest in anyone ever living in them. While the government has talked about a 1% tax on non-resident, non-Canadians, we have examples across the country, in Vancouver, for example, where it is far broader. With these kinds of measures, we could use those funds to reinvest and, to the point around climate and other opportunities, provide no-interest loans and ensure that low-income Canadians have access to the funding required for energy upgrades to reduce the energy poverty across the country as well.

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Ms. Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia—Lambton, CPC)

Feb/1/22 12:54:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for covering so many great topics in his speech. I want to talk about affordable housing because in Sarnia we have an affordable housing crisis. Because of the lack of action on the part of the Liberals, we are now seeing an increase in homelessness. I wonder if the member could comment on what that is like in his riding. Is he seeing the same thing?

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Mr. Mike Morrice

Feb/1/22 12:55:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is devastating. In my community in the Waterloo region, the number of people who are living rough, living unsheltered, has tripled. There are a variety of ways they are impacted, not only with respect to housing but also when it comes to mental health as well. I look forward to working with the hon. member to address the reality of Canadians living across the country without access to safe and quality housing.

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Mr. Chandra Arya (Nepean, Lib.)

Feb/1/22 12:55:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Nickel Belt. I would like to thank the people of Nepean for electing me for the third time to this chamber. I promise to continue to work hard in delivering services with the help of my staff, and will continue to represent them here in this august chamber. I would also like to use this opportunity to thank my family. First is my wife Sangeetha. I have been married to her for 31 years and knew her four years before that. For 35 years, she has been a friend and equal partner in everything I have done. She is a solid rock for me. I would also like to thank and recognize my son, our only son, Siddanth, who is a chartered accountant. He is a sounding board for many of the ideas and thoughts I have in my work as a member of Parliament. Many times he is a partner in very in-depth intellectual discussions, whether related to the crypto economy, to MMT, modern monetary theory, or to historical accords and linking historical facts to current geopolitical events. I thank my family, who have been with me throughout these years. I would also like to thank the great group of volunteers who helped me win this election, the third one in a row. One distinguishing feature of this campaign with this group of volunteers is that 80% of them were students. These young Canadians worked hard and helped me get elected. It is these young Canadians, our children and grandchildren, who were the focus when I first entered politics. I entered politics with three main objectives, one of which was that I wanted to ensure Canadian society and the economy remained robust and competitive in the global knowledge-based economy, thus securing prosperity for our children and grandchildren. Today, we are rich. Canada is prosperous because of the natural advantage we have from our natural resources. With our oil, gas, minerals, metals and forestry products, combined with the hard work done by several generations of Canadians, we enjoy prosperity and a high standard of living today. However, five or 10 years down the road these natural advantages will not be sufficient to ensure our continued prosperity. The global economy is going toward a knowledge-based economy, and I want to work hard so that Canada is at the forefront of this knowledge-based economy. Let me quickly go through some of the technologies that dominate this knowledge-based economy. They include artificial intelligence, energy storage, quantum computing, robotics, genome sequencing and blockchain technologies. These technologies in the knowledge-based economy do not just affect the businesses, the corporate sector and the economy. They have a big impact on the entire Canadian society and our way of life. It is therefore very important for us to recognize this now and take action so that we continue to be at the front end of these technologies. In this knowledge-based economy, the natural advantages we have will not ensure prosperity because there is a flat world out there. Our children and Canadians today have to compete with students from different parts of the world, whether from Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Shanghai, China; Frankfurt, Germany; or Mumbai, India. Everywhere there is competition in this knowledge-based economy because everybody has a level playing field. We therefore need to empower our children to be quite competitive in that world. Let me quickly go through some of the specific examples and how they affect us. On artificial intelligence, three of the world's most accomplished and deep thinkers, former Google executive Eric Schmidt, Henry Kissinger and Daniel Huttenlocher, have recently written a book on artificial intelligence, the way it is transforming human society and what this technology means for all of us. Today, artificial intelligence has learned to win chess by making moves that human grandmasters had never conceived. Another AI discovered a new antibiotic analyzing molecular properties that human scientists did not understand. Now, artificial intelligence-powered jets are defeating experienced human pilots in simulated dogfights. Artificial intelligence is coming online in searching, streaming, medicine, education and many other fields, and in doing so, it is transforming how humans are experiencing reality. The second quick point is on genomics. To sequence the first whole human genome in 2000, the human genome project cost over $3.7 billion and took 13 years of computing power. Today, the same thing costs less than $1,000 and takes a few hours. Third, the trillion-dollar transportation sector is actually changing dramatically today. Battery-powered vehicles are a reality. This may not be true so much in Canada, but it is a big reality in China, some parts of Europe and the United States. We have to invest to make it possible. We need to be at the forefront of those technologies. On the issue of the batteries, Canada has the natural advantage of having the rare minerals that are required in the manufacture of battery cells. What we need is a comprehensive plan to develop the mines, process the minerals, manufacture the batteries, pack the battery cells and obviously get into vehicle production. We need to do that, and we are still very far away from it. For the knowledge-based economy, we have made significant investments in the last budget: about $440 million for the pan-Canadian artificial intelligence strategy, $360 million to launch a national quantum strategy, $90 million for the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre and $400 million in support of a pan-Canadian genomics strategy. We have made these investments. Also, for a clean and green future for a transition from internal combustion engines to battery-operated electric vehicles, we have established the critical battery minerals centre of excellence. I have called for the immediate establishment of a task force to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for the development of mines and technology for battery manufacturing in Canada. We need a team Canada approach to understand the impact of these new technologies on the new knowledge-based economies, and the impact they are having not just on the economic sector, but also in Canadian society in our day-to-day lives. We must be ready for that. We need to keep Canada at the forefront of these new technologies in the knowledge-based economy to ensure that we continue to remain prosperous and that the standard of living we enjoy today is available to our children and grandchildren too.

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Mrs. Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, CPC)

Feb/1/22 1:05:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for a fulsome explanation of how we should be using our natural resources and technology. In a recent example, the government felt that it was not necessary to keep control of a lithium hydroxide mine because we do not have the capacity to do anything with it. The member opposite talked about batteries, but the future we are looking forward to includes an energy source from nuclear fusion. While the Chrétien government, way back when, decided that Canada would not be a part of it, we are closer to the realization of being able to use it. Lithium is one of the components we use in producing the plasma that is concentrated with energy so that more energy comes out, as opposed to going in. That is how we will be powering our vehicles of the future. When we look at clean energy and the opportunity that nuclear fusion affords, what does the member opposite see in the technology and the AI that Canada has that will give us a piece of that so that our country can enjoy an aspect of this clean, smog-free, efficient fuel that is coming in the future?

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Mr. Chandra Arya

Feb/1/22 1:07:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on the question of lithium and the other minerals that are required for the manufacturing of batteries for the next generation of technologies, I am glad to state that Canada and the U.S. are working hand in hand. They are developing a comprehensive strategy for the development of mines, for the development of processing units and for the battery manufacturers themselves.

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Ms. Lindsay Mathyssen (London—Fanshawe, NDP)

Feb/1/22 1:07:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member was talking about the development of technology and the next generation. Of course, this is also about the next generation of incredible intellectuals, minds and workers in the fields he was talking about. They will be trying to expand that economy and knowledge base. However, the government is not doing a good job of ensuring that students have the ability to get the education they need. There are incredible barriers in their way. The government has put forward some temporary supports for students, but when will the government permanently take away its collection of interest on student loans? When will it follow the NDP's lead on ensuring that students do not have to deal with financial barriers so they can actually compete and fully give to this incredible next generation and our economy?

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