44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 1, 2022 10:00AM
- Feb/1/22 2:44:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, behind service standards are people; people who cannot pay their rent because their employment insurance is not coming in, people who are waiting without knowing when that will end and whether they will last long enough, people who have no bread to put on the table. These people are not too concerned about service standards statistics. They want the federal government to find a way to look after them.
When will the minister reduce the backlog to zero?
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- Feb/1/22 2:45:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I told my hon. colleague last week when we talked about this issue, I understand that each application represents one person, one family that needs help. That is why resolving this issue is one of my priorities.
We also need to understand that there is an increase in applications because of the omicron‑related closures, but we are nevertheless putting more resources in place precisely to ensure that every Canadian who has applied—
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- Feb/1/22 2:45:55 p.m.
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Order. The hon. member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles.
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- Feb/1/22 2:45:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Russians are about to invade Ukraine.
They have amassed 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border. They have also moved blood supplies to their field hospitals, as they anticipate the possibility of considerable loss of life. Ukraine has been pleading with Canada to send defensive weapons, but the Prime Minister is refusing its request. As proof of the imminent danger, Canadian troops were moved into the territory.
Will the Prime Minister show some courage, stop playing games and finally come to the aid of Ukraine by sending defensive weapons?
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- Feb/1/22 2:46:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
When it comes to ensuring that there is not another Russian invasion of Ukraine, of course we believe in diplomacy and deterrence. On the diplomatic front, just yesterday I spoke with officials in the Netherlands, Denmark and Latvia, and this morning I spoke with officials in Estonia. Basically, we are continuing to work with our allies to maintain the alliance's strong unity, and we also believe in Operation Unifier. My colleague is at NATO headquarters in Brussels as we speak.
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- Feb/1/22 2:47:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Ukraine will likely be the theatre of a major conventional land war.
We have been watching Russia's miliary buildup in Belarus, in Russia, in the Donbas region and in Crimea since the Russians held exercises in September. Russia has been threatening Ukraine for some time now, and this Liberal government has had months to prepare a military assistance plan for our friends in Ukraine.
Why does the Prime Minister not understand that Russia is not interested in diplomacy? When will we provide real help to our Ukrainian friends?
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- Feb/1/22 2:47:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, NATO members are unanimous: We have to move forward through diplomatic channels. That is why there are three channels in place, whether it is the Americans talking with the Russians, NATO with Russia or even talks within the OSCE. That is how we ease tensions.
However, we agree that there needs to be deterrence. I hope that my colleague recognizes that the government is doing a great deal through operations Reassurance and Unifier, which we have just extended and expanded.
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- Feb/1/22 2:48:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 33 million Canadians had their mobility data secretly tracked by the Public Health Agency of Canada without their consent. This unprecedented level of surveillance on our citizens came to light when the Liberals admitted not only that they did it, but also that they planned to continue spying on Canadians for another five years.
Protecting the privacy of Canadians is the foundation of our freedoms. Sadly, under these Liberals, the foundations of our democracy are crumbling when this type of massive overreach happens.
My question is a simple one: Who authorized the secret spying on Canadians?
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- Feb/1/22 2:49:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. He is right to emphasize the importance of protecting people's privacy. I assume he is also emphasizing the importance of protecting people's health and safety. We are doing that together.
We are working with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to ensure that the methods employed, as we know, effectively rely on confidential, anonymized aggregate data to protect people's health and safety, as well as their privacy.
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- Feb/1/22 2:49:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, instead of being focused on normalizing lockdowns, maybe the Liberals should have been focused on keeping our economy open. If someone were to connect the dots, they would see a pattern of massive overreach by the Liberals. They tried to seize control of Parliament at the beginning of the pandemic to completely control spending and taxing. They got caught secretly collecting banking data. They attempted to limit speech and what Canadians can see on the Internet, and now this.
This pattern of control is only seen in countries that many Canadians have fled from. How could anyone think that secretly gathering this data without the consent of Canadians was a good idea?
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- Feb/1/22 2:50:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I already answered the question. However, I thank my colleague for giving me another opportunity to say that we did things right in our country to maintain people's trust, reassure them and protect our economy. Canada's economy is far superior to the economies of other countries around the world who have also been grappling with COVID-19. What is more, we have based our work on science, and Canada has the lowest mortality rate of all the G7 countries, after Japan.
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- Feb/1/22 2:50:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in 2020, when thousands of Canadians were out thousands of dollars for cancelled flights, the minister told us there was nothing he could do to get them refunds. He told us the Canadian Transportation Agency was an independent arm's-length body. Now we have documents showing the government was not just talking to the CTA, but actively convincing them to let airlines withhold refunds.
Why were senior government officials lobbying the CTA to protect airlines' bottom lines instead of standing up for Canadians?
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- Feb/1/22 2:51:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for reminding us, and reminding all Canadians, that our government was there to help Canadians with their refunds. Our government was there to help airlines struggling with COVID, to support them and to save jobs, to save the skills we need, and to save our economy.
I want to thank him for that reminder because our government will always be there helping Canadians.
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- Feb/1/22 2:52:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that sounded to me like a reminder that the Liberals are here for big business, not for Canadians.
I can give another example. The Liberals keep saying that they understand that this pandemic will not be over in Canada until it is over everywhere, but they are dragging their feet on the TRIPS waiver and have refused to add COVID-19 medicines to Canada's access to medicines regime. Their promises to COVAX are useless.
Will the Prime Minister finally take the action necessary to ensure vaccine equity around the world?
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- Feb/1/22 2:52:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government will always be and has always been a strong advocate for vaccine equity. Canada supports a multilateral approach on intellectual property, specifically for COVID-19 vaccines.
We have been working hard with our colleagues around the WTO table right from the very beginning. Through our leadership at the Ottawa group, we continue to convene these important conversations so we can ensure that everyone gets vaccinated around the world.
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- Feb/1/22 2:53:19 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-2
Mr. Speaker, over the holidays, omicron had a serious impact on constituents and businesses in my riding of Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel. Thankfully, the House had passed Bill C-2 before we rose, ensuring that we had support for businesses and individuals still facing restrictions and lockdowns put in place by provinces in response to the new wave.
Can the Deputy Prime Minister remind the House of some of the measures in the bill and how they have been supporting Canadians?
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- Feb/1/22 2:53:49 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-2
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her question and for her hard work for her constituents. Thanks to Bill C-2, we now have the Canada worker lockdown benefit. This ensures that workers affected by new public health restrictions are receiving immediate financial support.
We also have the local lockdown program, which provides businesses faced with omicron lockdowns imposed by local jurisdictions with wage and rent subsidy support. Unfortunately, both the Conservatives and the NDP voted against these essential support measures, but I am glad we were able to put them in place to support Canadians.
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- Feb/1/22 2:54:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while lithium is critical in the production of electric vehicles, last week we learned that the minister fast-tracked the sale of a Canadian lithium company to a state-owned enterprise from China without conducting a full, national security review. However, for three long years, the same minister has refused to say no to Huawei building Canada's 5G network.
Why is it so easy for him to say yes to risky takeovers of Canadian companies, yet so hard for him to say no to dubious foreign takeovers?
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- Feb/1/22 2:55:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us bring some facts into this discussion. Last week I was clear to Canadians and to the committee that, when it comes to the Neo Lithium transaction, this transaction was subject to a full national security review involving all the relevant departments of the government and all the intelligence and security agencies.
In addition, it was subject to scrutiny in accordance with the guidelines I put into place in March. We should not mislead the House when it comes to issues of national security.
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- Feb/1/22 2:55:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is not entitled to his own facts. He also refused to tell Canadians whether he consulted with our allies before making the hasty decision to allow Neo Lithium to be sold to China. We assume his answer is no and that he did not consult. Our American allies, and our other allies, banned Huawei from their 5G networks long ago and cannot understand why the Liberal government continues to dither and delay.
It has been three years. When will the minister stop appeasing the communist regime in Beijing and finally say no way to Huawei?
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