SoVote

Feb/3/22 3:12:06 p.m.
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I am afraid that is all the time we have for question period today.

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Feb/3/22 3:12:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there have been consultations among the parties, and I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That the House deem the occupation in front of the parliamentary precinct in Ottawa to be illegal, that it ask GoFundMe to put all funds intended for this siege on hold, and that it call on participants to leave peacefully.

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The Speaker

Feb/3/22 3:12:33 p.m.
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All those opposed to the hon. member moving the motion will please say nay. Some hon. members: Nay.

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Mr. Gérard Deltell (Louis-Saint-Laurent, CPC)

Feb/3/22 3:12:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is our first Thursday back in Parliament and I am pleased to ask the traditional Thursday question. Speaking about the week, this week has been a very busy one. Canadians recognize we have tough discussions sometimes in the House of Commons, and sometimes very harsh debates, but I am very pleased that we show respect to each other. This week especially, Canadians have seen how much both sides of the House can be respectful to each other. We saw the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and everybody here show a lot of respect to the hon. member for Durham and to the new interim Leader of the Opposition in the House. I respect every member who showed this dignity this week. Since the week is almost over, now is the time to learn about the upcoming week. Could my hon. colleague tell Canadians what to expect in the days to come?

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Weekly Business Statement

Hon. Mark Holland (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

Feb/3/22 3:14:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I echo the comments made by my hon. colleague on the other side. We fiercely disagree on many things. The debate we have is important, and dissent is important, but the way we do that is extraordinarily important. I want to echo what he said. We have been able to find a good tone in this House as we disagree with one another and fight on the issues of the day, and do it in a way that respects the roles we have as parliamentarians in this place. For the week that is forthcoming, this afternoon and tomorrow will be dedicated to the second reading debate of Bill C-8, An Act to implement certain provisions of the economic and fiscal update tabled in Parliament on December 14, 2021 and other measures. On Monday, we are going to commence debate on Bill C-9, which seeks to amend the Judges Act. Lastly, Tuesday and Thursday shall be allotted days.

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Weekly Business Statement

The Speaker

Feb/3/22 3:15:22 p.m.
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Resuming debate, the hon. member for Hastings—Lennox and Addington has two minutes remaining.

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Mrs. Shelby Kramp-Neuman (Hastings—Lennox and Addington, CPC)

Feb/3/22 3:15:32 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, I will begin my comments by acknowledging a short conversation I had with one of my colleagues in the lobby with regard to his grandson, who has just gone through a successful heart surgery. Perhaps we can give a small moment of prayer for the member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup and his grandson Oskar. He is doing well, but it is appropriate to acknowledge we have strength on both sides of the House to wish him and his family well. There have been several challenges. We need to be ready and our goal needs to be simple. We need to be prepared and we need to take rapid actions. We need to be able to protect the health of all Canadians while avoiding long-term impacts on our economy and of course on the mental health of all Canadians. Productivity is down and debt levels are up. I believe we are in a hot mess. The Canadian way of life is being threatened, and many people are fragile. We need to reactivate this economy. We need to have lower taxes, more freedom and smaller government and we need to regain some optimism and hope in ourselves and in our government. I am speaking today on Bill C-8, and Conservatives strongly oppose it. Day in and day out, I hear the phone calls to my riding offices in Ivanhoe and Napanee and my office in Ottawa from Canadians of all walks of life who are exhausted and tired. We have no room for this additional spending.

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Mr. Kody Blois (Kings—Hants, Lib.)

Feb/3/22 3:17:46 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, I apologize that I was not able to make it for all of the member's speech, because of question period. She mentioned at the end that Canadians are exhausted and tired. I would agree. So too are the people of Ottawa, with the protests we are seeing outside right now. Although the member was not in the House in 2020, the Conservative Party was quick to call on the government for police intervention on some of the blockades that we have seen across the country. I have not yet heard that same language from the Conservative Party, nor from this member. Would this member agree with me that it is time for the protesters to go home and for the police to use their discretion to take down the blockade of downtown Ottawa?

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Mrs. Shelby Kramp-Neuman

Feb/3/22 3:18:23 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, indeed it is a tricky situation here in Ottawa, but Canadians want to be heard. Canadians want to be heard, and by all means we oppose any of the rhetoric about the small numbers of the population that are being talked about and that the Liberals are repeating today. Canadians want to have some freedoms. Canadians want to have their choices. Canadians want to go ahead and live their lives with dignity. Canadians want to use all the tools we have in our tool boxes. We need to have the rapid tests, we need to wear our masks and we need to have social distancing, if that is what we choose. I am not encouraging or acknowledging this, but we need to move forward.

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Mr. Luc Berthold (Mégantic—L'Érable, CPC)

Feb/3/22 3:19:19 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on her excellent speech. I would like to hear her thoughts on inflation, which must certainly be affecting families, fathers and mothers, in her riding who are forced to make difficult decisions to feed their families. Should the government have intervened? How long should the government let inflation keep rising before it does something?

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Mrs. Shelby Kramp-Neuman

Feb/3/22 3:19:50 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I think I will answer in English today and in French tomorrow. There is no doubt that inflation is hitting Canadians day in and day out. It does not matter whether they are at the gas station or going for groceries; it is in all walks of life. The emails from seniors are really sad. I have seniors who are sending me emails saying they do not know whether they are able to pay for their medication. There are children who are talking to their parents at home, learning about how money is being spent, and there is not enough at the end of the day. Bills are all over the table and piling up, and families are needing to choose which ones they are going to pay. The interest rates that are being charged are just outlandish.

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Mr. Ken Hardie (Fleetwood—Port Kells, Lib.)

Feb/3/22 3:21:03 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives oppose this bill. Do they oppose better ventilation for schools? Do they oppose more COVID tests? Do they approve improving the number of weeks of EI that workers are capable of getting? Do they approve of more relief for the businesses that took advantage of the Canada emergency business account? These are all seemingly pretty important things, particularly as we hopefully near the end of worst part of the pandemic. Do the Conservatives really oppose those measures?

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Mrs. Shelby Kramp-Neuman

Feb/3/22 3:21:43 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, do the Liberals really approve of the inflation rates that Canadians are facing today? With regard to some of the elements of the bill. I can acknowledge that as with anything, there is room for agreement and respectful disagreement across the aisle. There are parts of the bill that I would suggest are good, and I have no difficulty saying that. I think there needs to be room where we can have dialogue and agreement across the floor, but I will leave it at that.

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Mr. Ryan Williams (Bay of Quinte, CPC)

Feb/3/22 3:22:23 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, we only have to listen to the constant sound of horns outside of Parliament to hear the siren of Canadian voices discontent with the state of our country. Meeting to have an open conversation with truckers and now farmers is not a sign of defeat or concession, as the government tries to make it appear. It may be the only way to end this protest and send our truckers home. It is a sign of leadership. It is the job we all signed up to as parliamentarians. We are the representatives of everyone in our riding, not just those who voted for us, not just those we agree with, but everyone. Canadians need hope. They want to know that the sacrifices they have made for their businesses, their families, their friends and their fellow Canadians by stepping up to get vaccines and boosters mean that they will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Canadians see where other nations are, and they see the hope that is coming from within them. The U.K. has lifted all restrictions from COVID-19. The Americans had full stadiums as they watched some exciting football for the AFC and the NFC championships last weekend. Go, Rams. Canadians heard the health minister muse about seeing it coming with regard to a mandatory vaccine mandate on January 7, and when Quebec announced an anti-vax tax, the Prime Minister said that it could work. Vaccines are the best tool for fighting COVID-19, but we must use hope, not fear. The over 85% of Canadians who have made the choice on their own accord to get vaccinated want to know that there is hope and not fear as we end a pandemic and enter an endemic. Part of that is Canada's ability to develop vaccines to contribute to COVAX and provide alternatives for the vaccine-hesitant. Quebec has two vaccine facilities that could provide these options. Both Medicago and Novavax, a plant-based vaccine and a protein-based vaccine, could provide Canadian jobs and help us meet promised COVAX goals, as we have only met a quarter of those, and help vaccinate the vaccine-hesitant here at home and the vaccine-starved across the globe. However, the government has not yet been able to see approval of these vaccines, both of which submitted applications for approval in early 2021, and Canada has yet to produce a vaccine through this pandemic. Instead of acquiring vaccines and rapid testing in a timely manner, or approving vaccines that would help get the world vaccinated to help quell COVID-19, the government response has been consistently to dither and spend money it does not have. As our debt is now reaching a jaw-dropping $1.2 trillion, the desire to spend our way out of the pandemic has led to some far-reaching results for our country: a housing crisis that is the worst in the world; an inflation level that is the highest it has been in 30 years; and the largest increase in poverty and inequality in this country in 20 years. The government's continued fantasy of spending to end the pandemic has not worked yet, and it will not work now. We need real solutions to solve our crises. Government needs to work on listening to Canadians, reducing red tape and allowing the Canadian economy and Canadian innovators to be unleashed as this pandemic becomes an endemic, instead of its failed spend-to-oblivian policies. Housing is a crisis, an existential crisis that requires massive ambition and innovation to solve, working with all levels of government. Working with the housing industry, we can help lead and find solutions now. We have over 200,000 skilled workers who are in limbo with Canadian immigration, which includes skilled trades that could start building homes today. The immigration minister acknowledged this week that the shortage of skilled workers is in flux and that he does not know when it will be open again, maybe at the end of 2022. However, we need $85 million, again more money, to fix it. Meanwhile, Canadian trades are screaming for more people to build homes and are not building them because of the lack of labour. This is an issue that could have been fixed years ago. Now with the housing crisis, it is only adding more fuel to the house fire that is our housing market. The Conservative plan to use 15% of existing vacant government buildings for housing would have meant that trades could build units of housing today, not in the 10 years that it takes Toronto to build a high-rise now. Working with provinces in declaring a crisis on housing, we could start to massively contribute to an economic boom that would create jobs and create homes. More important, we in the Conservative Party believe that if we are going to add more debt to the Canadian public, it should be on investments that better this country, including our health care. For Bill C-8, our opposition is that, if we are going to spend $70 billion, then why not spend it on health care to increase health care capacity in our ICUs and our hospitals? Some of our provinces were locked down and businesses were closed completely because of the lack of staffed health care capacity in this country. Looking at hospital beds per capita in the most developed nations in the world, Canada was behind 37, including being dead last in the G7. As a matter of fact, Japan, Korea and Germany have four to six times the number of staffed beds per capita than Canada does. In the Conservative platform, we had dedicated $60 billion, if we are talking about money, to new health care transfer spending to increase health care capacity. If we are going to spend money, whether that be for Bill C-2 or Bill C-8, would it not be better for all Canadians if, instead of money being provide to businesses that are shut down, that money were to be used to prevent the economy from being shut down? This bill is no different. This $70 billion needs to be spent now in health care transfers to increase both health care and ICU capacity, and to increase the number of health care professionals that we are desperately missing in our regions. We need health care professionals, nurse practitioners and nurses, and we need doctors. In Bay of Quinte, we are short over 30 doctors. That means that residents who need primary health care are going to the ER. Canada is short over 70,000 nurses. Spending $70 billion more of taxpayer dollars without that money being invested into health care first and foremost is a travesty because it will add to the growing inflation that is plaguing this country. It would also not take care of the problems causing more lockdowns in the country and more angry Canadians desperately looking for the government to listen to them. If we are going to fix inflation and the housing crisis, if we are going to listen to angry Canadians, we must fix those issues that are plaguing them, and we need to fix them now. Spending more money we do not have would fuel our already mammoth inflation, our housing crisis and the growing inequality in Canada without fixing the problems that would help Canadians get through the dark tunnel of this pandemic into the light that would be living with an endemic and getting lives back to normal.

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

Feb/3/22 3:30:11 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Madam Speaker, the member is not being consistent. On the one hand he is saying to cut back and stop the spending. He opposes the legislation because it involves spending money. On the other hand, he is saying that we should spend more money on health care transfers, even though this government has sent record amounts in health care transfers. Not only that, but we are also dealing with mental health and many other issues in health care. In this bill, there is $1.72 billion being allocated to purchase rapid testing and equipment such as that. If we did not spend the money, those tests would not be there. Then it would have to be the provinces to come up with it. Does the member not support the financial expenditures that are targeted in Bill C-8?

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Mr. Ryan Williams

Feb/3/22 3:31:08 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Madam Speaker, I support the spending that needs to happen to increase our health care now, and I supported rapid testing a year and a half ago when we asked for it and did not get it. We had residents lined up for rapid testing because there were no rapid tests. Now that they are saying they are going to fix it, we do not need it. We need health care fixed. Let us put money towards health care, and fix our problems in health care.

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Mr. Sébastien Lemire (Abitibi—Témiscamingue, BQ)

Feb/3/22 3:31:40 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Madam Speaker, I was touched by your statement this week and I want to offer my condolences. I have a question for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government on the other side of the House. I would like to know who ultimately makes health care expenditures. Do the provinces spend the money or is it the federal government? Is it not an indication of some kind of structural problem when the federal government holds on to money from Quebeckers and Canadians and sets conditions on that money, interfering in provincial jurisdictions? Would it not make sense to solve this problem once and for all by transferring the money to the provinces without conditions?

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Mr. Ryan Williams

Feb/3/22 3:32:22 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Madam Speaker, we all agree that the provinces want just as much as the federal government, and it sometimes thinks it just grows on trees. I know the federal government has to be responsible for what it is putting its money towards. I understand the provinces will decide where it wants that money. If we put money towards federal transfers for health care capacity, and we as the federal government could always track that capacity, then we would be fixing the problem once and for all with not just beds, but staffed beds. We need staff and we need beds. We need to work with the provinces to make that happen.

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Mr. Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway, NDP)

Feb/3/22 3:33:01 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Madam Speaker, picking up on my hon. colleague's comments, he is absolutely right. Among OECD countries, Canada's ICU beds per capita is less than everyone but Mexico. We are 26 out of 27 in terms of number of doctors per thousand. Among developed countries, we rank tenth out of 10 in terms of wait times. Of course, the reason for this is that in 2014 the Harper Conservatives capped the federal health transfer at 3% when health care costs are rising at 5%. The current government said it would change that, but then it adopted the Harper cuts. Will my hon. colleague finally acknowledge that part of the problem today is the Conservative and Liberal cuts to health care that kept federal transfers at 3%, and does he agree with the NDP that it is time to raise it so that we can start properly funding the health care system in this country?

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Mr. Ryan Williams

Feb/3/22 3:34:01 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Madam Speaker, a kid in kindergarten pushed me, and I do not hold a grudge against him as that happened 20 or 30 years ago. We have to focus on today. I am not sure about the Harper government. I was not here, but I love when Stephen Harper's name is brought up because he was a great prime minister. We have to look at health care and health care means looking at ICU capacity. It means looking at staff. It means looking at nurse practitioners and doctors. I know my hon colleagues on the health committee are going to be studying that. I look forward to those results. Let us get those to the House and let us get those passed so that Canadians can benefit from better health care.

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