44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 28, 2022 10:00AM
- Apr/28/22 2:43:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from the Bloc Québécois member and the opportunity to talk to his constituents about the impact of the sanctions we have put in place, which are affecting farmers and other businesses in Quebec.
First, I would like to say that everyone agreed with the idea of imposing tariffs and sanctions on Russia, because we all support Ukraine. Second, I would like to say that we will be looking at the situation with respect to farms and fertilizer.
It has been impacted, and the issue of food security in Canada and global food security is one we are very much concerned with.
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- Apr/28/22 2:43:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the member just said, the sector hit hardest by the sanctions is agriculture.
Quebec and eastern Canada use fertilizer imported from Russia, which has been slapped with a 35% surcharge.
Our farmers put their orders in before Russia attacked, so the surcharge is not penalizing Russia, which has already been paid. It is only penalizing our farmers.
A 35% surcharge for imports after the war started is legitimate, but will the government exempt orders placed before the war?
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- Apr/28/22 2:43:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to assure my colleague that we are taking the situation very seriously. We are looking at various options.
We want to make sure our farmers have the inputs they need for a good season so Canada can contribute to food security at home and around the world.
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- Apr/28/22 2:44:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we need to move quickly. This affects everyone.
If fertilizer is already 35% more expensive for farmers, what will happen to food prices? At a time when the cost of groceries is already at a record high, people cannot afford to pay any more.
I would point out that the 35% tariff comes from a well-intentioned sanction against Russia. However, it is ill-conceived, because it has no impact on the Russians, only on our farmers.
Will the government support our farmers before this tariff leads to higher food prices for everyone?
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- Apr/28/22 2:44:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, we completely agree that we need to support our farmers and our agricultural producers.
We also completely agree that tariffs and sanctions must be imposed on the Russian government and on Mr. Putin himself in order to support the Ukrainian people in this illegal war.
The last point I will make is that we are preoccupied with this issue. The Minister of Agriculture is working very hard on this issue to work with Canadian farmers to ensure that we are supporting food security in this country and around the world.
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- Apr/28/22 2:45:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government continues to claim that a decrease in international trade necessitated the use of the Emergencies Act. The public safety minister testified that Canada lost $390 million a day in trade and that the government had no choice but to invoke the act because of the damage to the economy. However, new data from Statistics Canada is showing that international trade at both the Ontario and Alberta U.S. borders increased in February compared with the same time last year.
Does the minister not understand basic economics, or is he covering up the truth? Which is it?
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- Apr/28/22 2:46:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important for my colleague to draw a bright distinction between statistics and the real life impacts at the time of the illegal blockades. Those impacts saw the disruption of trade and travel at the Ambassador Bridge, where we do fully one-third of our trade with our most important partner, the United States of America, which, by the way, expressed serious concerns during the blockades. That was one of the other reasons, among many, that we had to invoke the Emergencies Act. It worked. We were able to restore public safety, and thankfully trade and travel are going on again.
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- Apr/28/22 2:46:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, despite the blockades at the Ambassador Bridge and Coutts being cleared before the invocation of the Emergencies Act, cross-border trade was up 16%. These figures raise obvious questions about the government's use of the act, a decision the government justified by threats to economic security. The Liberals did not do anything in 2020 during the rail blockades when economic activities stopped.
Does the government only use the Emergencies Act for groups it deems racist misogynists who oppose its heavy-handed COVID restrictions?
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- Apr/28/22 2:47:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is utterly astonishing to hear the Conservative members continue to bury their heads in the sand over the serious events that occurred during January and February. I would encourage my colleague and all members of the Conservative Party of Canada, who do not want to believe there was any interruption, to speak to the small businesses on Huron Church Road in Windsor, or to talk to the member for Windsor West or the member for Windsor—Tecumseh, who have spoken with those businesses. They were shut down. That was because of the illegal blockades. We are helping them. Trade and travel are going on again, and thankfully it is because we invoked the Emergencies Act.
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- Apr/28/22 2:48:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me get this straight. Despite the police clearing the blockades without needing the Emergencies Act, yesterday the public safety minister stated the reasons were economic. He said the impacts were devastating. He said the Windsor crossing lost $390 million a day, and Stats Canada says that is not true.
What should Canadians think when the government tells them it cannot explain why it did what it did? With debunked news stories, invented economic data and them clinging to cabinet secrecy, what are the Liberals hiding?
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- Apr/28/22 2:48:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the only thing the Conservatives are clinging to right now is denial. I have to say that, before coming into this chamber and spouting off statistics in the abstract, I would encourage my colleague to speak with the Canadians outside this chamber, in Ottawa, who could not leave their homes. I would encourage my hon. colleague to speak with the many small businesses not only in Windsor but in Coutts and White Rock that were absolutely devastated by these illegal blockades. It was only after we received advice from police that we invoked the act. It worked, and now we are going to make sure we co-operate with these inquiries so that—
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- Apr/28/22 2:49:29 p.m.
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The hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona.
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- Apr/28/22 2:49:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on March 28, Russian oligarch Igor Makarov, who has been sanctioned in the United States since 2018, was able to get $121 million out of Canada. That should have gone to Ukrainians fleeing violence. That should have gone to Ukraine to help rebuild. Instead, that money was used to prop up Russia's war.
The NDP has been calling for sanctions since before the war started. The Liberals have done too little and they have done it too slowly. When are they going to get their act together?
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- Apr/28/22 2:50:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have done a lot as a government, and of course we have to do more. We are using sanctions to put pressure on the Russian regime and hold it accountable, and 1,400 entities and individuals have been sanctioned up to now. We are now proposing new measures to go even further, not only to seize but to allow for the forfeiture of the assets of sanctioned individuals and entities. These measures will allow us to compensate victims and support the reconstruction of Ukraine. These changes make Canada a leader in the G7.
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- Apr/28/22 2:50:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, how much public money is enough for oil and gas companies already making mad profits? That is the question on the minds of Canadians reading about the CEO of Cenovus complaining that they need even more public money for carbon capture and storage. Never mind Canadians getting gouged at the pump while companies like Cenovus have profits sevenfold higher than this time last year. Never mind the billions that Liberals already gifted to them for unproven climate measures in the budget. They want more, but Canadians are not buying it.
When are the Liberals going to stop greenwashing corporate handouts and get serious about actually reducing emissions?
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- Apr/28/22 2:51:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have good news for the member opposite. Emissions are going down in Canada. The government's own emissions are going down by 25%. We have already reached a target we had set for ourselves for 2025. Fossil fuel subsidies are also going down, by more than $3 billion a year since 2018.
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- Apr/28/22 2:52:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, lack of affordable rental housing is a major concern for my constituents in Vancouver Centre. In February, I joined the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion to announce federal funding to redevelop 157 units of permanent affordable housing for seniors and persons with physical disabilities.
Could the minister tell us about the impact the national housing co-investment fund has on these vulnerable communities?
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- Apr/28/22 2:52:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for her strong advocacy on affordable housing.
I was really pleased to join the member in February to announce 157 new homes for seniors and persons with disabilities, with an investment of over $44 million. This is the national housing strategy at work, but we are not stopping there. Through budget 2022, we are investing an additional $14.1 billion. We are not going to stop until we make sure that every single Canadian has a safe and affordable place to call home.
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- Apr/28/22 2:53:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, millennials with good jobs just want out of their parents' basements, but the cost of living under the Liberal government is going through the roof. The budget's signature housing promise is a shiny new savings account, but who has $8,000 a year to save, with out-of-control gas, grocery and housing inflation?
Could the Minister of Housing please enlighten us: Where will these millennials find $8,000 a year to save, or does he believe that young families can always do what the speNDP-Liberals do, which is just go borrow more money?
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- Apr/28/22 2:53:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola should have a talk with the member of Parliament for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, because that member believes that we should just download the cost of housing to provinces; his leader believes we should just download the cost to municipalities, and his other colleague, from Calgary Centre, believes that we should not help first-time homebuyers. The members opposite cannot even come together to formulate a coherent policy on affordable housing. The hon. member has been on record opposing the ban on foreign buyers, which would give more opportunities to first-time homebuyers.
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