44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 6, 2022 10:00AM
- May/6/22 11:11:34 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, yesterday, Canada and Quebec lost a great journalist, renowned editorial writer and accomplished author who was passionate about politics, the arts and literature.
Mario Roy died in Montreal after a fruitful career in journalism. He joined La Presse in 1981, covering legal affairs and the National Assembly of Quebec, before becoming head of the newspaper's arts and culture section. He became an editorial writer in 1999 and held that role for 15 years until his retirement. He also published several books, including a biography of Gerry Boulet, a novel, a work of non-fiction and a book about a legal case.
Mario Roy shared and defended many values that were more conservative. Even though I did not always fully agree with his opinions and comments, day after day, his editorials contributed an important opinion to the political debate. His sharp pen and opinions made an impression on those with a keen interest in politics in Canada.
On behalf of my colleagues in the House of Commons, I offer my deepest condolences to his partner of 20 years, Joane Prince, and his two children, Juliette and Thomas.
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- May/6/22 11:12:44 a.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Madam Speaker, every day, four Canadians are killed at the hands of an impaired driver, yet the Liberal government wants to go soft on impaired drivers with its soft-on-crime Bill C-5. The bill would allow criminals convicted of impaired driving causing death to serve their sentence from home.
At the justice committee, the director of victim services of MADD Canada characterized Bill C-5 as hurtful and harmful to victims of impaired driving. The same is true for victims of sexual assault, kidnapping and human trafficking, given Bill C-5's reckless expansion of house arrest for these and other serious offences.
While the Liberals stand up for criminals, Conservatives will continue to stand up for victims by fighting Bill C-5.
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- May/6/22 11:14:05 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, this week the war in Ukraine marked its 70th day. We stand with the Ukrainian people.
I want to take this opportunity to highlight the generosity, compassion and empathy Canadians have shown towards families fleeing the atrocities of this war. I want to highlight the engagement of the Châteauguay—Lacolle community. At the outset of the war, organizations and individuals in the greater Châteauguay area came together to form a Ukraine welcoming committee.
Led by the wonderful Nicoleta Caraulan and 20 or so helpers, our volunteers are already preparing to welcome even more Ukrainian families to our area.
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- May/6/22 11:14:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am proud to rise today in the House to tell members about an incredible living history museum in my riding, Fanshawe Pioneer Village, and its project to preserve and restore London's Fugitive Slave Chapel. The slave chapel, built in 1848, served as a place of gathering and worship for London's Black community until 1868, and was one of the terminus points on the Underground Railroad.
The chapel was gifted to Fanshawe Pioneer Village to ensure it is protected and promoted properly. It is not only important to London's Black history but also to Canadian history. The preservation of this influential building at Fanshawe Pioneer Village will ensure that it is showcased, respected and honoured now. It offers a unique educational experience to future generations.
The village has received much community support from local groups but needs federal government support. As it stands, the building is at risk of further deterioration. If we do not act now, a key piece of London's history could be lost.
I have written to the Minister of Heritage requesting funding, and I now call upon this government to support this historic community treasure.
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Madam Speaker, Camille Laurin, father of the Charter of the French Language, would have turned 100 today. To mark the occasion, every minister responsible for the French language over three decades paid tribute to him in an open letter. They reiterated the importance of constantly taking action to enhance and promote our national language.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I am taking this opportunity to reach out to them for help. The federal government has declared war on the Charter of the French Language with its Bill C-13 to reform the Official Languages Act.
Ottawa is legally overriding Quebec to prevent any Quebec language law from applying to federally regulated companies and to make the application of the Charter of the French Language optional. It is allowing companies to choose between the charter and Canadian bilingualism, or the Air Canada model, the model of least effort, of disrespect. One hundred years after the birth of Camille Laurin, our fight for the future of French continues, and one of the crucial battles is playing out right now, here in Ottawa.
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Madam Speaker, without the liberty to speak freely, we cannot profess to be truly free. It is through the use of speech that most of us share our thoughts, our ideas and our beliefs. This propels us forward and facilitates innovation. It is incredible. It also provides us with the means to criticize, to challenge and to correct when we believe someone to be in error. This includes the government of the day, no matter the party at the helm. If we believe progressing as a society is important, then we must contend for free speech. After all, it is the very foundation of democracy.
That is why it is beyond alarming to me that the government is moving forward with legislation that would censor free speech: Bill C-11, Bill C-18 and the upcoming online harms bill. These bills are a concerted effort to take autonomy away from individuals and put more power and more control in the hands of government.
I urge the House, therefore, and all Canadians, to stand on guard and do all they can to contend for and protect free speech, for it is the very foundation upon which all other freedoms in this country are formed.
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- May/6/22 11:18:18 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, this coming week, Canadians will be celebrating and thanking our nurses for all the hard work, dedication and care they provide to our communities. From assisting with life-threatening crises to delivering beautiful babies and caring for the elderly, nurses perform many of the most strenuous and difficult tasks in medicine and health care.
As professionals who perform essential points of health care services, nurses serve as the first point of contact for many Canadians. Throughout this pandemic, we have seen countless nurses step up and take on a new role and additional responsibilities to ensure that Canadians have access to stable health care, hospitals and treatments. Our government pushed for anti-harassment legislation to protect our health care workers in Bill C-3 so they could go to work and did not have to worry about violence in the workplace.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to nurses for their invaluable work in our communities, so I thank all nurses.
Madam Speaker, happy Mother's Day, and of course I give a special shout-out to my mother Linda, my wife Lisa and my mothers-in-law Carol and Claudette.
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- May/6/22 11:19:32 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, gas is 194.9¢ per litre in Barrie today. Enbridge Line 5 provides more than 50% of the fuel to eastern Canada. An application was filed in the U.S. federal court to shut down this pipeline, and so far the Liberals have done nothing to oppose this U.S. court action. If Line 5 is shut down, there will surely be gas shortages and spikes in the price of gas that will cause an already unaffordable situation for families and businesses to get much worse.
Are the Liberals going to fight this or are they just going to roll over on Line 5 like they did with Keystone XL?
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- May/6/22 11:20:13 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the continued operation of Line 5 is non-negotiable. We will take appropriate steps to ensure the continued safe operation of this critical infrastructure, and we will continue to work closely with the owner of Line 5.
Canada and the United States continue to be engaged in a process under the 1977 transit pipelines agreement to ensure the continued operation of Line 5, and until this issue is resolved, I will continue to raise it with my U.S. counterparts, as I have been doing on an ongoing basis.
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- May/6/22 11:20:43 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the passport situation in this country is so bad that people are actually camping out overnight outside of Canadian government passport offices just to receive service. It is a complete failure on the part of the Liberals, not our public service, to plan for a surge of renewals that everyone knew was coming.
Canadians are angry and they are anxious, having to cancel long-anticipated trips to see loved ones or vacations because of the government's failure to deliver the most basic of services. There are no excuses.
When can Canadians expect a return to normal processing times?
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- May/6/22 11:21:25 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Canadians are travelling again, and there has been an unprecedented volume increase in the demand for passports for those who wish to travel. It has resulted in long lineups and wait times for in-person service. We do understand that this situation is difficult and stressful for many.
The minister has been travelling across the country visiting Service Canada locations to hear directly from frontline staff who have been working days, nights and weekends to alleviate the long lines and the wait times. We have hired 500 new employees, and the minister and the department will continue to turn every rock to find solutions to serve Canadians with the service they are entitled to.
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- May/6/22 11:22:01 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, let us be honest. This whole mess and the inability to provide even the most basic government service like a passport renewal are entirely on the minister and the Liberals, not the public service. Everyone knew people would want to travel coming out of COVID. Everyone knew that the 10-year passports were expiring. Everyone knew, it seems, except the government, and here we are with long lineups around government buildings and phones not being answered.
Maybe it is time to get people back to their workplaces and rehire those who have been fired because of vaccine mandates to fix this. Would the minister not agree with me on that?
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- May/6/22 11:22:43 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we have been preparing for this for some time. As early as December, we hired 500 new employees to process passports. We opened three new processing centres around the country, and over the weekends we opened as many locations as possible to serve Canadians. In addition to that, over 300 Service Canada centres are processing passport applications for Canadians.
We continue to do more to alleviate this unprecedented level of demand for service.
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- May/6/22 11:23:16 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, now that the pandemic is coming to an end, people are starting to travel again, which is good news. They need to renew their passports, but unfortunately, the wait times are atrocious.
People need an appointment to visit some Service Canada locations, but first they have to wait on the phone for hours just to get an appointment. That is completely unacceptable.
The problem is that the government has still not authorized Service Canada employees to fully return to work. What is the government waiting for?
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- May/6/22 11:23:56 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we continue to work to open as many client counters as possible and passport offices. As I mentioned before, we have hired 500 new employees, and we continue to work with workload management and processing technology to increase efficiency in our processing call centres and our offices. We have extended hours both on weekdays and weekends, and we continue to provide as much service as physically possible to Canadians for the service they are entitled to.
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- May/6/22 11:24:29 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the problems people are running into right now could have easily been foreseen. Telework works up to a certain point, but in the case of passport offices, employees need to be physically on site to provide proper service.
We have all come back to work in person here on Parliament Hill.
Why then are Service Canada employees not back at work on site?
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- May/6/22 11:25:01 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, as mentioned before, we have expanded the passport intake services at over 300 Service Canada offices across the country. We hired and trained over 500 staff already last December. We opened three new processing centres across the country and simplified the services. Canadians, Service Canada and our public service have been working night and day, and we need to thank them for all the work they have done throughout the pandemic.
We continue to work with public servants to make sure that Canadians are getting the service they are entitled to.
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- May/6/22 11:25:41 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, a month after he announced that he would charter planes for people displaced by the war in Ukraine, the Minister of Transport has admitted that he has yet to send a single plane.
There is already an agreement with airlines, though. The planes are ready, but his government has hit the brakes, claiming that it is complicated because the refugees are moving around.
Women have already found a way to leave their country and flee the Russian army with their children. Does anyone seriously think that they will not be capable of figuring out how to make their flight?
When will the government arrange an airlift?
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- May/6/22 11:26:21 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, more than 24,000 Ukrainians have come to Canada since the beginning of January.
As the Prime Minister announced, we will charter planes to bring more Ukrainians to Canada.
I also want to acknowledge Canadians and Quebeckers for being so generous and for coming together to welcome Ukrainians at this historic moment for Canada.
Again, I thank the member for her question.
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- May/6/22 11:26:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I can assure the minister that the planes that are grounded here at our airports do not have a single damn Ukrainian family on them. That is guaranteed.
In the Laurentians alone, there are 60 families who offered to open their homes to refugees and there are already 260 volunteers ready to help. They have been ready for weeks. All that is missing are the refugees. Why?
Line Chaloux, director of the organization Le Coffret, said that they do not have money to purchase plane tickets. If there were chartered flights, they would be here.
Everyone is waiting on Ottawa. When will the government charter flights?
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