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May/19/22 5:06:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have to say that the issue this motion relates to is to address a lack of planning on the part of the government from the standpoint of it providing sufficient resources at the airport and, most especially, to address restrictions that are increasing processing times by up to four times what they otherwise would be. That is the root of the problem. That is precisely what we are asking the government to fix.

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Mr. Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West, CPC)

May/19/22 5:07:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from St. Albert—Edmonton for splitting his time with me, and, more importantly, the member for Thornhill for bringing this very important issue to the House. Essentially, the debate is about calling on the government “to immediately revert to pre-pandemic rules and service levels”, but I say that we should call for the government to get its act together. Seriously, it is time for the government to get its act together and stop making excuses about its failures. We repeatedly hear many excuses from the government, such as it cannot open offices and it cannot allow public servants to return in person because there is a sixth wave coming in the fall. It is spring now, yet the government is saying it has to wait because there is a sixth wave coming in the fall. We hear the government say it cannot do this because there are still people in the hospital with COVID. The government makes the excuse that there are still people to be vaccinated. Canada has, to its credit, one of the highest vaccination rates in the OECD. It is time for the government to recognize what the provinces have recognized and what many of our allies have recognized, which is that it is time to move forward—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:08:39 p.m.
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I am sorry to interrupt the hon. member, but the hon. member for Manicouagan is rising on a point of order.

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Mrs. Marilène Gill

May/19/22 5:08:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to know if there is a quorum.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:08:46 p.m.
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We will look into this. And the count having been taken: The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes): There is a quorum. The hon. member for Edmonton West.

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Mr. Kelly McCauley

May/19/22 5:09:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I was saying, it is time for the government to recognize that we are going to have to learn to live with COVID. Before getting to the heart of today's debate, and I may not get all my time because we are seeing some interference with that, I want to talk about an issue that happened in my riding of Edmonton West. My office is about a two-minute walk to one of the local Service Canada offices. Two months ago, and I brought this up in the House then, there was an issue when I went into the office to visit BDC. It shares the office with Service Canada. As I left, I noticed there was a lineup wrapping around the building. Two months ago, in Edmonton, as we can imagine, it is wintertime still, and the lineup wrapped around the building. I chatted with some of the people waiting in line. There was a gentleman who was 85 years old. There was a handicapped lady, an elderly handicapped lady, forced to wait outside. I asked her how long she had been waiting out there. She said, ”Well, several hours. They will not let us in.” I went into the building and, of course, security was blocking me, but eventually they let me in. I asked, “What is going on here?” They were told, under government orders, that they were only allowed four people in at a time. They had four security guards to ensure that only four Canadians at a time could access Service Canada, to access the services that Canadians are entitled to and pay for. I looked inside. One wicket was open to serve one person and three people sitting in the chairs in a very large office. At the same time, provincial mandates had been lifted. At that time, across every province, except for Quebec, which was still halfway through, they had been lifted. We had hockey games with 17,000 people allowed in. We, at the same time, saw parties and receptions in Ottawa, with members of Parliament from the government and ministers attending crowded receptions, masks off, but in Canada, in Edmonton, we make an 85-year-old citizen wait for hours in line. I brought it up to the House and the response, oddly enough, was from the Minister of Health, who responded to this by thanking the members of Service Canada for their hard work during the pandemic, which is great, but it does not address the fact. This was two months ago. About a week after that, one of my staff sent me a photo. It was of a blizzard in Edmonton, which not uncommon in March. It was a blizzard, and people, again, were waiting in line at Service Canada. We have mask mandates in federal buildings. We can go into an airport masked. We can enter this building masked, but Canadians are not allowed into Service Canada, even masked or even vaccinated, because the government says it is unsafe for more than four Canadians to be inside. In a blizzard, there were close to 30 or 40 people lined up. They were waiting so long that one of the people actually ordered from DoorDash to be fed. Can members imagine that happening in this country? We will not allow people in because it is not safe indoors. It is safe enough for a hockey game. It is safe enough, funnily enough, for the Prime Minister to meet with Her Majesty The Queen without a mask, but not safe for Canadians, even masked or vaccinated, to be indoors. This is why I say that the bill should be the “get the government's act together” bill. I realize my time is very short, but I want to read a couple letters and comments from constituents about their experiences. One reads, “I arrived outside Service Canada's office. I have been waiting since 5 a.m.” People are waiting since 5 a.m., and it is like this a big surprise to the government that, after introducing the 10-year-passport 10 years ago, they would be expiring about this time. We had 10 years' notice. We knew this was happening. We knew restrictions were being lifted months and months ago, and that people would be travelling again, yet it seems to have been a surprise to the government. Can we imagine having to get up at about 4 in the morning and wait, in the dark, at 5 a.m., just to get served by the government? Another letter reads, “I had a walk-in appointment in March 8 and was told it should have been done before April 12. If nothing, call.” He called back later, but there was no reply or it hung up on him as the system was busy. Yet another letter reads, “I applied on March 1. On March 23rd, $160 was charged on my credit card. I went to Service Canada to see if they could help expedite the process because at this point I had already been waiting for two months. When I arrived, I was sent home and was told they were only serving people who are leaving within 48 hours and told me to contact Service Canada.” After he left the Service Canada building, he called them multiple times. He was finally able to get a hold of them and was told to call back a week later to request an emergency transfer to Edmonton. This is just for a simple passport. We knew this issue was going to happen. We have Canadians waiting months for a simple passport. Another person applied for a renewed passport, so not a brand new one. The person was just renewing an existing passport on April 25. The person said, “I had gone in person, waited in a long line for hours in the cold,” again, in Edmonton, “and locked outdoors because it was unsafe to be inside. At that time, they were only letting one person at a time into the building. There were four security guards to watch one person. Eventually, they came out and said, 'All of you go home. You won't be served today.' Those of us in line were literally freezing and we took turns warming up in our cars. A snowstorm had blown in and we were all kept out in the cold for hours. It was unnecessary to make us do that when there was a warm building right in front of us. When I went back in a week, I got there with another person at 5 a.m., so I could ensure that I would be seen that day. I was the third person in line.” This is the state of the service from the current government. At 5 in the morning, they were the third person in line. I beg the government to act on this issue, to please get its act together and get it done for Canadians.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:15:45 p.m.
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It being 5:15 p.m., it is my duty to interrupt the proceedings and put forthwith every question necessary to dispose of the business of supply.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:16:29 p.m.
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The question is on the motion. May I dispense? An hon. member: No, I want to hear this. [Chair read text of motion to House]

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Dispense

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:17:38 p.m.
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If a member of a recognized party present in the House wishes to request a recorded division or that the motion be adopted on division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

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Division

Mrs. Shelby Kramp-Neuman

May/19/22 5:17:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as a member of the official opposition, I request a recorded division.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:17:44 p.m.
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Pursuant to order made on Thursday, November 25, 2021, the recorded division stands deferred until Monday, May 30, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions.

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Hon. Filomena Tassi (Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Lib.)

May/19/22 5:18:05 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-13

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. An agreement could not be reached under the provisions of Standing Orders 78(1) or 78(2) with respect to the second reading stage of Bill C-13, an act to amend the Official Languages Act, to enact the use of French in federally regulated private businesses act and to make related amendments to other acts. Under the provisions of Standing Order 78(3), I give notice that a minister of the Crown will propose at the next sitting a motion to allot a specific number of days or hours for the consideration and disposal of proceedings at the said stage.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:18:44 p.m.
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The House will suspend until 5:30 p.m. to the call of the Chair.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:24:19 p.m.
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The hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

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Secretary

Mr. Mark Gerretsen

May/19/22 5:24:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to see the clock at 5:30 p.m. so that we can start Private Members' Business.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/19/22 5:24:32 p.m.
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Is it agreed? Some hon. members: Agreed. The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes): It being 5:30 p.m., the House will now proceed to the consideration of Private Members' Business as listed on today's Order Paper.

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Hon. Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC)

May/19/22 5:25:18 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-253

moved that Bill C-253, An Act to amend the Bank of Canada Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, be read the second time and referred to a committee. He said: Madam Speaker, it is truly an honour to rise today and speak to my private member's bill, Bill C-253, the Bank of Canada accountability act. Members may know that the Auditor General is empowered, under the Auditor General Act, to perform audits on government agencies and departments. However, there is a special carve-out, an exemption, in the Financial Administration Act that specifically excludes the Bank of Canada from the oversight that the Auditor General provides. We are all familiar with Auditor General's reports. It is always a big day on Parliament Hill when the Auditor General tables a report after an investigation on behalf of Canadians into various departments, agencies and programs. Of course, it was the Auditor General's report many years ago that first brought to light the excessive expenses of the long gun registry. It was thanks to her work, at the time, that Canadians got to know the billion-dollar price tag of that useless and ineffective program. We can all think to times when the Auditor General has identified massive problems with the government's handling of everything from immigration protocols to transportation, and that is what this bill is all about: Bringing the Bank of Canada into line with other departments and agencies to provide that oversight so that the Auditor General is empowered to do the same types of audits that he or she does on all other agencies and departments. Many in the Liberal establishment are opposed to this bill. The Prime Minister once said that “sunlight is the best disinfectant”, and then he ran around pulling the shades down on all the windows to keep things hidden. He is afraid of accountability and transparency now. In fact, he is so allergic to it that he has made a deal with the NDP to help cover things up at committees and in the House. It is not a surprise that Liberal parliamentarians and Liberal politicians are opposed to this bill, but Canadians are demanding this type of accountability and oversight. They are demanding it, because we are seeing unprecedented action by the Bank of Canada and unprecedented decision-making that is directly affecting the value of the money they have worked so hard to earn. Many of the arguments against this bill that I have already heard through corporate, taxpayer-subsidized and government-subsidized media and Liberal politicians are all bogus. First of all, one of the critiques is that the bank is already audited. That is true. The bank is already audited by private-sector firms in Canada, but those are not the same types of audits that the Auditor General does. The Auditor General does not simply do a balance-sheet audit. It is not like the Auditor General goes in and tallies up everything on the left side of the ledger and makes sure it balances with everything on the right side of the ledger. No one is assuming that someone is leaving the Bank of Canada with bags of cash over their shoulder. In addition to balance-sheet audits, the Auditor General does performance audits, and that really is the whole point of this bill. The Bank of Canada has made many decisions that have had a profound negative impact on Canadians. It decided, for example, to buy corporate bonds. It had a corporate bond purchasing program. Now, if we go to its website, it spells out some of the general criteria of what minimum thresholds companies would have to meet in order to have their bonds purchased by the bank. I should point out that it is a huge advantage to a company to have its bonds purchased by the central bank. A bond is basically an IOU. It is debt. It is a company saying, “We don't have the money today, but loan it to us now and we will pay you back later.” Corporations have to pay for that. They have to pay interest on those bonds. When fewer people are willing to buy the bonds, those corporations have to raise their interest rates to sweeten the deal to attract more potential buyers, and that costs the corporations more money. When the Bank of Canada comes along and says, “We'll buy some of those bonds”, that is a huge benefit to the corporation that is selling the bonds. Which bonds did the Bank of Canada buy? Why did it buy a bond from company A and not company B? Those are the types of things that we do not know. We do not know all the criteria that led to the decision-making. It could very well be that in very competitive marketplaces, say the airline industry, one airline's bonds were purchased by the bank and another's were not. It is the same thing in the telecommunications sector. Perhaps one company's bonds were bought and another's were not. Let us be clear. It is not buying these bonds with its own money. The Bank of Canada creates money. When it buys these corporate bonds, it is creating new money right out of thin air, which has an impact on the purchasing power of the money Canadians have worked so hard to earn. In fact, it dilutes that every time new money is created. In addition to the corporate bonds, it has been buying government bonds, and boy has it ever. It has been on a buying spree for almost two years. From the beginning of the pandemic, when the Prime Minister ran out of other people's money to borrow, he had to turn to the Bank of Canada, and the Bank of Canada was only too happy to oblige. The Bank of Canada, since about April of 2020, has been bankrolling the Prime Minister's deficit spending to the tune of about $400 billion. That is $400 billion of new money created right out of thin air. That is what is causing the inflation today, and that is why Canadians have a right to know what the bank was doing and what criteria it was following, and report back to Parliament and ultimately to Canadians. We have never seen this type of intervention in our monetary policy in our nation's history. Back in the great global recession of 2008, the previous Conservative government held the line on monetary policy. It was a difficult time. Many of my colleagues were in the House at that time. A lot of difficult decisions had to be made, but the previous Conservative government understood that if money starts to be printed out of thin air it makes an already difficult situation even worse. That is what we are seeing today as we are coming out of the pandemic, after two years of hardship and the emotional toll it took on Canadians individually. People had to go long periods of time without seeing their loved ones. Many small business owners were watching their entire life's work evaporate as restrictions prevented them from opening their doors and serving their customers. Coming out of that, now Canadians are being faced with punitive rates of inflation. Things that had cost $10 or $12 are now going for $18 or $20. One almost needs to get a pre-approval on a new loan to go grocery shopping these days as we see the prices escalating. Tools, lumber and all types of everyday purchases Canadians make are going up and up. The government would have us believe this is just something that happens and that it is like the weather: “We are going through an unexpected cloudy period, and inflation is up a little this quarter.” That is nonsense. Inflation does not just happen. It is a direct result of the monetary policy of the Bank of Canada working hand in hand with the government of the day. That is why this proposed act is so necessary. We need to restore the independence of the Bank of Canada. The Bank of Canada's independence has been undermined by the government's decisions to bankroll its deficit spending with all that new money creation. That is why prices are going up today. It is actually rather simple. If we have the same number of goods but dramatically increase the number of dollars going around, prices will go up. It is not rocket science. In fact, these are basic laws of economics. More dollars chasing fewer goods equals inflation. That is precisely what we are seeing today. The government will try to have us believe inflation is happening because of external factors. Do members remember when it tried to blame the war on Ukraine? It tried to blame inflation on Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Guess what? Inflation was happening long before the invasion of Ukraine. The previous summer, on the eve of the election, inflation was already ticking up to record levels. We all remember the famous quote the Prime Minister said in the middle of an election when inflation was only at about 4%. Do members remember those days, when inflation was only as bad as 4%? Our party started to challenge the Prime Minister and the Liberals on this and highlighted to Canadians it was their economic policy causing the inflation. What did the Prime Minister come back with? He said, “you'll forgive me if I don't think about monetary policy.” Well, we do not forgive him. He should think about monetary policy. I guess he does not understand it, otherwise he would know that he is to blame for all that inflation. Liberals try to say that it cannot be the Prime Minister's fault, that, yes, there is inflation in Canada, but there is inflation in other countries, too. That is true. Other countries that made the same foolish decisions to run the printing presses during a time of economic contraction are also experiencing record levels of inflation. Some countries did not do that. There are several countries around the world that preserved the value of their currency and are not experiencing the same punitive levels of inflation that Canadians are having to pay. The government's argument is a little like if someone told me I was putting on a bit of weight and I might want to look at my eating habits, and I said that obesity is a North American problem, that obesity rates in North America are the real challenge and that it cannot be anything I do because I live in a continent where it is a challenge for a lot of people. No, of course not. It is because of the decisions of each individual, just like it is the decisions of each individual country that are causing the inflation we are seeing today. At the end of the day, the dollars that we carry around with us, the ones and zeros in our bank accounts, have no intrinsic value. We cannot do much with a 20-dollar bill or a 100-dollar bill. The only reason why other people accept it as payment is that there is a level of trust. There is a level of trust that someone else will accept it as payment and give the same value that was received. When the Bank of Canada undermines that trust by creating all that money washing through our system, it devalues the value of the money that people work so hard for. It is a form of fraud. If people agree to provide labour to an employer for a given salary and then at the end of the quarter or the end of the year the money they receive for the work they have done is worth less, they have been defrauded of what they agreed to. They cannot go back and take away 6% to 10% of their labour. They cannot go back and tell the employer that the dollars they were paid with are now worth less, so they would like some of their time and energy back. They cannot do that. They have already given that to their employer, and the money they receive is now worth less than what they agreed to. That is why inflation is the worst form of tax. Of course, governments love inflation, because it makes the debt they have accumulated easier to pay off. Inflation is great for people who have the ability to borrow, and that is what we saw during the pandemic. As the Bank of Canada washed all that money through the system, the people who got the money first got to buy things before prices went up. These large financial institutions and investors who had access to that early money first were able to accumulate all the assets. By the time the rest of us get the money, through wage increases and other phenomena, the prices have already gone up and those wealthy investors get to sell at record profits. That is why there have been such big winners during the last two years. Members should look at the stock market and check what bank shares have done in the last two years. Bank shares have gone up dramatically since the start of the pandemic. When we look at the Bank of Canada's balance sheet and the money supply charts, factoring in all the money in Canada, everything from the ones and zeros in our bank accounts and the digital money that we all have in our chequing and savings accounts to the cash and all the various credit products that exist out there, the rate of increase in the money supply tracks almost identically with the balance sheet at the Bank of Canada. That is what this bill is all about. It is about providing the first steps toward accountability and transparency so that Canadians can have their confidence in the Bank of Canada restored. The independence of the Bank of Canada has been undermined by the political decisions of the Prime Minister. If we want to get our finances under control, if we want to get the value of the money that we have worked so hard to earn stable, we need this first step toward accountability so we can understand what the decision-making process was and what the costs were to Canadians. I have one final point. We are going to hear arguments from the opposite benches about why this bill will undermine the Bank of Canada's independence. In fact, it is quite the contrary. The Bank of England is subject to parliamentary oversight through its equivalent of the Auditor General. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has the same types of audit provisions that I am proposing today. The European Central Bank has similar types of provisions, with its version of the Auditor General. In fact, Canada is a bit of an outlier in the fact that it is allowing its central bank, which has such enormous power over our economy, to be excluded from this oversight. This bill is long overdue and I hope all members of the House will support it.

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Mr. Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis, Lib.)

May/19/22 5:40:30 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-253

Madam Speaker, in a few minutes it will be my second opportunity to debate against a bill introduced by the hon. member, which is based on what I consider to be facile assumptions, but it is a pleasure to debate the member. We were elected in the same year, 2004, and it is nice to see him up, partaking in debates in the House. There has been a flurry of attempts recently to impugn the Bank of Canada, and this bill feeds into that trend. It is not only the so-called Liberal establishment that objects to these attacks on the bank's independence. As a matter of fact, the member for Abbotsford objects to those kinds of attacks as well. I am wondering if the hon. member can tell us whether his entire caucus will be supporting his bill, given the comments of the member for Abbotsford.

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Hon. Andrew Scheer

May/19/22 5:41:32 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-253

Madam Speaker, I expect every member of my party to support it, because our party is in favour of accountability and transparency. The member has it all backwards. It is his party that has undermined the independence of the Bank of Canada. When Liberals turn to the bank and ask it to act as the personal ATM of the Prime Minister of the day to bankroll his spending decisions, that is what undermines the Bank of Canada. What I am proposing in this bill is simple, non-partisan oversight by the Auditor General, who provides that same function for all kinds of independent, non-partisan departments and agencies. I do not know why the member does not welcome this bill. Canadians want to see what is going at the bank. That member should support it.

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Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

May/19/22 5:42:18 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-253

Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague the question once again, but I will make it a little clearer. When the top candidate in the Conservative Party leadership race stated that he would fire the current Governor of the Bank of Canada if he becomes prime minister, the member for Abbotsford criticized him and stated that such a statement tarnished the credibility of the party on economic issues. Does my colleague agree with what the member for Abbotsford said?

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