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House Hansard - 106

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 3, 2022 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 106 - Oct/3/22
Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)
  • Oct/3/22 4:14:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I share the aspirations of the parliamentary secretary for unity in support of Ukraine. Of course, in pursuit of that end, the official opposition will continue to challenge the government in areas where it is falling short with respect to providing the necessary supports for Ukraine. It is not just the official opposition that has raised these concerns; other long-time allies of the government have been similarly critical of it in the last few months for not doing enough. For example, Boris Wrzesnewskyj, who served in this House as a Liberal MP and served in caucus with the parliamentary secretary up until 2019, said of the decision to grant a waiver of sanctions that it was “a Canadian betrayal of Ukraine and of Canadian values” when the decision was made to lift sanctions on the Siemens turbines. It is not just the official opposition; there are many other voices saying the government is falling behind and making big mistakes with respect to not being consistently principled when it comes to holding the line on our sanctions regime. Would the parliamentary secretary recognize, now that gas is still not flowing through the Gazprom pipelines because the turbines have not been used, that granting the sanctions waiver was a mistake? The government said it was a revokable permit. Is the government prepared to recognize this mistake now and revoke the permit?
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Context: House Hansard - 106 - Oct/3/22
Hon. Robert Oliphant
  • Oct/3/22 4:15:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is the second speech from the member, and I am very pleased to be able to respond to it. Canada made the very difficult decision to make a waiver on returning the first of a few turbines that needed to go to keep energy flowing to Europe. We are an internationalist, multilateral government, and we listen to our allies. We make difficult decisions to ensure that we are at one, in unity with our allies, and we will continue to do that. I have huge respect for Mr. Wrzesnewskyj, who was a member of this place. However, at the same time, I would say that Canada made an important, difficult decision, and we will continue to review it every day as we look at the best ways to support Ukraine and also keep the unity of our alliance together.
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