44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 3, 2023 10:00AM
- Feb/3/23 11:32:16 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, as the hon. member heard, Dominic Barton has been gone from McKinsey for years and is no longer a shareholder at McKinsey, so Dominic Barton's name should not be part of that.
Public Services and Procurement Canada is responsible for $104 million of contracts with McKinsey since 2015. There are other smaller contracts that have been given by other departments.
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- Feb/3/23 11:32:41 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the government is very unsure and we get new numbers often. I expect that we will get a new higher number on Monday. However, we will be unsure if we can take the government at its word, because it continues to shovel money out the door to its insider friends at McKinsey. Public servants said that they have been treated to some colourful presentations, but not much else. After eight years of the Liberals, they are more than happy to keep shovelling that money, with no value to Canadians.
The question still stands, and we did not get the final and full answer: Can the parliamentary secretary tell us how much money they gave their insider friends at McKinsey?
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- Feb/3/23 11:33:22 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the answer to that question is generally zero because there are no insider friends who got any money.
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- Feb/3/23 11:33:32 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the question is this: Who is lying? The Prime Minister said that Dominic Barton was his friend. Dominic Barton said that he is not the Prime Minister's friend, and I do not blame him. I would not admit that was a friendship either.
McKinsey is a company that helped track down and punish Saudi dissidents, people who were critical of their government there. McKinsey is a company that helped supercharge the opioid crisis and that paid bonuses to pharmacists who were responsible for overdose deaths.
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- Feb/3/23 11:34:05 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am proud to be a friend of that hon. member because we can, across party lines, still agree on a lot of things, and I think that is important here. A lot of times we yell and scream at each other, and it is important to say that people are able to work together despite their differences.
With respect to the global question of that, we do need to look at our integrity regime to see if companies responsible for bad acts abroad should not be eligible for government contracts. That is one of the things that OGGO is looking at, and I look forward to working with the hon. member on that question.
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- Feb/3/23 11:34:36 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, my thoughts this morning are with the 300 workers at Medicago who find themselves unemployed today because the Quebec City-based pharmaceutical company is closing its doors.
Two years ago, the Liberal government invested $173 million of taxpayers' money in this company to develop a vaccine. The vaccine was produced, but it was not recognized by the WHO, and it never will be because cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris was one of Medicago's shareholders. The WHO never recognizes the work of cigarette manufacturers in this area.
How could the government be so negligent?
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- Feb/3/23 11:35:21 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his question.
We are currently working to save the jobs, the technology and the intellectual property. That is the priority today. We are in problem-solving mode.
Yesterday, I was in contact with the mayor of Quebec City and our colleagues in Quebec City. I was even in contact with the president of Mitsubishi in Japan. One thing is certain: We are in problem-solving mode to preserve the jobs, because the priority today is the people in Quebec City for whom this issue is top of mind. We want to work with them, and we will be in problem-solving mode for the next few weeks.
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- Feb/3/23 11:35:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, if the government had been in “double-checking mode”, it would not have to be in problem-solving mode today.
In 2003, the WHO determined that companies partly owned by tobacco makers should not receive subsidies or recognition. This is exactly the situation Medicago is in. This agreement dates back to 2003 and was signed by the Government of Canada.
On December 23, the Minister of Health told the newspaper Le Soleil that he was surprised by the WHO's decision. That makes no sense, because the agreement dates back to 2003. There was no way this was going to be approved.
Medicago was awarded $173 million. How much of that money went into the pockets of the Philip Morris company? Can we have any assurance that this money—
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- Feb/3/23 11:36:40 a.m.
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The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.
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- Feb/3/23 11:36:43 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague, for whom I have enormous respect, as he knows, that we were in “prevention mode” at the time. It is important to remember that, at the time, there was not enough scientific data to know what kind of vaccine was needed to fight COVID-19.
Canada was one of the few countries in the world to invest in the various families of vaccines to ensure the health and safety of Canadians. As I said this morning, this is not the time for recrimination; it is the time for problem solving. That is exactly what we are doing.
Last night I talked to CEOs from across the country until almost midnight to try to find a solution and save the jobs, technology and intellectual property.
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- Feb/3/23 11:37:25 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, employment insurance delays are longer than ever. Currently, one-quarter of EI applications take extra time to process, and more than half of those take over 50 days. That means people with no income are waiting 50 days.
Officials even advised people without jobs to use food banks or get their partner to support them. The kicker is that, while all this is going on, the minister has been cutting her employees' hours of work.
When will she do something about this fiasco?
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- Feb/3/23 11:38:02 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.
When Canadians lose their jobs and when Quebeckers lose their jobs, we know that they rely on the EI system to be that first point of contact for them. We know that some people have been experiencing delays during this time. We have been working very carefully with those claimants to ensure that they get their payments.
With regard to the staffing issues, the minister said quite clearly yesterday that we are addressing this. We want to make sure that first point of contact for Quebeckers or for any Canadian calling an EI call centre is that they get the service they need. We have committed to working with Service Canada to ensure that full employment is in place.
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- Feb/3/23 11:38:41 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, what people are going through with EI right now is a fiasco. It is just like the passport crisis, only this time, the federal government's victims are not waiting to travel, they are waiting to buy groceries. Service Canada is more like “no-service Canada”.
This government is just lurching from one crisis to the next. It is over here putting out one fire while two more are breaking out over there.
When will the minister make sure Service Canada can actually provide services to people?
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- Feb/3/23 11:39:20 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the EI program is currently coming out of its annual winter peak period, and the department fully mobilized its workforce to get clients paid as quickly as possible. In 2022-23, the average wait time was 24 days for Canadians across the country, and 76% of EI payments were made within 28 days, which was within the standard.
We know people are waiting. We know it is a sensitive issue, which is why we are ensuring that claimants who are experiencing delays are getting the service they need.
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- Feb/3/23 11:39:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the current Prime Minister, the bail system is broken. The Liberals implemented soft-on-crime catch-and-release bail policies that put violent and repeat offenders out on the streets and endanger public safety. Everyone but the Liberals seems to recognize what a disaster this has been. All 13 premiers, police associations and victims are calling on the Liberals to fix their broken bail system.
Why will they not?
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- Feb/3/23 11:40:31 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Canadians deserve to be safe and to feel safe. We all have a role to play in protecting communities.
The laws on bail are very clear. If the accused poses a serious risk to public safety, they should be denied bail. At our direction, federal officials have been working for months with their provincial and territorial counterparts to develop ways to keep Canadians safe. We need lasting solutions that are tough when they need to be tough, but also that address underlying issues like mental health, addiction and homelessness.
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- Feb/3/23 11:41:11 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Prime Minister, the Liberals' catch-and-release bail policies have cost lives, including a young OPP constable who was murdered last December in the line of duty by a violent career criminal who was out on bail. Notwithstanding that he was facing serious charges such as assaulting a police officer, now a police officer is dead.
How many more lives need to be lost before the Liberals finally wake up and fix their broken bail system?
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- Feb/3/23 11:41:43 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, our hearts go out to those impacted by violence, and especially gun violence. As far as bail is concerned, there is no right to bail if someone poses a serious risk to public safety. There is, in fact, a reverse onus for bail imposed on the accused charged with certain firearms offences, including offences involving a firearm that are committed while subject to a weapons prohibition order. We will continue to work with the provinces and territories to ensure that bail is accessible, but at the same time it is limited to those who do not pose a risk to public safety.
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- Feb/3/23 11:42:25 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, eight years ago, Constable David Wynn of the St. Albert RCMP was gunned down by a violent repeat offender who was mistakenly released on bail. The system failed. However, after eight years of the Prime Minister, a tragic mistake has become a matter of government policy of deliberately releasing violent repeat offenders on bail who kill innocent police officers and victims.
When will the Prime Minister acknowledge his failure and fix his broken justice system?
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- Feb/3/23 11:42:55 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, let me be very clear on bail. The laws on bail are limited to those who do not pose a risk to public safety to be released on bail. If we look at the criminal justice system as a whole, we have a shared responsibility with the provincial and territorial governments. With respect to the federal government, we are responsible for the Criminal Code. The federal government is working with the provinces and territories to ensure that the administration of justice is strengthened. We will work with them in order to get to the right place on bail.
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