SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 158

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 10, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 158 - Feb/10/23
Hon. Pascale St-Onge (Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, Lib.)
  • Feb/10/23 11:25:13 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, our government is taking a responsible attitude and helping the people who need it the most. For example, we created the Canada dental benefit for children under 12. We introduced a $500 top-up to the Canada—
40 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)
  • Feb/10/23 11:25:29 a.m.
  • Watch
I have to interrupt the hon. minister for a moment. The hon. member will please allow the minister to answer the question. The hon. minister.
25 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Hon. Pascale St-Onge
  • Feb/10/23 11:25:40 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, I was saying that our government is taking a responsible attitude by helping those who are most in need at this difficult time. What we do not understand is why, every time we want to do something to help Canadians, the Conservatives oppose it, just as they did when we cut taxes for the middle class twice.
59 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Mrs. Claude DeBellefeuille (Salaberry—Suroît, BQ)
  • Feb/10/23 11:26:04 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, we knew that New York was paying for bus tickets to Plattsburgh for asylum seekers making their way to Roxham Road. Today, however, CBC/Radio-Canada revealed that, once they get there, U.S. border patrol agents are personally bringing those asylum seekers to Roxham Road. Some U.S. border patrol agents have even turned this into a black market enterprise. The Americans are thumbing their noses at the federal government. Their own government employees are smuggling people through Roxham Road. When will the government put an end to this bad joke and suspend the safe third country agreement?
101 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Hon. Sean Fraser (Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Lib.)
  • Feb/10/23 11:26:42 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, the decision to suspend the agreement with the United States will only shift the problem elsewhere. There is no magic solution. It is essential to continue our work with our American partners to modernize our agreements with them. At the same time, we must continue to co-operate with our counterparts in the province of Quebec to support their efforts. This is an important issue. It is being treated extremely seriously. We are going to be there for our provincial partners and work with our international partners to find a lasting solution.
94 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Mrs. Claude DeBellefeuille (Salaberry—Suroît, BQ)
  • Feb/10/23 11:27:13 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, Canada must respect its obligations to asylum seekers, but it does not have to do the Americans' job for them. When talking about traffickers at Roxham Road, who would have ever believed we would be referring to U.S. customs officers. It is illegal to exploit asylum seekers. It is illegal to help people make an irregular border crossing. Can the Minister of Public Safety pick up the phone, call his American counterpart and demand that he manage his own employees who are committing crimes at Roxham Road?
90 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Hon. Sean Fraser (Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Lib.)
  • Feb/10/23 11:27:52 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. It is vital that we continue to work with our partners. My department's representatives have had many discussions with our American counterparts about modernizing the agreement with the U.S. and finding a permanent solution. At the same time, we must continue to work with the Province of Quebec. It is important that we meet our obligations to support asylum seekers and also fulfill our domestic and international obligations.
79 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)
  • Feb/10/23 11:28:24 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, Afghan women and girls cannot go to school. They cannot see a doctor. They are prisoners in their own country. For 18 months, these women and girls should have been getting help from Canadian organizations. Instead, Canada's so-called “feminist government” continues to fail Afghans by delaying a humanitarian carve-out. How much longer will the Minister of Public Safety make women and girls in Afghanistan wait? How many more women and girls in Afghanistan will die before he acts?
85 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Hon. Greg Fergus (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the President of the Treasury Board, Lib.)
  • Feb/10/23 11:29:04 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, the situation in Afghanistan, in particular for Afghan women and girls, is terrible. We condemn the Taliban's treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan and the treatment of women's liberty there. Access to education, as we all know, is a fundamental human right, and one that should be respected. The Taliban will be judged by its actions in this regard.
64 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Ms. Bonita Zarrillo (Port Moody—Coquitlam, NDP)
  • Feb/10/23 11:29:36 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, nurses and health care workers are run off their feet, exhausted and burning out. They are mainly women, disproportionately racialized women, yet they have never been paid fairly. This discrimination is wrong and the Liberals let it worsen over the last seven years. Our nurses and health care workers are underpaid and undervalued. They deserve better wages, better working conditions and respect. Why does the Liberals' health care offer to provinces not include real funding for raises to finally give care economy workers the respect they deserve?
89 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos (Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • Feb/10/23 11:30:12 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, our colleague is exactly right. For workers to care for people and patients, we need to care for them. It has been very hard during COVID-19 until now. All the pressure, mental health challenges and the physical damage that COVID has had on workers has left a large number of them sick or tired. We need to care for them if we want them to keep caring for us.
72 words
All Topics
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Hon. Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC)
  • Feb/10/23 11:30:44 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, eight years of Liberal deficits, waste and corruption have driven inflation to record highs, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the grocery aisle. The Prime Minister likes to try to blame everyone else, but even the Liberals are now admitting that inflation is caused by domestic factors. One of those factors is the carbon tax. It makes everything farmers use to grow their crops more expensive, and those costs get passed onto consumers. The government is now going to triple that carbon tax. Why should Canadians believe anything the Liberals say about addressing the cost of living crisis, when they are deliberately making Canadians pay more for food?
112 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Mr. Arif Virani (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Lib.)
  • Feb/10/23 11:31:24 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, let us talk about the rising cost of food. Let us talk about what families are facing. Let us talk about families like mine. When I am at the grocery store with my son Nitin and he wants a particular cereal or particular dessert, I talk to him about the rising cost of groceries. I also explain to him what we are doing to help Canadians, and I tell him that we are targeting our— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
83 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)
  • Feb/10/23 11:31:45 a.m.
  • Watch
If an hon. member asks a question, please give the other hon. member answering it the courtesy of keeping silent. The hon. parliamentary secretary.
24 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Mr. Arif Virani
  • Feb/10/23 11:31:57 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, when I speak to my son, I explain what we are doing, in a targeted way, to help Canadians who are struggling with the cost of those groceries, those expensive items, as we walk down the aisle in grocery stores. I tell him we are using targeted benefits, such as dental care benefits and affordability benefits—
59 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)
  • Feb/10/23 11:32:14 a.m.
  • Watch
The hon. member for Regina—Qu'Appelle.
8 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Hon. Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC)
  • Feb/10/23 11:32:17 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, the worst part about the Liberals' carbon tax is that they try to dress it up as an environment plan, but it is not working. They have not hit a single target. The Liberal plan was to drive up the cost of everything and hope that greenhouse gas emissions fell as a result. I can report to the minister that the first part of that plan, making everything more expensive, they nailed that, but the second part, not so much. Canada's Food Price Report is now saying that food prices are going to go up again in 2023 as a typical farm can see its taxes, with the tripling of the carbon tax, hit $150,000 a year. Again, all of that get passed on to consumers. Why is the government making Canadians—
137 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)
  • Feb/10/23 11:32:55 a.m.
  • Watch
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
4 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Mr. Arif Virani (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Lib.)
  • Feb/10/23 11:32:57 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, that is another important question, but there is also an important response. The response is that, when we are trying to target an issue as pressing as national and international climate change, we need to take direct action. That is the kind of answer my children demand from me at the dinner table each and every night. They ask what I am doing to deal with the changing pollution and the changing temperatures. I say to them that we are putting in place a price on pollution that affects people's behaviour and that helps us make better decisions for our families and for our country. Those are the kinds of answers Canadians deserve.
116 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Mr. Kyle Seeback (Dufferin—Caledon, CPC)
  • Feb/10/23 11:33:33 a.m.
  • Watch
Madam Speaker, I can say that whatever the Liberals are targeting, it is not working. Why do they not try targeting this, the 415% increase in seniors using the Orangeville Food Bank since 2017. That is what we get with eight years of the government. There are also the 45% of Canadians who are within $200 of not being able to make ends meet. Why do they not target them? Instead, they are going to triple the carbon tax and make everything even worse. When will the government stop hurting families and do something to help them by allowing them to keep the heat on and cut that darn carbon tax?
111 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border