SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 163 - Feb/17/23

Mr. Rick Perkins (South Shore—St. Margarets, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:09:16 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while we were all enjoying Boxing Day, the frigid North Atlantic Ocean claimed the life of a 27-year-old lobster fisherman from Nova Scotia. Christian Atwood was lobstering off Cape Sable Island, setting the last trawl of traps, when he was pulled overboard. He has not been found. Christian leaves behind his beautiful 16-month-old son, Colson; his loving partner, Kristen; his siblings; and his parents, Carmella and Ralph. Everyone who knew Christian remembers him as a fun-loving, cheerful guy and a great father. He was the light that shone in every room when he entered. His father, Ralph, told me that he did not want his kids to go fishing because of the danger, but the draw of the ocean gets in one's blood, and fishing was in Christian's soul. The vast unmarked grave of the ocean is no consolation for those family members who have had people lost at sea. Christian's family is asking us in this place to do better to make our fishermen safer at sea and bring them home. May Christian rest in peace.

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Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)

Feb/17/23 11:10:42 a.m.
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Re: Bill C-23

Mr. Speaker, next week, February 20 to 26, is Heritage Week across Canada. In my home province of British Columbia, the Heritage Week theme is “Always in All Ways”; citizens are invited to explore and celebrate the culture and heritage of the communities that make up the places we each call home. Heritage Week is a time for all Canadians to reflect on how we can keep our heritage alive. MPs can play a role in protecting heritage places in our communities while also advancing reconciliation by supporting Bill C-23 during our next sitting week. When passed, Bill C-23 will create the historic places of Canada act, which will add first nations, Inuit and Métis representation to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. This action would implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to action 79. In addition, this legislation would deliver on developing and implementing a national heritage plan and strategy for commemorating residential school sites, the history and legacy of residential schools, and the contributions of aboriginal peoples to Canada's history. Therefore, I ask my colleagues to vote in favour of Bill C-23 to support our heritage. I wish everyone a wonderful Heritage Week back in their communities.

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Mr. Stephen Ellis (Cumberland—Colchester, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:11:52 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the African Nova Scotian community in Truro on the occasion of Black History Month and to highlight the vast contributions it has made to the growth and betterment of our country. The community traces its origins back to the middle of the 19th century. Most community members are descendants of Black Loyalists. Some are descendants of the Black refugees who fled America to escape slavery. Tragically, like many other Black communities in Canada face, there was and continues to be racism. Despite these menacing challenges, some of the defining characteristics of Truro's African Nova Scotian community are incredible resiliency, ingenuity and toughness. Many Canadian heroes are from this illustrious community, including William A. White, Rocky Jones, Art Dorrington, Portia White and Jeremiah Jones. Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to highlight Angie Parker-Brown, who is a hero. Angie has ALS, and through great adversity, she has written a book called Writing with my eyes: staying alive while dying. Sadly, we found out today that Angie is in hospital and is quite unwell. I ask all members of this House to say prayers for Angie and her family.

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Mr. Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:13:10 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal government, Canada has never felt so polarized. That is not just my opinion. A senior Liberal MP said, “I think it’s time to stop dividing Canadians, to stop pitting one part of the population against another. I can’t help but notice with regret that both tone and the policies of my government changed drastically on the eve and during the last election campaign”. He also said, “a decision was made to wedge to divide and to stigmatize.” He continued, “Time to stop with the division and the distractions.” I could not agree more. The Prime Minister would have people believe that their neighbour is their enemy. We are all feeling the financial pressure caused by the government's inflationary spending. There are 67% of Canadians who believe that the country is broken, and 56% are concerned that they will not have enough money to retire. Canadians are out of money, and the Liberal government is out of touch. After eight years of the broken government, it is clear that the only solution is a new majority, Conservative government. There has been enough of dividing for political gain. It is time to bring back hope to Canadians. Conservatives will unite Canadians for freedom.

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Mr. Terry Duguid (Winnipeg South, Lib.)

Feb/17/23 11:14:21 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, the U16 Bonivital Angels ringette team from South Winnipeg travelled to Ottawa to participate in the Gloucester Cumberland national ringette tournament. Before the tournament began, I was pleased to welcome these remarkable young women to Parliament Hill. During their tour, I got the opportunity to better explain my role as their member of Parliament and answer their thoughtful questions. We arrived before the sitting began, so they got up to the bar to view this chamber and witness the Speaker’s parade. The highlight of the tour for many of the girls, I was told, was taking a quick peek into the Prime Minister’s office. In the tournament, the Angels did an incredible job representing Manitoba, with a perfect 4-0 record in the round robin; they ended up finishing in the top four. I thank the parents and coaches for accompanying the Bonivital Angels on their trip to Ottawa. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for these young athletes.

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Mr. Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, NDP)

Feb/17/23 11:15:26 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for years now, a secret world has existed right alongside ours, without our noticing. Without these thousands of men and women, there would be no agricultural production, no abattoirs, no food processing. There would be fewer security guards, fewer cooks, fewer maintenance workers and fewer people to care for our seniors. These individuals are indispensable, but invisible. With no legal status and living in precarious situations, they are sometimes even exploited. They do hard but essential work, and yet are regarded as disposable. Without the rights and protections that we take for granted, they live on the margins, far from their families, often prisoners of closed work permits that make them vulnerable. I am talking about temporary migrant workers. Quebec has welcomed three times more of these workers since 2015, totalling tens of thousands of people every year. The NDP is proposing that they be granted permanent residency. This would give them proper recognition and provide some hope. In October, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship said he was working on a comprehensive program to regularize non-status people. This initiative is critical. If we do not want to live in a society that has a second class of workers, it is the right thing to do.

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Mrs. Caroline Desbiens (Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix, BQ)

Feb/17/23 11:16:40 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I pay tribute to our friend from L'Isle‑aux‑Coudres, Daniel Gaudet, who passed away recently. As a newly minted theatre graduate, Daniel was in an accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down, but that never stopped him from living life to the fullest. He was an author, director, writer, lecturer and creator of numerous projects, including his book, Gaïa, an improv league and a cross-Canada tour of his work entitled Comme Superman. From Cirque du Soleil to Petit Prince, in schools and on La vie du Temps, authored by yours truly, Daniel infused black and white with magical colour. As a natural-born producer, he worked with his partner to open a performance venue called Le Crapet-Soleil, where the likes of Cœur de Pirate, Louis-Jean Cormier and Le Vent du Nord graced the stage. Tire le Coyote wrote a song especially for him, Le ciel est back order. Right around the time he was twice diagnosed with cancer, he learned he was about to become a dad. He received a stem cell transplant and lived well past the doctors' prognoses. A master of the art of living, he would tell us, “Life is not a battle; it is a game”. On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I offer my sincere condolences to Caro, Mika, his family and his many, many friends.

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Mr. Philip Lawrence (Northumberland—Peterborough South, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:17:59 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, at the heart of any definition of leadership is the ability to unify people for a common purpose or cause, but after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, Canadians have never been more divided. He has used issues like mandates to pit Canadians against each other and to distract from the issues and problems he has caused. He believes that if people are afraid of their neighbours, they will forget that they cannot afford rent or groceries or even to heat their homes. Even the Prime Minister's own MPs are calling him out for his divisive behaviour. As the brave Liberal member for Louis-Hébert suggested, “From a positive and unifying approach, a decision was made to wedge, to divide and to stigmatize.” He then said, “Time to stop with the division and the distractions. It’s time to choose positive, not coercive methods. It’s time to unite.” I could not agree more. It is time for us to put the politics of division behind us and unite the country behind a Conservative prime minister who can bring prosperity back to Canada. It is time to turn hurt into hope.

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Mr. Paul Chiang (Markham—Unionville, Lib.)

Feb/17/23 11:19:17 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as part of our government's plan to support Black Canadians across the country, we previously announced a $200-million Black-led philanthropical endowment fund to improve social and economic outcomes for Black Canadians. Last week, I was proud to stand with the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion and the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth to announce the recipient of this fund: the Foundation for Black Communities. The FFBC is a national Black-led, Black-serving organization with strong partnerships whose proposal has received significant support from Black communities here in Canada. This foundational investment will help provide Black-led organizations with the long-term sustainable funding and self-sustaining resources needed to build capacity in their organizations to better serve Black Canadian communities. I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to the FFBC for its successful application. I wish it all the best in its ongoing effort to support and uplift Black Canadian communities across the country.

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The Deputy Speaker

Feb/17/23 11:20:29 a.m.
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Before proceeding, I just want to remind hon. members that statements are normally one minute, not more than one minute.

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Mr. Michael Barrett (Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:20:49 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister thinks that if people are afraid of their neighbours, they might forget that they cannot afford their rent, to feed themselves or to heat their homes. However, do not take my word for it. The Liberal MP for Louis-Hébert has called out this divide-and-conquer strategy. He said, “it’s time to stop dividing Canadians, to stop pitting one part of the population against another.” We could not agree more. Will the Prime Minister take his own MP's advice and stop tearing our great country apart?

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Ms. Rachel Bendayan (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Feb/17/23 11:21:21 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government has been there for Canadians during this difficult time of global economic uncertainty. We are rallying Canadians and they are working harder than ever. In fact, 150,000 jobs were created in January alone, and women's participation rates in the economy are at a historic high. Canadians are standing together side by side in order to make it through these times.

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Mr. Michael Barrett (Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:21:51 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, she says side by side, but the Liberal member for Louis-Hébert said, “a decision was made to wedge, to divide and to stigmatize.” That is exactly what the Prime Minister has done. Working people are struggling to pay their bills, and Liberal insiders are getting rich. Urban Canadians have been pitted against their rural neighbours. The Prime Minister even labelled Canadians who disagreed with him as racist and misogynist. When will the Prime Minister follow the lead of Canada's Conservatives, who will unite Canadians instead of dividing and stigmatizing?

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Hon. François-Philippe Champagne (Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Lib.)

Feb/17/23 11:22:25 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have enormous respect for the member, but I am surprised that he would be talking down the Canadian economy at a time when we have record investment coming into our country. I think my colleague is forgetting that, for example, we rebuilt the whole biomanufacturing sector. We have investments like Moderna in Canada. We have further investments when it comes to the battery ecosystem. Bloomberg ranks Canada as second in the world, just after China and ahead of the United States. We have the first gigafactory in Canada to build batteries, and we built the largest hydrogen plant in Edmonton. It is going well.

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Mr. Michael Barrett (Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:23:06 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, well, I do not think the people who cannot afford to feed themselves or heat their homes, the people who have experienced their rent or mortgage doubling, the 20% of Canadians who are skipping meals and the 1.5 million Canadians who are lined up at food banks would say that it is going well. However, that is the tactic of the Liberals. They tell us that even though people cannot afford to feed themselves, they have never had it so good. Let them eat cake, the Prime Minister says. The Liberal member for Louis-Hébert said, “Time to stop with the division and the distractions”, distractions like that one. “It’s time to choose positive, not coercive methods. It’s time to unite.” That is what Conservatives will do, from Victoria, B.C., to Victoria-by-the-Sea. When are they going to follow our lead?

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Ms. Rachel Bendayan (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Feb/17/23 11:23:49 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians see that this particular Conservative Party has zero credibility on the economy. Its economic policy can be summed up with this: gutting the Canada pension plan, gutting employment insurance, abandoning our fight against climate change and, of course, investing in cryptocurrency as a way to opt out of inflation. It is entirely irresponsible.

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Mr. Luc Berthold (Mégantic—L'Érable, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:24:14 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this Liberal Prime Minister, his policies aimed at dividing Canadians to distract them from his failures have only managed to destroy everything he has touched. The Prime Minister thinks that by pitting Canadians against each other, no one is going to realize that groceries are getting more expensive, that families cannot make ends meet, and that nine out of 10 young people no longer believe in their dream of building and owning a home. The Liberal MP for Louis-Hébert made it clear that a decision has been made by his government to intentionally divide and stigmatize people. Why did the Liberals embrace the Prime Minister's motto of divide and conquer?

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Mr. Anthony Housefather (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Lib.)

Feb/17/23 11:25:10 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is very difficult to hear a politician talk about division and then use it to attack his opponents. We should all, as members of Parliament, in all political parties, aim to unify. We should all work together and recognize that we each have different positions, but we can work together. That is the government's position. We all want to work together.

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Mr. Luc Berthold (Mégantic—L'Érable, CPC)

Feb/17/23 11:25:25 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, he has even managed to sow division in his own caucus. Not a day goes by that a member, like the one who just spoke, a former minister, a minister or a random Liberal, as the Prime Minister would say, does not criticize this government's decisions. To save his own leadership, he is applying his divisive policies within his own party and, unfortunately, it seems to be working. It is time we got to work. Will the Prime Minister take responsibility and stop dividing Canadians or get out of the way once and for all and let the Conservatives unite Canadians and give them a bit of hope?

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Ms. Rachel Bendayan (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, Lib.)

Feb/17/23 11:26:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about responsibility. The Conservatives' economic policy basically consists of giving up the fight against climate change, attacking our seniors' pensions, attacking employment insurance and suggesting that Canadians invest in cryptocurrency. We are a responsible government and we have a responsible plan.

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