44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 8, 2023 02:00PM
- Mar/8/23 4:37:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we just heard another excellent speech by the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, who will be leaving the House after being a member for more than 14 years.
In his roles as MP, chair of the Quebec Liberal caucus, minister of transportation and minister of foreign affairs, he was always there to serve the people.
I believe that everyone in the House agrees that 14 years in active politics is no small achievement.
As the member mentioned, we all know that it is not always easy for the families. He was there for all of us, but now he will be there even more for his family. We thank them for lending him to us for so many good years.
I obviously also want to thank the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount for his work, and also for fulfilling his many roles with dedication and passion.
In fact, our friend and colleague has made many contributions to our country outside of politics.
The member of Parliament for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount devoted his life to serving Canadians.
Before entering politics, he served a distinguished career as a naval officer, retiring as a captain. In 1984, he became the first Canadian in space when he flew aboard the U.S. space shuttle Challenger, captivating the hearts and imaginations of Canadians who could now see themselves through him in the outer reaches of the final frontier. He went on to further flights, and then kept alive the dreams of other Canadians hoping to explore space in his leadership of the Canadian Space Agency.
Throughout his career, the member of Parliament for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount stayed true to his values. He always led from the heart, including in his most recent work steering the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying as its House joint chair. We will miss him as a colleague and friend here in this House.
Just as he said in his remarks, and as he has demonstrated throughout his long career, he always viewed colleagues across the aisle not as enemies but as worthy adversaries. When he says that we should all respect one another no matter our differences and our points of view, I know he means it.
Even in his last act here in the House, with his deeply moving parting words to the House, he continues to push us, as he always pushed himself, to do our very best in the very best of ways to serve Canadians.
The member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount is a man of principle. He is a person who has always recognized the importance of serving our country. In fact, that is why he has always placed such a strong emphasis on education, to give young people the tools they need to serve and succeed.
As the first Canadian astronaut to go into space, he motivated generations of young Canadians by showing them that it is always possible to go higher and farther. He showed us that it is possible to achieve all our dreams.
As a politician, he demonstrated, on a daily basis, that it is also possible to do great things while keeping both feet firmly on the ground.
We all wish him the best in the future.
I want to thank my dear friend.
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- Mar/8/23 4:42:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I hope you will allow me to look directly at the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount.
I want to take a look back. Thirty-nine years ago, at the tender age of 14, I became fascinated by a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, a naval officer who was the first Quebecker, the first Canadian, to become an astronaut. I remember when the space shuttle Columbia was launched in 1981. I had drawn pictures of the shuttle in school. Three years later, a Quebecker became an astronaut.
In 1984, the space shuttle Challenger undertook its STS-41-G mission. Then, in 1996, the space shuttle Endeavour completed mission STS-77 and, in 2000, mission STS-97 was launched, again on the space shuttle Endeavour. That flight took the MP for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount to the International Space Station.
For me, his military career—he is a former member of the military, like me—and his career as an astronaut were marked by those moments. They shaped the way I will forever see the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, who, as the Prime Minister mentioned, mesmerized a generation of young people back in our day. I had a role model, a vision and a belief that we Canadians could also become astronauts some day. Let us not forget that, back then, there were only Americans and Russians. We never thought we could do that too, but yes. Someone here today proved it to us.
Let us talk about politics. Obviously, the shuttle landed on the dark side of the moon at some point. In 2008, our astronaut become a Liberal MP. We can forgive him for that because, for the past 15 years, I must admit that this man has been a great Canadian.
He has always been very respectful, as we saw in his speech. The opposition never had anything negative to say about the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount.
He is a gentleman and an excellent politician but, personally, I will always remember him as a great Canadian who made history.
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- Mar/8/23 4:44:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this morning, we learned that the Liberal member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount is resigning effective today.
Obviously, we listened to his farewell speech and we saw that it is with great emotion and after thoughtful reflection that he is leaving political life today. On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I want to thank the member for his nearly 15 years of public service on behalf of the people of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount.
He served as minister of foreign affairs and minister of transport, which are both key positions. Regardless of what party we belong to or whether we agree or disagree, 15 years of public life is a feat that deserves everyone's recognition and respect. As my colleague said earlier, this shows that he is noble and courageous.
We wish the member many happy years with his family and loved ones and the best of luck and success in his future challenges.
Indeed, the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount is no stranger to challenges. It is impossible not to mention that his commitment predates his foray into politics. Following his impressive academic career, the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount served in the navy for a long time, which is in and of itself worthy of respect.
He was the first Canadian in space. For many people back home, we remember him primarily as the first Quebecker to go into space, which he did no less than three times.
Long before he entered politics, he was one of those men who made Quebeckers proud and allowed them to dream bigger, farther. We need to remember that; it is unforgettable. Being an astronaut will always be an infinitely more select club than being a member of Parliament or even a minister.
That being said, now I want to get a little dig in. The member is seated in front of us. The Bloc Québécois respects his keen intellect so much that we might say that we understand why he felt a duty to speak for the people of his riding, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, for whom language is a sensitive issue.
However, French is at risk in Quebec. Naturally, if French is at risk, our national identity is also at risk. We hope that in the coming weeks, months and even years, far from the political arena, he may have another calling. The future of our Quebec nation, the nation that he made so proud by opening the door to the highest levels of science and exploration of the universe for Quebeckers, is dependent upon the vitality of its language.
I want to wish the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount a happy retirement from federal politics, and I thank him.
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- Mar/8/23 4:48:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is singular what the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount has achieved. We have had speeches from the Prime Minister, the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, the member for Manicouagan and now myself on behalf of the NDP caucus. You have sensed, I am sure, Mr. Speaker, and I hope the member himself has sensed the tremendous respect and affection we have for him. It is a singular achievement that after 14 years, every single member of this House loves the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount.
When we look at his career, we see just how significant his contribution has been. He served in our country's military, he was the first Canadian astronaut to travel into space, he worked hard as a minister, and he was an extraordinary MP. He led by example many times.
He made a contribution in every aspect of his life and, of course, beyond all else, he made a tremendous contribution to Canada.
There is a question that I think is in all our minds: How could it be that, after 14 years in the House of Commons, he looks exactly the same, as young as he did when he entered? Rumour has it that one day in space is equal to one month on earth and I think, ultimately, that is the secret that he looks as young as he does after 14 years.
We also know the point of view that he has offered in this House. He talked about respect, and I will come back to that in a moment, but above all, there is his wisdom. I think that comes from having perceived our small planet from space and understanding that the differences we have sometimes among one another are very small in relation to the importance of our country and of our planet.
Ultimately, that is his legacy to this House. He was also a gentleman, as the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles just said.
Beyond all else, he was respectful to all the members of Parliament. That is the challenge that we have just been given: We need to act more like the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount did every day. That is his message, that is the legacy he is leaving us, with all the work he has done as an MP. Every day, we need to be respectful of each other here in the House. That is something he did throughout his entire career.
On behalf of the NDP caucus, our leader from Burnaby South and all New Democrats across the country, I would like to extend our deepest congratulations to the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount on his retirement. We wish him a wonderful retirement. We want to thank his family and his employees for their service by letting him sit in the House of Commons and, above all, contribute as much as he did to our country.
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- Mar/8/23 4:51:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to add my voice to those of my colleagues in recognizing the enormous contribution of the hon. member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount.
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- Mar/8/23 4:52:06 p.m.
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Is it agreed?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
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- Mar/8/23 4:52:06 p.m.
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I thank my dear colleague from Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount. All of us Canadians have had in our minds this extraordinary human being as a Canadian hero. I have had the great honour, which I cannot believe, really, to become his friend. I was elected in 2011, and the hon. member was the House leader for what was then the third party in this place. He always showed me such kindness and generosity.
I was the only member of the Green Party at the time. Of course, our caucus has expanded madly since then. It has doubled. I asked for his help time and time again, and he never held back. I have to say that it has been an amazing experience to be friends. The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby has made the point really clearly that everybody here loves this particular member of Parliament. It is a shock to know that he will not be sitting there when we come back after the next few times in our ridings. His departure is so sudden and so unexpected.
He will be greatly missed. He will be missed by every member who had the honour of working with him.
We say colloquially in English, “It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out”, but this is the only person in this place who is a rocket scientist, and he has figured many things out. I hope we will all live up to his parting words. The Prime Minister mentioned his “last act”, which put me in mind of another phrase. This member is a class act. He never showed disrespect to anyone in this place. He was never anything less than honourable, thorough in his work and fully dedicated to Quebec, to Canada and to this planet. In that, I want to say how very grateful I am for all his kindness and his willingness to help the occasional effort of this member and to try to put things right in this place for democracy, for Canada and for the planet. There really are no words to say how much I will miss this member. I am thankful for the chance to add my words.
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- Mar/8/23 4:55:13 p.m.
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Traditionally the Speaker does not refer to individual members. However, I must say that when the hon. member came to see me yesterday and gave me the bad news, or the good news for him and his family I guess, I thought back on the number of years we served together. I remember one time we were sitting somewhere over here, and he had just been elected. I was sitting in the same area. His comment was, “You never miss a chance to pick at the low-lying fruit.”
Mr. member of Parliament, you have been out of this world, and you are leaving a big, black hole in this Parliament with your departure. I do not think I can say much more than that, but I thank him for all his years of service. It has been wonderful both for Parliament and for the country.
It is my duty, pursuant to Standing Order 38, to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Courtenay—Alberni, Health; the hon. member for North Okanagan—Shuswap, Seniors; the hon. member for Dufferin—Caledon, Carbon Pricing.
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- Mar/8/23 4:58:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 25th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs in relation to the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, March 2, regarding the study on foreign election interference.
While I am on my feet, I also want to give a shout-out to the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount. I have had the honour of sitting beside him. He truly is a class act.
In addition, for everybody paying attention, PROC will be meeting at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-317, An Act to establish a national strategy respecting flood and drought forecasting.
He said: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to table a bill to address a problem that has caused severe environmental damage across different parts of this country and created enormous financial loss for individuals, insurance companies and governments at all levels. I am talking about flooding and drought, as well as the need to take advantage of the latest technological advances and opportunities to ensure that Canada has at its disposal the most accurate flood and drought prediction systems in the world.
My bill is calling on the government to create a national flood and drought forecasting strategy in co-operation with the provinces, indigenous communities and other relevant stakeholders.
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-318, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Labour Code (adoptive and intended parents).
She said: Mr. Speaker, the arrival of a new child is a precious time for all parents, and our system of parental leave benefits provides critical financial support to parents while they care for them. Adoptive and intended parents are, however, at a disadvantage under the current parental benefit system.
All families are deserving of equal access to parental leave benefits, so it is an honour to introduce my bill, an act to amend the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Labour Code regarding adoptive and intended parents. I want to thank my colleague, the member for Kelowna—Lake Country, for her support and for seconding my bill today.
Through a new 15-week EI period for adoptive and intended parents, this bill would ensure greater parity in the parental benefits landscape. It would also acknowledge the unique needs and complexities of attachment for adoptive families. Time is truly a precious commodity. I hope all members of the House will afford adoptive parents and intended parents the time they deserve with their child.
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C‑319, An Act to amend the Old Age Security Act (amount of full pension).
She said: Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise in the House today to introduce a bill to improve the financial health of seniors.
This bill essentially contains two parts. The first part aims to eliminate the discrimination that currently exists on the basis of age. We are asking that all seniors receive the 10% increase in old age security starting at age 65, not just those aged 75 and over. The second part aims to raise the eligibility threshold for the guaranteed income supplement to $6,500, without cutting it, for seniors who decide to remain in the workforce.
With these two measures, which increase both the basic amount and the working income of seniors, we aim to ensure that they can better cope with inflation. That is the least we can do to allow seniors to live in dignity.
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-320, An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (disclosure of information to victims).
He said: Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George for seconding this bill. It is wonderful to see him. It is great to have him back in the House.
This is a very short bill, but it would make a lot of difference. It was inspired by a constituent of mine. Her name is Lisa Freeman. She lost her father to an axe murderer in 1991. I thought I would like to use her words when I spoke to this bill, so she wrote me a little note, and I would like to read it into the record.
She said that the significance of this bill is twofold to better meet the needs of victims of crime by providing them with timely and accurate information upon sentencing of an offender, thus avoiding the false comfort of misleading parole eligibility dates.
She continued that very often, families just like hers can be caught off guard when they are notified that an offender is eligible for forms of parole well before the 25-year mark of a sentence is reached. This bill will serve to educate the public to the reality of what life in prison with no parole for 25 years means in real time.
She also said that victims of crime and their families face many challenges when dealing with the justice system, and with the movement of this bill, not only does it provide transparency but a stronger voice for victims of crime.
I look forward to debating the bill in the House and its passing.
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- Mar/8/23 5:05:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising because people in my riding of Victoria are drawing attention to the fact that the overdose and toxic drug supply crisis is one of the most deadly public health emergencies of our lifetime, with over 20 deaths per day.
People are calling on the government to declare the overdose crisis a national public health emergency and take immediate steps to end overdose deaths. This would include working with provinces and territories to create a pan-Canadian action plan and ensuring that plan considers reforms that other countries have used, such as legal regulation of drugs, safe supply, decriminalization, and changes to flawed drug policies in policing. Petitioners call on the government to ensure this emergency is taken seriously with adequately funded programming and supports.
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- Mar/8/23 5:06:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of 93 constituents from the Yukon in support of just transition legislation to address the climate emergency. This petition contains a number of specific policy recommendations to help us achieve the goals of transitioning to a green, equitable and inclusive economy with a substantial reduction in global emissions.
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- Mar/8/23 5:07:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as always, it is an honour to rise in this place to draw the attention of, in this case specifically, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada to the following: that the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Bissonnette struck down section 745.51 of the Criminal Code, which allowed parole ineligibility periods to be applied consecutively for mass murderers. As a result, a killer and some of Canada's most heinous mass murderers will have their parole ineligibility period reduced as they are now eligible to apply for parole after only 25 years.
R. v. Bissonnette, along with other examples, is an unjust decision putting the interests of some of Canada's worst criminals ahead of the rights of their victims. Recurring parole hearings can retraumatize the families and victims of mass murderers, and the Government of Canada has tools at its disposal to respond to instances like this, including invoking the notwithstanding clause. Therefore, these petitioners from Alberta and across Canada urge the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override this unjust court decision.
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- Mar/8/23 5:08:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House to present a petition from concerned Canadians who want to see the end of first-past-the-post voting. They very specifically, in this petition, call on this place to consider the single transferable vote as the favoured approach to bringing in proportional representation.
They point out that it is a riding-centric proportional system that could be seen as a compromise between those who want a preferential vote and those who want to see a riding-centric vote, those who want to make sure that we have in this country, at last, a fair voting system. They point out that under single transferable vote, voters would be represented by someone from a local multi-winner riding and they would be able to hear their views represented at a national and local level.
There is a great deal of detail in this petition, so in an attempt to summarize it briefly, I will underscore that the petitioners call for the implementation of a single transferable vote with multi-winner ridings that would have between three and seven members each and that there would be single-winner ridings for areas such as the territories and Labrador. They also wish to use a weighted inclusive Gregory method for the transfer of surplus votes. It is a detailed, thoughtful petition.
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- Mar/8/23 5:10:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition on behalf of over 17,000 Canadians who are demanding economic justice and ensuring that profiteering in the grocery sector is truly held to account. It reads:
Whereas:
Loblaws currently owns a grocery store within 10 km of 90% of all Canadians;
Loblaws has posted record profits while Canadians struggle to eat;
Loblaws has monopolized basic necessities that Canadians rely on;
Loblaws introduced a price freeze however have failed to live up to that promise;
The price of food is rising in Canada and more Canadians are relying on food banks to get food for their family; and
Loblaws in the middle of the pandemic cut their pandemic pay for the workers.
Therefore, the undersigned 17,000 Canadians are asking for the following:
1. Open a parliamentary investigation into Loblaws Co. for their pandemic profiteering, greedflation and continued price gouging of Canadians; and
2. Open an investigation into the monopolization of Canadian grocery stores and to create legislation to prevent this from occurring again.
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- Mar/8/23 5:11:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
The Speaker: Is that agreed?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
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- Mar/8/23 5:11:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I ask that all notices of motions for the production of papers be allowed to stand.
The Speaker: Is that agreed?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
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