SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 178 - Apr/17/23

Apr/17/23 7:28:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as demonstrated by the recent federal budget, Canadians can continue to count on this government to implement measures that will protect the environment and create jobs at the same time. We have a plan to ensure that Canada is part of the clean economy, and we can all be proud of that. Of course, we understand that some Canadians still need targeted inflation relief support, and that is why we are moving forward with our grocery rebate.

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Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island—Powell River, NDP)

Apr/17/23 7:29:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am here today because I asked a question in March and I feel the question was not answered. I want members of my riding of North Island—Powell River to know that today I am standing up for the over 2,300 RCMP women who, between 1974 and 2019, faced terrible sexual assault, abuse and harassment in the RCMP. These brave women came forward and told their stories. The Merlo Davidson suit came into play, and we now have a decision that allows these women to be compensated for the terrible, violent abuse they survived. What is sad about this is that Veterans Affairs has seen fit to claw back some of their disability pensions. I am reminded of some time I spent at the veterans committee today, where we are studying, for the first time ever in this place, women veterans. One of the women who testified today talked about having a survivor focus, which is moving forward in a way that focuses on the survivors' realities and making sure that everything is built around supporting them so they can do better. I thought that was such an important value, which we need to look at, not only in the military and the RCMP, but also in all of Canada. When a victim comes forward, they need to be supported. In this ruling, through the Merlo Davidson suit, we see six levels of compensation. I really encourage Canadians to look at the six levels because they show just how vile the abuse was. Every time one reads a different section, they can read just what these women lived through. They have this terrible situation. Some of them from 1974 did not feel they would be listened to and did not come forward until much later. They can finally be acknowledged, and what they see happening is their disability pensions being withdrawn from them again. This is abuse. We know that it was incredibly brave for these women to come forward to share their experiences. Doing so will hopefully make the pathway safer for women RCMP in the future. The justice who gave the report described the women as having to endure shocking levels of violence. These women experienced extreme brutality while protecting our country, and now we are seeing that same government deny them what they are rightfully owed. VAC is literally making these women who served this country suffer all over again. The minister needs to make it right. I have heard commitments that a letter would be sent and the claw backs would stop. I am going to come back to what I said in the beginning. If this were survivor focused, this would not have happened in the first place. If we had that culture in these organizations, including this one, this would not have happened. These woman would have been supported and given what they needed, and we would not have seen VAC abuse them again. Today, I want to know when the government will return the clawed-back dollars? We cannot just stop the claw back. We also need to get the monies that were taken wrongfully from them and return them as appropriate. Women in this country served our country through the RCMP and suffered while they were serving, and that has nothing to do with their disability claims. Will the government make it right?

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Mr. Darrell Samson (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, Lib.)

Apr/17/23 7:33:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, signing up to serve with the Canadian flag on one's shoulder comes with risks, but being at risk of sexual misconduct should not be one of them. There is simply no excuse or justification for that, either in the armed forces, in the RCMP or in any workplace. Our government is fully committed to eliminating the workplace violence, harassment and discrimination in any form. We recognize the enormous courage it takes for someone to disclose this kind of abuse and fight for justice and accountability. We are aware of the letter published by the Office of the Veterans Ombud on February 23 asking that Veterans Affairs review the Merlo Davidson case to determine if pension reductions had been properly applied, and if not, to issue a corrective payment. For privacy reasons, we cannot comment on individual files. What I can say is that the department has contacted all of the impacted veterans by telephone and via letter to offer them an opportunity to submit additional information regarding their payment so that the payments can be recalculated and corrected as appropriate. We want to be as generous as possible under the legislation. We are also aware of the recommendations made by the OVO. Each impacted veteran has been provided with contact information at VAC and the OVO for support in providing the information needed. We are committed to continuing to work closely with the ombud on this file and any other file.

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Ms. Rachel Blaney

Apr/17/23 7:35:20 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am fairly disappointed with that response, because we know that these women have suffered. We know they have had their pensions clawed back. Now, what we are saying to them is that, after all the indignity they experienced just by serving their country, they have to do all the work on the other side to get back what was theirs in the first place. I still do not hear anything that says the government is actually going to pay back the money it has, in my opinion, been stealing from these women. Hopefully the member can say something that actually addresses that serious concern.

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Mr. Darrell Samson

Apr/17/23 7:35:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I said before, the women who came forward and disclosed their experiences in Merlo-Davidson did so with incredible courage. Our government is committed to ensuring all veterans and members get access to the benefits they are entitled to. In the case of the Merlo-Davidson settlement, the minister has told staff to review the OVO's recommendation to ensure that all pension adjustments have been properly applied and that we are being as generous as possible under the legislation. Veterans who had their disability pensions reduced in the Merlo-Davidson settlement have been contacted and given the opportunity to submit additional information.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Apr/17/23 7:36:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am rising again in the House, as I have on multiple occasions, to warn the government of the risks posed by unregulated shipbreaking. This originates from a question in November 2022. On November 24, an oil spill was discovered on the shoreline of a shipbreaking facility that has been operating since 2020 in the community of Union Bay in my riding. This facility is operating despite legal challenges and warnings of environmental hazards from residents, local government and first nations. Now, a spill has happened, and the lack of federal regulations and guidelines to protect the ecosystem is glaring. The spill has led to serious concerns for Baynes Sound, which is home to over 50% of British Columbia's shellfish production and is critical to the local economy and many jobs. In addition, of course, there is the importance of the ecosystem. I have spoken in the House about the lack of federal regulation of shipbreaking, as I cited, and have called on the government to take action to prevent such an incident. I want to take members back to 2016, when I, Chief Councillor Recalma from the Qualicum Nation, our former MLA Scott Wilson, local shellfish owners and workers, tourism operators and locally elected officials had to go out on boats and take media to shine a light on the lack of response from government when it came to abandoned and derelict vessels. There were two boats that had been sitting there, and the previous Conservative government had promised for a decade to remove them. The boats were threatening jobs. They were the Silver King and the Laurier II, and it took all of our pressure to finally get the government to respond and remove those vessels. What we do not want is a repeat of a long delay. We do not want the Liberals to go the way of the Conservatives and delay in responding to really important issues at hand. Again, we applied pressure last time, and the government responded. We are hoping it will respond now, but we need to shift from a reactionary to a precautionary approach to prevent incidents like these. Instead of waiting for another spill, the government should urgently ratify the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, adopt regulations comparable to the EU's ship recycling regulations and provide financial support to qualified shipbreaking facilities to help them meet new standards and regulations. We know the government is in a consultation phase with the provinces, but it needs to fast-track that. I want to highlight that the government's lack of response has really put the local economy and the environment at risk, but also right now we are learning that Transport Canada has no monitoring or enforcement of hazardous materials on board international vessels being shipped across Canada's border. There is only a voluntary certificate, which is done through Environment and Climate Change Canada, and it is effectively a self-reporting honour system. This is just unbelievable. There is the risk this puts on coastal communities, and it is also putting all the risk on provinces, first nations and indigenous communities and on local governments, which is totally irresponsible. We need to look at what the EU has done when it comes to shipbreaking and recycling, as well as at the Hong Kong act. I am really hopeful the government will take action and take a precautionary approach, and I am hoping today it is going to give us some sort of path to how it is going to remedy the situation before an environmental disaster takes place, even further to what is happening now.

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Ms. Annie Koutrakis (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Lib.)

Apr/17/23 7:40:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the government takes any threat to our marine environment seriously. We are aware of and continue to monitor the ship recycling activities taking place in Union Bay, British Columbia. Regarding the oil spill that was reported at Deep Water Recovery on November 22, the Canadian Coast Guard responded immediately. The Coast Guard confirmed that the source of the spill was land-based, from a vessel that is currently being removed from the marine environment by Deep Water Recovery as part of the deconstruction process. While a boom was deployed to minimize pollution, the spill amount was small and not recoverable. No amount of oil spilled in our marine environment is acceptable. To this end, the Canadian Coast Guard has reminded the deconstruction company of its responsibilities under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, to prevent any release of oil or other pollutants from reaching the marine environment. As it is a land-based spill, the Coast Guard will assist Emergency Management British Columbia, which is the lead agency, if requested. Canada's marine safety system ensures that we are ready and able to respond quickly to spills in Canadian waters, which include our three coastlines, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. We have a robust regime in place to respond to spills through our environmental response regulations and ship-source oil spill response organizations on each coast. Through the oceans protection plan, we are establishing 24-7 emergency response and incident management, increasing on-scene environmental response capacity, improving oil spill response plans, acquiring new environmental response equipment for the Canadian Coast Guard, sharing near real-time information on marine traffic with indigenous and coastal communities, and modernizing Canada's marine safety regulation and enforcement regime. As announced in November, under the oceans protection plan, the Government of Canada will also develop, in consultation with other levels of government, indigenous groups and industry, a system to ensure an appropriate level of preparedness for marine pollution incidents. This system will also provide a framework to ensure an effective and consistent response to marine pollution incidents across the country and for post-incident recovery. Polluter accountability will be strengthened, and a formal role for indigenous communities, sustainable funding and appropriate legal protections will be put in place. In addition, the Government of Canada also recognizes the importance of safe and environmentally sound practices for the recycling of ships. Ship recycling is recognized as the most environmentally sound method to dispose of ships at end of life. Currently, there is a robust federal and provincial legislative framework governing this activity. Many provisions affecting ship recycling facilities are governed by the provinces and territories, such as environmental and waste management and workplace occupational health and safety. Federal rules prohibit the release of pollutants into the marine environment. The government knows that we can do more. Together, with provincial and territorial governments, Transport Canada is exploring whether there may be ways to enhance Canada's ship recycling rules.

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Mr. Gord Johns

Apr/17/23 7:44:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate that, but we need an urgent response. I am really concerned, and so are the people at Union Bay, that the government has opened this up to becoming a dumping ground for international vessels that contain hazardous materials. Right now we are learning that the only thing ECCC offers to ensure it protects us is a voluntary certificate when it comes to hazardous materials, which is totally unacceptable, and a self-reporting honour system. What happens when one of these companies decides to abandon its operation after raking in millions of dollars probably by getting paid to dispose of ships properly, only to leave a big mess? We saw the Kathryn Spirit. It was $11 million to clean up that abandoned vessel. Our former NDP colleague, Anne Minh-Thu Quach, fought very hard to get Kathryn Spirit cleaned up. We want to know when they are considering putting a ready-to-recycle certificate in place for international vessels.

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Ms. Annie Koutrakis

Apr/17/23 7:45:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada takes any incident that threatens our marine environment with the utmost seriousness. The Canadian Coast Guard responded immediately to this incident. Moreover, building on our marine pollution preparedness response and recovery system, under the oceans protection plan renewal, we are exploring a single-window response for oil spills to ensure even better preparedness and greater accountability for polluters. In terms of ship recycling, while Canada has some of the strongest rules globally, we are looking for ways to improve. As stated before, many of the legislative provisions that govern safe and environmentally responsible ship recycling fall under provincial jurisdiction. We are committed to working with provinces and territories to ensure that we have the safest recycling facilities in the world. This includes examining requirements under the European Union ship recycling regulation and the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships to determine what elements can be adopted in a Canadian context to address any gaps in federal legislation.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Apr/17/23 7:46:15 p.m.
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The motion that the House do now adjourn is deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1). (The House adjourned at 7:46 p.m.)

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