44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 25, 2023 10:00AM
- Apr/25/23 3:11:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell the House and members that this is completely unacceptable.
Indeed, Canadians rightly deserve to be able to get a response in French or in English, in both official languages of this country, from their telecom provider, particularly when they call 911. We will, of course, be looking into this matter.
I will repeat for all Canadians watching: This is unacceptable. We will take action to remedy the situation.
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- Apr/25/23 3:11:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the $1-billion crab industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is at a standstill due to poor markets. Traditionally, when the Alaskan crab fishery goes down, Japan buys more crab from Canada. Instead, Japan is buying cheap crab from Russia instead of sanctioning Russia, like the U.S. did when the Ukrainian war started.
Has the Prime Minister asked our allies in Asia to sanction Russian crab, yes or no?
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- Apr/25/23 3:12:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we have stood up for Ukrainians against the illegal war by Russia perpetrated on Ukraine. We have initiated sanctions. We have pulled its MFN status. We have raised this issue with Japan, and Japan, too, I would say, has been a strong defender of Ukraine. We will continue to stand up for Canadian fishers.
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- Apr/25/23 3:13:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we live in the most beautiful country in the world. However, the threats to our environment have never been greater. Climate change is threatening nature, our communities and our economy.
The 2023 budget announced new measures to protect our environment, fight climate change and make Canada more resilient to the threats posed by extreme weather.
Could the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change tell the House about one of the key measures to help protect water and biodiversity across the country?
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- Apr/25/23 3:13:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Vaudreuil—Soulanges for his question and above all for his commitment to environmental issues over the past 20 years.
In the latest federal budget presented by my colleague, the Minister of Finance, we announced record investments to protect freshwater in the Great Lakes and across the country. A record $730 million has been allocated, including $85 million for the creation of a water agency, which will be an independent agency that will protect freshwater sources across the country.
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- Apr/25/23 3:14:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadian air travellers deserve protections that are easy to navigate and get them the compensation they deserve. However, instead of listening to the experts, the minister seems to be doubling down on a system that is bureaucratic and expensive.
One of the most alarming aspects of his new law is a gag order on air passengers. Passengers who are not happy with the outcome of their complaint process will be prevented from speaking about it.
If the minister is so proud of his new process, why he is silencing the people who use it?
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- Apr/25/23 3:14:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I was proud to share with Canadians the news that our government was taking action to learn from last summer's challenges that we saw in our air sector. Our government is strengthening the protection for our passengers, making sure airlines are accountable and responsible for fulfilling their obligation to their customers. We are standing up for Canadians. We are working with the sectors. We will make sure that every passenger gets the service he or she deserves.
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- Apr/25/23 3:15:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals, the nursing shortage has gotten worse everywhere in the country. A report today says that nurses in Ontario are leaving the profession because of inadequate wages and poor working conditions. We are losing them to private for-profit clinics, and patients are suffering. That is why the NDP called on the government to require public funds to go to public health care, but Liberals refused.
Our health care professionals deserve fair pay and dignity in the workplace, and patients depend on it.
Why is the Prime Minister allowing for-profit delivery to cannibalize public health care in Canada?
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- Apr/25/23 3:16:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am obviously very pleased to receive this question. The member knows very well of the additional $200 billion we announced just a few weeks ago in support of provinces and territories in addition to the normal value of the CHT and in addition to the value of tax points, but, more important, to support workers through the crisis the member correctly identified. Those dollars are designed to support the public delivery of health care services in Canada.
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- Apr/25/23 3:16:36 p.m.
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I wish to draw the attention of members to the presence in the gallery of the four crew members from NASA's Artemis II mission: Mission Specialist, Canadian Jeremy Hansen; Commander Reid Wiseman; Pilot Victor Glover; and Mission Specialist Christina Koch.
They are accompanied by former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, NASA's administrator, and Lisa Campbell, President of the Canadian Space Agency.
Some hon. members: Hear, hear!
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- Apr/25/23 3:18:08 p.m.
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It being 3:18 p.m., pursuant to order made on Thursday, June 23, 2022, the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion to concur in the 15th report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
Call in the members.
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- Apr/25/23 3:31:04 p.m.
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I declare the motion carried.
We have a point of order from the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.
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- Apr/25/23 3:31:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I wonder if you could clarify the application of Standing Order 18, especially during members' statements.
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- Apr/25/23 3:31:35 p.m.
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I will come back to the House with that; I am looking into it. I want to see exactly what was said and the intent of what was said. Thank you for bringing that up.
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Mr. Speaker, we would be hard pressed to find an individual in this chamber who does not love Canada. However, there is a difference in approach in this House as it pertains to managing the affairs of the country on behalf of the taxpaying Canadians who have elected us.
We are servants in the House of Commons, not masters. If one wants to see greatness, they should not look around this chamber but around our ridings. In my riding, it can be seen in the coal-stained shirt of Jason, the miner who extracts metal-making minerals from the ground in Elk Valley, metals the government has not acknowledged as critical minerals. It can be seen in the hands of farmers like Tyler, who understands the science and the weather, the soil and commodity prices and how to bring food from the fields to our tables. It can be seen in Terry, the electrician in Cranbrook who can send lightening shooting through a copper wire to light up our homes.
Often these people are called ordinary, but they are not ordinary. They are extraordinary. They are the ones bearing the brunt of broken federal policies. They are the individuals paying, from their paycheques, for the inflation caused by out-of-control federal spending.
Waitress Kassidy in Revelstoke can serve 15 customers at the same time, be on her feet all day, have enough energy to help her son with math homework and pay all of her bills on a minimum wage salary, but she is unable to save any money for her and her son's future. She is not ordinary; she is extraordinary.
Police officer Constable Dianne pushes through the pain of recovering someone's overdosed daughter from a homeless camp in Cranbrook or Nelson, and then, with her husband, tucks their children in at night. She is not ordinary; she is extraordinary.
As the leader of the official opposition has said, that is “the goodness, the greatness, and even the genius of the common people.”
It is the common sense of the common people striving for the purpose of the common home. The people's common democratic home is right here in this place, the House of Commons. All of this is theirs, and it is their common-sense voice that is missing from this budget.
They are the experts on the expense of inflation, an expense caused and fanned by the government. The reality for the hard-working people in Kootenay—Columbia is that life is now more expensive, homes are unattainable, groceries are becoming a luxury and life has become more difficult. However, the finance minister says she has “never been more optimistic about the future of our country”. She is out of touch. This should not be the Canadian experience.
This chamber is green because the first commoners met in the fields of England over 800 years ago. They wrestled power away from high society, the nobility, to make themselves, commoners, masters in their own homeland. Would those who wrestled agree with the policies of the Prime Minister?
On this side of the House, the official opposition remembers what the government has forgotten: We are servants, not masters. It is the common people, those we serve, who are the masters in this free land, and they are the ones who fund the budgets of the day. It is their common sense that is absent from this budget. In fact, this budget continues the Prime Minister's nonsensical approach of higher taxes and inflationary deficits. It does not make Canada work for the people who have done the work.
On the point of the budget, the Conservatives asked the government for three things. First was that the budget pave the way for Canadians to bring home powerful paycheques by lowering taxes and scrapping the carbon tax. Instead of listening to Canadians, the government is continuing with its war on work and increasing taxes, which means workers are punished for working and will now take home even less of their paycheques. Inflationary spending has caused the cost of food and groceries to skyrocket. One in five Canadians is skipping meals, and people are going to food banks asking for help because they cannot afford to eat.
The Prime Minister's grocery rebate would give $234 for a single adult to cover the rising cost of food that the government's inflationary deficits helped cause. Canada's latest food price report predicts that a family of four will spend up to $1,000 more on food this year. That is $600 more than the $467 rebate they will receive.
Just this year, the government raised payroll taxes on workers and small businesses. This means that Ken, a forestry worker living in Creston making $66,600, will be forced to pay an extra $255 through the mandatory Canada pension plan tax this year. That worker will also have to pay an extra $50 through the employment insurance tax. That is a $305 increase.
The grocery rebate does nothing more than just give money back to Canadians that the Prime Minister already clawed away with his tax increases. This will not solve the cost of living crisis.
There is more. The government increased the carbon tax to 14¢ per litre on April 1, making it more expensive for Canadians to heat their homes and get to work. The PBO shows that the carbon tax will cost the average family between $402 and $847 in 2023, even after the rebates. By 2030, the Prime Minister's two carbon taxes could add 50¢ per litre to the price of gasoline. The people of Kootenay—Columbia are already paying $1.70 a litre, which is 40% more per litre than the same fuel 30 minutes away.
We are all well aware, especially in rural Canada, that our food security is dependent on distribution from our truck drivers, those who use diesel fuel. The significant increase in the carbon tax has a direct effect on the cost of our groceries, and the more remote, the more expensive. The cost of fuel is added to all of the commodities shipped, which is a huge burden on the families and seniors in rural Canada.
I could go on. The fact remains that the budget continues the government's war on the worker.
Second, we asked that the budget pave the way for lower prices by ending the inflationary debt and deficits that drive up inflation and interest rates.
Instead of listening to Canadians, the Prime Minister added more debt than all prime ministers combined. He has no plans to balance the budget and control his inflationary deficits, which are driving up the cost of the goods we buy and the interest we pay. Canada's federal debt is projected to reach $1.22 trillion. That is nearly $81,000 per household in Canada, which is more than many households earn.
Worse than that, he is planning on growing the deficit by $40.1 billion. According to the budget, Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to increase from 42.4% to 43.5%. Last budget cycle, the finance minister said that Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio was her “fiscal anchor” and that the debt-to-GDP must decline for Canada's finances to be sustainable.
I would like to repeat the finance minister's words, for the constituents of Kootenay—Columbia. The minister said:
...let me be very clear: We are absolutely determined that our debt-to-GDP ratio must continue to decline. Our deficits must continue to be reduced. The pandemic debt we incurred to keep Canadians safe and solvent must—and will—be paid down.
This is our fiscal anchor. This is a line we shall not cross. It will ensure that our finances remain sustainable.
This means, according to the finance minister, that the Prime Minister's inflationary debt and deficits are unsustainable.
The third thing the Conservatives asked for was that the budget pave the way for Canadians to bring the opportunity for homes Canadians can afford by removing government gatekeepers to free up land and speed up building permits. The dream of home ownership has gone from a reality to a dream for young and old Canadians under the government. Nine out of 10 people who do not own a home say they never will.
By every objective measurement, things are more expensive and Canadians are taking home less. This is a tired government that has no plan to help Canadians, no plan to remove the gatekeepers and build more homes, no plan to free up federal lands and properties and no plan to speed up building permits by withholding federal funding from cities that refuse to remove gatekeepers.
Under the government, everything feels broken. Broken is Emma, an elementary school student in Cranbrook asking why her parents cannot afford groceries. Broken is Mary, a single senior in Creston who does not have enough left over to pay for fuel and to make the 120-kilometre drive to visit her doctor. Mary has to make a choice. Broken is Ethan, a father in Cranbrook who has worked hard and done everything right and yet finds himself at the food bank because his paycheque, after taxes and inflation, does not make it to the end of the month.
These are real stories from real Canadians, but help is on its way. The Conservatives plan to turn hurt into hope.
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Madam Speaker, I certainly have much more optimism than the member across the way regarding the position our country is in. It is a lot to say that a country is broken. I could not disagree more with the member.
Yes, from time to time we certainly have work to do, and right now, with the rising costs we are seeing throughout the country and indeed throughout the entire world, we have to help Canadians and support them. However, there are many measures in this budget implementation act that seek to do exactly that, whether it is increasing the GST to help people with the rising costs of groceries the member just mentioned or it is the various other supports in there.
I am wondering if the member can explain, if he is so concerned about people in his community, as he has just indicated, why he cannot support this budget, which takes aim at helping them directly.
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Madam Speaker, the reality is that the people out there in our communities are not saying that. They are saying they cannot afford this budget. They are saying they cannot afford to eat. They are saying they cannot afford to drive to a doctor's appointment and eat. Seniors are struggling every day. This budget is not helping them. The carbon tax is not helping them. Our groceries are delivered by diesel trucks. That is our supply chain. We knew during COVID that our supply chains for food supplies were critical, yet we are taxing everyone more, especially with the carbon tax, such as farmers, ranchers and our deliveries, so I do not see a light at the end of the tunnel.
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Madam Speaker, in his speech, my Conservative colleague talked about seniors in relation to the carbon tax.
I have a suggestion for my colleague. What the seniors in my riding, in Quebec, are asking me for and what they talk to me about is a little more direct assistance to help them get through this crisis. They want an increase in old age security for all seniors to address the inequality between people aged 75 and over and those under 75. This would be a first step towards recognizing that seniors are affected by the inflation crisis.
This budget contains nothing except a one-time cheque to help them with groceries. That cheque will be used up in no time.
I wonder if he could talk more about the importance of providing much more direct assistance to seniors, specifically by increasing old age security.
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Madam Speaker, I agree that seniors are fragile and they are the ones getting hurt the most as the prices go up for groceries, when a head of lettuce goes up to $3 or $4 and seniors are only getting OAS. Some get CPP, and some do not. That is the most critical part of our society. Seniors are the ones who took care of us, our parents. They are the ones we have to take the time to find some funding for, so we can help them through this inflationary crisis, but we cannot do that if we keep spending money we do not have and all of a sudden inflation starts rising.
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Madam Speaker, my neighbour in the Kootenays spent a lot of time talking about the carbon tax. The Conservatives, and certainly a British Columbian conservative such as he, never mention the fact that the carbon tax in British Columbia is a conservative tax. It was brought in by Gordon Campbell in 2008, 15 years ago. I am sure the member voted for Gordon Campbell several times. Yes, it went up 3¢ a litre on April 1. The price of gas in his riding and my riding has gone up probably a dollar over the last year.
Instead of this fight against the carbon tax, when most people get all of that back, would he join the NDP in the fight for an excessive profits tax on the big oil and gas companies and big grocery retailers that are driving up the price of gas and groceries?
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