44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 9, 2023 10:00AM
- May/9/23 2:35:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Johnston is a former governor general of Canada. He is independent and will soon present his action plan to counter foreign interference. As an expert, he can look at all of the options, obviously.
With regard to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, it is an independent foundation in which the Prime Minister has no personal interest.
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- May/9/23 2:36:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government is saying that it is taking action. Taking action gets results, but to date, the government's score on foreign interference is 25%. That would not be a very good mark to get on a report card. Why?
The Liberals finally expelled a diplomat after two years, but they have done nothing to create a foreign agent registry, to conduct a independent national inquiry or to shut down the Chinese police stations.
Every time we ask them questions, they fail miserably at protecting Canadians. Our question to them is, why?
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- May/9/23 2:37:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I was the critic of public safety at the time of Stephen Harper's government, and when Justice Iacobucci and Justice O'Connor issued their recommendations saying that urgent action needed to be taken, and that an independent parliamentary committee of parliamentarians should oversee every aspect of national security, they did nothing.
It was our government that brought in that body, which allows parliamentarians of every party to be able to see into every aspect of our national security. We acted on those and many other recommendations that the Conservatives opposite, when they were in government, sat on and did not act upon.
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- May/9/23 2:37:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the Century Initiative. Many Quebeckers and French Canadians are concerned about the federal government potentially tripling the population to 100 million by 2100 without any public debate. The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship says his plan has nothing to do with the Century Initiative and he makes his own choices. Coincidence or not, his 2023-25 immigration targets are remarkably similar to those proposed by the Century Initiative.
Will he at least confirm the fact that his target, 500,000 newcomers in 2025, lines up with the proposal and actually goes a bit further?
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- May/9/23 2:38:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the federal government's immigration plan is to grow our economy. People need to recognize that it is possible to grow the economy while protecting the French language and francophones' demographic weight.
We will continue to increase the number of francophone newcomers. That is good for official language minority communities and it is good for our economy too.
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- May/9/23 2:39:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister brags about 4% of immigrants outside Quebec being francophone, but according to francophone and Acadian communities, they need 12% next year and 20% in the future just to slow the decline of French.
Quebec's Minister of the French Language calls it the most hare-brained idea of the century. He says it is not good for Quebec or for the Canadian francophonie.
Will the minister commit to not tripling the Canadian population to 100 million by 2100?
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- May/9/23 2:39:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is very interesting.
It is clear that the hon. member has read the McKinsey plan and the Century Initiative plan. It is equally clear that he has not read the Government of Canada's plan. If he is interested in reading that plan, as I am and as our government is, I can easily send him an email with the chapter on francophone immigration after question period.
I have one priority: to increase the number of francophone newcomers and support minority francophone communities while growing the economy.
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- May/9/23 2:40:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of a housing crisis.
It is virtually impossible for people in Quebec to find affordable housing. Three weeks ago, the National Housing Council stated that, although the federal government has built 115,000 units, Canada has lost a jaw-dropping 550,000 affordable housing units over the past 10 years. We are moving backward, not forward. For every new affordable housing unit, we lose five.
Before any talk about tripling the population, is there a single MP on the government side who has thought about where all those people are going to live?
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- May/9/23 2:41:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question.
It is very important to understand that immigration is actually one of the tools among a number of tools in our toolset that we use to address the skills and labour shortage within the construction and building trades sector to actually build housing for Canadians.
I would invite my hon. colleague to look at our national housing strategy, the housing accelerator fund, the results we have delivered through programs like the rapid housing initiative and the Canada housing benefit to see the real effects on the ground to deliver more safe and affordable housing for Canadians.
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- May/9/23 2:41:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, according to a constituent, he makes a decent living of around $70,000 and lives within his means with no credit card debt, yet he and his wife are struggling. He states that there are no extras for the family, so they cannot afford the Liberal way of living and shelling out more and more.
This is a common cry from Canadians. However, the Prime Minister is too busy on vacations to listen to Canadians who are struggling. Will the Prime Minister land his plane and start doing his job?
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Mr. Speaker, as the minister for Alberta, I would like to take a moment to thank first responders across the country, and Canadians from coast to coast to coast, for working with Alberta and coming to support us as we face the crisis with the forest fires.
On the substantive issue of affordability, our government has introduced targeted measures to make life more affordable. Today, I was at the Senate finance committee, where we asked the senators to pass Bill C-46. They have done so, and it is now in front of the Senate for third reading.
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- May/9/23 2:42:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, government policies have made life more unaffordable. They are not working for Canadians who are struggling or for seniors on fixed incomes.
The Prime Minister does not understand that 41¢ per litre being added to heat, gas and food does drive up the cost of living. Seniors' budgets do not have that flexibility. Why is the Prime Minister making life harder for seniors who are already struggling?
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- May/9/23 2:43:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, since 2015, we have been there, supporting Canadians, including seniors, by lowering the age of retirement back to 65; strengthening the guaranteed income supplement, which has helped over hundreds of thousands of seniors and has lifted 45,000 seniors out of poverty; and enhancing the Canada pension plan. All these measures, by the way, were opposed by the party opposite.
Budget 2023 continues to support seniors. Our new grocery rebate will put more money in their pockets. Our new dental care plan will give them the dental care they need. We are here, delivering for Canadians. The Conservatives can just say things that make no sense, but we are here, delivering.
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- May/9/23 2:44:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my constituents are sick of the Prime Minister's hypocrisy. With Alberta's average monthly salary at $5,000 a month, many struggle to make ends meet while the Prime Minister spends more than that for a one-night hotel stay. It was $6,000 for one night. His poor decisions demonstrate just how out of touch he really is with the average Canadian.
Why does the Prime Minister make Canadians pay for his lavish travel while they continue to struggle?
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- May/9/23 2:44:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I greatly sympathize, obviously, as we all do, with Canadians. At a time of global uncertainty, with global inflation and the challenges it poses, they are expecting action. That is why they expect the facts to be presented to them, just as the action we are taking to help them should be fairly presented. The member opposite talked about the night the Prime Minister spent to commemorate the Queen's death and to be there. As I have iterated before, the fact is that there was security in that room. There was more than one room. They misrepresent facts, and unfortunately, they continue to be personally focused on the Prime Minister.
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- May/9/23 2:45:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is more out of touch than ever.
Canadians are struggling. Everything costs more: food, housing, heating. Meanwhile, he keeps going on luxury vacations and spending recklessly. He refuses to listen to anyone, not even his own party members, who tried in vain this weekend to convince him to balance the budget.
Will the Prime Minister get his act together and put an end to his ill-advised policies that are poisoning Canadians' lives?
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- May/9/23 2:46:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the Conservatives for underscoring just how wonderful our Liberal convention was. It was held here in Ottawa, and it was a great chance to gather together with Liberals from coast to coast to coast.
The facts show that Canada has the lowest deficit and the strongest economy of any G7 country. Our government is there to support Canadians.
The Conservatives oppose what we are doing, yet we are delivering results. This is our duty as Liberals.
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- May/9/23 2:46:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is one of the neighbourhoods hardest hit by Montreal's housing crisis.
However, the Liberal member for this riding, who is also the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Housing, refuses to meet with the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve housing committee. Not only that, but she has not provided the organization with any Canada summer jobs positions that would enable it to help renters in the parliamentary secretary's riding.
The Liberals claim that solving the housing crisis is a priority, but their actions say otherwise. When will the Liberals address the housing crisis with the urgency it deserves?
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- May/9/23 2:47:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to make housing more affordable for Canadians, we have to build more housing faster.
That is why we are making unprecedented investments to quickly increase the supply of housing and put Canada on track to double the rate of housing construction over the next decade. That is what the federal government's housing plan looks like.
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- May/9/23 2:47:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government announced some funding for indigenous shelters and transitional homes that it first promised two years ago. No shovels are in the ground yet, and it could take years before the money is spent. MPs declared the crisis of MMIWG2S an emergency, yet the Liberals have only spent 5% of the violence prevention strategy funding since 2020, plus they are cutting $150 million from women's shelters in September.
Why are the Liberals not acting with the urgency this crisis deserves? Will they reverse the cut to women's shelters?
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