44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 29, 2023 11:00AM
- May/29/23 2:27:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what we have seen is that members of the party opposite, which once recognized David Johnston not only as an outstanding Canadian but also as somebody worthy of being the Governor General of this country, appointed under Stephen Harper, now, because his report does not conform to the party's politics and does not conform to its political interests, are attacking and maligning his character. This is part of a pattern of the party opposite. It is more interested in politics. It is more interested in making partisan points than it is in the facts on the ground.
There is not a member of the House who does not stand strongly and firmly in support of democracy and against those—
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- May/29/23 2:34:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I quote: “Mr. Johnston has a strong record of public service, a broad base of support and an impressive list of achievements. He has extensive legal expertise, a comprehensive understanding of government and a deep appreciation of the duties and tasks now before him.... David Johnston represents the best of Canada.” That was said by Stephen Harper.
It is interesting that somebody whom the Conservatives lifted up and venerated as one of the greatest Canadians, when he disagrees with them, suddenly is roadside trash. Suddenly, the things he says mean nothing. It is despicable, and I have great disregard for the way in which somebody—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- May/29/23 2:38:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives can continue to malign Mr. Johnston despite the fact that he has distinguished public service, which was recognized by a former Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper.
The fact is that his first report speaks for itself in its quality. It looked at the most accessible information and verified that the 2019 and 2021 elections were free and fair, and it carves out a path in order to bring Canadians along in a way in which we can protect our democratic institutions. It is solely the Conservatives who want to continue to engage in partisanship rather than defend the national interest. They should reverse course.
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- May/29/23 2:42:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps my colleague opposite should consult his former boss, Mr. Harper, the former Conservative prime minister of Canada, who asked this individual, Mr. Johnston, to serve not only as the Governor General of Canada, but also as an adviser to the former Conservative government about an issue as important as a public inquiry into the Airbus situation.
If they were confident that this individual had sufficient judgment carry out those duties, I think it is unfortunate that they have lost that confidence for partisan reasons.
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- May/29/23 6:41:13 p.m.
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- Re: Bill S-5
Madam Speaker, if former prime minister Stephen Harper had provided dollars for the infrastructure necessary, municipalities like Montreal would not necessarily have had to dump raw sewage into the water. It takes time to build the infrastructure.
Quite frankly, it is disappointing to see that the Conservative Party has changed its position on this legislation. Does the member feel any sense of remorse in voting against a bill that the Conservatives were going to vote in favour of just two weeks ago, given the principles of toxic chemicals and the right to have a healthy environment, which is something that would be established in this legislation in a substantial way?
An hon. member: Oh, oh!
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- May/29/23 8:37:25 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, that is simply not true. Canada's deficit is forecast, this year, to be 1.4%. That is low not only by world standards; it is low also by Canadian historical standards. Our debt service charges, even in this time of high interest rates, are lower than they were for most of the Harper era.
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- May/29/23 8:42:18 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, he said that the cost of servicing the debt should be no more than 10% of revenues. We are at that point.
When he was prime minister, Mr. Harper was paying more than that to service the debt.
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- May/29/23 9:01:22 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I believe that the member opposite was a staffer in the Harper government, so let us talk about the 2008 recession and the incredibly slow and painful recovery Canada made because of a government that refused to invest in Canada's recovery. I have some numbers there and I am happy to share them in future questions.
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- May/29/23 9:04:39 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I believe the member opposite is another former Harper staffer, so I want to remind him of the incredibly poor recovery his government made from the 2008 recession. We learned from that experience—
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- May/29/23 9:06:10 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, as I said, the member opposite was a staffer during the failed Harper government that engineered a very slow recovery from the 2008 recession. It took 27 months for jobs to recover. It took only 21 months for jobs to recover following the COVID recession, which was much deeper because of the historic shock of COVID. That is because of a government that did not understand the need to invest and support Canadians. Yes, we took on—
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- May/29/23 9:08:25 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the minister is obviously not very proud of the government's record. She cannot even answer some very simple questions about how much the government expects to pay on the debt that it issued. Perhaps the government was also misled by the Bank of Canada, which promised Canadians that rates would stay low.
The minister says that the government leads the G7 in growth. We are behind a bunch of countries in GDP per capita. The Liberals ran an entire election campaign saying that Harper had low growth. This is what we have here. In GDP per capita, we are behind many countries.
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- May/29/23 9:09:01 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the Harper government did have low growth. It had a remarkably lacklustre recovery from the 2008 recession. It took four months longer for GDP to recover from the 2008 recession than our recovery took from the COVID recession. It took 27 months for jobs to recover from the 2008 recession, but only 21 months after the much deeper COVID recession, and it was a shocking 110 months for the unemployment rate to—
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- May/29/23 9:37:24 p.m.
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Madam Chair, again, here is what David Dodge had to say, and I think it will be illuminating for people in the House: “because it was obsessively focused on reducing the federal deficit...the Harper government”—
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- May/29/23 9:37:51 p.m.
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Madam Chair, again, this is what David Dodge said: “The Harper government unnecessarily contributed to a slower, rather more muted recovery in Canada through to 2015”—
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- May/29/23 9:39:19 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we learned the lesson that these Conservatives have still not learned, which was that Harper economics failed us in 2008. We were not going to repeat those mistakes—
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- May/29/23 9:41:09 p.m.
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Madam Chair, how much did the Harper government's failure to support Canadians after 2008 cost—
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