SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23

Jun/13/23 12:35:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the beauty of the various programs under our national housing strategy is that each one of them is making an impact. I am from Ottawa, as Nepean is part of Ottawa, and almost every single program of the federal government is making a major impact on providing affordable housing and affordable rental units to the people in Ottawa. As I said, we also have to focus on how we can improve housing starts.

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Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23

Ms. Anju Dhillon (Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, Lib.)

Jun/13/23 3:06:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, was in Montreal yesterday to announce a significant contribution to social finance, not only for Quebec, but also for the rest of Canada. Can the minister tell us more about how the social finance fund will help increase the positive impact that social purpose organizations have on our society?

61 words

Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/14/23

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Jun/14/23 12:56:28 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising tonight in Adjournment Proceedings, at a later time than usual, with it being just about one o'clock in the morning, to follow up on a question I asked in question period on April 27. Just before Earth Day, the Government of Canada approved a massive nature-destroying project, a controversial one that has been fought by British Columbians since 2013 when it was first put forward. It is called the Roberts Bank terminal expansion. I asked the hon. Minister of Transport how it could be justified, with the opposition and the clarity the environmental impact assessment, itself, found, and it is very rare to get such strong language from an environmental assessment review, that there would be significant and irreversible adverse effects that threaten the survival of a number of species. Still, as the Minister of Transport explained, the project was approved because it had 370 binding conditions, and somehow this devastating project was going to be magically purified through those conditions. I also included in my question my favourite of the conditions, number 14.7.1, which requires that they paint the cranes to be used at this massive port expansion in a colour that is compatible with the surrounding landscapes. The minister responded that there were other conditions as well. I have gone through all those conditions, and there is no doubt that this project threatens the survival of numerous endangered species. The Fraser River estuary is rich in biodiversity, and the environmental assessment points to numerous endangered species with 102 species at risk. The findings of the environmental impact assessment were so strong that many people did not think the Government of Canada would approve the project. The Minister of Transport responded to my question that day, April 27. I do not think the Minister of Transport knew what an obscene and grotesque thing he was saying because I do not think that those at the ministerial level actually read the environmental assessment report to know how bad this thing is. It is a $3.5-billion project, and it is going to add $3 billion in added GDP, so what are a few species when we really come down to it? This is an absolute violation of everything the government says it stands for. The Minister of Transport, in the aforementioned obscene thing, said, “the economy and the environment go hand in hand.” No, the economy goes to the bank. The species at risk go to their graves. This will cause species at risk to go extinct. Besides the very endangered southern resident killer whales, besides the endangered salmon and so many species, I want to mention one in particular because it is so clear that it cannot be moved somewhere else. One of the conditions says that the people are going to find places in mud flats to create more food for this particular species, the western sandpiper. It has a very interesting, almost hairy tongue that manages to get into something called “biofilm” and gets all its nutrients from that. Over 3.5 million western sandpipers, which makes it look like it could not be endangered, but that is the whole global population, stop at some point every single year on Roberts Bank. The biofilm is specific to that area. People cannot move it around. Experts say they cannot move this bird around, so “endangered” mean nothing to the government when its eyes are flashing with dollar signs.

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