44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 21, 2023 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, if I were eating in a restaurant, my server brought out a dish and maybe there were a couple of hairs or a fly in there, and I would send it back, I would not say to sprinkle some cheese on it and it would be fine. I would ask that the meal be tossed and that a new meal be brought to me. The same is true with the bill. Let us toss it, let us restart and let us get it right.
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Uqaqtittiji, there was a portion of the member's intervention where she described Nunavut to a tee. Because of the lack of investments that have been made in Nunavut, our economic opportunities have been well below the rest of Canada. Ports are an important opportunity for Nunavummiut to be part of generating and contributing to Canada's economy. With climate change, we have seen the Northwest Passage opening up a lot of traffic and therefore there is the need for more ports to be established in the Arctic region.
I wonder if the member agrees that when the bill comes to committee, we need to ensure there are witnesses called from the Arctic to ensure that Nunavut's unique needs will be met through the bill.
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Mr. Speaker, I have had the opportunity to visit Nunavut and 11 of its remote communities. It was an absolutely spectacular opportunity. I walked away with such an appreciation for the vastness of the north, and the uniqueness and specialness of that area.
One of the things I observed, and she is drawing attention to it, was the lack of access to goods and resources. It is putting those who call Nunavut home at a significant disadvantage compared to the rest of the country.
The whole vision behind national infrastructure, in particular the railroad and the ports, was to unite the country and give us equal access to goods, both in and out. I absolutely believe that we should be bringing witnesses forward who can testify to the fact that Nunavut has been underserved and that changes are needed in order to do better for the sake of our unity as a nation.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to join the debate today on Bill C-33, the strengthening the port system and railway safety in Canada act.
The parliamentary secretary asked a great question about how we could fix this bill once it went to committee. Being on the Standing Committee on Agriculture, the bill was very interesting to me, especially being from Saskatchewan where we are landlocked. The railways are an important mode of transportation for our commodities. It is a bit disappointing that this has missed the mark in improving the efficiency of the railway system and ports.
I will talk about agriculture for most of this speech, because it is interconnected between agriculture and our supply chains in our transportation system.
Like most of us did, I had a lot of time this summer to go around the riding and visit folks. I was able to get the member for Thornhill out to Regina this summer, and we got her on a combine. We were combining lentils just outside of Regina. We were also able to get the chief superintendent from the Depot Division, F division, on a combine as well. That day we were combining durum.
What these all have in common is that once they go from the field to the combine to the bins, the next step is to get them to the port. That is the transportation system we have in the country.
The thing that happens so often, almost like clockwork every winter, is a slowdown of the trains because they cannot pull as many cars because of the cold weather. We really need to focus on this and have more options available to get our commodities to market. We have heard this time and time again from producers across Saskatchewan and the Prairies.
I know my friend from Red Deer—Lacombe would hear many of the same complaints from producers and from the agriculture sector as a whole. They are very good at getting their yields off the field; the problem is getting them to port.
My colleague, the member for Lethbridge said it very well, that one of the aspects we were looking to strengthen is the efficiency of the port system. Not being able to load grain cars and ships in the rain in Vancouver is a substantial problem. This could have been addressed in this legislation to strengthen it.
Bill C-33 would amend seven existing laws, including the Canadian Marine Act, the Customs Act, the Canada Transportation Act, the Railway Safety Act, the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, the Marine Transportation Security Act and the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada.
My colleague from Lethbridge talked about the ever-increasing bureaucracy and red tape that was added in this current iteration of Bill C-33. We do not need more red tape when it comes to our ports. I think everyone in this chamber would agree that we have to be more efficient at transporting our goods. Canada is an exporting economy. We see that now more than ever in Saskatchewan.
We have some big players in Saskatchewan. The head office of Viterra in Saskatchewan. I talked to its CEO and he put it very clearly that we needed more efficiency at the Port of Vancouver. We did talk about this bill a little this summer when we ran into each other. He was looking forward to seeing what was in it. I had a chance to give him a call the other day and he was quite disappointed. In fact, many stakeholders have been disappointed in what this bill has provided so far.
Some of the people who were not consulted on the bill were CP Rail, the Association of Canadian Port Authorities, Canadian Marine Pilots, Western Grain Elevator Association, Port Nanaimo, Canadian Canola Growers, Global Container Terminals and the Chamber of Shipping.
One of the comments from CP Rail was that after working on this for four years that it was a whole bunch of nothing. That is one of our main stakeholders with regard to the bill. When one asks what could be done better, we could have a conversation with CP on how this bill could be improved. I hope CP Rail representatives are on the witness list when we get this to committee.
Another one of the people who could be consulted is a man from Saskatchewan, Murad Al-Katib of AGT Foods. This company transports and ships across the world. One thing he says is that getting container ships is a difficult thing to do in Canada.
What we could do is have conversations with the people on the ground who need the railway system improved. One thing I would like is to have the witness list include some of these people when this legislation comes to committee, people like Murad Al-Katib and companies like Viterra. These people have used the port system.
The Port of Vancouver is the gateway to the world for us as exporters. There are efficiencies we could improve on, obviously. Like I said earlier in my speech, we really need to be able to load grain cars in all weather. We have to do it safely, of course, but we need to be able to do it in all kinds of weather.
When we are trying to get our goods to market, in talking to the railways about the huge inefficiencies, another thing we could do is get some pipelines built. If we take some oil cars off the railways, then we would have the ability to actually ship more grain on a daily basis.
When it comes to Saskatchewan, and my colleague from Alberta agrees, there is no more efficient way to ship oil than through a pipeline. We have seen through other legislation like Bill C-69, the no-more-pipelines act, that we cannot get things built in this country.
When we talk about the overall vision for infrastructure across this country, that vision needs to include more pipelines being built to get oil from west to east. We do not have those conversations. There needs to be infrastructure debate in this chamber about how we are going to move forward into the 21st century. This also includes building pipelines. It includes the electricity grid as well, because we need to become more efficient when it comes to shipping materials across our beautiful country.
One of the other things I found very interesting is some of the amendments and the impacts they would have on the ports, such as the proposed amendment to expand Canadian port authorities' mandate over traffic management, including vessels moored or anchored. We talk about expanding the port authorities' mandate. Have we had that discussion with the port authorities? Do we know if they have the capacity to even expand that mandate? That is the question I have for the parliamentary secretary, and hopefully we can get that answered when we are in committee.
Another question I have is on enabling the development of inland terminals. Have they talked to some of the proponents that would be building and expanding these terminals and what they need to see in this legislation?
Another amendment would be to streamline the review process for port authorities' borrowing. Obviously, that is something we could have a conversation about and discuss in committee as well. On establishing new regulatory authorities to oversee Canada's marine security framework, whenever there is talk about expanding authorities, I would like to have conversations on what that means to shippers and distributers across the country.
I would also like to have the conversation about how we are going to be able to get goods then across the ocean. We talk about getting to the port. We also need more efficiency when it comes to having the ability to load ships with grain. We need to be building more capacity to ship LNG. We have had Germany and Japan come to our country and ask for help when it comes to LNG. One of the reasons we cannot do it is because we do not have the capacity to load these vessels to get the LNG to different areas of the world. That is a conversation we should be having as well.
The United States built five, six or seven LNG terminals over the last three or four years and we have built nothing. We have become a country where it is almost impossible to build infrastructure under the current government. People want to be able to invest in our country, but the goalposts keep moving on when we can actually get something built. We are then really having trouble attracting foreign investment to our country because they do not see how we would have the capacity to export.
We have lost hundreds of billions of dollars in this country over the last eight years because of investment flowing from Canada straight to the United States. This is because investors believe our infrastructure is not sufficient to be able to transport the goods they want to produce in our country.
We have a wealth of natural resources and we do not have the ability to get those resources to port and then to the destination after that. Therefore, this bill, unfortunately, misses the mark in trying to create more efficiencies at the Port of Vancouver. It misses the mark and increases our capacity on the railways. For that reason and many reasons, after reaching out to stakeholders, they do not like the bill, we do not like it either and we will be voting against it.
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Mr. Speaker, I have to give some credit to the member for Regina—Lewvan for really engaging, and I think that is the whole point of the process. Now that the bill is going to pass at second reading and go to committee, we are now going to have the opportunity to engage. I take, with great respect, a lot of the comments that he made and a lot of ideas that gave, and I am hoping he can bring those to committee and/or at least pass them on to me so I can bring them to committee.
At the end of the day, what we are trying to do here is all about leveraging government investments. I know in my riding, for example, we were able to leverage $175 million for a project where the private sector and government got together and made the projects happen.
The last thing I want to mention in leading to my question is that one does not work in isolation of the other. Whether it is a ports modernization study, whether it is a St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation review, whether it is a supply chain review, they all work together and are fluid.
With all that the member has proposed and brought to the attention of the House, does he intend to bring it to the committee and be part of the process so that this legislation would do exactly what it is intended to do?
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Yes, Mr. Speaker, we will be bringing some of our ideas to committee, either by me, if I can sub in, or through my wonderful colleagues who are on the committee that this bill will be going to.
I appreciate the ability to add to the witness list because there are a lot of agriculture stakeholders who need to be consulted about this legislation and amendments need to be proposed to make it better. My hope is that when the witnesses and experts in the field of transportation come to committee to talk about what was missed in this bill, our colleagues from the Liberals and NDP will listen and not just shoot down their ideas.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk a bit about history. In 1913, the National Transcontinental Railway was completed a few kilometres from Senneterre. Today, we are talking about rail safety, tracks that are too old throughout my riding and Quebec, safety concerns with the transportation of goods, gaps and red tape.
What does my colleague think about a secure area to reduce port congestion?
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Mr. Speaker, many of us can have conversations about aging infrastructure in our ridings across the country. Something that has been overlooked in the last eight years is putting money into infrastructure, especially in transportation, in almost all aspects. We should have the conversation around adding more money to infrastructure.
The government is very good at wasting money on pet projects, but when it comes to putting money into infrastructure, it has failed miserably. We have seen the Asian infrastructure bank fail, we have seen the Canada Infrastructure Bank fail and not build one project. I think all of us should be able to bring forward infrastructure projects in every riding. There are 338 ridings across the country where the government could put money into something that will actually help Canadians and stop wasting money on pet projects.
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Mr. Speaker, I listened to my hon. colleague say the old Conservative mantra that they are going to build pipelines, pipelines, pipelines. I was reading the indictment of the people of California against ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, Conoco, Phillips, and it says:
Rather than warn consumers, the public, and governments, however, Defendants—
That is big oil:
—mounted a disinformation campaign beginning at least as early as the 1970s to discredit the burgeoning scientific consensus on climate change; deny their own knowledge of climate change-related threats; create doubt in the minds of consumers...
...Defendants have promoted and/or profited from the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels...
This has forced the state of California and the people of the world to pay for the damages. What we are seeing is the big tobacco moment.
My hon. colleague is saying big tobacco and big oil will continue to pollute the planet and it will be good. I would suggest that he read the indictment from the state of California against all the big five oil companies that knowingly discredited climate science and are knowingly destroying our planet.
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Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that the member is catching up on California law and the state of California. Our leader has been going to Timmins—James Bay so often. We are getting so much support, and there will be a Conservative member. He could actually retire in California after the next election.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the speech my colleague just made addressing some of the challenges that are faced, certainly when it comes to Bill C-33.
There are some significant trade challenges that the prairie provinces are facing when it comes to getting our commodities to market. I know some of the trade challenges are starting to make headline news.
I am wondering if my friend and colleague from Regina—Lewvan would be able to comment on that.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's comment. Obviously he knows a lot about agriculture.
We are having huge issues getting our goods to market. I am looking forward to hearing his speech in the not-too-distant future on how we could help make sure our agricultural producers are supported and how we could help them get their goods to market.
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- Sep/21/23 1:59:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, Jina Mahsa Amini would have celebrated her 23rd birthday. Now, we are commemorating her passing.
A year has passed since the tragic murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, but her story and the names of countless others reverberate through the hearts of Iranians everywhere. Today, on the remembrance of her birthday, we reunite in commemorating her life, amplifying the Iranian people's persistent call for freedom and an end to such violence.
The global community has heard this call, and Canada has stood vigilant, watched, listened and responded to the evolving circumstances with more and more strict sanctions, as their pain is our pain, and their fight is our fight. This journey is one with promise, as we move towards a future where voices resonant freely and where rights are unassailable.
From the floor of the Canadian House of Commons to all Iranians in Iran and across the world, our message is clear: Canada stands with them today and always.
Women, life, freedom. Zan, zendegi, azadi.
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- Sep/21/23 2:00:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the wildfires in my province of British Columbia have been absolutely devastating.
Sadly, yesterday, we learned that four more young firefighter lives were lost. They were driving home through Walhachin, B.C., after battling fires in my riding of Cariboo—Prince George. Their deaths are another stark reminder of the sacrifices these brave men and women make every day. Our hearts are absolutely broken by the news, and our thoughts are with their families, friends and colleagues.
Real heroes do not wear capes. They do not have super powers, and they do not drive fancy vehicles. Real heroes get up each and every morning, put on their uniforms and step out the door. They wear shirts with patches on them that say, “paramedic”, “ambulance”, “firefighter”, “police”, “RCMP”, “doctor” or “nurse”. They step into harm's way just to protect us.
We must remember why we were sent here, which is to make life better for Canadians and to protect those who protect us. We must never take their service for granted.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who have fallen, and to those who are still standing strong. I thank them for their service.
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- Sep/21/23 2:02:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I spent my summer knocking on constituents' doors, connecting with them at community events, and visiting their small businesses and local organizations that are making a positive impact on the lives of many Frederictonians.
As a member of Parliament, my duty is to bring their voices and concerns to Ottawa to represent them to the best of my abilities and fight to ensure their needs are met. At a time when global inflation has driven up the cost of necessities such as groceries and housing, people are worried about their families. That is why I am focused on bringing forward solutions.
We are taking action to build homes more quickly, drive down the cost of housing, stabilize the cost of groceries and support families at a time when they need it the most by implementing universal $10-a-day child care. We are removing the goods and services tax on the construction of new apartment buildings for renters, and we are helping small businesses stay afloat by extending the CEBA loan repayment deadline. These are immediate, targeted measures to provide relief.
I am so proud to be part of a team that invests in the well-being of all Canadians. There is always more work to do to build a more inclusive, equitable Canada where everyone can thrive, and we are ready to face these challenges together.
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- Sep/21/23 2:03:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what do Jean Leloup, Pierre Lapointe and the member for Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix have in common? They have all participated in the Granby International Song Festival, also known by its French acronym, FICG.
This summer, the FICG celebrated its 55th anniversary. For the occasion, the team decided to rename the top prize “Fabienne” in honour of one of its most illustrious winners, singer Fabienne Thibeault.
The festival has a well-earned reputation for promoting the French language. We need only think of all the francophone artists who have performed there over the years. With such original ideas as the young songwriter contest and the country music weekend, the festival raises the profile of not only the region, but also francophone music and culture as a whole, even on the international stage.
As a friend and admirer of the FICG, I would like to congratulate Josée, Erick-Louis and the entire festival team on their excellent work, and I wish the Granby International Song Festival many more years of success.
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- Sep/21/23 2:04:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa—Vanier as it celebrates its 150th anniversary. Beechwood Cemetery is the National Cemetery of Canada, the National Military Cemetery and the RCMP National Memorial Cemetery. It is entrusted with the duty of honouring the memory of those who have gone before us and commemorating our heritage for future generations.
Since 1873, Beechwood Cemetery has been an important landmark for both Canada and the city of Ottawa, with a long-standing focus on community, dignity and remembrance.
In addition, with the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, Beechwood Cemetery has highlighted the true nature of the impact that individuals buried in the cemetery have had on indigenous peoples in Canada.
Beechwood Cemetery is the final resting place of many distinguished Canadians, including Robert Borden, Tommy Douglas, Ray Hnatyshyn and my predecessor Mauril Bélanger.
I invite all members of the House to visit the Beechwood Cemetery, an important and symbolic place, to join me in celebrating its 150th anniversary.
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- Sep/21/23 2:05:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I stand today to remember the second anniversary of the horrific murders of 16-month-old Noah McConnell and his mother, Mchale Busch. On September 16, 2021, a registered, repeat sex offender took their lives and altered the life of Cody McConnell, father and fiancé. Because of this devastating act, Cody has pushed for changes that would mean no one else has to suffer what he went through and continues to go through every day.
Along with presenting my private member’s bill, Noah’s Law, petition e-4460 was created by the member for Red Deer—Lacombe. The petition calls upon the government to impose stronger conditions against those sex offenders who are highly likely to repeat. The deadline to sign this petition is this Saturday, September 23, and I encourage all Canadians to sign the petition.
Let us work to empower the most vulnerable and prevent this from ever happening again.
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- Sep/21/23 2:06:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to start by wishing my wife, Brenda Louis, a very happy anniversary today. Brenda's support and belief in me is why I am here in the House today.
It is fall fair season in Kitchener—Conestoga. Our community has welcomed back the Wellesley Township Fall Fair, the New Hamburg Fall Fair and the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival. Fairs bring us a sense of nostalgia while connecting us with our roots and the values of hard work and community, which have defined Canadians for generations. They help build connections between urban and rural communities, bridging the gap between farms and cities. By showcasing the hard work and dedication of our farmers, fairs help raise awareness about the importance of agriculture and help inspire our next generation of farmers.
My thanks to the volunteers, boards and agricultural societies for their dedication and perseverance. I will be joining friends and flipping pancakes at the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival on Saturday, September 30. Everyone is invited. I hope to see everyone there.
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- Sep/21/23 2:07:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in August I had the privilege of leading a delegation of defence committee members to Europe.
In the U.K., we saw Canadian soldiers teaching Ukrainian recruits how to navigate minefields without blowing themselves up. These young men will shortly be on the battlefield to defend Ukraine against the murderous thugs of Putin's invasion of western Ukraine.
In Latvia, we visited the Canadian-led enhanced forward presence. which coordinates a complex operation of multiple other nations, languages and operating procedures. We also visited the very impressive UN cybersecurity centre, which briefed us on cognitive warfare.
In Estonia, we visited with and were briefed by British troops and Estonian officials. In Poland, the Americans showed us their huge military presence close to the Russian and Belarusian borders.
Mere months ago, none of this was necessary. Now, it is very necessary. All of the delegation wishes Canadians could see our very impressive military men and women in action.
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