44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 19, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/19/23 10:28:15 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to present a petition signed by people from across the country who are concerned about comments that Louis Roy of Quebec's College of Physicians made at committee around babies from birth to one year of age being eligible for euthanasia.
The citizens who signed this petition, residents of Canada, call on the Government of Canada to block any attempt to allow the killing of children by euthanasia.
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- Oct/19/23 10:28:58 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am also presenting a petition this morning from petitioners from across the country who are concerned about the deteriorating human rights protections in India. They are calling on the Government of Canada to protect human rights. They note that Christians, Muslims, and members of Dalit and Sikh groups are being subjected to assault and sexual violence, and their places of worship are being vandalized and threatened.
The petitioners are asking that the Government of Canada ensure that all trade deals with India are premised on mandatory human rights provisions, that extremists are sanctioned and that the government promote a respectful human rights dialogue between Canada and India.
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- Oct/19/23 10:29:39 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be tabling two petitions today.
After eight years, it is clear that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost and his priorities are not aligned with those of Canadians according to these petitioners.
The petitioners raise concerns about the government prioritizing spending on bureaucracy, consultants and waste over a vital area of need for Canadians, which is supporting women's shelters. Petitioners identify the fact that women's shelters are sadly seeing an increased demand. The high cost of living and the housing crisis have made it harder for women and children fleeing violent homes to find a safe place to live.
Petitioners note that at a time when the Liberal government is dramatically increasing spending on bureaucracy and consultants, it is, in fact, cutting $145 million of funding for women's shelters. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to restore funding for women's shelters.
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- Oct/19/23 10:31:42 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition that I am tabling deals with instances where the Prime Minister, in particular, has tried to interfere in areas of provincial jurisdiction that relate to the rights of parents to make decisions and be involved in conversations about important aspects of their children's lives. In particular, we have seen this attempted interference in the case of New Brunswick where the leader of the opposition, the Conservative leader, called on the Prime Minister to butt out of decisions that should properly be made by provinces and parents.
Petitioners note that in the vast majority of cases, parents care about the well-being of their children and love them much more than any state-run institution. The role of government is to support families and respect parents, not to dictate how they make decisions for their children.
The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to butt out and let parents raise their own children.
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- Oct/19/23 10:31:52 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand at this time.
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- Oct/19/23 10:31:57 a.m.
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Is that agreed?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
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moved:
That, in relation to Bill C-50, an act respecting accountability, transparency and engagement to support the creation of sustainable jobs for workers and economic growth in a net-zero economy, not more than one further sitting day shall be allotted to the consideration at second reading stage of the Bill; and
That, 15 minutes before the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders on the day allotted to the consideration at second reading stage of the said Bill, any proceedings before the House shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this Order, and, in turn, every question necessary for the disposal of the said stage of the Bill shall be put forthwith and successively, without further debate or amendment.
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- Oct/19/23 10:33:43 a.m.
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Pursuant to Standing Order 67.1, there will now be a 30-minute question period. I invite hon. members who wish to ask questions to rise in their place or use the “raise hand” function so the Chair has some idea of the number of members who wish to participate in the question period.
Questions and comments, the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.
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Mr. Speaker, the government has, in the eight years I have been here, gone on about court decisions, yet we have seen in the last week how it has been completely slapped down by the Supreme Court for showing a flagrant disregard for provincial jurisdiction. It has no regard for how our Constitution is supposed to work as it relates to natural resources and provincial responsibility, yet it is bringing in time allocation to rush through aspects of its extreme anti-energy agenda, even at a time when the Supreme Court has clearly said it has overstepped.
Why will the government not take a pause and listen to not only parliamentarians, but also the Supreme Court instead of ramming through its unconstitutional anti-energy agenda?
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Mr. Speaker, the pearl-clutching.
If the members on the other side had not moved concurrence, maybe we could have been debating this last night. However, they used procedural games to avoid debate, and here we are happy to take questions on a very important matter.
I would also take issue with the fact that the Supreme Court, in its opinion, did a slam dunk or that a fulsome 100% judgment was rendered from the other side. It did not. It actually gave a very thoughtful opinion on where the federal government and the provincial governments should work together on matters of jurisdiction.
I can say that we took it, as we should, very seriously and will be looking at amendments we can making in order to make sure it complies with the rendering that came from the Supreme Court last week.
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Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times in this House, there seems to be two block parties in the House of Commons: the Bloc Québécois and the block everything party. That party is the Conservatives, who block every piece of legislation and refuse to move them forward. They blocked dental care. They blocked everything that provides supports for Canadians.
In this case, of course, I guess there is some weird logic, because they hate clean energy. We have certainly seen that in Alberta where Danielle Smith has ripped up the clean energy sector, costing thousands of jobs. Therefore, legislation that actually helps to support that clean energy sector, creates new jobs for workers and also ensures that workers have a seat at the table is anathema to the Conservatives. Of course, they love bankers and CEOs, but they seem to hate workers, seniors and anybody who really benefits.
Through you to my colleague, is that really why the Conservatives, yet again, have blocked this type of legislation that actually benefits workers and Canadians?
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Mr. Speaker, I do not want to enter into the psychology of the Conservative Party. Therefore, I thank the hon. member for the question, but I will refuse the attempt.
Let me just say this. I would like to comment on his last point, if I could, as that is really what is at the heart of what we are proposing to do here.
Energy workers, oil and gas workers, should not just have a seat at the table, but should be leading that table. The problem is that for far too long concurrent governments, and I would argue ours, have left them out of the debate. They need to not just be a part of that debate, but to lead it.
I have skin in the game. My constituents are oil and gas workers. We have built a very proud offshore industry off the coast of Newfoundland. When they hear talk about change, tumult, and things that are exaggerated on social media like there is some master plan that is being made up in some star chamber, they get nervous necessarily. What we are saying with this legislation is that we are putting them at the table as decisions are made to best prepare them for a future that is happening now.
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Mr. Speaker, I was supposed to rise today to debate Bill C‑50, an important bill that, in fact, was originally to have been named the “just transition act”. For reasons unknown to me, the government seems to be afraid of using this expression, even though it is recognized internationally. It was created by the unions and approved by the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and even the European Union. Everyone in the transition, biodiversity protection and other fields uses the expression.
We have questions. The Bloc Québécois has had only one opportunity to speak, and here we are on day two of the debate. Why is the government unwilling to let us debate Bill C‑50?
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Mr. Speaker, let me speak to the hon. member's mentioning of the phrase “just transition.” There is a very simple reason why I do not like using “just transition” and it is because workers hate the phrase “just transition”.
I do recognize that the International Labour Organization created it. I understand that it did come from the labour movement. However, it does not speak to the people who I represent, and it does not speak to the people who work in the oil and gas industry or the energy industry as a whole. It does not speak to them.
We need these workers onside. We need them to lower emissions in the oil and gas industry because they are the only ones who know how to do it. We need them to build the renewables because they are the only ones who know how to do it. There may be certain phrases that get in the way of them doing that work or continuing to work in that industry, and building those things and doing those things is way more important to me than complying with the conjecture or the phraseology of Geneva.
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Mr. Speaker, this is such important legislation for sustainable jobs. It is about building our economic future as a country.
I was wondering if the Minister of Labour could talk to us a little about the importance of making sure that workers are at the centre of the work that we are doing, and how we have made sure, through this bill and the work that we have been doing generally with labour, that workers' voices are being heard, listened to and included.
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Mr. Speaker, this is very much a process, and process can be incredibly important.
I do not want to presuppose what workers are going to say about how they want to get this done. I have talked to a lot of oil and gas workers, both in my constituency and in my time as natural resources minister. Even through COVID, I still spent a lot of time talking to oil and gas workers in Alberta and Saskatchewan, even if it was by Zoom. They all said the same thing. There was a great nervousness about plans being made and them not being at the table.
I made it very clear that, with this legislation, the whole point of the bill is to make sure that they are at the table, to make sure that they can lead the table, and that we are working with them to make sure that the training opportunities are there for them to avail themselves of all sorts of things. There is carbon capture sequestration, for instance, within the oil and gas industry, even on pipelines themselves. It is so important that we know where and when to tighten the nuts and bolts on a pipeline to make sure the methane does not leak. These are all very important things.
These are the only people who know how to do this work. Consecutive governments have spent too much time putting them in the margins of this debate, putting them in the margins of the hard work that needs to be done when they have to be at the centre of it because they are the only ones who know how to do it.
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Mr. Speaker, one thing that is abundantly clear after eight years is that the Liberal government loves to build bureaucracy but not actually build jobs and options for workers.
When we look at this bill, we have a stable jobs partnership council, a sustainable jobs secretariat and a sustainable jobs action plan. We lost a couple of years because of COVID. The government did nothing with that. We see in the bill that all the government would do is create another process where it could reward more of their friends with positions on councils and secretariats with fancy titles. It is not going to be the people working in Coronach, Rockglen or Kindersley, Saskatchewan, in Alberta or in the places that actually matter, those who are actually going to be impacted and affected by this.
What assurance is the government going to give people that it will get it right, and make sure it is only people in the sector, and not people from the Laurentian elite or the downtown Toronto core, who are going to be sitting on the secretariat?
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Mr. Speaker, when I look at the other side, I am looking at the kings of red tape when it comes to energy production. One of the first things I was so happy to do was with respect to exploratory well environmental assessments on our offshore, off Newfoundland. The assessments were at 300 days per exploratory well until the Conservatives got in power and somehow magically found a way to triple that time to 900 days to make an exploratory well, which is a simple drill that goes into the sea bed to see if there is oil there. They put it in the same category as Hibernia and as Hebron, both full platforms. The Conservatives did not even get time to amend it. Maybe they did not care.
We did not want mistakes like that. One of the best parts of the much-maligned Environmental Assessment Agency is that it is able to do regional assessments. We were able to do one for the Newfoundland offshore, and we were able to reduce that time, as a result of looking at the entire basin, from the Conservatives' 900 days to our 90 days, as it should be.
That is because we paid attention to what people are doing on the ground, and it is one of those few occasions where, in 90 days instead of 900 days, we increased environmental oversight because we were looking at the entire basin and not just one item after another after another, consecutive duplicative red tape that the Conservatives managed to put in the way of our offshore.
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Mr. Speaker, on October 5, 2023, for the second reading of Bill S-12, an act to amend the Criminal Code, the Sex Offender Information Registration Act and the International Transfer of Offenders Act, I voted on the voting app. The voting app sent me a confirmation whereas the picture had not gone through. Therefore, I ask the House to give unanimous consent to vote yea.
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Is it agreed?
Some hon. members: Agreed
Continuing with questions and comments, the hon. member for Jonquière has the floor.
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