44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 28, 2023 10:00AM
- Nov/28/23 3:28:26 p.m.
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Order.
There are members who have been here for quite some time and know better than to be yelling across the way. If any hon. member wishes to stand and ask questions or make comments, they should wait for the appropriate time.
The hon. deputy government House leader.
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- Nov/28/23 3:28:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, for Conservatives to do this is absolutely appalling. We do not have senators sitting in our caucus. I have been here since 2015—
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- Nov/28/23 3:28:59 p.m.
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There is a point of order from the official opposition House leader.
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- Nov/28/23 3:29:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals are desperately trying to make up a phony issue where there is none. I would like to seek unanimous consent to table this tweet that contains pictures—
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- Nov/28/23 3:29:15 p.m.
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That is a prop. I want to remind the member that he is not to point to a document. He knows that full well, having been the Speaker of the House in the past.
I would just ask members to please get to their point.
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- Nov/28/23 3:29:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am sorry. I was just looking it over, but it contains pictures of dozens—
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- Nov/28/23 3:29:40 p.m.
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The member did it during his speech. The point of order is about tabling what document?
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- Nov/28/23 3:29:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a printout of a Liberal tweet containing images—
Some hon. members: No.
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- Nov/28/23 3:29:55 p.m.
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Order.
Again, I want to remind members that in order for the House to function properly, members need to be respectful of the rules of order. Most of the members here, I know, have been here for quite some time and are very well aware of those rules. I would just ask members to please respect those who are speaking as they would like to be respected when they are speaking.
The hon. deputy government House leader.
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- Nov/28/23 3:30:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am actually more than willing to talk about what the House leader for the Conservatives just held up. That was a tweet that I put out, which had pictures of everybody who voted against Ukraine. That was the end of it; that is all I did. I did not then go on—
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- Nov/28/23 3:30:54 p.m.
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The hon. member is showing a document after I just told another hon. member that he could not use one.
The hon. deputy government House leader.
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- Nov/28/23 3:31:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the difference between that and this is that they started to granulate the pictures to make them look like a “wanted” ad with imaging around it. They actually have a call-in action here. They put the names, telephone numbers and email addresses of each particular member. That is the difference, and it is a huge difference.
I know that Conservatives are really upset right now about the turmoil they have been experiencing over the last week and a half, but it is a reality of the decisions that they have been making. I will remind the House that earlier today, I asked the Leader of the Opposition, when he stood up to speak to this, whether he condoned or condemned the actions of his House leader, who had tweeted that picture. I did not call him out by name, but now that we appear to be doing that, I will; the House leader, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, is the one who tweeted out the “wanted” picture. I asked the leader if he was okay with that, and he did not condemn it for one second—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: Madam Speaker, now his members are clapping at that. It is good to know that his members not only encourage this activity but also actually clap and applaud.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: I am holding the back of it—
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- Nov/28/23 3:32:29 p.m.
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I would ask members not to point to documentation and not to show the documentation they are referring to.
I was actually just looking for the wording of the official opposition's motion to make sure, because I do want to remind the hon. member that he is to speak to the motion. There is some flexibility, but the debate should be on the motion itself.
The hon. deputy Government House leader.
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- Nov/28/23 3:32:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am speaking to the motion. The motion is calling on the House to do something and is calling on the Senate to do something, when Conservatives are actually also calling on the Senate to do something but by using intimidating tactics. That is what we have seen, and I think I have demonstrated it well. We have heard from the other side as to how much they are willing to embrace it.
At the end of the day, it is really important to reflect on the fact that while Conservatives will use issue after issue to try to pivot themselves out of the corner they have boxed themselves into over the last week and a half, the reality is that Canadians are starting to wake up to the politics of the Conservatives. Canadians are starting to realize exactly what the Conservatives are up to, what they are willing to do and the lengths they will go to, which include making “wanted” posters of senators and distributing them online, through social media forums in order to elicit and generate a reaction, which clearly has occurred. Perhaps it is not the reaction they were thinking of, but it is not a stretch in today's political environment to assume that it is extremely possible for that to occur, which is exactly what happened.
The motion is about a bill that is currently at the Senate. We are waiting for it to be voted on there. It is a bill that, once again, deals with an issue on carbon pricing that Conservatives have completely blown out of proportion. Ninety-seven per cent of farmers are already exempt from the carbon pricing system; we heard that earlier today. It continues to be the case, despite the fact that Conservatives want to create a false narrative for the Canadian population.
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- Nov/28/23 3:34:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask a question about the substance of the matter. I asked it during question period and did not get a satisfactory answer.
Greenfield Global operates in Chatham. It converts corn into alcohols, everything from the special ingredient in White Claw to biofuels and hospital-grade pharmaceutical alcohols. It buys Canadian corn and American corn. The American farmers do not pay the carbon tax, and they truck right into Chatham and compete with Canadian corn.
What does the member say to the Canadian farmers trying to compete against American corn in that market in our own backyard?
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- Nov/28/23 3:35:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am unaware of or unfamiliar with exactly what is going on in the member's riding. I understand and appreciate what he has just said. The reality is that 97% of farmers are exempt from the price on pollution. I am not sure whether what he is referring to falls into the 3% or not.
Conservatives need to stop overreacting to the issue and trying to generate more attention out of it. The reality is that they are blowing this up into something it is not.
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois voted for Bill C‑234 because we are big believers in a just transition. We think it is important to support sectors that are disproportionately affected by climate change.
This morning, I met with representatives of the Canadian Labour Congress. They are appalled by all the money this government is investing in oil companies and the western Canadian oil industry.
When it comes to sending a meaningful message about the just transition, what are my colleague's thoughts on the importance of funding programs that will really contribute to that?
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- Nov/28/23 3:37:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, toward the end of her intervention, the member commented on fossil fuel subsidies and government investment. I would like to remind the member that, over the time of the current Liberal government, we have seen those go down significantly. They are on track to be completely removed, I believe it is by the end of this year or next year.
The problem is that there are still certain investments that have to occur in the oil and gas sector, such as cleaning up orphaned oil wells, for example. Unfortunately, the programs were not in place 30 or 40 years, or more, ago, when these wells were created, to ensure that there was a fund to deal with them afterwards. We cannot just totally turn our back on that now. I see, every once in a while, the conflation of government investment with doing the right thing, in my opinion, which is to deal with the orphaned wells, because we allowed people to get away with leaving them like that, but it is a reality of the situation. In terms of investing and providing fossil fuel subsidies that direct investments to those companies, that is certainly almost completely eliminated at this point, and it will be within the next year or so.
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- Nov/28/23 3:38:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, here we are, debating a Conservative motion to send a message to the Senate for delaying a bill, or blocking a bill. In 2019, a handful of Conservative senators blocked 15 or 20 private members' bills that had been passed by the House of Commons. It was all to make sure they blocked the bill on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples put forward by Romeo Saganash. These five or six senators were able to block that bill and 15 or 20 others, including my private member's bill. I am just wondering whether the member could comment on that, and whether we should encourage the Senate to change its rules so its members could not do that?
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- Nov/28/23 3:39:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I know that all too well, because I had a private member's bill that had passed the House of Commons and gone over to the Senate. It was just before the election, and those Conservative senators stalled it to the point where my bill as well ended up dying on the Order Paper as a result.
Conservatives will meet tomorrow morning at their caucus meeting with senators, and I do not even know what that is like. I have been here since 2015, and I have never sat in a caucus room with senators. The concept is foreign to me. When Conservatives start pointing the finger at us like we are somehow able to control what happens in the Senate because we control the senators is ludicrous. They literally sit in the same caucus room once a week with Conservative senators.
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