The Hon. the Speaker: Your time has expired, Senator Hartling, and Senator Boisvenu wishes to ask a question. Would you like to ask for five minutes to answer?

Hon. Pamela Wallin moved the adoption of the report.

Hon. Senators: Yes.

[Translation]

The Hon. the Speaker: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Senator Hartling: Yes, I would.

Some Hon. Senators: Yea.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Are senators ready for the question?

It is moved by the Honourable Senator Dawson, seconded by the Honourable Senator Bovey, that this bill be read a second time. Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Senators: No. 

An Hon. Senator: No, we don’t. One hour.

Senator Gold: There is no witch hunt. I believe I answered your question. I have nothing more to add.

Hon. Hassan Yussuff: Would the senator take a question?

Senator C. Deacon: Absolutely.

Senator Gold: Thank you for this question. Once again, attributing irrational motives is not limited to one group in this place, dear colleagues. That said, as you may know, I am told that last year, the Canada Border Services Agency seized a record number of illegal weapons at the border. Nevertheless, the government recognizes that there is much more work to be done, and that is why the government has invested more than $350 million to reduce, if not eliminate or prohibit, the entry of illegal firearms.

I also note that there is a task force that is actively working to address the root causes of this problem. The government is working hard to ensure that illegal firearms do not find their way to the streets of Montreal, in order to keep the peace and allow Canadians to feel safe on their streets, in their cities and elsewhere in Canada.

Senator Boisvenu: First of all, thank you for your speech on domestic violence, senator. The latest numbers are quite disturbing. In New Brunswick, over the last 10 years, domestic violence has increased by 38%, while in Quebec, it has increased by 34%.

Do you think it is right that we are talking about domestic violence in this chamber? As we speak, the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs is studying a bill that will virtually decriminalize sexual harassment and home invasion. There are a whole host of crimes that are currently in the Criminal Code for which sentences can be handed down, but they will basically be decriminalized because the offenders will be sent home to serve their sentences.

Do you think it is right that we are talking about domestic violence in this chamber and that, at the same time, a Senate committee is studying a bill that proposes more lenient sentences for people who assault women?

[English]

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: All those in favour of the motion will please say “yea.”

Senator Ringuette: Senator Deacon, I’m from a rural area with very harsh winters. I would say that anything between 30% and 35% of our businesses are seasonal businesses — and maybe Senator Mockler can corroborate this — therefore, these seasonal businesses need seasonal employees. I would like for you to tell this chamber what it is that you understand to qualify four times in your short speech that seasonal workers, by getting EI benefits, are being incentivized to stay home. In my long years of being a parliamentarian and talking to the people from my rural area, I have never met anyone who enjoys staying home and having to survive on Employment Insurance, or EI, benefits. Could you please qualify how you see this bill creating an incentive for people to stay home?

Senator C. Deacon: Thank you very much, Senator Ringuette. If you have to work 100 fewer hours to qualify for EI, and someone across the street has to work 100 more hours, one has a strong incentive to make sure they work the required number of hours. That’s what I am referencing. If we have a situation where you have folks who are around places where there are lots of jobs, and lots of jobs that are unfilled, we should be making sure that changing the system in some way, shape or form ensures that they have a reason to keep on looking for the next position versus perhaps going on earlier in the season.

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. Canadians have been clear that they expect their government — their governments, in fact — to do more to fight climate change, to reduce emissions and to transition away from emission-intensive energy in Canada and abroad. That is why the Regional Tables to which I’ve referred have been established.

As well, every year across Canada, we’re seeing the increasingly devastating and costly impacts of climate change — from floods, to wildfires, to severe storms that have hit us recently in the East.

The government recognizes that urgent action is needed to provide and build local resiliency and protect communities in the years ahead. That’s why the government is investing over $3.3 billion in the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, which supports communities in building local resiliency.

The government knows that to reduce emissions, we need to move towards lesser emission-intensive energy sources. That is why — from the federal investment in the Atlantic Loop to the development of small modular reactors, or SMRs, and government investments in renewable energy across the country — the government is not only decarbonizing our electrical grid, but increasing our clean electrical production.

Hon. Claude Carignan: My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Leader, in an article by the esteemed journalist Daniel Leblanc published on Radio-Canada last week, we learned that the federal government searched employees’ telephone records and emails last year in an attempt to flush out the confidential sources who had criticized the plan to appoint an American who does not speak French as head of the Canadian Museum of History.

The article stated, and I quote:

Investigators searched the emails of these employees to try to find evidence of leaks, without success.

They also searched telephone records to see if there were any incoming or outgoing calls to numbers associated with Radio-Canada and CBC.

Leader, does your government remember that in 2017, both houses unanimously passed Bill S-231 to protect journalistic sources?

Hon. Brian Francis: My question is for Senator Gold.

According to recent news reports, only about 18% of federal government employees have taken any Indigenous sensitivity training. Chris Aylward, President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the union wanted to make such training a mandatory part of the collective agreement, but was told “no” by the Treasury Board.

In reference to Call to Action 57, could you confirm whether the federal government will be making ongoing training related to Indigenous peoples mandatory for all federal public servants?

I would also like you to update this chamber on what each federal department and each agency is doing to ensure public servants have the awareness and competencies necessary to be sensitive and responsive to the particular rights and needs of Indigenous peoples.