Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Earth Keepers from various First Nations communities in Quebec, as well as a professor from the Earth Keepers program at Laval University. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator Audette.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Earth Keepers from various First Nations communities in Quebec, as well as a professor from the Earth Keepers program at Laval University. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator Audette.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): My question is for the Liberal Government Leader in the Senate, and it again concerns Beijing’s interference in our country.

Senator Gold, I want to return to your answers yesterday to Senator Batters. You seemed to indicate that the questions we were asking were on our behalf. I will remind you, Senator Gold, once again, that the official opposition is doing their job by raising these matters. These questions are not for us. They are for Canadians — all Canadians — who send hard-earned tax dollars to Ottawa and expect each one of us and this government to do our and their jobs. Twice yesterday, you seemed to cast doubt on the July 2021 intelligence assessment leak to The Globe and Mail because it wasn’t “nuanced,” as you claimed.

Leader, last Tuesday, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, told Michael Chong that a People’s Republic of China diplomat in Toronto targeted him and his family. Your government kicked this diplomat out eventually. Last Thursday, the national security adviser told Mr. Chong this assessment went to multiple departments, including the Privy Council Office. What more confirmation do you need, leader?

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Senator Gold, you are no doubt aware of the very public statement made by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Richard Wagner, in a CBC article. In this article, Justice Wagner points to a “shortage of judges” and warns that the “current situation is untenable.”

His statement is directly aimed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In fact, Justice Wagner stated, “The government’s inertia regarding vacancies and the absence of satisfactory explanations for these delays are disconcerting”.

In 2015, when the Liberals took office, there were approximately 45 vacancies in the federal courts. In 2019, there were 60. In 2023, there are 85 positions vacant.

Minister Lametti said in the Senate that he had a plan, but his plan seems to have failed.

How does the Trudeau government explain that failure?

Hon. Jane Cordy: Honourable senators, I give notice that, two days hence:

I will call the attention of the Senate to the career of the Honourable Patricia Bovey.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of my son David and his friend Kerri Pittman, and my brother-in-law Gary O’Keefe and his son Brendan O’Keefe.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Well, I’m not sure what the honourable senator is asking me to confirm, but I will confirm what the Prime Minister said, which I’ve repeated on so many occasions. He became aware of this first from The Globe and Mail, and action was taken to expel the diplomat. That was done, having taken the appropriate time to consult and make sure that Canada was prepared for whatever implications or ramifications came.

For the record, colleague, I have never suggested that questions of this nature are not important or of interest to Canadians, to parliamentarians and indeed to the government. I have on many occasions — today is not one of them — pointed out, however, that innuendos, insinuations and assertions that are not based in fact to say nothing of imputations of lack of integrity, do a disservice both to this chamber and to the institutions that our Constitution has put in place for all of our benefit and that we are sworn and summoned to uphold.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of my son David and his friend Kerri Pittman, and my brother-in-law Gary O’Keefe and his son Brendan O’Keefe.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question.

It is an important question. It is true that there are vacancies. We cannot deny the numbers, but with all due respect, honourable colleague, it is not a failure.

Since November 2015, the government has appointed more than 600 judges, and it has created a significant number of judicial positions in order to help the courts manage their workload. A process is in place. The criteria are clear. The government and the Minister of Justice are working hard to fill the positions to effectively support our justice system.

Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: My question is for the Chair of the Transport and Communications Committee.

Senator Housakos, your committee has previously looked at the air passenger bill of rights and I know that you’re looking at amendments to that bill of rights, I believe, as part of your pre‑study of the budget implementation act. We have a serious issue that has arisen in the North that I want to ask you about. In essence, two weeks ago, the Minister of Transport agreed to changes to the Canadian North-First Air merger conditions that enable them to, among other things, raise passenger and cargo prices by 25% per year and cut service down on some routes to once per week. Will the study that your committee is conducting look at the northern experience and consider whether these changes are considered in line with the underlying of principles of the bill of rights?

Hon. Marty Deacon: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Senator Gold, this week is National Hospice Palliative Care Week. New data released from the Canadian Institute for Health Information showed that nearly 200,000 Canadians receive palliative care annually. Sadly, we do not know what qualifies as palliative care as there are no real standards in place. In December 2018, the federal government tabled a Framework on Palliative Care in Canada to work toward clarity in this regard. Recently, Senator Black, Senator Boehm and I spent time with leaders in the Waterloo region to further discuss this framework. The framework requires the federal government to report on the state of palliative care in Canada within five years of its release, meaning that the report is due by the end of 2023.

My question is: Is the government committed to this mandated review to better ensure that Canadians across the country can have access to equal and appropriate palliative care services? If so, when will we see this review?

Hon. Leo Housakos: Thank you, Senator Patterson, for the question and for your ongoing interest, of course, and concern for the northern part of our country and the rural part of our country.

We have not yet begun the study on passenger rights legislation which, of course, is in the omnibus bill before the chamber. We have scheduled a couple of meetings. We have already invited officials from the department, we have invited the minister, as well as a former executive from the airline industry and an advocate for passenger rights.

You are right. Our committee did look into this issue a few months ago. As we all know, one of the many things broken in this country is our air industry and our aviation industry. It is a complete mess. We also know the government took a shot at passenger rights legislation. It has failed and that’s why we brought the minister before our committee.

We also made it clear to the minister that we didn’t want to be found in a situation where the Senate receives a bill right before the summer and are forced to do a perfunctory study on this important issue facing Canadians. Of course, we find ourselves exactly in that dilemma. We received it in an omnibus bill and have limited time to study it. We also have in the queue Bill C-18, for which there’s a magical deadline that the government has imposed on our committee, which also has limited our capacity to give the attention that passenger rights deserve and particularly the effect it has on northern regions of the country.

Senator D. Patterson: Thank you for that helpful answer, Senator Housakos.

I know I don’t need to overemphasize to you the complete reliance on air travel by communities in my region, where there are no roads or rails or other transportation options for our 25 communities.

I would like to ask you if you would consider hearing from northern voices on this important issue. I’m pleased to hear you have the Minister of Transport invited. He’s the one who made these shocking changes without much or any consultation. I am wondering if you would also consider hearing from Nunavut communities or even First Air and Canadian North when you do this study.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you very much for the question. It’s an important one.

I can’t answer the specific question you asked at the end but I will underline that it is the position of this government that Canadians experiencing serious illness or facing end of life deserve to receive care in the setting of their choice in comfort and dignity.

In that regard, the federal government has collaborated with provinces, territories, health care providers and stakeholders to develop the framework and to implement an action plan on palliative care, and this has carried with it, as you would know, serious investments: $24 million from 2019 to 2021 and $29.8 million from 2021 to 2027. This complements the federal support that exceeds $8 billion over 10 years to provinces and territories for home and community care, including palliative care.

You referred to the framework. The Action Plan on Palliative Care lays out the multi-year plan of Health Canada to tackle the issues identified in the framework. This is also part of the ongoing investments Health Canada has made, including during the pandemic, to fund some of these initiatives. The government will continue to work in this area with provinces, territories and health care providers to provide and to improve access to home, community and palliative care. With regard to the specific dates, I will have to make inquiries.

Senator M. Deacon: Thank you for that. I hope and look forward to the Senate knowing the specifics of when this review unfolds so we can be accountable at the table in conversations with our various communities.

Hon. Paula Simons: My question is for the Government Representative.

The United States and the United Kingdom are both working on laws that could have a serious impact on end-to-end encryption online. While I understand the appeal of breaking encryption as a way to fight crime or root out terrorism, end-to-end encryption can also be a way to protect our most private conversations, including conversations about health care and abortion.

Indeed, a growing academic consensus, led by cybersecurity scholars such as Stanford’s Riana Pfefferkorn, argues that data protection and privacy are essential to safely accessing reproductive health care in our digital age.

My question to the Government Representative is this: With Canada’s own online harms bill in the offing, will the government commit to strong protection for end-to-end encryption to help protect Canadians’ privacy and health information?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question.

The protection of privacy and Canadians’ data is fundamental. Laws are in place and further laws that will address this subject are forthcoming. Indeed, Bill C-27, which is in the other place, introduces more robust measures around areas including privacy, which I would underline.

With regard to the specific question about end-to-end encryption, I’m not in a position to commit the government. I will certainly make inquiries to see what the status is of the deliberations on that particular issue.

Hon. Marty Klyne: Senator Gold, as you know, Jordan’s Principle requires governments to ensure that First Nations children can, without discrimination or hesitancy, be on the same level as other Canadians and access the same products, services and supports they need when they need them. The aim is to meet the needs of First Nations children, regardless of whether it is for speech therapy, educational support, medical equipment, mental health service and many more. The aim is to meet the needs of these children regardless of their position or the region in which they live.

Although the federal government has made important improvements in the last 15 years, First Nations children continue to experience gaps, delays and denials. According to Indigenous Services Canada, denial rates on applications for funding and service access for First Nations children varied drastically across the country during the pandemic. In 2021, the government denied just over 70% of all group requests from British Columbia, along with nearly 55% from Alberta. In Manitoba and Quebec, meanwhile, it denied only about 5%.

What is the government doing to ensure Jordan’s Principle is upheld across Canada, regardless of regional differences?

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Leader, my question is a follow-up to one I asked you in March regarding the secret outsourcing of the Canada Emergency Business Account, or CEBA, loans program to the consulting firm Accenture. When I originally asked you about this matter, it was believed that the Trudeau government paid Accenture $61 million to run the CEBA program. However, since then, further documents revealed to The Globe and Mail through an access to information request show that the amount paid was at least $146 million. The fact that the Trudeau government never disclosed these contracts tells Canadians everything they need to know about this government’s total lack of respect for their tax dollars.

Leader, you previously said that outside sources were used to provide benefits. With respect, that response did not answer my question. Why was the outsourcing of this program hidden from Canadians?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): I actually don’t have the answer to your question, but I’m glad that at least some of the questions you asked here have been answered in the House of Commons. I invite you to share those answers with us for the benefit of all the senators present.