Senator Housakos: Government leader, the question is not employment or unemployment. Canadians can work as hard as they want, but when they go to the grocery store, they can’t afford to buy food to feed their families.

And you want to go into a statistics war? Did you know that in the month of August, the cost of lettuce went up 94%? You want to talk about statistics? Rent in this country has gone up 6.5% in the last couple of months. I can go on and on and on, if you want to go through every single commodity in this country, not to mention the fact that mortgages are costing Canadians 31% more right now than they did a few months ago.

The fact of the matter is that when it comes to the cost of living right now in this country, working-class and poor Canadians are suffering to a degree we haven’t seen before, and for the first time in more than 153 years, young people in this country are feeling pessimistic and hopeless, and that they will not be able to aspire to the kind of lifestyle and success that their parents and grandparents had.

We talked earlier about inflation and the runaway debts and deficits of this government, and as usual, you’re blaming the cost of living on global issues, international issues and the cost of oil and energy. Well, your carbon tax on oil and energy has not helped.

Senator Plett: Well, one thing the Liberal government is very good at is making announcements. Following through on them is a little more difficult for them.

Leader, in my province of Manitoba, residential construction investment fell by over 12% in the month of July. It fell in your province of Quebec as well. That is not something to be very proud of.

Last month, the Prime Minister stood behind a podium with a sign that read, “Building More Homes, Faster,” and then he told Canadians that housing wasn’t his responsibility. Nothing is ever his responsibility. He is pretty good at taking credit. He has a really hard time accepting responsibility, even after eight long, long, long years in this government. Last week, he remembered a 2015 election campaign promise that he broke six years ago and is passing it off as action.

Leader, how much rental housing would have been built over the last eight years if the Trudeau government had followed through on their promise?

Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. I am not advised that the government has any plans to axe its carbon tax. The price on carbon is one of a large suite of measures that are designed to address climate change — climate change that has devastated our forests and our communities this summer — while at the same time helping Canadian businesses, individuals, provinces and communities transition to a cleaner, more sustainable economic future.

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Moodie, seconded by the Honourable Senator Cormier, for the second reading of Bill C-35, An Act respecting early learning and child care in Canada.

Hon. Mary Coyle: Honourable senators, I rise today to pay tribute to Sheree Fitch, the talented writing powerhouse with the beautiful heart, the pride of River John, Nova Scotia, and my friend who was recently named to the Order of Canada for her outstanding contributions to children’s literature and to the Canadian literary community as a writer and literacy advocate.

Lian Goodall describes Sheree Fitch as a:

Dazzling disco ball of word energy and Canada’s spunky, funky queen of nonsense poems and stories for the very young who has slow danced her way into the minds of novel readers.

This award-winning single mother, grandmother and wife of the deeply dimpled Gilles Plante has written dozens of children’s books, including Sleeping Dragons All Around; books of poetry, including In This House Are Many Women; and novels, such as Pluto’s Ghost.

Sheree is a storyteller and educator who has travelled the globe from Baffin Island to Bhutan. Her Mabel Murple’s Book Shoppe and Dreamery is a magical creation and a gift to all children, young and old.

In the foreword to her book If You Could Wear My Sneakers, Peter Gzowski wrote:

Sheree, as you’ll see, creates sounds for every living creature. She is open to everything as only a child can be and as with any child, she plays with words, wisdom and a sense that the world can work. We should listen to her; she speaks for children everywhere.

Sheree’s poem The Way it Is goes like this:

Why doth the sloth

Moveth so slow?

Why doth the sloth

Have three sloth toes?

Why doth the sloth

Hangeth upside down?

Why doth he?

The sloth is

Just weird, I suppoth.

I sayeth! Saith the sloth

I am slow because

That’s the way it is

The way it was

My three toes doth

What three toes do

I am happy for me

As you are for you

And the wayeth the world

Spinneth upside down?

It’s just different, not weird

My sky is your ground

And if-eth you thinketh

That faster is better

I sayeth to you

That it doesn’t much matter

For if you’re a sloth

Slow seemeth just fine

You doeth things your way

I’ll doeth things mine.

Thank you, Sheree Fitch, for sharing your creative genius with us and for caring so deeply about children, their imaginations and rights. Congratulations to you on your Order of Canada; that honour is so richly deserved.

Hon. Jane Cordy: Honourable senators, I am pleased to bring the attention of the Senate to my alma mater, Mount Saint Vincent University. This year, Mount Saint Vincent University, the longest-standing university in Canada for the advancement of women, is celebrating its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary.

Founded in 1873 by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, Halifax, the school was initially established in order to train novices and young sisters to be teachers. However, the sisters eventually realized that young women in the province were being overlooked and underserved when it came to opportunities for higher education. The sisters recognized that they were in a position to make a difference in the lives of young Nova Scotian women, so they opened their doors to them.

In 1925, the Nova Scotia Legislature awarded the school the right to grant degrees, making it the only independent women’s college in the entire British Commonwealth. In 1966, the school became a university. The following year, it admitted its first male students.

Honourable senators, I cannot speak about the university’s history and not acknowledge its role in Canada’s shameful residential school system.

Like all Canadians, Mount Saint Vincent University has had to face the hard truth and reflect on how that painful history has impacted entire generations of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the devastating consequences it has had on their culture.

On October 20, 2021, Mount Saint Vincent University apologized to survivors, their families, communities and all Indigenous peoples for its role in helping to staff, specifically, the Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia and St. Eugene’s Residential School in British Columbia. The apology was accompanied by a list of commitments to Indigenous peoples, particularly commitments to listening, learning and ensuring action — things we should all commit to doing.

Honourable senators, the school is no longer run by the Sisters of Charity. Ownership and operations were transferred to independent boards of governors and senate in 1988. The school continues to grow, evolve and challenge the status quo, building on its commitments to social justice and promoting equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility for all. The advancement of women and girls through the pursuit of knowledge and academic excellence, inspired by a strong tradition of social responsibility, remains its mission.

I am a proud alumnus of “the Mount,” one of 37,000, and I am delighted to wish the school a happy one hundred and fiftieth anniversary.

Thank you.

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Moodie, seconded by the Honourable Senator Cormier, for the second reading of Bill C-35, An Act respecting early learning and child care in Canada.

Senator Plett: Leader, on June 13, the Liberal premier of Newfoundland and Labrador said the Trudeau government’s approach to their carbon taxes was illogical, and again I quote, “. . . it’s as insulting to us as it is simplistic.”

A liberal premier.

Earlier this year, Premier Furey was joined by other premiers of different political stripes across Canada, asking the Prime Minister to axe the tax. This isn’t a partisan issue. This is premiers from right across our country. Instead, the Prime Minister hiked his first carbon tax and added a second one, even as Canadians struggled to pay for gas to drive to work and buy food for their children.

Leader, it’s never too late to admit a mistake. Trudeau is good at apologizing. Never too late, especially when it’s causing so many Canadians financial hardship. When will the Prime Minister axe his carbon tax, which drives up the cost of gas, home heating and groceries?

Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Lucia Almeida and Nodin Outten-Joseph, who are the Manitoba winners of the Your Voice is Power Coding and Indigenous Music and Histories Competition. They are accompanied by their family. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator McPhedran.

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 your question, and thank you for finally addressing a question that I know is at the heart of so many Canadians’ preoccupations.

Things are not great. Things are challenging for so many Canadians, and the government is aware of this. The government has taken very important action to do its part in addressing the challenge. That includes removing the federal GST on the construction of new rental apartment buildings, urging all provinces to follow suit — as many are doing and more, I hope, will — and entering and announcing, finally, the first Housing Accelerator Fund agreement with London, which will create 2,000 new homes over three years, the most significant investment in London’s history, as the mayor announced. The government is also looking at further solutions regarding supply chain and transport issues and is exercising its leadership — as I said yesterday to Senator Cordy — with the provinces, municipalities and the private sector in order to address the shortfall in supply that is at the heart of our crisis.

Hon. Diane Bellemare introduced Bill S-275, An Act to amend the Bank of Canada Act (mandate, monetary policy governance and accountability).

(Bill read first time.)

Hon. Patti LaBoucane-Benson (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, a Charter Statement prepared by the Minister of Justice in relation to Bill C-42, An Act to amend the Canada Business Corporations Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts, pursuant to the Department of Justice Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. J-2, sbs. 4.2(1).

Hon. Stan Kutcher: Senator Gold, on September 15, a piece in The Globe and Mail highlighted Canada’s lax approach to sanctions enforcement. It revealed that Canada is one of the top 10 countries evading export controls related to Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine. Canadian companies have been flagged for purchasing prohibited American goods and selling them to Russia, violating U.S. sanctions laws. These banned goods, which include products like electronics, are tools Russia uses to continue the genocidal war against Ukraine.

As the Canadian government continues to support Ukraine, we can’t let Russia benefit from this lack of oversight and lack of enforcement. Can you please tell us what the Government of Canada is going to do to address this important issue and ensure that Russia’s invasion is not aided by sanctions evasions by Canadians?

The Hon. the Speaker: Do you have a question, Senator Housakos?

Hon. Patti LaBoucane-Benson (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, a Charter Statement prepared by the Minister of Justice in relation to Bill C-35, An Act respecting early learning and child care in Canada, pursuant to the Department of Justice Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. J-2, sbs. 4.2(1).

Hon. Patti LaBoucane-Benson (Legislative Deputy to the Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I give notice that, at the next sitting of the Senate, I will move:

That, when the Senate next adjourns after the adoption of this motion, it do stand adjourned until Tuesday, September 26, 2023, at 2 p.m.

[Translation]

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the second time?

(On motion of Senator Bellemare, bill placed on the Orders of the Day for second reading two days hence.)

[English]

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Senator Gold, prior to my full-time involvement in politics, I spent my life in construction, both as a tradesman and while running a plumbing and heating company, so I know just how important the summer months are to building homes in Canada.

On Monday, Senator Gold, Statistics Canada reported that residential construction investment was down in the month of July, with declines seen in eight provinces and two territories. Single-family home construction fell to its lowest level since August of 2020, and multi-unit construction investment was down for the ninth consecutive month.

Leader, yesterday in this chamber you told Senator Cordy that your government had taken important action on housing and was showing leadership. If the Trudeau government’s track record is so great, why is residential building investment down in July during a housing crisis?