Most toxic speeches
Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, in one of the most shocking and disturbing cases ever witnessed, B.C. SPCA officers attempted to rescue a severely emaciated dog standing in a pile of mud and feces. The collar was embedded in his neck causing his head to swell to almost three times its normal size. When the collar was removed, it exposed an infected wound showing the dog's trachea and jugular vein. This case of animal cruelty has profoundly impacted my community. In 2016, the Minister of Justice made a commitment to review the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code. When will she honour that commitment?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to understand who trotted out the national security adviser to give classified or not classified information to the media, who did not know what was classified or what was not classified.What we know here is that the government is trying to cover up the fact that it sent someone out to spin that it had a ridiculous conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government was to blame for the Prime Minister's disastrous appearance. Why are the Liberals trying to cover this up? Why do they not just come clean?
Mr. Speaker, three years ago, all MPs and all senators voted unanimously in favour of Bill C-452 to combat procuring and trafficking in persons. The only thing missing for this legislation to take effect is the Prime Minister's signature. Members heard correctly: the Prime Minister's signature is the only thing missing to give our justice and public safety systems the tools needed to protect our young girls who are trapped in the hell of prostitution and human trafficking.My question is simple. When will the Prime Minister finally sign the legislation?
Mr. Speaker, what a ridiculous answer. Last week, the environment minister refused to answer a very simple question at committee, so I will give her another chance. It is a truism that environmental programs should have specific and measurable outcomes. We know how much scrubbers on smokestacks reduce SO2. We know how much a waste-water treatment plant will improve water quality. It is shocking that the Liberals do not know how much a carbon tax will reduce emissions. By how much will a $50 a tonne carbon tax across Canada reduce our greenhouse gas emissions? I want a number.
Mr. Speaker, Air Canada flight attendants have filed complaints against the airline for sexual harassment and discrimination. Although the airline claims it has zero tolerance for harassment, it has outright denied these claims. Air Canada now asks female attendants to wear dress uniforms in order to show more cleavage and it told one gay flight attendant to stop prancing. Air Canada even dictates the colour and type of underwear flight attendants can wear. This is disgusting. This is unacceptable. What is the government going to do to ensure that anti-harassment policies are both adopted and followed by Canadian industries?
Mr. Speaker, offering a full classified briefing is hardly covering things up.The opposition has confirmed that it does not want to be encumbered by the truth when it is asking questions. Therefore, it is choosing to remain wilfully ignorant of the facts. There are other consequences too, like the voting at the end of last week, which forced the opposition to vote against very good things that Canadians want. For example, the hon. member's party voted against the settlement of Yazidi women and girls in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we attempted to better protect young girls in Canada by fast-tracking the passage of Bill C-38, a government bill to combat pimping. We would have preferred Bill C-452, but the Prime Minister went back on his vote. In collusion with the Conservatives, the Liberals said no to our motion. They said no to making life hard for pimps. The Liberals and the Conservatives would rather preserve the status quo than protect our young girls. How can the government justify refusing to pass its own bill?
Mr. Speaker, this government has completely failed at managing the agriculture file. The Minister of Agriculture abandoned farmers and refused to stand up for them when his colleague, the Minister of Health, was working on the reform of the Canada food guide. He dumped them on the Prime Minister, who was unable to fix the pulse crisis during his disastrous trip to India.Canadian exports are even worse off than they were before the trip, having dropped nearly 80%.When will the Minister of Agriculture demand that the Prime Minister be honest with Canadians and admit that his conspiracy theory is a farce that is having devastating consequences for Canadian farmers?
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has abandoned even a half-hearted acknowledgement of members and ministers' ethical obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code. Again, there was a question asked and not answered yesterday. Will the Prime Minister and will the Liberal government, disgraced by a spectrum of ethical lapses and violations, do the right thing and clean up the mess themselves or are they leaving it, once again, to the Ethics Commissioner?
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. It was the opposition that referred this to the conflict of interest office. It was not the Liberal member. Yet again, we have another questionable person travelling with the Prime Minister on his disastrous trip to India and no one on the Liberal side who is willing to take responsibility. So much for transparency and accountability. All we get from the Liberals is denial and deflection. What is next? Is the Prime Minister going to blame India for this new debacle?
Mr. Speaker, ethics problems are all too common with the Liberals. This time, the problem with with the member for Brampton East, who was hired by a construction company after becoming a member of Parliament. It just so happens that the owner of this company was invited on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. It is impossible to know who invited the man in question, since the member and the Prime Minister's Office are pointing the finger at each other. Who is telling the truth? Why all the mystery?
Mr. Speaker, our key exports are down 73%. Lentils are down 79%. India has increased tariffs and are implementing a fumigation fee. The CEO of a major pulse exporter said that the trade crisis with India is the ultimate hammer, and that we have been hit over the head and we are bleeding.For the sake of Canadian pulse producers, will the agriculture minister insist that the Prime Minister admit that his India conspiracy theory is a farce?
Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: thousands of young girls across Canada, including about 2,000 in Quebec alone, are trapped in the clutches of pimps and street gangs. Since 2013, MPs and senators have been doing their job and unanimously supported Bill C-452. This includes the Prime Minister, I might add, when he was in opposition.When it comes to legalizing marijuana, the Prime Minister has no problem rushing it through, but when it comes to protecting our young girls who are trapped in the clutches of pimps, he seems to find it too difficult to sign the document.What is he waiting for?
Mr. Speaker, it does not matter if our producers cannot get their products to market if they do not have a market to sell it to. The Liberals have to understand that there are very real consequences to the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India.
Mr. Speaker, it begs the question, if the opposition Conservatives were so concerned about human trafficking, why did they make cuts to law enforcement? Why did they make cuts to the entire public safety apparatus to the tune of $750 million?As I said, this government believes in combatting human trafficking. It is a very serious criminal offence. We have engaged with the chamber in the other place. We are listening to parliamentarians. We are listening to stakeholders right across the country. We will pass this law with the support of all parliamentarians.
Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, Canadians know that the environmental policies and the environmental legacy of the previous government were an abject failure. The Conservatives did not address climate change. They destroyed the environmental assessment process in Canada. They let the decline in biodiversity accelerate over the course of their 10 years in power. We are working very actively to ensure that environmental progress and economic progress go together going forward.
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary budget officer just released a new report on phase 1 of the Liberals' infrastructure plan. The report confirms what we already knew, and we are not really surprised. The Liberals are incapable of keeping their promises. Half of the millions of dollars earmarked have not yet been allocated to projects. I did say half. Municipalities have been waiting too long for that money. They believed the Liberal promises.On their behalf, I am once again asking the government where its plan is.
Mr. Speaker, the idea that the Prime Minister is hanging out with billionaires to protect the hard-pressed middle class is like telling us that those billionaire Liberal turkeys showed up and asked for an early Easter. This brings us to Mitch Garber. He is a mega donor, and the Liberals paid him back by giving him his own agency. They call it Invest in Canada, when it is really another case of investing in friends of the Liberal Party.Does the Prime Minister not understand that the public service in this country needs to be more than a patronage smorgasbord for his friends, donors, and insider pals?
Mr. Speaker, only the Conservative Party would consider and see offering it a full brief of both classified and unclassified information so they could know all the facts as muzzling. The fact is that the Conservatives are tying themselves into some strange knots, because they forced themselves last Friday to vote against some very good things that Canadians wanted. For example, they voted against the funding for injured members of the RCMP. They voted against benefits for veterans.
Again, there is no answer, Mr. Speaker, so let us talk about science. How is it that a government that claims to be based on science and evidence, does not have the foggiest clue of how harmful such a carbon tax would be to Canadians? Has the minister not done her homework? Does she not know how much emissions will go down under her carbon tax? Does she not know the devastating impact such a tax will have on our economy and the millions of jobs that hang in the balance? Do struggling Canadians not deserve to know if these massive new taxes will have any impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to Canada?
Mr. Speaker, as I said some moments ago, I am very glad to have the question. We can have a very good discussion about all manner of committee work, and that discussion will go on among House leaders. Step number one is for opposition members to stop the political game and, in fact, inform themselves of all the relevant facts. The offer has been made for a full briefing, both classified and unclassified, so the Leader of the Opposition can have all that information and then base himself on the truth and not some silly innuendo the Conservatives have dreamed up for themselves.
Mr. Speaker, all Canadians love our national anthem, O Canada.Unfortunately, I have noticed over the past few months that CBC and Radio-Canada no longer broadcast our national anthem at 5 a.m., as they did in the past.Why is that? When I asked, I was told that it is because they are on the air 24 hours a day. That is not an adequate response, because they have been on the air 24 hours a day since 1995, yet they stopped playing our national anthem only a few months ago.Does the Liberal government agree with us? One minute a day for our public broadcaster to play O Canada is not too much to ask. It would in fact be welcome.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind members that it was the Liberal government that implemented the Phoenix pay system. Public servants and the unions told the Liberals to delay its implementation, and yesterday we learned that IBM had advised the government to delay the system's implementation because it was just not ready. When employees, public servants, unions, and even the company that designed and built the system say do not go ahead, the government must listen.Why, in spite of this, did the government decide to gamble with the wages of thousands of workers?
Mr. Speaker, our government takes its fundamental responsibilities to protect the private information of Canadian citizens and the integrity of our electoral system extremely seriously, which is why we engaged the Communications Security Establishment to conduct the first-ever threat assessment of Canadian democratic processes. The threat assessment looked at cyber-threats facing our democratic process. It is a critical step in addressing the potential issues Canadians may face. Happily, CSE found that there was no significant interference in the 2015 election, but we know this is going to change in 2019, and addressing this will take a whole-of-government approach. This is an issue we take extremely seriously, which is why budget 2018 committed over $750 million for
Mr. Speaker, we have been asking for Parliament to get the same briefing the national security adviser gave to journalists. However, we know the national security adviser is not the only person who the public safety minister and the government is muzzling. They are also muzzling journalists, preventing them from reporting on what they heard in the unclassified briefing.When will the minister stop muzzling the national security adviser, stop muzzling journalists, stop the cover-up, and tell Canadians the truth?
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition complains that he will not be able to ask questions about classified information but that is exactly true already. What is classified needs to remain classified. What is being offered to the leader is a full description of all the facts so that he can know what is classified and what is not, and then he will be fully equipped to discharge his responsibility, rather than just political gamesmanship.
Mr. Speaker, this week the government introduced a massive carbon tax on Canadians. Government official John Moffet called the tax, a foundational element of the government's climate change plan. However, last week, when the minister was repeatedly asked how much this foundational tax would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she could not answer and neither could her deputy. If the carbon tax is so important, how is it that the minister cannot even tell Canadians what impact such a tax would have on carbon emissions?
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries awarded a lucrative surf clam quota worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a group that did not have first nation partners in place. It was not incorporated. It did not have a boat or a vessel, or a facility for harvesting. What it did have going for it were Liberal connections, including close family ties to the Liberal caucus. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador want to know why they have to lose their jobs so that the minister can look after Liberal insiders and close family friends.
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code is very clear. MPs are not to use their position to further their own private interests or those of another person, or entity, yet the member for Brampton East did just that. He ensured one of his private sector employers, the president of a large construction company, gained access to the Prime Minister as well as to key Liberal cabinet ministers. Obviously, both stand to profit as a result. Does the Prime Minister believe that the Conflict of Interest Code is wrong or does he just think the Liberals are above it?
Mr. Speaker, I have asked several questions in the House regarding the promised changes to the nutrition north program, which the minister has publicly stated is failing northerners. Last May, the response was that the new program would be launched very soon. In September, the response changed to we intend to get it right this time. In December, it was we're considering all feedback.In budget 2018, there is not one mention of nutrition north. It seems with more time there is less progress. Why is the government continuing to fail Nunavummiut by not fixing this broken program?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister held a fundraiser yesterday in Montreal. Stephen Bronfman was there, but that comes as no surprise. Let us not forget that he was named in the paradise papers. Who else was there? There was Mitch Garber, whom the Minister of International Trade recently named chairman of a new federal agency.The Prime Minister thanked those in attendance for all the time they have devoted to their movement, but especially for all the money they pay to attend these galas.Does the Prime Minister also thank his friends by giving them patronage appointments?
Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by first expressing my sympathies to the hon. member and his community for that loss. Our government believes that animal cruelty is an extremely important social issue that deserves a national conversation. Our government is reviewing issues pertaining to animal cruelty provisions, including expanding the definition of bestiality and the definition of animal fighting in the code. We believe that animal cruelty should be balanced and protect animals from deliberate and unnecessary acts of cruelty while not interfering with legitimate animal use, including indigenous animal harvesting rights. We look forward to working with our hon. colleague and all members of the House to achieve those goals.
Mr. Speaker, a Canadian company, indeed a Victoria, B.C., company called AggregateIQ, has been the subject of debate in the Palace of Westminster. Our parliamentary colleagues there are hearing that this company played a significant role in manipulating data to affect the vote on the Brexit referendum. I want to know if the Minister of Justice, or any of the relevant ministers, could decide that we can help get to the bottom of this kind of shenanigan. It is illegal, and it should be illegal. Can we get an inquiry into the activities of AggregateIQ?
Mr. Speaker, it is a sad spectacle to see a member who has served the House for this long reduced to reading talking points from the Prime Minister's Office. It is also sad to see him continue to stand against a briefing for members of Parliament, asking simply to receive the same that briefing members of the media received. Now members of the media are confirming that the national security adviser told them they could not report everything they received, even though it was an unclassified briefing.Why will the minister not simply do the right thing, stop covering up, and allow the national security adviser to appear before parliamentarians?
Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that the Liberals always seem to want to benefit their friends who are helping them and giving them money. The MP for Brampton East arranged for the person who is paying him to get access to the Prime Minister in India. We have a Conflict of Interest Act to avoid this exact type of behaviour, but the Liberals seem to have no regard for the Conflict of Interest Act. They are under constant investigation for these breaches. Again, who in the PMO authorized the attendance of this individual on the trip to India?
Mr. Speaker, the environment commissioner released a report this week entitled Perspectives on Climate Change Action in Canada. The data collection began in 2016, after this Liberal government came to office. It is all too clear that the Liberals have no plan. Once again, they have nothing to offer but window dressing. On the environment, as in many other areas, they are not keeping their promise.My question is simple. How much will greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by the carbon tax they introduced?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that addressing climate change is an important issue and any thoughtful approach and plan include the pricing of carbon pollution. Four out of five Canadians live in jurisdictions that have shown the leadership to put into place carbon pricing systems. We are working actively with the provinces and territories which have primary responsibility for implementing these systems. We will continue to do that because addressing climate change is something that we know is an important challenge which the Conservatives did not address in their 10 years in government.
Mr. Speaker, since this is my first opportunity to address the member since he has come back, I hope you would allow me to say how happy I am to see him in the House and in good health. We plan to have dinners with our wives, and we will be able to reflect on how important our families and our health are in doing this job.With regard to this specific issue, when the previous government went through a very similar public process to access this fishery, it forgot to include indigenous people. Our government has not forgotten indigenous people.
Mr. Speaker, on April 2, we will celebrate the 11th annual World Autism Awareness Day.On this day, Canada will join the international community, hundreds of thousands of families and caregivers, and communities around the world that will wear blue in recognition of people living with autism.Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health please update the House on the government actions to help those affected by the various forms of autism spectrum disorder?
Mr. Speaker, Pulse Canada has been very supportive of the work the government has done to take this issue to the highest level when members went to India. We are very disappointed with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we are committed to working with our farmers and processors to make sure our industry grows. We are extremely concerned, as I said, with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we continue to work with Indian officials to make sure that we resume the trade in pulses.
Mr. Speaker, changes in the way Canadians access content have disrupted many business models. The reality is that the benefits of the digital world are not shared equally between the web giants and our artists, journalists, and creators. Our government wants to level the playing field among the stakeholders involved. That is why we will be making amendments to our legislation to adapt it to the digital reality. This includes a review of the Broadcasting Act. We strongly believe in protecting our culture and promoting access to Canadian content on all platforms.
Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of chortling and clanking of champagne glasses at the Prime Minister's latest fundraiser for the billionaires, when he said that he was not only there to get maximum donations but to get tough on the 1%. Step forth exhibit A. Stephen Bronfman raised $250,000 for the Liberals in two hours. When Bronfman was named in the paradise papers scandal, the Prime Minister immediately intervened and said that no investigation was necessary. No investigation happened.That is the power of who one knows in the PMO. Why is the Prime Minister using the highest office in the land to feather the nest of his Liberal donors?
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code demands that all members uphold their public duties with honesty and fulfill to the highest standard so as to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest. The member's conduct goes well beyond apparent conflict. This is a blatantly formalized case of a cash for access retainer. Was the member's boss invited on the India trip to seek business in India or was he invited to hang with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Infrastructure , and the Minister of Innovation to get an inside track on contracts in Canada?
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear from the scientists in my region that after a decade of questions from their international counterparts about why the Conservative government was opposed to science, Canada is once again being viewed as a leader in science around the world and many of their international counterparts want to work in Canada. Could the Parliamentary Secretary for Science tell the House what our government is doing to capitalize on our renewed scientific reputation to recruit the top international talent?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, before the Senate committee, the IBM witnesses confirmed that Harper's Conservative government botched the program from the beginning. They reduced the scope of the project and did not take into account the advice of their supplier. The previous government developed the request for proposal and awarded the contract for the Phoenix pay system.We are continuing to work with IBM, and we will hold it accountable to ensure it complies with its obligations.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his advocacy on this issue. It is completely unacceptable that northerners are still struggling to feed their families and pay the most extraordinary prices for food in Canada. Our government has already expanded the nutrition north program to include 37 more communities across Canada. We have also increased the budget by $65 million over the next five years. We are continuing to engage with those in northern regions to ensure we can expand this program to ensure affordable access to food for all people in the northern regions of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians recognize very well that the environmental policies of the previous government were an abject failure, whether it was addressing climate change, environmental assessment, biodiversity in Canada--
Mr. Speaker, the member well knows that all members in the House believe that harassment of any type is unacceptable in the workplace or anywhere. We put forward Bill C-65, which is legislation that would cover the Parliament Hill precinct and all federally regulated workplaces. The legislation is currently in committee and we are accepting some amendments from all parties. It is going to be a strong piece of legislation. We committed to this in the past election and we are going
Mr. Speaker, on March 1, when the public safety minister was asked why the Liberals will not let the national security adviser appear at committee, he said, You are asking me to wade into a classified discussion. I can't do that. Then he ran away from questions to the elevator, quite conveniently. Today and earlier this week, he said that none of the information given by the adviser to the media was classified.On what day was he telling the truth?
Mr. Speaker, sometimes, Ottawa can seem far away, as Patrick Lagacé pointed out in a column two weeks ago about one of my constituents, Sophie Thewys.Despite the hard work by my team and Sophie after the tragic death of her partner Nicolas, she has yet to receive her permanent resident status, which had already been approved. The Prime Minister likes to boast that our immigration system is compassionate and humane, but it certainly does not feel that way.When will the minister use his power to put an end to this tragedy and allow Sophie to grieve and move on?
Mr. Speaker, Canada's wine industry has created over 37,000 jobs. Wine is our highest value-added agriculture product.The U.S. trade representative recently said he wants even more access to our Canadian market, despite U.S. wine exports to Canada already increasing by over 2,500% since 1988, and, I will also add, a $500-million trade surplus.Will the minister confirm that the government will not trade away the 37,000 jobs in our wine industry at the eleventh hour of these NAFTA talks?
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, because he is a privy councillor, has been offered a full and complete briefing on all matters with respect to this situation, both classified and unclassified, so he can be fully informed. If he willfully refuses to be fully informed, it appears that his only objective is a political game that has nothing to do with the truth.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect the victims of this crime. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and we look forward to receiving support on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, women have a right to choices when it comes to their health. An important part of women's health involves access to a variety of safe and effective forms of contraception. However, the Public Service Health Care Plan currently covers only oral contraceptives.What has the government done to correct this situation for more than 650,000 federal public servants and their family members?
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague from DartmouthCole Harbour for his leadership on this file.Our government is committed to supporting Canadians living with autism spectrum disorder.I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the compelling advocacy of the member for EdmontonWetaskiwin on this important issue as well. That is why, quite frankly, I was disheartened that the Conservatives' recent motion went against our 2018 investment of $20 million in new funding to support people with autism spectrum disorder and their families.On World Autism Awareness Day 2018, I would encourage all members of this House and all Canadians to learn more about autism and how each of us can work together to make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, my intervention is about the fact that CBC no longer plays O Canada. I submitted an information request to CBC, and I would like to table this document, which contains CBC's response explaining why it no longer plays the national anthem on CBC or Radio-Canada.
Mr. Speaker, IBM's testimony to the Senate committee last night confirmed that the Harper Conservatives botched this program from the start. They de-scoped the project and ignored the advice of their contractors. The development of the request for proposal and award of contract for Phoenix was done by the previous government. We continue to work with IBM and will hold it to account to fulfill its obligations. To date, our government has invested $645 million to stabilize the pay system.
Mr. Speaker, after quietly announcing the end of the current caregiver program, the minister was forced to change course by stating he would engage in consultations about the future of the program. At committee, IRCC officials committed to providing details of the consultation process to members. To date, no information has been provided even though multiple consultations have already taken place. My direct request to attend the consultation with caregivers in Ottawa was denied. We were told that it was not a consultation meeting. Why did the minister's staff mislead my office and why the secrecy?
Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the government of Quebec did what Ottawa is not courageous enough to do. It decided that Quebec sales tax would apply both to foreign digital platforms like Spotify and Netflix and to home-grown platforms like Tou.tv and illico. Quebec showed yesterday that we can take action on the GST now. Not in two years, or after another consultation, or after discussions with the G7, but right now. The Prime Minister needs to stop spreading misinformation. No one here is talking about a new tax, apart from the Liberals. When will the Minister of Finance act?
Mr. Speaker, our immigration system is based on respectful rules and standards, but there is also room for compassionate and humanitarian considerations with respect to any particular case.The member opposite knows that I cannot go into the details of a particular case due to privacy concerns, but I am happy to meet with him at the end of question period to see what I can do for him.
Mr. Speaker, we learned yesterday that as early as summer 2015, IBM was advising the government that Phoenix was not ready to go. For those keeping score, that means departmental reviews, public sector unions, and the principal private contractor itself were saying that Phoenix was not ready to go. Now, the Liberal Party has a rich history of going back on its commitments. I am thinking of electoral reform and I am thinking of its promise on CEO stock option loopholes.Why is it that the one time the Liberals could have used their great power of doubling back on their commitments to help Canadians, they passed up the opportunity?
Mr. Speaker, the minister is deflecting, but let us carry on
Mr. Speaker, Canadians across the country are enjoying the benefits of the more than 3,400 projects approved under Infrastructure Canada's phase 1 programs. The previous government spent a decade doing nothing, but now these projects are modernizing public transit and water pipes and building healthier communities. Over $4 billion in federal funding has been approved for these projects, and the money will flow as soon as our partners submit their applications.
Mr. Speaker, the pricing of carbon pollution is a key part of any serious plan to address climate change. Pricing pollution is a market mechanism that will reduce emissions and will drive innovation in the country. We believe that provinces and territories are best placed to design pricing systems that work for them, as long as it meets the national standard. The design of the system will affect the amount of emissions reductions that are achieved. We will be, as we have said very publicly, reviewing all provincial and territorial systems later this year.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week, the Conservatives voted against investing to recruit the best and the brightest. We know that science and research help improve the lives of Canadians. Therefore, the member for Don Valley North and the Liberal caucus voted for that funding. This morning, we were proud to announce the Canada 150 research chairs. We look forward to their exciting new breakthroughs.
Mr. Speaker, the truth is that this party is leading the way with openness and transparency in fundraising. We are a shining example for what all parties in the House could do.It is very curious, in fact, that the party from which this question proceeds is itself still keeping its information about its fundraisers a secret. Will the member join our example?
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy that the member has given me the opportunity to talk about Invest in Canada, a new flagship investment and promotion agency in this country.I was travelling the country to make sure that Canadians know about this new agency. I am very proud we have appointed Mitch Garber, the chair of Cirque du Soleil, as the first chair of this agency. We have also brought in Ian McKay, who is the director of the Vancouver Economic Commission. We want people who understand business to bring business to Canada, because that is the way to create jobs around this country.
Mr. Speaker, the minister is trying to deflect, but the problem is that the Liberals think that it is entirely appropriate to offer a briefing to the media, but not to the representatives of the people, us, the elected members of the House. The minister himself said that the information was not sensitive or classified, but he refuses to share it with MPs.Since the information provided to the media was not classified, will the minister confirm that the media that received the briefing from the national security advisor are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing?
Mr. Speaker, let's be honest. If the media briefing did not include sensitive information, there is no reason why journalists could not share it with Canadians. The minister seems to be caught up in the talking points provided by the Prime Minister's Office. However, to disentangle himself, could the minister confirm whether the media who were briefed are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. also has measures in place to promote and protect their own wine industry, including limited points of sale. American wine already does very well in Canada. The U.S. is our largest supplier of imported wines. The priority of the government is to look out for the interests of Canadians and the wine growers, including job creation and trade opportunities in various sectors and other venues.We will stand up for Canadian industries, specifically the wine industry, and defend our workers.
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect victims. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute certain human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. These are strengthening measures, which will help law enforcement. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and looks forward to receiving broad support from all parliamentarians on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question.We are standing up for the CBC, which is why we reinvested $675 million. We are also defending our national anthem. We always take pride in the changes, initiated by Mauril Bélanger, to the lyrics of the national anthem. Now that they are gender neutral, they are more inclusive and better reflect diversity. This is an important symbol for us.
Mr. Speaker, after being elected in 2015, the Liberal MP for Brampton East entered into a business relationship with a local businessman, receiving pay from him. Even though there is a clear conflict of interest, the Brampton East member arranged to give his business partner privileged access to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet while on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. Why did the Prime Minister's Office invite this individual on the trip to India when there is a such a clear conflict of interest?
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. The commissioner's report actually dealt with the period before the development of the pan-Canadian framework. It was an indictment of the climate policies of the previous government. We have put into place a plan that is focused on addressing climate change in a substantive way. The report that was issued in December 2017 by the United Nations showed that, relative to the 2016 report, there was a 232 megatonne reduction in carbon emissions. We are taking active and effective measures to ensure that we are addressing climate change in a thoughtful way.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week
Mr. Speaker, we recognize the services that caregivers give to Canadian families. In fact, we have recognized the importance of reuniting caregivers with their own families. That is why we invested more money and more resources to make sure we would bring down the processing time for caregivers, from five years under the previous government to under 12 months under our government. We are moving very quickly to also eliminate the existing cases under the live-in caregiver programs. The two existing programs are also working well. We are conducting an assessment to make them even better. Let me be very clear. We will always maintain pathways to permanent residency for caregivers.
Mr. Speaker, we are taking concrete action to improve our already strong and robust rules around political fundraising events. That is why the Minister of Democratic Institutions introduced Bill C-50, which will give more information to Canadians than ever before by letting them know who is going to fundraisers, when they will be happening, and the amount required to attend.Canadians have a right to know and understand, more than they do now, about fundraising events attended by the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and party leadership contestants. We encourage all members in the House to join us in working to build a more open and transparent fundraising system for Canada.
Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will continue working with the office and following its advice, as I would encourage all members to do.
Mr. Speaker, what this government is doing is working with farmers to make sure that the millions of dollars that the Harper government cut from science is renewed. In fact, $100 million in agricultural science over the last two budgets have been implemented. There is $3 billion for the Canadian agricultural partnership, $75 million to increase trade, and I could go on and on.This government is going to make sure that Canadian agriculture expands and meets the $75 billion of exports by 2025. Working with our great farmers and ranchers, we will do that.
Mr. Speaker, I will continue to remind all Canadians that we are proud to be working to create more opportunities for the Canadian middle class and those working hard to join it. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. MPs and business organizations will often invite community and business leaders to join these business exchanges to increase Canada's standing in the global community, and we are going to continue doing just that.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, and I shall repeat again, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will continue following its advice. However, I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation through the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree does important work.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for DorvalLachineLaSalle for her question and for her hard work.Empowering women and respecting their rights, including reproductive health rights, is what our government does. In the public service that means we are putting women and the health of women first, including their choice of contraceptives. I am very happy to announce that effective April 1, non-oral contraceptives will be covered under the public service health care plan. As promised, we worked hard and collaboratively with the unions to bring this about, and we have delivered.
All of them, Mr. Speaker.I am very glad to have the question, because we will be happy to discuss all manner of House committee work through the House leaders, which we can advance just as soon as the official opposition is fully briefed on all of the facts, classified and unclassified. Those members just have to let us know when they would like to get started and all of that information can proceed.
Mr. Speaker, we on this side have a lot of regard and respect for officers of Parliament, and that is why the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. We were proud to be joined by hundreds of community leaders and members of the business community to strengthen our ties with India, but I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation to the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree is very important work.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice.As common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, it is important that we be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As is common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As a common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, in one of the most shocking and disturbing cases ever witnessed, B.C. SPCA officers attempted to rescue a severely emaciated dog standing in a pile of mud and feces. The collar was embedded in his neck causing his head to swell to almost three times its normal size. When the collar was removed, it exposed an infected wound showing the dog's trachea and jugular vein. This case of animal cruelty has profoundly impacted my community. In 2016, the Minister of Justice made a commitment to review the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code. When will she honour that commitment?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to understand who trotted out the national security adviser to give classified or not classified information to the media, who did not know what was classified or what was not classified.What we know here is that the government is trying to cover up the fact that it sent someone out to spin that it had a ridiculous conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government was to blame for the Prime Minister's disastrous appearance. Why are the Liberals trying to cover this up? Why do they not just come clean?
Mr. Speaker, three years ago, all MPs and all senators voted unanimously in favour of Bill C-452 to combat procuring and trafficking in persons. The only thing missing for this legislation to take effect is the Prime Minister's signature. Members heard correctly: the Prime Minister's signature is the only thing missing to give our justice and public safety systems the tools needed to protect our young girls who are trapped in the hell of prostitution and human trafficking.My question is simple. When will the Prime Minister finally sign the legislation?
Mr. Speaker, what a ridiculous answer. Last week, the environment minister refused to answer a very simple question at committee, so I will give her another chance. It is a truism that environmental programs should have specific and measurable outcomes. We know how much scrubbers on smokestacks reduce SO2. We know how much a waste-water treatment plant will improve water quality. It is shocking that the Liberals do not know how much a carbon tax will reduce emissions. By how much will a $50 a tonne carbon tax across Canada reduce our greenhouse gas emissions? I want a number.
Mr. Speaker, Air Canada flight attendants have filed complaints against the airline for sexual harassment and discrimination. Although the airline claims it has zero tolerance for harassment, it has outright denied these claims. Air Canada now asks female attendants to wear dress uniforms in order to show more cleavage and it told one gay flight attendant to stop prancing. Air Canada even dictates the colour and type of underwear flight attendants can wear. This is disgusting. This is unacceptable. What is the government going to do to ensure that anti-harassment policies are both adopted and followed by Canadian industries?
Mr. Speaker, offering a full classified briefing is hardly covering things up.The opposition has confirmed that it does not want to be encumbered by the truth when it is asking questions. Therefore, it is choosing to remain wilfully ignorant of the facts. There are other consequences too, like the voting at the end of last week, which forced the opposition to vote against very good things that Canadians want. For example, the hon. member's party voted against the settlement of Yazidi women and girls in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we attempted to better protect young girls in Canada by fast-tracking the passage of Bill C-38, a government bill to combat pimping. We would have preferred Bill C-452, but the Prime Minister went back on his vote. In collusion with the Conservatives, the Liberals said no to our motion. They said no to making life hard for pimps. The Liberals and the Conservatives would rather preserve the status quo than protect our young girls. How can the government justify refusing to pass its own bill?
Mr. Speaker, this government has completely failed at managing the agriculture file. The Minister of Agriculture abandoned farmers and refused to stand up for them when his colleague, the Minister of Health, was working on the reform of the Canada food guide. He dumped them on the Prime Minister, who was unable to fix the pulse crisis during his disastrous trip to India.Canadian exports are even worse off than they were before the trip, having dropped nearly 80%.When will the Minister of Agriculture demand that the Prime Minister be honest with Canadians and admit that his conspiracy theory is a farce that is having devastating consequences for Canadian farmers?
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has abandoned even a half-hearted acknowledgement of members and ministers' ethical obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code. Again, there was a question asked and not answered yesterday. Will the Prime Minister and will the Liberal government, disgraced by a spectrum of ethical lapses and violations, do the right thing and clean up the mess themselves or are they leaving it, once again, to the Ethics Commissioner?
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. It was the opposition that referred this to the conflict of interest office. It was not the Liberal member. Yet again, we have another questionable person travelling with the Prime Minister on his disastrous trip to India and no one on the Liberal side who is willing to take responsibility. So much for transparency and accountability. All we get from the Liberals is denial and deflection. What is next? Is the Prime Minister going to blame India for this new debacle?
Mr. Speaker, ethics problems are all too common with the Liberals. This time, the problem with with the member for Brampton East, who was hired by a construction company after becoming a member of Parliament. It just so happens that the owner of this company was invited on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. It is impossible to know who invited the man in question, since the member and the Prime Minister's Office are pointing the finger at each other. Who is telling the truth? Why all the mystery?
Mr. Speaker, our key exports are down 73%. Lentils are down 79%. India has increased tariffs and are implementing a fumigation fee. The CEO of a major pulse exporter said that the trade crisis with India is the ultimate hammer, and that we have been hit over the head and we are bleeding.For the sake of Canadian pulse producers, will the agriculture minister insist that the Prime Minister admit that his India conspiracy theory is a farce?
Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: thousands of young girls across Canada, including about 2,000 in Quebec alone, are trapped in the clutches of pimps and street gangs. Since 2013, MPs and senators have been doing their job and unanimously supported Bill C-452. This includes the Prime Minister, I might add, when he was in opposition.When it comes to legalizing marijuana, the Prime Minister has no problem rushing it through, but when it comes to protecting our young girls who are trapped in the clutches of pimps, he seems to find it too difficult to sign the document.What is he waiting for?
Mr. Speaker, it does not matter if our producers cannot get their products to market if they do not have a market to sell it to. The Liberals have to understand that there are very real consequences to the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India.
Mr. Speaker, it begs the question, if the opposition Conservatives were so concerned about human trafficking, why did they make cuts to law enforcement? Why did they make cuts to the entire public safety apparatus to the tune of $750 million?As I said, this government believes in combatting human trafficking. It is a very serious criminal offence. We have engaged with the chamber in the other place. We are listening to parliamentarians. We are listening to stakeholders right across the country. We will pass this law with the support of all parliamentarians.
Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, Canadians know that the environmental policies and the environmental legacy of the previous government were an abject failure. The Conservatives did not address climate change. They destroyed the environmental assessment process in Canada. They let the decline in biodiversity accelerate over the course of their 10 years in power. We are working very actively to ensure that environmental progress and economic progress go together going forward.
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary budget officer just released a new report on phase 1 of the Liberals' infrastructure plan. The report confirms what we already knew, and we are not really surprised. The Liberals are incapable of keeping their promises. Half of the millions of dollars earmarked have not yet been allocated to projects. I did say half. Municipalities have been waiting too long for that money. They believed the Liberal promises.On their behalf, I am once again asking the government where its plan is.
Mr. Speaker, the idea that the Prime Minister is hanging out with billionaires to protect the hard-pressed middle class is like telling us that those billionaire Liberal turkeys showed up and asked for an early Easter. This brings us to Mitch Garber. He is a mega donor, and the Liberals paid him back by giving him his own agency. They call it Invest in Canada, when it is really another case of investing in friends of the Liberal Party.Does the Prime Minister not understand that the public service in this country needs to be more than a patronage smorgasbord for his friends, donors, and insider pals?
Mr. Speaker, only the Conservative Party would consider and see offering it a full brief of both classified and unclassified information so they could know all the facts as muzzling. The fact is that the Conservatives are tying themselves into some strange knots, because they forced themselves last Friday to vote against some very good things that Canadians wanted. For example, they voted against the funding for injured members of the RCMP. They voted against benefits for veterans.
Again, there is no answer, Mr. Speaker, so let us talk about science. How is it that a government that claims to be based on science and evidence, does not have the foggiest clue of how harmful such a carbon tax would be to Canadians? Has the minister not done her homework? Does she not know how much emissions will go down under her carbon tax? Does she not know the devastating impact such a tax will have on our economy and the millions of jobs that hang in the balance? Do struggling Canadians not deserve to know if these massive new taxes will have any impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to Canada?
Mr. Speaker, as I said some moments ago, I am very glad to have the question. We can have a very good discussion about all manner of committee work, and that discussion will go on among House leaders. Step number one is for opposition members to stop the political game and, in fact, inform themselves of all the relevant facts. The offer has been made for a full briefing, both classified and unclassified, so the Leader of the Opposition can have all that information and then base himself on the truth and not some silly innuendo the Conservatives have dreamed up for themselves.
Mr. Speaker, all Canadians love our national anthem, O Canada.Unfortunately, I have noticed over the past few months that CBC and Radio-Canada no longer broadcast our national anthem at 5 a.m., as they did in the past.Why is that? When I asked, I was told that it is because they are on the air 24 hours a day. That is not an adequate response, because they have been on the air 24 hours a day since 1995, yet they stopped playing our national anthem only a few months ago.Does the Liberal government agree with us? One minute a day for our public broadcaster to play O Canada is not too much to ask. It would in fact be welcome.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind members that it was the Liberal government that implemented the Phoenix pay system. Public servants and the unions told the Liberals to delay its implementation, and yesterday we learned that IBM had advised the government to delay the system's implementation because it was just not ready. When employees, public servants, unions, and even the company that designed and built the system say do not go ahead, the government must listen.Why, in spite of this, did the government decide to gamble with the wages of thousands of workers?
Mr. Speaker, our government takes its fundamental responsibilities to protect the private information of Canadian citizens and the integrity of our electoral system extremely seriously, which is why we engaged the Communications Security Establishment to conduct the first-ever threat assessment of Canadian democratic processes. The threat assessment looked at cyber-threats facing our democratic process. It is a critical step in addressing the potential issues Canadians may face. Happily, CSE found that there was no significant interference in the 2015 election, but we know this is going to change in 2019, and addressing this will take a whole-of-government approach. This is an issue we take extremely seriously, which is why budget 2018 committed over $750 million for
Mr. Speaker, we have been asking for Parliament to get the same briefing the national security adviser gave to journalists. However, we know the national security adviser is not the only person who the public safety minister and the government is muzzling. They are also muzzling journalists, preventing them from reporting on what they heard in the unclassified briefing.When will the minister stop muzzling the national security adviser, stop muzzling journalists, stop the cover-up, and tell Canadians the truth?
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition complains that he will not be able to ask questions about classified information but that is exactly true already. What is classified needs to remain classified. What is being offered to the leader is a full description of all the facts so that he can know what is classified and what is not, and then he will be fully equipped to discharge his responsibility, rather than just political gamesmanship.
Mr. Speaker, this week the government introduced a massive carbon tax on Canadians. Government official John Moffet called the tax, a foundational element of the government's climate change plan. However, last week, when the minister was repeatedly asked how much this foundational tax would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she could not answer and neither could her deputy. If the carbon tax is so important, how is it that the minister cannot even tell Canadians what impact such a tax would have on carbon emissions?
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries awarded a lucrative surf clam quota worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a group that did not have first nation partners in place. It was not incorporated. It did not have a boat or a vessel, or a facility for harvesting. What it did have going for it were Liberal connections, including close family ties to the Liberal caucus. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador want to know why they have to lose their jobs so that the minister can look after Liberal insiders and close family friends.
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code is very clear. MPs are not to use their position to further their own private interests or those of another person, or entity, yet the member for Brampton East did just that. He ensured one of his private sector employers, the president of a large construction company, gained access to the Prime Minister as well as to key Liberal cabinet ministers. Obviously, both stand to profit as a result. Does the Prime Minister believe that the Conflict of Interest Code is wrong or does he just think the Liberals are above it?
Mr. Speaker, I have asked several questions in the House regarding the promised changes to the nutrition north program, which the minister has publicly stated is failing northerners. Last May, the response was that the new program would be launched very soon. In September, the response changed to we intend to get it right this time. In December, it was we're considering all feedback.In budget 2018, there is not one mention of nutrition north. It seems with more time there is less progress. Why is the government continuing to fail Nunavummiut by not fixing this broken program?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister held a fundraiser yesterday in Montreal. Stephen Bronfman was there, but that comes as no surprise. Let us not forget that he was named in the paradise papers. Who else was there? There was Mitch Garber, whom the Minister of International Trade recently named chairman of a new federal agency.The Prime Minister thanked those in attendance for all the time they have devoted to their movement, but especially for all the money they pay to attend these galas.Does the Prime Minister also thank his friends by giving them patronage appointments?
Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by first expressing my sympathies to the hon. member and his community for that loss. Our government believes that animal cruelty is an extremely important social issue that deserves a national conversation. Our government is reviewing issues pertaining to animal cruelty provisions, including expanding the definition of bestiality and the definition of animal fighting in the code. We believe that animal cruelty should be balanced and protect animals from deliberate and unnecessary acts of cruelty while not interfering with legitimate animal use, including indigenous animal harvesting rights. We look forward to working with our hon. colleague and all members of the House to achieve those goals.
Mr. Speaker, a Canadian company, indeed a Victoria, B.C., company called AggregateIQ, has been the subject of debate in the Palace of Westminster. Our parliamentary colleagues there are hearing that this company played a significant role in manipulating data to affect the vote on the Brexit referendum. I want to know if the Minister of Justice, or any of the relevant ministers, could decide that we can help get to the bottom of this kind of shenanigan. It is illegal, and it should be illegal. Can we get an inquiry into the activities of AggregateIQ?
Mr. Speaker, it is a sad spectacle to see a member who has served the House for this long reduced to reading talking points from the Prime Minister's Office. It is also sad to see him continue to stand against a briefing for members of Parliament, asking simply to receive the same that briefing members of the media received. Now members of the media are confirming that the national security adviser told them they could not report everything they received, even though it was an unclassified briefing.Why will the minister not simply do the right thing, stop covering up, and allow the national security adviser to appear before parliamentarians?
Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that the Liberals always seem to want to benefit their friends who are helping them and giving them money. The MP for Brampton East arranged for the person who is paying him to get access to the Prime Minister in India. We have a Conflict of Interest Act to avoid this exact type of behaviour, but the Liberals seem to have no regard for the Conflict of Interest Act. They are under constant investigation for these breaches. Again, who in the PMO authorized the attendance of this individual on the trip to India?
Mr. Speaker, the environment commissioner released a report this week entitled Perspectives on Climate Change Action in Canada. The data collection began in 2016, after this Liberal government came to office. It is all too clear that the Liberals have no plan. Once again, they have nothing to offer but window dressing. On the environment, as in many other areas, they are not keeping their promise.My question is simple. How much will greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by the carbon tax they introduced?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that addressing climate change is an important issue and any thoughtful approach and plan include the pricing of carbon pollution. Four out of five Canadians live in jurisdictions that have shown the leadership to put into place carbon pricing systems. We are working actively with the provinces and territories which have primary responsibility for implementing these systems. We will continue to do that because addressing climate change is something that we know is an important challenge which the Conservatives did not address in their 10 years in government.
Mr. Speaker, since this is my first opportunity to address the member since he has come back, I hope you would allow me to say how happy I am to see him in the House and in good health. We plan to have dinners with our wives, and we will be able to reflect on how important our families and our health are in doing this job.With regard to this specific issue, when the previous government went through a very similar public process to access this fishery, it forgot to include indigenous people. Our government has not forgotten indigenous people.
Mr. Speaker, on April 2, we will celebrate the 11th annual World Autism Awareness Day.On this day, Canada will join the international community, hundreds of thousands of families and caregivers, and communities around the world that will wear blue in recognition of people living with autism.Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health please update the House on the government actions to help those affected by the various forms of autism spectrum disorder?
Mr. Speaker, Pulse Canada has been very supportive of the work the government has done to take this issue to the highest level when members went to India. We are very disappointed with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we are committed to working with our farmers and processors to make sure our industry grows. We are extremely concerned, as I said, with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we continue to work with Indian officials to make sure that we resume the trade in pulses.
Mr. Speaker, changes in the way Canadians access content have disrupted many business models. The reality is that the benefits of the digital world are not shared equally between the web giants and our artists, journalists, and creators. Our government wants to level the playing field among the stakeholders involved. That is why we will be making amendments to our legislation to adapt it to the digital reality. This includes a review of the Broadcasting Act. We strongly believe in protecting our culture and promoting access to Canadian content on all platforms.
Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of chortling and clanking of champagne glasses at the Prime Minister's latest fundraiser for the billionaires, when he said that he was not only there to get maximum donations but to get tough on the 1%. Step forth exhibit A. Stephen Bronfman raised $250,000 for the Liberals in two hours. When Bronfman was named in the paradise papers scandal, the Prime Minister immediately intervened and said that no investigation was necessary. No investigation happened.That is the power of who one knows in the PMO. Why is the Prime Minister using the highest office in the land to feather the nest of his Liberal donors?
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code demands that all members uphold their public duties with honesty and fulfill to the highest standard so as to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest. The member's conduct goes well beyond apparent conflict. This is a blatantly formalized case of a cash for access retainer. Was the member's boss invited on the India trip to seek business in India or was he invited to hang with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Infrastructure , and the Minister of Innovation to get an inside track on contracts in Canada?
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear from the scientists in my region that after a decade of questions from their international counterparts about why the Conservative government was opposed to science, Canada is once again being viewed as a leader in science around the world and many of their international counterparts want to work in Canada. Could the Parliamentary Secretary for Science tell the House what our government is doing to capitalize on our renewed scientific reputation to recruit the top international talent?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, before the Senate committee, the IBM witnesses confirmed that Harper's Conservative government botched the program from the beginning. They reduced the scope of the project and did not take into account the advice of their supplier. The previous government developed the request for proposal and awarded the contract for the Phoenix pay system.We are continuing to work with IBM, and we will hold it accountable to ensure it complies with its obligations.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his advocacy on this issue. It is completely unacceptable that northerners are still struggling to feed their families and pay the most extraordinary prices for food in Canada. Our government has already expanded the nutrition north program to include 37 more communities across Canada. We have also increased the budget by $65 million over the next five years. We are continuing to engage with those in northern regions to ensure we can expand this program to ensure affordable access to food for all people in the northern regions of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians recognize very well that the environmental policies of the previous government were an abject failure, whether it was addressing climate change, environmental assessment, biodiversity in Canada--
Mr. Speaker, the member well knows that all members in the House believe that harassment of any type is unacceptable in the workplace or anywhere. We put forward Bill C-65, which is legislation that would cover the Parliament Hill precinct and all federally regulated workplaces. The legislation is currently in committee and we are accepting some amendments from all parties. It is going to be a strong piece of legislation. We committed to this in the past election and we are going
Mr. Speaker, on March 1, when the public safety minister was asked why the Liberals will not let the national security adviser appear at committee, he said, You are asking me to wade into a classified discussion. I can't do that. Then he ran away from questions to the elevator, quite conveniently. Today and earlier this week, he said that none of the information given by the adviser to the media was classified.On what day was he telling the truth?
Mr. Speaker, sometimes, Ottawa can seem far away, as Patrick Lagacé pointed out in a column two weeks ago about one of my constituents, Sophie Thewys.Despite the hard work by my team and Sophie after the tragic death of her partner Nicolas, she has yet to receive her permanent resident status, which had already been approved. The Prime Minister likes to boast that our immigration system is compassionate and humane, but it certainly does not feel that way.When will the minister use his power to put an end to this tragedy and allow Sophie to grieve and move on?
Mr. Speaker, Canada's wine industry has created over 37,000 jobs. Wine is our highest value-added agriculture product.The U.S. trade representative recently said he wants even more access to our Canadian market, despite U.S. wine exports to Canada already increasing by over 2,500% since 1988, and, I will also add, a $500-million trade surplus.Will the minister confirm that the government will not trade away the 37,000 jobs in our wine industry at the eleventh hour of these NAFTA talks?
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, because he is a privy councillor, has been offered a full and complete briefing on all matters with respect to this situation, both classified and unclassified, so he can be fully informed. If he willfully refuses to be fully informed, it appears that his only objective is a political game that has nothing to do with the truth.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect the victims of this crime. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and we look forward to receiving support on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, women have a right to choices when it comes to their health. An important part of women's health involves access to a variety of safe and effective forms of contraception. However, the Public Service Health Care Plan currently covers only oral contraceptives.What has the government done to correct this situation for more than 650,000 federal public servants and their family members?
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague from DartmouthCole Harbour for his leadership on this file.Our government is committed to supporting Canadians living with autism spectrum disorder.I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the compelling advocacy of the member for EdmontonWetaskiwin on this important issue as well. That is why, quite frankly, I was disheartened that the Conservatives' recent motion went against our 2018 investment of $20 million in new funding to support people with autism spectrum disorder and their families.On World Autism Awareness Day 2018, I would encourage all members of this House and all Canadians to learn more about autism and how each of us can work together to make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, my intervention is about the fact that CBC no longer plays O Canada. I submitted an information request to CBC, and I would like to table this document, which contains CBC's response explaining why it no longer plays the national anthem on CBC or Radio-Canada.
Mr. Speaker, IBM's testimony to the Senate committee last night confirmed that the Harper Conservatives botched this program from the start. They de-scoped the project and ignored the advice of their contractors. The development of the request for proposal and award of contract for Phoenix was done by the previous government. We continue to work with IBM and will hold it to account to fulfill its obligations. To date, our government has invested $645 million to stabilize the pay system.
Mr. Speaker, after quietly announcing the end of the current caregiver program, the minister was forced to change course by stating he would engage in consultations about the future of the program. At committee, IRCC officials committed to providing details of the consultation process to members. To date, no information has been provided even though multiple consultations have already taken place. My direct request to attend the consultation with caregivers in Ottawa was denied. We were told that it was not a consultation meeting. Why did the minister's staff mislead my office and why the secrecy?
Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the government of Quebec did what Ottawa is not courageous enough to do. It decided that Quebec sales tax would apply both to foreign digital platforms like Spotify and Netflix and to home-grown platforms like Tou.tv and illico. Quebec showed yesterday that we can take action on the GST now. Not in two years, or after another consultation, or after discussions with the G7, but right now. The Prime Minister needs to stop spreading misinformation. No one here is talking about a new tax, apart from the Liberals. When will the Minister of Finance act?
Mr. Speaker, our immigration system is based on respectful rules and standards, but there is also room for compassionate and humanitarian considerations with respect to any particular case.The member opposite knows that I cannot go into the details of a particular case due to privacy concerns, but I am happy to meet with him at the end of question period to see what I can do for him.
Mr. Speaker, we learned yesterday that as early as summer 2015, IBM was advising the government that Phoenix was not ready to go. For those keeping score, that means departmental reviews, public sector unions, and the principal private contractor itself were saying that Phoenix was not ready to go. Now, the Liberal Party has a rich history of going back on its commitments. I am thinking of electoral reform and I am thinking of its promise on CEO stock option loopholes.Why is it that the one time the Liberals could have used their great power of doubling back on their commitments to help Canadians, they passed up the opportunity?
Mr. Speaker, the minister is deflecting, but let us carry on
Mr. Speaker, Canadians across the country are enjoying the benefits of the more than 3,400 projects approved under Infrastructure Canada's phase 1 programs. The previous government spent a decade doing nothing, but now these projects are modernizing public transit and water pipes and building healthier communities. Over $4 billion in federal funding has been approved for these projects, and the money will flow as soon as our partners submit their applications.
Mr. Speaker, the pricing of carbon pollution is a key part of any serious plan to address climate change. Pricing pollution is a market mechanism that will reduce emissions and will drive innovation in the country. We believe that provinces and territories are best placed to design pricing systems that work for them, as long as it meets the national standard. The design of the system will affect the amount of emissions reductions that are achieved. We will be, as we have said very publicly, reviewing all provincial and territorial systems later this year.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week, the Conservatives voted against investing to recruit the best and the brightest. We know that science and research help improve the lives of Canadians. Therefore, the member for Don Valley North and the Liberal caucus voted for that funding. This morning, we were proud to announce the Canada 150 research chairs. We look forward to their exciting new breakthroughs.
Mr. Speaker, the truth is that this party is leading the way with openness and transparency in fundraising. We are a shining example for what all parties in the House could do.It is very curious, in fact, that the party from which this question proceeds is itself still keeping its information about its fundraisers a secret. Will the member join our example?
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy that the member has given me the opportunity to talk about Invest in Canada, a new flagship investment and promotion agency in this country.I was travelling the country to make sure that Canadians know about this new agency. I am very proud we have appointed Mitch Garber, the chair of Cirque du Soleil, as the first chair of this agency. We have also brought in Ian McKay, who is the director of the Vancouver Economic Commission. We want people who understand business to bring business to Canada, because that is the way to create jobs around this country.
Mr. Speaker, the minister is trying to deflect, but the problem is that the Liberals think that it is entirely appropriate to offer a briefing to the media, but not to the representatives of the people, us, the elected members of the House. The minister himself said that the information was not sensitive or classified, but he refuses to share it with MPs.Since the information provided to the media was not classified, will the minister confirm that the media that received the briefing from the national security advisor are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing?
Mr. Speaker, let's be honest. If the media briefing did not include sensitive information, there is no reason why journalists could not share it with Canadians. The minister seems to be caught up in the talking points provided by the Prime Minister's Office. However, to disentangle himself, could the minister confirm whether the media who were briefed are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. also has measures in place to promote and protect their own wine industry, including limited points of sale. American wine already does very well in Canada. The U.S. is our largest supplier of imported wines. The priority of the government is to look out for the interests of Canadians and the wine growers, including job creation and trade opportunities in various sectors and other venues.We will stand up for Canadian industries, specifically the wine industry, and defend our workers.
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect victims. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute certain human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. These are strengthening measures, which will help law enforcement. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and looks forward to receiving broad support from all parliamentarians on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question.We are standing up for the CBC, which is why we reinvested $675 million. We are also defending our national anthem. We always take pride in the changes, initiated by Mauril Bélanger, to the lyrics of the national anthem. Now that they are gender neutral, they are more inclusive and better reflect diversity. This is an important symbol for us.
Mr. Speaker, after being elected in 2015, the Liberal MP for Brampton East entered into a business relationship with a local businessman, receiving pay from him. Even though there is a clear conflict of interest, the Brampton East member arranged to give his business partner privileged access to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet while on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. Why did the Prime Minister's Office invite this individual on the trip to India when there is a such a clear conflict of interest?
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. The commissioner's report actually dealt with the period before the development of the pan-Canadian framework. It was an indictment of the climate policies of the previous government. We have put into place a plan that is focused on addressing climate change in a substantive way. The report that was issued in December 2017 by the United Nations showed that, relative to the 2016 report, there was a 232 megatonne reduction in carbon emissions. We are taking active and effective measures to ensure that we are addressing climate change in a thoughtful way.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week
Mr. Speaker, we recognize the services that caregivers give to Canadian families. In fact, we have recognized the importance of reuniting caregivers with their own families. That is why we invested more money and more resources to make sure we would bring down the processing time for caregivers, from five years under the previous government to under 12 months under our government. We are moving very quickly to also eliminate the existing cases under the live-in caregiver programs. The two existing programs are also working well. We are conducting an assessment to make them even better. Let me be very clear. We will always maintain pathways to permanent residency for caregivers.
Mr. Speaker, we are taking concrete action to improve our already strong and robust rules around political fundraising events. That is why the Minister of Democratic Institutions introduced Bill C-50, which will give more information to Canadians than ever before by letting them know who is going to fundraisers, when they will be happening, and the amount required to attend.Canadians have a right to know and understand, more than they do now, about fundraising events attended by the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and party leadership contestants. We encourage all members in the House to join us in working to build a more open and transparent fundraising system for Canada.
Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will continue working with the office and following its advice, as I would encourage all members to do.
Mr. Speaker, what this government is doing is working with farmers to make sure that the millions of dollars that the Harper government cut from science is renewed. In fact, $100 million in agricultural science over the last two budgets have been implemented. There is $3 billion for the Canadian agricultural partnership, $75 million to increase trade, and I could go on and on.This government is going to make sure that Canadian agriculture expands and meets the $75 billion of exports by 2025. Working with our great farmers and ranchers, we will do that.
Mr. Speaker, I will continue to remind all Canadians that we are proud to be working to create more opportunities for the Canadian middle class and those working hard to join it. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. MPs and business organizations will often invite community and business leaders to join these business exchanges to increase Canada's standing in the global community, and we are going to continue doing just that.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, and I shall repeat again, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will continue following its advice. However, I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation through the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree does important work.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for DorvalLachineLaSalle for her question and for her hard work.Empowering women and respecting their rights, including reproductive health rights, is what our government does. In the public service that means we are putting women and the health of women first, including their choice of contraceptives. I am very happy to announce that effective April 1, non-oral contraceptives will be covered under the public service health care plan. As promised, we worked hard and collaboratively with the unions to bring this about, and we have delivered.
All of them, Mr. Speaker.I am very glad to have the question, because we will be happy to discuss all manner of House committee work through the House leaders, which we can advance just as soon as the official opposition is fully briefed on all of the facts, classified and unclassified. Those members just have to let us know when they would like to get started and all of that information can proceed.
Mr. Speaker, we on this side have a lot of regard and respect for officers of Parliament, and that is why the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. We were proud to be joined by hundreds of community leaders and members of the business community to strengthen our ties with India, but I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation to the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree is very important work.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice.As common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, it is important that we be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As is common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As a common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Most negative speeches
Mr. Speaker, this government has completely failed at managing the agriculture file. The Minister of Agriculture abandoned farmers and refused to stand up for them when his colleague, the Minister of Health, was working on the reform of the Canada food guide. He dumped them on the Prime Minister, who was unable to fix the pulse crisis during his disastrous trip to India.Canadian exports are even worse off than they were before the trip, having dropped nearly 80%.When will the Minister of Agriculture demand that the Prime Minister be honest with Canadians and admit that his conspiracy theory is a farce that is having devastating consequences for Canadian farmers?
Mr. Speaker, ethics problems are all too common with the Liberals. This time, the problem with with the member for Brampton East, who was hired by a construction company after becoming a member of Parliament. It just so happens that the owner of this company was invited on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. It is impossible to know who invited the man in question, since the member and the Prime Minister's Office are pointing the finger at each other. Who is telling the truth? Why all the mystery?
Mr. Speaker, the truth is that this party is leading the way with openness and transparency in fundraising. We are a shining example for what all parties in the House could do.It is very curious, in fact, that the party from which this question proceeds is itself still keeping its information about its fundraisers a secret. Will the member join our example?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to understand who trotted out the national security adviser to give classified or not classified information to the media, who did not know what was classified or what was not classified.What we know here is that the government is trying to cover up the fact that it sent someone out to spin that it had a ridiculous conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government was to blame for the Prime Minister's disastrous appearance. Why are the Liberals trying to cover this up? Why do they not just come clean?
Mr. Speaker, it does not matter if our producers cannot get their products to market if they do not have a market to sell it to. The Liberals have to understand that there are very real consequences to the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India.
Mr. Speaker, sometimes, Ottawa can seem far away, as Patrick Lagacé pointed out in a column two weeks ago about one of my constituents, Sophie Thewys.Despite the hard work by my team and Sophie after the tragic death of her partner Nicolas, she has yet to receive her permanent resident status, which had already been approved. The Prime Minister likes to boast that our immigration system is compassionate and humane, but it certainly does not feel that way.When will the minister use his power to put an end to this tragedy and allow Sophie to grieve and move on?
Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, in one of the most shocking and disturbing cases ever witnessed, B.C. SPCA officers attempted to rescue a severely emaciated dog standing in a pile of mud and feces. The collar was embedded in his neck causing his head to swell to almost three times its normal size. When the collar was removed, it exposed an infected wound showing the dog's trachea and jugular vein. This case of animal cruelty has profoundly impacted my community. In 2016, the Minister of Justice made a commitment to review the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code. When will she honour that commitment?
Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: thousands of young girls across Canada, including about 2,000 in Quebec alone, are trapped in the clutches of pimps and street gangs. Since 2013, MPs and senators have been doing their job and unanimously supported Bill C-452. This includes the Prime Minister, I might add, when he was in opposition.When it comes to legalizing marijuana, the Prime Minister has no problem rushing it through, but when it comes to protecting our young girls who are trapped in the clutches of pimps, he seems to find it too difficult to sign the document.What is he waiting for?
Again, there is no answer, Mr. Speaker, so let us talk about science. How is it that a government that claims to be based on science and evidence, does not have the foggiest clue of how harmful such a carbon tax would be to Canadians? Has the minister not done her homework? Does she not know how much emissions will go down under her carbon tax? Does she not know the devastating impact such a tax will have on our economy and the millions of jobs that hang in the balance? Do struggling Canadians not deserve to know if these massive new taxes will have any impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to Canada?
Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, Canadians know that the environmental policies and the environmental legacy of the previous government were an abject failure. The Conservatives did not address climate change. They destroyed the environmental assessment process in Canada. They let the decline in biodiversity accelerate over the course of their 10 years in power. We are working very actively to ensure that environmental progress and economic progress go together going forward.
Mr. Speaker, it is a sad spectacle to see a member who has served the House for this long reduced to reading talking points from the Prime Minister's Office. It is also sad to see him continue to stand against a briefing for members of Parliament, asking simply to receive the same that briefing members of the media received. Now members of the media are confirming that the national security adviser told them they could not report everything they received, even though it was an unclassified briefing.Why will the minister not simply do the right thing, stop covering up, and allow the national security adviser to appear before parliamentarians?
Mr. Speaker, our key exports are down 73%. Lentils are down 79%. India has increased tariffs and are implementing a fumigation fee. The CEO of a major pulse exporter said that the trade crisis with India is the ultimate hammer, and that we have been hit over the head and we are bleeding.For the sake of Canadian pulse producers, will the agriculture minister insist that the Prime Minister admit that his India conspiracy theory is a farce?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians recognize very well that the environmental policies of the previous government were an abject failure, whether it was addressing climate change, environmental assessment, biodiversity in Canada--
Mr. Speaker, it begs the question, if the opposition Conservatives were so concerned about human trafficking, why did they make cuts to law enforcement? Why did they make cuts to the entire public safety apparatus to the tune of $750 million?As I said, this government believes in combatting human trafficking. It is a very serious criminal offence. We have engaged with the chamber in the other place. We are listening to parliamentarians. We are listening to stakeholders right across the country. We will pass this law with the support of all parliamentarians.
Mr. Speaker, after being elected in 2015, the Liberal MP for Brampton East entered into a business relationship with a local businessman, receiving pay from him. Even though there is a clear conflict of interest, the Brampton East member arranged to give his business partner privileged access to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet while on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. Why did the Prime Minister's Office invite this individual on the trip to India when there is a such a clear conflict of interest?
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code demands that all members uphold their public duties with honesty and fulfill to the highest standard so as to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest. The member's conduct goes well beyond apparent conflict. This is a blatantly formalized case of a cash for access retainer. Was the member's boss invited on the India trip to seek business in India or was he invited to hang with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Infrastructure , and the Minister of Innovation to get an inside track on contracts in Canada?
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. It was the opposition that referred this to the conflict of interest office. It was not the Liberal member. Yet again, we have another questionable person travelling with the Prime Minister on his disastrous trip to India and no one on the Liberal side who is willing to take responsibility. So much for transparency and accountability. All we get from the Liberals is denial and deflection. What is next? Is the Prime Minister going to blame India for this new debacle?
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary budget officer just released a new report on phase 1 of the Liberals' infrastructure plan. The report confirms what we already knew, and we are not really surprised. The Liberals are incapable of keeping their promises. Half of the millions of dollars earmarked have not yet been allocated to projects. I did say half. Municipalities have been waiting too long for that money. They believed the Liberal promises.On their behalf, I am once again asking the government where its plan is.
Mr. Speaker, what a ridiculous answer. Last week, the environment minister refused to answer a very simple question at committee, so I will give her another chance. It is a truism that environmental programs should have specific and measurable outcomes. We know how much scrubbers on smokestacks reduce SO2. We know how much a waste-water treatment plant will improve water quality. It is shocking that the Liberals do not know how much a carbon tax will reduce emissions. By how much will a $50 a tonne carbon tax across Canada reduce our greenhouse gas emissions? I want a number.
Mr. Speaker, three years ago, all MPs and all senators voted unanimously in favour of Bill C-452 to combat procuring and trafficking in persons. The only thing missing for this legislation to take effect is the Prime Minister's signature. Members heard correctly: the Prime Minister's signature is the only thing missing to give our justice and public safety systems the tools needed to protect our young girls who are trapped in the hell of prostitution and human trafficking.My question is simple. When will the Prime Minister finally sign the legislation?
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind members that it was the Liberal government that implemented the Phoenix pay system. Public servants and the unions told the Liberals to delay its implementation, and yesterday we learned that IBM had advised the government to delay the system's implementation because it was just not ready. When employees, public servants, unions, and even the company that designed and built the system say do not go ahead, the government must listen.Why, in spite of this, did the government decide to gamble with the wages of thousands of workers?
Mr. Speaker, after quietly announcing the end of the current caregiver program, the minister was forced to change course by stating he would engage in consultations about the future of the program. At committee, IRCC officials committed to providing details of the consultation process to members. To date, no information has been provided even though multiple consultations have already taken place. My direct request to attend the consultation with caregivers in Ottawa was denied. We were told that it was not a consultation meeting. Why did the minister's staff mislead my office and why the secrecy?
Mr. Speaker, our government takes its fundamental responsibilities to protect the private information of Canadian citizens and the integrity of our electoral system extremely seriously, which is why we engaged the Communications Security Establishment to conduct the first-ever threat assessment of Canadian democratic processes. The threat assessment looked at cyber-threats facing our democratic process. It is a critical step in addressing the potential issues Canadians may face. Happily, CSE found that there was no significant interference in the 2015 election, but we know this is going to change in 2019, and addressing this will take a whole-of-government approach. This is an issue we take extremely seriously, which is why budget 2018 committed over $750 million for
Mr. Speaker, on March 1, when the public safety minister was asked why the Liberals will not let the national security adviser appear at committee, he said, You are asking me to wade into a classified discussion. I can't do that. Then he ran away from questions to the elevator, quite conveniently. Today and earlier this week, he said that none of the information given by the adviser to the media was classified.On what day was he telling the truth?
Mr. Speaker, the minister is deflecting, but let us carry on
Mr. Speaker, we have been asking for Parliament to get the same briefing the national security adviser gave to journalists. However, we know the national security adviser is not the only person who the public safety minister and the government is muzzling. They are also muzzling journalists, preventing them from reporting on what they heard in the unclassified briefing.When will the minister stop muzzling the national security adviser, stop muzzling journalists, stop the cover-up, and tell Canadians the truth?
Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will continue working with the office and following its advice, as I would encourage all members to do.
Mr. Speaker, on April 2, we will celebrate the 11th annual World Autism Awareness Day.On this day, Canada will join the international community, hundreds of thousands of families and caregivers, and communities around the world that will wear blue in recognition of people living with autism.Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health please update the House on the government actions to help those affected by the various forms of autism spectrum disorder?
Mr. Speaker, my intervention is about the fact that CBC no longer plays O Canada. I submitted an information request to CBC, and I would like to table this document, which contains CBC's response explaining why it no longer plays the national anthem on CBC or Radio-Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I have asked several questions in the House regarding the promised changes to the nutrition north program, which the minister has publicly stated is failing northerners. Last May, the response was that the new program would be launched very soon. In September, the response changed to we intend to get it right this time. In December, it was we're considering all feedback.In budget 2018, there is not one mention of nutrition north. It seems with more time there is less progress. Why is the government continuing to fail Nunavummiut by not fixing this broken program?
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, because he is a privy councillor, has been offered a full and complete briefing on all matters with respect to this situation, both classified and unclassified, so he can be fully informed. If he willfully refuses to be fully informed, it appears that his only objective is a political game that has nothing to do with the truth.
Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of chortling and clanking of champagne glasses at the Prime Minister's latest fundraiser for the billionaires, when he said that he was not only there to get maximum donations but to get tough on the 1%. Step forth exhibit A. Stephen Bronfman raised $250,000 for the Liberals in two hours. When Bronfman was named in the paradise papers scandal, the Prime Minister immediately intervened and said that no investigation was necessary. No investigation happened.That is the power of who one knows in the PMO. Why is the Prime Minister using the highest office in the land to feather the nest of his Liberal donors?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister held a fundraiser yesterday in Montreal. Stephen Bronfman was there, but that comes as no surprise. Let us not forget that he was named in the paradise papers. Who else was there? There was Mitch Garber, whom the Minister of International Trade recently named chairman of a new federal agency.The Prime Minister thanked those in attendance for all the time they have devoted to their movement, but especially for all the money they pay to attend these galas.Does the Prime Minister also thank his friends by giving them patronage appointments?
Mr. Speaker, a Canadian company, indeed a Victoria, B.C., company called AggregateIQ, has been the subject of debate in the Palace of Westminster. Our parliamentary colleagues there are hearing that this company played a significant role in manipulating data to affect the vote on the Brexit referendum. I want to know if the Minister of Justice, or any of the relevant ministers, could decide that we can help get to the bottom of this kind of shenanigan. It is illegal, and it should be illegal. Can we get an inquiry into the activities of AggregateIQ?
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code is very clear. MPs are not to use their position to further their own private interests or those of another person, or entity, yet the member for Brampton East did just that. He ensured one of his private sector employers, the president of a large construction company, gained access to the Prime Minister as well as to key Liberal cabinet ministers. Obviously, both stand to profit as a result. Does the Prime Minister believe that the Conflict of Interest Code is wrong or does he just think the Liberals are above it?
Mr. Speaker, the member well knows that all members in the House believe that harassment of any type is unacceptable in the workplace or anywhere. We put forward Bill C-65, which is legislation that would cover the Parliament Hill precinct and all federally regulated workplaces. The legislation is currently in committee and we are accepting some amendments from all parties. It is going to be a strong piece of legislation. We committed to this in the past election and we are going
Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the government of Quebec did what Ottawa is not courageous enough to do. It decided that Quebec sales tax would apply both to foreign digital platforms like Spotify and Netflix and to home-grown platforms like Tou.tv and illico. Quebec showed yesterday that we can take action on the GST now. Not in two years, or after another consultation, or after discussions with the G7, but right now. The Prime Minister needs to stop spreading misinformation. No one here is talking about a new tax, apart from the Liberals. When will the Minister of Finance act?
Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by first expressing my sympathies to the hon. member and his community for that loss. Our government believes that animal cruelty is an extremely important social issue that deserves a national conversation. Our government is reviewing issues pertaining to animal cruelty provisions, including expanding the definition of bestiality and the definition of animal fighting in the code. We believe that animal cruelty should be balanced and protect animals from deliberate and unnecessary acts of cruelty while not interfering with legitimate animal use, including indigenous animal harvesting rights. We look forward to working with our hon. colleague and all members of the House to achieve those goals.
Mr. Speaker, as I said some moments ago, I am very glad to have the question. We can have a very good discussion about all manner of committee work, and that discussion will go on among House leaders. Step number one is for opposition members to stop the political game and, in fact, inform themselves of all the relevant facts. The offer has been made for a full briefing, both classified and unclassified, so the Leader of the Opposition can have all that information and then base himself on the truth and not some silly innuendo the Conservatives have dreamed up for themselves.
Mr. Speaker, IBM's testimony to the Senate committee last night confirmed that the Harper Conservatives botched this program from the start. They de-scoped the project and ignored the advice of their contractors. The development of the request for proposal and award of contract for Phoenix was done by the previous government. We continue to work with IBM and will hold it to account to fulfill its obligations. To date, our government has invested $645 million to stabilize the pay system.
Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that the Liberals always seem to want to benefit their friends who are helping them and giving them money. The MP for Brampton East arranged for the person who is paying him to get access to the Prime Minister in India. We have a Conflict of Interest Act to avoid this exact type of behaviour, but the Liberals seem to have no regard for the Conflict of Interest Act. They are under constant investigation for these breaches. Again, who in the PMO authorized the attendance of this individual on the trip to India?
Mr. Speaker, the pricing of carbon pollution is a key part of any serious plan to address climate change. Pricing pollution is a market mechanism that will reduce emissions and will drive innovation in the country. We believe that provinces and territories are best placed to design pricing systems that work for them, as long as it meets the national standard. The design of the system will affect the amount of emissions reductions that are achieved. We will be, as we have said very publicly, reviewing all provincial and territorial systems later this year.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As a common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice.As common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, and I shall repeat again, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will continue following its advice. However, I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation through the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree does important work.
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. also has measures in place to promote and protect their own wine industry, including limited points of sale. American wine already does very well in Canada. The U.S. is our largest supplier of imported wines. The priority of the government is to look out for the interests of Canadians and the wine growers, including job creation and trade opportunities in various sectors and other venues.We will stand up for Canadian industries, specifically the wine industry, and defend our workers.
Mr. Speaker, Air Canada flight attendants have filed complaints against the airline for sexual harassment and discrimination. Although the airline claims it has zero tolerance for harassment, it has outright denied these claims. Air Canada now asks female attendants to wear dress uniforms in order to show more cleavage and it told one gay flight attendant to stop prancing. Air Canada even dictates the colour and type of underwear flight attendants can wear. This is disgusting. This is unacceptable. What is the government going to do to ensure that anti-harassment policies are both adopted and followed by Canadian industries?
Mr. Speaker, Pulse Canada has been very supportive of the work the government has done to take this issue to the highest level when members went to India. We are very disappointed with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we are committed to working with our farmers and processors to make sure our industry grows. We are extremely concerned, as I said, with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we continue to work with Indian officials to make sure that we resume the trade in pulses.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, before the Senate committee, the IBM witnesses confirmed that Harper's Conservative government botched the program from the beginning. They reduced the scope of the project and did not take into account the advice of their supplier. The previous government developed the request for proposal and awarded the contract for the Phoenix pay system.We are continuing to work with IBM, and we will hold it accountable to ensure it complies with its obligations.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. The commissioner's report actually dealt with the period before the development of the pan-Canadian framework. It was an indictment of the climate policies of the previous government. We have put into place a plan that is focused on addressing climate change in a substantive way. The report that was issued in December 2017 by the United Nations showed that, relative to the 2016 report, there was a 232 megatonne reduction in carbon emissions. We are taking active and effective measures to ensure that we are addressing climate change in a thoughtful way.
Mr. Speaker, we learned yesterday that as early as summer 2015, IBM was advising the government that Phoenix was not ready to go. For those keeping score, that means departmental reviews, public sector unions, and the principal private contractor itself were saying that Phoenix was not ready to go. Now, the Liberal Party has a rich history of going back on its commitments. I am thinking of electoral reform and I am thinking of its promise on CEO stock option loopholes.Why is it that the one time the Liberals could have used their great power of doubling back on their commitments to help Canadians, they passed up the opportunity?
Mr. Speaker, this week the government introduced a massive carbon tax on Canadians. Government official John Moffet called the tax, a foundational element of the government's climate change plan. However, last week, when the minister was repeatedly asked how much this foundational tax would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she could not answer and neither could her deputy. If the carbon tax is so important, how is it that the minister cannot even tell Canadians what impact such a tax would have on carbon emissions?
Mr. Speaker, the environment commissioner released a report this week entitled Perspectives on Climate Change Action in Canada. The data collection began in 2016, after this Liberal government came to office. It is all too clear that the Liberals have no plan. Once again, they have nothing to offer but window dressing. On the environment, as in many other areas, they are not keeping their promise.My question is simple. How much will greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by the carbon tax they introduced?
Mr. Speaker, only the Conservative Party would consider and see offering it a full brief of both classified and unclassified information so they could know all the facts as muzzling. The fact is that the Conservatives are tying themselves into some strange knots, because they forced themselves last Friday to vote against some very good things that Canadians wanted. For example, they voted against the funding for injured members of the RCMP. They voted against benefits for veterans.
Mr. Speaker, all Canadians love our national anthem, O Canada.Unfortunately, I have noticed over the past few months that CBC and Radio-Canada no longer broadcast our national anthem at 5 a.m., as they did in the past.Why is that? When I asked, I was told that it is because they are on the air 24 hours a day. That is not an adequate response, because they have been on the air 24 hours a day since 1995, yet they stopped playing our national anthem only a few months ago.Does the Liberal government agree with us? One minute a day for our public broadcaster to play O Canada is not too much to ask. It would in fact be welcome.
Mr. Speaker, offering a full classified briefing is hardly covering things up.The opposition has confirmed that it does not want to be encumbered by the truth when it is asking questions. Therefore, it is choosing to remain wilfully ignorant of the facts. There are other consequences too, like the voting at the end of last week, which forced the opposition to vote against very good things that Canadians want. For example, the hon. member's party voted against the settlement of Yazidi women and girls in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, it is important that we be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As is common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect the victims of this crime. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and we look forward to receiving support on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians across the country are enjoying the benefits of the more than 3,400 projects approved under Infrastructure Canada's phase 1 programs. The previous government spent a decade doing nothing, but now these projects are modernizing public transit and water pipes and building healthier communities. Over $4 billion in federal funding has been approved for these projects, and the money will flow as soon as our partners submit their applications.
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect victims. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute certain human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. These are strengthening measures, which will help law enforcement. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and looks forward to receiving broad support from all parliamentarians on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, I will continue to remind all Canadians that we are proud to be working to create more opportunities for the Canadian middle class and those working hard to join it. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. MPs and business organizations will often invite community and business leaders to join these business exchanges to increase Canada's standing in the global community, and we are going to continue doing just that.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we attempted to better protect young girls in Canada by fast-tracking the passage of Bill C-38, a government bill to combat pimping. We would have preferred Bill C-452, but the Prime Minister went back on his vote. In collusion with the Conservatives, the Liberals said no to our motion. They said no to making life hard for pimps. The Liberals and the Conservatives would rather preserve the status quo than protect our young girls. How can the government justify refusing to pass its own bill?
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has abandoned even a half-hearted acknowledgement of members and ministers' ethical obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code. Again, there was a question asked and not answered yesterday. Will the Prime Minister and will the Liberal government, disgraced by a spectrum of ethical lapses and violations, do the right thing and clean up the mess themselves or are they leaving it, once again, to the Ethics Commissioner?
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for DorvalLachineLaSalle for her question and for her hard work.Empowering women and respecting their rights, including reproductive health rights, is what our government does. In the public service that means we are putting women and the health of women first, including their choice of contraceptives. I am very happy to announce that effective April 1, non-oral contraceptives will be covered under the public service health care plan. As promised, we worked hard and collaboratively with the unions to bring this about, and we have delivered.
Mr. Speaker, changes in the way Canadians access content have disrupted many business models. The reality is that the benefits of the digital world are not shared equally between the web giants and our artists, journalists, and creators. Our government wants to level the playing field among the stakeholders involved. That is why we will be making amendments to our legislation to adapt it to the digital reality. This includes a review of the Broadcasting Act. We strongly believe in protecting our culture and promoting access to Canadian content on all platforms.
Mr. Speaker, the idea that the Prime Minister is hanging out with billionaires to protect the hard-pressed middle class is like telling us that those billionaire Liberal turkeys showed up and asked for an early Easter. This brings us to Mitch Garber. He is a mega donor, and the Liberals paid him back by giving him his own agency. They call it Invest in Canada, when it is really another case of investing in friends of the Liberal Party.Does the Prime Minister not understand that the public service in this country needs to be more than a patronage smorgasbord for his friends, donors, and insider pals?
Mr. Speaker, Canada's wine industry has created over 37,000 jobs. Wine is our highest value-added agriculture product.The U.S. trade representative recently said he wants even more access to our Canadian market, despite U.S. wine exports to Canada already increasing by over 2,500% since 1988, and, I will also add, a $500-million trade surplus.Will the minister confirm that the government will not trade away the 37,000 jobs in our wine industry at the eleventh hour of these NAFTA talks?
Mr. Speaker, since this is my first opportunity to address the member since he has come back, I hope you would allow me to say how happy I am to see him in the House and in good health. We plan to have dinners with our wives, and we will be able to reflect on how important our families and our health are in doing this job.With regard to this specific issue, when the previous government went through a very similar public process to access this fishery, it forgot to include indigenous people. Our government has not forgotten indigenous people.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear from the scientists in my region that after a decade of questions from their international counterparts about why the Conservative government was opposed to science, Canada is once again being viewed as a leader in science around the world and many of their international counterparts want to work in Canada. Could the Parliamentary Secretary for Science tell the House what our government is doing to capitalize on our renewed scientific reputation to recruit the top international talent?
Mr. Speaker, our immigration system is based on respectful rules and standards, but there is also room for compassionate and humanitarian considerations with respect to any particular case.The member opposite knows that I cannot go into the details of a particular case due to privacy concerns, but I am happy to meet with him at the end of question period to see what I can do for him.
Mr. Speaker, women have a right to choices when it comes to their health. An important part of women's health involves access to a variety of safe and effective forms of contraception. However, the Public Service Health Care Plan currently covers only oral contraceptives.What has the government done to correct this situation for more than 650,000 federal public servants and their family members?
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague from DartmouthCole Harbour for his leadership on this file.Our government is committed to supporting Canadians living with autism spectrum disorder.I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the compelling advocacy of the member for EdmontonWetaskiwin on this important issue as well. That is why, quite frankly, I was disheartened that the Conservatives' recent motion went against our 2018 investment of $20 million in new funding to support people with autism spectrum disorder and their families.On World Autism Awareness Day 2018, I would encourage all members of this House and all Canadians to learn more about autism and how each of us can work together to make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that addressing climate change is an important issue and any thoughtful approach and plan include the pricing of carbon pollution. Four out of five Canadians live in jurisdictions that have shown the leadership to put into place carbon pricing systems. We are working actively with the provinces and territories which have primary responsibility for implementing these systems. We will continue to do that because addressing climate change is something that we know is an important challenge which the Conservatives did not address in their 10 years in government.
Mr. Speaker, we are taking concrete action to improve our already strong and robust rules around political fundraising events. That is why the Minister of Democratic Institutions introduced Bill C-50, which will give more information to Canadians than ever before by letting them know who is going to fundraisers, when they will be happening, and the amount required to attend.Canadians have a right to know and understand, more than they do now, about fundraising events attended by the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and party leadership contestants. We encourage all members in the House to join us in working to build a more open and transparent fundraising system for Canada.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries awarded a lucrative surf clam quota worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a group that did not have first nation partners in place. It was not incorporated. It did not have a boat or a vessel, or a facility for harvesting. What it did have going for it were Liberal connections, including close family ties to the Liberal caucus. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador want to know why they have to lose their jobs so that the minister can look after Liberal insiders and close family friends.
Mr. Speaker, the minister is trying to deflect, but the problem is that the Liberals think that it is entirely appropriate to offer a briefing to the media, but not to the representatives of the people, us, the elected members of the House. The minister himself said that the information was not sensitive or classified, but he refuses to share it with MPs.Since the information provided to the media was not classified, will the minister confirm that the media that received the briefing from the national security advisor are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing?
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his advocacy on this issue. It is completely unacceptable that northerners are still struggling to feed their families and pay the most extraordinary prices for food in Canada. Our government has already expanded the nutrition north program to include 37 more communities across Canada. We have also increased the budget by $65 million over the next five years. We are continuing to engage with those in northern regions to ensure we can expand this program to ensure affordable access to food for all people in the northern regions of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition complains that he will not be able to ask questions about classified information but that is exactly true already. What is classified needs to remain classified. What is being offered to the leader is a full description of all the facts so that he can know what is classified and what is not, and then he will be fully equipped to discharge his responsibility, rather than just political gamesmanship.
Mr. Speaker, we recognize the services that caregivers give to Canadian families. In fact, we have recognized the importance of reuniting caregivers with their own families. That is why we invested more money and more resources to make sure we would bring down the processing time for caregivers, from five years under the previous government to under 12 months under our government. We are moving very quickly to also eliminate the existing cases under the live-in caregiver programs. The two existing programs are also working well. We are conducting an assessment to make them even better. Let me be very clear. We will always maintain pathways to permanent residency for caregivers.
Mr. Speaker, we on this side have a lot of regard and respect for officers of Parliament, and that is why the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. We were proud to be joined by hundreds of community leaders and members of the business community to strengthen our ties with India, but I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation to the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree is very important work.
Mr. Speaker, let's be honest. If the media briefing did not include sensitive information, there is no reason why journalists could not share it with Canadians. The minister seems to be caught up in the talking points provided by the Prime Minister's Office. However, to disentangle himself, could the minister confirm whether the media who were briefed are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week
Mr. Speaker, what this government is doing is working with farmers to make sure that the millions of dollars that the Harper government cut from science is renewed. In fact, $100 million in agricultural science over the last two budgets have been implemented. There is $3 billion for the Canadian agricultural partnership, $75 million to increase trade, and I could go on and on.This government is going to make sure that Canadian agriculture expands and meets the $75 billion of exports by 2025. Working with our great farmers and ranchers, we will do that.
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy that the member has given me the opportunity to talk about Invest in Canada, a new flagship investment and promotion agency in this country.I was travelling the country to make sure that Canadians know about this new agency. I am very proud we have appointed Mitch Garber, the chair of Cirque du Soleil, as the first chair of this agency. We have also brought in Ian McKay, who is the director of the Vancouver Economic Commission. We want people who understand business to bring business to Canada, because that is the way to create jobs around this country.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question.We are standing up for the CBC, which is why we reinvested $675 million. We are also defending our national anthem. We always take pride in the changes, initiated by Mauril Bélanger, to the lyrics of the national anthem. Now that they are gender neutral, they are more inclusive and better reflect diversity. This is an important symbol for us.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week, the Conservatives voted against investing to recruit the best and the brightest. We know that science and research help improve the lives of Canadians. Therefore, the member for Don Valley North and the Liberal caucus voted for that funding. This morning, we were proud to announce the Canada 150 research chairs. We look forward to their exciting new breakthroughs.
All of them, Mr. Speaker.I am very glad to have the question, because we will be happy to discuss all manner of House committee work through the House leaders, which we can advance just as soon as the official opposition is fully briefed on all of the facts, classified and unclassified. Those members just have to let us know when they would like to get started and all of that information can proceed.
Mr. Speaker, this government has completely failed at managing the agriculture file. The Minister of Agriculture abandoned farmers and refused to stand up for them when his colleague, the Minister of Health, was working on the reform of the Canada food guide. He dumped them on the Prime Minister, who was unable to fix the pulse crisis during his disastrous trip to India.Canadian exports are even worse off than they were before the trip, having dropped nearly 80%.When will the Minister of Agriculture demand that the Prime Minister be honest with Canadians and admit that his conspiracy theory is a farce that is having devastating consequences for Canadian farmers?
Mr. Speaker, ethics problems are all too common with the Liberals. This time, the problem with with the member for Brampton East, who was hired by a construction company after becoming a member of Parliament. It just so happens that the owner of this company was invited on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. It is impossible to know who invited the man in question, since the member and the Prime Minister's Office are pointing the finger at each other. Who is telling the truth? Why all the mystery?
Mr. Speaker, the truth is that this party is leading the way with openness and transparency in fundraising. We are a shining example for what all parties in the House could do.It is very curious, in fact, that the party from which this question proceeds is itself still keeping its information about its fundraisers a secret. Will the member join our example?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to understand who trotted out the national security adviser to give classified or not classified information to the media, who did not know what was classified or what was not classified.What we know here is that the government is trying to cover up the fact that it sent someone out to spin that it had a ridiculous conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government was to blame for the Prime Minister's disastrous appearance. Why are the Liberals trying to cover this up? Why do they not just come clean?
Mr. Speaker, it does not matter if our producers cannot get their products to market if they do not have a market to sell it to. The Liberals have to understand that there are very real consequences to the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India.
Mr. Speaker, sometimes, Ottawa can seem far away, as Patrick Lagacé pointed out in a column two weeks ago about one of my constituents, Sophie Thewys.Despite the hard work by my team and Sophie after the tragic death of her partner Nicolas, she has yet to receive her permanent resident status, which had already been approved. The Prime Minister likes to boast that our immigration system is compassionate and humane, but it certainly does not feel that way.When will the minister use his power to put an end to this tragedy and allow Sophie to grieve and move on?
Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, in one of the most shocking and disturbing cases ever witnessed, B.C. SPCA officers attempted to rescue a severely emaciated dog standing in a pile of mud and feces. The collar was embedded in his neck causing his head to swell to almost three times its normal size. When the collar was removed, it exposed an infected wound showing the dog's trachea and jugular vein. This case of animal cruelty has profoundly impacted my community. In 2016, the Minister of Justice made a commitment to review the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code. When will she honour that commitment?
Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: thousands of young girls across Canada, including about 2,000 in Quebec alone, are trapped in the clutches of pimps and street gangs. Since 2013, MPs and senators have been doing their job and unanimously supported Bill C-452. This includes the Prime Minister, I might add, when he was in opposition.When it comes to legalizing marijuana, the Prime Minister has no problem rushing it through, but when it comes to protecting our young girls who are trapped in the clutches of pimps, he seems to find it too difficult to sign the document.What is he waiting for?
Again, there is no answer, Mr. Speaker, so let us talk about science. How is it that a government that claims to be based on science and evidence, does not have the foggiest clue of how harmful such a carbon tax would be to Canadians? Has the minister not done her homework? Does she not know how much emissions will go down under her carbon tax? Does she not know the devastating impact such a tax will have on our economy and the millions of jobs that hang in the balance? Do struggling Canadians not deserve to know if these massive new taxes will have any impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to Canada?
Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, Canadians know that the environmental policies and the environmental legacy of the previous government were an abject failure. The Conservatives did not address climate change. They destroyed the environmental assessment process in Canada. They let the decline in biodiversity accelerate over the course of their 10 years in power. We are working very actively to ensure that environmental progress and economic progress go together going forward.
Mr. Speaker, it is a sad spectacle to see a member who has served the House for this long reduced to reading talking points from the Prime Minister's Office. It is also sad to see him continue to stand against a briefing for members of Parliament, asking simply to receive the same that briefing members of the media received. Now members of the media are confirming that the national security adviser told them they could not report everything they received, even though it was an unclassified briefing.Why will the minister not simply do the right thing, stop covering up, and allow the national security adviser to appear before parliamentarians?
Mr. Speaker, our key exports are down 73%. Lentils are down 79%. India has increased tariffs and are implementing a fumigation fee. The CEO of a major pulse exporter said that the trade crisis with India is the ultimate hammer, and that we have been hit over the head and we are bleeding.For the sake of Canadian pulse producers, will the agriculture minister insist that the Prime Minister admit that his India conspiracy theory is a farce?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians recognize very well that the environmental policies of the previous government were an abject failure, whether it was addressing climate change, environmental assessment, biodiversity in Canada--
Mr. Speaker, it begs the question, if the opposition Conservatives were so concerned about human trafficking, why did they make cuts to law enforcement? Why did they make cuts to the entire public safety apparatus to the tune of $750 million?As I said, this government believes in combatting human trafficking. It is a very serious criminal offence. We have engaged with the chamber in the other place. We are listening to parliamentarians. We are listening to stakeholders right across the country. We will pass this law with the support of all parliamentarians.
Mr. Speaker, after being elected in 2015, the Liberal MP for Brampton East entered into a business relationship with a local businessman, receiving pay from him. Even though there is a clear conflict of interest, the Brampton East member arranged to give his business partner privileged access to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet while on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. Why did the Prime Minister's Office invite this individual on the trip to India when there is a such a clear conflict of interest?
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code demands that all members uphold their public duties with honesty and fulfill to the highest standard so as to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest. The member's conduct goes well beyond apparent conflict. This is a blatantly formalized case of a cash for access retainer. Was the member's boss invited on the India trip to seek business in India or was he invited to hang with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Infrastructure , and the Minister of Innovation to get an inside track on contracts in Canada?
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. It was the opposition that referred this to the conflict of interest office. It was not the Liberal member. Yet again, we have another questionable person travelling with the Prime Minister on his disastrous trip to India and no one on the Liberal side who is willing to take responsibility. So much for transparency and accountability. All we get from the Liberals is denial and deflection. What is next? Is the Prime Minister going to blame India for this new debacle?
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary budget officer just released a new report on phase 1 of the Liberals' infrastructure plan. The report confirms what we already knew, and we are not really surprised. The Liberals are incapable of keeping their promises. Half of the millions of dollars earmarked have not yet been allocated to projects. I did say half. Municipalities have been waiting too long for that money. They believed the Liberal promises.On their behalf, I am once again asking the government where its plan is.
Mr. Speaker, what a ridiculous answer. Last week, the environment minister refused to answer a very simple question at committee, so I will give her another chance. It is a truism that environmental programs should have specific and measurable outcomes. We know how much scrubbers on smokestacks reduce SO2. We know how much a waste-water treatment plant will improve water quality. It is shocking that the Liberals do not know how much a carbon tax will reduce emissions. By how much will a $50 a tonne carbon tax across Canada reduce our greenhouse gas emissions? I want a number.
Mr. Speaker, three years ago, all MPs and all senators voted unanimously in favour of Bill C-452 to combat procuring and trafficking in persons. The only thing missing for this legislation to take effect is the Prime Minister's signature. Members heard correctly: the Prime Minister's signature is the only thing missing to give our justice and public safety systems the tools needed to protect our young girls who are trapped in the hell of prostitution and human trafficking.My question is simple. When will the Prime Minister finally sign the legislation?
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind members that it was the Liberal government that implemented the Phoenix pay system. Public servants and the unions told the Liberals to delay its implementation, and yesterday we learned that IBM had advised the government to delay the system's implementation because it was just not ready. When employees, public servants, unions, and even the company that designed and built the system say do not go ahead, the government must listen.Why, in spite of this, did the government decide to gamble with the wages of thousands of workers?
Mr. Speaker, after quietly announcing the end of the current caregiver program, the minister was forced to change course by stating he would engage in consultations about the future of the program. At committee, IRCC officials committed to providing details of the consultation process to members. To date, no information has been provided even though multiple consultations have already taken place. My direct request to attend the consultation with caregivers in Ottawa was denied. We were told that it was not a consultation meeting. Why did the minister's staff mislead my office and why the secrecy?
Mr. Speaker, our government takes its fundamental responsibilities to protect the private information of Canadian citizens and the integrity of our electoral system extremely seriously, which is why we engaged the Communications Security Establishment to conduct the first-ever threat assessment of Canadian democratic processes. The threat assessment looked at cyber-threats facing our democratic process. It is a critical step in addressing the potential issues Canadians may face. Happily, CSE found that there was no significant interference in the 2015 election, but we know this is going to change in 2019, and addressing this will take a whole-of-government approach. This is an issue we take extremely seriously, which is why budget 2018 committed over $750 million for
Mr. Speaker, on March 1, when the public safety minister was asked why the Liberals will not let the national security adviser appear at committee, he said, You are asking me to wade into a classified discussion. I can't do that. Then he ran away from questions to the elevator, quite conveniently. Today and earlier this week, he said that none of the information given by the adviser to the media was classified.On what day was he telling the truth?
Mr. Speaker, the minister is deflecting, but let us carry on
Mr. Speaker, we have been asking for Parliament to get the same briefing the national security adviser gave to journalists. However, we know the national security adviser is not the only person who the public safety minister and the government is muzzling. They are also muzzling journalists, preventing them from reporting on what they heard in the unclassified briefing.When will the minister stop muzzling the national security adviser, stop muzzling journalists, stop the cover-up, and tell Canadians the truth?
Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will continue working with the office and following its advice, as I would encourage all members to do.
Mr. Speaker, on April 2, we will celebrate the 11th annual World Autism Awareness Day.On this day, Canada will join the international community, hundreds of thousands of families and caregivers, and communities around the world that will wear blue in recognition of people living with autism.Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health please update the House on the government actions to help those affected by the various forms of autism spectrum disorder?
Mr. Speaker, my intervention is about the fact that CBC no longer plays O Canada. I submitted an information request to CBC, and I would like to table this document, which contains CBC's response explaining why it no longer plays the national anthem on CBC or Radio-Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I have asked several questions in the House regarding the promised changes to the nutrition north program, which the minister has publicly stated is failing northerners. Last May, the response was that the new program would be launched very soon. In September, the response changed to we intend to get it right this time. In December, it was we're considering all feedback.In budget 2018, there is not one mention of nutrition north. It seems with more time there is less progress. Why is the government continuing to fail Nunavummiut by not fixing this broken program?
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, because he is a privy councillor, has been offered a full and complete briefing on all matters with respect to this situation, both classified and unclassified, so he can be fully informed. If he willfully refuses to be fully informed, it appears that his only objective is a political game that has nothing to do with the truth.
Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of chortling and clanking of champagne glasses at the Prime Minister's latest fundraiser for the billionaires, when he said that he was not only there to get maximum donations but to get tough on the 1%. Step forth exhibit A. Stephen Bronfman raised $250,000 for the Liberals in two hours. When Bronfman was named in the paradise papers scandal, the Prime Minister immediately intervened and said that no investigation was necessary. No investigation happened.That is the power of who one knows in the PMO. Why is the Prime Minister using the highest office in the land to feather the nest of his Liberal donors?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister held a fundraiser yesterday in Montreal. Stephen Bronfman was there, but that comes as no surprise. Let us not forget that he was named in the paradise papers. Who else was there? There was Mitch Garber, whom the Minister of International Trade recently named chairman of a new federal agency.The Prime Minister thanked those in attendance for all the time they have devoted to their movement, but especially for all the money they pay to attend these galas.Does the Prime Minister also thank his friends by giving them patronage appointments?
Mr. Speaker, a Canadian company, indeed a Victoria, B.C., company called AggregateIQ, has been the subject of debate in the Palace of Westminster. Our parliamentary colleagues there are hearing that this company played a significant role in manipulating data to affect the vote on the Brexit referendum. I want to know if the Minister of Justice, or any of the relevant ministers, could decide that we can help get to the bottom of this kind of shenanigan. It is illegal, and it should be illegal. Can we get an inquiry into the activities of AggregateIQ?
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code is very clear. MPs are not to use their position to further their own private interests or those of another person, or entity, yet the member for Brampton East did just that. He ensured one of his private sector employers, the president of a large construction company, gained access to the Prime Minister as well as to key Liberal cabinet ministers. Obviously, both stand to profit as a result. Does the Prime Minister believe that the Conflict of Interest Code is wrong or does he just think the Liberals are above it?
Mr. Speaker, the member well knows that all members in the House believe that harassment of any type is unacceptable in the workplace or anywhere. We put forward Bill C-65, which is legislation that would cover the Parliament Hill precinct and all federally regulated workplaces. The legislation is currently in committee and we are accepting some amendments from all parties. It is going to be a strong piece of legislation. We committed to this in the past election and we are going
Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the government of Quebec did what Ottawa is not courageous enough to do. It decided that Quebec sales tax would apply both to foreign digital platforms like Spotify and Netflix and to home-grown platforms like Tou.tv and illico. Quebec showed yesterday that we can take action on the GST now. Not in two years, or after another consultation, or after discussions with the G7, but right now. The Prime Minister needs to stop spreading misinformation. No one here is talking about a new tax, apart from the Liberals. When will the Minister of Finance act?
Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by first expressing my sympathies to the hon. member and his community for that loss. Our government believes that animal cruelty is an extremely important social issue that deserves a national conversation. Our government is reviewing issues pertaining to animal cruelty provisions, including expanding the definition of bestiality and the definition of animal fighting in the code. We believe that animal cruelty should be balanced and protect animals from deliberate and unnecessary acts of cruelty while not interfering with legitimate animal use, including indigenous animal harvesting rights. We look forward to working with our hon. colleague and all members of the House to achieve those goals.
Mr. Speaker, as I said some moments ago, I am very glad to have the question. We can have a very good discussion about all manner of committee work, and that discussion will go on among House leaders. Step number one is for opposition members to stop the political game and, in fact, inform themselves of all the relevant facts. The offer has been made for a full briefing, both classified and unclassified, so the Leader of the Opposition can have all that information and then base himself on the truth and not some silly innuendo the Conservatives have dreamed up for themselves.
Mr. Speaker, IBM's testimony to the Senate committee last night confirmed that the Harper Conservatives botched this program from the start. They de-scoped the project and ignored the advice of their contractors. The development of the request for proposal and award of contract for Phoenix was done by the previous government. We continue to work with IBM and will hold it to account to fulfill its obligations. To date, our government has invested $645 million to stabilize the pay system.
Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that the Liberals always seem to want to benefit their friends who are helping them and giving them money. The MP for Brampton East arranged for the person who is paying him to get access to the Prime Minister in India. We have a Conflict of Interest Act to avoid this exact type of behaviour, but the Liberals seem to have no regard for the Conflict of Interest Act. They are under constant investigation for these breaches. Again, who in the PMO authorized the attendance of this individual on the trip to India?
Mr. Speaker, the pricing of carbon pollution is a key part of any serious plan to address climate change. Pricing pollution is a market mechanism that will reduce emissions and will drive innovation in the country. We believe that provinces and territories are best placed to design pricing systems that work for them, as long as it meets the national standard. The design of the system will affect the amount of emissions reductions that are achieved. We will be, as we have said very publicly, reviewing all provincial and territorial systems later this year.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As a common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice.As common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, and I shall repeat again, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will continue following its advice. However, I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation through the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree does important work.
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. also has measures in place to promote and protect their own wine industry, including limited points of sale. American wine already does very well in Canada. The U.S. is our largest supplier of imported wines. The priority of the government is to look out for the interests of Canadians and the wine growers, including job creation and trade opportunities in various sectors and other venues.We will stand up for Canadian industries, specifically the wine industry, and defend our workers.
Mr. Speaker, Air Canada flight attendants have filed complaints against the airline for sexual harassment and discrimination. Although the airline claims it has zero tolerance for harassment, it has outright denied these claims. Air Canada now asks female attendants to wear dress uniforms in order to show more cleavage and it told one gay flight attendant to stop prancing. Air Canada even dictates the colour and type of underwear flight attendants can wear. This is disgusting. This is unacceptable. What is the government going to do to ensure that anti-harassment policies are both adopted and followed by Canadian industries?
Mr. Speaker, Pulse Canada has been very supportive of the work the government has done to take this issue to the highest level when members went to India. We are very disappointed with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we are committed to working with our farmers and processors to make sure our industry grows. We are extremely concerned, as I said, with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we continue to work with Indian officials to make sure that we resume the trade in pulses.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, before the Senate committee, the IBM witnesses confirmed that Harper's Conservative government botched the program from the beginning. They reduced the scope of the project and did not take into account the advice of their supplier. The previous government developed the request for proposal and awarded the contract for the Phoenix pay system.We are continuing to work with IBM, and we will hold it accountable to ensure it complies with its obligations.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. The commissioner's report actually dealt with the period before the development of the pan-Canadian framework. It was an indictment of the climate policies of the previous government. We have put into place a plan that is focused on addressing climate change in a substantive way. The report that was issued in December 2017 by the United Nations showed that, relative to the 2016 report, there was a 232 megatonne reduction in carbon emissions. We are taking active and effective measures to ensure that we are addressing climate change in a thoughtful way.
Mr. Speaker, we learned yesterday that as early as summer 2015, IBM was advising the government that Phoenix was not ready to go. For those keeping score, that means departmental reviews, public sector unions, and the principal private contractor itself were saying that Phoenix was not ready to go. Now, the Liberal Party has a rich history of going back on its commitments. I am thinking of electoral reform and I am thinking of its promise on CEO stock option loopholes.Why is it that the one time the Liberals could have used their great power of doubling back on their commitments to help Canadians, they passed up the opportunity?
Mr. Speaker, this week the government introduced a massive carbon tax on Canadians. Government official John Moffet called the tax, a foundational element of the government's climate change plan. However, last week, when the minister was repeatedly asked how much this foundational tax would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she could not answer and neither could her deputy. If the carbon tax is so important, how is it that the minister cannot even tell Canadians what impact such a tax would have on carbon emissions?
Mr. Speaker, the environment commissioner released a report this week entitled Perspectives on Climate Change Action in Canada. The data collection began in 2016, after this Liberal government came to office. It is all too clear that the Liberals have no plan. Once again, they have nothing to offer but window dressing. On the environment, as in many other areas, they are not keeping their promise.My question is simple. How much will greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by the carbon tax they introduced?
Mr. Speaker, only the Conservative Party would consider and see offering it a full brief of both classified and unclassified information so they could know all the facts as muzzling. The fact is that the Conservatives are tying themselves into some strange knots, because they forced themselves last Friday to vote against some very good things that Canadians wanted. For example, they voted against the funding for injured members of the RCMP. They voted against benefits for veterans.
Mr. Speaker, all Canadians love our national anthem, O Canada.Unfortunately, I have noticed over the past few months that CBC and Radio-Canada no longer broadcast our national anthem at 5 a.m., as they did in the past.Why is that? When I asked, I was told that it is because they are on the air 24 hours a day. That is not an adequate response, because they have been on the air 24 hours a day since 1995, yet they stopped playing our national anthem only a few months ago.Does the Liberal government agree with us? One minute a day for our public broadcaster to play O Canada is not too much to ask. It would in fact be welcome.
Mr. Speaker, offering a full classified briefing is hardly covering things up.The opposition has confirmed that it does not want to be encumbered by the truth when it is asking questions. Therefore, it is choosing to remain wilfully ignorant of the facts. There are other consequences too, like the voting at the end of last week, which forced the opposition to vote against very good things that Canadians want. For example, the hon. member's party voted against the settlement of Yazidi women and girls in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, it is important that we be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As is common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect the victims of this crime. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and we look forward to receiving support on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians across the country are enjoying the benefits of the more than 3,400 projects approved under Infrastructure Canada's phase 1 programs. The previous government spent a decade doing nothing, but now these projects are modernizing public transit and water pipes and building healthier communities. Over $4 billion in federal funding has been approved for these projects, and the money will flow as soon as our partners submit their applications.
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect victims. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute certain human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. These are strengthening measures, which will help law enforcement. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and looks forward to receiving broad support from all parliamentarians on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, I will continue to remind all Canadians that we are proud to be working to create more opportunities for the Canadian middle class and those working hard to join it. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. MPs and business organizations will often invite community and business leaders to join these business exchanges to increase Canada's standing in the global community, and we are going to continue doing just that.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we attempted to better protect young girls in Canada by fast-tracking the passage of Bill C-38, a government bill to combat pimping. We would have preferred Bill C-452, but the Prime Minister went back on his vote. In collusion with the Conservatives, the Liberals said no to our motion. They said no to making life hard for pimps. The Liberals and the Conservatives would rather preserve the status quo than protect our young girls. How can the government justify refusing to pass its own bill?
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has abandoned even a half-hearted acknowledgement of members and ministers' ethical obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code. Again, there was a question asked and not answered yesterday. Will the Prime Minister and will the Liberal government, disgraced by a spectrum of ethical lapses and violations, do the right thing and clean up the mess themselves or are they leaving it, once again, to the Ethics Commissioner?
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for DorvalLachineLaSalle for her question and for her hard work.Empowering women and respecting their rights, including reproductive health rights, is what our government does. In the public service that means we are putting women and the health of women first, including their choice of contraceptives. I am very happy to announce that effective April 1, non-oral contraceptives will be covered under the public service health care plan. As promised, we worked hard and collaboratively with the unions to bring this about, and we have delivered.
Mr. Speaker, changes in the way Canadians access content have disrupted many business models. The reality is that the benefits of the digital world are not shared equally between the web giants and our artists, journalists, and creators. Our government wants to level the playing field among the stakeholders involved. That is why we will be making amendments to our legislation to adapt it to the digital reality. This includes a review of the Broadcasting Act. We strongly believe in protecting our culture and promoting access to Canadian content on all platforms.
Mr. Speaker, the idea that the Prime Minister is hanging out with billionaires to protect the hard-pressed middle class is like telling us that those billionaire Liberal turkeys showed up and asked for an early Easter. This brings us to Mitch Garber. He is a mega donor, and the Liberals paid him back by giving him his own agency. They call it Invest in Canada, when it is really another case of investing in friends of the Liberal Party.Does the Prime Minister not understand that the public service in this country needs to be more than a patronage smorgasbord for his friends, donors, and insider pals?
Mr. Speaker, Canada's wine industry has created over 37,000 jobs. Wine is our highest value-added agriculture product.The U.S. trade representative recently said he wants even more access to our Canadian market, despite U.S. wine exports to Canada already increasing by over 2,500% since 1988, and, I will also add, a $500-million trade surplus.Will the minister confirm that the government will not trade away the 37,000 jobs in our wine industry at the eleventh hour of these NAFTA talks?
Mr. Speaker, since this is my first opportunity to address the member since he has come back, I hope you would allow me to say how happy I am to see him in the House and in good health. We plan to have dinners with our wives, and we will be able to reflect on how important our families and our health are in doing this job.With regard to this specific issue, when the previous government went through a very similar public process to access this fishery, it forgot to include indigenous people. Our government has not forgotten indigenous people.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear from the scientists in my region that after a decade of questions from their international counterparts about why the Conservative government was opposed to science, Canada is once again being viewed as a leader in science around the world and many of their international counterparts want to work in Canada. Could the Parliamentary Secretary for Science tell the House what our government is doing to capitalize on our renewed scientific reputation to recruit the top international talent?
Mr. Speaker, our immigration system is based on respectful rules and standards, but there is also room for compassionate and humanitarian considerations with respect to any particular case.The member opposite knows that I cannot go into the details of a particular case due to privacy concerns, but I am happy to meet with him at the end of question period to see what I can do for him.
Mr. Speaker, women have a right to choices when it comes to their health. An important part of women's health involves access to a variety of safe and effective forms of contraception. However, the Public Service Health Care Plan currently covers only oral contraceptives.What has the government done to correct this situation for more than 650,000 federal public servants and their family members?
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague from DartmouthCole Harbour for his leadership on this file.Our government is committed to supporting Canadians living with autism spectrum disorder.I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the compelling advocacy of the member for EdmontonWetaskiwin on this important issue as well. That is why, quite frankly, I was disheartened that the Conservatives' recent motion went against our 2018 investment of $20 million in new funding to support people with autism spectrum disorder and their families.On World Autism Awareness Day 2018, I would encourage all members of this House and all Canadians to learn more about autism and how each of us can work together to make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that addressing climate change is an important issue and any thoughtful approach and plan include the pricing of carbon pollution. Four out of five Canadians live in jurisdictions that have shown the leadership to put into place carbon pricing systems. We are working actively with the provinces and territories which have primary responsibility for implementing these systems. We will continue to do that because addressing climate change is something that we know is an important challenge which the Conservatives did not address in their 10 years in government.
Mr. Speaker, we are taking concrete action to improve our already strong and robust rules around political fundraising events. That is why the Minister of Democratic Institutions introduced Bill C-50, which will give more information to Canadians than ever before by letting them know who is going to fundraisers, when they will be happening, and the amount required to attend.Canadians have a right to know and understand, more than they do now, about fundraising events attended by the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and party leadership contestants. We encourage all members in the House to join us in working to build a more open and transparent fundraising system for Canada.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries awarded a lucrative surf clam quota worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a group that did not have first nation partners in place. It was not incorporated. It did not have a boat or a vessel, or a facility for harvesting. What it did have going for it were Liberal connections, including close family ties to the Liberal caucus. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador want to know why they have to lose their jobs so that the minister can look after Liberal insiders and close family friends.
Mr. Speaker, the minister is trying to deflect, but the problem is that the Liberals think that it is entirely appropriate to offer a briefing to the media, but not to the representatives of the people, us, the elected members of the House. The minister himself said that the information was not sensitive or classified, but he refuses to share it with MPs.Since the information provided to the media was not classified, will the minister confirm that the media that received the briefing from the national security advisor are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing?
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his advocacy on this issue. It is completely unacceptable that northerners are still struggling to feed their families and pay the most extraordinary prices for food in Canada. Our government has already expanded the nutrition north program to include 37 more communities across Canada. We have also increased the budget by $65 million over the next five years. We are continuing to engage with those in northern regions to ensure we can expand this program to ensure affordable access to food for all people in the northern regions of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition complains that he will not be able to ask questions about classified information but that is exactly true already. What is classified needs to remain classified. What is being offered to the leader is a full description of all the facts so that he can know what is classified and what is not, and then he will be fully equipped to discharge his responsibility, rather than just political gamesmanship.
Mr. Speaker, we recognize the services that caregivers give to Canadian families. In fact, we have recognized the importance of reuniting caregivers with their own families. That is why we invested more money and more resources to make sure we would bring down the processing time for caregivers, from five years under the previous government to under 12 months under our government. We are moving very quickly to also eliminate the existing cases under the live-in caregiver programs. The two existing programs are also working well. We are conducting an assessment to make them even better. Let me be very clear. We will always maintain pathways to permanent residency for caregivers.
Mr. Speaker, we on this side have a lot of regard and respect for officers of Parliament, and that is why the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. We were proud to be joined by hundreds of community leaders and members of the business community to strengthen our ties with India, but I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation to the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree is very important work.
Mr. Speaker, let's be honest. If the media briefing did not include sensitive information, there is no reason why journalists could not share it with Canadians. The minister seems to be caught up in the talking points provided by the Prime Minister's Office. However, to disentangle himself, could the minister confirm whether the media who were briefed are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week
Mr. Speaker, what this government is doing is working with farmers to make sure that the millions of dollars that the Harper government cut from science is renewed. In fact, $100 million in agricultural science over the last two budgets have been implemented. There is $3 billion for the Canadian agricultural partnership, $75 million to increase trade, and I could go on and on.This government is going to make sure that Canadian agriculture expands and meets the $75 billion of exports by 2025. Working with our great farmers and ranchers, we will do that.
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy that the member has given me the opportunity to talk about Invest in Canada, a new flagship investment and promotion agency in this country.I was travelling the country to make sure that Canadians know about this new agency. I am very proud we have appointed Mitch Garber, the chair of Cirque du Soleil, as the first chair of this agency. We have also brought in Ian McKay, who is the director of the Vancouver Economic Commission. We want people who understand business to bring business to Canada, because that is the way to create jobs around this country.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question.We are standing up for the CBC, which is why we reinvested $675 million. We are also defending our national anthem. We always take pride in the changes, initiated by Mauril Bélanger, to the lyrics of the national anthem. Now that they are gender neutral, they are more inclusive and better reflect diversity. This is an important symbol for us.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week, the Conservatives voted against investing to recruit the best and the brightest. We know that science and research help improve the lives of Canadians. Therefore, the member for Don Valley North and the Liberal caucus voted for that funding. This morning, we were proud to announce the Canada 150 research chairs. We look forward to their exciting new breakthroughs.
All of them, Mr. Speaker.I am very glad to have the question, because we will be happy to discuss all manner of House committee work through the House leaders, which we can advance just as soon as the official opposition is fully briefed on all of the facts, classified and unclassified. Those members just have to let us know when they would like to get started and all of that information can proceed.
Most positive speeches
All of them, Mr. Speaker.I am very glad to have the question, because we will be happy to discuss all manner of House committee work through the House leaders, which we can advance just as soon as the official opposition is fully briefed on all of the facts, classified and unclassified. Those members just have to let us know when they would like to get started and all of that information can proceed.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week, the Conservatives voted against investing to recruit the best and the brightest. We know that science and research help improve the lives of Canadians. Therefore, the member for Don Valley North and the Liberal caucus voted for that funding. This morning, we were proud to announce the Canada 150 research chairs. We look forward to their exciting new breakthroughs.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question.We are standing up for the CBC, which is why we reinvested $675 million. We are also defending our national anthem. We always take pride in the changes, initiated by Mauril Bélanger, to the lyrics of the national anthem. Now that they are gender neutral, they are more inclusive and better reflect diversity. This is an important symbol for us.
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy that the member has given me the opportunity to talk about Invest in Canada, a new flagship investment and promotion agency in this country.I was travelling the country to make sure that Canadians know about this new agency. I am very proud we have appointed Mitch Garber, the chair of Cirque du Soleil, as the first chair of this agency. We have also brought in Ian McKay, who is the director of the Vancouver Economic Commission. We want people who understand business to bring business to Canada, because that is the way to create jobs around this country.
Mr. Speaker, what this government is doing is working with farmers to make sure that the millions of dollars that the Harper government cut from science is renewed. In fact, $100 million in agricultural science over the last two budgets have been implemented. There is $3 billion for the Canadian agricultural partnership, $75 million to increase trade, and I could go on and on.This government is going to make sure that Canadian agriculture expands and meets the $75 billion of exports by 2025. Working with our great farmers and ranchers, we will do that.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week
Mr. Speaker, let's be honest. If the media briefing did not include sensitive information, there is no reason why journalists could not share it with Canadians. The minister seems to be caught up in the talking points provided by the Prime Minister's Office. However, to disentangle himself, could the minister confirm whether the media who were briefed are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, we on this side have a lot of regard and respect for officers of Parliament, and that is why the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. We were proud to be joined by hundreds of community leaders and members of the business community to strengthen our ties with India, but I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation to the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree is very important work.
Mr. Speaker, we recognize the services that caregivers give to Canadian families. In fact, we have recognized the importance of reuniting caregivers with their own families. That is why we invested more money and more resources to make sure we would bring down the processing time for caregivers, from five years under the previous government to under 12 months under our government. We are moving very quickly to also eliminate the existing cases under the live-in caregiver programs. The two existing programs are also working well. We are conducting an assessment to make them even better. Let me be very clear. We will always maintain pathways to permanent residency for caregivers.
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition complains that he will not be able to ask questions about classified information but that is exactly true already. What is classified needs to remain classified. What is being offered to the leader is a full description of all the facts so that he can know what is classified and what is not, and then he will be fully equipped to discharge his responsibility, rather than just political gamesmanship.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his advocacy on this issue. It is completely unacceptable that northerners are still struggling to feed their families and pay the most extraordinary prices for food in Canada. Our government has already expanded the nutrition north program to include 37 more communities across Canada. We have also increased the budget by $65 million over the next five years. We are continuing to engage with those in northern regions to ensure we can expand this program to ensure affordable access to food for all people in the northern regions of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, the minister is trying to deflect, but the problem is that the Liberals think that it is entirely appropriate to offer a briefing to the media, but not to the representatives of the people, us, the elected members of the House. The minister himself said that the information was not sensitive or classified, but he refuses to share it with MPs.Since the information provided to the media was not classified, will the minister confirm that the media that received the briefing from the national security advisor are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing?
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries awarded a lucrative surf clam quota worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a group that did not have first nation partners in place. It was not incorporated. It did not have a boat or a vessel, or a facility for harvesting. What it did have going for it were Liberal connections, including close family ties to the Liberal caucus. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador want to know why they have to lose their jobs so that the minister can look after Liberal insiders and close family friends.
Mr. Speaker, we are taking concrete action to improve our already strong and robust rules around political fundraising events. That is why the Minister of Democratic Institutions introduced Bill C-50, which will give more information to Canadians than ever before by letting them know who is going to fundraisers, when they will be happening, and the amount required to attend.Canadians have a right to know and understand, more than they do now, about fundraising events attended by the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and party leadership contestants. We encourage all members in the House to join us in working to build a more open and transparent fundraising system for Canada.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that addressing climate change is an important issue and any thoughtful approach and plan include the pricing of carbon pollution. Four out of five Canadians live in jurisdictions that have shown the leadership to put into place carbon pricing systems. We are working actively with the provinces and territories which have primary responsibility for implementing these systems. We will continue to do that because addressing climate change is something that we know is an important challenge which the Conservatives did not address in their 10 years in government.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague from DartmouthCole Harbour for his leadership on this file.Our government is committed to supporting Canadians living with autism spectrum disorder.I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the compelling advocacy of the member for EdmontonWetaskiwin on this important issue as well. That is why, quite frankly, I was disheartened that the Conservatives' recent motion went against our 2018 investment of $20 million in new funding to support people with autism spectrum disorder and their families.On World Autism Awareness Day 2018, I would encourage all members of this House and all Canadians to learn more about autism and how each of us can work together to make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, women have a right to choices when it comes to their health. An important part of women's health involves access to a variety of safe and effective forms of contraception. However, the Public Service Health Care Plan currently covers only oral contraceptives.What has the government done to correct this situation for more than 650,000 federal public servants and their family members?
Mr. Speaker, our immigration system is based on respectful rules and standards, but there is also room for compassionate and humanitarian considerations with respect to any particular case.The member opposite knows that I cannot go into the details of a particular case due to privacy concerns, but I am happy to meet with him at the end of question period to see what I can do for him.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear from the scientists in my region that after a decade of questions from their international counterparts about why the Conservative government was opposed to science, Canada is once again being viewed as a leader in science around the world and many of their international counterparts want to work in Canada. Could the Parliamentary Secretary for Science tell the House what our government is doing to capitalize on our renewed scientific reputation to recruit the top international talent?
Mr. Speaker, since this is my first opportunity to address the member since he has come back, I hope you would allow me to say how happy I am to see him in the House and in good health. We plan to have dinners with our wives, and we will be able to reflect on how important our families and our health are in doing this job.With regard to this specific issue, when the previous government went through a very similar public process to access this fishery, it forgot to include indigenous people. Our government has not forgotten indigenous people.
Mr. Speaker, Canada's wine industry has created over 37,000 jobs. Wine is our highest value-added agriculture product.The U.S. trade representative recently said he wants even more access to our Canadian market, despite U.S. wine exports to Canada already increasing by over 2,500% since 1988, and, I will also add, a $500-million trade surplus.Will the minister confirm that the government will not trade away the 37,000 jobs in our wine industry at the eleventh hour of these NAFTA talks?
Mr. Speaker, the idea that the Prime Minister is hanging out with billionaires to protect the hard-pressed middle class is like telling us that those billionaire Liberal turkeys showed up and asked for an early Easter. This brings us to Mitch Garber. He is a mega donor, and the Liberals paid him back by giving him his own agency. They call it Invest in Canada, when it is really another case of investing in friends of the Liberal Party.Does the Prime Minister not understand that the public service in this country needs to be more than a patronage smorgasbord for his friends, donors, and insider pals?
Mr. Speaker, changes in the way Canadians access content have disrupted many business models. The reality is that the benefits of the digital world are not shared equally between the web giants and our artists, journalists, and creators. Our government wants to level the playing field among the stakeholders involved. That is why we will be making amendments to our legislation to adapt it to the digital reality. This includes a review of the Broadcasting Act. We strongly believe in protecting our culture and promoting access to Canadian content on all platforms.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for DorvalLachineLaSalle for her question and for her hard work.Empowering women and respecting their rights, including reproductive health rights, is what our government does. In the public service that means we are putting women and the health of women first, including their choice of contraceptives. I am very happy to announce that effective April 1, non-oral contraceptives will be covered under the public service health care plan. As promised, we worked hard and collaboratively with the unions to bring this about, and we have delivered.
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has abandoned even a half-hearted acknowledgement of members and ministers' ethical obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code. Again, there was a question asked and not answered yesterday. Will the Prime Minister and will the Liberal government, disgraced by a spectrum of ethical lapses and violations, do the right thing and clean up the mess themselves or are they leaving it, once again, to the Ethics Commissioner?
Mr. Speaker, I will continue to remind all Canadians that we are proud to be working to create more opportunities for the Canadian middle class and those working hard to join it. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. MPs and business organizations will often invite community and business leaders to join these business exchanges to increase Canada's standing in the global community, and we are going to continue doing just that.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we attempted to better protect young girls in Canada by fast-tracking the passage of Bill C-38, a government bill to combat pimping. We would have preferred Bill C-452, but the Prime Minister went back on his vote. In collusion with the Conservatives, the Liberals said no to our motion. They said no to making life hard for pimps. The Liberals and the Conservatives would rather preserve the status quo than protect our young girls. How can the government justify refusing to pass its own bill?
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect victims. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute certain human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. These are strengthening measures, which will help law enforcement. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and looks forward to receiving broad support from all parliamentarians on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians across the country are enjoying the benefits of the more than 3,400 projects approved under Infrastructure Canada's phase 1 programs. The previous government spent a decade doing nothing, but now these projects are modernizing public transit and water pipes and building healthier communities. Over $4 billion in federal funding has been approved for these projects, and the money will flow as soon as our partners submit their applications.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect the victims of this crime. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and we look forward to receiving support on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, it is important that we be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As is common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, offering a full classified briefing is hardly covering things up.The opposition has confirmed that it does not want to be encumbered by the truth when it is asking questions. Therefore, it is choosing to remain wilfully ignorant of the facts. There are other consequences too, like the voting at the end of last week, which forced the opposition to vote against very good things that Canadians want. For example, the hon. member's party voted against the settlement of Yazidi women and girls in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, all Canadians love our national anthem, O Canada.Unfortunately, I have noticed over the past few months that CBC and Radio-Canada no longer broadcast our national anthem at 5 a.m., as they did in the past.Why is that? When I asked, I was told that it is because they are on the air 24 hours a day. That is not an adequate response, because they have been on the air 24 hours a day since 1995, yet they stopped playing our national anthem only a few months ago.Does the Liberal government agree with us? One minute a day for our public broadcaster to play O Canada is not too much to ask. It would in fact be welcome.
Mr. Speaker, only the Conservative Party would consider and see offering it a full brief of both classified and unclassified information so they could know all the facts as muzzling. The fact is that the Conservatives are tying themselves into some strange knots, because they forced themselves last Friday to vote against some very good things that Canadians wanted. For example, they voted against the funding for injured members of the RCMP. They voted against benefits for veterans.
Mr. Speaker, the environment commissioner released a report this week entitled Perspectives on Climate Change Action in Canada. The data collection began in 2016, after this Liberal government came to office. It is all too clear that the Liberals have no plan. Once again, they have nothing to offer but window dressing. On the environment, as in many other areas, they are not keeping their promise.My question is simple. How much will greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by the carbon tax they introduced?
Mr. Speaker, this week the government introduced a massive carbon tax on Canadians. Government official John Moffet called the tax, a foundational element of the government's climate change plan. However, last week, when the minister was repeatedly asked how much this foundational tax would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she could not answer and neither could her deputy. If the carbon tax is so important, how is it that the minister cannot even tell Canadians what impact such a tax would have on carbon emissions?
Mr. Speaker, we learned yesterday that as early as summer 2015, IBM was advising the government that Phoenix was not ready to go. For those keeping score, that means departmental reviews, public sector unions, and the principal private contractor itself were saying that Phoenix was not ready to go. Now, the Liberal Party has a rich history of going back on its commitments. I am thinking of electoral reform and I am thinking of its promise on CEO stock option loopholes.Why is it that the one time the Liberals could have used their great power of doubling back on their commitments to help Canadians, they passed up the opportunity?
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. The commissioner's report actually dealt with the period before the development of the pan-Canadian framework. It was an indictment of the climate policies of the previous government. We have put into place a plan that is focused on addressing climate change in a substantive way. The report that was issued in December 2017 by the United Nations showed that, relative to the 2016 report, there was a 232 megatonne reduction in carbon emissions. We are taking active and effective measures to ensure that we are addressing climate change in a thoughtful way.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, before the Senate committee, the IBM witnesses confirmed that Harper's Conservative government botched the program from the beginning. They reduced the scope of the project and did not take into account the advice of their supplier. The previous government developed the request for proposal and awarded the contract for the Phoenix pay system.We are continuing to work with IBM, and we will hold it accountable to ensure it complies with its obligations.
Mr. Speaker, Pulse Canada has been very supportive of the work the government has done to take this issue to the highest level when members went to India. We are very disappointed with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we are committed to working with our farmers and processors to make sure our industry grows. We are extremely concerned, as I said, with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we continue to work with Indian officials to make sure that we resume the trade in pulses.
Mr. Speaker, Air Canada flight attendants have filed complaints against the airline for sexual harassment and discrimination. Although the airline claims it has zero tolerance for harassment, it has outright denied these claims. Air Canada now asks female attendants to wear dress uniforms in order to show more cleavage and it told one gay flight attendant to stop prancing. Air Canada even dictates the colour and type of underwear flight attendants can wear. This is disgusting. This is unacceptable. What is the government going to do to ensure that anti-harassment policies are both adopted and followed by Canadian industries?
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. also has measures in place to promote and protect their own wine industry, including limited points of sale. American wine already does very well in Canada. The U.S. is our largest supplier of imported wines. The priority of the government is to look out for the interests of Canadians and the wine growers, including job creation and trade opportunities in various sectors and other venues.We will stand up for Canadian industries, specifically the wine industry, and defend our workers.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, and I shall repeat again, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will continue following its advice. However, I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation through the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree does important work.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As a common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice.As common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, the pricing of carbon pollution is a key part of any serious plan to address climate change. Pricing pollution is a market mechanism that will reduce emissions and will drive innovation in the country. We believe that provinces and territories are best placed to design pricing systems that work for them, as long as it meets the national standard. The design of the system will affect the amount of emissions reductions that are achieved. We will be, as we have said very publicly, reviewing all provincial and territorial systems later this year.
Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that the Liberals always seem to want to benefit their friends who are helping them and giving them money. The MP for Brampton East arranged for the person who is paying him to get access to the Prime Minister in India. We have a Conflict of Interest Act to avoid this exact type of behaviour, but the Liberals seem to have no regard for the Conflict of Interest Act. They are under constant investigation for these breaches. Again, who in the PMO authorized the attendance of this individual on the trip to India?
Mr. Speaker, IBM's testimony to the Senate committee last night confirmed that the Harper Conservatives botched this program from the start. They de-scoped the project and ignored the advice of their contractors. The development of the request for proposal and award of contract for Phoenix was done by the previous government. We continue to work with IBM and will hold it to account to fulfill its obligations. To date, our government has invested $645 million to stabilize the pay system.
Mr. Speaker, as I said some moments ago, I am very glad to have the question. We can have a very good discussion about all manner of committee work, and that discussion will go on among House leaders. Step number one is for opposition members to stop the political game and, in fact, inform themselves of all the relevant facts. The offer has been made for a full briefing, both classified and unclassified, so the Leader of the Opposition can have all that information and then base himself on the truth and not some silly innuendo the Conservatives have dreamed up for themselves.
Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by first expressing my sympathies to the hon. member and his community for that loss. Our government believes that animal cruelty is an extremely important social issue that deserves a national conversation. Our government is reviewing issues pertaining to animal cruelty provisions, including expanding the definition of bestiality and the definition of animal fighting in the code. We believe that animal cruelty should be balanced and protect animals from deliberate and unnecessary acts of cruelty while not interfering with legitimate animal use, including indigenous animal harvesting rights. We look forward to working with our hon. colleague and all members of the House to achieve those goals.
Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the government of Quebec did what Ottawa is not courageous enough to do. It decided that Quebec sales tax would apply both to foreign digital platforms like Spotify and Netflix and to home-grown platforms like Tou.tv and illico. Quebec showed yesterday that we can take action on the GST now. Not in two years, or after another consultation, or after discussions with the G7, but right now. The Prime Minister needs to stop spreading misinformation. No one here is talking about a new tax, apart from the Liberals. When will the Minister of Finance act?
Mr. Speaker, the member well knows that all members in the House believe that harassment of any type is unacceptable in the workplace or anywhere. We put forward Bill C-65, which is legislation that would cover the Parliament Hill precinct and all federally regulated workplaces. The legislation is currently in committee and we are accepting some amendments from all parties. It is going to be a strong piece of legislation. We committed to this in the past election and we are going
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code is very clear. MPs are not to use their position to further their own private interests or those of another person, or entity, yet the member for Brampton East did just that. He ensured one of his private sector employers, the president of a large construction company, gained access to the Prime Minister as well as to key Liberal cabinet ministers. Obviously, both stand to profit as a result. Does the Prime Minister believe that the Conflict of Interest Code is wrong or does he just think the Liberals are above it?
Mr. Speaker, a Canadian company, indeed a Victoria, B.C., company called AggregateIQ, has been the subject of debate in the Palace of Westminster. Our parliamentary colleagues there are hearing that this company played a significant role in manipulating data to affect the vote on the Brexit referendum. I want to know if the Minister of Justice, or any of the relevant ministers, could decide that we can help get to the bottom of this kind of shenanigan. It is illegal, and it should be illegal. Can we get an inquiry into the activities of AggregateIQ?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister held a fundraiser yesterday in Montreal. Stephen Bronfman was there, but that comes as no surprise. Let us not forget that he was named in the paradise papers. Who else was there? There was Mitch Garber, whom the Minister of International Trade recently named chairman of a new federal agency.The Prime Minister thanked those in attendance for all the time they have devoted to their movement, but especially for all the money they pay to attend these galas.Does the Prime Minister also thank his friends by giving them patronage appointments?
Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of chortling and clanking of champagne glasses at the Prime Minister's latest fundraiser for the billionaires, when he said that he was not only there to get maximum donations but to get tough on the 1%. Step forth exhibit A. Stephen Bronfman raised $250,000 for the Liberals in two hours. When Bronfman was named in the paradise papers scandal, the Prime Minister immediately intervened and said that no investigation was necessary. No investigation happened.That is the power of who one knows in the PMO. Why is the Prime Minister using the highest office in the land to feather the nest of his Liberal donors?
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, because he is a privy councillor, has been offered a full and complete briefing on all matters with respect to this situation, both classified and unclassified, so he can be fully informed. If he willfully refuses to be fully informed, it appears that his only objective is a political game that has nothing to do with the truth.
Mr. Speaker, I have asked several questions in the House regarding the promised changes to the nutrition north program, which the minister has publicly stated is failing northerners. Last May, the response was that the new program would be launched very soon. In September, the response changed to we intend to get it right this time. In December, it was we're considering all feedback.In budget 2018, there is not one mention of nutrition north. It seems with more time there is less progress. Why is the government continuing to fail Nunavummiut by not fixing this broken program?
Mr. Speaker, on March 1, when the public safety minister was asked why the Liberals will not let the national security adviser appear at committee, he said, You are asking me to wade into a classified discussion. I can't do that. Then he ran away from questions to the elevator, quite conveniently. Today and earlier this week, he said that none of the information given by the adviser to the media was classified.On what day was he telling the truth?
Mr. Speaker, the minister is deflecting, but let us carry on
Mr. Speaker, we have been asking for Parliament to get the same briefing the national security adviser gave to journalists. However, we know the national security adviser is not the only person who the public safety minister and the government is muzzling. They are also muzzling journalists, preventing them from reporting on what they heard in the unclassified briefing.When will the minister stop muzzling the national security adviser, stop muzzling journalists, stop the cover-up, and tell Canadians the truth?
Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will continue working with the office and following its advice, as I would encourage all members to do.
Mr. Speaker, on April 2, we will celebrate the 11th annual World Autism Awareness Day.On this day, Canada will join the international community, hundreds of thousands of families and caregivers, and communities around the world that will wear blue in recognition of people living with autism.Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health please update the House on the government actions to help those affected by the various forms of autism spectrum disorder?
Mr. Speaker, my intervention is about the fact that CBC no longer plays O Canada. I submitted an information request to CBC, and I would like to table this document, which contains CBC's response explaining why it no longer plays the national anthem on CBC or Radio-Canada.
Mr. Speaker, our government takes its fundamental responsibilities to protect the private information of Canadian citizens and the integrity of our electoral system extremely seriously, which is why we engaged the Communications Security Establishment to conduct the first-ever threat assessment of Canadian democratic processes. The threat assessment looked at cyber-threats facing our democratic process. It is a critical step in addressing the potential issues Canadians may face. Happily, CSE found that there was no significant interference in the 2015 election, but we know this is going to change in 2019, and addressing this will take a whole-of-government approach. This is an issue we take extremely seriously, which is why budget 2018 committed over $750 million for
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind members that it was the Liberal government that implemented the Phoenix pay system. Public servants and the unions told the Liberals to delay its implementation, and yesterday we learned that IBM had advised the government to delay the system's implementation because it was just not ready. When employees, public servants, unions, and even the company that designed and built the system say do not go ahead, the government must listen.Why, in spite of this, did the government decide to gamble with the wages of thousands of workers?
Mr. Speaker, after quietly announcing the end of the current caregiver program, the minister was forced to change course by stating he would engage in consultations about the future of the program. At committee, IRCC officials committed to providing details of the consultation process to members. To date, no information has been provided even though multiple consultations have already taken place. My direct request to attend the consultation with caregivers in Ottawa was denied. We were told that it was not a consultation meeting. Why did the minister's staff mislead my office and why the secrecy?
Mr. Speaker, three years ago, all MPs and all senators voted unanimously in favour of Bill C-452 to combat procuring and trafficking in persons. The only thing missing for this legislation to take effect is the Prime Minister's signature. Members heard correctly: the Prime Minister's signature is the only thing missing to give our justice and public safety systems the tools needed to protect our young girls who are trapped in the hell of prostitution and human trafficking.My question is simple. When will the Prime Minister finally sign the legislation?
Mr. Speaker, what a ridiculous answer. Last week, the environment minister refused to answer a very simple question at committee, so I will give her another chance. It is a truism that environmental programs should have specific and measurable outcomes. We know how much scrubbers on smokestacks reduce SO2. We know how much a waste-water treatment plant will improve water quality. It is shocking that the Liberals do not know how much a carbon tax will reduce emissions. By how much will a $50 a tonne carbon tax across Canada reduce our greenhouse gas emissions? I want a number.
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary budget officer just released a new report on phase 1 of the Liberals' infrastructure plan. The report confirms what we already knew, and we are not really surprised. The Liberals are incapable of keeping their promises. Half of the millions of dollars earmarked have not yet been allocated to projects. I did say half. Municipalities have been waiting too long for that money. They believed the Liberal promises.On their behalf, I am once again asking the government where its plan is.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. It was the opposition that referred this to the conflict of interest office. It was not the Liberal member. Yet again, we have another questionable person travelling with the Prime Minister on his disastrous trip to India and no one on the Liberal side who is willing to take responsibility. So much for transparency and accountability. All we get from the Liberals is denial and deflection. What is next? Is the Prime Minister going to blame India for this new debacle?
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code demands that all members uphold their public duties with honesty and fulfill to the highest standard so as to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest. The member's conduct goes well beyond apparent conflict. This is a blatantly formalized case of a cash for access retainer. Was the member's boss invited on the India trip to seek business in India or was he invited to hang with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Infrastructure , and the Minister of Innovation to get an inside track on contracts in Canada?
Mr. Speaker, after being elected in 2015, the Liberal MP for Brampton East entered into a business relationship with a local businessman, receiving pay from him. Even though there is a clear conflict of interest, the Brampton East member arranged to give his business partner privileged access to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet while on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. Why did the Prime Minister's Office invite this individual on the trip to India when there is a such a clear conflict of interest?
Mr. Speaker, it begs the question, if the opposition Conservatives were so concerned about human trafficking, why did they make cuts to law enforcement? Why did they make cuts to the entire public safety apparatus to the tune of $750 million?As I said, this government believes in combatting human trafficking. It is a very serious criminal offence. We have engaged with the chamber in the other place. We are listening to parliamentarians. We are listening to stakeholders right across the country. We will pass this law with the support of all parliamentarians.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians recognize very well that the environmental policies of the previous government were an abject failure, whether it was addressing climate change, environmental assessment, biodiversity in Canada--
Mr. Speaker, our key exports are down 73%. Lentils are down 79%. India has increased tariffs and are implementing a fumigation fee. The CEO of a major pulse exporter said that the trade crisis with India is the ultimate hammer, and that we have been hit over the head and we are bleeding.For the sake of Canadian pulse producers, will the agriculture minister insist that the Prime Minister admit that his India conspiracy theory is a farce?
Mr. Speaker, it is a sad spectacle to see a member who has served the House for this long reduced to reading talking points from the Prime Minister's Office. It is also sad to see him continue to stand against a briefing for members of Parliament, asking simply to receive the same that briefing members of the media received. Now members of the media are confirming that the national security adviser told them they could not report everything they received, even though it was an unclassified briefing.Why will the minister not simply do the right thing, stop covering up, and allow the national security adviser to appear before parliamentarians?
Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, Canadians know that the environmental policies and the environmental legacy of the previous government were an abject failure. The Conservatives did not address climate change. They destroyed the environmental assessment process in Canada. They let the decline in biodiversity accelerate over the course of their 10 years in power. We are working very actively to ensure that environmental progress and economic progress go together going forward.
Again, there is no answer, Mr. Speaker, so let us talk about science. How is it that a government that claims to be based on science and evidence, does not have the foggiest clue of how harmful such a carbon tax would be to Canadians? Has the minister not done her homework? Does she not know how much emissions will go down under her carbon tax? Does she not know the devastating impact such a tax will have on our economy and the millions of jobs that hang in the balance? Do struggling Canadians not deserve to know if these massive new taxes will have any impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to Canada?
Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: thousands of young girls across Canada, including about 2,000 in Quebec alone, are trapped in the clutches of pimps and street gangs. Since 2013, MPs and senators have been doing their job and unanimously supported Bill C-452. This includes the Prime Minister, I might add, when he was in opposition.When it comes to legalizing marijuana, the Prime Minister has no problem rushing it through, but when it comes to protecting our young girls who are trapped in the clutches of pimps, he seems to find it too difficult to sign the document.What is he waiting for?
Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, in one of the most shocking and disturbing cases ever witnessed, B.C. SPCA officers attempted to rescue a severely emaciated dog standing in a pile of mud and feces. The collar was embedded in his neck causing his head to swell to almost three times its normal size. When the collar was removed, it exposed an infected wound showing the dog's trachea and jugular vein. This case of animal cruelty has profoundly impacted my community. In 2016, the Minister of Justice made a commitment to review the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code. When will she honour that commitment?
Mr. Speaker, sometimes, Ottawa can seem far away, as Patrick Lagacé pointed out in a column two weeks ago about one of my constituents, Sophie Thewys.Despite the hard work by my team and Sophie after the tragic death of her partner Nicolas, she has yet to receive her permanent resident status, which had already been approved. The Prime Minister likes to boast that our immigration system is compassionate and humane, but it certainly does not feel that way.When will the minister use his power to put an end to this tragedy and allow Sophie to grieve and move on?
Mr. Speaker, it does not matter if our producers cannot get their products to market if they do not have a market to sell it to. The Liberals have to understand that there are very real consequences to the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to understand who trotted out the national security adviser to give classified or not classified information to the media, who did not know what was classified or what was not classified.What we know here is that the government is trying to cover up the fact that it sent someone out to spin that it had a ridiculous conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government was to blame for the Prime Minister's disastrous appearance. Why are the Liberals trying to cover this up? Why do they not just come clean?
Mr. Speaker, the truth is that this party is leading the way with openness and transparency in fundraising. We are a shining example for what all parties in the House could do.It is very curious, in fact, that the party from which this question proceeds is itself still keeping its information about its fundraisers a secret. Will the member join our example?
Mr. Speaker, ethics problems are all too common with the Liberals. This time, the problem with with the member for Brampton East, who was hired by a construction company after becoming a member of Parliament. It just so happens that the owner of this company was invited on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. It is impossible to know who invited the man in question, since the member and the Prime Minister's Office are pointing the finger at each other. Who is telling the truth? Why all the mystery?
Mr. Speaker, this government has completely failed at managing the agriculture file. The Minister of Agriculture abandoned farmers and refused to stand up for them when his colleague, the Minister of Health, was working on the reform of the Canada food guide. He dumped them on the Prime Minister, who was unable to fix the pulse crisis during his disastrous trip to India.Canadian exports are even worse off than they were before the trip, having dropped nearly 80%.When will the Minister of Agriculture demand that the Prime Minister be honest with Canadians and admit that his conspiracy theory is a farce that is having devastating consequences for Canadian farmers?
All of them, Mr. Speaker.I am very glad to have the question, because we will be happy to discuss all manner of House committee work through the House leaders, which we can advance just as soon as the official opposition is fully briefed on all of the facts, classified and unclassified. Those members just have to let us know when they would like to get started and all of that information can proceed.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week, the Conservatives voted against investing to recruit the best and the brightest. We know that science and research help improve the lives of Canadians. Therefore, the member for Don Valley North and the Liberal caucus voted for that funding. This morning, we were proud to announce the Canada 150 research chairs. We look forward to their exciting new breakthroughs.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question.We are standing up for the CBC, which is why we reinvested $675 million. We are also defending our national anthem. We always take pride in the changes, initiated by Mauril Bélanger, to the lyrics of the national anthem. Now that they are gender neutral, they are more inclusive and better reflect diversity. This is an important symbol for us.
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy that the member has given me the opportunity to talk about Invest in Canada, a new flagship investment and promotion agency in this country.I was travelling the country to make sure that Canadians know about this new agency. I am very proud we have appointed Mitch Garber, the chair of Cirque du Soleil, as the first chair of this agency. We have also brought in Ian McKay, who is the director of the Vancouver Economic Commission. We want people who understand business to bring business to Canada, because that is the way to create jobs around this country.
Mr. Speaker, what this government is doing is working with farmers to make sure that the millions of dollars that the Harper government cut from science is renewed. In fact, $100 million in agricultural science over the last two budgets have been implemented. There is $3 billion for the Canadian agricultural partnership, $75 million to increase trade, and I could go on and on.This government is going to make sure that Canadian agriculture expands and meets the $75 billion of exports by 2025. Working with our great farmers and ranchers, we will do that.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians can be proud that the world is once again looking to Canada as a leader in science. Top scientists and researchers from around the world want to come to Canada. Last week
Mr. Speaker, let's be honest. If the media briefing did not include sensitive information, there is no reason why journalists could not share it with Canadians. The minister seems to be caught up in the talking points provided by the Prime Minister's Office. However, to disentangle himself, could the minister confirm whether the media who were briefed are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing, yes or no?
Mr. Speaker, we on this side have a lot of regard and respect for officers of Parliament, and that is why the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. We were proud to be joined by hundreds of community leaders and members of the business community to strengthen our ties with India, but I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation to the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree is very important work.
Mr. Speaker, we recognize the services that caregivers give to Canadian families. In fact, we have recognized the importance of reuniting caregivers with their own families. That is why we invested more money and more resources to make sure we would bring down the processing time for caregivers, from five years under the previous government to under 12 months under our government. We are moving very quickly to also eliminate the existing cases under the live-in caregiver programs. The two existing programs are also working well. We are conducting an assessment to make them even better. Let me be very clear. We will always maintain pathways to permanent residency for caregivers.
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition complains that he will not be able to ask questions about classified information but that is exactly true already. What is classified needs to remain classified. What is being offered to the leader is a full description of all the facts so that he can know what is classified and what is not, and then he will be fully equipped to discharge his responsibility, rather than just political gamesmanship.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his advocacy on this issue. It is completely unacceptable that northerners are still struggling to feed their families and pay the most extraordinary prices for food in Canada. Our government has already expanded the nutrition north program to include 37 more communities across Canada. We have also increased the budget by $65 million over the next five years. We are continuing to engage with those in northern regions to ensure we can expand this program to ensure affordable access to food for all people in the northern regions of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, the minister is trying to deflect, but the problem is that the Liberals think that it is entirely appropriate to offer a briefing to the media, but not to the representatives of the people, us, the elected members of the House. The minister himself said that the information was not sensitive or classified, but he refuses to share it with MPs.Since the information provided to the media was not classified, will the minister confirm that the media that received the briefing from the national security advisor are free to report every word that they heard during that briefing?
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries awarded a lucrative surf clam quota worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a group that did not have first nation partners in place. It was not incorporated. It did not have a boat or a vessel, or a facility for harvesting. What it did have going for it were Liberal connections, including close family ties to the Liberal caucus. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador want to know why they have to lose their jobs so that the minister can look after Liberal insiders and close family friends.
Mr. Speaker, we are taking concrete action to improve our already strong and robust rules around political fundraising events. That is why the Minister of Democratic Institutions introduced Bill C-50, which will give more information to Canadians than ever before by letting them know who is going to fundraisers, when they will be happening, and the amount required to attend.Canadians have a right to know and understand, more than they do now, about fundraising events attended by the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and party leadership contestants. We encourage all members in the House to join us in working to build a more open and transparent fundraising system for Canada.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that addressing climate change is an important issue and any thoughtful approach and plan include the pricing of carbon pollution. Four out of five Canadians live in jurisdictions that have shown the leadership to put into place carbon pricing systems. We are working actively with the provinces and territories which have primary responsibility for implementing these systems. We will continue to do that because addressing climate change is something that we know is an important challenge which the Conservatives did not address in their 10 years in government.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague from DartmouthCole Harbour for his leadership on this file.Our government is committed to supporting Canadians living with autism spectrum disorder.I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the compelling advocacy of the member for EdmontonWetaskiwin on this important issue as well. That is why, quite frankly, I was disheartened that the Conservatives' recent motion went against our 2018 investment of $20 million in new funding to support people with autism spectrum disorder and their families.On World Autism Awareness Day 2018, I would encourage all members of this House and all Canadians to learn more about autism and how each of us can work together to make a difference.
Mr. Speaker, women have a right to choices when it comes to their health. An important part of women's health involves access to a variety of safe and effective forms of contraception. However, the Public Service Health Care Plan currently covers only oral contraceptives.What has the government done to correct this situation for more than 650,000 federal public servants and their family members?
Mr. Speaker, our immigration system is based on respectful rules and standards, but there is also room for compassionate and humanitarian considerations with respect to any particular case.The member opposite knows that I cannot go into the details of a particular case due to privacy concerns, but I am happy to meet with him at the end of question period to see what I can do for him.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear from the scientists in my region that after a decade of questions from their international counterparts about why the Conservative government was opposed to science, Canada is once again being viewed as a leader in science around the world and many of their international counterparts want to work in Canada. Could the Parliamentary Secretary for Science tell the House what our government is doing to capitalize on our renewed scientific reputation to recruit the top international talent?
Mr. Speaker, since this is my first opportunity to address the member since he has come back, I hope you would allow me to say how happy I am to see him in the House and in good health. We plan to have dinners with our wives, and we will be able to reflect on how important our families and our health are in doing this job.With regard to this specific issue, when the previous government went through a very similar public process to access this fishery, it forgot to include indigenous people. Our government has not forgotten indigenous people.
Mr. Speaker, Canada's wine industry has created over 37,000 jobs. Wine is our highest value-added agriculture product.The U.S. trade representative recently said he wants even more access to our Canadian market, despite U.S. wine exports to Canada already increasing by over 2,500% since 1988, and, I will also add, a $500-million trade surplus.Will the minister confirm that the government will not trade away the 37,000 jobs in our wine industry at the eleventh hour of these NAFTA talks?
Mr. Speaker, the idea that the Prime Minister is hanging out with billionaires to protect the hard-pressed middle class is like telling us that those billionaire Liberal turkeys showed up and asked for an early Easter. This brings us to Mitch Garber. He is a mega donor, and the Liberals paid him back by giving him his own agency. They call it Invest in Canada, when it is really another case of investing in friends of the Liberal Party.Does the Prime Minister not understand that the public service in this country needs to be more than a patronage smorgasbord for his friends, donors, and insider pals?
Mr. Speaker, changes in the way Canadians access content have disrupted many business models. The reality is that the benefits of the digital world are not shared equally between the web giants and our artists, journalists, and creators. Our government wants to level the playing field among the stakeholders involved. That is why we will be making amendments to our legislation to adapt it to the digital reality. This includes a review of the Broadcasting Act. We strongly believe in protecting our culture and promoting access to Canadian content on all platforms.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for DorvalLachineLaSalle for her question and for her hard work.Empowering women and respecting their rights, including reproductive health rights, is what our government does. In the public service that means we are putting women and the health of women first, including their choice of contraceptives. I am very happy to announce that effective April 1, non-oral contraceptives will be covered under the public service health care plan. As promised, we worked hard and collaboratively with the unions to bring this about, and we have delivered.
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has abandoned even a half-hearted acknowledgement of members and ministers' ethical obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code. Again, there was a question asked and not answered yesterday. Will the Prime Minister and will the Liberal government, disgraced by a spectrum of ethical lapses and violations, do the right thing and clean up the mess themselves or are they leaving it, once again, to the Ethics Commissioner?
Mr. Speaker, I will continue to remind all Canadians that we are proud to be working to create more opportunities for the Canadian middle class and those working hard to join it. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice. MPs and business organizations will often invite community and business leaders to join these business exchanges to increase Canada's standing in the global community, and we are going to continue doing just that.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we attempted to better protect young girls in Canada by fast-tracking the passage of Bill C-38, a government bill to combat pimping. We would have preferred Bill C-452, but the Prime Minister went back on his vote. In collusion with the Conservatives, the Liberals said no to our motion. They said no to making life hard for pimps. The Liberals and the Conservatives would rather preserve the status quo than protect our young girls. How can the government justify refusing to pass its own bill?
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect victims. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute certain human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. These are strengthening measures, which will help law enforcement. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and looks forward to receiving broad support from all parliamentarians on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians across the country are enjoying the benefits of the more than 3,400 projects approved under Infrastructure Canada's phase 1 programs. The previous government spent a decade doing nothing, but now these projects are modernizing public transit and water pipes and building healthier communities. Over $4 billion in federal funding has been approved for these projects, and the money will flow as soon as our partners submit their applications.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and our government is working to combat it in many ways. We are committed to strengthening efforts to combat it and to better protect the victims of this crime. Bill C-38 proposes to give law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute human trafficking offences that can be particularly difficult to prove. Our government is committed to advancing this legislation and we look forward to receiving support on its passage into law.
Mr. Speaker, it is important that we be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As is common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, offering a full classified briefing is hardly covering things up.The opposition has confirmed that it does not want to be encumbered by the truth when it is asking questions. Therefore, it is choosing to remain wilfully ignorant of the facts. There are other consequences too, like the voting at the end of last week, which forced the opposition to vote against very good things that Canadians want. For example, the hon. member's party voted against the settlement of Yazidi women and girls in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, all Canadians love our national anthem, O Canada.Unfortunately, I have noticed over the past few months that CBC and Radio-Canada no longer broadcast our national anthem at 5 a.m., as they did in the past.Why is that? When I asked, I was told that it is because they are on the air 24 hours a day. That is not an adequate response, because they have been on the air 24 hours a day since 1995, yet they stopped playing our national anthem only a few months ago.Does the Liberal government agree with us? One minute a day for our public broadcaster to play O Canada is not too much to ask. It would in fact be welcome.
Mr. Speaker, only the Conservative Party would consider and see offering it a full brief of both classified and unclassified information so they could know all the facts as muzzling. The fact is that the Conservatives are tying themselves into some strange knots, because they forced themselves last Friday to vote against some very good things that Canadians wanted. For example, they voted against the funding for injured members of the RCMP. They voted against benefits for veterans.
Mr. Speaker, the environment commissioner released a report this week entitled Perspectives on Climate Change Action in Canada. The data collection began in 2016, after this Liberal government came to office. It is all too clear that the Liberals have no plan. Once again, they have nothing to offer but window dressing. On the environment, as in many other areas, they are not keeping their promise.My question is simple. How much will greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by the carbon tax they introduced?
Mr. Speaker, this week the government introduced a massive carbon tax on Canadians. Government official John Moffet called the tax, a foundational element of the government's climate change plan. However, last week, when the minister was repeatedly asked how much this foundational tax would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she could not answer and neither could her deputy. If the carbon tax is so important, how is it that the minister cannot even tell Canadians what impact such a tax would have on carbon emissions?
Mr. Speaker, we learned yesterday that as early as summer 2015, IBM was advising the government that Phoenix was not ready to go. For those keeping score, that means departmental reviews, public sector unions, and the principal private contractor itself were saying that Phoenix was not ready to go. Now, the Liberal Party has a rich history of going back on its commitments. I am thinking of electoral reform and I am thinking of its promise on CEO stock option loopholes.Why is it that the one time the Liberals could have used their great power of doubling back on their commitments to help Canadians, they passed up the opportunity?
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. The commissioner's report actually dealt with the period before the development of the pan-Canadian framework. It was an indictment of the climate policies of the previous government. We have put into place a plan that is focused on addressing climate change in a substantive way. The report that was issued in December 2017 by the United Nations showed that, relative to the 2016 report, there was a 232 megatonne reduction in carbon emissions. We are taking active and effective measures to ensure that we are addressing climate change in a thoughtful way.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, before the Senate committee, the IBM witnesses confirmed that Harper's Conservative government botched the program from the beginning. They reduced the scope of the project and did not take into account the advice of their supplier. The previous government developed the request for proposal and awarded the contract for the Phoenix pay system.We are continuing to work with IBM, and we will hold it accountable to ensure it complies with its obligations.
Mr. Speaker, Pulse Canada has been very supportive of the work the government has done to take this issue to the highest level when members went to India. We are very disappointed with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we are committed to working with our farmers and processors to make sure our industry grows. We are extremely concerned, as I said, with the way the tariffs were implemented, but we continue to work with Indian officials to make sure that we resume the trade in pulses.
Mr. Speaker, Air Canada flight attendants have filed complaints against the airline for sexual harassment and discrimination. Although the airline claims it has zero tolerance for harassment, it has outright denied these claims. Air Canada now asks female attendants to wear dress uniforms in order to show more cleavage and it told one gay flight attendant to stop prancing. Air Canada even dictates the colour and type of underwear flight attendants can wear. This is disgusting. This is unacceptable. What is the government going to do to ensure that anti-harassment policies are both adopted and followed by Canadian industries?
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. also has measures in place to promote and protect their own wine industry, including limited points of sale. American wine already does very well in Canada. The U.S. is our largest supplier of imported wines. The priority of the government is to look out for the interests of Canadians and the wine growers, including job creation and trade opportunities in various sectors and other venues.We will stand up for Canadian industries, specifically the wine industry, and defend our workers.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, and I shall repeat again, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will continue following its advice. However, I remind the member that the individual in question also received an invitation through the Canada-India Business Council, which I think we can all agree does important work.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship, and will keep following its advice. As a common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear on the facts. The member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will keep following its advice.As common practice, the member invited a diverse group of more than 30 stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip. In this case, people who were interested in attending could fill out a form online through the Canada-India Business Council, which the individual in question also did.
Mr. Speaker, the pricing of carbon pollution is a key part of any serious plan to address climate change. Pricing pollution is a market mechanism that will reduce emissions and will drive innovation in the country. We believe that provinces and territories are best placed to design pricing systems that work for them, as long as it meets the national standard. The design of the system will affect the amount of emissions reductions that are achieved. We will be, as we have said very publicly, reviewing all provincial and territorial systems later this year.
Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that the Liberals always seem to want to benefit their friends who are helping them and giving them money. The MP for Brampton East arranged for the person who is paying him to get access to the Prime Minister in India. We have a Conflict of Interest Act to avoid this exact type of behaviour, but the Liberals seem to have no regard for the Conflict of Interest Act. They are under constant investigation for these breaches. Again, who in the PMO authorized the attendance of this individual on the trip to India?
Mr. Speaker, IBM's testimony to the Senate committee last night confirmed that the Harper Conservatives botched this program from the start. They de-scoped the project and ignored the advice of their contractors. The development of the request for proposal and award of contract for Phoenix was done by the previous government. We continue to work with IBM and will hold it to account to fulfill its obligations. To date, our government has invested $645 million to stabilize the pay system.
Mr. Speaker, as I said some moments ago, I am very glad to have the question. We can have a very good discussion about all manner of committee work, and that discussion will go on among House leaders. Step number one is for opposition members to stop the political game and, in fact, inform themselves of all the relevant facts. The offer has been made for a full briefing, both classified and unclassified, so the Leader of the Opposition can have all that information and then base himself on the truth and not some silly innuendo the Conservatives have dreamed up for themselves.
Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by first expressing my sympathies to the hon. member and his community for that loss. Our government believes that animal cruelty is an extremely important social issue that deserves a national conversation. Our government is reviewing issues pertaining to animal cruelty provisions, including expanding the definition of bestiality and the definition of animal fighting in the code. We believe that animal cruelty should be balanced and protect animals from deliberate and unnecessary acts of cruelty while not interfering with legitimate animal use, including indigenous animal harvesting rights. We look forward to working with our hon. colleague and all members of the House to achieve those goals.
Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the government of Quebec did what Ottawa is not courageous enough to do. It decided that Quebec sales tax would apply both to foreign digital platforms like Spotify and Netflix and to home-grown platforms like Tou.tv and illico. Quebec showed yesterday that we can take action on the GST now. Not in two years, or after another consultation, or after discussions with the G7, but right now. The Prime Minister needs to stop spreading misinformation. No one here is talking about a new tax, apart from the Liberals. When will the Minister of Finance act?
Mr. Speaker, the member well knows that all members in the House believe that harassment of any type is unacceptable in the workplace or anywhere. We put forward Bill C-65, which is legislation that would cover the Parliament Hill precinct and all federally regulated workplaces. The legislation is currently in committee and we are accepting some amendments from all parties. It is going to be a strong piece of legislation. We committed to this in the past election and we are going
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code is very clear. MPs are not to use their position to further their own private interests or those of another person, or entity, yet the member for Brampton East did just that. He ensured one of his private sector employers, the president of a large construction company, gained access to the Prime Minister as well as to key Liberal cabinet ministers. Obviously, both stand to profit as a result. Does the Prime Minister believe that the Conflict of Interest Code is wrong or does he just think the Liberals are above it?
Mr. Speaker, a Canadian company, indeed a Victoria, B.C., company called AggregateIQ, has been the subject of debate in the Palace of Westminster. Our parliamentary colleagues there are hearing that this company played a significant role in manipulating data to affect the vote on the Brexit referendum. I want to know if the Minister of Justice, or any of the relevant ministers, could decide that we can help get to the bottom of this kind of shenanigan. It is illegal, and it should be illegal. Can we get an inquiry into the activities of AggregateIQ?
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister held a fundraiser yesterday in Montreal. Stephen Bronfman was there, but that comes as no surprise. Let us not forget that he was named in the paradise papers. Who else was there? There was Mitch Garber, whom the Minister of International Trade recently named chairman of a new federal agency.The Prime Minister thanked those in attendance for all the time they have devoted to their movement, but especially for all the money they pay to attend these galas.Does the Prime Minister also thank his friends by giving them patronage appointments?
Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of chortling and clanking of champagne glasses at the Prime Minister's latest fundraiser for the billionaires, when he said that he was not only there to get maximum donations but to get tough on the 1%. Step forth exhibit A. Stephen Bronfman raised $250,000 for the Liberals in two hours. When Bronfman was named in the paradise papers scandal, the Prime Minister immediately intervened and said that no investigation was necessary. No investigation happened.That is the power of who one knows in the PMO. Why is the Prime Minister using the highest office in the land to feather the nest of his Liberal donors?
Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, because he is a privy councillor, has been offered a full and complete briefing on all matters with respect to this situation, both classified and unclassified, so he can be fully informed. If he willfully refuses to be fully informed, it appears that his only objective is a political game that has nothing to do with the truth.
Mr. Speaker, I have asked several questions in the House regarding the promised changes to the nutrition north program, which the minister has publicly stated is failing northerners. Last May, the response was that the new program would be launched very soon. In September, the response changed to we intend to get it right this time. In December, it was we're considering all feedback.In budget 2018, there is not one mention of nutrition north. It seems with more time there is less progress. Why is the government continuing to fail Nunavummiut by not fixing this broken program?
Mr. Speaker, on March 1, when the public safety minister was asked why the Liberals will not let the national security adviser appear at committee, he said, You are asking me to wade into a classified discussion. I can't do that. Then he ran away from questions to the elevator, quite conveniently. Today and earlier this week, he said that none of the information given by the adviser to the media was classified.On what day was he telling the truth?
Mr. Speaker, the minister is deflecting, but let us carry on
Mr. Speaker, we have been asking for Parliament to get the same briefing the national security adviser gave to journalists. However, we know the national security adviser is not the only person who the public safety minister and the government is muzzling. They are also muzzling journalists, preventing them from reporting on what they heard in the unclassified briefing.When will the minister stop muzzling the national security adviser, stop muzzling journalists, stop the cover-up, and tell Canadians the truth?
Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the member has consulted the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on this relationship and will continue working with the office and following its advice, as I would encourage all members to do.
Mr. Speaker, on April 2, we will celebrate the 11th annual World Autism Awareness Day.On this day, Canada will join the international community, hundreds of thousands of families and caregivers, and communities around the world that will wear blue in recognition of people living with autism.Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health please update the House on the government actions to help those affected by the various forms of autism spectrum disorder?
Mr. Speaker, my intervention is about the fact that CBC no longer plays O Canada. I submitted an information request to CBC, and I would like to table this document, which contains CBC's response explaining why it no longer plays the national anthem on CBC or Radio-Canada.
Mr. Speaker, our government takes its fundamental responsibilities to protect the private information of Canadian citizens and the integrity of our electoral system extremely seriously, which is why we engaged the Communications Security Establishment to conduct the first-ever threat assessment of Canadian democratic processes. The threat assessment looked at cyber-threats facing our democratic process. It is a critical step in addressing the potential issues Canadians may face. Happily, CSE found that there was no significant interference in the 2015 election, but we know this is going to change in 2019, and addressing this will take a whole-of-government approach. This is an issue we take extremely seriously, which is why budget 2018 committed over $750 million for
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind members that it was the Liberal government that implemented the Phoenix pay system. Public servants and the unions told the Liberals to delay its implementation, and yesterday we learned that IBM had advised the government to delay the system's implementation because it was just not ready. When employees, public servants, unions, and even the company that designed and built the system say do not go ahead, the government must listen.Why, in spite of this, did the government decide to gamble with the wages of thousands of workers?
Mr. Speaker, after quietly announcing the end of the current caregiver program, the minister was forced to change course by stating he would engage in consultations about the future of the program. At committee, IRCC officials committed to providing details of the consultation process to members. To date, no information has been provided even though multiple consultations have already taken place. My direct request to attend the consultation with caregivers in Ottawa was denied. We were told that it was not a consultation meeting. Why did the minister's staff mislead my office and why the secrecy?
Mr. Speaker, three years ago, all MPs and all senators voted unanimously in favour of Bill C-452 to combat procuring and trafficking in persons. The only thing missing for this legislation to take effect is the Prime Minister's signature. Members heard correctly: the Prime Minister's signature is the only thing missing to give our justice and public safety systems the tools needed to protect our young girls who are trapped in the hell of prostitution and human trafficking.My question is simple. When will the Prime Minister finally sign the legislation?
Mr. Speaker, what a ridiculous answer. Last week, the environment minister refused to answer a very simple question at committee, so I will give her another chance. It is a truism that environmental programs should have specific and measurable outcomes. We know how much scrubbers on smokestacks reduce SO2. We know how much a waste-water treatment plant will improve water quality. It is shocking that the Liberals do not know how much a carbon tax will reduce emissions. By how much will a $50 a tonne carbon tax across Canada reduce our greenhouse gas emissions? I want a number.
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary budget officer just released a new report on phase 1 of the Liberals' infrastructure plan. The report confirms what we already knew, and we are not really surprised. The Liberals are incapable of keeping their promises. Half of the millions of dollars earmarked have not yet been allocated to projects. I did say half. Municipalities have been waiting too long for that money. They believed the Liberal promises.On their behalf, I am once again asking the government where its plan is.
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. It was the opposition that referred this to the conflict of interest office. It was not the Liberal member. Yet again, we have another questionable person travelling with the Prime Minister on his disastrous trip to India and no one on the Liberal side who is willing to take responsibility. So much for transparency and accountability. All we get from the Liberals is denial and deflection. What is next? Is the Prime Minister going to blame India for this new debacle?
Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Code demands that all members uphold their public duties with honesty and fulfill to the highest standard so as to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest. The member's conduct goes well beyond apparent conflict. This is a blatantly formalized case of a cash for access retainer. Was the member's boss invited on the India trip to seek business in India or was he invited to hang with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Infrastructure , and the Minister of Innovation to get an inside track on contracts in Canada?
Mr. Speaker, after being elected in 2015, the Liberal MP for Brampton East entered into a business relationship with a local businessman, receiving pay from him. Even though there is a clear conflict of interest, the Brampton East member arranged to give his business partner privileged access to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet while on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. Why did the Prime Minister's Office invite this individual on the trip to India when there is a such a clear conflict of interest?
Mr. Speaker, it begs the question, if the opposition Conservatives were so concerned about human trafficking, why did they make cuts to law enforcement? Why did they make cuts to the entire public safety apparatus to the tune of $750 million?As I said, this government believes in combatting human trafficking. It is a very serious criminal offence. We have engaged with the chamber in the other place. We are listening to parliamentarians. We are listening to stakeholders right across the country. We will pass this law with the support of all parliamentarians.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians recognize very well that the environmental policies of the previous government were an abject failure, whether it was addressing climate change, environmental assessment, biodiversity in Canada--
Mr. Speaker, our key exports are down 73%. Lentils are down 79%. India has increased tariffs and are implementing a fumigation fee. The CEO of a major pulse exporter said that the trade crisis with India is the ultimate hammer, and that we have been hit over the head and we are bleeding.For the sake of Canadian pulse producers, will the agriculture minister insist that the Prime Minister admit that his India conspiracy theory is a farce?
Mr. Speaker, it is a sad spectacle to see a member who has served the House for this long reduced to reading talking points from the Prime Minister's Office. It is also sad to see him continue to stand against a briefing for members of Parliament, asking simply to receive the same that briefing members of the media received. Now members of the media are confirming that the national security adviser told them they could not report everything they received, even though it was an unclassified briefing.Why will the minister not simply do the right thing, stop covering up, and allow the national security adviser to appear before parliamentarians?
Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, Canadians know that the environmental policies and the environmental legacy of the previous government were an abject failure. The Conservatives did not address climate change. They destroyed the environmental assessment process in Canada. They let the decline in biodiversity accelerate over the course of their 10 years in power. We are working very actively to ensure that environmental progress and economic progress go together going forward.
Again, there is no answer, Mr. Speaker, so let us talk about science. How is it that a government that claims to be based on science and evidence, does not have the foggiest clue of how harmful such a carbon tax would be to Canadians? Has the minister not done her homework? Does she not know how much emissions will go down under her carbon tax? Does she not know the devastating impact such a tax will have on our economy and the millions of jobs that hang in the balance? Do struggling Canadians not deserve to know if these massive new taxes will have any impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to Canada?
Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: thousands of young girls across Canada, including about 2,000 in Quebec alone, are trapped in the clutches of pimps and street gangs. Since 2013, MPs and senators have been doing their job and unanimously supported Bill C-452. This includes the Prime Minister, I might add, when he was in opposition.When it comes to legalizing marijuana, the Prime Minister has no problem rushing it through, but when it comes to protecting our young girls who are trapped in the clutches of pimps, he seems to find it too difficult to sign the document.What is he waiting for?
Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, in one of the most shocking and disturbing cases ever witnessed, B.C. SPCA officers attempted to rescue a severely emaciated dog standing in a pile of mud and feces. The collar was embedded in his neck causing his head to swell to almost three times its normal size. When the collar was removed, it exposed an infected wound showing the dog's trachea and jugular vein. This case of animal cruelty has profoundly impacted my community. In 2016, the Minister of Justice made a commitment to review the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code. When will she honour that commitment?
Mr. Speaker, sometimes, Ottawa can seem far away, as Patrick Lagacé pointed out in a column two weeks ago about one of my constituents, Sophie Thewys.Despite the hard work by my team and Sophie after the tragic death of her partner Nicolas, she has yet to receive her permanent resident status, which had already been approved. The Prime Minister likes to boast that our immigration system is compassionate and humane, but it certainly does not feel that way.When will the minister use his power to put an end to this tragedy and allow Sophie to grieve and move on?
Mr. Speaker, it does not matter if our producers cannot get their products to market if they do not have a market to sell it to. The Liberals have to understand that there are very real consequences to the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India.
Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to understand who trotted out the national security adviser to give classified or not classified information to the media, who did not know what was classified or what was not classified.What we know here is that the government is trying to cover up the fact that it sent someone out to spin that it had a ridiculous conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government was to blame for the Prime Minister's disastrous appearance. Why are the Liberals trying to cover this up? Why do they not just come clean?
Mr. Speaker, the truth is that this party is leading the way with openness and transparency in fundraising. We are a shining example for what all parties in the House could do.It is very curious, in fact, that the party from which this question proceeds is itself still keeping its information about its fundraisers a secret. Will the member join our example?
Mr. Speaker, ethics problems are all too common with the Liberals. This time, the problem with with the member for Brampton East, who was hired by a construction company after becoming a member of Parliament. It just so happens that the owner of this company was invited on the Prime Minister's disastrous trip to India. It is impossible to know who invited the man in question, since the member and the Prime Minister's Office are pointing the finger at each other. Who is telling the truth? Why all the mystery?
Mr. Speaker, this government has completely failed at managing the agriculture file. The Minister of Agriculture abandoned farmers and refused to stand up for them when his colleague, the Minister of Health, was working on the reform of the Canada food guide. He dumped them on the Prime Minister, who was unable to fix the pulse crisis during his disastrous trip to India.Canadian exports are even worse off than they were before the trip, having dropped nearly 80%.When will the Minister of Agriculture demand that the Prime Minister be honest with Canadians and admit that his conspiracy theory is a farce that is having devastating consequences for Canadian farmers?