SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 20 - Jan/31/22

Mr. Darrell Samson (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, Lib.)

Jan/31/22 1:30:53 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I would like to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Louis, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts on the Speech from the Throne. In response to the throne speech, many of the key elements shared reflect the vision of my riding of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook in Nova Scotia. Let us get through COVID and let us build back better. Let us ensure our health care system is in the 21st century. Let us ensure we continue to improve our health care system and ensure our economy is building back better. Of course, climate change and veterans are also key issues. I would like to start off by saying that Canadians elected a minority government and as such it is the responsibility of each one of us in the House, all parliamentarians, to work together closely to ensure we make life better for all Canadians. When we talk about COVID, there is no question that this is the number one priority. It has now been almost two years that we have been fighting through COVID, and we have been working closely with Canadians right across Canada to ensure we are going to be in a much better position very soon. Let us not forget that Canadians want to be vaccinated. Over 86% of all Canadians have been double vaccinated. The booster shots are now available, and we are moving forward. Many people have their booster shots. I do. It is age-related in Nova Scotia, but I did make the cut so I was happy about that. Now we are moving to the next generation, with the vaccine for younger Canadians who are five to 11 years old. Through this extremely difficult challenge, the government has been there for Canadians. The Prime Minister has stated on a number of occasions that we will be there for as long as it takes and that is exactly what we have done. Through COVID we have noticed some of the gaps out there and some of the things we could do better in the future to ensure we are in a much better place as we move forward to new challenges. With that, I would like to share a project I was able to announce a few weeks ago in my riding of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, which is a wonderful project I believe many here would be interested in. It is hydroponic gardens. In Nova Scotia, with these hydroponic gardens, farmers will be able to plant vegetables and different spices, even edible flowers, year-round, which does not usually happen in Nova Scotia. This is one way to achieve food security. This is a way of ensuring we will be prepared for any challenges as we move forward. This is what I call innovation. I want to thank our government for investing $76,000 toward the project. I also want to welcome and thank the local Akoma Family Centre properties for following through on that project. Now we are going to build on that. Maybe it will be a great pilot for the rest of the nation. I talked about health care. Of course, in Atlantic Canada we know we have the oldest Canadians. On average, they are much older than in Alberta, for example. We also have the most rural communities. That is a double barrier in the sense of the needs for health care. That is why we need to do more pilots in Nova Scotia and invest right across the country in health care. Some of the key areas we talked about in the throne speech were strengthening the health care system and public health supports for all Canadians. What does that actually mean? It means more accessibility; rural care; transportation, making sure seniors can get to their health care supports, hospitals, doctors, etc.; mental health; long-term care; and data collection for improvement. These are all very important investments as we move forward. In our platform, we also talked about 7,500 more doctors and nurses to help limit wait times, and the new Canada mental health transfers to the provinces. The economy was very strong before we entered the pandemic and is showing clear signs of strength as we move out of this COVID challenge. Let us keep in mind that, as the Prime Minister said, we will have Canadians' backs as long as we need to. Let us not forget that eight out of 10 dollars spent to support Canadians through COVID has come from the federal government. We are in much better shape, because of the economy prior to COVID, to be able to support Canadians. Let us also remind ourselves that 108% of the pre-COVID jobs have returned today. That is outstanding. We have seen fewer bankruptcies in the last two years than we have seen in the past, because our government has been there to support Canadians. We have seen an increase of 13% in international trade, again showing our economy can handle challenges. The opposition talks about inflation. Inflation is a global challenge. Let us look at inflation in the G7. We have inflation of 4.5%, while other countries have inflation of 5.3% and 5.4% and the United States has inflation of 7%. Because of our government's good investments, we have seen our debt interest payments drop last year by $4 billion. I will finish off by saying that we still have our AAA credit rating, which is pretty impressive. On the investment front, how do we ensure we continue to prosper as we move forward? There are two main areas: child care and housing. When it comes to child care, we have committed to a Canada-wide early learning and child care plan, and that is exactly what we are delivering. We are being asked for promises and about what we are actually doing. Nine provinces and three territories have signed on, which is very impressive. The main objective of this program is to lower the cost for families, ensure a high-quality program, ensure educators are receiving a salary that is acceptable and, which is extremely important, get more Canadians working. More women will be able to join the workforce, and that is a key economic driver. Let us not forget about that. On the housing front, we talked in the throne speech about more flexibility for first-time homebuyers and about the rent-to-own program. Some of these strategies, such as co-op housing, existed in the past. These are key programs that can be successful in lowering costs for first-time homebuyers. Let me talk about our national housing strategy and our rapid housing funding. I made two announcements lately in my riding. One was in the Eastern Shore region, where we are investing over $3 million for 12 units in women's shelters. We also announced eight units in the Preston region of my riding for African Nova Scotians, with another $3-million investment from the federal government. Those are important investments. This is not just happening in my riding of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook; it is happening right across the country. As MPs, it is our job to articulate to our constituents the areas where we can support them and then of course advocate on their behalf. On the climate file, during the election it was clear our government had the strongest environmental plan to deliver for Canadians. It is not just about protecting our environment, it is also about growing our economy with renewable energy, green energy, investing in retrofits and a net-zero electricity future. Those are key components. I want to finish off by talking about veterans. We made some announcements for veterans. We continue to support veterans, as we have done since 2015. One announcement made in my riding was about the well-being fund receiving $1 million through the Strongest Family Institute to help veterans with mental health e-services in order to help those living with anxiety and depression, etc. There is also investment in housing for rent supplements and wraparound services for veterans, as well as rapid housing. Our government is focused on Canadians.

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Context: House Hansard - 20 - Jan/31/22

Mr. Darrell Samson

Jan/31/22 1:41:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is no question that all Canadians are tired and feeling the challenge through COVID, but we have to stay with the science and our data. I know that we are close to moving to the next step, which is very important, but let us keep one thing in mind. People are saying “the Liberal government”, but 90% of the restrictions are under provincial jurisdiction. It is the premiers of each province who are actually placing the restrictions and let me remind the House that most of those are Conservative premiers.

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Context: House Hansard - 20 - Jan/31/22

Mr. Darrell Samson

Jan/31/22 1:43:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am very happy that my colleague asked that question because it is very important. I thank him. I agree with him that the Official Languages Act assented to in 1988 has improved the situation but that it did not really go as far as it should have. I can assure the member that the new legislation we will be introducing in the coming weeks will respond to the expectations of Canadians, whether they are Quebeckers, Acadian francophones or francophiles across the country. I can assure the member that this legislation will bring about major improvement, that it will have teeth and that we will be able to advance the cause of both official languages in Canada by ensuring their equality, as it should.

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Context: House Hansard - 20 - Jan/31/22

Mr. Darrell Samson

Jan/31/22 1:45:29 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-221

Madam Speaker, I know it has been mentioned on several occasions by the NDP, and I agree that we need to do some research around that. We have done quite a bit of work. We have invested over $100 million to try to identify how many survivors of veterans there are. Also, we have to keep in mind that it does not just include veterans, but the public service and others that also have that same clause, so the conversation is a little bigger than that. We are on task and working toward finding a solution to support our veterans.

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