44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 15, 2022 10:00AM
- Feb/15/22 2:37:38 p.m.
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Are you done now?
For two years, the Prime Minister has insisted he is making decisions—
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- Feb/15/22 2:37:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my apologies.
For two years, the Prime Minister has insisted he is making decisions based on science. Canadians sacrificed, isolated, closed businesses and got vaccinated because experts advised that it was the safest way forward. Now those same experts say it is time to ease restrictions. Premiers are listening, but the Prime Minister believes he knows better and has invoked the emergency measures act.
Does the Prime Minister intend to force the provinces to implement measures they, and science, disagree with?
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- Feb/15/22 2:39:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the rest of the world is opening up and returning to normal. Where the science supports it, the provinces are providing Canadians with hope for the first time in two years, contrary to the Prime Minister, whose lack of leadership has brought him to invoke the emergency measures act, traumatizing Canadians. He is well aware that many provinces are opposed to these measures. He is also well aware that the science says they are not needed.
Will the Prime Minister force the provinces to implement measures that they independently decided to remove?
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Kenora.
I cannot start my speech today without giving some recognition. On this side of the House, we have talked about a plan forward out of this pandemic. We have talked about ending the mandates, so I cannot start today without recognizing my hometown, which I am so proud of: Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Calgary City Council, led by Dan McLean, today announced an end to the mask mandate on March 1 in alignment with the Province of Alberta, so I thank Dan McLean. Dan, of course, is the councillor for Ward 13. It is a ward in my riding, and I am so very pleased and proud of him and city council today for taking that brave action toward advancing Canadians and ending this mandate. I thank them so very much.
As the shadow minister for employment, future workforce development, disability and inclusion, a key portfolio in ESDC, and along with the incredible critic for seniors in my party, the member for Hastings—Lennox and Addington, I feel completely obliged and compelled to speak about the matter before us today, Bill C-12, and the reason we are having this debate.
When I heard about Bill C-12, it seemed to me that the situation was familiar and I gave it a bit of thought. When the pandemic hit, the government issued a series of benefits: the CERB and the CRB. Lo and behold, unfortunately when the GIS payments were issued there was a necessity to claw them back. This was a result of the government's lack of competency with the administration and overpayment of the CRB and the CERB, by giving funds to those who were not entitled to them. This is no small matter. It affects 90,000 low-income seniors across the country who are struggling to put food on the table and to heat their homes. They certainly do not need this problem at this time.
I understand that the government has allocated a large sum of funds to this: around $700 million. Yesterday in the House, it actually released the date on which these low-income seniors could start to see these funds. It is April 19. The Liberals were not willing to release that information to me at committee, so I am glad they have finally come forward with it in the House, and have announced a date when seniors can expect to see these funds. They would not give me a date when I pressed them at committee.
As I reflected upon this situation, it occurred to me that this was not the first time we had seen this. In fact, oops, they did it again. Where has this happened before? Where have we seen this lack of administration and competency before? I am going to go all the way back to the beginning of the pandemic and Bill C-2, where we as an opposition tried very hard to work with the government to get Canadians the benefits they deserved.
Our current interim Leader of the Opposition was involved in those negotiations, as was the member for Carleton, who was acting in the capacity of shadow minister for finance at the time. He had the good measure to recognize the lack of oversight that was occurring with the government asking for unlimited spending. I am very fortunate that he saw that and pointed it out.
What happened after that was that we had to come back to the House and amend Bill C-2 as a result of the government's incompetence and mismanagement again. We saw that the Canada emergency wage subsidy came too late. The Canada emergency commercial rent assistance did not work, because it required the approval of landlords as well as a 70% revenue reduction. As well, not a single business received funds from the government's large employer emergency financing facility. We saw it there with Bill C-2.
We saw it again in May of 2020, when the CBC reported that Canadians who did not qualify for CERB were getting it anyway and could face consequences, such as the ones we saw with the GIS, which thank goodness are finally being addressed today.
However, it does not end there. We saw it again with maternity benefits, whereby Canadian women who were pregnant could not receive the CERB or the CRB, again as a result of government error and an oversight. We saw the errors of the government once again having a significant impact on Canadians who needed those benefits at that time.
I wish I could say it ends there, but it does not. In fact, it goes on to Bill C-24, where we had to come back and close loopholes that allowed international leisure and other non-essential travellers to claim the Canada recovery benefit, but that made individuals required to quarantine or self-isolate under the Quarantine Act during the two-week benefit period ineligible to submit a claim.
Do we see the trend here that I am referring to? It is the incompetency of the government again and again. Here we are again with Bill C-12, referring to the errors of the government that deeply impacted Canadians. I wish I could say it ends there. It does not.
In November, 2021, we found out that organized crime knowingly and actively exploited federal pandemic benefits. Where did these funds potentially go? I will tell you. They went to illegal firearms. Check the borders, boys. They also went to human trafficking and prostitution. Once again, the errors and mismanagement of the government caused problems for the House. They caused delays to those who needed benefits, resulting in new legislation. The House had to consider taking the time of everyone here, taking us away from other important issues and away from work for our constituents, to come back here and fix the government's errors once again.
I know members know what I am going to say. It does not end there. Now, we are finding out that there are problems with the auditing. Even though the government was aware in June, 2020, and by July 2020, it recognized $442 million in double payments, we will not see this auditing be completely done and rectified until 2023. That is three years after the Liberals first recognized that this problem existed.
Again and again, we are seeing the government's incompetence have a significant effect on the lives on Canadians and on everyone who works in the House and wants to focus on other legislation. Unfortunately, we are called back again and again to fix the errors of the government.
It does not end there. Just five days ago, we found out that the federal government sent nearly $12 million in Canada emergency response benefit payments to people with foreign addresses in the first seven months of the pandemic. It is overwhelming the number of—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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Mr. Speaker, they are just excited about the turkey meatballs, and I do not blame them. I do not know which part of that they are more excited about.
My point is that these are significant problems that have had serious consequences for individuals, never mind leaving cold, hungry seniors sitting in their basements alone by themselves. This incompetency has had far greater effects, which we are seeing here today in the direction of this nation, that I do not have the time to get into, such as Ukraine, as a result of not having a clear, coherent foreign policy, and such as the problems we have seen with the truckers and the convoys, which have resulted in the necessity for the Prime Minister to believe that he has to invoke the Emergencies Act rather than take a number of steps before.
In conclusion, Bill C-12 is unfortunately not the first time Canadians have been made to suffer the incompetence of the Liberal government. Sadly, I do not think it will be the last.
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Mr. Speaker, I believe in diplomacy. I believe in engagement, and I believe in having the courage to have conversations with Canadians, something the Prime Minister does not. It should have never been brought to this place, and it is absolutely squarely on the shoulders of the Liberal government and its leader, the Prime Minister.
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Mr. Speaker, I am so grateful to be on the same team as the member for Sarnia—Lambton.
Canada has not had a foreign policy strategy direction in six years and it is the result of simple values and principles that the previous administration had at the top, from which everything flowed: democracy, justice and the rule of law. These things have been forgotten under the government. Unfortunately, how one does something is how one does everything, and we are seeing the same lack of planning, direction, values and principles at the top in this situation as well.
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Mr. Speaker, the reason we are here is because the government took money from seniors. Had it not taken money from seniors, we would not be in the House debating this bill today.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question.
I think that the most important thing is that the government continues to ignore the biggest problem Canada is facing. I think that my colleague from the Bloc and I agree on that point. I am talking about inflation.
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Mr. Speaker, the member referenced how his riding is specifically in the north and is remote and rural. I imagine that this GIS clawback on seniors in his riding would have had even more significant impact on these Canadians, who are really left to obtain their necessities in their local communities. I am hoping the member can elaborate on that and even provide more context as to the struggles that his citizens, seniors in particular, have faced throughout this pandemic.
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