44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2022 11:00AM
- May/2/22 2:25:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what we are witnessing is an ongoing continuation of political theatrics from the Conservative Party.
Three leaders ago, the Conservatives were talking about this. At the end of the day, as I have pointed out in previous questions, they can continue. They can do what they want with their focus. I can assure Canadians that this government, whether it is the Prime Minister, other cabinet ministers or the Liberal caucus as a whole, will continue to focus our attention on making life better for all Canadians in every region of this nation.
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- May/2/22 2:26:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this weekend saw the return of the convoy protesting health measures. This time, the Ottawa police, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Parliamentary Protective Service worked together, from the get‑go.
When people tried to get their vehicles into the security perimeter to again block the downtown core, they were immediately stopped. There were no blunders, businesses stayed open. In short, three days later, it was already over, because everyone had done their job well.
Miraculously, the Emergencies Act was not needed. Here is the thousand-dollar question: In the end, what was the purpose of invoking the Emergencies Act this winter?
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- May/2/22 2:27:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, we are relieved because of the good work of the police forces on the ground, including the RCMP, which added resources to assure everyone that public safety would be maintained.
In response to my colleague, we invoked the Emergencies Act at the time because we needed it.
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- May/2/22 2:27:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is the proof that the Emergencies Act was not needed in the first place. There just needed to be some coordination of the work being done by each level of government and the police, the same fine work that put an end to the siege this winter.
That is exactly what this government refused to do during the blockade. Do not forget that the government spent days blaming the City of Ottawa and called the occupiers a bunch of complainers. It took many long weeks before there was any coordination. Much like Pontius Pilate, the government first washed its hands of the situation and then made the whole thing worse. All we needed was for the government to do its job.
Why was the Emergencies Act invoked?
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- May/2/22 2:28:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with all due respect for my colleague, there was a lot of disruption in January and February with people gathering at the borders in British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario and on the Ambassador Bridge. It was a public safety threat.
At the recommendation of police, we invoked the Emergencies Act to protect Canadians, because keeping Canadians safe will always be this government's priority.
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- May/2/22 2:29:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, two important benefits that make it possible for parents to stay home with their young children and for workers to stay home when they are sick expire next Saturday, May 7.
Meanwhile, we are still waiting for employment insurance reform and paid sick leave, which are long overdue. Canada is going through the sixth wave of the pandemic.
Can the Minister of Finance explain why her government is once again leaving workers out in the cold? Will she renew these extremely important matters?
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- May/2/22 2:30:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect and deserve an EI system that is responsive to their needs. EI sickness benefits are an important support for Canadians who need to leave work because of illness or injury.
Workers receiving important treatments, or requiring a longer period to recover from an illness or injury, face a stressful income gap between the time they exhaust their benefits and when they are healthy enough to return to work. That is why we extended EI sickness benefits from 15 to 26 weeks, providing approximately 169,000 Canadians every year with additional time and flexibility to recover and return to work.
There is more to do, to be sure, and we will keep working so that EI is there for Canadians when they need it most.
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- May/2/22 2:30:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is right: Canadians do deserve an employment insurance system that is there for them and that works. In fact, they should have had that in place before the Liberals ended pandemic benefits that allowed them to stay home with their children when they were sick, and that allowed them to stay home from work when they were sick to not put their colleagues in danger.
Instead, what we have is a situation where the government is allowing these benefits to end without having put the 10 paid sick days in place and without having put the employment insurance reforms in place.
Will the government either present these reforms immediately or extend the benefits until it reforms EI and puts the 10 paid sick days in place?
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- May/2/22 2:31:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague knows, we have brought forward legislation that has passed through this place with regard to 10 paid sick days. We have also worked hard to modernize the EI program so that it responds to the needs of all Canadians and is fair and equal. That includes giving parents the choice of taking either 12 or 18 months for parental leave and introducing the new parental sharing benefit so they can share the joy and work of raising their children more equally.
We are following through on our promise to modernize the system with targeted consultations with Canadians. That will bring forward a vision for a new and modern EI system. We know there is more work to do and we are getting to it.
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- May/2/22 2:32:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, throughout my prosecutorial career, I worked on hundreds of cases that took years to complete. Notwithstanding many unknowns, procedural delays and complicated evidence, the truth always prevailed. Criminals must always be punished. Now Canadians demand answers from our Attorney General.
If new evidence comes to light in relation to the member for Papineau's illegal vacation, even after six years, will the minister follow his oath of office and ensure that the member for Papineau will not be let off the hook?
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- May/2/22 2:32:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows from his long experience as a prosecutor, both the police and the prosecution services are independent in our Canadian system.
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- May/2/22 2:33:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as a former Crown prosecutor and somebody who taught at a law school, I note that an investigation can be reopened years after if new evidence surfaces. In the case of a fraud in hundreds of thousands of dollars, this may result in a penitentiary sentence on conviction.
My question for the Attorney General is this. Would he support the reopening of an investigation into a serious criminal fraud if new evidence surfaced six years later?
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- May/2/22 2:33:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, as the Conservatives want to be able to continue to get into personal attacks, we will continue to focus our attention on what is important to Canadians. That is one of the reasons why we have seen the type of response and different types of pandemic support programs, whether it was packages such as the CERB or the wage loss program. There are so many things that as a government we have done in order to support Canadians because we remain focused on them as opposed to what the Conservatives are remaining focused on, which is personal character assassination.
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- May/2/22 2:34:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when asked about his very luxurious and illegal trip, the Prime Minister says that it happened six years ago and that there is no point talking about it anymore. However, any other Canadian would have had to face due process. Apparently the Prime Minister thinks he is above the law.
Is the Minister of Justice okay with this? Does he not think the case should be reopened in light of this new information?
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- May/2/22 2:35:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if you ask the question four times, five times, or whatever number of times, the answer is really not going to change. Not you, Mr. Speaker, but—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- May/2/22 2:35:13 p.m.
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Order, order.
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- May/2/22 2:35:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am trying to give some advice to the Conservative opposition. No matter how many times they might, as the opposition party, want to rephrase a particular question, I understand that their focus is more on character assassination, whether it is of the Prime Minister's or other ministers'. My suggestion is that no matter how persistent they are at that, we will be equally if not more persistent in serving Canadians by developing good legislation and good budgetary measures that are going to help Canadians every day of their lives.
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- May/2/22 2:36:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for three weeks, MPs, staff and members of the public all walked through the protest in downtown Ottawa. Meanwhile, the government is claiming that the national security threat was so serious and so dangerous that it could not be addressed using any other law.
If that is the case, how were we all permitted to walk through that protest every day? Either there was not a real threat and the Liberals were just overcompensating for their incompetent management of the protest, or they were knowingly putting us all in danger.
Which one was it?
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- May/2/22 2:36:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with great respect to my colleague, she knows full well that the Rideau Centre was completely shut down and that small businesses were shut down. She knows full well that Ottawa residents were unable to get to work and unable to drop off their children at day care. If she does not take my word for it, she can listen to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, which said that the Emergencies Act was “critical to assisting law enforcement in addressing the mass national and international organization of the Freedom Convoy 2022.”
We invoked the act because it was necessary, and it worked.
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- May/2/22 2:37:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to adequately justify the use of the Emergencies Act, the government must demonstrate that there is not an already existing law in place that could deal with this so-called emergency. Since the Prime Minister invoked the act on February 14 in response to the Ottawa protesters, I have to assume that there is in fact good evidence that procedure was followed. However, to know for certain, we need access to certain documents that are held by cabinet right now. The Prime Minister is hiding behind secrecy. This is strange for a Prime Minister who has committed to openness and transparency.
Therefore, the question really is this: Why the cover-up?
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