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Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

May/11/22 4:09:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise virtually in this place to present a petition that constituents have pressed upon me, and there are many of them. They call on the government to take seriously the climate emergency that was passed by a motion of this place in June 2019, and that the target to take the climate emergency seriously is 60% below 2005 levels by 2030. The petitioners add that the situation is more urgent by the day. They also call on the government to stop all subsidies for fossil fuels. There is a long list of measures. I will try to summarize them by saying there is a wide range of social justice elements, including a just transition for workers and setting an end date to create certainty for when Canada will cease the production and use of fossil fuels in accordance with scientific advice.

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Mr. Damien Kurek (Battle River—Crowfoot, CPC)

May/11/22 4:10:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as always, it is an honour to stand in this place. Today, I have the honour of presenting a petition signed by 109 Canadians who have expressed great concern with the Liberal government's election platform commitment where it would impose a values test upon charitable organizations within this country. Therefore, the petitioners in this particular petition call for the House of Commons to, one, protect and preserve the application of charitable status rules on a politically and ideologically neutral basis, without discrimination on the basis of political or religious values and without the imposition of another values test; and, two, affirm the right of Canadians to freedom of expression. It is an honour to be able to table this petition in the House today.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

May/11/22 4:11:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition on behalf of people from Courtenay and Cumberland and Royston in my riding. They are calling on the federal government to support and initiate a national matching program for all provincial farmers' market nutrition coupon programs across Canada that would match provinces that are already contributing to their farmers' market nutrition coupon programs, such as British Columbia, and encourage provinces that do not have such a program to implement one by offering matching funding. The petitioners cite that farmers' markets are a key tool for COVID-19 recovery as small business incubators, domestic food system and food security builders, and local economy community builders, and that farmers' market nutrition coupon programs are a key support for new market development and support, for existing markets and provincial associations, and so much more.

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Mr. Han Dong (Don Valley North, Lib.)

May/11/22 4:12:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to present a petition on behalf of 708 residents of Canada to call upon the Minister of Finance to select Won Alexander Cumyow to be featured as the face on the new redesigned $5 bill. In 1861, Won Alexander Cumyow was born: the first Canadian-born person of Chinese descent. We believe that in the face of anti-Asian racism, this initiative would give a better understanding and appreciation of Asian-Canadians' contributions and sacrifices made in Canadian history. I am proud to endorse this petition, and I will sign my name to it.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:13:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling highlights the horrific ongoing situation in Ukraine. The petitioners note recent events, and the fact that the invasion of Ukraine started in 2014, with the invasion and occupation of Crimea and the Donbass, and we have seen the escalation of that violence in recent months. The petitioners have a number of specific asks with respect to the government's response to these events. They include standing with the people of Ukraine in their struggle, calling on the international community to take decisive action against the Putin regime, including through various sanctions, and the removal or marginalization of the Russian regime within international organizations. In particular, the petitioners are also calling for a boycott on Russian oil and gas imports into Canada and Europe, and for us to establish secure energy access for our democratic partners, to increase military equipment, in particular lethal military equipment, to Ukraine, and to increase humanitarian assistance. They are also calling for support to refugees, joining the call by all three opposition parties to have visa-free travel for those fleeing Ukraine.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:13:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have a number of petitions to present to the House today. The first petition is on Bill S-233, which would make it a criminal offence for people to go abroad and receive an organ taken without consent. It would also create a mechanism by which people could be deemed inadmissible to Canada if they are involved in forced organ harvesting and trafficking. Members may be interested to note that this bill will be up for debate on Friday. I commit to stop introducing petitions on it as soon as the House passes it.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:13:25 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-257

Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is on a private member's bill that stands in my name: Bill C-257. The petition speaks to the right of people to be protected from discrimination, yet we see increasing political discrimination, which is the discrimination against people on the basis of their political views. The petitioners note that it is in the best interests of Canadian democracy to protect public debate and the exchange of differing ideas, and that Bill C-257 seeks to do this by adding political belief and activity as prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act. The petitioners are asking the House to support Bill C-257 and defend the right of Canadians to peacefully express their political opinions.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:13:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is one that specifically highlights the importance of Alberta's industrial heartland to Canada's national economy. Alberta's industrial heartland is in my riding: It goes into the riding of the member for Lakeland and those of a number of other members. Canada's industrial heartland is Canada's largest hydrocarbon-processing region and has 40-plus companies, several being world scale, that provide fuel, fertilizer, power, petrochemicals and more to provincial, national and global consumers. Energy-related manufacturing, as seen in the heartland, is a critical part of our national economy. Petitioners want to see the government advance policies that support growth in Alberta's industrial heartland and growth in energy-related manufacturing in general, and to support permanent accelerated capital cost allowance for energy-related manufacturing.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:13:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition I am tabling is on the ongoing detention of Huseyin Celil: a Canadian citizen who has been detained in China for more than a decade and a half and has never met his youngest son, who is now a teenager. His case has moved many Canadians, but the petitioners also note the need for it to get more attention from the government, on par with the attention that has been given to other consular cases of Canadians detained in China. The specific asks of the petitioners are that the government demand that the Chinese government recognize Huseyin Celil's Canadian citizenship and provide him with consular and legal services, in accordance with international law; formally state that his release from Chinese detention, and his return to Canada, is a priority of equal concern to the unjust detention of the two Michaels; appoint a special envoy to work on securing Mr. Celil's case and seek the assistance of the Biden administration and other allies in attaining his release. That was something we saw in the case of the two Michaels, as well, but does not appear to have occurred in the case of Mr. Celil.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:13:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the third petition I am tabling is on an issue that is very important in my riding, which is carbon capture, utilization and storage. It notes the important role of carbon capture and storage. While some politicians in this place think that carbon capture does not work, it is happening right now in my beautiful riding. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to introduce new tax incentives to attract carbon capture and storage investment into Canada.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:13:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition is with respect to the ongoing humanitarian situation and human rights concerns in Ethiopia. The petitioners are concerned about what has happened in the Tigray region, and want to see increased and ongoing engagement by the government with the Government of Ethiopia around humanitarian access and human rights issues. They also want to see the government engage with the governments of both Eritrea and Ethiopia, with respect to that conflict.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:20:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition highlights the issue of energy security and brings together a concern for foreign policy security as well as our energy sector: two significant priorities for my constituents. Petitioners want to see the Government of Canada work to immediately put in place a plan for an east-west corridor to replace foreign oil, so that Canada is the source of oil and energy for eastern Canada and so that we have a greater capacity to export our energy to Europe.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:20:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the next petition that I am tabling highlights concerns about an election platform commitment made by the Liberals to politicize charitable status. The charitable sector is concerned that the government has said explicitly that it wants to bring in a values test associated with charitable status and deny charitable status to pro-life organizations on the basis of their views. We saw something similar to this with the Canada summer jobs values test the Liberals brought in, and people do not want to see this again. Petitioners want to see the government apply charitable status rules on a politically and ideologically neutral basis without discrimination on the basis of political or religious values and without the imposition of the values test, and to affirm the right of Canadians to freedom of expression.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

May/11/22 4:20:32 p.m.
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Re: Bill S-223

Madam Speaker, finally, I want to present another petition on Bill S-223, which is coming up for debate on Friday. It is a bill to make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ taken without consent. I am very hopeful that debate will collapse on this bill on Friday and we will be able to move it forward. People have been working on this bill for 15 years. It is a no-brainer: everyone agrees. Petitioners hope that we will finally get Bill S-223 passed so that Canada can do its part to combat organ harvesting and trafficking.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

May/11/22 4:20:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 431, 433, 436 and 438.

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May/11/22 4:20:52 p.m.
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Question No. 431—

Questioner: Gord Johns

With regard to Canada’s involvement in the development of regulations, standards and guidelines that would enable mining in the international seabed: (a) what actions is the government taking to promote good governance, environmental stewardship and the precautionary approach; (b) why has Canada not provided written comments at six of the last 10 submission opportunities since 2015; and (c) what is the government doing to ensure that Canada is an engaged member of the International Seabed Authority?

Question No. 433—

Questioner: Gord Johns

With regard to the Public Health Agency of Canada’s report “Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD): A framework for action”, broken down by fiscal year since 2014-15: (a) what measures has the government taken to (i) develop national guidelines for screening and diagnosing FASD, (ii) expand scientific and social knowledge relevant to the prevention of FASD, (iii) build the evidence base and establish mechanisms for knowledge exchange across sectors and communities, (iv) increase awareness of FASD among professionals; (b) how much funding has been directed towards achieving these objectives; and (c) what results has the government achieved from the actions taken in (a)?

Question No. 436—

Questioner: Gord Johns

With regard to RCMP actions under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, broken down by province, territory, and year since 2015: (a) excluding offenses related to cannabis, how many arrests were made for (i) possession, (ii) trafficking, (iii) possession for the purpose of trafficking, (iv) smuggling, (v) possession for the purpose of distribution, (vi) production; and (b) how many charges were laid in relation to the arrests mentioned in (a)(i) to (vi)?

Question No. 438—

Questioner: Garnett Genuis

With regard to the reference to a "friendly foreign state" in the Foreign Enlistment Act: (a) how does the government define this term; (b) how is a citizen to know whether or not a particular state is a friendly foreign state; (c) which states are currently considered friendly foreign states; and (d) based on the answer to (c), what is the government’s rationale for determining whether (i) Russia, (ii) Ukraine, (iii) China, (iv) Azerbaijan, (v) Armenia, (vi) Israel, (vii) Saudi Arabia, (viii) Iran, (ix) the United States of America, are considered a friendly foreign state?

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

May/11/22 4:21:06 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, if the government's responses to Questions Nos. 426 to 430, 432, 434, 435 and 437 could be made orders for return, these returns would be tabled immediately.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

May/11/22 4:21:25 p.m.
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Is that agreed? Some hon. members: Agreed.

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May/11/22 4:21:25 p.m.
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Question No. 426—

Questioner: Arnold Viersen

With regard to the Departmental Plan and Departmental Results Report from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and the indicator listed in the reports tracking the "Number of influencers reached through Canadian-hosted events": (a) how many events have taken place where influencers have been reached since January 1, 2020; (b) what are the details of the events in (a), including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) location, (iii) total expenditures, (iv) itemized breakdown of the expenditures, (v) number of influencers reached, (vi) names of the influencers reached; and (c) what criteria does GAC use to determine if an individual is considered an influencer?

Question No. 427—

Questioner: Arnold Viersen

With regard to research projects located outside of Canada that received government funding since January 1, 2020: (a) what are the details of all such projects, including, for each, the (i) recipient, (ii) date the funding was provided, (iii) amount of funding, (iv) country the research is taking place in, (v) project description, including the topics and the type of research, (vi) start and end dates of the research, (vii) country, (viii) municipality, (ix) program under which the funding was provided; and (b) for all the projects in (a) which are completed, what are the findings or the website location where the findings can be viewed?

Question No. 428—

Questioner: Gary Vidal

With regard to the government’s Wellness Together Canada portal and the related PocketWell application: (a) how many unique accounts have been created, broken down by (i) province or territory, (ii) gender; (b) how many unique visits have been made to the site since the portal was launched, broken down by month; (c) how many Canadians have fully completed the course of treatment; (d) what has been the total cost of each of the programs or services identified through the portal and the application; (e) what is the total operating cost for the portal and the application; (f) what provisions are in place to provide identity theft protection to those impacted by data leaks related to the portal or the application; and (g) what is the budget for the identity theft protection provisions in (f)?

Question No. 429—

Questioner: Don Davies

With regard to the Safe Return to Class Fund, since its inception, broken down by province and territory: (a) what is the total amount allocated through this fund; (b) what is the total amount received by each province and territory every month; and (c) what accountability measures exist to ensure that students, educators, and other school staff benefit from this fund?

Question No. 430—

Questioner: Don Davies

With regard to provincial and territorial requests for assistance in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020, broken down by province and territory: (a) what was the nature of each request received by the government; (b) of the requests in (a), was the government able to meet the request in full; and (c) of the requests in (b) that were not fully met, what was the reason the government could not fulfill the request?

Question No. 432—

Questioner: Gord Johns

With regard to the development of a national suicide prevention action plan since May 8, 2019: (a) what resources have been provided to establish culturally appropriate community-based suicide prevention; (b) what guidelines have been established since 2019 for best practices in suicide prevention; (c) what resources have been provided toward the creation of a national public health monitoring program for the prevention of suicide and identification of groups at elevated risk; (d) what progress has been made to identify and fill gaps in knowledge relating to suicide and its prevention; (e) what progress has been made in creating national standards for training persons engaged in suicide prevention; (f) what progress has been made in creating a national online hub to provide essential information and guides related to suicide prevention; (g) what analysis has been done of high-risk groups of people and the risk factors specific to these groups; and (h) when will preparations for the implementation of the national action plan, including a statistical overview of suicide in Canada, be tabled in Parliament?

Question No. 434—

Questioner: Adam Chambers

With regard to transcriptions or transcripts procured by the government since January 1, 2016, and broken down by department or agency: (a) what is the (i) date of the proceeding or event, (ii) location of the proceeding or event, (iii) description or summary of the proceeding or event, (iv) main participants speaking at the proceeding or event, (v) subject matter of the proceeding or event, for each transcription prepared in this period; (b) what was the cost of each transcription in (a); (c) who requested each transcription in (a) be prepared; and (d) what was the total amount spent on transcriptions or transcripts, broken down by year?

Question No. 435—

Questioner: Adam Chambers

With regard to the Canada training credit (CTC): (a) how much has the CTC cost the government, or is currently forecasted to cost, for (i) 2019–20, (ii) 2020–21, (iii) 2021–22, (iv) 2022–23, (v) 2023–24; (b) how do the actual costs, or currently forecasted costs, in (a) compare to the projections in budget 2019; (c) for any costs in (b) that are lower than the projections in budget 2019, why have the projections been revised for lower cost and lower uptake; (d) what is the breakdown by (i) age, (ii) federal income tax bracket, (iii) province, (iv) type of the two eligible educational institutions that tuition or other fees were paid to, (v) average refund received, (vi) median refund received, of the 400,000 individuals who claimed this credit in 2020 as referenced in part 4 of the Department of Finance’s “Report on Federal Tax Expenditures - Concepts, Estimates and Evaluations 2022”; (e) how much has been spent by government departments or agencies to administer the CTC since 2019; (f) what is the number of employees directly or indirectly involved in the administration of the CTC; (g) how much has been spent by government departments or agencies to advertise or otherwise promote the CTC since 2019; and (h) what is the breakdown of (g) by type of advertising or promotion?

Question No. 437—

Questioner: John Nater

With regard to the government's response to question Q-306 and its reference to the 40 individuals, associations and organizations who were sent the email to promote the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS): (a) what are the names of these 40 individuals, associations and organizations; (b) how were they chosen; and (c) which ones responded to the email indicating an interest in sharing information about the NSS?

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen

May/11/22 4:21:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I ask that all remaining questions be allowed to stand.

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