44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 13, 2022 11:00AM
- Jun/13/22 2:58:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government's priority has been and will always be the safety and protection of Canadians' health.
Our government announced that mandatory randomized testing will be temporarily suspended at all airports from June 11 to June 30. Unvaccinated travellers will still be tested on site. Starting July 1, all testing, including unvaccinated travellers, will be performed off-site. We will continue to stand up for our constituents and their health and safety.
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- Jun/13/22 2:58:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are in fine form. They made a big announcement on Friday. Did they end mandates allowing people to return to work? No. Did they end mandates allowing all Canadians to travel by rail and air? No. Their solution was to pause random COVID testing for a couple of weeks. It was a joke.
Will the parliamentary secretary to the minister of health give us a date on when he will end the mandates, or will he tell me to eff off, like he did to one of his constituents?
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- Jun/13/22 2:59:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last week I responded in an unacceptable way to a message on social media, and I deeply regret it. I want to apologize to the person I offended and anybody else I let down. I realize that the past two years have been really difficult for a lot of people, but my conduct was unacceptable. We have an obligation to disagree without being disagreeable, and in that regard I failed.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Jun/13/22 2:59:56 p.m.
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Order. Before going on to the next question, I am not going to ask the hon. member to withdraw it, but I want to remind all members that they cannot do indirectly what they cannot do directly, and referring to something like what was said is not acceptable.
The hon. member for Etobicoke Centre.
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Mr. Speaker, this government made the modernization of the Official Languages Act one of its top priorities.
We need to protect and promote French all across the country, yet the opposition parties are preventing our bill to modernize the act from going forward.
Could the Minister of Official Languages explain to Canadians what Bill C‑13 means for official language minority communities across Canada?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague from Etobicoke Centre for his important question and for all of the work he does on official languages.
I was in Toronto last week for consultations on the action plan for official languages. Members of official language minority communities told us that reforms are urgently needed and spoke about how Bill C‑13 is the cornerstone of an action plan that strengthens the institutions that these communities rely on.
Our government is committed to protecting and promoting French across the country. I hope that the opposition will stop obstructing and will work with us to get the bill passed as soon as possible.
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- Jun/13/22 3:01:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, normally the Department of Foreign Affairs has a list of countries whose national days Canadian officials are not to attend. The list is compiled by departmental officials, but the final decision rests with the minister.
Last week, Friday, a Canadian official attended the Russian embassy's celebration. On Friday night, the minister's office concurred with the department, but yesterday the minister reversed course and blamed officials.
Instead of blaming officials, will the minister accept that the list is her responsibility and will the minister accept ministerial accountability?
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- Jun/13/22 3:02:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as mentioned earlier today, I am as angry and frustrated as Canadians and members of this House regarding the fact that a Canadian official was at the Russian embassy. This should not have happened, and of course it will not happen again.
That being said, I am the minister, so the buck stops here.
I must say we can collectively be proud of what we have done in supporting Ukraine since the invasion. Just last week, we announced 28 new sanctions, and more will come.
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- Jun/13/22 3:03:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last week the minister announced yet another delay in the government's Indo-Pacific strategy, announcing the committee to craft this strategy and bypassing the department. Clearly, the government does not think officials are capable of doing this work.
Since the department has been cut out of crafting this strategy, which is now in the hands of the government's hand-picked committee, will the minister at the very least tell us when this strategy will be complete and made public?
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- Jun/13/22 3:03:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I value my colleague's input regarding the Indo-Pacific strategy. As a country, we obviously need to assert ourselves much more as a Pacific nation and we need to make sure we react to a more assertive China. Based on that, we will draw on the expertise of many people from all walks of life and different parts of the country, including people with different political backgrounds, to make sure we have a strong strategy coming ahead.
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- Jun/13/22 3:04:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government claims to care about refugees, but again it is just lip service. Comlux Aviation has offered a commercial airline to provide humanitarian flights to Ukraine for free. There is just one problem: It keeps running into red tape from the Liberal government. Ukrainians are desperate both for aid and for safe haven here in Canada.
Will the minister commit right now to provide intervention to allow this airline to provide aid for Ukrainians in their hour of need?
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- Jun/13/22 3:04:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me remind this House that since January Canada has welcomed over 43,500 Ukrainians. We have launched the Ukrainian authorization for emergency travel, which made it easier, faster and safer for Ukrainians to come. We secured three targeted flights to get Ukrainians to safety and we are also providing a one-time direct payment of $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per child to them.
We stand with Ukraine and we are going to continue to help our Ukrainian community.
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- Jun/13/22 3:05:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the pandemic has demonstrated the importance of standing up for workers, and especially gig and online workers. As emerging forms of labour and new industries grow in the economy of tomorrow, it is important that our government be there for all Canadian workers.
I have heard from my constituents that employees who work as truck drivers are being misclassified as independent contractors even though they do not own their own trucks because of Driver Inc. schemes.
Can the minister tell the House and Canadians what he and the government are doing to address this issue?
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- Jun/13/22 3:06:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Driver Inc. model deprives workers of their basic rights. We amended the code by prohibiting the misclassification of workers and we have been inspecting work sites since then. Where we find people guilty of non-compliance, we will take action through orders, fines and prosecutions. We expect all employers to treat their employees fairly, and those who fail to do so will face the consequences. We committed to protecting workers. We will continue to work with the sector to crack down on Driver Inc.
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- Jun/13/22 3:06:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last year saw the lowest return of Skeena River steelhead on record. The vibrant steelhead industry supports dozens of family-owned tourism businesses, which were hard hit by the pandemic.
Livelihoods are on the line, but I am not sure that the government cares, and the shared jurisdiction with the province means that too often the Liberals think they are off the hook. We need urgent action, but instead the minister seems content with business as usual.
Can she share with the House how her approach to Skeena River steelhead this year is going to be different from the failed approach of previous seasons?
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- Jun/13/22 3:07:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the conservation of our fish stocks is in everyone's interest and is a high priority for me, and so is the ability of recreational and commercial fishers to fish. That is why we make our decisions based on science. Virtually every year, we go back out and test and find what the abundance of the fisheries is. We make our decisions based on that.
I will just assure the member that the interests of the harvesters are ones I hold at heart, as well as the need to conserve and rebuild the abundance of diverse fish stocks.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians with disabilities continue to disproportionately live in poverty across the country. Earlier this month, the government finally reintroduced the Canada disability benefit, but it has not allocated any time to debate it, nor has it introduced any emergency supports.
We have been here before. The same bill was introduced last June and died when the election was called within months. We now have eight sitting days left before we rise for the summer, while those living in legislative poverty will not get any break.
Will the governing party demonstrate that it is not playing games with the disability community and prioritize Bill C-22?
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Mr. Speaker, I can assure everyone in the House that nobody is playing games, and the unacceptable levels of poverty among our citizens with disabilities are shameful. We are taking action. Starting with the Accessible Canada Act and most recently by introducing the Canada disability legislation, we are improving the lives of persons with disabilities.
Yes, there is more to do, and I encourage all of us to work together in the House to pass that legislation so that we can lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty.
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- Jun/13/22 3:09:12 p.m.
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I am afraid that is all the time we have today, but I wish to draw the attention of hon. members to the presence in the gallery of His Excellency Augusto Santos Silva, the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal.
Some hon. members: Hear, hear!
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- Jun/13/22 3:09:45 p.m.
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It being 3:10 p.m., pursuant to order made on Thursday, November 25, 2021, the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded divisions on the motions at the report stage of Bill C-5.
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