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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 89

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 15, 2022 02:00PM
  • Jun/15/22 2:33:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that would not happen until next year, and people need help today. People need help right now to pay the bills, to make ends meet, to put food on the table. Will the Prime Minister support our proposal to increase the GST rebate and the Canada child benefit so we can get help now to the families who need it?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:34:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Canada child benefit will be increasing in the coming weeks because we indexed it to the cost of living, and this increase will provide direct, immediate assistance to families. Families across the country are benefiting from reduced fees for early childhood centres and day cares because we have invested money with the provinces in recent months to lower these costs. People in Ontario and in other provinces will see these changes in the weeks and months to come. We are here to support families, and we will continue to be there for them with immediate help.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:35:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, now the truth is starting to come out. Today, the Prime Minister said that “police do not grant themselves new powers”. He was admitting that the police did not ask for the Emergencies Act. That is the exact opposite of what the Minister of Public Safety has repeatedly said. Ministerial responsibility means nothing to this Liberal government anymore. Is the Prime Minister also going to mislead the House and repeat what the Minister of Public Safety said, or will he ask him to resign?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:35:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, during this crisis, law enforcement and provincial and municipal authorities continually asked us for more tools to deal with these illegal blockades and demonstrations, and that is exactly what we delivered. That includes invoking the Emergencies Act in a responsible and limited way to deal with these blockades. That is exactly what happened, while Conservative politicians stood with the protesters and blockaders.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:36:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, who asked, when did they ask and what exactly did they ask for? The Prime Minister just said that police officers asked the government to implement extraordinary measures by invoking the Emergencies Act. The Prime Minister is repeating what the Minister of Public Safety said. This is scandalous. The Prime Minister is misleading the House too. He has a choice today. He can do the honourable thing: apologize and ask his minister to resign. Will he do so, yes or no?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:37:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are clearly willing to do anything to make people forget about how they sided with the blockaders. What I said was that, yes, police forces asked for more tools, and we gave them those tools. We sent in members of the RCMP and additional resources. When they needed even more resources and tools, we ended up invoking the Emergencies Act. It is not up to the police to invoke that kind of act. It is up to the government, and that is exactly what we did.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:37:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in April, the Minister for Public Safety said that at the recommendation of police, we invoked the Emergencies Act, but his colleagues are saying that there was never a recommendation from law enforcement. When he was appointed as the Minister, he swore an oath to be true and faithful, but we know he has not lived up to that pledge. Will the Prime Minister hold the minister accountable and fire him for misleading Canadians?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:38:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I can understand if perhaps Conservative politicians' recollections of what happened in April are a little bit fuzzy. They were out celebrating and supporting the people barricading our streets here in Ottawa and preventing goods from flowing across the border. What we were doing was talking to police who continually were asking for more support and more tools, whether it was more resources, more money or more RCMP officers. We were there to respond to their need for more tools and we finally did that with the invocation of the Emergencies Act, which was the government's decision and not police officers' decision.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:38:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Public Safety told Canadians over and over again that the authorities were the ones who had asked for the Emergencies Act, yet the Minister of Emergency Preparedness testified, “I'm not aware of any recommendation of law enforcement. Quite frankly, this is a decision of government.” The Minister of Public Safety has not lived up to his oath of office, so when will the Prime Minister take immediate action and fire the Minister of Public Safety?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:39:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while Conservative politicians were busy supporting and celebrating with barricaders along Wellington Street and across the country, we were working with police who continually asked for more help and more support to be able to deal with this public order emergency. That is exactly what we continued to do throughout the three weeks, until and up to the moment in which we chose to bring in the Emergencies Act to restore order to this country and to the situation. We did it in a proportional and reasonable way, and it brought an end to these illegal actions.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:40:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Public Safety's own department confirmed that the police did not ask for the Emergencies Act to be invoked, and now the Minister of Emergency Preparedness has also publicly agreed. In the Prime Minister's 2015 “Open and Accountable Government” document, he wrote: For Canadians to trust our government we must trust Canadians, and we will only be successful in implementing our agenda to the extent that we earn and keep this trust. The Minister of Public Safety has shattered that trust. When will the Prime Minister fire him?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:40:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while Conservative politicians were out there supporting barricaders and while they continued to support those illegal actions, we were working with law enforcement and municipal and provincial authorities across this country who were telling us they needed more tools. We delivered more tools, whether it was more police officers or more resources, until we realized we needed to take a further step. We chose to invoke the Emergencies Act to give them even further tools. We did it in a responsible and proportional way, and it worked.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:41:27 p.m.
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Before I go to the questions, I want to remind hon. members that if they want to talk to each other they can cross over and talk very lowly. Shouting across or talking very loudly across just interrupts everyone else. I want to remind them of that. The hon. member for Red Deer—Lacombe.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:41:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Emergency Preparedness made it clear last night at committee that the Minister of Public Safety has misled Canadians. The Prime Minister's “Open and Accountable Government” document also reads: Ministers cannot dissociate themselves from or repudiate the decisions of Cabinet or their Ministry colleagues unless they resign from the Ministry. Only one of these two ministers can be right. The Prime Minister cannot agree with both of them, so which one does he agree with, and when will the Prime Minister fire the Minister of Public Safety?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:42:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, every step of the way we worked with local police services and with responsible authorities to ensure that they got the resources and the tools they needed to get the situation back under control. They continually asked for more tools, and we continued to step up with extra officers, extra resources, extra finances and ultimately the Emergencies Act. Absolutely, it is only a government that can choose to invoke that, and to do so in a limited and restrained way is exactly what we did.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:43:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the federal border fiasco is breaking records. Going abroad has become a real endurance test. First, travellers have to wait in line for 24 hours to get a passport, thanks to the Minister of Families' lack of vision. Then, travellers have to wait for hours at the airport, mainly because border services are short 3,000 officers thanks to the Minister of Transport. It is a perfect storm for travellers. When several ministers fail at the same time like that, it is because the problem comes from above. When will the Prime Minister sort out his fiasco at the border?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:43:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we absolutely understand that people are facing challenges because of the global pandemic. That is why it is not just in Canada that there are challenges at airports and border crossings. We are seeing this all over the world. That is why we have hired about 600 new employees at passport offices, and that is why we are making investments to help the airports, because we know that the airports and airlines are facing labour shortages. We are there to support them. I know these are difficult times for Canadians, but we are working hard to fix everything.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:44:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it does not end there. The Minister of Foreign Affairs is also in trouble because her staff attended a party at the Russian embassy. What a great idea that was. The Minister of Public Safety is in trouble too because of his “alternative facts” on the Emergencies Act. What about the Minister of Immigration, who runs a department where permanent residence applications seemingly go to die, or the Minister of Environment, who has become an oil and gas developer? Ultimately, when all the musicians are playing out of tune, the conductor is always to blame. In this case, the conductor is the Prime Minister. When will he start looking after his own affairs instead of always meddling in Quebec's jurisdictions?
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  • Jun/15/22 2:45:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am here to serve all Canadians, including Quebeckers. That is why we will continue to make investments to help Quebec families and address challenges, whether at our borders or in our health care systems. We will always work in partnership with provincial governments, municipalities, small businesses and Canadians who need help. We know this pandemic has been difficult, but we have been there for Canadians and we will continue to be there.
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  • Jun/15/22 2:45:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the emergency preparedness minister said the police did not recommend enacting the Emergencies Act, and nor would it have been appropriate. The public safety minister has said for months that the police requested the act. The Deputy Prime Minister, in committee, is now amazingly vague on her recollections on this controversial issue. The RCMP and Ottawa Police said they did not request that the act be used, period. When will the Prime Minister uphold accountability, transparency and ethics and ask for the public safety minister's resignation?
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