44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 15, 2022 10:00AM
- Nov/15/22 7:44:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise in the House to speak to yet another attempt by the Liberal government to curtail the rights of Parliament.
Government Business No. 22 includes a proposal to give the Liberals new powers to extend sitting hours in the House through to June 2023, to temporarily remove certain procedural tools from the opposition and for the Prime Minister to adjourn the House early at Christmas and in June without notice or all-party agreement, among other changes.
A few years ago, I stood in this chamber and spoke to the government’s attempt, then through Government Business No. 18, to reduce the opportunity for members to hold the government to account by eliminating Friday sittings and automatically time-allocating bills, and to eliminate the effectiveness of committees by preventing opposition parties from triggering debates on reports and implementing closure changes to committees. That was back in the spring of 2017 when the Liberals were awarded a majority Parliament on the promise of sunnier ways. After five years of failed Liberal leadership, they are back at it, this time under a minority government and with the help of their NDP partner.
Make no mistake: Even after Canadians punished the Liberals with a minority mandate, they still want to rule like they have a majority, completely disregarding the role of the opposition and punishing this side of the House when we dare question their record. Committees play an important role in our democracy. They invest parliamentarians with the responsibility to examine legislation, to undertake studies on departmental spending and to hold the government to account for its actions.
This is really where the real problem lies. Whether it is SNC-Lavalin, the WE scandal, trips to the Aga Khan’s villa in the tropics, the $54-million ArriveCAN scandal or the use of the Emergencies Act, the Liberals just do not want Canadians digging into their business.
Canadians might be wondering what my words here have to do with Government Business No. 22. It is simple. Every time the House sits longer, which the Liberals have the power to do unobstructed by parliamentary tradition and rules, committees get cancelled. Just this morning, the Auditor General released a damning report outlining the complete failure at Indigenous Services Canada to “provide the support First Nations communities needed to manage emergencies such as floods and wildfires, which are happening more often and with greater intensity.”
The Auditor General found, “the department’s actions were more reactive than preventative, despite First Nations communities identifying many infrastructure projects to mitigate the impact of emergencies. The department had a backlog of 112 of these infrastructure projects that it had determined were eligible but that it had not funded.” The Auditor General also found the department is spending 3.5 times more money on responding to and recovering from emergencies, such as floods, than it would if it actually funded those communities to prepare and mitigate those effects. It is spending three and a half times more. It is unbelievable.
The revelations of the Auditor General uncovered exactly the kinds of things committees need to dig into, and it is exactly those kinds of things that the government is trying to avoid answering questions on. They are questions like why it provided funding for approximately 190 full-time or part-time emergency management coordinators without any clue whether that was enough capacity to manage those emergencies; why high-risk first nations communities were ignored and not prioritized for resources; or why Indigenous Services Canada failed to address issues identified after evacuations like “improving access to essential services like mental health supports and health care. The department also did not integrate the impact on marginalized groups, including Indigenous elders, women, and youth, into how emergency services were planned and delivered in First Nations communities.” It is bad enough, but perhaps most damning is how Indigenous Services Canada officials simply passed the buck and blamed first nations for their problems in the name of self-governance.
The Auditor General found that Indigenous Services Canada did not use information about the risks faced by first nations and the capacity of first nations to respond to emergencies, reporting:
The department provides funding for First Nations communities to develop community vulnerability assessments and emergency management plans. These assessments and plans are important because they help First Nations prepare for and mitigate emergencies by identifying risks and outlining how they will be managed. Department officials told [the Auditor General] that, in the spirit of supporting First Nations self-governance, they did not require First Nations to provide this information to the department.
How the heck can the minister find that acceptable? According to the government’s own 2019 emergency management strategy for Canada, for every $1 invested in preparedness and mitigation, $6 can be saved in emergency response and recovery costs, yet Indigenous Services Canada’s total spending on response and recovery activities, at $646 million, was 3.5 times more than its spending on preparedness and mitigation activities, which was $182 million. This is yet another example of the Liberal government’s complete disregard for indigenous people and its complete disregard for managing taxpayers' money.
In budget 2019, Indigenous Services Canada was allocated approximately $1.4 million over three years to support first nations–led management and engagement on multilateral emergency management service agreements between Indigenous Services Canada, first nations communities and provinces or other service providers. Unsurprisingly, the Auditor General found that, as of April 2022, although the department had spent almost $790,000, no multilateral agreements were established. Half the money is gone, and there is nothing to show for it. It really is unbelievable.
It was exactly six months ago when another parliamentary officer released a report on the mismanagement at Indigenous Services Canada. This time, it was the Parliamentary Budget Officer. That was in May. The Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report detailed the Liberals’ continued approach of pumping more money into a broken Ottawa-knows-best system that failed indigenous peoples. Rather than working with indigenous leaders to eliminate the inequalities inherent in the bureaucracy, barriers that are holding indigenous people back from achieving prosperity, the government just keeps on pushing its failed policies over and over again. The Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report found that, instead of fixing the problem, the Liberals blew through their budget by $863 million, a 48% increase, which only resulted in a significant decline in Indigenous Services Canada’s ability to actually get the job done. They spend more and achieve less.
That is yet another example of a report that may never see the inside of a committee room if Motion No. 22 passes. The Liberals will promise the world. Then they will completely fail to deliver. Again, it is unbelievable.
Even more unbelievable is that Motion No. 22 will pass with the support, probably, of their NDP buddies. The New Democrats have said many times that they are committed to undertaking the work of reconciliation in good faith and in true and equal partnership with indigenous communities across the country. They say they are ready to make investments in indigenous communities to support infrastructure that improves basic emergency services and are against the broken promises and inaction of the Liberal government on those issues. If that sounds familiar to some of my colleagues, it should. It is on the front page of their website, yet they stand prepared to support this government to eliminate the right of parliamentarians to question and hold the government to account on life-threatening issues, such as the ones identified today by the Auditor General.
By supporting the Liberals, the NDP will be condoning their continued “spend more, achieve less” results for Canadian taxpayers and indigenous peoples. In an interview during the last election, when asked if he would support the Liberals in Parliament, the leader of the NDP said, “I think it’s clear with the evidence, another four years of [this Prime Minister] will make things worse. He has made things bad, and it is going to get worse. So people can’t afford another four years of [this Prime Minister].” During that same election campaign, the NDP put out an ad that claimed that the Prime Minister talks and the leader of the NDP delivers. That said, I would like to know exactly exactly what my NDP colleagues are delivering on by supporting Motion No. 22.
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- Nov/15/22 7:56:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, obviously, we want committees to work in the full capacity they have. They need to sit, and they need to start asking questions and get answers from the government.
As I pointed out, I did not write that speech last night. Believe it or not, I wrote it this morning, The Auditor General's report referred to a whole slew of failures in Indigenous Services, and I will mention three. Number one is that Indigenous Services Canada did not provide the support first nations communities needed to manage emergencies, such as floods and wildfires. Number two is that the department did not identify the first nations communities at the highest risk. Number three is that the department spent 3.5 times higher on responding and recovering than on mitigation and prevention.
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- Nov/15/22 7:57:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do not know what that actually looks like or sounds like. I have been here for seven years, and the Liberals have not answered a question yet, so that would be absolutely new to me. We have tons of questions on this side of the House.
We know where the government is failing. The Auditor General came out today with a slew of failures that need to be addressed. We need to be asking questions. We need engagement by the government and to actually get answers to the questions we ask.
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- Nov/15/22 7:58:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, yes, these are very challenging times. I think members on all sides of this House are getting emails and telephone calls from Canadians who are struggling with a multitude of crises right now. This is why we need to be debating in the House. This is why we want more time to debate issues. Even with a simple bill that is proposed, there is always room for change and there is always room for improvement. We need to be able to get our discussion flowing here. This is the place to do it. This is the people's House where we are able to let ideas go back and forth and hopefully, at the end of the day, produce better pieces of legislation.
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