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Mr. Francis Drouin (Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:14:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Ontario-Quebec francophonie trade awards ceremony took place on November 15 in Trois‑Rivières. The event was organized by the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, the Fédération des gens d'affaires francophones de l'Ontario and the governments of Quebec and Ontario. I would like to congratulate Ferme avicole Laviolette on winning this year's award. Ferme avicole Laviolette has been producing eggs in the St. Isidore, Ontario, area since 1977. It has grown from 6,200 to 45,000 laying hens and employs 13 people. Its eggs can be found in grocery stores and restaurants throughout eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. This is a successful interprovincial business model that can serve French-speaking customers. Congratulations to Marcel Laviolette, the Laviolette family and their employees for all their hard work. We are lucky to have them in our community.

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Mr. Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach, NDP)

Dec/1/22 2:15:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in the last three years, over 453 people have died on the streets of Edmonton because they did not have shelter. Just last month, three more people died in encampments, and hundreds more are facing another brutal Alberta winter in tents. Some of them will not survive. Community organizations in my district of Edmonton Griesbach do heroic life-saving work, but they have had to shoulder this burden alone. Conservative and Liberal consecutive governments have refused to step up and fight the corporate greed that is the cause of the housing crisis. Decades of cuts and neglect have left Canada with one of the lowest shares of public housing in the G7. The state of our public housing is horrific. Many sites I toured this summer had black mould and even had no running water. It is time for the government to get serious about tackling the housing crisis. The New Democrats will never stop fighting until no one has to spend another Alberta winter in a tent. People should not have to die like this today.

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Mr. Yves Perron (Berthier—Maskinongé, BQ)

Dec/1/22 2:16:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, I am pleased to mark the 350th anniversary of the municipality of Berthierville. In 1672, Intendant Talon gave the seigneury to Sieur Randin, who sold it the following year to Sieur Alexandre Berthier, for whom it is now named. Its coat of arms is rich in symbolism. The dragon is the emblem of the town of Bergerac where Sieur de Berthier was born, the flame symbolizes the Eddy Match Company, a large match factory from 1919 to 1957, and the silver horn represents the Melchers distillery, one of the main industries from 1898 to 1985. After giving us Guy Rocher, Gilles Villeneuve and Joannie Rochette, who knows what Berthier has in store for us in the future. I would like to thank the Corporation du patrimoine de Berthier and the volunteers who are organizing the festivities. I invite all Berthelais to celebrate our community together. Happy anniversary.

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Mrs. Stephanie Kusie (Calgary Midnapore, CPC)

Dec/1/22 2:17:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, everything in our country seems to be broken since the Liberal government took office in 2015. The government's reckless spending has led to a 40-year-high inflation rate, 6.9% just this month, and Canadian families simply cannot absorb those rising costs. Instead, 1.5 million Canadians a month are having to use a food bank and one in five Canadians are skipping meals; nine in 10 Canadians are now tightening household budgets; and the average credit card balance held by Canadians was at a record high of $2,121 by the end of September. The RBC estimates that households will soon have to allocate 15% of their income to debt servicing alone. The government needs to take this inflation crisis seriously. It needs to cap government spending and inflationary deficits, and bring inflation down now.

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Ms. Jenna Sudds (Kanata—Carleton, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:19:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this morning, the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth launched Canada's first youth-focused gender-based violence awareness campaign, “It's Not Just”. “It's Not Just” is a call for each of us to speak up when we see gender-based violence in any form. Gender-based violence is more than just physical and sexual violence. Emotional, financial and cyber violence can be just as harmful, with lasting psychological impacts. It can happen to anyone of any age or gender identity. It is not just locker room talk. It is not just how someone is. We want Canadians and Canadian youth to know that gender-based violence is not just.

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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Dec/1/22 2:20:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with violent crime up 32%, we would think that the government would invest in border security, in the police, or that it would make other investments to protect Canadians, but no, instead it wants to ban hunting rifles. An academic expert said yesterday that the ban will cost another billion dollars, money that could have been spent protecting our borders and stopping street gangs. Why not use the money to protect the public instead of targeting hunters?

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Hon. Marco Mendicino (Minister of Public Safety, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:20:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure my colleague and the entire House that Bill C‑21 does not target hunters or gun owners. Bill C‑21 targets assault-style weapons like the ones that were used in Nova Scotia, Quebec City and Ontario. They caused a lot of deaths. That is exactly why we need to work together to protect all Canadians with policies that make sense.

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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Dec/1/22 2:21:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, based on the list that the minister has provided in his very legislation, it is not assault rifles. It is hunting rifles. Let me list off some of the rifles: the Montefeltro Super 90 Turkey, the Mossberg 715T Tactical 22 Duck Commander, the Benelli Super Black Eagle Ducks Unlimited. These are firearms specifically designed to hunt small fowl and to go after vermin and other farm pests. Why is the government not targeting real crime rather than targeting farmers and hunters?

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Hon. Marco Mendicino (Minister of Public Safety, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:22:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I assure my colleague that we are going to work with the members of the Standing Committee on Public Safety with regard to this amendment, but, more important, our goal here is to target those assault-style rifles, those AR-15 style guns, which have been used in far too many casualties in Portapique, in Quebec and in Ontario, where most recently we saw two frontline police officers gunned down. I do not know how anyone can look the families of the victims in the eye and say that we cannot do everything that is necessary to take these guns off our streets. These AR-15's have no place on our streets.

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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Dec/1/22 2:22:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, he is doing nothing to take dangerous guns off the street. In fact, 82% of guns used in crime in Toronto, according to the city's police, come smuggled across the border. He has done nothing about that, but he wants to spend another billion dollars going after rifles and shotguns that are specifically designed and used by hundreds of thousands of law-abiding and licensed Canadians for hunting. These are law-abiding people who have been vetted by the RCMP. Why does he keep targeting the lawful people rather than keeping the illegal guns out?

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Hon. Marco Mendicino (Minister of Public Safety, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:23:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague from the Conservative Party can continue to spread disinformation, but I will tell members very clearly that on this side of the House we are targeting those AR-15 style guns that have been used in mass casualties. This is part of a broader plan, a plan that will actually eradicate gun violence. He talks about supporting CBSA. This government put $138 million into the CBSA to stop illegal smuggling. What did the Conservatives do? They voted against that. That is wrong. They should support frontline law enforcement so we can stop illegal smuggling of guns at our borders.

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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Dec/1/22 2:24:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, National Bank came out with staggering housing statistics today. It now takes 67% of the average monthly income to pay bills on the average home. In fact, the average mortgage payment for a new home in Toronto is now $7,000, and that is if one can afford the home, because it takes now 27 years for the average person to save up for the down payment on that home. How is it possible that the average Canadian cannot afford the average home here in the nation with the second biggest supply of land anywhere on earth?

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Hon. Ahmed Hussen (Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:24:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know that one of the main challenges facing the housing market is enough housing supply. We have the fastest growing population in the G7 but very little supply. That is why we introduced the housing accelerator fund, to work directly with municipalities to increase and double the new construction of housing in the country. We are also introducing a new, innovative rent-to-own program and putting together a first-time homebuyer tax-free savings account of $40,000, as well as doubling the first-time homebuyers' tax credit. Those are real actions that those members voted against.

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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Dec/1/22 2:25:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the only thing they doubled is the cost of housing. House prices have doubled since this Prime Minister came to power. Inflationary spending with printed money inflated the price of houses. Now, rising tax rates are making mortgage payments more expensive too. The vast majority of Canadians cannot even dream of owning a home these days. When will the government change its inflationary policies and encourage municipalities to allow large-scale housing construction so Canadians can have a home to live in?

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Hon. Ahmed Hussen (Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:26:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the biggest gatekeeper against municipalities building more housing supply is the leader of the official opposition because he voted against the housing accelerator fund, a fund designed precisely to invest in more housing supply. When we were talking about the first-time homebuyers' $40,000 tax-free savings account, the leader of the official opposition directed his team to vote against it. These are real efforts at making sure more and more Canadians can access the dream of home ownership, but the fact of the matter is that, while the Conservatives talk about gatekeepers, they are the biggest gatekeepers. They are not serious about this issue. They do not have a plan. It has been 300 days since he became leader—

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The Speaker

Dec/1/22 2:26:46 p.m.
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The hon. member for Beloeil—Chambly.

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Mr. Yves-François Blanchet (Beloeil—Chambly, BQ)

Dec/1/22 2:26:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government seemingly does not realize that it has put Canada in a very precarious situation by provoking the Chinese government. China is more powerful economically, demographically and geopolitically speaking, yet Canada, instead of aligning itself with the United States, even if it means hiding behind it, is showing just how weak it is. Worse, it is showing how vulnerable it is. China is getting the impression that it can do whatever it wants in Canada. By not revealing which ridings allegedly received illegal funding and by not clearing the air about the $70,000 in his own riding, the Prime Minister is making us vulnerable. Which ridings were targeted?

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Hon. Marco Mendicino (Minister of Public Safety, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:27:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government takes all allegations of threats of foreign interference very seriously. That is why we established two panels to review all allegations. The panels confirmed the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 elections. We will continue to provide all the tools that the national security community needs to protect our democratic institutions.

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Mr. Yves-François Blanchet (Beloeil—Chambly, BQ)

Dec/1/22 2:28:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that may be why the Prime Minister put on a show in front of the Chinese president. It is because nothing happened. Quebeckers and Canadians must stop accepting superficial answers. The government needs to be held accountable. It claims to be protecting institutions, but it is actually protecting the Prime Minister, the Liberal Party and Chinese interests by remaining silent. It is only natural that we are asking questions about financing in the Prime Minister's riding. To put all of this behind it, is the government prepared to ask for an investigation into financing in the Prime Minister's riding in 2016?

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Hon. Marco Mendicino (Minister of Public Safety, Lib.)

Dec/1/22 2:28:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague knows that we created an independent, non-partisan panel to examine all allegations of foreign interference and that the panel confirmed that the 2019 and 2021 elections were free, fair and just. That is why we will continue to protect our democratic institutions.

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