44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 15, 2023 02:00PM
- Feb/15/23 3:00:42 p.m.
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I must interrupt the hon. member. I cannot hear the question, because people are talking on all sides of the House.
I would ask the hon. member to start his question over so that we can all hear it.
The hon. member for La Pointe‑de‑l'Île.
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Mr. Speaker, the rifts in the Liberal caucus over Bill C‑13 are playing out like a musical. Tensions between the different gangs escalate from one day to the next. It is a real West Island story.
Yesterday, the member for Mount Royal broke ranks and announced he would vote against Bill C‑13 if it mentions the Charter of the French Language in any way.
Today, in a dramatic turn of events, a Liberal minister from the West Island also threatened to vote nay. A Liberal minister opposing a Liberal bill, that makes for good theatre, but will the minister responsible call them to order—
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Mr. Speaker, we have been very clear about our commitment to do our fair share to protect and promote French across the country, including in Quebec, and to protect and promote our official language minority communities.
I want to take a moment to thank the committee members who are working to advance this file.
With the passage of Bill C‑13, we will be able to give the Commissioner of Official Languages the tools he needs to do his work, which is essential. We will also be seeing changes for federally regulated private businesses to make sure that people can work and get service in French.
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Mount Royal is against recognizing the Charter of the French Language in Bill C‑13, as are the member for Westmount and the member for Saint‑Laurent.
Now, a Liberal minister is threatening to join them and to vote against a Liberal bill. There are starting to be quite a few Liberals who are opposed to Bill C‑13.
At this point, one has to wonder whether the Quebec Liberal caucus dissidents, the rebels, are the ones who want to defend French.
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C‑13 is a good bill. It recognizes that French is threatened and that more needs to be done to protect French both within and outside Quebec.
However, the Conservative-Bloc coalition plans to vote against this bill. It is doing everything to defeat it.
We, on the Liberal side, will continue to fight to defend French across the country.
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- Feb/15/23 3:03:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the current Prime Minister, Canadians are struggling to pay for their food and for their heat, and moms are going to bed every night worried about keeping roofs over their heads. However, if someone is a Liberal-connected insider, or a friend of the Prime Minister like McKinsey, they get their palms greased to the tune of $120 million, yet the Prime Minister does not care. He takes no responsibility either.
Will the Prime Minister either step aside and let Conservatives fix the problem, or is he going to add to the problem like he has over the last eight years?
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- Feb/15/23 3:04:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, it is Canadians who decide who gets to sit in government, not Conservative MPs. The second point I would make is that the member is suggesting that the Conservatives would engage in political interference and interfere with the independent, arm's-length process to engage contracts. Canada has one of the highest standards in the world for how contracts are engaged. Those decisions are made without political interference, and I find it disturbing that the Conservatives continue to come back and say that they would, if that is what I am hearing, politically interfere and make decisions about what the public servants engage in, in terms of contracts.
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- Feb/15/23 3:04:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada's professional and independent public service is the backbone of our federal government. Public servants are the ones the government should trust to provide professional advice, not the high-priced consultants at McKinsey & Company. Nonetheless, the Liberal government has awarded at least $120 million in contracts to McKinsey, undermining our hard-working public servants by creating a legion of shadow consultants who are accountable not to Canadians, but to their shareholders.
Why does the Liberal government trust foreign consulting firms more than our own professional public service?
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- Feb/15/23 3:05:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has been in this place for some time. He would recognize that he is absolutely correct to state that the public servants we have are the best in the world. We owe them a tremendous debt for all they do, and that is why we ensure that they are the ones who actually make the decisions with respect to those contracts. Those are made at arm's length. The reality is that one day the Conservatives are trying to cook up these conspiracies and talk about “shadow” whatever they are talking about, and the next day they are talking about Dominic Barton, the former campaign manager to Stephen Harper. They are saying he is right and should be lauded as one of the great Canadians.
I do not know what they are talking about over there.
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- Feb/15/23 3:06:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the creation of the “shadow public service” are not my words; they are the words from the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The Liberals claim they stand in support of our professional public servants, but after eight years, their record says otherwise. After eight years, the amount of taxpayer cash that goes to private consultants has grown exponentially. This was funding that our public service could have used to improve services for Canadians. The Liberal government seems so intent on breaking the public service, just like it breaks everything else.
When will the Liberals stop wasting taxpayer dollars on unethical consulting firms that are not accountable to Canadians?
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- Feb/15/23 3:06:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have already indicated that these are decisions made by the public service at arm's length and that it is inappropriate for the members opposite to imply they would use political influence to influence these contracts, but I will talk about what has grown since the Conservatives left power and we have had the opportunity to serve Canadians.
As I indicated earlier, there are almost two million more people who have jobs today than when the Conservatives were in power. There are 2.7 million fewer people in poverty, hundreds of thousands of children and hundreds of thousands of seniors who are not in poverty today. That is what has improved. That is what has changed since the Conservatives left power.
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- Feb/15/23 3:07:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of talk about Canada's Agriculture Day, which is being celebrated today.
There is also more talk about global food security lately. When we talk about food security, we are also talking about our economy. Agriculture is one of the key pillars of the Canadian economy in the 21st century.
I would like to ask the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food if she can tell us what the government is doing to support the development of this important economic sector.
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- Feb/15/23 3:08:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today we celebrate our agricultural producers and the wonderful food they produce in an increasingly sustainable way.
I want to take this opportunity to update people on our latest initiatives and investments. Yesterday, we invested an additional $150 million in the protein supercluster, and this morning I announced nearly $20 million for two initiatives to support our businesses in their search for workers.
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- Feb/15/23 3:08:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the government, housing is broken. Health care workers are living in tents, students are living in homeless shelters, vacancy rates are at an all-time low and rental rates are now $2,000 a month. Home prices have doubled under the government's watch, and nine out of 10 young people who do not own homes in this country think they never will. Everyone agrees that Canada is in a housing crisis, everyone except the housing minister that is.
If the minister refuses to even acknowledge that a crisis exists, how can Canadians trust him to fix it?
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- Feb/15/23 3:09:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our record is clear. We recognize that more Canadians need to have access to safe and affordable housing. We have invested record amounts of money to make sure that we build more and faster.
The fact of the matter is that the Conservatives' record is clear. That member should talk to the member for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, who said that the federal government needs to do less, that we need to dump housing on provinces.
Our record is clear. We believe that the federal government has an active role to play. They believe we should do less, and that is why they vote against every housing measure that comes to the floor of the House.
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- Feb/15/23 3:09:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, another day and another Liberal is caught breaking ethics laws. This time it is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister who was caught using his position to further the interests of a company. Now the Liberals are so brazen in their law-breaking that they have a member of the ethics committee who is breaking ethics laws.
These Liberals think they are above the law. For everyday Canadians there are consequences when they break the law. So why does the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister get to keep his job after he broke the law?
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- Feb/15/23 3:10:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary has apologized, as I indicated in the House.
There was a company that supports Black and multi-ethnic communities across—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Feb/15/23 3:10:45 p.m.
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I am having a hard time hearing the government House leader. Maybe he could start from the top, and hopefully it will be a little quieter the second time around.
The hon. government House leader please, from the top.
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- Feb/15/23 3:10:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, the parliamentary secretary errantly, and he has admitted his mistake, supported a business that is supporting and reflects Black and multi-ethnic communities across Canada. He wanted to support the important work it was doing, but recognized that it was inappropriate for him to send that letter. Let me say of that parliamentary secretary that he is somebody with passion and dedication who serves his constituents and his country.
The difference, I guess, between ourselves and the Conservatives is that, when we make a mistake, we apologize and endeavour to do better.
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- Feb/15/23 3:11:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, maybe when Canadians are caught breaking the law, the government is okay if they just say “sorry”.
After eight years of the Prime Minister, Canadians do not expect that the Prime Minister will take any action when his ministers and parliamentary secretaries break the law, because he would have to hold himself to a high standard as well, having twice been caught breaking ethics laws. It is a cabinet of serial lawbreakers, with the trade minister, the intergovernmental affairs minister, the former finance minister and even the Prime Minister.
Both the Prime Minister and his parliamentary secretary broke the law. Who is going to resign first?
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