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Mar/6/23 6:52:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government has taken meaningful actions to make life more affordable and build a sustainable economy that works for everyone. We are doing this by fighting climate change; making sure everyone pays their fair share of tax; making our economy more competitive; and supporting Canadian workers, creating more than 809,000 new jobs since the start of the pandemic. Canada is working, Canadians are working and their government is working hard for them as well.

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Mr. Eric Duncan (Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, CPC)

Mar/6/23 6:53:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I have said in this House and during question period, a growing number of Canadians believe that everything feels broken in this country. There is correlation and a connection to what they are feeling that brokenness from: the poor management from the current Liberal government. Whether it was when Veterans Affairs Canada officials admitted that their staff offered MAID to multiple veterans when they were looking for help or the lack of accountability when it comes to foreign interference, getting to the bottom of it and having transparency to make sure it never happens again, Canadians feel like their federal government is broken. When it comes to trying to get a passport or accessing an airport with ease and reasonableness, they feel like things are broken. If anybody has ever gotten a bill from CRA when they owe $41.72, they get the letter right away and it says they have 30 days to pay or the penalties start. Then, the Auditor General said there was $15 billion in fraudulent and wrong payments that went out by the government, and the government says it is not worth even trying to collect on this. Everybody increasingly believes that the federal government is broken because of the opioid overdose epidemic that is happening in many parts of this country. Only a couple of weeks ago, to the Prime Minister's surprise, the government suddenly found out that there was a permit granted to produce and distribute cocaine in British Columbia. Sadly, the leader of the party said today, very clearly, that it is easier to get a permit to distribute and produce cocaine in British Columbia than it is to get a passport. That speaks volumes about what Canadians are seeing these days. After eight years, everything the federal government touches gets worse. There are more public servants than ever before. More money is being spent and allocated and promised, but the results are worse than ever. The Auditor General confirms the government spends more money and gets fewer results, so Canadians feel like things are broken because if this were any other business or any other way of life, those managers would have been fired a long time ago. I want to follow up on how the City of Cornwall is unfortunately seeing how things are broken in our country these days. It is seeing Roxham Road and the national problem and challenge that we have faced of an unprecedented volume of irregular border crossings, with people seeking asylum and refugee status here in this country. Thirty-four days ago, I put out a public statement because two large processing centres came into the community, but the Minister of Immigration did not say a word or acknowledge it. The minister provided zero consultation, zero heads-up and zero resources to help the City of Cornwall deal with this. Cornwall is a welcoming community. We have seen the diversity, and we have seen the benefits of immigration over the course of the last couple of years. However, it has been 34 days, and it has been a couple of weeks since I asked my original question. We had a week and a half since IRCC officials came to Cornwall to hear first-hand how frustrated the city is by the poor communication, leadership and management around that. From city council to provincial and federal officials, local charities, health and education, people are looking for a plan. After 34 days of this going public but months of the government's knowing the chaos and the confusion and the strain on local resources on the ground, they are looking for a plan. They finally came down to Cornwall and listened, admitted their communication was poor and admitted that something needs to change. Months later, they are hearing the consultations. Having a meeting is not an outcome. They have heard the problem. The City of Cornwall and the stakeholders who want to help, who want to end this chaos and fix what the government has broken, want a plan. My repeated question and follow-up to the government tonight is this: What is the plan? What resources are we going to get to address the problem when it comes to the IRCC processing centre?

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Mrs. Marie-France Lalonde (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Lib.)

Mar/6/23 6:57:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his advocacy. Let me note what Canada is committed to. Canada is committed, through domestic law and international convention, to providing supports to individuals making an asylum claim. That is a fact. We have a duty to protect the integrity of our borders and to manage resources on behalf of all Canadians. Let me be very clear: We continue to encourage asylum claimants to enter Canada through designated ports of entry, to apply through regular immigration streams and to make a claim of asylum in the first safe country they enter. Canada is unfortunately not alone in facing a rising number of asylum claims. The world is facing an unparalleled flow of migrants and refugees, with the United Nations Refugee Agency reporting nearly 4.9 million asylum seekers in 2022. That is making Canada's share less than 1%. This is a global challenge driven by war, persecution, political and economic instability, and discrimination. Solving this challenge will require a global response. In recent years, the majority of asylum claims in Canada have been made near Roxham Road, which is not a port of entry. In the summer of 2022, Quebec indicated that its social supports and housing system were hitting their maximum capacity, so our government began transferring asylum seekers who expressed an interest in travelling to Ontario or further west to other provinces. In February, when Quebec indicated that it could not take more asylum claimants, we supported transferring all asylum claimants to Ontario, and just recently began transferring them to hotels in the Atlantic provinces. As of February, we have moved over 5,600 asylum seekers from Quebec to Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Our officials have been in contact with host communities, and IRCC is conducting community engagement in these provinces. We want to thank the communities and provinces that are receiving asylum claimants. Canada's humanitarian efforts cannot fall on only one region or province. We continue to engage in discussions with provinces and municipalities that have expressed a willingness to accept additional transfers. I heard the member mention that Cornwall has accepted additional transfers. We know that the City of Cornwall in the member's riding wanted more communication, and we responded to that request. The associate deputy minister has been to Cornwall several times over the last few weeks, and the department is working with the community and local leadership. We are very conscious of the potential impact that an influx of people could have on local resources, and we continue to listen and respond to local needs. The federal government has been providing supports to provinces and municipalities to respond to the rising number of asylum claims. Since 2017, we have provided $551.6 million to affected provinces and municipalities to address interim housing-related expenses for asylum seekers. In addition, since April 2020, IRCC has been providing temporary accommodations to asylum claimants who do not yet have private accommodations and who cannot go to provincial shelters due to capacity issues. Our government has covered health care services and products, including immigration medical examinations, which also help connect claimants to the provincial health care system through a program called the interim federal health program. Where we can, we provide expedited work permits for claimants, and we continue to explore the possibilities of accelerating work permits so that claimants can work and support themselves. In conclusion, the federal government continues to support the provinces and our communities and continues to listen and respond to their needs. We will continue to be there.

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Mr. Eric Duncan

Mar/6/23 7:01:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in that four-minute response by the government, and after 34 days of going public with the problem of wanting a plan and resources, we got the same answer: It is listening, it is consulting and it is meeting. Having a meeting is not an outcome, but the Liberals could confirm and communicate that they acknowledge their shortcomings and acknowledge that communication was poor. Most importantly, what the City of Cornwall and our community are asking for are proper resources. Some $16 million is what has been unveiled so far to go to DEV centre for its contract. We do not know about the former Ramada Inn property. There are tens of millions of dollars to go to those sites, and not a dollar can be allocated to local resources on the ground that could help end the chaos and act as a pinwheel. The IRCC and the minister need a plan to actually solve this chaos, not more meetings and conversations. We need a plan. I will ask this again, and there is one minute for a response. Where is the plan and the timeline to fix what the government broke?

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Mrs. Marie-France Lalonde

Mar/6/23 7:02:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, I want to thank the member for his advocacy. Certainly, he and I have had a conversation in the last few weeks on this particular issue. Other members of the community have raised those concerns. As I mentioned before, our assistant deputy minister has been in regular contact with city officials and individuals in our community. We are fully committed to help. That is what we have been doing since the process started. We have been working with local municipalities and have also engaged with others. I want to reassure the member that, as we go forward, we are always going to engage with our partners, our local municipalities, which are so important.

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Mr. Scott Reid (Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, CPC)

Mar/6/23 7:03:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to tell a short story about the government's regulatory failure, which has cost constituents in my riding hundreds of well-paying jobs in the last month or so. Until February 9 of this year, Canopy Growth, a licensed cannabis producer, was the largest private sector employer in my constituency. Based at the former Hershey chocolate factory in Smiths Falls, it has been transformed into a high-tech, legal, cannabis-producing facility. At the height of their operations, they employed about 1,800 people in Smiths Falls. However, last month Canopy announced the elimination of 350 jobs, 190 of which were to be cut immediately, and the rest to follow in the coming months. That was at the tail end of series of prior cuts. Canopy will soon employ fewer than one-third the number of my constituents it once did. These job losses, to a large extent, can be laid at the foot of the government's failed policies. In 2018, the government, with great fanfare, legalized the sale and use of recreational cannabis. I voted for that. We are just five years on, and the government's delivery on its plan, its crushing federal taxes and its insanely high regulatory compliance costs have allowed the illegal market to continue to flourish, and it is directly causing hundreds of Canadians to lose their jobs in my constituency alone. A month ago, the day after the job cuts in my riding were announced, I raised this point and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry stood to say that his government continues “to engage with stakeholders” and that they have recently funded a “strategy table” to “support dialogue”. That is nice, I guess, but the government would have been better advised to have acted sooner, years sooner, on the advice it was getting from industry and stakeholders. The next best thing would have been to say it would act immediately. Saying that we will have more talks when the House is not nearly on fire but just about burned down is too late. A multi-party group of parliamentarians with three Liberals, of which I am a member, has written numerous times to the Minister of Health. We wrote, as an example, about attempts to rationalize various regulations dealing with cannabis infusion beverages. It has inexplicably taken years for movement to occur on that one small issue. There are other issues by far that are much more important and there has been no movement on them. This long struggle for incremental microscopic improvements illustrates the problem the government has. On a macro level, it has failed to deliver on its promise of listening and creating a business-friendly environment for the cannabis industry. I have mentioned the parliamentary secretary's response to my question from last month, and I am sure that tonight he will repeat at length the same kind of response. He will say that he regrets the job losses. He will say some industries face challenges, and that they want to listen to industry and stakeholders. I am sure he will be saying it honestly, but I truly hope that the government's speaker this evening will acknowledge that their ministers have been receiving advice from industry and stakeholders for years now. They could have acted upon it with far greater speed. If they had done so these jobs would still be in existence. While there is still some hope that some jobs can be saved, and we will not lose the entire industry, perhaps the government could agree to move quickly on the recommendations that have been made by the legal cannabis industry, which would allow it to prosper and ensure that our industry does not remain 50% in the illegal sector, as it now is.

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Mr. Andy Fillmore (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Lib.)

Mar/6/23 7:07:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to respond to the comments made by the member for Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston. He and I had occasion to work together on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament. I think we did good work there and I always appreciate his interventions. In 2018, through the Cannabis Act, Canada made history and became the first major industrialized country to provide legal and regulated access to cannabis for non-medical purposes. That act had three primary aims. The first was to prevent young people from accessing cannabis. The second was to protect public health and public safety by establishing product safety and product quality requirements and the third was to keep revenues from cannabis businesses out of the hands of criminals. Since this bold and historic decision, the legal cannabis industry in Canada has grown rapidly and there is much to applaud. With over 900 licenced cultivators and processors of cannabis under the Cannabis Act and thousands of cannabis retail stores, the regulated cannabis industry is present coast to coast and has welcomed a tremendous number of new businesses. In fact, the sector generates over $4.5 billion in sales and employs thousands of people. The legal sector is successfully advancing the objectives of the Cannabis Act. The regulated market, based on the Statistics Canada household expenditure survey, is estimated to now represent approximately 70% of the total Canadian cannabis market. While views on that number may differ, it is clear that the illicit market share is diminishing. Canadians are not only benefiting from having access to safe cannabis products but also benefiting from new business opportunities across the value chain, from cultivation to processing to research and testing and retail. Small and medium-sized enterprises continue to represent a greater and greater share of licence-holders and the market has continued to grow. However, as we know well, this expansion is not without challenges. The sector is facing instability and uncertainty as it continues to mature. Our government recognizes how important the competitive and sustainable legal cannabis industry is to fully realizing the objectives of the Cannabis Act. This is why, in budget 2022, our government announced a new cannabis strategy table, which the member has identified, that will support ongoing dialogue with businesses and stakeholders in the cannabis sector. It is an opportunity to identify ways to work together and to grow the legal cannabis sector in Canada. This commitment recognizes the economic and business realities that the sector is facing. This initiative is led by the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, which is actively engaging the cannabis industry and working with federal partners to ensure that the government is aware of and understands the issues at hand. Further, in September 2022, the hon. Minister of Health and the hon. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health announced the launch of the legislative review of the Cannabis Act. Early assessment of the act was always envisioned. This review will ensure that the flexible legislative framework set out in the act adapts and responds to ongoing and emerging needs and to make certain that the act best protects the health and safety of Canadians and provides for the establishment of a diverse and competitive legal industry. Our government's commitment to Canadians and to achieving the objectives of the act, as set out in the act, are clear.

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Mr. Scott Reid

Mar/6/23 7:11:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the fundamental problem is this: if the cost to produce and sell legal product is higher than the cost to produce and sell illegal product, then the illegal product will have the ability to drive out the legal product. This is exactly what is happening in the market today in Canada. There is some high-end product, which, I grant, the legal sector predominates in, but the fact is that, right now, it is a lot worse than a 70-30 split. I have heard 60-40 and in some parts of the cannabis production industry, I would say it is 50-50 or worse. One cannot impose massive regulatory compliance costs on the legal sector, which do not exist for the illegal sector, without having the effect of driving these producers out of business. If there was some way of making the illegal producers stop, we would not have a problem, but that was never possible. I ask again: what is the government doing to ensure that regulatory compliance costs are brought down and taxes are kept reasonable for legal producers? Remember, illegal producers do not pay tax—

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The Deputy Speaker

Mar/6/23 7:12:15 p.m.
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The hon. parliamentary secretary.

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Secretary

Mr. Andy Fillmore

Mar/6/23 7:12:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have delivered on our promise to Canadians to establish a safe and legal cannabis sector in Canada. Our government remains committed to advancing the objectives set out within the Cannabis Act, including through the planned and launched legislative review of the act and the development of the budget 2022 announcement to establish the cannabis strategy, where the challenges that the member has identified will be aired and acted upon. This table will provide new opportunities for government and industry to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing this relatively new sector as it continues to establish itself and find its footing as a sustainable alternative to the illicit market. Our government has been and remains steadfast in its commitment to engage and work with industry while doing so and I extend that same offer to the member.

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The Deputy Speaker

Mar/6/23 7:13:10 p.m.
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The motion that the House do now adjourn is deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1). (The House adjourned at 7:13 p.m.)

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