SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 215 - Jun/16/23

Mr. Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP)

Jun/16/23 10:14:44 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the thing that stood out to me most about the member's speech was when he said that we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good in this case. I take his points about the process. I think there are ways that this model can be improved upon; I am also cognizant of the fact that, in order for this registry to be implemented by the beginning of 2024, I believe the legislation has to pass before the end of the month. This will give officials time to implement the will of Parliament on this matter. I know that there is a sense of urgency because of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and the extent to which folks think that Russian oligarchs have assets in Canada. A public beneficial ownership registry would be an important tool in pursuing those folks. In the opinion of the member, should we get this legislation passed by the end of the month in order to allow for this registry to be put in place in a timely way that allows Canada to pursue Russian oligarchs who are hiding assets in Canada?

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Context: House Hansard - 215 - Jun/16/23

Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Jun/16/23 10:31:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is no debate that I do live in the most beautiful riding in the country. To my colleague, who is also from British Columbia, I say that there was a really important study done by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, called “Sharing Risks and Benefits”, and it was by commercial fishers, to ensure that their needs are being met, because we have a broken commercial fishing industry in Canada. On the east coast, we have a local ownership model. On the west coast, we have a concentration of commercial interests. One of the top asks of commercial fishers in this study was to ensure that we know who owns the quota in our public fishery. Can my colleague assure that commercial fishers in Canada would know, through this legislation, who owns the quota, so we can better manage our fisheries and ensure that the concentration of wealth actually ends up in the hands of those fishing—

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Context: House Hansard - 215 - Jun/16/23

Mr. Patrick Weiler

Jun/16/23 10:32:14 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to wish my hon. colleague from Courtenay-Alberni well. I know there have been some serious issues with forest fires impacting transportation throughout his riding. I wish him the best, and it is good to see him here. I very much agree with the premise of his question. The fact that we do not know how the quota is allocated is something of significant concern. I certainly support looking into what it might look like to have that quota allocated to the fishermen themselves, not to companies that are perhaps reselling that quota. Now that we have created this beneficial ownership registry, it would be interesting to see how that might be able to be expanded to the owners of the quota as well, so we can better understand—

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Context: House Hansard - 215 - Jun/16/23

Mr. Daniel Blaikie

Jun/16/23 10:58:43 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is certainly an area for federal and provincial co-operation. As I said before, what is important is that we create the legislative mandate for the federal government to move forward as expeditiously as possible, and that the government take a lot of the constructive feedback that has already been offered in the course of this debate into very serious consideration. It should take that into their conversations with the provinces and territories so that we could build the best possible public beneficial ownership registry. What we have in the legislation now is good, but it could be better. However, we do not need it to be better to get started on all the work that needs to happen in order to start applying pressure to folks like Putin's buddies who are stashing cash here in Canada.

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