44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 24, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/24/23 10:14:16 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I hope you will grant me some grace, given the gravity of the petition I am presenting today.
The petition arises from events that happened on September 16, 2021, with the horrific and preventable murders of Mchale Erica Busch, age 24, and her baby son, Noah Lee McConnell, age 16 months. The murders occurred in the victims' apartment building in Hinton, Alberta, perpetrated by a known registered sex offender. The family had no idea that this individual was living there, and the offences happened a short 10 days after they moved in.
This petition has been signed by almost 22,000 Canadians, who are asking for the Government of Canada to do the following: require mandatory reporting by convicted sexual offenders to the nearest police station upon any change of residence; clarify that failure to report as required is an offence for which an arrest warrant shall be issued; and create a specifically designated offender classification for persons convicted of sexual assault offences against children where a sentence of more than two years is imposed, for offenders convicted of two or more violent sexual offences, or for offences involving the abduction of women and/or children.
We have a responsibility to this family and all victims of sexual violence in this country. I look forward to the government responding to this petition.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this being asked by an Ontario MP as it emphasizes to all Albertans that the question of energy security is not unique to the west or Alberta. It is truly is a national issue.
To directly answer my colleague from Ontario's question, it is an international issue as well. Canada has the opportunity to ensure that we displace Russian crude oil and gas, that dictator and despot's crude oil and natural gas. Specifically, when it comes to LNG, we have the ability to make sure that dollars are not going to dictators, such as the tyrant Vladimir Putin, who is engaged in this illegal invasion of the sovereign country of Ukraine. The very people he is forcing to fight against that aggression are being forced to purchase natural gas that funds that very war machine. Canada is the solution to ensure that we have energy security for our allies and friends around the world. When that happens, our world becomes a safer place.
The regrettable reality is that, after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, we have seen the world become less safe because of his refusal to allow Canadian energy, and the expertise that comes along with it, to make our world a safer place. Let us get that done.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Courtenay—Alberni for highlighting once again the incredible impact that outsized profits in the oil and gas sector have been having on Canadian household budgets. I would also say that, often, one of the ways that their lobbyists in the Conservative Party like to defend that is to say one cannot help a wage earner without helping the wage payer. However, these guys do not need help; they are making money hand over fist. Not only that, but after the last Alberta election, they turned around and laid off 1,500 employees. They did this even though they were making more money than ever before.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and Alberta colleague, the MP for Calgary Skyview, for his strong advocacy.
Workers are at the heart of Canada's prosperity, and the Canadian sustainable jobs act would ensure that together we can grow the economy and create good, middle-class sustainable jobs in Alberta and across the country. While we engage workers through this legislation, the Conservatives are doing everything they can to stop workers from being at the table. Their votes against this important bill for workers are simply more proof that the Conservative leader and his party are simply not worth the risk.
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Mr. Speaker, I am of course very proud to be the member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona.
Today, we are talking about the free trade agreement with Ukraine. As every member of the House knows, we are an immense ally of Ukraine. Canada was the first western country to recognize Ukraine's independence in 1991, and, of course, Canada is home to the third-largest population of Ukrainians in the world, third only to Ukraine and Russia. As members would know, many people of the Ukrainian diaspora reside in my riding, in my province and certainly across the Prairies. Therefore, I am glad to see that we are debating this bill after the agreement was delayed by Putin's illegal war, the illegal invasion that Putin and the Russian Federation have made against the Ukrainian people.
Trade agreements are very important. They are an important part of our relationship with Ukraine. They are an important part of our relationship with our allies. It is vital that we have strong trade relationships with Ukraine, now more than ever as Ukraine fights for its freedom and builds more, better and stronger relationships with the west.
Russia's illegal invasion and genocidal war against Ukraine has had a profound impact on Canada. It has had a profound impact on the Ukraine-Canada trade relationship. We have seen exports to Ukraine fall by nearly a third since the war started, and it is important to have a trade agreement that would restore those exports once Ukraine is victorious in the war against Russia.
However, trade negotiations must be transparent, and Canadians and parliamentarians have the right to know both the costs and the benefits of proposed trade agreements before they are signed. The current Liberal government has failed in this regard. We were given this legislation very late last week. We are debating it in the House on Monday and Tuesday. We have had no time to discuss this with our colleagues at caucus, despite the fact that this agreement was negotiated in April and signed in September. There was ample opportunity for the government to give us more time to discuss this trade agreement with our colleagues and our caucuses. I hope the Liberal government reflects on that. Certainly from my perspective, that could and should been done better and would have shown more respect for parliamentarians and for the Ukraine-Canada trade agreement.
The importance of transparency in trade deals is very apparent as well. We have seen this. In 2014, under Stephen Harper, we learned about a secret trade deal that the Conservatives had negotiated with China, which had been signed two years earlier in Russia. That trade agreement with China was ratified without the participation of Parliament, and the consequences and the lack of transparency will be with us for decades. Chinese interests now control significant parts of our natural resources industries. Cheap Chinese steel produced from coal from Alberta is undermining our coal sector. Canadian grocery stores are full of Chinese food products with few or no environmental or human rights standards associated with them.
We have spoken in the House a bit today about some of the comments we have heard from the Conservative Party about this legislation's being woke, which is absolutely absurd. There should never be a trade relationship that Canada has that does not involve our looking at human rights, at environmental protections and at Canadian jobs and the impacts on Canadian workers. The success of the trade deals that we negotiate as a country can never be measured purely by trade and purely by corporate profit. They have to be measured by a number of different things.
I sit beside the good member for Edmonton Griesbach, who is an absolute champion for indigenous people in this country, for Métis people in this country and for Inuit people in this country. For him to have to sit here and listen to folks say that adhering to UNDRIP, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, is woke is absolutely shameful.
We sat in the international human rights subcommittee meeting today. We met with a Honduran, Elvin Hernandez, who is a human rights investigator. He spoke about the Canada free trade agreement with Honduras and about how it did not help the people of Honduras.
He said that no one looked at human rights when they negotiated it. There was no conversation at that time to look at human rights. He talked about the impact it has had on women, children, indigenous people, folks in the community who have stood up for environmental rights and people in the community who have stood up for human rights. Because of the free trade agreement we negotiated, those rights were not protected. It is something to keep in mind.
We also heard from Robert McCorquodale, who is the vice-chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. He said that if we do not look at human rights when we do this important work, we put people at risk. It is something we really need to do and something that, from my perspective, is the furthest thing from being superfluous, or whatever the Conservatives are trying to say with their insensitive woke comments.
We need a trade deal that is good for Ukraine and that is good for Canada. This renegotiated deal with Ukraine includes chapters that would ensure both Canada and Ukraine maintain their right to regulate in key areas such as environment, health, safety, indigenous rights, gender equality and cultural diversity. This is very important.
I welcome the provisions for temporary entry for those conducting business in either country. I like the idea of removing barriers from entry for business people, professionals and their spouses. That will lead to stronger economic and social ties with Ukraine and stronger economic benefits for Canadians. I also welcome the labour standards provisions in this agreement. It is vital we protect labour rights.
When we look at trade agreements, we always have to consider labour rights and the workers who depend on those rights. This agreement does this with a few different things we are pleased to see, such as the sections that respect labour laws, the import prohibition on goods made in whole or in part with forced labour, a commitment to the content of all core international labour organization conventions and a stand-alone article on violence against workers. These are important things to have as part of our agreement.
I am disappointed in how the government brought this agreement forward. I am disappointed I have not had the opportunity to sit with my colleagues and discuss this agreement, as would be the norm and as would be expected. While I am disappointed in the lack of transparency we have seen in the development of this agreement, I do support a trade agreement with Ukraine. I do think it needs to happen.
I am going to need to take some time to look at this one and see whether I can provide support for it, because this is important work, and I do not take this work lightly. I am also looking very forward to seeing more Ukrainian products on the shelves in the stores in Edmonton. We have a large Ukrainian population, and my name is not very Ukrainian, but I can eat Ukrainian food with the best of them. I know my way around a cabbage roll, as everyone in Edmonton does.
I am extraordinarily excited to see Ukrainian products in food stores like K&K Foodliner, a local food specialty store right in my own riding of Edmonton Strathcona. I hope this agreement will mean greater economic ties between our countries and more made-in-Ukraine products in our local stores.
Let us support Ukraine. Let us help Ukrainians rebuild their country. Let us work together as friends for the benefit of both countries.
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