44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 27, 2024 10:00AM
- Feb/27/24 2:53:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague learned something today that has been known in the public domain for a number of weeks.
We have said from the beginning that the government's responsibility is to ensure that taxpayers' money is always managed well. In this case, the Auditor General identified a number of opportunities that needed to be investigated and where the government will follow all of the recommendations. If people have done something inappropriate with taxpayers' money, they will be held to account.
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- Feb/27/24 2:53:56 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, people in the north are paying enormous amounts for food as the CEOs of the grocery chains make millions of dollars. Nunavummiut have said for years that nutrition north is not working, and the government is ignoring them. Nutrition north is keeping many northerners in poverty as the subsidy is going to CEOs' profits, not lowering food prices.
Why is the minister padding the pockets of rich CEOs instead of helping northerners afford their groceries?
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- Feb/27/24 2:54:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know that food prices in the north are too high. Affordability is a real issue in the north. Our government is absolutely committed to ensuring that 100% of the nutrition north retail subsidy is passed on directly to northerners.
We have worked, and we will continue to work, with territorial governments, indigenous partners and people living in the north and the Arctic to bring down prices. There is a lot of work to do. We are committed to getting it done.
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- Feb/27/24 2:55:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, personal support workers are the backbone of our senior care system. They relieve young families worried about how they will take care of both their children and their parents. However, despite everything they do, many of these workers cannot retire with the dignity they deserve. For three years, the Liberal government has promised SEIU and other health care units help with building their retirement savings. It is a $50-million commitment, yet not a single dollar has flowed to these workers. New Democrats demand better for our care workers.
Will the Liberal government honour its commitment and release the funds these health care workers deserve before the fiscal year ends?
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- Feb/27/24 2:55:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me give my thanks to personal care support workers. During the pandemic, which was a time so difficult for all of us, it was enormously difficult for personal care support workers, who did extraordinary work.
We did make a commitment to support provinces. It is the provinces that have the principal responsibility for this. We expect them to step up in supports for personal care support workers. We have said we are there to help them, but it is their lead, and they need to make sure that these individuals are compensated and acknowledged in the way that they deserve.
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- Feb/27/24 2:56:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last November, our government tabled legislation to ban the use of replacement workers in federally regulated industries, a commitment from our 2021 election platform. This is something that the labour movement in Canada has been asking for since before Canada was a country. This will both make the collective bargaining process stronger and make employers and unions focus on the negotiating table, where the best deals are made.
Will the Minister of Labour explain to the House how our bill to ban replacement workers will strengthen the collective bargaining process in this country?
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Mr. Speaker, we are banning replacement workers. We are banning replacement workers because we believe in collective bargaining. We are banning replacement workers because the best deals are made at the table, bigger paycheques are negotiated at the table, and better labour relations and long-term stability are created at the table. Let us keep that bargaining table free and fair with the full support of every MP in the House.
With unanimous consent, let us vote to move Bill C-58. Let us make some history. Let us ban replacement workers.
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- Feb/27/24 2:58:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime, that is the Conservative common sense plan.
Common sense is also knowing the extent of the Liberal arrive scam disaster. Even though the Liberals can count on the Bloc Québécois to close their eyes to millions of dollars in spending, the Conservatives want to shed light on the arrive scam scandal.
Will the Prime Minister co-operate with the RCMP in its investigation into arrive scam or will he once again refuse to fully co-operate with the police, as he did in the cases of the Aga Khan's island and SNC-Lavalin?
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- Feb/27/24 2:58:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like begin by congratulating my colleague, whom I like a lot, on his ability to repeat his leader's slogans.
The Conservatives are working hard on that. What they are less good at is following the news. For weeks now the Auditor General has been working with many other organizations, including the RCMP, to shed light on the disturbing observations she raised in her report just a few weeks ago.
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- Feb/27/24 2:59:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if my colleague were more aware of what is happening in Canada, he would know that after eight years under this Liberal Prime Minister, two million people are going to food banks every month. Food banks are now lining up to get the food they need to feed the lines of hungry people. That is what Canada looks like under this Prime Minister.
The Liberal government, with Bloc support, managed to find a way to spend at least $60 million on an app that was supposed to cost $80,000.
I will repeat my question. Is the Prime Minister going to voluntarily co-operate with the RCMP, or is he going to cover up the arrive scam yet again?
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- Feb/27/24 2:59:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what Canadians are seeing on television is a Conservative Party that opposes all of the measures. They have consistently voted against every measure we have introduced to help Canadians. What did the Conservatives do? They voted against competition reform, one of the most important reforms in the country.
I want to ask them a question. People are watching them at home. Will they vote for our bill to allow more competition reforms in the country, more choice for consumers and better prices?
It is time they did something for Canadians.
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- Feb/27/24 3:00:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the RCMP commissioner was clear this morning. He wrote to the Leader of the Opposition to confirm that a full investigation will be conducted into the ArriveCAN affair.
What is more, we learned from the RCMP commissioner in committee that the Prime Minister obstructed the investigation into both the SNC-Lavalin affair and the Aga Khan affair.
Can the Prime Minister confirm that he will fully and completely co‑operate with this RCMP investigation and that he will not interfere with it?
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- Feb/27/24 3:00:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, I am glad that my colleague has noticed something that has been common knowledge for some weeks now.
My colleague, the Minister of Procurement, clearly indicated that the Auditor General had investigated some troubling circumstances surrounding contracts awarded by the Canada Border Services Agency.
Obviously, the government's responsibility is to ensure that measures are in place to prevent this from happening again and to co‑operate with the law enforcement officials who will be investigating the matter.
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- Feb/27/24 3:01:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what is clear to us is that, in November 2022, the government voted against the proposal to ask the Auditor General to conduct an investigation. The Liberals were not the ones who helped discover what had happened with ArriveCAN. At the time, some 10,000 people were forced to quarantine because of a tool that did not work.
Can the Prime Minister confirm this time that he will not obstruct the RCMP investigation and that he will ask his government to hand over all the documents and ensure that we get to the bottom of the ArriveCAN scandal?
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- Feb/27/24 3:01:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have already answered this question multiple times.
However, there is one question which has still not been answered.
Given the Leader of the Opposition's policy of intimidation, insults and name-calling, will my colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute‑Saint‑Charles agree to join my colleague from Louis-Saint-Laurent for a meeting next week with the Quebec City municipal council to tell all elected officials and the people of Quebec City why his leader insulted them and called them incompetent?
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- Feb/27/24 3:02:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, ArriveCAN is the result of the federal government's dependence on dubious consultants.
GC Strategies, a two-man company offering no real services, pocketed $20 million, but it was not the only one. Dalian, another two-person company offering no real services, got $8 million. Ninety-nine per cent of Dalian's contracts are with the federal government. It is hard to know what that company is doing with all that money because La Presse has revealed that it does business in two tax havens.
How many other companies like these is the federal government giving our money to, and what is it doing to make sure our share comes back to us?
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- Feb/27/24 3:03:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the whole ArriveCAN affair is completely unacceptable, and that is why the work and the investigations continue.
As for tax havens, of course, they are equally unacceptable. I can assure the House that we have a competent team that is well equipped to carry out the necessary investigations on any file whenever there is any doubt.
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- Feb/27/24 3:04:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the reliance on dubious consultants is not limited to ArriveCAN or to the Liberals. Under Stephen Harper, the Conservatives themselves gave millions of dollars to Coredal Systems Consulting, a company that does not provide any services and that was founded by the same two people who founded GC Strategies and who pocketed $20 million for ArriveCAN. Fortunately, the committee will investigate all of the contracts awarded to these two individuals, but we need to go even further.
Will the government commit to disclosing all of the contracts since 2004 that connect the Conservatives and the Liberals to any company that does not provide any service other than finding subcontractors?
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- Feb/27/24 3:04:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, a little less than four years ago, Canada was going into the worst health crisis since 1919 and the worst economic crisis since 1929-30. We had to close the border at the request of then President Trump. We had to deal with $1 billion a year in economic costs and with the hundreds of people who were dying every week in long-term care facilities in Quebec and across the country.
We had to act quickly and effectively. That is what we asked the public service to do. However, public servants were supposed to follow the rules. Unfortunately, some of those rules were not followed. That is what the Auditor General found.
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- Feb/27/24 3:05:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost, the crime or the corruption. The government spent a minimum of $60 million on arrive scam. It could even be more. We do not know because there is missing documentation. IT middlemen at GC Strategies got $20 million for doing no actual work. The top cop in the RCMP announced today a full investigation into arrive scam.
Today, the Prime Minister has a decision to make: Will he co-operate with the RCMP, or will he obstruct justice, as he usually does?
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