Senator Plett: Can you explain how you square that box when this renowned expert is saying the opposite of what you and whomever you talked to are saying?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Minister, I noted that your colleague MP Blois, who is the National Liberal Rural Caucus chair, was an advocate for making rural fire stations eligible to apply for funding from the Canada Community-Building Fund, or CCBF.

Infrastructure Canada’s website has numbers available to the public on the allocated funds from the CCBF by the province and territory. Rural volunteer fire departments are crucial in so many communities.

My question, minister, is very specific: Since this fund was amended earlier this year to include fire halls, can you please share with us how successful this addition is and how many rural fire halls have applied and succeeded in receiving funds?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Just a couple of notes. Senator, we are told that it is urgent to pass this bill. You alluded to that today. But, senator, are you aware that on the day this bill passes into law not a single roadside zoo will be closed because of it? Every animal currently in a roadside zoo is grandfathered — or any zoo is grandfathered — and indeed will be left to die under the deplorable conditions that people are referring to.

But while it will be doing nothing for the animals in roadside zoos today, the bill will do immediate harm to the great conservation work done by 18 zoos that are fully accredited by Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums by restricting their ability to breed and creating a chill over possibly losing their animals. You and others have alluded to elephants and other animals needing social activities. They will be left to die in the places where they are. They will not be allowed to breed. To do something to prevent a social animal’s breeding is a whole lot crueller than having them there.

I’m not suggesting it not go to committee, but can you explain to me what the rush is when it will do nothing to prevent any of these zoos from having the animals they already have?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Welcome, minister.

Minister, part of your mandate is to accelerate the delivery of broadband service across Canada to ensure that all Canadians, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet. Yet I must note that this is another area in which your Liberal-NDP government has promised a lot of funding, but for which tangible results remain obscure. According to the Canadian Radio‑television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, over 50% of rural households still do not have access to high-speed internet.

Minister, how much longer will these households need to wait?

Senator Plett: Minister, I’m aware that your government made another funding announcement in November — this time of $475 million for rural high-speed internet access. That does not negate what I mentioned earlier: Aside from your promises, the fact remains that over 50% of rural households are still without reliable internet access, despite billions of dollars being announced for funding.

Can you tell us specifically what mechanisms are being put in place to ensure this funding is implemented for the benefit of those communities, aside from just throwing more money at the problem?

You might have noted that, over the last few years, since we started the Universal Broadband Fund, we have had many programs out there: We have Connect to Innovate, and funding available through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. I’m very proud that we have also signed six memoranda of understanding with Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. That has proven to work exceptionally well, because it is actually getting out, working with the provinces and getting communities connected.

A third of the money of the Rapid Response Stream, one of the components of the Universal Broadband Fund, went to Indigenous communities. Another third of the Rapid Response Stream went to small internet-service providers, or ISPs, that were focused in rural and remote communities. The final third went to the larger ISPs.

It is a daunting task, but I can say that we have put more of a concerted effort into connecting Canada than any other previous governments combined, and we are getting it done.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): A report from CBC indicates, minister, that sky-high inflation is causing more people to turn to rural food banks, and, in fact, this is something we are seeing across the country as food bank usage reached its highest level in Canadian history this year.

While this is an issue affecting all Canadians, it is not uncommon to have differences in inflation rates throughout the country. For many Canadians living in remote communities, many of whom are low-income or seniors on fixed incomes, the effects of inflation are felt all the more pointedly. Gas price increases likely come as a huge blow, as they depend on their vehicles for day-to-day activities and do not have the luxury of public transportation, as you indicated earlier.

As the minister on this file, can you tell me where the inflation rate currently stands in rural Canada and what kind of practical impacts it is having on rural Canadians?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Minister, my question is on behalf of Senator Wells, who, of course, is from Newfoundland and Labrador:

Last week, the federal government announced they were imposing a carbon tax on Newfoundland and Labrador, which is set to take effect July 1, 2023. Alongside your colleague MP Seamus O’Regan, who is also from your province, you said you were excited about this new tax. However, this ignores the pressures people are facing in the province with the rising cost of living. In fact, the carbon tax will drive up the price of home heating fuel by 17.38 cents per litre. The significant increase in heating costs over the past year already imposed considerable economic hardship and stress on these residents. A 20% increase to the carbon tax threatens to drive residents in the province into energy poverty.

There has been disappointment expressed that the carbon tax will apply to home heating. This was exempted in the made-in-Newfoundland-and-Labrador approach implemented in 2019.

Minister, will the government consider amending this tax —

Senator Plett: Senator Kutcher, Charles Gray is the superintendent of elephants at African Lion Safari. He has worked hands-on with elephants since 1982, has been the elephant manager at Africa Lion Safari since 1987. Charlie is a founding board member of the Elephant Managers Association, and he is a founding and current board member of the International Elephant Foundation. He has served on the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Taxon Advisory Group for the Asian elephant species survival program from 1988 to 2019. He is a world-renowned elephant expert.

Mr. Gray told us, Senator Kutcher, that, contrary to what you have said and other so-called experts would have us believe, the elephants under their care and their love thrive in all four seasons. This is partly because most of the herd of Asian elephants were born and raised in Canada. They’ve never been to Asia. They are very acclimatized to our winters. In fact, Mr. Gray says their elephants actually prefer the cold to the heat partly because there are no bugs. They also love to run and play in the snow, to break the ice on the lake and go swimming. They have large, heated enclosures — they are not in cages — where they can come and go as they please. They have doors that they open themselves as they come in and out of the cold.

Now, have you spoken to any of these caregivers? I have visited more zoos in the last two years than I have been to in my life. These facilities are huge. These elephants are no longer being ridden, although certainly what they would experience in their home countries would include being ridden. They are used to haul stuff, to carry stuff, to drag stuff. Yet here they are being treated cruelly by not having to do any of that? They are living not in enclosures but in a wildlife environment —

Senator Gagné: What is your question?