Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): My question is for the government leader. Canadians who use natural gas or electricity to heat their homes can expect their bills to rise between 50% to 100%, on average, this winter. Some consumers could see their bills rise by as much as 300%. While the war in Europe and seasonal demand are two of the factors driving up costs, so, too, are inflation and increases in the federal carbon tax.

Leader, with respect to the latter, will the government ensure Canadians will be warm this winter and freeze their tax hike?

Hon. Julie Miville-Dechêne: Senator Gold, the French Senate just tabled a shocking report revealing that 17% of Pornhub’s viewers are children. This is the first time such an estimate has been made. Moreover, a quarter of the world’s internet bandwidth is used to view pornography.

What does the government intend to do to limit children’s exposure to these crude, sometimes violent and traumatizing images?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. If I am not mistaken, the process involving the bill you mentioned has not been completed or made public. As soon as the information is made public, we can share it, but for now I am unfortunately unable to answer your question about the content of the bill.

Hon. Claude Carignan: Leader, we just learned that some federal employees illegally received CERB payments. They were not entitled to the benefit since they were employed by the federal government. Can you tell us how many employees are involved, how much in total they received illegally, what measures your government took or plans to take to recover this money and what disciplinary action was taken against these employees?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. I will have to look into it. I will come back to you with a response as soon as possible.

Senator Carignan: When you give your response, I have something to ask of you. In an access to information request, journalists were told, following the first two requests submitted in May, that the federal agency had indicated there were no documents that would answer their questions about the number of employees or sanctions regarding the employees. Thanks to further investigation and another email, the journalists later obtained a copy of an internal email that referred to 44 employees who had been dismissed.

This reminded me of an answer I got from the government about the number of spaces or the number of employees on telework, when I was told that those figures were unavailable. Will you be able to give us the exact information or, once again, will you hide behind claims that the document, or the information, isn’t available, when it does in fact exist in an office somewhere, in an internal memo?

Some Hon. Senators: Agreed.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate) tabled the reply to Question No. 58, dated November 23, 2021, appearing on the Order Paper and Notice Paper in the name of the Honourable Senator Plett, regarding interprovincial trade — Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate) tabled the reply to Question No. 170, dated June 23, 2022, appearing on the Order Paper and Notice Paper in the name of the Honourable Senator Carignan, P.C., regarding the occupancy rate of federal buildings.

[Translation]

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): I would be happy to explain — thank you for your question — the fact that there is — currently the oil that we receive by rail from the West is insufficient to meet Canadians’ needs. Despite the important legislative and jurisdictional powers of the federal government in these matters, with regard to energy and the environment, these are shared jurisdictions with the provinces, so it is not simply possible for any federal government by fiat in Canadian federalism to dictate what pipelines perhaps could be built across Quebec’s territory to help fuel and heat the homes of Canadians, whether in Quebec or in Atlantic Canada. Until such time as we are able to be completely self-sufficient in each and every region, without the requirement of traversing provincial borders or requiring provincial consent, we’re stuck with the situation where we are doing the best we can to provide the energy that Canadians need to run their businesses and heat their homes.

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Government leader, 99.8% of businesses are small- and medium-sized businesses, or SMEs. SMEs drive Canada’s economy by employing 88.3% of Canada’s private labour force and accounting for more than half of the nation’s GDP.

Healthy SMEs are vital in any post-pandemic recovery plan, yet at this critical time, the Canada Revenue Agency is putting undue stress on businesses by taking almost a year on average to complete audits.

What is the government doing to address the delays at the CRA?

Senator Gold: The safety of Canadians is at stake and a priority. As I said, the government is working with the CBSA to address this situation.

An Hon. Senator: On division.

(Motion agreed to and bill read second time, on division.)

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate) tabled the reply to Question No. 146, dated March 30, 2022, appearing on the Order Paper and Notice Paper in the name of the Honourable Senator Housakos, regarding Veterans Affairs Canada — Repairs to gravesites and grave markers.

Hon. Pierre J. Dalphond: Honourable senators, in April I rose to express solidarity with jailed Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza. After courageously returning to Russia, despite two assassination attempts, he was arrested under new laws criminalizing dissent.

Recently, he was charged with high treason for opposing the war against Ukraine.

Yet, Mr. Kara-Murza’s criticism of the Putin regime reflects the truth. This is evident by the overwhelming United Nations vote last week to condemn Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of occupied regions in Ukraine. The truth cannot be a crime.

Let us reaffirm that we stand with Mr. Kara-Murza — a star of hope in the Russian sky. This week, we are honoured to host in our capital his wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, the project manager of the Free Russia Foundation. We are also honoured to host two of his advocates: the Honourable Irwin Cotler, appointed as the Special Envoy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Community of Democracies in the Case of Vladimir Kara-Murza; and Bill Browder, head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign.

They thank us for our Magnitsky Law and call for more sanctions against oligarchs who are often proxies of Putin to hide his wealth, and also to ban Russian officials involved in Mr. Kara-Murza’s persecution.

On October 10, on her husband’s behalf, Evgenia Kara-Murza accepted the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize in Strasbourg, awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In a statement read by his wife, he dedicated the prize to the many thousands of Russians jailed for speaking out against the war who choose not to remain “. . . silent in the face of this atrocity, even at the cost of personal freedom.” He added in the statement read by his wife:

. . . I look forward to . . . when a peaceful, democratic and Putin-free Russia returns to this Assembly and to this Council; and when we can finally start building that whole, free and peaceful Europe we all want to see. Even today, in the darkest of hours, I firmly believe that time will come.

Senators, let’s stand with the Kara-Murzas, the advocates working with them and all those in Russia who dare to speak against Putin’s war crimes. Thank you, meegwetch.

Senator Gold: The government acknowledges that the vetting process failed. It failed the system, and most importantly, it failed Canadians. It failed those, like myself, members of a community who are the targets of vile hatred year in, year out, far disproportionate to our representation in the community.

Again, the minister will appear before a committee seized with the issue to look into it, and we look forward to the results of those committee hearings.

Hon. Michèle Audette: Would Senator Dalphond take another question?

Senator Dalphond: Certainly.

Hon. Peter M. Boehm moved the adoption of the report.

The Hon. the Speaker: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Senator Martin: While Canadians will struggle to heat their homes, the impact of rising fuel costs and, by extension, food prices in Indigenous communities will be staggering. Food prices in remote Indigenous communities are already up to 2.5 times higher than the national average, and rising fuel prices will compound inflation’s toll on Indigenous families. While the minister monitors the situation, Indigenous families will have to get by with less food and heat this winter.

Senator Gold, what plans does the government have to address the increased pressure facing Indigenous communities this winter?