Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. Again, it’s an important and serious one that affects millions of Canadians and their families. This government has been there for Canadians through difficult economic times and continues to be there through difficult economic times. It continues to be there for those who grow, produce and distribute food to Canadians and will continue to be there for them.

Senator Gold: Addressing the scourge of suicides in this country is a priority for this government, as it would be for any government. It should be a preoccupation of everybody who has been touched by this, as so many of us have. I don’t know the answer to your question. As I said, I will renew my inquiries and be happy to report back.

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my next question is for the government leader in the Senate and concerns a topic I’ve raised twice previously, but it hasn’t yet been answered: the serious matter of a national 9-8-8 suicide prevention hotline.

In December 2020, a motion from B.C. member of Parliament Todd Doherty to create this hotline unanimously passed in the other place. When I originally asked you about this, leader, I noted that given your government’s inaction on the motion to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRCG, as a terrorist entity, we would need to keep pressing the government to make the 9-8-8 hotline a reality. Little did I know then that I would be asking you the very same question, today, a year and a half later.

Leader, you’ve taken this question on notice twice before, in December 2020 and a year ago, in June 2021, and failed to provide an answer. What is your government’s plan and timetable to implement a national suicide prevention hotline?

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the second time?

(On motion of Senator Manning, bill placed on the Orders of the Day for second reading two days hence.)

[Translation]

Senator Martin: According to the B.C. Coroners Service, 582 people in my province died by suicide last year. How many of those lives could have been saved if Canada had one easy-to-remember, three-digit hotline number that they could have called?

Leader, for well over a year now, there has been a question on the Senate Order Paper asking for basic information about the work your government is undertaking on the 9-8-8 hotline. Have you collaborated with provinces and territories? How many public servants are working on this, and is a different number, rather than 9-8-8, being considered?

These questions and more have never been answered. Why is that, leader? Is it because you have no progress to report, or is it because the suicide prevention hotline is just not a priority for your government?

Senator Gold: The government’s economic policies are designed to help not only consumers but also producers and all Canadians to weather difficult economic times. The government is aware, as I am personally, of the increases in the cost of living. You’re quite right that we as parliamentarians, as well as many Canadians, are fortunate that we are able to bear these increases far more easily than most, and it is the situation of most Canadians who are struggling that is the focus of this government.

Senator Plett: Not likely.

Hon. Fabian Manning: Honourable senators, I give notice that, two days hence:

I will call the attention of the Senate to the life of Larry Dohey.

Senator Plett: Of course, no obstruction had started. We’re going to get to that obstruction, but the government moved their motion.

Senator Gold, as I said yesterday, you are the Leader of the Government in the Senate, and, as such, you are privy to the government’s parliamentary strategy. You even have a parliamentary secretary. You knew very well that the government’s plan was to make sure that the Senate would receive Bill C-13 before the House rises on June 23. You made no secret that this bill is a government priority.

It is time for the government to be up front and clear. Senator Gold, do you expect Bill C-13 to clear the Senate before we rise for the summer, yes or no?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader in the Senate. Leader, a poll conducted for Food Banks Canada has found that almost a quarter of Canadians are eating less than they should be, because they don’t have enough money for food. For Indigenous households, this number rises to 45%, leader. A month ago, the Ottawa Food Bank said the number of people needing their assistance was at its highest in their entire 38-year history. Harvest Manitoba in Winnipeg says they’ve seen a 40% increase year over year in the number of people they’re supporting across every part of my province.

Leader, this NDP-Liberal government’s spending is fuelling the inflation behind record food bank usage across Canada. Even your own former finance minister Bill Morneau criticizes your economic mismanagement. Where is your plan, leader, to stop hunger and food insecurity in our country?

Hon. David M. Wells: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the report of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association concerning the Second Part of the 2022 Ordinary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, held by video conference from April 25 to 28, 2022.

[English]

Hon. Patricia Bovey: Honourable senators, Newfoundland and Canada sadly lost a major arts voice this past weekend. Artist Christopher Pratt died Sunday at the age of 86.

Internationally known, Pratt’s paintings and prints are cherished in public and private collections across Canada. About, of and from his beloved province, where he was born before Newfoundland joined Confederation, they are painted with his unique precision. Declaring, “I love what I do,” his subjects — Newfoundland’s buildings, interiors, people, highway, his sailboat and waters — earned him the mantra as a leading magic realist.

Tom Smart, Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s director and the artist’s biographer, said Sunday:

There is magic in his paintings. . . . You look at his paintings and it’s almost as if they’re looking back at you.

Seen by some as cold, haunting or having an unsettling gaze, Pratt’s controlled, sparse, precise works reveal details, realities and depths achieved by few. A student of Alex Colville, he studied at Mount Allison University and the Glasgow School of Art. My time in his immaculate studio was memorable, as were the ketchup and mustard containers filled with his printer inks.

Christopher, who designed the Newfoundland flag, was a storyteller in art and conversation. I went sailing with him in 1990. It was magical. Christopher’s unexpected invitation awaited me on landing in St. John’s. I ran to the store before it closed, bought appropriate shoes, accepted the invitation for the next morning and then phoned my husband in Victoria. “I thought you were working,” he said. I was. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see if the many works I had catalogued over the years were true to the detail of the boat itself. They were. Anyway, my meetings were only to begin the next evening.

Christopher’s wife, Mary Pratt, who predeceased him, was also a pre-eminent artist. Even after their divorce, they spoke almost every day, sometimes from our home on the island at the far end of the country. The two were fast friends. I extend my condolences to the Pratt family and friends.

Colleagues, artists are leaders, portraying who we are, where and how we live, illuminating issues we face. Christopher Pratt did that with steadfastness, insight, care and compassion. He inspired many through his curating, teaching and the directness and integrity of his thought and art.

In paying tribute to Christopher Pratt’s exemplary career, I also want to congratulate Inuit Art Quarterly, the publication which presents leading Inuit artists and writers, some from Labrador. Last Friday, they received two much coveted National Magazine Awards, one for best arts and literature magazine and the Magazine Grand Prix, the first arts magazine ever to receive it.

As we say goodbye to Christopher Pratt, a veritable Canadian icon, may we also support and honour other artists — emerging and established — for their work and insights. Thank you.

Hon. Pamela Wallin: Honourable senators, many of us here have lived with the fear of losing a much-loved mother or father or mentor.

I remember many years ago my grandmother would leave our home, suitcase in hand, on a biting cold Saskatchewan winter day in search of a memory and a life long past. Her behaviour, known as “wandering,” is common amongst those suffering from dementia. Our family was in a constant state of panic — mom and dad frantically leaving work or counting on the kindness of strangers and friends to bring her back home safely.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case for other families. There are too many stories of folks with dementia wandering and never coming home. If a person is not found within the first 12 hours, they face a 50% chance of injury or death. About six in ten people with dementia will become wanderers.

A brutal, indiscriminate medical condition that knows no boundaries, dementia — or Alzheimer’s — affects more than 700,000 Canadians and their families, and those numbers are expected to double in the next 15 years. And it knows no boundaries — everyone from Ronald Reagan to Robin Williams to Rosa Parks — it robs them of a future.

Coping with this means often frustrating situations, and it touches us all in some way or another. But on May 31, 2018 — and believe me, it was late at night — we unanimously passed a motion here in the Senate asking the government to work with the provinces and territories to institute a national framework on silver alert, and I thank Senator Plett for being the co-sponsor.

A silver alert, much like the successful Amber Alert system that is used to locate abducted children, helps find people with major neurocognitive disorders who have gone missing or who are in imminent danger. Given the similarity of the systems, they could be easily integrated, making silver alert a cost-effective strategy to find our loved ones. Statistics from cities and states from our southern neighbour show that silver alert has been a very effective strategy.

So I was happy to see yesterday that the Quebec government has announced that it is launching three silver alert pilot projects in the municipalities of Joliette, Val-d’Or and Drummond. A silver alert strategy in these towns is a great start, and we’ve seen Alberta and Manitoba adopt legislation to implement the system. But a federal network would help each of the provincial and territorial systems communicate and work together. My hope is that the government sees the success of these projects and takes the lead, as we ask them to do.

Hon. Mary Coyle: Honourable senators, yesterday on the eve of World Oceans Day, I jumped out of bed at 4 a.m. so I could be out at the Arisaig Wharf to go lobster fishing with my good friends Megan and Shaun MacInnis and Shaun’s Uncle Bernard on the Carrie Anne.

Nova Scotia is known as “Canada’s Ocean Playground,” and the moniker is an appropriate one. Have you driven or cycled Cape Breton Island’s — Unama’ki’s — scenic Cabot Trail, gone swimming in the balmy St. George’s Bay waters at Pomquet Beach, enjoyed the Stan Rogers Folk Festival enveloped in mist rolling in off the Canso coast, visited the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove, explored the Joggins fossil cliffs, surfed the waves at Lawrencetown, toured the Bluenose II in Lunenburg, gone whale watching from Brier Island or hiked Cape Split to see the highest tides in the world roiling below in the Bay of Fundy? Nova Scotia is the perfect place to celebrate World Oceans Day.

Honourable senators, the North Atlantic is rich in so many ways. It is the most intense carbon sink on the planet, and for many Nova Scotians, it is their workplace.

Colleagues, lobster is Canada’s most valuable fishery. Last year, the value of Canada’s lobster exports exceeded $3.2 billion — the best year ever. In Nova Scotia, there are thousands employed in the industry and many more dependent on the income.

Yesterday morning, I had the honour of experiencing firsthand the daily rhythm of the lobster fishery. As I turned off Highway 245 at St. Margaret of Scotland Church and headed down to join the MacInnises on the Carrie Anne, the sun was rising behind the Arisaig lighthouse in the direction of Malignant Cove. The wharf was bustling with action as people prepared their boats with bins to store fresh lobster and fish bait to replenish the traps.

Like a well-conducted orchestra, the fleet motored out to harvest the lobsters from their traps and bait and drop them again for the next day. Our crew worked steadily and with great attention to safety and conservation. When we returned to shore, Bo and Indy, two of Megan and Shaun’s four little boys, were there to greet the boat just as Shaun had done at that age with his late father Stevie MacInnis, a well-respected local lobster and tuna fisherman.

Honourable senators, on this World Oceans Day 2022, let’s celebrate these fishers — the MacInnis family and others — and let’s recognize the ocean as a generous provider of life, food and livelihood and as an important sustainer of families, traditions, communities, our economy and our planet.

Happy World Oceans Day, colleagues. Thank you. Welalioq.

Senator Ataullahjan: I would also like to congratulate all those who campaigned and worked tirelessly to ensure that the voices of Ontarians were heard when it comes to the future of our province.

Over the course of their last mandate, the Ontario PC Party demonstrated leadership and diligence, working collaboratively with other provinces and with the federal government to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and to successfully deliver key investments and aid to the people of Ontario.

The resounding approval from the Ontario electorate this time around constitutes a strong endorsement for a renewed mandate and the policies and promises put forward by Premier Ford’s government.

With the COVID crisis almost behind us, it is a critical time for Ontario’s leadership to get the economy back on track and to continue their efforts to bring long-awaited relief to the people of Ontario.

I am encouraged by the proposed initiatives and outlined priorities of the Ford government, which include a plan for strong economic recovery, innovation, development in the areas of housing, transit and health care and critical investments toward mental health and long-term care.

I wish Premier Ford and his Progressive Conservative government the best of luck on their new mandate, and I look forward to their continued achievements for a more prosperous and thriving future for all the citizens of Ontario. Thank you.

Hon. Brent Cotter: Honourable senators, yesterday, Senators Arnot, Massicotte, Wells and I had the pleasure of hosting meetings with senior representatives of Cameco Corporation and the chiefs of three northern Saskatchewan First Nations. They were in Ottawa to discuss matters of importance with government representatives and shared some of their thoughts with us.

As many of you will know, Cameco Corporation, based in Saskatoon, is the largest uranium mining company in the world. Cameco’s leadership team, headed by CEO Tim Gitzel, is among one of the most progressive and capable in the mining industry and is committed to the communities with which it works. The First Nations leaders in attendance were Chief Coreen Sayazie of the Black Lake First Nation, Chief Bart Tsannie of the Hatchet Lake First Nation and Chief Kevin Mercredi of the Fond Du Lac First Nation, all Dene First Nations at the far northern reaches of Saskatchewan, virtually bordering on the Northwest Territories.

What we heard about and what I want to speak to briefly today are the incredibly wide-ranging partnerships that exist and have existed for decades between Cameco and northern Saskatchewan First Nations and their various business enterprises. These partnerships enable Cameco and the First Nations to jointly benefit from the mining of a critical natural resource, uranium, in northern Saskatchewan. Since 2004, these partnerships have generated over $4 billion flowing to First Nations businesses and communities in the North, as well as employment for thousands of northerners and education and training for countless Indigenous young people.

It is an example of the incredible potential for economic partnerships — in this case, in one of the many critical minerals abundant in northern Saskatchewan — to breathe life into the concepts of truth and reconciliation and to make concrete Canada’s commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — what Senator Arnot yesterday rightly described as an example of reconciliation before that word was fashionable.

Some of our visitors are residential school survivors. One chief told us that the past cannot be undone, but through initiatives like their partnerships with Cameco and others, they and their communities can move forward with dignity and autonomy to pursue their destinies and achieve the kind of prosperity that so many of us in this country take for granted. This is courageous and honourable. The initiatives they champion to build the economic and social fabrics of their lives and communities deserve our support as senators and Canadians. Cameco and the great Canadian companies that have shown the willingness and commitment — and sometimes courage — to work with our First Nations in pursuit of shared success deserve our admiration, appreciation and support. Thank you. Marsee.

Hon. Stan Kutcher: Honourable senators, we are joined today by an outstanding group of young people. Twenty of our visitors in our gallery are interns in the offices of members of Parliament. They are from Ukraine and are participating in the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program. Many are beginning their careers in international relations, law, medicine and other areas. They have lived through the onset of the genocidal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Many have families and friends whose lives and liberty are in jeopardy.

Many have loved ones who are fighting for the survival of their country and a world order governed by the rule of law and not the whims of tyrannical autocrats. We know that when Ukraine wins this war, there will be no more war. If Russia wins this war, there will be no more Ukraine.

We in this chamber stand with Ukraine and welcome these future leaders who represent the tenacity, honour and resilience of the Ukrainian people. Young people who aspire to do great things, as our visitors do, benefit from exposure to other ways of understanding our common world. They also benefit from being exposed to role models who demonstrate that hard work, struggle and dedication to the values that underlie our democratic institutions can achieve a better world for all.

Speaking of role models, I can think of none better for these young women to emulate than one of our own colleagues, a person I am proud to call a friend, a fellow Nova Scotian who has demonstrated exemplary leadership in her fight for global equality, environmental protection and the rights of Indigenous peoples: our own Senator Mary Coyle. As some of you know, Senator Coyle recently received an honorary degree of Doctor of Business Management from Meru University of Science and Technology in Meru, Kenya. This degree is a fitting recognition of her decades of work, building stronger and more gender-equitable communities around the world.

I know you all will join with me in recognizing Senator Coyle’s achievements. Congratulations, Mary. You have set a high bar for us all.

Senator Kutcher: Honourable senators, it is fitting that our guests in the gallery today can see that there are people in Canada who have worked hard and successfully to help create a more just and equal world. These people give us strength and fill our future with hope.

Guests, you will soon be returning to your country and engaging in the very difficult task of winning the war and directing the reconstruction of Ukraine. I hope you will seek out mentors who will work with you, help guide you and who can provide you with the support, advice and realistic encouragement you will need to help you as you build a better Ukraine and a more just and tolerant world.

The road ahead will be a difficult one, but no trip worth the journey is smooth. Good luck and Godspeed. Thank you, wela’lioq, d’akuju.

Hon. Percy Mockler, Chairof the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance, presented the following report:

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

The Standing Senate Committee on National Finance has the honour to present its

FOURTH REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill C-8, An Act to implement certain provisions of the economic and fiscal update tabled in Parliament on December 14, 2021 and other measures, has, in obedience to the order of reference of May 10, 2022, examined the said bill and now reports the same without amendment.

Respectfully submitted,

PERCY MOCKLER

Chair

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Honourable senators, I give notice that, at the next sitting of the Senate, I will move:

That, in accordance with subsection 53(1) of the Privacy Act, Chapter P-21, R.S.C., 1985, the Senate approve the appointment of Mr. Philippe Dufresne as Privacy Commissioner, for a term of seven years.