Senator Gold: The government is aware of the difficult situation caused by these delays and is doing its utmost to solve the problem.

[English]

Senator Gold: Thank you for bringing it to our attention, senator.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. I will have to make inquiries and report back.

Senator Gold: Would the senator take another question?

Senator Gold: Would you take a question, Senator Cormier?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Senator Tannas, would you take a question?

The Hon. the Speaker: It was moved by the Honourable Senator Gold, seconded by Senator Gagné, that in accordance with rule 10-11(1) — may I dispense?

Senator Gold: I certainly will. Thank you.

Senator Omidvar: Thank you, Senator Gold. That was very fulsome answer. I appreciate that.

Although Afghanistan is not Syria — the context is extremely different — I also want to give credit to the government for that Herculean effort just six years ago. That history, I think, is still fresh in our minds.

The government has so far produced three reports outlining the lessons learned from that experience. My concern is that the lessons learned may well be lessons lost, because we’re not applying them. Can you tell me what the government is doing to train Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, staff so that they can be better prepared for these crises, which will no doubt come again, and apply them at this moment to Afghanistan?

Senator Gold: I don’t have a specific answer to what training is being done in response to this particular situation, but, again, it gives me the opportunity to underline the tragic difference. Both situations are tragic, to be sure, but there is a difference in what we were facing in Syria and what we’re facing with Afghanistan.

In the case of Syria, we were taking people from camps in Lebanon and Jordan. They had already been processed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. There was an ability to get a bit of a heads-up on the situation. It is just not the case, unfortunately, with regard to Afghanistan. It’s hard to apply a rigorous screening process when a country is still in the state that Afghanistan is.

The government remains committed to working on it. I will make inquiries about whatever additional training may be taking place and report back when I can.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Senator, thank you for the question. It’s an important one. As you know, in 2018, this government made a historic commitment to reduce poverty and set some concrete targets — a 20% reduction by 2020 and a 50% reduction by 2030 — based on 2015 levels.

During the pandemic, the government introduced a whole host of measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and to keep Canadians with the means to carry on. These were effective in helping millions of Canadians. However, the government recognizes that all of these measures, which did lead to significant poverty reductions in 2020, masked the systemic inequalities that perpetuate poverty in Canada for those most marginalized. It’s not only populations of African Canadians, but 2SLGBTQ people, Indigenous people and persons with disabilities are also disproportionately affected.

I’m advised that the government recently made a number of commitments that will help to address the issue of poverty. This includes working with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners to give all families in Canada access to building high quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care systems with investments totalling $30 billion over the next five years, and previous investments up to a minimum of $9.2 billion every year in permanent funding as of 2025-26. This is in addition to introducing child and housing benefits, expanding worker and disability benefits, increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement, or GIS, and developing a national school food policy.

The government remains committed to working on these, and the hopes and expectations are that this will not only reduce poverty levels generally but also start to close the gap that you quite properly pointed out in your question.

[Translation]

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): The government is relying upon the advice from Health Canada and others to whom it turns. It is seized with the issue. It is aware of the disruption that is taking place in our airports. It has taken a number of measures, including hiring hundreds of more staff, who are in the process of being trained, and will continue to work to ensure that Canadians can travel safely.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Will the senator take a question?

Senator Gold: Since I’m not rising on debate, I will not even try to smuggle in references and counter-arguments to much of what you said. Thank you for your speech, senator, but some of your assumptions, certainly with regards to the government’s intentions on this bill, are simply not true. I’m on record to that effect, but I will turn to my question.

You quite properly identified, senator, how Senate pre-studies of Bill C-91 and Bill C-92 were legitimate, in your taxonomy, because they resulted in enhancements and improvements of the bills. You cited, and properly so, the expertise of our Aboriginal Peoples Committee.

Would you not agree that the same logic applies to Bill C-13, which is now before us? Our Official Languages Committee has a unique expertise, a unique composition — indeed, this chamber is unique, because linguistic minorities are appointed and represented very well in this chamber.

As everyone in this chamber knows or ought to know, the Official Languages Committee has spent years, if not decades, on this issue and wants to review this bill thoroughly in the same way as was done for Bill C-91 and Bill C-92. Should they not, therefore, Senator Plett, be afforded an opportunity to do so?

The Hon. the Speaker: It was moved by the Honourable Senator Gold, seconded by Senator Gagné, that in accordance with rule 10-11(1) — may I dispense?