Senator Martin: Thank you, Senator Patterson. This is such an essential service that we take for granted in urban Canada. We’re complaining about the connectivity if it’s not within seconds of us touching a key. You raise some really important points of how the North and rural communities are impacted.

In terms of what you said, the government has a goal to have everyone connected by 2030. That’s eight years away. Would you further expand on this statement and whether your bill will help address this to speed up the process?

Senator Patterson: Thank you for the question. Yes, this is a stated objective of the government. It has been well presented and lauded in official government proclamations and promises. The problem is that the spectrum policy has not been reviewed for years. It has not kept up with successful nations, and we all know that cell phones and broadband are cheaper in other parts of the world. Canadians are often complaining about these extremely high costs. The reason we have not been able to successfully lower costs and deploy broadband to regions of the country, especially the remote regions, is because we have outdated policy, and because the government has treated the spectrum option, dare I say, as a significant source of revenue — I think it was $9 billion in the last spectrum auction — instead of deploying it in ways that promote good public policy.

We need to change the spectrum policy, and we will have a chance of reaching these laudable goals of connections in all parts of this great country by 2030.

The Hon. the Speaker: I apologize, senator, but I will have to interrupt you at six o’clock.

[English]

The Hon. the Speaker: I am sorry, senator, but your time is up. Are you asking for five more minutes?

Hon. David Richards: Thank you very much. Senator Cormier, I am a Maritimer, as you know. It took me years to get my work recognized outside of the Maritimes. You know, I’m sure, of Acadian, English and First Nation Maritimers who have suffered under this kind of stigma for a long time.

I think as long as the government is involved, there are going to be gatekeepers. I’m very worried about this marginalization of certain people that ideological gatekeepers will impose on artists. Maybe you could reflect on that a bit. Terence, the great Roman philosopher who actually was an African slave said, “I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me.” When Richard Wagamese, a great First Nation writer, wrote to me and said he started writing because he admired my work, it meant a great deal to me. I think the work transcends all of this. I think it transcends ideology and any other thing — identity politics and other such things we might put to it. So I ask you, will this come into play if there are new government regulations?

Senator Plett: The Parliamentary Budget Officer predicts that most households in Canada — not some people, but most — will, under the backstop, see a net loss resulting from federal carbon pricing under the government’s plan in 2030-31.

Leader, will your government finally admit that Canadians are not actually better off under your carbon pricing scheme? Also, as the carbon tax went up again last Friday on April 1, which wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, what will your government do to provide Canadians some relief in these dire economic times of near runaway inflation?

Senator Housakos: Your Honour, just to follow up on your comments, Senator Dean did not get up on a point of order. He got up on debate on an issue that’s not right now on the Order Paper. He would be more than welcome to debate the issue of the hybrid motion, but I think colleagues have to understand when there is a debate on a point of order, they’re obligated to speak to the point of order, not to deviate and go on to debate. Other than that, I will accept the comments of Senator Dean, but with all due respect, of course, I disagree. Thank you, Your Honour.

Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. The Government of Canada values the work of the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer and takes the work of that office seriously. That work informs their decisions going forward.

Hon. Rose-May Poirier: Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader in the Senate.

According to the information that predates the pandemic, the number of homeless veterans across Canada is estimated to be about 3,000. Last year’s federal budget promised $45 million over two years on a pilot project aimed at reducing homelessness amongst veterans, beginning with the 2022-23 fiscal year.

A recent answer to a Senate Order Paper question revealed that Infrastructure Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada are still working on the design of the program. They don’t know how many veterans this program will serve.

Leader, when will this program be operational, and how many veterans will it help?

Hon. David Richards: Honourable senators, my question is also for Senator Gold.

Senator Gold, I’m following up on Senator Poirier’s question dealing with the closure of the production fish plants. Senator Gold, you mentioned the science involved in coming to this decision about species protection. However, on the Miramichi River, nothing has been done in the last 40 years to cull the seals at the mouth of the bay or harvest the striped bass that arrive in the tens of thousands in our waters and devastate salmon, smolt and smaller species of fish, both local and migratory. In fact, the stripers are allowed to navigate into all the tributaries of our rivers and are up by the Cains River in the main southwest and up into the headwaters of the northwest. Predators are on the salmon spawning ground. You only have to live on the Miramichi to know that the DFO is almost totally incompetent in dealing with this matter and has no right to speak of science as their major concern.

Senator Richards: What would it take to allow the province itself or the Miramichi Salmon Association, in conjunction with the First Nations peoples, to take over the salmon problem on the Miramichi and relieve the DFO of its concerns on this matter?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question.

As I mentioned in my answer earlier, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the great majority of Canadians, in fact, will receive more than they pay out, but clearly not all, as you have properly mentioned.

The important thing to underline, colleagues, is — and I go back to classical Economics 101 — putting a price on pollution is meant to increase the cost. It is meant to create incentives for all of us, businesses and individuals, to change our habits.

One hopes that the provinces that have not yet signed on to a meaningful plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will do so for the benefit of their citizens, for the benefit of the children of their citizens and for the benefit of the country and the planet.

Senator Batters: Senator Woo, thank you for that. However, my question remains unanswered.

Perhaps you can answer this: Is this the first regulatory statute of this type from the Trudeau government during its six and a half years in power? If not, how many have there been? How many meetings did your committee have during the last parliamentary session, given that we are already several months into this session and we just had the first meeting?

Senator Woo: We call this the second Annual Regulatory Modernization Bill. The first one was part of the 2019 Budget Implementation Act. It was embedded within that bill but clearly spelled out as the first set of regulatory modernization activities. The short answer is that this is number two.

Insofar as Scrutiny of Regulations Committee meetings during the last Parliament, I believe we had one substantive meeting. The reasons are well known to all of us. It was lower in the pecking order in terms of priority time slots for committees to meet. Being a joint committee made it more complicated. There were delays in the nomination of the joint chair on the other side and, of course, there was a short parliamentary session.

However, as I mentioned, we now have some runway. With a bit of luck, we can get five meetings in before the end of June, and we hope to get a lot done.

Senator Richards: You mentioned in this regulations act the relaxation of fishery charges. Would you have information on which specific charges you are talking about? If you don’t have the information at hand, could you send me an email about this, please?

Senator Woo: Thank you, Senator Richards. The best place to get those detailed answers is in committee. I look forward to detailed scrutiny. I think it’s not so much a relaxation of rules but, rather, the ability for fisheries officers to legally use alternative dispute settlement mechanisms for minor infractions of the Fisheries Act.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Jaffer, I am sorry, but your time has expired.

Senator Simons, your microphone is not on. Honourable senators, it seems that the console system has an issue, so we will take a break for a few minutes.

(The sitting of the Senate was suspended.)

(The sitting of the Senate was resumed.)

Hon. Diane Bellemare moved the adoption of the report.

(On motion of Senator Martin, debate adjourned.)

[English]

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Galvez, seconded by the Honourable Senator Forest:

That the Senate of Canada recognize that:

(a)climate change is an urgent crisis that requires an immediate and ambitious response;

(b)human activity is unequivocally warming the atmosphere, ocean and land at an unprecedented pace, and is provoking weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe, including in the Arctic, which is warming at more than twice the global rate;

(c)failure to address climate change is resulting in catastrophic consequences especially for Canadian youth, Indigenous Peoples and future generations; and

(d)climate change is negatively impacting the health and safety of Canadians, and the financial stability of Canada;

That the Senate declare that Canada is in a national climate emergency which requires that Canada uphold its international commitments with respect to climate change and increase its climate action in line with the Paris Agreement’s objective of holding global warming well below two degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius; and

That the Senate commit to action on mitigation and adaptation in response to the climate emergency and that it consider this urgency for action while undertaking its parliamentary business.

Hon. Dan Christmas: Honourable senators, there are seminal moments in life when time just stops and events become etched in your heart, your soul and your memory; points in life’s incredible journey when the tectonic plates shift, and one realizes that something extraordinary is taking place that will bring about changes which will impact things for years to come.

One such moment occurred nearly 14 years ago when Prime Minister Stephen Harper rose in the House of Commons in June 2008. This apology, coming about 128 years after the introduction of residential schools, was nothing short of monumental and, indeed, earth-shaking. I know in the case of my peoples, the Mi’kmaq, we kept wondering and hoping that this means of conciliation and atonement would continue to move forward.

Last Friday, at the Vatican, it finally did. His Holiness Pope Francis made an apology to survivors for:

. . . the deplorable conduct of . . . members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God’s forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart, I am very sorry. And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon.

Colleagues, this apology is an equally significant game changer. This is why it is so important that we embrace it, endorse it and actively promote its acceptance.

Already there are some who decry the sincerity of it being rendered, that it doesn’t mean anything unless it is followed up by actions. But I’m not convinced that it represents how the survivors feel. Much of the commentary appears to come from the periphery. Let’s not take that position for granted. Let’s hear, instead, what some Mi’kmaq survivors are saying.

Magit Poulette, 79, is a survivor of Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, an elder from the We’koqma’q First Nation and a devoted Catholic and self-professed “prayer warrior.” She said, “It was very good — I think it really came from his heart.”

Another of the delegates representing Atlantic Canada was Phyllis Googoo, 79, also from We’koqma’q and a member of the community’s support group for survivors. She spent 10 years in residential schools, from the time she was only 4-years-old. The apology left her feeling very happy and with a lump in her throat. It was clearly an emotional event for her.

I’ll leave final comment of the Mi’kmaq to my community’s leader — and my dear and trusted friend — Chief Terry Paul. He said:

Each and every day of my life for the last nearly 40 years as Chief of Membertou, I have carried the memories of the five-year-old boy who went to Shubenacadie Residential School all those years ago.

As I grew, I promised myself that my experiences at residential school would not hold me down. I would not allow the painful times in my life to define the possibility of what I could be, or do.

Honourable senators, I beg you to consider that for the survivors, this is less about justice rendered than it is about being released from the legacy of the unmitigated pain and suffering of the memory of residential school trauma.

Honourable senators, the apology is a gift that allows survivors to finally say, “Our chains are gone; we’ve been set free.” Wela’lioq, thank you.

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.

Hon. Brian Francis: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to the apology made by His Holiness Pope Francis to Indigenous peoples on the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system.

I am a Catholic. I am also an Indian day school survivor. I can tell you that it was important for me to hear the Pope say he was “very sorry” for the conduct of some of its clergy. But I wish he had gone further. The Catholic Church must take full accountability for its role in instigating, supporting and defending the historic and ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada — including in the Indian residential school and Indian day school systems, where hunger, neglect, abuse and death were rampant.

It must also condemn the Doctrine of Discovery and other undoubtedly racist and unjust narratives, which not only depicted Indigenous people as inferior or savages but also enabled the displacement and dispossession of our land and resources.

Colleagues, the partial apology came after a week of meetings in Rome requested by Indigenous delegates. It is a product of the courageous and persistent efforts of survivors and their descendants, who fought for decades to ensure the truth is known while still healing from their trauma.

It is, furthermore, a product of the domestic and international outrage over the discovery of thousands of unmarked graves at the sites of former Indian residential schools. Had it not been for these devastating, but not surprising, discoveries, who knows how much longer it would have taken for the Catholic Church to apologize.

In the next months, Pope Francis must respond to Call to Action 58 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which requires that he come to Canada to issue an apology — one that must be robust and meaningful. In addition, the Catholic Church, which already failed to meet its obligations under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, must use its vast wealth to make substantive financial reparations. It must also turn over all Indigenous artifacts held by the Church and release all relevant documents and records. These next steps are non‑negotiable.

To conclude, colleagues, to me a partial apology is important, but is simply not enough. If the Pope is really committed to the path towards truth, healing, justice and reconciliation, concrete actions and changes by the Catholic Church must follow.

The wrongdoings of the Catholic Church are not just in the past. Indigenous people continue to be impacted, including our children, who are overrepresented in the child welfare system at rates higher than at the height of the Indian residential school system. Wela’lin, thank you.

[Translation]

[Editor’s Note: Senator Audette spoke in an Indigenous language.]

Hon. Jane Cordy: Honourable senators, I want to begin by thanking the Canadian Senators Group for giving me their statement time today.

Maya Angelou has said:

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

What an amazing power we possess to make the world a better place when we wield it for good. One such person who embodied goodness and spread it so generously to others was Claudette Bradshaw. Claudette sadly passed away on March 26, 2022, following a battle with cancer.

Claudette served as an MP from 1997 to 2006, representing the riding of Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe in New Brunswick. During her time on the Hill, she had been Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Cooperation, Minister responsible for la Francophonie, Minister of Labour and Minister of State for Human Resources Development.

From 1999 to 2004, she was Federal Coordinator on Homelessness. It is a well-known fact that Claudette often opened her apartment in Ottawa to her constituents. She made herself available whenever possible to meet, to chat and to encourage others, particularly young people.

While working on a task force on women entrepreneurs in 2003, I recall attending several meetings with Claudette. She regarded the work of the task force to be very important and generally wanted everyone who came in contact with the work to feel as though they mattered and could contribute in a meaningful way. Many people have developed a lifelong love affair with public service and humanitarian outreach because Claudette, or others like her, made them feel as if they could make a difference just by being themselves.

This is perhaps Claudette’s greatest legacy: the people she sent out into the world with a smile and one of her famous hugs to share and to spread love, making it multiply exponentially.

The project that was perhaps nearest and dearest to her heart was the Headstart program she founded in Moncton with her husband, Doug. This program has helped countless high-risk children and their families who struggle to meet their most basic needs, with early family intervention and support services. In the 50-plus years since the start of this initiative, I can only imagine the lives that have been and continue to be impacted because of Claudette’s vision of a brighter present that would hopefully lead to a better future.

In 2009, Claudette was appointed a member of the Order of New Brunswick, and in 2020 she received the New Brunswick Human Rights Award.

Honourable senators, Claudette Bradshaw was a bright light in this world. What is more, she did not keep that light to herself, but spent her energy lighting the candles of others so that they, too, would shine.

May we all shine so brightly. May we all care as deeply. May we all live as fully. Thank you, Claudette. My condolences to her family, friends and the many who loved her. Thank you.

[Translation]

Senator Moodie: Senator Gold, what I’m asking for is an update on where things are at. Is it possible for you to provide this chamber with such an update? Thank you.