Senator Batters: Senator Gold, now that the Special Rapporteur has resigned, the bills will be flooding in for work done on his report.

First, there are the likely eye-watering legal fees for Liberal Party donor Sheila Block and her legal team from Bay Street firm Torys, especially given that, for some unknown reason, they are continuing to rack up sky-high billable hours until the end of June. There will also be money owed to Orchestra for their media relations advice. Taxpayers also are on the hook for paying Navigator, the crisis communications firm for their “communications advice and support.” I sure hope it wasn’t them who advised putting George Washington in a report about Beijing election interference and keeping the Trudeau Foundation out.

The bills are piling up, Senator Gold. How much has Trudeau’s failed attempt to crisis manage this election interference scandal cost Canadians in total? How much? Just the number, please.

Senator Batters: I noticed that you only noted in passing the fact that the Legal Committee in our report made significant observations stating how concerning we found it that major criminal law sections were included in a 430-page budget implementation act rather than in stand-alone bills. Those included a couple of the sections that you mentioned.

One part that you didn’t note was the digital asset section dealing with changes to the Criminal Code. Our Legal Committee didn’t even have time to hear any evidence about that part. Would you agree that is a concerning thing, and that these types of criminal law changes should be dealt with in stand-alone bills rather than in a 430-page budget implementation act?

Senator Loffreda: Thank you. As I said, no bill is perfect. It is common practice now to have omnibus bills. I think, yes, certain measures should be dealt with in separate bills. I mentioned a few of the ones which could have been dealt with separately. That is one, maybe, that should have been dealt with separately. As I said, no bill is perfect, but this is a good bill. It will support Canadians and help our economy going forward. I thank you for your question.

Senator Batters: Senator Omidvar, your Recommendation 2 talks about “targeting populations that are currently overrepresented in Canada’s suicide rates . . . . ” In that short list, your committee included “persons with mental illnesses.”

Senator Batters: Senator Omidvar, your Recommendation 2 talks about “targeting populations that are currently overrepresented in Canada’s suicide rates . . . . ” In that short list, your committee included “persons with mental illnesses.”

Senator Omidvar, another fact noted in that 2010 commercial I mentioned was that 90% of those who die by suicide have mental illness, so it’s not a subset of suicide deaths in Canada. This is nearly the entire group of suicide deaths in Canada.

Why did your committee include that in your targeted demographic list?

Senator Omidvar: Senator Batters, I understand what you’re saying. Mental health is likely an underlying cause for suicides, regardless of which population they are in. I take your point, but I believe the committee did recognize the importance of mental illness as a condition, and we’ve noted it in the recommendation.

If you have not found it to your satisfaction, in retrospect, I wish you had been called as a witness; that would have helped. Hopefully, the next time we study this matter, we will remember to do so.

(On motion of Senator Martin, debate adjourned.)

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator McCallum, seconded by the Honourable Senator LaBoucane-Benson:

That the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources be authorized to examine and report on the cumulative positive and negative impacts of resource extraction and development, and their effects on environmental, economic and social considerations, when and if the committee is formed; and

That the committee submit its final report no later than December 31, 2022.

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, with the resignation of PM Trudeau’s Special Rapporteur last Friday, a public inquiry into Beijing election interference is now the only credible option. We do not need another special rapporteur, we do not need another report where major players in this interference scandal are not interviewed, and we do not need another worthless process led by Prime Minister Trudeau’s friends, his political supporters or members of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. About 60% of Canadians want answers through a public inquiry. The House of Commons has voted three times for a public inquiry. That is the voice of the people in Canada. The half measure of Johnston’s public hearings just won’t cut it.

Senator Gold, when will your Trudeau government do what Canadians, the House of Commons and all opposition parties want and call a public inquiry?

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Loffreda, in your remarks you briefly mentioned the Canada Infrastructure Bank and said how that was a lesson to be learned from as you referred to the Infrastructure Bank as being “slow to get off the ground.”

The last I heard, this particular Infrastructure Bank had spent $35 billion and did not yet have one project completed. Do you have information that is different than that?

Senator Loffreda: I mentioned it as part of the budget implementation act, or BIA, to not repeat those errors that have happened with respect to the Infrastructure Bank. But the Infrastructure Bank is not part of this BIA, as you know. At times it is not easy to start a corporation. A start-up is never easy. It takes a lot of effort, resources and the right people in place. I am confident that, with the Canada innovation corporation, we’ll get the right people and resources in place. We saw with the Canada Growth Fund that the right measures have been taken and going forward it will help the economy.

With respect to the Infrastructure Bank, I don’t think it’s relevant in our discussion here, but you could ask the government that question in one of your questions during Question Period and they will have the up-to-date information. I’m certain that they do have that up-to-date information. But I want to keep it relevant to the BIA, and not everything in the budget makes it to the BIA. I’m willing to answer economic questions if there are any. But I will leave the Infrastructure Bank up to the government to respond to that issue.

Hon. Denise Batters: It is very short. I’m a member of the Legal Committee, Senator Deacon, and despite the Trudeau government including this part dealing with the Elections Act in their budget implementation act, were you aware that neither the Chief Electoral Officer nor the Privacy Commissioner were consulted at all by the Trudeau government despite their including this in their budget implementation act? Were you aware of that?

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Omidvar, I was surprised to see in your report that it seemed to be a revelation to your committee that men’s suicide deaths are 75% of the Canadian total.

Thirteen years ago, in 2010, I produced a TV commercial in memory of my late husband to raise awareness about mental illness and suicide prevention, and among the facts noted in that 2010 ad was that men die by suicide three times as often as women. I and many other mental health advocates in Canada have spoken nationally about this topic for more than a decade.

The short section of your report about boys and men starts with this sentence:

The committee received less testimony regarding boys and men, and recognizes that this population should be considered in further depth in future studies on suicide prevention in Canada.

Senator Omidvar, your committee, as you mentioned, had only five meetings with witnesses on this topic. Why didn’t you have more meetings to receive that type of key evidence about men?

Senator Omidvar: Thank you, Senator Batters, and thank you for your continued advocacy on this matter. I have not watched the particular TV ad that you did, but I will undertake to do so.

Our committee has a work plan, and we dedicated five meetings to discuss the report. We felt that even though we recognized the shortcomings of not hearing more witnesses on the suicide rate of boys and men, we did point it out in our study, and our recommendation reflects the findings of the committee.

Thank you.