Senator Gold: The ministers in this government are responsible, and they have taken responsibility. With all due respect, Senator Housakos, I do not tell you what questions to ask, and I don’t need you to feed me the answers. Thank you.

Senator Gold: The answer is no. The minister was asked that question, and he said no. Also, to respond to the preamble of your question, it is not true that the minister issued a directive to ensure that the information is communicated to him and the victims.

Senator Gold: The answer is no. The minister was asked that question, and he said no. Also, to respond to the preamble of your question, it is not true that the minister issued a directive to ensure that the information is communicated to him and the victims.

That doesn’t mean that the government issued a directive not to respect victims, as you suggested, if I understood correctly. That is not true, and there is no logical or necessary connection between the fact that the directive was issued at that time and what the government did or did not do in the past.

Senator Gold: Thank you for your questions. If my ears were as delicate as you pretend, I’m not sure that I would even be able to hear, much less answer, your questions.

With regard to the many statements you’ve made, I’ve answered them on so many occasions — and I know that others are waiting to ask their questions — so I will refer you all to those previous answers.

Let us be clear: First of all, speaking as the son of an English teacher, there is a difference between a statement that is correct, for which corrections were then made, and the allegations of one being misleading or lying.

Second, with regard to the questions surrounding the transfer of Paul Bernardo, once again, our thoughts are with the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. As you will now know, and as I will state now — here in this chamber — the minister has issued a ministerial direction to Correctional Service Canada to ensure the following: First, victims’ rights must guide the decision-making process. Second, victims of inmates who are being transferred between maximum-security and medium-security institutions must be informed. Third, the Minister of Public Safety must be formally and directly notified by Correctional Service Canada in advance of the transfer of any high-profile or dangerous offenders.

The minister will also be working with the Privacy Commissioner to ensure the public interest demands are met with regard to the legitimate expectations of privacy, as well as the protection of those who hold such rights. It is imperative that victims’ rights be at the centre of the correctional system, and that is what the minister has instructed his staff and Correctional Service Canada to do.

[Translation]

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question, senator. As I have explained many times, I have immense respect for the Chief Justice and his late father as well.

The government is working to fill the vacancies in various provinces and there is a whole process in place to find interested, qualified candidates.

The department has spoken with members of the judiciary and bar to encourage more people to apply. The government continues to make appointments at a steady pace, and the number of vacancies continues to decline.

[English]

Senator Gold: Colleagues, immigration is clearly the key to helping businesses find the workers that they need as they continue to grow our economy and our country. The 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan will ensure that Canada continues to welcome immigrants at ambitious levels to meet our needs. With a focus on regional immigration, this plan will help strengthen our system and spread the benefits of immigration to communities across the country — the Prairies and elsewhere. This includes, of course, and importantly, francophone immigration outside of Quebec.

The government does know that affordable housing has become a barrier to pursuing those opportunities in many communities.

The government’s 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan selects individuals with the skills to build homes and encourages them to settle in parts of the country that have housing capacity issues. Again, the government will do its part in terms of housing capacity. It looks to provinces, municipalities and the private sector to do their parts. It’s crucial that we factor in immigration, as you properly point out, in addressing our housing shortage because newcomers are undoubtedly part of the solution.

[Translation]

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question and for the offer, as the son of an English teacher, to school you.

I think the best advice I could give would be to listen to the very impressive speech of the former leader of the Conservative Party, Mr. Erin O’Toole, which he delivered in the chamber, because he reminded all of us parliamentarians — and he included himself in that, to his great credit — that both the language of debate and the way in which more attention is being paid to creating video clips in order to serve the algorithms for “likes” are debasing our politics and endangering the things to which we should all be responsibly attentive.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Once again, thank you for your commitment to victims’ rights.

As I stated, and you did point that out, the minister made these decisions to ensure that the relevant information is communicated, not just to him personally, but also to victims. It is a step in the right direction and I hope it will yield results.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): As I have already noted, the government made transformational investments in Budget 2023 to build Canada’s clean economy and to fight climate change. With respect to your question, I will bring it to the attention of the appropriate minister.

[English]

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

Look, the appointment process varies depending on the position and the process in place. Here in the Senate, we are eagerly awaiting appointments to fill the seats. This particular process involves a board consisting of members appointed by the federal government and members appointed by the provinces.

For judicial appointments, the process is under way and judges are being appointed. As I have said several times, yes, there are vacancies, but the Minister of Justice and the Government of Canada have appointed more than 600 judges since 2015 and are still going.

With respect to other vacancies, the process is designed to find qualified individuals and is always based on merit. These processes might seem slow, but they do make it possible to find the best people to serve the needs of Canadians.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. It’s an important one. It’s clear that Canada is facing a supply shortage, as highlighted by the recent report of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC.

I have said this on many occasions, and I won’t belabour the point; I’m going to answer your question directly. As reported as recently as today in The Globe and Mail, the housing problem in Canada is a function of so many things that are outside the scope of any one government or even all governments. My answer is that the government is doing its part in the hope it will assist in the face of market forces and demographic forces that are beyond its control.

Look, it’s hard for Canadians to find affordable places to live in their communities. That’s really obvious. What you could call the “financialization” of the housing market has exacerbated this problem, the way in which housing has been used as an investment vehicle. That’s why the government has introduced a variety of measures that will put us on path. We hope to double the number of homes built in Canada over the next decade, to rapidly increase the supply of affordable housing and to help ensure that homes are used to house families, not simply as investment vehicles. It launched a $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund to speed up construction and help create 100,000 new units; provided $4 billion for the new Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy; and made the largest investment in co-op housing in 30 years, in the amount of $1.5 billion.

This is what the federal government is doing and it hopes that others, governments and private sector, will contribute as well.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. It’s a complex one, and I’ll try to be brief in my response.

You’re right to point out that in many areas, the issue is not the need for people or jobs, but the fact that the credentials that allow them to practise their chosen professions are regulated either by the provinces or by agencies under the authority of the provinces.

Consider health care, for example: The government does not have the jurisdiction to legislate with regard to health care, but it has an important role to play, as we all know. In this regard, through the Foreign Credential Recognition Program, Budget 2022 provided funding of $150 million over five years, with $30 million ongoing, to help up to 11,000 internationally trained health care professionals per year find work in their field. That is one small, important example, though it’s modest.

In other respects, the government and relevant ministers are in contact with their representatives in the provinces and territories in order to encourage them to adapt their particular rules to facilitate the accreditation of workers — in any field — in their provinces and territories. We’ve seen some very promising results of provincial initiatives in the Atlantic regions — I don’t have the list in front of me — but those conversations continue.

Again, the government will do its part, and will work with the provinces and territories, in the hope that we can have a more seamless, robust and generous approach to welcoming the professionals, who are trained elsewhere, to make their contribution here in Canada.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. Let me begin more broadly: We know that there is a problem with information flow from various sources, such as the intelligence sources, into the government and to ministers. This was underlined and made clear in the report of the Special Rapporteur, the Honourable David Johnston. Indeed, this is also a problem that Minister Mendicino has acknowledged with regard to the Paul Bernardo affair. It was an error made in the Office of the Minister of Public Safety. As the minister said yesterday, he has taken steps to address this mistake internally.

With regard to your statement about Minister Blair, he has said clearly that he was not aware of the information regarding Member of Parliament Chong, and that he found out about it for the first time in The Globe and Mail. The minister has stated that clearly and unequivocally.

Witnesses have pointed out the shortcomings that exist in the structure of how we share intelligence — it’s clear that this needs to be reviewed. I fully expect that this will be one of the items that the next step of the public process will address once all parties agree on both a mandate and a way forward. This is important and is being taken seriously — I hope — by all members of Parliament, as it should. Canadians deserve to be kept safe, and we deserve to fix the problems that may exist in the way information is transmitted.