Senator Gold: I will certainly transmit those concerns and the Globe and Mail article to the attention of the minister.

Senator Cordy: Thank you for that, Senator Gold.

My next question follows up on what you said. Will you reach out to the minister and report back to the Senate with an update and updated information for seniors? Then, when I or other senators get phone calls, we can give them some updated information, perhaps with some goalposts as to when certain things could be happening. That would be helpful for us.

Senator Gold: The Government of Canada is taking the reforms needed within both of these important entities very seriously. That’s why the reports to the government are being taken seriously. In fact, many of the recommendations in those reports have been accepted already.

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Senator Gold: Canada works closely with the U.K. and other Five Eyes partners, and we share intelligence and work collaboratively to defend our citizens.

It is obvious to all parliamentarians that neither the Prime Minister nor the Government Representative in the Senate is going to be disclosing what intelligence information is shared between countries, including the extent of it or the nature of it.

Senator Gold: These are allegations and are not substantiated. For whatever reasons this promotion was given, I’m sure it was for similar reasons that the previous government gave promotions to that very same person on a number of occasions.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. The government has been very clear that every senior in Canada deserves to live in dignity, safety and comfort regardless of where they live.

As senators know, long-term care is a matter regulated by provincial and territorial governments. However, the federal government is developing a safe long-term care act, and that act is being informed by public consultations and the feedback from provincial and territorial partners, stakeholders, experts and Canadians.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. The minister made an undertaking to this chamber, and I have every confidence that he will honour that.

As I said on many occasions, honourable senators, any misconduct in relation to the procurement process is unacceptable. That is why the RCMP is investigating. That is why the contracts have been suspended. Until the results of those investigations are complete and made public, no further comment is forthcoming.

Hon. Jane Cordy: Senator Gold, I want to follow up on a question that I asked October 4 on behalf of Cliff Williams, a Nova Scotia senior who is relying on the new Canadian Dental Care Plan to access dental services.

As I stated in my last question, one third of Canadians do not have dental insurance, and one in five avoid dental services because the price is prohibitive. We know that dental care is health care. I applaud the government for its commitment to providing financial assistance to those Canadians who face barriers in accessing dental services by bringing forward the new dental care plan.

A government media release from March 31 — from which you read your answer to my question on October 4 — simply says that by the end of 2023, the Canadian Dental Care Plan will become available to uninsured Canadians under 18, persons with disabilities and seniors with an annual family income of less than $90,000.

Senator Gold, Mr. Williams’ question is a simple one: When will the benefits be available to eligible seniors? As there are only a few weeks until the end of 2023, is the government still guaranteeing that the benefits will be available before the end of the year?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for raising this issue. Canadians deserve a durable financial sector that is globally competitive and also provides them with the tools that they need to navigate in this world.

As the financial sector becomes more digitized, we would all agree that standards are necessary, and more appropriately, the standards must be modernized to ensure that Canada continues to have a stable and secure financial sector, but, at the same time, that Canadians have confidence that the financial sector operates with the highest regard for both privacy and security.

I have been informed that the Department of Finance is continuing to work on developing the next steps and moving forward with open banking.

Senator C. Deacon: Thank you, Senator Gold. Maybe confidence can be gained from the fact that the Globe and Mail editorial board recently endorsed the implementation of open banking, citing that pro-consumer reforms are the key to lowering prices and fees for Canadians. Thanks to the thorough and robust consultations that Finance Canada did, all that remains is political will.

Hopefully, we can find that an announcement is forthcoming. I look forward to consumer rights being enhanced and universal access to this internationally acclaimed regulatory change will be made. Thank you.

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Senator Gold, my question is obviously for you.

A recent damning report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians reveals the alarming state of federal policing. According to the report, systemic weaknesses and poor resource management are undermining its ability to effectively protect Canadians against growing threats like violent extremism and cybercrime.

At a time when Canada is likely to be the target of terrorist threats, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, appears to be bogged down by internal challenges. Governance was described as weak, and resources appear to be poorly distributed, with local police forces absorbing most of the budget to the detriment of crucial federal operations.

In this context, how does your government justify such turmoil in our national police force, a situation that undermines national interests? What immediate action does your government plan to take to rectify this situation in order to ensure that the RCMP is better equipped to deal with current and future threats to Canadian security?

Hon. Leo Housakos: Senator Gold, Canada is providing financial aid to Gaza through a series of what the Trudeau government calls “trusted partners.” These are the same partners who operated in Gaza for years when Canadian aid ended up in the pockets of Hamas operatives. They include World Vision, whose manager of Gaza operations was convicted of funnelling millions of dollars of aid money and resources to Hamas. Yet here we are again sending Canadian financial aid — taxpayers’ money — to World Vision and other organizations.

My question is this: What measures have been put into place by this government to make sure that when Canadians’ hard-earned taxpayer money is sent to provide aid in Gaza or other areas of the world, that money doesn’t end up in the pockets of terrorist organizations like Hamas?

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

As the government has stated, and as I have announced in this chamber, the loss to which you refer regarding the vaccines was a product of the precautions that the government took to ensure not only a safe supply of vaccines, but also the hope of developing a capacity in Canada to manufacture certain kinds of vaccines — it’s a capacity that, unfortunately, was lost in the past when previous governments made decisions that, at the time, seemed to be in the best interests of Canadians, but it left us without that capacity.