- Member of Parliament
- Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees
- Liberal
- Fleetwood—Port Kells
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $140,090.09
- Government Page
- Apr/29/24 1:38:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I wanted to give the hon. member a chance to expand on the whole issue of the housing accelerator fund. The average person might be forgiven for playing along with the question that was asked regarding how many houses this would build. The housing minister said that it would build none. People would ask what that is all about.
With regard to the housing accelerator fund, what is it all about?
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- Apr/18/24 10:02:04 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the sixth interim report of the Special Committee on the Canada-People's Republic of China Relationship, entitled “Summary of the Special Committee's Meetings in Washington, D.C.” I would note that our American cousins have many of the same issues that we have, in terms of our ongoing relationship with the People's Republic of China; I would also like to take this opportunity to give a shout-out of sorts to Mike Gallagher.
Representative Gallagher from Wisconsin has been the chair of their select committee. He is leaving public life, at least for the time being, in just a few days. He has done outstanding work in Washington, and we will miss him.
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- Apr/16/24 2:52:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, the Deputy Prime Minister will deliver the budget. Over the last few weeks, we have seen the important efforts of this government to invest in this country, building a record we can be proud of. On the other side, the Leader of the Opposition loves to talk about his record when he was minister of employment. He wants to convince Canadians that he has the solution to make life better: cut, cut, cut. Well, cuts do not create jobs. Cuts do not create investment. Cuts do not increase wages.
Can the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages tell the House what the government is going to do to make life better for Canadians?
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- Apr/11/24 2:00:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, metro Vancouver has lost yet another media legend, George Garrett. Known far and wide as the intrepid reporter, George passed away on March 18 at the age of 89.
George was legendary for many reasons, not the least of which was his incredible Rolodex of contacts with personal phone numbers for police, prosecutors and politicians, including mine.
He was legendary for his disarmingly friendly and gentlemanly demeanour. George could charm his way into gathering new scoops that kept CKNW, his radio home for 43 years, way out in front of the pack of press and broadcast reporters. He had a unique balance. He was tough, but as I experienced personally, one could always trust that one would get a fair shake from George, which is why people would answer when he called.
George received many awards, but I think the biggest one was the respect and admiration of his peers and of his community leaders alike. Now, when news reporting is more important than ever, we should all hope to see more like him.
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- Apr/11/24 12:37:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, really, the most difficult output of fossil fuels is when they are burned for fuel. However, other things could be done with the things that we dig up out of the ground.
Could the hon. member talk about the innovation in the petrochemical industry? Has he heard from the industry about the sort of things that could be done that would certainly make for a very bright future for the petrochemical industry when we, at least, rely a lot less on burning it for energy?
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- Mar/22/24 12:35:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition that I have harmonizes with work done at the fisheries and oceans standing committee.
Basically, the undersigned citizens of Canada call on the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to immediately prohibit any transfer of commercial fishing licences and quotas to foreign interests or beneficial owners who are not Canadian.
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- Mar/22/24 12:34:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have two certified petitions pursuant to Standing Order 36.
The first recognizes long wait times and inconsistent standards of service delivery, which have a significant negative impact on the physical and mental well-being of Canadian Armed Forces veterans, as well as current and former members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The petitioners ask that the Minister of Veterans Affairs commit to remedying the situation, which has been allowed to exist for too long.
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- Mar/22/24 12:05:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, Canadians expect their government to take action on climate change and address affordability issues. Putting a price on carbon while sending rebates to Canadians is the most cost-effective way to fight climate change. Affordability is front and centre in this system, which puts more money into the bank accounts of Canadian families.
Can the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change share with the House how the Canada carbon rebate helps Canadians?
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- Mar/20/24 7:37:29 p.m.
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Madam Chair, for the people watching this debate this evening and for the record, I want to respond to a question that came up earlier with respect to Canada's provision of artillery shells to Ukraine.
From our own stocks and from other acquisitions, we have donated over 40,000 155-millimetre shells, but we are also currently involved in an effort sponsored by the Czech Republic to source 800,000 shells for Ukraine. Our contribution for that will be $40 million.
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- Feb/15/24 10:48:50 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, as the provinces and territories are not ready to implement medical assistance in dying for people with mental disorders, personally I am also not ready. I could not vote for something like it right now.
I am taken by the case of a woman, E.F., who was granted the right to have her life taken with medical assistance in 2016, after reports that she suffered from severe conversion disorder. Nobody could read the media accounts of this and not understand that there are some people for whom life is clearly not worth living anymore.
Would that provision, in the Court of Appeal decision in Alberta, still provide a way forward for the people who are in a terrible condition right now and who need relief?
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- Feb/13/24 11:36:17 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in the process of debating this, I would draw attention to the case back in 2016 of E.F., a woman in Alberta. There is media coverage on it and it is worth a good read. The reason I bring it up is because E.F. did get access to medical assistance in dying. She had nothing but a mental condition but it was horrific.
If this next step in medical assistance in dying is put on hold, would the member want to consider some mechanism by which a person like E.F. could get the relief from a life that simply was agonizing and not worth living?
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- Feb/6/24 1:34:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the issue of auto theft, having worked for the public auto insurer in B.C., but there are statistics that show, in fact, that auto thefts in B.C. are down quite substantially from where they were five years ago. I wonder whether the member could reflect on what might be the cause, because the same laws are in effect. If one believes it is “catch and release”, that has been in effect there too for quite a long time, even in the Stephen Harper days.
What is different in B.C. and maybe in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and in fact worse, than in all other jurisdictions?
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- Dec/13/23 5:41:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, can the hon. member comment on the fact that a business, such as a trucking company that moves food, pays a price on pollution or a carbon tax but gets a rebate, and as an input cost, it also gets to deduct that from the amount it earns as a company? Does that not, in the member's opinion, really negate the argument that somehow a price on pollution is behind high food prices today?
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- Dec/13/23 4:48:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the hon. member knows how long Europe has gone without bananas because Europe does not allow things to be shipped in when wrapped in plastic, or if they are shipped in wrapped in plastic, there is a penalty to be paid.
I also wonder if she has heard of the Nabob Coffee Company way out my way in British Columbia. The coffee pods look like they have a plastic ring inside a plastic bag, but that plastic is actually made from vegetable matter, and it is entirely compostable, so that works. Could she comment on that?
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- Dec/13/23 4:14:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as chair of the committee, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth interim report of the Special Committee on the Canada-People's Republic of China Relationship, entitled “The Exposure Of Canadian Investment Funds to Human Rights Violations in the People’s Republic Of China”.
Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
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- Dec/13/23 4:10:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the chair of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, the hon. member for Avalon, I will present the following two reports.
I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 12th report, entitled “Ecosystem Impacts and Management of Pinniped Populations”. For the folks at home, pinnipeds are sea lions.
I also have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 13th report, entitled “Foreign Ownership and Corporate Concentration of Fishing Licences and Quota”.
Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to these reports.
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- Dec/12/23 6:35:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would request a recorded division.
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- Dec/12/23 6:28:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank all my colleagues here in the House who have spoken on Motion No. 96. The commentary has been really thoughtful and has illuminated an issue that has been hidden it seems for at least 25 years, and that is the gap between Canada's current aviation regulations and the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Each speaker in the first round and in this hour has basically detailed the nature of those gaps in terms of response times to any point on an operational runway versus the midpoint, which is the current Canadian standard, or the lack of a mandate to rescue people from inside an aircraft, leaving firefighters officially responsible only to make sure a pathway leads from the aircraft through the flames so if anybody can actually make it out they can save themselves.
These gaps in fire crews' mandates exist officially, but for anybody watching and now all of a sudden extremely worried about safety when one flies and particularly at an airport, it does not mean operations at the 25 to 30 Canadian airports with more than 180,000 emplaned or deplaned passengers per year fall short of one or more of the ICAO standards.
Since we first spoke to this issue, I have heard from the two airports mentioned in my opening remarks. Senior management at the Ottawa International Airport tell me its firefighters are mandated to rescue passengers from inside an aircraft. YOW management say its response team is crewed, trained and equipped to do this. Some fire chiefs I have spoken to doubt municipal firefighters have the training to conduct these rescues, yet the International Association of Fire Fighters says that where airport crews are not trained, it is expected that municipal responders will fulfill this function.
YOW management here in Ottawa tell me that, in fact, its firefighters train municipal responders. Airport management wants us to know that other safety measures have been taken, some of which are unique, such as grooving the runway to prevent a landing aircraft from hydroplaning in wet conditions.
YVR in metro Vancouver has firefighting crews staffed, trained and equipped to rescue those inside a burning aircraft. The response time meets Canadian aviation regulations but not ICAO's. That said, YVR dedicated $5 million to double the number of firefighters and has brought two new state-of-the-art aircraft fire rescue trucks into its fleet at an additional $6.6 million investment.
It is quite likely the safety measures in place at other highest volume airports maybe follow the same pattern. They meet and sometimes exceed Canada's regulations, but I suspect on the whole there is great inconsistency across the country.
We cannot overlook the financial limitations some of our busiest airports face, and that is something we need to think about. There is one note in the 2003 Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement regarding the definition of “rescue” that should raise red flags for everybody in this House. It established a policy to ensure that the status quo in 2003 be maintained when it came to the types of activities included as aircraft rescue and firefighting services without imposing any additional obligations or costs.
It would not be unreasonable for the average Canadian air traveller to conclude at the very least that financial implications would be a factor in setting rescue standards. In approving Motion No. 96, we would be challenging this. We would be reinforcing the principle that if something is mandated, there would be an obligation to get it done.
By raising the question about the adequacy of and compliance with the Canadian aviation regulations, we would be opening the way for a more fulsome examination of gaps that may exist between best practices and the actual firefighting and rescue capabilities at Canada's busiest airports.
In closing, we should not doubt for a moment that airport managers and their firefighting crews adopt safety as their top priority. The consequences of Motion No. 96 and our debates should be a closer examination of the issues we have raised, and perhaps through a study at our Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, a study that leads to findings and recommendations that would reinforce public confidence in the exemplary safety record of air travel in Canada. I served on TRAN from 2015 to 2019 and this issue never came up. Now it has and now it is our obligation to see it resolved.
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Madam Speaker, my experience with metro Vancouver's transportation authority revealed a number of issues connected to the hon. member's question.
Municipalities are stressed because, if, for instance, we build new high rises, as we will through our riding of Fleetwood—Port Kells along the new SkyTrain line, which the government is supporting with funding, the municipalities have to keep up with the water, sewer, all of the other infrastructure, schools, parks, recreation centres etc.
The pattern until now in metro Vancouver has been for new growth to pay for new growth. The could easily erase the benefits of the removal of the GST and the PST on purpose-built rental units. Therefore, with respect to the support that we are offering and want to offer, and in addition to the partnerships that we have with the provinces, we need to factor in our municipalities as partners as well because they are left holding a pretty large bill that also needs to be satisfied if this is going to be a success.
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Madam Speaker, that question highlights two things. First of all, the strategy generally used by the government has been to ensure that the people who need the help get it. That is the reason, for instance, that we took the Canada child benefit away from millionaires and made it income tested so the people who actually needed the help got it.
In the case of the grocery rebate, that could not have come at a better time because things such as the Competition Act and this act are all meant to relieve the pressure on people and fix things that are wrong in the market system, and the grocery rebate was something that helped to bridge people earing very low incomes over the hump while all of these elements came together for Bill C-56. I would not discount, perhaps, the need to do that again at some point in the future. I would advocate for it as an individual MP. Of course, it is up to the government to assess the situation and move forward.
Bill C-56 is meant to solve the problem for which the grocery rebate was a band-aid on a wound that needs healing.
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