Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I hope it does not surprise the member that I am happy to speak for the government House leader on this issue. As members know, our government and the Prime Minister, in particular, have made very significant efforts to encourage young people to be involved in our parliamentary democracy. Our government has constantly taken steps to ensure that our democracy is open and inclusive for …
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to confirm for our colleague what the Minister of National Defence said early this morning, and that is that every request from the Government of Nova Scotia for military assistance has been responded to positively. We have said yes to all of the requests from provincial authorities for military assistance. The good news for my colleague is that we will continue to do exact…
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Mr. Speaker, the answer is yes. The government of Canada will always be there to rebuild better any infrastructure it is responsible for. Furthermore, we will work with stakeholders, the fishing industry, the provinces and municipalities to make sure we go even further and rebuild public and economic infrastructures essential to these communities, including in the Magdalen Islands and across Atlan…
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Mr. Speaker, as our colleague from Cumberland—Colchester knows, the Prime Minister is currently in Nova Scotia and is visiting Prince Edward Island today as well. I have had very constructive and positive conversations with Premier Houston and the other Atlantic premiers. We can be very clear. The Government of Canada will be there not only to support the residents of the area who were hard hit, b…
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Mr. Speaker, as colleagues know, the scale of the storm witnessed in Atlantic Canada this past weekend was unprecedented. As we have said, our government stands ready to support provinces and all Canadians during this difficult time. My colleagues and I are, of course, working closely with local and provincial governments as well as indigenous governments to respond to the needs of impacted people…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I can assure him that that is exactly the kind of conversation we are already having with the premiers of the Atlantic provinces and the Government of Quebec. We are using a model the Prime Minister introduced with Premier Horgan in British Columbia. The idea is to expedite applications for federal assistance to make sure that reconstruction happ…
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Mr. Speaker, we agree with our hon. colleague that the Atlantic provinces and eastern Quebec need help now, and that is exactly what we are delivering to the communities and people affected. I can tell my hon. friend that I spoke with the four Atlantic premiers again this morning. We have an ongoing and active conversation, as do all of my colleagues. Every request that they make of our government…
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Mr. Speaker, on Friday, we announced over $29 million in joint funding with Quebec for five sports and recreation projects in the Nord-du-Québec region. Five indigenous communities in Nord-du-Québec will soon have access to high-quality, modern, accessible facilities where residents can come together and enjoy their favourite activities. We are always happy to invest in these types of projects acr…
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Madam Speaker, I obviously agree with my colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby when he characterized what is really a very unfortunate series of procedural shenanigans the Conservatives have participated in. Why? In French, they want to be able to tell their colleagues from Quebec who support Bill C‑14 that they are in favour of maintaining the number of seats in Quebec. However, in the House of …
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Madam Speaker, I hope our colleague was not asking you when you will represent Canadians, because I think not only that you represent very well the people of your great Quebec constituency, but also that you represent all Canadians when you sit in that chair. I cannot imagine my colleague would be casting that aspersion on you because that would be inappropriate. There is a level of manufactured i…
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Madam Speaker, our colleague from Cowichan—Malahat—Langford reinforced the unfortunate circumstance at the joint committee looking at medical assistance in dying. I entirely associate myself with his view on the inability of those witnesses to be heard on an issue as important to Canadians and as sensitive as medical assistance in dying. This is exactly what the House of Commons should not do. If …
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Madam Speaker, I disagree with our colleague from Montcalm when he says that democracy happens in the streets. I do not share his pessimism. However, I appreciate the fact that he mentioned what happened last night. The repeated calls for votes showed a lack of respect for our colleagues who sit on House of Commons committees. I am thinking in particular of the Special Joint Committee on Physician…
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Madam Speaker, far from wanting to silence the official opposition, we are actually trying to help the members have an opportunity to vote on this legislation. We are trying to help them out of the dead end they found themselves in last evening, as our friend for New Westminster—Burnaby pointed out, where they were using a series of absolutely ridiculous measures to ensure that the House was votin…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank our colleague for New Westminster—Burnaby for his comments and his question. As colleagues know, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby is a senior member of the House. He has served the Province of British Columbia and the citizens of New Westminster—Burnaby well for a long time. I had the privilege to work with him when I was an opposition House leader, and when we…
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville that this bill deserves to be debated. That is precisely what we tried to do last night. However, we saw the official opposition, the Conservatives, move bogus motions to force 30‑minute bells and votes to ensure that there would be no debate, even though they said they wanted to have one. The best way to continue to debate is to …
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Madam Speaker, I think members will find it ironic that we are getting lectures on indignation in that Oscar-winning performance on the other side of the aisle. We should never underestimate our Conservative friends' ability to manufacture outrage and indignation, and talk about loyal opposition and democracy. We think that Bill C-14, which is the subject of the discussion for the next 25 minutes …
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Mr. Speaker, members will not be surprised to hear me thank my colleague for the outstanding work that she does. We are proud to be investing more than $25 million in this expansion project, which will help many municipalities in Montreal divert more organic materials. This will reduce our emissions by more than 13,000 tonnes a year and divert thousands of tonnes of organic waste. This is all than…
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Madam Speaker, yes, it was over 100 times. Can members imagine it? A Conservative House leader, these great professors of democratic principles, did it over 100 times. Peter Van Loan introduced time allocation or closure measures that many times in the House of Commons. In fact, the chief government whip at the time wrote a manual of how to ensure that a parliamentary standing committee could be d…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his continued interest in improving Canadian democracy. I would urge him to work with us to pass Bill C-14, which, as he correctly noted, is before the House of Commons now, to ensure that every province has the right representation in the electoral boundaries redistribution process under way. I know he is very excited to have the report from the Chief…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague from Tobique—Mactaquac, that great New Brunswick constituency. Like him, I represent a rural part of our province of New Brunswick and I completely share his interest and his concern in terms of the importance of ensuring that smaller communities and rural communities are represented adequately. Our province will benefit from the senatorial clause, wh…
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moved that Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867 (electoral representation), be read the second time and referred to a committee. Madam Speaker, obviously, I would have liked to have been in the House today in person, but, like many Canadians, I am recovering from a COVID infection, so I am participating virtually from New Brunswick. I am pleased to speak in the House today to begi…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Calgary Shepard for his question. Obviously, I share the member's interest in how the application of these democratic principles has evolved as a result of various rulings by lower courts, courts of appeal and, ultimately, the Supreme Court of Canada. Electoral representation in provincial legislatures often differs from that of the House of Commons, f…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Thérèse‑De Blainville for her question. I believe that Quebec's political weight is guaranteed by this bill in that we have changed a clause to guarantee the provinces the same number of seats they had in 2021 during the next electoral redistribution. We have heard several of our colleagues from the Quebec Liberal caucus in the House talk about the importan…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite‑Patrie for his question. He is quite right. In the agreement that our government entered into with his party, the NDP, we agreed to maintain the 78 seats Quebec presently has in the House of Commons. That is exactly what this very targeted bill will do. As for other enhancements that we have agreed to make, I concur with my colleague from…
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Madam Speaker, my friend from Surrey—Newton has represented, in a very effective way, the people of Surrey and the people of British Columbia for many years. He raises an essential point that many of our colleagues from British Columbia have discussed with me and with our government: the importance of respecting the formula, as he noted, that adds additional seats to provinces like his, British Co…
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Madam Speaker, I thank our colleague for Calgary Shepard for his thoughtful presentation. I agree with much of what he said, particularly around the importance of effective representation. Also, regarding people participating in the electoral boundary redistribution process by making presentations, and community groups and municipal leaders taking advantage of public participation with the commiss…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a little rich to hear the Conservatives talk about disrespecting Parliament. They wrote the book on how to trash House of Commons committees when they were in government. We have been very clear. Canadians elected a minority Parliament, which means that members of Parliament are going to work together. I know that offends Conservatives, but that is exactly what we are doing, for…
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Mr. Speaker, if we were looking to bicker, we would ask the Bloc Québécois for some pointers. They are the experts on bickering. I understand the Bloc Québécois's frustration. We were elected to Parliament to work together and advance the interests of all Canadians on very important matters such as public health care and housing. That is exactly what we will do, while, of course, respecting provin…
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Mr. Speaker, since our government took office, we have been working with the provinces on important issues like health care, as well as on how to protect Canadians during a pandemic, and how to build and continue to invest in a public health care system that is the envy of the world. These are exactly the constructive conversations we are having with all the provinces, including the Government of …
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Mr. Speaker, I believe that my colleague spoke about the Parliamentary Budget Officer in his previous question. It is interesting to note that this same Parliamentary Budget Officer established that the Conservative Party, in its last election platform, was going to spend more money than we will invest to support Canadians. I know that our Conservative friends are frustrated that the parliamentary…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague from Madawaska—Restigouche for his question. Investing in green infrastructure in our communities will ensure residents have a safe, reliable source of drinking water. That is why our government is investing over $2.2 million to upgrade the water supply infrastructure in two rural New Brunswick communities, Saint Hilaire in Madawaska and Tide Head. I think that a…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is well aware that our government has been there for Canadians and the whole country's public health care system ever since the pandemic hit. In the last two years alone, we have invested over $64 billion to support the health care system. The Prime Minister has made it very clear that we will always be there to work with our provincial and territorial partners to support…
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Mr. Speaker, as my colleague is well aware, the Prime Minister has called more than 35 meetings with the premiers and territorial leaders over the past two years or so. Time and time again, we have worked together to discuss what can be done to support the public health care system that Canadians want, and rightly so. As I have said to my colleague, we are in ongoing discussions with our provincia…
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Mr. Speaker, as I explained, we did urgently invest in the public health care system across Canada. We have been there throughout the pandemic to support Canadians, Canadian businesses, and our health care system, which is essential to all Canadians. We also said that once the pandemic is behind us, we are prepared to sit down with provincial premiers, as we have been doing for months now, to disc…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague asked when the government would start following the advice of doctors and scientists. The answer is that we have done exactly that from the start. I know that it is frustrating for the Conservatives opposite, who believe that the hundreds of people hurling insults on the Hill are a clinical trial, but it is not true. We will follow the advice of doctors, and the member sh…
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Mr. Speaker, for several years now, we have been engaged in an ongoing, constructive dialogue with our partners, the provinces and territories, about the best way to support the health care system that is so important to Canadians. Last week, I spoke with the chair of the Council of the Federation, Premier Horgan, to discuss how exactly the federal government can continue to support the public hea…
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Mr. Speaker, our government is very proud of the changes we made to make the Senate less partisan and more effective. I think members would agree with me that it is somewhat ironic, coming from the party of Stephen Harper, to be lectured—
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Mr. Speaker, the pleasure is mine. I think members will agree with me that it is somewhat ironic for our government to be lectured by the party of Stephen Harper for the quality of the women and men we have appointed to Canada's Senate. We strive to appoint outstanding people, while respecting the diversity of the country. We are very proud of the appointments we have made from the province of Alb…
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Mr. Speaker, quite the contrary, the last thing we would do is point a finger at municipal or provincial partners with whom we have worked collaboratively to make historic investments in public transit. It is good for the quality of life for people who live in our cities. It is obviously good for our collective fight against climate change. I had an excellent meeting with the board of directors of…
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