Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the member is quite right to talk about cost of protecting the health and safety of Canadians, including during a pandemic that cost tens of thousands of people their lives, including hundreds in his own riding. Millions of people lost their jobs, and we had to protect the integrity of our borders. Despite how urgent and important this situation was, the Auditor General of Canada cl…
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to answer this question, which we have heard before and to which we have provided appropriate answers already. I am pleased to remind everyone that the Auditor General not only had the job, but the very important job of tabling a report on Monday, which we have looked at and are obviously very troubled by the findings in that report. We have taken into account all …
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Madam Speaker, not only should we be thanking the Auditor General for her work, but we also need to read her report very carefully. The misinformation we are hearing from the other side of the House is unfortunately not helpful and can even be counterproductive. The Auditor General must continue with the serious work she does. We thank her for everything she has done so far, and we are counting on…
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Madam Speaker, the member is completely right in pointing to the important work of the Auditor General. She did work very hard over the last few months, which is what we expect of her and her office. She tabled an important report on Monday. As she has said repeatedly, she is also completely willing and able to work with all other partners and institutions across the government, including with the…
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Madam Speaker, it is a little disturbing to hear the Conservative MPs question the integrity of the Auditor General. The Auditor General has said very clearly over the past few days that she was not only willing and able to work with the RCMP, but she was already doing so and providing the RCMP with all the information it wants.
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Madam Speaker, as I have said before, there is no obstruction here. On the contrary, the Auditor General must have all the documents she needs to do her job, because the Auditor General's work is critical to the integrity of our democratic and parliamentary system. That is why she was given access to all necessary documents over the past few months, and why she is able, as she clearly stated, to p…
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Madam Speaker, we are very pleased, obviously, to hear the member clearly state that he has full confidence in the abilities of the Auditor General to keep doing her job, including supporting the RCMP when that is demanded by the RCMP.
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Madam Speaker, our colleague is quite right in pointing out the essential work of the Auditor General. We need the Auditor General to do the kind of investigation that she was able to do over the past few months in co-operation with CBSA officials. She did her work. She tabled her report on Monday. Her findings are shocking and alarming. Her recommendations must be taken into account. Most of her …
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Madam Speaker, there are two points that I believe have already been explained well, yet are important to reiterate. Just a few months ago, Canada experienced the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. The public service had to respond quickly and effectively to save the lives of thousands of Canadians; costs were in the billions of dollars per week. Unfortunately,…
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Madam Speaker, we are sure that the opposition member is not also suggesting that the RCMP is incapable of doing its work. The RCMP and the Auditor General operate at arm's length from the government; they can work very well together without any political or partisan influence.
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Madam Speaker, I thank our colleague for the question. Every day, the Canada Border Services Agency plays an essential role in facilitating and allowing the flow of hundreds of thousands of travellers and billions of dollars in goods. This was even more important during the pandemic, when Canadians were relying on the arrival of vital drugs, personal protective equipment, and equipment parts that …
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Madam Speaker, the key word in the Auditor General's report is “documentation”. That documentation was flawed, incomplete, improperly stored and unsharable. Indeed, it forms the central focus of the Auditor General's findings, and that is why we are continuing to move forward with the work that now needs to be done.
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Madam Speaker, the member is correct when he points to the ability and expertise of the RCMP, the Auditor General and other institutions to work together. They know how to do their jobs. They do not need political processes and politicians to do their jobs. The RCMP, the Auditor General and all of the other independent organizations on which Canadians have the fortune to depend know what to do.
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Madam Speaker, the member points to the work of the Auditor General. She has already said in public that she is not only able but very willing to work with the RCMP and any other institution in the government that would like to use her important findings on Monday. The member may want to speak to the Auditor General to understand how she does that. That is for him to decide, but we on this side of…
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Madam Speaker, again, I think no one in this House should attempt to display a lack of confidence in the ability of the Auditor General to do her job. I am sure we are all united in supporting the importance and the value of what she does. She needs no advice on the part of politicians. She has full expertise. If they want to provide her with their particular advice, they know how to reach out to …
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Mr. Speaker, after having thanked and lauded the work of the Auditor General, our colleague would certainly not want to pretend that she is not able to do her job. Her integrity and independence are essential to the work of the government. We are grateful for what she does and for what she will be able to continue doing.
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague is completely right. An investigation was and is necessary. That is exactly what the Auditor General has worked on over the last few months. She had access—and rightfully so—to all the necessary information to do her work. We are grateful to her for her report. Obviously, we are appalled by what the report says. That is all the more reason to continue to implement her im…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague is right to highlight the important work of the Auditor General, who tabled a scathing report on Monday. We are grateful for that. Many of her recommendations are already in place. Others will be carried out over the next few weeks. As she has said, all this information is transparent and has been shared, including with the RCMP.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague for reminding us, albeit rather discreetly, of the very difficult circumstances we experienced just a few years ago during the biggest pandemic since 1919, at a time when millions of jobs and billions of dollars in economic costs were at stake. We had to act quickly and decisively. Those were the operative words for the public service. That being said, that is no…
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Mr. Speaker, not only did the Auditor General do her job, she did a very good job. We appreciate the work she did and will draw from it. It will help us continue implementing the measures we need, even in times of crisis when situations are extremely complicated for everyone, including Canadians, and when quick action is essential. In these times of crisis, like all other times of crisis, the basi…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is correct to point to the important work of parliamentary committees, which are called to do valuable work to support that of the government in making sure that even in times of crisis, like the pandemic, proper rules are followed, known and monitored by all public servants, including those at the CBSA.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague stressed the importance of the Auditor General's work, and rightly so. The good news is that she tabled a report on Monday with some troubling findings and solid recommendations that we are now implementing or continuing to implement. The member says she is hiding under a rug. That is not true. The Auditor General is in contact with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a…
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Mr. Speaker, the member pointed out, again, correctly, the importance of investigations. The good news is that there was an investigation by the Auditor General just a few weeks and months ago. There was an important report tabled on Monday with findings that are totally unacceptable, even in the context of the worst pandemic that we have seen in over a century, the worst economic crisis that we h…
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Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned the word responsibility. In times of crisis, a responsible government has two responsibilities. First, it must protect people's health and ensure their safety. That included the lives of tens of thousands of Quebeckers and Canadians during the pandemic. Second, it must ensure that transportation, in this case within Canada as well as across-the-border transportati…
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Mr. Speaker, we do know several things. First, the RCMP works independently. As the Prime Minister said a few moments ago, we have confidence in its ability to do its work. Second, the Auditor General did describe some shocking behaviour by the public service that was both inappropriate and unwelcome, despite the urgent need to act in the context of a pandemic that was hurting millions of Canadian…
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Mr. Speaker, once again, in a free democracy, it is not up to the government or governments to dictate to the police how they should do their job. That is not how things work in a democracy like the one in which we are lucky enough to live. However, in a democracy like Canada, public servants have responsibilities that they must live up to. The Auditor General did note serious flaws in the collect…
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Mr. Speaker, as we already said several times yesterday and again today, we thank the Auditor General for her report. We are taking note of the shocking findings she clearly outlined in her report. We recognize that all of this was done under emergency conditions, but that is no excuse for failing to follow the procedures for collecting necessary information.
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Mr. Speaker, we want to thank the Auditor General again, as we did yesterday. We welcome all of the recommendations resulting from her audit of the ArriveCAN app. As our colleague, the Minister of Public Safety, also said yesterday, some of the report's recommendations have already been implemented, including the introduction of new measures to ensure that tasks and deliverables are clearly define…
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Mr. Speaker, as we said yesterday, we again thank the Auditor General for her recommendations on the review of the ArriveCAN application. Some of the report's recommendations have already been implemented, including the introduction of new measures to ensure that tasks and deliverables are clearly defined in professional services contracts. Our departments take very seriously their duty to optimiz…
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Mr. Speaker, at the height of the pandemic, hundreds of people were dying of COVID‑19 and billions of dollars a week were at stake. We had to figure out how to move billions of dollars' worth of goods back and forth across the border. We had to move essential medical drugs, food, and equipment that was crucial to businesses in Quebec and Canada. We had to act fast. Nevertheless, the lack of inform…
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Mr. Speaker, I am sure my colleague can grasp, now that we have said it several times, that we thank the Auditor General for her report and we acknowledge the significant shortcomings she noted in her report. Many of her recommendations have already been implemented. Others will be implemented in the coming weeks. All of this was put in place under emergency circumstances, when the lives and jobs …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague for raising this issue. She has already heard the answer several times. We thank the Auditor General for her work and we recognize the significant problems she noted. We know that all of this occurred during a time of crisis. That is no excuse for the lack of information or the lack of record-keeping and sharing of that information. Fortunately, many of the recom…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague for pointing out how important it is for the public service to manage its information gathering work properly, including during times of crisis, much like the COVID‑19 pandemic we went through. Yes, it is true that billions of dollars in economic activity were lost every week and that hundreds of people lost their lives because of COVID‑19, but that is no excuse …
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Mr. Speaker, we thank the Auditor General of Canada and welcome her recommendations as part of the audit of the ArriveCAN app. Some of the report's recommendations have already been implemented. Others will be implemented soon, including the introduction of new measures to ensure that tasks and deliverables are clearly defined in future professional services contracts. We are committed to continui…
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Mr. Speaker, as my colleague from public safety said earlier, we would like to thank the Auditor General and welcome her recommendations on the ArriveCAN application. Some of the report's recommendations have already been implemented. Some will be implemented soon, including the introduction of new measures to ensure that tasks and deliverables are clearly defined in future professional services c…
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Mr. Speaker, at the start of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, Canada's economy was faced with $1 billion in costs. Hundreds of people were dying every week in hospitals and long-term care facilities. We had to act quickly. That being said, the lack of cohesion, quality and data collection and sharing by the CBSA was unacceptable, as the Auditor General demonstrated this morning.
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Mr. Speaker, one of the Canadian government's duties at the time was to ensure that our border with the United States remained open to the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who were travelling every week and to the billions of dollars in essential medicines, food and critical equipment needed to protect people's health. That is why we implemented the ArriveCAN app, to prevent the border with the …
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Mr. Speaker, as we said earlier, we are grateful to the Auditor General for her report, which was important and timely. We have accepted all her recommendations. Some of them have already been implemented over the last few weeks. Some are being implemented. We look forward to more opportunities to work with her, so that we can make our procurement system as transparent, equitable and fair as Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, it would have been a scandal if the Canadian government had not assumed its responsibility to protect the health and safety of people, including in the riding of Lévis—Lotbinière, where the jobs of hundreds of people depended on efficient and fast transportation at the U.S. border, where $1 billion in trade takes place every day. Nevertheless, the Auditor General's recommendations fro…
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Mr. Speaker, as our public safety colleague said a few moments ago, it is completely unacceptable to spread misinformation and disinformation. What we do know is that during COVID-19, our borders, including the Canada-U.S. border, had to be shut down. A billion dollars in international trade was at stake. Nevertheless, what we heard from the Auditor General this morning was unacceptable. The task …
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Mr. Speaker, in times of crisis, the Canadian government has two responsibilities. The first is to keep people healthy and safe. The second is to ensure that its internal processes are effective and efficient. What we know is that, during COVID-19, nearly 70,000 Canadians died, 60 million people needed to cross the border, and we needed to ensure the movement of $1 billion in international trade. …
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Mr. Speaker, there were 150,000 travellers a day who needed to cross the border into the United States and back into Canada, bringing in medicines, food and essential protective equipment, among other things. We had to quickly find an app to enable all these people to do their job. That said, it was unacceptable that the CBSA did not implement appropriate mechanisms to support the rules already in…
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Mr. Speaker, again, we thank the Auditor General for her important report, which we are grateful to have seen this morning. However, we have followed many of the recommendations that we find in that report, including improving evaluation requirements and work experience data, increasing record keeping on subcontracting work, and suspending authorities temporarily for task authorization until we ar…
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Mr. Speaker, in a time of crisis, a responsible government has two responsibilities; the first is to protect the health and safety of its citizens, and the second is to ensure the efficiency of its internal systems. What we know from COVID-19 is that $1 billion in economic costs to Canadians was incurred every day. What we also know is that hundreds of people were dying every week. However, at the…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for this reminder of what the obligations of a responsible government are. A responsible government makes sure to protect the health and safety of its citizens, including in times of crisis like COVID-19, the worst health crisis since the last century and the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. We had to act quickly to save hundreds and even thousands of lives …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague once again for bringing up this very sensitive issue. We know that freedom of choice, control over one's own life and the choice for a dignified death are options that Canadians already have access to. We also know that we need to work to protect the most vulnerable members of our society. We know that we need to work very closely with health care providers, devel…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to hear a question from a colleague from the greater Quebec City area. During its 10 years in power, the Conservative government built 24,000 housing units. Over the past five years, we have built nearly 10 times as many. Over the past few months, 500,000 more have been announced. Now, would my Conservative colleagues from the Quebec City area agree to come with me t…
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Mr. Speaker, I wish I could be the minister of both health and procurement. I did get to be Minister of Health. As Minister of Procurement and a minister from Quebec, I recognize, as my colleague did, the important contribution that the Government of Quebec and Quebeckers have made over the past few years to advance the discussions, reflections and actions on this very sensitive topic, on which we…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank our colleague once again for raising this issue. She is right. We need to invest more in order to pay our public servants on time and correctly, and that is why we are currently hiring hundreds of new compensation officers. We are investing in improved technology that will enable better information flow between the departments concerned and the payroll centre, mo…
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Mr. Speaker, as my colleague is well aware and as she said so well, it is completely unacceptable for public servants, those who put all their talent and energy into working for the public service, to not be paid properly and on time. That is why we must work harder every day so that people like the person the member mentioned get what they need and what they are owed for the work they do, for the…
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