Orders of the Day
Actually, Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed with the Conservatives and their actions to date, in some cases cheering on the occupation. That is the reality that has escalated the situation. The New Democrats have been clear right from the start that we will ensure that powers are not abused. What is happening right now and was happening in the last three weeks is an illegal occupation. Under what cir…
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Mr. Speaker, one of the issues the member did not touch on was the impact of this illegal occupation on the residents. It took a private citizen to bring the matter to court. In fact, it was reported in the media that she was threatened and attacked. Do the members have any comments for the residents who suffered through all of this, who received threats and harassment? What are his comments? Do t…
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Mr. Speaker, New Democrats have called for measures for the government to ensure, for example, the issue of money laundering and how it is being used and how it has impacted Canada for a long time now and the government has not acted. The member is right that we need to see accountability with these measures and we will continue to pursue that. I also want to note something for the Conservative fr…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her advocacy for Canadians and particularly for people in her community. There is no question that we need to listen to the science and respect health authorities and their advice to us. If we all do that, we can all get out of this and, yes, by then we should be able to end the mandate. I would ask people to please get vaccinated so we can see an end to the man…
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Madam Speaker, the member cited a lot of people in his speech, but I wonder what he thinks about the comments from former Conservative MP Peter MacKay and Senator Vern White, who said: ...what we have seen in the occupation of Ottawa and blockages at border crossings is not the right of protest enshrined in our constitution, but illegal activity that represents a national security and economic thr…
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Mr. Speaker, one thing that struck me as I was listening to the member's comments was that it seems to me the Conservative members are not taking any responsibility for their part in escalating the situation. There is no question that the Prime Minister did not act. He sat on his hands for far too long and let the situation get way out of control, to the point where people's safety was literally p…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Major-General Fraser said Canada pulled out of Afghanistan way too early, and 10,000 Afghan interpreters and their families have been left behind. He also said the Liberals failed to provide a whole-of-government plan to help resettle them. While our allies are on the ground helping Afghans get to safety, the current government is sending emails telling Afghans to somehow get to a thi…
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Madam Speaker, as we know, many seniors are caught in this predicament because they are the lowest income seniors. Single seniors on GIS make a little over $19,000 a year. Those who are partnered get about $25,000 a year. The only reason they had to go to work was to supplement their income, and during COVID many of them lost their jobs. That is why they are caught in this predicament. With this i…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the cost of the TMX jumped from $4.5 billion to $12.6 billion, based on cost updates from two years ago. In the last two years, there have been significant delays in construction because of COVID‑19, forest fires and floods, failed HDD river crossings in the Thompson and Fraser rivers, and numerous environmental law violations. The commercial viability of TMX was on shaky ground befor…
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Madam Chair, I know that whenever we raise the issue of needing to advance decriminalization and safe supply people say there is no silver bullet. Nobody ever said that this would be a silver bullet. We need a whole host of tools, but first and foremost I have to say this. Dead people do not detox. We need to keep them alive. We need to save lives, and maybe there will be a process for them that o…
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Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the trip down memory lane with respect to the Harper administration and its approach to addressing the drug addiction issue. It failed and the Supreme Court struck it down. However, now we are here in 2022, and it is within the Liberal government's authority to move forward and not adopt the approach the Conservatives took. The government can do so by supporting t…
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Mr. Speaker, the situation before us really highlights big corporations' ability over time to get special treatment and, in this instance, a tax exemption. The NDP absolutely agrees with the motion and we think this should be addressed forthwith. The other question it raises is the issue of tax fairness. Many corporations today have special treatment from the government and can exercise a variety …
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Mr. Speaker, the heart of the issue is, of course, around tax fairness. We are seeing a situation dated long ago with a big corporation, CP Rail, able to get a tax exemption. As it stands today, big corporations are able to get all kinds of loopholes and preferential tax treatment from the government. It is time, I believe, and the NDP strongly believes, that we close all these tax loopholes, and …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to say a big thanks to the member for Courtenay—Alberni for bringing his private member's bill forward. Vancouver East has been trying to raise this issue for many years now. In fact, I still recall the late Bud Osborn, who spearheaded the harm reduction approach and called for decriminalization decades ago. VANDU in my riding has been very active on this issue and has been con…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, the member says he does not take his marching orders from the United States. With the convoy, what we are understanding is that there is a lot of money coming from the United States. Does he agree that should be stopped? In fact, this is going to be brought up at committee as an issue from the NDP. Would he agree that funding from the United States should not be going to the convoy an…
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Mr. Speaker, one of the issues that the member raised was centred around housing affordability. The Conservatives talk a lot about housing and the inflationary costs. However, it seems to me that the housing they are talking about, in terms of supply, is not necessarily housing that can be affordable to Canadians who are in need. I would argue that those who are in core need would not be able to a…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member about support for seniors. He talked about not having government spending, but one of the things the NDP has been calling for, even before the election, is for the government to support seniors and not claw back their GIS. This is because seniors are getting evicted and rendered homeless at this point in time. Does the member think the Liberal government…
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Mr. Speaker, one of the issues that the member raises is inflation and that ties into the cost of housing. Along with inflation, there are many factors impacting the huge rise in the cost of housing. Part of that is the financialization of housing where people are treating housing as though it is a stock market. REITs are part of the problem, and the government has not taken any action with respec…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government’s response to the crisis in Afghanistan: (a) under the special measures for people in Afghanistan, broken down by month, how many people have (i) applied, (ii) been provided with a Canadian visa or confirmation of Canadian citizenship, (iii) received invitations to go to an airport, (iv) been approved to be a permanent resident; (b) under the special measures for Afgh…
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With regard to Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC): (a) since January 1, 2020, how many applications have been (i) received, (ii) approved, (iii) rejected, (iv) are in inventory, broken down by month, stream (e.g. Home Child Care Provider, citizenship, etc.), and whether the application was inland or outland; (b) how many applications have passed eligibility, criminality and securit…
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With regard to the National Housing Strategy, broken down by type of applicant (e.g. non-profit, for-profit, Indigenous organization), stream (e.g. new construction, revitalization), stage (e.g. letter of intent, finalized agreement, servicing), date of the submission, province, number of units, number of units for Indigenous households, whether or not construction has been completed, and the doll…
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With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: (a) broken down by country and year since 2015, how many Temporary Resident Visa applications have been (i) received, (ii) approved, (iii) refused, (iv) refused under 179(b); (b) which immigration streams use the Chinook tool for assessing applications; (c) at which stages in the application step is the Chinook tool used; (d) what measur…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada is faced with an affordable housing crisis. There is no question that those trying to get into the market and own a home for the first time are having a real tough go of it. We need to address that. One of the ways the NDP proposes to address that is through financialization, not treating housing as though it is a stock market. Beyond that, there is a whole spectrum of people e…
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Mr. Speaker, one thing that is clear with respect to the opioid crisis is that dead people do not detox. The Conservatives talk a lot about treatment, but we first have to make sure people stay alive. The best way to do that is to decriminalize possession and provide a safe supply. Would the member agree with that?
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Madam Speaker, I listened to the debate, and it appeared that the Conservatives' approach to address the opioid crisis is a criminal justice approach. We in the NDP, and I hope on the government side as well, have a different perspective. If we really want to address the issue and save lives we must treat the issue as a health issue. Will the member call on his own government to decriminalize poss…
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Madam Speaker, the media reported a couple of days ago that we have the worst overdose deaths in Vancouver, in my community. The government has a choice to decriminalize small possession of drugs to save lives, along with instituting safe supply. Why is that not included in this bill, given the urgency of the situation all across the country?
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Madam Speaker, I wish to raise this point of order. The comments made by the member for Regina—Lewvan are a misrepresentation of what my colleague the member for Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke said. We are all hon. members here. We are all hearing and listening carefully to the debate. It is inappropriate and I find it offensive that someone would get up in the House right after another person spoke and …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the Auditor General released a damning report about the systemic failure of the Liberal government in ensuring temporary foreign workers are protected. Many workers tested positive for COVID-19 and some went home in a body bag. The government said that it would take immediate action, but inspections only got worse. Employers were found to be compliant with regulations even though th…
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Madam Speaker, I am delighted to enter into this debate. As members may know, housing is one of my deepest passions. I got into electoral politics back in 1993. Why? Because the federal Liberal government cancelled the national affordable housing program at that time. I was working as a community legal advocate in the Downtown Eastside. I was absolutely devastated because I saw first-hand what it …
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Madam Speaker, my thanks to the member for her kind words. There are many, many factors impacting home ownership. There is no question that there is a hot housing market and that people cannot afford to get into owning a home. Some of those issues tie into people flipping land, such as the Liberal member for Vancouver Granville, who actually, prior to the election, would not even answer the questi…
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Madam Speaker, it is true that the amount of land that is available is not to the tune the Conservatives have suggested. Having said that, it does not mean to say there is no land available. What we should and could do, of course, is look and see what land is available and then make it available to the non-profit sector to develop affordable social and co-operative housing. I am not here to get ma…
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Madam Speaker, I know New Democrats will always fight for safe, secure and affordable housing for all, and we strongly believe adequate housing is a fundamental basic right. That is why my colleague—
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Madam Speaker, the member waxed eloquently about how his government was doing such a great job in addressing the housing crisis. I wonder if the member knows that the Parliamentary Budget Officer, just prior to the election, indicated that under the Liberals' watch Canada lost over 180,000 units of social housing because the federal government did not provide the necessary subsidies or renew their…
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Madam Speaker, I hope that the two members had some fun with their theatrics. The reality, of course, is that there are a great many people across the country who need safe, secure, affordable housing: people who right now, at this moment, are homeless in the snow in the dead of winter. I noted that, in this motion from the Conservatives, there was no mention whatsoever of the need for an urban, r…
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Madam Speaker, the member talks as though she really supports affordable housing and those who are homeless, but given the trajectory in which we are going with the government's national affordable housing initiative, we are not going to meet the targets. We will not end homelessness. Given that perspective, would the member support what the NDP is calling for, which is the injection of 500,000 un…
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Madam Speaker, the NDP would like to propose an amendment for the member's consideration. In the stipulation of providing federal lands available for residential development, one thing that needs to be made clear is that the residential development needs to be non-profit and co-operative housing in the permanent sense. It does not make sense, if the federal government is going to make land availab…
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Madam Speaker, the reality is that Canada is actually losing more affordable housing and social housing than it is creating. During the campaign, the Liberal government only committed to 20,000 units of non-profit affordable housing to be built and created. My question to the parliamentary secretary is this. Would she call on her own government to do what the NDP has been advocating for? That is t…
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Madam Speaker, is the member concerned at all about the fact that in the motion, it is not stipulated that when making federal lands available for residential development, they are to be for non-profit and social housing? Otherwise, that land could be made available for luxury condo developers, which I do not think is the purpose of what we are trying to do here.
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Madam Chair, that is not even one-tenth of what the government said it would bring in. Have the cabinet approved the 40,000 target that has been announced?
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Madam Chair, families are waiting two to three years for their application to be processed. At the rate in which things are going, it is going to take three years to process and get us back to pre-pandemic levels to clear the backlog. A number of caregivers have passed Canadian nursing exams and have met all licensing requirements to practise, but are unable to do so because of employer-specific w…
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Madam Chair, as the minister knows, normally a new immigration level plan is tabled every November and there is not one this year. There is a huge backlog in the immigration system with every stream. When does the minister anticipate we will get back to pre-pandemic levels?
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Madam Chair, November is usually when the new immigration levels plan is released. This year, no immigration levels plan has been made public. When will the immigration levels plan be made available?
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Madam Chair, will the government increase the number of sponsorship agreement holders?
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Madam Chair, the minister is not answering any of my questions. She keeps on reciting the message box, but not answering any of the questions. Canadians are extremely generous even during these difficult times. Many want to privately sponsor refugees to Canada, so will the government increase the number of sponsorship agreement holders?
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Madam Chair, these are fairly straight-up questions for the minister. I do not know why she is avoiding answering any of them. Can the minister tell us if the current immigration levels can accommodate the 40,000 Afghan refugee target?
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Madam Chair, have any of the caps on refugee admissions been met this year?
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Madam Chair, the minister is refusing to answer or even touch on any of the issues that I am asking of her. Has the cabinet approved the 40,000 Afghan refugee target announced by the Prime Minister?
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Madam Chair, again, the minister did not answer the question. Many Afghan interpreters and their families, human rights activists, women and girls are in a dire situation as they are not able to secure visas, or renew passports or other travel documents. Will the Canadian government provide temporary travel documents to these individuals including a TRP?
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Madam Chair, that was not the question. It was about refugee determination. I know that the minister did not answer the question. Either she does not know the answer or she is refusing to answer it. My next question is this. If they are not able to obtain a refugee determination from the UNHCR, they will not be able to seek refugee status from Canada. How can they then get to safety?
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