Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to follow up on the point made by the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona. We should recognize that, when we talk about refugee protections in this place, we are normally talking about protecting people who need to come to Canada. There is an option in this legislation, which is good for humanitarian exceptions, if somebody is otherwise inadmissible but has a profound case fo…
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Mr. Speaker, I am torn about Bill C-41, only to the extent that I understand why some of my NDP colleagues will be voting against it. I will be voting for it. It is urgent that Canada provide the cover for massively needed humanitarian aid and assistance. This is an aspect of what the government claims is a feminist foreign policy. The government in Afghanistan has declared war on its women, and w…
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Mr. Speaker, in voting for this bill, would the hon. member also put forward any ideas he has for what we should be doing to protect the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan?
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Cariboo—Prince George and I are in quite strong agreement that we have infrastructure problems in transportation. Here is my view at this point, having been working on these issues, as my hon. colleague has, for quite a while. We created in the 1980s harbour authorities and airport authorities that are arm's length from government and completely unaccountable to anyone.…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Timmins—James Bay for making a number of excellent points about this legislation. From my point of view, coming from another part of the country, one important part of this legislation that needs clarification is what it needs in terms of protecting the Salish Sea from the use of our area as free parking for freighters that are backed up out of…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to Bill C-33, even if it is only in a question for the hon. parliamentary secretary. I have been waiting for this bill to come up for debate. It is a key and critical piece of legislation for people in my community, as I mentioned when I was asking a question of the hon. member for Timmins—James Bay. We have an incredibly frustrating, dangerous, e…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, we know what climate change looks like on land. We see it. Our forests are burning. We see storms, droughts and floods. We experience it as human beings. However, every single second of every single minute of every single hour of every single day, the energy equivalent to 10 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs is absorbed by our oceans. Today is World Oceans Day, and it is worth pausing for …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to drill down on something that is a widespread assumption without evidence, which is that the private sector is more efficient. I have been tracking what happened to my riding with the backup of freighters, as many as 27 at a time, all up the coast of Vancouver Island, all the way up to Ladysmith and Gabriola. It is very inefficient. Everyone loses. The grain shippers lose. Th…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague and friend from Repentigny for her speech. She is an extraordinary activist. This is my first opportunity to speak this afternoon. I would like to thank the Bloc Québécois for raising this issue today. It is a good opportunity to have an important debate. I completely agree with the Bloc on this. The Green Party will obviously be voting in favour of the mot…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my dear colleague from the Bloc Québécois and all members of the Bloc for raising this debate today. The federal government's answer is that it is already doing things to protect the climate, but obviously it has yet to reach any of its targets because it is still favourable to new products that come from fossil fuels. We have only to think of the Bay du Nord project, as wel…
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Mr. Speaker, to my dear friend from Cariboo—Prince George, I give my deep sympathies for the struggle he is going through tonight. He has had more than his fair share of health problems in the last year, and this does not seem fair. To his point about access to rail and the farmers who cannot get the railcars needed to ship grain to port, the question for me is this: How is this a problem of over-…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the funds allocated for future Arctic offshore oil and gas development in budget 2023 and the 2016 moratorium on oil and gas activities in Canada’s Arctic waters: (a) what are the details of the proposed funding; and (b) are future Arctic offshore oil and gas developments and an end to the moratorium being considered?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is right about one thing, which is that climate change is real, but the policies of the current government do not meet the requirements of the moment. We are in a climate emergency. Our eyes are burning in this place. The Ottawa parliamentary bubble has been pierced by the forest fires across this country, yet in this place the debates are inane. Please, will the Pr…
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Mr. Speaker, to the earlier exchange that the Minister of Finance had on the subject of Ukraine, I think it is significant that the budget implementation bill, for the first time, removes Russia and Belarus from most-favoured-nation status. We are not in this place debating the budget, which I voted against; we are debating Bill C-47, which I voted for and will continue to vote for. There are many…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Nepean for addressing Bill C-47, the budget implementation act. I will point out, for those who are observing this debate, that the budget implementation act covers the variety of measures the hon. member for Nepean mentioned, changes the most favourable nation status for Russia and creates a vessel remediation act and a vessel remediation fund, w…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking the hon. Minister of Families for her work, her non-partisan spirit, and the fact that from day to day, frankly, she inspires me, so she may be annoyed to find that I cannot vote for time allocation on Bill C-35, because we need to stop using time allocation in this place as if it is routine. I protested it when it was done to us time and time again when th…
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Madam Speaker, it is a great honour to speak in support of Bill C-35 at this time. I could not agree more with some of the members who spoke before me, such as the member for Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill and the Bloc Québécois member for Shefford, who gave a great speech. I always appreciate my colleagues' efforts. Despite the fact that it is late, I would like to give my opinion on this bill. …
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Madam Speaker, I wish I could believe that passing the bill means that a future government will not repeal it. I recall spring 2012 and an omnibus budget bill, Bill C-38, which repealed the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, repealed the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy Act and gutted the Fisheries Act. There were 70 separate pieces of legislation destroyed in that. I will a…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, as I rise this evening during the Adjournment Proceedings, most of what I want to say about the climate science is that we are running out of time and the hour is late. Both of those things are literally true, as I rise to speak after midnight. I am raising a question that I put to the Prime Minister on March 22 of this year in question period in response to the most recent and sobe…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, this is a really worthwhile discussion the hon. parliamentary secretary and I are having. Here is the problem, for the answers the Prime Minister, or anybody standing up for the Liberal Party, gives, it is not good enough if we are going to put the planet at risk, continuing the trajectory we are on, which threatens the survival, and this is not hyperbole, of human civilization. We …
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Madam Speaker, I do know what a dedicated father my hon. friend from Cowichan—Malahat—Langford is. How would he reflect on the availability of early learning and child care on Vancouver Island, particularly in the kinds of areas where we both work and live?
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Madam Speaker, my hon. friend from Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon continues to amaze me given how much he is like a Green Party candidate, because it is in our platform that we need workplace child care for all the reasons the member just discussed, which I would love him to expand on. I think Bill C-35 is consistent with putting child care spaces where people can visit their kids throughout the da…
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Madam Speaker, when I referred to partisan games, I was merely referring to the public statements that have been made by the leader of the official opposition on the intent to gum up this place with as many obstructive tactics as possible. If he did not intend for those comments to apply to this debate on Bill C-35, I apologize to the hon. member. I agree with her. There are many things, as I ment…
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Madam Speaker, I could not agree more with the member for Winnipeg Centre. I apologize to her for changing to a different topic. However, I think it is critical, and I thought I made it clear in my speech, that we support and respect the child care workers who deliver early learning and child care. Why do we pay CEOs and hockey players more than we pay people doing the most critical job in our soc…
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Madam Speaker, following up on that, it is true that at report stage the only amendments that can be brought forward, generally speaking, are deletions. However, certainly the official opposition had a choice of what part of the bill it might want to delete. Is there anything the member can add as to why the choice was made to delete the short title?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I know the tactics behind concurrence debates, which push Routine Proceedings out a long time. Let me set that aside. The Conservative strategy on delay is also in the media. I do want to take my friend up on the idea that government is responsible for the high prices of fuel and food price increases. It is very clear that Putin's attack on Ukraine created volatility and higher pric…
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Madam Speaker, I have put this question to other members debating tonight. Over the course of any discussion of Bill C-47 in this place, I have heard very few members actually speak to Bill C-47, which is not the budget. The budget carried already in this place. We are now debating a budget implementation act, which changes many pieces of legislation. It is an omnibus bill, but it is not an illegi…
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Madam Speaker, I am curious because we are debating Bill C-47 tonight, which is not the budget but the budget implementation act. In terms of reading that piece of legislation, I can understand that speeches can wander off topic, but I did not hear anything of the topic in that speech. I am wondering what part of his speech the hon. member would refer me to in terms of the budget implementation ac…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I thank my dear colleague, the member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia. She speaks the truth, as always. There is just a slight difference between us, or maybe not. I am talking about the new normal. We are currently seeing a global temperature increase of 1.1 degrees Celsius. We need to avoid an increase of 2 degrees and, if possible, keep it at 1.5 degrees. I do not think thi…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I appreciate my two minutes to speak to this emergency debate on the wildfires, and I appreciate all of my colleagues here tonight. We are taking up a debate that operates at two levels. We have spent most of this debate on the first level, and that is appropriate. That first level is the immediate, the now. It is what we have just gone through, which is not over yet. As my hon. col…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, petitioners from my riding are once again raising the issue of a just transition. This language is not divisive. It comes directly from the Paris Agreement. Canada and all countries on earth are committed to the just transition language that they have committed to. The petitioners point out that the skills of oil and gas workers can be easily transitioned to jobs in renewable energy a…
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Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition of deep concern to the residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands. I mention in particular Leslie Mcbain, a resident of Pender Island, one of the founders of Moms Stop the Harm. She lost her son tragically in the opioid crisis. So many moms have lost their kids. The efforts of this one group have definitely influenced policy across Canada, and at this point, the Cana…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The bill before us, Bill S-5, has no relation to climate change or any of the topics yet referenced. This is not a generalized debate on environmental policy. This is about a specific bill that is inadequate and that proposes to regulate toxic chemicals and improve their regulation. As much as it pains me to ask, when might the hon. member speak to Bill S-5…
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Madam Chair, for those in the chamber who are wondering if I have crossed the floor, out of respect for the minister, I would like to see her as I ask the questions. I hope to make this more like a conversation and less like ping pong, if for nothing else, then for a bit of a break. I do want to use my time well though, so I want to start with something rather basic. I have observed, over the year…
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Madam Chair, the hon. minister may be unaware that the Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam, Squamish and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, the people along the coastline of the Salish Sea, know that their entire future will be wiped out with a single tanker accident, which is inevitable with dilbit, which cannot be cleaned up in a marine environment—
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Madam Chair, I want to switch to the climate crisis. Given the comments and a lot of good questions that were asked by the hon. member for Repentigny, which I might have asked, I just want to put into context that, while this federal government spends more money than others, I would not say that it has the best plan, compared with even the previous Liberal government of Paul Martin. The current co…
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Madam Chair, it is not about whether the hon. minister can satisfy me, but whether my grandchildren will have a survivable future, or whether the hon. minister's or the hon. parliamentary secretary's children will. There is science behind what I am saying, which is that building the Trans Mountain pipeline means the Paris commitments cannot be held to. The hon. minister said, earlier tonight, that…
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Madam Chair, with respect to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which has been completely condemned by every international science organization, not in its specificity, but because any new fossil fuel infrastructure is condemned as it goes against the interests of future generations and blows through the Paris agreement, will the hon. minister consider this? Since the budget does not mention t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, moments ago, the Minister of Environment said he will use every tool available to the federal government. Those tools are lying idle while Doug Ford is revving up the bulldozers. We know that we could use endangered species legislation or look at impact assessments, but the strongest tool is probably the international, legally binding agreement of the Great Lakes annex to prohibit the…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am rising today on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people to raise a concern that is very close to the hearts of the indigenous peoples of British Columbia, and that is the threat to the wild Pacific salmon populations, and particularly of Fraser River sockeye. Petitioners call for the Government of Canada to implement all of the recommendations in the report o…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this place to present a petition. The focus is on the health threats of the climate crisis. The petitioners point out that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on 1.5°C points to the reality that we are unlikely to be able to stay below 1.5°C without rapid and immediate reductions of emissions, that we are on a path to significantly overshoot…
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Mr. Speaker, I apologize to my hon. colleague that at this hour, my French is not up to putting this question. We have had discussions of the red-flag laws in this place on Bill C-21. I have read the Mass Casualty Commission report and find it deeply disturbing that, over a period of over a decade and a half, reports were made to the police that the man who ultimately killed 22 Nova Scotians had g…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Yukon began his speech referencing the mass casualty report, and I just recently had an exchange on it with another member. The mass casualty report on the events of April 18 and 19, 2020, in Nova Scotia is really a ground truthing of why we need to change our laws. The concepts of gender-based violence, violence against intimate partners and coercive control shoul…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not object to applying the vote, but it appeared that we were not going to have a chance to say how we would vote when applying. This is the question I would like to pose to the House: Can we agree to apply, and then go around as usual and not assume the votes are exactly the same?
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Mr. Speaker, the Green Party agrees to apply the votes and votes no.
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Mr. Speaker, I really want to follow up with the member for Niagara West, from an earlier moment when you were presiding over a point of order that was not really a point of order. I am waiting to use the opportunity where I do have the right to speak to the member for Niagara West to confirm that what I was trying to point out to the hon. parliamentary secretary, in an earlier exchange, is that w…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a rare occasion when I rise to present a petition about which I have had conversations in depth with the person who brought it forward. I am really pleased to be able to present it today. I want to thank Elsje de Boer, who brought it forward. Many of my constituents signed this petition; in fact, 553 people did. It deals with the perils of people in situations somewhat like the …
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Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Green Party, we agree to apply, and as these are the Green Party's amendments, we vote yes.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the change-up in the routine here. I wanted to ask my hon. colleague from Kingston and the Islands about this. I am good friends with the hon. member for Battle River—Crowfoot. On both sides of this House I want to identify this particular type of polarization and hope that we can arrest it. My friend from Battle River—Crowfoot said that the Liberals did not care what rur…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation Anishinabe people, and I do so with humility and gratitude. Meegwetch. I am rising tonight during Adjournment Proceedings to pursue a question that I originally asked in question period on March 10 of this year. It is in relation to the tailings ponds maintained by Imperial Oil, and the Kearl mine is th…
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