Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, this is a very significant petition dealing with an issue that is very topical. It is that Canadian corporations based in Canada contribute to human rights abuses and environmental damage in other countries. The people who protest these abuses and defend their rights are often harassed, attacked or killed, and in this group are particularly indigenous peoples, women and marginalized g…
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Madam Speaker, I want to mention one thing for the hon. parliamentary secretary about the motion so it is on the record. It is a small complaint, but it matters. It is the reference to how we will go forward over the next number of days. It refers to independent members but no where does it refer to Green Party members. I do not imagine that the intent of the motion is to leave us out, but I just …
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Madam Speaker, I want to put on the record that both my colleague from Kitchener Centre and I will be voting for the motion before the House today, and we would wish for Liberal members do so too. I want to make it very clear that, in voting for the motion before us, I am not saying in any way, shape or form that I do not believe the Prime Minister. Without evidence to the contrary, I absolutely t…
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Mr. Speaker, I have to start by saying that the member for Guelph thanked me for coming to the environment committee. I was coerced into being at the environment committee. I am not allowed to be a member of the committee. The motions passed in every committee in this place give me 48-hours notice to submit all my amendments to the committee for clause-by-clause, but I am not allowed to participat…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Victoria for voting, in committee, for a number of the over 24 amendments that the Green Party tried to put forward. We worked on Bill S-5 from mid-December right through to March. All those good amendments were defeated, as were the many good amendments that had been brought forward by the Senate. By the way, I cannot vote for this legislation. We …
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,seconded by the member for Victoria, moved: Motion No. 2 That the amendment to Clause 39.1 of Bill S-5 be amended by replacing subsections 108.1(1) and (2) with the following: “108.1 (1) If the information that the Ministers assess under subsection 108(1) or (2) is in respect of a vertebrate or a prescribed living organism or group of living organisms, the Ministers shall ensure that the public i…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this place today to speak. I want to let people watching know that the reason we are all wearing red carnations is for multiple sclerosis awareness. The petition I am honoured to present today is from a rather specific and unusual group of petitioners, medical doctors who are also mothers. The Physician Mothers of Canada are calling on the Government of Cana…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to start with the matter before us right now and hope that members will decide to support the amendments that have been put forward in today's debate at report stage. My hon. colleague, the member for Victoria, has just walked through some of them. I want to stress that it is important to vote in favour of the reasoned NDP amendment put forward by the hon. member for Victoria, …
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Mr. Speaker, I extend my condolences for the loss of the people and the firefighters in this climate event. My question is for the Prime Minister. In relation to the business that we will take up later today, the amendments to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, known as Bill S-5, there is still time to improve this act by increasing the opportunities for public participation for science an…
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Madam Speaker, the question is this: Does the hon. member agree with me that the mere fact of asking for information gathering about the tailings ponds should not have provoked a reaction that it had to be removed?
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Madam Speaker, I did actually put forward, in a previous Parliament, a private member's bill called “think small first”, but have not been able to get it back through the legislative drafting. It was designed for small businesses, to ensure that there would be a regulatory review of any new regulation and to consider specifically how it would affect small businesses. It is based on a similar bill …
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Madam Speaker, I think we are all astonished by the turn this debate has taken on modernizing regulations. I just wanted to express to the member some degree of sympathy that the electoral boundary redistribution will deprive him of representing the town of Ashcroft and the extraordinarily vital and engaged citizenry. As well, I think he is losing Lytton, which we already lost in action. It has no…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise tonight to pursue a question that was originally asked on February 6, and I have to say that the circumstances have changed substantially since it was asked. I wear the Ukrainian flag colours every day. I decided to put on this pin on February 24, when Putin launched his brutal and illegal attack on Ukraine. I want to make it very clear that I personally, and the Green Party …
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Madam Speaker, I was just recently in Edmonton for Earth Day and toured a home that had just cut the gas line supply to the House. It was in Edmonton, where they get rather cold winters. They have an air source heat pump that was installed. They have also installed solar panels on their roof. The installer was there to talk about the current demand. They cannot keep up in Edmonton with homes that …
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Madam Speaker, tonight, we are looking at Bill S-6, which would not be cutting regulations; it is about modernizing regulations. We missed some opportunities where we could have improved various aspects of Canadian society by actually cutting some regulations and streamlining some other regulations. This may just be my own childhood and background working in a small business. We had a restaurant a…
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Madam Speaker, in reflecting on the situation in Ukraine, including on the future of its people, its culture and survival, and the nature of Ukraine, I have been extremely moved by the fact that my colleague and the deputy leader of the Green Party, Jonathan Pedneault, just went to Ukraine on my behalf and on behalf of the party. He used to work at Human Rights Watch, and he visited with his colle…
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Madam Speaker, I have a question. In this afternoon's debate, we heard about the Senate amendments, which were great amendments, about collecting information on the oil sands and tailings ponds. The Liberals have opposed that amendment. It is a little complicated, but what we are talking about is that including tailings ponds in Bill S-5 is so rudimentary and obvious that it is deeply shocking tha…
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Mr. Speaker, relying on my previous work as a practising lawyer, the words “interested parties” definitely mean the chemical industry would be an interested party. They do not mean Nature Canada would automatically be an interested party.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear colleague from Repentigny. I absolutely agree with what she said about NGOs like Nature Canada that have worked on the issue of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. It is unbelievable to think that we now have the opportunity to make changes to part 6 of the bill in order to modernize the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, but that the government is choosing to…
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Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to say just a few words, not many. In case Canadians watching this do not know the quality and the integrity of the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills, I want to attest to it here in a non-partisan fashion. This is an exemplary member of Parliament. It is an outrage that any foreign government would target him and his family. I have had the honour of serving here fo…
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Mr. Chair, at moments like this, when we hear the stories of the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre in this place, we realize how much we are of one mind. When I look at the report of the inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, I recognize there are things in there that we need to do, but we have not acted on those recommendations. However, this notion of a Re…
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Madam Chair, to my hon. friend from Fredericton, I know how closely she is engaged with the indigenous communities near where Fredericton sits on the land of the Wolastoq. I thank her for her speech in the language of that territory: Woliwon. I also recognize this opportunity that we have before us. As she said, this is a moment where there is synergy; things have changed, and we need to push forw…
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Madam Chair, I have actually seen the video my hon. colleague from Sydney—Victoria talks about tonight. It is very deeply affecting and does follow the theme of red dresses. It is critical something we are speaking about tonight translates into action, which is that every single time an indigenous woman or girl goes missing there are immediate steps and an immediate alert while there is time for t…
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Madam Chair, as we debate Red Dress Day today, there is a tremendous amount of support for meaningful action to save lives. However, I wonder if the member for Lakeland has reflected on the recommendations in the inquiry for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and two-spirit peoples. We have had those recommendations now for years, and they have not been implemented. I wonder if the me…
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Madam Chair, I could not agree more with my hon. colleague, but I will say this. I have met with the current Minister of Transport frequently on this, and I am aware, as I saw the letter, actually, that he sent a letter to every provincial minister of transport asking to meet to discuss how we can deliver exactly what the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley has set out and exactly what is in the inqu…
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Madam Chair, I want to follow up on the question by my hon. colleague from Victoria. The notion of a red dress alert is critical. It will need funds. Can the minister give us a sense of how likely it is that this will be implemented with adequate resources and exactly when?
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Madam Chair, it is an honour to stand here on the lands of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. To them I say meegwetch. I am moved to say the power of the red dress symbol has been overwhelming. One moment that indicates the power of the red dresses hanging empty of the women's bodies who should be living and walking with us was the RCMP's reaction to the Fairy Creek encampment of largely indigenous …
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Madam Chair, I thank our esteemed colleague from Shefford for her passion and her commitment to taking action. I have a brief question for her. As feminists here in Parliament, are we clear on the fact that we must immediately bring in a red dress alert, as we have been discussing this evening?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this place today to raise the concerns of many Canadians and petitioners related to the pesticide glyphosate. This herbicide is commonly used in Canada under the trade name Roundup. The herbicide glyphosate has been judged by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, within the World Health Organization, as a probable human carcinogen. The petitioners…
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Madam Speaker, I am so pleased that the member raised the issue of REITs, the real estate investment trusts, which allow corporations to intervene and turn homes into investment properties where the prices get spiked and taxpayers lose. I was pleased to hear her say that the Liberals were interested in looking at this. Motion No. 71, introduced by the Green member for Kitchener Centre, deals with …
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Madam Chair, I am honoured to respond to the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre. I can add nothing to her words. I hope that I can be worthy of her thinking of me as a good ally, and I agree.
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Madam Chair, the violence and hatred that are now being exhibited toward trans people well beyond Canada and within Canada should be alarming to every one of us. As a society, we were embracing and enjoying RuPaul's Drag Race. Drag shows are about talent, exuberance and pride in who we are without all the stigma of ignorant times. Now we know that people who are trans are at risk increasingly. We …
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Mr. Speaker, many concerned petitioners from Saanich—Gulf Islands have filed this petition asking the government to consider the following: indigenous people have rights, are entitled to traditional territories, and have been stewards of land, which includes old growth forests across Canada. We know the climate crisis demands of us that we do more to protect old growth forest. Valley-bottom, high-…
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Mr. Speaker, in a debate on Bill C-47, I confine myself to the contents of the bill. Much of the minister's speech and much of the debate in this place did not pertain to the budget itself. I am not criticizing any rulings or trying to get new rulings from the Speaker in terms of relevance, but Bill C-47 is in fact 429 pages of disparate pieces of legislative changes, and I have to say that I find…
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Madam Speaker, I also remember that 2009 was when the Stephen Harper government launched an initiative to replace our 40-year-old payroll system, in which I do not think anyone ever failed to get paid, with what was described at the time as a modern, off-the-shelf commercial system. A different corporation, IBM, signed a contract in 2009 with Stephen Harper's government. They made out like bandits…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to focus on something pretty fundamental. It is the difference between the budget, which I did not vote for because it failed to address the climate crisis, failed to address mental health issues and puts more money into fossil fuels, and this bill, Bill C-47, the budget implementation act, in which to my surprise, having read 429 pages, I did not find anything I wanted to vote…
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Madam Speaker, I am fascinated by the remarks of my colleague from Jonquière about small modular reactors. I do not think they are a source of clean energy and I think it is a big—
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Madam Speaker, I see no need to start over from the beginning, but I will say that my friend from Jonquière said some very interesting things about the nuclear industry and small modular reactors, which are not a source of clean energy. It is a serious distraction, moving us further away from the need to tackle the climate emergency. My question is this. Why does he think we are facing a new nucle…
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Mr. Speaker, just in time for Earth Day, this government approved a devastating, nature-killing project, massively expanding the Port of Vancouver at Roberts Bank. It is also a job-killing project, because the head of the longshoremen dock workers union says that it will be devastating, but wait, I am going to anticipate the minister's answer and save him some time. He is going to tell us that the…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that Bill C-241 would have fit very neatly in Bill C-47, the budget implementation act. There are many sections in the over 429 pages of Bill C-47, but there is one that goes directly to the issue that the hon. member has put forward in his private member's bill, which is a tax discount on tradespeople's tools. I wonder if the member saw that section and if he sees it as encou…
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Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to join my friend from Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan virtually. We are debating the budget tonight. I do not want to be too finicky about it. It is really weird, of course, that we have already voted on the budget. Like him, I voted against the budget. I could not support this budget after reading the 429 pages of Bill C-47. I do not blame him as everyone is doing this. …
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Madam Speaker, I am grateful for the hon. member raising the Trans Mountain pipeline and the ballooning costs. They are not referenced in the budget, but they went, in one year, from $21 billion to now $30 billion. I cannot blame the Prime Minister for the escalating costs. However, I can blame the Prime Minister and the former minister of finance for just about falling off the turnip truck and bu…
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Madam Speaker, I will not dispute it, but I deeply disagree with my friend from Northumberland—Peterborough South. I wanted to ask him a question on something I know we agree about, and that is the failure of the budget to invest in Via Rail. Can he comment on whether, particularly in his local area, enough is being done to get passenger rail back on track?
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise virtually this evening to pursue a question I initially asked in question period on February 13. This was in advance of receiving our federal budget from the Minister of Finance. The Minister of Finance did respond, on the floor of the House, to the question I asked that day. I have contrasted what Canada is doing to go after the excess profit garnered by par…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very strict with my ability to speak to petitions without saying if I am for them or against them, but forgive me for saying this is heartbreaking. E-petition 4356 has 4,239 signatories begging the government not to do something it has now done. The petitioners ask that the government consider that terminal 2 of the Roberts Bank establishment in the Fraser estuary will destroy cr…
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Madam Speaker, it is easily researched that the Government of Canada charges less tax on oil and gas companies than the United States does, and this is in a period of time when we are still subsidizing oil and gas. While I do appreciate the comments from my friend, the hon. parliamentary secretary, we are still subsidizing oil and gas, with increased subsidies in budget 2023, by providing more acc…
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today, as always, here on the territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe nation. To them I say meegwetch. We are here tonight to debate Bill C-47. Bill C-47 is not the budget. The budget is a different document. It is related, of course, but Bill C-47 contains those legislative changes that are necessary in order to have the measures in the budget, not all of them…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is absolutely right. On page 134 of the budget, there is the heading “Protecting Our Freshwater”. The waters mentioned include the Great Lakes. My goodness, the Great Lakes alone require an enormous investment. Lake Winnipeg right now is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and it is dying. It will take much more than the total amount for all these bodies of…
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Madam Speaker, hearing my hon. colleague from West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country speak reminds me that when I speak of the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act, I really should give a shout-out to a colleague who worked in this place, the former MP for St. Margarets, Bernadette Jordan. She went on to be minister of fisheries, but when she was a private member and a backbencher…
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Mr. Speaker, it is my first opportunity at almost midnight to get in on the debate tonight. I want to thank my colleagues, particularly from Edmonton Strathcona and Vancouver East, for being so clear. We have abandoned Sudan. We have been busy with other things. We have given it lip service. When those two war-lords seized power in a military coup, we should have denounced them, and we should have…
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