Parliamentary Speeches

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, every day 10 Canadians die by suicide and 21 more to overdose. Canada was already facing a mental health crisis. Now, with rising costs, everyday Canadians cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket for the help they need. Wait-lists for public services are months or years long. The Liberals promised to spend $4.5 billion over five years to expand mental health services, yet this funding was …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, it is a huge honour and privilege to rise to deliver this petition, signed by constituents from Courtenay, Parksville, Port Alberni and Qualicum Beach in my riding. They cite that farmers' markets are a key tool for COVID-19 recovery, as they are small business incubators and builders of domestic systems, food security, local economies and communities. They say that farmers' market co…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, this week marks one year since the 2021 election and it has been another difficult year for many, with more uncertainty on the horizon. The impacts of the pandemic continue to be felt in our communities. Our health care system is under intense strain and the rising cost of living is adding stress to the daily lives of Canadians. In the last election the Liberals made a promise to Cana…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, the government announced its intention to establish the $10-a-day child care program, and there were deals with provinces and territories in place within a year. Here we are a year later, and when it comes to mental health transfers, the Liberals still have not delivered their 2021 election promise. Too many Canadians cannot access appropriate mental health or subst…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, it is a huge privilege and honour to table a petition on behalf of constituents from my riding. They cite that Canada's electoral system, from its very inception, has always been a first-past-the-post system, unfairly resulting in either a Liberal or Conservative government with virtually no impact on the popular vote, leading to distorted Canadian values. They cite that proportional …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, my colleague talked about an economy that works for everyone. Well, the PBO put out a report recently and cited that the top 1% of families in this country hold 25% of the wealth while the bottom 40% hold 1.1% of the wealth. Meanwhile, we are seeing grocery store chains, banks and oil and gas and telecom companies make record profits, while groceries, bank fees, gas and wireless fees …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, not once did my colleague talk about the greedflation that has taken hold in this country. We know in Canada we have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G7. How is that playing out? We have homeless people and people who cannot get dental care. We see big corporations like grocery stores, the big banks, big oil and big telecom all having record profits. Meanwhile, grocery store price…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, on that point of order, what is truly criminal is that these big corporations are hoarding all the profits while people—

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table e-petition 3965 signed by 707 signatories. They are petitioning the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, whom they cite aims to restore Pacific herring stocks to enable this keystone species to play its vital role in sustaining Pacific salmon populations and the marine ecosystem. The undersigned citizens call upon the minister to, first,…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the investment of more than $800 million in community-led harm reduction, treatment, and prevention initiatives the government has indicated it has committed since 2015 to address the overdose crisis: (a) how much funding has been allocated to date; (b) where has the funding been allocated to date, including, for each project, the (i) organization, (ii) project title (iii) descripti…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, this summer, 21 families a day buried their loved ones because of the toxic drug crisis. This is devastating but was foreseeable. The Public Health Agency of Canada warned that this crisis could continue to get worse. This is just weeks after the Liberals and the Conservatives both voted against an NDP bill to create a national health-based strategy. Instead of supporting real solutio…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the modelling of opioid-related deaths by the Public Health Agency of Canada: (a) since December 15, 2021, has the agency updated its model on a quarterly basis as it publicly committed to do on that date; (b) if the answer to (a) is affirmative, when was the first quarterly update made publicly available; (c) if the model in (b) was not made available to the public, what was the re…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to polling data obtained by the Privy Council Office since January 1, 2016, concerning the decriminalization of possession of controlled substances: what are the details of all such polling, including, for each poll, (i) who conducted the poll, (ii) the start and end dates of when the poll was conducted, (iii) the number of participants, (iv) the complete results of the poll, including…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Shared Health Priorities bilateral agreements, since fiscal year 2016-17, broken down by province or territory and fiscal year: (a) which federal investments have been directed towards (i) increasing the availability of mental health and addiction services in the community, excluding hospital and family physician funding, (ii) improving access to school-based programs for early …

Madam Speaker, it is an honour today to have an opportunity to express my condolences and also, on behalf on the constituents of the people of Courtenay—Alberni, to have the opportunity to rise today in the House to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. My thoughts are with the royal family, for their loss of a mother, a grandmother and great-grandmother, and with millions of others throu…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, one thing my colleague's party promised in 2019 was to make sure that the CBSA had the resources it needs to detect and stop the flow of weapons at our borders. Just like the Conservatives did with Veterans Affairs when they cut a third of the staff, which has led to a backlog of over 40,000 disability applications for veterans, they cut 1,000 positions at the CBSA, which are requir…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I have a great amount of respect for my colleague. As she knows, the NDP supports the goal of getting military-style assault weapons off the street with a mandatory buyback of prohibited firearms. We also welcome the announcement that the government is getting serious about cracking down on gun crime. However, we received letters and calls from hundreds of concerned airsoft owners a…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I greatly appreciate the member's thoughts. As my colleague from the Liberal Party suggested, this is a time when we are in this House and we all agree on something, which is nice. I would like to see the bill fast-tracked so we can focus on really important issues. I have been talking a lot about the toxic drug crisis. I know my colleague cares deeply about this as well. The expert t…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege tonight to rise to talk about a project we would like to see in our riding for a floating dry dock in the Alberni Valley. We have the only deep-sea port on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and we have an incredible company, Canadian Maritime Engineering, that is working in partnership with the City of Port Alberni and first nations and that is well supported in ou…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, it was not long ago that we had a Conservative government that removed a tariff of 25% for those who wanted to build ferries outside of our country. That money could have been used to develop shipyards in our country. We hear from Conservatives that they want faster and cheaper ships built outside of Canada. We know we can do better. Right now, the Liberals still are not investing in …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, it is a huge honour to present this petition today on behalf of constituents who are calling on the government to address the climate emergency. They are calling on the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada to enact just transition legislation that would reduce emissions by at least 60% below 2005 levels and make significant contributions to emissions reductions in countries i…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Canada is experiencing a mental health crisis. Every day it is costing lives. The Liberals have promised time and again to address this crisis, but they have broken their promises. In their election platform, the Liberals promised $4.5 billion to expand mental health services, but there is no sign of this in the budget. They promised to fully fund a three-digit suicide prevention hotl…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, we proposed taxing the windfall pandemic profits of big corporations and sending them back to Canadians through the GST rebate and the Canada child benefit as a way for the federal government to provide immediate relief to Canadians and make the wealthy pay their fair share. The official leader of the opposition has put forward an extension of wanting to work with us, but this motion …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, it is great to see you back in the chair. I am really honoured to present this petition on behalf of constituents of mine. They are citing that Canada's electoral system, from its very inception, has been a first-past-the-post system, unfairly resulting in either a Liberal or a Conservative government, and that proportional representation is a principle that says t…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend happy birthday wishes to my colleague's daughter. We know that the Conservative motion, by cutting the GST and by eliminating the carbon tax on oil and gas, will actually just lead to an increased amount on our deficit. Also, it will do nothing to stop oil and gas companies from earning skyrocketing profits on the backs of everyday Canadians. We know that specul…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the New Democrats continue to put forward proposals to double the GST rebate and to increase the child tax credit by $500, yet the Conservatives do not support that. In fact, they continue to stand up for big oil. The member talked about the system being rigged; it is rigged, because Liberals are afraid to tax oil and gas. Who needs oil lobbyists, when we have the Conservative Party…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, one thing we do agree on is that we need to provide relief to Canadians from skyrocketing inflation. We agree on that, but how we get there has been challenging. We have seen skyrocketing oil prices and we have seen bank fees go up and we have seen grocery costs go up. We have seen record profits for big corporations, including oil companies, grocery companies and banks. Conservativ…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, we know that there are critical needs right now for wild Pacific salmon. This is in the budget, as well as really important investments for child care and for co-op housing. We have had a vacancy in investments for co-op housing. Both Conservatives and Liberals have abandoned non-market housing, and now we are finally seeing a step forward. It is not exactly what the NDP would like,…

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, it is now almost two years since a wonderful young Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation woman was shot and killed by a police officer in Edmundston, New Brunswick, during a wellness check. Family, friends, community members and Canadians seeking justice for Chantel Moore are currently walking to Victoria and will arrive tomorrow. I am unable to be with them. Instead, I rise today to remind th…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has finally approved British Columbia's request to decriminalize simple possession of controlled substances after dragging its feet for months. This is an important step to stop the harms of failed drug policy, but we are dealing with a national crisis. There are thousands of families burying their loved ones outside of B.C. Provincial and local governments shou…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, if so, is its compliance being monitored?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, other industries, such as forestry and agriculture, have also faced massive upheavals for the same reasons that fisheries are being forced to restructure, such as climate events and newly developed conservation policies, yet workers and owner-operators in these resource-adjacent industries have been heavily supported both federally and provincially with funding to withstand the transiti…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, we had the Hanjin Seattle, and we have seen the Zim Kingston. We have seen some marine debris spills on our coast. I have talked to the minister about creating the ecosystem service fee on trans cargo shipment units coming into Canada. Has she spoken to the transport minister about creating a fund that can go to coastal and indigenous communities to have a tactical response plan in plac…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, I was just at French Creek Marina, which the minister knows quite well as she travels to Lasqueti Island. They are bursting at capacity. They cannot find enough slips for boats. It is impacting our economy, our culture and our access to food security. Will the minister meet with marinas like that and look at ways she can invest in infrastructure to support those working harbours?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, does the minister actually believe super trawlers should be able to process at sea instead of our Pacific exclusive economic zone? There is a current proposal right now to the department to allow this to happen. This would shutter shore processing plants and rendering facilities and actually impact communities, such as Ucluelet in my riding.

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, why are super trawlers given access to our exclusive economic zone when small independent owner-operators are shut down? In the Pacific, super trawlers had access to our Pacific north coast in 2021, when almost all of the small-boat salmon fleet was shut down. Maybe the minister can explain.

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, gathering facts is really important, and ensuring there is a public registry of who owns the quota is critical to being able to making decisions. Will the minister bring back limits on corporate and foreign ownership-backed Pacific fisheries? The limit was 12% from the 1960s up until the 1990s.

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, in the confidence and supply agreement with the NDP, it was outlined that beneficial ownership would be a key priority. Will that apply to fisheries and oceans?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, I think it is clear in the report that they do not want any more transfers of foreign ownership and they want to know who the beneficial owners are. Does the minister agree that we should have limits on corporate foreign ownership of our fisheries?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, I mean all negotiations. In terms of corporate foreign ownership, I have been here a lot talking about sharing risks and benefits, and the report from FOPO, which we are still waiting for action from the government on. Does the minister believe that our harvesters and coastal communities should be the primary beneficiaries of Canadian fisheries?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, when does the department intend to advise non-indigenous stakeholders of the amount of access being sought in the latest round of negotiations?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, has the department worked with indigenous stakeholders to see if there are any other means by which to satisfy the right?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, does the department intend to continue to expropriate access to areas where there are no expressions of interest through “willing buyer, willing seller”?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, we have not seen the numbers in the budget dedicated and committed to that, but we are encouraged to hear that, especially when we are asking the minister to get to the table immediately with the crab fishers I mentioned. Does the department fully understand the social and economic considerations for all parties when access is being sought?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, how long does the department intend to exclusively continue to use the fisheries to satisfy treaty rights? I have spoken to the minister repeatedly, asking her to ask the minister of CIRNAC to supply funds for reconciliation so that reconciliation does not fall on the backs of a small group of fishers and it is shared by all Canadians. Maybe she can speak to that. We have talked about i…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, that is not a commitment. I am hoping the minister can commit to that. In terms of reconciliation, how long does the department intend to exclusively continue using the fishery to satisfy treaty rights?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, does the minister intend to include owner-operators in the blue economy strategy?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, when will the minister share what information will be public? She says she will get that to me. When will she get that to me?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, will the minister tell us how many cases are under review of those that are in violation?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, does the minister support owner-operator?