Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I find it hard to understand the Conservatives. They tell us to do things to help Canadians and when we do just that, they tell us to stop. We are investing in child care. This is real money going back into the pockets of Canadians. We are funding education for Canadians. These are real supports for Canadians. We are here to help them. That is exactly what we are going to do in Quebec…
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Mr. Speaker, as we know, we were in a pandemic for two years. We are now in a period of transition. Canadians followed the rules. They did everything they could to keep themselves and their friends safe. We thank Canadians. The Government of Canada will be there to help them. We are putting measures in place to ensure that Canadians receive the services they need.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge that after two years of staying home and making sure that they are doing everything they can to protect themselves and their loved ones, Canadians now want to travel. We understand that there is a huge demand. There are unprecedented volumes, in fact volumes we have not seen since 2006, when the United States asked Canadians to have a passport to travel there. We…
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Mr. Speaker, I have good news for that member, because British Columbia has signed on to the $10-a-day child care agreement. That single dad is going to receive up to $6,000 a year in child care reductions if his child is in day care. There is also the Canada child benefit, so for him, as a single parent, he could be earning up to $6,000 a year to support his children. We are there for families ev…
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Mr. Speaker, again, as I have mentioned several times in the House, and as I will repeat for the benefit of that member and all members, we are experiencing an unprecedented volume, the likes of which we have not seen since 2006, when the United States required a passport for Canadians. We have already taken additional measures, and we will continue to keep these measures in place as we recognize …
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Mr. Speaker, as we have said several times in the House, we certainly understand the feelings of Canadians right now who, for the past two years, have done their part and followed public health advice and now are looking to travel again. Of course, over the past two years there have been many passports that have expired. While Service Canada is fully operational, every kiosk is open, and employees…
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Mr. Speaker, as I just said to the previous member through you, we are experiencing an unprecedented demand. We recognize that Canadians want to travel. That is why, back in December, we started hiring 500 additional employees to meet this rise in demand. It is why Service Canada employees are working on evenings and weekends. In fact, for the past three weekends, almost a dozen Service Canada pas…
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Mr. Speaker, I have said this several times, but I will say it again. We know that demand is extremely high right now. As I have already explained to the House several times, we have taken many measures to try to meet that unprecedented growth in demand for Canadians. Our measures will remain in place to meet that demand, to meet Canadians' needs.
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Mr. Speaker, in fact, as of this week, all wickets in Service Canada offices across the country are open. They are also opening to ensure that clients can wait inside. There are both by-appointment and walk-in services. As I have said, we are experiencing a huge surge in demand when it comes to passports. We understand that Canadians, over the past few years, stayed home and followed public health…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for raising this important issue. We understand that the cost of living has gone up, particularly because of COVID and because of the illegal war in Ukraine. That is why we have the Canada child benefit in place, which, in fact, we had before. It has helped lift over 300,000 families out of poverty and we continue to ensure that it is indexed to inflation so …
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Mr. Speaker, as I have stated numerous times in the House, there is an unprecedented demand when it comes to passports, and the reason why Service Canada passport offices are only able to serve people with urgent travel is because of this unprecedented demand. That being said, the 303 Service Canada offices are open to receive passport applications for those who are travelling in a longer period o…
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Mr. Speaker, as I have said, there is an unprecedented demand right now when it comes to passports. However, if all required documents have been submitted and Service Canada is outside service standards, the client will not be charged for expedited or transfer fees. This is not something that should be happening and, of course, if it is, I invite either MPs or citizens to follow up with Service Ca…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, over the past two years a number of passports have expired, and Canadians now want to travel again. That being said, two years ago Passport Canada processed 300,000 applications. Last year, it was 1.2 million. In April alone, we had 300,000 passports processed. There is an unprecedented demand, in terms of getting passports processed. We are responding in kind to serve Cana…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, I understand that this is frustrating for Canadians and that after two years of staying home, Canadians want to travel. However, when everyone is applying at the same time, there is unprecedented volume that is happening. To accommodate this, we have hired 500 additional passport officers and enabled Canadians to apply not just to passport offices but at the 303 Service Can…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question. I understand Canadians' frustration. It is truly frustrating. We are seeing an unbelievable increase in the number of passport applications. However, this week, every passport office will be open. Employees are returning to the office and are working overtime on evenings and weekends to ensure that we can serve Canadians.
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Mr. Speaker, as I have mentioned many times in the House, we are experiencing an unprecedented increase in the demand for passports. After two years, Canadians understandably would like to travel again, but that means that when everyone is applying at the same time, it is a lot for the system to handle. That being said, we have ensured that we have hired additional people. We have opened on evenin…
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly understand that this is very frustrating for Canadians, but when we have people who are all asking to renew a passport at the same time, it is unprecedented. We did ensure that we had hired 500 additional passport officers ahead of time. We changed it so that 303 Service Canada—
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to say to the people working at Service Canada who have been working overtime and weekends and doing everything they can to service Canadians, “Thank you.” They are under extreme stress because of the overwhelming volume of passports that they are working really hard to process. I know, as I visited the folks at Service Canada in Saskatoon and they spoke about the good wor…
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Mr. Speaker, of course I have compassion for everyone across the country, because there is an unprecedented demand in accessing these services. I was in Saskatoon on Friday, in fact, and visited the Service Canada centre there. I spoke with the employees, who are working around the clock to address this unprecedented demand. They are working evenings, they are working weekends and they are doing e…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member opposite's constituents on expecting their baby because there is good news: In Alberta, child care costs have gone down 50%. In fact, I was just in Edmonton and Calgary a couple of weeks ago talking to parents who had benefited from reduced child care fees. They have said it is actually the equivalent of a mortgage payment. We are working every …
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Mr. Speaker, as I said before in the House, there is unprecedented demand when it comes to accessing passports. We have put a number of initiatives in place to help deal with this. We have a simplified process to replace expired passports. We have opened more client counters in passport offices. We have operated extended hours and used overtime in passport offices and processing and call centres. …
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Mr. Speaker, I understand that this is a frustrating process for many Canadians, but over the past two years many passports have expired, and with the lifting of restrictions many Canadians want to travel at the same time. We are doing everything we can, and Service Canada employees are helping them. If there is an urgent request, they should make that known when they arrive at a Service Canada ce…
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Mr. Speaker, I have good news. Passport Canada and Service Canada will be opening nearly all of their service centres this week. We have spoken with unions and the employees, who are already working long hours, even at home, for the specific purpose of serving Canadians. We know that it is important because there are many people who want to travel right now. Services will be available in offices a…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect and deserve an EI system that is responsive to their needs. EI sickness benefits are an important support for Canadians who need to leave work because of illness or injury. Workers receiving important treatments, or requiring a longer period to recover from an illness or injury, face a stressful income gap between the time they exhaust their benefits and when they are…
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Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague knows, we have brought forward legislation that has passed through this place with regard to 10 paid sick days. We have also worked hard to modernize the EI program so that it responds to the needs of all Canadians and is fair and equal. That includes giving parents the choice of taking either 12 or 18 months for parental leave and introducing the new parental sha…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that the temporary foreign worker program is vital to the Canadian economy. Employers should be able to get decisions regarding workers' contracts. That is why we are taking additional measures to address the labour shortage. We are moving the cap on low-wage positions for employers in seasonal industries. We are extending LMIA validity from nine to 18 months, and we are expan…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. As I told the House, we are seeing an incredible increase in demand for passports. That being said, Service Canada is working very hard to ensure that Canadians get their passports before their travel date. Just this past weekend, we opened 12 Passport Canada and Service Canada centres on Saturday to help process passport applications. Our employee…
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Mr. Speaker, as I have said numerous times in the House, we are experiencing an incredible increase in demand. For the past two years, many Canadians followed the advice of government and did not travel. Now they are looking forward to travelling again, and therefore there is a big increase in demand. That being said, Service Canada and Passport Canada are doing everything they can to meet this un…
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Mr. Speaker, once again, I would like to thank my colleague for raising this important issue. We are continuing to work with members of the Bloc Québécois when we identify victims of fraud. Fraud is on the rise, and it is important that the Government of Canada ensure that it addresses and combats fraud so there are no further victims of fraud involving Government of Canada benefits. That being sa…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for that important question. We are aware that there has been an increase in the number of cases of employment insurance fraud. We are working with members of the Bloc Québécois to make sure that everyone gets their benefits. We will continue to do that. It is important to ensure that every Canadian gets the EI benefits to which they are entitle…
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to begin by welcoming Victoria and her family to Canada. I am glad they found refuge here from what is a very awful situation that is happening in Ukraine. As I have explained to this House before, we are experiencing an unprecedented time when Canadians who have had their passports expire over the past two years, because they were not travelling, are now wa…
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Mr. Speaker, in just under a year, we have signed child care agreements with every single province and territory. Right here in Ontario, that means that families will see, by the end of this calendar year, savings of up to $6,000 per child in licensed child care. That is incredible savings for a family. It also means that we are going to increase the number of spaces in Ontario by 86,000, because …
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are travelling again, and a significant increase in demand for passports has resulted in long lineups and wait times for in-person service. We understand that this is difficult and stressful. We have, in fact, hired an additional 500 passport officers to help process this. We have made Service Canada available to ensure that individuals who need to travel on a non-urgent bas…
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Mr. Speaker, we understand that after two years, Canadians are interested in travelling. Many people had their passports expire during this time. Unfortunately, we have a huge surge in demand. We have hired 500 additional passport officers to help process this. We have a simplified process to replace expired passports of up to five years. We have opened more client counters in passport offices. We…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to say to my colleague that that is exactly why passport officers are working around the clock. They are working late hours. We have hired additional officers. We have opened up more Service Canada centres to meet this rising demand to renew passports. We are ensuring that passport officers are working through the weekend. We have an incredible surge in demand, unlike anything …
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Mr. Speaker, in contrast to what the member opposite said, it was actually this government that helped millions of Canadians. In fact, when we brought in the Canada child benefit, it helped nine out of 10 Canadian families. They have seen hundreds or thousands of dollars each year to support putting food on the table. That is real money for real Canadians, and they know this government, whether be…
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Mr. Speaker, what I can share with the member opposite is a real plan to grow our economy. In every province and territory across this country, families now have access to reduced child care fees. In fact, if women across Canada choose to enter the workforce at the same rate as women in Quebec did 25 years ago, that is 240,000 workers in this country able to join the economy and able to grow the e…
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Mr. Speaker, what the opposition clearly does not understand is that it is important for us to support Canadians when they need that help. In fact, in 2015 we brought in the Canada child benefit, and the Conservative Party voted against it. We have also brought in universal, affordable and accessible quality child care across the country, and what did that opposition party say? It said that it wou…
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Madam Speaker, I can tell the members opposite that there is one thing that this government has always in our minds, and that is the well-being of families. Since being elected in 2015, we have introduced the Canada child benefit, which saw nine out of 10 Canadian families receive more money than previously. As of today, right here in this province and the member's riding, families with kids in da…
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Madam Speaker, I understand what the constituent that she was talking about is going through. I have spoken to many constituents who have children with disabilities, and that is specifically why we have made sure that all of our child care agreements are inclusive, that they reach the broad needs of every single child across this country, particularly those with disabilities, because we know that …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to start by acknowledging my colleague and the several members in the House who have been advocating for a national school food policy. I am looking forward to working with them to deliver this for children across the country. We share with them the concern that no child in this country should go to school hungry. We know these programs improve learning outcomes, and we…
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Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to answer my colleague's question because, in fact, we now have national child care across the country. In provinces like Alberta, that means families have already received a 50% reduction in fees. That is a huge help when it comes to paying for gas and when it comes to paying for groceries. It means more money in the pockets of Canadians to do what they nee…
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Mr. Speaker, I have heard from parents in Alberta who talk about how important the reduction in fees in child care is, and how it means they are able to look for full-time employment because now they are able to afford it. It means they can now pay for the things they could not for their children. We know that affordable day care is not only good for children and families, but also good for the ec…
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Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to announce in the House that today in Canada families from coast to coast to coast will have access to affordable, quality child care. Although we have been negotiating with Ontario for months, it finally joined the Canada-wide early learning and child care agreement. This means that families in Ontario will have access to reduced fees, with a 25% reduction…
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member made some interesting comments. I was glad to hear him denounce violence, although I did not hear that with regard to the blockade here in Ottawa. I was concerned by some of the rhetoric he was using. I think we all need to be reducing the volume and de-escalating. However, he was being very accusatory toward the members on this side, who have always stood against vi…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his strong denunciation of hate, anti-Semitism and racism. I really appreciate that and thank him for doing that so strongly. I want to also comment that the Emergencies Act specifically is designed to uphold the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and I am also happy to hear Conservatives speaking so highly of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as w…
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite and I were elected together in 2015. We have gotten to know each other, and one thing I have gotten to know about him is that he stands, or has stood, for law and order. The member opposite has said that there is no national emergency and that there are maybe some illegal activities, but those illegal activities taking place are okay and not that bad. There was $45…
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Madam Speaker, as I was listening to the member's remarks, I felt like we were living in two different worlds. It is not lost on me that he kept talking about these peaceful protests that ended quietly and through dialogue. I saw the news, and in Coutts, Alberta, they ended because there was a huge cache of weapons. That is something that is quite concerning to all Canadians. He was talking about …
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Madam Speaker, while I always appreciate the comments, I do appreciate the opportunity to ask this question. The member was talking about premiers who were able to do this without emergency measures, but in Ontario last Friday, the premier actually brought forward a state of emergency, which comes with extraordinary powers. They were then very supportive of the federal government bringing this for…
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Madam Speaker, the hon. colleague asked what the basis is for invoking the Emergencies Act. There is $450 million a day in trade that is being blockaded by illegal activity. The illegal occupation here in Ottawa is harassing and holding Ottawa residents hostage. The other reason is we have seen very clearly in the news that 52% of those who have donated to support this campaign have actually been …
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