Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the solution the member is proposing is not a good one. It would just move the problem elsewhere. I met with my counterpart from Quebec last week to come up with solutions to support Quebec's efforts. It was also to continue to follow the domestic and international legal obligations we are bound by. We will do right by vulnerable people who seek asylum in Canada, and we will work with…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada stands resolutely alongside the people of Hong Kong. In 2021, my predecessor introduced new pathways that would allow Hong Kongers to come to Canada, including an open work permit program for recent graduates. That program was set to expire this week. I am pleased to share with this House that I had the pleasure of being in Scarborough earlier today to announce that we would be…
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Madam Speaker, it is essential for us to meet our national and international obligation to protect asylum seekers. I had a meeting today with my counterpart from the Province of Quebec, Minister Fréchette, to talk about ways to collaborate in order to continue supporting asylum seekers and meet our national and international obligation on this issue.
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Madam Speaker, I am getting tired of listening to the Conservatives talk down Canadians and the Canadian economy. They should be getting to work to support Canadians in their time of need. We made efforts throughout this pandemic to make sure that families could continue to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. We made efforts to make sure businesses could keep their doors open a…
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Madam Speaker, I would point out to the hon. member, who I had the pleasure of serving on the immigration portfolio with, that during the next year, we expect to welcome more than the double the number of newcomers to this country than we did the last year the Conservatives formed government. At the same time, our strategy to support Canadians over the course of the pandemic, a once-in-a-century d…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is proposing a solution that simply shifts the problem somewhere else. It is not a good solution. It is essential to have an international strategy that is established in collaboration with the Province of Quebec. We are going to continue to work with our provincial counterparts in Quebec, as we have done to support efforts to provide housing for asylum seekers and as w…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are very quick to point to the government every time they think there is a political opportunity for themselves. What we are focused on doing in the meantime is advancing solutions that will put more money in the pockets of low-income renters, which the Conservatives voted against, and solutions like making sure that kids who come from low-income families can go to t…
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Mr. Speaker, sometimes the opposition graces us with the good fortune of saying the quiet part out loud. The pandemic spending that kept my neighbours fed and a roof over the heads of their children was not overspending. That was essential to protect the well-being of Canadians who live in my community. We stepped up to make sure that businesses could keep the lights on and their doors open, and t…
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Mr. Speaker, what I am observing today is an interesting trend where the Conservatives are trying to create a bogeyman to distract from the fact that we are working hard to make sure that families that are struggling get the supports they need to do well during challenging times. I am beginning to believe that the Conservatives actually view it to be in their interest to continue to have Canadians…
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Mr. Speaker, there are many thousands of people in this country who do not currently have immigration status but have been contributing to our communities for years. Many have families living in these communities. I am thrilled to share with this House that we have worked very closely with the organized labour movement in this country to launch the out-of-status construction workers pilot to bring…
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Mr. Speaker, we can observe a fundamental ideological divide between His Majesty's loyal opposition and the governing side of this chamber. On this side of the House, we believe that to support people in need, we can advance programs that provide direct help to them. The Conservatives' solution to an affordability crisis is to do less to help families in need. This should come as no surprise. That…
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Mr. Speaker, with due respect to my hon. colleague, his mathematics are simply off. He ignores the fact that the program has been designed to put more money into the pockets of eight out of 10 families than any fuel charges would cost them. In addition, we have created a new $5,000 grant program, which is going to help people in my community transition from oil for home heating to heat pumps and t…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer clarity to families seeking to be reunited and workers seeking economic opportunity in Canada. We are going to process every case in our inventory. With respect to the hon. member's allegation, I can reassure people that the issue of codes for inactive employees is simply a reflection of the way we manage the inventory. Every single case is attached to a code tha…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's allegation that files are resting with officers who do not exist is unequivocally false. We will process every one of those applications. I am pleased to share that as a result of the investments we have made to hire more than 1,250 people, to embrace technological solutions and to relax administrative procedures, we have, in the last few months alone, reduced the nu…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. colleague suggests the minister does not think this is serious; the minister does not think it is true. The allegation they are making on the floor of the House of Commons simply belies the facts of the situation. When officers leave the IRCC, we maintain their codes so we can trace who touched employees' files. It is the responsible thing to do, and we convert those codes to…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure every person who has an application in the system that they can expect their case to be processed in accordance with the laws of Canada. I thank the hon. colleagues of this House who have supported some of the measures that boosted the funding available to process cases more quickly, because it is having a serious and positive impact. This month, we set a record for…
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Mr. Speaker, as always, I thank my hon. colleague for her concern for the well-being of newcomers and people seeking to access the Canadian immigration system. It is very important that we provide clarity to families seeking to be reunited, as well as the workers seeking to improve their economic outlook by coming to Canada for opportunities. There are applications that were tied to officers who n…
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Mr. Speaker, how ironic is it that the Conservative Party of Canada's strategy to combat an affordability crisis is to do less for Canadians in their time of need? It comes as no surprise to me because at the beginning of the pandemic, their leader started with a press conference where he said these “big, fat government programs” would not receive the support of the Conservative Party. Those progr…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to remind the hon. member that I had the pleasure of making an announcement in Nova Scotia of a new national program that is going to see $5,000 grants to help homeowners install heat pumps, which will save them thousands of dollars every year on home heating costs. This is in addition to a $5,000 grant that was available through the greener homes grant program. That is n…
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Mr. Speaker, I remind the hon. member that climate change is putting the family farm at risk. Since hurricane Fiona, I have visited farms in my community that have had silos turned down and their crops destroyed, and that are continuing to feel the financial pinch just as we head into the Christmas season. I would further point out that the Conservatives talk a big game when it comes to affordabil…
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Mr. Speaker, with great respect to my hon. colleague, I expect he knows that people do not flee their country because of a tweet from a country's leader. They leave their country because they are fleeing violence, war and persecution. We are going to continue to do what we can to support those who seek refuge in Canada, and continue to do so in an organized way. I am pleased to work with my collea…
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague has made a suggestion that we have not hit a target. The target that we have set is for 2030, so if she has a DeLorean and a flux capacitor, I invite her jump in and travel in time. The reality is that we are on track to reduce our emissions because of the investments we are making. We are bringing pollution down, and we found a way to make it more affordable for fam…
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Mr. Speaker, we have domestic and international legal obligations that require us to consider in good faith claims of asylum that have been made for those who enter the country in search of safe haven. In his previous question, he indicated that people are somehow displacing other more deserving refugees. I would point out for my hon. colleague that Canada, over the past three years, has resettled…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his continued advocacy to support some of the world's most vulnerable people. The circumstances in Afghanistan are absolutely heartbreaking. That is why Canada made one of the most substantial commitments of any country in the world to welcome at least 40,000 Afghan refugees. I am so thrilled to share with my colleague that Canada has now welcomed more than…
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Mr. Speaker, I will simply say that we have found a way to save people money and reduce pollution. That is a good thing. If the Conservatives agree, I invite them to support us.
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Mr. Speaker, with respect, the hon. member has now made the most bizarre argument I could possibly imagine when it comes to inaction on climate change. He is now suddenly opposed to heat pumps. Heat pumps have the ability to reduce pollution in our community and bring the cost of power down or heat for homeowners who live in my community. This is particularly important as we are coming up on the w…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talks about a terrible plan. I will tell him what a terrible plan is. It is not taking action on climate change. His community and mine are both still dealing with homeowners cleaning up the debris in their backyards. His community and mine are both dealing with farms that have had silos torn down and farmers who are more than $100,000 out-of-pocket so they can feed th…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talks about protecting the pocketbooks of Nova Scotians. I would find it interesting to hear him explain to his constituents why he voted against making sure that low-income families can afford to send their kids to the dentist. I find it interesting why he is not putting out social media posts about today's announcement that child care fees are going to be reduced by …
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Mr. Speaker, it is a good thing Sherlock is on the case. We would have never figured this out. Holy smokes. It is unbelievable that somebody could have a heat pump and some other source of heating as well. The reality is that we have a new $5,000 grant that will give an upfront payment directly to homeowners. It is going to allow them to save thousands of dollars every year. It will help reduce po…
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Mr. Speaker, what the hon. member calls reckless spending is what we used to support Canadians during their time of need. We have helped nine million Canadians keep food on the table through the pandemic. We have helped millions of Canadians remain on the payroll with the Canada emergency wage subsidy and helped hundreds of thousands of Canadian businesses keep their doors open. Now the Conservati…
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Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, the Conservatives have a very difficult time with hard truths. Canadians need support. It is our government that has been here to support them since 2015, and it is our government that will be here to support them going forward. What the Conservatives call reckless spending are the supports we extended to keep nine million Canadian households fed, to keep millions of …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Richmond Centre, who put together a round table with employers in his community when I had the chance to visit him. They told us very clearly that employers needed access to labour if they were going to meet the needs of their clients and customers. I am pleased to share with the House that yesterday a new national occupation classification system was put in pla…
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Mr. Speaker, if people actually tune into this place over a couple of months, they will realize that the economic argument the Conservatives have been making is self-defeating. On the one hand, the Conservatives say that people are in need of more help and at every opportunity they oppose measures that will give more help to people. From the very beginning of my time in office in 2015, they have o…
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Mr. Speaker, I find it revealing that in the preamble to the hon. member's question, she seemed to criticize us for making serious investments in climate change. It should come as no surprise, though, that the Conservatives oppose our measures, because she knows very well that the policy we have advanced actually puts more money in the pockets of Canadian households. I am not surprised that they a…
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Mr. Speaker, let me start by thanking the member for Willowdale for his relentless advocacy on behalf of the Iranian-Canadian community. I have joined in the protests and participated in round tables with members of the Iranian community, and we have heard them. I want to be absolutely clear that Canada has now designated the Islamic Republic of Iran as a regime that has engaged in terrorism and g…
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Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of visiting farms in my own constituency, as a member who represents rural Nova Scotia, and the farmers in my community right now are telling me how expensive it is to deal with inaction on climate change, how expense it is when severe weather events take down silos, how expensive it is when they lose more than six-figures worth of—
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Mr. Speaker, it seems I may have struck a nerve. The reality is that I have the privilege of representing dozens of dairy farms. Over the last number of weeks, when I have been visiting those farms, they have been telling me in rural Nova Scotia that the inaction they see coming from the Conservative Party on climate issues is leading to costs that are unimaginable. As the Conservatives continue t…
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Mr. Speaker, I come from a region of the country that has recently seen the most severe weather event over the course of my entire life, but what really upsets me is that we know there is more to come. We know that, since the time I was born until the turn of the century, the average insured losses in this country were between $250 million and $450 million a year for severe weather. Now it is almo…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a better solution than people listening to their whips. Turn the microphones on in the background so we can hear members on that side denying that climate change is a real threat to Canadian communities. The reality is that the cost of inaction is too great to ignore. We are dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars, probably billions of dollars, of losses from events that h…
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Mr. Speaker, with great respect to my hon. friend, colleague and neighbour in Nova Scotia, I point out to him that governments from Newfoundland to Ontario of different partisan persuasions have done exactly what he has just declared is not possible. The facts tell a very different story. What is most important is that we actually address climate change. There is a cost to my community. If we talk…
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Mr. Speaker, if that member is concerned about the government standing by Canadians in their time of need, I am curious why he stood by the hon. Leader of the Opposition at the beginning of the pandemic. When we rolled out supports to keep food on the table and a roof over people's heads, he said that Conservatives do not believe in “big, fat government programs”. Now he is concerned about making …
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Mr. Speaker, Canada needs a lot of people, but the member knows perfectly well that it is up to the Government of Quebec to set immigration levels in Quebec. We are working harder with the Government of Quebec and with my counterpart. This is an opportunity to grow the population and the economy and to work with our partner in Quebec.
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Mr. Speaker, there is no question that Canada needs more people. We need to look at immigration as a strategy to increase Canada's workforce, reunite more families and fulfill our humanitarian commitments. That is why I have introduced Canada's next immigration levels plan. It is an ambitious plan that brings an increased focus on attracting newcomers to different regions of the country. Canada is…
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Mr. Speaker, I can tell everyone it is nice to take a question from my friend opposite once again, but as an Atlantic Canadian it really burns me to hear this line of questioning. We are dealing with neighbours who have lost over six figures in corn crops and are trying to feed their cattle. We have seen silos come down. We have seen wharves damaged. We know that when we put a price on pollution, …
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Mr. Speaker, with respect to the allegation that our plan to put a price on pollution is a tax on Canadian households, the member knows it is bogus. Year after year, he has been making this point in the House of Commons and year after year, it is proven to him that Canadians actually receive more of a dividend than they put out on pricing. The reality is that this is one among many measures of our…
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Mr. Speaker, I have met people in my community who will not take their kids to the grocery store right now because they are afraid that the cashier is going to tell them that they cannot afford what is in their cart and they do not want their kids to go through that. We are going to be there to support families in that situation. When they talk about tax hikes, they are talking about programs like…
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Mr. Speaker, with enormous respect to my colleague who posed the question, I point out that we have actually processed the largest number of study permits this year compared to any year on record. We have had 30% this year over last year, which represents a 30% increase over the record-setting year prior. In addition, we know we need to do more to continue to support international students. I am p…
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member asked if we know how to do things properly. We know how to bring in a record number of new permanent residents, students and foreign workers. We know how to reach Quebec's immigration thresholds. We will continue to make Canada a welcoming new home for immigrants who make tremendous contributions to our economy and our communities.
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Madam Speaker, the reality is that this year, as a result of decisions we have taken to hire more workers, leverage technological solutions and relax policy requirements, we have the largest number of newcomers arriving in Canada, both permanent residents and temporary residents. There are more newcomers coming to fill key gaps in the labour force than ever before. We are going to continue to do e…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her question, and for her passion and advocacy on behalf of some of the most vulnerable people in the world. I share her concern about their vulnerability and that is why we advanced one of the most substantial commitments, and in fact, the most substantial on a per capita basis, to resettle at least 40,000 Afghan refugees by the end of next year. I am so…
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