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Results: 61 - 75 of 566
View Alexandre Boulerice Profile
NDP (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to rise today to discuss this very important matter for thousands of people in Quebec and Canada. We have a duty and a collective responsibility to foster social progress and programs that truly meet people’s needs.
I would like to thank my colleague from Salaberry—Suroît for introducing this bill. It is similar to motions that have been moved in the past by the Bloc Québécois and to bills introduced by the NDP over the past ten years. I would like to thank my colleague because this issue is important to us at the NDP, as a progressive labour party.
People and employees find themselves in extremely difficult and painful situations because they are either ill, seriously injured or have cancer. They are fighting for their lives, sometimes under extreme financial pressure. If they do not have private insurance, a collective agreement or a labour contract that provides for recovery leave, they hit the employment insurance wall and its 15 weeks of sickness benefits, which is totally inadequate.
We consider this issue so important that we want action. We want the people in our society who have no other recourse, help or support to have up to 50 weeks of sickness benefits. We do not want to let these people fall through the cracks. Émilie Sansfaçon’s story and her plea for help touched us all, and we must remember that. There were also all those people rallying behind Marie-Hélène Dubé, who collected more than 618,000 signatures on her petition. Having met Ms. Dubé several times in recent years, I know that she is still on the case.
I therefore think that all of us, as members of parliament, should at least be able to agree on the matter. Our party wants this issue to be successfully resolved so badly that it does not care which party proposes the solution, as long as it leads to the right outcome. To be frank, I must admit that I do not understand how the Bloc Québécois managed to fall short on this file.
Last March, at the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, my colleague from Elmwood—Transcona tabled an amendment to government Bill C-24 that would have extended employment insurance benefits from 15 to 50 weeks.
I do not understand why the Bloc member for Thérèse-De Blainville voted against this amendment, agreeing with the committee chair’s opinion that the amendment was inadmissible because it required a royal recommendation. The opposition parties held the majority on the committee and could have challenged the chair’s interpretation. If the three opposition parties, including the Bloc Québécois, had voted in favour of the amendment proposed by my colleague from Elmwood—Transcona, the committee would have brought to the House a bill offering Canadians 50 weeks of EI sickness benefits. Since the amendment was part of a government bill, it would not have required a royal recommendation.
I am disappointed that the Bloc Québécois voted against the NDP’s amendment because it wanted to table its own bill on the same issue a month later. In April, it was decided that Bill C-265 also required a royal recommendation. If the Liberals, unwilling to act in solidarity to help vulnerable and sick workers, refuse the bill, we will be up against a wall. We will once again be left in the lurch, and all of our efforts will have been in vain.
I understand that my colleague from Salaberry—Suroît is pleading with the Liberals to join the rest of us in supporting sick workers in order to resolve the EI issue once and for all. However, we missed a really good opportunity in committee. I think that the Bloc Québécois fell short because of a misinterpretation. I wanted to say that, because I find it extremely unfortunate for the people who are suffering and who have been waiting years for changes to the employment insurance program.
As I was saying earlier, this is not a question of offering everyone 50 weeks of benefits in the case of injury or serious illness, such as cancer. It is a question of offering them the possibility of receiving up to 50 weeks of benefits. If the doctor believes that the person is unable to work and must take more time off to heal before returning to work in good health, as my colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé pointed out, we should allow the worker and the doctor to make the best decision possible and provide for more than the current 15 weeks of benefits.
The minister says that they will provide 26 weeks for purposes of consistency. Caregivers are entitled to 26 weeks, while sick people only get 15 weeks. That makes absolutely no sense. Perhaps the government wants to extend the benefits to 26 weeks to avoid being called out on that inconsistency, but that makes no sense because, once again, it is only a half-measure.
As my colleague from Salaberry—Suroît pointed out, the average remission or recovery time for many serious illnesses is 41 weeks. It can be 36 or 37 weeks in some cases, and 45 or 46 weeks in others. All that means is that 26 weeks is not enough.
Stopping at 26 weeks is unrealistic, given what science and medicine are telling us. That is why we will not agree to 26 weeks.
When the Liberals were in the opposition, they voted for 50 weeks. That was a few years ago, and they may not remember, but we do. I think that we can all agree today or in a future vote to support the most vulnerable workers so as to give them hope and the option of taking the time they need to heal properly.
Marie-Hélène Dubé said she was shocked at the government's chronic inaction on this issue despite all of its promises, and at its lack of respect for sick Canadians who, after having paid into the EI program their entire life, receive 15 weeks of benefits when they fall ill even though it takes on average almost 50 weeks to heal.
Shawn Chirrey of the Canadian Cancer Society gave a very specific example: The average treatment and recovery time for breast cancer is 25 to 36 weeks, compared with 37 weeks for colon cancer.
We know, then, that 15 weeks is not enough for cancer patients. We can also see, by the average treatment and recovery times for colon and breast cancer, that 26 weeks is still not enough. The science is clear.
I would ask that everyone make an effort to adopt this common sense measure that, as my colleagues in the Bloc Québécois and the Conservative Party have pointed out, is eminently affordable. Remember that it costs 6¢ extra per $100 in salary, according to a study by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. There are really no better reasons than human compassion, the scientific approach and affordability to justify this contribution on the part of workers and businesses.
I believe that the the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities should have accepted the amendment to Bill C-24. It would have been a much easier and more efficient way of giving Canadians 50 weeks.
We have another opportunity here with Bill C-265. However, this time we need help from the government, and the Liberals will have to get on board. Otherwise, I do not know how they will be able to explain it to sick Canadians who want to have the time they need to recover and need financial support. I hope we will be able to agree on a permanent, comprehensive reform of this important social program.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that our social security net is full of holes, that there are major problems with access to employment insurance. For years, under the Conservatives and the Liberals, the majority of workers who contributed to EI did not have access to benefits. Only about 38% of workers who lost their jobs were eligible to receive EI benefits.
The current crisis prompted the government to put certain measures in place. However, the four programs are temporary and will expire this summer or fall. We need to make permanent the changes that were made to improve access to EI. That is absolutely crucial, particularly for self-employed workers, freelancers, contract workers, people working in the arts and culture industry and translators, who have not had access to EI cheques or benefits for years.
The NDP made CERB available for self-employed workers and freelancers. However, we need a real employment insurance reform so that no one slips through the cracks and we are able to take care of everyone who needs it.
View Doug Shipley Profile
CPC (ON)
Mr. Speaker, we all aware many Canadians are struggling to make ends meet during this pandemic. The Liberal government is failing Canadians and the residents of Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte. My staff have been flooded with complaints from residents who have been denied EI and are unable to access CERB. When an application is made for EI, it triggers a flag with the CRA. This flag prevents further processing of the CERB applications. Many of these applicants have been waiting months without any income.
Can the Prime Minister advise this House and my constituents when he will fix this issue?
View Carla Qualtrough Profile
Lib. (BC)
View Carla Qualtrough Profile
2021-04-13 14:58 [p.5517]
Mr. Speaker, I can assure the member that we are absolutely on top of this issue. Obviously we want to make sure, from an integrity point of view, that Canadians are not receiving two benefits at the same time, but we know how hard it is for Canadians to wait to see which benefit they should be getting. We have teams working together with the CRA and ESDC on this. It is not taking the time it did at the beginning when this problem was first identified.
I am happy to provide the member with more information, if he wants. I can assure him this is a top priority for me and my team.
View Anthony Rota Profile
Lib. (ON)

Question No. 390--
Mr. Pat Kelly:
With regard to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB): what are any statistics that the government has regarding demographics of CERB recipients prior to the pandemic, such as income level, employment situation (employed full-time, unemployed, student, retired, etc.), age, location information (geographic, urban vs. rural, etc.), or other similar type of statistics?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 391--
Mr. Michael Kram:
With regard to federal government spending within the City of Regina, for each fiscal year since 2015-16, inclusively: (a) what are the details of all grants, contributions, and loans to any organization, body, or group, broken down by the (i) name of the recipient, (ii) municipality of the recipient, (iii) date on which the funding was received, (iv) amount received, (v) department or agency providing the funding, (vi) program under which the grant, contribution, or loan was made, (vii) nature or purpose; and (b) for each grant, contribution and loan identified in (a), was a press release issued to announce it and, if so, what is the (i) date, (ii) headline, (iii) file number of the press release?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 392--
Mr. Kelly McCauley:
With regard to public service and Crown corporation pensions: (a) what is the current account status on each pension; and (b) what is the discount rate used for each?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 393--
Mr. Kelly McCauley:
With regard to free credit protection in relation to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB): (a) how many CERB recipients are currently under investigation; (b) of the number in (a), how many are under investigation for fraudulent claims; (c) of the number in (a), how many are seniors; and (d) how many CERB recipients had no income for the previous tax year?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 395--
Mr. Kelly McCauley:
With regard to the Canada Lands Company Limited (CLC), since 2016: (a) how many acres of land has the CLC turned over to municipalities or other jurisdictions for the development of low-income housing, broken down by municipality; (b) how many houses have been developed by CLC or in partnership with CLC; and (c) of those units in (b), how many are classified as low-income or low-cost housing?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 399--
Mrs. Karen Vecchio:
With regard to government advertising during the Super Bowl on February 7, 2021: (a) what is the total amount spent by the government on advertising during the Super Bowl broadcast, including the pregame and postgame shows; (b) what is the breakdown of how much was spent by format, including (i) English television, (ii) French television, (iii) other language television, (iv) English radio, (v) French radio, (vi) other language radio, (vii) other types of format, such as streaming services, broken down by type; (c) what is the title and description or purpose of each government advertisement that ran during the Super Bowl; and (d) how many times did each advertisement run, broken down by format?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 400--
Mr. John Brassard:
With regard to the Veterans Disability Program: (a) what is the oversight role of Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) employees; (b) what is the oversight role of VAC executives, including key performance indicators assigned regarding the disability program; (c) what are the details of the Medavie Blue Cross contract related to the disability program, including (i) the summary of the terms of agreement, (ii) the contract start and end dates, (iii) the costs to administer, (iv) the summary of the review clauses, (v) the key performance indicators; and (d) what specific process does each application go through from the initial application until a decision is rendered?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 401--
Mr. John Brassard:
With regard to the medical cannabis program for veterans: (a) what is the oversight role of Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) employees; (b) what is the oversight role of VAC executives, including key performance indicators assigned regarding the program; (c) what are the details of the Medavie Blue Cross contract related to the medical cannabis program, including the (i) summary of the terms of agreement, (ii) contract start and end dates, (iii) costs to administer, (iv) summary of the review clauses, (v) key performance indicators; and (d) what specific process does each reimbursement application go through from the time of purchase through the reimbursement?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 403--
Mr. Xavier Barsalou-Duval:
With regard to Canada’s constitutional system: has the Privy Council Office produced any documents, studies, opinion polls, memos or scenarios exploring the possibility of a fundamental change to Canada’s constitutional system, including the abolition of the monarchy, and, if so, what are (i) the nature of the constitutional changes being considered, (ii) the anticipated timeline for such a change, (iii) the steps that might be taken to bring about such a change, (iv) the concerns of the Privy Council Office with respect to the constitutional demands of the provinces?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 404--
Mr. Maxime Blanchette-Joncas:
With regard to government spending in the ridings of Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane–Matapédia, Manicouagan, Montmagny—L’Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Papineau, Honoré-Mercier, Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Québec, since 2015 and broken down by constituency: (a) what is the total annual amount, broken down by year; (b) what is the detailed annual amount, broken down by department, Crown corporation, agency or body; and (c) what grants and contributions have been made, broken down by year according to the source of the funding?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 407--
Mr. Garnett Genuis:
With regard to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS): (a) what is the government’s position on the proposal from South Africa and India to temporarily waive certain intellectual property rights under TRIPS related to medicines, vaccines and medical equipment until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic; (b) has the government conducted an analysis on the impacts of the proposal, and, if so, what are the details of the analysis, including methodology and findings; (c) what specific actions, if any, has the government taken to advance and promote its position; and (d) has the government made any representations to the World Trade Organization on this issue since the start of the pandemic, and if so, what are the details, including (i) the date, (ii) who made the representation, (iii) the position advocated by the government during the representation?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 408--
Mr. Steven Blaney:
With regard to the National Shipbuilding Strategy and the Umbrella Agreement: (a) what are the total amount of contracts awarded or committed to (i) Seaspan, (ii) Irving Shipbuilding, (iii) Chantier Davie Canada Inc.; (b) what is the total backstop committed to each shipyard in (a); (c) what are the conditions which must be met to utilize the backstop provision under the umbrella agreement; (d) how many vessels are committed to each shipyard under their umbrella agreement and what are those vessels; (e) for each of the following programs, the AOPS program, the Off-shore Oceanographic Science Vessel, the Off-Shore Science Fisheries Vessels, the Canadian Surface Combatants, the Polar Icebreaker, the Program Icebreakers, and the Medium Patrol Vessels, what are the (i) projected costs (including taxes), (ii) expected delivery dates, (iii) costs for engineering and design, (iv) risks as identified by third party advisors around costs, budget and schedule; (f) what is the total number of AORs required to service a fleet of 15 surface combatants and the planned rotation schedule for each; and (g) on what date will the JSS 1 and JSS 2 (i) achieve full operational capacity, (ii) be outfitted or finished, and are there mitigating plans to provide resupply to the Royal Canadian Navy should these vessels not achieve Full Operational Capacity on the dates expected?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 409--
Mr. Steven Blaney:
With regard to the government’s planned upgrades to the Esquimalt Graving Docks (EDG) in Victoria, British Columbia: (a) what is the timeline for the proposed upgrades; (b) what are the total committed or project investments, expenses and revenue related to the EGD for (i) 2016, (ii) 2017, (iii) 2018, (iv) 2019, (v) 2020, (vi) 2021, (vii) 2022, (viii) 2023, (ix) 2024, (x) 2025, (xi) 2026; (c) what are the uses of the facility by percentage of space utilized and period reserved from 2016 to 2026, broken down by year; (d) what is the summary of the impact and benefits of planned upgrades; (e) what is the date that any and all upgrades were approved by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and the date that funding will be released between 2019 and 2026; and (f) is there any known or unknown impact of these expansions on private shipyards in Canada and private businesses, including (i) Seaspan, (ii) Chantier Davie Canada Inc., (ii) Irving Shipbuilding, (iv) BC Shipyards?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 410--
Mr. Joël Godin:
With regard to the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) and the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program: (a) how many businesses and organizations qualified for CECRA but were not eligible for CERS due to restrictions on groups under the CERS program; (b) why did the government decide to exclude businesses receiving CECRA from the CERS program; (c) did the government take into account whether or not organizations are considered completely separate for tax purposes when determining eligibility, and, if not, why not; (d) was this decision intentional, or to what extent did the government forget it or make a mistake, and, if so, will the government change the qualification criteria; and (e) is there an appeal mechanism or recourse for businesses or organizations that were denied CERS, and, if so, what are the details?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 413--
Mr. Pierre Paul-Hus:
With regard to government purchases of personal protective equipment: how many syringes has the government purchased, broken down by month and by type of syringe, since March 2020?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 415--
Mr. Pierre Paul-Hus:
With regard to communications between the government and Honeywell related to procurement of surveillance technologies: (a) what are the details of all such communications with any department, agency, Crown corporation or other government entity since November 4, 2015, including the (i) date, (ii) type of communications (email, in-person meetings, etc.), (iii) subject matter discussed, (iv) title of sender and recipients for all emails, (v) title of attendees for all other forms of communications such as meetings, conference calls, etc.; and (b) with regard to communications and purchases, what are the details of all purchases of Honeywell products the government has made since November 4, 2015, including the (i) date, (ii) amount, (iii) description of products purchased, including volume, (iv) reason for or purpose of purchase, (v) whether or not contract was sole-sourced?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 417--
Mr. Michael Cooper:
With regard to government expenditures related to Twitter since January 1, 2020, broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation or other government entity: (a) what is the total amount of expenditures related to Twitter; (b) what was the total amount spent promoting tweets; (c) what are the details of each tweet that was promoted, including the (i) handle or account, (ii) description of tweet, (iii) amount spent on promotion, (iv) date; (d) what was the total amount promoting hashtags; and (e) what are the details of all promoted hashtags, including the (i) handle or account, (ii) hashtag, (iii) amount spent on promotion, (iv) date?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 419--
Mr. Mario Beaulieu:
With regard to the positions of deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers and associate deputy ministers, as of December 31, 2020: (a) what are the language requirements for the positions of deputy minister, assistant deputy minister and associate deputy minister; (b) what was the breakdown by first official language spoken; and (c) what was the breakdown of anglophones and francophones in positions that do or do not meet the language requirements of their position?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 420--
Mr. Brad Vis:
With regard to the statement from the senior vice-president of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation at the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities on February 4, 2021, concerning the Rapid Housing Initiative – Projects Stream that “Over 765 applications went through a triage process to assess eligibility. We have reviewed and prioritized 678 applications, requesting over $4.2 billion in funding”: (a) what are the details of each of the rejected 87 applications, including the (i) requestor, (ii) location of the project, (iii) federal electoral constituency of the project, (iv) project description, (v) amount requested, (vi) reasons for the rejection; and (b) what are the details of each of the 678 eligible applications, including (i) the requestor, (ii) the location of the project, (iii) the federal electoral constituency of the project, (iv) the project description, (v) the amount requested, (vi) the start and end date of the project, (vii) whether additional funds were received by the organization through the Rapid Housing Initiative – Major Cities Stream, and, if so, what amount was received?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 421--
Ms. Louise Chabot:
With regard to the Canada Summer Jobs program: (a) for each of the 338 ridings in Canada, how much money, how many positions and how many hours of work were requested for fiscal year 2019-20; (b) for each of the 338 ridings in Canada, how much money, how many positions and how many hours of work were allocated for fiscal year 2019-20; (c) what is, in mathematical terms, and defining all variables, the formula that was used in fiscal year 2019-20 to determine the funding allocated to each riding; and (d) what is the share of overall funding, expressed both as a percentage and in dollars, that has been allocated to ridings in Quebec, broken down by fiscal year, since 2015-16?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 422--
Mr. Garnett Genuis:
With regard to the Canada Service Corps initiative launched in 2018: (a) how much money has been spent on this initiative in total; (b) how many Canadian youth have participated, broken down by year and by province or territory; (c) how many volunteering projects (i) have been completed by the corps, (ii) are currently ongoing; (d) what is the (i) average number of youth volunteers involved per project, (ii) number of projects per province; (e) how many applications for service-related project funding has the government (i) received, (ii) accepted, (iii) provided funding to; (f) what is the number of service-related projects that the government (i) has funded since the beginning of the Service Corps, (ii) is currently funding; (g) what is the number of service related projects funded which were (i) national projects, (ii) regional projects, (iii) local projects; and (h) what is the number of projects funded at each of the $250, $750, and $1,500 fixed amounts?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 424--
Mr. Tom Kmiec:
With regard to the First-Time home buyer incentive (FTHBI) announced by the government in 2019, from September 1, 2019, to date: (a) how many applicants have applied for mortgages through the FTHBI program, broken down by province and municipality; (b) of those applicants, how many have been approved and accepted mortgages through the FTHBI program, broken down by province and municipality; (c) of those applicants listed in (b), how many approved applicants have been issued the incentive in the form of a shared equity mortgage; (d) what is the total value of incentives (shared equity mortgages) under the program that have been issued, in dollars; (e) for those applicants who have been issued mortgages through the FTHBI, what is that value of each of the mortgage loans; (f) for those applicants who have been issued mortgages through the FTHBI, what is that mean value of the mortgage loan; (g) what is the total aggregate amount of money lent to homebuyers through the FTHBI to date; (h) for mortgages approved through the FTHBI, what is the breakdown of the percentage of loans originated with each lender comprising more than 5% of total loans issued; (i) for mortgages approved through the FTHBI, what is the breakdown of the value of outstanding loans insured by each Canadian mortgage insurance company as a percentage of total loans in force; and (j) what is the government’s position on expanding the FTHBI to make eligible Canadians with incomes above $120,000 a year?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 425--
Mr. Tom Kmiec:
With regard to the federal government’s use of the Quarantine Act as part of measures taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 1, 2020, to date: (a) how many locations in Canada have been designated isolation or quarantine sites or facilities by the government; (b) how many individuals have stayed longer than a day in these sites, for the purposes of quarantine; (c) what is the location of the quarantine sites, broken down by address, municipality and province; (d) how many federal government employees are at each location; and (e) how much has the government spent to maintain and fund each quarantine facility?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 426--
Mr. Tom Kmiec:
With regard to treatments and therapies subject to approval for market by Health Canada, from January 1, 2016, to this date: (a) how many pharmaceutical drugs were granted market authorization by Health Canada, broken down by name of drug and date of approval; and (b) of the pharmaceutical drugs listed in (a), how many were for treatments and therapies for rare diseases, known as orphan drugs, broken down by name and date of approval?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 427--
Mr. Arnold Viersen:
With regard to the Acting Ministers Minute (P.C. 2021-0073): what are the statutory responsibilities of the minister without Portfolio (styled Special Representative for the Prairies)?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 429--
Mr. Matthew Green:
With regard to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), for fiscal years 2020-21, 2019-20, 2018-19, 2017-18, and 2016-17, broken down by year: (a) what is the net change in the number of regular members who (i) self-identified as visible minorities (persons of colour), (ii) self-identified as Indigenous persons, (iii) did not self-identify as a member of an Employment Equity Act group; (b) what is the number of regular member applicants who (i) self-identified as visible minorities (persons of colour), (ii) self-identified as Indigenous persons, (iii) did not self-identify as a member of an Employment Equity Act group; (c) what is the number of regular member applicants selected to attend the RCMP training academy (Depot) who (i) self-identified as visible minorities (persons of colour), (ii) self-identified as Indigenous persons, (iii) did not self-identify as a member of an Employment Equity Act group; (d) how many regular member applicants graduated from the RCMP training academy (Depot) who (i) self-identified as visible minorities (persons of colour), (ii) self-identified as Indigenous persons, (iii) did not self-identify as a member of an Employment Equity Act group; (e) how many of the regular members who applied for promotion, broken down by rank (Corporal to Staff Sergeant), (i) self-identified as visible minorities (persons of colour), (ii) self-identified as Indigenous persons, (iii) did not self-identify as a member of an Employment Equity Act group; (f) how many regular member promotion applicants, who reached the short list (top seven), broken down by rank (Corporal to Staff Sergeant), (i) self-identified as visible minorities (persons of colour), (ii) self-identified as Indigenous persons, (iii) did not self-identify as a member of an Employment Equity Act group; and (g) how many regular member promotions were awarded to regular members, broken down by rank (Corporal to Staff Sergeant), who (i) self-identified as visible minorities (persons of colour), (ii) self-identified as Indigenous persons, (iii) did not self-identify as a member of an Employment Equity Act group?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 431--
Mr. Philip Lawrence:
With regard to online accounts being locked out by the Canada Revenue Agency after individuals’ information was obtained or accessed by unauthorized individuals outside of the organization since January 1, 2021: (a) how many online accounts were locked; (b) during what time periods were the accounts locked; (c) if the accounts are still locked, when will they be unlocked; (d) what specific measures were taken to notify the individuals whose accounts were locked; (e) what type of information was obtained by the unauthorized individuals that led to accounts being locked; and (f) who are the unauthorized individuals that accessed the information and where are these unauthorized individuals located?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 432--
Mr. Xavier Barsalou-Duval:
With regard to federal spending in the constituency of Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, since October 19, 2015: what is the total amount of federal investment, broken down by (i) year, (ii) department, (iii) project?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 433--
Mr. Steven Blaney:
With regard to the Victoria Class Submarines, since 2008 and, broken down by year, except for (f), (g), (l), (m), and (o): (a) how much has the government spent to maintain the fleet; (b) what are the details of each contract amended, including the (i) vendor, (ii) date, (iii) value of each amendment, (iv) reason for amendment; (c) what costs have been incurred by the Royal Canadian Navy to run the project office; (d) what was the cost to conduct independent reviews of the program; (e) what are the total number of sea days for each boat, broken down by vessel; (f) what are all risks identified by the government in relation to the upcoming contract tender and the possible award to another company; (g) what are all benefits and risks identified in relation to extending the current contract by more than one day; (h) what is the total number of Canadians who have been trained to maintain the submarines under the contract, broken by contractor; (i) how much was spent on transporting submarines from the east coast to the west coast and back; (j) how much was spent on submarine spares, broken down by vendor; (k) how many Canadian suppliers have been created to support the VISSC program, broken down by region and name; (l) what percentage of the current supply base is outside of Canada; (m) what are the risks related to accessing support and spares for the Victoria Class Submarines (i) presently, (ii) between 2023 and 2040, and proposed mitigation step for each by the builder and by Canada; (n) what is the total value of subcontracts awarded to Seaspan and Victoria Shipyards, broken down by the number of workers; and (o) who maintains the IP for the Victoria Class Submarines and what are the risks related to Intellectual Property for this orphan class submarine?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 434--
Mr. Alexandre Boulerice:
With regard to the federal deductions that apply to the taxable income of individuals, between fiscal years 2012-13 and 2020-21, inclusively, broken down by each deduction and each fiscal year: (a) what is the number of individuals who claimed each deduction whose total annual income is (i) less than $60,000, (ii) less than $100,000, (iii) less than $200,000, (iv) between $200,000 and $1 million, (v) more than $1 million; (b) what is the average amount claimed by an individual whose total annual income is (i) less than $60,000, (ii) less than $100,000, (iii) less than $200,000, (iv) between $200,000 and $1 million, (v) more than $1 million; (c) what is the total amount claimed by individuals whose total annual income is (i) less than $60,000, (ii) less than $100,000, (iii) less than $200,000, (iv) between $200,000 and $1 million, (v) more than $1 million; and (d) what is the percentage of the total amount claimed by individuals whose total annual income is more than $1 million?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 435--
Mr. Alexandre Boulerice:
With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) advertising since November 4, 2015: (a) how much has CRA spent on advertising (i) on Facebook, (ii) on Xbox, Xbox 360 or Xbox One, (iii) on YouTube, (iv) in sponsored tweets on Twitter, (v) on Instagram; (b) for each advertisement, what was its (i) nature, (ii) purpose, (iii) target audience or demographic profile, (iv) cost; (c) what was the media authorization number of each advertisement; (d) what are the reference numbers of the documents, reports and memoranda concerning each advertisement or its after-the-fact evaluation; and (e) does the CRA compare the cost of advertising placement in traditional media with the media in (a), and, if so, what is the difference in cost for each of the advertisements in (b)?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 436--
Mr. Arnold Viersen:
With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency hiring private firms to assist with the 2021 tax season: (a) what is the total value of all contracts signed; (b) what are the details of each contract, including the (i) vendor, (ii) amount, (iii) start and end date of the contract, (iv) description of goods or services provided; (c) what measures are in place to ensure that any information shared with these private firms is safeguarded and not subject to potential privacy breaches; and (d) for each contract in (b), did the government consider using existing government resources, including those in other departments or agencies, and, if so, why did the government decide to outsource instead of using government resources?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 439--
Mr. Marc Dalton:
With regard to commercial space being rented by non-government clients (businesses, charities, etc.) from properties owned by the government and the impact of the pandemic: (a) what was the total amount of rent collected, broken down by month since January 1, 2020; (b) what was the total number of non-government clients as of March 1, 2020; (c) what is the current number of non-government clients; (d) as of February 1, 2021, how many clients' rent payments were (i) up to date, (ii) in arrears, broken down by how late the payments are (90 days, 180 days, etc.); (e) how many clients have been evicted since March 1, 2020; and (f) what is the breakdown of (a) through (e) by sector (retail, non­profit, etc.), if known?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 442--
Ms. Leah Gazan:
With regard to Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy and the target of 20 per cent reduction in poverty from the base year of 2015: has the government met its target, and, if not, by how much has the poverty rate in 2020 fallen from the base year of 2015?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 444--
Mr. Gord Johns:
With regard to Motion M-225, adopted by the House on June 13, 2019: (a) has the government set a goal to prevent and end veterans homelessness in Canada by 2025; (b) what progress has the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development made towards developing a plan to present to the House to end veterans homelessness, and, if so, when will this plan be presented to the House; (c) broken down by fiscal year since 2015-16, how much funding has been put towards preventing and ending veterans homelessness through (i) Employment and Social Development Canada, (ii) Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, (iii) the Canadian Armed Forces, (iv) the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; and (d) broken down by fiscal year since 2018-19, how much federal funding was directed towards the (i) Veterans Emergency Fund, (ii) Veterans and Family Well-Being Fund?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 445--
Mr. Gord Johns:
With regard to the government’s Blue Economy Strategy: (a) how does the government define a blue economy, and is land-based aquaculture a part of that definition; (b) what consultations has the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard attended or plan to attend, broken down by date; and (c) for each consultation meeting in (b), which organizations, companies, and individuals attended or plan to attend those meetings?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 446--
Mr. Gord Johns:
With regard to the Marine Communications and Traffic Services, broken down by centre and year since 2012: (a) what is the annual budget for each centre; (b) how many full-time staff are employed at each centre; (c) how much overtime has been claimed at each station; and (d) what is the total number of distress and safety calls that each centre responded to?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 447--
Mr. Gord Johns:
With regard to volunteer firefighter and search and rescue volunteer services: (a) broken down by line and fiscal year between 2015-16 and 2019-20, (i) how many individuals claimed amounts on lines 362 and 395 of their individual tax returns, (ii) what was the total amount claimed in (a)(i); and (b) broken down by line and fiscal year since 2019-20, (i) how many individuals claimed amounts on lines 31220 and 31240 on their individual tax returns, (ii) what was the total amount claimed in (i)?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 448--
Mrs. Marilène Gill:
With regard to federal spending in the riding of Manicouagan for each fiscal year since 2019-20, inclusively: what are the details of all grants and contributions, and all loans to every organization, group, business or municipality, broken down by the (i) name of the recipient, (ii) municipality of the recipient, (iii) date on which the funding was received, (iv) amount received, (v) department or agency that provided the funding, (vi) program under which the grant, contribution or loan was made, (vii) nature or purpose?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 449--
Mr. Doug Shipley:
With regard to the multipurpose vessels (MPVs) announced by the Prime Minister in May 2019 for the Canadian Coast Guard: (a) what is the approximate cost of each vessel, as well as the total cost of the program; (b) what are the details of all contracts issued to date related to MPVs, including the (i) amount, (ii) vendor, (iii) date of the contract, (iv) date of amendment, if applicable, (v) description of goods or services; (c) what are the costs related to the management of the MPV program, broken down by department, supplier and year; (d) what are total costs or projected costs related to the design of the MPVs, broken down by year between 2019 and 2029; (e) what are the details of the competitive process for the selection of a design for the MPVs, including the (i) number of invited bidders or potential bidders for the design work, (ii) names of invited or potential bidders with whom the government or the builder have had discussions, (iii) expected timeline for a decision on the designer for the MPVs or the name of the selected designer, (iv) date the contract was entered into for the design of the MPVs, (v) requirements for the vessels, (vi) summary of the technical statement of requirements, (vii) deadline to complete design; (f) what is the expected timeline for the delivery of vessels 1 to 16, broken down by year; (g) what is the location where each vessel (1 to 16) will be (i) constructed, (ii) launched, (iii) outfitted, (iv) at the date when it reaches initial operational capability, (v) at the date when it reaches fully operational capability; (h) what are the anticipated or projected savings, per vessel, as the builder moves from ship 1 through to ship 16; (i) what considerations, if any, were given to a fixed price build contract; (j) what incentives were offered to encourage on time and on budget delivery of the vessels; (k) what risks were identified in the program during the (i) preliminary design, (ii) basic design, (iii) construction, (iv) delivery; and (l) what specific measures were taken to mitigate each risk in (k)?
Response
(Return tabled)

Question No. 451--
Ms. Raquel Dancho:
With regard to jobs funded through the Youth Employment Skills Strategy in the 2020 calendar year: (a) what was the total number of jobs funded through the program in 2020; (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by riding; (c) what was the total amount of funding provided through the program, broken down by (i) province or territory, (ii) riding; (d) how many of the jobs funded were disrupted or eliminated as a result of measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic; (e) what amount of funding does the number of jobs in (d) represent; and (f) what is the policy related to what happens to the funding when jobs related to the funding are disrupted or eliminated?
Response
(Return tabled)
8555-432-390 Canada Emergency Response B ...8555-432-391 Federal government spending ...8555-432-392 Public service and crown co ...8555-432-393 Canada Emergency Response B ...8555-432-395 Canada Lands Company Limited8555-432-399 Government advertising duri ...8555-432-400 Veterans Disability Program8555-432-401 Medical cannabis program fo ...8555-432-403 Canada's constitutional system8555-432-404 Government spending8555-432-407 Agreement on Trade-Related ... ...Show all topics
View Sébastien Lemire Profile
BQ (QC)
Madam Speaker, thousands of people discovered they were victims of CERB fraud and would have to pay income tax. Then the CRA investigated and decided, based on its findings, that the victims will not have to pay that income tax.
The problem is that the investigations are taking forever. The deadline for filing tax returns is coming up soon, but the CRA is telling victims to pay and be reimbursed later.
This fraud is the government's fault. It chose not to check CERB claimants' identity. Can it show a little respect and leave the victims in peace during the investigations?
View Francesco Sorbara Profile
Lib. (ON)
Madam Speaker, the CRA is very serious about protecting taxpayers' information. It has put in place robust safeguards to identify fraudulent emergency and economic recovery benefit claims. Canadians who receive a T4A for CERB payments they did not claim should contact the CRA as soon as possible. Victims of fraud will not be held responsible for any money paid out and—
View Sébastien Lemire Profile
BQ (QC)
Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is obviously not calling on the Canada Revenue Agency to support these victims of fraud. It is taking a tremendous amount of time.
Victims of CERB fraud should not have to pay taxes on money they never asked for and never received, even if Ottawa is promising to reimburse them. People have seen how the government did with the Phoenix pay system. They have no idea how many months, years or even decades it will take for them to get their money back.
The government is the one that decided not to check CERB claimants' identity so that it could get the money out to people quickly. That was the government's choice, and the government needs to take complete responsibility for it.
Will the government leave fraud victims in peace until the investigation is complete?
View Francesco Sorbara Profile
Lib. (ON)
Madam Speaker, I will repeat these lines in English, just so I am clear. The Canadian Revenue Agency takes the protection of taxpayer information very seriously. We have put in place robust safeguards to identify fraudulent emergency and recovery claims. We will work with the victims of fraud and they will not be held responsible for any money paid out to scammers using their identity.
View Daniel Blaikie Profile
NDP (MB)
View Daniel Blaikie Profile
2021-03-12 12:59 [p.4991]
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be rising so soon on third reading of this bill, in that the NDP recognizes how important it is that these measures come into place to support people who, facing the end of their regular EI benefits in a very difficult economic context, need an extension of those benefits to take place. New Democrats have been very happy to support that measure and to work collaboratively to see the bill pass quickly.
That said, there are a number of things that are not in this bill that New Democrats think are a problem. The problem is not just in the sense of missed opportunities to make progress on some long-standing issues, such as the EI sickness benefit, but also in the sense of being a problem for many people in crisis right now as a result of the pandemic. To be sure, that relates to the EI sickness benefit, because there are people facing long-term conditions such as cancer who have had their normal course of medical treatment prolonged due to delays in the medical system caused by COVID.
It is also the case for people who are facing a new condition, long COVID. Even though the really intense initial period of sickness may have passed, there are some serious long-term recurring chronic conditions that are presenting themselves, whether as fatigue or shortness of breath or things of that nature. Those folks are falling through the cracks because Canada has not yet recognized long COVID as a condition. We have seen some leadership in other countries in creating specialized clinics and getting on track to research what this means as it emerges, but Canada, unfortunately, is not among those countries.
What that means is that private insurers here are able to say that people are not suffering from a condition they recognize, and so people are not getting access to their private benefits. It also means that folks have been falling through the cracks in some of the government benefits as well.
In the case of long COVID in particular, people who are facing these kinds of symptoms do not know when the symptoms are going to crop up. Sometimes it is very often and sometimes it is more infrequent. The symptoms appear sporadically, so people are not able to search for jobs because they cannot tell an employer in good faith that they are going to be able to regularly report to work. A condition of the Canada recovery benefit is that people actively seek work.
These are how those kinds of cracks develop. It is why the NDP thought it was important in the early days of the pandemic, and we argued very vigorously for a more universal approach, one that would capture all of these different kinds of situations, not because we had identified them all in advance but because we knew there would be unique challenges and situations that we could not hope to identify in advance. That is why a universal approach to income support would be better—one that would capture seniors, for instance, who did not lose their jobs due to COVID but had to face additional costs. It is the same for people living with disabilities and for other groups, such as students.
That is why New Democrats thought a universal approach was important. It was a very conscious decision of the Liberal government not to adopt that approach. We have spent a lot of time worrying about the people who are falling through the cracks and a lot of time fighting for policy solutions that will help them, but we are just not seeing enough of those solutions in this bill. Who does it leave behind? It leaves those people behind.
I have heard the government say how important it is to move this bill forward, and we agree completely. I think it is fair to say that virtually all of the government speeches today at third reading condemned the Conservatives for their procedural delay tactics on a number of bills in the House, saying that they really should not be doing that with Bill C-24 because it is very important to get it passed.
We heard that at committee yesterday. I had proposed a very simple amendment, and this talk about delay and about the importance of getting this done came through, even though there is really no disagreement, and we see that with this bill. All parties have worked to get this bill through very quickly.
The fact is that we are only on the sixth sitting day since first reading of the bill. It is atypical for Parliament to have a guaranteed passage of a bill, but let us be clear that the bill is already guaranteed to pass at the end of the day, and rightly so. I am glad for that.
I hope all this talk about delay around Bill C-24 is not disingenuous. It is certainly misguided. I am trying to be parliamentary, despite the facts that I am trying to describe.
What I am trying to say is that I have heard very clearly from Liberals that they are very concerned about all the people on EI regular benefits who are facing a deadline at the end of the month. That is a concern we share. However, I would put to the government, what about the people who have seen their EI sick benefit expire already? Those people are already in the situation the Liberals are beseeching us to avoid when it comes to people who are on EI regular benefits. Not only do they find themselves in that situation, but also find themselves gravely ill with various kinds of conditions.
We really think it is important and have really been hoping that it be addressed, particularly because the government did not table this bill right away in January. In particular, we knew that we wanted to address the issue of people using the sick day benefit to self-isolate after non-essential travel. There was all-party agreement that this was not an appropriate use of that benefit. It was not foreseen when the benefit was negotiated and designed.
We had hoped that the delay meant the government was going to address some other very urgent and pandemic-related issues with simple solutions, like extending the EI sick benefit to 50 weeks, something that the House of Commons has already expressed support for, first by majority vote in favour of a Bloc Québécois opposition day motion, and then by unanimous consent. There was a unanimous consent motion reaffirming the House's commitment to that motion. Twice now the House has called for this. Once the government opposed it, and the other time it did not.
I do not know what more it would take to get this extension of the EI sickness benefit done. We have unanimity, apparently, in the House of Commons. We have a bill designed to reform the EI Act. We have a very simple legislative change that needs to be made. It needs to be implemented and although there can be complications in its implementation, let us get the ball rolling. It cannot be implemented until we make the legislative change.
The Liberals could propose an implementation date, a coming into force date, something they think would give them a reasonable period. We have the commitment now in Parliament. Let us get the legislative job done and assign a date for government to implement it by.
We have to get going on this. It is just wrong, frankly, to have a whole bunch of sick Canadians who have been advocating for this, some of them for years, and to cause them to continue to not only have to deal with their illness but also to become political advocates to get something done on which there seems to be widespread agreement. It is cruel. We had an opportunity yesterday to do something about it.
We know that bills and proposals that require public spending cannot be introduced by anyone but the government; yet members do it. The Bloc Québécois members have been very keen to remind us all that they have a private member's bill to extend the EI sickness benefit to 50 weeks. They will also have to reckon with the fact that that private member's bill, to be votable at third reading, will need a royal recommendation.
I have a private member's bill to extend the sickness benefit to 50 weeks. I know that if we get through that long process in the course of a Parliament, which would be lovely and I hope that we do, it would also need a royal recommendation. At that point, I will fight as hard as I can to find a way to either get the recommendation or some way around it.
It is ridiculous that a long-standing tradition that goes back to when we were ruled by a monarch, by hereditary right, could get in the way of democratically elected representatives doing the right thing on the EI sickness benefit. I think that is ridiculous. I have been frustrated in other fora, frankly, with the way that some of our long-standing traditions, whether for prorogation or dissolution of Parliament or royal recommendation, get in the way of democratic decision-making. I would add the Senate to that list as well.
There are a lot of ways in Canada where the democratic will of Canadians, expressed through their parliamentarians, their members of Parliament are thwarted by some of these traditions. I like a lot of the traditions in the House. I am a believer in Parliament. However, I do not think that means that we should self-censor and not challenge those things when they get in the way of what is in the best interests of people in Canada.
I do not apologize for taking that thought to the government. I do not apologize for being willing to challenge those things and to try to seize on any opportunity I can to get good things done, like extending the EI sickness benefit to 50 weeks, which I know many members share across party lines as a goal in the House. I will continue to do that and to try to come up with new and creative ways of doing that, instead of just doing those things that so far have not been working. I think this was a missed opportunity. While I am glad for all of the people on EI regular benefits and we will continue to work in the spirit of collaboration to protect their interests and to protect their household finances, I am not going to do that by passing over in silence the incredible missed opportunity that we have had on the EI sickness benefit here.
I would be remiss also if I did not mention something that I spoke to it in my last speech. I think it bears repeating. There was time taken to table this bill. We have known for a long time now that there were a lot of people who were struggling financially before the pandemic and who have ended up applying for the CERB. In some cases they were told to. In fact, mean, a lot of provincial social assistance programs require people to apply for any other income assistance benefit they could be eligible for.
The application for CERB was a no-fail process. It was that way for the right reasons: the money needed to get out quickly, and all of that. What that meant is that in some cases people who were on social assistance were required by their provincial government to apply for the CERB and then got it. Now they are being told to pay it back. While they were receiving it, they were not receiving their social assistance. Where is the money supposed to come from?
This is not a new problem. We have known that this was shaping up to be a problem a long time ago. Campaign 2000 was calling for an amnesty as early as last summer, so this is no a surprise. It is not something that caught the government off guard, unless it was not paying attention in the first place and ought to have been. This is something we could have been doing in this legislation to address a very urgent need. I was frustrated to hear the minister responsible for this bill characterize the bill as just narrowing down and focusing on what is urgent.
The plight of sick Canadians who need a benefit to help them keep their homes while they deal with their illnesses in the context of the pandemic and who have already been cut-off from their benefits is urgent. If this is not urgent, I do not know what is. It is the plight of low-income Canadians who were told by provincial governments they had to apply for CERB, or of kids aging out of foster care at 18 in the pandemic, who were told that before they apply for social assistance they had to apply for the CERB, and who are now being told to pay it back with money they do not have. They are facing crushing debt. Even if they do not have to repay it by the end of this tax year, having that hanging over their heads is going to make it really hard for them to get a decent start in life. We all know that. Someone would have to be pretty darn rich for a long time to think $14,000 in debt does not matter and can be brushed off.
I know the former minister of finance forgot about a $40,000 bill, but that is not the situation of most Canadians, not at all. It is a debt of $14,000, $16,000 or $18,000 for a young person who just aged out of foster care and cannot get a job because of the pandemic, and who is wondering what their future looks like and may be told by the Canada Revenue Agency, a pretty serious organization in this country, that they are going to owe that $14,000 or $16,000 until they can pay it off. When is that going to be? When they get their first job in this difficult economy, whenever that will be, they will have to pay for their rent and food. It is not as if all of those wages are going to be available for them to pay back their debt to the Canada Revenue Agency.
I think there is a legitimate question here about the public interest and the extent to which Canadians are really going to benefit from the government's demand for this money back from the people who cannot pay it back. Given the time that has been taken, not only from January until now to prepare this bill but also the time we have lived through since the pandemic began, particularly since the first extension of CERB in the summertime when groups began to identify this problem and call for amnesty, there have been lots of opportunities to figure out how to do it and to present a coherent plan to Parliament that would work. There has been lots of time to quantify this problem. I asked the minister yesterday if she had an idea of how much money Canada would make if all the people who need a low-income CERB amnesty repaid their debt tomorrow. How much money would that be?
We do not have an answer to that. I hope they will follow up with an answer and I hope they do have the answer, because it seems to me that unless that is a compelling number, we should not be worrying a lot of people who are already struggling with the anxiety and real financial challenge of what, on the government books, would be a relatively small debt, particularly relative to all the spending that has taken place to get us through the pandemic.
The government will know I am not criticizing that spending. There are aspects of it I might criticize, particularly the money that was set aside for the WE Charity that never resulted in any concrete or tangible benefit to Canadians or Canadian students. In the details, there are criticisms to make, but we are not opposed to the idea that the government needed to step in to provide a lot of support to get our economy and Canadians through this.
This is relative to that spending and the work that the country is going to have to do to manage its finances going forward. We should be letting these folks off the hook for something that, in some cases, was frankly beyond their control. I do not think they were acting in bad faith. Being compelled by provincial governments to apply for this benefit is not something they could just say no to, because then they would not qualify for provincial assistance. They cannot just walk out on the street and get a job, so I ask what they were supposed to do.
Can we not extend some compassion to the folks in this situation in this difficult time and clear that debt, instead of making it a 20-year project for them to pay off with whatever small amounts of disposable income they may have and get for themselves? Instead of sending all of that to the CRA, they might be able to keep some of it for themselves or to invest it in something that improves their situation in life or affords them some opportunities to live a little and enjoy their life, as they work hard to try to get by. Those are the kinds of small, but important and tangible things that we would potentially be taking away from some of our most vulnerable people, when we refuse the idea of an amnesty.
I think that is important to bear in mind, because we do not just have a financial responsibility here, but I think this has been a time when members of Parliament and the government have been, and ought to be, called to meet the moral responsibility of this place and to really think about the long-term interest in people. I think that if we do not proceed with this kind of amnesty, we would be failing people in that regard.
I just want to end on that note. Yes, these are important reforms. Yes, we needed to move forward quickly. We have done that in good faith. We in the NDP have tried to use the opportunity to press other important and related issues. Unfortunately, we did not find enough support on the other benches to make that happen. We stand ready to help the government quickly, in the fastest way possible, expand the EI sickness benefit. The only thing getting in the way yesterday at committee was the need for a royal recommendation. The only thing getting in the way was the fact that the government is not on board. If the government would kindly get on board with helping out sick Canadians, as is the will of the House of Commons, we will act as we did on Bill C-24 to move that through quickly and without delay, so that those folks who are already not receiving any kind of income assistance could get it.
I hope that some of the issues that we have been able to raise in this debate have been heard by the government and that we will soon see some kind of concrete response in legislation, in the case of the EI sickness benefit. If they are able to do the CERB amnesty without any legislation and it can happen more quickly, that would be awesome. We would support that too, but if there is legislation required, we would hope to see it come forward quickly. We regret that this was not already a part of the legislation before us and that we were not able to make it part of it, but let us get on with making sure that we are not just talking about who the government has decided to help through all of this, but that are actually filling the cracks so that there is not a long list of people who need support and have not received it.
View Laurel Collins Profile
NDP (BC)
View Laurel Collins Profile
2021-03-12 13:28 [p.4995]
Madam Speaker, 60% of student loan borrowers are women. They hold the vast majority of student debt. Of the student debt in Canada, a recent report showed that men have about $1.4 billion, while women hold a staggering $2.2 billion. This means they accrue more interest and have more trouble paying it off. Women make up two-thirds of the people on repayment assistance, and this results in an even bigger gender wealth gap.
The missing pieces in this bill, extending EI benefits and CERB amnesty, are measures that would make a huge difference for struggling Canadians but especially for women, who have been particularly hard hit.
What does the member think the message is, especially to young women who are going deeper into debt, when the Liberals and the self-proclaimed feminist Prime Minister will not implement these policies and instead break their promise and refuse to freeze student loans and end interest for good?
View Daniel Blaikie Profile
NDP (MB)
View Daniel Blaikie Profile
2021-03-12 13:29 [p.4995]
Madam Speaker, we know the pandemic has had a disproportionately negative effect on women and racialized Canadians. If the government would undertake a gender-based analysis of a CERB amnesty, it would find that it would have a disproportionately great benefit for women and racialized Canadians. It is another reason I think a low-income CERB amnesty is a question of social justice, with a negligible financial cost relative to what the government has been spending, and there is no good reason not to do it.
View Rachel Bendayan Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Rachel Bendayan Profile
2021-03-09 12:51 [p.4737]
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Davenport.
I would like to thank my colleagues for their thoughts and contributions to this debate on the impact of the pandemic on Canadians, small businesses and various sectors of our economy.
This has definitely been a very difficult year for so many Canadians across the country. In recent months, and particularly in recent weeks, with the acceleration of vaccine deliveries to the provinces, we have reason to hope that better days are coming. I know they are coming, but until then, the federal government is committed to doing whatever it takes to help Canadians weather the crisis. That is what we have been doing since the beginning of the pandemic.
I am always pleased to discuss federal programs to support Canadian workers and small businesses. However, I am a little surprised that now, one year later, this is a new focus for my colleagues from the Conservative Party. After all, it was the member for Carleton, the then Conservative finance critic, who proudly proclaimed he and all Conservative members did not believe in “big, fat government programs” and that the COVID-19 pandemic's economic impacts could be addressed with just a few tax cuts.
In this light, let us then take a moment to appreciate just how far we have come and take stock of the Conservative motion before us today, which aims to broaden existing programs, increase government expenditures and even create new programs. In short, it sounds like now they are asking us to make our existing government programs even bigger and fatter.
Have no doubt, when it comes to our position and the position of the entire government, we knew from the very beginning, one year ago, that we had to intervene to ensure Canadians and Canadian small businesses had the supports they needed, and intervene we did. We quickly put into place Canada's COVID-19 economic response plan. This plan continues to keep our economy stable, protect jobs and give Canadians the means to support their families.
One of the first measures we implemented was the Canada emergency response benefit, or CERB, so folks could continue to pay their rent and mortgages, and feed their children, while doing their part to defeat the virus by staying home. Between March and October, as the House knows, the CERB alone supported nearly nine million Canadians.
As the situation continued to evolve, we put in place other critical benefits for Canadian workers. I am pleased to report to this House that, as of February 28, the Canada recovery benefit has supported 1.8 million Canadian workers. In addition, the Canada recovery caregiving benefit has supported close to 350,000 Canadian workers, and the Canada recovery sickness benefit has supported over 400,000 Canadian workers.
We recently introduced Bill C-24 to increase the number of weeks of benefits offered under those programs, but the Conservatives do not want to debate it. I will talk more about that later.
Of course I cannot mention our support to Canadian workers without mentioning the emergency wage subsidy. We are subsidizing the paycheques of over five million Canadian workers across the country through this subsidy. Every single day I speak to entrepreneurs who tell me that, without this program, they would have been forced to lay off employees. Their team, the essence of their business, would have been gone, and it is nearly impossible to recover from that.
In early April of last year we launched the Canada emergency business account, which is an interest-free loan that provides up to $60,000 to small businesses, 33% of which is a grant. Close to 850,000 small businesses have already benefited from this critical funding. When businesses told us they needed additional help with their fixed costs, we introduced the rent subsidy program and the associated lockdown support, which is covering up to 90% of rent expenses for small businesses. There are 130,000 businesses across the country using this subsidy.
I am going to stray a bit from my remarks, but yesterday the Conservatives voted against Bill C-14, which would allow small businesses to claim the rent subsidy before their rent is due. Essentially, this measure would help businesses keep a greater cash flow and entrepreneurs weather difficult times, at no real extra cost to the federal government.
The Conservatives voted against something that would support small businesses with cash flow without allocating additional government funding. I cannot think of a more fiscally prudent way of supporting our business community, and Conservatives voted against it.
The motion before us calls upon the government to provide new support for the hardest-hit businesses. We have already done just that. In January, we launched the highly affected sectors credit, which provides low-interest loans of up to $1 million that are fully guaranteed by the federal government.
The motion also talks about providing specific support for the airline industry. My colleagues are well aware that we are currently in negotiations to provide support for this industry and that we are asking the industry to provide refunds for consumers and make certain commitments regarding regional transportation.
It is interesting that the Conservatives are proposing this motion now. Now that we are making progress on the negotiations and getting close to an agreement, the Conservatives have suddenly decided to make this their pet issue.
Our government recognizes the importance of our airline industry and will do what it takes to support it.
I am not going to sugar-coat it; all of these support programs cost money, and this government did spend a lot of money. It was money well spent. Personally, I consider myself to be somewhat fiscally conservative. We are the trustees of taxpayer dollars. We have a duty, in my view, to be prudent and wise in how we spend, but who in this House is willing to make the argument that families, workers and businesses should have gone deep into debt so that the government did not have to? Canada has a AAA credit rating, and we borrow at about a 0% interest rate. Small businesses cannot say the same.
As the parliamentary secretary responsible for small business and international trade, I am always willing to discuss with my colleagues opposite the ways we can support our entrepreneurs and business community, but there is simply no clear position being taken by the Conservative party on how to do that. For example, the Conservative member for Steveston—Richmond East complained that we are spending like there is no tomorrow. The member for Souris—Moose Mountain said government spending was leading him to be disappointed in the current state of Canada, yet here we are today debating a Conservative motion asking for more spending. While I am aware that the Conservative finance portfolio recently changed hands, and some policy changes are normal, this is close to a complete U-turn.
It is hard these days to figure out what the Conservatives actually stand for. Is it more spending, or is it less? Do they agree that Canada should run a deficit to support Canadians, or do they not? Are they asking us to spend today so that they can attack us on the deficit later? Are they refusing to sit for extended hours in the evening to delay supports for Canadians?
Bill C-24 would substantially expand support for our workers. Unfortunately, our Conservative colleagues have refused to work through the evening to debate and pass Bill C-24. The member for Kildonan—St. Paul, the critic for future workforce development and disability inclusion herself, stated that Bill C-24 was straightforward and that time is of the essence to get this bill through, but that message does not seem to have made its way to the leadership of the Conservative party.
It is a good thing Canadians know where we stand and where this government stands. They also know that we will continue to ensure Canadians and Canadian businesses are supported right through to the end of this pandemic, because protecting and supporting Canadians is, and will always be, our top priority.
View Kody Blois Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Kody Blois Profile
2021-03-09 16:22 [p.4770]
Madam Speaker, it is always a privilege to rise in the House, even if it is virtually, to bring remarks on behalf of the good people of Kings—Hants. I will be splitting my time today with my hon. colleague from Vaughan—Woodbridge.
It is a privilege to speak to the opposition motion brought forward from the member of Parliament for Abbotsford. For those who are listening from home and might be tuning in, I think it is beneficial to read the different provisions of the text. I can certainly speak to why I was excited to have the chance to speak here today.
The motion indicates the need to, in part (a), introduce sector-specific measures to support the highly impacted sectors such as hospitality, tourism and charitable sectors; in part (b), provide repayable loans to the airlines with the condition that it includes consumer refunds, job guarantees, restrictions to executive compensation and the maintaining of regional routes; and finally, in part (c), to improve support programs, notably lending supports to small businesses within 30 days of the motion being adopted, presumably as part of the budget process.
The reason I jumped at the opportunity to speak here today is that I agree with the elements of the motion. These are priorities I have heard from my constituents in, for example, sectors like tourism. I am the member of Parliament for Kings—Hants in the Annapolis Valley where tourism is extremely important to our economy. We have an emerging wine sector that draws people from around the world, and indeed from around the country, to visit our shores. That is a sector that has been obviously impacted because of the pandemic.
I will quickly go on record also talking about the importance of an excise replacement program for the wine sector. I hope that it is something we will see in the budget because it is extremely important for our Canadian wine producers.
I live in an area in East Hants which is about 40 minutes outside of Halifax. It is only about 10 minutes away from the Halifax International Airport. We have almost 5,000 direct jobs in the community that I live in that are tied to the aviation sector. We know the challenges that sector has gone through. Those jobs and that industry remain important not only to my constituents, but also to many of my colleagues' and indeed the whole country moving forward.
The last would be small business. We would be hard pressed to find a member in the House who does not believe in the importance of small business, what it means to the economy, particularly rural economies. Before I was a member of Parliament, I was a lawyer, but I was heavily involved in my community through a lot of non-profit initiatives. It was small businesses and their contributions to the community that helped ensure a lot of the community events that went on were possible. Whether it is employment or their contributions to communities, our small business owners are the backbone of the economy across the country and in my riding.
While I agree on the principles of the motion, what concerns me is the fact that the motion really does not give any credence to some of the work that has gone on. With due respect to my esteemed colleague from Abbotsford, it is almost as though when he tabled the motion he had not been watching some of the work the government had been doing since the start of the pandemic to support Canadian businesses and individuals. A lot of the those different elements are included in the text of the motion.
I will take the rest of my time to talk about some of those programs that have come in place. We know that there remain challenges. I do not think anyone is going to suggest that everything the government has done indemnifies the challenges that people are facing across the country, but we have certainly done our best to put a robust suite of programs in place to support Canadian businesses and individuals.
I will start with how this relates to the tourism industry and some of those most highly impacted sectors, really speak to part (a) of the motion. The member for Abbotsford could have been writing about the program we have already announced, which is HASCAP, the highly affected sectors credit availability program. This program insures government-backed loans up to $1 million for businesses, particularly in those sectors that have been hardest impacted.
That has been in place for a couple of months as part of what the government has rolled out. That is in addition to the measures that began at the beginning of the pandemic, which include the wage subsidy. Almost five million Canadians have been able to have their jobs maintained with businesses that are going through challenges as a result of the pandemic because of the wage subsidy.
We can look at the regional relief and recovery fund. As a member of Parliament from a rural area, the monies that were put out through this program, through the regional development agencies, but specifically through some of the local community business development organizations, have been extremely important to provide liquidity to small businesses, notably those in our tourism sector. I know there are businesses in my own riding that have been able to take advantage of those programs.
We talk about the emergency response benefit from the start of the pandemic. I talked to many micro-business owners who might not necessarily have a big staffing complement, such as those in small B & Bs that just have a couple individuals, maybe family members, who help operate them. That was an extremely important program, as is the response benefit since then, to make sure these individuals are able to continue to operate their businesses, move forward in good faith, and have that backstop to support them in the short term.
I will also talk about the emergency business account, the $40,000 loan that was originally extended to businesses, $10,000 of which is non-repayable if the remaining $30,000 can be returned within two years' time. We have, of course, extended that up to $60,000 and included another $10,000 as part of the non-repayable amount.
These are all investments the government has taken on. I would agree with my colleagues that it does not necessarily indemnify all businesses. It does not necessarily ensure that every business is successful. However, it is a robust suite of programs that is meant to try to support individuals and businesses through some of the challenging times we have seen in this pandemic.
I will talk about the airlines and aviation sector. As I mentioned, there are almost 5,000 direct jobs in my community tied to the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. We know that the government, since day one, has been sitting down with airlines and having discussions about how best to move forward. It is really important that, when we are dealing with public funding, to ensure we get it right. It cannot be a blank cheque to the airlines.
I think we all agree as parliamentarians that we need to support our airlines, and the government is committed to that and will do so. It is also committed to ensuring that consumers are able to get their refunds. That has already been publicly announced by our government on multiple occasions. At the end of the day, that negotiation that is going on between the department of finance and airlines has to accomplish some of these measures that are in the Conservative motion right now.
This is something we are already working on. This is something we are going to achieve. There has been almost $2 billion in wage subsidies provided to the sector. There was $1 billion provided under the fall economic statement to support airports and regional airports, which is extremely important for some of my colleagues from smaller communities.
When I look at the text of this motion, it seems devoid of some of the measures that the government has taken on. I am sure some of the Conservative members, or members in this House who take pride in being fiscal conservatives, would not suggest that the government should just simply open a line of credit and provide that liquidity without some assurances that some of these objectives that are indeed in the text of their motion should be met. We are not at the table. That is going on right now. I am confident that our government is going to be able to meet those objectives.
The final piece that I will say is on small business. I just listed a litany of different programs, showing how we have worked to support small businesses. I have heard stories in my community about how these programs have helped. I did not even mention the rent subsidy, for example. It is a significant amount of money that we have put on the table to support businesses through these challenges.
What I find interesting and what troubles me the most is that in one breath the opposition party will say that we have done too much and spent too much, and that they are worried about deficits and too much spending. I will be honest, my own ideology as a parliamentarian is that I think we need to be fiscally prudent. I appreciated the Minister of Finance's speech before Christmas, in the fall economic statement, about making sure that we have fiscal anchors and are being mindful of how we spend in the days ahead. That is certainly appreciated.
However, they cannot talk out of both sides of their mouths. They cannot say we are spending too much money, and then have motions before this House that say we are not doing enough. Canadians, certainly the constituents I talk to, recognize that in one sense Conservatives are saying we are not doing enough, but in another sense saying, perhaps as an example the member for Carleton, we are spending far too much.
This is part of the challenge. I think it is something that needs to be noted. I would be interested in hearing my colleagues' perspective. I am happy to take any questions.
View Daniel Blaikie Profile
NDP (MB)
View Daniel Blaikie Profile
2021-03-08 18:19 [p.4697]
Madam Speaker, here we again find ourselves debating some of the financial measures necessary to help Canadians cope with what has inarguably been one of the most difficult public health and economic challenges of our time.
Even though there is nothing objectionable about the measures proposed in the bill, I think it is missing a really important and significant opportunity to make some much-needed headway on issues that Canadians are facing that are part and parcel of the employment insurance system, for which there is well-established general support in the House of Commons.
I am going to speak to that very shortly, but I also want to recognize that when we talk about the pandemic and its effects, we all know, as has been said many times today on International Women's Day, that it has had a disproportionately negative effect on women across the country for all sorts of reasons, including because they do a disproportionate amount of the caregiving work in families. We have seen women step back from the workforce and gone above and beyond the simple amount that might have resulted from the job losses in the economy. This is because they are shouldering the brunt of a lot of the care work that has been required, particularly when schools are closed and access to child care has been difficult. That has had a disproportionate impact on the ability of women to participate in the workforce. These are things that we need to be mindful of not only as we move toward a recovery, but also as we discuss the measures in this bill and the measures that are not in the bill and ought to have been included.
In this bill we see an extension of the EI regular benefits to 50 weeks, which makes sense. We know that the economic consequences of the pandemic are far from over and that people who required exceptional financial support are in many cases going to continue to require that kind of extended support.
It is curious to note that the 50 weeks of EI was not matched in the government's announcement for extensions of the Canada recovery benefit and other like benefits up to the 50-week mark. That raises some questions about how long the government is anticipating these economic circumstances to last. At some point, it would be nice to hear why the government did not see fit to extend the Canada recovery benefit up to 50 weeks starting now, because that failure leaves Canadians who are dependent on that benefit to wonder whether or not that help will be there for them when the next round of extensions runs out.
The other thing this bill does is to end Canadians' ability to use the Canada recovery sickness benefit, or what could have been known as the “sick day” program, to self-isolate upon their return from non-essential travel. That was not really foreseen when this benefit was established. It is something that would not have happened had the government gone ahead with what the New Democrats believe is really the right way to do this, which is to legislate 10 paid sick days for workers across the country. The federal government is not able to do that for over 80% of workers in the workforce. As I am sure all members know, most workers fall under provincial jurisdiction, but the government could have shown leadership by doing that within the federal sphere. It could have made headway by sitting down with provincial premiers and pushing very hard on this matter as an appropriate way to make sure that Canadians have the resources they need to be able to stay home and protect their co-workers and communities from COVID-19. It is regrettable that we have not seen that degree of leadership. It would have been better, and much harder to abuse the way the Canada recovery sickness benefit was abused in allowing people to stay home after non-essential travel.
I think it is important to beseech any Canadians who may be listening to follow those travel advisories and to stay home if they do not have an essential reason for travel. I say this particularly in light of the fact that it seems, as we have known for some time, that the government has taken a while getting around to it despite the widespread support within Parliament to change this program and prevent Canadians from using it in that way. If Canadians are going to embark on any ill-advised travel, they really should do their homework, understand that the rules can change very quickly and build that as best they can into their travel plans, and if they feel there is any important uncertainty in their plans they cannot resolve, they should make the choice to stay home.
I want to talk a bit now about what is missing from this package of reforms, because there are some things that are. I have to say, and I am going to be honest, that I was a little frustrated and, in fact, outraged by some comments by the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion and her parliamentary secretary, who said the idea of this bill was just to deal with some urgent matters.
I put it to them that they should talk to Canadians who are suffering from cancer and are at the end of their 15 weeks of EI sickness benefits. They should go ahead and talk to people who have had COVID and it is not leaving them. Maybe these people are not in hospital or in intensive care, but they have recurring symptoms, a condition that is coming to be known as long COVID. They are not able to look for work because they go through periodic episodes of chronic fatigue and other symptoms, such as trouble breathing. It is occurring often enough that they know they are not going to be able to hold down a job, but their EI sickness benefits are done and there is no other program. Not all private insurers recognize long COVID because it is a relatively new condition and these people do not have the resources they need to be able to look after their families and themselves and maintain their financial wherewithal while dealing with a serious sickness. The answer for those people, as it was for 15 weeks, would be an extended EI sickness benefit.
I put it to members that the urgency is absolutely there. The Liberals said simple and urgent reforms. There is nothing simpler than changing the number of benefit weeks in the Employment Insurance Act. There is nothing simpler than that. All that has to be done is change “15” to “50” and it is done. One could not ask for simpler legislative reform if one tried. The idea that this is not simple is false. The idea that it is not urgent is false. The idea that it is not related to the pandemic is false. There is absolutely no good reason whatsoever to have omitted this.
The politics of the situation do not stand in the way either. Twice this very House of Commons during this Parliament called on the government to extend the EI sickness benefit from 15 weeks to 50 weeks, once by majority vote on a motion and the second time by unanimous consent, which is to say that nobody out of the 338 members elected to this House objected. If they had, that motion would not have passed. It was done twice. Once by majority and once by unanimous consent, the House called on the government to extend the EI sickness benefit to 50 weeks. Is this something the government has a principled objection to? Apparently not, because the government itself committed to extending the EI sickness benefit in its last campaign.
It did not go far enough. It did not commit to 50 weeks, but to 26 weeks. It has had ample occasions to make good on that election commitment in the context of the House of Commons' wanting it go even further than its own election commitment. The Liberals are the laggards when it comes to extending the EI sickness benefit. They are the ones who want the smallest extension, and yet they will not even extend the benefits to the amount they themselves promised, despite Canada and Canadians going through an enormously difficult time at a time when the EI sickness benefit could be an important tool to help keep sick Canadians going financially for a little longer.
We are seeing an acknowledgement of those difficult circumstances with an extension of up to 50 weeks of the regular benefit. That is the right thing to do, but it is also the right thing to do when it comes to the EI sickness benefit, and we have not had anything approaching an adequate explanation as to why the government is so dead set opposed to getting this done.
I do not know if the Liberals just want to campaign on it again: “It worked well the first time, so let's keep it around for another election commitment”. I do not know if it is in keeping with another theme I have discerned in my time negotiating with the Liberal government across the table during the pandemic, which is that the Liberals are very reticent to do anything that would be of benefit beyond the pandemic.
There are some problems with the sick-day benefit, which I will talk about shortly, and all of these stem from the fact that the government is resisting making sick days permanent. It wants a benefit that will die with the pandemic rather than have something that will go on past it as a permanent and positive change for Canadian workers. We are seeing the same thing here with the EI sick benefit, which really ought to be extended permanently. This is not my opinion but the unanimous opinion of the House of Commons, so let us not say this is somehow just a partisan issue or something like that.
Unfortunately, there are not a lot of charitable explanations that could draw. Maybe the Liberals want to keep it for an election commitment. Maybe they just do not want any good, permanent changes emerging from the pandemic. I suspect we will never get a Liberal to admit that on the record, but, fine, let them put a good reason on the record, because the research on the EI sick benefit is in, the politics are favourable to getting it done, and the circumstances make it as urgent as any of the reforms in the bill before us, and yet it continues not to be done. It is incredibly frustrating to see the government pass up yet another opportunity to make this simple and urgent change to the employment insurance regime.
Another thing that really ought to be in here as we approach the end of the tax year is a low-income CERB repayment amnesty. We know that right now the government is asking a lot of people to pay back their CERB payments who do not have the money, because they were living in poverty before the pandemic. They were told in good faith, sometimes by representatives of the federal government itself, including some members in the chamber, and sometimes by administrators at the provincial level that they should be applying for CERB. We know that happened in Manitoba in some cases with kids graduating out of care. These are people who were told by people in various positions of authority that they ought to go ahead and apply for CERB, and they did. They were supported for a time, and that money is spent. It did not get shunted off into a tax haven. It was not spent on international shares in some kind of multinational company. It was spent here in the local economy supporting people who live on the margins and face some of the most economically difficult challenges as anyone in the country does, and they do not have the money to pay it back.
Let us not kid ourselves that somehow there is a big wad of cash out there, and all the government has to do is to demand it from the poor and it is going to help the bottom line. The fact of the matter is that the money is not there, and the only thing the government is going to accomplish by insisting on getting that money back is to make it even harder for folks who are already struggling with poverty to get back on their feet. I do not see what the benefit is. I do not think there is any justice in that, and I do not think there is any financial or economic benefit to Canadians from that, frankly, and certainly not in the short term and, I would argue, not in the long term either. We are making it more difficult for people to get back on their feet and to contribute in whatever way they can to the economy, which does not benefit us and ends up costing us more in the long run. However, we do not see any mention of that here. It is a real disappointment and, again, it fails to seize upon an urgent issue as we near the end of the tax year and the deadline that so many have been told they have to meet to make those repayments they quite clearly cannot afford to make.
In the time I have left, I will talk about two more issues.
One issue is the Canada recovery sickness benefit, or the 10 sick days. I spoke a little about this and I think I made it clear that we are of the view that 10 sick days should be legislated and made a right for every Canadian worker, regardless of whether they have a collective agreement or not, regardless of whether they have a generous employer or not, regardless of whether they work in a federally or provincially regulated workplace.
Canada should be able to get to the point where every worker is entitled to 10 paid sick days, whatever the reason, whether it is COVID-19 or something else. In this time, it is imperative that people be able to call in sick to work. That is why we pushed so hard to try to get 10 sick days.
We have this program, and it has seen less uptake than was projected. Partly that is because people cannot take their sick days one day at a time. As people wake up with some symptoms and do not want to go into work for fear of infecting their colleagues, they decide that maybe they are going to take a day off work. However, not only can they not take it a day at a time: They have to miss at least two and a half days, or 50% of their normal work time in a week, in order to take the benefit. If they take that day and their test comes back rather quickly, they could be back at work before they qualify for the sick time, in which case we have not helped them at all to take time off work to protect the health of their colleagues and their community.
That means people may well make the choice. They cannot afford to have a test result come back the next day, because then they would have to go back to work and would have had a day that they did not get paid for. If they are only getting by as it is, they cannot afford to do that too many times before they find themselves in financial difficulties, so it is important that people be able to take it one day at a time.
We know that some people are making more than $100 a day, but they still need all of what they make in order to meet their bills at the end of the month. That is true even for people who are not living extravagantly. This is not a program that offers full wage replacement in the way that employers who are required by law to give sick days to their employees are expected to provide full wage replacement.
We continue to have these deficiencies in the program. We are missing an opportunity to try to address those deficiencies. We are only addressing the one, which was that it was left wide open for non-essential travellers to claim it. It is good to be fixing one problem, but it is really missing an opportunity to get to the real meat of the issue that is preventing this program from being the success we need it to be in order to protect public health and in order for it to be a proper stepping stone to those 10 days of paid sick leave that New Democrats believe every worker should be entitled to, pandemic or not.
The other thing is harder to address in legislation, but I think this is the moment to ask. If there are any legislative barriers or issues that are leading to this problem, they lie in the fact that there are many Canadians who have exhausted all of their EI regular benefits. We have been hearing about them. I have written the government about this issue, and it has come up in question period. Those are the benefits that we are extending up to 50 weeks now.
These people still have open claims that would allow them to claim, for instance, a sickness benefit or another kind of EI special benefit. They have open claims, and people cannot close those claims without losing those potential benefit weeks. They are being told by the CRA that they cannot get the Canada recovery benefit and that they should go talk to Service Canada. They go to talk to Service Canada, which says their regular benefits are exhausted, so that should allow them to be able to apply for the benefit with the CRA. These people go back to the CRA, which says their claim is still open, so they have to talk to Service Canada. Finally, people just get fed up of being bounced around and call their MP.
This is not the way to be helping people in an emergency. They need access to these benefits, and it is up to the government to sort it out. If there is a problem with the fact that the CRA does not understand that people can have exhausted their regular benefits and do not want to close a claim in case they get sick and need to access the sickness benefit, or in case they want to use other kinds of EI special benefits, this is something that government should be able to figure out on its own. It should not be up to individual Canadians who are facing a financial crisis to spend days, weeks or months running around, chasing different people and departments, getting their MP involved, trying to figure out how they can get access to what is supposed to be an emergency benefit in difficult times. Give me a break.
What we need is some political leadership, for sure. If there is some kind of legislative change that needs to be made in order to end this infuriating problem that Canadians are facing, now is the time to do it. Let us get it done. The need is urgent. Let us make it simple.
I look forward to questions and comments.
View Gerald Soroka Profile
CPC (AB)
View Gerald Soroka Profile
2021-02-26 12:59 [p.4622]
Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss the state of our economy and Bill C-14, an act to implement certain provisions of the economic statement tabled in Parliament back in November.
Over the past year, many Canadians have faced a complete lack of certainty about their livelihoods as a result of COVID. To use a metaphor I recently heard: When it comes to COVID, we are all in this storm together, but some have yachts, others have life rafts, and some are just trying to keep their heads above water before they drown. While the Liberal cabinet members are on their yachts looking after their good friends who also have yachts, such as WE and the SNC-Lavalin group, many of my constituents are barely keeping their heads above water or are losing their businesses.
While programs such as the Canada emergency response benefit, the Canada emergency wage subsidy, the Canada emergency rent subsidy and other programs have been welcome, and Conservatives have supported them, there are still businesses and people falling through the cracks and drowning, like a young couple in my riding who have a fitness centre. They phoned me here about three weeks ago and were asking if there were any programs available to them. I went through the list, just as I did earlier, and they said that they had applied for them and were able to get about $2,000 from CERB, because with the full closures, partial closures and partial openings, they were not able to get much money. As well, with the rent control, they also only got about $600. During our conversation, they also said that because they cannot be financially viable, they were going to have to close their business. On top of this, now they also owe about $3,600 in debt, because they have to pay out their lease on the building before they can close.
This kinds of things are a big problem for our country. Together, as Canada, we face a lack of certainty in our economic outlook. We see nothing but endless lockdowns and failure after failure when it comes to vaccine procurement. The future looks bleak. Canadians need certainty back in their lives as soon as possible. Canada has the worst unemployment rate in the G7, and the last time I checked, we were 58th in the world in terms of vaccinations per capita.
The other day, my colleague from Carleton pointed out that for years the Prime Minister has been touting how low the unemployment rate is, saying it is the most important indicator, yet now Canada has the highest unemployment rate in the G7, so now it is not the best way of measuring how we are doing. It is funny how that works and that the most important statistics are always the ones that make the Liberals look best.
When I was growing up, we always talked about how many billion dollars our national debt was. When that grew too high, we started talking about debt-to-GDP ratio. Now that is growing too high and we do not even want to talk about that either. It is funny how the numbers and discussions keep changing to make the Liberals look better than what is really happening.
The government's snubbing of Alberta and its natural resources industry predates COVID, but the pandemic has made the bad economic situation worse. When the Prime Minister could be giving the green light to big natural resource projects, his government, as always, is going with its favourite job-killing strategy: death by delay. Across Alberta, hundreds of natural resource workers are wondering where to turn.
A year and a half ago, Teck made the application for the Frontier mine, and they managed to meet all of the Liberals' regulations. It was surprising that five months and three weeks later, the Liberals had still not made a decision as to whether the mine should go through. Yes, they will spout that Teck pulled out of the project, but we have to wonder why a company that spent years and millions of dollars developing the plan pulled out of the project in the last week. I assume they were probably scared that more restrictions were going to be put on than they could actually manage anymore, even though they were going to address how they would be carbon neutral by 2050.
COVID has been tough on families, especially those with young children, and that is why it is good to see in this legislation that the government would be restoring support for families after slashing the previous Conservative government's Canada child benefit program.
On our path to reopening the economy, we need to be incentivizing people to get back to work. A constituent of mine works reception at a small physiotherapy clinic. Under normal conditions, the clinic operates 40 hours per week, and appointments are fully booked. Because of COVID and people not making bookings unless essential, the clinic is now only getting 15 hours of bookings per week. The problem here is that if employees work more than 15 hours but less than 40 hours, they are worse off than they were before. If they work anything above 15 hours, they are no longer eligible for the CERB, and if they work anything less than 40 hours, they are making less than they would through the CERB.
People in all industries across the country are facing this issue. As we try to reopen the economy, we need to make sure that under no circumstances are we incentivizing Canadians to work less.
Most people I have talked to who are out of work want to get back to work. There is pride that comes with earning a paycheque, and those out of work right now are missing that, further contributing to mental health issues.
I was called by one of my friends, who is a young mother and a single parent. She started a business last year cleaning homes. Because she did not make $5,000, she was not eligible to collect the CERB. It was devastating to hear her crying on the phone, asking how she is going to pay her bills and feed her young daughter. This is the problem we have been facing.
We know that one of the industry's hardest hit by the pandemic has been the tourism industry. As a member of the transport committee and the member of Parliament for Yellowhead, having Jasper and Jasper National Park in my riding and many tourism operators across the constituency, I have heard first-hand the struggles of the industry. Small tourism-related businesses have taken out loans that will take a decade or more to pay off, and they expect to go even further into debt before things start to get better. The HASCAP program is a band-aid solution for a complex problem.
Airlines are also in a precarious situation. They have been promised federal assistance, but there is still nothing, a year into this pandemic.
The entire tourism industry needs some kind of plan and soon. These businesses and airlines cannot operate indefinitely while incurring losses.
This legislation is a scary sign of the times. A year and a half ago, when I was elected, I would never have imagined that I would be standing in Parliament today discussing legislation to expand Canada's borrowing capacity to just over $1.8 trillion by 2024. That is a staggering number. When people ask me why I am a Conservative, the simple answer is that I believe in good stewardship of tax dollars. With every dollar the government spends, we must remember that it comes off of Canadians' paycheques. When we are $1 trillion in debt, $1 million here and $1 million there might not matter to the Liberals, but to the average Canadian it is a lot of money we are taxing them on. Every dollar we spend must be respected and assessed for value.
Canadians have been hard hit by COVID over the last year, and the economic implications of the pandemic will be long-lasting. Spending is not good enough. We need a comprehensive recovery strategy and targeted investments to help get Canadians back to work.
As I mentioned earlier, many small businesses are suffering and need financial assistance now. Without this assistance, many other small businesses will go bankrupt through no fault of their own. It will simply be because of COVID. That is why it is very challenging to represent people with small businesses in the tourism sector. Without financial assistance, they definitely will be closing. This may not seem that important to the Liberals, but the point is that they are important to our economy. Without the small business sector, we definitely will be in financial trouble in the future. We need to look after it.
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