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Results: 76 - 90 of 105
View Pierre Paul-Hus Profile
CPC (QC)
Mr. Speaker, the minister has been spouting the same platitudes for five years now. The problem of reaching Revenue Canada has been going on for five years.
When people receive an envelope marked Revenue Canada, they get a little stressed. When the envelope contains a letter that says that there is a problem and to call the number provided, but there is no answer when they call, naturally their stress level will go up. The pandemic has certainly created a little more stress and pressure, but even before the pandemic, there were problems contacting the department. I once tried calling 25 times, and no one answered.
Can the minister give a clearer answer to Canadians and say why, in five years, she has not been able to clarify the situation and increase the efficiency of Revenue Canada?
View Diane Lebouthillier Profile
Lib. (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I do not agree in the least with what my colleague just said. During the pandemic, the Canada Revenue Agency has served more than eight million Canadians. It has ensured that people received the CERB. It is now responsible for ensuring that people receive the new benefits that have been put in place, including the Canada recovery benefit, the Canada recovery caregiving benefit and the Canada recovery sickness benefit.
View Greg Fergus Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Greg Fergus Profile
2020-10-05 13:12 [p.530]
Mr. Speaker, since this is the first time I have had an opportunity to address you in person since the throne speech, I would like to welcome you to the House. I am happy to see that you are back in the chair to preside over the debate.
Before I begin, I want to inform you that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Scarborough Centre. We have been colleagues since 2015, and I know that she has a lot to say and that she does a wonderful job of representing her constituents in the House of Commons.
I would like to voice my support for the government with regard to the throne speech. In my opinion, the Speech from the Throne very clearly identified the issues that are important to Canadians. It is not what is happening to us that is important but rather how we react. I am proud of the minority government for taking action. Sometimes it is hard to set aside one's partisan instincts, but I am proud that, in the end, members came together to ensure that Canadians get the help and support they need during this health crisis.
The Speech from the Throne is divided into four main themes defining the government's priorities. The top priority is protecting Canadians against COVID-19. The second is knowing how the government can support Canadians during the pandemic. The third is building back better. We do not want to return to the same inequalities that existed before. Rather, we want to create a more sustainable Canada with a more cohesive and stronger society. To achieve that, we need to include women, men, indigenous peoples, people from a range of cultural communities and Black Canadians. We hope everyone can work together to create a better Canada. Finally, the last priority is knowing what kind of Canada we want to stand up for and promote. I am very proud of everything we have done.
Now I would like to focus my remarks on two elements that demonstrate the importance of the Speech from the Throne.
The first is the way the government chose to support Canadians and restore their confidence. The government is encouraging people to fight the public health crisis by staying home. If they have to leave the house, they must practise social distancing. We know it will have a devastating effect on our economy, but it is necessary. If we want a strong economy, we need people to be healthy and able to carry out their daily activities safely.
I am very proud of the government's actions. As Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and to the Minister of Digital Government, I must say, at the risk of sounding partisan, that I am very proud of the work public servants have done to ensure that Canadians get the support they need. Let's not forget that public servants have had to cope with the pandemic too.
These public servants had to leave their office towers, especially here in the national capital region, to return home, look after their families, look after their parents, protect themselves and reduce the spread of the virus. I have to admit, we were not ready to let tens of thousands of public servants work at home. I have to say that it happened thanks to the dedication of the public servants, these men and women who chose to serve their fellow citizens by joining the public service. On March 12, they did not know that they would find themselves in such a situation. Beginning on March 13, they quickly took the bull by the horns to ensure that we could provide services to Canadians. People working for Government of Canada digital services quickly came to realize that they would have to create the infrastructure required to accommodate these tens of thousands of public servants who, from one day to the next, had to work from home. It was unbelievable. They grew our government's capacity to provide services. They moved over to the digital world, to the Internet, without compromising security. They provided services.
They created the Canada emergency response benefit from scratch very quickly, in just a few weekends, to provide financial assistance to more than eight million Canadians. In a few weeks, they created a secure online system that helped many Canadians. It was unbelievable. On behalf of all parliamentarians and all of my constituents, I commend our public servants for their work.
I do not have much time left. I now want to talk about another part of the throne speech that really speaks to me. Our government has taken measures to eliminate anti-Black racism and systemic discrimination in Canada.
I am very proud of the work the government has done and of the priorities set by the parliamentary Black caucus. This caucus is made up of members of the House of Commons, independent senators and people from all political parties. We established these measures and also called for support from our allies. Half of parliamentarians immediately signed on, and I know that almost all of the other half supported our work.
With this consensus in Parliament, I am proud to see that all of the measures and main points were included in the throne speech. These measures included the importance of having disaggregated data, economic measures to support Black business owners across Canada, and measures to help integrate Black people into the public service and private companies.
The throne speech showed great respect for our heritage and our contributions to our heritage. For all these reasons, I am proud to support the throne speech.
View Jacques Gourde Profile
CPC (QC)
View Jacques Gourde Profile
2020-09-29 14:58 [p.251]
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are concerned about Service Canada's inability to respond quickly to the demand for services. The situation will only be exacerbated by the new terms and conditions of the EI program. Unfortunately, the Liberal government is always slow to act and likes to use band-aid solutions instead of fixing the problem.
What is the Liberal government's plan and when will it be implemented in order to deal with the huge flood of requests at Service Canada as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?
View Ahmed Hussen Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Speaker, we have hired an additional 1,500 agents to monitor phone calls coming in through the dedicated phone lines that have been set up for Canadians to answer questions. We have also produced new avenues for citizens to access services.
We are working hard to make sure we support Canadians through this difficult period.
View Alex Ruff Profile
CPC (ON)
View Alex Ruff Profile
2020-09-29 14:59 [p.251]
Mr. Speaker, can the government please confirm that it has a reliable plan to handle the forecasted increased service demands at all Service Canada offices once these new benefits pass in order to prevent the current multi-hour wait times? As well, will the government commit to making that plan public within the next couple of weeks to include exact dates on which Service Canada offices will open and when?
I will note that I first asked this question on April 11. I am still waiting for a response.
View Ahmed Hussen Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Speaker, the first and foremost priority for us is the safety and health of the staff at Service Canada. However, we have been safely reopening a number of centres right across the country. We have redeployed over 3,000 additional staff to make sure that people have access to the benefits that they rely on. In addition to that, we have introduced online options, as well as options through the telephone. A 1,500-agent call centre has been set up to help people with the Canada emergency response benefit, which will now move to the employment insurance system.
View Mark Gerretsen Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Speaker, I want to hit on something that the member brought up toward the end of his speech, when he paid credit to the incredible public service we have in this country, which has been able to create, implement and deliver various programs that were brought forward and voted on by all members of the House, in most cases unanimously. It was able to deliver those programs to Canadians. For example, in a month and five days, we went from the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic to money getting into the bank accounts of 5.4 million Canadians. That would have never happened without the incredible public service that we have in this country.
I wonder if the member would like to expand on the final comment he made in that regard.
View Ryan Turnbull Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Ryan Turnbull Profile
2020-08-12 16:13 [p.2784]
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague providing me the opportunity to give more praise to our public service.
I have never in my life seen a government respond more quickly at a time when people needed it most. Oftentimes what we see and hear in the public realm is that people feel that our institutions do not move quickly enough. What I have seen is that our government has launched programs in a record amount of time and all of this work has been done by the public service.
There are certainly roles that we all play. Just as I value the role of opposition members in these debates, I value the leadership that our caucus has shown in relaying all of the feedback we have been hearing in our communities to ensure that the Canada emergency response benefit will reflect the needs of people on the ground. It was restructured. It is the same with the wage subsidy. It was restructured multiple times, and I really feel that all of the changes that have been made have included the feedback we have heard.
It is incredible work. I am really proud to be Canadian and part of this government. I really think we are doing exceptional work. I thank my colleague for the opportunity to further praise our public service.
View Jenica Atwin Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Jenica Atwin Profile
2020-07-22 16:12 [p.2740]
Madam Chair, I have been reminded again and again of the kindness and creativity of people across this country these past four months, especially in our own civil service.
That historic weekend in mid-March when the pandemic took hold in Canada began a domino effect of businesses closing to the public, employees losing work and people flocking to government relief programs, fearing whether or not they would be able to pay their rent.
The huge number of applications submitted that have been processed by Service Canada and Canada Revenue Agency staff is incredible. More than six million applications were submitted by mid-April, just two weeks after Canadians started submitting their applications again.
More unsung heroes of this pandemic are the people employed at Global Affairs Canada and the CBSA, who began an incredible effort of repatriating Canadians from across the globe. During the first weeks of the pandemic, these civil servants moved mountains to schedule flights, to confirm travel eligibility, to work with consulates and foreign governments to get Canadian citizens and permanent residents back on Canadian soil. Their efforts were incredible. The minister responsible played a significant leadership role in guiding these efforts, and I wish to thank him as well.
Who can overlook the incredible work of the people involved in Canada's public health infrastructure? Dr. Tam and all of the other provincial health officers' daily updates and leadership and the support of the entire Public Health Agency and the public health departments across each province and territory, which pooled data, tracked cases and implemented protocols, have saved countless lives.
All of these efforts are to be commended, but the staff that dedicated their time to these emergency measures had to step away from their regular workloads, and ongoing cases at IRCC, Service Canada, CRA, Veterans Affairs, etc., have been stuck and languishing for months. What do people do when their federal systems are shutting down? They come to their MPs.
My team and I have been handling an incredible number of these case files and the people whose lives are on hold while their files stagnate in a backlog. Even as our government slowly works to address these files that are piling up on desks across departments, the traditional supporting documentation that people need to track down is not always available, and they cannot possibly complete the requests being made of them. We need these systems to empower workers to find alternative pathways for Canadians. This system collapse is having second- and third-order impacts on individuals and families across the country.
Let me tell members about a few of my constituents.
There is a gentleman in my riding who has been working in Canada for several years now and is applying for his permanent residency. He has submitted all of his documentation, but has been asked to submit one last piece of information: an FBI security check. It is not possible for him to get this document right now, as the FBI is not conducting these checks at this time. Relying on other countries to provide documentation is highly complex, given how hard it is to get documentation within our government. Will he need to leave Canada because we insisted on a document he could not get? How long will we leave this man and his loved ones in limbo? We need flexibility in the immigration system, and case workers who are empowered to identify alternative paths to residency and citizenship, or we risk losing our neighbours who have come to call Canada their home.
In another case, there is a couple in my riding who rely on their GIS cheques each month like so many other Canadians. They both submitted paper versions of their taxes at the same time in February. One of them had their taxes reviewed. One of them had their tax file lost. As a result, they have been denied their GIS payment until they can resubmit their taxes. They are being told that it must be done via e-file, but they have not been able to make that happen. We need flexibility within the CRA and employees in that department to be empowered to work with people and, in this case, to either track down the paper file or to work with this couple to facilitate the refiling of their taxes so they can receive their GIS payments.
In yet another case, there is a mother in my riding who lost her child tax benefit just before the pandemic shut down offices in March, because the father of her children claimed that he had custody when he did not. The CRA has placed the burden of proof on her shoulders to regain the benefit, which she needs to raise these children. One of the supporting documents required was a letter from a health care provider substantiating her claims. For months, doctors, dentists and other health professionals have not been providing these services. Getting these supporting documents has been incredibly difficult.
We need to implement flexible systems that enable federal employees to work more closely with people in these uncertain times.
I know that many of my colleagues in the House worked day and night in the first months of the pandemic to get support to constituents in crisis, and continue to do so. That workload has now shifted to support constituents in their backlogged cases. While my constituent assistants and I are continuing to advocate on behalf of the individual cases that come through my door, we need to fix this at a macro level.
I want to raise this today to articulate a question to my colleagues in government. What comes next? Can we initiate a major hiring push, just as Veterans Affairs Canada announced last month to handle its backlog?
So many Canadians remain underemployed and unemployed. This seems the perfect opportunity to get more hands on deck to start working across government departments.
Can we empower case workers with more flexibility and tools at their disposal to massage case files through the system, recognizing that the standard burden of documentation is not realistic now, and may not be for months to come?
I am but one opposition member of the House, and a rookie member, at that. I do not pretend to have all of the solutions, but I know that the solutions are out there, and I believe they lie in our civil service. The brilliant and compassionate minds that have worked tirelessly through March and April to get support into the hands of Canadians need to be equipped and empowered to put their brilliance to work to address these issues.
Communities across the country are changing. The government must adapt its services and embrace new technology.
There is so much about this virus that we cannot control, but we can control how we respond to it.
I wish to end on a positive note, a “thank you” to our civil service and a pledge to do all I can with my colleagues in the House to ensure that they have the tools and the respect they need to help Canadians in this time and in the future ahead.
View Ted Falk Profile
CPC (MB)
View Ted Falk Profile
2020-07-08 13:12 [p.2546]
Madam Chair, I am going to be splitting my time with the member for Port Moody—Coquitlam.
We are pleased to see that Canada is beginning to reopen. However, that means that Canadians need access to government services beyond COVID. Many constituents have expressed to me their concern and frustration that they are not able to access these important services. For example, my province of Manitoba has seen very few COVID cases and, yet, the CRA tax centre in Winnipeg remains closed indefinitely, severely impacting both employers and taxpayers.
What is the Liberal government's plan to safely restore CRA services?
View Diane Lebouthillier Profile
Lib. (QC)
Madam Chair, the Canada Revenue Agency is also intent on protecting the health and safety of its employees. We are currently working on a return-to-work plan with a continued emphasis, as I was saying, on the health and safety of employees.
It is very important to us to be able to provide quality services to the public.
View Ted Falk Profile
CPC (MB)
View Ted Falk Profile
2020-07-08 13:13 [p.2546]
Madam Chair, during the past few months Canadian front-line and essential workers such as truck drivers, bus drivers, manufacturers, farmers, restaurant workers, store clerks, gas station attendants, construction workers, bankers, mechanics and even the media have found ways to work safely.
Can the Prime Minister or the minister explain why so many Canadian workers have found ways to do their jobs safely and the Liberal government cannot figure out a way to restore the public service to Canadians?
View Diane Lebouthillier Profile
Lib. (QC)
Madam Chair, I would like to point out to my colleague that 94% of our employees are working from home.
I tip my hat to the employees of the Canada Revenue Agency who have been able to respond to Canadians. Canadians have been able to receive the CERB and the CESB.
Among these 94% of employees working for Canadians, 60% are women. Looking at everything that happened from one end of the country to the other, when everything was closed in terms of child care, I can only congratulate the employees of the Canada Revenue Agency on their excellent work.
View Kristina Michaud Profile
BQ (QC)
Madam Chair, when it's not Air Canada, it's Service Canada.
Non-essential businesses reopened in Quebec weeks ago, but people still do not have access to Service Canada. There was an announcement that offices in Montreal, Quebec City and Gatineau were reopening, but nothing has been said about the offices in Canada's regions.
When will the government give the regions the same services as everywhere else?
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