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Results: 1 - 15 of 33
View Niki Ashton Profile
NDP (MB)
Madam Speaker, I present two petitions today in the pursuit of justice for Dylan Paradis, Andrew Dockrell and Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer, rail workers killed on the job in British Columbia in 2019. The tragic circumstances of that night were made even worse by the botched company investigation that followed. Their families, rail workers and working people deserve justice and change.
Today's CBC News story makes clear the grotesque level of complicity between the government, the TSB and CP Rail. It is clear the current system is designed to protect corporate interests, not the safety of workers and the public interest. Railways cannot be allowed to police themselves. TSB investigators, like Don Crawford, must be able to do their jobs independently from meddling from private companies. They must be properly protected from interference.
The two petitions presented today are signed by hundreds of Canadians. The first one calls on the government to launch an inquiry into the causes and consequences of Canada's private railway self-investigations and bring this grave injustice to light.
The second petition calls for Transportation Safety Board investigators to be granted the authority to refer potential criminal violations to proper independent police forces and to protect them as eligible whistle-blowers under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act. This is all in the pursuit of justice.
View Kelly Block Profile
CPC (SK)
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following three reports of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts: the 20th report, entitled “Access to Safe Drinking Water in First Nations Communities”; the 21st report, entitled “Follow-up Audit on Rail Safety”; and the 22nd report, entitled “Investing in Canada Plan”.
Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to each of these three reports.
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
View Luc Berthold Profile
2021-05-27 18:55 [p.7536]
Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to speak about a matter that is very important to the people of Lac-Mégantic, Nantes, Frontenac and the entire Granit RCM. I am referring to the Lac-Mégantic rail bypass.
In 2018, the Prime Minister of Canada and member for Papineau and the Premier of Quebec, together with the then transport minister, announced the construction of the Lac-Mégantic rail bypass to stop the train from passing through downtown Lac-Mégantic, the site of the tragedy that occurred in July 2013, which unfortunately no one can forget.
There have been many changes in the past weeks and months. There is a new minister and there are all kinds of rumours and discussions in the Lac-Mégantic region concerning the 2023 deadline for construction of the rail bypass, which was announced in 2018. The train should stop running through the downtown area by 2023.
One of the concerns was that there were delays in the land acquisition process and that the landowners still did not know how much money they were entitled to for having to give up their land because of the new route for the rail line. As I said, a new minister was appointed and, just recently, the president and CEO of Canadian Pacific stated in a letter that if significant legislative changes were not brought in and if the government did not proceed with its share of the work by fall, the 2023 deadline would be unrealistic and the project could not be completed within the time frame announced in 2018.
As a result, several things happened last week. Last Monday, the mayor of Lac-Mégantic had the town council adopt an emergency resolution calling on the government and CP to agree to meet the 2023 deadline. The town council also asked all the parties in the House of Commons to agree to work together to ensure the 2023 deadline will be met.
I followed up on the request from the Municipality of Lac-Mégantic and moved a motion calling on all parliamentarians to support the people of Lac-Mégantic and their town council. I am very proud to say that this resolution was adopted by all parliamentarians. The governing party, the official opposition, the Bloc Québécois, the NDP, the Green Party and the independent members all adopted this motion calling on the government to make every effort to get the projected completed by 2023 and to provide the House with a detailed plan of the project by tomorrow.
That deadline is tomorrow, and I have faith that the government will present its plan soon. Perhaps the parliamentary secretary will announce something in a few moments, and I certainly hope so, but I have faith that the government will heed the call of the people of Lac-Mégantic and all the parliamentarians in the House on behalf of those who endured this tragedy.
View Soraya Martinez Ferrada Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Soraya Martinez Ferrada Profile
2021-05-27 18:59 [p.7536]
Madam Speaker, I would first like to thank the hon. member for Mégantic—L'Érable for his question and for his interest in the Lac-Mégantic bypass project. I share his commitment to this project, which will help restore the communities in the greater Lac-Mégantic region.
I recently met with the mayor of Lac-Mégantic and the mayor of the municipality of Nantes. I understand the concerns of the local elected officials and the community members who want to see the project completed as soon as possible. I want to reassure them that this project is of the utmost importance to our government. It is very important for me to know that the bypass project is moving forward quickly, and that the needs of the families and citizens of Lac-Mégantic, Frontenac and Nantes will be taken into consideration.
Since the project was announced in 2018, significant progress has been made. The provincial environmental assessment process, including public hearings by the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement, or BAPE, has been completed. The feasibility study conducted by AECOM on behalf of the Town of Lac-Mégantic was also completed in late summer 2020.
Over the past few months, additional engineering work was done by Canadian Pacific in co-operation with Transport Canada in order to relocate rail activities in the Lac-Mégantic industrial park. That was not part of the feasibility study, but it is now part of the project. This addition to the project responds to many requests from the community and local elected officials. The Government of Canada responded positively to this request because it was another measure that supported the well-being of the people of Lac-Mégantic.
I would like to provide a detailed plan in response to the motion that was unanimously adopted by the House on May 25. Today, May 27, the Government of Canada and Canadian Pacific reached an agreement that makes it possible to launch the planning and specifications phase of the project, which involves working on construction plans, conducting additional environmental studies and obtaining all of the necessary authorizations for construction. This is a major phase and another step toward this project's implementation.
This social reconstruction project is and will remain a priority for the Government of Canada until it is complete. The construction phase should begin in the spring of 2022, once the regulatory authorizations have been obtained. I would like to reassure the mayors and residents of the greater Lac-Mégantic region and tell them that we are working hard on this project in order to complete the work in 2023, as we announced.
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
View Luc Berthold Profile
2021-05-27 19:02 [p.7537]
Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague and parliamentary secretary for her comments.
I understand an agreement was reached with Canadian Pacific on the next step, which is the development of plans and specifications. I want to remind the parliamentary secretary that there are still many steps left for the Government of Canada and Transport Canada to take, one of them being to purchase the land.
I would like to point out that this is not a highway extension project. It is a rail bypass project brought about by a national tragedy. The people whose property will be expropriated must be treated properly and fairly, as were the people whose properties had to be expropriated in downtown Lac-Mégantic. We still have a lot of work to do.
I want to assure the secretary that I will be there to co-operate to ensure the project is brought to fruition for the good of the people of Lac-Mégantic and of the region of Nantes and Frontenac. We are looking after everyone's interests, but the project must be completed as quickly as possible.
We have waited long enough.
View Soraya Martinez Ferrada Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Soraya Martinez Ferrada Profile
2021-05-27 19:03 [p.7537]
Madam Speaker, rail safety will always be a priority for the Government of Canada. That is why we are reiterating our commitment to supporting the people of the Lac-Mégantic region and moving forward on this project as quickly as possible.
This bypass is much more than a rail infrastructure project. It is an exceptional response to fostering the well-being of the residents of the municipalities of Lac-Mégantic, Frontenac and Nantes. We will continue to provide information to the communities at every step of the project so we can understand and respond to concerns. We will work hard to ensure that this project moves forward according to the established schedule.
The community of Lac-Mégantic can count on my unconditional support for reaching this objective. I invite my colleague to work with me. He can count on my support to get this bypass built.
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
View Luc Berthold Profile
2021-05-25 15:08 [p.7326]
Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion:
That, whereas,
(i) the town of Lac-Mégantic has requested by resolution of its council the commitment of all political parties to have the Lac-Mégantic bypass built as soon as possible,
(ii) the town of Lac-Mégantic suffered the worst rail tragedy in Canada on July 6, 2013, when 47 people lost their lives,
(iii) the Prime Minister and member of Parliament for Papineau, accompanied by the Premier of Quebec, announced on May 11, 2018, the construction of the rail bypass,
(iv) Transport Canada is the prime contractor for this project,
(v) the work has not yet begun and many concerns have been raised regarding the timeline to deliver the bypass by year 2023,
(vi) the Minister of Transport has reiterated his commitment to deliver the bypass road to the citizens of the Granit regional county municipality by the year 2023,
(vii) the Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Pacific Railway believes that this timeline is unrealistic without significant legislative changes to expedite the regulatory process;
the House:
(a) call on the government to put in place all the necessary elements, to respect the timeline announced by the Prime Minister on May 11, 2018, and to provide the House with a detailed plan of the construction phases of the Lac-Mégantic bypass by May 28, 2021; and
(b) remind the government of the willingness of all parliamentarians of each political party and independents to collaborate in order to facilitate the rapid adoption of the legislative changes necessary to make the project a reality by 2023.
View Anthony Rota Profile
Lib. (ON)
All those opposed to the hon. member moving the motion will please say nay.
The House has heard the terms of the motion. All those opposed to the motion will please say nay.
Hearing no dissenting voice, I declare the motion carried.
View Eric Duncan Profile
CPC (ON)
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today in the House to speak to the budget implementation act. This is the first time for me as a new member of Parliament to speak to a federal budget. It is hard to believe I have been here 19 months, but this is our first budget.
I am here to speak about what it means for my constituents in Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry and for our country. It is very hard, in 10 minutes, to put all my thoughts together on a federal budget, but I will do my best.
We are talking about $300 billion in revenue and $50 billion in expenses equalling a deficit of $350 billion last year. Finally, after two years, we got a federal budget. That is important because we have seen a lot of money go out the door for those in need. The Conservatives have supported programs that have helped people, but we need this accountability, we need this framework. We need the whole picture of the budget to see what is happening in our country for both short and long-term fiscal sustainability.
We have had different world wars and a global pandemic a century ago. At no time have in our history have gone this long without a budget. The United States and the United Kingdom, which I cite often in the House, never skipped a beat and were able to continue to produce budgets throughout. Nevertheless, we are here. We have a document and we are able to comment on it.
In my limited time, I want to focus on two key themes. I call them the two Ds: debt and delivering. Frankly, this budget does not take our financial realities seriously. The Liberal government and the Prime Minister have accumulated more debt in the last six years than every other government and prime minister combined before them. We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars. I acknowledge again that we supported many of those programs because it was the right thing to do to help people in need, but they were some of the highest per capita in the developed world in terms of spending.
Recently, I was looking at the OECD website when I was putting my speech together. When we look at our unemployment rate compared to similar G7 countries, Canada stands at 8.1%. The G7 average at that time was 5.6%. We can all watch Japan in amazement. It has an incredible unemployment rate of 2.6%. We have spent nearly the most to get the least amount of results with respect to our outlook and moving forward past COVID.
My political science degree from Carleton University comes in handy in looking at some of the history of budgeting and our fiscal realities in our country. The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently said that at best we would have a 1% maybe 2% growth. For the amount of money we have spent and the times we are in, other economies are growing at a much faster rate.
The reason I believe my political science degree comes in handy today is when we go back and look at the amount of debt. When we go back a generation ago and look at the debt under the first Trudeau government of the day, the challenge of the PC government and Brian Mulroney and into Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin's Liberal governments, interest rates truly hurt our economic outlook. It was increased interest rates, not in the short term when the debt was acquired but over the course of time that led to significant structural deficits.
Under a Liberal government, under Jean Chrétien and finance minister Paul Martin, we saw cuts to health and social programs in an effort to get our budget sustainable. I worry we could be in the same situation. The numbers we are seeing today, even in contrast, are astronomically larger than we saw back a generation ago when I was just starting out in elementary school. Nevertheless, that lesson is important.
I say this respectfully, but I get frustrated when I look at this. We cannot get things done very easily anymore. Let us look at the slow vaccine rollout. We are now acquiring a higher and higher deficit because we did not secure vaccines early enough so we could reopen and get our small businesses and jobs back on track. We would have been able to wind down our support programs because our economy was reopening. The United Kingdom and the United States have been successfully procuring vaccines, getting them into the arms of their citizens which has allowed them to start to reopen. Their numbers are quite safe lately so they have been able to do that.
We talk about getting things done. I look at the United Kingdom. It was in a similar situation to Canada in not having domestic vaccine procurement in its country. Under the leadership of the U.K. government, when COVID hit, it put in a “wartime-like effort” to build domestic capacity within its country. It worked tooth and nail and when vaccines were approved and ready to be manufactured, the U.K. was able to do it and look after its citizens.
In Canada, the Prime Minister took one year to make an announcement in North York and Toronto to much fanfare. If we look at the website, the facility will be ready in 2027. There is a direct contrast there. The United Kingdom and Canada took two different approaches and had two different results, which is very clear today.
That builds on my second point, which is delivering. Notice that the title of the bill is not just the budget act, but it is the budget implementation act. I am a Conservative member who represents a rural eastern Ontario riding. The word “deliverology” was a big word the new Liberal government of the day used in 2015. It splashed it out in cabinet retreats. It had speakers talk about how “deliverology” was going to be the way of the Liberal government. I hope the Liberals fired that guy. Actually, they did because we do not hear that word anymore.
The key theme in a lot of my speeches is that the government, and I will give it a compliment, is the best in the game with respect to making announcements and making us feel good. However, it does not have the ability to properly implement what it says it wants to do. It gets an A for announcement, but an F for follow-through.
Regardless of where we sit in the House, we have to ask ourselves, when we see some of these items, if we actually rehash them over and over again, will we see a different result? How many times have we seen the Liberal government commit to national child care? Over and over again, it promised that this time would be the year it would get it done. Interprovincial trade has come up numerous times with very little progress. Every target it has set for itself with respect to the environment it has failed to meet.
I think of infrastructure projects in my riding, and I am appreciative and I ensure we get our fair share of dollars at home, but we need timely announcements of those projects. In South Glengarry, the Char-Lan rink got approval for funding. That is wonderful. However, it got the money too late and cannot go to tender this year. Now this infrastructure project is delayed likely for another year before it is completed.
I want to acknowledge the situation, a perfect example, and I do not want to say national shame, of Lac-Mégantic. It has been eight years since that disaster happened. I can still remember the images of that horrible day. I watched it as a staffer on Parliament Hill. I remember the lives that were lost and the anger and frustration that this had happened. We are now looking at maybe the year 2024 the government says. We are still under negotiation. We are still looking for more details. It is still not out to tender. There is still not a shovel in the ground. My colleague today successfully passed a resolution, calling for this to be recommitted to. How is it that on something so vital, a national disaster of that scale, it is taking us over a decade at least to get that project done?
We are losing the ability to get things done in a reasonable and timely manner. The dollars we spend in a federal budget need to be timely, targeted and temporary for our sustainability. Saying we are going to spend money is not a result. We have to check projects off, make tangible differences and put that money to proper, efficient use. There is virtue-signalling, there is talking a good game and there is actually delivering.
We have an amazing country, with great businesses and great people, but the government's inability to deliver is hampering our recovery. I hope we can get better implementation of the budget.
View Brenda Shanahan Profile
Lib. (QC)
Madam Speaker, the people of Lac-Mégantic and all Quebeckers will forever remember the rail disaster in Lac-Mégantic.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport tell the House what progress has been made on the rail bypass and what our government is doing to support the people of Lac-Mégantic?
View Soraya Martinez Ferrada Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Soraya Martinez Ferrada Profile
2021-05-14 12:22 [p.7248]
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Châteauguay—Lacolle for her important question.
We are working tirelessly for the community of Lac-Mégantic. This week, our government reaffirmed its commitment to completing the rail bypass project by 2023. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2022, and the preparation of the plans and specifications will begin in the coming weeks.
We are keeping the community informed of the project's progress. We will do everything in our power to complete this project within the established timeframe.
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
View Luc Berthold Profile
2021-05-11 14:43 [p.7061]
Mr. Speaker, three years ago today, in Lac-Mégantic, the Premier of Quebec and the Prime Minister of Canada jointly announced the construction of a rail bypass.
Three years later, the residents of Lac-Mégantic are worried. Work has yet to start on the site, and time is going by. On March 15, I asked the Minister of Transport to reassure the public. It was only this morning, because of pressure from the mayor and the intervention of columnist Bernard Drainville, that a press release was finally issued.
My question is for the Prime Minister. Can the public still trust his promise to put the rail bypass into service by 2023 at the latest?
View Omar Alghabra Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Omar Alghabra Profile
2021-05-11 14:44 [p.7061]
Mr. Speaker, I have made this important file a priority since I was first appointed.
Today, we reiterated our commitment to have this project completed by 2023. I have had recent conversations with CP, with the mayor of Lac-Mégantic and with the mayors of local municipalities to reiterate our commitment. Construction will begin next year, and we are committed to completing the project by 2023.
View Xavier Barsalou-Duval Profile
BQ (QC)
Mr. Speaker, the people of Lac-Mégantic were victims of a rail disaster. The people are still waiting for a bypass so they can rebuild their town with peace of mind.
The Prime Minister has committed to building the bypass. He even signed a petition to get it done. Will he keep his word and work toward getting the bypass completed as quickly as possible?
View Omar Alghabra Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Omar Alghabra Profile
2021-05-11 14:54 [p.7063]
Mr. Speaker, since my appointment, I have prioritized key issues.
Today I was pleased to reiterate our government's commitment to have this project completed by 2023. I have been in touch with CP on a regular basis. I have been talking to the mayors of Lac-Mégantic and the region. Our government is committed. Project construction will begin next year and we are committed to completing it by 2023.
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