43rd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION House of Commons Debates Official Report (Hansard) Volume 149 No. 026 Friday, February 28, 2020 Speaker: The Honourable Anthony Rota CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) 1727 HOUSE OF COMMONS Friday, February 28, 2020 The House met at 10 a.m. I will start by giving a little background and then will quickly let my colleagues know, as some may not be aware, how a minority Parliament operates. I want to give some context about opposition days and why they matter. Prayer Throughout the run of a full year, the government must devote 22 days for the opposition parties to raise topics of their choosing. GOVERNMENT ORDERS The rules spread those out over winter, spring and fall, and from there the opposition parties agree on how to carve them up. It is up ● (1005) to the government to decide which days are used for opposition [English] motions, but on those days, the opposition gets to bring forward any topic it chooses as long as it falls within Parliament's jurisdic‐ BUSINESS OF SUPPLY tion. Today, the Liberals decided to give Conservatives a Friday as OPPOSITION MOTION—ADDITIONAL ALLOTTED DAYS their opposition day. Hon. Candice Bergen (Portage—Lisgar, CPC) moved: That, notwithstanding Standing Order 81, for the supply period ending March On Fridays, as we all know, the House has a much shorter sitting 26, 2020, three additional allotted days shall be added for a total of 10, provided period, because we all want to get back to our ridings for the impor‐ that one of the additional days is allotted to the Conservative Party, one of the addi‐ tant things going on in our constituencies. To be blunt and very tional days is allotted to the Bloc Québécois, and one of the additional days is allot‐ clear, for all of us who have been here for a while and know this ted to the New Democratic Party, and, if necessary to accommodate these additional days, the supply period may be extended to April 2, 2020, and no allotted days shall and for the newer MPs, giving an opposition party, any one of us, a fall on a Wednesday or a Friday. Friday as an opposition day is a full-out slap. It is a full-out insult. It is a full-out, 100% punishment. She said: Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to rise today in my ca‐ pacity as the House leader for the official opposition to speak to the That is what the Prime Minister is doing right now. He is punish‐ motion that we have put forward today. ing Conservatives. Why? It is because we have been standing up to I will be honest. I wish we were not talking about the Standing him, because we have been pointing out his weakness and calling Orders today. I think there are a lot of issues gripping this country, out some of the ways the government has not recognized that it is including illegal blockades. We have seen individuals set fires and in a minority, not a majority, Parliament. put up barricades on railroads, causing our economy to come to a halt. We have seen absolute weak leadership and no leadership We have seen a number of things that we are very concerned from the government. Today would be a good day to talk about about. We have raised them with you, Madam Speaker. They in‐ things like that. clude things like the government's leaking bills to the press before they have been brought to the House. We had to rise on a question We also have seen issues around investment leaving this country. of privilege. As we saw, the Minister of Natural Resources had to As we have just seen this week, Teck has taken out its application stand and apologize. We accept that apology, but it was pretty disre‐ for a very important project that we wish had been built in Alberta. spectful to all of us in this place for the government to leak contents It would have helped jobs right across the country. The Liberals and of a bill to the press before we saw it. their policy are driving investment away. That is something we could be talking about today. We have also seen the government give incomplete and inaccu‐ rate responses to Order Paper questions. Actually, this is what the We also have the coronavirus, which is gripping the world. We Minister of Natural Resources had to apologize for. No one has do not know if it is contained. Could it be a pandemic? That is an apologized yet for the leaking of the bill. issue Canadians are thinking about. However, today we are talking about changes to the Standing Or‐ In responses to the Order Paper questions, misleading answers ders. I will get to the fact that we only have four speakers today, but have been given, and then even in defence of those misleading an‐ for now I will say that I am sharing my time with one of the next swers, we have seen misleading answers given again. It is totally three speakers, the member for Perth—Wellington. unacceptable, and as Conservatives, we are going to call that out. 1728 COMMONS DEBATES February 28, 2020 Business of Supply There are the two issues on which I have seen such a high level tice that we put the opposition parties in our motion. We are not of disrespect. First is the new NAFTA agreement and how the Lib‐ looking just for our gain. We want to see all of us work together. erals have worked with us on that. As Conservatives, we are the party of free trade. We believe that many Canadians and many The motion would give three additional days for each of the par‐ Canadian sectors need an agreement. It is not a great agreement, ties to put forward an idea for debate and propose solutions for the but we have been supporting it, while asking tough questions. many difficulties that Canadians face. We are giving the Liberals a chance to right their wrongs toward the opposition parties. We will One of those questions has been about the economic impact to give the Prime Minister a chance to correct his course. Today is a Canadians, and the Liberals have refused to give us that. Instead, chance to press reset. they are getting up, as we saw when the Deputy Prime Minister stood in this place, to completely mislead and try to poke a stick in Recently I read an article in which the Liberal House leader, talk‐ our eye, saying that we were somehow blocking the new NAFTA ing to a member of the press in the context of a minority Parlia‐ deal, which is completely misleading, completely disingenuous and ment, said, “Never take one day for granted. Anything can happen.” insulting. This may be a lesson for the Liberals and the Prime Minister: The things he does affect all of Parliament. This is also, with respect, a To add insult to injury, yesterday when I tried to expedite Bill lesson for the Liberal House leader that he should never take one C-4, to get it through in a much faster way, the Liberals opposed it. day for granted, because anything can happen. In fact, it was the member for Winnipeg North, a Manitoban, who said no. Today, with the amount of time that we have, we will talk about The Liberals are sucking and blowing at the same time, and in giving additional days to the opposition. We are hoping this will re‐ doing that they are insulting us. They are not recognizing that we sult in a reset and that the Liberals will respect that we are in a mi‐ are in a minority Parliament. nority Parliament, will tell us the truth, will not exclude people who disagree with them, will not mislead this Parliament and will be The really insulting thing they did occurred last week, when the open, transparent and respectful. Then we can continue to work, as Prime Minister excluded our leader from a meeting of all opposi‐ we should, as the official opposition and as opposition parties to tion and government leaders on the topic of the rail blockades sim‐ hold the government to account and do the very best we can for this ply because our leader spoke the truth as to how to approach the il‐ great country that we serve. legal blockades. He was called names and excluded by the Prime Minister. Then three days later, the Prime Minister basically repeat‐ ● (1010) ed verbatim what our leader had said. That was disrespectful and Mr. Todd Doherty (Cariboo—Prince George, CPC): Madam disingenuous, and not at all the way a minority Parliament should Speaker, as we have seen with the past government, and indeed work. with the current government, the Prime Minister feels this is his Last Parliament, we said this often: The Prime Minister wanted House. We know differently. This is the House of the electors who an audience in this place; he did not want an opposition. I am afraid elected the 338 members of Parliament. We are here to be their that has not changed. He did not get the voters' message in the elec‐ voices. tion. He did not get the memo that his majority has been taken away. He needs to recognize quickly that Conservatives are going I want to ask our hon. colleague to once again share with those to stand up for the interests of the millions of Canadians who voted who are tuning in today the importance of opposition days.