| December 10, 2021 — Resuming debate on the motion of , seconded by , — That the following address be presented to
Her Excellency the Governor General:
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| To
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary May Simon, Chancellor and Principal
Companion of the Order of Canada, Chancellor and Commander of the Order of
Military Merit, Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of
Canada. |
| MAY IT PLEASE YOUR
EXCELLENCY: |
| We, Her Majesty's most
loyal and dutiful subjects, the House of Commons of Canada, in Parliament
assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Excellency for the
gracious Speech which Your Excellency has addressed to both Houses of Parliament; |
| Deferred recorded division on the amendment of , seconded by , — That the motion be amended by adding the following: |
| “, and wish to inform Your Excellency that the Speech from the Throne fails to adequately address critical issues that threaten the prosperity of Canadians, including: |
| (a) a cost of living crisis that is cutting the average Canadian worker’s paycheque by 2.7%, which requires urgent action by the government to (i) table a plan to control spending and apply a laser focus on policies that will create growth, (ii) maintain the Bank of Canada’s 2% inflation target, (iii) increase production of Canadian energy to boost supply and lower gas prices, (iv) take action to improve the resilience of Canadian supply chains;
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| (b) a stagnant economy, with Canada’s real GDP growth now the weakest in the G-7, actually shrinking by 1.1% in the second quarter, which requires urgent action by the government to (i) reduce the burden of taxes and regulation to restore Canada as an attractive place to invest and build a business, (ii) table a plan to create growth in all sectors of the economy and boost real wages, (iii) drive innovation and technology by overhauling Canada’s R&D programs;
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| (c) a housing crisis that has driven home prices up 30% over the past year and priced thousands of young families out of the market, which requires policies that will build an additional one million homes over the next three years by (i) reallocating 15% of the government’s real estate portfolio for housing, (ii) tackling regulatory barriers that raise costs of construction, (iii) linking infrastructure dollars to higher density zoning, (iv) committing to not tax principal residences;
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| (d) an acute labour shortage that is affecting 60% of businesses in Canada and 82% of Canadian manufacturers, which requires the government to (i) improve alignment of immigration criteria with the needs of employers, (ii) streamline the rules of the temporary foreign workers program, (iii) improve skills training and give more powers to provinces; and |
| (e) a national unity crisis, which requires (i) respecting provincial jurisdiction, (ii) supporting and growing all parts of the economy, including the energy sector, (iii) restoring confidence in our national institutions, starting by returning ethics and accountability to the government”. |
| Recorded division on the amendment — deferred until Monday, December 13, 2021, at the ordinary hour of daily adjournment, pursuant to Standing Order 45. |
| December 3, 2021 — — That, given that, |
| (i) Canadians deserve climate action, access to low cost, readily available alternatives to high carbon products, and sustainable jobs, |
| (ii) energy producers in Alberta are rapidly decarbonizing their production processes and are subject to a 100MT per year emissions cap, |
| (iii) Canada allows the importation of high carbon oil and gas from countries like Saudi Arabia that do not have emissions productions caps, |
| (iv) this imbalance has the net effect of making Canadians more reliant on high cost, high carbon fuel, and increasing global greenhouse gas emissions, while offshoring Canadian jobs to high carbon producing nations, |
| the House call on the government to support Canadian energy sector efforts to decarbonize production, support Canadian energy sector workers, and impose commensurate tariffs on imported sources of carbon energy so that it is not free for polluters outside of Canada to provide energy to Canadians while contributing to rising greenhouse gas emissions. |
| Notice also received from: |
| and — December 3, 2021 |
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| December 3, 2021 — — That, given that Canada's economic and trade relations with the United States of America have deteriorated badly, and so far in 2021, Canada has seen the cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, the threatened shut-down of Line 5, new Buy American rules that exclude Canada from public procurement, trade challenges on the allocation of dairy quota, a doubling of the softwood lumber tariffs, and a $12,500 tax credit for electric vehicles which excludes Canada, |
| the House call on the government to: |
| (a) abandon its "progressive trade agenda", which has proven ineffective and entirely symbolic; focus instead on Canada's trade interests, the Canada-United States security partnership and renewed cooperation; |
| (b) work with the United States to build a North American supply chain resilience strategy, strengthen North American industry and form a common approach towards China; |
| (c) develop Canada's rare earth minerals and offer them as a privileged source for North American battery and electric vehicles (EVs), in exchange for being part of the EV tax credit; and |
| (d) table documents related to the government's efforts to get an agreement on softwood lumber, and do so within 10 days following the adoption of this motion. |
| Notice also received from: |
| and — December 3, 2021 |
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| December 3, 2021 — — Whereas on October 21, 1880, the Government of Canada entered into a contract with the Canadian Pacific Railway Syndicate for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway; |
| Whereas, by clause 16 of the 1880 Canadian Pacific Railway contract, the federal government agreed to give a tax exemption to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company; |
| Whereas, in 1905, the Parliament of Canada passed the Saskatchewan Act, which created the province of Saskatchewan; |
| Whereas section 24 of the Saskatchewan Act refers to clause 16 of the 1880 Canadian Pacific Railway Contract; |
| Whereas the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed on November 6, 1885, with the Last Spike at Craigellachie, and has been operating as a going concern for 136 years; |
| Whereas, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company has paid applicable taxes to the Government of Saskatchewan since the province was established in 1905; |
| Whereas it would be unfair to the residents of Saskatchewan if a major corporation were exempt from certain provincial taxes, casting that tax burden onto the residents of Saskatchewan; |
| Whereas it would be unfair to other businesses operating in Saskatchewan, including small businesses, if a major corporation were exempt from certain provincial taxes, giving that corporation a significant competitive advantage over those other businesses, to the detriment of farmers, consumers and producers in the province; |
| Whereas it would not be consistent with Saskatchewan's position as an equal partner in Confederation if there were restrictions on its taxing powers that do not apply to other provinces; |
| Whereas on August 29, 1966, the then President of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, Ian D. Sinclair, advised the then federal Minister of Transport, Jack Pickersgill, that the Board of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company had no objection to constitutional amendments to eliminate the tax exemption; |
| Whereas section 43 of the Constitution Act, 1982 provides that an amendment to the Constitution of Canada may be made by proclamation issued by the Governor General under the Great Seal of Canada where so authorized by resolutions of the Senate and House of Commons and of the legislative assembly of each province to which the amendment applies; |
| Whereas the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, on November 29, 2021, adopted a resolution authorizing an amendment to the Constitution of Canada; |
| Now, therefore, the House of Commons resolves that an amendment to the Constitution of Canada be authorized to be made by proclamation issued by Her Excellency the Governor General under the Great Seal of Canada in accordance with the annexed schedule. |
| SCHEDULE |
| AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF CANADA |
| 1. Section 24 of the Saskatchewan Act is repealed. |
| 2. The repeal of section 24 is deemed to have been made on August 29, 1966, and is retroactive to that date. |
| CITATION |
| 3. This Amendment may be cited as the Constitution Amendment, [year of proclamation] (Saskatchewan Act). |
| Notice also received from: |
| , , ,, , , ,, , ,, and — December 3, 2021 |
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| December 3, 2021 — — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should: |
| (a) follow the advice of allied nations and immediately ban Huawei from Canada's future 5G network; |
| (b) reaffirm Canada's commitment to Five Eyes intelligence sharing and cooperation; |
| (c) reassure the United States that Canada is dedicated to an integrated North American intelligence and defence network; and |
| (d) do everything in its power to counter espionage, enhance critical infrastructure protection, adapt to the modern cyber environment, and ensure that Canada's security network is infallible from both foreign and domestic threats. |
| Notice also received from: |
| and — December 3, 2021 |
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| December 6, 2021 — — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should: |
| (a) follow the advice of allied nations and immediately ban Huawei from Canada's future 5G network; |
| (b) reassure the United States that Canada is dedicated to an integrated North American intelligence and defence network; |
| (c) do everything in its power to counter espionage, enhance critical infrastructure protection, adapt to the modem cyber environment, and ensure that Canada's security network is infallible from both foreign and domestic threats; and |
| (d) commit to not paying compensation to telecommunications companies for the removal of Huawei's equipment from Canada's communication networks. |
| Notice also received from: |
| — December 6, 2021 |
| No. 3 — December 10, 2021 — Resuming consideration of the motion of , seconded by , — That it be an instruction to the Standing Committee on Finance that it have the power to divide Bill , into two bills, Bill C-2A, An Act to provide further support in response to COVID-19 (Business Support Programs), and Bill C-2B, An Act to provide further support in response to COVID-19 (benefits and leave), provided that: |
| (a) Bill C-2A be composed of Part 1 of Bill C-2;
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| (b) Bill C-2B be composed of all the remaining parts of Bill C-2;
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| (c) the House order the printing of Bills C-2A and C-2B; |
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(d) the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel be authorized to make any technical changes or corrections as may be necessary to give effect to this motion; and |
| (e)
if Bill C-2A is not reported back to the House within two sittings days after the adoption of this motion, it shall be deemed reported without amendment. |