Ms. Jean Yip (Scarborough—Agincourt, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, Scarborough—Agincourt residents are concerned that women continue to work in part-time and precarious jobs with little opportunity to advance in their careers. My constituents desire equality and economic security for all Canadians, no matter what gender.

Can the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality please share with the House some of the work that is being done to ensure that we are working to improve the economic security and prosperity of women?

Mr. Terry Duguid (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Scarborough—Agincourt for her question and for her tireless advocacy.

Our government is focused on gender equality and economic security by creating the Canada child benefit, by creating 40,000 child care spaces, by supporting women in STEM and in the skilled trades and by ensuring equal pay for work of equal value.

With one million jobs and historically low unemployment, Canadians see real progress towards gender equality and economic security for the women of Canada.

Mr. Colin Carrie (Oshawa, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, Oshawa's port is an economic driver in my community. The Liberals ignored the GM plant closure, and now they are trying to take away our right to manage our own port. The Minister of Transport actually claimed that this is going to be good for Oshawa, but now he is trying to impose a management board that will likely have zero representation from the people of Oshawa. That is right: zero say in the management of our own port. This is what happens when they do not have any meaningful consultation.

My ask is this: When will these top-down Liberals actually and finally listen to local stakeholders and commit to having local representation on this board?

Mr. Terry Beech (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, our government has announced the intent to amalgamate the Oshawa and Hamilton port authorities. Both ports play an important role in southern Ontario by linking our businesses to global markets and by providing jobs to middle-class families.

The integration will also enable ongoing growth in both ports. It is anticipated that this action would unlock greater economic opportunities for working Canadians. With greater combined strength, the new port authority would be in a better position to make investments in port facilities and intermodal connections in south Ontario.

Of course, we consult with our partners, we work with municipalities and we work with our partners in ports to ensure their economic success for Canadians.

Mr. Marwan Tabbara (Kitchener South—Hespeler, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, the member for Milton was forced to delete a tweet that suggested that there is no link between climate change and extreme weather patterns, completely disregarding science that shows that climate change is real. This was so predictable, considering the 10 years of Harper Conservative cuts and the muzzling of scientists, resulting in scientists protesting the death of evidence on Parliament Hill.

Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Science and Sport please explain the importance of science and evidence-based decision-making?

Ms. Kate Young (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Science and Sport and to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility (Accessibility), Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, Conservative members should be ashamed of their climate-change-denying comments. They have chosen to broadcast false, irresponsible viewpoints, disregarding the science and not listening to the evidence once again.

Our government believes that science plays a central role in building a thriving, clean economy, and we will take no lessons from the Conservatives, who for 10 years refused to take action. We are the government that has invested over $10 billion in science, and we will always support our students and researchers.

Mr. Harold Albrecht (Kitchener—Conestoga, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are very concerned about the escalating violence against Christians in Nigeria and about the Liberal government's decision to close the office of religious freedom at a time when it was effectively working in Nigeria.

The former parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the office had “successfully developed a community-based mechanism to help defuse tensions between different religious and ethnic groups”, including Christians and Muslims.

Why did the Liberal government close an office that it knew was effectively reducing violence and deaths?

Hon. Chrystia Freeland (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. Our government has put human rights, including the right of all people to freely practise their religion, at the centre of our foreign policy.

We are very clear that we are living in a time when people around the world and in Canada are facing increased attacks for their religious beliefs. That is absolutely wrong. That includes Christians, it includes Muslims and it includes Jews. Our government is very clear in condemning these acts and in working to prevent them in Canada and in working to prevent them around the world.

Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, drugs in Canada are more expensive than in most countries around the world. However, that situation should have changed. The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board changed its reference pricing list for setting drug prices. The new regulations were supposed to come into effect on January 1 of this year, but the government still has not passed them. That is just wrong. The government caved in to pressure from the big pharma lobby.

Does the government still plan to adopt these regulations and if so, when?

Hon. Ginette Petitpas Taylor (Minister of Health, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, we are determined to do everything we can to lower the price of drugs. For the past two years, we have been working jointly with the pan-Canadian pharmaceutical alliance to bring together the provinces and territories on a bulk purchasing arrangement. We have saved billions of dollars so far.

We are also in the process of modernizing the regulations affecting drugs and changes will be announced soon.

Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, that is not a reassuring answer. The minister says that her government is doing everything in its power to lower the price of drugs. The regulations were supposed to come into effect in January, but we are still waiting. The price of drugs is still too high. Those rules would save the public $2.6 billion.

If I understand correctly the underlying message of the minister's response, the government is opting to be a doormat to the pharmaceutical companies.

I am therefore asking the government to confirm that it has done an about-face, that it will never adopt its regulations and we are going—

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mr. Anthony Rota)

The hon. Minister of Health.

Hon. Ginette Petitpas Taylor (Minister of Health, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I will repeat once again for my colleague that we are committed to doing everything we can to lower the cost of drugs. We do hope to bring forward a national pharmacare program, so one of our priorities is lowering the cost of drugs.

We have been doing our job from day one. We joined the pan-Canadian pharmaceutical alliance, bringing together all provinces and territories. We have saved millions of dollars so far. We are currently modernizing drug regulations. Once again, as I said earlier, we will be announcing changes to the regulations in the near future.

Hon. Tony Clement (Parry Sound—Muskoka, Ind.)

Mr. Speaker, in defence of their indefensible cuts to the Auditor General's budget, the Liberals keep relying on cuts made under the Harper government. As the one who implemented those budget reductions as the Treasury Board president, I can tell the House that I received prior written assurances from the auditor general that those budget reductions would not impact any of his operations or investigations.

Why did the current government not seek similar assurances before making its cuts?

Mr. Greg Fergus (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, yes, I can only imagine how that conversation went after they fired Linda Keen and after they reduced the budget for the parliamentary budget officer at the time. I imagine the conversation must have gone something like , “Yes, boss. Yes, boss. We're okay with what you give us.” That is really not acceptable.

What is really important is that public servants, under the Harper government, felt intimidated, they felt cowed and some of them lost their jobs for having stood up to speak truth to power. We do not have to take any lessons from the Harper Conservatives about how to treat our public servants with respect.

Mr. Paul Manly (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, GP)

Mr. Speaker, I am astounded to learn that the government thinks it can use article 6 of the Paris accord to earn carbon credits for exporting fracked gas to Asian markets. Does the government not realize that fracked gas has the same carbon footprint as coal?

When will the government have the political courage to take responsibility for its international obligations and reduce the emissions of the oil and gas industry in Canada? When will the government ban the climate-destroying practice of gas fracking?

Mr. Sean Fraser (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, while I am aware of article 6 of the Paris Agreement, given that our government was key in facilitating the negotiation of that agreement, our plan to reduce emissions is not just to displace global emissions by producing more and more oil and gas products in Canada but to actually reduce our consumption in Canada as well.

We are doing so through over 50 measures, including putting a price on pollution, moving toward 90% of our electricity being generated from non-emitting resources by 2030, and making the largest investment in public transit and record investments in efficiency, green technology and others. I would be happy to walk the hon. member through it.

I am curious as to what the Conservatives' plan will be, because their signal is that they are going to produce more in order to reduce our emissions, and it simply makes no sense.

Mr. John Brassard (Barrie—Innisfil, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, while I understand that things do get heated in this House of Commons, the member for Cape Breton—Canso, whom I have respect for, showed indignation that a member from Ontario would dare to ask a question about Cape Breton and stand up for those residents. I will remind the member as well that the minister for ACOA is from Ontario. Therefore, if the member would like to apologize to me, I will accept that.

Mr. Rodger Cuzner (Cape Breton—Canso, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I consider the member to be a friend. If his feelings were hurt, I certainly want to apologize.

He is right. The minister is from Ontario. He has done a tremendous job working with the people of Cape Breton to provide opportunities and I look forward to that relationship continuing.

Mr. Gérard Deltell

Mr. Speaker, I believe you will be overjoyed to find unanimous consent for the tabling of a document entitled “Inventaire québécois des émissions de gaz à effet de serre en 2016 et leur évolution depuis 1990”. This science-based document from Quebec's environment ministry found that, between 2014 and 2016, there was no reduction in GHG emissions.