Taylor Bachrach

[Business of Supply, November 24th, 2020]

Mr. Chair, could the minister inform the House what the timeline is for implementing the recommendations in the report?

[Business of Supply, November 24th, 2020]

Mr. Chair, the reason these recommendations are so important, and I believe the minister will agree, is that it is vitally important that we keep as much of the value of the west coast catch in the hands of actual fishermen, especially after two of the worst seasons on record.

Can the minister give us some sense of whether her department is committed to implementing the 20 recommendations from the report on west coast fisheries licence reform?

[Business of Supply, November 24th, 2020]

Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Courtenay—Alberni. I have about 10 minutes of questions for the minister and afterward, my hon. colleague will take the remaining five minutes to round out the evening.

I would like to start by acknowledging the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge, who began his remarks talking about Prince Rupert and his roots in that beautiful community. That is where I would like to start my remarks as well.

I was speaking yesterday with Joy Thorkelson with the fishermen's union and told her that I had this opportunity this evening. She was talking to me about the report on the west coast fisheries licence reform, with which I know the minister is very familiar. Ms. Thorkelson feels that the recommendations in this report hold a lot of promise for her industry. She understands that there are consultations going on at this point, but she does not know anyone who has been consulted.

I would like to ask the minister who precisely is being consulted at this time on the west coast fisheries licence reform report and whether anyone on the north coast of British Columbia is being consulted.

[Indigenous Affairs, November 24th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, Max Johnson is an amazing local artist in Bella Bella. When I first met him two summers ago, he was painting artwork on the front of the new big house in his community. It was heartbreaking to later hear that he and his granddaughter had been racially profiled by BMO staff in Vancouver and had been handcuffed by police for trying to open a bank account.

Now we have learned it was Indigenous Services Canada who told the bank manager they should call the police. Will this minister apologize, and inform this House of the steps he has taken to investigate this situation and ensure that it never happens again?

[Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020, November 24th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, it is an interesting point that was raised about Elections Canada.

I believe that Elections Canada has strong rules around the use of the voters list, but, of course, political parties collect personal information using so many other means. It is the regulation of that other information that is particularly germane and could be covered under this piece of legislation, which is something that we have been pushing for.

Could the member comment on the omission of any treatment of that kind of information?

[Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020, November 24th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, this is an interesting piece of legislation. One of the questions that was posed earlier in the debate had to do with the fact that political parties are omitted from this legislation and that their use of personal information is not considered. The response provided by the Minister of Industry earlier was that the bill really deals with commercial uses of data, yet I read in the index of the legislation that it also deals with “statistical or scholarly study or research”, “Records of historic or archival importance”, and “artistic or literary purposes”. These are clearly not commercial uses.

Does the member agree that it is an omission that political parties are not dealt with by the bill?

[Citizenship Act, November 23rd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to my hon. colleague's remarks. I think I may have heard him describe the amendments before us as a word salad, and the assertion that these are changes brought forward by the government, I believe, is misplaced. These are changes that were recommended to us by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so I am wondering if the hon. member has read through the other 93 calls to action from the TRC and whether there are other calls to action he would describe as a word salad.

Would he like to share those words with the commission itself?

[Citizenship Act, November 23rd, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I listened closely to the speech by the member for Peace River—Westlock. I was looking for references to the bill we are debating and found that his remarks did “veersen” around a fair bit before getting to the gist of the matter.

The member and I share a connection to the beautiful Bulkley Valley, in northwest B.C. One of the most impactful parts of my time as mayor was helping tell the story, alongside the Wet'suwet'en people, of the relationship between the early settlers to that area and the Wet'suwet'en Nation.

I wonder if the member is familiar with some of that painful history. If not, maybe I can provide him with the book Shared Histories, which documents it in great detail.

[Citizenship Act, November 23rd, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I do not believe the slow pace of change really can meet the needs of indigenous people. That is why we need to accelerate the pace of change and redouble our efforts in this place and across the country in all our institutions.

Just today we heard the revelations about the interaction that took place in Vancouver at BMO. A member of the Heiltsuk Nation and his granddaughter were arrested for the alleged crime of trying to open a bank account using their status card and the role the federal government may have played in that situation. We are far too far from where we need to be, and we need to accelerate the pace of change in a dramatic way.

[Citizenship Act, November 23rd, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, certainly this question around the pace of change has been one that has come up several times. Members may have heard me just ask my colleague across the way a similar question. I do not believe the current government is the right party to ask if the pace of change is fast enough. Of course, it is going to defend the glacially slow pace at which these changes are being implemented. The proper people to be asking are the leaders of the indigenous nations within this country. I am almost positive if we ask indigenous leaders if the pace of change on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action has been adequate, they will almost unanimously say it has not been.

Much more needs to be done. This is some of the most important work we can do together as a country. It is time to stop dragging our feet and get on with it.