TORONTO: Innovative ideas are needed across the spectrum as Canada comes out of the crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole said on Wednesday.
“The best days for Canada are still ahead of us.”
Speaking at an Ethnocultural media conference, O’Toole said our focus should shift towards strengthening and boosting supports for small and medium enterprises – and not be selective in choosing industries and individual firms for giving government assistance.
There was also the issue of improper implementation of the Wage and Rent Subsidy Programs – which were taken advantage of by many companies who really didn’t need them and later reported incredible profits during the pandemic year.
He also hit out at the proposal being floated by the Liberals and the NDP about converting financial help like the Canadian Economic Recovery Benefit (CERB) into a permanent feature of the Canadian economic and social landscape.
As the economy reopens, O’Toole said, what was needed was scaling up of high-technology firms, providing hiring incentives and improving productivity.
“Canadians are hardworking and they don’t need handouts which tend to disincentivise people and be detrimental to the economy. We have to get the country working again.”
To a question on the espionage issue related to Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, O’Toole pointed out how the government has been dodging questions on two scientists who had connections with the Communist Party of China and one of whom was reported to have clandestinely shipped virus samples to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng were fired from the Winnipeg lab in January this year and the matter is being investigated by the police.
O’Toole has been demanding in the House of Commons that the Public Health Agency of Canada release documents regarding the matter. PHAC has been stonewalling the demand and O’Toole said that parliamentarians have a right to know about the security breaches involved.
O’Toole noted that PHAC president Iain Stewart has been publicly reprimanded for not submitting the documents to the house “a situation which has not arisen in the house in over a hundred years.”
With regard to the Housing Supply crunch and the increasing difficulty for Canadians to own their homes, O’Toole said the Liberal Government had ignored several proposals that his party had put forward to rework the current housing policy.
“We want an immediate freeze on non-resident, foreign buyers active in the Canadian housing market. Just imposing a 1% tax on such properties is not going to work. What we are seeing are foreigners who just park their money in Canadian real estate.”
“We would like to see active steps to increase the housing supply across Canada. With federal support, there can be wide partnerships created to increase the supply – especially for the firsttime home buyers. This has become a really pressing need -and owning a home is part of the Canadian middle class story.”
O’Toole called for ’smart, strategic ideas’ to deal with the slump in the travel and tourism industry. “We supported the proposal to help Canadian international airlines – with the proviso that they do not pay dividends or bonuses for the period.”
He also criticized the government quarantine plan as essentially unsafe and unfair and called for federal leadership in setting up the infrastructure for rapid-testing at all points of entry into Canada.“Also, we need to be prepared for similar type of pandemics and crises that may arise in the future.”
While hailing the appointment of Justice Mahmud Jamal to the Supreme Court “who is a brilliant and outstanding constitutional lawyer”, O’Toole criticized what he called a Liberal list which vetted appointments in the lower judiciary and diplomatic cadres. “This list,” he said, “tracks Liberal supporters and donors and appointments are made after names are run through this list. “Why should there be such a list? It isn’t fair to Canadians.’ On Islamophobia, O’Toole said his party has been reaching out to the Muslim community.
“We represent all Canadians and I want to stress that we have lots of Muslim supporters and many candidates in our election list. Muslims and others will see me fight against intolerance – that is my nature.” “Canadians deserve better – more than the same Liberals, the NDP, the Bloc Quebecois, Green and others who prop them up and help them cover things up.”