Michael Barrett

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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today to speak to this important motion. I note that I will be splitting my time with my hon. colleague, the member for Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, who is a veteran. Like other veterans in the House, I want to thank him for his service. I want to take this opportunity to remind and encourage Canadians to wear a poppy. It is a very small but really important gesture that we can take as we lead up to Remembrance Day. October 24 is now designated as the date we are going to start wearing our poppies every year. The Royal Canadian Legion has set it, so it should be easier for us to remember than the time change. It is so important that we engage in the act of remembrance. In fact, it is an obligation we have, one that I know all members of the House take very seriously. When we find areas of common agreement, we should really lean into those and take them as an instruction on how we should carry things all the way forward. That leads to the subject of the motion we are considering today. It has two broader contexts that I want to address. I have spoken to the importance of remembrance, the duty we have to the men and women who have done their duty for us, for Canadians. They have afforded us the privilege of living in a democracy and a free and fair country, and in a place where when we have elections, power is changed without a shot being fired. This is done on the backs of the men and women who have put on the uniform to defend our basic freedoms. This is the first thing. Once they are done with their service to us and once they have taken the uniform off for the last time, what do we owe to them? I would say the dignity that comes from employment is one area where we can fulfill our obligation to our veterans. Another is that we deliver on making sure we help them get well from any injuries or illnesses that arise from their service. This is not something we do a great job of in this country. It is something we need to do better on, and I am committed to that work, along with my colleagues. Employment is something we can work on. As legislators, it is something we can do in this place. How can we create opportunities for veteran employment? The second thing I want to talk about is the current time we are in. We are in the midst of a trade war with our neighbours to the south, and it has come as a result of President Trump, frankly, starting a trade war with us while we had a trade deal with the U.S. In the face of that, the Liberal government has said that we need to buy Canadian. I agree. I agree that we need to prioritize buying Canadian now more than ever. We should be making sure that Canadian firms are fulfilling federal contracts. Should we do both things at the same time? Should we be making sure that we create employment opportunities for our veterans at the same time that we are buying Canadian? I would say yes. I think that is a pretty natural fit. We have the case of the security contract of $12 million for the CRA. The contract was awarded to a subsidiary of an American company that is affiliated with and linked to Trump, to the U.S. president. The company is carrying out work for the Trump administration and for ICE. ICE is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. We do not necessarily need to get deeply into that issue. We generally get it, and I do not think we want it. I do not think we want to import that here. The CRA had the opportunity to award this contract to the firm in question, the Trump-linked company, or to a Canadian not-for-profit, the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires. It is the largest non-governmental employer of veterans in Canada. It employs more than 4,000 veterans. How do I know that it is the largest employer of veterans? I checked and the Canadian War Museum provides that figure for us. The difference in the bids for these two companies, the American firm and the Canadian not-for-profit firm, was less than 1%. I am talking about $80,000. What are our obligations here? Are we buying Canadian? Are we creating employment opportunities for veterans? When we first pointed this out to the government, I expected its response would have been muted, but it would have done the right thing. I was frankly quite surprised that it doubled down on it. What we want to do with this motion is give the government the opportunity to get it right. I think the timing is really important. We want to signal to veterans and to their families that we are going to prioritize employment opportunities for Canadian veterans. We need to look at the timing of this in the face of this ongoing trade dispute with the U.S. We should be sending a message to Canadian businesses that we are going to prioritize government contracts to Canadian firms. The government has the opportunity to do what I would say is the right thing. I think we would agree that it is the right thing to do. That is what we are asking for today. We are asking for the government to reverse the decision to award this contract to a firm that has questionable ties and instead award it to a Canadian company. Does that need to be the Commissionaires? I have spoken to its bona fides as an employer of Canadian veterans, but I think the first principle we should be applying here is buying Canadian, and then we need to be giving consideration to the employment opportunities that we are creating for veterans. Let us commit ourselves to that. Let us recommit ourselves to the opportunities that we are creating for Canadian veterans. I am not asking what is the most we can do, but as a country and as legislators, when we are setting the direction and the priorities for the federal government, I do think that this is probably the least we can do. The least we can do is buy Canadian in the face of this trade dispute. I think that creating these employment opportunities for veterans is the least we can do for the men and women who have served our country with unlimited liability. With that, I want to take one more opportunity to encourage Canadians to engage in an act of remembrance, to attend a cenotaph service in their community or to thank a veteran. They do not need to want to be thanked for someone to thank them. I encourage Canadians to wear a poppy, and to keep in their thoughts the families and the brothers and sisters in arms of those who were killed and injured in the tragic events in Wainwright of late. If someone is a person of faith, I encourage them to say a prayer for them. I encourage Canadians to reflect on the fact that we do live in the greatest country in the world, and we owe so much of that to the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces and our veterans.