Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise here, and I appreciated my colleague's comments. I like to be collaborative, and we are obviously at a bit of a stalemate. I have an idea to propose that I want my hon. colleague's thoughts on: Either the documents get produced or maybe the government should just get back the $400 million. I would support either one of those things happening, and then m…
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Mr. Speaker, the Financial Times wrote one year ago that, if current trends continued, Canadian living standards would continue to decline. After a year, it has gotten worse. This week, The Economist said that Canada is now “poorer than Alabama”. Will any minister over there admit that Canadian living standards are in decline?
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Mr. Speaker, the minister wants Canadians to believe that they have never had it so good, but here is what Canadians are actually experiencing: the worst housing inflation, the worst mortgage debt, the worst consumer debt in the G7 and income per person today that is lower than it was 10 years ago. Now the OECD says that Canada's real GDP growth will be last among its member nations until 2060. Wi…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my friend kindly. I serve with him on the finance committee, and he does an excellent job on that committee. We have a great working relationship. He raises a very interesting point. The myriad of separate funds, boards of directors and organizations that give money out invite conflicts of interest and corruption. We should reconsider having all of these organizations and in…
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Madam Speaker, I think my kids might have stayed up to watch this, so I will just say goodnight to them, Davie and Cooper. The Auditor General has called into question almost $400 million of payments out of this fund. That either went as a matter of conflict of interest and self-dealing, or to recipients who were ineligible to receive the funds in the first place. The sheer size of this boondoggle…
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Madam Speaker, the question from my hon. colleague was a very good one, and I will quite simply say that if anyone breaks the law, there should be consequences. If anyone breaches the Conflict of Interest Act, there should be consequences. If anyone breaches the public trust under the Criminal Code, they should be charged. It does not matter to me what party a person belongs to. It does not matter…
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Madam Speaker, it is an absolute pleasure to rise this evening and to see you in the chair. I hope that over the course of my speech, I will be able to elicit a smile or chuckle, because that is a little thing we have going. Before I start, I will put government members on notice. If they are going to make accusations during questions and comments that the parliamentary privilege motion offends th…
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Madam Speaker, artificial intelligence is getting so good. That cannot be real, what this member just asked. Do we have confidence in the RCMP? Of course we do, but let us remember the record of the government: not waiving cabinet confidence with respect to the SNC-Lavalin and not waiving cabinet confidence with respect to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, which by and large ended up preventi…
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Madam Speaker, I invited the member, before my speech started, to bring up a quote or fact he could rely on and he did none of that. He could not even name an expert who would back up his point. He just says there are experts who might, like maybe lawyers in the Conservative caucus. There are a lot of lawyers in the Liberal caucus, and they have been real quiet on what it means to be in a conflict…
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Madam Speaker, we are entering a culture of corruption, maybe even a culture of kleptocracy. What we are overseeing here are well-connected Liberal insiders who have the inside track to government programs. We see self-dealing. The Auditor General could not have been more clear. There are 186 examples of conflict of interest.
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Mr. Speaker, the government loves to tout its economic record, but the results are simply underwhelming. Canada has the worst housing inflation among its peers and the worst performance in per capita income among the G7. The gross fixed capital formation has not increased in a decade, and R and D spending as a per cent of GDP is at its lowest point in 20 years. It is no wonder young Canadians and …
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Mr. Speaker, I am not surprised that the minister is not persuaded by my comments, but perhaps she might listen to economist Trevor Tombe, who wrote, “If Canada had simply kept pace with the U.S. over the past two years, our economy would be 8.5 percent larger.” That is $6,200 per person richer we would be. Trevor Tombe says that this is an incentive for Canadians and businesses to move south of t…
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With regard to the recovery of overpayments and fraudulently obtained payments of the various COVID-19 related financial relief programs put in place by the government, broken down by the various COVID-19 related financial relief programs: (a) what are the Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) (i) total expenditures to date, (ii) expected expenditures in the future, on recovering the payments; (b) how man…
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With regard to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation, or other government entity: (a) which departments, agencies, Crown corporations, or other government entities conducted a review or requested a review by another Government of Canada entity to ensure no possible fraudulent claims for the CERB; (b) if such a review was conducted, how m…
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With regard to vessel registrations, broken down by year since January 1, 2016: (a) how many pleasure crafts, broken down by new and used, were registered in Canada that had a total sales price (i) below $250,000, (ii) between $250,000 and $500,000, (iii) above $500,000 up to $1 million, (iv) above $1 million?
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With regard to the Underused Housing Tax (UHT) that came into effect on January 1, 2022, broken down by year: (a) how many UHT returns have been (i) filed by taxpayers, (ii) filed and then reviewed by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA); (b) how many UHT returns reviewed by the CRA in (a)(ii) had no amounts owing, in total and percentage; (c) what is the total amount of the UHT assessed; (d) what is t…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill S-258, An Act to amend the Canada Revenue Agency Act (reporting on unpaid income tax). Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the chamber to introduce a bill from the Senate, from Senator Downe. This bill would do three things. First, it would amend the Canada Revenue Agency Act to require that the Canada Revenue Agency list all those individuals who have been c…
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Mr. Speaker, I have one petition to table today. It is on behalf of residents who are upset with Parks Canada's decision to abandon the replacement of the Boundary Road swing bridge, which had been in place since 1902. The Boundary Road swing bridge provides an essential route of transportation that residents of Bolsover use on a regular basis. It is also more efficient for first responders and is…
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Madam Speaker, we request a recorded vote, but you can apply this result to the next 14 that you are about to read.
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Madam Speaker, we need another recorded vote.
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Madam Speaker, we would like a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, farmers, fishers, families and physicians will all be impacted by this tax. The government either did not know this was the case or did not care. Had the government actually taken the time to ask StatsCan, it might have found out that almost 50% of the people impacted by this tax, otherwise, make less than $100,000 a year. Why does the government continue to insist on purposely mislea…
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Mr. Speaker, the legend of the butter tart can be traced back to Quebec in the late 1600s, but the first documented recipe came in Simcoe County, in Barrie, in 1900. The butter tart is truly a national treasure, and this Saturday in Midland, we will celebrate these little sugar pies as tens of thousands of enthusiasts will descend upon downtown in search of the perfect tart. They come in every sha…
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Mr. Speaker, on April 16, the Liberals announced that they were increasing taxes on the investments of Canadians through an increase to the capital gains tax. That tax is supposed to take effect three weeks from today and Canadians have not seen the legislation yet. One wonders what the government is doing over there. When will the government show small businesses, families, farmers, entrepreneurs…
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Madam Speaker, I want to commend my fellow colleague for giving a speech in which he appropriately holds the government to account. He did not mention the official opposition once, but he appropriately placed relevant criticism at the feet of the government for its delay in bringing the bill forward. As such, I do not have much of a question, but I have more or less a comment to thank the hon. mem…
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Mr. Speaker, I understand my colleague is also a student of parliamentary procedure. My other colleague, the member for Calgary Nose Hill, outlined a very good argument on why she believes this bill may end up back in litigation at the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality. I wonder if the member would like to opine on that member's speech or, as has been the case for much of tonight, the fa…
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With regard to phone lines paid for by the government, broken down by cellular line versus traditional landline, for each part of the question: (a) how many phone lines was the government paying for as of April 1, 2024; (b) how many of the phone lines are dormant; (c) how many of the phone lines are active but have not been used or have not had any activity in the last year; (d) how many of the ph…
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Madam Speaker, I think we should have a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, today marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of the late Jim Flaherty, former finance minister of Canada. At the time, the news of his passing was a shock to many colleagues in this place. Sometimes the stark recognition of our own mortality puts our minor differences in perspective. His career was dedicated to public service. In fact, his favourite speech was entitled “Public serv…
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Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise today to give voice to a number of local advocates who would like to see greater recognition for the 5,000-year-old Mnjikaning fish weirs, which are older than the Egyptian pyramids and one of the oldest, best-preserved wooden fish weirs in North America. The world knows too little about these fish weirs. The City of Orillia, Chippewas of Rama First …
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With regard to the Select Luxury Items Tax (luxury tax) that came into effect on September 1, 2022: (a) what is the amount of luxury tax assessed by asset class (i.e. aircraft, vehicles, vessels); (b) what is the amount of luxury tax assessed that has been collected by asset class and separated by relative size of the payments received, including how many transactions involved a luxury tax between…
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Mr. Speaker, I am new in this place, but my colleague mentioned that the NDP member consented to the amendment, as if that had any kind of relevancy. It is the same member who on multiple occasions has said that a private member's accepting an amendment that has been ruled out of order is irrelevant in that circumstance. He will have to tell me how it makes sense in that case and not in this one.
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With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), broken down by year for each of the last five years: (a) what was the total number of overpayments that were (i) assessed, (ii) collected from taxpayers who received overpayments following or due to death of a child; and (b) what is the amount of money represented by the overpayments in (a)(i) and (a)(ii)?
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With regard to the Underused Housing Tax (UHT) that came into effect on January 1, 2022, broken down by year: (a) how many UHT returns have been filed (i) in total, (ii) broken down by census metropolitan area (CMA); (b) how many UHT returns had no amounts owing (i) in total, (ii) broken down by CMA; (c) what is the total amount of the UHT assessed; (d) what is the amount of the UHT assessed that …
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Mr. Speaker, not every person who jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge actually dies, and in fact a study tracked down 29 individuals who survived. Some 98% of jumpers, by the way, do not survive the jump. A study of 29 individuals who survived their jump off the Golden Gate Bridge revealed that every single one of them regretted their decision to jump the moment they jumped. I was just wondering if m…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague spoke very well in French. I hope that, at some point, I will be able to deliver a speech as the member did, in our nation's second language. I want to ask the member about the temporary foreign worker program. There was an op-ed written in 2014, entitled “How to fix the broken temporary worker program”. It stated: It cuts to the heart of who we are as a country. I beli…
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Madam Speaker, I am not sure if I just heard the member opposite refer to immigrants as a gold mine. One of the other members also referred to immigrants from “puppy mills”. The member opposite made a reference earlier to people dying. Under this government, multiple students a month have been sent home in body bags because they are being invited here without a reasonable prospect of success. By t…
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Madam Speaker, a couple of years ago the immigration department released a study in which it questioned whether Canada had a diversified immigrant pool or not. Also, it has recently been suggested that if one was trying to undermine the great Canadian consensus on immigration, the policies the government has implemented would be indistinguishable from those meant to destroy the consensus on immigr…
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Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise today to give a voice to a significant number of constituents in Simcoe North who care about the issue of electoral reform. The petitioners believe that the need for electoral reform continues to be a priority and that we need a non-partisan approach to this, including a citizens' assembly. They are therefore calling on the House to give a voice to…
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With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency and net worth assessments of individuals, broken down by year since 2015: (a) how many net worth assessments have been done; (b) of the net worth assessments in (a), how much additional taxes have been (i) assessed, (ii) recovered; (c) of the net worth assessments conducted, how many were based on leads from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis C…
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With regard to government statistics on violent offences involving firearms, since 2015 and broken down by year, including 2023 to date: (a) what was the number of violent offences involving firearms, in total, and broken down by type of offence; (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by province or territory and by municipality; and (c) what is the breakdown of (a) and (b) by the number and percentage …
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With regard to the Bank of Canada's (BOC) digital Canadian dollar consultation: (a) what are the details of all memorandums or briefing notes that have been sent from or received by the BOC in relation to the topic, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) type of document, (iii) sender, (iv) recipient, (v) title, (vi) file number; (b) what are the details of all studies the BOC has done since 2016…
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With regard to the government’s approach to information technology (IT): (a) what were the total expenditures on (i) research or IT database subscription services, (ii) benchmarking, (iii) value-assurance services for IT, in total, and broken down by department or agency and by each client department of Shared Services Canada; (b) which companies or stakeholders were consulted when Public Services…
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With regard to the government’s policies governing information technology (IT) projects, delivery, and contracting: (a) what policies and procedures are in place to ensure independent assessment and oversight, as well as ensuring value-for-money, on IT projects over $2.5 million; (b) what contract vehicles are in place for departments and agencies to secure the resources needed to perform the proc…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her many years of service. It gives me great pleasure to comment on her very long career. As the member and I share a great love of Georgian Bay, I expect to see her spending more time there, perhaps finishing her book on democracy, which we will all take great lessons from. When I was first elected, I was provided advice by many people, and someone said …
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Mr. Speaker, the government's record is inflationary deficits driving up the cost of living. In fact, one year ago, the finance minister stood in the House and presented a plan that would balance the budget in 2027. When asked whether that was by mistake or by design, the minister took great boastfulness in saying that it was deliberate and by design. Except now we learn that the budget will be ba…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal government, everything is up. Mortgages are up, rent payments are up, inflation is up, groceries are up and taxes are up, yet the Bank of Canada has asked for help keeping inflation down. It has asked for governments to limit their spending growth to 2.5% each year, except guess what the government just announced: An increase in growth of spending of o…
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With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and CRA call centre operations, broken down by fiscal year from 2015-16 to 2023-24: (a) what was, or is, the total budget for all CRA call centre operations; (b) what was, or is, the total employee count for all CRA call centre operations; (c) for each 1-800 number which Canadians can use to call the CRA, broken down by number, (i) how many calls were…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During question period, I compared the government to drunken sailors. I regret that comparison because drunken sailors spend their own money. I would like to apologize to drunken sailors everywhere.
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Mr. Speaker, my message for any provincial premier is the same as the message for the Prime Minister: Take responsibility for government spending because it is driving inflation and making interest rates unaffordable for Canadians. The Bank of Canada says that all governments need to spend less than 2% growth in order to keep inflation under control. The government's own projections in the budget …
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