Routine Proceedings
With regard to consultations for budget 2024: (a) were measures to assist individuals living with Celiac disease presented, and, if so, (i) by what organization, (ii) when; (b) why were no supports for those living with Celiac disease included in budget 2024; and (c) what initiatives are the federal government exploring to help with the high cost of gluten-free foods for those living with Celiac d…
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With regard to the Privy Council Office's response to the question on the Order Paper Q-2571, namely, that “Members of Parliament being considered for Cabinet position undergo a pre-appointment Governor-in-Council background check conducted by the Privy Council Office. Once appointed to Cabinet, the background check, coupled with the oath they take and the Ministerial Security Briefing they receiv…
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Madam Speaker, I request a recorded vote.
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the member knows that as a member of NSICOP, I have to be very careful and judicious about what I talk about. I congratulate all the members, including the NDP member, the four Liberal members, the Bloc Québécois member and the senators who are part of that committee. It is a very important report that was just tabled. I know there are lots of questions being raised by …
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Mr. Speaker, it is very important. Transparency is not only something that we see with different ombudsmen and different roles, but ultimately it is important. Again, we just need to look at anything that has been tabled in the House recently on some of the reports that have been coming out. We can look at foreign interference and the importance of transparency there to get to the crux of what we …
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Mr. Speaker, I was cut off during my last speech on Bill C-20, which was my first time debating the bill. It now, unfortunately, has been time-allocated. I am a big believer that all members of Parliament should at least have the opportunity to debate one stage of a bill, as it goes through the parliamentary process, to represent our constituents and express any concerns or support for said bill. …
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Mr. Speaker, I will just push back and counter the parliamentary secretary's comments, because, as I mentioned at the start of my speech and as I have brought up in debate previously, I am a big believer that every member in this House should have the opportunity to speak to every piece of legislation, if it is something that their constituents want them to speak to. That member is a member who sp…
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With regard to government security clearances as of April 1, 2024: (a) how many personnel have an active or currently valid security clearance from the Government of Canada, broken down by (i) institution, (ii) status of employment (e.g. employee, contractor, potential contractor, former employee, etc.), (iii) level of security clearance; (b) how long do Cabinet ministers and other individuals app…
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Madam Speaker, I have more of a comment to build on the last question from our NDP colleague, because I want to put it on the record. I have huge belief in our Canadian Armed Forces members to move forward and be there for domestic operations, but that is not their primary role. They will be there to do those tasks that nobody else in the civil service can do, or if municipal or provincial capabil…
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Madam Speaker, six students from Bruce and Grey counties participated in the Canada-Wide Science Fair here in Ottawa this week. They are the following: Chayle Oatt for her project, Plant Growth Spurt; Oscar Weerasinghe for his project, Breakfast on the Brain, which won the gold medal in the junior division, plus a health and nutrition award; Kenna Wilson for her project, Body Temperature, which wo…
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Mr. Speaker, I actually want him to follow up a little more on that because maybe it has potential. I know we have heard an amendment from the NDP to potentially move the election date back to the normal date. Maybe another amendment would be just to move it a full month or a month and a half further into the future, or maybe even to next week. What does my colleague think about that?
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank everybody who participated in this important debate because it actually achieved one of my aims, which I talked about in my initial speech when I introduced this bill, and that is education. I will get into the reasons why that is so important. I am not shocked by this, but after listening to members, there seems to still be a level of misunderstanding of what exactl…
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Madam Speaker, I would ask for it to pass unanimously, but I doubt that would work, so I am going to ask for a recorded vote.
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Madam Speaker, I have two quick questions for the parliamentary secretary. First, if the Speaker does not do the honourable thing and resign, is the member going to vote to have the Speaker step down? If his answer is no, then I want to know how many strikes, mistakes or errors of judgment he expects the Speaker to be tied to before he would ask him to step down. As for my second question, the par…
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Madam Speaker, I want to give the parliamentary secretary another chance to answer my question. I asked him this: If the Speaker does not resign, when this comes to a vote, how is he going to vote? Is he going to vote for the Speaker to stay in the chair or not? If he is going to vote to keep the Speaker in the chair, how many more mistakes does he think the Speaker should be allowed? Is it one, t…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this bill for the first time. I understand I have only two minutes, so I am not going to be able to address all the concerns. However, I just want to start. There has been a lot of commentary so far about how members should not have the opportunity to debate. It is one of my biggest observations, and I find it very frustrating when members acro…
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Mr. Speaker, the member talked a lot about, really, restricting or censoring the ability of members in the House to speak and voice their concerns about legislation. Does the hon. member think that all members of the House should have an equal right to speak to any bill at any stage of the debate, and if he does not, as the House leader for the New Democratic Party, how does he censor or restrict …
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to take the opportunity to correct something from my hon. colleague from the Bloc Québécois. He did use the term “military-style assault rifles” when referring to the legislation. However, there is nothing in the legislation that refers to that, so it does bother me when we hear misleading comments that confuse Canadians. My question to my hon. colleague is specifically ab…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-20 is clearly important for building trust and accountability within the RCMP and the CBSA. Unfortunately, the current Liberal government always seems reluctant to prioritize legislation that enhances accountability. Here is another example. The review of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act was supposed to begin in the fall of 2022, but the …
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With regard to the processing of requests made under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act (ATIP) by Parks Canada since January 2015: (a) how many requests have been received each year; (b) what is the average response time each year; (c) what was the shortest processing time each year; (d) what is the longest processing time each year; (e) how many hours of work were allocated to proc…
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With regard to the government's response to recommendations 8 and 13 in the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans entitled "Restoring Full Accountability for Resources and Governance of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission": (a) has a decision been made about transferring the responsibilities and governance of the Great Lake Fisheries Commission (GLFC) from Fisheries and Ocea…
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Madam Speaker, I wish I could answer. I really take pride in trying to answer all questions. I have no idea of the logic or the rationale. It is not something I am familiar with. I will follow up with the member to try to get an answer by talking to my colleagues who are part of that committee, but I was not aware. The bottom line is, to highlight what I did bring up in my speech, it was not even …
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Madam Speaker, it is hard for me to answer a question from somebody who knows even more about this than I do. My point is that Canada is a large, diverse country. Part of the reason I got into politics was that I was tired of seeing decisions coming out of Ottawa that work great for major urban centres but do not work for every part of this great country, like at the provincial level, but mainly b…
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Madam Speaker, unfortunately, I was elected only in 2019, and I know the member was elected more recently, so I cannot really compare. I have not done sufficient data analysis. I am just saying that I support income testing for the program. I know plenty of people would use it, myself included, though I likely would not meet the requirement anyway because I have the privilege of being compensated …
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Madam Speaker, unfortunately, I cannot answer a question on a bill that has yet to be fully debated or analyzed, on pharmacare. I did speak to Bill C-35 and the child care program in Quebec, and I complimented Quebec because it was able to implement something. The majority of this does fall within provincial jurisdiction. I made the comment when I spoke to this last year that I do not even underst…
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Madam Speaker, I never said that. I said me personally. I was talking about a question that I received from the Liberal member about the child care benefit, not about the early learning and child care program. I am just saying that it is something that I would not personally partake in. It is the way I was raised, that we take care of things ourselves, but I have 100% indicated the importance of t…
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Madam Speaker, I want to open my speech this afternoon by clarifying a few things, especially for the member for Winnipeg South Centre and the member for Winnipeg North. They seem to be confused about how Conservatives voted on Bill C-35. The bill was voted on at all stages and received unanimous consent from every member in this House. I will make it crystal clear to everybody now that I support …
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Madam Speaker, Conservatives would support all forms of child care, including traditional day care centres; centres with extended, part-time or overnight care; nurseries; flexible and drop-in care; before- and after-school care; preschools and co-op child care; faith-based care; unique programming to support children with disabilities; home-based child care; nannies and shared nannies; stay-at-hom…
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Madam Speaker, I understood the question perfectly. I said that even if I could qualify for it, I would not apply for it. Again, we are talking about something that has nothing to do with the debate today. My question back to the member is, why is there not an income means-testing on this program? Right now, the Liberal government is basically cutting cheques to millionaires.
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Madam Speaker, I think it is pretty obvious, with the way the bill passed the first time through the House, that the House does recognize the importance of child care in this country. We are all in agreement with the bill's intent. However, I raised in my speech last year something that has really come to the forefront of one of the challenges with the current agreements, which is the impact they …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like the minister to explain how the carbon tax is tied to reconciliation when we have the Chiefs of Ontario, which represents 133 first nations, and the Assembly of First Nations taking the government to court asking for a judicial review with respect to their view that the carbon tax is discriminatory against our first nations.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am presenting is to do with online verification for access to pornography on the Internet. Petitioners are calling upon the House of Commons to adopt Bill S-210, which seeks to protect young persons from exposure to pornography.
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Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present today, but prior to that, I have a point of order. There was a missing statement from ministers today, which is that the great prognosticator from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, Wiarton Willie, predicted an early spring this morning. The first petition is from constituents in my riding who are calling for the House of Commons and the Government of Canada to rev…
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Madam Speaker, first, I just have a quick comment. There was a transfer of leadership in the Canadian Armed Forces training mission, Joint Task Force-Ukraine, just a few days ago. I want to thank all the Canadian Armed Forces members who are part of that mission in training Ukrainians, in particular the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel James Boddy, who is the outgoing commander, and the new comman…
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order for me and for the member for Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, I have had my hand up since we were calculating the votes. I know we are past the calculations now, but as I had technical difficulties, I would like to seek unanimous consent to cast my vote as a nay on the last vote.
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With regard to the federal government’s announcement to reboot post-war efforts to construct housing with a housing design catalogue: (a) who will be eligible to participate in the consultation process; (b) what are the key design aspects or characteristics for these houses that the government is prioritizing; (c) what is the duration of the consultation period; (d) what are the estimated number o…
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With regard to Old Age Security (OAS), for the 2022 tax year: (a) how many OAS payment recipients were not residents of Canada for tax purposes; and (b) how much was paid out in OAS payments to the recipients in (a)?
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With regard to Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) benefits delivered via contract by Medavie Blue Cross: (a) from January 1, 2022, to December 12, 2023, how many technical issues with the Medavie Blue Cross online portal were reported listed by (i) month, (ii) claim area affected; (b) how many veterans did these technical issues effect; (c) what was the dollar amount of outstanding or delayed claims; (…
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With regard to Canada’s census of agriculture and government information about farmland in Canada: (a) how many farm properties exist, broken down by federal electoral district; (b) how many different entities own agricultural land, broken down by federal electoral district; (c) how many different farm businesses are located in each federal electoral district; (d) what is the total number of acres…
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With regard to Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC): (a) is the independent impartial report completed by Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton regarding the allegations of mismanagement of SDTC and provided to the minister available to the public; (b) if the report in (a) is published, where is it published on a government of Canada website; (c) if the report in (a) is not published, when and…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I want to clarify your point here. We are in a hybrid Parliament, so people are in this chamber regardless of whether they are here or voting virtually.
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to split my time with the member for Edmonton Manning. I actually want to start my speech by answering the questions that NDP and Bloc members asked of the previous Liberal speaker: Why is it so important to debate this motion today? I have an article here from today's international news, titled “Female-Led Afghan Refugee Families Reluctant To Return To Afghanistan Amid Fre…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his commitment to trying to help make a difference in the world. There are so many countries Canada could help. The government of the day, way back when, chose to get us involved in Afghanistan. The member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan talked about the challenges around fatigue, and that is the biggest challenge I always had in talking to Canadians…
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Mr. Speaker, first, as I said, we have to get those who helped us and those leaders, the former Afghan women MPs I talked about, to safety. They are the ones who will eventually go back to Afghanistan, not all of them but some of them, someday, or maybe even their kids, depending on how long this takes, to actually lead that change. That is number one: We have to get out the people who are those l…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a great question. I have brought this up in the chamber before during debate on this specific issue. That is the risk we are putting out there. It does not matter if we end up in a country in Africa, or we end up in a country somewhere in the Middle East again in the future. Whether it is our military, our diplomats or Canadian NGOs that depend upon getting the necessary quali…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's bringing up the changing dynamics. We saw that first-hand in Afghanistan with the west's pulling out. I would like to ask the member the same question I asked the parliamentary secretary, and it is really a favour: to use his voice with the Liberal government, as a member of that party, to get some clarity around the current programs that exist for helping th…
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Madam Speaker, I want to answer the member's question, and then I am going to ask him a favour. The reason we are debating this and why it is so important for this to be debated today, as I read in my previous intervention, is that women who are stuck in Pakistan and are being forced to return to Afghanistan will be eliminated. Those are their words, not mine. There are a number of Afghans who are…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for raising this very important debate, considering the travesty that is going on in Afghanistan, in particular against women and girls. Reports are coming out, as recently as today, talking about the 1.7 million foreigners in Pakistan they are looking to push back to where they came from. This in particular has a huge impact on women and girls who are f…
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Madam Speaker, when it comes to veterans affairs and recognizing the ultimate sacrifice that many of our veterans and Canadian Forces personnel have made, particularly in Afghanistan, when we left 158 Canadian Armed Forces members behind, it should be non-partisan. This process about recognizing the incredible contribution that these veterans have made to our country and to freedom in Afghanistan …
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Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is entitled to attack political parties, but when he attacks all members in the House, including those within my party who are actually Afghanistan veterans, I take that personally.
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