Parliamentary Speeches
194 speeches by Anthony Housefather — Page 2 of 4
Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we will continue to work with the province. We will continue to work with investors. We are going to make sure we do everything we can, because this industry is the future of Canada, the future of Quebec. We absolutely want this to work.
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Mr. Speaker, through the zero emission transit fund, the federal government is helping the public transit and school bus operators in the country electrify their fleet. This initiative builds on the work of the Canada Infrastructure Bank to provide to public transit and school bus operators low-cost loans for electrification. Through these two initiatives, the federal government is supporting the …
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Mr. Speaker, the Access to Information Act requires that the package of briefing materials prepared for a minister or deputy head for the purpose of an appearance before a committee of Parliament be proactively published within 120 days after the appearance. The act does not make any distinction regarding the type or format of the information that comprises the package of briefing materials. Minis…
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Madam Speaker, I very much thank, as always, my entertaining colleague and the chairman of the ethics committee for his speech, although it really pains me deeply to be identified as obstructionist. I do not think I am obstructionist and I am sure the member would like to correct that on the record when he speaks. I looked at the minutes of the July meeting where we reported Mr. Anderson to the Ho…
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Mr. Speaker, we care deeply about first nations children. Jordan's principle ensures first nations children can access the care they need when they need it, regardless of where they live. Since 2016, Indigenous Services Canada has funded approximately 7.8 million products, services and supports for first nations children. The number of requests has grown exponentially over the years, and we are in…
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Mr. Speaker, we obviously recognize the very important work done by the federal public service. We want to make sure that we look into this matter very carefully. As to where this money will go, it will go into the general accounts for the moment. We will be discussing this with different parts of the government, including the unions, and we will come to the right decision.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move: That the House: (a) firmly condemn the violent acts and the antisemitic gestures which took place during the demonstrations in Montreal on November 21 and 22; (b) condemn all attacks against the Jewish community and state clearly that Jewish Ca…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his remarks. I want to ask about the English-language CBC. It is the Conservative Party's position, as articulated in the member's speech, to cut off English-language services from the CBC, but for the English-language minority communities of Quebec outside of Montreal, the CBC offers a vital service. In many rural parts of Quebec, the CBC is the only link to …
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Mr. Speaker, I do not believe that the country will long sustain Radio-Canada without the CBC. As I mentioned, Radio-Canada services outside Quebec, where the populations are the most vulnerable, are using CBC offices, CBC cameras, CBC equipment and CBC personnel to cover the news and to do shows in French. The idea that Radio-Canada would sustain itself outside of Quebec very easily without the C…
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Mr. Speaker, I wish to welcome my colleague to the House. This is the first time we have had the opportunity to share ideas. I agree, this is realpolitik. Canada is a bilingual country where both official languages are supposed to be present in every province, with national services available in both languages. I will always fight to ensure that all services available in English are also available…
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Mr. Speaker, I am a proud Canadian. I love this country from coast to coast to coast. Apparently, one need only look at the separatist governments that have taken power in Quebec to see that very few people in Quebec's anglophone community believe our rights would be better protected in an independent Quebec than in Canada. That said, I would have a major quarrel with any government that cut the C…
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Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more. His comments give me the opportunity to share another obvious point. There is a member from northern Ontario here in the House who speaks perfect French. It is proof that Canada can work. It is true that, in the hon. member's region, Radio-Canada's resources are mixed with the CBC's. Therefore, if the CBC is cut, all the equipment, all the trucks and all the pe…
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Madam Speaker, a few weeks ago we were all shocked when a Conservative member told a francophone minister that he should not speak French in the House. I found that shameful, but the member graciously apologized. I am now shocked to hear a member of the Bloc Québécois say that, as an anglophone member from Quebec, I should not speak English in the House of Commons. I use both official languages in…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore. It was wonderful to hear the speech by the member for New Westminster—Burnaby and see that there are anglophone MPs from British Columbia who speak impeccable French in the House. Today we saw anglophone members from all parties who are able to manage in French in the House. This is part of Canada's richness. We have p…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that the government is proud of the work of our public service. They work hard for Canadians every day, and the experience of working in the public service should be the same no matter where someone is in the country. We have adopted a common hybrid work model that aims to foster the kind of culture we need to best serve Canadians. While any transition of this scal…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, our public service is composed of hard-working Canadians from across the country who are committed to providing the highest level of service to Canadians. Dedicated federal public servants serve Canadians day in and day out, from coast to coast to coast. The services they provide have a real and meaningful impact on Canadians every day. While it is important to understand that each de…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I can certainly say that there is no ambiguity when it comes to defending Montreal's Jewish community. The federal government has absolutely no tolerance for anti-Semitism in Canada. Unfortunately, the problem is that the Conservatives are trying to blame the federal government for decisions made by Mayor Plante, decisions made by municipal authorities and decisions made by the prov…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I voted against the NDP motion in March. That was one of the reasons I did so. I do not agree that there should be a restriction on licensing shipments to Israel. A perfect example is that, today, Iranian rockets fell on Israel. It is an absurd idea that Israel is a friend and ally but that we would not give it the opportunity to defend itself against Iranian and Hezbollah rockets. …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, there is one party that does want war. It is the Islamic Republic of Iran. This summer, I was in Argentina. It was the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA, the Jewish community centre in Argentina, which was the deadliest attack on Jews between the Holocaust and what happened on October 7. That attack in 1994 killed 85 people and wounded 300. Who was the attack carried out b…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, tomorrow night is the beginning of the Jewish new year. Normally, this is a festive time, one of joy and celebration. However, this year there is a shadow. The last year has been an annus horribilis for Jews. Next week is the anniversary of October 7, a day Hamas attacked Israel, slaughtered over 1,200 people and kidnapped hundreds of others. Then a wave of anti-Semitism swept across …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, the ICJ has a ruling, not on the West Bank but on the genocide claim, that has been cited multiple times by the member for Edmonton Strathcona. I want to quote from a BBC article: The interpretation “that the court had concluded that the claim that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza was ‘plausible’” was disputed and discounted by “Joan Donoghue, the president of the ICJ at the t…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, one issue had to do with a number of Jewish community buildings this year, including in Montreal in my own riding, where people gathered around the buildings, screaming hateful things and blocking access to or exit from them. That was totally unacceptable. Municipalities and provinces can do a better job of controlling that by passing zoning bylaws at the municipal level, or laws at…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I want to come back to the last question. What I understand from it is that we are now interpreting the UN as saying that if a country has missiles being thrown at it in an attack by another country, it is not allowed to respond. Does the hon. member think that is a logical thing for the NDP to be proposing?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, inflation is down, interest rates are down, car theft is down, gas prices are down, emissions are down and all Conservatives can do is frown. I just do not understand why we do not have a team Canada approach. The Canadian economy is getting better; things are getting better. Why do Conservatives not try to work with us and make things better? That is the kind of House of Commons I …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the 2024-25 Main Estimates included funding of $15,344,268 in program expenditures funding for the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada. This is an increase of approximately 8% relative to $14,212,216 in program expenditures funding presented in the estimates in 2023-24. This additional funding for the office reflects salary increases due to new collective agreements. Simi…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, in response to parts (a)(i) and (a)(ii) of the question, the “Direction on prescribed presence in the workplace”, found at https://www.canada.ca/en/government/publicservice/staffing/direction-prescribed-presence-workplace.html and as introduced in December 2022 and fully implemented since March 31, 2023, required employees who are eligible for a hybrid work arrangement to work onsite …
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Mr. Speaker, as a non-agent crown corporation, the public sector pension investment board, or PSPIB, upholds an autonomous, arm’s-length operating mandate. PSPIB is subject to disclosure requirements as set out in the Public Sector Pension Investment Board Act and the Access to Information Act and reports to the President of the Treasury Board. Information concerning the activities of PSPIB is pre…
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Mr. Speaker, in response to part (a) of the question, as per the 2021 agreement between the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the proposal to extend eligibility for early retirement benefits to the Border Services (FB) group was brought forward for consultations held through the Public Service Pension Advisory Committee, or PSPAC. The PSPAC was establi…
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Mr. Speaker, the direction on prescribed presence in the workplace applies to all public servants, including deputy heads. In addition to setting a minimum number of days in the office, currently 2-3 days/week or 40-60% of an employee’s schedule, the direction allows for certain exemptions in exceptional cases, for example for medical reasons. Ms. Blewett has been under medical care since March 11…
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Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), in the context of the hybrid work model for the federal public service, the Information and Privacy Policy Division of the Treasury Board Secretariat, or TBS, engaged the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or OPC, on Access to Information and Privacy Implementation Notice 2020-01: Guidance on delays resulting from measures to mitigate the impact of novel…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Madam Speaker, enough is enough. On Wednesday, a Jewish school in Montreal had shots fired at it. On Saturday, two men opened fire at a Jewish school in Toronto. Last night, a synagogue in Vancouver was attacked. Over the course of the last seven months, Jewish buildings and stores have been vandalized; encampments have been set up at universities, where posters extolling terrorist groups and glor…
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Mr. Speaker, our government is definitely committed to reaching agreements with all of our different public service unions that are both fair to the employees and reasonable to taxpayers. We have already reached agreements with 17 different bargaining units that cover over 80% of represented employees. The best deals are found at the table. We urge the union to come to the table. We are happy to n…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the directory of federal real property, or DFRP, found at https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/dfrp-rbif/introduction-eng.aspx, is the central repository for basic information on the Government of Canada’s real property holdings, both land and buildings. The inventory can be searched by various attributes found in the left-hand menu of the website, e.g., by municipality or by electoral district.…
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Mr. Speaker, the Treasury Board’s financial policy instruments apply to departments as defined in section 2 of the Financial Administration Act, or FAA. Organizations in the Government of Canada, such as Crown corporations, that are not defined in section 2 of the FAA are encouraged to adopt these policy instruments to the extent possible. Under Treasury Board’s policy on financial management, the…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, today marks the 38th anniversary of the Mad Science Group. Founded in 1987 by youthful visionaries, Ron Shlien and his brother, Ariel, the Mad Science Group has evolved into a national gem. It has ignited the spirits of countless young minds across Canada and beyond. Mad Science has fundamentally altered how children engage with STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. Through…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, it is a real honour to rise in the House to honour Brian Mulroney, who in every interaction I ever had with him, was a compassionate, intelligent and caring human being. I first met Mr. Mulroney when I had just graduated from law school and I went to Florida with my friend Jonathan Cohen. We were in Palm Beach, and Brian Mulroney was taking a walk down the path. The two of us saw the …
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Mr. Speaker, any death of a human being is a tragedy. We are getting statistics, and the hon. member mentioned the figure of 30,000 from the Hamas ministry of health, but I do not know how accurate that is. I do know that many of those people are Hamas fighters. Of course, there are innocent civilians killed in wars, and we feel horrible for the fact that they are innocent civilians. We have to ca…
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Mr. Speaker, I am a Canadian. I am a Jew. I am a Zionist. I am proud to have been born in this country. I am proud that my family came here in the 19th century and helped to build this country. My family members fought in World War I and World War II. We are part of Canada and lucky to be so. I have represented Canada in swimming internationally. I have represented Canada as a parliamentarian. The…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to echo the point of view of the hon. member for Eglinton—Lawrence. This was tabled after the entire debate had concluded. How can there be such substantive amendments that nobody has had the chance to see or debate at all? It offends my privileges and the privileges of the people of Mount Royal.
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Mr. Speaker, the war in the Middle East has torn the fabric of this country apart. We are seeing people who are passionate and emotional on both sides who are speaking past each other often, and it is tragic to watch. However, I have to say that the main issue I see are the demonstrations that are crossing the line and verging on intimidation and hate speech, surrounding Jewish buildings and doing…
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Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely not. Again, I think this motion would bring pain to one of two communities in Canada because one strongly wants it to pass and one strongly wants it to fail. Certainly, foreign policy written this way is not a good thing when we would be saying that we are suddenly going to recognize the state of Palestine unilaterally, when for 50 years, under successive Liberal and …
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I made a technical error in my vote on PMB Motion No. 86 on the seventh vote today, and I would very much appreciate the House's unanimous consent to allow me to change my vote to no.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the increase in anti-Jewish hate over the last two months is a danger to our country and its values, our democracy and our national security. One of the most hostile places for Jews is on campus. Last week, a U.S. House committee heard from the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn State. All three were asked whether a call for the genocide of Jews would violate their code of conduct. N…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it, I think you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: That the House unequivocally rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks against Israel by terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023, and demands that Hamas unconditionally and immediately release all hostages, regardless of nationality…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Canada's Jewish community has been here since 1760. We have had high and low points in our history, but never in my lifetime has the 400,000 strong Jewish community in Canada felt so vulnerable. The dramatic rise in anti-Semitism over the last decade has been compounded by Hamas terrorists brutally attacking our friend and ally Israel. This week, hundreds of Jewish community leaders f…
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Mr. Chair, I was very concerned by what I heard before. The Jewish people were the victims of the greatest genocide in human history, the Holocaust. Israel is the only majority Jewish state in the world. It sounded to me very much like he accused the state of Israel of being on the verge of committing a genocide. I would like to ask, yes or no, do you believe that Israel is committing or is about …
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Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg South Centre. Let us start by asking ourselves why we are here tonight. We are here tonight because a terrorist organization that has in its charter the destruction of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people launched the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. It crossed the border into Israel. It slaughtered babies. It …
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Mr. Chair, that is a very important question. Iran is definitely responsible for Hamas having the resources it had to carry out these terrorist attacks. Whether or not Iran was actually involved in plotting these attacks, we do not know yet; I imagine we will at some future date. However, what we do know is that Iran is actively involved with Hezbollah and may well try to get it to create a second…
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Mr. Chair, I always enjoy getting questions from my hon. colleague, who is very intelligent. He always asks good questions. In my opinion, we are in a situation where a western democratic country was attacked by a third party, a terrorist group, whose stated purpose is to eradicate that country. The terrorist group's goal is not to create two states but to eradicate the State of Israel. Israel has…
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Mr. Chair, I also know my hon. colleague to be a very nice and well-reasoned person, and I consider her a friend. We disagree on this. I do not believe that anybody is saying any of the things she just said. Israel will do its best, as always, to make sure to make civilian casualties as low as possible. The difference between Hamas and Israel is that Hamas attacks civilians; that is its goal. Hama…
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