Parliamentary Speeches

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, my colleague has asked a question about a topic that is near and dear to my heart. The riding of every single member of Parliament in this place has a community of seniors in it. The seniors in my constituency were, by and large, very happy because they had income splitting. They had a tax-free savings account they could have moved their money into that was $10,000 a year and moving…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are struggling with the rising cost of living, particularly with the impact of the carbon tax, which is making it more expensive for Canadians to heat their homes or simply go to work. Canadian families and businesses cannot afford the tripling of the carbon tax, and now the environment minister is musing about $265 a tonne. Canadians already cannot afford $65 a tonne. It is…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the cost of government is driving up the cost of living. After years of inflationary spending by the government, Canadians cannot afford to put food on the table or to heat their homes, yet the Prime Minister was off jet-setting to Jamaica on yet another luxury vacation. This is just another example of a prime minister who cannot or will not try to understand the realities of hard-wor…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my unwavering support for the brave people of Ukraine as they continue to fight off Russia's unwarranted and illegal invasion. Since February last year, more than 26,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Alberta alone, many of whom are settling in my riding of Red Deer—Lacombe. I want to take this opportunity to thank Heidi Baumbach; her parents, Karen and Trent; and …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, this is the last time I accept a speaking slot before the budget from the whip's office. Let me just say that. All kidding aside, we need to trace back the history of this bill. Canada's original digital charter was mapped out in 2019. That is why I referenced that this is a redo of something we did just a few years ago. One of its primary principles was the control and consent of one…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I know that the speeches I give in this place generate a lot of interest. We cannot fault everybody else here for the excitement of today. When I was a teacher in IT, I remember having conversations about ethics and the privacy of information in the basic introduction courses that I would teach to young aspiring IT professionals. That is why the notion of our personal information an…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, given the interest that we had in this place about Yogi-isms and in honour of that, I hoped to ask my colleague, the previous speaker for Banff—Airdrie, about “It ain’t over till it’s over.” In this government's case, a piece of legislation is not over until it gets a do-over because the government never seems to get it right the first time. We seem to be revisiting issues when we w…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to acknowledge a significant accomplishment by a Canadian angler who has made our nation proud. Jeff Gustafson of Kenora has made history by becoming the first Canadian to win the Bassmaster Classic, a prestigious tournament in the sport of professional bass fishing. With a five-pound, 12-ounce lead going into the final round over American John Cox, Gustafson manage…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for generating that much enthusiasm and excitement for what I have to say because it is riveting. It is going to save our privacy and information, if people would just listen to what I have to say here right now, but I digress. In that 23 years since I started teaching at Red Deer college and since the passing of the original act, PIPEDA, as it is affectionately known, IT,…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, yes, we interviewed each other online. In all fairness to the member's question, I have the privilege of representing the find people of Maskwacis in central Alberta. The thousands of people in the four bands of Samson, Ermineskin, Louis Bull and Montana are amazing representatives of their culture: the dancing, the music, the drums and all of those things. I have complete confidence …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, if the member across the way is asking me whether or not Bill C-11 is charter-compliant, I will note that the charter compliance review would have been done by his colleague, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, who is the same person responsible for bail reform. Members will have to forgive me if I have my doubts.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will reassure my friend from Fort McMurray—Cold Lake that one of my favourite places to visit in our beautiful province is Cold Lake. I have already booked camping and fishing at Cold Lake, so I am happy to go there and reacquaint myself with not only the good people in her constituency but also the great fishing opportunities there. Aside from that, Albertans are sometimes a little…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today and speak on behalf of the constituents of Red Deer—Lacombe about an issue that I am hearing quite a bit about. Before I go any further, I will note that I am splitting my time with my friend from Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa. Bill C-11, the online streaming act, and in the previous Parliament Bill C-10, is causing a lot of concern and a lot of debate here…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to get up and ask my colleague from Calgary Shepard a question, because “there's always something to do.” The government of the day has subsidized media outlets across this country to the tune of over $600 million because these media outlets that are highly regulated by organizations like the CRTC and forced to follow these rules cannot generate the advertising revenue or th…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the member has cherry-picked a year when Canadians were basically told to stop going to work, go home and get paid $2,000 a month. What were they going to do? What did I do until we had what was not even a hybrid Parliament but a virtual sort of Parliament where we did not do anything other than talk?

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the fact that we have the ability to have this debate in the House of Commons today. It has been lively, and I have enjoyed it, but I am going to remind Canadians, who might be watching at home, and my colleagues who are here, just how rapidly technology has advanced in the course of our lifetimes. One of the last jobs that I did prior to becoming a member of Parliament h…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the debate and the questions my colleague posed. I think most Canadians back home watching this are wondering what the technical nuances are of everything we are discussing with respect to this legislation. We have even had some members of Parliament stand up here and say that they do not feel properly equipped to have this conversation. I think one thing that ever…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, this is a very interesting debate and something we should be discussing thoroughly here in the House. As my colleague has spent a lot of years as a defence critic and in the defence milieu, he is knowledgeable, so I want to ask him a bit about the People's Liberation Army's units 61486 and 61398. We know from public reports that these units have thousands and thousands of people wor…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I received a call from a constituent this week, a woman in her mid-40s whose gas bill was over $300 for the first time ever. She lives alone in her house. She says that, if her power bill is equivalent, she will not be able to afford her bills for the first time ever. She has never had a better paying job in her life, and her final thought to me was that she would have been better off…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, after eight long years of the current government, crime has surged to a level not seen in decades. Not only are communities subjected to daily shootings and stabbings, but now they worry about random attacks in their subways. Rapists are let out on bail the same day the police take them down to the courthouse. Public safety is not some graduate project for a criminologist; its imple…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, in 2022, five Canadian police officers were killed in a deadly 37-day stretch. The president of the Police Association of Ontario has called this “unprecedented”. All the while, shootings continue in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Drugs, guns and contraband continue to flow across the border, and repeat offenders are out on bail, allowed to continue harming society unmitigated. We…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition signed by numerous Canadians from coast to coast in this country who want to draw to the attention of the House comments made by Louis Roy of the Collège des médecins du Québec, who recommended euthanasia to babies from birth to one year of age who are not born in a healthy way and have severe deformities or a serious syndrome. This proposal is basic…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, if a couple, Fred and Martha let us say, living near Hoadley, Alberta in a rural area, have incomes that are close to or just above minimum wage, would they get the pleasure and privilege of paying for day care for millionaires in downtown Toronto or downtown Montreal while their taxes are not going to provide any benefit because there will be no government-sanctioned day care spaces …

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, it has been eight years since the Prime Minister took office, and his soft-on-crime policies have unleashed a crime wave in Canada. The government has made life easier for violent criminals by providing easy access to bail and repealing mandatory minimum sentences for serious crimes. As a result, violent crime has gone up 32% in the past year, and gang-related killings have gone up by…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, from the outset, Conservatives wish to acknowledge and thank our security and policing professionals for their hard and important work keeping our Parliament safe, secure, open and accessible, as these are important hallmarks of any democratic Legislature. While I am on my feet, I would like to thank each and every one of those people, and wish them a very merry Christmas and a happ…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the details of certain contracts being withheld from disclosure, since January 1, 2016: (a) what was the total (i) number, (ii) value, of contracts which had their details withheld due a national security exemption, broken down by year; (b) what is the total (i) number, (ii) value, of contracts which had their details withheld for a reason other than national security, broken down b…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, since the government took office in 2015, gang-related homicides have increased by 92%. The Liberals reduced sentencing requirements for serious gun crimes and now violent crime is up 32%. The Liberals will not admit their soft-on-crime approach is failing all Canadians. Last week, the government initiated a ban on rifles and shotguns. This will ban hundreds of thousands of firearms i…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Kay is 71 years old. She lives in a seniors' lodge, and the lodge just raised her rent because of inflation. Her OAS and GIS are now $100 short of what her monthly rent is. She has moved up several flights of stairs just to save $300 a month, but that deal is going to end soon. She volunteers at the lodge because she gets, as a reward, a glass of cranberry juice, which she needs for n…

Statements By Members

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to stand in the House today to celebrate the recent achievements of Blindman Brewing, located in my hometown of Lacombe. Blindman was named the best brewery of the year in Alberta and recognized best in show for its Brett 24-2 stock ale at the Alberta Craft Brewing Convention. It is satisfying to see that the hard work of risk-taking and ambitious small business en…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, another quote that I would like to leave with this House comes from Winston Churchill. He said, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy”, and that its inherent virtue is “the equal sharing of misery.” Canadians do not need a rent subsidy; they need a place to rent. Our plan is to actually convert government buildings that are underutiliz…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her eloquent speech and articulate thoughts in the House this morning. She is exactly right. The government is proposing to be the solution, but it is actually the problem. The problem can never be the solution. We are witnessing, coming out of COVID, the massive inflation-induced problems that Canadians are facing, making their paycheques shorter. The…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, my next-door neighbour back home is a dentist, and he noticed a sharp decline in his business shortly after the Liberal government took office, because nobody had the money they used to have in their pockets because of the policies of the government. That is the whole point. I know the members are cheering for that loudly over there—

Government Orders

—because Liberals actually do not care about Canadians who do not vote for them. That is the issue. I would be happy to bring in all of my friends who happen to be dentists to talk about the decline in business once the oil and gas sector workers no longer had any disposable income. This is the problem, and I will get to it. When a family is spending all of its money and the people who used to be …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague across the way who asked that question that Conservatives have always been environmental stewards. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney is one of the greatest environmental stewards we have ever had sitting in the Prime Minister's chair. He has been awarded for this and Conservatives have always put forward a plan on the environment. However, the is…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, that is spoken like a member of Parliament from an area that does not have energy workers in it. I represent a part of the country that actually has a large number, or at least used to have a large number, of energy workers. I know, for example, that the GDP alone of Fort McMurray is almost 6% of the national GDP. All of the businesses that operate there, the subcontractors that opera…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, we know that this Prime Minister is out of touch. Recent records show that he spent $12,000 in a single month for groceries, so how could he possibly know what ordinary Canadians are facing? With taxes up and consumer confidence down, Canadians know that making ends meet is almost impossible. Not only are Canadians cutting back on groceries, they worry about heating their homes this w…

Mr. Speaker, it is truly a privilege to stand here today in commemoration of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, on behalf of the residents of Red Deer—Lacombe. There are things that we always say to folks, such as wishing them a successful life and a long life. Rarely do we see people get both. Her Majesty the Queen certainly had a long life, and through her 70 years as the monarch, and her years pri…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives agree to apply the vote and will be voting against the motion.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives agree to apply and will be voting in favour of the motion.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to speak to Bill C-21, the NDP-Liberals' most recent attempt to scapegoat law-abiding firearms owners and to trick the average Canadian into believing they are trying to improve public safety while doing absolutely no such thing. If we looks at the balance of the government's agenda on public safety and justice, we see that Liberals seem content to underm…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I actually do genuinely appreciate my colleague. We have spent lots of time working together in a constructive fashion on the fisheries committee, and I believe him to be an individual of solid character. I would simply suggest something to him, given the fact and the track record of the government that he has been supporting here all the while. If he wants to provide some solace to t…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, this is an excellent idea and worthy of debate in the House. I look forward to my colleague in the Bloc Québécois tabling a private member's bill, or somebody in the House tabling a bill, to establish just such a thing. As I said in my comments, I am checked as a law-abiding citizen every day to ensure that I am able to continue to legally possess firearms in this country, yet we do n…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I represent constituents who also participate in airsoft activities. It is a small but important industry to those who take great enjoyment in it and have fun with it. It is great for exercise and a number of reasons. The fact that the Liberal government is actually not even differentiating between a toy gun and an actual firearm shows me just how little Liberals actually know or unde…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has gone from inappropriately interfering with prosecutions to interfering with police investigations. To the Prime Minister, the murder of 22 people is not tragedy but political opportunity. Superintendent Campbell made it clear: “The commissioner said she had promised the Minister of Public Safety and the Prime Minister's Office that the RCMP would release this in…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, multiple sources from the RCMP are accusing the government of political interference that risks police investigations into a tragic mass shooting. Lia Scanlan, from RCMP communications, is quoted as saying, “The commissioner releases a body count that we don't even have.... It was all political pressure. That is 100% [the] Minister...and the Prime Minister.” Canadians are not buying t…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we have had all of our members speak, so that is why we might not necessarily have the same problems that the couple of members in the House who speak for the Liberals are having. We do know that there are several committees right now that are having trouble being stood up because the Internet is down in the Parliamentary precinct. If any member checks in th…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I would humbly remind the House that people made plans this week to either be here or somewhere else, based on what we have as operating rules and procedures for this House. This is not a debate about what it should be; this is a debate about what it currently is. It is evidence that this format does not always work. I agree with my colleague from the Bloc about future considerations,…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, Canadians continue to have to pay Service Canada for expedited passports, despite the minister assuring this House that this would not be the case. Half the time, they are not even getting the enhanced service they are being forced to pay for. This directive first came out weeks ago, yet it is still not being implemented. If the minister’s department does not respect her enough to f…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, Passport Canada’s narrow definition of “need” for expediting a passport is very troublesome. If people have an upcoming ticket to Disney World, they can get an expedited passport. If they are pleading to expedite their passport so they can fly to say goodbye to their dying parent or go to Europe to help their scared, elderly mother escape from Ukraine, that is not really an urgent n…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Public Safety's own department confirmed that the police did not ask for the Emergencies Act to be invoked, and now the Minister of Emergency Preparedness has also publicly agreed. In the Prime Minister's 2015 “Open and Accountable Government” document, he wrote: For Canadians to trust our government we must trust Canadians, and we will only be successful in implementi…