Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague did a great job of highlighting the Christian heritage of Parliament in Canada and the dominion from sea to sea and the many references that are in this place. I have been hearing from Christians across the country who know me, Christians in my own church, about the threats of Bill C-9 to freedom of religion and freedom of speech. What is the consensus in Canada around Bi…
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Mr. Speaker, I know a lot of Christian groups. I am a Christian myself, and Christians across the country are concerned about this overreach, as the member just said. We have seen recent examples of government overreach as recently as four years ago, when the government invoked the Emergencies Act. I do not believe we can trust the current government with respect to restraining its authority, espe…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, to the Tumbler Ridge families of Zoey, Tiki, Abel, Ezekiel, Kylie, Shannda, Emmett and Jennifer, we say that we continue to grieve with them. I thank our leader, the Prime Minister and all the federal leaders for making the trip to Tumbler Ridge to support us. I thank all members who have reached out over these last four weeks to give kind notes to me in some semblance of trying to pa…
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Mr. Speaker, I present a petition that comes from many Christians across the country who are concerned about the effects of Bill C-9 and that its effects could criminalize passages of the Bible. Petitioners say that the state has no place in the religious texts or teachings of any faith community and that freedom of expression and freedom of religion are fundamental rights that must be preserved. …
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Mr. Speaker, in the last election, the Prime Minister ran on being the more responsible economic adviser type, saying he would do a much better job with our economy and would spend more wisely than his predecessor. Justin Trudeau was going to add $154 billion to our debt over the next five years. The current Prime Minister is adding $321 billion to our debt over the next five years, and this new p…
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Mr. Speaker, I wish you a merry Christmas. The Prime Minister wrote a book called Values, in which he said that 50% of Canadian oil, 50% of natural gas and 75% of coal “need to stay in the ground”. He reiterated those points in interviews prior to the previous election. I would ask a simple question of the hon. member from Alberta. Does he fully believe that the Prime Minister really wants to buil…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is a great colleague and parliamentarian. He has been around to see those previous efforts by companies to try to get a pipeline done. I am the representative for Prince George. We saw over 4,000 people and their interests represented in the consultations to do with northern gateway. The project had, like the member said, all the t's crossed and the i's dotted, and the form…
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Madam Speaker, that was a great speech. I am part of the Christian community. Many Christians across Canada are concerned about threats posed to the very Bible itself. Do Christians need to be concerned about this legislation? Does it really threaten the Bible and free speech in Canada?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. It was a very clear question. He is asking for a yes or no answer. Will the member simply answer the question?
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from Prince George. We share the city of Prince George and also many of those hits that have been given to our local mills and forestry workers. We have heard that 10,000 direct jobs and three to five times that in indirect jobs have been affected by the fact that the Liberals cannot get a softwood lumber deal done. We have heard that the government has given…
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Madam Speaker, it has also been pointed out by the Parliamentary Budget Officer that in the new lingo the Prime Minister uses, “spend less...invest more”, even the invest more part apparently is not true, and not just in a little sense; it is actually close to $100 billion short of his investment promise. Can the member speak to the Prime Minister's words? Should Canadians hold him to his word tha…
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Mr. Speaker, that was a great speech by my seatmate and colleague from Saskatchewan. We saw that the previous prime minister Justin Trudeau was declining in popularity at a dramatic rate, so much so that he even had to step down. He was planning to spend $154 billion over the next five years and to add that to our national debt. The current Prime Minister is planning to spend, over the next five y…
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Madam Chair, the Prime Minister promised to negotiate a win with President Trump by July 21, just eight months ago, but since the Liberals became government in 2015, 30 mills have closed in B.C. alone. Despite the Liberal Prime Minister's promises that he would have a great relationship with the President, U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber have tripled to 45%. In B.C. alone over the past 10…
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Madam Chair, the B.C. forestry workers I know do not want handouts; they want their jobs back. BC Council of Forest Industries president and CEO Kim Haakstad said recently: The recent increase in U.S. tariffs and duties is a serious blow to an industry already strained by years of uncertainty, mill closures, and job losses. The federal government must make resolving the softwood lumber dispute a n…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member. Despite the Liberal criticism, it was a great speech. The member mentioned future generations. After five years and on of successive Liberal budgets, the Prime Minister said that he was going to spend less and invest more. However, over $321 billion will be added to our national debt. Does the member think it is responsible to saddle future generations with this ki…
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Madam Chair, I am glad the member thinks it is a joke that 30 mills have closed and over 10,000 jobs have been lost. The Liberals need to take softwood lumber seriously, regardless of whether Brookfield has investments in it. When are they finally going to get a softwood lumber deal done to provide surety to our softwood lumber workers in British Columbia?
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Madam Chair, we heard another very long word salad from the Liberal member across the way. One thing the Liberals are great at is talking a lot. The government has been in power for the last decade. I distinctly remember former prime minister Justin Trudeau and Obama were going to have a softwood lumber agreement signed, sealed and delivered when Obama came to Ottawa. However, he came to Ottawa an…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned, in her speech, the government's targeting of law-abiding firearm owners. We have heard in committee, over the last number of weeks, from police chiefs and chiefs of first nations and Inuit communities. They think it is a waste of resources to go after law-abiding firearm owners' firearms. Does the member think it is a good use of taxpayer money to continue to…
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague from Saskatchewan on his Grey Cup win. The Liberals have spoken out many times against omnibus legislation, but here we are again, and they have done it many times. Another thing the Liberals often do is throw money at things. To note one particular statistic from this budget, after five years of Liberal governance, it would add another $321 billion to ou…
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Mr. Speaker, I apologize. How does the Prime Minister spend more and invest less? Even Justin Trudeau, in his last budget, projected his deficit for that year would be $39.8 billion. He ended up spending $61.8 billion just before leaving. The Prime Minister led us to believe that it would be easy to do, and many believed that based on the out-of-control spending of Justin Trudeau. How could the Pr…
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Mr. Speaker, I know that the member for Cariboo—Prince George has a couple of constituents in the gallery today who are watching us as we speak. This is a real issue. I would challenge Canadians to answer how many of them actually have a family doctor. How many think the current health care system is doing great? If we had a show of hands, I bet we would not see a whole bunch of hands going up. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, it is unbelievable, as my colleague just said. It is more than twice the $154.4 billion that Justin Trudeau would have added over the same period. Do members remember the quote at the start, that the Prime Minister was going to be better than Justin Trudeau? Well, here we are. This budget adds another $10 million to our debt every hour. Under the new Prime Minister, federal debt is no…
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Mr. Speaker, I will just reiterate the Prime Minister's own words. Members should remember that he ran on this in February of this year, just a few short months ago. I will say the title of the article: “[The Prime Minister] promises to spend less, invest more to stimulate economy if he wins Liberal leadership”. He is actually spending more and investing less than the previous prime minister, afte…
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Mr. Speaker, the member's last couple of words were that this is a Conservative budget. I would take issue with that, as this is not a Conservative budget. A Conservative budget would not add $321.7 billion over the next five years to our federal debt. We are already at $1.3 trillion. I have made a video just to show the amount of money that is, which future generations will have to pay for. The i…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the budget today. Just before I start, I want to give a shout-out to my brother Larry. He made me this pen. He has made me a few other pens. He lives in Chilliwack. I just want to recognize my brother for being a good brother over the years. Let us get to the budget. I remember when the Prime Minister said he would spend less and invest more. H…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate having the time to talk about Bill C-14, the bail and sentencing bill the government has proposed to fix all the Liberal problems from over the last 10 years, supposedly. I am going to ask Canadians a question: Are they confident that the same Liberals who broke our justice system are actually going to fix our justice system? As Conservatives, we are asking that exact que…
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Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that people, after having so many crimes committed on their private properties, are just not calling anymore. They realize that criminals are not getting incarcerated for what they are doing and there is a revolving door. Our local RCMP have been awesome. We have worked with them. Whether it is Prince George, Fort Nelson, Fort St. John or Dawson Creek, they h…
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Mr. Speaker, that ought to be the record for the longest question in the history of this place. Liberals are great at talking. I think you are perfect evidence that Liberals can talk a lot. We heard about that last election, that there was a lot of talk. You were not given a mandate necessarily. You have a minority government; you did not get a majority, so there is something there. Canadians are …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition today on behalf of Canadians who are concerned about human rights protections in India. The petition calls upon the House of Commons to formally ensure that all trade deals with India, including the early progress trade agreement, the comprehensive economic partnership agreement and the foreign investment promotion and protection agreement, are premised on…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said when we started, whether Bill C-75, Bill C-5 or anything we can name, all these pieces of legislation are still on the books, and all of a sudden, we are supposed to believe that Bill C-14 is going to fix all the problems. That is what the Liberals are telling Canadians. We know it is not true and it is not going to happen. That is the premise of the question I asked in my s…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Saskatchewan points to the fact that Liberals say one thing during elections and do another when they are actually in government. This is just further proof of that. The Liberals are cutting Veterans Affairs and many other things Canadians rely on. I hope Canadians look at this debate and see who is telling the truth about who is really going to cut crime. The Libera…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the member for Edmonton Griesbach is back in Ottawa and back in the chamber. It is good to have him back. He alluded to some of the mistakes of the previous Trudeau government over the last 10 years with Bill C-5 and Bill C-75. We are really in the place we are now with rampant crime and problems because of those failures. The member alluded in his speech that Bill C…
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Mr. Speaker, I know we need to keep going with the debate but, with regard to the member who just brought up that previous point of order, we have been talking about pretty serious issues, about crime and victims and all the rest. Their group has been giggling and laughing the whole way through. I find it a little rich that he is going to somehow challenge our member for not doing something proper…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Saskatchewan gave a great speech. I think all Canadians are asking this about this particular government: Are we confident that the same Liberals who broke our current justice system, the reason we are dealing with all this crime across Canada, are going to fix the problem? Are you confident in this government?
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's father's service. However, the member across the way was a part of the previous Trudeau government that brought in Bill C-5 and Bill C-75, which caused all the problems that it is trying to unwind with Bill C-14. I just do not understand why, if you are having to fix it now, you brought in Bill C-5 and Bill C-75 in the first place.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to know who the member got this speech from. It sounds like it was made 10 years ago by Justin Trudeau and his cabinet then. What has changed? Justin Trudeau took power over 10 years ago, and the Liberals have been in power for 10 years. What has changed? The debt used to be $600 billion. It is now close to $1.3 trillion and will be $1.6 trillion by 2030. That is what has chang…
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Mr. Speaker, the member made reference to the Prime Minister's trip to the Arctic and the parts of the budget that would allegedly tackle some projects up there. I have been to the Arctic quite a bit, and one thing the Liberal government has a record of is incomplete projects and projects that are over budget. We just had an Order Paper question on the Giant Mine and the $1-billion remediation pro…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, a lifelong Conservative and friend, Vic Brandl was born in 1933 in Jeffrey, Alberta, and passed away peacefully at the age of 91 in Vernon, B.C. Vic quit school during the Depression to work on the neighbour's farm until he went to work in Edmonton in 1950. By the age of 19, Vic had worked at a gas station, on a drilling rig and on a barge moving freight from Yellowknife, to name just…
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Madam Speaker, that was a great speech by my colleague. I just spoke with a councillor from Prince George yesterday. She is in town for FCM. Cori Ramsay told me a story about being on a ride-along with the local RCMP in Prince George. They caught someone breaking into the local Value Village and had them arrested. She saw the person go to jail. Within an hour and a half, that person was back on th…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I would question the member's use of language and the term “false”. I think we are not allowed to say something indirectly—
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Mr. Speaker, all I would say is similar to what I said before. There are already agencies that have been established. The Auditor General has done many reports, as I said in my speech. There are already mechanisms in the country, in the government for that matter, and the bureaucracy to actually get the things done. Establishing a separate, whole other bureaucracy once again would only make it loo…
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Mr. Speaker, the shadow minister and I serve on INAN together, the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. We have served on that committee for several years now. We often see Liberals trying to look busy. They try to look like they are getting something done. Indigenous communities have heard only hollow and empty promises without any delivery. Then Liberals stand up today in the H…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree that it is a distraction. We have a terrible economy. Our resources are not getting developed. The Premier of the Northwest Territories was here today with some grand chiefs. They want to get economic development up in the territories. All we are seeing is a decline in the economy there. We need to get real things done. That is going to be with a future Conservative government…
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Mr. Speaker, it really comes down to building bureaucracy versus building actually real things and getting real things done. I think there has been ten years' worth of examples. Even just recently, there was a supposed housing announcement in Ontario, but it was all a big facade. There was not anything actually there. It is something that the government created. The government is great at building…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong. I rise today to address a matter at the heart of our nation's identity: the relationship between the Crown and indigenous peoples. The relationship is grounded not merely in history but in honour. Its strength is proven not by grand speeches or new offices but by actions, by the promises we keep and by the comm…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the public safety minister, while speaking to his tenant about the Liberal gun confiscation program, said, “Don't ask me to explain the logic to you on this.” His tenant said, “But we're not the problem”. The minister's tenant is 100% correct. Canadians know that hunters, sport shooters and other law-abiding gun owners are not the problem, but under the minister, gun crime is up 130%,…
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Yes, through you, Madam Speaker. It is a little rich for the member to say to the House and to Canadians, “Hey, we are going to do better now.” You have had a chance to fix things over the last 10 years. You have actually made things a lot worse, with the drug crisis you have caused on the city streets that has caused this new rise in crime. I frankly do not believe a word you are saying about how…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised lower grocery prices. “Canadians will hold us to account by their experience at the grocery store”, he said. In my travels to northern communities this summer, this is what I saw: In Tuktoyaktuk, a can of Alpha-getti is $6.79, a jug of milk is $14.79 and a 900-gram jar of Cheez Whiz is $17.29. In Cambridge Bay, a can of baked beans is $9.99, a 1.5-litre bot…
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Madam Speaker, to me it is rich when I hear the secretary of state across the way say it is a “new government”. The Liberals have been in government for the last decade, and under their watch, crime waves have gone across the country. This is from Dawson Creek, the small town where I was born in northern B.C.: “The City of Dawson Creek recognizes that there has been an increase in shootings in our…
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Mr. Speaker, the member has been an advocate for getting hard drugs off the streets. He has been to my riding, to Fort St. John, to talk specifically about this really challenging issue for our communities in B.C. The Liberal government is in its 11th year of governing this country. It has attacked law-abiding firearms owners on a regular basis, as the member mentioned. It has also allowed drugs t…
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