Government Orders
Madam Chair, I said specifically, “What is taking so long?”
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, the question for the minister was specific. Irving just testified that the amount would be considerably less than the $750 million, so again, who is telling the truth?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, the minister's colleague, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, said that $750 million would be an estimate. Who is telling the truth?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, the minister is actually announcing the previous Conservative strategy around shipbuilding, so I thank her for that plug. An Order Paper answer delivered by the government stated that the cost of the Coast Guard Arctic and offshore patrol ships would be $750 million per ship. Your colleague, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement said—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, icebreaker and offshore patrol ship delays are causing massive increases in costs and threaten our Arctic sovereignty and security, putting all Canadians at risk. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that the polar icebreakers announced by the government would cost $7.25 billion, or over $3.6 billion each. In 2013, the estimated cost for one heavy icebreaker was only $1.3 billio…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, this member should know that this place is the federal Parliament for the country and not the provincial parliament for Ontario, so I think—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, the hon. member referred to threatened stocks. I just wonder if he could actually specify what the threatened stocks actually are.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, again, with respect, the member was speaking once again as though only coastal communities have relevance in this conversation. I would like him to recognize that there are many non-coastal communities that appreciate the fisheries and what they provide to Canada. Maybe he could clarify what he is talking about.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I would ask the member to get to the relevance of whether he is from a coastal community or an inland community in his time tonight. I would ask him to clarify.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, on a point of order, I do not think it is becoming of this House to have the members making a joke out of this member's comments. I would just ask that respect be given across the way from the members in the Liberal Party to the person asking the questions.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, further, we have seen full-time staff in the department in the Pacific region balloon, according to estimates, from 617 since 2016 to 1,949 individuals, yet we saw recently that DFO did nothing with respect to the floods in British Columbia. It was the volunteers who did the work while the executives of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans sat on their hands. With all the additional s…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, over that same period we have seen full-time positions at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans increase by 30%, and the minister has already acknowledged the 14,000 positions, yet we see very little in effective enforcement in British Columbia, which is the reason gillnets are still catching threatened stocks in our waters. Why?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, for everybody out there, that was 14,000. Total spending for Fisheries and Oceans Canada increased by 42.3% between 2016-17 and 2020-21, yet we have heard across the board that service levels are at all-time lows. Why?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, the minister has had ample opportunity to address this issue. The Cohen commission has been around for 10 years, yet the government is still planning to delay the process, putting many of our anglers at risk. How many full-time equivalent positions are there at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, we hear that mass marking trailers have been purchased and are currently in use in B.C., but only to apply coded wire tags, not doing their intended purpose. Will the minister's department in 2023 begin the critical process of mass marking all hatchery chinook production that is designed to contribute to fisheries in southern B.C. in order to provide increased opportunity for mark selec…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, for more than one and a half decades the public fishing community, especially in B.C. and especially in the lower Fraser, has been advocating selective sport fishing regulations that would allow recreational fishing that was selective for certain types of salmon while avoiding endangered salmon and sturgeon. The technique is known as bar rigs, which has been known to be highly selective…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, what specific actions is the minister's department taking right now to implement the Cohen commission recommendation number 30 for a mark selective fishery?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, with respect, that is exactly the minister's job. It is to manage the fishery, and she simply is not doing that. In July 2020, the minister's predecessor, Minister Jordan, committed Canada to the United Kingdom's global ocean alliance agenda to zone 30% of Canada's coastal waters as “protected” by 2030. This is in addition to the existing government commitment to zone 25% of Canada's wa…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, it seems as though the minister's staff are the ones who are running the show at DFO. At the same time that the minister told me personally that she was considering proposals, the DFO salmon team openly stated they would not discuss any proposals from the sport fishing advisory board related to chinook retention in April and May of 2022. Again, who is in charge of DFO, the minister or R…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, for years I have heard from our public fishery experts in British Columbia, who say their efforts to consult with DFO and provide reasonable solutions for the fishery are being stonewalled by Pacific regional director Rebecca Reid and senior staff. Who ultimately makes the decisions for the Pacific region, the minister or Rebecca Reid?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, in a letter to the minister dated May 10, the Public Fishery Alliance stated, “We have never before experienced this level of Departmental inertia and unwillingness to resolve fundamentally basic fisheries management issues.” What is the minister doing to address this?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, through the Chair, why did the minister reject the sport fishing advisory board's two very modest chinook salmon retention proposals for portions of PFMA 17, 18, 19, southeast Vancouver Island and 28, Howe Sound, for the months of April and May? Why?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, let me get this straight. You were actually given scientific advice that you could manage—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, the minister's recent decision to reject the sport fishing advisory board's chinook salmon retention proposals is again a broken promise. Why is the minister refusing to work with our public fishery community to ensure science-based decisions are made?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, if the minister had actually met with the fishing community, one would think it would be first-hand. It is easy to remember the fishing community. Believe me, I know a lot of them in B.C., and they are certainly unforgettable. A study funded by the minister's own department recently found that the numbers of chinook salmon in the Salish Sea during the summertime are four to six times …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today we will see the implementation of the new Liberal long gun registry. A former Liberal Party leadership candidate—
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today we will see the implementation of the new Liberal long gun registry. A former Liberal Party leadership candidate said, “The long gun registry, as it was, was a failure and I’m not going to resuscitate that”. The same member said that “there are better ways of keeping us safe than that registry which is, has been removed” and “We will not be bringing back a long-gun registry—it's…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, any Canadians I know from my riding who have been watching the debate over the last couple of years have seen the government run roughshod over the democratic process, and then it hears them lecture us about how bad the Conservative Party is, calling us all kinds of names. We have a Prime Minister and a Liberal Party that think they are a majority government. Then we hear from the N…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I respect the member, but it is always interesting to me when I see members of the NDP get on plane rides with me back to Vancouver regularly and then talk about how we need to phase out fossil fuels in their entirety. My question tonight is around Arctic sovereignty and energy security for us in Canada and the world. Canada has a huge role to play geopolitically in supplying energy…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member talked about Canada's role not ending anytime soon when it comes to fossil fuels and what we provide the world. I want him to perhaps speak to the geopolitical role Canada plays with energy production and supplying energy to our allies. It was at a meeting in Prince George where I heard the Japanese ambassador imploring Canada to supply natural gas to Japan. Certainly we …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's targeting of law-abiding firearms owners is actually making our country less safe. Since becoming Prime Minister, we have seen an increase in gang-related homicides committed with firearms and a decrease in penalties for those convicted of gun crimes. Instead of going after the bad guys, he is going to spend limited taxpayer dollars to rebuild the Liberal long-gun…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, one thing we have fought for on this side is algorithmic accountability and looking through the dark curtain of big tech to see how it is throttling up and down certain social media accounts. Again, what this member fails to mention, and I have not heard him refer to it yet tonight, is proposed section 4.2. He may want to check it out, because it is the exemption that would allow a …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am not totally sure what the question was, but witnesses appear. One thing I appreciate at the House of Commons and our committees is that we have not only experts with Ph.D.s, but also regular folks who come here to testify. They are just as legitimate as other witnesses, and they are able to speak to some of their concerns around the bill. Again, Bill C-11's threat is real, and …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the time tonight. For those watching, it is 11:32 p.m. here in Ottawa. The bill that we are debating is Bill C-11, in case folks out there have not picked up on that already. I think the question that we are really asking tonight is whether we can trust the Prime Minister and the government. Let us not answer that question quite yet. It seems like the NDP and the Bloc w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is on this rare occasion that I agree with the member across the way from the Liberal Party. I am baffled that the Bloc would bring forward a motion to remove prayer from this chamber. Being the former chair of the National Prayer Breakfast, I understand the value of prayer. It means a lot to a lot of Canadians, to millions of us across Canada, yet the Bloc has brought forward a ve…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, for those watching this important debate tonight, it really brings in some of our traditions that I previously spoke to, which started in 1877 in this place and were codified in 1927. It has been around in this place for a long time, and tradition matters to Canadians. I do not know if Canadians out there know that the Bloc does not come into the chamber until after the anthem is su…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is a little perplexing that the Bloc sees this as a priority at a time like this. As someone who is Christian and was the chair of the National Prayer Breakfast for four years, I have deep respect for prayers in Canada, prayers in the House and the freedom to pray. The freedom of religion has been recognized in our charter. The first line in the charter says: Whereas Canada is fo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we just heard the member ask a question of another opposition party. I do not know if she does not know the role of the NDP in this place—
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, on June 4, we will celebrate National Range Day. There are over 2.3 million licensed firearms owners in Canada. We enjoy our property, our culture and our passion safely without issue. That deserves to celebrated. National Range Day is an opportunity for all Canadians to learn and participate in any of the hundreds of events happening in almost every community across the country. Spor…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the passport process has become a nightmare to thousands of Canadians. Tyler and Ira from Dawson Creek, through no fault of their own, had to travel 14 hours and spend hundreds of dollars to get their passports, just hours before their trip. What used to be a simple task of completing a passport form is now causing sleepless nights, unnecessary stress and huge expense to those who jus…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I guess it is just a question to you. Is this a statement by a government member, or a question from the opposition?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the NDP-Liberal budget proves once again that the current government is all talk and no action. Instead of a plan to protect our Arctic sovereignty and security, all we got was a reannouncement of NORAD's existing infrastructure and that the government is considering its options. Millions are promised, while billions are needed. Our Arctic sovereignty and security cannot be protected …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be speaking to Bill C-8 for those in Canada who are watching today, and I will speak about how Bill C-8 fails our farmers. What I learned recently, when I was back in British Columbia and spoke to the grain growers in my neck of the woods in northeastern B.C., is how dramatic the costs have risen over the last 12 months. Bill C-8 would not help. It would just make things wors…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I really look forward to opportunities to speak in the House, and this is the first time I am speaking to Bill C-8 in respect to farmers and the negative effects of the bill on their operations and their farm families. This is part of the debate. This is part of what the House of Commons is for. I wish the member across the way would recognize that. This is a part of democracy. We h…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is a great opportunity for me to talk once again about Bill C-234, being the measure we referred to that could potentially give a carbon tax exemption to farmers for propane and natural gas to dry and heat their shops, etc. It is a perfect opportunity. It is not finished yet; there are still votes. We still have an opportunity to support it. I would hope that the members across…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I really respect the member, but to say that we are siding with the other side is really rich when we have seen the terms of the NDP-Liberal marriage. It is clear for all to see. I will just bring up one example of when the government promised one thing. It said that carbon taxes were going to be neutral. Here again, the PBO said that just that one carbon tax exemption alone would s…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am sorry to interrupt this important debate, but for clarity, are we to be asking our questions to the member from the Liberal Party or the member from the NDP?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there is an example of the Liberal-NDP marriage, the NDP in the corner, carrying the water for the government, when it should be debating and acting as the opposition, fighting the government. We are prepared to work, and we have been working. What the minister has set up as holding up debate on this is actually debating, doing our job as a democracy, speaking against bills when we …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Treasury Board's Guide to Delegating and Applying Spending and Financial Authorities: (a) which departments and agencies maintain a log (or similar type of record) of violations or noncompliance related to the requirements set out in the guide; (b) for each department or agency in (a), how many entries have been entered in the log since January 1, 2021; and (c) what are the det…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the estimated $1,235.4 millions in overpayments of income benefit payments by the government listed on page 147 of the 2021 Public Accounts of Canada, Volume I: (a) what is the breakdown of the estimated overpayments by income support program, including, for each program, the (i) dollar value of overpayments, (ii) number of Canadians who received overpayments; and (b) what are the c…
Read full speech →