Parliamentary Speeches

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it is a good point. We need permanent solutions to these problems. A temporary tax relief measure like Bill C-30 is helpful, as I said, but it is only temporary. What we need to do is get government out of the way of our economy. The government is stepping in and messing around with the economy in ways that cause businesses to make decisions differently than they would have before. It…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I think the member's question demonstrates quite clearly the issue that we have here. The government does not really understand how economics work. All economists are willing and very happy to explain to people that, when governments add a lot of money to the economy, it causes inflation. It is a proven fact. It happens all the time, and we are seeing it right now. Yes, it is happenin…

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, our new Conservative leader will put people first: their retirement, their paycheques, their homes and their country. That is why, this past June, I introduced my first private member's bill, Bill C-286, the recognition of foreign credentials act. This legislation will streamline the process of connecting skilled immigrants with jobs that our economy desperately needs. This is a vit…

Madam Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise today to pay my respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II. She was the only monarch that I have ever known and I am saddened by her passing. This will be a time of great adjustment, not just for our institutions and our country but for individuals like me. Much has been said over the past week as the world has been mourning her passing, and many words ha…

Routine Proceedings

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-286, An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (recognition of foreign credentials). Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to rise and present my very first private member's bill in this House, the recognition of foreign credentials bill. I am bringing forward this legislation in my role as deputy shadow minister for immigration to help immig…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I am very proud to be here today to speak on Bill C-232 this evening, which would proclaim April as Arab heritage month in Canada. I appreciated listening to the speech of my colleague for Scarborough Centre and to hear all of the people she named, all of the distinguished people of Arab descent. It is quite significant in our country. As many Canadians know, we have a long traditio…

Private Members' Business

Oh, it is the best, Madam Speaker. I will not pass judgment on that, but I do know it is the first. I must emphasize how proud I am to support this legislation. Canadians need to understand the positive accomplishments that the Arab people have brought to our planet and our country. It is not just the bad stuff they see on the TV and the Internet. There is much more to it. In Canada, the contribut…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I do not think Putin's invasion affects Maine, but gas is going for $1.88 in Saskatoon today. People have to choose between filling up their gas tanks and putting food on the table. These are hard-working Canadians who commute to work, take their children to hockey and cook meals for their families. Postponing the increase in the carbon levy is absolutely within the minister's control…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, today is Friday the 13th, a very scary day for Saskatchewan agriculture. Here in this House the environment minister and the agriculture minister are creating their own horror movie. Like Freddy and Jason before them, they are slashers. This time they want to slash two key industries in Saskatchewan, farming and fertilizer production. In Saskatoon West, Nutrien, the largest fertilizer…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today on Motion No. 44, which seeks to force the government to: ...develop and publicly release within 120 days following the adoption of this motion a comprehensive plan to expand pathways to permanent residency for temporary foreign workers, including international students, with significant Canadian work experience in sectors with persistent labour shortages.…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP), human trafficking and sexual slavery: (a) since the use of the TFWP to actively recruit and sell individuals into sexual slavery in the early 2000s, what internal policy safeguards does (i) Employment and Social Development Canada, (ii) Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, (iii) the Canada Border Services Agency, (iv) the RCMP, …

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the response to question Q-143, tabled in the House of Commons on January 31, 2022, on which, on page six of the English version the fourth line from the bottom reads “3236.0-Massage Therapists 672”, and broken down by fiscal year starting in 2015-16: (a) how many temporary foreign workers in this employment sector (i) applied for work permits, (ii) received work permits, (iii) came…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, last week the minister bragged about her visit to the Saskatoon “out-of-Service Canada” office, yet, after her visit, the daughter of my constituent, Viktoriia, still cannot get a passport, because they lost her birth certificate. By contrast, the Bangladesh High Commission sent six people to Saskatoon on the weekend, and they processed 800 passports in two days. How is it that a fore…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, that is a very good question. This is kind of the heart of what we are talking about here today. Conceptually, it is easy to say this person can speak and this one cannot, but in reality it is very difficult to do that. Who is the person who is going to decide that? We all know there is content on the Internet that is wrong and that is incorrect. We know there is content that is tru…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, that is a good question. Absolutely, we want to support culture in Canada. We want to support our content creators. There is always a fear by certain members of this House to actually let our people free in the world. Our content creators, our talent in Canada, are second to none. We have great producers, actors, everybody. We have a lot of talent. We should not be ashamed of that. …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, sometimes these things are hard to hear, I understand, but what Gerald Butts said is, “If you’re getting your news from outlets whose primary purpose is to divide you from your neighbours, the topic doesn’t matter. It’s long past time we figured this out.” Is this what we can expect under Bill C-11: big government telling us what news is fact and what is misinformation when it does …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am proud to be speaking on behalf of the constituents of Saskatoon West. We are a diverse group of citizens from many backgrounds and with a variety of different views. They have called me and emailed me over the past year, asking about stopping online censorship. They wanted to be free from government overreach back then, and they feel the same way now. The people of Saskatoon We…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, despite all that, the horrors of the out-of-service Service Canada office in Saskatoon continue. Margaret is 86 years old and the nicest lady you can find. She was struggling to get through on the phone, so she went to the Saskatoon office in person. The staff refused to meet with her for not having booked an online appointment. Our seniors, and indeed all Canadians, deserve better th…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is up to the House to put this committee. Last time this bill went to committee, there was a very important provision that was removed, which caused a lot of stress. It caused a lot of reactions in my office, for sure. The committee will do its work when the time comes, and would add or strengthen or do whatever needs to be done to the bill. At the end of the day, we have to be v…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Viktoriia and her two daughters moved from Ukraine to Saskatoon West. Two months ago they received their Canadian citizenship. One of the first things Viktoriia did was apply for a Canadian passport. However, between Passport Canada and the Saskatoon Service Canada office, all she got was hours queued up in lines and the runaround from staff. My office had to intervene directly with O…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, on April 1, about 25 people in my riding of Saskatoon West lost their jobs because of an imposed federal vaccination requirement. Their employer, Maple Leaf Foods, is federally regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and as such must follow federal rules. On April 4, Shawn, who lost his job, wrote to me wondering how he was going to put food on the table and provide for his …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today on behalf of petitioners from Saskatoon West. This petition is in regard to the unprovoked war on the people of Ukraine. Of course, we know that the war has triggered a human rights, humanitarian and displacement crisis, and the petitioners are calling for the implementation of visa-free travel. In my riding and in Saskatchewan there is a large continge…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I also have a petition today, which I am pleased to present, in support of Bill S-223. This bill is about organ harvesting and trafficking, making it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ taken without the consent of the person. I note that this has been passed in the Senate unanimously three times, and for 13 years it has been in the House and the Senate. …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, it is a great pleasure to rise in this House today to speak to this concurrence motion on the grave situation before us in Ukraine. My constituents in Saskatoon West know that I sit on the House of Commons immigration committee. On this committee, we have been focused on several issues of importance, but none more so than the horrid war in eastern Europe and the humanitarian crisis …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, when lifting COVID mandates in my home province of Saskatchewan, Premier Moe said the following: “It's time to heal the divisions.” Premier Moe recognizes something the Prime Minister simply cannot, that a leader must unite Canadians. Instead the Prime Minister is using every opportunity to divide Canadians based on vaccination status. Dr. Tam has stated that the science supports a re…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, that question points out the reality that is being faced right now. I have heard many stories of people who are wanting to get biometrics done, for example, and these biometrics are supposed to take a short time. When they call the office, they do not even have the ability to book an appointment because they are all booked for the next six-plus weeks. There is a tremendous problem w…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, that question is one that we have asked multiple times at the immigration committee. I hear it from people every day. The simple reality is that when one has finite resources and one adds more work to the pile, something will not get done. That is just reality. All of us who have been in the real world have experienced that. We experience that in our own homes: If there is too much …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his statement. There may be a number somewhere that says two weeks, but my information comes directly from people we have talked to: people I have talked to and our office has talked to. It is actually quite fascinating. I was in my office last week and my office manager was speaking with a woman in Canada who is Ukrainian. She was speaking with her family. As…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. First, according to the current government, money does not seem to be an object for anything, so I do not think we can say that money is an object. The Liberals have found ways to print money. I am not suggesting that is a good thing, but it seems to be the mode the Liberals operate in, so I would be surprised if they said that money was an obj…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I want to comment on a couple of things the member raised. One is that the current government's history is that if an idea comes from the opposition, it is not a good idea. The previous speaker mentioned the same thing. I am pleading with the governing Liberals to see that this is a good idea. May they please take it and use it. We are willing to give it to them and let them do what…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, there are so many ways to answer that question, but I think I am going to focus on this: Did we need to spend money during the pandemic? We did. Was that money well spent, as the member asked? I would say in many cases it was not. I have seen many examples of organizations that received more money than they needed and businesses that received more money than they needed. We have lot…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, this really highlights how some MPs lack the ability to understand how the world works and how business works. We do not have to mandate things. We do not have to tell companies or countries to do things. We have an opportunity. We know there is an opportunity to supply oil and natural gas to the world. The world is asking us for this. We need to supply that. If we allow the market …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, on the issue of dental care, a lot of Canadians have that coverage. Certainly there are some groups that would benefit from that, and that is why we believe that a targeted approach to those who need it is much more prudent. However, we have to be very careful about how we spend money. We have to use extreme caution in committing to programs that are going to put debt onto our child…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, ironically, the very next line in my speech is that “the government really knows how to waste time”. I think that was just a great example of it right there. I want to assure colleagues that I am not going to waste the time of my constituents in Saskatoon West. I am going to dive into this piece of legislation and speak about why I am voting against it. Then I am going to talk about…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to speak in the House again. Today is March 28, 2022, and we are debating the government's fall economic update, an update that was given in the House in December of 2021. Yes, we are actually debating budgetary measures that this government introduced over 100 days ago. In that time, Canada and the world have changed. With COVID, we saw omicron come and go, provin…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the member spoke about some of the things that he wished were in the legislation. I want to speak about something that I wish was in his speech. The government has spent tremendously on all kinds of different programs that have added billions and billions to our debt. In fact, our accumulated debt has more than doubled under the Liberals' watch. I would ask the member if he feels th…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Chinook software program operated by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), broken down by fiscal year and country of origin: (a) what is the acceptance rate of immigrants by (i) immigration class, (ii) official language of Canada spoken, (iii) ethnicity, (iv) acceptance rate, (v) rejection rate; (b) what are the criteria, keywords or phrases used by IRCC for makin…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Chinook software program operated by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), broken down by fiscal year and country of origin: (a) what keywords and phrases are used by IRCC officials to sort visa applications; (b) what is the occurrence of keywords and phrases that are used by IRCC officials to sort visa applications; and (c) based upon the use of these keywords an…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Canada is a tale of two governments. Provincial governments use real science to make decisions and have lifted their COVID mandates, but here in Ottawa, the NDP-Liberal government relies on political science and refuses to end COVID mandates, making some Canadians second-class citizens. These Canadians cannot fly, cross an international border or keep their jobs in the military simply…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition today on behalf of Canadians regarding conscience protections for medical professionals. The petitioners note that, during testimony at the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying, witnesses stated that the protection of conscience should be included in the government's legislative response to Carter v. Canada. Therefore, the petitioners …

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, since the election, I have been speaking about the NDP-Liberal coalition government. Well, today it is official. My constituents in Saskatoon West know the dangers of the NDP and its love affair with propping up tired Liberal governments. These champagne socialists, who care more about their expensive cars and shutting down economic development on the Prairies, are now officially on t…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I asked the Liberals about inflation in Saskatchewan, and the government confirmed the negative impact of inflation on the poverty line throughout my province. In fact, the poverty rate increased 1.2% in Saskatchewan and it is only going to get worse. That means an additional 13,000 people in Saskatchewan are falling into poverty every year, simply because inflation is driving their c…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, there are significant consequences. I want to particularly highlight the people I have been talking to. For example, an older lady called my office in tears because she had donated a small amount of money to the convoy and was worried that her bank accounts would be frozen. Businesses' bank accounts are now frozen because of the imposition of the Emergencies Act. This is having very…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time today with the member from Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River. It is a sad day to be speaking here on behalf of the constituents of Saskatoon West. When I first ran for office two and a half years ago, I never thought I would spend most of my time representing my constituents during a time of COVID-19. When I ran for re-election just six months ago, I ne…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, there were a lot of questions. For the businesses in downtown Ottawa, it has been difficult, but I must remind the member that there have been two years of difficulties for business owners in this country. For two years, businesses have not been able to open. It has been difficult for everybody. I also want to remind the member that the bridges that he referred to opened up prior to…

Orders of the Day

Madam Speaker, if Ottawa has an incompetent mayor who could not get the job done, I do not think it is incumbent on the federal government to take a sledgehammer with the Emergencies Act to come in and try to fix that problem. That is a problem for the City of Ottawa. If the City of Ottawa could not handle it, then the province should step in. The laws that were currently in place could have gotte…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I just want to remind the minister that it is the official opposition, the Conservatives, who have been calling for this for many months. It was even in our election platform. Even the government's coalition partner, the NDP, has been asking for this, too. I heard just a few moments ago the minister and the parliamentary secretary both talking about how, when they were first appoint…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, last Friday, the Prime Minister said that the Ottawa police had enough resources to deal with the protesters, and on Monday he calls for emergency measures. Boy, that escalated quickly. He had 17 days to act, and after hiding in his cottage on his MacBook for the first week, he did nothing but divide and stigmatize. My constituents in Saskatoon West want to know this: What changed in …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am not a spokesman for the Government of Saskatchewan, so I cannot comment on that. I can say that, obviously, water is a key component of agriculture in our province. I indicated in my speech how important agriculture is to everything we do in the province of Saskatchewan. Obviously, we need good solutions for water and we need reliable solutions for water. I know the project my ho…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I was not present when the hon. member was speaking about Asquith, but that is adjacent to my riding so I know the area well. What is critical in Canada are jobs. We need jobs in our country and we need employees to fill those jobs. The way we get those jobs is by encouraging healthy competition, healthy businesses and strong corporations. Yes, they need to pay their taxes and they ne…