Government Orders
Mr. Chair, is the minister aware that Abbotsford was impacted by floods in 2021, one of the most costly disasters in the history of Canada? Is the minister aware that in the fall economic statement of the previous Parliament, over $5 billion was allocated to disaster recovery efforts in the province of British Columbia?
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Mr. Chair, can the minister please outline to the House which government program Abbotsford should apply to to receive its portion of the main estimates being debated here tonight?
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Mr. Speaker, petitioners in my riding of Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford are concerned on behalf of small businesses, including convenience stores, and ask the government to remove the restrictions on the sale of nicotine pouches. Many adult Canadians make use of nicotine pouches to help them quit tobacco-smoking by relieving cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Only allowing pharmacies to sell the produc…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member for Spadina—Harbourfront on her first remarks in this House of Commons. We share one thing in common: We are both former parliamentary interns. I welcome her to the House of Commons. I would encourage her to use her voice in this chamber. The Liberal Party has a tradition of allowing the member for Winnipeg North to disproportionately take up all the time. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, Conservatives are calling on the Prime Minister to table a budget as soon as possible. The Prime Minister platformed on making groceries more affordable for Canadians, yet they will spend $800 more on food this year. Food prices continue to rise, and I am referring only to essentials, such as beef, chicken, apples, white rice and infant formula. The Prime Minister's first spending bil…
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Mr. Speaker, in the third petition, petitioners are calling for further support for the Lets'emot Regional Recreation & Aquatic Centre, which brings together indigenous communities and the District of Kent to provide adequate recreational facilities in the District of Kent.
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Mr. Speaker, I am presenting three petitions today. The first one is on the prison needle exchange program. Constituents in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon are against the government's providing needles so inmates can do illegal drugs. That is not safe and it is not good for correctional officers. It is not good for inmates. Petitioners are calling for that government policy to end.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition is on natural health products. Petitioners in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon are calling upon the Government of Canada to reverse its attack on natural health products, which will decimate small businesses and a billion-dollar industry in Canada. Again, it is a policy that will hurt workers and businesses alike.
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Madam Speaker, the NDP-Liberal government has passed a number of bills that have led to more violence against women. How can the member support measures that have measurably decreased the quality of life of women and their safety in Canada since they signed their confidence and supply agreement with the Liberal government?
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Mr. Speaker, the exceptional roles and responsibilities Canada's military members undertake while in service can lead to physical and mental health difficulties. Adjusting to civilian life can be challenging for many of our military veterans, and this adjustment can impact their physical and mental health. The process for veterans and their family members to obtain Veterans Affairs Canada benefits…
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Madam Speaker, first, with respect to the concurrence report that we are debating today, will the member for Winnipeg North please apologize to all Canadians of indigenous ancestry for the horrible actions of the former cabinet minister, the member for Edmonton Centre? Second, will the member apologize to all the women he has silenced in the House of Commons by taking up all the time in Government…
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Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, I asked the Minister of Housing if he would join Conservatives in axing the federal GST on housing so more Canadians could finally buy a home. Axing the federal GST would spark 30,000 new developments across the country per year. This tax cut would save $40,000, or $2,200 a year in mortgage payments on an $800,000 house. Unfortunately, the Minister of Housing refuses …
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Mr. Speaker, today the Auditor General released a bombshell report on the Canada emergency business account. It highlights serious inefficiencies, a lack of government oversight and $3.5 billion in losses to ineligible recipients. How did we get here? The report outlined that the third party program administrator, Accenture, set its own pricing, wrote its own contracts, ran procurement and receive…
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Mr. Speaker, I think the member for London North Centre and I can agree on one thing: Zoning reform is indeed needed across Canada. It was under the previous election platform from the Conservative Party that zoning measures were introduced as a means to spur more development. The Liberals in fact copied our plan. The premier of British Columbia implemented similar policies and actually targeted m…
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Mr. Speaker, because the NDP-Liberals are trying to fool Canadians with a two-month tax trick, small businesses are being forced, and are scrambling, to reprogram their point-of-sale machines and to find the time and money to pay for these changes. It is a shame the Minister of Small Business knew and did not care that this tax trick would hurt the very businesses she purports to help. We all know…
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Madam Speaker, because the NDP-Liberals are trying to fool Canadians with this tax trick, small business owners are forced to reprogram their point-of-sales machines and to find the time and money to pay for these changes. They are very much scrambling to do so. It is a shame that the minister did not care to think about the impact this change would have on the small business owners the government…
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Mr. Speaker, the NDP members are a bunch of sellouts. Despite the leader of the NDP's media stunt where he ripped up the coalition deal and said, “the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people,” he continues to prop up the Prime Minister and his failed caucus. The leader of the NDP voted for the carbon tax over 24 times, pushing Canadians to foo…
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With regard to the carbon tax revenues collected from small businesses since 2019 and the over $2.5 billion in fuel charge rebates owed to small businesses: (a) what is the average processing time for the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses as announced in budget 2024; (b) when can businesses who filed their 2023 taxes before the deadline of July 15, 2024, expect their rebate; and (c) how ma…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition I would like to present today is in response to Health Canada's changing rules related to natural health products. Health Canada recently proposed new and significant fees to import, manufacture and sell NHPs, along with new labelling laws. This means that consumer prices will rise and consumer choice will decline. Many Canadians rely on NHPs, which include basic, …
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The fourth party, the New Democratic Party, has missed 26—
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Mr. Speaker, the first petition I am presenting today is on extreme intoxication as a legal defence. Amendments were made to the Criminal Code on June 23, 2022, allowing for “extreme intoxication as a defence for violent [crimes] like assault and sexual assault, even where a reasonable person would not have foreseen the risk of a violent loss of control.” The National Inquiry into Missing and Murd…
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Mr. Speaker, in October, I asked the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Small Business why it was okay for Liberals to enrich their friends through Sustainable Development Technology Canada while small businesses are struggling. SDTC was established in 2001 and it operated with few issues under both previous Liberal and Conservative governments until the Prime Minister took office. Earlier t…
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Mr. Speaker, I understand that in every Liberal budget, there seems to be a line item for every issue facing our country. However, the Liberal approach fails to address the broader economic conditions that government programs, on a one-off basis, cannot address. We need a government right now that is going to address the overall productivity of the Canadian economy and the overall state of our eco…
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of NDP-Liberals, they are simply not worth the cost of housing. There are encampments all over the city of Abbotsford, including the beloved cenotaph. Young people are feeling hopeless, knowing even with a good salary, they will not be able to afford a new house. Conservatives understand that and that is why we have proposed a federal GST cut on new homes, a tax cut t…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, after nine years of NDP-Liberals, taxes are up, costs are up, crime is up and time is up. Two years ago, the sellout leader of the NDP sold out workers and signed on to a costly coalition with the Liberal Prime Minister, who hiked taxes, ballooned food costs, doubled housing costs and unleashed record crime and chaos on our once-safe streets. On top of all that, he voted in favour of …
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Madam Speaker, every time I hear the member for Winnipeg North speak, I feel a little worse about the state of Canadian democracy and how the Liberals no longer stand up for their constituents on a regular basis. The records clearly indicate that the member accounts for more than half of the debate on government orders. Therefore the fact that the Liberals do not speak to anything happening in the…
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Madam Speaker, would my colleague from South Okanagan—West Kootenay outline for us here in the House whether the federal NDP would adopt the same policy as the provincial NDP, axe the tax and give Canadians some relief by eliminating the federal carbon tax?
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Madam Speaker, in June I asked the Minister of Small Business how she can support a tax hike on capital gains that will kill jobs and destroy our entrepreneurs. Instead of our hearing from the Minister of Small Business on how she was standing up for entrepreneurs in the face of the massive tax hike, the Minister of Finance rose and did not let her answer the question. In defending the hike, the f…
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Madam Speaker, I could not think of a more out-of-touch answer to the very real concerns that I raised, which were backed by Statistics Canada data. In fact, talking about middle-class Canadians, as I outlined in my remarks, the capital gains tax will often only be paid by 63% of Canadians once in their lifetime. Why is that significant? It is because of the 80-year-old farmer in Hatzik Valley, wh…
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Mr. Speaker, today I would like to present a petition in respect to the Lets'emot Regional Recreation and Aquatic Centre. Lets'emot means one heart, one mind in the Halq’eme’ylem language. Local first nations, the District of Kent and the village of Harrison Hot Springs are looking for more support from the federal government. Indigenous Services Canada has told local first nations that when it wa…
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Mr. Speaker, petitioners in my riding are calling on the Government of Canada to provide additional funds to support the construction of the Lets'emot Regional Recreation and Aquatic Centre in Agassiz, B.C., which has seen its projected costs skyrocket. The name “Lets'emot” means “one heart, one mind” in the Halq’eme’ylem language. Residents of the District of Kent, Harrison Hot Springs, Seabird I…
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With regard to the Aboriginal Entrepreneurship Program: (a) what is the number of businesses which have applied, as of May 23, 2024, broken down by province or territory, to the (i) Access to Business Opportunities stream, (ii) Access to Capital stream; (b) what is the total number of businesses which have received funding or assistance, broken down by province or territory, through the (i) Access…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. This is not debate. The citizenship law, as the member is referring to, does not apply to Canadian Forces members.
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Madam Speaker, I will admit I am not an expert on constitutional law like my colleague from Kamloops is, but I do know, like every other Canadian, that intuitively our citizenship is something that is sacred. It is something that needs to be upheld, and a lower court decision should not be the determining factor on a matter of such importance as determining our citizenship. I will note again that …
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Madam Speaker, right now the Bloc Québécois members have a serious determination to make: Do they stand with the Liberals in centralizing more power in Ottawa and removing the powers of citizenship under Quebec's rules? I do not believe that the 1,095 cumulative days is a good test for determining citizenship.
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Madam Speaker, the bill before us today, Bill C-71, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act to do three things. First, for children not born in Canada but adopted by Canadian parents, it would ensure that they are treated as Canadian-born citizens for the purposes of passing on citizenship if they have children abroad in the future. This is something I support. Second, it would restore citizenship for …
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Madam Speaker, the fact of the matter is that I believe that our citizenship is sacred. It is something all of us, especially in this room, have a responsibility to uphold and to dignify, and I believe that a question of such importance, namely who is able to be granted Canadian citizenship, should not be determined by an Ontario Superior Court of Justice judge. I believe it would have been in the…
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Mr. Speaker, petitioners in my riding want to remind the government that it pledged $5 billion in the 2021 fall economic statement to help British Columbia recover from unprecedented disasters. To date, only 40% of that funding has been delivered. On behalf of petitioners, I will remind the House that the port of Vancouver was cut off from the rest of Canada. Every major road connecting British Co…
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Mr. Speaker, congratulations for all the wrong reasons. Canada is now a world leader in high taxes. Ranked behind only Chile and Denmark, we now have the third highest capital gains tax rate in the world. In the midst of a productivity crisis, how can the Minister of Small Business support a tax hike that will kill jobs and decimate our entrepreneurs?
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Madam Speaker, a key problem with Bill C-65 is that clauses 40 and 41 would amend sections 269 and 279 of the Elections Canada Act to allow voters to write in the name of a political party rather than a candidate. Does the member opposite agree that this is a dereliction of our historical practice of electing individual members to the House of Commons and not political parties?
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With regard to government patronage, contracts and funding provided to the individuals who signed the document entitled "An Open Letter from Economists on Canadian Carbon Pricing": (a) which of the individuals who signed the document have received government contracts since November 4, 2015; (b) what are the details of all contracts in (a), including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) vendor, (iii) amo…
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With regard to the trip to Washington, D.C. by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry on April 27 and 28, 2024: (a) what was the minister's detailed itinerary on the trip; and (b) what are the details of each meeting attended by the minister on the trip, including the (i) date, (ii) time, (iii) purpose, (iv) list of attendees?
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With regard to the government's decision to decrease the amount of the carbon pricing revenues rebated for small businesses from 7% to 5%: (a) why is the government decreasing the percentages; and (b) on what date will the decrease take effect?
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Madam Speaker, today I rise on behalf of correctional officers in the Pacific region who are calling for an end to the needle exchange program put in place by the Liberal government. Correctional officers are calling for an effective strategy to stop drones from dropping drugs onto prison grounds. We need a drone dereliction strategy.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberal minister responsible for legal hard drugs is misleading Canadians. The government is claiming that the so-called safe supply program is working, but the facts say otherwise. In Abbotsford alone, the number of overdoses between 2013 and 2022 went up by 820%, meaning that Abbotsford has seen a near 1,000% increase in overdoses over the last 10 years. The minister should al…
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Madam Speaker, I am not looking for a clip. I am addressing the incredibly challenging situation that we find in British Columbia today. My question for the member for Sherbrooke is this: If given the chance, would she legalize hard drugs as her government did in British Columbia? Given the chance, would she adopt a policy that has led, statistically, to record overdose deaths of children from har…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, at a time when food insecurity is skyrocketing and millions are lining up at food banks, the government is bringing forward a punishing capital gains tax hike that would disproportionately affect family farms and small business. According to the Grain Growers of Canada, it will amount to a 30% increase on what farmers have to pay Ottawa when they pass on their family business to their…
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Madam Speaker, the debate today is not about pipelines, although I am very pleased to see the Kinder Morgan pipeline completed. That is going to do a lot of good for the Canadian taxpayers. I am glad that project is finished. However, what we are talking about here today is a very serious issue, an Auditor General's report that clearly outlines cases of a conflict of interest. It says the Liberal …
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. Sustainable Technology Development Canada was launched in 2001 to support businesses to innovate and create new sustainable technologies. For more than a decade, and under both Liberal and Conservative governments, SDTC had a few problems, but nothing major, until the current Prime Min…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member's remarks on the corruption we are seeing in the Liberal government, which is displayed in the Auditor General's report. I will note, as seen on page 14 of the Auditor General's report, that there were 90 cases where, according to the foundation's own records, conflict of interest policies were not followed. How do we get rid of corruption in Parliament and i…
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