Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, today I rise to present a petition for the people of Lillooet. In 2002, train service to the town of Lillooet was cancelled, resulting in an 82% decline in tourism. Residents in my riding are calling on the federal government to re-establish rail service to the village of Lillooet for economic and medical needs.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition I would like to present today is on behalf of correctional officers who are calling on the Government of Canada to stop their failed experiment, noted as the prison needle exchange, at prisons in my riding. It is not going to result in any better health outcomes. That has been stated by the professionals. Correctional officers want it cancelled now.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, the Prime Minister is simply not worth the cost. When the carbon tax was announced, small businesses were promised a hefty rebate. The government is now sitting on $2.5 billion in collected revenues while insolvencies skyrocket and businesses suffer under higher taxes and inflation. As the Prime Minister broke his promise on the carbon …
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Mr. Speaker, the third petition I would like to raise is on behalf of residents in the eastern Fraser Valley, regarding the Lets'emot Regional Recreation and Aquatic Centre. Residents of the District of Kent, Harrison Hot Springs and Seabird Island, Cheam, Stó:lo, Sts'ailes, Sq'éwlets, Skawahlook, Popkum and Peters First Nations, as well as Fraser Valley Regional District electoral areas C and D, …
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Mr. Speaker, it is not just small businesses that have been betrayed by the government on the carbon tax. First nations and Métis communities are owed over a billion dollars in promised rebates. In what seems like a sick April Fool's Day joke, remote and rural communities will see the cost of the carbon tax increase by 23% on April 1. This means higher costs to operate schools, band offices and bu…
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With regard to the Canada Digital Adoption Program: (a) what is the number of businesses which have applied, as of January 25, 2024, to the (i) Grow Your Business Online stream, (ii) Boost Your Business Technology stream; (b) what is the total number of businesses which have received funding or assistance through the (i) Grow Your Business Online stream, (ii) Boost Your Business Technology stream;…
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Mr. Speaker, today I rise to present two petitions. I made a commitment to my constituents in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon that I would present petitions even when I do not agree with them. This is clearly the case with the first one. It states that whereas with current polling showing only one in five Canadians—
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Mr. Speaker, that is duly noted. The petition states that, with current polling showing only one in five Canadians support the monarchy, Canadians no longer support the monarchy and are wishing to abolish the monarchy. It states that Canadians are ready to elect our own head of state and recommends the new office be termed “Chancellor of Canada”. It also states that Canadians would save on paying …
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Mr. Speaker, whereas, last spring, this government made legislative changes to allow Health Canada to regulate natural health supplements, the same as therapeutic synthetic drugs, which will mean substantial new fees on the import, manufacturing and sale of things like vitamins, protein powders and even fluoride-free toothpastes, constituents in my riding who rely on natural health products daily …
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With regard to the Climate Action Incentive Fund SME Project Stream: (a) of the $218 million of 2019-20 carbon pollution proceeds allocated to the stream, (i) how many businesses applied for funding, (ii) how many businesses were approved, (iii) how much money was awarded to the approved businesses for the duration of the program; (b) how much of the $218 million allocated was not spent; and (c) d…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of British Columbians who are concerned about human trafficking in Canada. The U.S. Department of State's “2023 Trafficking in Persons Report”, or TIP, indicates that “Canada fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of [human] trafficking.” It also highlights that the range, quality and timely delivery of trafficking-specific services varies across …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will try to answer the question in French. In this specific case, the person was eligible for MAID. More broadly, with respect to that question, I do not believe that the legislation before us today relates specifically to that issue. That was related to kidneys, and there was a foreseeable death, but, thankfully, that individual did not have to face that situation. The legislation …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-62 which seeks to delay the expansion of medically assisted death to individuals whose sole condition is a mental illness until March 2027. Yesterday, in anticipation of these remarks, I sent an email to about 10,000 constituents, and I heard back from 95 of them on the subject we are debating today, medical assistance in dying, or MAID. I heard from pa…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Nepean for a very fair question and for some of the points he made. Are we simply catching up in Canada as it relates to the availability of MAID? Perhaps in some cases, but under the current legislation, there has to be a foreseeable death. I believe that the way information is exchanged, access to MAID, and the access to information that people h…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, at the direction of the Liberal government, the Correctional Service of Canada is offering the prison needle exchange program, or PNEP, in federal correctional institutions, effectively encouraging illicit drug use in prisons. Illicit drugs in federal institutions are contraband. Equally, any item used for injecting drugs is also contraband. The presence of needles for illicit drug us…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the NDP-Liberal government is just not worth the cost. After eight years, Canadian businesses are struggling to survive. Alarmingly, the latest report from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy revealed that business insolvencies increased by 41.4% in 2023 compared to 2022. It is no surprise: Liberal policies have attacked small businesses since the Liberals entered office. S…
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Mr. Speaker, today I rise to present a petition on an anti-spam strategy. Just this morning, like many Canadians, I was awoken by a call from some random number in China. In fact, in 2020 alone, 68,000 Canadians fell victim to fraud from spam calls, costing them approximately $379 million. Constituents in my riding are demanding the government take this issue seriously. We all get annoyed by spam …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, in December, the Atlantic caucus of the Liberal Party came together with the Prime Minister to make an announcement on heat pumps. It just so happened that the announcement was taking place at the same time as the carbon price was about to go up. For all the rhetoric we are hearing from the member from Kingston today, when push came to shove, when the government was faced with a price…
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Madam Speaker, when I was listening to the member from Timmins, Ontario, speak about the floods and fires that happened in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, I could not help but remember the Order Paper question I received this week, which outlined that the government came to my riding on multiple occasions and said that it was giving billions of dollars to help rebuild British Columbia and to help r…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on behalf of constituents in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon today to present two very important petitions. The first petition is in relation to Red Tape Awareness Week and the attack by the Canadian government on producers and manufacturers of natural health supplements. Constituents in my riding are calling on the government to stop over-regulating and let Canadia…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am presenting today comes from the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, and it relates to the needle exchange program the government is about to implement in federal institutions. Drugs and drug paraphernalia are considered contraband in prison, yet the government is forcing our correctional officers to simply turn a blind eye…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, last week a dairy farmer in my riding called me. He was calling in reference to one of these federal government grants, and he said that it is almost as if the government is forcing him to spend money on something. He said that what the Liberal government does not seem to understand is that he wants to lower his input costs and make his barn as efficient as possible, but he does not w…
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With regard to the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program: (a) how are communities chosen for the program; (b) which communities are participating in the program, broken down by province or territory; (c) for each community in (b), how many workers have participated in the program; (d) how does the government quantity the program's level of success; and (e) does the government have any evide…
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With regard to the $5 billion in funding through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements to British Columbia, committed in the 2021 Fall Economic Statement, in response to extreme weather events: (a) how much of this commitment has been delivered to British Columbia to date, in total, and broken down by specific project funded; (b) when will the outstanding amount be delivered; and (c) what…
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Mr. Speaker, in good faith, I just want to clarify that he had 2122.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I was a little concerned about some of the comments the member was making. We all know that one of the reasons wealth has increased in Canada is in relationship to the increase in assets that many Canadians have through home ownership. One of the reasons those assets increased in value so much over the last number of years is because we did not build enough homes to keep up with the…
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Madam Speaker, it is not the Conservative members or the official opposition. It is Standing Order 18, which states, “No member may reflect upon any vote of the House, except”—
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No. Madam Speaker, when the member brings into question whether Canada is being influenced by a foreign government on certain policies—
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, it goes without saying that Canada is a sovereign nation. For a member to suggest that we are influenced by certain—
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Madam Speaker, Standing Order 11(b) says, “In the event of a member disregarding an order of the Chair made pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section, the Speaker shall order the removal of the member.” Not only did the member for Winnipeg North disregard your order, but he then went on to state that the Standing Orders were not relevant. The Standing Orders under the Parliament of Canada Act are …
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Madam Speaker, on that point of order, not only do I take great offence to the fact that he referred to the Conservative Party as far right, but I would also note that according to the Standing Orders, that is not the subject of the debate at hand today.
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With regard to the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative: (a) how much of the $647 million pledged for the initiative has been spent since the announcement in budget 2021; (b) what are the objectives and deliverables of the fund; (c) how are the objectives and deliverables measured; and (d) what are the details of each project funded through the initiative, including, for each, the (i) date of the an…
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With regard to the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA): (a) as of October 25, 2023, in total, how many businesses that received CEBA funding have repaid their loan in full; and (b) what is the total dollar amount owing on the principal balance of outstanding loans?
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Madam Speaker, indulge me for a moment: Joy to the world, the Lord is come Let Earth receive her King... In places of worship across this country, Canadians come together to sing Joy to the World and other Christmas carols during Advent and the Christmas season. Unfortunately, the Canadian Human Rights Commission recently stated that this holiday is discriminatory, colonialist and intolerant to Ca…
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Madam Speaker, I continue to rise on points of order because the language we are hearing from the member from Winnipeg is contrary to Standing Order 18. It is implying that the Conservative Party of Canada is breaking laws related to treason in Canada. As a member of Parliament, I find that offensive to assume that we are influenced by a foreign government—
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Madam Speaker, under Standing Order 18, I would consider that to be disrespectful and offensive language. I am not MAGA. I do not refer to myself—
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Madam Speaker, we all know that Liberal Party members do not like to participate in debate. They defer to the member for Winnipeg North to do their dirty work—
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Mr. Chair, all government departments are required to make public departmental reports, and they have to outline to all people in Canada where they stand on their own metrics. For Indigenous Services Canada, only 17% of the metrics that it outlined to measure its success were met, which is an absolute failure. This department needs to do better, and it needs to get out of the way. One comment I he…
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Mr. Chair, I am a proud Canadian. I was born in Canada, and I acknowledge the Canadian state. The Crown had signed contracts with many of the first nations that I represent, and the Government of Canada has a duty to uphold the agreements it signed with the first peoples of this land on their traditional territory. This is why I am pleased that our leader, the member for Carleton, has put forward …
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Mr. Chair, I voted no confidence in all the government measures, because I do not believe the NDP-Liberal coalition is capable of running this country in an effective way that can be accountable to indigenous people today. Indeed, there were certain aspects of that fall economic statement, such as emergency management, that are worthy. However, overall, I cannot give confidence anymore to the gove…
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Mr. Chair, as the member of Parliament of a riding with 31 bands of Stellat’en, Stó:lo, Nlaka’pamux and Secwépemc peoples, I hear first-hand how the quality of service from Indigenous Services Canada impacts my constituents. Too often I hear from first nations that ISC is slow-moving and uninformed of their policies, and that government officials lack accountability to the people they are supposed…
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Mr. Chair, near the end of his remarks, the member for Kenora outlined possible steps that the Government of Canada could take to reduce red tape and empower first nations. Perhaps the member could just expand on what he believes are tangible, concrete actions we can take to ensure better accountability and better use of money to support indigenous communities?
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Madam Speaker, on this side of the House, we have a responsibility to respect taxpayer money, which is why we request a recorded vote.
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Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House we would request a recorded division. In British Columbia, we get far less money from the National Film Board than other parts of Canada, and we want to have a recorded vote.
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Madam Speaker, on this side of the House, we have a responsibility to protect taxpayers. That is why we are requesting a recorded division.
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, we are now past the pandemic, and I am getting tired of hearing the government raise the pandemic-related responses for small businesses time and time again, when it fails to acknowledge that the extension it provided for small business owners, to January 18, was woefully insufficient. Every single member of Parliament in the House has heard from those restaurants and small business…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, small businesses are struggling to survive and entrepreneurship has fallen off a cliff. The minister and the government love to claim that they have the backs of small businesses, yet they have ignored their concerns and the issues they face time after time. According to the most recent data from the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, tota…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party understands that a home is the centre of everything we do in our lives. A home is a place where we are secure. A home is where we raise our families. Everyone but the Liberal-NDP coalition understands that this dream is being ripped from hundreds of thousands of Canadians. When the government stands in the way of someone getting a home, it stands in the way of t…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to stand and to speak to Bill C-295, an act to amend the Criminal Code with respect to neglect of vulnerable adults. The reason I want to speak to the bill is that my grandmother passed away in September. In fact, December 9, this Saturday, would have been her 96th birthday. I call my grandmother “Oma” because we are of Dutch heritage. In 2020, at the beginning of the pa…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it was so important to reduce the threshold to zero to account for intangible assets, for small mines in the natural resource sector and for businesses that could fall below the threshold, but would ensure a strategic asset for a state-owned enterprise or a foreign government that does not necessarily have the best interests of Canada at heart. What we are doing with this amendment is…
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