Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we are making historic investments in young people. My colleagues today have already mentioned a number of those major projects. I am sure we will get to hear that question and get expansions of that question many more times today. Between November and April, we have reduced our deficit by $11 billion, strengthening what was already the best fiscal position in the G7. I would ask the …
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Mr. Speaker, we know that youth unemployment is uneven across the country. There will be 6,600 new youth jobs in Alberta, by the way, this year. Let us talk about the top line here. We have the second-fastest growth in the G7, the best fiscal position in the G7, 20 new trade and security deals, non-U.S. exports up 40%, highest foreign direct investment in the G7 and that is twice that of the next …
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Mr. Speaker, all agreements are considered through the lens of Canadian interests, and all agreements are considered in the context of our other agreements. As has already been mentioned, Mercosur is an enormous market. Since the last election, the government has reached 20 new trade and security agreements. These agreements open markets for farmers and ranchers in places like China and Indonesia,…
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Mr. Speaker, I would love a direct question. Are we talking deficit spending, such as the school lunch program? Are we talking deficit spending, such as the groceries and essentials benefit? Are we talking deficit spending, such as the gas excise tax? I would love to know what deficit spending the Conservatives are worried about, because on this side, we are focused on affordability. We are going …
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Mr. Speaker, the more precise they try to sound, the more Canadians should be deeply suspicious of their claims, because they zoom in when the world view does not actually reflect anything they are talking about here. Let us talk about the facts: 20 trade and security deals have made a 40% increase in non-U.S. trade; wages are growing faster than inflation; we created more jobs than the U.S. last …
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to run through the list again. I am not sure they would be so happy to hear it. However, let us talk about this. In a time when we have global strife, wars in Iran and Ukraine and trade wars with the United States, Canada is standing at the top of the pack. We are number two in economic growth in the G7. We have the strongest fiscal position in the G7. We are investing in f…
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Mr. Speaker, $4 billion in Cold Lake will be a nice start in helping develop the kind of overall community benefits that we are talking about. I have to say we have heard a lot of the same questions from across the way. We get the point. I think they like to talk about the fact that there are prices and deficits. Let us talk about the reality that we face right now. Let us just take a little look …
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Mr. Speaker, I almost do not know what to say. Calgarians certainly know the difference between credit card purchases and investments, such as investments in themselves. That is what we are doing with the groceries and essentials benefit. That is what we are doing with the gas tax. l will tell members something else. Albertans are very excited and Calgarians are very excited because of the MOU wit…
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Mr. Speaker, Albertans know, of course, like all Canadians do, that we are in very uncertain times globally. The world is in a tumultuous place, but fortunately Canada enters this with the strongest debt situation in the G7. That is a fantastic place to be in when we are in difficult times. Now we are spending to make sure we are protecting Canadians from these dangerous headwinds. I would ask my …
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Mr. Speaker, we will always stand with mill towns. The combined duties and tariffs are scheduled to go down to 35%, based on the updates that came out the last couple of weeks, so there is a small correction there, but all still too painful and all still unjustified with the United States. That is why we are working to both control the issues we can control and engage with the Americans on this is…
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Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues across the way have heard countless times, we will continue to make sure we get the best deal, not just any deal. Let us talk about the last year. Wages have grown faster than inflation every month that the Prime Minister has been Prime Minister. FDI, foreign direct investment, is the highest in 18 years, double that of the next nation in the G7. We have record oil pr…
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Mr. Speaker, there are a few things that I think we need to level set as I begin my response here. The member talks about crippling the energy industry. The member talks about development for the last 10 years being deficient. However, I want to note that oil and gas production in Canada increased 34% over the last 10 years. If I compare that globally, global oil and gas production increased 6% ov…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always interesting to see what members on both sides take credit for, or not, in the chronology going back 10 years. Those are some long coattails, I would suggest to the member opposite. The reality is that this is the only government that managed to get a pipe to tidewater. That pipe is now being expanded. That is a major project going on, but let us talk about the Major Proje…
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Mr. Speaker, the opposition is picking up the same lines like a soon-to-be-gifted kettlebell, but these repetitions will not get them the gains they seek, because they require Canadians to forget everything before yesterday. We are in a trade war, and in that trade war we are performing very well. We are getting more jobs than the United States. We have foreign direct investment at the highest lev…
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Mr. Speaker, oil and gas production in Canada is at record highs, up 34% in the last 10 years. We have managed to do that while reducing emissions in our country by 6%. We have found a way to sustainably grow and meet the growing needs of the world, including diversifying needs from allies that are increasingly requiring lower carbon emissions. We are building strong. We have approved Ksi Lisims, …
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Mr. Speaker, as the member opposite well knows, oil and gas production in Canada is up 34% over the last 10 years. Compare that to global production, which is up only 6%. These are record production levels that we are seeing. We are seeing new infrastructure coming all the time. Obviously, there is Trans Mountain. We are now talking about optimizing that. We have Ksi Lisims. We have Taylor to Gord…
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Mr. Speaker, I feel sad for the members opposite, who look through the good news to find the bad news every day and bring their misery to the chamber. Here is the absolute reality. There has never been a better time to be in energy in Alberta. There has never been a better time to be in energy in Canada. We are building, and we are building strong. We welcome the Conservatives to get on board.
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Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague is sincere in his wanting to support the forestry sector. He does try to work with us on occasion in committee. I really do hope, however, that Conservatives will bring that forward more positively in the House generally, and help us vote in support of an agenda that is trying to modernize and strengthen the forestry sector in Canada. We have announced $2.5 billion…
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Mr. Speaker, the digging for conspiracies about Brookfield is just exhausting. I think this entire House is tired of it. We trust our regulators to make decisions, and we work on the political level to make sure that the framework supports good decision-making. I think we just have to put aside some of this searching for conspiracies on the other side.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to rise today to speak to the Standing Orders. I have not been a member of Parliament for very long, but this is a venerable institution. Our regulations, procedures and practices are part of a parliamentary tradition dating back to the Magna Carta. They were adopted by thoughtful parliamentarians who came before us to respond to Canada's unique …
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Madam Speaker, I do believe that one of the things we should explore is mixing up who is up and for what duration on each day, and I think that having Wednesday PMQs is a good idea. One of the challenges we saw in practice was that it then became a question of, “Why is the Prime Minister working only one day a week?” The challenge with implementing anything like that is that we are going to need t…
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Madam Speaker, I think that would be very challenging to do without getting into matters of debate on a regular basis. I do want to note though that it would also be nearly impossible to answer some of the questions. Here are some samples from QP just yesterday. There were multiple questions about whether we would please adopt Conservative policies. That is very difficult and broad. There was also…
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Madam Speaker, the United Kingdom, I understand, does a version that is somewhere between written and oral, in which a question has to be put on the Order Paper. The Order Paper gets very long; there might be 300 questions on it at some point, but a minister knows the questions. This allows the minister to prepare and to get the answers ready. I think something like that could be explored. I do ap…
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Madam Speaker, I agree with all of my colleague's first three reforms. I think they are all worthy of exploration. I will say, as a father of three young children, an 11-year-old, a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old, and also as the son of aging parents, that I have really appreciated the flexibility that hybrid sittings have allowed on those unique occasions when it was necessary. My father was …
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Madam Speaker, I completely agree that the forestry sector is a vitally important sector for Canada. It is part of our Canadian identity. It is, of course, part of our Canadian economy, and the tariffs and duties that are being levelled on us are completely unjustified. It is true that we are seeing mill closures. We are seeing strain across the entire system, whether that be in primary saw millin…
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Madam Speaker, I am glad my colleague has been visiting university campuses. Members of the House may not know I was vice-president at the University of Calgary before being elected. Youth employment and youth education are issues near and dear to my heart, and I am very happy to have the privilege of answering the member's question. Students certainly face challenges they did not face in years pa…
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Madam Speaker, I will action those when I receive them. I appreciate the member's advocacy. I want to cap this all by saying we want to grow. We want to build. We want to have the strongest economy in the G7, but some of that requires the plans we have put into motion actually being allowed to be put into motion. That includes passing the budget implementation act. It is vitally important for this…
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Madam Speaker, I would invite members and anybody watching to look at the statistics themselves. Of course, someone can pick month-over-month numbers, but if we look at the trend line, we see that it is very clear: Progress is being made, and that progress is absolutely contrary to what the United States is seeing, where the trend is going in the other direction. I think that speaks very well for …
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Mr. Speaker, what can we say about the motion? It includes a few things we are already doing and a few things Canadians rejected. It feels like the Leader of the Opposition found it in a jacket he has not worn in a while. It is time of new ideas. We have some like the MOU with Alberta. It is an exciting time to be an Albertan. We are getting things built, and we invite the members opposite to get …
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Mr. Speaker, I sincerely appreciate the question. This is a topic that is of course near and dear to my heart and, I hope, to the hearts of every Albertan member of the House. Separatism in Alberta has been a pervasive background thing my whole life, at around 20%. We have not seen major changes to that in the last while. However, we are certainly hearing much more loudly the 20%, and that seems t…
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Mr. Speaker, this is obviously occurring; I do not begrudge it. I welcome anybody standing up to do the right thing, even if it is in private, but I do hope they will join us by doing it in public as well.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. It is great to be back in Parliament. I think it is important to begin by taking stock of where we are right now, because a lot has changed since we were here in December, debating another opposition motion, this one on the Canada-Alberta MOU. Since then, the Prime Minister has given a landmark speech, which the Lea…
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Mr. Speaker, we have seen the Building Canada Act, which the members opposite supported. We have seen new trade deals with every continent in the world, and we have seen significant momentum on the acquisition of capital, including major acquisitions, deals with the U.A.E. to bring in over $70 billion. I understand that does not meet or match the narrative the opposition is trying to forward here,…
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Mr. Speaker, we are trying to be a pragmatic government. I do not agree that we have weakened environmental regulations, but we are looking to streamline them, run them in parallel in many cases, so rather than there being a waterfall of regulation A and regulation B, we are exploring both at the same time. We do know the world has shifted. We know Canada can meet this moment. We do know the Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of recycling, we have the 2015 playbook here in 2026, and it is just not going to work. Canadians know that the environment, economy, trade and reconciliation are all related. Canadians in Conservative ridings expect better than obstruction and speak-and-spell politics, where we get one of five answers to every problem. On this side, there are new programs for affordability, …
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Mr. Speaker, the government stands with forestry workers. We have announced $2.5 billion in supports. We have a task force active right now looking at additional supports. I was in Prince George last week. Members in Conservative ridings want results, and I want to tell members of the House a little bit of a story. The last time we talked about this in the House of Commons, we got suggestions from…
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Mr. Speaker, I cannot think of a more out-of-touch comment than talking about 30 by 30. They are clearly not talking to people on the ground. These are not the challenges the sector faces. We need solutions, not obstruction, from the members opposite. I am welcoming them to work with us. We want to help them out. We need their help because they are the people on the ground representing the Conserv…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to follow through on the general thread of my colleague's questions because it provides a pretty good framework to go through them bit by bit. The Prime Minister did, in fact, talk about feed, fuel and defend, things that Canada does very well. We are an energy superpower. Our oil and gas production from 2015 to 2024 went up 34% when, across the globe, it only went up 6%. W…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is quite right that this is not abstract. This is livelihoods, which is why we cannot get into sound bites. We need to do the hard work and maintain the best deals possible, which is what Canada has right now. The CUSMA negotiations will be difficult. We know that, but we also know that Canadians are anticipating and expecting government to work with opposition and get the …
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Mr. Speaker, we support a pipeline. We support the whole MOU, which is a careful balancing of the economy and the environment and gets us away from the United States as a primary trading partner. This is great news. It is also an MOU that balances the interests of indigenous peoples and other jurisdictions. We do not support, and we are happy to vote against, games played by the opposition that ma…
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Mr. Speaker, Albertans are steady people and sensible people, and they know imaginary taxes are imaginary. They know there is no packaging tax, and they know that wages are growing in this country. While there is much work to do, we are managing a very difficult storm very well. We welcome the members opposite to help us with that storm, instead of whatever this has been today, because this has be…
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Mr. Speaker, one of the things that struck me about the Conservative amendment that was moved recently was that it expresses support for the Pathways project. However, the Leader of the Opposition emphatically told me that they do not support a price on carbon. I am wondering if the member has any thoughts on how they could possibly reconcile that without creating a subsidy of tens of billions of …
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Madam Speaker, this government would be very happy to support a motion for the entire memorandum of understanding. The memorandum of understanding is a balance that makes sure we are striking interests from coast to coast to coast and doing it in a way that strengthens our economy, strengthens our environment and makes us less dependent on the United States. It is an excellent memorandum of unders…
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg North. Before I entered politics earlier this year, I was a regular commentator on political strategy. One thing I tried to do in my appearances, particularly on a popular political podcast, The Strategists, was to lift the hood and show how and why political strategic decisions get made. It was my belief that by identifying and…
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Madam Speaker, the member made comments about the differential. I agree that it is important to manage the differential between WTI and WCS, or presumably between Brent and WCS, given that he is talking about a pipeline to the west coast. The differential is driven by quality differences, such as the sulphur content and the gravity of it, as well as transportation costs. I wonder if the member cou…
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Madam Speaker, that is simply not the case. I was a senior official for the Government of Alberta at the time. While I cannot go into confidences, the reality is that nothing there approximates reality.
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Madam Speaker, there are a couple of ways to look at that. There is recklessness in how we might approach getting a project built, and there is recklessness in the balance between the environment and the economy. I will speak very briefly to both. First, it would be reckless to not consult with people. It would be reckless to just say we can will these conditions into fruition. We saw what happene…
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Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question. One thing that struck me about the Conservative amendment was that it had carbon capture and sequestration as something they could support, but it did not talk about a price on carbon, which is essential for carbon capture and sequestration to work. Otherwise, what happens is that we are subsidizing oil companies instead of making oil companies pay a c…
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Madam Speaker, I welcome the progress made in the amendment, but I am very curious as to how it did not mention industrial carbon pricing and the increase of the industrial carbon price as part of this amendment, one of the most important parts of the MOU. Would the member be willing to consider further amending his motion to do the entire MOU rather than, again, cherry-picking the things that his…
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Mr. Speaker, of course, this is a case that we are following very carefully. I will note that this is probably a question better targeted toward the justice minister, but I will say that in terms of the view of the case, one of the things that we are aware of is that while this is a lever that the President has used in the United States, there are other levers, so we should not assume, just based …
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