Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise again today to present another petition on behalf of Canadians opposed to government Bill C-9, which they see as a threat to freedom of religion and freedom of expression. We have seen the consequences of that in other jurisdictions. The petitioners are calling upon the government to withdraw this legislation.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise to present a petition on behalf of Canadians who are opposed to Bill C-9 and the threats it poses to freedom of religion and freedom of expression, and to have joined some of those Canadians on Parliament Hill yesterday rallying against the bill.
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Madam Speaker, I think my colleague from British Columbia has really hit the nail on the head. We all stood in this place in support of Bill C-5, the major projects bill. That was more than eight months ago. We know that Germany was able to build an LNG facility in less than seven months; the Netherlands in six months; and Finland in four months. We have had MOUs. We have had photo ops. We have ha…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Edmonton Manning for his excellent remarks, which started before question period, and for raising the issue about the British pensioners and his knowledge on that. It was surprising to hear that is a $470-million cost to Canada. Why does the hon. member believe that the government was unsuccessful in so many missed opportunities to remedy that issue? Is it la…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's excellent analysis on the ROI of the high-speed rail, and particularly the passenger levels, which are unrealistic, and of the fact that there is a lack of a business case here. Obviously, this is one of the major projects that have been designated. When we were at committee, and we supported Bill C-5 with strong Conservative amendments to improve the bill …
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Elmwood—Transcona's excellent speech gave some excellent examples from the people of Winnipeg. This is in contrast to the speech of the speaker previous. Let me ask a follow-up to the question my colleague was just asked, because we know that the Prime Minister was very clear that Canadians should judge him on the cost of groceries at the grocery store, and we now kn…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not going to speak on behalf of my colleague. What I will note, as I said in my speech, is that we had the richest middle class in the world 10 years ago, when we had an economy that was attracting investment from around the world. Prosperity is the answer to all of our issues. The member opposite is part of a government that said no to Germany and Japan when they came for Canadi…
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Mr. Speaker, I will note upfront that I will be splitting my time. It is always an honour, of course, to rise in the House and speak on behalf of the great people of Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North. At second reading of this bill, I spoke about affordability, housing, groceries and mortgages, but this afternoon I want to speak about something deeper, the foundation beneath it all: our economy. I…
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Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question because that is the point. The reason we are now among the worst-performing economies in the G7 and the OECD, which we were not 10 years ago, is that we have the lowest private sector investment in our economy in the world. When we do not create the conditions for the private sector to invest here, investment will elsewhere. Capital is global, and we have…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree that we should create prosperity for young Canadians so they can actually have jobs. That is what Canadians had 10 years ago. After 10 years of a Conservative government, youth unemployment was not at the skyrocketing levels we are seeing now, and that is not fair. As well, 10 years ago, the average monthly mortgage payment on the average house in Canada was $1,432. The averag…
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Mr. Speaker, under the Prime Minister, food prices have jumped 7.3% and are rising twice as fast as those of other goods, making Canada the food inflation capital of the G7. This is a made-in-Canada problem; 70% of our food production is right here at home, yet nearly 90% of agribusinesses say Liberal red tape is putting them at risk. Punishing regulations and the industrial carbon tax are driving…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to salute Peter Turkstra, a leader, builder and community philanthropist. Last week, I attended the industry luncheon of the West End Home Builders Association in Hamilton, where Peter Turkstra was inducted into its hall of fame for his decades of leadership and service. Turkstra Lumber is an institution in the construction industry. This honour was very well de…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition is also from residents of Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North in support of Bill C-218. These Canadians want people who have conditions of mental illness provided with proper treatment and not offered assisted suicide. They ask the House to support Bill C-218, which would do that.
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Mr. Speaker, I have three petitions to present. I am honoured to rise and present a petition on behalf of constituents of the great riding of Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North who are concerned about the Bloc-Liberal amendment to Bill C-9 that would threaten religious freedoms. The petitioners want the protection of religious freedoms, and the amendment to be withdrawn.
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Mr. Speaker, the third petition is on behalf of Canadians who are concerned about the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party. Falun Gong practitioners have endured human rights abuses, torture, imprisonment and forced organ harvesting. Petitioners ask that the Government of Canada call upon the Chinese Communist Party to end its persecution and that those officials of the Chinese…
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Mr. Speaker, a new report from the Missing Middle Initiative warns of a lost decade for home ownership. For every 100 new adults, there will be only 12 housing starts intended for ownership. Nearly half of young Canadians say they have considered leaving their city or province because of housing costs. Now the market is seizing up. New home sales in the GTA have hit a 45-year low, putting 100,000 …
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise and to present a petition on behalf of residents of Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North who write in support of Bill C-218, an excellent bill by my friend and colleague, the hon. member for Cloverdale—Langley City, which seeks to stop the expansion of medical assistance in dying to people with mental illness. We believe that it would be an egregious expansion; th…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Windsor for an excellent speech, albeit with some very sobering facts. The member talked a lot about nutrition. The Prime Minister has said that Canadians should judge him by the prices in the grocery aisle. However, we know, of course, that food inflation is running rampant. What is she hearing from her constituents about grocery affordability in Canada?
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Mr. Speaker, last year alone, one million Ontarians needed a food bank, and that totalled 8.7 million visits, according to today's Feed Ontario hunger report. This is the highest number of visits ever recorded. Of those visitors, one in three was a child, one in three was a person with a disability, and one in four was a working Ontarian who still could not earn enough to make ends meet. Ontario h…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Brandon—Souris talked of record food bank use in his region. We had the Feed Ontario hunger report out today, which made some of the same observations about record food bank use, including among seniors. It says senior food bank use has doubled over the last five years. The member had, I think, in his speech that it is $50 that a single senior is going to save from…
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Mr. Speaker, Feed Ontario's “Hunger Report 2025” came out in recent days, and the numbers were very shocking. We saw an increase in the number of seniors, working people and people with disabilities accessing food banks. I have a question for my colleague, who cited some of the disparities in the savings on taxes within this bill for single seniors and single parents. The bill is called the making…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Skeena—Bulkley Valley raises a good point. The Prime Minister said to Canadians to judge him on the price of groceries at the grocery store. We know that he has not actually visited a grocery store, but we also know that grocery price inflation is 40% higher in Canada than in the U.S. There have been multiple reports as to the food price pressures that Canadians are …
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Madam Speaker, I would agree with the member opposite that Calgary is indeed an ambitious city, having lived there for 10 years of my life and having a wife from Calgary. Will the parliamentary secretary say on behalf of his government when an energy pipeline will be built to tidewater, whether it is an oil pipeline to the B.C. coast or something like the former energy east program to the Atlantic…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Edmonton for that excellent point. We are spending more on the interest on the debt than we are on health care. That makes no sense. That was not the case 10 years ago when health care transfers were increasing year after year and we were the best-performing economy in the G7. Having recently spent some time in a hospital, a couple of days on a stretcher in a…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to compliment my colleague from Edmonton Southeast for his excellent speech and his passion in fighting for his constituents. The Prime Minister said that he should be judged by the price of groceries in the grocery aisles, while we know he does not actually go to any grocery stores. We do know that grocery price inflation is growing 40% faster in Canada than it is in the…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House and speak on behalf of the great, smart, hard-working people of Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North. Tonight we are debating budget 2025, the costliest budget in Canadian history outside COVID.
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Mr. Speaker, I sit on the transport and infrastructure committee. We worked with the government on the amendments to Bill C-5 to get it passed, and we made it better. It was a tiny, baby step forward. Of course, we want to see these projects get done, but right now, there are a lot of announcements, a lot of paper, a lot of press releases and a lot of flash, but no projects on the ground. By the w…
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Well, Mr. Speaker, I would disagree, and I will tell members why for the next 10 minutes. The first budget presented by the new finance minister promised discipline, responsibility and a new direction. However, every single one of those promises was broken. Six months ago, the minister promised Canadians a deficit of $62 billion. In the budget that was presented a couple of weeks ago, it was $78 b…
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Mr. Speaker, let me correct the record. The budget was balanced in 2015. We were the strongest-performing economy in the G7 and in the OECD at that time, and we were increasing health care transfers to the provinces year over year. Let me answer the question. I talked about this quite a bit during the election. Canada has everything the world wants. Canada has everything the U.S. wants. We have oi…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's costly credit card budget piles today's reckless spending on tomorrow's taxpayers, and the warnings keep getting louder. Fitch, the government's own credit rater, says that the Liberals routinely blow through their fiscal anchors and that federal finances run a high risk of further deterioration. Now the budget watchdog is sounding the alarm, noting that the gover…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, who serves on the committee and who amplified the question asked by my colleague from the Bloc. There were common-sense amendments proposed by the Conservatives, in conjunction with the Bloc Québécois, that upheld the value of Canadian citizenship, that looked at language and the ability to speak one of the two founding languages of the country, and many other …
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised the fastest-growing economy in the G7. Instead, we have the fastest-shrinking economy, with higher unemployment, record household debt and the most expensive housing. It is another Liberal broken promise. He told Canadians to judge him by grocery prices, and they are rising even faster today, which is another Liberal broken promise. The Prime Minister promi…
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With regard to complaints reported by air carriers to Transport Canada: (a) how many complaints were reported by Air Canada, WestJet, Porter Airlines, Sunwing Airlines, and Air Transat, respectively, for (i) tarmac delays, (ii) denied boarding (bumping), (iii) issues with seating of children, (iv) lost baggage, (v) delayed baggage, (vi) damaged baggage, broken down by year from 2016 to 2025; (b) w…
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With regard to flight delays in Canada: (a) broken down by year from 2016 to 2025, what was the number of flight delays in Canada categorized by (i) delay within carrier control (excluding safety), (ii) delay within carrier control (safety), (iii) delay outside carrier control (Air Traffic Control/National Air System), (iv) delay outside carrier control (weather), (v) delay outside carrier control…
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With regard to government information on stolen motor vehicles illegally exported from Canada: (a) how many stolen motor vehicles has the Canada Border Services Agency retrieved at (i) the Port of Montreal, (ii) the Port of Halifax, (iii) the Port of Vancouver, (iv) multi-modal hubs in Toronto, before they were illegally exported from Canada, broken down by year from 2021 to 2025; (b) how many veh…
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With regard to high-speed internet access and the Universal Broadband Fund: (a) what percentage of Canadians have access to download speeds of at least 50 Mbps, as of May 2025, broken down by census metropolitan area; (b) what percentage of Canadians have access to download speeds of at least 50 Mbps, as of May 2025, broken down by census agglomeration; (c) what percentage of Canadians living outs…
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Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals, Canadians are being forced to skip meals just to pay the rent. A new report from Royal LePage shows that 39% of Ontario renters are cutting back on food and essentials just to stay housed. Even the CMHC is waving the white flag, admitting its own housing targets are not possible under the Liberal government. This is what failure looks like: unaffordable housing, st…
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Mr. Speaker, we are now at third reading of Bill C-5, our final opportunity in the House to speak to the legislation before it moves to the Senate. Let me start here: Canadians are not short on talent, we are not short on ambition, and we are certainly not short on natural resources. What we are short on is a government that knows how to unleash that potential and get things built. I hear all the …
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Mr. Speaker, are we going to have free trade in Canada and the $200-billion opportunity by Canada Day? No, we are not. There is a framework, but there is a lot to do. We just heard the minister's speech, and a number of things are still going to happen in July, with a meeting of the minds and convening, which is something the Liberal government is very good at, but we are not seeing action. If we …
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Mr. Speaker, obviously, there are very bright people in Windsor and in southwestern Ontario. A 13-year-old has figured it out. It is a shame that this 13-year-old cannot have the future in Canada that she should be able to aspire to because of the policies of the last 10 years of the government. The Liberals are not going to be tabling a budget this session, which is ending today. We are going to …
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Winnipeg Centre was with us at committee and had a chance to ask questions of witnesses as well. I share some of the skepticism she has about some of the answers we received from ministers, for sure. As I said, we believe Bill C-5 is a small step in the right direction, but there is still much to be desired. We did, of course, add amendments that added a number of piece…
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Mr. Speaker, let me say off the top that I will be splitting my time with a great new member, the hon. member for Terra Nova—The Peninsulas. Since this is my first time speaking for a substantive length of time since the election, please allow me to thank the hard-working, industrious people of Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North for the honour of being their voice and their servant and for carrying…
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Mr. Speaker, we certainly see that the movement towards free trade within Canada by Canada Day is, obviously, not going to happen. The bill just moves an inch along, and it is woefully inadequate. As my colleague pointed out, the vetoes that are contained within it are an impediment to that one Canadian economy. It just harkens back to the original Canada free trade agreement that the old Liberal …
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Mr. Speaker, as I said in my speech, Canada has everything the world wants. I cited 18 LNG projects that languished on the desk of the former prime minister. We have the ability to unleash great potential, and this bill does not go far enough. The new old government, or the old new government, has had 10 years to address that, and what we get is a very tiny, baby-step piece of legislation just bef…
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Mr. Speaker, my Bloc colleague sits with me on the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. We will be studying the bill this week around the clock, clause by clause, and I am sure we will have many points of agreement and discussion around that, to make some improvements to what we view as a bill that does move the needle just slightly, as referred to in the comments from …
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Mr. Speaker, after the lost Liberal decade, the dream of home ownership continues to be a nightmare. A new study ranks Toronto as having one of the least affordable housing markets in the world. Construction costs are up 58%, and zoning delays mean it takes up to 32 months to approve a single project in Toronto. It is no wonder Canada is short two million homes. Housing costs will average 52% of h…
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Mr. Speaker, did the steelworkers in Hamilton hear that? There was not one number in that arrogant answer. I do not think that is surprising given that this is a government whose Prime Minister believes that Canadians do not actually use steel in their daily lives. For workers and businesses in my community of Hamilton looking for the support that might have come from the revenue of those countert…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised elbows up with dollar-for-dollar tariffs on the U.S. that would collect $20 billion. The Prime Minister then broke that promise, giving Canadians elbows down when he dropped the tariffs on the U.S. to effectively zero. Now Trump is threatening to double tariffs on Canadian steel to 50%, attacking Canadian workers, their jobs, their livelihoods and our indus…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, it is great to see you in the chair. Congratulations on your new role. I also congratulate my colleague from Brampton West, in particular for his advocacy on crime. On car thefts and auto thefts, we have seen them in my community. We see them in his community and across the GTA, yet there has been no serious action from the government in terms of bail reform or what is seeping out of …
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Madam Speaker, it is great to hear from my colleague from Essex on all of his great insights, and it is great to see him back in this place. We are here to debate a motion of non-confidence in the Prime Minister and the current government, because the workers of Canada are hurting. Workers and Canadians are struggling. In the words of the leader of the NDP, “The Liberals are too weak, too selfish …
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