Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as someone who also represents a large farming region, we know that the cost of fertilizer as we go into the planting season is top of mind for many farmers. We know there have been recent policy considerations by the Liberal government to increase the costs of the inputs in fertilizer production in an effort to reach their climate change goals. We know that these increased inputs a…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the cost of everything under the NDP-Liberal government is getting too damn high. Today we are debating Bill C-8: the government's fiscal update from this past December. December feels like a lifetime ago for me, and I know it feels like a lifetime ago for millions of Canadians. A lot has changed since then, and the tack taken by the government in this legislation shows just how poo…
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Madam Speaker, the reality on the ground for farmers is that these vaccine mandates are causing problems. The member across can point and blame other jurisdictions all he wants, but the fact is that the current Liberal government has not taken leadership on it. It has not called the White House. We know that, in the United States, there are exemptions for companies with under 100 workers. We see t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, yesterday at the public safety committee, Ottawa chief of police Steve Bell confirmed that no firearms were found during the clearing of the Ottawa protest. We also learned that an arrest was made concerning a disturbing arson attempt and that the accused had no connection to the protest. The NDP-Liberal government has told Canadians that the protesters were responsible for this hei…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, back in 2015, the Liberals ran on a platform of transparency. They said, “government and its information should be open by default” and that they would “restore trust in democracy”. Parliament is setting up a committee to review their use of the Emergencies Act, and it is critically important that the official opposition has the power to hold the government to account. Instead, the Li…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
I will address the member's heckle. I am very concerned about the situation that occurred around Coutts, Alberta, where a small group of militants was arrested with firearms and with the intent to do harm. I am so thankful for law enforcement's efforts in taking down this very real threat, and I am so confident in our law enforcement because I know they had been planning this operation for weeks. …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Emergency Preparedness have repeatedly stated that there is evidence of foreign extremist financing behind this convoy. Last week at the public safety committee, the deputy director of intelligence for FINTRAC, Barry MacKillop, stated that there was no evidence that this funding in Ottawa was tied to ideologically m…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the minister today, and in a news conference yesterday, has repeatedly stated that there are ideologically motivated, violent extremists and there is a small group of extremists who are willing to use violence. He says that there are ties between extremists who were apprehended in Coutts and extremists here in Ottawa. However, when asked repeatedly by the media to back up that asserti…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I was disappointed to see the stand that the leader of the NDP and the party have taken on an issue that deals with the fundamental civil liberties of Canadians. What has happened to the party of Tommy Douglas? What has happened to the party of Jack Layton that fought against Bill C-51 and the War Measures Act? What has changed? The NDP is trying to split hairs. Why has it abandoned o…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I note that the deputy director of intelligence for FINTRAC, Barry MacKillop, would disagree with the minister's suggestion that there is extremist financing of the convoy, but I will move on to my question. Back in January through March 2020, as the minister said, those people came for the throat. What happened to the throat of our country when our railways were being blockaded and…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, unlike the Prime Minister and ministers across the aisle, it actually gives me no pleasure to rise to speak to the matter at hand. The invocation of the Emergencies Act earlier this week, for the first time in Canadian history, is a significant moment and it is not a moment to be pleased about. It is a solemn moment. It is a moment when we have to ask ourselves, how did we get to th…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I was at the public safety committee when the deputy director of intelligence, Barry MacKillop, answered a question from one of his colleagues: Why are we not covering these crowdfunding sources? It is obviously a big loophole. The deputy director stated that the payment processors moving the money from individuals to the crowdsourcing pages report to FINTRAC, and the Canadian banks…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, we could go on Twitter right now and find some of the most outrageous, offensive and criminal statements across Canada. What we do not do in this country is base the passage of laws and the invocation of emergency acts upon the possibility of a threat. We must base it on a real threat. We must base it on evidence that there is a threat to Canadians. The fact that we are allowed to w…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the member is putting words in my mouth. I am not saying this is a simple inconvenience for the people of downtown Ottawa. I am not downplaying the experiences she mentioned. I believe they are true experiences and unacceptable experiences. However, they are experiences that can be dealt with through existing laws. Harassment is a crime. Intimidation is a crime. It is up to police t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the lack of an apology from that Prime Minister speaks volumes. I have given the Prime Minister an opportunity to retract a shameful remark, where he would accuse any hon. member of this House to stand with a swastika. As I said before, we have colleagues who are descendants of victims of the Holocaust. I am giving the Prime Minister one more chance. Will he apologize to all members o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I do not know how any member of the government caucus could stand by the Prime Minister when he accuses hon. members of this House of standing with a swastika. I am calling on all members of the Liberal caucus to denounce the Prime Minister. I have given him two chances to apologize. He has refused to apologize. Mr. Prime Minister, apologize.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I have never heard such shameful and dishonourable remarks coming from the Prime Minister. My great-grandfather flew more than 30 missions over Nazi Germany. My great-great-uncle's body lies at the bottom of the English Channel. Members of the Conservative caucus are descendants of victims of the Holocaust. For the Prime Minister to accuse any colleague in the House of standing with t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the invocation of the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history is a damning indictment on the failure of the Prime Minister to address the situation. The Prime Minister once said, “when a government asks its citizens to give up even a small portion of their liberty...it is not [simply] enough...to say: ‘trust us.’ That trust must be earned. It must be checked. And it mus…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we shall see if the Prime Minister answers this one. At every opportunity he has had to de-escalate the situation in Ottawa and around Canada, he has chosen to hide, confront and escalate. His divisive conduct has been a lesson in abject failure. Blockades should come down. They are already coming down across this country, but now the Prime Minister has invoked the Emergencies Act to …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, yesterday at the public safety committee, I asked Toronto's deputy chief of police if the Liberals' plan to spend a billion taxpayer dollars on a firearms buyback would have any effect on improving public safety. His answer, which has been echoed by law enforcement across this country, was that gun buybacks don't work. My question is for the Prime Minister: Why is he ignoring law enfo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, they cannot survive, and the Liberal government is ignoring them.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, today I am pleased to speak to Bill C-8, the federal government's fiscal update from this past fall. This gives me an important opportunity to share some of the feedback I have received from constituents over the holiday break. These constituents are really struggling right now because of the policies of the Liberal government and our current economic situation. Over the holiday bre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that was a typical Liberal answer, that the government has done so much for Canadians. That is cold comfort to the over 183,000 seniors who had their GIS benefits cut out from under them by the Liberal government. This is not just some crack that a few people fell into. There are 183,000 seniors living on bread and whose home heating is being cut off—
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Madam Speaker, we do not want to see the country undergo any more lockdowns. That is key. We want businesses to be open. We want them to be safely serving their customers. We know that a thriving SME sector is key to a thriving Canada. Conservatives will always have the back of small businesses and entrepreneurs across this country.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the NDP has been raising this issue in the House, and I have been raising this issue for over a year. There were unscrupulous firms out there claiming they would help people apply for their CERB benefits, even in many cases when people did not truly qualify. When I brought this to the attention of a member of the Liberal government, their response was that it was not illegal. These …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister is ducking the question again. The most important question that my constituents and all Canadians want to know is this: When will the federal COVID-19 restrictions end? Canadians deserve transparency. They deserve to know what the Liberal plan is, if any, to end these restrictions. What is the metric and what is the timeline for Canadians to expect to see an end to COVID-…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague is absolutely right that COVID is the most important issue that Canadians are facing right now. We have been in this pandemic for nearly two years. Canada does have among the highest vaccination rates in the world, which is excellent to see. However, as we are seeing, Canadians are growing more and more tired and they do not see any hope of a pathway out of this. I…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to requests made to the government under the Access to Information and Privacy Act (ATIP), and broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation, or other government entity: (a) what is the current average time between when an ATIP request is submitted and the document package is released to the individual or entity making the request; (b) how many requests made under ATIP are still…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Chemical Management Regime as found under the Department of Health, the Department of the Environment and the Public Health Agency of Canada in the Supplementary Estimates (A) 2021-22: (a) what were the planned and actual expenditures of the Chemicals Management Plan from 2018-19 to 2020- 21, broken down by fiscal year and by program activity; and (b) what are the transfer payme…
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Mr. Speaker, given the Supreme Court's recent decision in the last few years regarding the timing of trials, the Jordan decision, and considering information that we know, there is a high proportion of repeat offenders in Canada's criminal justice system. Could the member comment on the potential issue that this legislation could lead to our justice system being overwhelmed by repeat offenders, ba…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to present my first petition in this Parliament. The petitioners are very concerned over the practice of forced organ harvesting and people travelling abroad to regimes where people are not adequately protected from the practice of forced organ harvesting. There is currently a bill before the Senate, Bill S-223, and the petitioners are calling on all parties in the Hous…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, it has become more and more apparent that this is a Liberal government that has run out of steam and run out of ideas. We are now nearly three months away from what was supposed to be, in the Prime Minister's words, “the most...[consequential] election since 1945”, yet Canadians still have little clue about what direction the Liberal government is taking our country. Canadians can b…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for his commitment to his constituents. There is an old adage that says, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The NDP have been fooled not once, but twice, by the Liberal government. First when it promised paid sick leave in May 2020 in order to get NDP support for a hybrid Parliament, and second with pharmaceutical and dental care. Th…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, we, as the opposition, have a sacred duty to hold the government to account. We have seen so many times during the past two years in this pandemic the government push forward with legislation that we found had serious flaws. We are not going to abdicate our responsibility. Our duty to Canadians is to hold the government to account to ensure the best possible legislation. If Liberals…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise and debate this important motion. I want to break it down because it really should be two bills. We are dealing with a Criminal Code matter and also a paid sick leave matter. I listened with some amusement when a Liberal MP stood and said these bills should be connected because we are talking about protecting hospitals, but people also get sick and they need…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians were shocked to learn that the government failed to engage the Americans through the International Joint Commission to find a solution to repeated flooding in British Columbia. The flooding of the Nooksack River in Washington state has spilled over into Canada, resulting in billions in damages to British Columbians. Reports indicate that a mere $29-million investment could h…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, since the flooding began in British Columbia, Canadians have stepped up. The heroic efforts of first responders, members of the Canadian Forces and just regular people have helped save lives and protect property. Faith groups and civic organizations have also stepped up in a big way to provide food and shelter to evacuees. As we work to rebuild the Fraser Valley, Canadians want to kno…
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Mr. Speaker, my grandmother works at the hospital. We have seen the intimidation during these protests. Could the member speak to the importance of ensuring that we stand behind our health care workers during this very difficult time?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the price of everything is rising under the inflationary policies of the Liberal government, and few have been harder hit than Canadian farmers. The prices of fuel and drying grain have skyrocketed because of this escalating Liberal carbon tax. Now the Liberals are proposing a whopping 30% decrease in fertilizer emissions. We know the impact on farmers and families will be devastati…
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Madam Speaker, we all respect and treasure the artists in our country. I know that members of the Bloc Québécois particularly cherish their Québécois cultural sector, and I think all Canadians cherish the very unique, strong and beautiful cultural sector of Quebec. That is why it is important that these artists were able to access benefits at a time when we were not having concerts or opportunitie…
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Madam Speaker, there is a lot of uncertainty in the world today. We have had a new variant of the COVID-19 virus, the omicron variant, come up, which is now public knowledge. We do not know what the next few months will bring. In principle, I would say that there may be a need for further pandemic benefits to support businesses if we do see a strong resurgence of this virus. However, what I am not…
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Madam Speaker, today I rise to continue debate over Bill C-2, the government’s inaugural post-election spending bill, targeted to support businesses and those impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns. This $7.4-billion piece of legislation may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the spending that was approved in the last Parliament, but we know our nation’s finances are increasingly in precarious sha…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the question, and I am well aware that he comes from one of those real estate markets in our country that has been the most impacted by foreign investment. In a lot of places in the country foreign investment has been a blessing, but we have seen the terrible, negative consequences when we have so much foreign investment, speculative foreign investment, lead t…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his re-election. It is well deserved. I am very confident in the House administration and the safety protocols that we put in place, and I think we should keep them going forward. There may be cases where COVID-19 comes up, but we know that vaccination rates in this country are high and thankfully getting higher every day, so we can look forward. We need…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not surprising to me to hear a Liberal talking about how they could benefit. That is what Liberals like to do. When we have these members talking about these provincial legislatures, the fact is that there are a number of provincial legislatures that are also sitting, and there are a number of parliamentary bodies across the world that are sitting. If the member wants to cherry-…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I actually anticipated that the government would be bringing up a point of order on that subject. I am not referencing the absence of any members who are in Parliament today, and this is substantive to the debate that we are having here over the quality of Zoom virtual Parliament versus in-person Parliament. If we are not allowed to talk about that, then that is making a mockery of th…
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Mr. Speaker, congratulations on being in the chair. It is great to see you there. I hope, together with the Speaker, you will vigorously defend the rights and authority of parliamentarians in this Parliament as much as he did in the last Parliament. I will be splitting my time with my esteemed colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles. As this is my first speech in Parliament since the elect…
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Mr. Speaker, I find it ironic that the party in the House that claims to stand up for the rights of workers and organized labour is suggesting that we need to create a system to ensure that sick people continue to work. Sick people should be taking time to get better, not forced to show up to work. That is what I think.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member and his party for largely collaborating with Conservatives on what we both agree is a very fundamental issue for Canadian democracy. The fact is that the Board of Internal Economy met and imposed a set of rules, and those rules are in place right now. There are people in this country who receive medical exemptions, and I trust our non-partisan, impartial, pr…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that my colleague has a real heart for his constituents in the region. We have had a lot of talk about climate change tonight. We know that climate change is a large factor in why this flooding happened. However, we also know that we have not been putting in the effort to ensure people are kept safe, whether it be through building infrastructure or through better emergency…
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