Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I misspoke. The term “prison labour” has connotations that I did not intend. The projects I mentioned in homebuilding in Winnipeg involve people who have been convicted of crimes, have served their sentences and then avoid recidivism by building homes.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I will briefly summarize my three petitions. Constituents and others have asked that this petition be tabled here and that the government take action on an issue that we rarely hear about, which is the looming threat of the commercial farming of cephalopods. These are octopus and squid. Commercial industrial farming operations in other countries are threatening to come into Canada. Th…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am presenting is an e-petition with over 1,181 signatures. The petitioners call on the government, in the effort to make Canada an energy superpower, to support renewable energy at least as much as it supports fossil fuels. They call on the government to commit to protect our biosphere while becoming an energy superpower and, in order to do that, ensure that rene…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, this is my final petition. It is a shame, in 2026, that this needs to be said. The petitioners are calling for the government to declare the overdose crisis in Canada a public health emergency, to call for action related to opioid deaths, recognize that this is a public health emergency and take steps based on the advice of experts.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the hon. parliamentary secretary is a friend, so when I say a friend, it is not just rhetoric, but I am disappointed. When Bill C-30 was first tabled, I asked the hon. parliamentary secretary for finance if it would not be wise to remove division 8 from an omnibus budget bill, so that the pesticide provisions would not just be studied by the finance committee, but go to the appropriat…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am really impressed, hearing the member for Elmwood—Transcona talking about his personal background. I have been impressed when travelling in Winnipeg, with the co-op work and housing and building using prison labour by Shaun Loney. I wonder if the hon. member, as someone experienced in the trades, thinks that holds promise for getting tradespeople into a field where we have a lot o…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I particularly appreciated my colleague's comments regarding division 8 of Bill C-30. He addressed the issue of pesticides and said that reducing health and environmental protections in the agricultural sector is very serious. I just want to ask him if he has any further comments to add.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Vancouver East for an extremely important review of the gaps between the spring economic statement and the reality for Canadians. I just wonder if she would like to expand on any of the points she has made, because they were excellent.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I would like it placed on the record very firmly that the Green Party does not support Bill C-22. We understand it is going to be passed on division. We want our position on the record.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour, not just a pleasure, to rise today to speak to Bill C‑30, an act to implement certain provisions of the spring economic update tabled in Parliament on April 28, 2026. We are told that this bill is absolutely necessary to implement the spring economic update. Before I get too far into discussing Bill C-30, because it is my last chance to speak in this session of P…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I think that my colleagues have thanked everyone already. I hope that no one was left out. I would like to send everyone my best wishes for the summer. May they all take good care of themselves and stay united for Canada. We will be back in September. Let us stand united across party lines. This country is a country that has more in common than in difference. What makes this country t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am rising at this hour to speak to the programming motion on Bill C‑22. I have heard the speeches of a number of colleagues in this place with whom I agree, particularly my colleagues from the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party. As I explained earlier, in an answer to an earlier discussion with the hon. member for Vancouver East, the position we were in was not as members…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
, seconded by the member for Courtenay—Alberni, moved for leave to introduce Bill C-291, An Act to amend the Department of Industry Act (small businesses). She said: Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured today to introduce a private member's bill that seeks to amend the Department of Industry Act with regard to the promotion of small businesses. I want to thank my dear friend, the hon. member for Courte…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank a local grassroots activist for proportional representation who has asked me to present a number of these petitions on the subject of our current first-past-the-post voting system. I want to thank Shelagh Levey for collecting so many signatures. Her petition calls for an immediate adoption of a fair voting system, such as what is in place in most democracies around the…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the second petition is an e-petition signed by nearly 2,000 Canadians calling on the government, particularly the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, to conduct a thorough review of the use of anticoagulant rodenticides, as well as neurotoxic rodenticides, the damage to the environment and the threats to pets and health.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Yorkton—Melville gave her farewell address. I would just get on the record how much I am going to miss her. I want to thank her for her service to our prayer breakfast group when she was chair, and just say, best of luck in everything and all my love.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my esteemed Bloc Québécois colleague for the hard work that she did at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. I also had the opportunity to attend the meetings of that committee, but as an observer. I watched her work, and I completely agree with what she said this evening. It is really strange to be rushing through such an important bill. Why does my…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am in the same position as the member for Vancouver East in having a deep concern about this bill. This has not come up in the debate, but just to clarify, even though we have the fiction that committees are the masters of their own process, every PMO since Stephen Harper's has insisted that members of Parliament from parties that do not have 12 members are given 24 hours' notice …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I understand the member's frustration, but I do not accept that that is an excuse for the programming motions. Again, in 15 years in this place, I have never seen anything like putting a bulldozer on steroids in the way that programming motions are being used, and it is offensive. Again, I know there is frustration. Inevitably, between a majority government and an opposition, tools …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, from my point of view, as leader of the Green Party, I did not think it was working terribly well in the minority Parliament because the Conservatives supported every egregious Liberal bill like Bill C-5. I still feel the pain of the bulldozer across my back when I think of Monday, June 16, 2025. I do not forget, because June 18 was a Wednesday, and I went to Marc Garneau's funeral …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, as my colleague for Drummond said, I have been a member of this place for 15 years. What an honour it is to represent the communities of Saanich—Gulf Islands and Sencoten- and Lekwungen-speaking indigenous peoples. The fact that I represent a very small party always causes problems, but right now things are worse for me than ever before. Mr. Harper's majority government from 2011 to 2…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I can offer my opinion. I think it is just a fact that they were told to.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as the hon. parliamentary secretary knows, I believe that if we followed the rules of this place, we could far more easily come to consensus around how long each bill should have at second reading before going to committee and so on. The rules of this place say we cannot read a written speech. Knowing that a member cannot deliver a speech unless they have the knowledge in their head…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the Green Party agrees to apply the result of the previous vote to this vote and will vote no.
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is indeed nice that we have seen the clock at midnight. I cannot break the legal fiction, while we are all here together, but it is time for Adjournment Proceedings. I am raising a question I initially raised April 20, two days before Earth Day. I had, on a previous occasion, witnessed an exchange between the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona and the Minister of Energy, in which …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am having trouble hearing myself.
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the difficulty we have and the reason I raised this issue again is that I did ask in the House, on April 20, for a better answer. The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment attempted to answer at that point, saying that the government was concerned and was “working closely with the Crown-indigenous working group along with the affected communities”, and that it wo…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the difficulty I have with this, again, is that we have had working groups and consultation groups, and if we ask the first nation peoples of Cold Lake, as well as those around the Cold Lake operations and the Kearl mine, there have been repeated breaches of their rights and contamination of their waterways, yet Imperial Oil last year, in 2025, had a profit of $3.5 billion. It seems t…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Saskatoon—University for presenting his private member's bill. I will certainly support it. I wonder if there is unanimous consent so that I could present a private member's bill at this moment.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I heard the hon. member mention frequently that there was an election in which we elected a Prime Minister. I know this may seem pedantic, but we do not elect prime ministers in this country. Under Westminster parliamentary democracy, each member in this place is equal to every other member. Every constituent has the choice to elect their member of Parliament. If their member of Par…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this debate is difficult because the Liberals have put forward that there is no justification for being against Bill C‑9. I have a lot of difficulty with that, particularly from a civil liberties point of view, especially in its describing of the idea of there being certain places and certain symbols. However, we are grappling with the same problem we have been grappling with for a lo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise. Today is a sad day because our dear colleague, the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, has made this decision, which was already well known before he gave his last speech. However, it is important for me to thank him for his friendship, for his very hard work on the important issues facing Canada—I hope he forgives me for saying so—as well as the issues fa…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, very briefly, I completely agree with the member for Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon. I would like to make it as clear as I can. I agree with the Bloc Québécois member on her point of order. The things that are happening in Parliament right now really are anti-democratic. I want to put on the record my support for the point of order by the hon. member for Beauharnois—Salabe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I suppose I will echo the comments of my friend from the Conservative benches, the member for Edmonton West, a moment ago. The programming motions, the time allocations, are becoming routine. They used to be rare exceptions. I am honoured to have been serving here for the last 15 years, so saying something as simple as “I have never seen anything like it” might mean something. The s…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, over the course of this debate, I have heard a number of things said that need to be referenced. As my hon. friend from Fort McMurray—Cold Lake pointed out, we have actually had one hour, or maybe a bit more by now, for the programming motion we are debating right now, and now we have closure on that programming motion, which is all about speeding things up. The hon. member says tha…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend, the member for Mirabel, for pointing out in his speech that I was also present at the Standing Committee on Finance during the 30 hours when the committee was effectively deadlocked. It is not the fault of the committee members. Does my colleague agree that the root of the problem is that we are seized with an omnibus budget bill containing a hidden clause…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague from Saskatoon West made the point that there was ample time. I just went back to double-check. First reading on Bill C‑30 was on April 29, and then time allocation, after three hours of debate, was moved a whole month later, basically, on May 25. Does the member recall, because I am trying to recall, what happened with Bill C‑30 between first reading and when the go…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is often that I find myself here wondering if this place has turned into something not quite like a sports arena, in the style of the Trump White House, with its caged sport for the celebration of 250 years of independence, which is a topic that is not necessarily connected to this at all, but, for sporting spectacles, this place sometimes resembles nothing more than target practic…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is deeply offensive. The point of Parliament is to actually have respectful debate and discussion and make sure bills are adequately studied before they are passed. The track record of programming motions on Bill C-5 and this one on Bill C-30 sets extremely dangerous precedence. Parliament is not a mere waste of time for a CEO in a hurry. Parliament is essential to Westminster parl…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my Bloc Québécois colleague. It is true that, over the past year, we have lost policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The government has gone in a completely different directions from what the Liberal Party's platform proposed a year ago. We now have a government whose goal is to increase greenhouse gas emissions. With these policies, it is absolu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am glad the hon. member for Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas respects my experience in this place because I started, our very first days together, sitting in that corner, trying to acquaint him with standing orders about heckling. I do believe that when I say “move fast”, what I mean is ignoring the requirements of democracy that bills be adequately considered before they are passed. I…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I need to preface this before I thank the hon. member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith, in case anyone has forgotten how unlikely it is that I am deeply grateful to her for her work, her diligence and her ability to analyze legislation. It still breaks my heart to hear “The hon. member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith” and not have it be Green Party member Paul Manly. I have to pay tribute to this member. …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, no matter how well-intentioned the bill may be, I do not think I have ever received so many angry and concerned calls, letters and emails from constituents about a bill. I do oppose the legislation, but I would appreciate adequate time to be able to explain the reasons I agree with those from the civil liberties community who believe the bill would create more litigation and more char…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am sorry, but we are debating time allocation. I feel like I am being heckled and cannot express myself properly. If we are interested in having proper time to debate bills, why does the government want to use time allocation as opposed to allowing us to sit until Friday, which was the original schedule?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present petition e-6791, signed by 1,084 people. I imagine that most of them are from the disability community. The petition is heart-wrenching to read. I know I cannot read it aloud but must summarize it. It is about the number of Canadians with disabilities who are living in deep poverty. The petitioners say that disabled people have lost hope that anyone cares. Many are t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, when the hon. Minister of Justice says we have a very small window to push through legislation, that is entirely due to the government's decision to adjourn two days early. I wish the government had come to me and asked how I would feel about staying later this summer to properly study bills and not push through the destruction of pesticide regulations in an omnibus budget bill. I kno…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am struggling with Bill C-20. I voted against it last evening. I am looking at Bill C-26. I am hoping the hon. Minister of Housing can explain to me why the good work done since September by Build Canada Homes, as a special operating agency, seems disconnected from the new Crown corporation. For Bill C-20, we do not even know who the responsible minister would be, because that hat c…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am pursuing a question I first asked on April 14. I have been concerned for some time that the new Liberal government has less respect for science than previous governments had. We recently mourned the death of our colleague Dr. Kirsty Duncan. In all the eulogies, people remembered her as the first minister of science in Canada. We may note, and I hate to say this, that she will be …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. friend, and he is a friend, the parliamentary secretary. Let me give him an example right now that is not hypothetical. None of the wonderful press releases he has mentioned has done a single thing to allow the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada to have a budget sufficient enough to hold the meetings it is required to hold by law. It is supposed t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, division 8 of Bill C-30, with only three hours of debate in this place before time allocation, represents the single largest rollback of health and environmental protection in the regulation of pesticides in the history of this country. I ask the government, I ask the Prime Minister, where did the pressure come from for this rollback? I am reliably informed that even industry did not …
Read full speech →