Government Orders
Madam Speaker, one of the things I am concerned about is this. It is great to know that we are hiring more law enforcement officials, but has the government read the Mass Casualty Commission report on the Portapique shootings and the quite substantial recommendations that RCMP officers need more extensive and better training that lasts years? Are we going to see the implementation of the Mass Casu…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to rise today to add my voice to those paying tribute to our dear friend Marc Garneau. It is a big shock that he is no longer with us today. It was a great honour to work with him. We had been friends for over 14 years. I worked with him here, in the House. When I was elected in 2011, the Conservative Party had a majority government on this side of the Hous…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, will the hon. Minister of Transport commit to bringing back Bill C-33 on rail safety and ports that was at report stage when it died on the Order Paper?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, my Bloc Québécois colleague raised the issue about the long delays on VIA tracks, because the Venture trains are being held up by the risk-averse CN. Will the minister intervene and ensure Via Rail does not go broke?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, the minister mentioned Roberts Bank. I want to draw to her attention, if she is unaware, to the fact that scientists have urged the government to say no as it will lead to the extinction of species.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is my first opportunity to get in on this debate. While Canadians, obviously, are looking to the government for a policy that addresses borders, there are a lot of details in this bill. It is an omnibus bill and changes 14 different laws. I am particularly concerned about the sections that would make it impossible for people who might have had refugee status to apply for it now…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I will share my five minutes with the hon. member for Courtenay—Alberni. I apologize to the ministers I would like to talk to more, but we have to go fast. To the hon. Minister of Public Safety, there has been a commitment to hire 1,000 more RCMP officers. Given it has been two years since the Mass Casualty Commission recommended that the minimum training for RCMP officers go to three y…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, to defend my friend from Saskatoon—University, I think he meant the last person speaking. However, I will proceed to say that the Liberal Party of Canada has been the biggest promoter of nuclear energy ever since Pierre Trudeau. It has never stopped shovelling money toward it. I enjoyed my time briefly working with leaders in the Reform Party, who called former prime minister Jean Chr…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, it is not a pipe dream. It is getting to be a bit of a joke, but it is not funny. The reality is that we have programs to reduce greenhouse gases, but there are no longer any at the federal level. Good programs exist, particularly in the province of Quebec, which plays an important role in global alliances against fossil fuels. When I attended UN conferences, the one thing that made m…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of many British Columbians, and certainly all petitioners, who continue to draw attention to the perilous state of wild salmon populations and are looking at the entire food chain and the threat to herring populations, which are also being overfished. The petitioners ask that we at least go back to the recommendations of Mr. Justice Cohen and the report that he tabled…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, I thank my dear colleague, the member for Davenport, for giving me the opportunity to respond to the Speech from the Throne. We had an amazing experience at the opening of this Parliament: the visit by our King, King Charles III. I agree with the main theme of the Speech from the Throne, which is the need to build Canada strong. However, there are some details that were not mentione…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, it is not an ideological position. We approach this way for every kind of energy source: For the dollar invested, how much carbon is reduced, how many jobs are created, and how long does it take from the decision that has been made until we see the energy produced? The reality is, on that measurement, that the top-notch winner is energy efficiency, then renewables. Nuclear is at the b…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I was going to ask the Prime Minister a question about nation-building projects, but then today Tina called our office. She got my chief of staff on the phone and started explaining that she is a mom with disabilities and cannot figure out how she is going to feed her children, and she started crying on the phone. I have a nation-building project question. Cheques start going to Canad…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I particularly want to thank my new colleague from Calgary Confederation for a quite excellent speech. This debate has been going on now since 6:30 this evening. It is now, as we can see by the clock, 11:40 p.m. I am disappointed that we have not been able to make more progress on finding common ground. There is no question but that every single member of the House is thinking of and …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker. I am presenting a petition that I suppose could have been from petitioners in almost any electoral district across Canada. Petitioners from Saanich—Gulf Islands have asked me to present this petition, which points to the crisis across Canada regarding access to primary health care and having a regular family doctor. In my community, in the Sidney and Victoria area of British Columbia,…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the hon. member for Miramichi—Grand Lake on his election. I share the concerns the member has about the fate of Atlantic salmon, as well as that of Pacific salmon. As he will know, and in Miramichi everyone knows, by the way, that I am actually bicoastal. I am from Cape Breton Island and Vancouver Island. I grew up on Cape Breton Island. The Miramichi is f…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, I would also like to congratulate my neighbour in the House, a fellow British Columbian, the new member for South Surrey—White Rock. I want to ask him about an issue that was almost solved with a bill that died on the Order Paper on January 6. It was Bill C-33, and it dealt with an issue. There is another member of the House who happens to be here, the hon. member for Pierre-Boucher…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, it is awfully good to see this particular Speaker back in her chair and with continued health. I want to welcome the new member for Eglinton—Lawrence to this place and ask him if he has reflected on the failure of the Speech from the Throne to pick up any of the recommendations on the report of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which was tabled four y…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre for bringing this critical issue to the floor of the House of Commons tonight for an emergency debate. There are many ways in which this is an emergency. In June 2018, this House voted that the climate crisis was an emergency. The next day, the government approved a pipeline. Tonight we are debating an emergency where we are seeing people ru…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, this is the first time I have addressed the new member as secretary of state, and I think this moment requires that we all extend our deepest concerns, sympathy and prayers not only to him but to the people of his community, his riding and all throughout Saskatchewan who are threatened by wildfires. That is the point of what we are doing right now. I am from British Columbia, where we…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I want to put on the record, of course, that forest management is exclusively a provincial jurisdiction, but there are many important climate factors, and some that are not exclusively climate. Somebody will point out that, yes, a fire gets started by lightning, but what if there is a fuel load that is absolutely tinder dry from years of hot, dry climate events that make it so likely …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, we need to work together. We have to deal with this crisis. It is urgent. In the Speech from the Throne, not a single word was said about the Paris Agreement. I think the government may act soon. I hope so, but there was not a word about it in the throne speech. Now, we have to face this crisis, be honest with the people of this country and work together to reduce greenhouse gases, pr…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I am sorry my friend from Fort McMurray feels that way. I have not had any speeches tonight until now, and in asking questions, what I have said tonight is that our thoughts are with the people running for their lives. The hon. member may have missed it, but I have been through this with my family in B.C. We have been through floods where friends disappeared down the river in their ho…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Courtenay—Alberni, because he has reminded me that one of the solutions I wanted to mention is the First Nations' Emergency Services Society, which is based in B.C. and is a great model that should be rolled out across the country. I have mentioned the heat dome a few times, because it was traumatic to have 619 British Columbians die within four days, but on the…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the hon. member for Kitchener South—Hespeler. There are a lot of new members in this place, and I wish to welcome everyone and wish them good luck in their work here on behalf of their constituents. I do want to ask the hon. member if his position is that our health care system should be abolished and that the Canada Health Act should be repealed, representing socialism…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the petitioners call upon this House to consider the urgent crisis in the collapsing numbers of the population of southern resident killer whales. They have been identified as an endangered population under Canada's Species at Risk Act. There have been numerous programs and promises put in place, but the southern resident killer whale population continues to lack adequate protection a…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present a petition from constituents as well as Canadians from coast to coast. It is certainly an issue that came up on the doorsteps when I was campaigning. The petitioners ask that the government takes seriously its commitments under the Paris Agreement to avoid the dangerous and even catastrophic levels of climate change and global warming that will occur if we e…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, as Saskatchewan and Manitoba burn, there is precious little content in the Speech from the Throne on how the government plans to approach the climate crisis. There is not a single reference to the Paris Agreement and our legally binding targets to cut emissions by at least 40% by 2030. On November 2024, we were at only 7% below 2005 levels. When will the government present a plan? So …
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I had not intended to give a Caesar-like speech. We are not burying the member. I am tempted, of course, as ever, to praise him because we are friends. I do not think the hon. member for Battle River—Crowfoot will be gone long from this place, and I do not know if the official residence of Stornoway is now found within the borders of Battle River—Crowfoot, but I am sure that all thing…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as it is my first time taking the floor in the House in this session of Parliament, I want to begin by thanking the voters of Saanich—Gulf Islands for the trust they have placed in me to continue to serve them. It is the honour of my life to do so. I am extremely grateful to the 350 volunteers who helped so diligently, some of them working seven days a week and around the clock. I wil…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
I am being heckled as I make this point, Mr. Speaker. In your election, there were many commitments made in this place from many quarters that we want to see better decorum in Parliament. On the part of my ability to understand and hear the member who is right next to me, the heckling was too loud.
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. As you may be aware, although the hon. member for Vancouver East is some distance from the Chair, there unfortunately has been more heckling than one would want on the day when we receive the Speech from the Throne.
Read full speech →First Session—45th Parliament
Mr. Speaker, congratulations to one and all, especially to the new members. It is an honour to rise to congratulate our new Speaker and to congratulate all the members elected in this place, whether for the first time or, as for the dean of the House, the 13th time. I congratulate, again, every member. I reflect on what it was like when I witnessed my first Speaker election, when I was first elect…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, we learn something new every day. I understood that there is an exemption to the rule on props if we are actually speaking to a document and holding it in our hand for reference. I thought that was acceptable, but perhaps we had better check the rules. The document has very little in it, despite its bulk, and there is almost nothing new. There is a pittance on housing and less than …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in my last question in 2024, I think of the IPCC sixth assessment report—
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, it is rare that the Green Party gets to put a question to the leader of the official opposition, so I will take this opportunity. I will start by saying there was nothing in his statement with which I could disagree, because it vaulted us into a frenzy of patriotism. I love this country. There is no place in the world I would rather live than in Canada, but the hon. leader of the offi…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I have one small factoid correction. It is true that the Prime Minister of this country has his security clearance, but he got it by right when he became Prime Minister. He never actually had to go through the process that I, or the leader of the New Democratic Party or the leader of the Bloc Québécois, had to go through. That is a good question, and a very important one. Why did th…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, we are a rich country. Thanks to my hon. friend for Kitchener Centre for reminding us that we have an obligation as a country to have essential fairness. People with disabilities have a disproportionate rate of poverty, but why do we have people living in tent cities? Why are we allowing people to live in conditions that are inhumane in a country that could afford a guaranteed livab…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise at this moment and to debate in the ongoing motion of privilege. I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Kitchener Centre. Being a stickler for the rules, I am aware as I begin this that today seems to be a day when all the rules are going right out the window. I noticed that the hon. member for South Shore—St. Margarets noted that the member for…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, we actually do not know what is meant by that, because to me, fixing the budget is to get a balanced budget. We know it will take some time, but the Greens have been advocating that if we want to balance our spending with our revenues, we should go for where the money is, which is the billionaire class, big banks, big oil and big grocery chains. They have been reaping excess profits…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in my last question in 2024, I think of the IPCC sixth assessment report: that if we do not globally reduce emissions dramatically, peak before and see dramatic reductions “at the latest before 2025”, we will shoot way past the Paris Agreement targets, shoot way past 2°C and face climate disaster. I think of the words in that film The Age of Stupid: What were we thinking, to avoid the…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, this is not to make the same point as my hon. colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby, but given that there was a moment when the Speaker had to stop at four o'clock and seek the presentation, I suggest to you, Mr. Speaker, that we are in a really difficult quandary here, as opposition party members. We were given access, on a confidential, embargoed lock-up basis, to read the document…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I first posed this question in question period on October 11, and surprisingly enough, I did not get a satisfactory response. By way of background, I was the only member of Parliament who obtained intervenor status in the National Energy Board hearings on the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline. I think it is safe to say I am the only Canadian who read all of the so-called evidence submit…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have a couple things to say to my hon. friend the parliamentary secretary. I want to agree with him profoundly that the cries for justice for spouses of people who have served in the armed forces should move us particularly. Equally, it makes no sense to deny spousal benefits to other classes of civil servants and other people covered by the superannuation act. The whole notion of…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured to represent my constituents of Saanich—Gulf Islands, acknowledging that I work on the territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ people, today standing on the lands of the Algonquin and Anishinabe people. I acknowledge their extraordinary generosity and patience. Petitioners have asked me to present the following, calling to the House's attention that Canada is legally bound by the …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the gold digger clause was invented after the Boer War. That is how far back it goes. Like my friend from North Island—Powell River, I have constituents who are going through this. I have been working on this with her predecessor, the former veterans critic for the NDP, Peter Stoffer, a great MP for Sackville—Eastern Shore in Nova Scotia. I want to tell one quick story. Chic Goodman…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is outrageous to imagine that so many millions of dollars can be spent bribing a municipality not to protect its citizens, and no one in cabinet knows about it. However, that is what happens when we have what is called a “non-budgetary transaction” in which, magically, former finance minister Bill Morneau, without approval from anyone, decided that we have this value of $34 billion…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, this petition deals with the concerns of constituents that we are, globally, losing our pollinators. Bees are essential for agricultural production and biodiversity. The petitioners specifically call on the Government of Canada, for the sake of our bees and for food security, to follow Europe's lead, adhere to the precautionary principle and ban the use of neonicotinoid insecticides i…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Monday, we will find out the extent of Canada's deficit. The Greens offer some solutions: Offset deficits by taxing the excess profits of big oil and big banks and by taxing the billionaire class. Why will the government not make them pay their fair share?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, is “erratic and unhinged” considered parliamentary language in this place?
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