Parliamentary Speeches

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The minister is not allowed to, even inaccurately, refer to the presence or absence of members. I do not think she was actually here for the whole debate, but regardless, she is not supposed to claim she was here, if I understand the rules around presence and absence.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I had a lot to say about the previous speech on royal titles, but I will focus on the subject matter of the speech that was just given. In terms of this issue of carbon taxes being a market mechanism or whether it is a market thing or not, I think the important point is that of course they involve the possibility of incentives and training and they recognize those realities, but funda…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, this is not a feminist policy. It would increase taxes on women as well as on men, and it would subsidize particular choices and not others. It would create a fiscal pressure by subsidizing people who use particular kinds of child care arrangements, and it would offer no support to shift workers, those who choose to stay at home for periods of time with their children, those who are…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, at a basic level, I struggle to understand the fairness of taxing all families and subsidizing some child care choices and not others. People make a variety of choices, and they have a variety of approaches to child care. Some of those reflect their circumstances, the kinds of jobs they have, their choices about the division of labour and these sorts of things. How is it fair that a…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I am speaking tonight about the inconsistencies between the government's claims about the Trudeau Foundation and the actual facts of what has happened in terms of the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Trudeau Foundation. There are a couple of key points that are, I think, not disputed. The Trudeau Foundation was founded with a $125-million grant from the Government of …

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I welcome colleagues, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak about Bill C-281, the international human rights act, and to congratulate my colleague. Over this journey we have had together on this bill, I have been working to get his constituency's name right. It is Northumberland—Peterborough South. I want to recognize the member for Northumberland—Peterborough South for putting …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the next petition is also about the situation in Hong Kong. The petitioners note the injustices that have been inflicted against Hong Kong and how people who have been involved in the democracy movement might have faced politically motivated prosecutions and, as such, they might be considered inadmissible to Canada under the current approach being taken. The petitioners are concerned …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I am going to table a number of petitions that relate to the human rights situation in Hong Kong. First of all, the petitioners note how recent Hong Kong graduates can apply for open work permits under a temporary public policy for Hong Kong residents. In June 2021, there were two pathways, stream A and stream B, announced to Hong Kongers who worked or studied in Canada to obtain perm…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the next petition is one I had a number of copies of and has been in my desk for a little while. It is, in some respects, a little bit dated, but I think it is always worth a reminder. The petition calls on the Government of Canada to end all COVID-19 mandates. I am pleased to table that as well.

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the next petition highlights the ongoing, horrific and unjust detention of Mr. Huseyin Celil. The petitioners note that they were very pleased to see the release of the two Michaels who had been detained for 1,000 days in China. They note that Mr. Celil has been detained for over 5,000 days, that he is a Canadian citizen and a person of Uyghur ethnic origin who had been vocal on advoc…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to present a number of petitions to the House today. The first petition is the same as the petition my colleague presented with respect to the human rights situation in Turkey, Pakistan and Bahrain. The petitioners are concerned about officials in all three of these countries committing human rights violations against thousands of Turks, including Tur…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, of course there is a wide variety of factors that impacts energy prices. There is a wide variety of factors that impacts prices for anything, but when we add a tax on top of energy prices, then we are saying that, whatever the market price would have been, we will make it higher by taxing it. It is inevitably true that, regardless of what the market price will be and the other facto…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I have raised a motion that is not a dilatory motion. It is a debatable motion. We are debating it. When the debate on this concludes, we will proceed with the daily routine of business, which will provide the member an opportunity to make his request for an emergency debate. I suggest that, if he wants to learn more about these procedural issues, the Conservative House leader would…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I am surprised that the NDP House leader knows so little about the procedural workings of this place. I had no idea that New Democrats were planning to request an emergency debate. Maybe it is on the member's Twitter. I do not follow him on Twitter, so I really had no idea, but—

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question from my colleague. It is a generally a pleasure working together on the public accounts committee, although today we had to sit through extensive filibustering from the Liberals because they do not want to allow us to look at documents from the Trudeau Foundation. Nonetheless, it is usually a pleasure, and any lack of pleasure is not the fault of the ho…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, the hon. member would like us to believe that the Liberals have a plan. How is that plan going? The carbon tax was supposed to fix this problem, but then the member comes to me to say that we still have a problem. The Liberal plan is not working. The Liberal plan is not achieving results. Conservatives do not believe that increasing taxes on Canadians is the solution. The more effec…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I apologize for that and I apologize to the interpreters. Canadians are struggling because of increasing costs, and these costs are the result of a failed fiscal policy from the current government. We listen to the way the government talks about spending, and whenever things go wrong, it is not the Liberals' fault. Whenever the Liberals are spending money, they have no sense of the …

Routine Proceedings

moved that the 20th report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented on Thursday, October 20, 2022, be concurred in. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to be able to speak to this very important committee report. It has been an honour for me to work as part of the team on the public accounts committee. I will be sharing my time. The 20th report deals with the public accounts themsel…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, given the critical nature of this debate, I wonder if you could confirm that the House has quorum.

Madam Speaker, I just want to be able to finish this third point. It is the final point and I will wrap it up as quickly as I can. The issue is that I sent six distinct subamendments to the House of Commons drafting service and I asked that these be generated as report stage amendments, which was a request that I sent in as soon as I was able to, following the announcement of the change in the tim…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, I raised a question respecting committee agendas. I will note page 512 of the House of Commons Procedure and Practice specifically says that members may raise questions concerning matters before committee and that those questions are directed toward the committee chair. Page 512 reads: Questions seeking information about the schedule and agenda of committees may be directed to Chair…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, the Liberals have wreaked havoc on our immigration system. Canadians and prospective Canadians who play by the rules are being forced to wait for years, while the integrity of our system is threatened by unscrupulous consultants and an incompetent government. Conservatives have moved a motion at the immigration committee to get to the bottom of a scandal in which the government issu…

Madam Speaker, I have important points to raise. I think it is evident, from the sound of my voice, that I have a sore throat. I asked the member for Edmonton Manning to come over here and then I requested he get me a glass of water, as he has just graciously done. The fact that this is being used by the member for Winnipeg North is grossly unfair. I am trying to execute my responsibilities, in sp…

Madam Speaker, I would welcome the members who have returned. The programming motion did not mention an exclusion of subamendments. I, as a member of Parliament, believe that it is consistent with my privileges to be able to propose some amendments at the committee stage. The right to move subamendments flows from what is referenced in Standing Order 116, namely that “the Standing Orders shall app…

Madam Speaker, I will be. The point that I was making, and the reason why I think taking note of the motion at finance committee is important, is that Standing Order 116(2)(a) says, “unless a time limit has been adopted by the committee or by the House”. The committee did adopt a motion that prescribed time limits. However, that motion did not establish time limits in the way the Chair was applyin…

Madam Speaker, if the parliamentary secretary does not like hearing questions of privilege raised, my suggestion would be that the government not violate the privileges of members. There would then be less of a need for questions of privilege to be raised in the House—

The heckling continues, but I will continue in spite of it. Page 81 of the third edition of the House of Commons Procedure and Practice states: There are...other affronts against the dignity and authority of Parliament which may not fall within one of the specifically defined privileges. Thus, the House also claims the right to punish, as a contempt, any action which, though not a breach of a spec…

Madam Speaker, that is precisely what I intend to do. The member across the way is heckling and asking what the matter of privilege is. Again, I invite him to listen, and I think he will appreciate the point. I also want to identify, as I said earlier, that there are at least three separate ways in which the privileges of members were impacted by the proceedings on Bill C-47. I will be appropriate…

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to raise a question of privilege in relation to a number of issues respecting the process on Bill C-47 that I believe violate the privileges of members. I will identify at least three distinct situations, or areas, where the privilege of members of Parliament, in my view, was violated in the process of disposing of this bill. I will begin with just a few…

Madam Speaker, I recognize the correctness of everything you said, but I would add that there is an exception to the Standing Orders in terms of the Speaker's power as it relates to what happens at committee. Standing Order 116(2)(b) reads: A violation of paragraph (a) of this section may be brought to the attention of the Speaker by any member and the Speaker shall have the power to rule on the m…

Madam Speaker, it was actually a point of order on the process for raising points of order during points of order. This member has, on multiple occasions, interrupted a point of order. When another member is raising and explaining a matter of order, his point of order should not take precedence over an existing point of order on the floor. I think he has also failed to take note of the fact that t…

Point of order.

Madam Speaker, I do think it is material to the requirements here that the government made a last-minute change to the schedule with respect to the calling of Bill C-47. Members became aware of it for the first time in the Thursday question, which was very late in the day yesterday. I understand that it is common for members to write to the Speaker in advance, and that is ideal, but it is ideal un…

Madam Speaker, on the same point of order, just logically, I am confused by the arguments from the member for Winnipeg North. He is saying that the Speaker is, in his view, about to make a ruling, and, therefore, that the member should wait to hear the Speaker's ruling before making arguments that would be material to the Speaker's ruling. It seems to be quite logical that members would want to ma…

Madam Speaker, with due respect to my friend from Winnipeg North, he is clearly not even paying attention. I have raised an issue of privilege, and he is welcome to make arguments about it—

Madam Speaker, just to clarify, I was conceptually grouping the violations of privilege that had happened at committee. I think there were a number of violations of privilege that happened at committee. The second issue, and this was raised as a question of privilege at committee, does touch on 116(2)(b), and that is the right of members to be able to vote. It is the right of members to be able to…

Oral Questions

Respectfully, on the facts, Madam Speaker, I believe someone may have been trying to get the attention of the Chair online. I cannot say for sure, because I was not online and I am here, but I—

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Prime Minister, everything feels broken. Life costs more. Work does not pay, and housing costs have doubled. The Prime Minister divides to control the people. Worst of all, crime and chaos, drugs and disorder rage in our streets. Nowhere is this worse than the opioid crisis, and that has expanded so dramatically in the last several years. Across the board, w…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague spoke about the intention of the program. I do not deny that there are good intentions on all sides of the House when it comes to this issue. I am just interested in looking at the results. The reason I see the Purdue program of overpromotion and of trying to minimize stigma about the substance to get more people to use it as very similar to, and in a substantive s…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, with great respect for my colleague, I get evidence from a variety of sources, which sometimes might include the London Free Press but does include broader reading than just one article that cites one physician. The evidence we have seen over the last number of decades is very clear. When hard, dangerous drugs are destigmatized as substances and made more available and more accessib…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to speak in support of Bill C-281 and in the process to recognize the work that was done and continues to be done on this important legislation by my colleague from Northumberland—Peterborough South. It is also notable, I think, that we are debating the international human rights act today, on what is also Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. I want to extend my t…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I am following up on a simple question that I asked the government earlier, which was whether it believes that McKinsey is an ethical company. We have not gotten a direct answer from the government on that, and I do not think it is a difficult question at all for reasons that I will explain later. Does the government think McKinsey is an ethical company? I ask the Government of Cana…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for speaking from the heart tonight. However, in all seriousness, the words he read had nothing whatsoever to do with the question I asked, which is not entirely unusual from the current government but is particularly obvious in the case of what has just transpired. These things used to annoy me. Now, I think we just have to laugh at the absurdity of the e…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I started reading it.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I move: That the motion be amended by adding the following: “and to directly sue the companies responsible for causing and fuelling the opioid crisis for all damages associated with the crisis and direct all funds recovered through such litigation to prevention, treatment, and recovery programs.”

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I do want to focus on the need for funding, as my friend and colleague alluded to, particularly in the area of treatment and recovery. This is something that Conservatives have been championing for a long time: the need for stronger engagement in funding, treatment and recovery. We recognize, in the context of scarce resources, that the money is much better spent on treatment and re…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to address the House this afternoon on Bill S-5, legislation that the government has put forward in the Senate and is now with us in the House. It is a bit of an environmental policy omnibus, as it brings together a number of different kinds of provisions updating various pieces of legislation. Conservatives are prepared to support this legislation. We think, g…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I doubt it—

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I have not switched my position on this issue. I have been quite clear on it. If members think otherwise, they are welcome to search the record to see if they can identify instances where I have said the opposite—

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I think the member is onto something, that people should be able to access information about the risks the products present to them. I also wonder if we need to have a broader conversation about labelling and how that information is presented. I can recall various debates where people wanted all kinds of information and more detailed labels, but that can present certain challenges a…