Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, first, I want to acknowledge my colleague and congratulate her on her election. I want to highlight something that is happening in the fish industry, something that she would be concerned about if it was happening in Newfoundland. Right now, in British Columbia, harvesters are being displaced by foreign acquisition of Canada's commercial fishing licences and quotas. Canada does not cu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present this petition as the new critic for defence for the federal NDP on behalf of residents from Bamfield, Port Alberni, Parksville and Courtenay in my riding. The petitioners highlight that Canada signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, pledging to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and obse…
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Mr. Speaker, as a rural MP like me, my colleague knows that local governments are responsible for about 60% of infrastructure costs, yet they only collect about 10% of overall revenue. I know this as a former municipal councillor from Tofino. I will give an example. The Village of Cumberland, in my riding, is dealing with cost overruns due to supply chain inflation, and they see the federal govern…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and congratulate him on his election. The member talked about the protection of languages and how important that is. An essential part of reconciliation is addressing the harms indigenous peoples have experienced, including the devastating loss of language and culture. In British Columbia, the First Peoples' Cultural Council has been highlighting to…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your election as Speaker. I rise to table a petition that is very important and timely. It is from the residents of Union Bay on Vancouver Island, who are deeply frustrated. They cite that there is significant risk to workers and the environment associated with ship-breaking due to the presence of a wide variety of hazardous materials and end-of-life marine vessels.…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Port Alberni is short 1,200 homes. It is nearly impossible to find an affordable place to live. Rents doubled under the Conservatives and then again under the Liberals. Liberal disappointment and Conservative cuts mean that non-market housing in Canada has dropped to 3.5% of our housing stock. Other countries are doing much better, like France at 17%, the Netherlands at 34% and Denmar…
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Mr. Speaker, my frustration is when I hear Conservatives talk about their great reputation when it comes to fisheries and oceans. I will tell members what it is like in my riding. Gail Shea, the former Conservative minister, was given a recommendation by DFO to not open the commercial herring harvest in my riding. The Nuu-chah-nulth were opposed to that. They actually had to go to court, because t…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the member used the term “gimmicks”. Let me remind my colleague that in 2021, the Conservatives brought forward the idea of having a GST holiday, just like what has been passed in the House and implemented. They also brought forward the concept of removing the GST on home heating. What did they do, though, when the NDP brought forward a motion to do that? They voted against it. The …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, my colleague highlighted some really important things, including that the Liberal government continues to put forward targets and miss its targets. It is like a constant public relations campaign. I want to thank my colleague for supporting my motion, M-151, to tackle plastic pollution and the House also did, unanimously, in 2018. It led to the first-ever ghost and derelict fishing …
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Mr. Speaker, for 70 years, friendship centres have served as vital community hubs for urban indigenous people. Now they are on the front line of Canada's mental health crisis, the toxic drug crisis and catastrophic climate events like floods and forest fires, but federal funding has not kept up. The National Association of Friendship Centres is clear in that it needs $62 million of federal funding…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I would like to ask the House if I could have unanimous consent to table this important petition on mental health.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, forest biomass energy production has the potential to provide Canadian electrical grids with a sustainable source of energy. This will also create high-paying jobs for rural communities, like the paper mill in Port Alberni. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act includes tax incentives for biomass, putting Canada's forest sector at a competitive disadvantage. The Liberals promised a clean t…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I greatly appreciate the collaboration in the House right now, especially when it comes to e-petition 5166, which is a privilege for me to table today. The petition has been signed by over 500 people from across Canada and was initiated by Jade Dulle, a mental health advocate who biked across Canada this summer to hear from people who have lived experiences with mental health challeng…
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With regard to federal funding for environmental projects within the federal electoral district of Courtenay—Alberni, since the 2005-06 fiscal year: broken down by fiscal year, recipient, project, total contribution, funding program, and type of funding, what have been the federal investments in (i) terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, (ii) ecosystem and habitat protection, conservation, and rest…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in 1992, the Liberals pulled out of the national housing strategy at a time when we were building 25,000 non-market housing units a year.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I grew up in co-op housing, to answer my colleague who just heckled me. Thirty-two years without building those 25,000 units has obviously left us in a huge deficit. In fact, right now we are the lowest in the OECD in non-market housing, at 3.5%. We can look to the Netherlands, where it is at 34%; Denmark, where it is at 21%; or France, where it is at 17% and its goal is 20%. Does m…
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With regard to federal funding and reserves and treaty settlement lands within the federal electoral district of Courtenay—Alberni, between the 2005-06 fiscal year and the current fiscal year: what are the federal capital investments and funding contributions for infrastructure projects, including, but not limited to, projects related to water and wastewater facilities, solid waste management, roa…
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With regard to the communities which comprise the federal electoral district of Courtenay—Alberni, since the 2005-06 fiscal year: (a) what have been the federal investments and funding contributions for housing projects, including loans and direct transfers provided by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), invested in or transferred to the municipalities of (i) Tofino, (ii) Ucluelet,…
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With regard to national parks, national urban parks, and national marine conservation areas in Canada, broken down by fiscal year and park or area since 2005-06: (a) how many visitors accessed each national park, national urban park, and national marine conservation area; and (b) how much funding did each national park, national urban park, and national marine conservation area receive for (i) ope…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that is not all Canadians. Seniors and students in Courtenay—Alberni are being left high and dry with the high cost of living. They are living on tight budgets and deserve a helping hand. Instead of helping, the Liberals decided to exclude seniors and students from their $250 rebate. They are letting people down again. Conservatives want tax breaks only for their rich CEO donors and b…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague and I worked very closely together in covering a lot of different holes in what was going on in terms of this contract with ArriveCAN. We saw so many problems with this one that we should examine the bigger companies and the massive contracts that they are getting, like Deloitte, which has gone up 20-fold, in terms of outsourcing since the Conservatives took government …
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Madam Speaker, I enjoyed working with my colleague on the government operations committee. We saw so much, along with so much dysfunction. However, we also know that the outsourcing to external consultants at highly paid consulting firms, which doubled under the Conservatives, has quadrupled. It has run away out of control under the Liberals. We also know up here that there has been a culture inst…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about how this is normal procurement and every government does it. Under the Conservatives, we saw procurement to highly paid external consulting companies double. We have now seen it quadruple under the Liberals. This is the new normal: the rush to the trough by Liberal and Conservative insiders. In this case, for ArriveCAN, we saw current public servants gettin…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague outlining, through this motion, that the government “prohibit any government employee from simultaneously working as an external contractor.” That completely makes sense. It is logical. This should have been happening years ago. It should have been happening under the Harper government. My concerns around outsourcing are serious, and I have raised them many t…
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Mr. Speaker, the whole thing has been a gravy train for Liberal and Conservatives insiders, and not just insiders. I highlighted earlier that Peter MacKay, a former Conservative cabinet minister, and Pierre Pettigrew, a former Liberal cabinet minister, are sitting as managing directors at Deloitte, which has gotten over $1.2 billion from the government. The issue skyrocketed under the Conservative…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, people who live near Union Bay on Vancouver Island have been telling the government for years to stop allowing the unsafe ship-breaking of massive ships. Now there is a hydraulic oil spill. What did the Liberals do? They issued a warning that does not stop anything. This jeopardizes this sensitive ecosystem, which includes half of all of B.C.'s shellfish. The Liberals have let people …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I was talking about the Leader of the Opposition's $250,000—
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I think that this is an important issue to all of us. This is something that was unanimously supported at committee and in the House. As well, we have not seen the government take action when it comes to modern-day slavery in Canadian supply chains. Will my colleague stand today to make a commitment that Conservatives will hold big corporations to account to ensure that those companie…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that we have this time today to remind the government of the promise it made in the budget this year to table legislation to eliminate forced labour from Canadian supply chains. However, when I asked the member for Bay of Quinte about whether his party would prioritize taking action on this, he said that we needed more competition. More competition is not going to solve g…
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Madam Speaker, here we are talking about forced labour and our supply chains. When we look at what is happening here in Canada, we had the report of the special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. She cited that modern-day slavery is happening today in our temporary foreign worker program. In my riding, there were some workers who were working for a local mill, and they were living in dep…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, while we are talking about forced labour in Canada's supply chains, I want to talk about what is happening here at home. We had the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery comment. She highlighted that the temporary foreign worker program in Canada is being used as modern-day slavery by some bad players. Now, in my hometown of Port Alberni, 15 temporary foreign worker…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, mental health care is health care, but the Canadian Mental Health Association tells us that over 2.5 million Canadians cannot get the help they need while others are forced to use their credit card to get it. The Liberals have let people and families struggling with mental health down, and the Conservatives will cut health care and mental health supports. Canadians will have to pay mo…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, November 20, is Universal Children's Day. This is a day we recognize annually to promote and celebrate children's rights in Canada and worldwide. On this day, we recognize the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. These rights include the right to be protected from violence and discrimination and the right to life, health and e…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to table e-petition 5126, which has over a thousand signatures. It is particularly timely given that the Peace Train is arriving in Ottawa tomorrow, and many of its riders are signatories to this petition. The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to establish and fund a centre of excellence for peace and justice focused on research, education and tra…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I am really grateful to my colleague for his speech, but also for talking about the importance of supporting veterans. Here we are, all of us MPs, coming back from our ridings where we went and paid respect to those who served in the military and RCMP, put their lives on the line to protect us and served our country. I am glad he talked about the amnesia down the bench on the Conserva…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, INEO Employment Services in Port Alberni provides vital support to help people trying to find jobs. It offers necessary training and capacity building for employment readiness. It can do this because of B.C.'s community and employer partnerships program. However, it recently lost support due to federal funding cuts. The funding cuts are happening because the Liberals slashed B.C.'s fu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I again rise on behalf of frustrated constituents of mine from Union Bay on Vancouver Island, who are trying to draw the House's attention and the government's attention to the fact that Canada does not have strong laws when it comes to shipbreaking and ship recycling. In fact, we have extremely weak ones, if anything. Petitioners are calling on the government to develop enforceable f…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as of November 1, Canada introduced the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, who is meant to help resolve scam issues with banks. That is a great start, but since the ombudsperson's recommendations are non-binding, it is only a half measure. We have a financial system that rewards criminals and costs Canadians. We need to hold big banks to account and make sure there is a c…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I want to give my colleague credit. His speech actually stayed on the motion today, unlike many of his colleagues who use this as a platform to clip and raise money. The Conservatives under the Harper government were embroiled in scandal after scandal: the ETS scandal of $400 million; $1 billion in the G8 scandal, including the gazebos we all know about; $2.2 billion for the Phoenix p…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, we know that with fraud, many people have not come forward because they felt the stigma, the shame and the embarrassment of dealing with fraud. It is like dealing with mental health. We need to do a better job to change the public's outlook when it comes to sharing about fraud because fraud is happening, and it is sophisticated. It is happening because of organized crime, which is usi…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I am really glad my colleague talked about outsourcing and highly paid consultants, something the NDP has been deeply concerned about dating back to the Harper government. Outsourcing doubled under the Harper government. It has actually quadrupled under the Liberal government. One thing we have been trying to do as New Democrats is take a real look at companies like Deloitte, for exam…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's talking about the cost of living, but right now, for the first time ever, we are seeing corporatization and corporate ownership exceed over 30% of residential housing. We have seen record profits for the big banks and big grocery. We are seeing it with the big web giants, yet we have never heard a Conservative get up in the House to call out the corporate g…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I am glad we are all talking about the cost of living and the impact it is having on people across our country. However, we have yet to hear the Conservatives talk about corporate greed and excess profits, despite the fact that oil and gas, big grocery, the big banks and web giants are all having record profits. We saw grocery store margins go from 1.5% on average, pre-COVID, to 3.2% …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember Gerard Janssen, who we lost in July of this year. Gerard served with distinction as a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for 13 years. For more than 20 years after, as a member of the Port Alberni Toy Run charity, he dressed as Santa and led a procession of motorcycles through the streets of Port Alberni that fundraised for many. For many, …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canada has the longest coastline in the world, but the Liberals have abandoned our coasts and coastal communities, just as the Conservatives did. Recently, the Liberals cut the ghost and derelict fishing gear cleanup fund, closed lighthouses, cut funding to deal with invasive green crab and are still allowing a massive ship to be dismantled in a sensitive ecosystem. This is only a sna…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of coastal people and Vancouver Islanders. The petitioners are concerned about migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks, which are under serious threat from pathogens, pollutants, and sea lice originating from open-net fish farms. This was highlighted in the Cohen commission. Petitioners cite that wild salmon support first nations cultural traditions and complex ecosyste…
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Madam Speaker, the petitioners are calling on the government to require cruise ships to have holding tanks of sufficient size to store all sewage and grey water produced during their voyages; remove the exemption that allows cruise ships to discharge sewage and grey water close to shore; extend the application of cruise ship discharge regulations to the entirety of Canada's internal waters and ter…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is a huge privilege today to table petition e-5144, which was signed by 3,444 people from across Canada. These petitioners cite that Canadians care deeply about the health of the ocean and depend on thriving ocean ecosystems. They say that the cruise ship industry, which we know is important to the economy, is growing quickly and setting new records, year over year, for passenger…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, following up on the comment by my Conservative colleague, we have heard from experts who have said that it will not prohibit the leader from speaking on this issue. The member says that his leader would be gagged. If that is the case, why has the leader been silent? If the Conservative leader has all this freedom that he supposedly requires to hold government to account, why is he not…
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Madam Speaker, we know that the Conservatives put forward this motion, and the NDP supports ending bonuses to CEOs. We opposed bonuses when the Harper government was doing the same thing at the CBC. At a time when workers were losing their jobs, the Conservatives had an opportunity to put forward a motion to return those bonuses to workers instead. However, we know that their goal is not to defund…
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