Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am deeply ashamed that the first border crossing blockade that was in place was in Coutts, Alberta, and that our premier did not stand up and shut that down. What that did was empower people to shut down Windsor and to start to protest the Ottawa airport. If we had used the tools that we had in place to say that this is infrastructure that needs to remain open, that this is for th…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague has been a tireless advocate for the care community and for workers across this country, and I thank her for all of her efforts in that regard. In Alberta, this is not something new for us. We have been seeing some very serious attempts to privatize large swaths of our public health care system. Right now in Alberta, for example, we regularly do not have an ambulance th…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is a member of the international human rights subcommittee with me, and I look forward to working with him on many of the global issues we will be tackling in that committee. In terms of his question, I think there is a real need for a conversation, a serious, non-political, science-based conversation, on how we reduce restrictions and protections. As we move forward, w…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to check something. The member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes talks about the quote from Dr. Tam in which she says that she thinks we should be re-evaluating these protections. However, re-evaluation is not the same thing as lifting. In the summer in Alberta, Jason Kenney was the very first premier to lift all the restrictions, and we saw the consequences…
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Mr. Speaker, over the past two years, Canadians have relied on the news more than ever for updates, health guidance and accurate information, but now members of the media are being targeted by convoys, experiencing harassment and even death threats while they work hard to keep Canadians informed. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has been practically silent. Yesterday, CTV Edmonton said that it will n…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, last week, Amnesty International released a report titled, “Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity”. The report, four years in the making, contains a number of recommendations to the Government of Israel, the United Nations, and states and donors such as Canada. The findings in this report are extremely serious. Both Palestinians…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister talks about being seized with urgency, but it is 12 days that health care workers, small business owners, Ottawa residents and others have been harassed by some members of the convoy. Far-right extremists in the U.S. and elsewhere are trying to bring their radical views to Canada. They are funding extremists. They are empowering racism and anti-Semitism, and they are thre…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I want to start by acknowledging what the member said in his intervention: that people are suffering, that COVID-19 has been terrible, that people have died, that people have lost so much and that it has been very difficult. He talked today to my colleague from the other party about turning the temperature down. Last week, I had to ask my staff person not to come to work. She is a y…
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Madam Speaker, others have said it today and I will say it as well: My father was a trucker. My dad, Duke McPherson, was a trucker. He is worried about truckers. I am worried about truckers. When the member talks about doing the right thing, listening and helping out, why did the Conservatives, if they really wanted to help truckers, reliably vote against improving safety regulations and enforceme…
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Mr. Speaker, the member spoke about the supply chain, and I have some questions about that and the Conservative support for the blockades and convoys that we are seeing across the country. The member will know that I am from Alberta. Today the Alberta Beef Producers, the Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association and The Canadian Cattlemen's Association have called for a stop to the blockades in Coutts i…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to say how happy I am to have the opportunity to speak to Bill C-8 today. I will start my comments today talking a bit about how much people in Canada and around the world have been struggling during this pandemic. The past two years have been extremely hard for so many people in Canada and around the world. None of us imagined in March 2020, when we all left this place, …
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Mr. Speaker, I am very disappointed that the member is blaming at-risk seniors for the situation his government has put them in. Let me put a question back to him. Perhaps the member could tell me if he thinks there are any examples where a corporation that used money for the wrong things should be asked to pay it back. The government appears to think corporations never have to pay it back, even t…
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Mr. Speaker, my neighbour from Edmonton Manning and I share a beautiful city. I met with the mayor of Edmonton recently to talk about the housing crisis in Edmonton and the failure of the federal government to do what needs to be done, things like an indigenous housing strategy developed with the input of indigenous people. Obviously, the housing crisis is desperate across the country, but one of …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. I am sorry, but I am going to answer in English. I am learning. My French is a work-in-progress. There needs to be intervention from all levels of government. It is important we have that. In the province of Alberta, it is particularly important that we are able to work with municipalities because our provincial government seems very unwilling to…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague started off today talking about how much the steps the government has taken to help Canadians have cost, and I agree with him. What I disagree with him on is the fact that the New Democrats will always say that we should be supporting Canadians to get through this pandemic and we should continue to support Canadians as this pandemic carries on. One of the things I strug…
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Madam Speaker, I was happy to hear the member's comments today. I was also delighted to see section 4 of this bill about getting ventilation into schools. I think that is very, very important. I have a constituent who reached out to me just today to make sure that this was raised and prioritized. Members will recall in August 2020 I brought forward a unanimous consent motion asking for $2 billion …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, as it was very easy to hear him from this end of the House, so I was able to not need my headphone. That is great. I thank him. He did speak a lot about the programs that were put in place by the Liberal government, and while I know that some of them worked, many of them did not. We many times brought up in the House those places where there were …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that sounded to me like a reminder that the Liberals are here for big business, not for Canadians. I can give another example. The Liberals keep saying that they understand that this pandemic will not be over in Canada until it is over everywhere, but they are dragging their feet on the TRIPS waiver and have refused to add COVID-19 medicines to Canada's access to medicines regime. The…
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Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions, and I think that you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move: That the House (a) recognize the one-year anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar that took place as a new session of Parliament was set to open; (b) take note of the impact of the deteriorating political and humanitarian situation on the most vulnerable; (c) condemn the…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his support for the Ukrainian community. We have seen, under the Conservatives and then the Liberals, a decimation of international development, our foreign policy and Canada's role in the world. Can he comment on what this could look like if Canada still had strong peace keeping, diplomatic and international development efforts?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to funds allocated through Canadian Heritage programs since 2010, broken down by program and year: (a) how much money is allocated to organizations in each province; (b) how much money is allocated to organizations located in western Canada; and (c) what percentage of funds go to Albertan organizations?
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With regard to the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE): (a) how many complaints have been received; (b) how many complaints have been investigated, broken down by status or outcome (e.g. review is ongoing, referred to arbitration, allegation determined to have been unfounded); and (c) how many times has the CORE provided advice to the Minister on any matter relating to their ma…
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With regard to Canada’s vaccine procurement and international vaccine commitments: (a) how many COVID-19 vaccines has Canada accessed through COVAX, broken down by month; (b) how many COVID-19 vaccines does Canada currently have access to in general; (c) how many COVID-19 vaccines has the government committed to donating through COVAX or other initiatives; (d) how many COVID-19 vaccines has the go…
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With regard to Canadian humanitarian and development funding in Afghanistan: (a) what is the total amount of development funding Canada has committed to Afghanistan for 2021-2025; (b) how much of this funding in (a) is allocated through Canadian organizations, and what is the breakdown by (i) organization, (ii) date, (iii) project, (iv) status; (c) what is the total humanitarian funding Canada has…
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Madam Chair, I would ask the Prime Minister what his government is doing to ensure that the feminist foreign policy is front and centre as we deal with this current crisis in Ukraine and what his government is doing to ensure that women are at all negotiating tables right now. The Canadian government is advocating for women to be present and to be at all of those tables at this time. If he could a…
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Mr. Speaker, one thing that bothers me the most about the member's comments today is that he speaks about lethal force and action, but I do not hear him talking about diplomacy. I do not hear him talking about using what we can to de-escalate the situation right now. What I want him to understand is that it is the Ukrainian people who will die if there is a war in Ukraine. It is the women and chil…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my leader, the member for Burnaby South, for his comments tonight in support of the Ukrainian community. As many people have said before tonight, Canada has a very special relationship with Ukraine. Canada was the first country to recognize Ukraine as an independent sovereign country 30 years ago. There are over 1.4 million Canadians who identify as being of Ukra…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for again highlighting just how important the relationship is that we have with Ukraine. There are many things we could do right now. We could work with sanctions. We should in fact be investing more in our diplomatic corps so that when there are conflicts around the world Canada could take back that place that we have seen so diminished, under both …
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Mr. Speaker, I have to disagree with my colleague across the way. Hitting a bully is not the best way to deal with bullying. Realistically, I have a 13-year-old son, and I certainly would not want the member advising him how to deal with bullying at his school. I think there are better ways for us to do that. There are more responsible ways to do that. I would say that, for example, if someone is …
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Mr. Chair, I would also like to thank the member for his comments. I have worked with him in the Canada-Ukraine Friendship Group. He is extremely knowledgeable on this topic, and I have also learned a great deal from him. Earlier in the year, we were on a television interview together and he brought something up that has been sitting with me for a very long time. As I listen to Conservatives talk …
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Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the minister for his intervention this evening and for providing some clarity for us on Canada's intentions with regard to international development. However, I would be remiss if I did not raise the fact that right now Canada is giving a very low amount of overseas development assistance. We are at 0.31% of GNI, which is much lower than we should be at, and much l…
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Mr. Chair, I know that my colleague, the member for Lakeland, has as many Ukrainians in her constituency as I do in mine. It was lovely to hear that commitment to the Ukrainian diaspora in her community. The member will not be surprised when I talk about the need for de-escalation and the need for a peaceful resolution on this conflict. She spoke about the tools that we have in our tool box and al…
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Mr. Chair, one of the things I asked earlier, and I would like to extend the question to the member as well, is around the assurance by the Government of Canada that it will be implementing some of those key lessons in our feminist foreign policy. One of those is that we do what we can to advocate to ensure women are at all tables, that women are part of all the discussions that lead to de-escalat…
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Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my colleague for her intervention this evening. In the previous intervention, there was some discussion about Canada and its efforts with regard to diplomacy and our diplomatic corps. I am not referring to ministers going for visits to Ukraine. I am referring to our diminished diplomatic corps. Under the Conservatives, we had massive cuts to our diplomatic corps, e…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is my great honour today to table a petition that is asking the Government of Canada to enact legislation to provide just transition. Recognizing that we are in a climate emergency and a climate crisis, the petitioners ask that we address the crisis to reduce emissions in Canada and in the global south, that we commit to a jobs plan to help people transition to new jobs in a new ec…
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Madam Speaker, the member talked a bit about accountability and transparency, and I want to tell him about a business in my riding that accessed the wage subsidy to lock out its boilermaker workers. It is Cessco steel. It locked out its workers, received the wage subsidy and used the wage subsidy to pay for scab labour. We have asked the government to fix this loophole in the program time and time…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a point of order. I would really like to hear this question; it is very important to me. However, unfortunately, I cannot because of interpretation.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her holiday greetings. I also hope that she has a wonderful holiday season. She talked about how proud she is of the Canadian government's response with regard to vaccines and also said she hopes this is the final pivot we need to make as we deal with the omicron variant. What I will ask her about, though, is our response globally. What we know a…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for the incredible work he does to protect people living with disabilities, students and workers. The question I have for him today has to do with seniors in particular and the unbelievably disappointing GIS clawback we have seen. I know the member wrote to the government almost five months ago, on August 3, asking it to fix this program and it did…
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Madam Speaker, I believe and hope all members of this House want to deal as effectively as we possibly can to save lives with regard to the opioid crisis we know is hitting very hard in Canada. While I appreciate that this bill would eliminate the mandatory minimum sentences for all drug offences, we have seen proof that we need a safe supply; we need decriminalization of possession of small amoun…
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Madam Speaker, I have struggled today to listen to the debate in the House and hear many members talk with the assumption that this is a level playing field and that people come to be involved in crime from a place of equality. I appreciated that the member took some time today to talk about that not being accurate. There is uniqueness to each story and each individual, and that needs to be accoun…
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Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to the speech of my colleague from Charlesbourg. He talked a bit about how indigenous people did not see this as a solution. However, we know that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action 32 recommends that minimum mandatory sentences be stopped. Therefore, I would like him to comment on the fact that the TRC has called for this. How can he s…
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Madam Speaker, there are things in this bill that I am very pleased to see and am very supportive of. I am wondering, though, if the member would agree that a useful next step would be to send this bill to committee, so the bill can be built up, amended and have things added to it, such as recommendations from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the Truth …
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Mr. Speaker, the speech by my neighbour from St. Albert—Edmonton was very interesting to me. I will agree with him on many points he made, particularly around the fact that the Liberals have not done enough to stop the illegal importation of guns into this country. However, I did not hear a lot of solution building from his comments today, nor proposals on what would be done if the Conservatives w…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and congratulate him on the Grey Cup win in his community. However, by removing mandatory minimums instead of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs being used for personal use, the Liberal government is taking half measures. It is not actually protecting people who are suffering from a medical condition. As we all know, addiction is …
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Madam Speaker, my question is about urgency and being in a pandemic. The member mentioned that this needs to happen very quickly because we are in a pandemic, so he will not be surprised when I ask him why he feels it has taken the government 18 months to move forward with these 10 days of sick leave. The government has known since the very beginning, of course, that the New Democratic Party would…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that was not an answer. It certainly was not the answer we were looking for. The Liberals say they are proud of the actions delivering vaccines globally, but this is the government that pledged 200 million doses for countries in need by the end of next year and they have not even delivered 20% of that. This is the government that refuses to waive the vaccine patents to allow poor coun…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, we are seeing the impacts of climate change in Canada, from the recent floods and mudslides in British Columbia to the storms that have threatened Atlantic Canada and the wildfires, floods and droughts that have wrought havoc in Alberta. However, Albertans are actually facing two crises. One is the climate crisis and the other is the economic crisis. Albertans are caught between the n…
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Mr. Speaker, in the previous Parliament, there was obstruction, there was a deep disrespect from the government for the opposition in how our parliamentary processes would go forward. There is a need to have things put in place to protect our parliamentary roles as opposition to question the government, to demand documents from it, to work to hold the government to account. It is very important an…
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Mr. Speaker, what we need to look at with this is that it is not one or the other. It is not that we have this committee looking at what is happening and reflecting on the lessons. We need to learn from what happened in August of this year versus having some efforts by members in this place looking at the humanitarian assistance going to Afghanistan. Both of those things can happen at the same tim…
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