Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, indeed I am proud to be here as part of the blue team. It is always an honour to stand in this House and to debate some of the legislation that is before us. Today we are discussing Bill C-56, the affordable housing and groceries act. First of all, I have to congratulate the leader of the official opposition who tabled his bill, the building homes not bureaucracy act, of which the Lib…
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Madam Speaker, every time we can give more power to the Competition Bureau to actually do its job and create more competition in the marketplace, consumers win. The rules around the efficiencies defence have to be addressed. Efficiencies usually mean fewer jobs, and we know efficiencies that have been applied in the past have meant we have had more concentration of the market and fewer and fewer p…
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Madam Speaker, I too hear from my constituents all the time, from seniors, that a disparity has been created by the Liberals between those who are 65 to 75 and those 75 and over in the amount of money they receive through their pensions. That does need to be rectified. I forgot to mention that one of the seniors from my riding, Bill from Beausejour, wrote to me that the big bonuses given out by th…
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Madam Speaker, fall is upon us, and in my rural Manitoba riding, farmers are wrapping up harvest with most crops safely in the bin. The fall calf run has started with roundup under way on our ranches. Commercial fishers are busy landing their catch on Lake Winnipeg. This should be a time of Thanksgiving, but sadly, Canadian farm, ranch and commercial fishing families are being overtaxed and over-r…
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Madam Speaker, we learned yesterday that the Liberals are cutting another $1 billion from our armed forces. This is in addition to the $2.5 billion they already let lapse last year. The Prime Minister has no problem wasting taxpayer money and running up massive deficits on things like the $116 million for McKinsey, $54 million on the ArriveCAN app or $20-million bonuses for the Bank of Canada exec…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has a duty of care to protect President Zelenskyy when he is here in Canada. The Parliamentary Protective Service, the RCMP, the Privy Council Office and the protocol office all report to the Prime Minister. Because of his failure to fulfill his personal responsibilities, the Prime Minister has harmed Canada's reputation on the world stage. He broke trust with Jewis…
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Mr. Speaker, last week, President Zelenskyy came to Canada looking for more support to defeat the Russian invaders. He should have left here reassured that his visit was a huge success, but instead the Liberals created a diplomatic nightmare that completely overshadowed President Zelenskyy’s visit. The Prime Minister’s negligence has fuelled the Russian propaganda machine. The hurt this caused to …
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Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, it is the Prime Minister who is responsible for visiting heads of state. President Zelenskyy came here expecting a warm welcome and a successful visit, but, due to the Prime Minister's haphazard management of this visit, he instead turned it into a diplomatic nightmare. This has played straight into Russia's disinformation campaign against Ukraine. The Prime Min…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have embarrassed Canada, insulted the Jewish community, undermined our Ukrainian allies and disrespected our veterans, and the Prime Minister refuses to accept any responsibility. He has either willfully or ignorantly discarded his duty to protect President Zelenskyy from this international disaster. Because of his negligence, the Liberals have helped fuel Russia's propag…
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Mr. Speaker, Ukraine has survived multiple genocides at the hands of both the Soviets and the Nazis: the Holodomor, the Holocaust and the Sürgünlik of Crimean Tatars, so it is shocking that a self-professed Nazi was allowed into the chamber by the Liberals and officially recognized by the Speaker during the state visit of the president of Ukraine. The Liberals abdicated their duty-of-care responsi…
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Mr. Speaker, this is more than an embarrassment. It is disgusting. Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust. The Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov is a Muslim Crimean Tatar who was born in the gulags. I am angry that this Liberal incompetence is playing right into the hands of Russian disinformation. Due to the Liberals' negligence, the government is eroding support for Ukraine …
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his great intervention on bail reform. With the Liberal's Bill C-75, which was soft on crime, they allowed so many criminals back on the street. They went back so far in time that they actually reversed a lot of the bail requirements for things such as committing a crime with a firearm, which started under Pierre Elliott Trudeau. They even undid thin…
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With regard to media reports that Canadian soldiers in Latvia have had to purchase their own modern ballistic helmets equipped with built-in hearing protection: (a) why was such equipment not provided by the government to all Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) soldiers serving in Latvia; (b) will the soldiers who had to purchase these helmets with their own funds be reimbursed; and (c) what is the timeli…
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With regard to the Royal Canadian Navy's Victoria-class submarines: what was the number of sea days each submarine has had for each of the last 48 months, broken down by month and by ship?
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Madam Speaker, that is incredibly rich coming from a minister who used to decry any closure motions when he was in opposition. I want to point out that, from the time of Tommy Douglas to the time of Thomas Mulcair, over those 14 Parliaments, the NDP only supported closure 17 times. With today's vote, we are at over 40 times in the past two years that the NDP has supported its Liberal partners in s…
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Mr. Speaker, just to go on with the letter from CDAI, they said: Russia's brutal war...in Ukraine...as well as the continuing expansion of the military arsenals of authoritarian regimes...should have prompted a re-assessment of our defence posture. The reality is that well-connected consultants, big bankers and wealthy bondholders get more from the Liberal government than our troops. We know that …
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be able to stand today and address a question I originally raised on April 17. It is based on a letter that came from the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, where 60 plus prominent Canadians who are military leaders, former ministers of defence and other parliamentarians from both sides of the aisle, both Conservative and Liberal, as well as a former chief…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Edmonton West for his well-argued presentation in the House just now. We have also experienced the same problem at the national defence committee, where we have had meetings cancelled because of a lack of resources. I want to ask the member for Edmonton West if he would really get down to it, especially as he talked about how this virtual Parliament i…
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Mr. Speaker, I am quite disturbed that we are sitting here having this debate tonight on changing the Standing Orders through a forced vote. I have been around this place for some time, since 2004. Whenever there have been changes to the Standing Orders, they have been done through consensus, not by having one party or its collaborators, this time the NDP, ramming it down the throats of all the ot…
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Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to my colleagues across the way, they might want to see the flexibility that hybrid brings, but in reality, as they just pointed out, it can be abused as well. The sense of honour of being in this chamber has always been to protect the individual member and to ensure that changes to the rules were done through consensus of every member of this House. I have been h…
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Mr. Speaker, it is again a shame that we are moving to closure. We are undermining the parliamentary democracy we have, and the most shameful thing is that the government is being supported by the NDP, which is supposed to be an opposition party but is acting like it is a bunch of Liberals. Throughout history, normally a government that moves closure can count on only maybe once or twice during a …
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With regard to the Department of National Defence (DND) and the government’s announcement in August 2019 titled “Canada negotiates new armoured combat support vehicles”: (a) on what date will the 360 light armoured vehicles (LAV) from General Dynamic Land Systems Canada be put into service; (b) what are the names of each variant type of LAV purchased; (c) how many of each variant type was purchase…
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Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary knows full well that we are debating the budget bill. This has nothing to do with the budget. Second, because this has relevance, the Speaker, on Friday, committed to looking into all the problems we had during that vote.
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With regard to personnel employed by the Department of National Defence (DND) or the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF): (a) how many individuals are currently employed by (i) DND, (ii) CAF; (b) how many of the individuals in (a) are (i) civilians, (ii) regular forces, (iii) reserve forces; and (c) of the individuals in (a)(ii), what is the breakdown by (i) Canadian Army, (ii) Royal Canadian Navy, (iii) …
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With regard to the federal civil service, as of April 1, 2023, broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation or other government entity: (a) how many employees or full time equivalents are currently employed; (b) what was the amount spent on salaries, benefits and other compensation in the last fiscal year; and (c) what is the breakdown of (a) and (b), for government entities with both civi…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, today, on the 79th commemoration of Sürgünlik, the genocide of Crimean Tatars, we look back with horror and sadness as we remember how Joseph Stalin and his Communist thugs forcibly deported over 200,000 Tatar men, women and children by packing them into cattle cars and shipping them off to the gulag. Nearly 10,000 people died during this brutal journey, and many more died under inhum…
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Mr. Speaker, instead of addressing their passport and immigration backlogs, these Liberals are disrespecting our veterans and Canadian Armed Forces who protect our sovereignty and freedom. The government's useless and unnecessary passport redesign will erase the image of Vimy Ridge, the place where Canada came of age and first fought as a unified force. How do these Liberals explain to our veteran…
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Mr. Speaker, that member does not get it that we get to sit in here because of the sacrifice made by our veterans. The brave Canadians who served at Vimy Ridge are not the only ones who are getting caught up in the Liberals' cancel culture. From Terry Fox to Nellie McClung, famous Canadians are being erased from our passports. With our rich history and culture, one would think that the iconic beav…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his role as chair of the national defence committee. I appreciate his support for the member for Wellington—Halton Hills and for the ruling that was made earlier today. This situation was originally brought to the attention of the government two years ago, and the government failed to act. We know that the national security adviser at the time in the Prime Minist…
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Madam Speaker, I am rising today in my role as the shadow minister for national defence for the official opposition. I agree with my colleague who just spoke that this is an issue that all members in this House should be engaged with. It is an issue that is definitely impacting each and everyone of us and our ability to represent our constituents without the fear of a foreign entity trying to inti…
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Madam Speaker, I can quote the parliamentary secretary to the House leader for the government—
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Madam Speaker, it is important to lay out what the national security adviser to the Prime Minister, Jody Thomas, said at committee back in December of 2022. She said, “The Prime Minister is briefed regularly. He's very interested in this subject and has directed work for agencies to do...We are briefing regularly, and those briefings are received and acted upon.” This is in relation to the Prime M…
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to present a petition today on behalf of Canadians who are very concerned about the unprovoked and illegal war Russia is waging against Ukraine. They are concerned about those Ukrainian refugees who have come here seeking asylum and are being shut out of the Canada summer jobs program. A lot of the youth who are over here are not eligible to apply to the Canada summer jobs …
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad to join the debate on the budget implementation act. There are some interesting numbers in this budget. Total revenues coming in to the government are $456.8 billion and expenses are $446.6 billion. On the surface, when one looks at that, one would think that is not too bad. There is actually some money kicking around, but the problem is the government has run up our nationa…
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Mr. Speaker, yes, it was the Prime Minister. The documents go on to say that the “defence shortfalls hinder Canadian capabilities, while straining partner relationships and alliance contributions.” That impacts our bilateral relationships, which not only affects defence and security but also impacts our trading relationships with those partners.
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Mr. Speaker, I will remind the member for Winnipeg North that they are going backward, not forward. They went from 1.34% down to under 1.29% of GDP this year. They have also gotten very creative with their accounting. They added in veterans' pensions, Global Affairs Canada costs and Coast Guard costs, which we never added in. If we added all of those things in when we were government, we would pro…
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Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, in this budget, there is some money for our Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba, Lake Simcoe and every other lake across Canada. It is only $650 million spread out over 10 years. That is not an investment in making sure that we protect our freshwater lakes, which are a precious resource. I was proud that over the time I was a member of Parliament in governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, I would say this: The one thing I detest about the student loans program is that it is very much prejudiced against kids who come from farms and small businesses, especially in rural areas. Because of the assets owned by their parents, they do not qualify for a student loan. That works against their ability to get an education, which often ends up costing a lot more because they have …
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Mr. Speaker, that is called creative accounting. The Prime Minister's incompetence has caused the worst public service strike in decades, and it is disproportionately hurting national defence. Our troops are not being fed, do not have heat or hot water, and are not being reimbursed for out-of-pocket meal expenses in places such as Poland. It is said that an army marches on beans and bullets, and t…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the top secret Discord leak in the United States showed that the Prime Minister has no intention of ever meeting our NATO commitment. It showed that many of our allies are frustrated and disappointed by Canada's response to recent global crises like those in Haiti and Ukraine. The Prime Minister has once again embarrassed Canada on the world stage, and his empty promises ha…
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Mr. Speaker, the member talked about Ukraine, but this budget has absolutely nothing in it for Ukraine. It has nothing in it for the Canadian Armed Forces, and it has nothing to ensure that Ukraine would be victorious over its Russian aggressors. I do not know how she could stand in this place to talk about all that the Liberals are doing for Ukraine. As someone of Ukrainian heritage, I found it w…
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Mr. Speaker, “Years of restraint, cost cutting, downsizing and deferred investments, have meant that Canada’s defence capabilities have atrophied.” That is a direct quote from a letter from over 50 of Canada's former cabinet ministers, defence experts and military leaders. They are calling on the government to live up to our responsibility of “protecting Canadians against all threats—foreign and d…
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Madam Speaker, I want to draw to the hon. member's attention that there is again no commitment to increasing funding for the Canadian Armed Forces in this budget. We saw in the last report from NATO that Canadian investment in our armed forces and our collective defence with our allies has fallen to 1.29% of the GDP rather than 2%, where it is supposed to be. That is down from 1.34%, where it was …
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Mr. Speaker, it is dodge, dither and delay. That is the Liberal way. This is a call for action from former Liberal and Conservative politicians, as well as non-partisan defence experts. They say, “Russia's brutal war...in Ukraine...as well as the continuing expansion of the military arsenals of authoritarian regimes...should have prompted a re-assessment of our defence posture.” Sadly, well-connec…
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Madam Speaker, I want to remind the member for Winnipeg North that to imply that members in this place, or Canadians for that matter, are idiots for believing there are not investments happening in mental health or seniors' health is disrespectful. He should withdraw that comment.
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby continues to interrupt proceedings. He is not allowing debate to take place. He is not allowing anything to be talked about. I know he is a Liberal lapdog—
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Madam Speaker, first, we did list the Quds Force, which is a special operations military unit of the IRGC, as a terrorist organization. Second, the morality police responsible for cracking down on women's rights and for the murder of Mahsa Amini needs to also be held responsible and potentially listed as a terrorist organization. It definitely is committing human rights abuses and should, at the v…
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Madam Speaker, I hope the member, as part of the Liberal-NDP coalition, would be able to put pressure on the Liberals to finally do the risk analysis and provide the exemptions required to ensure Canadians who are of Iranian descent are not caught up in these sanctions being brought forward. More important, they need to have a better explanation why one of the most murderous regimes in the world, …
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Madam Speaker, I want to take exception to the member for Winnipeg North's comments minimizing the deaths of 176 people who were killed on PS752, 55 Canadians who were on that flight, plus 30 permanent residents who called Canada home, never mind all the students coming from Iran who were returning to their universities here in Canada. He does not want to debate this; instead, he is trying to say …
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Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise and have this debate in our House, the House of Canadians, where we are allowed to bring forward issues that are important to Canadians, including those people in the diaspora community from Iran. I want to remind everyone that this motion from the immigration and citizenship committee was based upon two facts. First, the IRGC attacked Ukraine International Air…
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