Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, today it was revealed that a company co-owned by the employment minister bid on federal contracts while claiming that it was indigenous owned. The company, Global Health Imports, has two shareholders. It would perhaps be three if we counted the other Randy. However, according to the Assembly of First Nations, the Liberals' indigenous procurement program is being abused by shell compan…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the words from the member for Saskatoon—Grasswood. I want to add my voice to those who have already mentioned how great it is to listen to him speak. I think this was one of his best speeches yet. The member listed a number of scandals. It was a very long and exhaustive list. We just received news today that the employment minister co-owned a company, with a partner and…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of His Majesty's loyal opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada, I appreciate the opportunity to say a few words in celebration of the remarkable life and achievements of a true champion of justice and reconciliation, the Hon. Murray Sinclair. As a distinguished lawyer, senator and the first indigenous person to serve as chief justice of the Manitoba Court of Queen's …
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberals, taxes are up, costs are up, crime is up and time is up. Drug addiction and crime have been running rampant under the government. As a direct result of failed drug policies and the legalization experiment, overdoses have become the leading cause of death for children in British Columbia. In fact, numerous first nations in B.C. are in a state of eme…
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Mr. Speaker, the answer is clear to Canadians: End the NDP-Liberal government's failed hard-drug experiment and save lives. Rather than stemming the tide of overdose deaths, the Prime Minister's radical experiment has flooded our communities with dangerous opioids. It is even worse in B.C.'s first nations communities, where people are dying at six times the national rate. When will the NDP-Liberal…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to performance audits or similar types of assessments related to passport processing times, which were ongoing or have been conducted since May 1, 2022: what are the details of each audit or assessment, including, for each, the (i) start and end dates of the time period audited or assessed, (ii) summary and scope of the audit or assessment, (iii) findings, (iv) recommended changes to i…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, the crux of my speech was about how we need to level the playing field between indigenous police services and non-indigenous police services. During my speech, I mentioned the disparities in wages, benefits and training. Those are all pretty important things when talking about policing, and not only with recruitment but with retention. I mentioned the funding model and that many of …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I will try to answer as much of the member's question as I can. I wrote down notes. Hopefully I have it all. As the critic for Crown-indigenous relations and indigenous services for the opposition, it is part of my job, my mandate, to develop policy that will be put into our next election platform. I note that some of the things I mentioned today were from previous policy documents …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to government expenditures on gala, concert or sporting event tickets, since January 1, 2023: what was the (i) date, (ii) location, (iii) total cost, (iv) cost per ticket, (v) number of tickets, (vi) title of the persons using the tickets, (vii) name or title of the event for which tickets were purchased by, or billed to, any department, agency, Crown corporation, or other government e…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, as I rise to speak at this emergency debate, I would like to take a moment to recognize the six indigenous people who lost their lives on whom this debate centres, specifically Steven Dedam, Danny Knife, Hoss Lightning, Jack Piche, Tammy Bateman and Jason West, and to acknowledge the trauma and loss that their families, friends and communities are suffering at this time. Indigenous …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, the work we in the opposition have been doing with indigenous communities and leaders shows our commitment to listening to voices on the ground level and reducing and hopefully eliminating this “Ottawa knows best” approach. We have already announced a number of policies that will take control of communities away from Ottawa through a resource charge, which will allow communities to …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I will give a good, positive example from what the province of Alberta is doing, because it often leads the way when dealing with indigenous communities. We can look at what the Siksika are doing. They are working to build their own justice system. In fact, I believe construction on a new courthouse has already started where they will be able to implement their own restorative justice…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, Food Banks Canada released a report saying that, under the Liberal government, Canadians are living in poverty. The rate has risen from one in 10 to now one in four, which is nearly six million more Canadians than reflected in Stats Canada's most recent poverty rate data. If one is indigenous, it is worse still, with one in three living in poverty. According to the MDI, a poverty metr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the Harper government started the mechanism that allowed the jobs to be created. The government of the day, when it came in, just benefited from them. What did the government do at the time? It raised taxes. It slowed down the economy. Now what do we have? We have misery. We have tent cities. We have food bank usage that is the highest it has ever been. How can that be a mark for su…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we do not need to go far to find the wasteful spending in the current government. The list goes on. It will not take much to figure it out. I have a lot of respect for my friend as well. Yes, those jobs did leave in the 2000s. Guess who was in charge in the province of Ontario. It was the Liberal Party of Ontario. The Liberals cannot say the jobs left under Harper but forget who was…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, likewise, I do respect the member, but he also forgets we were in a global economic crisis, and countries all around the world agreed that they would deficit-spend on infrastructure. It was agreed that the taps would open but eventually would close, and that is where the Liberals forget that the story continues. One has to turn off the taps in order to maintain financial strength. T…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to stand today to speak to Bill C-69, the budget implementation act. As we have heard in the debate going on tonight regarding the bill, there are a number of concerns on this side of the House, specifically the government's new spending ideas: $61 billion in new spending. We do this when we are having and dealing with a very real inflation crisis that i…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I will be sure to tell the people in my community, who are suffering under the NDP-Liberal government, that a bunch of well-to-do economists and some tenured professors are saying that life has never been so good. I will make sure I tell them that. Common-sense Conservatives have put forward a plan. We are asking the government to axe all federal taxes on gasoline from today until Lab…
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Mr. Speaker, food bank usage is at the highest level it has ever been, and that is because of the policies of the NDP-Liberal government. In fact, this summer, my community, which relies on tourism, is being punished because the Liberals refuse to reduce their carbon tax. Canadians can actually save money. In Ontario, approximately $600, from today until Labour Day, could be saved if the Liberals …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, in Feed Ontario's 2023 report, over 800,000 Ontarians accessed food banks, up 38% from the previous year. This was the largest single-year increase ever recorded. Even worse, a report by Canada's food professor found that nearly 60% of Canadians are eating expired food to make ends meet. The cost of food, fuelled by the carbon tax and inflation, is causing families to suffer. When w…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, those Liberal policies are not working. I just talked about the rising cost of food. Three out of five Canadians are eating expired food, just to survive. More Ontarians than ever are using food banks. In my own area, the Kawartha Lakes Food Source reports that total visits to the food banks it serves have increased by 10% to almost 14,000. After nine years of this carbon tax rhetor…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Student Direct Stream at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, broken down by year for 2022 and 2023: how many applications (i) were received, (ii) were approved, (iii) were refused or rejected, (iv) are still being processed, in total, and broken down by each participating country, including Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, People's Republic of China, Colombia, Costa Rica, …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to stand here and present three e-petitions, all coordinated by a member of my riding, Mr. Brian Kerr. These three e-petitions, e-4605, e-3827 and e-4274, total over 45,000 signatures, which Brian has spearheaded among himself and others. The petitioners call on the federal government to look at a form of recall election, which is not present here in Canad…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I move that the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs, presented to the House on Wednesday, September 27, 2023, be concurred in. I appreciate the opportunity to stand and speak on this very important report entitled “Food Security in Northern and Isolated Communities: Ensuring Equitable Access to Adequate and Healthy Food for All”. Just to give a q…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, actually that is where I was going in my speech. As I was just about to say, in Yukon, for example, there is very little processing capacity, so if people have an agricultural operation in Yukon, there is nowhere to actually process the product. If someone has a chicken operation for meat, they have nowhere to send the chickens to be processed. They have to either do it on site or t…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I believe she is talking about the Coastal GasLink program, but she did not mention it off the top. In that, the elected chiefs of the bands within the Wet'suwet'en First Nation supported resource development. In fact they had band elections, and all the pro-energy candidates actually won those elections over anti-energy candidates, so there was a desire for economic activity to be …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I was at the same reception for the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association event to talk about its 35 years of success in providing funding, capital and mentorship to young indigenous entrepreneurs looking to create jobs, wealth and opportunity in their community, either on reserve or off. I think it is great work the organization is doing, but one of the barriers we t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the environment minister has left the highway of common sense and taken the off-ramp to Fantasy Island. He will say yes to spending $400 million to promote skateboarding to fight climate change, but no to a bridge whose closure has cut the village of Bolsover in half for three long years. In Parks Canada's own words, The bridge is of “national historic significance.” Creating a long…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the comments from the member opposite, but I do not think he should be telling the residents of Bolsover that they should not believe their lying eyes. The bridge has been out for three long years. It was built in 1902. It is 42 metres long, is of national historic significance and is owned by Parks Canada. The minister said that no more roads and bridges will be funded…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, a few months ago, I asked the Minister of Environment why, after three years, Parks Canada has not replaced the federal bridge in Bolsover. The minister, of course, answered in typical Liberal fashion; he promised to get back to the House but never actually did. Now we know why. News broke earlier this week that the Liberals have decided to stop funding new roads and bridges. Just lik…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the point was that the government itself is creating policies that prohibit or severely stunt the growth of the oil and gas sector and even the mining industry and lumber, our natural resources. A lot of these are on first nations land and have the ability to create wealth in those communities, with jobs and opportunity. Bills such as Bill C-69 and others are hampering that growth. Th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we are not actually sure. The member is right; the bill does not mention that. That is one of the many questions we had in committee with respect to this piece of legislation. We tried our best to bring it up. As I said, there were lots of voices in committee that talked about putting a reserved seat for an organization that focused on economic reconciliation for indigenous peoples. U…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my friend from Alberta has a great question and a great point. We, as a party, believe in reducing and eliminating these barriers to entry and to competition, but the people who believe in big government quite enjoy these barriers. There are big companies, and the government department has to deal with only a few of them. This is why economic reconciliation is so important. When we ar…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Fort McMurray—Cold Lake for her leadership on this very important file. It has been great serving with her on the committee the last few weeks, and I appreciate her views. She points out something really important. Even in my speech I mentioned the fact that indigenous peoples are then able, with the wealth and the revenue stream, to create their own paths and n…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is an honour once again to rise and speak to Bill C-29. This flawed bill was the government's attempt, over nine years in office, to address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action 53 through 56. Indeed, since 2015, the Liberal government, for all its rhetoric on reconciliation, continues to ignore indigenous voices. It breaks promises and perpetuates the archai…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's work on committee. She is correct: There is nothing really saying that CAP cannot be on this board. The point is that there were spaces set aside for ITK, MNC, the AFN and the Native Women's Association of Canada, NWAC, for guaranteed spots on this panel. The point that we are trying to make is that, with respect to first nations, for sure, the vast majority …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, today I rise to speak to Bill C-61, an act respecting water, source water, drinking water, waste water and related infrastructure on first nation lands, which I will hereafter refer to as the first nations clean water act. I want to first comment on what the minister just spoke about. She likes to hurl insults, but she is part of a government that has refused to meet with 133 Ontari…
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Madam Speaker, I take it that INAN committee has wrapped up, because the member for Nunavut is in this place continuing to work hard for her constituents. This is one of the things I wanted to highlight, and I should have focused more time on it. Those discussions need to take place. We address it, and Bill C-61 does touch on it, by including those voices and those conversations, especially when t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to commend my friend, the member for Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, for her work with first nations and Métis communities in her riding. She is a tremendous champion for those voices, and I know those communities appreciate all her knowledge and willingness to continue to learn on this file. It is not a file that should be taken lightly. I know she takes it very seriously and reall…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is my understanding that we will be voting in favour of this at second reading.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, unfortunately I did not catch the whole segment of the member's question. It was about the AFN. I think I did say that there should be consultation within all groups. The AFN, as I did point out, was in favour. However, at the same time, if we want to listen to the AFN, we should also listen to it when it talks about the carbon tax and the 133 chiefs of Ontario who want relief from …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as I mentioned earlier in my speech, this piece of legislation, Bill C-61, is an important step forward and something that has support from organizations such as the AFN. Others do have some questions they would like asked, and we will get to that in the committee process. As for the actual time schedule, it is the government that controls the agenda in the House. We are at its merc…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is still shameful that this kind of situation still goes on in our country. I know the member shared a story of a long-term boil water advisory in her riding. The riding of Kenora has had the longest boil water advisory in history, for well over 10,000 days now. It has been in effect since 1995. That was the heart of my speech. The Ottawa-knows-best approach is clearly not workin…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the required compliance audit to be included in the government's Indigenous Business Directory: (a) when was the last time that (i) Coradix Technology Consulting, (ii) DALIAN Enterprises Inc., were the subject of a compliance audit, broken down by the client department or agency which provided contracts to either of the companies since January 1, 2016; and (b) for each audit in (a),…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to Crown-Indigenous relations: (a) what (i) criteria, (ii) framework, (iii) legal test, was used by the government to determine that each of the communities represented by the Métis Nation of Ontario holds rights under Section 35 of the Constitution Act 1982; and (b) what specific evidence or information did the government use to arrive at the conclusion that each and all of the commun…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Coming out of question period, 133 Ontario chiefs have taken the federal government to court over what they are calling a discriminatory carbon tax. I would like unanimous consent to table these documents.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to stand and continue this debate as we look into indigenous services and, in our opinion, the absolute failure of this department in many sectors. I want to ask the member opposite if he would like to comment more on the Auditor General's report. The Auditor General is “frustrated that almost a decade later, there has been little to no improvement.... Indig…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I do appreciate the contribution from the minister. Likewise, I do have lot of respect for that member as well. We do thank the member for bringing in the loan guarantee program. In fact, it was in our platform, and we appreciate the fact that the Liberals took that piece and started to implement it. However, overall, in that 30 hours of voting, the 135 votes of no confidence was exac…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I appreciate the work of the member for Peace River—Westlock. He is a member of the indigenous and northern affairs committee, and I enjoy working with him and his additions to the debate that he is bringing to us today. Housing is something that we have heard is an ongoing issue with indigenous communities, first nations, in particular, and Inuit as well. We know that housing is ofte…
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Madam Chair, there is a lot to unpack there, but I actually did mention it. Unfortunately, I only had five minutes, but I did cover health and justice specifically. We did a study in committee talking about indigenous policing. We are actually working on things as a party to address that. So, I disagree with the member; it was outlined. On resource projects, yes, we would like to see more built ac…
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