Parliamentary Speeches

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, across Canada, residents depend on police, fire and EMS services. These services, funded by tax dollars, are facing high gas and diesel prices to fuel their vehicles, which are on the roads in every community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cost of fuel is in many cases blowing past emergency service budgets. Taxpayers in these communities cannot afford additional increases i…

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, 2022 marks the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s reign over the Commonwealth. To celebrate, in the absence of any formal federal recognition with a platinum jubilee medal, I will be awarding 70 specially designed platinum jubilee commemorative medallions to volunteers in Barrie—Innisfil who have gone above and beyond to selflessly help the residents and communities of Barrie—Inn…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am certainly not surprised that we are at this point of time allocation by the government considering it is being aided and abetted by the NDP, a party, by the way, that used to rail against time allocation every time it came up in the last Parliament, the Parliament before that and Parliaments before that. As the now moderate wing of the Liberal Party, the NDP is furthering a dec…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, earlier I mentioned the great concerns the opposition parties are having in terms of our ability to hold the government to account, and it is at the mercy of the resources the government makes available for that purpose. Has the government been gaming the system to ensure the resources are unavailable for the committees it does not like, such as the Special Joint Committee on the Decl…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, she has not in the previous question, but can she confirm in this question that there has been nearly a 40% decline in the number of freelance interpreters retained by the bureau since 2019?

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I know we are coming up to a break week, and I want to wish everyone well. I know there is still work to be done in our constituencies. It has been four weeks, and I am sure the work has piled up, so I wish everybody a great week, and a restful week as well, because we are heading into the final stretch before the summer break. Could the government House leader advise the House of the…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, can the minister confirm that there has been a 25% decline in the number of staff interpreters employed by the translation bureau since 2019?

Government Orders

Madam Chair, our interpreters are truly the glue that holds together our bilingual Parliament, and I will be asking the minister questions concerning parliamentary interpretation. Our bilingual Parliament is the product of a strong Conservative legacy. Sir John A. MacDonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier made the use of both official languages an essential right in this Parliament when they negoti…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, she may be disappointed, but those are the facts. Does the minister agree her government's neglect is sabotaging the House's constitutional duty to hold the government to account?

Government Orders

Madam Chair, I am glad to hear the minister's commitment, but her department's record speaks to the contrary. The minister was a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs in 2018 when it reported to the House that the “Translation Bureau...is mandated by statute to be the exclusive provider of translation and interpretation services...to Parliament.” Does she still stand by t…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, we have had committees tightly rationed with meeting time in the past few weeks, and we have seen many committee meetings, including very important meetings, cancelled because of a lack of interpretation services. Simply put, our committees cannot do the things they want, and they certainly cannot hold the government to account adequately. If her translation bureau is supposed to be t…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, they are not allegations; they are actual facts. Does the minister acknowledge that hybrid Parliament has led to a ninefold increase in workplace injuries for our parliamentary interpreters?

Government Orders

Madam Chair, that was no answer. Knowing the role hybrid Parliament has had in skyrocketing workplace injury reports among the ever-dwindling ranks of interpreters, which are, again, facts, has the minister informed the government House leader that the single biggest step we can take to avert this looming catastrophe would be the end of hybrid Parliament and the return to regular parliamentary bus…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.

Government Orders

On division.

Government Orders

No. We actually said, “On division.”

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, obviously I rise disappointed in the government's action. It is only a small thing like amending the Constitution, so why would we have fulsome debate on that and allow members to speak? I think at this point we have only had 10 speakers speak to the bill, but I have no doubt that we will hear indignation from the government House leader and, of course, his partner in the NDP, and a…

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I remind the Chair that yesterday I rose on a similar point of order related to Motion No. 11, which says: a minister of the Crown may, with the agreement of the House leader of another recognized party, rise from his or her seat at any time during a sitting, but no later than 6:30 p.m., and request that the ordinary hour of daily adjournment for the curren…

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for rising on this, because she quite rightly said that Motion No. 11 says “agreement” among the parties; it does not say “consultation” among the parties. The House certainly has the right and privilege to know with whom the agreement was made, or which other leader of the House of a recognized party made it, as Motion No. 11 states. I…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, we request a recorded division.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I rise on an important point of order. I will refer members to Motion No. 11. Section (a) of Motion No. 11 refers to: ...a minister of the Crown may, with the agreement of the House leader of another recognized party, rise from his or her seat at any time during a sitting, but no later than 6:30 p.m., and request that the ordinary hour of daily adjournment for the current sitting or…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I really enjoy working with the hon. member in the time that we have been here, since 2015. I want to pick up on a point that the hon. member made. I recall when the electoral reform committee was constituted, there was a tremendous amount of work that went into it. The member for Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston was on that committee. There were recommendations that all of the opposition …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I hope when it does get to committee we are going to be able to deal with that. I know there has already been a programming motion put forward at committee, but again, this is a government that said it would not implement an omnibus bill. It has done it now consecutively for I do not know how many years in a row, but that is what we get when we have omnibus bills: the difficulty of de…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it certainly is our understanding that he did engage in that, and perhaps it is a misunderstanding on our part. For future reference, at a minimum, if a minister does invoke that section of Motion No. 11, there should be an indication, and I hope the Speaker agrees with me, that a recognized House party leader who is agreeing to that be named as that minister stands up.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the hon. member referenced the electoral reform committee and the study that was done. I know that the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands was on that committee. The hon. member was not here, but there was a consensus among opposition parties to bring proportional representation to the House, with the caveat that a referendum be put to Canadians with an understanding, of course, th…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, if I could, I would certainly want to use a unanimous consent motion to give the member more time to speak to this because he was so riveting. I know that you, Madam Speaker, were paying great attention. We want to ensure that the committee's work is recognized in this House on an important issue, especially with all of the geopolitical issues going on around the world, not the leas…

Routine Proceedings

moved: That it be an instruction to the Standing Committee on Finance that, during its consideration of Bill C-19, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022 and other measures, the committee be granted the power to divide the bill into two pieces of legislation: (i) Bill C-19A, An Act to amend the Civil Lunar Gateway Agreement Implementation Act, Co…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I remember when I was a very young boy—

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I just turned 58, so I was not that young, but I remember watching the hon. member and feeling that sense of Canadian pride, and seeing that patch on his shoulder as he flew into space on the space shuttle. It was a terrific moment, a very proud moment as a Canadian to see the hon. member and his colleagues, many of whom have followed in his footsteps. The Artemis program is probably …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, that is a great question. I want to thank the hon. member. I am not going to thank the government for imposing Motion No. 11 on us, which extends hours to midnight so that we could debate very important topics that Canadians are seized with. If the hon. member wants to spend time debating these, if he wants to extend sittings to midnight, Conservatives, and I said this the very day we…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, this week a shooting happened in the Liberal-held riding of St. Catharines during a jewellery store robbery. The pattern of gun crime in Liberal ridings has nothing to do with farmers, hunters, sport shooters or collectors, or with scary military assault weapons. It has to do with gangs, criminals and illegal handguns. Even with clear evidence of illegal handgun shootings in their rid…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, a 17-year-old was shot in the Liberal-held riding of Don Valley East, in the parking lot of Victoria Park Collegiate. Instead of dealing with the real problem infesting the streets of Liberal-held ridings, which is gang and criminal illegal handgun use, these Liberals would rather engage in cheap political stunts by attacking duck and deer hunters to make it look like they …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. I want to thank the hon. member for bringing to your attention exactly what happened. We, as Conservatives, experienced the same situation. The information that was received by us in the lobby was not complete, so it would obviously call into question whether we received the accurate information. As the hon. member said, it is a 440-page omnibus bill…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Denis—

Private Members' Business

Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded division.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it has been quite a week around here. I already know the answer to this question, but I have an obligation to ask the government House leader the Thursday question. What price have he and his Liberal Party paid in selling their collective souls to their partners in the NDP to determine this week's schedule?

Government Orders

Excuse me, Madam Speaker. I listened to the member's speech. He has the same name as some of my relatives who live near Montreal: my uncle Gaston, who recently passed away, my aunt Cédia and my cousins Diane and Francine. The member spoke about the need to offer support to the francophone community in Quebec. For me, it is very important to do so across the country. There is a francophone communit…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, in Liberal-held ridings across the country, gun and gang violence is escalating, and it is not escalating because of law-abiding firearms owners. Last Saturday, around three in the morning, there was a deadly shooting on Sheppard Avenue in Scarborough. On Tuesday, police arrested the suspect who had been arrested 48 hours earlier for an unrelated robbery. There have been 137 shootings…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, violent crime is not limited to the GTA. Monday night, there was a drive-by shooting not far from the Prime Minister's office in his riding of Papineau. That shooting came less than two days after another drive-by in Laval, a Liberal-held riding, where a family was shot at while driving back from a birthday party. Instead of targeting criminals, the Liberals prefer to punish law-abidi…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, one of the most concerning parts about Bill C-11 is that the government does not have to release the policy directive to the CRTC on user-generated content, and it does not have to do it while we are debating the bill. In fact, the expectation is that, once the bill is passed, the policy directive will be shared with the CRTC. In the absence of any knowledge of what that directive m…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding the fact that we are engaged in time allocation on what is a very important bill on censorship, the irony is not lost on me that the government is censoring members of Parliament from speaking to this bill. I look forward to this going to committee, because the witnesses we are going to get, I suspect, will speak mainly against this bill, including Dr. Michael Geist, w…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, let me begin by sharing my concern for the residents of the hon. member's riding. I know they are in good hands and he is going to work extremely hard on their behalf to ensure that the situation is rectified for the safety of all the residents he represents. This was once a place of informed debate. The concern with this bill, specifically as it relates to the CRTC and the policy d…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I think the hon. member knows the answer to the question. Absolutely, as I referred to in my speech today, there is a long-standing process for us to change the Standing Orders. I am looking forward to that discussion. I am sure that all members on all sides of the House will have suggestions on how we can improve the Standing Orders, not the least of which, and I hope there is all-…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I hope that I did not diminish, in any way. I really tried to show respect to the Bloc's motion on this. It is the party's right, in the supply period, to have these types of opposition day motions. They get two, as I mentioned. There was a notice of two motions that were put on the order paper on Friday. We knew that one of those two was a possibility, and we prepared for the event…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to once again rise in the House to speak on behalf of my constituents in Barrie—Innisfil. I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Louis-Saint-Laurent. Today is an opposition day, which means that one of the opposition parties gets to decide the topic of conversation here in the House. This is one of two Bloc opposition days this spring, when we get to discuss s…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am not sure if the motion he is referring to was about national oil day, or whether it spoke to the importance of energy independence in this country and not relying on despot nations such as Russia for dependence on oil, or on Venezuela or Saudi Arabia. I guess there is a fundamental difference in perhaps, and I say this respectfully, what the Bloc feels is important. This, to me…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, it does not give me any pleasure, but I am a rising on a question of privilege concerning an occurrence of misconduct that happened in the House of Commons late Friday afternoon by a member of the Liberal Party. As it would happen, I had just left the chamber about 10 minutes prior, as I had to hit the road to make an important engagement in Barrie—Innisfil on Friday evening, so I a…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am not quite surprised by this. The only thing surprising me is that the motion was not seconded by the NDP House leader. This is just amazing to me. This is a government that argued with its coalition partners in the NDP about Motion No. 11. What Motion No. 11 was going to do was expand the time, give more opportunities for members to speak by expanding the hours, and yet, with j…