Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, NATO allies' response to Russia's aggression has also accelerated NATO's transformation as it adjusts to a more dangerous strategic reality, including through the adoption of the next strategic concept at the NATO leaders summit in June. Canada is unwavering in its commitment to the NATO alliance, to the defence of Euro-Atlantic security and to the rules-based international order. I w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Kingston and the Islands. I rise in the House today, on behalf of the residents in my riding of Davenport, as a proud Ukrainian Canadian and as the chair of the Canada NATO Parliamentary Association. At the outset, let me condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia's unjustifiable and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the enormous hu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, housing is, indeed, top of mind for all Canadians, irrespective of what's happening with COVID and what's happening in the world today. Everybody's hearts and minds are with Ukrainians today and every day as long as this unprovoked illegal aggression is under way. Housing is top of mind, both from a housing affordability perspective and an affordable housing perspective. I do agree th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, costs and inflation are definitely top of mind for Canadians today. The federal government, since it was elected late in 2015, has taken a number of measures to try to make sure that we reduce income inequality and make life affordable for Canadians. The latest thing we have done is to introduce the national child care plan. That is a historic plan. When I was first elected, I never t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we had a very important discussion and debate around the increasing price of oil and gas in this country. We had an important debate around implementing a tax holiday. Our government will continue to be very concerned about gas prices and prices overall in this country and we will continue to support Canadians—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Kings—Hants. It is a great pleasure, as always, to rise in the House on behalf of my riding of Davenport to speak to the opposition day motion put forward by the Conservatives, which calls on our government to present a “federal budget rooted in fiscal responsibility with no new taxes, a path to balance and a meaningful fiscal anchor”…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the challenges Canada has faced over these past years have been numerous, and we have seen that Canadians and Canadian businesses have met them head-on and succeeded. The upcoming federal budget will showcase our government's plan to support Canadians and to grow our economy. Can the Minister of Finance inform Canadians and the House when they can expect federal budget 2022 to be pres…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I support any type of effort that is going to ensure that our oil and gas sector decarbonizes and works with all other Canadian sectors to move to a low-carbon economy, any effort that works to transition their workers into decarbonized areas and anything that will support Canada in achieving our net-zero targets by 2050.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I mentioned the old age security, the Canada pension plan and the child benefit in my speech because I wanted to remind everyone that all of these supports are actually indexed to inflation, which will help the most vulnerable in our society. This is not the case in many other countries. In terms of what additional supports we will be providing to Canadians, we have and continue to …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question, and it is a really good one. I want to remind everyone that since we were first elected in late 2015, we have been very focused on trying to support Canadians in terms of costs. To support seniors, we have increased the guaranteed income supplement. To support families, we have introduced the Canada child benefit and now the national child c…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is a true pleasure for me to rise in the House on behalf of the residents of my riding of Davenport to speak on the opposition day motion put forward by the Conservatives that calls on our government to introduce a temporary 5% reduction on gasoline and diesel, whether collected under GST, HST or QST, which would reduce the average price by approximately eight cents per litre. Th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for her excellent question and for bringing this back to the fore. I agree 100% that we need to do everything we can to bring this beneficial ownership registry into effect. We have to do everything we can to make sure it is transparent with respect to who owns the public assets. This should be a key priority for our government moving forward.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, on behalf of the residents of Davenport, whom I am so proud to represent, I appreciate the opportunity to take part in today's debate on the opposition day motion put forward by the leader of the NDP on tax cuts and fairness. It is indeed a rare pleasure to debate a motion that is supportive of our federal government's platform commitment to reduce taxes for middle-class Canadians w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would say I am very proud of our government and the promises that we have kept. Many of them I mentioned in my speech, including increasing taxes on the wealthiest 1%, reducing them on the middle class, supporting our families both with respect to introducing the Canada child benefit and now a national child care plan, which all provinces and territories, except for Ontario, have …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, through you, I would like to thank the hon. member for his question. It is an important one. I would like to respectfully disagree with the member. I think we have done a lot. We have implemented many things to do everything we can to try to reduce income inequality in our country. Whether it was the introduction of the Canada child benefit, the increase in the GIS, taxing the top 1…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present petition e-3629 on behalf of Single Seniors for Tax Fairness. Their petition advocates for equal treatment in Canada's tax system for single seniors who are not able to access the same tax benefits as those who are married, but who face same reality of the rising costs of living on a limited income. I want to thank the group's founder, Jane Robertson, who has b…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I think many people come to this country because they are fleeing conflict, injustice and autocratic governments. In Canada, we very much value and appreciate our democracy, our freedom and our Parliament. These are things we all value and we have seen that in rallies, whether they are in small towns and cities, in big cities across this nation or around the world.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I thank the member for her support, kind comments and pushing for visas. The Minister of Immigration was very clear today, as all ministers on the government side have been, that all options continue to be on the table. We are looking at visas. I also hope that in the coming days it is something we will consider, and I have great hope that we will have some good news in the days to co…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Surrey Centre. It is a true honour for me to stand in the House this evening to take part in the important discussion and debate we are having on Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine. I want to start by thanking my colleague for Etobicoke Centre and all members of the House for making sure that we had the space and time to have this …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I thank the hon. member for allowing me to do that. I want to end by quoting Taras Shevchenko. For those who do not know him, he is a Ukrainian kobzar, or the Bard of Ukraine, and he talked a lot about Ukrainian independence. He said: Love your dear Ukraine, adore her, Love her...in fierce times of evil, In the last dread hour of struggle, Fervently beseech God for her. Fight on—and y…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I am reluctant to provide advice on our pension fund about what to divest or not divest. However, I will say that I am very proud not only of how the government has taken action, but also of Canadians across this country and businesses, small, medium and large. Everybody has stepped up to ask what they can do, and I would encourage everybody to continue to do so. What more can we do? …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, there are two parts to the question. The first is if I am satisfied with how it is being used. The truth is that I probably do not know all the ways it is being used right now, but I have a lot of confidence there is going to be an inquiry into the measures used during the emergency. That inquiry has to be initiated once the state of emergency is over. With respect to setting a preced…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Don Valley West. It is an absolute honour for me to stand in the House of Commons today on behalf of the residents of my riding of Davenport to speak to the invocation of the Emergencies Act. Before I continue, I would like to acknowledge that I am speaking from the traditional territory of the Algonquin nation. Earlier this week, on …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. It is an important one for me to respond to. Our government, on numerous occasions, offered additional resources, every step of the way, not once, not twice, not three times. We also helped to enable a table of all three levels of policing and found as we moved forward that there were a number of gaps in the ability of the police to be able to…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I would agree with the hon. member. We realized, and the police forces across the country made us realize, that there were some gaps in their ability to be able to act. Tracking and stopping the money was one of the key elements that was missing, as was designating spaces to be able to enforce protection and enabling tow trucks to take action. To address the use of trucks as instrumen…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that is a very important question. In terms of this legislation, I want to point out, because it is important to raise this, this legislation would update CRTC guidelines that will increase the proportion of French-language content to be supported through the Canadian media fund and other streams. In terms of support, we did introduce this relatively quickly. The last election happe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Louis. It is an absolute privilege for me to stand in the House today, on behalf of the residents of my riding of Davenport, to speak in support of Bill C-11, an act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other acts. I am truly grateful for the leadership of the Minister of Canadi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his advocacy for everything to do with arts and culture in this country. As I mentioned, in my riding, we have so many artists that anything to do with this sector is very important. The objective of this bill is to bring online streaming services under the jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Act. It is to modernize a very outdated piece of legislati…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will say that in my riding of Davenport we have the House of Anansi, which is a wonderful publishing house. It is also looking for urgent changes and an update to our Copyright Act. I agree with the member that we should make that a priority as well.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, since the Government of Canada announced its ambitious plan for a $10-a-day early learning and child care system across the country, we have signed agreements with nine provinces and three territories. Already in some provinces, families are seeing a reduction in their child care fees that is making life more affordable, while those in my riding of Davenport in downtown Toronto are le…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we know the Ottawa blockade is not about truckers. Ninety per cent of truckers are vaccinated, and they continue to play a vital role in keeping our economy running. Despite that, for the second week in a row, the residents of Ottawa have been forced to put up with an unacceptable occupation, which is keeping local businesses closed and residents from being able to live their normal l…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is a true honour for me to stand in the House on behalf of the residents of my riding of Davenport to speak to Bill C-8, an act to implement certain provisions of the economic and fiscal update, which was tabled in the House by our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on December 14, 2021. This is an important piece of legislation. It is a bill that includes a wide number …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we want to make sure rapid tests arrive in our provinces and territories in a timely manner. I know most provinces and territories have stockpiled many of our rapid tests and have been distributing them as they receive them. I heard an announcement this morning that Ontario has received a lot of rapid tests from the federal government. It is starting to hand out those rapid tests in p…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member knows the national housing strategy is a major piece of legislation and is a key policy piece of great importance to our federal government. It will continue to be a priority for our government to invest in moving forward, not only from a social housing and affordable housing perspective, but also from a housing affordability perspective. It is one of the key things we hear…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we are all worried about small businesses in Canada. They are the heart and soul and the foundation of our economy in this country. We will continue to provide supports, including what is included in Bill C-8, for small businesses. There is quite a bit of investment in the bill that would allow small businesses to be able to upgrade their ventilation systems, with up to $10,000 for th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we have, over the last almost two years, experienced an unprecedented pandemic. In order to make sure that we stabilize our economy, in order to protect Canadians and in order to ensure a solid economic foundation from which our businesses can pivot into a post-COVID economy, we had to spend a significant amount of money. Over time, we have actually adjusted and targeted more of our i…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise in the House today on an issue that is important to the residents of my riding of Davenport: child care. Located in the downtown west part of Toronto, Davenport is still largely a working-class to middle-class riding with many households struggling to make ends meet. Since the Government of Canada announced its ambition for a $10-a-day early learning and chil…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I want to wish you and all colleagues in the House a very happy New Year. I know it is the end of January, but this is my first chance to stand in the House virtually to speak and send those wishes. I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak during this take-note debate on Ukraine and the buildup of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border. It is important for us to have this conv…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I want to thank the hon. member for his excellent comment and question. I do believe that we recognize the importance of energy. If the member is suggesting that we should be looking at energy as one of the ways that we might actually want to support Ukraine in the future, I think the Prime Minister, all of the ministers who have spoken today and many of my colleagues who have spoken to…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, since we were first elected in late 2015, our government has very much put an emphasis on diplomacy and on strengthening diplomacy. Throughout this whole situation with the buildup of Russian aggression at the Ukrainian borders, we have had excellent diplomatic efforts from our Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of National Defence and from a number of my coll…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I absolutely agree with the hon. member. I believe we are absolutely open to all questions we are looking for. As I said, I am an eternal optimist. I absolutely believe there is still a way for us to find a peaceful and diplomatic solution, and I think we have had the right approach here in Canada. I am proud of our leadership, and I am hopeful that we will find a solution moving forwar…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise in the House today to highlight the incredible work being done by COSTI Immigrant Services in my riding of Davenport. Over the past few months, it has been helping to settle 1,600 Afghan refugees. In addition to helping them find housing, employment, language training and mental health supports, COSTI has been matching Afghan families with Canadian Afghan war…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill. I want to thank all hon. members gathered here this evening to discuss yet another unfair trade action against an industry that deserves much better from our American neighbours. The softwood lumber industry is one of Canada's largest employers and has been throughout our history. It is woven in the sinews of…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, as I mentioned earlier, in a relationship that is as large as the one between Canada and the U.S. there are bound to be issues. Given the fact that we have $614.9 billion in two-way trade between our two nations, largely things are going really well between our two countries. This is one of the irritants that we have had, and it has been in place since 1982. It has escalated in recent w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I would like to believe that on this issue we are all on the same team. I think that we all have the same outcome in mind when we say we want this issue resolved. We are very disappointed by the results of the administrative review. We are very disappointed that the softwood duties have increased. We know that in a relationship that is as large as the one between Canada and the U.S. the…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, since the recent election just over two months ago, community leaders, residents and groups such as Pride Toronto in my riding of Davenport have been writing to me and encouraging our federal government to rapidly reintroduce a bill that would implement a ban on the harmful practice of conversion therapy. Can the Prime Minister update this House on Bill C-4 and the importance of banni…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I want to wish the hon. member a very happy birthday. I also want to assure him and everyone else in the House that we are interested in finding an outcome and a solution that is acceptable for industry and workers. We have consistently said that these tariffs are unfair and unwarranted, whether at the CUSMA panel or at the WTO, and we are going to continue to stand up for workers and t…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, gun violence impacts us all and there are a number of steps that we need to take in order to aggressively combat gun violence in our country. It is not just a ban on handguns, it is also ensuring that there are enough resources and attacking the root causes of gun violence in our society. It is also ensuring that our border officers have enough resources and technologies to be able to…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I too worry about the pace of our infrastructure progressing in our country. We work very closely with the different levels of government, the provinces and municipalities, and often it gets caught up in some of the bureaucracies and red tape. It is something that concerns all of us. The commitment to great infrastructure investment is a solid one, a real one. We do want to move forwa…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Mississauga—Malton. It is a true honour and pleasure for me to rise for my first time in this 44th Parliament to respond to the Speech from the Throne on behalf of the residents of my downtown Toronto riding of Davenport. It is the honour and privilege of my life to be serving Davenport for a third time, and I want to thank the voters…
Read full speech →