Government Orders
Madam Chair, would the President of the Treasury Board assure the House that this bill as well is in its usual form?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the budgetary loan provided to China in the amount of $365,714,786, listed on page 307 of the 2021 Public Accounts of Canada, Volume I: (a) what interest rate is China paying on the loan; and (b) what are the terms and length of repayment agreed to by China in relation to the loan?
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With regard to the estimated $1,235.4 million in overpayments of income benefit payments by the government listed on page 147 of the 2021 Public Accounts of Canada, Volume I: (a) how many Canadians received such overpayments; (b) what is the value of the overpayments which (i) has been forgiven, (ii) has been recovered, (iii) has not yet been recovered, but is expected to be recovered, by the gove…
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With regard to overpayments made by the Phoenix pay system: (a) what was the total amount of overpayments made by the system; (b) of the amount in (a), how much (i) has been recovered, (ii) has not yet been recovered; and (c) of the amount not yet recovered, how much has been written off by the government due to (i) the six-year limitation period, (ii) other reasons, broken down by reason?
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Mr. Speaker, in the operations committee, Public Works admitted that the government might delay the selection of a replacement fighter jet for an additional 12 months, because apparently six years' delay is not enough. When we asked Public Works if it had received any direction from the Liberal-NDP government to speed up the process in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the answer was a sim…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is correct. It is a duplicated $4 billion, and that is my concern. We have only the word of the government that it is not going to get Parliament's approval twice and only spend it once. I do not trust that the government will do that. I would love to have a government member stand in the House today and say that yes, that $4 billion will lapse and will not be spent.
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Mr. Speaker, I always enjoy the fantasy world put forward by the member for Kingston and the Islands. Of course, if he had bothered reading the public accounts, and I do not think anyone in the government has, he would see that his government gave $50,000 to a company to come up with an new flavour for an IPA. He talks about $15 orange juice. His government gave $50,000 to a brewery. I ask everyon…
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Mr. Speaker, one thing we do not believe in is supporting the government and the massive corporate welfare that the NDP is backing. It was the Conservatives who pushed the government to allow people who were working and also on CERB to make up to $1,000 without getting their CERB clawed back, and we achieved that. It was the Conservatives who first asked for the increase in the wage subsidy from t…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate you on your role. It is wonderful to see you take part in a fine Canadian federal institution such as the Speaker. I am pleased to rise again to talk about Bill C-8. It is another massive Liberal spending bill, with little oversight and probably little chance of delivering on what they have talked about. It is almost a Liberal pre-engagement gift to our colleagu…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague to respond to something. The members opposite talked about having this great low debt-to-GDP ratio, but I have to note that they are including money that has been set aside for CPP assets. We are the only country in the OECD that tracks money that way. According to the IMF, when we take that money out and compare us on an apples-to-apples basis, we are the 22…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order arising our of question period, the parliamentary secretary for Global Affairs was misleading the House regarding cuts, going back 60 years, by the Conservative government. I would like to table a Library of Parliament report on operation expenditures and authorities covering 2000 to 2021. It shows that the highest amount spent, adjusted for inflation, was during t…
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Mr. Speaker, my point of order arises out of question period. Repeatedly today we heard the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance state that the carbon tax is revenue neutral. With the House's permission, I would like to table pages 17 and 18 of the most recent “Public Accounts of Canada”, volume I, that showed GST collected under the carbon tax was almost a quarter of a billion dolla…
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Mr. Speaker, when asked in question period about the Russian navy's 40 armed nuclear-powered icebreakers roaming the Arctic, the defence minister said basically not to worry about Canadian sovereignty because here we “have the Coast Guard working for us.” Now, does the Minister of National Defence realize that our Coast Guard, as good as it is, is a civilian service and does not have armed naval v…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Madam Speaker, three years ago, I rose in this place and wished my friend, World War II veteran Fred Russell, a happy 100th birthday. Fred passed this fall at the age of 103 years old. He served overseas for the entire length of World War II. He survived the Dieppe raid. Returning to France and Normandy in the Normandy landings, he marched into Dieppe with his fellow Canadians in the liberation of…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I have to say I am disappointed with the member's question. Clearly, she continues to politicize this issue. In no way and in no part of my speech was I ever dismissive of what was going on. We treat this issue very seriously. The reality is that the government bungled this situation. The government had ways to fix the situation, but it decided, with the help of its coalition colleagu…
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Mr. Speaker, it is great to see my colleague in the House. My answer is yes. As I said, this is a political emergency created by the government. It is not a national emergency. We have seen in bigger, more serious issues across the country, both in the past years and the past week. It can be solved with the current powers that the police have.
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Mr. Speaker, the member should know that what is good for Alberta is good for the rest of the country, as he knows from the equalization payments we pay out. He should note this as well, and he should not mislead the House, that Coutts was settled without bringing in the draconian Emergencies Act. It was settled using existing police powers, just like in Surrey, Emerson and Windsor, and just like …
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to get a question from my colleague. I appreciate the comment, and I do not want to be mean back, but I appreciate what he is saying. I am kind of stunned though. The U.S. treasury, its version of our Treasury Board, did an investigation on Tides. It found that money from Russia was being funnelled into Tides in the U.S.A. and that money was getting funnelled into Cana…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to join the debate on the Emergencies Act. I hate to spoil the surprise for those waiting until the end of my speech to understand how I will vote, but I am going to come out early now and spoil it by saying I do not support this overreach by the government. We have to ask how we got here today. I am sure the Liberals are saying “by Air Canada”, but I mean…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his well toned speech. I appreciate it. What has changed? A couple of days ago, Windsor was cleared. Surrey is cleared. Coutts, Alberta, is cleared. Emerson is clearing. All those were cleared under existing laws and existing enforcement measures. Those main issues have cleared. Why bring in this sledgehammer now? I hear a gentleman across the way he…
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Madam Speaker, earlier, we heard from one of the member's colleagues that the government said that it knows what a lawful protest looks like. I wonder why, then, the government did not act when we had protesters blockading VIA Rail and CN Rail, blocking the Port of Vancouver, crippling our economy, and crippling pipelines and oil and gas trains to the point that Alberta companies were offering to …
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Mr. Speaker, while I am engaged in the gentleman's screaming, I am trying to learn French. I have been trying to listen on the French channel, but I cannot hear the interpreter over the gentleman's screaming. I would ask you to advise the member opposite to tone it down a bit so we can hear the interpretation.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it was not enough for the Liberals when they paid out $9 million in CERB payments to dead people last year. It has now been revealed that they have paid out $12 million in CERB to people abroad. Surely, even the government realizes it is the “C-E-R-B”, not the “oversea-E-R-B”. Will the minister, to apologize to Canadians for this waste of taxpayers' money, stand and commit to recoveri…
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That is not at all the case, Mr. Speaker. The government, when queried, actually claimed the workers had to stay in the U.S. due to COVID restrictions, but during the first year of the pandemic, seven million people were able to cross the border into Canada. The Liberals famously even exempted wealthy, connected American CEOs from the border restrictions. Why would the Liberals give a pass to the …
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Mr. Speaker, the government has again stiffed Canadian IT companies and awarded a sensitive tech contract to a foreign company. It is so sensitive, in fact, that it stated the work had to be done here in Ottawa using a government computer, yet the work is actually being done outside the country and certainly not on a secured government server. However, do not worry. For security, it told the compa…
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You are doing nothing.
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Two years ago.
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Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague on his maiden speech. I hope we have a lot of opportunity in the future to hear him speak again and not be muzzled like the rest of his colleagues. A lot of the back-and-forth with my hon. colleague is good-natured, despite his rather dysfunctional relationship with the truth. This is a serious and non-partisan question for my colleague. There is …
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With regard to the 4.7% rise in the Consumer Price Index over the last year and future inflation: (a) what are the government’s estimates on the added increase the rise has had on trucking costs; and (b) what are the government’s estimates and projections for the next 12 months on the increase in food prices as a result of the added trucking costs?
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With regard to the Prime Minister’s pledge to lower oil and gas emissions: what is the projected loss of (i) jobs, (ii) federal tax revenue from the province of Alberta and the federal government for the year 2022 as a result of the pledge?
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With regard to the impact of inflation on the Market Basket Measure (MBM) and the poverty line: (a) what is the current, or latest, MBM for the reference family and various poverty lines in each of the MBM geographic areas in Alberta; (b) what was the “2018-base MBM” for the reference family and various poverty lines in each geographic area in (a); (c) what percentage of individuals living in each…
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With regard to the procurement of supplies related to the COVID-19 pandemic: (a) what is the number and percentage of contracts and the total amount and percentage of the total amount of all spending on supplies that went to organizations owned by (i) women, (ii) Indigenous people, (iii) people of colour, broken down by region; and (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by province or territory?
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Madam Speaker, I am quite stunned by the hypocrisy of the members opposite. They talk about how important it is to get this bill passed immediately, after playing political games by proroguing Parliament and then calling an early election. If they had not called an early election, we would have been here in mid-September and could have passed this bill then. However, they interrupted Parliament wi…
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Madam Speaker, I wonder if it is normal to reopen the public accounts and doctor them. The public accounts are audited financial statements of the government, yet the Liberals are delaying the tabling of these accounts. We have out-of-control Liberal government spending, yet no accounting of over $600 billion of taxpayers' money. Why has the government not yet tabled the public accounts? Is it bec…
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Madam Speaker, it is mid-December and there are still no public accounts. There are disturbing stories that the Liberal government has actually reopened the audited public accounts and changed them for political gain. Earlier this week when we asked about this, the President of the Treasury Board refused to answer, so I will ask about it again. Did the government reopen the public accounts and alt…
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Mr. Chair, could the President of the Treasury Board confirm that the bill is in its usual form?
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Madam Chair, will the President of the Treasury Board resign her position if it turns out she has misled the House on this issue of whether the government has reopened the public accounts to add in more costs for political gain?
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Madam Chair, the homeless rate in Edmonton is up 60% since the Liberals took over, yet Edmonton received just $15 million for the rapid housing initiative. How does it in any way make sense that Edmonton's homeless would get $15 million, but the government has $7 million for a book fair in Frankfurt?
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Madam Chair, at $24,000 per employee, who is providing these rapid tests? Is it SNC-Lavalin?
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Madam Chair, the estimates process is for Parliament to approve money before spending it, yet there is $7 million for an event that has already happened. Does the President of the Treasury Board approve of the process of bypassing Parliament to spend money before being approved?
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Madam Chair, I have read the estimates. There is a quarter of a billion dollars just for DND. Also, the government has not set zero tolerance as a goal. It has set 12% as a goal. Last night in her speech on the estimates, the Treasury Board president read right from the estimates documents that the estimates are seeking Parliament's approval for spending, yet the estimates contained $7.1 million f…
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Madam Chair, if we wish to avoid harassment, we do not set a goal that 12% of staff can be harassed. We set a goal for zero tolerance. How much is in the estimates to settle class action suits against the government from its employees for harassment issues?
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Madam Chair, the minister's own departmental plan, signed by the previous Treasury Board minister, sets a percentage for public service employees who indicate they have been a victim of harassment. The goal is to have 12%. The goal is one out of every eight people. Why is the goal not zero tolerance for harassment?
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Madam Chair, the Information Commissioner has stated that the disastrous ATIP mess long preceded COVID, so it is not an excuse. Will the minister commit to zero tolerance for not delivering on what is in the legislation regarding ATIPs?
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Madam Chair, the minister's own departmental plan shows that the goal is to violate ATIP legislation 10% of the time for ATIP requests. Why is the government setting a goal for the legislation to be ignored for one out of every 10 ATIPs?
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Madam Chair, the legislation says 30 days. That is the law. The minister should know that. How many ATIPs are past the 30 days allowed by the legislation?
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Madam Chair, the minister has staff here right in front of her. I am sure they can look at that information and get back to us, and I will ask the question again. What is the legislated number of days allowed for answering an ATIP?
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Madam Chair, the departmental results reports are ready. From the government's own internal emails, they were ready November 2 and sent to the Treasury Board. The Information Commissioner, Caroline Maynard, has blamed the government's failure regarding the access to information system on the “culture of secrecy” that exists. What is the average number of days for completing an ATIP?
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Madam Chair, the question is about the departmental results reports. The TBS website states that the departmental results reports “inform parliamentarians and Canadians of the results achieved by government organizations for Canadians.” We have an internal email that the departmental results were finalized and submitted to government on November 2, but the government has not tabled them yet. Why i…
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Madam Chair, the timeline is in October. I have an email from the executive assistant, Treasury Board Secretariat. It is a call letter telling the departments that the departmental results reports are due October 13 to Treasury Board with a date to publish and table in the House November 2. I know that the information has been loaded into the government's database and so it is ready to publish. Wh…
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