Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I realize the Prime Minister is new here, but all those things would be in a budget if he would table one. This year alone, the government is going to spend a staggering $26 billion on high-priced Liberal-friendly consultants, an eye-watering $1,400 for every Canadian family. It will present no budget, no departmental plans and zero transparency. It will not even stand in this House a…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, let me start by congratulating you on your new role. I hope you will succeed in bringing integrity and decorum back to the position. I want to read for my colleague a heading in the throne speech from the government: “Building Canada Strong by spending less and investing more”. The government tabled the estimates yesterday with a 30% increase in spending for management consultants, gi…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Deputy Speaker, let me be the very first to congratulate you on your new role. I note for everyone that the current Deputy Speaker used to sit beside me in the House, and I think he went out of his way to become the Deputy Speaker just so that he would not have to sit with me anymore. I would like to thank my colleague for his speech and congratulate him on winning and on his maiden speech. Ye…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I am looking at the Speech from the Throne, and it highlights several areas that talk about creating an energy superpower by removing barriers, yet the government refuses to eliminate the job-killing Bill C-69 or the production cap. It talks about homes, yet the housing minister says housing prices should not fall. It talks about building “a safer and more secure Canada”, but for 10 y…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, there is only one person keeping the Prime Minister in power and that is the leader of the NDP. The sellout leader of the NDP is not concerned about Canadians. He is concerned only with keeping the Liberals in power long enough so that he qualifies for his pension. The Liberal-NDP coalition has doubled housing prices, doubled rent and has driven up the cost of groceries, yet the NDP c…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 23rd report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, the mighty OGGO, entitled “Indigenous Procurement”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honour the Elves Special Needs Society, an organization that has made a profound impact on so many people in Edmonton. We are fortunate to have many charities and not-for-profits that serve Edmonton, and Elves stands out as truly one of the best. Recently celebrating its 50th anniversary, Elves, named for its benefactor, Milton Elves, and not for the North Pole elves, began …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following two reports from the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, widely known here and by everyone else as the mighty OGGO. I am presenting the 21st report, entitled “Supplementary Estimates (B), 2024-25”, and the 22nd report, entitled “Canada's Postal Service: A Lifeline for Rural and Remote Commun…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, when my flight was landing last night, at about 10 o'clock, I got a text from our party saying it wanted me to speak on a concurrence debate. I said, “Which debate?” It said, “The scandal”, so of course my first reaction was, “What scandal?” Was it the green slush fund scandal, where the government was funnelling $400 million to Liberal insiders, and where board members and executives…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the behaviour of the present. There is the green slush fund, where $400 million of taxpayers' money went to Liberal-connected insiders. There is the Minister of Environment, a co-owner of one of the largest recipients of the slush fund. His partner stated to committee that it was okay because they barely defrauded taxpayers of anything. The member opposite should con…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed my time with my colleague on the government operations committee, the mighty OGGO. He brings up a lot of valid points. We are not blocking Deloitte; we are just seized with other scandals at the moment. Perhaps if he would stop supporting a Liberal government that stumbles from scandal to scandal and would vote with us to bring it down, then we could get back to the business…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, no, it is not correct. In the government operations committee, we asked repeatedly whether the member for Edmonton Centre and GHI are still able to bid on government business. GC Strategies, embroiled in the ArriveCAN scandal, has been banned from bidding on government business. The Liberals for some reason refuse to ban the member for Edmonton Centre's company from bidding on lucrati…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, when we tax the farmer who grows the food, tax the trucker who delivers the food and tax the retailer who sells the food, then we tax the food itself. Is it any wonder a record number of Canadians are lining up at food banks every month? Two million every month rely on food banks just to get by. The child poverty rate has seen its highest jump on record. In Edmonton alone, we have two…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Spadina—Fort York for his excellent talk today. I would like to ask him to comment on the member for Winnipeg North's obsession with security in light of the fact that the Liberal government gave taxpayer money to an illegal Chinese police station in Montreal not once but twice. Not only did the Liberal government fund these illegal police stati…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, my colleague brought up some very important items about what we could have done with the money instead. In Edmonton West, there is an organization called the Veterans Association Food Bank. There is one in Calgary as well, a sister organization. We have a food bank just for veterans and we struggle to keep it stocked. It is disgraceful in this day and age in Canada that we have vete…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honour Maureen Purvis, the heart and soul of No Stone Left Alone. No Stone Left Alone was officially launched in 2011 to help ensure an enduring national respect and gratitude for the sacrifice of Canadian men and women who lost their lives in the service of peace. Maureen's mother, Lillian, was also a veteran herself. When honouring her mom's headstone with a poppy, Maureen…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's talk today. One of the things we found out with the green slush scandal is that excerpt 20.03 of the contribution agreement between the government, industry and STDC states very clearly that any conflicts of interest, real or perceived, have to be reported to the minister, who at that time was Navdeep Bains, and is now the current minister of industry. We…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, in the public accounts committee, where we have been studying this issue, we had the deputy secretary to the cabinet of the Privy Council, which, as we know, is pretty much the Prime Minister's department. She told us that she was refusing to turn over the documents unredacted despite an order of Parliament because she insisted that the access to information law superseded the will of…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, at the public accounts committee, we heard from the founder of Cycle Capital, who was a partner of the Liberal Minister of Environment. She claimed it was basically okay to scam money from the government because she and the minister only benefited a small amount. I wonder if the member can say what level of corruption is acceptable such that the minister and his partner can steal from…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government providing financial aid to the Palestinian Territories (Gaza): (a) what is the total amount of financial aid given to the Palestinian Territories (Gaza) (i) between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2022, (ii) between January 1, 2023, and September 30, 2023, (iii) since October 1, 2023; (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by specific federal program through which the aid…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's only minister from Alberta is accused of being a fake and a fraud. The member for Edmonton Centre said that he was not the Randy involved in his company, yet we know he is the only Randy involved in that company. He said that he was not involved with his company while in cabinet, yet text messages clearly show that he was. He pretended to be indigenous to profit f…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to speak tonight on this concurrence debate. I will be sharing my time with my neighbour in the riding and here in the House, the member for Sturgeon River—Parkland. This seems like everything old is new again with this debate and looking at this particular issue. We looked at this issue over six years ago in the operations committee. I know I have rarely mentioned…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would just ask my colleague across the way this: Will he stand with us and demand that the member for Edmonton Centre, the minister for employment, be fired from his job as minister? He committed fraud. His company put down that it was indigenous-owned when it was clearly not. The government paraded the member for Edmonton Centre for years through their indigenous caucus when he w…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Edmonton Griesbach. We do miss him on public accounts, so I hope he will come back. The issue is a serious one. I think the member brought up in his own speech, and some pointed toward us, and that is fair, that people were using the indigenous community for scoring points or for gaining traction. The government needs to move past this. We hav…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, one of the witnesses who appeared at OGGO made a comment about the situation. He stated, “You're harming the community by taking that opportunity away. Whether it's food out of their mouths and social impact on the community or a job.” This is very much at the crux of it. The actions of the Minister of Employment are attacking and taking away opportunities from those people who are …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government's response to Order Paper question Q-2804 which lists Afghanistan, Palestinian Territories (Gaza), Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, Haiti, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Venezuela, and Yemen (hereinafter referred to as "entities") as having all received funds through …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent talk today. I am glad he was able to mention the comment from his wife. I know if I read a comment from my wife on Facebook, it would be something like, “Why didn't you take out the trash again?” Part of the SDTC issue is that Industry Canada has a contribution agreement with SDTC, the green slush fund, that requires the board to report any confl…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, just yesterday in the public accounts committee, we heard that the government has referred three more cases, seven in total now, to the RCMP over theft issues and fraud issues with ArriveCAN. However, the government seems very hesitant to do so with a similar scandal. In the contribution agreement signed between SDTC and Industry Canada, there is a very specific paragraph that state…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, this is not our first rodeo on this issue of the government refusing to hand over documents. Last year, when we had the McKinsey scandal, the operations committee passed a unanimous decision for the government to turn over all the documents, both from McKinsey but also from all the departments related to McKinsey. McKinsey, as many people realize, is probably one of the most abhorrent…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I like to refer to “Edmonton West Edmonton Mall” as the official name of my riding. I am very pleased to rise to discuss the privilege motion we have before us, specifically on the green slush fund but on one of the government's many environmental, green scandals. Yes, I did say “scandals”. I am sure a lot of us are wondering, “Scandals, plural?” Yes, I have scanned through some, and …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, my colleague is right: Parliament is supreme, and that is the issue here. We have had department after department come before committee, both in operations committee on the McKinsey scandal and this one. Unelected officials have come to tell us that Parliament is not supreme and that they do not have to obey the law. We had the PCO, the Privy Council Office, tell us that the informati…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, in the grand scheme of things, ad scam is peanuts compared to this. This is about $400 million, funnelled from Liberal insiders to Liberal insiders through the green slush fund. We have clear rules actually stating that, before the money can go, people have to sign off on the contribution agreement; the Minister of Industry has to be informed within one month when there is a conflict.…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question. We can do a lot of things to strengthen transparency. A very large one was supporting Bill C-290, by my colleague from the Bloc, on whistle-blower protection. We actually need to reopen that bill and make it stronger so that we are protecting whistle-blowers and not corrupt government officials.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, that is a tough but fair question. Just having a member like the member we have representing King—Vaughan would be enough to convince them to vote for the Conservatives. This is an important issue. We saw, out of ad scam, that we had new transparency laws. The Federal Accountability Act was brought in by former prime minister Stephen Harper. I think the good that we are going to see c…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to my friend for Regina—Lewvan again because that is probably the most I have spoken to him in a while. I think the issues are deep. The SDTC is not a new program. It has been around for a couple of decades. Up until this government took over, the Auditor General had given a clean bill of health for the program and for its investments. This has …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, we need to look at more so that we can clear the air to find out and get to the bottom of just how much taxpayers' money has gone to insiders, and how much taxpayers' money has gone to ineligible companies. It is actually right in the contribution agreement. Off the top of my head, I think it is on page 29, if the Liberals want to look it up. However, SDTC and industry have an obligat…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, my friend for Winnipeg North, even though he does not have the floor, finds the need to continue to speak, but I will get on to it. One of the issues with the green slush fund, the SDTC, is that the government will not turn over the documents Parliament has demanded. In the contribution agreement between the current government and Industry Canada, with respect to funding SDTC, it stat…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the $254,746 in construction and renovation costs incurred by the government at 80 Wellington Street, since 2015, related to general upgrades of meeting facilities and collaborative spaces: what is the detailed breakdown of the costs, including, for each expenditure, the (i) amount, (ii) description of the goods or services, (iii) vendor, (iv) date?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to RCMP surplus vehicles, since January 1, 2021: (a) how many vehicles have been (i) sold, (ii) junked or crushed; (b) of the vehicles that were sold, what was the (i) make and model, (ii) year, (iii) sale price, (iv) date sold, (v) reason for the surplus (too many miles, damage, etc.); (c) of the vehicles that were junked, what was the (i) make and model, (ii) year, (iii) date sold, (…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Calgary Signal Hill for his talk today. Just last Wednesday, we were studying this issue in public accounts. We actually had someone from the Privy Council Office tell us that they would not honour the order of the House of Commons until they received permission from one of the board's directors of the green slush fund, who had been convicted …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, we are talking today about a privilege motion on the government's refusal to release documents as ordered by Parliament. I want to thank my colleague for mentioning some of the scandals that the government is mired in right now. Let us not overlook ArriveCAN. I note that the government operations committee, the mighty OGGO, unanimously demanded documents from the government on the Arr…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the government is rife with corruption. For those at home wondering, this is one of three green-related scandals going on right now: Of course, there is the green slush fund; there is one involving the environment department giving out millions in grants to massive corporations without any oversight or governance; and also the net-zero accelerator, where the government gave out $8 bil…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, one issue I was talking about earlier is one of the various green scandals that the government is mired in, which is the net accelerator. The Auditor General noted that $8 billion had been given away to companies, many of which do not even qualify. Looking at it, I saw that one of the companies that received government funding is a company called Geely. It received $15 million in subs…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after nine long years of the Liberal-NDP government, taxes are up, costs are up, corruption is up and apparently the number of Randys is up. The Minister of Employment has been accused of violating the law by engaging in improper business dealings with his corrupt, scandal-plagued partner. The minister claimed he was not involved in this business but was later forced to admit that he …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise to table the Conservative Party's dissenting report to the 44th report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, entitled “Cybersecurity of Personal Information in the Cloud”. The Auditor General noted in a report the many security breaches and the lack of seriousness on behalf of the government in addressing these issues. In response, the Liberals and the NDP put forward…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for recognizing my friend, former minister Gary Lunn. I used to work with him when I was in Victoria. He is a wonderful gentleman. There is a clear answer to fixing this corruption. It is to fire the Liberal government and install a Conservative government, which would fix SDTC and have it performing as it was before.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, last night I was talking about the reason we are here today, which is the government's refusal to hand over documents ordered by Parliament, by all three parties on this side of the House, regarding the green funding scandal. Of course, people are asking which green funding scandal, because only the Liberal government can be so corrupt that it actually has subsets of its scandals. W…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, here we have the most corrupt government probably in the history of Canada, and what is its response to billions of dollars given to its friends? It is Harper's fault. Why did Harper not do more about it? This is a disgraceful response from the member, who has been here long enough to know better. I am going to quote Michel Bédard, who is the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel of t…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, my colleague from the public accounts committee has done a fine job of fighting for transparency from the government. It is clear from all the witnesses we have heard, including the whistle-blower, that the Minister of Industry was aware, the government was aware and Liberal MPs were aware, yet at every point we could have brought the information forward, the Liberal government supp…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, my colleague from Chilliwack—Hope could have just reached over and asked this question, but I am glad we put it on the record. This is not a new program; SDTC has been around for decades. Not surprisingly, knowing the current government, it got a clean bill of health from the Auditor General until about the time the Liberals took over. Navdeep Bains fired the board that provided exc…
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