Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Firefighter Aid Ukraine, based in my riding of Edmonton West, has been delivering crucial life-saving equipment and supplies to Ukraine for the past eight years. The Russian invasion has only made its work more critical. It has collected 25 tonnes of life-saving medical supplies desperately needed for Ukraine's doctors and hospitals. An oil and gas company has donated the transport fu…
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Madam Speaker, we have seen in the past that when the government got into trouble, it prorogued Parliament to end one scandal and called an election to block another scandal. What does the member think the government will do this time around to prevent us from getting to the heart of this scandal?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Calgary Shepard for giving a shout-out to the vital estimates process. It really is the reason Parliament exists. In a lot of ways it goes back to King Edward saying “What touches all should be approved by all”. With regard to the part of the WE scandal that was particularly odious, I am glad he brought up ministerial accountability. In the Tr…
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Madam Speaker, Immigration Canada’s annual “Fees Report” notes that just 19% of passports were processed within the required timelines, and this audit was well before the current surge and delays. At the same time, 88% of executives at Immigration Canada received hefty performance bonuses. Does the minister believe failing Canadians applying for passports 81% of the time warrants performance bonus…
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Madam Speaker, the government was failing 81% of the time before the current surge. The Service Fees Act requires government to develop service standards for government services that charge fees, such as for passports. It also requires the government to refund such fees if such standards are not met, under the directive on charging and special financial authorities. The government has not been mee…
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Madam Speaker, with the House's permission, I would like to table the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada “Fees Report” audit, which shows that just 19% of passports are being done in the standard time, not the 98% the minister claimed today.
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Madam Chair, when is the first ship expected to be delivered?
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Madam Chair, I have been sharing it this evening and the minister has refused to rule out buying from these companies. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has identified dozens of companies that have knowingly used forced labour goods in their supply chains. These companies, according to the government's own Buyandsell website, have received hundreds of millions in contracts from the Liberal…
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Madam Chair, if the government was against it, it would listen to me and the companies that I have noted. BYD received a quarter-million dollar contract from the government. Its supplier uses Uighur forced labour transferred forcibly from south Xinjiang, where mandatory unpaid labour follows years of educational transformation in concentration camps. Why?
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Madam Chair, Panasonic has received $32 million in contracts from the Liberal government despite sourcing materials from factories using Uighur labour. Panasonic has refused to alter its practice. Will the Liberal government immediately stop buying from companies using forced labour?
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Madam Chair, will the minister immediately terminate all purchases from Amazon, seeing as it is selling items made with forced labour?
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Madam Chair, the House voted unanimously that what the Communist Chinese government was doing to the Uighurs was genocide. I will repeat the question. Amazon is selling items purchased from Xinjiang that are knowingly using forced labour. Will the minister immediately end purchases from Amazon and send those purchases to small and medium enterprises?
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Madam Chair, there is $32 million in purchases from small businesses for direct non-cloud services, and about $20 million for cloud. That is the truth, right from the government's own numbers. Amazon has sold items promoting Xinjiang cotton, three of which directly use forced labour. Will the minister immediately end all government Amazon purchases and buy from local Canadian businesses instead?
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Madam Chair, that is not the case. The large majority of dollars in purchases from Amazon are not for web services, and the Order Paper response provided by the government shows that. Why is the government spending so much on Amazon and not on small Canadian businesses?
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Madam Chair, an Order Paper response showed over 7,000 pages of purchases from Amazon instead of from small businesses. Amazon's market cap is $1.5 trillion. How is this a Canadian small business?
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Madam Chair, actually, last year, the government purchased $20 million in goods, not including the cloud services, from Amazon. This year alone, year to date, in just two months it is $10 million. How is buying from Amazon supporting small businesses?
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Madam Chair, I even noted on what page in the departmental plan, signed by the minister, the target decrease was. Now, the previous minister for PSPC testified in committee that Amazon was a Canadian company. Is this why the Liberals are giving so much to Amazon and not buying from Canadian small businesses?
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Madam Chair, this is beautiful. The minister's own departmental plan, on page 19, if she wishes to check, targets for this year a 15% decrease in purchases from Canadian small businesses last year. How is this supporting small businesses?
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Madam Chair, not one but two Auditor General reports on Phoenix actually contradict what the minister just stated. Now, the Minister of Small Business in this place said, “I would encourage everyone to shop local.” Does the minister agree with this statement?
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Madam Chair, these targets were not left by the opposition party; they were made by the minister. It was a Liberal government that enacted Phoenix, over the opposition of the OGGO committee. Two other targets missed were increasing contracts to women-owned businesses and increasing them to indigenous-owned businesses, despite their prominent roles in the departmental plans. Will PSPC be paying exe…
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Madam Chair, missing one-third of their targets is not a success. One target missed by PSPC was paying public servants accurately and on time. It missed this by a whopping 23%. Will the minister confirm that she will not be approving executive bonuses for this failure?
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Madam Chair, the terms of their contract agreements also include making their targets, as noted in the departmental plans, so will the minister be paying out bonuses to executives for the failure from last year?
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Madam Chair, PSPC 2019-2020 achieved just 58% of their planned targets, yet the executives were paid out over $8 million in bonuses. Last year, PSPC failed to achieve over one-third of their targets, as noted in their departmental plans. Would the minister confirm she will not be approving executive bonuses for such failure?
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Madam Chair, at no point in the Order Paper does it say it is an estimated cost. It says the cost provided by the government. Irving, the shipbuilder, says it is considerably less. Again, who is telling the truth?
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Madam Chair, how can the government state $750 million publicly on an Order Paper question when the shipyard is saying less? Now we are hearing that the government does not know the exact number and cannot release that information.
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Madam Chair, that is funny, because in a previous OGGO meeting, years ago, we were actually given a date, and now it is being decided. An Order Paper delivered by the government stated that the costs for the Coast Guard AOPS would be $750 million per ship. Irving Shipbuilding testified just last week it would be considerably less. Who is telling the truth?
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Madam Chair, when does the government expect to sign a contract with Irving Shipbuilding to begin construction of the surface combatants?
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Madam Chair, it is generally a two to three to one cost ratio to operate and maintain. The PBO said it is about $70 billion for the purchase, which leads to almost a quarter trillion dollars for the maintenance and operation over a lifespan. Does the minister agree?
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Madam Chair, for $19 billion, we would hope that we would at least know what the block number, model or type we would be getting of the F-35. What is the expected 30-year cost to purchase, operate and maintain the combatants—
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Madam Chair, sources in the U.S. tell us that we are so late in procuring the F-35 that it will not be available until 2030. Is this correct?
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Madam Chair, what is the expected delivery date if the contract is signed this year?
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Madam Chair, this is an important question. The exact type or block is not a negotiation issue, it is what is available. What will be the block or type of F-35 Canada will be procuring?
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Madam Chair, what is the specific version or block of the F-35s Canada will be receiving?
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Madam Chair, does the minister not know, or will she not share? She has stated previously that transparency is a major issue for the government.
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Madam Chair, Canadians deserve better than that. This is a multi-billion dollar project. What will the purchase cost be?
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Madam Chair, what is the expected purchase cost?
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Madam Chair, what is the expected life cycle cost to purchase, operate and maintain the F-35 aircraft, assuming a 30-year life span?
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Madam Chair, the terms and conditions have already been specified in the RFP and agreed to by Lockheed Martin, so why is there a seven-month delay?
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Madam Chair, wow. Other major purchases have been negotiated within months. Why is it taking seven months for the F-35?
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Madam Speaker, as I was saying, it is time for the government to recognize that we are going to have to learn to live with COVID. Before getting to the heart of today's debate, and I may not get all my time because we are seeing some interference with that, I want to talk about an issue that happened in my riding of Edmonton West. My office is about a two-minute walk to one of the local Service Ca…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from St. Albert—Edmonton for splitting his time with me, and, more importantly, the member for Thornhill for bringing this very important issue to the House. Essentially, the debate is about calling on the government “to immediately revert to pre-pandemic rules and service levels”, but I say that we should call for the government to get its act tog…
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Madam Chair, has the contract been signed for the two AOPS for the Coast Guard?
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Madam Chair, why is it taking seven months or more to negotiate a contract?
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With regard to the public service pension plan: (a) what is the total value of the payments made to deceased pensioners, broken down by year since 2016; (b) of the payments in (a), what is the value of the amounts recovered to date from the estates of the deceased; (c) what is the percentage and value of the amounts not yet recovered in (a) which are expected to be (i) recovered, (ii) written-off;…
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Madam Speaker, I rise to present a petition from many people in my riding of Edmonton West and across Canada who are concerned about the Liberal platform promise to use the CRA as a political weapon against charitable groups or religious groups that do not share the Liberal dogma. Specifically, the petition asks the House of Commons to protect and preserve the application of charitable status role…
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Mr. Speaker, guess what? The same government documents show that only 5% of regular public servants, non-executives, got bonuses despite being the ones who are doing all the work. The Liberals paid out millions in bonuses to the government executives who failed to meet over half their goals. The only other place we could find people getting rewarded so well for such failure is in the Liberal cabin…
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Mr. Speaker, government documents have revealed the Liberals paid out tens and tens of millions in bonuses to public service executives last year: 89% of executives got bonuses, despite the departmental result report showing overall departments missed over half of their targets. There is no clean drinking water on reserves: bonus. There is no fix to the Phoenix pay system: bonus. Vital PPE is thro…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The parliamentary secretary to the Treasury Board's response regarding whistle-blowers from the CRA who, right now, are being harassed and forced out of their work, is that, as he says, they are going to continue with a review lasting five years. With the House's permission, I would like to table the 2017 OGGO report listing every item needed for whistle-…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a second point of order concerning the parliamentary secretary for defence's answer. I would like to retable the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report on, “Strong, Secure, Engaged”, which was done at the same time as the budget, where defence actually noted that they do not have that added $15 billion either.
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