Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I cannot imagine, should this bill pass, Canadians being subjected to the member speaking over and again in the House. He clearly has a very dysfunctional relationship with the truth about late sittings. One of the biggest problems we have with late sittings is a lack of resources. We do not have enough interpreters. We run the risk of losing our committees. Right now, at the operat…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to Deputy Minister Working Groups and working groups which report to a deputy minister or equivalent: (a) how many such groups exist as of September 23, 2022; and (b) what are the details of each group, including, for each, (i) the title or name, (ii) the purpose, (iii) the number of members, (iv) the titles of members, (v) the number of meetings the group has had since January 1, 2022…
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With regard to performance audits or similar types of assessments related to passport processing times which were completed or ongoing between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021: what are the details of each audit or assessment, including, for each, the (i) start and end date of the time period audited or assessed, (ii) summary and scope of the audit or assessment, (iii) findings, (iv) recomme…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA): (a) how many CEWS recipients were in arrears or had an amount owing related to (i) GST/HST remittances, (ii) other required tax payments, when they received funding under CEWS; (b) what is the dollar amount of owed taxes in (a)(i) and (a)(ii); (c) how many CEBA recipients were in arrears or ha…
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With regard to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the 4-year post-payment verification plan identified in the 2021 Spring Report of the Auditor General: (a) how many recipients of payments under the CERB have been identified as fraudulent or otherwise ineligible; (b) what dollar amount of payments were received by the recipients in (a); (c) what amount of money has been recovered to …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for the excellent private member's bill. I also want to thank him for paying tribute to Mr. Michael Dagg, a hero to whistle-blowers in Canada, who, along with Allan Cutler and several others, helped our committee write the gold bar for whistle-blower protection, one that the government has ignored for five years. What does my colleague think about the go…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will start by wishing you a belated happy birthday. I am pleased to rise on Bill S-5. I have not spoken in the House for a while. I have been too busy covering committees. It is nice to be back. Of all the hundreds of bills I have debated, this one has to have the sexiest title: an act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, to make related amendments to the Food a…
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Mr. Speaker, I grew up in Vancouver, so it is nice to chat with someone from there. It is funny he talks about what we would do. What we would not do is put out government emissions reports that our own bureaucrats refused to sign off on and refused to state, yes, those were correct. We would not do that. We would have results achieved. We would not sit by and congratulate ourselves for failing 86…
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Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, I will be supporting this bill. There are a lot of good points in it. There has been some engagement with the industry, which has commented on what it liked. There are some issues we will be seeking amendments to in committee. Yes, while we will be supporting the bill, there are some amendments we do need to consider.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I recognize their ideological base wants to shut down our oil and gas. Our reality is these same issues he has brought forward are the same drivers of our economy and the same drivers of our prosperity that allow us to enjoy the living we have. To move away from this would strip our economy of tens of billions of dollars. The Auditor General report on the just transition alone states …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, Edmonton's Veterans Association Food Bank is in need. The shelves are empty and donations are down. It has been asking the government for help. However, what is the Liberals' spending priority? It is $54 million for ArriveCAN. That is $54 million for an app that could have been created by a bunch of pimply faced teenage hackers over a weekend using a Commodore 64. That is $54 million …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to table the Conservatives' dissenting report on the 2021 public accounts report. The government misleadingly states that the carbon tax is revenue-neutral. The 2021 public accounts, though, showed that $100 million of the carbon tax was diverted to spending programs and not returned to Canadians. We therefore recommend that the PBO present an independent and true analysis of t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are getting walloped by not just inflation. Even after paying more for everything because of Liberal inflation, Canadians are spending more on taxes than food, clothing and shelter combined. Here come the Liberals with another tax hike come January. There is no way for the Liberals to spin these tax hikes. Come January, Canadians will have less money in their pockets and sma…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Kingston and the Islands for his comments, but I do want to point out one thing about his comment on sending cheques to millionaires. The Auditor General herself pointed out that the Liberal government actually changed the tax code when it was giving away the child benefit bump of $500. It actually changed the tax code so that families making up to $3…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to recognize Oula and Linda, the two wonderful ladies who run my Edmonton constituency office. The two are probably the most experienced team in Alberta, with Oula having worked with MPs Peter Goldring and Laurie Hawn before me, and Linda having worked with Laurie Hawn as well. My friend, the Hon. Laurie Hawn, often compared his constituency to a car. He would exp…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am a bit out of breath after running over here from the all-important operations committee. I am pleased to rise on this private member's bill. I want to address all my comments to the bill itself. I am sure the member who presented it is a wonderful parliamentarian. I served with her on OGGO, but I have to say I am not a big fan of this bill. It is almost like it is “bad private me…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I understand that the member for Winnipeg North has to get his comments in. I think it has been probably 35 seconds since he actually last spoke in the House, so even when it is nonsensical, he has to get a word in. These bills I am talking about are much like the other issues I spoke about earlier, which have perhaps more importance to the people of the riding than the one we are tal…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise on Bill C-245, especially after about three hours of sleep due to a late flight. Thanks, Air Canada. I wish we were debating something about Air Canada. I am in the mood for that right now. Bill C-245 would nominally change Canada's failed Infrastructure Bank from a colossal, failed boondoggle that is wasting taxpayers' money to a potentially massive failur…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the contract initially awarded by Shared Services Canada to BMC Software Incorporated (BMC) worth approximately $32.4 million for IT service management: (a) why did the contract increase in value to over $50 million in February 2020; (b) which departments and agencies have migrated all of their IT service management to the BMC software; (c) of the departments that have not yet migra…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I do not think we have quorum in the House again.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the Liberals continue to fail Canadians on transparency. Official complaints on access to information requests are up 71%. The Treasury Board has delayed its ATIP review for years and the government continues to keep most of its ATIP staff at home, yet somehow it managed to pay over $36 million to private consultants to process information requests, including over $300,000 for one s…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Edmonton's food bank is facing record demand. At the same time, it is facing a 30% increase in operating costs due to runaway Liberal gas inflation. These are resources taken directly away from the people they are trying to help. Edmonton charities need help. The Liberals can help immediately by reducing gas taxes and suspending the carbon tax. Will the Liberals commit to helping thos…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, normally I quite enjoy my interactions with the member opposite, but I have to say that I am quite disturbed and quite disgusted by this measure. We started with the fact that the heritage committee would get first dibs on all House resources, and we are studying some very important things in various committees today. The one I share with the member opposite, the operations committee,…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the departmental acquisition cards and expenditures made in March 2022: (a) what is the total sum of all purchases made; (b) what departmental expenses were made, broken down by accounting code; and (c) what is the number of purchases made specifically between March 22 and March 31, 2022?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, can the President of the Treasury Board advise the House if the bill is in its usual form?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the contracting authority must not issue multiple contracts against a single requirement or back-to-back contracts to the same supplier in order to avoid obtaining the approval required by statute. These are Treasury Board contracting rules, yet the government has refused to address the rampant splitting of contracts that benefit government insiders. Internal government documents show…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, would the President of the Treasury Board again advise the House that the bill is in its usual form?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I find it mind-boggling and ironic that the minister talks about Conservatives bringing in U.S. problems, when the current government's whole modus operandi is to import U.S. culture wars. I want to give an example of why it is so important that we continue debate. We heard the exact same response from the government over Bill C-8, Bill C-10 and the supplementary estimates (C), wher…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I table this petition on behalf of several constituents of Edmonton West and people across the country who are greatly concerned with the Liberals' platform pledge to go after charities that have values different from their own. Attacking such charities will affect their ability to deliver to disadvantaged and under-privileged Canadians.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I quite enjoyed the two years the member and I worked together on the operations committee. Although his replacements, the member from Hamilton Centre and then the member from Port Alberni, are doing wonderful jobs, he is welcome back at any time. He spoke about the issue of the disability credit, the difficulties Canadians are having in applying for it and some of the silliness of …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, government departments are continuing to violate Treasury Board rules by allowing Liberal insiders and preferred vendors to split contracts in order to avoid a competitive bid process. An Order Paper question that came back shows several hundred examples of this. This was brought up to the previous Treasury Board president, who frankly could not care less. Will the new President of …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would say that I would like to thank my colleague for Winnipeg North for his speech, but that would be disingenuous. The member talked a lot about support for local media, which is funny, because in the operations committee about three years ago, we actually studied government advertising in Canada. The committee came up with recommendations that the government should stop sending a…
Read full speech →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…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
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…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
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…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
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…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
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.
Read full speech →Government Orders
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…
Read full speech →Government Orders
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…
Read full speech →Government Orders
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, will the minister immediately terminate all purchases from Amazon, seeing as it is selling items made with forced labour?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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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