Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government is getting ready to triple the carbon tax that is going to add extra costs for all Canadians. That is the reality. This afternoon, we are going to hear the Minister of Finance tell us that never in the history of the country have Canadians paid so much in taxes. Simply put, inflation is increasing the cost of everything. Everything costs more and therefore the governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, we advised the Prime Minister of this situation one month ago, but the Prime Minister always has a ready-made excuse to justify his inability to take action. As a grandfather, I get upset thinking about young children who are ill. One month ago, he asked Health Canada to do something so that mothers and fathers can access medication for their children, medication that children will wa…
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Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure of rising today to speak to the motion moved by the hon. member for Carleton and leader of the official opposition on the important issue of the Liberal government's wasteful spending. Rather than helping to combat the inflation crisis Canadians are experiencing, this government is fuelling inflation and making everyone's life more difficult. I would like to share …
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Mr. Speaker, it is difficult to see the benefits of ArriveCAN when there were already tools that had been put in place by the provinces. People could have presented vaccination status documents at the border. Everything was already in place. There was no need to create another app, another expense and another layer of administration to basically achieve the same objectives.
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Mr. Speaker, I could give many examples to show how, when the government keeps racking up debt, it loses some the flexibility it has to offer real services to citizens. More importantly, it affects the ability of future generations to access government services because the price of that debt is going to keep growing. Our children and the children of all Canadians are the ones who are going to have…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question, which I am honoured to answer. I hope that one day, I or one of my colleagues will be lucky enough to answer the Bloc Québécois's questions every day. What we basically want is to put a stop to waste and spending associated with unnecessary programs and to replace the Liberal government, so that there will finally be responsible people on the oth…
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Mr. Speaker, what the government did not need to do was take $200 billion of the $500 billion and spend it on programs in no way related to COVID‑19. That is the reality. They hide, they deflect and they do all sorts of things to avoid telling Canadians the truth. Of the $500 billion, 40% was not for COVID‑19. Meanwhile, 1.5 million Canadians had to use food banks for a month and 20% of Canadians …
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Mr. Speaker, the future prime ministerial candidate says that the primary causes of inflation in Canada are domestic. What we were against was sending cheques to inmates, sending CERB cheques to public servants, giving $500 million to Liberal friends at WE Charity, spending $54 million on an ArriveCAN app that did not work and spending $6,000, no, $7,200 a night on a room for the Prime Minister. W…
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Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you were to seek it, I believe you would find unanimous consent for the following motion: That the House recall that almost 10 years ago, the worst rail tragedy in Canadian history cost the lives of 47 people and, therefore, reiterate its support for the construction of the Lac-Mégantic bypass and urge the government to carry out t…
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Mr. Speaker, since I got vaccinated, I had a piece of paper that I could have shown customs officers. That would have cost the price of a sheet of paper, and it would have allowed me to cross the border. Instead, everyone had to enter their information in the ArriveCAN app, otherwise they could not enter Canada. I had an app provided by the Quebec government that allowed me to show my proof of vac…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his declaration of love. I found it quite moving, truly. Mostly, however, I was moved by my colleague's ability to say one thing and then its opposite in under 30 seconds. He began his question by saying that he would not be meanspirited and would not talk about hypocrisy. Then he went on to talk about just that: hypocrisy. I am a little perplexed by my coll…
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Madam Speaker, it is my turn to speak to Bill S‑5, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, to make related amendments to the Food and Drugs Act and to repeal the Perfluorooctane Sulfonate Virtual Elimination Act. This is a timely bill to modernize the act and cut red tape. After all these years, it is time to revisit the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. There are som…
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Madam Speaker, when I listen to my colleague speak, there is a word that springs to mind. It is the word “hypocrisy”, which he just mentioned. I remember one thing. In 2015, the Liberal government was elected on a major promise: that it would run very small deficits for three years and then slowly come back to a balanced budget. In his maiden speech, the Prime Minister said that interest rates wer…
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Madam Speaker, Bill S‑5 recognizes the right to a healthy environment, which the Conservatives fully support. I am from Thetford Mines, where asbestos was produced for about 100 years. For about a century, this industry provided people with a livelihood, which we now know hurt a lot more people on the planet than it helped. Therefore, we were able to recognize that we have to do something. Unfortu…
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Mr. Speaker, talking about people who cannot afford to put food on the table at the end of the month and those who will have to pay an additional $800 a month for their mortgage payment is not a gimmick. It is the reality that Canadians are facing right now because the government spent billions of dollars. That created inflation and increased interest rates. Because of that, now all Canadians are …
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Mr. Speaker, not once since the start of question period has the parliamentary secretary answered the question asked of her. How many families will have to declare bankruptcy at the end of the month because of the NDP-Liberal coalition's inflationary policies? An average Montreal family servicing a $500,000 loan will not be able to pay the mortgage at the end of the month, because that loan will c…
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Mr. Speaker, whether in Thetford Mines, Le Granit or L'Érable, the rising cost of living is making life more difficult for everyone. Groceries are expensive, and the lines are getting longer on the day the flyers come out. Things are even harder for some people and certainly more miserable for some workers; for example, employees of the Maxi store in Lac‑Mégantic have been on strike for over three…
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table in the House a petition signed by many people regarding an issue that is of concern to many Canadians, and that is the increased international trafficking in human organs removed from victims without consent. I think it is critical that the House take these Canadians' concerns seriously. The undersigned are calling on Parliament to move quickly on the propos…
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Mr. Speaker, I wonder how he can say that and also justify staying in a $6,000 room. Not many Canadians can afford to stay in a room that costs $6,000. I misspoke earlier. It was not $200 million more that was spent during the pandemic but that had nothing to do with the pandemic. It was $200 billion. That is the reality. When will the Prime Minister stop blaming everyone else and start taking res…
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Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the Prime Minister spent $200 million more than Canadians needed to get through the pandemic. He did not mention that. We are getting used to the Prime Minister not answering questions. He hedges, deflects questions, and gives answers that are not related to the questions he is being asked. Citizens keep asking me whether the Prime Minister will answer a question o…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is acting like a child who has been handed a credit card with no limit, who makes only the minimum payments and who knows full well his children will be on the hook for what he spent. Want to go to London and stay in a luxurious $400,000 suite? Put it on the card. Want to send money to friends? Why pay $250,000 when you can spend $54 million on ArriveCAN? Put it on …
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Madam Speaker, I am a little surprised that my colleague from Winnipeg North said that he agrees with part of my speech. I hope it is the part where I was speaking about the costly Liberal-NDP coalition, which will result in Canadians receiving a smaller paycheque on January 1. Does my colleague agree with the part where I said that the Liberal Party will soon increase the carbon tax, which will m…
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Mr. Speaker, to have unanimous consent, it would take the consent of at least one province. To have the consent of one province, it would take a province with a separatist government in power. Unfortunately for the Bloc, in the last election the Parti Québécois elected three members to the National Assembly of Quebec.
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Mr. Speaker, it was a slip of the tongue, but no, we will not forgive them for adding $500 billion to the debt during COVID-19, including $200 billion that had absolutely nothing to do with COVID-19. That is the reality. Let us talk about “ArriveSCANDAL”, the $54-million app that should have cost $250,000. It cost $8 million to do the updates on an app that never worked. The government even claims…
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Madam Speaker, I refer to the motion. What is driving inflation to this point? Our national debt. The national debt has increased by $100 billion, despite Liberal promises. We remember the promise they made in 2015 to run small deficits for three year and then return to a balanced budget. That was forgotten and there is now a deficit of $100 billion. Before the crisis in Ukraine, the Liberals incr…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute‑Saint‑Charles for his speech. We are here because our colleagues from the Bloc Québécois decided to present an opposition motion in the House of Commons from which I will read the preamble, which I find interesting. It states that “Canada is a democratic state” and that the “House believes in the principle of equality for all”. I will foc…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my hon. colleague's question, and even though he repeated it over and over and over again, I found it difficult to follow his train of thought because, at the very end, he said that we support the monarchy, but that we do not support it. I wish my colleague had listened more carefully to my speech, because what I said is that Quebeckers are currently more con…
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Mr. Speaker, he is CBSA. He is the minister, so he is the one responsible for the ArriveCAN chaos. The Liberals are putting the lucrative contracts awarded to companies into quarantine. We want to know the details. The government paid $54 million to develop that app, which should have cost $250,000. Some 70 updates were needed for an app that never worked. The question is simple. Who are the other…
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Yes, Mr. Speaker, let us talk about fiscal responsibility. The Prime Minister said in his inaugural speech that interest rates would remain low for decades to come. I remember that the Liberals promised to run small deficits because we had the means and said interest rates were going to remain low and that it was no big deal to continue to rack up debt. The Liberals added $100 billion to the debt …
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Mr. Speaker, to our great surprise today, the Minister of Finance is now taking inspiration from the Leader of the Opposition's speeches. She realizes that budgets do not balance themselves and is asking ministers to find savings before proposing new programs. Hallelujah. The problem is that she should have listened to the member for Carleton much sooner. The Liberals added $100 billion to the nat…
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Mr. Speaker, here are some facts for the Prime Minister: 100% of Canadians are going to suffer the consequences of inflation; 80% of Canadians are worried about their finances because of the rising cost of living; 72% of Canadians think they are paying too much tax. The cost of food has gone up 11%, the biggest increase since 1981. As a result of the Liberals' inaction, inflation continues to clim…
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Mr. Speaker, it is because no one believes this Prime Minister anymore. That is the reality. He has lost all credibility with regard to public finances. Mario Dumont reminded us this morning that the Prime Minister promised in his inaugural speech that interest rates would remain low forever. Today, there are young families that could lose everything because of the Prime Minister's inability to ma…
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Madam Speaker, we request a recorded division.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to reiterate a question that has already been asked of my colleague and I would like a clear answer. Many have asked if the provinces were consulted. Did the provinces ask, yes or no, for this type of dental program that is presented in this grand bill that contains all kinds of things? The question is simple and I would like my colleague, who is good at dodging answers…
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Madam Speaker, the app must have been created in order to line someone's pockets. Let us break it down: $54 million works out to one million hours for an engineer, a professional, at $50 an hour. That means 31,000 weeks of work, which is 596 years of work for one person, or 596 people working for one year to create the app. The facts speak for themselves. Someone pocketed a bunch of cash in this d…
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague on two points. I agree with his view of the government's incompetence in fighting inflation and improving the cost of living for everyone. I also agree with him when he talks about acting wisely to provide quick solutions for Canadians. Acting wisely would have meant voting for our motion to stop the government from going ahead with its plan to raise taxes,…
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Madam Speaker, I think my colleague ought to apologize. I am not stupid. I am not someone who repeats words and uses words like that. I find this totally unacceptable. This is the second time today that my colleague has used this type of language. I would like him to withdraw his remarks and apologize.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about greed inflation. I prefer to call it unjust inflation. I think that is more appropriate. Right now, all Canadians are feeling the rising cost of absolutely everything. I wonder why my colleague and the other members of his costly coalition chose to vote against the recent opposition motion calling on the government not to raise taxes on all Canadians, when …
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Mr. Speaker, the only promises Liberals keep are the ones that empty the pockets of all Canadians. Yesterday, the Minister of the Environment said that Quebec would be spared from the decision to triple the carbon tax for Canadians next year. Can the Prime Minister confirm that Quebeckers will be completely spared the carbon tax hike, that no Quebecker will pay more taxes and that no one will be b…
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Mr. Speaker, unlike the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition puts Canadians first. Since his resounding victory, the Conservative leader has been the voice of millions of Canadians, calling on the government to end the unjust inflation. Day after day, he asks the costly coalition to show some compassion for workers, fathers and mothers and cancel the planned tax increase, which will make l…
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Mr. Speaker, this is coming from the finance minister who has run up the biggest deficit in Canadian history, more than all previous prime ministers combined. She wants to lecture us on that. She has no credibility with Canadians. The cost of groceries is at its highest level in 40 years. It has risen more than 10%. What is even worse is that now, the Liberals want to take even more from workers' …
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Mr. Speaker, the employment insurance tax hike means Canadians will have to give up another $2.5 billion from their paycheques. That will not help the unemployed; it will only pad government coffers. That money should stay in Canadians' pockets to help pay for gas, groceries, heating, and everything else that costs more because of this government's unjust inflationary policies. We can no longer af…
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Madam Speaker, I could also refer to some of the proposals put forward by the Bloc Québécois, my colleague's party, as a joke, but I will not go that far. However, it is ironic to see how strongly the Bloc Québécois supports a federal initiative that will take more money out of the pockets of all Canadians, including Quebeckers, either directly or indirectly. At this time, I see that the Bloc Québ…
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Madam Speaker, for starters, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Cumberland—Colchester. Before I get down to business, I just want to say that this is my first speech in the House since my mother passed away this summer. She was my greatest supporter. She tuned in to every single one of my speeches, interventions and television appearances. I feel a little emotional about speaking tod…
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Madame Speaker, I would like my colleague, who comes from a large family, to tell me what his parents' reaction would be tomorrow morning if they were told their gas bill was going up by 40¢ a litre. Right now, British Columbia is one of the places where people pay the most for the gas they need to get to work or drive their kids to school. The price of a litre of gas in British Columbia is up to …
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Madam Speaker, first, I am very proud of the new Leader of the Opposition, the member for Carleton, who does not hesitate to stand up and defend women who want to provide for their entire families. He has always spoken a great deal about the role of mothers in families. The Leader of the Opposition has nothing to learn from my NDP colleague in that regard. What we are talking about today is the co…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not the first time. Nova Scotia Power and Premier Tim Houston have said that ArriveCAN created issues for American teams coming to help restore power. The victims of hurricane Fiona need to know that their government is there for them. Sadly, the Liberal government is flying by the seat of its pants once again when it should be taking action. Unbelievably, Fisheries and Oceans C…
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Mr. Speaker, that is what Nova Scotia Power and Premier Tim Houston said. The Magdalen Islands, the Gaspé peninsula and all of Atlantic Canada were hit hard by hurricane Fiona at a time when the people of those regions are already grappling with the cost of living crisis. We have a question today. Can the government tell us how it plans to minimize the red tape involved in helping people rebuild t…
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Mr. Speaker, the rising cost of living is the number one concern of workers, families, students and businesses. While the NDP and the Liberals bicker about who is spending more, Canadians are unable to make ends meet. All G7 countries have cut taxes to help their citizens pay for groceries every week. In Canada, there have been no tax cuts and, even worse, taxes will increase on January 1. Will th…
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