Government Orders
That is right, Madam Speaker; it is Loblaw. Does my colleague know what the percentage is? He does not. It is 42%, so 42% of groceries in this country are controlled by Loblaw and their retail. With Loblaw and a couple of the other large grocery retailers, very quickly I see how we have created an oligopoly here. There is an oligopoly operating in our country when it comes to grocery sales. It bec…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, she was not successful, because she gave one and then she had to look down. She could learn a lot from the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, because his delivery was really good. I go back to exactly what I said before, which is that what matters the most is how the economy is performing in relation to the deficit that is projected. That is what matters the most. Conservat…
Read full speech →Government Orders
He is right: It is summer. Madam Speaker, that is because the Conservatives will not let this debate collapse. They just keep dragging it on and on. The finance minister has spoken to the bill, probably on more than one occasion. He suggests I am the lead on this when we have been debating it for nine months.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, for starters, monetary policy is something that is done by a central bank. Fiscal policy is done by a government. Maybe the member should just Google those terms so he knows what he is talking about in the future. When he asks about who is leading the debate, he makes it sound as though this is the first time we have talked about this. This is the fall economic statement. We have de…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for that very serious question. I think it is a fair question, and an angle that, quite frankly, the government should be pushed on because there is always more that we can do. There is the northern housing plan, and I might have the name wrong, but perhaps that is not enough. Perhaps this member thinks that it needs to go further, and perhaps there is validity in…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it goes to what I was saying during my speech, which is that Conservatives are taking people's anxieties, turning them into a weapon and then using it against them. They are trying to convince Canadians that inflation is completely driven by the government and that spending more money on people through budget measures is going to drive up inflation even further, but only the opposit…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we request a recorded vote, please.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will have a chat with the member for St. Catharines later about that. My question for the member is as follows. Conservatives have been going on for months now, talking about fuelling inflation with more, I think they called it, budget inflation. They keep talking about how inflation is going to skyrocket and get even more out of control as a result of the budget. However, none of…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am rising on a point of order to respond to the question of privilege raised by the member for Simcoe North on May 8, respecting the government's response to Order Paper Question No. 2221 and the testimony of the Department of Finance on the subject matter of Bill C-69, the budget implementation bill. Question No. 2221 asks for information about overpayments for the Canada child b…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I found it very interesting that the member asked what Kraft Dinner has to do with Ukraine. He should go and have look, because CNN did an interview with the Kraft CEO specifically, who said, “We’ve already increased the prices that we were expecting this year, but I'm predicting that next year, inflation will continue, and as a consequence [we] will have other rounds of price incre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I know that the member was in the House earlier in the debate when a Conservative colleague stood up and tried to glowingly suggest that Stephen Harper had actually balanced a budget in 2015. I was not here at that time, but I certainly know how Stephen Harper did that. He did that by selling off shares of GM. He did that on the backs of veterans. He did that by increasing old age s…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member spoke a lot about carbon tax. Can he explain to the House the difference between this carbon tax that we have in place now versus the one that he ran on in 2021?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, if I understand this correctly, Conservatives are saying it is this government's fault people have to use food banks, but when this government puts forward a solution to that, this member says it is not in the jurisdiction of the federal government, one should read our Constitution and the federal government should have nothing to do with this. The member spoke as though he was very…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, would the parliamentary secretary agree with me that, if Conservatives spent more attention on making lives better for Canadians instead of on what Tim Hortons coffee cups lids are made out of or on the plant-based options Häagen-Dazs is offering, if they had the kind of passion they show toward those issues for actually solving problems for Canadians, we would be a lot further ahea…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member is right. A lot of what we are hearing is language that is aimed at dividing Canadians and using those anxieties against Canadians. The reality is that what Canadians have been going through in the last year and a half or two years, since coming out of the pandemic, has been tough on a lot of people. Her message of hope and trying to work together certainly is something t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's entire speech, and the one thing I just cannot wrap my head around is how she can accuse government spending and government investing in Canadians through our budget of being inflationary. Conservatives have been saying for months now that by the investments we are putting into Canadians and the money that we are putting into the budget, we are just going to…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I listened to that last exchange between my colleague and the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, and she said that she thought it was important to have a national school food program. This budget would provide for that, so obviously she supports that element of it. I did not hear, or I did not quite decipher, whether the Green Party is going to vote in favour of this budget, so my first…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member asked a rhetorical question: Who would vote against putting food into the mouths of children? Who would vote against a national school food program? I will tell her that it is the exact same people who get up every day and talk about the struggles of people and having to go to a food bank; these people talk about the problem but have absolutely no interest in helping to cre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to the very important piece of legislation before us. It is what we call the fall economic statement, which was, yes, introduced in the fall. Unfortunately, because of Conservative delay tactics and their continuing to put forward amendments and having multiple people speak to it, we still have not even gotten to the place where we can pass the fall economic st…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in reality, we know that inflation is something that is going on throughout the entire globe. I know that the member for Saskatoon—University just ran back in here and sat down so he could heckle me. I challenge him to ask me a question, to actually think about a question that he can ask me when it comes time to do so, because I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say about…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we know that Conservatives were wrong when they predicted inflation would go up as a result of the supports we were investing in for Canadians, and we know that they were also wrong when they tried to suggest that inflation was created by the current government, because inflation is something that is being seen throughout the world. It is something that was being seen in the United …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am answering his question. For growing economies, we know that, as long as our growth is outpacing our deficit, we are in a fiscally responsible position, and that is the reality. They are laughing right now, but they should talk to Stephen Harper because that is all he did, or Brian Mulroney. It is exactly what they did. They never balanced a budget. They balanced one budget in 2…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, on the first part, I want to congratulate the member because he is one of the members who can get all four of those out perfectly. He did not lose eye contact and did not show that he may be forgetting one. It was very well done. To answer his question, I would ask him this: In what year did Brian Mulroney balance the budget? In what year did Stephen Harper balance the budget?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I request a recorded vote.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, on the issue of the carbon tax, I would like to hear what the member's thoughts are specifically as they relate to the over 400 Canadian economists who have signed an open letter stating that more people get back more than they pay, confirming what the Parliamentary Budget Officer said. They state that it is good environmental policy and, most importantly, good economic policy, which …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I believe if you seek it, you can find unanimous consent to see the clock at 1:30 p.m., to start Private Members' Business.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to see the clock at midnight so that we can adjourn.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have a brief question. I find the last intervention about grocery prices to be very fascinating because the reality is that in Canada, 42% of the retail grocery sector is controlled by Loblaw, whereas the largest sector in the United States is Walmart, with 11%. However, the Conservatives will never be heard talking about the massive profits that are being made by oil giants or by t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right. It is up to women to choose. Maybe the member for Peace River—Westlock should step aside and let women choose what they want to do with their bodies, rather than trying to take his ideology and his ideas and impose them on other people. Maybe it is time for him to self-reflect a little bit to figure out how he can make himself a better person, rather th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I certainly got a lot out of that—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would be lying if I said that I do not have a bit of FOMO for not being invited to the party in the back room. In any event, I found it very interesting when the member said that the Liberals took all the Conservatives' great ideas and put them into the fall economic statement, yet she still will not vote for it. What is going on here? Does she not like the initiatives that she clai…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise to speak to the fall economic statement. Here we are. We had to time allocate the fall economic statement. For those that might not clue in, including some of those who are heckling me already in my preamble to my speech, the fall economic statement, believe it or not, was tabled in the fall. However, here we are, as we approach June, and we still have not had …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition actually feels that way, what he needs to do is stand up, turn and face the 80 Conservatives who have been endorsed by anti-choice organizations throughout this country. In terms of the member's question about dentists, I know that over 70% of the dentists in my riding have signed up. There are thousands of dentists that have signed up for the program i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would wear that red light as a badge of honour. I think it is absolutely shameful that people focus so much of their time on trying to figure out how they can try to correct other people because they do not fit into the mould that they see as being ideal for them. They really need to stop paying so much attention to other people and start reflecting on themselves to figure out what …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in my riding of Kingston and the Islands, there is a safe injection site. About an hour down Highway 401, in Belleville, there is not one. We know, because it made national news only a few months ago, that in a 24-hour period, Belleville had well over 12 overdoses. It was extremely alarming and very scary. I recognize that my example is anecdotal, at best, but I cannot help but wond…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, to conclude, I have never before witnessed a Conservative Party that not only objects to policies but also actively roots for their failure. That is what the Conservatives are doing. We are trying to provide pharmacare and dental care, and they are not only against them but are also actively rooting for the programs to fail.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I love the narrative by Conservatives about the total emissions of Canada compared to globally. Now I would encourage the member to tell the House what the per capita emissions of Canadians are, because they are a lot higher than those of the vast majority of other countries in the world. While the member is at it, perhaps he could inform the House what the Conservative plan is when…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I really appreciate the way the member started off her speech today, by talking about the right of a woman to choose what to do with her body. Unfortunately the House has been under assault over the last few days, with the member for Peace River—Westlock talking about preborn children. He and the member for Yorkton—Melville today spoke on the front lawn to an anti-abortion rally, wh…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I really struggle with, and I think this member spoke about it, is the hypercritical nature of what we seem to get for everything that this government brings forward in support when working with the NDP, whether it is related to climate change, whether it is related to supports for children or whether it is related to making sure that we are building housing. Al…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is indeed an honour to rise today to speak to such an important piece of legislation, a piece of legislation that comes out of the concept of fairness and about creating opportunities for younger generations. I am of generation X. The opportunities that I have had, quite honestly and quite frankly, are becoming more and more difficult for the generations after me, such as generat…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have a very good memory. The member asked me a question the last time I talked about the budget, only a couple of week ago, and he did the exact same thing that he did this time. He did not listen to what I said, but he chose to listen to certain parts of it. Had the member listened, he would have known that I talked about the fact that this is a local program in my community, whe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am extremely proud to live in a country that recognizes that we have two official languages, English and French. I am very proud to spend a lot of time in Quebec, as my cottage is in Quebec. I am very proud of the amount of time that I have spent personally going to Logibec in Quebec City to learn French. The member might find some shortfalls in this particular budget, as it relat…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Hear, hear! Good. They are being honest. Madam Speaker, this is the first time that I have accused a Conservative Party of being the former Reform Party. I have said this many times in the House, but now the Conservatives are actually applauding it. In all honesty, I respect their honesty on the matter. I respect where Conservatives are coming from. I respect that they are being honest about it, a…
Read full speech →Government Orders
It was not food banks.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will admit to the member that I do not have the exact details on his question, but I will say this. If human rights activists and others are pushing because they do not believe that charter rights are being upheld, I can guarantee one thing: This Liberal government will not use the notwithstanding clause to impose its rules upon them. This is exactly the rhetoric we are hearing fr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister and our cabinet are willing to work directly with municipalities to do the important work they need to do. The Prime Minister is engaged in communicating with premiers, even those with whom he quite often does not see eye to eye politically. On the other hand, we have the Leader of the Opposition, who is literally going out and insulting mayors of major cities in …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, for starters, we call them “Conservatives”. They have the same colour of blue, and they use the same name, but I would argue that this is actually the Reform Party. I think that it is entirely appropriate to question whether or not they are even Conservatives because, quite frankly, although she is no longer with us, I am sure that Flora MacDonald, who was from Kingston and the Isla…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have heard a number of Conservatives use the same line, that only 18% of Canadians, or one out of every five, think this should be a priority. I guess the fact that one out of every five Canadians needs something is not enough for the Conservatives. What is their number? When does it warrant a program? If it is not one out of every five Canadians, is it two out of every five, is i…
Read full speech →