Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, when I was on the defence committee a number of years ago, we had the opportunity to go to Ukraine, meet with government officials and talk about the efforts that Canada was making in Ukraine. We sat with the chair of their defence committee at one point. He looked at us and said that other countries wanted to be involved in Ukraine because Canada was there and because of Canada's l…
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Mr. Chair, I had a very hard time following the logic there, and I am sure if we had given the member another five minutes, maybe we would have had this connected back to Area 51 and aliens. The member was in Ukraine with me about three years ago when we were on the defence committee together, and she heard the chair of the defence committee in Ukraine talk about the incredible contribution that C…
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I responded to you.
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Mr. Speaker, it is great to be back after spending time in our constituencies. The member spoke at length about the problems being faced in the country right now and then said something very interesting. She said that part of leadership is offering solutions, yet she did not seem to present a single solution in her 10-minute speech. As a matter of fact, she talked at length about one of the big pr…
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I am listening now, Mr. Speaker. Can the member give us some actual suggested solutions to the housing crisis? I am all ears.
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Madam Speaker, I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move that the second report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, presented to the House earlier this day, be concurred in.
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Mr. Chair, I want to thank the member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman for his intervention. He certainly knows a great deal about this topic, and I have always respected everything he has had to say. I have learned a lot from him on this file. We used to sit on the defence committee together. At least I used to be there. I imagine he still is. We had the opportunity to travel to Ukraine a number of …
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Mr. Speaker, all I am trying to say is that—
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Madam Speaker, I have heard the Conservatives talk a lot about affordability and making sure that Canadians can continue to afford the goods and services they require these days. However, yesterday a concurrence motion was brought before the House to start the debate and discussion on Canada's first national tax on non-resident foreign owners of vacant land or underused housing. Why would the Cons…
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Mr. Speaker, I listened to the intervention by the member for Carleton today and I certainly heard a lot. Every time he addresses housing, he seems to talk about building new housing and what I imagine, based on his comments, would be more subdivisions and single detached houses. This is important and we definitely always need to focus on it at all levels of government, but what I never hear the C…
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Madam Speaker, I found that speech very fascinating. On the one hand, the member was completely able to understand and see how an economy could expand and contract. Toward the end of his speech, he specifically talked about that and how government could take certain measures to expand and contract the economy. However, at the beginning of his speech, he spoke about child care and he made a point o…
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly was not challenging your ruling. I was trying to let you know what my observations in the House were.
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They are doing it right now while I am trying to make a point of order. This is my point. All I am trying to say is that there was a reaction. They are suggesting there was not and there was. If they did not hear it or if you, Mr. Speaker, did not hear it, that is one thing, but I am trying to note it for you. I certainly do not appreciate that the House leader of the opposition accused me of lyin…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, you specifically asked that members be as succinct as possible. When members are full-on introducing how various political parties have taken positions on issues, I am pretty sure they have gone beyond the scope of succinctly introducing the bill. Perhaps you could encourage it to move along a little quicker.
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Madam Speaker, I always get a kick out of it when Conservatives say that they handed over the books with a balanced budget. Yes, if we did not mind the slashing of services to veterans, and the selling off of shares of GM at bargain prices, all just so that they could supposedly have a balanced budget going into an election. Nonetheless, what surprises me even more is how short term the memory app…
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Mr. Speaker, I believe that in the confusion of what was going on and the amount of heckling, perhaps you did not hear it. There was definitely a negative from this side, and I think we were taken aback and surprised by the manner in which the motion was passed.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for whatever that was. The member talked about a “get out of jail free” card. It is actually just a fundamental philosophical difference of how to approach crime. The approach of the Conservatives is very simple, “lock 'em up and throw away the key”. I believe that the member probably actually believes that. I would encourage him to stand and say that yes, his appro…
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Madam Speaker, I heard this member say, as well as a number of members from the Conservative Party, that police officers have a load of tools at their disposal. Police officers have the option to charge or not to charge. They do not have a load of tools at their disposal. The individuals who have the tools at their disposal are the judges. I do not understand this messaging. Even if he was right a…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. This member knows better than that. We cannot ask for a unanimous consent motion after you have already entertained one.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague might not be aware that for the first time in Canadian history, there is a cabinet minister whose primary objective and role is for mental health and addiction. It would be a far stretch to suggest that this government does not take mental health and addiction extremely seriously. The problem is that the member is trying to conflate two issues as though they are exclusive…
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Mr. Speaker, my question to the minister is along the lines of where this government has been over the last number of years, in terms of being there to properly support Canadians. We know the government has been there every step of the way, and with the onset of omicron and the potential of what outbreaks could mean in our country, what is the message we want to give to Canadians right now, in ter…
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Madam Speaker, it is not like me to come to the defence of members of other parties, but what the member from the Conservative Party just stated was a complete, utter lie and misrepresentation of what was—
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Madam Speaker, I heard on a number of occasions the member talk about the paramount need for public safety after somebody commits a crime and I could not agree more with her. It is absolutely imperative that the number one objective is to make sure that the public is the top priority in terms of what we are looking at. The problem is that Conservatives do not consider the fact that the proper reha…
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Mr. Speaker, I take great exception to the member for Foothills calling my colleague from Pickering—Uxbridge a liar. He would know that, although he may not have used those words, he certainly did call her so indirectly. What we cannot do directly, we cannot do indirectly. I apologized earlier for doing the same thing. I am sure he will rise on a point of order after I am done talking to apologize…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Oakville North—Burlington. It is a great opportunity to rise today to speak to this very important piece of legislation, a piece of legislation that the Conservatives would have us believe is making the sky fall. In reality, Bill C-5 would remove mandatory minimum sentencing requirements for only 14 of the 67 offences that currently have t…
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Mr. Speaker, when it comes to amendments, I will not comment right now in advance of the committee being able to do the work to study it. We have members on that committee who can study that and look into it. I think that is not just good practice, but probably the best way for me to proceed on this. I understand the member was a former prosecutor. Does he not have faith in the judges, who he used…
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Madam Speaker, on that point of order, you do not even need to check Hansard. I can confirm that I did indeed accuse the member of lying, based on what I heard the NDP member say and what the member for Regina—Lewvan said. Because it was unparliamentary of me to do so, I apologize.
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Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting that the member kept saying this bill is not as advertised, when during his speech, he kept saying that we would be rolling back sentencing. He used the term “roll back” so much that I almost thought his speech was a Walmart commercial. Can the member explain to us why his speech was not as advertised? In reality, this is not about rolling back sentencing. It is …
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Mr. Speaker, this is exactly what the Conservatives will have people believe, like the member for Portage—Lisgar did earlier, that there is this big desire within the Conservative movement to help people before they get to the point of being incarcerated, to make them better. However, when the Conservatives were in government we saw them build megaprisons throughout the country. Why did the Conser…
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Mr. Speaker, the member reflected on the philosophical differences between parties. I appreciated what he and other members of the Bloc as well as the Liberals and NDP have been saying, that the data does not support the idea that mandatory minimums have the impact the Conservatives would like them to have. I am trying to wrap my head around why the Conservatives still have this philosophical idea…
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Madam Speaker, they are even saying hear, hear! On the other side of the House, we believe that rehabilitation and reintegration into society is very important for our overall societal perspective. Would the member not agree that rehabilitation and reintegration into society is part of that public safety?
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Madam Speaker, what this bill represents, and what we are going to witness today throughout this debate, is the stark difference between two approaches when it comes to our correctional institutions. There is the approach of the Conservatives, which is “lock 'em up and throw away the key”, then there is the approach of more progressive governments that believe in rehabilitation and reintegration i…
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Madam Speaker, I am perplexed by the response from the Bloc. The member said a moment ago that they were supportive of this motion, but then agreed with the NDP that the motion is problematic because it suggests that these lands should be opened up to developers. Why would the Bloc support a motion that the member has identified has problems that lead to the concern raised by the NDP?
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Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question and the member is right. There are city councils throughout this country that have been working tirelessly to build affordable housing for this country. For the member for Edmonton Riverbend to suggest that it is their fault that this all happened is ludicrous. As the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader said earlier, we already have an …
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Mr. Speaker, the cozy coalition between the Conservatives and the Bloc continues. The member just said that the motion makes sense. The motion calls for 15% of the 41 million hectares of federal land, of which 97% are Environment, Parks Canada and National Defence. I will ask a question back to the member. Can he tell us what part of those lands in Quebec he wants to give up in order to make this …
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Mr. Speaker, he should have kept it on mute and become aware that I was out here with that question. Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty were giving the cities money to build housing. Stephen Harper, his Prime Minister at the time, was not doing that.
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Mr. Speaker, I was really hoping that this afternoon, the discussion on this motion would not be the same train wreck it was this morning. It was all over the place. We heard this morning the Conservatives try to backtrack on the fact that we were talking about land. They said no, it is not 15% of land; it is 15% of buildings. They meant the buildings on Bay Street in Toronto and whatnot. However,…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. There have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it I hope you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That, the House acknowledge and support the government's clear and repeated position that taxing capital gains on primary residences is not under any consideration; reiterate its support for the government's $72-billion investme…
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Madam Speaker, we have now seen this Conservative member come back to talking about land to build again. That is not the narrative that we have heard. More members are clapping again, which is good. Here is what we know. This motion is asking for 15% of the federal 41 million hectares of land to become available for redevelopment, as this member would like, yet we know 97% of that land is tied up …
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Madam Speaker, it is fascinating to see how this day is going. We started off with Conservatives talking about 41 million hectares of land in the first few speeches and now, suddenly, since holes have been blown into that argument, somebody back there is scratching out “41 million hectares” in the speeches and writing “thousands of government buildings that exist”. We have heard it already said in…
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Madam Speaker, if the member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola is curious about why we are talking about 41 million hectares of land, he should really go back and pay closer attention to the speech given by the member for Edmonton Riverbend. He is the one who started with this number earlier today. I will go back to another comment from the member for Edmonton Riverbend. He accused me, in my…
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Madam Speaker, I am still processing a lot of that. The motion that the member's colleague and the Conservatives put forward today suggests that we consolidate all of the land that the federal government owns and then make 15% of it available for housing. If we look at the math and go to Statistics Canada, we can see exactly where the Conservatives get their number of 41 million hectares of availa…
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Madam Speaker, I always think that when the federal government has surplus lands available for the opportunity to be used, in particular by community and in this case by housing, those lands should be made available through the proper process. What we are hearing from the Conservatives is a bit of a story on 41 million hectares of land, which includes 37 million from Parks Canada alone. The number…
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Mr. Speaker, it is great to rise today to speak to this motion that has taken on a bunch of different forms today. I will be sharing my time with the member for Scarborough Centre. Where I will start is by properly answering the question that the parliamentary secretary asked the member for Elgin—Middlesex—London. He asked where the number of 41 million hectares of land came from. I can actually a…
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Madam Speaker, I look forward to the opportunity to speak to the intervention a bit later. I did want to address one point that I have heard on a number of occasions coming from the Conservatives, which is this talk about millions of hectares of available federal land. In my previous work before coming to this place, I was on Kingston City Council. I can say that, from a planning perspective, the …
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order to briefly respond to the statement you made yesterday with respect to the admissibility of Bill S-2, an act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act. As Bill S-2 made clear in its coming-into-force clause, the government has always had the intention of introducing a bill in this House, with the accompanying royal recommendation, to implement changes to the Par…
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Madam Chair, on the same topic, I am curious if the minister, his predecessor or anybody in the Public Health Agency ever actually thought that it would not be until 2030 that people were vaccinated.
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Madam Chair, I was going to ask the minister if he knew the percentage of Conservatives who were vaccinated, but I did not want to get overly rhetorical in my discussion today, so I sidestepped that one despite the fact that I had written it down. I will shift to the public service now and to the President of the Treasury Board. As I said in my preamble, our public service has really stepped up, n…
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Madam Chair, I am wondering if the minister can further expand on how important it is for members of the House to be vaccinated in terms of showing our public service that we are willing to lead by example, not just to be vaccinated but to actually proudly stand and say that we believe in the health and science information; we believe that it is important to be vaccinated, and we are going to show…
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Madam Chair, to that end, as we talk about our vaccination efforts, and as we move forward, could the minister perhaps expand a bit on what it is we are expecting from this point, moving forward, and on how the reception has been from our public servants? How are they responding to mandatory vaccination more generally?
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