Concurrence in Committee Reports
Madam Speaker, I did not ignore the member's first question. On the contrary, I acknowledged, at the beginning of answering the question, that I knew what he was talking about. I know about the housing built in Kingston that he was referring to. However, I thought it was more important to talk about affordable housing: housing that is supplemented by the government, housing the government helps to…
Read full speech →Concurrence in Committee Reports
Madam Speaker, I would like to read a quote: Here, we should be encouraging our municipalities to build housing more rapidly. I will ensure that the funding for municipal infrastructure corresponds with the number of houses that the municipality manages to build. I will require every big city to increase building permits by 15% per year or they will lose their infrastructure funding. Do members kn…
Read full speech →Concurrence in Committee Reports
Madam Speaker, what is the member talking about when he says “our approach is fiscally responsible”? The only thing he has been able to offer is to say that the GST would be removed off purchasing homes. That is great for somebody who is purchasing a brand new home. I guess that will benefit them, but what about everybody else who is not building a new home? How is he able to stand in the House an…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move: That, notwithstanding any standing order, special order or usual practice of the House, during the debate pursuant to Standing Order 66 on Motion No. 69 to concur in the twelfth report of the Standing Committee on Human Res…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, again, I do not need the sympathy. It is not necessary. I will say that I do not think it was entirely about what the member just said, because those issues have been going on for the better part of a year. Greedflation has gone on even longer than that. We have been working with the members on that. We also saw, from the NDP, a significant shift in its environmental policy. We saw th…
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Mr. Speaker, I am really disappointed, for starters, that the Conservative member for Simcoe North did not get up to ask me about Bitcoin. I thought he was going to, but I will certainly accept the question from another Conservative member. I would disagree when he says Liberals do not want to stand up for Canadians. We are literally here wanting to talk about an act to enact the online harms act,…
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Madam Speaker, unfortunately, we have not been able to get a lot of work done in this House in the last month or so because Conservatives are continuing to filibuster their own motion. I am wondering if the member can comment on how important it is that we get down to the business that Canadians want us to be debating now, instead of games and tactics to prevent work in the House from occurring.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. There have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move: That, notwithstanding any standing order, special order, or usual practice of the House, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, the House resolve itself into a co…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, given the fact that the member has come into the House to display that she is not happy with the—
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the melodrama is a little over the top. The member does not have to apologize to me. He does not have to speak to me or reach out to me. We do not have to sit down and talk about it. All he needs to do is vote in favour of putting an end to this. All I need is for the Bloc to start acting like adults and to let us get down to the business that the House and the people elected to be he…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, given the fact that the member has shown that she is concerned and upset with the fact that the NDP member commented on her attire, perhaps it would be appropriate to ask the member from the NDP to rise to apologize to the member for Waterloo.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to rise today to talk about what is going on in the House. I would like to provide some context as to why I think we are debating this particular motion today. I will share my time with the member for Milton, who will provide his insight, perhaps a better insight, into the actual substance of the report. I will start by saying that I appreciated the last c…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc wants to take 10%. They can have the full 10% of the blame then. The Bloc members need to understand, and I know that they do, that if they chose to end this filibustering, they have the power to do it. In a minority parliament like this, we obviously cannot do it alone, but the Bloc, or the NDP for that matter, could choose to say, “Enough is enough. We've now let this go on…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, during Veterans' Week, I am honoured to speak about Cyprus 2024, commemorating Canada's contribution to Cyprus since 1964. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Operation Snowgoose, Canada's longest peacekeeping mission, and the 50th anniversary of a forgotten war. I acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Major-General Walter Holmes and Colonel James Holsworth, both retired, wh…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, on that note, I want to say, because I know the member is not running again, that I certainly feel he has integrity and character. I might put him on the spot by saying this, but the way he stood up for the Governor of the Bank of Canada, the way he stood up to the leader of his party and what the outcome of that was for him personally could not have been easy, but I admire him for …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I must admit, I do not fully understand the question. I am talking about the environmental impacts of the programs that we have brought in. I spoke to those very clearly for the first five to six minutes of my speech. We can do a lot more when it comes to protecting our environment. I know that pricing pollution is a very good model. I know that Quebec prices pollution through cap-and…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change was listening to the speech and would like to ask the member a question. I would ask for unanimous consent to allow the Minister of the Environment—
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, when the member was talking about other people who ran for municipal office or sat on city councils, I could not help but think that he was referring to me. I will tell him something that I did not do when I was on city council, because I did spend a lot of time on city council in Ontario, as he did. I never once told the chief of police what to do. I never once collected evidence for…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, yes, it was a partisan speech. This is a political chamber. Show me a house of commons in the world that does not engage in partisan speeches. That is the whole point of being here. To answer the member's question, he kind of answered the question in his question. He talked about more that needs to be done. Yes, more needs to be done, not rolling back and not trying to cancel programs…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the motion we are debating is to send this to committee. The member is saying that the Liberal members suddenly decided they wanted to send this to committee. I do not even know if the member knows where he is right now. What is he even talking about? More importantly, I want to go back to the previous exchange that I had with him. The member said all the Conservatives want to do is p…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, on that point of order, in my most recent intervention, when I rose on a point of order about this very serious matter, I did acknowledge that this happens and that I do it from time to time. However, let us not distract from the fact that the member is being personally attacked by the Conservatives right now on a personal level.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
I am sorry if you take that personally.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is great to talk about this important issue, a concurrence motion tabled by the Conservatives. I suspect that the only reason they have tabled another concurrence motion is because they are starting to run out of speakers to filibuster the other item they have in the House, which was talked about just moments ago. When it comes to the environment and our climate policy, it is worki…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I fully understand that during proceedings of the House, from time to time, somebody will stand up on a point of order and use what is potentially not a point of order as an opportunity to make a political statement. I realize that I do that sometimes and that others do that, and you let people get away with it. However, what we just saw there was an intent…
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My point of order, Mr. Speaker, is that you should be asking the member to apologize for that.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives want more. I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to give me an extra 10 minutes.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is beholden upon the Conservatives to start doing the right thing for Canadians, and that is not parroting the lines of their leader. That is standing up to the leader and telling him that before he goes talking about slashing the housing accelerator fund, maybe they should consider keeping the fund because it has really helped their communities. That is how members would be proper…
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Madam Speaker, I believe that if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to table the letter from the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, could the member tell us what region that was?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I was absolutely floored when listening to the response the member gave when he tried to justify that the NDP stepped away from the current price on pollution with the rebate mechanism we have. The member voted in favour of it 24 times. On June 4 of this year, the member justified the policy by saying in the House, “On April 1 of last year, the Prime Minister increased the carbon tax …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the environmental impact is not good. I am not going to stand here and try to justify it. However, I can also inform the member, if he does not understand how a sewage holding tank works, that the tank has a limit and when it gets to the limit, something is going to happen. It overflows. That happens in many cases in older municipalities because they are still relying on infrastructur…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I did not get an answer to my question, so I am going to ask it very clearly without any preamble. Can the member please inform the House as to how many times, during the time he spent at Western University studying law, he came across evidence in a case that was furnished to the authorities or to an attorney through a motion of Parliament?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I found it interesting that the member encouraged this side of the House to watch Law & Order to understand the law. I found it very alarming to hear this from somebody who has a degree in law. I would warn the member that perhaps relying on fictitious characters on a TV show might not be the best way to come by understanding how the law works, but I digress. I will preface my questio…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, how does the member feel about the fact that the RCMP does not want the documents? This is—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, foreign interference is on the rise, and so is the spread of misinformation. In fact, there have been disturbing allegations this past week that parliamentarians are collaborating with foreign actors. Can the government please set the record straight for all Canadians?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I hear my colleagues heckling and saying “not true”. However, I will read an excerpt from an actual letter from the commissioner; he said, “Any information obtained through the Motion or other compulsory authorities would need to be segregated from an RCMP investigation. There is a significant risk that the Motion could be interpreted as a circumvention of normal investigative process…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the member can explain to the House, if this accelerator fund was such a failure, why it was that the members for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, Simcoe North, Fundy Royal and others asked for funds for their communities from it. If they believed that it was a failure, does that mean that they knowingly asked for money from a program that they knew was a failure?
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Mr. Speaker, despite the fact she is heckling me right now, I do not hear her standing up in the House saying, “That is such a great program. By the way, did the minister get my letter? We are waiting to get some money, too.” I am wondering if the parliamentary secretary can comment on that hypocrisy.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as we have been talking about affordable housing, we have heard the Conservatives be extremely critical of the housing accelerator fund. However, it was revealed today in a CBC story, or by one of the outlets, that five Conservative members had written to the housing minister, encouraging him to award housing accelerator money to their ridings so their communities could benefit from i…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the problem with the intervention from the member for Lambton—Kent—Middlesex a few moments ago is that she is trying to paint the picture that she is just standing up for her constituents. The reality is that she does not do that in the House when it comes to these programs. Instead, during question period and at every other opportunity, she tells us repeatedly that the government is …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, for starters, to my colleagues in the Bloc who are now suddenly trying to suggest that the Conservatives are playing games and that the Bloc does not want to be debating this forever, I would suggest that we are open to negotiations around how to put an end to this. If the member would like to talk to his whip and have his whip talk to our whip, we certainly would be open to that idea…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the Conservative member and several before him have made the same argument. They have said we should just turn these documents over to the RCMP. The problem is that the RCMP does not want to obtain evidence in this fashion. As the RCMP commissioner said in a letter, “Any information obtained through the Motion or other compulsory authorities would need to be segregated from an RCMP …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, on a point of order, is the member challenging a ruling of the Chair? If so, there is a process and I would encourage him to do that. Otherwise, he needs to respect the authority of the Chair.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I am actually confused about something after listening to the member's speech. The member talked about the subamendment that we are currently on, which is to add more witnesses. She explained why the Conservatives wanted to add more witnesses, which is why we have a subamendment. However, other Conservatives have fully admitted that they do not want to vote for this motion at all, and…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the RCMP report links the Indian government to serious criminal activity in Canada, such as extortion, interference in the democratic process, spying, arson and homicide. This poses a real threat to our country. National security experts also say that one key action political party leaders can take is to simply obtain their security clearance, yet the Leader of the Opposition refuses …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary, given his history in sport in Canada, certainly would have a lot of insight into issues such as these. I know that he talked about some of his personal experiences, about when he had to complete various testing or educational opportunities prior to participating in sport. Could he talk about the importance of those and what he sees the true value is not ju…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, in the closing remarks, the member said to let justice take its course. The proper course of justice is not for Parliament to produce evidence to hand over to the RCMP; it is for the RCMP to obtain its own evidence. There are ways that RCMP members can get this information. If they get a warrant, for example, they can get the information. They do not need Parliament to force anybody…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, today we are talking about the production of documents in relation to an RCMP investigation. I know that this member is a former prosecutor. He never misses an opportunity to remind us of that. Quite simply, in the 15-plus years that he was a prosecutor, how many times did he, or a police organization he was working with, obtain evidence through an order of Parliament? Could he tell t…
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