Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are paying more because of Liberal policies here at home. All G7 countries are dealing with similar external factors, but it is only the Liberal government that has caused us to have the worst food inflation and the only shrinking economy in the G7. The price of gas is 20% higher here than it is in the U.S., and Liberal fuel and carbon taxes are making it even worse. When wi…
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Mr. Speaker, while the Liberals do not control what happens abroad, they do control their policies here at home. Instead of working to bring costs down, the Liberal Prime Minister is not only going ahead with his industrial carbon tax, but has introduced a fuel standard tax, which adds 7¢ a litre to the already high cost of gas and will eventually rise to 17¢ per litre. It is more of the same Libe…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal plan is not working. Over two million Canadians a month are using the food bank. The cost of groceries has skyrocketed to over $340 a week for a family of four. The small minority of Canadians who get that recycled rebate he was talking about will only get $10 a week, which is not going to keep their creditors at bay. Now bankruptcies and bankruptcy proposals are at their …
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Mr. Speaker, these Liberals keep telling Canadians that they have never had it so good. Not only has food inflation doubled since the Prime Minister took office; it is now twice as high in Canada as it is in the United States. It is driving over two million people a month to food banks. I guess they should just “move on” from that. Now we learn that more and more Canadians have been forced into ba…
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Mr. Speaker, most Canadians will get no benefit from this recycled plan. A small number will get about $10 a week, but that will not make a dent in the over $340 a week a family of four has to spend to buy groceries. The finance minister promised he would bring down grocery prices three years ago. He failed then, and he is failing again. The Liberals' plan is not working, so why do they not vote f…
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Mr. Speaker, the finance minister promised three years ago that he had a plan to lower food prices. How is that working out? Since then, the cost of groceries has skyrocketed, with the price of lettuce up 40%, coffee up over 30% and the price of beef up over 25%. The recycled plan for a temporary rebate will not reduce the cost of a single item of food. Their plan has failed, so why do the Liberal…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand and present e-petition 6908, which was created by a constituent of mine, Aidan Gunter, a local angler. The petitioners are deeply concerned about a growing problem on the Chilliwack-Vedder River, including foul hooking. They call on the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to implement a maximum leader of approximately one metre for sport fishing on the Chilliwack-Ve…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, for 40 years Chilliwack's Alano Club has provided a safe, clean and sober place to meet seven days a week for people in recovery from addiction. This consistent availability ensures that help and support are always accessible for vulnerable people in need. It has become a vital resource for groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Al-Anon. Chilliwack's Alano Club is m…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, every word in our motion is from the MOU, so I would invite that member to put his money where his mouth is and vote to support a pipeline from Alberta to the north coast of British Columbia. He can do it in about 30 minutes.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am told by the Liberal government every day in question period that it is an imaginary tax that does not exist. I am very confused. Of course, we are opposed to the carbon tax. We were the ones who drove the agenda on the consumer carbon tax until the government flip-flopped and agreed it needed to go. This is a government that wants a carbon tax without a pipeline. We want a pipeli…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister cannot be trusted on pipelines. He endorsed Justin Trudeau's cancellation of the approved northern gateway pipeline and stopped the shipment of Canadian oil through northern B.C. He now claims that he might allow a new pipeline but his Liberal MPs insist that it will never get built. Instead of playing both sides, the Prime Minister should definitively endorse a new…
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Mr. Speaker, we would request a recorded vote.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member is quite correct that the Conservatives did not buy a pipeline. When we were in government, the private sector was lining up to build pipelines in every direction in this country. It is the Liberals who had such a convoluted bunch of red tape, rules and regulations that it drove private sector investments away. He is quite correct that the Conservatives have never bought a …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is always great to speak on behalf of the people of Chilliwack—Hope in the House. Today we are speaking to a Conservative motion that basically calls on the government to stop speaking out of both sides of its mouth. That is what we have seen over the last number of weeks. This is a government that goes to Alberta to say one thing to Danielle Smith, then comes back to Ottawa, or go…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not convinced the Prime Minister is serious about it. If he wanted it to happen, he would make it very clear to his caucus that it is going to happen. He would shut down this ridiculous idea that the Premier of B.C., the NDP premier, has a veto over this pipeline. He would make it very clear by voting in favour of this motion that he supports a pipeline, just like the Conservativ…
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Mr. Speaker, we will take no lessons from a minister who conducts indigenous consultations over Zoom, and we absolutely will oppose a carbon tax in all of its forms. The Prime Minister has told his “keep it in the ground” caucus that the pipeline will never happen, while he promises Albertans that it might. Today, he can finally come clean with Canadians and provide crystal-clear clarity. He can s…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised Canadians he was going to negotiate a win with the Americans and that he could handle Donald Trump. Well, not only has he failed to get a deal, but softwood lumber tariffs have tripled under his watch and he has unilaterally abandoned legal challenges against these tariffs. Now, another mill on Vancouver Island is closing, killing nearly 1,500 direct and in…
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Mr. Speaker, yes, after the world economic and financial crisis, there was a big deficit. The Conservatives got the budget back to balance by 2015. That was our record. That took a lot of hard work, because we believed in the importance of leaving a balanced budget for future generations. We did not want to increase the debt for them to pay back. I am glad the member asked me a question. The last …
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Mr. Speaker, we do need to talk about the oil and gas sector and the benefits it brings to the Canadian economy, the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues and royalties that go to pay for such things as our health care system, our education systems and the transfer payments that go across this country. We need to be talking up the oil and gas sector as a great benefit to Canada.…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in the House to speak on behalf of my constituents in Chilliwack—Hope. I will be sharing my time with the member for Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke, who is approaching a very important anniversary. She is coming up very soon on nearly 25 years in the chamber. I congratulate her. She is one of my favourite members to hear speak, and I look forward to hearing…
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Mr. Speaker, of course, we support investment in the country. That is why, under a Conservative government, investments were up hundreds of billions of dollars, unlike under the Liberal government, with hundreds of billions of dollars leaving the country in the last 10 years. Tens of billions of dollars have fled the country since the Prime Minister took office. We will take no lessons from this m…
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Mr. Speaker, while fancy art dealers and high-flying people like the Prime Minister are living their best life, here on the ground, a record number of Canadians are using food banks and struggling to heat their homes. They do not get to leave their troubles behind by jumping on a private jet. These swanky trips have done nothing for the tens of thousands of steel, auto and softwood lumber workers …
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Mr. Speaker, in just eight months, the Prime Minister has flown the friendly skies nearly 70 times on 28 different trips and burned through enough jet fuel to fly the equivalent of four times around the earth. What does he have to show for all of his gallivanting around in a private jet? He just has expensive photo ops, empty announcements and no real results for Canadian workers. Not only have th…
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Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court has ruled that a mere one-year mandatory prison sentence for the heinous crime of possessing child sexual abuse and exploitation material is cruel and unusual punishment. The criminals in such cases possess materials depicting evil acts against children as young as three years old. Conservatives believe it is outrageous that these types of child predators could walk …
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Mr. Speaker, criminals who possess child sexual abuse and exploitation material deserve lengthy prison sentences. They cause unimaginable suffering and harm to innocent children. These precious kids will carry the scars of what was done to them for the rest of their lives. Conservatives and Canadians are calling on the government to invoke the notwithstanding clause and overturn this appalling Sup…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister bragged that he could handle President Trump. He promised to negotiate a win. He said he would have a deal done by July 21. Well, it is October, and not only is there no win, but the Prime Minister keeps losing. Despite giving concession after concession to the Americans, softwood lumber tariffs have doubled since he took office. His failure to do what he said he wo…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised Canadians he could handle Donald Trump. He promised he would quickly negotiate a win. For Canadian workers, it has been nothing but losses. We have the second-highest unemployment rate in the G7. Invista is closing its plant in Maitland and moving to Texas. That is 100 jobs gone. Kap Paper in Kapuskasing is shutting down. That is 350 jobs gone. In Oshawa, G…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised he would have a deal with Trump by July 21. It is October, he has no deal and Canada is bleeding jobs. Imperial Oil is shutting down in Calgary. That is 900 jobs gone. Thousands of forestry jobs in B.C. are at risk because he has not gotten a softwood lumber deal done. He promised he would create middle-class jobs, but instead he has lost 86,000 jobs since …
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Mr. Speaker, our expectations for the Prime Minister were low, but holy smokes. He has been Prime Minister for six months, and we still have not seen a budget. The Prime Minister said that he would spend less than Trudeau, but his deficit is projected to be almost double the number that forced the former finance minister to resign the first time around. This is another broken Liberal promise. It i…
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Mr. Speaker, the latest food inflation numbers are out, and it is more sticker shock for Canadians. Groceries are up a whopping 70% above the Liberal inflation target. Since the Liberals took office, food costs have risen by 40%, driving millions more Canadians to the food bank every single month. The Prime Minister said that he would be judged by prices at the grocery store. Well, the verdict is …
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are not holding GC Strategies accountable. They are letting it keep the cash. The Auditor General confirmed that current Liberal ministers failed Canadians in this matter. They failed to protect tax dollars. They failed to check the qualifications of those doing the work. In half the contracts, they failed to even verify that work was done. Unbelievably, the Trudeau minis…
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Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General confirmed what we have been saying about the fraudsters behind the arrive scam app and about the failure of the Liberal government to protect taxpayers: GC Strategies was an IT firm that did not do IT, did not follow procurement rules, did not provide value for money and did not have valid security clearances. What it does have is 64 million ill-gotten tax dollars …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as always, it is a pleasure to rise in the House of Commons on behalf of my constituents of Chilliwack—Hope. I have listened to the debate this morning, in which we are talking about a committee report on the pandemic preparedness and border issues. It has been very interesting to watch how the NDP has taken this opportunity and this debate to essentially cheerlead for the government …
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The NDP House leader, who talks about breaking the rules, heckles as I am in the opening paragraph of my speech. He breaks the rules all the time and lectures others. As we saw yesterday, what the NDP says and does are two different things. We can even put together a motion with the NDP leader's own words and the New Democrats will vote against that, because nothing is more important to them than …
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Mr. Speaker, I would think that after 20 minutes the member would have gotten his point across, but I guess he needs more time, just like he wants to give the Liberal government more time. Every time he gets the opportunity to cause an election, he signals his confidence in the Liberal government. I know that the member does not want to talk about the NDP record in our home province of British Col…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am getting chirps from the Liberals. Their own Minister of Public Safety has admitted that they need to do better.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, we saw the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Safety roll on down to Mar-a-Lago. Regarding our pointing out that there are issues, the Leader of the Opposition has been raising the issue of fentanyl and illegal drugs for over a year. It has nothing to do with Donald Trump. The Liberals can talk about Donald Trump and chirp all they want, but their leader, the Prime Minister, an…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
One hundred and three, he says. I do not think they ended the session with that many, but there were more than 100 NDP MPs, with Jack Layton as the leader of the opposition. Mr. Speaker, what has happened in every single election since then? They have cratered with Canadians, because when Canadians see how the New Democrats act and when they are given the choice to support what the NDP does in Ott…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the member is currently and the Liberals are currently abusing the power of the government by ignoring a lawful motion of the House of Commons. Those were interesting debate points that the member could have made before the motion was tabled. If he believes the motion was out of order, the Liberals should have brought that to the attention of the Speaker, but they did not do that. The…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise to speak to the motion again today. I would like to note with interest that the Leader of the Opposition just made an excellent request for an emergency debate. I am glad it was granted, and we look forward to talking more about the dual threats of both the Liberal economic plan, which is a disaster, and the proposed 25% tariffs that President-elect Trump has p…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not surprised that the Liberal member does not believe Parliament is supreme, that Parliament does not have the authority to make its own decisions and to have those decisions respected by the government. That is what the parliamentary secretary is saying. He is saying that the Government of Canada does not need to respect the votes and decisions that are made by the House of Com…
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, we need a Canada first plan to fix what the Prime Minister has broken. Our standard of living has plummeted compared to that of the United States. The last thing Canada needs is a capital gains tax hike on our farmers, doctors, home builders and small businesses, but that is exactly what the Prime Minister is proposing. His tax hikes will drive investment, jobs, doct…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I will tell the parliamentary secretary who he should listen to, and that is Parliament. One hundred and seventy-four members of Parliament voted yes to the motion, while 148 members, all Liberals, voted against it. I know the member might not like that, but 174 to 148 is all that matters. Parliament has decided that these documents have been requested, and that is our right. As the S…
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Mr. Speaker, I see that the old habit of supporting the Liberal government at all costs and at all times is part of the member's DNA. It is part of what he wants to do. He can talk to his own House leader about how the New Democrats use their time in the House. We have continued to talk about this matter. The member himself voted in favour of this motion, and he should be concerned that the govern…
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Mr. Speaker, taxing farmers drives up food costs. Taxing doctors means it is harder to find one. Taxing home builders means fewer homes. Taxing small businesses means fewer paycheques. Raising capital taxes means less investment in the tools we need to halt the decline in our standard of living. Jobs and livelihoods are on the line. With the threat of U.S. tariffs coming down the tracks, will the …
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Mr. Speaker, I believe it was a Conservative government that created this fund. Certainly, under the Conservative government, there was none of this insider trading, back-scratching and conflicts of interest, because we made it clear that this was an arm's-length entity. Navdeep Bains was warned that by politicizing the appointment of the chair, he risked ruining the entire fund, and that is exact…
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Mr. Speaker, again, that is another good, common-sense question from my friend there. It is absolutely up to the RCMP to determine what it does with the information that is forwarded to it. Certainly, I expect the RCMP to take a great interest in the fact that nearly $400 million in funds went to well-connected Liberal companies. As has been indicated, $58 million went to companies that were ineli…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I realize the Liberal member believes he is a member of the Liberal government. However, he is not in cabinet. He has never been in cabinet and I do not believe he will be in cabinet. His job, like the rest of us, is to hold the government to account. The RCMP can do with the documents what it pleases, but the House of Commons has the right and the privilege to demand the production o…
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Mr. Speaker, to me, that is just common sense. If someone receives money that they were not entitled to, the government should make an effort to get it back. Certainly, any taxpayer in my riding knows what happens, even if they make a mistake on their tax forms. The taxman is very quick to come back and demand that the money be repaid, oftentimes with penalties and interest. The idea that, just be…
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Mr. Speaker, that was difficult to follow. I do not know how many members the Bloc had at that time. When Stephen Harper was prime minister, the Bloc Québécois was down to, I think, four seats. The Bloc only seems to thrive in this country when there are Liberal governments. Separatism and the Bloc seem to do much better when there is a Liberal government. I do not think it even had party status a…
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