Parliamentary Speeches

Mr. Speaker, after more than a decade of reckless Liberal spending, borrowing and economic mismanagement, more and more Canadians are suffering. Under the Liberal Prime Minister, Canada is the only G20 country in a recession, and the devastating results can no longer be ignored. Today the United Way report has painted a grim picture of the impact on Canadians: Sixty per cent now feel anxiety about their personal finances, 38% struggle with food insecurity, 40% are losing sleep over how they will stretch their paycheque to pay their bills, and 34% know someone close to them who is experiencing poverty, which is up five percentage points. Global factors did not cause this. Liberal inflationary spending, red tape and antidevelopment laws did. With millions of people going hungry, stressed about their finances and fearful for their future, it is high time the Liberal government reversed its disastrous economic policies so we can finally begin to restore hope for Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is off to New York for what even the CBC calls a straight-up networking trip. Perhaps he will meet with his friends at Brookfield Asset Management there. Like so many other investors, they fled Bay Street for Wall Street, with Main Street in Canada paying the price. Over the last Liberal decade, more than $1 trillion in investment has left Canada. That means lost jobs and lost wages for Canadian workers. The Prime Minister himself holds 91% of his personal investments in the United States. Is he in New York for Canadians, or is he just there to check up on his own portfolio?

Mr. Speaker, speaking of $20 billion, that is how much money has left Canada in the last four quarters under this Prime Minister. After more than a decade of Liberal taxes, red tape and uncertainty, investors, including the Prime Minister, continue to take their money elsewhere. Despite Liberal re-announcements, major projects remain trapped in years of delays while Canadian workers lose those jobs. When will the Prime Minister take real action to cut red tape and repeal these anti-development laws that are continuing to bring about an investment exodus?

Mr. Speaker, British Columbians bought their homes, paid their mortgages and played by the rules, but due to the Cowichan decision, they now face uncertainty as to whether their private property will be protected going forward. Instead of arguing in favour of those rights in the Cowichan case, this Liberal government told federal lawyers not to defend those rights through litigation directive number 14, a directive that is still active to this day. How can British Columbians believe that this Liberal Prime Minister will stand up for their private property rights when his government guidelines are telling his lawyers to stand down?

Mr. Speaker, the same old Liberals have continued their decade of credit card budgets. Not only has this costly Liberal Prime Minister embraced the same borrow-and-spend policies of Justin Trudeau, he has doubled down, doubling the deficit. These failed policies have left Canadians with the worst housing costs, worst economic growth and worst inflation in the G7. The costs to Canadians are enormous. Interest charges on the national debt this year will reach $60 billion and in five years will be $90 billion. That works out to $3,400 in interest costs for every Canadian family this year. That money goes to bankers and bondholders instead of doctors and nurses. Interest payments on our debt are now the fastest-growing item in the Liberal budget. The Liberals are mortgaging the future, selfishly racking up the credit card and leaving the bill for our kids and grandkids. Enough is enough. It is time to restore fiscal responsibility and put an end to these reckless Liberal credit card budgets.

Mr. Speaker, these same old costly Liberals have continued their decade of credit card budgeting: more costs, more debt, more taxes, more of the same. In fact, the costly Liberal Prime Minister is now doubling the Trudeau deficit. He is literally doubling down on the failures of the past, failures that have delivered the worst housing, worst food inflation and worst economic growth in the G7. When will the Liberal Prime Minister end his costly credit card budgeting so Canadians can afford to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head?

Mr. Speaker, I understand why that minister would not want to talk about the past, given his horrendous record on housing in the city of Vancouver. It is the same old story with these same old Liberals. Even Liberal-friendly columnists like Andrew Coyne have finally taken notice, saying, “Canada's New Government is no more interested in arresting our economic decline than Canada's Old Government”. Canadians are maxed out. They cannot afford the same reckless Liberal policies of the last decade. Why have the Liberals doubled Justin Trudeau's deficit, doubled down on costly credit card budgeting and forced Canadians to pay more for gas, groceries and housing?

Mr. Speaker, after a decade of Liberal governments, Canadians are at a breaking point. Here are the sobering statistics. Nearly a third of Canadians say they do not earn enough to cover their bills. Nearly four out of 10 are worried about losing their job. Three out of five say they are working harder, but not getting ahead. Just yesterday, the Liberal government voted against affordability for Canadians yet again. Why will the Liberals not provide Canadians with real relief by adopting our Conservative plan to cut all federal taxes on gas and food?

Mr. Speaker, while Conservatives offer real relief, the Liberals are offering pennies at the pump. Their plan cuts only a third of the taxes they collect on fuel for a third of the year. These tiny tax cuts will be burned up immediately as gas stations are switching over to more expensive summer fuel blends. Liberal taxes are so out of control that one out of five young Canadians say they will need to go into debt just to pay their tax bill. Why will the Liberals not provide Canadians with real relief instead of half measures and adopt our Conservative plan to cut all taxes on fuel for the rest of the year?

Mr. Speaker, I am here to present two petitions on behalf of my constituents. The first is from constituents who are calling on the government to lead an international investigation into the Iranian regime's brutal crackdown on activists. Thousands have been killed. Tens of thousands have been arbitrarily arrested. The regime has used torture and sexual violence as a tool of repression. The petitioners are calling for the use of Magnitsky sanctions against Iranian officials and the use of all diplomatic channels to demand the immediate release of Narges Mohammadi and the staying of all pending execution orders for political prisoners.

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is on behalf of British Columbians who are deeply concerned about proposed changes to the salmon allocation policy that would decimate regular recreational fishing opportunities for coho and chinook in British Columbia. Changing this common property principle risks turning a shared public resource into an exclusive privilege, reducing access for many Canadians and undermining confidence in fisheries management. These B.C. residents are calling on the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to leave the current salmon allocation policy alone and uphold the cultural rights and traditions of all British Columbians.

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 Liberal taxes from the same Liberal government. When will the Liberal government give Canadians a break and get rid of these Liberal gas taxes that are making life more expensive for Canadian families?

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 will the Liberal government stop passing the buck, take responsibility for its policies and finally cut Liberal taxes to make life more affordable for Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are struggling to make ends meet. Record food bank usage, personal bankruptcy rates and an increasing number of Canadians borrowing money to buy food are proof of that. While there are some things that are outside of our control, there are things that the government does control, like its new fuel tax, which is already raising the price of gas by seven cents a litre and is set to climb up to 17¢ a litre, raising the cost of everything that Canadians buy. When will the Liberals finally take responsibility for their reckless policies and stop making life more expensive for Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, every country in the G7 is facing external pressures, but this government stands alone in having created the worst food price inflation and the only shrinking economy in the G7. Instead of making life more affordable, the Liberals are making it worse with their higher fuel and carbon taxes, which are raising the costs for farmers, fishers and truckers, driving up the cost of everything for cash-strapped Canadians. Why do the Liberals not finally focus on what they can control and get rid of these harmful policies that are punishing Canadians?

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 bankruptcy and bankruptcy proposals. In my province of British Columbia, they are up over 10% in the last year alone. When will the government stop pushing people to the brink and cut the taxes and red tape that are pushing Canadians into bankruptcy?

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 highest levels since the global financial crisis, so when will the Liberals finally cut taxes and red tape and stop pushing record numbers of Canadians into bankruptcy?

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 Liberals not support our food affordability plan to axe the industrial carbon tax, cut the fuel standards tax and boost competition in grocery stores to lower food prices for all Canadians?

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 for our food affordability plan to cut the industrial carbon tax, axe the fuel standards tax and finally lower grocery prices for all Canadians?

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 more than just a building; it is a place for community and fellowship where members and visitors can enjoy a reduced-price breakfast or lunch. Friends and families can gather for coffee or to play board games. Christmas parties, holiday dinners and weddings are held there too, all in an environment free from drugs and alcohol. Alano is a hub dedicated to healing and recovery, recognizing the importance of social activities for people on their journey to live a clean and sober lifestyle. On behalf of all the people who have been helped by Chilliwack's Alano Club, I thank it for the difference it is making in people's lives. I congratulate Chilliwack's Alano Club on 40 years of serving our community.

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-Vedder River, to increase enforcement monitoring, to ensure compliance and to protect wild salmon.

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 pipeline to Canada's west coast and cancel the Liberal ban on shipping oil from northern B.C. Will the Prime Minister finally stop the doublespeak, stop obstructing the pipeline and vote for the Conservative motion today?

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 support our motion, which is based on his MOU, and vote to cancel his tanker ban and green-light a new pipeline. Why does he not get out of the way, stop obstructing the pipeline and vote for our Conservative motion?

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 goes to B.C., or talks to people in other parts of the country, to say something completely different. That is what we have decided to seek clarity on today with our motion. It acknowledges the MOU that was signed by the governments of Canada and Alberta, but it also seek clarity on where the government actually stands, because we are not getting the same message, depending on which member we talk to. When the Prime Minister was trying to get a standing ovation at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, he talked about how much he supports pipelines. That is very interesting considering the record of the government he now leads. The Liberal government cancelled the northern gateway pipeline, a pipeline that was approved to go from Alberta to northern B.C. The proponent, Enbridge, spent over a billion dollars working its way through the approval process. It had been approved by the regulator. It had a number of conditions attached to it. It had aboriginal equity partners. I think this is a tragic part of this story that often gets overlooked. I knew some of the negotiators on that. My father, Chuck Strahl, and the Hon. Jim Prentice, who were both Indigenous Affairs ministers and respected in British Columbia and Alberta, worked with those nations to help them to benefit from the economic development that would have come from the development of the northern gateway pipeline. They had an equity stake in that pipeline worth $2 billion. The Liberal government came in and, with the stroke of a pen, ripped that out of their hands. At the time, we asked the government if it had consulted with the first nations and the indigenous communities before it stripped away 2 billion dollars' worth of economic development from their communities, and these are often communities that had not had anything close to that sort of economic development for generations. This was an opportunity for them to realize the potential of the hundreds of millions of dollars that was going to be poured into those communities to improve infrastructure, education and the outcomes for the people who live there. It said that it did not have to because it was just cancelling it. Therefore, when the government was taking something away from indigenous communities, when it was ripping money out of their hands for generations to come, it did not even bother to let them know. Now we have the current government pretending to respect indigenous communities through this MOU. We just heard from the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley about how the government had been working on this for eight months and did not consider talking to first nations leaders, first nations communities or indigenous communities in British Columbia or Alberta. It was a complete afterthought. Now, it retroactively stands up and tries to virtuously tell us how committed it is to section 35 consultations and how respectful it is. The Minister of Natural Resources went on TV and said that maybe he would have a Zoom meeting with them, dismissively insulting first nations communities and telling them that, if they want to consult with the Liberal government, they should just jump on a Zoom call. This is outrageous disrespect from a government that holds itself pretty high and mighty when it comes to dealing with indigenous communities. When Justin Trudeau declared that the Great Bear Rainforest was no place for a pipeline, as if it was some sort of magical forest that could not have a pipeline, there were already, I believe, 207 conditions for the building of it. The work had been done. The engineering had been done. The agreements had been reached with the communities along the route. When Justin Trudeau declared that it was a pipeline that should not be there, Canada sent a message to Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, many of whom are still here, still getting up after every speech to ask questions time after time. It is the same government with a new leader. When the business and investment communities are told that, even though $1 billion was put into a project, and everything was done right, with every t crossed and every i dotted, but the government can just rip away that approval, what happens to investment in that country, a jurisdiction that would allow that? It evaporates. Since that decision by the Liberal government, we have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions of dollars that have gone elsewhere because the Liberal government does not foster an environment where things can get built. When the Conservatives left office in 2015, there were at least four major pipelines. I am sure I am forgetting some of them. I am sure the Speaker knows the ones that I do not know. There was the energy east pipeline, which was proposed to deliver Canadian oil to the Atlantic provinces. That was, by the way, proposed by a private company, TransCanada Energy. There was the Keystone XL pipeline. Again, it was TransCanada Energy that proposed to send Canadian crude to the gulf coast. There was the northern gateway pipeline, which I have talked about, by Enbridge and the Trans Mountain pipeline by Kinder Morgan. We should notice the common denominator. When Conservatives were in government, private sector investors were prepared to put their own money forward to invest in big projects in this country, billions and billions of dollars. Just a couple of short years later, those were all gone because of the regulatory environment that the Liberal government put in place. It made it so difficult to build anything and invest in the country that TransCanada abandoned both of their projects, changed its name entirely and moved its operations primarily to the south. It is now TC Energy because TransCanada Energy, after the debacle of the Liberal government, did not sound as attractive to investors as it once had. Enbridge abandoned its project after getting a $1-billion kick between the pockets. Kinder Morgan's project was so risky, after the Liberal government took over and changed all the rules and regulations, that it completely abandoned the project and the government had to buy it. Bill Morneau had to pay taxpayer money to get something that, under the Conservatives, the private sector was willing to do. We have heard that the Liberals have suddenly seen the light and that they are super in favour of pipelines, but we have the comments from the Prime Minister himself. Apparently, he told the B.C. caucus about the pipeline and said, “If BC doesn’t want it, it’s not going ahead.” The member for Vancouver Granville said that the pipeline must have B.C. and first nations consent and “we will all work to ensure our B.C. coast is protected.” The member for Fleetwood—Port Kells said that the pipeline must have the consent of the Premier of British Columbia. David Eby has apparently been promised a veto by the Prime Minister. Forgive us if Conservatives do not take these guys very seriously when they talk about how pro-pipeline they are, when every one of their members stands up to talk about how they are going to give consent to the B.C. NDP premier and that, if they do not have consent from David Eby, it is not going ahead. That does not sound like much of a commitment to me. This motion provides an opportunity for clarity. The Liberals can declare whether the Prime Minister, when he speaks in Alberta, is telling the truth, or when he speaks in Ottawa, is telling the truth. They can declare whether Liberal members of Parliament from B.C. are the ones expressing the views of the government or whether the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources is. It is very clear. It is laid out in the motion, which came, by the way, from the Liberal MOU. The words are drawn straight out of that memorandum of understanding. Conservatives want to see pipelines built. We want to see Canada prosper, and we want to see people get back to work so that we can all prosper as a nation, build our infrastructure, build our schools, build our education system, build the country that Canadians expect us to build and not have a government that stands in the way of that progress.

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 pipeline without a carbon tax.

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 Conservatives do.

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 pipeline. We did not have to. The government now says that there is no proponent for this pipeline. Of course there is no proponent for this pipeline. It has driven them all out of the country. It created a business environment that does not allow for certainty. These investments are billions and billions of dollars over decades. When there is a prime minister like Justin Trudeau, who will rip up a signed deal, it sends the message to invest elsewhere.

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 indirect jobs. They do not want handouts; they want to keep working. When will the Prime Minister finally keep his promise to get a lumber deal so forestry workers stop losing their jobs?

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 her after my remarks are done. The budget implementation act, which is what we are debating today, would implement a budget of broken promises and failures. The government has broken its own word that it gave to Canadians during an election just six months ago. The Prime Minister said he would keep the deficit at $62 billion, Well, the budget has it at $78 billion, so he broke that promise in less than six months. He promised to lower the debt-to-GDP ratio, but he is raising it and causing inflation by failing to keep that promise. The Prime Minister promised to spend less, but we see in the budget that he is spending $90 billion more, which equals $5,400 more in inflationary spending per household in the country. It is hard sometimes for Canadians to picture $90 billion, but they understand $5,400. Having that inflationary spending piled onto each household should worry all Canadians. The Prime Minister promised more investment, but the budget reveals that investment is collapsing. Since the Prime Minister took office, there have been over 48,000 fewer jobs in Canada, and billions of dollars' worth of investment has fled the country. That is a record of failure, and I have outlined just a number of the broken promises. The Liberal government is a government of slogans and a government that likes to say that this budget is a generational budget, which is true if we are talking about the impact of the increased debt on future generations. The key thing here for Canadians is to understand that because of the government's profligate spending and its disregard for taxpayer dollars, the government will now spend more on interest payments to bankers and bondholders than it will pay for health care transfers in this country. The interest is $55 billion, and again that is a number that is hard for Canadians to grasp, because most of them will never have $1 million let alone $1 billion. It is $55 billion given away, spent on interest charges and not on making life more affordable for Canadians or on making health care better. My province is mismanaged by the government of British Columbia, the B.C. NDP. I will admit that part of the mismanagement is with the provincial government. There are routine closures of emergency wards across the province, and people cannot access emergency medicine for hundreds of kilometres because they do not have adequate doctors, nurses and facilities. If we tell the people in my province of British Columbia that sending $55 billion to bankers and bondholders is better than spending more on health care, they will laugh in our faces. They will not accept that this is a generational budget. They know that sending away the money that should be going to program spending, just frittering it away on bankers and bondholders, is an inappropriate use of funds. It will continue under the current Liberal government, which makes Justin Trudeau look like a fiscal hawk. It has doubled his deficit. Right around this time last year, the Liberals did not know who was going to present the economic update, because the finance minister at the time had resigned because she could not in good faith present a budget that presented a deficit about 50% lower than the one just introduced in this budget. The whole government was thrown into turmoil and had to rip the page out of the economic update that had her name on it. It just tabled it in the House without even giving a speech, because she was so concerned that it limited the fiscal manoeuverability of the government to be so irresponsible in the face of the economic changes we keep hearing about. The Liberal government said one year ago that there needed to be fiscal responsibility. Fast-forward to today, and the money taps are open; it is an open bar. Here we are spending money again, $55 billion in interest payments alone. That is something that should concern all Canadians, as should the the figures on the national debt. As a continuation of the previous Liberal government, the Prime Minister will add $321.7 billion to the federal debt over the next five years. That is more than twice the $154.4 billion that Justin Trudeau would have added over the same time period. The Liberals like to talk up the central banker's resume and what a genius he is financially, but he is doubling the burden being left to our kids and grandkids to pay back. They think it is such a master stroke to just spend more money. Why has no one thought of that before? Why do we not just spend more? Why not make it $600 billion? Why not make the deficit $150 billion? It is because they know it has to be paid back through taxes or program cuts, but they do not care. The Liberals are just trying to get through today. They just want to get through the next four years. They do not care about 40 years down the road, when our children and grandchildren will pick up the tab. That is why we have called the budget a credit card budget. The Liberals are running up the credit card, and they are going to hand the bill to our kids and grandkids, living large for today so someone else can pay the bill tomorrow. It is irresponsible. We would never allow it to happen in our own families. I know you are a father, Mr. Speaker. Can you imagine buying a Maserati and a huge mansion, living large, taking three or four holidays a year, and then saying to the kids when they reach working age, “Well, kids, Dad's had a good ride. You can pay the bill. Thanks for coming out“? Of course no responsible parent would do that, and no responsible government would look future generations in the eye and tell them they will have to pay tomorrow for what the government does today. That would be irresponsible, and it does not even deliver the results that government members say it does. The Liberals talk about the Major Projects Office. They keep announcing the winners and losers of the major projects. Instead of creating an environment where all major projects can be approved if they meet the regulations, they say that certain projects do not meet the regulations but that they are going to allow them to go through anyway. They are going to give an exemption to certain projects. Oh, and by the way, all the projects they are announcing had already been announced six or eight years ago. Many of them are already being built. The Liberals say, “Look at us. What a fantastic number of projects there are.” I do not even know what the minister's portfolio is, as it changes so often; I think it is trade relations with the U.S. right now. In 2018 he stood in the Maritimes and announced that construction would be under way at the Sisson mine. Then he went out again over the last couple of weeks to say, “By the way, the mine I announced in 2018 is on the major projects list. Aren't you proud of us? Look at it investing for future generations.” That is a scam. The government fails to understand that we do not need it to pick winners and losers but to create a winning environment for investment in the country, for everyone to make their investment choices and make those investments, instead of an environment in which investors are fleeing this country. I want to talk briefly about more failures of the government. The Prime Minister said that he would have a deal with the United States by July. We are at the middle point of November with no deal, and the U.S. tariffs are twice as high. He said he would have a resolution with China, but there are still tariffs on our canola and on our seafood. There are new tariffs from India on our peas. For our softwood lumber producers, the tariffs have increased threefold, to 45% for softwood lumber producers in my province of British Columbia, with hundreds of layoffs and thousands more jobs hanging in the balance. The government has failed to deliver for Canadians. It has broken its promises. We will not support the budget nor the budget implementation act.

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 time he asked me a question in this House, I believe he was asking me why I did not support a consumer carbon tax. That is what he was on about. He asked that question of this side about a thousand times. I am glad he broke that promise. Maybe he could keep the promise to keep the budget deficit to $62 billion, and what a big challenge that would be. The Liberals could not even do that; it is at $78 billion. The member does not know what he is talking about.

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. We do it the best in the world. We have the best environmental regulations, the best workers and the best product. If we did a better job of creating a level playing field so that everyone knew the rules and everyone could make investments that were not held up by the government, we could have even more benefit for Canadian families. We could have more benefit, in terms of lower taxes and better services. On this side of the House, we will always support our oil and gas sector in this country.

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 member, who has been a member of a party that has been for a carbon tax and against it in a matter of weeks. We will certainly try to give him a lesson on being fiscally responsible. He has not learned it yet.

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 these trips failed to get the deals he promised, but tariffs and costs for Canadians seem to go higher each time he takes off. Why does the Prime Minister not stop his flights of fancy and start making life more affordable for Canadians here at home?

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 who have lost their jobs, and the millions more who are living with uncertainty due to the Prime Minister's broken promises on tariffs. Why does the Prime Minister not spend less time on fancy travel and more time focusing on making life more affordable for Canadians?

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 free with less than a year in prison. The court decision must be overturned using the notwithstanding clause, but the Liberals have refused to act. Why are the Liberals more concerned with protecting the rights of these vile predators than the rights of these innocent victims?

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 Supreme Court ruling immediately. The Liberals refuse to do so. Why are the Liberals more concerned with protecting the rights of guilty pedophiles than standing up for the rights of innocent children?

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 would has already cost hundreds of forestry jobs and put thousands more at risk in B.C. alone. Why has the Prime Minister abandoned our softwood lumber workers and broken his promise to get a deal done?

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, GM is shifting truck production south. Hundreds of jobs are gone already and thousands more are at risk. When will the Prime Minister finally keep his promises, stop losing jobs and start standing up for Canadian workers?

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 he became Prime Minister. When will the Prime Minister abandon his job-killing policies here at home, finally keep his promise to get a deal and save Canadian jobs?

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 is a Liberal bait and switch. This massive deficit spending is driving up inflation and sending the price of groceries sky-high. When will the Prime Minister admit that his broken promises are breaking the bank for Canadians?

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 in: It is another Liberal broken promise, another Liberal bait and switch. When will the Prime Minister admit that doubling the Liberal deficit is just going to send these record-high food prices even higher?

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 in the bank, and the Liberal government let it all happen. When so many Canadians are struggling to make ends meet, why is the government making no effort to get those wasted tax dollars back?

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 ministers responsible for arrive scam got promoted and have now been put in charge of critical Canada-U.S. foreign affairs and jobs files. Why did the Prime Minister reward the failed Trudeau Liberals instead of holding them accountable for their incompetence?

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 supporting the Liberal government. That is all that matters. To use a phrase from the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader, at the end of the day, they will always support the Liberal government. It does not matter what the issue is, how important it is or how grave the situation is, they will be there to support their master in the PMO. We have seen it time and again, and we have certainly seen it in the debate this morning. I remember being a newly elected member in 2011, when Stephen Harper won his strong, stable, national Conservative majority government. There were 101 NDP MPs at that time.

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 Ottawa, every election, more and more Canadians have rejected them. The NDP moved from the official opposition, and I do not know if they even made it to the third party, and now it has been upgraded to the window seats in the House of Commons. After the next election, the way the NDP is going, it likely will not retain party status. What is the point of the NDP? Canadians might as well vote Liberal if they are going to vote NDP because they get the same thing in Ottawa. The same policies are promoted, the same rhetoric is spewed and the same tired talking points are issued in debate. For 19 minutes, we heard the NDP House leader make a joke out of the estimates process and say that because the Conservatives did not support the estimates, we would empty out all the jails. What a bunch of nonsense. That is what passes for clever debate in the NDP. Of course, when he was in the opposition, I do not recall that member supporting the estimates for the Canada Border Services Agency or the Correctional Service of Canada. I guess he wanted to free all the prisoners, open up the borders and eliminate air security—

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 Columbia when it comes to the opioid crisis, because the B.C. NDP has been on the leading edge of making things worse. We have the most drug overdoses in the country, not the least, as he tried to say in his remarks. We saw the NDP giving out drug paraphernalia in candy dispensing machines outside of hospitals. We saw soccer fields that could not be used in Abbotsford because of the drug paraphernalia. We saw parks completely shut down in British Columbia because of the drug paraphernalia and the open drug use in our communities. However, that member wants to celebrate the record of the B.C. NDP, which saw its majority reduced to a single seat after the last election. That is the record of the NDP, but its members do not seem to care. On the border, when Roxham Road was an open, unofficial crossing, the NDP thought that was just fine and that any attempt to shut that down was somehow an affront to the democratic process. Those members stood for a completely unregulated border crossing and fought every attempt of the official opposition to draw attention to the matter. They are not serious when it comes to border security. The member for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte gave the statistics, which unlike some members in this place, are in black and white and are true. They say that after the Harper government, there were more CBSA full-time equivalents. After the Harper government, more money was spent on the border. Even if that were not the case, the Liberal government has been in power for nine and a half years and its members hearken back to the Harper era as though they have not had any time to make changes. The only thing the Liberals have done is make change for the worse. They have increased the size of the public service by 40%. As the member from the NDP said, when Stephen Harper cut some back-office positions in the CBSA, that was when the guns started flowing across and we had all this unregulated immigration. What a load of nonsense. We have seen the statistics. There is a 200% increase in the number of Canadians who have died of overdoses since the government took office in 2015, 47,000 Canadians. At the border, seizures of fentanyl doses have more than tripled between 2023 and 2024, rising from 239,000 doses to 839,000 doses. That is the record of the government. Because the Liberals have been so incompetent in managing the border, now the provinces are feeling compelled, right across the political spectrum, to step up and do things on their own to patrol the border, even though that is not their mandate. They have said that if the NDP-Liberals will not do it, they will have to do it themselves. Wab Kinew has said that he will be looking at conservation officers to help patrol the border, because he recognizes it is so bad. Danielle Smith has said that she might have to use Alberta sheriffs. The Quebec government has proposed measures to bolster border security, because it is a disaster. The numbers have shown exactly how this is trending, and it is trending in a direction, where U.S. border patrol is encountering more and more people coming from Canada trying to get into the U.S. illegally. Now we have President-elect Trump saying that we better fix it. Instead of saying that this is as serious as a heart attack, that he was proposing 25% tariffs and what should we do about it, NDP members are saying that we should ignore him, that he is just blowing smoke, that there is nothing wrong with our border and that if we address the border, we are somehow kowtowing to the president-elect. Canadians had better get serious about what has been proposed. A 25% tariff would be devastating to our economy, so we had better come up with a Canada-first plan that addresses things like the fentanyl crisis and the border crisis. We had better come up with a plan—

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, and the public safety minister went down to Mar-a-Lago because they knew that they had to take this matter seriously. It is time that they start taking the issue of fentanyl and the border seriously right now.