Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. If you will indulge me, before I get to my specific motion, I would like to recognize the tireless work of Senator Leo Housakos, Senator Peter Boehm and former senator Jim Munson in support of autistic Canadians and their families. I also recognize the member for Don Valley East, members from all parties in this House who helped us get to this point and, mo…
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Madam Speaker, just after watching that exchange there, I cannot be more struck by the difference in position in 2004, 2005 and 2006 with the NDP leader at that time with the sponsorship—
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Madam Speaker, I just want the hon. member to comment on the difference in the NDP approach right now versus the NDP approach back in 2004, 2005 and 2006, around the sponsorship scandal. Those two positions, those two approaches, around transparency and holding the government of the day to account could not be more different.
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Mr. Speaker, there are numerous potential challenges with this bill, and among the least of them might be definitions. I think that speaks to why the government has taken so long to actually bring it forward for debate. I have other concerns. We are a country right now, over the last eight years, which has had a significant challenge building anything. I want to make sure that, as we make efforts …
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak today. I will be sharing my time with the hard-working member for Dufferin—Caledon. This is a piece of legislation with good things in it that I think everybody in the House will support. It also has some things that speak to the importance of the committee system and getting a bill to committee so experts can weigh in and highlight any potential shor…
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Mr. Speaker, we have absolutely not changed our position. This is a different piece of legislation. The member has been around this place for a long time and understands that different legislation requires a different approach. There are important conversations we need to have. I represent an area with a significant indigenous population, with many living off reserve. The community of Maskwacis is…
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Madam Speaker, I believe it is against the rules of the House to mislead the House. The Harper government did not cut transfers. It raised transfers—
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Mr. Speaker, that was quite something. In response to Conservatives saying that the current government, after eight years, is destroying the country, the hon. member corrected us by saying that it has been destroying the country for only seven years and that we should get our facts straight. In response to our saying that the record levels of spending by the Liberal government are destroying our e…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal member for Kingston and the Islands got me thinking. I am just reflecting, but I feel like there was a Prime Minister Trudeau before the current government who ran massive inflationary policies that led to economic devastation in the seventies and eighties and massive cuts in the mid- to late nineties to health care, social service and education. I am wondering if my hon. …
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Madam Speaker, the Trudeau legacy of the 1970s and 1980s was a disastrous inflation crisis, energy crisis and fiscal crisis that was terrible for Canadians at the time over those 15 years when that government ran deficits in 14 out of 15 years. A generation later, it led to $35 billion in cuts to transfers for health care, social services and education under the Chrétien and Martin Liberal governm…
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Madam Speaker, just over a year ago we had an election campaign, and in the Liberal platform there was nothing about the extension of medical assistance in dying for people with mental illness. What there was in the Liberal platform was a very clear promise to fund a Canada mental health transfer, $4.5 billion over five years, of which it is very clearly laid out, and I think it is on page 75 in t…
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With regard to government procurement and contracts for the provision of research or speechwriting services to ministers, since January 1, 2020: (a) what are the details of the contracts, including the (i) start and end dates, (ii) contracting parties, (iii) file number, (iv) nature or description of the work, (v) value of contract; and (b) for speechwriting contracts, what are the details, includ…
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With regard to guest speakers or other cases where individuals were contracted by the government to give speeches, either in person, virtually, or both, since January 1, 2019: what are the details of all such contracts, including the (i) vendor, (ii) date of the contract (iii) amount of the contract, (iv) number of speeches to be provided per contract, (v) date of the speeches, (vi) topic or purpo…
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With regard to spending by the government on private investigators, since January 1, 2018, broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation, or other government entity: what are the details of each expenditure, including, for each, the (i) vendor, (ii) amount of the contract, (iii) date, (iv) file number, (v) situation overview or the reason for the investigation, (vi) findings of the investig…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am loving these questions from all sides. They are hitting the nail on the head. They indicate there is a real understanding of what needs to happen. The “nothing about us without us” conversation is something that I think we continue to get better at, but we have a long way to go. It is a challenge. There is a segment of the autistic population that is able to clearly communicate…
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Madam Speaker, I will say this. As I have travelled the world and talked to people, we are doing better in Canada and North America than in many parts of the world. We have a lot to offer in terms of knowledge and we have a lot to learn in terms of knowledge, but if we get this right, we can export the knowledge that we have to other parts of the world, sharing and having conversations about how w…
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Madam Speaker, what a fantastic 45 minutes that was. This is a rare time in the House, because often things are pretty combative in here. I am reminded tonight, as we think about what we are doing here, of words from JFK: Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. I am so thankful for two senators who did not take for granted that the government is moving toward a national autism strategy. I…
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Madam Speaker, I request that it be carried on division.
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,seconded by the member for Don Valley East, moved that Bill S-203, An Act respecting a federal framework on autism spectrum disorder, be read the second time and referred to a committee. He said: Madam Speaker, it is an absolute pleasure to stand here to discuss Bill S-203, which came to us from the Senate. It was unanimously passed by the Senate before it got to us here. As members know, I do no…
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Madam Speaker, the bill lays out a time frame of 18 months for a report. Hopefully, we are going to move this bill forward faster than would normally be scheduled. I am hoping debate will collapse tonight and we will be able to save some time to get it to committee and then move forward even faster. As for a timeline, my hope, and she can probably play a role in this as a member of the Liberal cau…
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Madam Speaker, I totally understand the jurisdictional issues that sometimes the members of the Bloc have to grapple with, but I have had great conversations with colleagues from my hon. friend's party. We look forward to getting it to committee and hearing from experts from across the country. The whole point of a national strategy is that we benefit from the very best evidence, from the very bes…
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With regard to the commitment by the Prime Minister in the 2021 Liberal election platform to establish a Canada mental health transfer (CMHT): (a) why did the government not fulfill the commitment on page 75 of the platform indicating that the government would provide $250 million to the transfer in the 2021-22 fiscal year; and (b) will the government be providing $625 million to the transfer in t…
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Madam Speaker, I get as equally excited as they do talking about the Harper record. When the world dealt with the global economic meltdown, we laid out a seven-year plan, we followed that plan to a tee, and by 2015, we balanced the budget. In contrast, as this government faced a significant global challenge, what it did was bring out the chequebook and responded by just cutting cheques with no eye…
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise and take part in this conversation. I had the opportunity last week to engage in some of the questions and answers. It was interesting to see emotions rise a little on the Liberal side when I talked about the Trudeau legacy. In our part of the world, when we talk about the Trudeau legacy, emotions rise as well. Of course I was talking about the Pierre Trudea…
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Madam Speaker, I love the opportunity to stand up and talk about the Harper legacy, if we want to talk about that. First of all, we cut virtually every tax Canadians could pay. I think over 60 different taxes were cut under our government. We dealt with a global economic meltdown in a world-leading way—
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Madam Speaker, I have a couple of comments. First of all, during the Harper era, we increased health transfers by about 6% per year for almost every year that we were in government. In the plan that our leader has laid out, he has simply said that, after a 70% increase in program spending over the last eight years, and an endless succession of spending plans and massive deficits, we would have a s…
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Madam Speaker, I am not familiar with the specific study the member is talking about. I would be glad to talk to him afterward. I would reiterate that, during our time in government, we cut virtually every tax that Canadians pay, and I think that is a plan that is prudent for this country, as we take a look at responsible spending moving forward.
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Madam Speaker, like so many Liberals, the hon. member was very excited to list off all the spending that the government is doing. I want to ask a question about the Trudeau legacy. There is a lot of economic disaster in the Trudeau legacy, which gets confusing at times, but back in the 1970s and 1980s—
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Madam Speaker, I understand the Liberals' confusion when I mention “economic disaster”. They have a hard time understanding which Liberal government we are talking about, but—
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Madam Speaker, we can debate all day which Liberal government was more of an economic disaster, but right now I am talking about the former Trudeau government of the 1970s that ran deficits 14 out of 15 years, and then a generation later had to slash tens of billions of dollars, $35 billion in fact, in health care, education and social services funding. It also had the lowest level of internationa…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the real effect of Liberal economic policy. The original Trudeau spending legacy was 14 deficits in 15 years, an inflation, housing and energy crisis for Canadians at the time, and, as a result of the crippling debt, devastating cuts to health and education transfers a generation later by another Liberal government. It is the classic Liberal economic one-two punch: s…
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moved that Bill S-203, An Act respecting a federal framework on autism spectrum disorder, be read the first time. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to introduce Bill S-203 in this House, seconded by my hon. colleague from Don Valley East. The bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Leo Housakos, who has long been a tireless advocate for autistic Canadians. It was seconded there by my good friend…
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Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Prime Minister answers every question with mock bewilderment that we dare question her record levels of spending and the increasing taxes to pay for them. She seems obsessed with Stephen Harper, whose record is clear: In 2015, just seven years after a global economic meltdown, the Liberals inherited a balanced budget. Our Conservative government had lowered virtually every …
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With regard to the current Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance and the government's new labelling requirements for beef and pork products: (a) what specific steps, if any, has the minister taken, or will the minister take, to prevent the labelling requirements from having a detrimental impact on Alberta beef and pork producers; (b) has the minister or his office sent any communic…
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Mr. Speaker, the utter chaos experienced by Canadians simply trying to obtain a passport from their own government is a crisis solely of the Prime Minister's making. A summer that should have provided much-needed relief after two years of significant stress has instead turned into an endless nightmare of dangerous passport office all-nighters and infuriatingly long hold times, often ending in abru…
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With regard to Health Canada's application process for medical devices under the Interim Order No. 3 Respecting Importation and Sale of Medical Devices for Use in Relation to COVID-19: (a) what are the different stages each application must go through; (b) for each stage in (a), what are the (i) stated service standards, (ii) processes, if any, in place to measure and report on the department's pe…
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With regard to ongoing or planned government IT projects with a budget over $1 million: what are the details of each project, including the (i) project description and summary, (ii) total budget, (iii) estimated completion date?
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Madam Speaker, what we saw there was like a WWE fight. That last exchange was not real because, while the hon. member stands and talks about his disappointment in the government, the reality is that the only reason the government is able to do any of the spending he decries is because his party is supporting the government. I will ask a very specific question in an area that the government is not …
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Madam Speaker, it was interesting to hear the hon. member's response to my last question. First of all, I like the hon. member. I like the way he carries himself in the House. I take issue with his characterization of my raising mental health as an issue as “a tantrum”. The hon. member talked about the priorities the NDP negotiated into the spending of the government. It was one of the highest-spe…
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, just based on the conversation, surely if you seek it, you would find unanimous consent to allow me to table page 75 from the Liberal platform, which promises for a Canada mental health transfer under new investments—
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Madam Speaker, in our previous interaction, the NDP member for Elmwood—Transcona was pretty clear that the NDP was unable to negotiate or, at least, he implied that the NDP was unable to negotiate the Canada mental health transfer into their agreement on the budget. The Liberal platform clearly promised $250 million in 2021-22 and $625 million in 2022-23 for a Canada mental health transfer. I am w…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, as we look to make progress on this issue, I am banking on the fact that Canadians who just heard my question and that answer will recognize that the response had nothing to do at all with the question I asked. I am going to ask it again, and I am hoping the parliamentary secretary will put away her notes and just answer the question. In the Liberal platform that she ran on eight mo…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here tonight to follow up on a question I asked the Prime Minister on May 18. I think it is important in these late shows to give a little context for people who might be seeing this live, but more likely on social media after we post the clips from this. The late show is our opportunity to have a conversation in which we follow up on something where we feel l…
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Mr. Speaker, four times in the past two weeks I have asked questions about the Canada mental health transfer, an election commitment quite obviously broken by the Liberal government. The minister never even pretended to attempt an answer. Page 75 of the Liberal platform clearly promises immediate funding of $250 million and then another $625 million in this year's budget. There has to be an explan…
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Mr. Speaker, then why did they make the promise? The Prime Minister recently stood here and actually said, with a straight face, “We will not simply fall back on slogans and easy solutions....” Instead, with the current government, it is always only slogans and no solutions. More than 30 times this year, including a couple of times today, the Prime Minister has responded to legitimate questions by…
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Madam Speaker, it is fitting that the member is talking about being heard. My constituency has 209,000 people. It is roughly the same size in population as P.E.I., which has four Liberal members of Parliament. It does not matter how hard I work or how hard my staff work. I can come in here and debate all day long. I could even debate as much as the hon. deputy House leader. Still, when it comes ti…
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Mr. Speaker, that did not even come close to answering the question we actually asked. We have asked consistently very fair, straightforward questions on the issue of the Canada mental health transfer. Last week, the minister dismissed them as “annoying” and “despicable”. If the minister is annoyed with anyone, perhaps it should be with her own Prime Minister, who has put her in such an awkward, i…
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Mr. Speaker, while it was trying to get elected, the Liberal Party used the words “mental health” 66 times in its platform, but we are losing 11 Canadians every day to suicide, and we still do not have a three-digit suicide prevention hotline. We are losing 19 Canadians every day to a raging opioid crisis that continues to worsen, and now the Liberals have broken their cornerstone mental health co…
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Mr. Speaker, today we are talking about the 2022 budget, and several things are very clear. During the election, many parties made substantial commitments on mental health. The cornerstone of the Liberal commitment was the Canada mental health transfer, beginning with $250 million for 2021-22. The Liberals made an agreement with the NDP, and many elements of that agreement remain highly secret. Su…
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Mr. Speaker, just months ago during the election, the Liberal platform made a firm commitment of $4.5 billion over five years for a Canada mental health transfer, very specifically including $250 million in 2021-22 and $625 million in 2022-23. This promise was clearly broken in the budget. What happened between the election and the budget? It was, of course, the NDP-Liberal agreement to cling to p…
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