Parliamentary Speeches

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I listened to the member's speech quite carefully, and I would ask the member if she would care to expand on one of the points she made, which is the cynicism with which this bill came about. There is this coalition where one coalition partner put a gun to the other coalition partner's head and said it must give it a dental program. The government puts together this short-term payme…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the inflation crisis triggered by the Prime Minister's out-of-control spending and borrowing is devastating small businesses. Small businesses want to increase wages and pay off their COVID debts, but half of them have still not returned to normal revenue. These businesses and their workers cannot afford higher payroll taxes and an ever-increasing carbon tax. Will the government cance…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, a couple of weeks ago I asked the government if it would commit to cancelling its planned payroll tax increases, which will shrink paycheques starting on January 1. In response, the government admitted that some Canadians may be struggling with the high cost of housing, but it went on to do what it always does. When asked about the affordability crisis in housing, it patted itself o…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, tonight we see a continued doubling down on the same points we have heard from the government. I did not hear much about housing in that response, even though that is really what the question we are debating tonight was centred on. We see the same old splitting of hairs over whether or not Canada's inflation crisis is really the worst among peer countries. Other countries that engag…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present today, in both official languages, the sixth report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Facial Recognition Technology and the Growing Power of Artificial Intelligence”. I will take a moment to thank the analysts for the work they did on behalf of the committee and all the committee members, who agreed entirely …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, with the government, the price of taxes has become 43% of all Canadians pay for. That has happened under the Liberal government. The price of everything is going up, and the government is making things worse by raising the carbon tax on top of increasing the payroll tax. All these tax increases make life less affordable for Canadians who cannot afford higher costs with smaller paycheq…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, rising home prices and rising interest rates mean that the income necessary to qualify to buy a tiny, entry-level apartment in Calgary has nearly doubled in the past year. Young Canadians across Canada are giving up on home ownership and they cannot afford ever-increasing rents. The last thing these cash-strapped Canadians need is another bite taken out of their paycheques. Will the g…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the government’s use of facial recognition technology between 2012 and 2022: (a) which departments or agencies contracted for facial recognition technology; (b) for each department or agency in (a), what are the start and end dates for its contracts for facial recognition technology; (c) for each department or agency in (a), for what purpose did it contract the use of facial recogni…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) instruction to tax preparation software providers to include changes proposed in Bill C-8 in 2021 tax returns while the bill was still under debate: (a) how many returns included invalid claims as a result; (b) what is the average processing time for cases of CRA employees assisting taxpayers to correct invalid claims; and (c) what was the total val…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Canada Infrastructure Bank, broken down by year since its inception: (a) how many private sector investment dollars has it secured; (b) of the private investments in (a), how many unique investors do they represent; (c) how many projects funded in whole or in part by the bank were (i) completed, (ii) abandoned; (d) how many private investment dollars were refunded due to project…

Madam Speaker, last Thursday, as I was leaving my home for the airport and a flight to Ottawa, my wife brought to my attention news that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appeared to be very ill and that the end of her life may be near. My first instinct was disbelief. I could not believe that the news just relayed to me could possibly be anything other than an overreaction or an exaggeration of the …

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, when asked why the government will not temporarily remove GST from gasoline to help offset the high cost of fuel, the government claimed that there was no evidence that removing a tax at the point of sale would reduce prices. Liberals even called the suggestion a subsidy for industry. Is the government so economically illiterate that it actually thinks that removing a tax on consume…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, airports are in chaos. Global affairs is partying with Russian diplomats instead of expelling them. Immigration files are backlogged for years. Violent crime is up. Fraud is endemic. Inflation is out of control. The government does not even pretend to care about its deficits. People are lining up all night just for a chance at a passport appointment. Will the minister stand up and tak…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the hon. member's speech was thoughtful. He is quite knowledgeable on the bill, but I do not agree with him on balance on the bill, and I am not going to support it. The part that I would like him to comment on is the section that opens up community sentencing for serious sexual offences. We know that victims of sexual assault are severely disincentivized to report the crime because…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, airports are in chaos. The passport office is snowed under. Inflation is out of control. Ministers are misleading Parliament. The government's current priorities are an incoherent mess. Bill C-5 would drop sentencing requirements on violent offenders and drug traffickers and open the door for sex offenders to serve community sentences near their victims. Bill C-21 pretends to address …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Certificate of Nomination of Philippe Dufresne to the Position of Privacy Commissioner”. While I have the floor, I would like to take one brief moment to thank Mr. Dufresne for his outstanding service to parliamentarians in his …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, when questioned about inflation, the government just shrugs its shoulders and says it is part of a global phenomenon. It is true that some other countries that have been running huge deficits are experiencing inflation, but Canada is the only one deliberately making things worse by increasing taxes on consumers. Dropping the carbon tax and GST on fuel would immediately reduce consumer…

Government Orders

Read what it says.

Government Orders

A failure, yes.

Government Orders

How is that working?

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, during the member's speech, he challenged the Conservatives to google the Infrastructure Bank, so I took the opportunity to do so. I found its Wikipedia entry, which has a table that lists the various projects. However, I noticed, according to Wikipedia anyway, that exactly zero of them have been completed. Could the member elaborate on whether the Infrastructure Bank has actually com…

Government Orders

I am reading Wikipedia, and it is pretty good.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I listened to the member's speech and heard him say something we heard earlier today. I would like him to very clear about it. Is he telling the House that the reason the Liberals cannot eliminate, even temporarily, the GST on fuel and the carbon tax, or even just on fuel, is they believe retailers would collude to prevent the tax savings from going to consumers? Yes or no, is that …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today. I have quite a bit to say, so I am going to get right to it. I am going to talk about unanimous consent motions. I am going to talk about debates, committees, hybrid Parliament and vote pairing. I am going to begin by addressing the increasing trend toward using unanimous consent motions to make declarations of national policy on behalf of the House. I know…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, we represent our constituents when we are in this place. Our action in this place is what we are accountable to our constituents for, so I think it is critical that we spend the time in this place to do our jobs representing them in Parliament. Now, one needs to be in touch with constituents. That is why we have lengthy constituency breaks to interact with our constituents. However,…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, that is a great question with great observations. I am not so fussed about the room layout and the adversarial nature of committee. It only becomes a problem when things become personal. If we meet in the same room rather than over video, we have the opportunity to get up from our opposite sides of the table and maybe go over to the coffee machine to have a quick, private word off t…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I have disagreed with the member quite a bit in the last couple of days, but in her speech now I think she was on to something and I will ask her to comment a bit further. She talked about giving the member who has the floor the ability to yield the floor to a colleague. In the U.K., members can also yield the floor to a member of the opposition and in so doing obtain more time for …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the affordability crisis increasingly means that there are two kinds of families in Canada: families who own homes and families who never will. Gimmicks such as the first-time homebuyer incentive have failed to improve access to home ownership, while taxes, red tape and ridiculously long development timelines chase private capital out of construction, limit supply and lead to ever-inc…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, yes, indeed I would. The committee of the whole is a much better format for getting real answers. However, I am sorry; I have to say it: Since 2019, there has even been a marked decline in the quality of that forum. I have participated in several committees of the whole and have watched the ministers. They have a whole group of officials in front of them and binders of information. …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, indeed, one can acknowledge the vast issues that contribute to offences and acknowledge that there are different ways to deal with the problems of crime and criminal justice without the prison system. The prison system is certainly the last resort in these matters. I do not really have time to get too far beyond the bill itself, which is where we are dealing with a repeal of floor sen…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I have no doubt that racism exists in our systems, and in our justice system. It is indeed a serious problem, but I will also point out that the victims of many of the crimes for which this bill reduces floor sentences are often the same Canadians, and members of the same communities, who face racism. I do not see that repealing these sentences will adequately address the issue of rac…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join the debate on Bill C-5, an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. I will spare members the suspense and say from the outset that I do not support the bill. The bill sends exactly the wrong message from this Parliament to the judiciary. It sends the wrong message from the government to criminals. It sends the wrong message to Canada's…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the member launches straight into an attack on the previous Conservative government while ignoring that almost all of the mandatory floor sentences being repealed in this bill were not passed under the Harper government. They came from earlier governments. Successive governments, Conservative and Liberal, with different prime ministers, have, over a very long period of time, created t…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, deficits, monetary expansion and consumer taxes, like the carbon tax, all drive up inflation, and nowhere is this more obvious than in Canada's housing market, where the price of housing went through the roof at a time of massive job loss and shrinking GDP during the pandemic. The government's response has been to pat itself on the back while a generation of Canadians give up on hom…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I want to speak to the point of order that was raised. To be clear, I was listening as well and I do not think there is any reason why the member for Calgary Centre should have expected to have his wrist slapped at all. He did not call any member of this chamber a liar; rather, he brought attention to the fact that lies are repeated, and that is a—

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, my constituency office is inundated with calls from constituents unable to access passport services, and I am not alone. I am sure that every Liberal member of the House, including the minister herself, is experiencing exactly the same thing. The backlog caused by the government's lack of preparedness affects Canadians' ability to travel abroad for work, for school or to be reunited w…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to applications by federal employees for exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious or medical grounds: (a) for each federal department or agency, how many exemption applications on medical grounds were received; (b) for each federal department or agency, how many exemption applications on religious grounds were received; (c) how many applications in (a) and (b) were appro…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to Access to Information requests received by federal departments and agencies: (a) for each department and agency, how many requests were received in (i) 2018, (ii) 2019, (iii) 2020, (iv) 2021; (b) for each department and agency in (a), how many requests were resolved in each year; (c) for each department and agency in (a), what was the median processing time for requests resolved in …

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the commitments in the 2016 and 2017 federal budgets to spend, respectively, $444.4 and $523.9 million (combined total of $968.3 million over five years) to combat tax evasion, as well as the claim by the CRA that “The CRA remains on track to spend the budget investments over the 5-year period for which they have been outlined”: (a) as of the end …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Collection and Use of Mobility Data by the Government of Canada and Related Issues”.

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to table a petition in support of Bill S-223. This is the bill to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking. It would make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad to receive an organ taken without the consent of the donor. This horrific practice was first brought to light by former member of Parliament, David Kilgour, who sadly passed away just this past …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, raising taxes on Canadians should be a test of government confidence, but the Liberal government ignored 800 years of parliamentary tradition by giving itself and future governments an automatic tax increase when it passed the excise escalator on beer, wine and spirits. Governments should have to ask Parliament every time they raise taxes. Will the government repeal the automatic tax …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the third report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, entitled “Questions of Conflict of Interest and Lobbying in Relation to Pandemic Spending”.

Routine Proceedings

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-266, an Act to amend the Excise Act and the Excise Act, 2001 (adjusted duties - beer, malt liquor, spirits and wine). Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce this bill in the House of Commons this morning. I thank the member for Kelowna—Lake Country for seconding my bill. Tomorrow, the tax on beer, wine and spirits will go up automatically. This bill would repeal…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's speech. I hate to interrupt members, so I did not do so, but I am a stickler for the rules in this place where we speak of matters that are relevant to the bill. I would like to bring his attention to the actual motion, which reads: That given that, (i) excessive government spending has increased the deficit, the national debt, and fuelled inflation to its h…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the tax on beer, wine and spirits will automatically go up, thanks to this government's excise escalator. Today, I tabled Bill C-266, an act to repeal the automatic excise escalator. This punitive tax harms Canada's world-leading brewers', vintners' and distillers' ability to compete internationally and punishes Canadian consumers. Tomorrow, the cost of enjoying a beer with f…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, the tax on beer, wine and spirits will increase automatically thanks to the government's excise escalator. Today, I tabled Bill C-266 to repeal this automatic annual tax increase. Under the government, simple pleasures such as enjoying a beer with friends after work, or a bottle of wine over dinner with a loved one, are increasingly unaffordable for working people. Will the …

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, five weeks ago Putin unleashed a brazen attack on Russia's sovereign, peaceful and democratic neighbour Ukraine. Since then, the world has witnessed murderous Russian attacks on civilians and awe-inspiring acts of dauntless courage and determination by Ukrainians. Putin's war of conquest threatens the comfortable peace that Canada has taken for granted for decades. We must immediately…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise and add my voice to the report stage debate on Bill C-8. Here we are on March 28 debating the so-called fall economic statement, which was tabled just before Christmas, three full months after the summer election. That election was supposedly called to establish a mandate for an urgent, transformational, once-in-a-lifetime moment. I do not agree with the ra…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I do not think I caught a question there, but I will respond to the member's comment. He is a thoughtful member. I have served at committee with him before and I know that he is a champion of transparency and accountability from government. I certainly hope that he will continue to demand that, even as his party is choosing to support the government through until 2025.