Government Orders
Madam Speaker, yes, the Arbour report did clearly recommend this legislative change, but so did the Deschamps report years earlier. This was a legislative change that was recommended almost 10 years ago and accepted by the previous government, but it sat on the current government's desk without movement for years. Here we are now, nine years into the Liberal government, in the twilight of this Par…
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With regard to the Auditor General of Canada’s 2024 Report 7 entitled “Combatting Cybercrime”, paragraph 7.6 of which states that the RCMP “has a mandate to investigate the greatest criminal threats to Canada, including cybercrime, transnational and serious organized crime, and threats to national security”: (a) since January 1, 2016, how many cybercrime case reports has the RCMP received; (b) in …
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With regard to the Canadian Armed Forces’ reconstitution and readiness: (a) how many pilots at 3 Wing Bagotville are qualified to fly CF-18s; and (b) how many pilots at 4 Wing Cold Lake are qualified to fly CF-18s?
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With regard to the Auditor General of Canada’s 2024 Report 7 entitled “Combatting Cybercrime”, paragraph 7.23 of which states that “We found that the centre did not forward 7 of 26 (27%) of the requests we reviewed from international partners to domestic police agencies to see whether that had evidence relevant to the investigation,”: (a) what proportion of the requests which the RCMP did not forw…
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With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency and write-offs of accounts receivable, broken down by fiscal year from 2015-16 to 2023-24: (a) what was the total amount of write-offs; (b) how many (i) individual taxpayers, (ii) corporations, had amounts written-off; (c) what was the average amount written-off for (i) individual taxpayers, (ii) corporations; (d) what was the dollar amount of the single la…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the Liberals promised to be the most open and transparent government in history and said that data paid for by Canadians belongs to Canadians. Well, that promise is just a sick joke after nine years of secrecy and cover-ups. Yesterday, common-sense Conservatives forced the NDP-Liberal government to release some of the data that the government has been suppressing. It proves that the…
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Madam Speaker, the government only does the right thing when it gets caught. The Liberals only disclosed the information because Conservatives forced them to. The NDP–Liberal government put a gag order on the Parliamentary Budget Officer because it did not want Canadians to know the economic cost of the carbon tax. Per capita GDP is falling and the carbon tax makes life more expensive, proving tha…
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Madam Speaker, today's motion is one for the production of documents, arising from the refusal of the government to allow the PBO to release information he had seen that supported the conclusions he had drawn, and that is that the overwhelming majority of Canadians are worse off under the carbon tax when the economic impacts of the carbon tax are taken into effect. This was the latest in the serie…
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Madam Speaker, does the member have any explanation for the reflexive secrecy? How on earth could it possibly come to the Parliamentary Budget Officer having to resort to ATIPing the government to get information from them? Secrecy by default is the Liberal government's MO. Does the member agree?
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Madam Speaker, on this point of order, I listened very carefully to the member, and he did not accuse a member of Parliament of lying, which would be against the rules. He pointed out that the government has not told the truth, and the government has lied in its—
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Mr. Speaker, the member did not really address the motion. The motion is about the production of documents. We have seen the government withhold information from Canadians. The member ran in 2015 on a promise to be the most open and transparent government in Canadian history, which would be open by default and would release data to Canadians that is the property of Canadians. Under the government,…
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Madam Speaker, the member is continuing to mislead people about what the report says and what the carbon tax does to Canadians. This whole discussion is about the economic impact of the carbon tax, and eight out of 10 Canadians are not better off when we measure the economic impact. They are poorer. The GDP reduction proves that this is harmful to the economy, and the PBO has been clear all along …
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Madam Speaker, I do not accept the premise of the member. It seems to be implied that the carbon tax is somehow making a significant impact on climate change. We heard from the member for Louis-Saint-Laurent earlier that Canada ranks very poorly in its performance on emissions, so I do not accept the premise that the carbon tax is a solution to the problems that she has outlined. I would also say …
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Madam Speaker, on the motion itself, literally minutes, maybe even seconds, before the opposition leader moved the motion to compel the production of documents, the government reluctantly, at the very last second, dropped an 80-page report. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has had to resort to the broken and completely chaotic ATIP system to try to get basic information from the government to do h…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague, our shadow minister of environment, talked about that in his speech, but I want to say to my colleague from the Bloc that his colleagues seemed to think that this motion is unworthy of debate or concern in the House. Do they think that it is okay for the Government of Canada to ignore requests for information with impunity, to gag the Parliamentary Budget Officer and t…
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Madam Speaker, I would ask you, as the Chair, if you could direct the member to address the motion before the House.
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Madam Speaker, we have seen, since this began to unfold quite some time ago, that the current minister gets up and claims that as soon as the government knew there were governance problems, its members took swift action. We have heard that talking point repeatedly today during this debate, and it is false. We know that this goes right back to 2017 and the behaviour of the former minister, and we k…
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Madam Speaker, as this story has been unfolding, up to and including the debate today, we have seen the Liberals claim they dealt with the problem as soon as they became aware of it. We know that this is a terrible mistruth. We know that former minister Navdeep Bains was warned about the board appointment, which he went ahead and made anyway. We also know that senior staff were present when these …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, if the member thinks the answer is an NDP government, why does he not stop propping up the government and have an election? We could have it out.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, it is truly pathetic to see the House leader of the NDP literally reciting, verbatim, Liberal talking points. If the member would stop supporting the government, we could have a carbon tax election and could sort out where Canadians want to go.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, could the member finish her thoughts on this bizarre attack on the family road trip that we have observed from this side?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, there is a lot to unpack there. We will see who is misleading Canadians. In my speech, I was very clear. I talked about the carbon tax. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has debunked the member's assertion about what people get back versus what they pay. Take into account the economic cost of the carbon tax, and that is what it is: a tax. Canadians pay far more than they get back. The …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's speech. He chose, in the debate, as an opposition member, or a purported opposition member, to spend virtually the entire speech criticizing a government in power from 2006 to 2015, and attacking the current Conservative leader and the current Conservative Party. I remember, before the 2021 election, the member and I were the vice-chairs of the finance commi…
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Mr. Speaker, here we are tonight in a concurrence debate. There was a report from the finance committee on grocery stores and a recommendation to the House to create some kind of extra profit tax. It came out of the finance committee, but the Conservatives have a better solution that we have offered through an amendment to the report. We think that there is a more effective, more efficient, quicke…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals reflexively blame Canadians for issues. They would literally say, as the Minister for Health said, that if a Canadian family wants to take their kids on a vacation, then it is all on them. It is their fault, and they are bad people for wanting to put the kids in the car to go on a road trip. They turn around and blame Canadians, using this inflammatory-type language about…
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Madam Speaker, this evening, participating in this debate gives me no joy whatsoever. However, it is always an honour, including at this moment, to speak in the House of Commons. The matter before us is the the motion of the member for Grande Prairie—Mackenzie, which notes: ...the Speaker's ongoing and repetitive partisan conduct outside of the Chamber is a betrayal of the traditions and expectati…
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Madam Speaker, the member might have listened to my speech because I addressed this in my speech extensively. I will say that if someone already has the same history that the current Speaker has, they do not get the benefit of the doubt at this point. At this point, it is over.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the member quite rightly points out through his question that the Speaker's position is untenable. This cannot go on and it would be best for him to resign before this vote occurs.
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Madam Speaker, I am here to talk about the motion at hand. The member said, the last time we debated the partisanship of the Speaker, that if there were any further transgressions of impartiality, particularly involving Liberal and partisan action, he would vote for removal of the Speaker. Therefore, I call on him to remember his words from last December and vote accordingly.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to join debate in the House of Commons, even quite late on a Monday evening. We are discussing Bill C-49, a bill the government tabled to solve regulatory issues and bring them in line with other bills it had passed, in particular, the Impact Assessment Act, Bill C-69 of the 42nd Parliament. The problem with Bill C-49, as well as the sudden urge to ensure its p…
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Mr. Speaker, I would strip out the sections that have already been struck down in court. That might be an easy place to start. There are four of them, but I do reject the entire approach of the government to business regulation and the regulation of energy development, both renewable and non-renewable.
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Mr. Speaker, in my remarks, I actually did not have time to talk about the important role that Canada could play in exporting our natural resources for energy. The member touched on it a little. However, with some extra time, could he explain further about just why it is so important that Canada be a global supplier of reliable, clean and affordable energy for people throughout the world?
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Mr. Speaker, it is really all about certainty for investors. If it is going to take potentially years to get a decision, and if a full offshore development and production designated project review can take 1,600 days, people are not going to apply. The uncertainty has been there from the moment the Liberals tabled the bill. They should make a clear declaration that they are not going to proceed do…
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Mr. Speaker, the member has still not been brought to order. Bring him to order. Name him. If he will not—
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Mr. Speaker, the chair occupant has made a precedent on this, and it is incumbent on you to restore order in this place and to name the member.
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Mr. Speaker, the impact was instantaneous when the government came to power. Some 200,000 energy workers across Canada, not all in Calgary, but many thousands in Calgary, including in my own riding, lost their jobs in the early months of the government. While things are much better now, the environment is still not there for investment. Money is leaving Calgary, not coming into it, from what some …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, the Canadian Armed Forces has 16,000 personnel vacancies and a crisis of morale, recruitment and retention. That is why the defence committee unanimously voted to cancel the April 1 rent increase for base housing. Like other Canadians, our troops cannot afford rent and groceries, and they know that the Prime Minister is not worth the c…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to personnel levels in the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, for each year between January 2015 and January 2024, broken down by branch and occupation: (a) what were the target or desired personnel levels in each occupation; (b) what were the actual personnel levels in each occupation; (c) how many applicants expressed a desire to serve in each occupation; (…
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With regard to provisions of the Criminal Code concerning motor vehicle theft: (a) how many Government of Canada-owned vehicles were stolen between January 2016 and February 2024 inclusively; (b) how many of the vehicles in (a) have been recovered; (c) how many of the vehicles in (a) have been used in the commission of other crimes; (d) how many of the vehicles in (a) departed Canada; (e) how many…
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With regard to the Department of National Defence's (DND) "2022-2023 Annual Report to Parliament - Administration of the Privacy Act", in particular "Figure 7: Number of active requests (as of 31 March 2023)", regarding the age of outstanding access to information and privacy requests filed with the DND, between January 2016 and February 2024 inclusively: (a) how many privacy requests were filed i…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the member will have to wait for our platform. I am in no position to launch it today, nor do I have a plan to table. This is not the place for it. There is a commitment from our party, from our leader, to finally take defence seriously. There will be a plan tabled to ensure that the men and women in our forces get the respect they need, get access to the housing they need and get the…
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Mr. Speaker, the report we are debating called upon the government to reverse the rent increase on our forces members. While this may seem like a small thing, it just seems to be what is typical of the government's approach. The utter neglect of the forces has precipitated a crisis of recruitment and retention, yet the government has pressed ahead with the rent increase. I wonder if the member wou…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I listened very carefully to that speech. It is great the way the member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke does not pull punches. We all know how she feels, and I really find that refreshing in the House. As the member said in her speech, she represents the largest base in the country. I think she would know better than anyone in this place how the housing costs affect the morale of the …
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Mr. Speaker, the member is correct about Ombud Lick; he did say this. Another important voice to be heard on this is that of the chief of the defence staff, who has cited the crisis of retention and recruitment as perhaps the most critical crisis of the Canadian Forces, among the many crises facing the forces. We know family issues are one of the key drivers of people out of the forces, with housi…
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Mr. Speaker, I will say that the government does not have a monopoly on non-investment in the forces. That is not to say I agree with the premise of his question. I would go back to a previous Liberal government. We had a decade of darkness. We had the Prime Minister's father, who decimated the military and really even firmly withdrew us from the orbit of the western defence system. If we want to …
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Mr. Speaker, we have heard that in multiple studies that we have undertaken. Any time we are talking about factors that affect morale, recruitment and retention, that comes up. It has always been thus, but with the cost of living being what it is, many people are rooted in a community in a way that earlier generations were not, because of connections to employment that do not transfer very well or…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member another question because there was a lot to unpack in her speech. The condition of housing is critical as well. The member knows, from her experience representing the largest base, about the really deplorable condition of barracks and, in some cases, PMQs and residential housing units. Can she talk about what she has heard right on the ground from the fo…
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Mr. Speaker, we are debating the eighth report of the Standing Committee on National Defence, which addresses the rent increase that took place in April. This is what was reported back to the House: “Given that, rent for Canadian military personnel living on bases is increasing this April, and at a time when the military is struggling to recruit and retain personnel, the committee report to the Ho…
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Mr. Speaker, I think it says everything about priorities. We have had testimony at the defence committee from the chief of the defence staff and others who have clearly stated that we are perhaps in the most dangerous times since the Second World War, in the words of the chief of the defence staff. However, there is dithering over all of these critically needed changes that have to be made, like c…
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Mr. Speaker, I am confused and actually troubled by part of the tone of the member's speech. I am quite aligned with the member on most of the underlying issues. The housing crisis in our armed forces is one we agree on. I do not understand why she used such bizarre terminology, calling a debate on an issue that desperately needs attention the weaponization of housing. She said that she is concern…
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