Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for giving me the opportunity to put this nonsense to bed. During the time that article came out, I could not even have, in a city like Calgary, in my home, enough reliable upload speed to be able to engage with the hybrid Parliament at that time. I would watch it on TV, because at least I could reliably see the image. I did not show up as being at work by logging…
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Mr. Speaker, the government has been running massive deficits ever since it took office. All this debt has predictably triggered an inflation crisis, which has led to massive mortgage rate hikes. Half of all homeowners say their mortgage was already barely affordable, and now they are one renewal away from a shocking new payment that will add $1,400 a month to a typical family with a mortgage. Rat…
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Mr. Speaker, massive deficits cause inflation. Inflation causes rate hikes. Rate hikes make mortgage payments unaffordable. Unaffordable payments lead to mortgage defaults. However, there is a solution. The Liberal government could stop the deficits, stop inflation, stop rate hikes and prevent defaults. Even the finance minister agreed with this basic advice a few short months ago. When will the P…
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Mr. Speaker, the latest interest rate hike is having a devastating effect on Canadian homeowners and homebuyers. Half of homeowners say that their mortgage is already barely affordable now, and shocking higher payments are only one renewal away. Rate hikes are also crushing the dreams of new homebuyers and threatening to collapse transactions that are currently in progress. When will the Prime Min…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the procurement commitments, in “Strong, Secure, Engaged” (SSE): (a) how many full time equivalent employees at Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) and the Department of National Defence (DND) are tasked with work to complete each of the following tasks as their primary responsibility, using SSE's internal numbering system, 29. Recapitalize the surface fleet through invest…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to speak in the House of Commons and represent my constituents by lending my voice to debate on the various bills that come before this chamber. Tonight, we are talking about Bill C-35, an act respecting early learning and child care in Canada. I have knocked on a lot of doors as a candidate and even an activist in the past. One meets a lot of people at the doo…
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Mr. Speaker, there is something of a false premise there, which is that this bill would suddenly conjure $10-a-day child care for everybody. That is not what this bill would do. The member asked me a direct question about support for this bill, and I will point out to him that I voted for this bill at second reading. I supported this bill going to committee, where it could have been improved throu…
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Mr. Speaker, that is just it. It is about the actual care and quality of care for the children. Most parents, given the choice between a bill that enshrines principles and a day care space that is affordable, would probably choose the affordable day care space. Again, this is what we often see with the Liberal government and the bills it introduces. The Liberals want to be rewarded for the intenti…
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Mr. Speaker, that is exactly my point. The member is correct that the one concrete thing this bill does is create a commission and paid positions for people to talk about child care. I do not see a specific, real, true strategy to deliver on the objectives stated in the legislation.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to environmental assessments of natural resource projects submitted under the Impact Assessment Act: (a) how many submissions have been received since June 21, 2019; (b) how many submissions has the minister approved since June 21, 2019; (c) how many submissions have been made but later withdrawn since June 21, 2019; (d) how many projects whose submissions were approved since June 21, …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to Prairies Economic Development Canada, and its precursor Western Economic Diversification Canada, between December 2015 and December 2022 inclusive: (a) how many recipients were still in business (i) one year, (ii) three years, (iii) five years, after receiving funding, broken down by funding stream; (b) how many of the positions created by recipients continued to exist (i) one year,…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals already have one carbon tax that would add 41¢ to the price of a litre of gasoline. Carbon tax 2 would add another 17¢ per litre. GST will, of course, be applied to both. This means an extra 61¢ on the price of a litre of gas. Since Canadians cannot afford higher taxes and the existing carbon tax has not achieved emission reductions, will the Liberals cancel this new carb…
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Mr. Speaker, the cost of government is driving up the cost of living, and now the Liberals plan a 41¢-a-litre tax on gas, groceries and home heating. Liberal deficits are driving up inflation. This means that interest rates are higher, making mortgages more expensive and harder to qualify for. Prices have doubled, down payments have doubled, rents have doubled and new housing construction is falli…
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Mr. Speaker, while this Prime Minister is living it up and taking international celebrity selfies, a generation of Canadians are giving up on home ownership. Down payments have doubled, rents have doubled, mortgage payments have doubled and builders cannot build because it takes years just to get permits in Canada's large cities. When will the government do something about the big-city gatekeepers…
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Mr. Speaker, we will always stand up for Canadians who cannot access homes. The Prime Minister has been on five lavish trips already this year, including a vacation worth $80,000, paid for by Trudeau Foundation donors. He is out of touch and Canadians are out of money. The cost of government is driving up the cost of living, a 41¢-a-litre tax on gas, groceries and home heating and endless deficits…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, seven people were attacked with bear spray in broad daylight on a Calgary LRT platform. Two of the victims were my daughters. The investigating officer said that it was the eighth such incident that week. Fortunately, they were not seriously injured, but, sadly, violent attacks are now a daily occurrence on Canada's transit systems. In April alone, there was an Edmont…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I love the fact that, when the members on the government side have nothing, they turn the clock back as far as they possibly can. We are talking about the current government, elected in 2015 on a pack of lies. I will take absolutely no lessons from that member on equalization or on any talk of how resources are developed and resource revenue.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, now we are at the point where members of the NDP benches are coming out and cheerleading the government. It is not enough to just be a part of a coalition agreement where those members support the government; they are even bailing it out in questions and comments and in speeches. I wish that the member and his caucus would find their opposition roots and think whether they were elec…
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Madam Speaker, I am terribly upset by the incompetence of the government and the growing backlog of cases at Service Canada. Again, I challenge that member. If she is as upset with the government's incompetence, the government's deception and the terrible job the government is doing, will she vote against the budget implementation act?
Read full speech →Government Orders
The member can read our declaration. It is pretty clear.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am glad I was able to catch your eye and participate in the debate today, following my good friend the member for Foothills. There is a disconnection between everything the government has said about fiscal restraint and the numbers contained in the budget this bill promises to implement. Some might call it the “pants on fire” budget. It puts a lie to everything the Liberals have s…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, after eight years under the Prime Minister, Canadians cannot afford a place to live. What do the Liberals have to show for the $90 billion they have committed to housing? Mortgages have doubled. Rents have doubled. It is $2,500 a month for a couple to rent one room in a townhouse. That is not the townhouse, just the room. A government on autopilot cannot fix a housing crisis. When w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak on this bill. The member rises to speak to every bill. He began his speech by apologizing for his inability to address the House in French. I wonder if he could have maybe not spoken, and let the member for Mount Royal or the member for Lac-Saint-Louis participate in this debate, because it would be great to hear their views on this bill.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, this government will shamelessly announce anything, but it always fails to implement anything other than, say, higher taxes, deficits, inflation and now higher emissions. Yesterday, we learned that this Liberal government has broken another one of its election promises. The environment commissioner’s audit revealed that the Liberals' promise to plant two billion trees within 10 years …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. We clearly do not have quorum.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thought we should get a ruling from you. I think this is at least the third time the member has spoken to the budget. Perhaps another member would like a turn. Members can only speak at each stage—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we usually hear from only two or three members over there when we are debating legislation, so it is nice to have a different voice. I wonder what the member's constituents have to say about a promise the government made when the Liberals won in 2015. They distinguished themselves from both the Conservatives and the NDP by promising to run deficits. There is a general consensus agains…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, we are in the middle of an affordability crisis. Any tax increase is too much. The tax was too high to begin with. There is no room for any more tax. The budget adds $4,200 in new costs for every Canadian family, more spending, more taxes, more debt. That means more inflation. Canadians cannot even afford basic necessities like food, housing and transportation, and tonight the tax o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the budget still allows the automatic tax increase to take place tonight on beer, wine and spirits. Under this Liberal government, simple pleasures like enjoying beer with friends after work or a bottle of wine over dinner with a loved one have become unaffordable luxuries for working Canadians. Will the government commit today to support my bill, Bill C-266, and cancel the automati…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there is no doubt that the bill is a disaster. Liberals have been flailing away with it for months. They tried it in the last Parliament. They steadfastly refuse to exempt user-uploaded content. It has been to the Senate; indeed, as the minister said in his remarks, the Senate spent a record amount of time debating this bill because it is a disaster. The bill needed the 20-odd amend…
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Mr. Speaker, we know this bill has been an absolute disaster in how it was managed through the House. It was introduced in the previous Parliament, and the Liberals called an election, so they were the ones who killed Bill C-10. It was brought back as Bill C-11. It did not include the critical exemption that critics from the Green Party, as well as other critics out there and Conservatives, pointe…
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Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to that response, he did not answer the previous question. Why did they not include the amendment? It would have made it all clear, and there would have been much less for people to object to in this bill had they accepted that amendment.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. By all means, I am sure you have a responsibility to look into the issue that was raised. I am not sure what happened, but nobody really appreciates a tattler or the extent to which the member piled it on there. I think we can be more reasonable about these issues.
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, yesterday’s budget tried to fool Canadians into thinking the Liberals had capped the tax on beer, wine and spirits, but they did no such thing. If it was actually capped, the tax would not be going up on Saturday. Canada already has one of the highest excise duty rates in the world, and the tax is still going up on Saturday, and it will still go up automatically next year. New spendin…
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Madam Speaker, at the beginning of his speech, he expressed pleasure at hearing Orwell quoted to him from Conservative benches, so I will maybe continue in that vein. He was certainly my favourite novelist of the first half of the 20th century, although he did spend most of his career writing and criticizing socialism and its excesses. In 1984, the main character worked in the “Ministry of Truth” …
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Madam Speaker, we have heard a lot tonight about creating even playing fields, but Bill C-11 is about doing the opposite. It would make the field less even, take us backward and jam the Internet into a 1971 system around Canadian content. I wonder if the member could comment on whether he agrees that there is nothing more even than the playing field of an unfettered Internet.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would invite the member to listen more carefully then, because I did not say many of the words that she put in my mouth, and she did not notice or note any of the words other than a couple that she picked here and there. I said quite the opposite of what I think of Canadian content. I talked about the regulation of Canadian content, and I oppose it in this bill.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I guess this member is sort of a part of the government, or his party is governing with the Liberals. Why did the government not exempt user-generated content and the uploading of user-generated content? This is a big bill, and I am not going to oppose everything that is contained within it. I am not going to suggest that every motivation behind the tabling of this bill was wrong, b…
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Madam Speaker, it was actually because of interventions by this member earlier in debate that I chose to mention his city's great band. There is a real Canadian value on display, which is a modest understatement. I really believe that band was so talented and connected so well with Canadians that it could have succeeded under any set of rules. That is why I mentioned them. Other Canadian artists w…
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to join this debate, mostly to refute some of the claims that have been made by Liberals and the NDP about the Conservative position on this bill. During debate on Bill C-11, the Liberals and the NDP have falsely claimed the Conservatives do not care about Canadian artists and that we do not care about Canadian culture. They have accused us of spreading misinformation and…
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Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned the talk we heard in the debate about level playing fields. Could he comment on whether an unfettered Internet is the most level playing field that could ever possibly exist?
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's speech. At the very end, I heard him acknowledge a province, and he did not name it, but it was pretty clear he was talking about Alberta. He thanked it for supporting the country for so long. I would like to make sure we do identify or be clear about which province the member was talking about. That was quite an acknowledgement from the member about an indu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, any tax increase on Canadians during a cost of living crisis is just plain wrong. I have opposed the increase happening on April 1 to the carbon tax. I opposed the payroll tax increases that took effect earlier this year, and for years I have spoken against the automatic alcohol escalator. With the budget coming up next week, these are tax increases that were imposed on Canadians, and…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is different in every province. It is fairly complicated. I am not going to give him the run through, because I do not have time. I will merely say that it is quite astonishing that the government's main defence of the automatic excise escalator tax is that it is only raising taxes a bit; it is not raising them that much. Why should people complain? The Liberals are only raising ta…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a good question. I have not given significant thought to the products the member mentioned and the taxes placed on them. My first reaction and instinct is to agree. I do not support additional taxes. Taxes are high in this country, and our taxes on alcohol are among the highest in the world. The most expensive ingredient in beer, wine or spirits in Canada is taxes. It is more …
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Mr. Speaker, I agree that dental care is very important for families, and I understand the costs and concerns around access to dental care. However, I am also concerned that the government's approach to just about everything it has done is to harm our ability to have a robust economy that can afford the sustainable programs Canadians rely on. I have concerns about cost and about how any type of sy…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise and table a petition signed by a number of Canadians who are concerned and agree with me on the need to repeal the automatic excise escalator on alcohol. They are concerned, as I am, that this tax is an automatic tax that impedes our industry from competing in world markets and that it is the wrong approach to excise. The timing is particularly bad with the record…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise and join the debate this morning in the House of Commons. I will be sharing my time with the member for Fort McMurray—Cold Lake. Bill C-26 is a bill that addresses an important and growing topic. Cybersecurity is very important, very timely. I am glad that, in calling this bill today, the government sees this as a priority. I struggle with trying to figure out…
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