Parliamentary Speeches

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, as I said both in my speech and in my remarks to the government deputy whip, if the buyer is a state-owned enterprise of an autocratic regime like the People's Republic of China, the threshold should be zero. With respect to the preamble to her question regarding the increase to the threshold in general, I think that was made to be compliant with regulation under the WTO. I was not …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I think I was quite careful and precise in what I said, but I will repeat it. I said that if the foreign buyer is a Chinese state-owned enterprise, the threshold should be zero. The threshold for the dollar amount of a transaction by a Chinese state-owned enterprise should be zero.

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, this week's interest rate hike means that the prime rate of Canada's chartered banks is 6.45%, the highest in 22 years. Half of Canadian homeowners with a mortgage are worried they will not be able to afford their own home when their mortgage comes up for renewal. A typical homebuyer from five years ago, renewing a $400,000 mortgage, can expect their payments to go up by $400 or $50…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, it is always a privilege to speak in the House of Commons, and it is my honour to do so tonight on this bill. I will begin by saying that I was pleased to enjoy the remarks of the member for Winnipeg South Centre in the first hour of third reading. I look forward to his participation in this debate. He should know that he has my best wishes and my congratulations for bringing this b…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I followed the debate and I did think extraordinary the amount of patting on the back the Liberals wish to do over this economic statement. I know the member touched briefly on the debt service charges for this year, but in the years to come, according to the statement, by 2029 there will be up to $50 billion a year in interest charges with rising interest rates and endless deficits…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the member may not have had enough time, but perhaps he could comment on the government's tax policy. He got into it a little with Nova Scotia and the carbon tax. However, the government would have us believe that adding a tax to provinces is a good thing, and people should be excited and pleased about it. I do not think that is the case in his province. We have a carbon tax that in…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan): (a) what is the total amount of project funding announced by the agency since its inception; (b) what is the total amount of project funding where the funding has actually been transferred to the recipient since the agency's inception; (c) what is the breakdown of (a) and (b) by year; and (d) what are the details of all projects wh…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am going to focus on a couple of elements of the member's speech where we have some agreement. The member talked about the need to take the GST off of home heating, which is a great idea. I would go further and also remove the carbon tax. I would remove it altogether, but if nothing else, surely we could at least remove it from home heating. I wonder if the member would agree with…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, cold kills not often by direct exposure but quietly. People who are stuck in cold homes are more likely to die from high blood pressure and cardiac events resulting from their body's struggle to maintain circulation. Reports say that 150,000 people will likely die from the cold in Europe this winter due to soaring energy costs amid Putin's murderous war on Ukraine. While Germany resta…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I would bring to the member's attention the studies we undertook at the ethics committee, where it was reported that agencies of the federal government, including the RCMP and PHAC, did not follow the existing Treasury Board guidelines on the adoption of new technology. I think all parties agree that we need updated legislation, but the government is not even following the rules tha…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition on behalf of my constituents. This was brought to my attention by one of my constituents. We have dozens of signatures from people in Calgary Rocky Ridge who are concerned about the ongoing situation with trafficking in organs obtained without consent, the scourge of organ transplant tourism and the need to deal with this in Canada by way of crea…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I note that this bill is an improvement on some of the earlier iterations that have come around and that it is not quite as prescriptive as others we have seen in the past. I wonder if the member could comment on PSPC, as this bill creates a new piece for PSPC to consider. PSPC has been a broken department. It is broken under the government. I will say, though, that successive gover…

Government Orders

I will spare you the research and I will withdraw the term if that would please you, Madam Speaker. I was on the finance committee with the House leader of the New Democratic Party and I remember a time when he took seriously his obligation as a member of the opposition to oppose legislation where necessary and actually to take seriously parliamentary norms and the parliamentary duties and respons…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the very fact that we are having this debate is disappointing enough, but it is even more disappointing to hear once again how the New Democrats have completely surrendered to the Liberal Party and become literally the lapdogs of the Liberal government. I was on the finance committee—

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I will let that part of it speak for itself. That is the extent to which this costly coalition is imposing itself on Canadians. With respect to getting back to the bill itself, we heard an absurd speech from the government House leader last week on Motion No. 22, where he completely dismissed the idea that members should speak to legislation and justification of the draconian action…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, the Liberal government offers Canadians more debt, more taxes, more spending, more inflation and higher interest rates. Its out-of-control spending added $100 billion in debt before COVID, plus $205 billion in non-COVID debt that triggered an inflation crisis, which leaves Canadians unable to afford basic necessities. When will the Liberals end their inflationary spending and cancel…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, that answer is cold comfort to the millions of Canadian families that are going to struggle to heat their homes this winter. The Liberals said that inflation was transitory and that interest rates would never go up. Now interest rates and mortgage payments are through the roof, and millions of Canadians are going to struggle to make their payments. The Liberals are also going to rai…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise to add my voice to the debate on the fall economic statement. The bill is a disappointing but unsurprising continuation of the high-tax, high-inflation policy that we have come to expect from the Liberal government. The bill offers Canadians more debt, more taxes, more spending and the prospect of more inflation and higher interest rates in the months and years …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it pains me to so thoroughly disagree with my friend from Saint John—Rothesay. I thank him for putting on a tie and participating in the debate today, but he is completely wrong. The financial crisis that existed when the Conservatives were in office was at the time the greatest financial crash since the Great Depression. Canada came out of that firing on all cylinders with the stro…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am sorry I did not catch a third question there with all his talk about tripling the carbon tax. With respect to the Governor of the Bank of Canada, I would hope that all Canadians would expect him to return to the core mandate of limiting inflation to 2% and not devalue Canadian currency. We are very frustrated. I share his frustrations with the lack of responses from the governm…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I think resource extraction offers some of the best opportunities for remote indigenous communities to have access to jobs and the core services that the revenues these projects produce. We heard that earlier in the leader's speech. It is very important for indigenous communities, and indeed all northern and remote communities, that resource extraction can happen in Canada. Canada h…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the public service, and broken down by department, agency, or other government entity: (a) as of September 23, 2022, how many employees were working (i) in person, (ii) at home, (iii) in a hybrid situation; (b) of those employees working in a hybrid situation, what is the breakdown by the number of days per week in the office versus from home; and (c) excluding those who normally wo…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to consultations undertaken by the government further to the “Just Transition” for energy workers, since 2021: (a) how many unique submissions were received; (b) how many and what proportion of submissions were from (i) energy industry workers, (ii) human resources or skills training professionals, (iii) environmentalists; (c) of the submissions received from environmentalists, what pr…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to Canada’s subscription to shares of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: (a) how does Canada measure return on investment for the shares; (b) what is the value of dividends received by Canada further to its ownership of shares in the bank; (c) what is the resale value of Canada’s shares on September 27, 2022; (d) how many and which projects has the bank funded to date; (e) of th…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, some of this goes to the general approach of the government. We have a bill that purports to have noble objectives, which we might agree to as objectives, but there are all kinds of problems with the bill. The member talked about how much of this bill is left to future regulation. We have seen before where bills lack details or give the minister future powers, and we do not know what …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Canadians have never paid more taxes than they do now under the Prime Minister. The inflation rate is the highest in 40 years, which means that Canadians pay more for gasoline, groceries and home heating. Some say that it is just inflation, but inflation means higher prices for Canadians and more money in the Liberal government's pocket. It is the inflation tax. It is the cruellest ta…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, the ArriveCAN app caused chaos from the moment it was launched. It did nothing to improve efficiency at the border or to protect Canadians from COVID. Over 10,000 healthy vaccinated Canadians were arbitrarily ordered to quarantine and subjected to threatening emails, phone calls and home visits, all because the government clung to this useless piece of technology it knew was prone to …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is a shame that it seems my colleague is required to deliver such an eloquent education on some of the basics of the Constitution of Canada, including the Canadian monarchy. I am glad that he did so and had a chance to wax Walter Bagehot. I felt he did not quite get to the end of where he wanted to go with that part of his speech, so I will give him a few moments to expand on any…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I really like the approach the member has taken by framing policy questions in terms of choices. There are always trade-offs, and there is a tendency from the government to label something as a solution, while ignoring the reality of the trade-offs. I thought that was a fascinating approach, and I ask him to use whatever time he has left to continue on and explain that process.

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, 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…

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…

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 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 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

How is that working?

Government Orders

A failure, yes.

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.