Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about something other than imaginary taxes, shall we? While the Conservatives hammer away on taxes that are not real, we are actually helping Canadians with the cost of living. Every year, for example, the Canada child benefit and old age security are indexed to inflation, and what happens every year? Every year, these Conservatives vote against the increases that actually…
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Mr. Speaker, instead of the members opposite focusing on fake taxes, they should support things that actually put a few extra bucks in the pockets of hard-working Canadians. As a former single mother and a person who lived paycheque to paycheque for most of my life, I can tell the House that what helps parents, what helps families, is having money in their pockets. When we index things such as the…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada's Building Trades Unions, the Canadian Labour Congress and LiUNA are all unions that have praised budget 2025. Do members know why? It is because it makes historic investments in the major infrastructure projects that are going to create great jobs all across this country. Whether it is on supporting Canadians through things like the Canada child benefit, indexing it to inflati…
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Mr. Speaker, it is pretty rich for the member opposite to say that he cares about people like Denise, workers who are benefiting from work-sharing, which is supporting the very auto employers he speaks about to retain a skilled workforce. Guess what. The Conservatives voted against Denise. They voted against Canadians who are benefiting not only from the measures in budget 2025 but also from measu…
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Mr. Speaker, I think the steelworkers would be pretty disappointed if they knew that this Conservative member of Parliament keeps fighting against the very measures the government is putting in place to save our steel sector. I was at Algoma Steel just a few months ago, working with that company and its workers to make sure the company has liquidity so that it can find new markets, protect those j…
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Mr. Speaker, members like that one, with the fake outrage as their colleagues stand up and vote against the very—
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Mr. Speaker, do members know what helps families? Good-paying jobs do. That is why we have had such a tremendous response to this budget, including from Canada’s Building Trades Unions, which has said it is grateful to all parliamentarians who supported the federal budget and acted in the best interests of Canadians. I guess that does not include the Conservatives, who voted against the very Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, nobody should have to feel the fear that Cassandra feels, but I will note what Cassandra also said. She said she could hardly wait until the Canada child benefit arrived on the 20th of each month because it helped her feed her baby, as she lived on Ontario disability. The member voted against the Canada child benefit. She voted against school food. She voted against the very people sh…
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Mr. Speaker, maybe the member did not read the article where Canada research chair Ms. Lesley Frank said that the Canada child benefit should be increased, which, by the way, it is every year because it is pegged to inflation, and where the experts said that formula should be produced in Canada. In this budget, we have money for innovation in agriculture. How does that member think that Canada wil…
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Mr. Speaker, that is why I am so proud to be a Liberal. Liberals believe in helping each other. We believe that, when a single mom is having a tough time, we should be there for her. We believe that, when a family is down on their luck, we should have an employment insurance program that helps people out when they lose their jobs. We believe that, when people cannot access dental care, sometimes f…
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Mr. Speaker, unlike the members opposite, Canadians know that we need to invest in ourselves, and that is exactly why they have supported this government and why they support this budget. From Canada's Building Trades Unions to the YMCA to Food Banks Canada, a variety of different stakeholders have advocated for the programs and approach in this budget. People are happy. They are happy with a gove…
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Mr. Speaker, just the other day, the member for Bowmanville—Oshawa North suggested that hungry children should go without because parents should be able to afford to feed their kids. Well, I have a news flash: Single mothers, just like I was in my day, need all the help they can get, and that is what we do for moms every single day in the House.
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Mr. Speaker, what the member opposite fails to acknowledge is that she voted against every measure that helps single mothers right now, every single day. Whether it is fees reduced for early learning and child care, access to dental care for children who do not have dental care benefits or fighting against school food, these Conservatives stand up to say they feel the pain of moms, especially sing…
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Mr. Speaker, this budget is a game changer for families across the country, whether it is the school nutrition program, which I know the Conservatives like to talk down, that is feeding hungry mouths in my riding of Thunder Bay—Superior North and all across the country, or our early learning and child care program that is reducing fees. Listen to this: “ELCC has taken a huge mental and financial l…
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Mr. Speaker, I guess the member was not listening to the parent from Andrew Fleck Children's Services who said that their family has been able to have healthier meals at home and start saving for post-secondary education. Another mother, from the same child care service, said that she would have had to quit her job and become a stay-at-home mom, and her family would not have been able to afford ch…
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Mr. Speaker, last week we came to an agreement with Ontario to continue our work on affordable child care in that province, and all across the country families are saving money. Do not take it from me; listen to a parent from Andrew Fleck Children's Services, who said that their family has been able to have healthier meals at home and to start saving for post-secondary education. Another parent sa…
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Mr. Speaker, I am the member of Parliament for a region that has many small communities. I can tell the House that those small communities all across northern Ontario are looking forward to the investments this budget would make in small and rural community infrastructure and projects like the Crawford mine, just outside of Timmins, which is going to create thousands of jobs. These northern Ontari…
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Mr. Speaker, I know that they do not really like seeing women in the workforce, but the mom talks about—
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Mr. Speaker, this historic budget aims to invest not only in infrastructure that is typically covered solely by provinces, but also in health infrastructure in small communities like Kenora, where communities are waiting for those investments so they, too, can have the kind of promise Canadians in larger municipalities have. Let me be clear. In Nipigon, Ontario, where I visited a school food progr…
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Mr. Speaker, the member talks about the coverage that her job afforded. Not everybody has the luxury to stay at home.
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Mr. Speaker, what Canadians want is a government that will invest in their futures and invest in their possibilities. That is exactly what we have been doing. Some 67,000 new jobs were added this month. For two months in a row, we are seeing unemployment go down. What is great about this is that youth unemployment is going down. The investments we are making are working. This is a budget for young…
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Mr. Speaker, the very-often-quoted Sylvain Charlebois had exactly this to say about budget 2025: our investments and logistics and corridors and trade will bring prices down for food. The food professor went on to say, making the national school food program permanent will “make a difference where it counts.” Making that program permanent is exactly what the food professor has called for.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians do not have time for the kinds of antics the Conservative Party performs every single day. What Canadians want is investment in their families, investment in their children and investment in the infrastructure in small communities all across this country, including in my riding, that is going to make life affordable and build up the kind of infrastructure that allows for us …
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Mr. Speaker, as a former single mother myself, the kind of thing single mothers and families are looking for is affordability. That is in this budget. Whether it is a middle-class tax cut for 22 million Canadians; protecting $10-a-day child care, which by the way is a game-changer for women, especially single mothers; making the school food program permanent; or investing in building trades, these…
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Mr. Speaker, here is what we are going to do. We are going to stand up for Canadians every single day. We are going to invest in their futures. We are going to invest in the jobs that Canadians are talking about that they want to take up. This is a time when Canadians have pulled together to build Canada strong, and that is exactly what our budget is going to do. We are going to make sure the tool…
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Mr. Speaker, what Canadians expect of us is to invest in them, to invest in their families, to invest in the futures of their children. That is exactly what the budget will do. It will make sure we are creating not only the jobs of today but also the jobs of tomorrow, and we are ensuring that young people have the skills to get those jobs in partnership with unions, with the Canadian Building Trad…
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Mr. Speaker, what else happened since 2015 is that 400,000 children have been lifted out of poverty through the Canada child benefit. This year, 22 million Canadians will receive a tax credit. We are working with Canadians on the things they have told us are a priority. This is why Canadians trust the Liberal government. This is why they deeply distrust the Conservative Party of Canada.
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Mr. Speaker, it is imaginary tax after imaginary tax. Conservatives had the chance to stand up for families, whether to vote for a school food program, whether to vote for tax cuts for Canadians or whether to vote for the skills trade training that provides those great-paying jobs. I sure hope they are not going to vote against personal support workers' tax credits, but that is what it is looking …
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Mr. Speaker, what young Canadians want is a great job. That is why we are making investments not only in the things they need, like good jobs, housing and major projects, but also in the skills training they need for picking up those jobs. Canada's Building Trades Unions does a fantastic job of training young apprentices. That is why in our budget we will propose $75 million more for Canada's Buil…
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Mr. Speaker, this morning, I had the privilege of meeting with Minister Barb Ramsay of the Conservative government in Prince Edward Island. Do members know what Minister Ramsay and I talked about? It was how pleased people were that we made the national school food program permanent. In fact, they have been able to drive down hunger through the national school food program, and they are so happy t…
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Mr. Speaker, I have noticed that the Conservatives have stopped quoting the report from Food Banks Canada. Do members know why? It is because in that report, what Food Banks Canada said is that there are some promising signs from the federal government, with things like the Canada disability payment, done for the very first time, something those guys voted against; the Canadian dental care plan, w…
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Mr. Speaker, all across Ontario, families are benefiting from spending $16 a day for child care, which is down from $70 a day. This is phenomenal, and it is adding thousands of dollars into the pockets of Canadians every single month. That is the power of investing in families. That is the power of investing in children. That is why Canadians trust us to have their backs, and they know that these …
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Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the Leader of the Opposition is driving for a Christmas election. He would rather do that than stand up for the moms and dads across this country who are looking for affordable child care, who want us to make the school food program permanent and who want us to invest in women's safety, shelters, homes and wraparound housing. That is what Canadians want. They want thi…
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Mr. Speaker, I am really grateful for the question, because the government is taking a number of steps, and has been taking steps for a number of years, to make sure that Canadians can actually feed their family. For example, the Canada child benefit has lifted 400,000 children out of poverty. There are the indexed-to-inflation benefits for seniors. We have done work on employment insurance to mak…
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Mr. Speaker, let us hear from another person in Canada who is doing really important work as well. That is Kirstin Beardsley, the CEO of Food Banks Canada. She said that with proper long-term investment and improved access, these kinds of initiatives are “showing early promise for greater adoption and expansion”. She also said that we should make the school food program permanent, we should help t…
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Mr. Speaker, the youth in my riding are dreaming, and not only that; they are working and are entering the workforce in extraordinary ways. Let me talk about the young welder I met at Thunder Bay Hydraulics just a few weeks ago. She approached me the other day and said that because of the programs that the province and the federal government worked together on to ensure that she had work-integrate…
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Mr. Speaker, here we go again with the imaginary taxes. They do not show up on receipts because they are not actually there. Canadians know that. They know how to read a receipt, but picking up on the previous question, I just want to remind people about how much good this school nutrition program is doing all across Canada, including, as my colleague mentioned, by providing dignity to families al…
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Mr. Speaker, that speech really freaked out the Conservatives because it was all about ambition. It was about investing in ourselves. It was about building major projects. It was about the project that Prime Minister Carney announced with Premier Ford—
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Mr. Speaker, the speech yesterday from the Prime Minister really freaked the Conservatives out, because they heard the ambition in that speech. Not only did they hear it in that speech, but today, as the Prime Minister stood with the premier, investing in new nuclear to ensure the jobs of today and of the future, they know that the—
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Mr. Speaker, again, I am really heartened to hear about the support the member has for early learning and child care. It is a real switch, given that she voted against it time and again. I will say this. I have a meeting with my counterpart this afternoon, the minister from Alberta, to talk about exactly that: how we take the next steps, together, because, as the member would know, jurisdiction ov…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Madawaska—Restigouche for highlighting the exceptional work of early childhood educators across the country. Our government has invested more than $1 billion to recruit, train and retain more educators. We are working with the provinces and territories to improve salaries and training. When we support educators, we support families and the future of our econo…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member that the Ring of Fire is an extremely important deposit in northern Ontario. We have been working with the Province of Ontario for years to ensure that we have a plan to move forward, and we have been working with the affected first nations in that riding, which is mine. We will continue to focus on the opportunity the Ring of Fire presents for not just norther…
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Mr. Speaker, what is not imaginary is that Canadians know who they can trust. In fact, time and again, they have seen these Conservatives across the aisle vote against their very interests, whether it is things like the school nutrition program or the early learning and child care. By the way, the average cost of child care is down to $16 a day. These are real savings for real Canadian families. T…
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Mr. Speaker, our government is focused on making the investments that are going to help Canadians get ahead. Whether it is investing in major projects, in affordable housing or in early learning and child care so people can make the best wages possible, our government is focused on one thing, and that is Canadians' success. Canadians know that too. They do not trust those guys to protect their int…
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Mr. Speaker, it is the height of irony that a Conservative MP who voted against child care is now criticizing child care that exists across this country. What the Auditor General said is that provinces and territories have to do a better job in terms of reporting. We are working with provinces and territories to make sure that we grow the number of spaces. Let me leave members with this: $16.50 a …
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Mr. Speaker, again, we see the member and, indeed, the entire Conservative Party pretending there is a tax on food. Canadians are smarter than that. They know, when they go to the grocery store, that food is not taxed. Instead of imaginary problems, we are coming up with real solutions on this side, whether it is for families, seniors or workers. We are here for Canadians, in both the good times a…
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Mr. Speaker, time and again, we see the Conservatives fighting against policies that Canadians are not only benefiting from but also asking that we make permanent. This includes things like the school food program, which many advocates and, indeed, families have praised. In fact, in my own riding, I heard just yesterday from a food partner who is working with high schools to make sure kids not onl…
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Mr. Speaker, there is good news for Canadians. Last week, the Prime Minister announced that we are making the school food program permanent, so I take from the question of the member opposite. That means Canadian kids all across the country are getting good-quality food at school, saving families about $800 a year at the grocery store, but I hope from the nature of the question that we can count o…
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Mr. Speaker, most Canadians know, or ought to know, that there is not tax on food, and that in fact these are imaginary taxes. What is not imaginary is the $8,000 in Canadian families' bank accounts for children under six years old that will be deposited today, something the Conservatives have voted against time and time again. When they have an opportunity to make life more affordable for Canadia…
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Mr. Speaker, every time there is a chance to stand up for Canadian families, the Conservatives vote against their interests. Whether it is increases to seniors' benefits or whether it is ensuring that food costs remain low for Canadians, they voted against it. Canadians expect governments to work on their behalf, and they know they cannot trust the Conservatives.
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