Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, with an answer like that he is clearly not worth the cost. The Prime Minister did not answer the question as to whether or not his MPs would have a free vote, which begs the question whether his NDP MPs will get a free vote. The Saskatchewan NDP has just voted to endorse my motion to give equal tax-free heat to all Canadians. That is the position of the NDP in B.C., Manitoba and Alber…
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Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister flip-flopped and paused his carbon tax on heating oil, it did nothing to help Quebec. Quebeckers will have to pay the second carbon tax, which will drive up the price of both gas and groceries. Why is the Prime Minister raising taxes for Quebeckers? It is to finance a $1-billion fund. A senior official was caught on tape saying that this is just like the sponso…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised that Wednesdays would be Prime Minister's question period. His public itinerary indicates that he is in Ottawa, and he was even spotted in the building. The question for the Prime Minister is about the carbon tax chaos he has unleashed. He has paused the tax on some heat for some people, leaving the Government of Alberta to threaten a lawsuit, the Governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, the question was for the Prime Minister. He has unleashed carbon tax chaos across the country. After saying he would never bend, he backed down because I kept beating him in these debates in the House of Commons. He has put a two-year pause on some heating oil for some people, causing Saskatchewan to threaten not to collect the tax, Alberta to threaten a lawsuit, six provinces to come…
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Mr. Speaker, I feel bad for the Liberal minister, who has been abandoned by his leader. The leader of the Liberal government will not even stand and defend his own decisions. We know that on Thursday, after having his door beaten down by terrified Liberals about to lose their seats, he decided to flip-flop and bring in a temporary pause on a tax until after the election, dividing Canadians once ag…
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Mr. Speaker, that carbon tax question was for the Prime Minister on Prime Minister's question period day. I know I do not have my glasses on, but that guy does not look like the Prime Minister. I have a very simple motion, which says, “That, given that the government has announced a ‘temporary, three-year pause’ to the federal carbon tax on home heating oil, the House call on the government to ext…
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Mr. Speaker, I have another question for the Prime Minister. The lone Liberal MP in Edmonton was asked, “Western Canada is being left out of this whole home heating oil and the exemption for home heat from the carbon price. Should natural gas be added to that?” He said that he is not concerned at all. He then went on to say that if Albertans want to have the exemption, they can switch their furnac…
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Mr. Speaker, I can understand why the Prime Minister did not want to stand up and defend that comment from the Liberal member. This comment is similar to what we heard from Paul McLauchlin. He is the president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta. He said, “If I have an understanding that I can buy heating oil—which is effectively kerosene—and I can buy it with no carbon levy, I would change all…
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Mr. Speaker, while the question was for the Prime Minister, I am glad the member answered, because he reminded Atlantic Canadians that it is just a pause. If they re-elect the Prime Minister, they will get a massive tax increase on their home heating oil. Where is all the money going? We now know that 60% of Canadians pay more in carbon taxes than they get back in rebates. The difference is fundin…
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Mr. Speaker, now the carbon tax chaos continues. The incoming leader of the Liberal Party, Mark Carney, has weighed in and said, “I would have looked for other ways to provide ... support than the route chosen, not least because what is important is that clarity in terms of the overall plan, the overall direction.” Now we have an incoming Liberal leader taking potshots at an outgoing Liberal Prime…
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Mr. Speaker, instead of answering my questions and engaging me in debate, the Prime Minister forces yet another random Liberal to read off PMO talking points about the carbon tax payoff that is unfolding in this country. He has one province threatening lawsuits and another not collecting the tax at all. He has NDP provincial governments and parties turning against him even though he is in coalitio…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said he would have Wednesday Prime Minister's question period, that he would show up for work and answer questions, but here we are less than a week after he had to back down and pause his signature policy, the massive new carbon tax. His plan now is to quadruple that tax to 61¢ a litre, forcing seniors everywhere to choose between eating and heating. If that is rea…
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Mr. Speaker, the irony is, and this question is, for the Prime Minister, that the carbon tax chaos is unfolding within the Liberal tent itself. We saw last week, just as I was about to hold a thunderous rally with a thousand common-sense Nova Scotians to axe the tax, the Prime Minister was in a sweaty ball on the ground. He had to flip-flop and hold a hastily called and humiliating press conferenc…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Senator, Mr. Percy Downe wrote: The opportunity for a [Conservative] government was created by a lack of fiscal responsibility [by the Liberal] government, and the damage it caused our economy is now showing up in the opinion poll numbers. Within the Liberal Party, many members who are in favour of fiscal responsibility...have given up on this current iteration of the [Lib…
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Mr. Speaker, I can understand that as the Liberal members watch their Prime Minister in a panicked huddle, in the fetal position, shaking and trembling, they are losing control of themselves. The last few days of carbon tax chaos have been very hard on them, and now their leader is defending them. The minister says we should let Canadians decide, so why do we not pause the carbon tax on all home h…
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Mr. Speaker, we have someone now auditioning for the job of prime minister. When the cat is away, the mice will play, but we do not need any more of this chaos. If the NDP would actually do its job and hold the government to account, it would announce today that its members would vote in accordance with the views of the NDP in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and now Manitoba, all of whom agree that pe…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's flip-flop on his carbon tax creates two classes of Canadians: some who are temporarily exempt from taxes on their heating, and others who will have to pay the second carbon tax, which applies in Quebec and will continue to drive up the cost of gas, diesel and food for Quebeckers. The Prime Minister's Minister of Rural Economic Development said that Prairie Canadia…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's panicked flip-flop on the carbon tax for oil heating proved that everything he said for eight years about the tax is wrong. It is not worth the cost. He said that the tax would make people better off. He has now admitted that it is not true. He said it is about the environment, but he leaves the tax on lower-emitting and more environmentally friendly natural gas. …
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister admits that he is keeping the tax on cleaner and lower-emitting natural gas. This is clearly not about environmental science; it is about political science. That political science with him is always to divide and conquer. It tears the country apart to serve his own narrow, personal interest. Does the Prime Minister not realize that what he is doing is not just bankr…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not surprising that the Prime Minister continues to contradict the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who said that 60% of Canadians pay more in his carbon tax than they get back in rebates. Now he is contradicting what he said on Thursday, wherein he admitted that Canadians are made worse off on a net basis by his tax. That is why he is having to put in a pause until after the elect…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister admits that natural gas is cleaner and lower-emitting, and that is exactly why he is going to penalize Canadians for using it. He says he wants to bring in a pause for some people in some places. I want to get rid of the tax for all people in all places and forever, but why do we not let Canadians decide? Why does the Prime Minister not pause the tax across the coun…
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moved that Bill C-356, An Act respecting payments by Canada and requirements in respect of housing and to amend certain other Acts, be read the second time and referred to a committee. Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, the Prime Minister admitted he was not worth the cost. He found out that I was holding a monster rally in a Liberal stronghold, and he panicked. His phones lit up as Atlantic Canadian Liber…
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Mr. Speaker, this will have to be a case for Unsolved Mysteries. He claims that when I was minister, 800,000 homes went missing. What happened to them? Did aliens from outer space come and just pluck these homes? What has remained? Are the basements still there? Where did they go? These guys are unbelievable. It sounds like the member is having an LSD flashback or something. Let us talk about when…
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Mr. Speaker, people want more homes and more affordable homes; they do not want nationalized, government-controlled homes. When I was minister, the average rent was $950 and now it is over $2,000 under the NDP-Liberal government. When I was minister, the average mortgage payment on an average newly purchased house was $1,400. Now it is $3,500. Housing was not just affordable; it was cheap when I w…
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Mr. Speaker, the law dictates nothing to the municipalities. It does not dictate rules, only results. The federal government is already giving $5 billion to the municipalities. That means the federal level is already involved, and I simply want to match up those dollars to results. I do not want to pay the mayor of Montreal to prevent the construction of 24,000 homes, as she did. We are not going …
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister has finally admitted that he is not worth the cost. How many years have I been saying that the carbon tax will do nothing for the environment and will hurt families? I was just moments away from holding a massive rally in a Liberal riding to axe the carbon tax when the Prime Minister did a complete 180. However, he did not eliminate the second car…
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Mr. Speaker, we all knew the Prime Minister was not worth the cost. We just did not realize he would admit it himself, but here is what it took. I was moments away from holding a massive thousand-person rally of common-sense Nova Scotians to axe the tax. The Prime Minister heard the news. He was huddled up in a ball in the fetal position sweating bullets as Liberal MPs pounded on his office door a…
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Mr. Speaker, so the Prime Minister admitted that he is not worth the cost by announcing that he would pause his carbon tax for some people on some fuels for some period of time. Then his rural affairs minister said that other Canadians could have had the same pause but for the fact that they did not elect Liberals. Apparently we are going to have different tax rates in different constituencies dep…
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Mr. Speaker, that is hot air in cold weather. Just today the snow started falling in cold Ottawa. Edmonton is also cold; it has Liberal MPs. Winnipeg is called Winterpeg for a reason. People there are forced to pay tax on natural gas. All of these cities have Liberal MPs. The Prime Minister claims that he only backed down on the carbon tax for some Canadians because of the advocacy of terrified Li…
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Mr. Speaker, when a Liberal rural affairs minister says that if Canadians want a pause from the carbon tax, then need to elect a local Liberal MP, she has it exactly wrong. What they need to do is elect a common-sense Conservative government that would axe the tax entirely. This is not only hurting the pocketbook of Canadians or forcing seniors to choose between eating and heating, now Saskatchewa…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years in power, this Prime Minister is not worth the price of food. According to a devastating report, in one month alone there were two million visits to food banks. That is by far the highest level of use in the history of Canada, and that, after eight years of this Prime Minister. Will he finally reverse his plan to radically increase the taxes imposed on farmers and tr…
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Mr. Speaker, indeed, Ian Shugart was my deputy minister. He was a brilliant public servant, serving both political parties and serving Canadians in the Senate. All of us mourn with his family at the tragic loss of this great Canadian public servant. I want to quote Food Banks Canada, which said, “Rates of food insecurity in Canada—the number of people living in households struggling to afford food…
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Mr. Speaker, there he goes telling Canadians they have never had it so good when, after eight years, he is not worth the cost of food. According to the HungerCount by Food Banks Canada, “the number of people living in households struggling to afford food due to lack of money” has “increased to the highest levels on record.” There is a record-smashing two million visits to Canadian food banks in a …
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Mr. Speaker, actually, Canadians are making cuts to their food. They are cutting back on their standard of living after eight years under the Prime Minister, who is not worth the cost. I will go back to that nightmarish report from Food Banks Canada, where one Nova Scotian reported to researchers, “Seniors are having trouble with home heating and many times have to choose between food and heating.…
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Mr. Speaker, not only have we always defended the CPP, but the number of seniors requiring food banks was also drastically lower when we were in government. Let me quote a British Columbian, who reported the following in the Food Banks Canada report: “The cost of housing is indescribable. Many of our users are paying 50% of their annual income in rent, providing they can find accommodations.” This…
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Mr. Speaker, it is like a parallel universe every time the NDP leader stands up, attacks the very government he is a part of and laments how miserable life is for Canadians. This is after two years of his being part of voting for quadrupling the carbon tax, driving up inflationary deficits and, of course, driving two million people to the food banks in a single month. He blames greed for all this …
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Mr. Speaker, he is not being there for Canadians. He is taking money out of their pockets. If members do not believe me, they can listen to the Governor of the Bank of Canada, who today said, “government spending will be adding to demand more than supply is growing. And in an environment where we’re trying to moderate spending and get inflation down, that’s not helpful”. That adds to the voice of …
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Mr. Speaker, the question was not about his housing photo ops. The question was about the rate of inflation and its link to government spending. I am going to quote the Governor of the Bank of Canada on this point. He said, “government spending will be adding to demand more than supply is growing. And in an environment where we’re trying to moderate spending and get inflation down, that’s not help…
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Mr. Speaker, he is very determined to avoid discussing the growing evidence of the link between his deficits and the inflation Canadians pay. Let us review what the bank governor said today. He said that, one, inflation risks are rising; two, inflation will not get back to target until the year 2025, which is two years out; and three, the bank is now leaving its door open to further rate hikes, pr…
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Mr. Speaker, do members know the one word he never used in that big, rambling, read-off answer? It is “done”. That is because none of those houses are done. They are all promises. He has been promising to build affordable homes for eight years. Since he first made that promise, housing costs have doubled and none of the promises have come to fruition. Yes, other levels of government have politicia…
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Mr. Speaker, he has the best photo ops in the history of photo ops. We will give him credit for that. He wants to know what I got done. When I was housing minister, the average rent was $950. It is now over $2,000. When I was housing minister, the average mortgage payment was $1,400. It is now well over $3,500. When I was housing minister, the average needed down payment was 20 grand and one could…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years in office, this Prime Minister is not worth the cost of inflation and interest rates. Today, the Governor of the Bank of Canada noted three things in his report. First, inflationary risks have increased. Second, he is considering raising interest rates again, and third, the government's deficits and spending are driving up inflation, which is also increasing the risk…
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Mr. Speaker, the disagreement is not with me, but with the Governor of the Bank of Canada, who said today that government spending is driving up inflation. I know the Prime Minister loves to spend money. He has doubled our national debt and he is forcing Canadians to make the decision to cut their own spending. Does the Prime Minister agree with the Governor of the Bank of Canada that this governm…
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Mr. Speaker, people are already making budget cuts in their personal lives. Given the 150% increase in monthly mortgage payments since this Prime Minister came to power, people are being forced to either leave their homes, live on the street or cut back on food. People are having to make these kinds of cuts because of the Prime Minister's policies. Would the Prime Minister agree that this governme…
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Mr. Speaker, again we hear all of the Prime Minister's expensive promises that have not completed a single home. He mentions that I spent only $300 million on housing, but he had the number of houses built wrong. It was actually 200,000 homes that were built in the year I was housing minister, but we know that numbers are not his strength. This is the guy who thinks budgets balance themselves, who…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister is neither worth the cost nor the corruption. We know he illegally interfered to block the criminal prosecution of a multinational Liberal-linked corporation that had stolen from Africa's poorest people. Now we know that he was involved in blocking the RCMP from investigating the criminality of his conduct. He held back cabinet documents, so we in…
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Mr. Speaker, the question was about the SNC-Lavalin criminal investigation, not the ArriveCAN app criminal investigation. I can understand that there are so many criminal investigations he can get confused sometimes, but he sure managed to know enough about them to block them from any scrutiny. He deprived the police of cabinet documents that may have led to criminal charges against him, and now h…
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Mr. Speaker, one thing we will cut is the ArriveCAN app. That matter is also under criminal investigation. It was an app we did not need and did not work, and it was about 500 times more expensive than it should have been. We now know that one of the contractors who was paid submitted detailed documentation on a company that did not even exist. We know the Prime Minister blocked criminal investiga…
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Mr. Speaker, he accuses me of distracting. The question was about the criminal investigation into the ArriveCAN app, and what does he do? He tries once again to divide Canadians in order to distract from the costs and corruption he has imposed upon them. I asked a very simple question. We now know that a program he created is under criminal investigation. Will he, yes or no, co-operate with the po…
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Mr. Speaker, The Wall Street Journal revealed today that mere weeks before Hamas terrorists unleashed the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, they went to Iran to take training and direction from a terrorist group, the IRGC. Strangely, given that this group is probably the most dangerous terrorist outfit on earth, it is perfectly legal to raise money for it and organize and recruit for it ri…
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