Private Members' Business
moved that Bill C-318, an act to amend the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Labour Code (adoptive and intended parents), be read the second time and referred to a committee. Madam Speaker, the arrival of a new child into one's family is a precious and exciting time for parents. As a mom of four, I know first-hand how important, demanding and wonderful that time truly is. For adoptive and in…
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Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what I was referring to. If we rewind the tapes to earlier today, that specific member said that the member for Wellington—Halton Hills had known for two years and he has done nothing about the issue. That is not true. That is misleading Canadians, and it is misleading this House. It is unconscionable that he is doing that.
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Mr. Speaker, on this point of order, the double standard is so frustrating. As members of Parliament, we are being told to stop being partisan and that we are hyperpartisan. What is happening on the other side? They are accusing the member for Wellington—Halton Hills for knowing about this for two years when that is not true. Can we all put the partisanship aside, actually work together and stand …
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Madam Speaker, I would ask that you remind all members to be judicious in their language. Using the word “catcall” in something so serious is offensive. As a woman, I am offended that this language is being used in this form of debate.
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Madam Speaker, it would be great to see if the member could talk to the minister and urge her to provide the royal recommendation so that the Liberals can follow through with their campaign promises from 2019 and 2021. As I said, this is a non-partisan issue. I really think this is something that can be discussed, especially when the bill gets to committee and when it comes back to the House. I pl…
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Madam Speaker, attachment is so important any time a child is placed, and it is more and more common, actually, for children to be placed with families when they are older, especially with adoption. That time is so critical. Some people may think that 15 weeks does not matter, but it does matter. These children are sometimes coming from trauma and, as I said, from some form of disrupted attachment…
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Madam Speaker, as I mentioned in my speech, the benefits are countless. We cannot measure what children would gain by having the time to attach with their parents. I really hope the parliamentary secretary across the way is encouraging his minister to provide a royal recommendation for this bill so that the Liberals can follow through on their 2019 and 2021 campaign promise.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, absolutely I think that is imperative, especially in 2023. Families all look different. Cultures are different. Canada has been a very welcoming country that has people from different cultures and different ethnic backgrounds, and sometimes families look different from our own families. I think this is very important, and it would do very well for the children of those families.
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Mr. Speaker, when the Conservatives were in government, nine out of 10 young Canadians did not give up on the dream of home ownership. CMHC has come plenty of times to the committee on which I sit. The data is not being collected. If the member listened to my speech, I asked who was in charge. Is it ESDC or CMHC? There is no federal leadership from the government.
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Mr. Speaker, off the top, I want to note that I will be splitting my time with the member for Hastings—Lennox and Addington. We have heard today that adequate, suitable and affordable housing provides stability and security, and contributes to the well-being of a person, yet that sense of security that comes with appropriate and stable housing is becoming further out of reach for many Canadians. T…
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Mr. Speaker, frankly, the NDP could have some principle and a backbone, withdraw from its confidence-and-supply agreement and stand up for the Canadians who elected those members as opposition to the House.
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Mr. Speaker, there is something fundamentally different between me and my colleague: I do not believe that government has all the answers. I do not want Canadians to feel that they have to knock on the door of whatever elected official at whatever government level to answer, help and give them what they need. Canadians are resilient and they are strong. We need to cut the bureaucratic red tape tha…
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Mr. Speaker, I have been listening throughout today's debate and it seems like the Bloc wants to be dependent on Ottawa. What the Conservatives have proposed is to empower municipalities and the provinces. This would give them the opportunity to just get it done. The Conservatives will stop the privileged gatekeepers who are preventing houses from being built and empower municipalities and provinc…
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Mr. Speaker, off the top, I will say that I will be splitting my time with the member for Beauce. The cost of living is rising faster than at any time in the last 40 years, and the NDP-Liberal government's inflationary deficits and high taxes are driving up those costs. Hard-working Canadians whose paycheques do not go nearly as far as they once did are having trouble making ends meet. Canadians a…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-318, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Labour Code (adoptive and intended parents). Mr. Speaker, the arrival of a new child is a precious time for all parents, and our system of parental leave benefits provides critical financial support to parents while they care for them. Adoptive and intended parents are, however, at a disadvantage u…
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Mr. Speaker, it is very interesting to hear of that project going on. My question would be: Is that project public or not-for-profit? If it is entrepreneurial, it actually does not fall under this framework.
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Mr. Speaker, I did mention in my remarks that there are labour shortages across all industries in this country. We know our birth rate is declining. We do not have the population to replace the aging population. We know that immigration is backlogged by millions of cases. We know it takes, on average, 166 days for a temporary foreign worker to get a work permit. I just think it is ridiculous that …
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Mr. Speaker, I do not think my colleague across the way listened to anything I said. There is a portion of families who are being left out of this, and a lot of those families carried us through the pandemic: our doctors, our nurses, our frontline care workers. They work erratic hours. Our shift workers would not be able to access this. It is typical of the government to put its fingers in the pro…
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Mr. Speaker, for young families across this country, child care is a principle concern. When a child is in their care or with another, parents want to feel confident that their child is being well cared for, and that they are safe and in a healthy environment that supports their development. Canadian families across the country should have access to affordable and quality child care. Parents shoul…
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With regard to the RCMP: (a) what is the current vacancy rate, in terms of percentage and the number of open positions, nationally, and broken down by province or territory; and (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by (i) officers, (ii) civilian employees?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General did take a look, and more than $30 billion in payments went to ineligible applicants. We know in this House that the Auditor General is a respected officer of Parliament. It was Parliament that asked for the report from the AG. The minister is now calling into question the independence of the AG. Will the minister apologize?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am rising to table a petition. Dr. Louis Roy, from the Quebec college of physicians, recommended expanding euthanasia to babies. This is children ages zero to one. Euthanizing them was suggested because they may have been born with disabilities or very serious syndromes. Recently, the college sent another witness to somewhat double down on this, because there was outrage and conce…
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Mr. Speaker, that definitely was a non-answer. The Liberals say they worked with the Auditor General, but they will not accept the recommendations from the Auditor General. Will the Minister of National Revenue stand up and apologize for her remarks, which seem to be that her government does not trust the Auditor General and the work that was done?
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Mr. Speaker, the NDP-Liberal coalition is breaking records. Inflation is at a 40-year high, food prices are rising at the fastest pace in 40 years and we are seeing the highest usage of food banks on record. Canadians want to take back control of their lives, but the NDP-Liberal government keeps fuelling the cost of living crisis. Will the Prime Minister quite making things harder for Canadians wh…
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Madam Speaker, I am talking about the ability of my constituents, who live in small, remote, rural communities, to get to a bigger centre to get their prescriptions, to get their kids in sports, to get groceries or to even get the mail. The carbon tax is hurting the people I represent. I would prefer that the government take its hands out of the pockets of these families, let them spend the money …
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Madam Speaker, the overall quality of life in Canada is in significant decline under the NDP-Liberal government, and we have the evidence all around us. Government is costing Canadians more while achieving less. Violent crime rates are increasing under the Prime Minister. Food inflation, as has already been said in the House today, is at a 40-year high. The cost of living crisis is ballooning, and…
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Madam Speaker, if we look in Hansard, I have always been against a carbon tax. This carbon tax has done nothing for the environment. The Liberals and the NDP have not met the targets they have set over and over. I have seen bills from my farmers of $10,000 and $20,000 to dry their grain. I have seen the GST being collected on the carbon tax. A great question for the government is this. Why is it c…
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Madam Speaker, I am very disappointed in the member for that question. I am here because the people of Battlefords—Lloydminster sent me here, and these damaging NDP-Liberal policies are destroying their lives. I spoke with constituents who cannot get their kids to the hospital because it is two and a half hours away. I spoke with seniors who cannot afford their medication because they have to pay …
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Madam Speaker, one thing I noticed is that the current Prime Minister is great at turning people against one another. He found a way to have two tiers of seniors, just as with child care. There are a lot of people in my constituency who cannot access this $10-a-day child care because they do not qualify. They do not work nine to five. They work shift work. Some of them work all the time and they c…
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With regard to private security companies being hired or contracted by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) for the enforcement of quarantine rules, since February 1, 2020: (a) which companies did the PHAC hire or contract; (b) for each company in (a), what was the (i) start date, (ii) end date or anticipated end date, of the quarantine enforcement; (c) what is the total amount spent to date …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, the cost of the NDP-Liberal coalition is coming to a head, and it is Canadians who are left with the bill. The Prime Minister has added more to the national debt than all previous prime ministers combined, and the road to this record is littered with wasteful spending. Whether it is the inflated costs of the arrive scam app, luxury suites for the Prime Minister and his delegation to L…
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Mr. Speaker, activist policies drive the NDP-Liberal agenda, while economic management, transparency and basic government services fall by the wayside. Canadians still cannot get a passport. ArriveCAN contracts are being fabricated. Political interference is once again being covered up. The disappointments just keep coming. Canadians are facing soaring costs, inflation at a 40-year high and a loom…
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Mr. Speaker, honestly, the Liberals need to start listening to Canadians. They cannot afford to put food on their tables, put gas in their tanks or to heat their homes. The Prime Minister insists on punishing Canadians for the crime of just heating their homes or putting food on their tables. He thinks it is a crime. It is just ludicrous. While the Prime Minister can afford to jet set around the w…
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Madam Speaker, I understand that we are debating an opposition day motion today from the NDP about food supply. I am unsure of the relevance of what the member across—
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Mr. Speaker, the brutal murder of Zhina Mahsa Amini, the massacre of flight PS752 and the long list of human rights violations of the IRGC requires more than just symbolic sanctions. The IRGC is a terrorist organization that brutalizes Iranians and citizens of other countries. It is currently allowed to organize and raise money here in Canada. Once again, does the Prime Minister believe that the I…
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Madam Speaker, as I have been listening to the debate today, I have heard a lot of stories of Canadians who are struggling. A woman just reached out to me on my social media. She does not even live in my riding. Her name is Sarah. She says that she and her husband both work outside the home. They live paycheque to paycheque. They are embarrassed to admit that they have had to ask their parents for…
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Mr. Speaker, we know Liberal logic claims that the carbon tax will reduce emissions, but the reality is that the Liberal carbon tax has had no meaningful impact on the environment. The carbon tax has succeeded only in driving up the costs of food, fuel and home heating. While their tax hikes dive deeper into the pockets of Canadians, it is more than just inflation that is making it even harder to …
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Mr. Speaker, quite regularly, when I ask questions in this place, it is typical for a Liberal member to mansplain me and tell me what I need to do. Despite imposing a costly carbon tax on Canadians, the Liberals have failed to meet every single climate target that they set. The Liberal carbon tax has done and will do nothing for the environment. The only achievement of their carbon tax has been to…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague mentioned quite a few truths in her speech. One of them was the broken promises of the Liberal government, one of them being that the Liberal Party had promised not to raise the carbon tax to exceed $50 a tonne, which seemed to not be true. We also do not hear anybody saying that there is GST being collected on top of the carbon tax. When we hear the Liberal rhetoric that…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague across the way mentioned the GST credit increase, the doubling of the payment. I do not believe one payment is going to fix the affordability issue. What is going to happen after that payment? Will the member vote with her government to increase taxes even though that GST credit increase, that one-time payment, is not going to last forever?
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Mr. Speaker, what needs to happen is the people who come to this place have to hear what their constituents are saying and bring that forward. I see on a first-hand basis that, because we have to drive where I reside, families have to choose. That being said, we can look at companies and technology like carbon capture, for example, and things that industry is already doing. There are parties in th…
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Mr. Speaker, what is perplexing about “carbon pricing”, or the carbon tax, is this: What is it doing to prevent disasters? What has the federally imposed Liberal carbon tax done for the environment? I ask because I come from a province that it has been imposed on. How come it did not prevent hurricane Fiona? Where are those tax dollars going? What is it doing? It is doing nothing.
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Mr. Speaker, I have been sent here to represent the constituents of Battlefords—Lloydminster, which is in Saskatchewan. I have always been against a carbon tax. I know how ineffective and costly the carbon tax is. I have bills here from a small business owner, and 25% is what he is paying on the carbon tax. That was before the last hike. What is that doing for the environment? I can tell members w…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to note off the top that I will be splitting my time this afternoon with the member for Peterborough—Kawartha. We know that costs are continuing to soar in this country and affordability is becoming a greater stress for more and more Canadians. Families are feeling the pressures of inflation, which continues to be fanned by the Liberal government’s deficit spending, and while i…
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Mr. Speaker, the leader of the NDP talks a lot about affordability, the pressures Canadians are facing, respect and dignity, and how his party is fighting for Canadians. Is this done by propping up the Liberal government, by voting with the Liberals to increase taxes, to increase bureaucracy, to increase red tape that makes life difficult for everyday Canadians? For example, the New Democrats have…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague across the way mentioned there is a lot more the government can do to increase affordability for Canadians. One thing I would suggest is abolishing the carbon tax, because it is a tax on the most basic of necessities, like food, home heating and fuel in vehicles to get from point A to point B. There is one thing, though, that I want to mention. I received lots of calls in…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians should feel confident that when they work hard, they will have a roof over their heads and food on their tables, but under this NDP-Liberal government, Canadians are working harder and harder but falling farther and farther behind. This government's uncontrolled spending is driving up the cost of living, and increased taxes like the failed carbon tax is diving deeper and dee…
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Madam Speaker, we know the Liberal government has previously used a values test to discriminate against worthy applicants to the Canada summer jobs program, and did so by denying funding to any organization that was not willing to check a box endorsing the political positions of the governing party of the day. Therefore, I am presenting this petition. The undersigned citizens and residents of Cana…
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Madam Speaker, we have heard throughout this debate that seniors were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, and we know that this was particularly true for seniors living in long-term care. In the previous Parliament, I had the opportunity to initiate a study at the HUMA committee to review the impact of COVID-19 on the financial and social health and well-being of seniors. The purpose of the s…
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Mr. Speaker, with that answer, I suggest that it sounds like the minister is not speaking to Canadians whatsoever. Gas prices are hitting record levels and Canadians are struggling to fill their tanks. The Prime Minister likes to point the finger elsewhere. The reality is that taxes on fuel are lining his government's pockets on the backs of hard-working Canadians. The latest carbon tax hike could…
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