Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let me condemn, in the harshest possible terms, sexual crimes committed against children. As a former prosecutor, I am sure my hon. colleague would know that the law on the books today actually holds a mandatory minimum penalty of one year's imprisonment for these types of heinous crimes. I hope that this does not become a bipartisan issue. We want to work together to implement reform…
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Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
Read full speech →Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the supplementary estimates (A), 2025-26.
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member is right to raise concern around crimes involving sexual violence, but his solution is to repeal a law that makes it tougher for people who have committed acts of intimate partner violence to escape bail and return to our communities. That is a nonsensical approach. In the months ahead, we are going to be moving forward with legislative reforms that are going to make…
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Mr. Speaker, this may be the last opportunity I have to answer a question in the House of Commons as a minister. I want to take an opportunity to give my thanks to everybody back home in my community and to all members of the House, on both sides of the aisle, for an opportunity to engage in debate over the years and to put competing ideas on the table. When it comes to the way that caucuses shoul…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure who she is talking about, but I am still here for now. There are two kinds of people who run for office in politics: there are people who want to do something, and there are people who want to be somebody. On our side of the House, we want to do things. We want to build the houses to make sure families can afford to keep roofs over their heads. We want to make sure that …
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague is right about one thing. I did announce this morning that I am not going to be seeking re-election. However, if he thinks it is a matter of confidence, I can tell him I have confidence that I am going to be the best father to my kids that I could possibly be for the rest of my life. That is what is most important to me. While I have the floor, I should say thanks fo…
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Mr. Speaker, I was wrong before when I said all they had was name-calling. Apparently, they have alliteration as well, but that is not going to put food on the table for people who need it in my community or in his. It is not going to put a roof over the head of people who are vulnerable in this country. If the member wants to make this argument about whether women will be supported, I wonder if h…
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Mr. Speaker, in a moment where Canadians are looking for leadership, the Conservative asking the question can only come up with names to lob toward his political opponents—
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives seem to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. They do not see value in investing in child care, which has not only reduced costs for families but also led to the largest increase in women's participation in the labour force in the history of this country. They do not seem to believe there is value in investing in social housing, in public housing and …
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Mr. Speaker, the very best that the Conservatives can offer to this conversation is name-calling and mudslinging, not solutions to the problems that Canadians are facing. When I talk to people at home, they want their governments to be focusing on creating good jobs to make sure people can afford to put food on the table. They want to make sure that governments are advancing policies to invest in …
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Mr. Speaker, no one in the country is choosing to be homeless and no one is choosing to live in an encampment. We know that the cost of housing has gotten too high. That is why we are putting billions of dollars of investments on the table to help build out more affordable housing and help community entities provide services to people who do not have a roof over their head. What is fascinating is …
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Madam Speaker, it is hard to understand how a member who said he is receiving $228 million for housing considers that to be a band-aid solution. Does he think it is a band-aid solution that we are helping his city lead the country when it comes to converting office spaces to homes for Canadians? Does he think it is a band-aid solution that we are advancing a permanent program that is going to feed…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague points to food and shelter as pressure points for Canadian households. I actually agree, but let us look at what the different parties are proposing to do about it. First, on food, he is complaining about the high price when he is literally voting against a tax break on food. He is literally opposing a national school food program, which is helping hungry kids eat. When…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his question. As he is well aware, our government is investing to increase the number of jobs across the country. Today, there is good news. There are 51,000 new jobs for Canadians. We are going to continue to make the investments that are going to help grow the economy, help us transition into a modern economy, help build the homes Canadians need an…
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Madam Speaker, honestly, it is hard to listen to this question, because this week the member had the opportunity to vote to reduce taxes on food, but he voted against it. The member will have another opportunity in the very near future to vote in favour of school food programs across our country. However, I think the members is still planning on voting against that measure. Members of the House ne…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that life is expensive, and we want to deliver a break to Canadians. We know that the cost of food has gone too high, which is why we want to remove tax over the holidays. The irony is that the Conservatives make the same attack but are opposing a tax cut on food for families. I should point out that there is an important stakeholder who is in Ottawa advocating for a national …
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Mr. Speaker, through the zero emission transit fund, the federal government is helping public transit and school bus operators across the country to electrify their fleets. It is essential to have made investments to support the transformation of our economy and to seize the opportunities to enhance the green economy. I am having conversations with my Quebec counterparts to find solutions. We will…
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That is right, Mr. Speaker. Despite positioning themselves in a contrary way, those guys are all tax and no axe. The Conservatives are literally opposing a tax cut on the essentials over the holidays. We are talking about food, clothes, diapers, car seats and snowsuits for kids. The only thing the Conservatives want to cut is the programs that are delivering real support to Canadians. They want to…
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Mr. Speaker, what my hon. colleague fails to point out is that Canada is projected to have the fastest-growing economy in the G7 next year. He fails to point out that we are creating jobs at a near record pace. He does not understand that wages are increasing faster than inflation. His strategy for the economy is to make cuts to the programs that are supporting people, cuts to the programs that ar…
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Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for my hon. colleague, as I do Dr. Whitzman, whom I have had the opportunity to benefit from on a number of occasions when it comes to receiving her advice. The majority of our grant programs that deliver cash subsidies to affordable housing projects are designed to support social housing, non-profit housing and housing for low-income families. We do have a range …
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Mr. Speaker, food insecurity is a very serious issue, including in my home province of Nova Scotia, but it is hard to take seriously that question from Conservative Party members when they are literally opposing a tax cut on food. This holiday season, we are putting a GST holiday in place to reduce the cost of the food people buy, including when they eat at restaurants and products that are not ex…
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague seems to have a penchant for alliteration and personal insults, but what he lacks is an ability to advance policies that will grow the economy or actually help people in need. At every opportunity, the Conservatives oppose the investments that are creating jobs in this country. They oppose the investments that are building homes in this country. They oppose the measu…
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Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely clear that my hon. colleague was not listening to the answer to his first question before he delivered his second. I said specifically that we are exempting the tax on food that is not already exempted from the GST, including food that people may purchase at a restaurant. What is interesting is that Conservatives are opposed not just to the tax cut on holiday gifts, t…
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Madam Speaker, I want to begin by thanking my hon. colleague for her advocacy, which helped secure $42.4 million for Kitchener to help the city build more homes quickly. The city is already moving on ambitious zoning reforms and changes to permitting processes that make it easier to build homes near transit, services and opportunities. It is exciting because it is moving forward with new projects,…
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Madam Speaker, these guys are all tax and no axe. We can think about this: Last night, Conservatives literally voted to keep a tax on Christmas. We are moving forward with a tax cut to relieve families of the burden on the cost of such things as car seats, diapers, groceries, clothing for their kids and gifts over the holidays. What is worse, they are also talking about cutting the programs that f…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that it takes investments to solve the housing crisis. We put billions of dollars on the table to help communities cut red tape, change their zoning practices and speed up permitting so they can build more homes faster. The Conservative response to this program, which is helping construction go up and rents come down, is to advocate for cuts to communities, including cuts in c…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her advocacy on behalf of the community she represents. We are putting billions of dollars on the table to help cities cut red tape, change their zoning practices—
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Mr. Speaker, honestly, it is hard to accept the Conservative Party's question, because we have signed an agreement with la belle province, Quebec, to build more than 8,000 affordable housing units with a major investment of $1.8 billion. This agreement is a success. The Conservative Party's position is to scrap the agreement and scrap the program that supports the construction of affordable housin…
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Mr. Speaker, the difference between the Liberals and Conservatives in question period is that I do not need to have my notes in front of me to actually speak in the House. The Conservatives are being rewarded in caucus when they repeat their slogans in the House but not when they defend their communities at home. The hon. member will not even admit that his community would be better off receiving …
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Mr. Speaker, a working-class Canadian voting for the Conservatives would be like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. Members should think about that. We want to build an economy that works for everybody. When we raised taxes on the wealthiest 1% to cut them for nine million Canadians in the middle class, the Conservatives opposed those measures. When we stopped sending child care cheques to mill…
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Mr. Speaker, it is as though we are playing bingo, with the number of slogans that are being read off, and people cannot take their eyes off the sheet. This is from a recent article on Conservatives talking about their own leader: “If you repeat the slogans, you get rewarded.... You are celebrated in front of the entire caucus for being a good cheerleader”. The difference between us and them is th…
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Mr. Speaker, something is interesting. Over the course of the last couple of days, the few times that Conservatives have actually shown any interest in the housing file, they have manipulated statistics to try to paint a false picture. If we look at the report from CMHC that came out this week, we will see that housing starts are up this month. They are up this year due to the investments that we …
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Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of many of the conversations that have taken place today, I will not impugn the motivations of any particular member, but I am reminded of a famous quote attributed to former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who supposedly said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”. The statistics that he is using right now dramatically misrepresent…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his tremendous advocacy for the city that he calls home. The member has asked a question about the member for Toronto—St. Paul's, who, I will acknowledge, is a new member, but I have watched him in question period and when we review the tapes, we are going to see that he seems to believe the role of a member of Parliament is to mimic the slogans a…
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Mr. Speaker, I will start by thanking my hon. colleague for advocating on behalf of his communities; that is indeed the role that members of Parliament play. In fact, his advocacy has helped secure millions of dollars for communities such as Wolfville, East Hants, West Hants and Kings County. I was shocked to learn that the Conservative leader planned to cut these investments, which are going towa…
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You may have seen the news, Mr. Speaker, but last week the Conservatives had a very bad week. First their leader went out in public to announce that he was cutting billions of dollars in funding directly to communities to build more homes, but later it was revealed that his MPs were advocating for that fund and were since banned from advocating on behalf of their communities. I do not know about y…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to correct the record that my Conservative colleague has put on the floor of the House of Commons. Housing starts are actually up 8% compared to last month, and year over year, are trending in a positive direction, near the all-time record homebuilding pace that Canada has ever seen. It is interesting that this question would come from this particular member, who repre…
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Madam Speaker, while the Conservative members of Parliament are focused on distractions, we are focused on delivering housing for Canadians who live in this country. We are currently in a debate with the Conservatives based on their big commitment to cut billions of dollars from housing directly to communities right across this country. On this side of the House, we know that it takes investments …
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his advocacy on behalf of his community, which helped secure tens of millions of dollars for the community he calls home. We are both from Nova Scotia. We have seen small towns and the city receive significant funding to make it easier to build homes more quickly at prices that people can actually afford. We know it takes investment to get homes…
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Mr. Speaker, I share my colleague's concern about the plight of some of Canada's most vulnerable, those without a roof over their head. In order to address those challenges, we need to ensure that we build out the affordable housing stock so people can find a place that is safe and that they can afford. That is why we are moving forward with billions of dollars of investments to help build afforda…
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Mr. Speaker, the cost of sending our citizens to war includes the cost of taking care of them when they come home. That is why we have moved forward with programs that are designed to ensure that communities have the capacity to provide housing to those who have put their lives at risk in order to protect our country overseas and at home. I recently was able to work with the Canadian Alliance to E…
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Mr. Speaker, as the member is well aware, we are making investments to build affordable housing. For example, we signed an agreement with Quebec under the housing accelerator fund to build 8,000 social housing units. The Conservative Party is against that. When given the opportunity to remove the GST on new apartments, the Conservatives opposed it. The Conservative Party leader's strategy is to cu…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to offer a couple of points. First, I want to thank my colleague for her advocacy for her community to receive funding through the housing accelerator fund, which is delivering hundreds of millions of dollars for housing in Toronto. What is fascinating is the Conservative strategy, which is now to forbid their MPs from advocating for their communities. On this side of the House…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for joining me in Halifax to visit Ronald McDonald House. The Ronald McDonald House organization is an incredible organization that allows families to make sure they have a place to be when they are away from home to seek treatment for children who are sick. We had an opportunity while we were there to meet Brittany and Riley, who recently welcomed Finley,…
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague would like to talk about my community. I want to take an opportunity to thank the service providers at shelters like Viola's Place. I want to thank our partners at Coady's Place, who are benefiting from a multi-million dollar investment to build more affordable housing. I want to thank the Antigonish Affordable Housing Society for partnering with us to build more uni…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a hard time accepting this question from the member, whom I respect and who I believe is here for the right reasons. He puts the question in a frame of homelessness, but he is willing to stand behind his leader's proposition to cut funding that serves homeless Canadians across this country. I never hear ideas from the Conservatives about making more investments to support vulne…
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Mr. Speaker, he wants to talk about our policies on affordability. How about the Canada child benefit, which puts more money in the pockets of nine out of 10 Canadian families and stops sending child care checks to millionaires? His party voted against it. Let us look at the change that restored the age of retirement to 65 from 67. His party voted against it. Let us look at the guaranteed income s…
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Mr. Speaker, I can just imagine the setting when the leader of the Conservatives sat down with the napkin he wrote his housing plan on and thought, “What can I do to address the housing crisis? Idea one, raise taxes on home construction.” I cannot make this stuff up, but that is not all. The Conservatives also plan to cut funding for affordable housing. They plan to cut funding for cities that bui…
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Mr. Speaker, it is disingenuous in the extreme for the hon. colleague to argue that the very measures that put more money in the pockets of vulnerable people are driving the concerns they are experiencing now. At the same time, he is putting forward a plan, standing behind his leader, that wants to make sure we cut programs that are building affordable housing, that cuts funding going to cities an…
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