Parliamentary Speeches

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, if you were to seek it I believe you would find unanimous consent for the following motion: That a take-note debate on softwood lumber be held on Monday, April 8, 2024, pursuant to Standing Order 53.1, and that, notwithstanding any standing order, special order or usual practice of the House: (a) members wishing to speak during the debate may indicate to the Chair that they will be di…

Government Orders

moved: That, in relation to Bill C-29, An Act to provide for the establishment of a national council for reconciliation, not more than one further sitting day shall be allotted to the stage of consideration of Senate amendments to the bill; and That, 15 minutes before the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders on the day allotted to the consideration of the said stage of the said bill, …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the leader knows full well the rules of this place and knows that members on this side of the House are pleased and proud to speak to the affordability measures and the things that we are putting in place to make life more affordable for Canadians. While we are on this theme, I have a question for a member of the defence committee, the member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman. Why did he …

Government Orders

moved: That this committee pay tribute to the late Right Honourable Brian Mulroney.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, today in the House, we have had an important debate on an issue that is global in scope and very historic, but also heartbreaking. I know that all points of view expressed in the House come from the heart and from a fundamentally Canadian emotion that drives us to seek peace. It is very much in this spirit that I move: That the motion be amended as follows: (a) in paragraph (ii), by a…

Mr. Speaker, Canada is in mourning. Canadians and all members of the House are lamenting the loss of a great patriot. Brian Mulroney was a leader of this country, with exceptional qualities that made his country a better place. Not only was Brian Mulroney a great prime minister, he was a man who respected Parliament and made this place better for having been part of it. When the House resumes, the…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, that gloom-and-doom member who wants to take Canada out of the UN needs to know a bit of good news for a change. We have had many months of good news for Canadians. Just recently, Statistics Canada announced that in January we gained 37,000 new jobs, and there are one million more Canadians working than before the pandemic. The unemployment rate is at 5.7% and wage growth is outpacing…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, 2.3 million Canadians have been lifted out of poverty since this government took office and started caring about Canadians by putting supports in place that those guys had spent all their time cutting. Families throughout Canada have seen their child care fees slashed, in many cases down to $10 a day, thanks to this government and Bill C-35 that we are getting ready to pass today.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Canadians have had enough of the gloom and doom coming from over there. The Conservatives are deliberately ignoring the truth about how our government has supported Canadians—

Oral Questions

I would like to advise that an agreement could not be reached under the provisions of Standing Order 78(1) or 78(2) with respect to the second reading stage of Bill C-59, an act to implement certain provisions of the fall economic statement tabled in Parliament on November 21, 2023 and certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023. Under the provisions of Standing Order 7…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, in relation to the consideration of the motion respecting the Senate amendment to Bill C-35, an act respecting early learning and child care in Canada, I move: That debate be not further adjourned.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I have good news today. We have announced a whole bunch more homes being built in Canada. We have reduced taxes on the middle class and increased them on the one per cent, and those guys voted against it. The budget is the best in the G7, and we have a great record on reducing poverty. All these things are well in hand without the bad track record of the previous government. Later tod…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the answer is this: not nearly as much as was taken away by making interpreters work for 30 hours straight.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my former counterpart, who was the chief opposition whip. I know of his very legitimate concerns for members and I thank him for pointing out that perhaps he too objects to all-night voting. I know that, in an honest moment, that member would probably agree that it is a very bad idea. I will say this, though. I do reject the premise that giving that member and his coll…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, those members are good with the fake outrage, but they are also very good at blocking needed supports for the people they profess to care about, but do not. They are very good at obstructing all of the things that this government proposes that will help those very people.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, that member voted against the Canada child benefit or her party did. That member voted against dental care for our most vulnerable children and seniors. That member voted against child care. That member regularly obstructs and voted against 130 measures before Christmas that would have supported the very people she professes to want to help. This will be a recurring debate in this cha…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, to extend the hypothetical situation, what kind of boss says that he is not letting anyone leave the chamber until Christmas, that he is going to make sure that everyone stays in the House and votes until Christmas until he gets his way, then five minutes later, hypothetically, goes to a fundraiser on the Island of Montreal, and on his way back visits a McDonald's franchise and makes …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, that is of course exactly why we reject the premise that this in any way would undermine the rights of parliamentarians; in fact, it would expand them. It would allow members more time and more opportunity, potentially, to debate bills that are contentious. We hope the time available and afforded to the members of the official opposition would allow them to participate in debate a lit…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Courtenay—Alberni, because it is time to actually address this in a very serious manner. There are 338 members of the chamber. It is not healthy for any single one of us to be forced to vote on billion-dollar items for 30 straight hours. It is not healthy for anyone, and there are members of the House with health conditions, issues that quite predictably…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member, however, for his concern for health care. I would really have appreciated it if he had been concerned enough about health care to go to his leader, on the eve of the estimates we just finished voting on before Christmas, to tell him to not vote against the 3.1 billion additional dollars we have provided for doctors, nurses and personal care workers in the member's …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the member ridiculed the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her very appropriate concern for the well-being of all members of the House. Let me point out to him once again a very ironic fact—

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I do not reject the premise of that question. I cannot speak to their motivations, but I can speak to the phenomenon we see. We see it south of the border. We see it in some parts of Europe. We see it in the populist right wing that seeks to toxify our democratic institution, that seeks to conflate minor things and that seeks to make so toxic and so negative the proceedings of places …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, with respect to the consideration of the motion relating to the Senate amendment to Bill C-35, an act respecting early learning and child care in Canada, at the next sitting of the House a minister of the Crown shall move, pursuant to Standing Order 57, that debate be not further adjourned.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I would like to inform the House that the opposition day designated for Thursday, February 29 has been undesignated and will now take place on Friday, March 1.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I think we will all note that, once again, the member is standing up and refusing to allow a debate on child care and a vote on child care to occur in this chamber. I want to finish my remarks and my thanking the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her many contributions and for her eternal concern for the respect of the rules of this place, as well as for the health and well-bei…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her observations. I know all of us are happy that she is back, hale and hearty, and that she is participating in this debate. I would also say that, like so many other members on this side of the House, the member is not afraid of hard work and, more importantly, of putting in the preparation and study required to bring constructive…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to thank my colleague for his excellent summary of what this motion would accomplish. It would, simply put, allow more time for debate. Every time we have discussions among parties, it is often stressed, from parties in any corner of the House, that we require more time to debate bills. Sometimes that is constructive, but sometimes it is obstructive. Sometimes members…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I reject the premise of the member's question. I fail to see how a motion that expands the time available for members to debate bills, budgets and motions in this chamber is somehow undemocratic. In fact, we would be giving the opposition more opportunity to do so. However, as the member well knows because he attends caucus meetings, the word from on high, from the Leade…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, in relation to the consideration of Government Business No. 35, I move: That debate be not further adjourned.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I think we just witnessed a very disgraceful, disrespectful display in question period today, which is clearly against the Standing Orders. The members across the aisle here owe an apology to the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley, who gets to ask a question just like everyone else in this House. I ask that you, Mr. Speaker, consider what you might do in the …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I think that member of Parliament needs to be unplugged from the wall and plugged back in, but here is what I hope will happen when that reboot occurs: I hope he will get up from his place, walk down to the Leader of the Opposition and say “Pass the fall economic statement; help Canadians. Pass child care; help the moms and dads out there who are waiting for those needed supports.” He…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I wish to give notice that, with respect to consideration of Government Business No. 35, at the next sitting of the House, a minister of the Crown shall move, pursuant to Standing Order 57, that debate be not further adjourned.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, that makes the point quite eloquently. Does it not? This includes making life more affordable so Canadians can pay for their groceries and their housing. It includes protecting our environment from the catastrophic consequences of climate change. It also includes ensuring Canadian families have access to quality, affordable child care, which is something these Conservatives say they w…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the point is well taken. However, I would point out that votes are recorded. We will be paying close attention to that, as we always have. What we went through was standing up for the kinds of things that Canadians expect Parliament to do. We were standing up for the kinds of things they expect their government to do, and standing up, yes, for the very essence of the democracy that ha…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, they joke about these things because it is all part of the plan. It is just a big joke for these Conservatives on the other side of the House. There is all this chaos and dysfunction they are bringing here on a daily basis, which is preventing us from voting on serious matters that Canadians are looking to us to provide. That is just a part of the long list of investments through whic…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, here is what I can say: Every time we bring a bill to this House for debate at second reading, it does not really matter what it is. It could be called the “the sky is blue act”. The Conservatives would pose dilatory motions. For Canadians who are watching this, what the Conservatives do is they move concurrence on a committee report from six months ago that no one has talked about si…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, my friend from the New Democratic Party asks why Conservatives have done this. We have seen this around the world. They think that if they come in and make these places, these precious chambers of democracy, so toxic, so laden with invective, so dripping with insult, Canadians will turn away and simply say that they do not want any part of it. That is how they come to suppress voting …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, debating things that help and have positive impacts for Canadians wherever they may live, in Ontario or elsewhere, on climate change, for disabled Canadians or in any other matter is precisely why we are making this place more open for debate, so that we can have greater productivity. We can debate more things and pass more measures that will help everyday Canadians.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I salute my friend and the members from the Bloc Québécois for their constructive contribution. They are here to oppose. Sometimes they support our proposals, sometimes they reject them. However, they do not do what I criticize my friends in the official opposition of, namely using dilatory tactics that only create chaos and prevent my friend and all parliamentarians from expressing t…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, that is a point that makes itself. We are sent here to make sure we get results for our constituents, that we participate positively in debates and that we put forward proposals and bills that help the people we represent. When we are blocked from doing that, systematically, by an opposition that consistently puts up procedural roadblocks to that, of course, any responsible government…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, my colleague, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources just asked this minister, the member a question.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, in the category of “God forbid”. The member, like all of his colleagues, every single person who has asked a question in Question Period today, went to their constituents' doorsteps with a brochure that said, “Elect us, we will have a price on carbon.” How do those members now stand up, with a serious face, in front of Canadians, and say that they are not misleading them today?

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I see that answer had little effect. I would again encourage my hon. colleague to, instead of taking all the inbound invective and all the rage farming from the leader's office, trudge back down that long hallway to his leader's office and tell him that what the Conservatives can do today is bring down dental costs for Canadians by passing the bill on the fall economic statement that …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I think it would be useful if we just moved on from the slogans written in the leader's office for one moment while I address another issue that would actually help Canadians. On the Order Paper is Bill C-35, which would guarantee lower child care costs for every single mother and father in this country. That could pass on a voice vote today. Will that member, instead of taking his or…

Government Orders

moved: That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, for the duration of the session, (a) (i) a minister of the Crown may, with the agreement of the House leader of another recognized party, at any time during a sitting, but no later than 6:30 p.m., request that the ordinary hour of daily adjournment for a subsequent sitting be 12:00 a.m., provided that it be 10:00 p.m. …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, that member knows full well that our government has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure and highway projects in Quebec, as it has elsewhere in Canada. We are the second-largest country in the world. It comes as no surprise to us that we need to invest in building better roads for the public, for trade and for everyone. However, that member consistently votes against our hig…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite knows very well that, since the beginning of its mandate, our government has invested billions of dollars in highway infrastructure projects across Quebec and Canada. We will continue to do so, as we did in Kamouraska, for example, with Highway 185 and as we will surely do with other projects in his riding that he will surely vote against.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I can assure you that nothing is scarier than driving down Conservative highways, whether it is in Kamouraska or Témiscouata. Conservatives vote against highway infrastructure and refuse to fund them. Later today, we will be voting on third reading of Bill C-62, medical assistance in dying. Tomorrow, we will resume debate on the motion respecting the Senate amendment to Bill C-35, the…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, in relation to the consideration of Government Business No. 34, I move: That debate be not further adjourned.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, in the last election campaign, all of the colleagues on the other side of the House went around their neighbourhoods in Sarnia—Lambton and elsewhere, and around their ridings. They had nice glossy brochures with Mr. O'Toole on the cover. He had a nice black T-shirt on. What was in there? It was a price on pollution. All of these members went around their neighbourhoods committing to p…