Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that is a very thoughtful question. Our focus always has to be on victims of crime, to make sure they get proper support and that they have a sense that justice is being done. The court system should not just be a legal system; it should be a justice system. It should do justice. It is an interesting hypothetical the member put to us. One of the reasons that crimes abroad need to be i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member for Winnipeg North often asks questions of that nature, saying, “Why not just hurry things through?” I think there is a big advantage, to members of Parliament and the people we represent, to debating important legislation like this in the chamber. If it had been hurried off to committee, I would not have had the opportunity to research it, learn more about it and speak to …
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Mr. Speaker, it is indeed odd, and that is exactly what this bill is trying to do: take the decision-making, investigation and prosecution out of the military justice system and put it into the civilian justice system, where it belongs. I recognize that there are problems with the civilian justice system, as a lot of my colleagues have pointed out, so this is not a silver bullet, but I think it wo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is signalling that the Bloc Québécois is going to support the bill. An important part of the bill is that trials for sexual assault and sexual harassment would be taken out of the military courts and brought into the civilian courts, but given the delays in our civilian courts, is the member confident that victims of sexual assault and of sexual harassment will see jus…
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Mr. Speaker, over the summer months, I had the opportunity to visit the downtown Vancouver core and some businesses there and organizations that support businesses. We heard about the explosive growth of crime on the streets: shoplifting, smashed windows, open drug use. Merchants do not even bother calling the cops anymore because the police say that with the Liberal bail laws of release at the ea…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, all day today, we have been listening to Liberals talk about food affordability in response to our opposition day motion, but to me it is déjà vu all over again. I have been here for six years and have been hearing Liberals go on and on about how a program is finally going to solve the inflation problem and deal with, for example, housing, infrastructure, supply chain resilience and o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister says to judge him by the cost of groceries. Well, the data is in, and it is not looking so good for him. The parliamentary budget office says the Prime Minister's spending is going to outpace even Trudeau's reckless inflationary spending, driving up the cost of groceries for seniors. Myra from Langley says, “I worked and planned for my retirement my entire life and …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Edmonton West for a very enlightened speech on an ill-conceived Liberal idea that is going to ruin our oil and gas sector, the emissions production cap. I have a question about another ill-conceived Liberal idea, and that is the north coast tanker ban. This is what the CEO of the National Coalition of Chiefs says, talking about the tanker ban: “No pro…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to Pacific Economic Development Canada and Small Business British Columbia: (a) is Pacific Economic Development Canada aware of the appointment of any of its employees to the employee Small Business British Columbia board of directors (board); (b) if the answer to (a) is affirmative, (i) what was the name of the employee, (ii) what was their position at both Pacific Economic Developmen…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Terra Nova—The Peninsulas gave an inspiring speech. The member mentioned the importance of ferries. His riding and mine are at opposite ends of the country, but they have this in common: We are coastal provinces, where ferries for passengers and traffic are very important. However, in British Columbia, we are not even building our own ferries. I wonder if the member …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of the tired, old Liberals, the cost of housing has doubled, putting the dream of ever owning a home out of reach for so many Canadians. It has also aggravated the homelessness crisis, which, incidentally, the current housing minister, when he was the mayor of Vancouver, said he would eliminate. Today, with 28,000 British Columbians without secure housing, many of them …
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Madam Speaker, new housing construction starts in my area, the Lower Mainland, are down. There might be a bit of a blip up right now. I am not quite sure exactly what the latest trends are. A combination of bad legislation from both the federal government and the provincial NDP government has not been helping. We just wish the government would stay out of the way and encourage private enterprise t…
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Madam Speaker, the minister says he wants Canada's economy to be the strongest in the G7. He must realize that we are lagging way behind our trading partners. The OECD report says, “The level of Canada's labour productivity lags its peers”, and Carolyn Rogers of the Bank of Canada said just last year that our productivity metrics is in crisis: “it's an emergency—it's time to break the glass.” The …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to the making life more affordable for Canadians act. This act was made necessary by a decade of economic mismanagement by the Liberal government. Why are things unaffordable for Canadians? Well, inflation is up. Let us take a look at the cost of groceries, which is at 3.8% inflation year over year, according to Stats Canada's April figures, which is twice the …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the Canadian dream is to own a home, but that dream has been shattered for so many young families. Those who own a home are now facing higher mortgage payments due to higher interest rates caused by 10 years of the Liberal government's mismanagement of the economy. According to a recent CMHC report, 63% of Canadian homeowners are worried about defaulting on their mortgages, and 17% …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there the member for Winnipeg North goes again saying the Liberal government is a whole new government. No, it is not. It has the same old ideas, just recycled and repackaged, and somehow it is expecting Canadians to believe that this time, finally, it has the solutions. If we talk about housing, housing prices have doubled in the 10 years of the Liberals' regime. What is so differe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, earlier in the debate today, we heard the Minister of Finance say that he wants to make Canada the “strongest economy in the G7”. It was pointed out to him that Canada's productivity metrics are lagging behind those of our major trading partners, particularly the United States of America. Does the member see anything in this bill that is going to improve our productivity numbers? Why …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is the way Canadian democracy works. We get voted into this House of Commons. Canadians have once again said they want a minority government, but the Liberals are acting as though they have a majority. The reality is that the Liberals need to work with us. They need to work with the opposition in order to get things done. They expect co-operation from us. We expect co-operation…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that is a very good summary from my colleague from St. Albert—Sturgeon River as to what the problem is with Canada's economy after 10 years of Liberal governance. It is spend, spend, spend. We were somewhat optimistic that the new Prime Minister, with a degree in economics, might understand the economy better than the previous—
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, the member highlighted the Liberal government's latest housing crisis solution as building more prefab homes. In metro Vancouver, where my riding is, we built 20-storey and 30-storey high-rise towers close to transit stations. The hard part in urban development is land assembly, rezoning applications and putting in the civil services. How is prefab housing going to solve that problem?
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, what was meant as a celebration of culture and heritage turned into a moment of unspeakable sorrow. On April 26, the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in Vancouver, a symbol of Filipino unity and pride, was shattered by an act of senseless violence. Many lives were taken, many more injured. Families were torn apart. Dreams were cut short and a community was left grieving, but in the face of all …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise to present a dissenting report by the Conservative Party on the study on Islamophobia. The study was undertaken at a time of conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinian people of Gaza. As one witness noticed, the committee suffered from a fundamental category error by confusing Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism. We agreed with that assessment. Indeed…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, our once-safe towns and cities are now rife with crime and chaos thanks to the Liberal Prime Minister's radical catch-and-release bail policies that allow dangerous people, lawbreakers, to stay on our streets. Our worsening public safety record has been made evident by a recent Fraser Institute study comparing our crime stats to those of…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am proud that my country has two official languages. My first language is English, but I also speak French. Today I will ask my question in English. I always love listening to the member for Winnipeg North speak because I love hearing his western Canadian accent, and today he was expressing concern about the contempt that some people have for the CBC. However, my question is about…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, it is often noted by political commentators that Canadians are losing confidence in our democratic institutions, such as our courts and electoral system, and now Parliament. I wonder if my colleague could comment on what happens to this confidence, or lack thereof, when the governing party refuses to comply with an order of this Parliament, which is definitely within its power to be…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the speech by my friend and colleague, the member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, was a thoughtful one on the Liberals' latest scandal, the green slush fund. I was happy to hear him make reference to the specious arguments based on the charter that the Liberals are now advancing late in the day to justify their non-compliance with a perfectly legitimate order of Parliament. The membe…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, my friend and colleague from Fleetwood—Port Kells is my next-door neighbour, and I enjoy working with him. I do not think it is an either-or. He is saying that we either have the government complying with a just order from Parliament or we have justice in the way law enforcement is done by the RCMP. I do not think that there is a contradiction here. The RCMP has very smart people on…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the answer is that I do not know. What we really need is for the documents to be produced so that we can discover what has been going on.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, it is amusing that that question is coming from the only person on the Liberal side of the House who is allowed to comment and be involved in these debates. I am very proud to be a member of this caucus and to have the member for Carleton be our leader. I am happy to get gold stars from him, but what I am really looking forward to is getting gold stars from the Canadian citizens in …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I am very honoured to have a question from my friend and colleague, the member for Rivière-du-Nord. We have a great time working on the justice committee together, and I think we are accomplishing some really important things. He said that this is an important issue, and I agree. I am very grateful that the NDP and the Bloc Québécois voted with us on it. I think we all want to get b…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, here we are, five weeks in, and we are still debating the Liberal government's refusal to produce documents relating to the latest scandal, the green slush fund scandal, as ordered by Parliament on June 10. This is the third time that I am rising to speak on this issue, so I want to take a slightly different approach. I want to talk about the legal principle of subsequent remedial m…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the member asked a thoughtful question. I agree that we should all try to work together. Just a little while ago today we heard the Thursday question. I would encourage the Liberal government to comply with the order and to not look at us to say that we are not being co-operative. There is an order that it has to follow, and it has not. It is a breach of privilege. This is a very se…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, one of the primary responsibilities of Parliament is to hold the government to account. That is exactly what we did as the loyal opposition of His Royal Highness, working together with the other opposition parties, when we passed an order of the House compelling the government to produce documents relating to its most recent scandal, the green slush fund. Just a little while ago we …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Lytton Homeowner Resilient Rebuild Program: (a) how much money has been distributed through the program to date; (b) how many recipients have received funding through the program; (c) what was the average payment amount received; and (d) how many applications have been received to date?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to entities that owe tax to the CRA for unpaid excise tax on cannabis: (a) how many have filed for creditor protection or bankruptcy, broken down by year since the legalization of cannabis; (b) how much excise tax has been written off, in total, and broken down by the province or territory of the entity owing tax; and (c) for each entity which owed unpaid excise tax on cannabis and had…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, that is a good question: What would the next step be? The motion says that the documents should go to the law clerk and parliamentary counsel for them to review, and I am sure that we would take advice from them. The order also says that the documents should go to the RCMP. The Liberals are saying that it might be problematic for the officers to deal with it. Well, they are very smart…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, Parliament has the unfettered authority to do exactly what it has done. The Liberals keep trying to divert people's attention to something else, but the real issue of the day is why the government is refusing to produce the documents that it has been ordered to produce. What do the Liberals have to hide? Who are they protecting? Canadians want to know.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party will put out its platform in due course. I am not going to answer that question directly, other than to say that we are sensitive to the needs of Canadians. We are, I believe, well attuned to the issues of the day, and we will have a platform that is going to be a winner in the next election.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour of rising in Canada's Parliament to join in the debate about the privilege question relating to the Liberal government's latest scandal: the green slush fund. Before I do that, I just want to take a moment to mark this historic day and congratulate our neighbours to the south for a very decisive election. I congratulate Mr. Trump for regaining the White House. Canada…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I have the greatest respect for the member for Nipissing—Timiskaming, who is a former Speaker of the House. He supported us, of course. He was doing his job. That is what the Speaker is supposed to do. Now we know the Liberals did not like the special committee on China-Canada relations right from the start. We know that they did not like the makeup of the 43rd Parliament, a divided H…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, that is a great question. I wish I could answer quoting directly from my constituents, but their statements would probably be ruled as unparliamentary. People in my home community are fed up with the Liberal government. They want so desperately for there to be an election. So many people ask me when they see me, “Why are the Conservatives not putting forward a non-confidence vote?” I …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the only conclusion we care about is the conclusion that the House of Commons came to, which was to order the government to produce the documents. Parliament is supreme. It is completely within our wheelhouse to be able to make that order for the production of documents. This is an age-old tradition, and the government should respect it. If the Liberals do not, then they should call a…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I guess I am not surprised to hear a member of the NDP, which continues to support the Liberal Party in preventing an election that so many Canadians want, now looking back in history for other scandals to divert Canadians' attention from what is going on in Canada right now with the green slush fund. This is what our focus is right now. We want to get to the bottom of it. There is co…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, for four weeks now, while we have been debating this privilege motion, we have been hearing specious arguments from the Liberal side of the House saying, “Oh, maybe this order made back in June is contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” It is a little late to be advancing those arguments, after the Speaker has made his ruling supporting the motion. I wonder if my hon. colleag…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, here we are, I believe in week four, still debating a privilege motion because the Liberals are refusing to comply with the order of the House made back in June about the green slush fund. They are refusing to produce the documents. What are the opportunity costs here? What is being lost in this chamber when we could be debating important issues that are relevant to Canadians in this …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for a very inspirational speech. In his comments—
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Conservatives would cut the GST on new homes. The reviews are in and the plan is a blockbuster. Members should listen to this. The Canadian Home Builders' Association says, “Today’s announcement by the Conservative Party...will make a big difference”. The West End Home Builders Association says, “Removing the GST for new homes purchased for under $1 million may be the most significant…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition signed by Canadians who are deeply concerned that the Chinese Communist Party has launched an intensive nationwide persecution campaign against practitioners of Falun Gong, including Ms. Alice Zhang. They are concerned that many of these Falun Gong prisoners have died and their organs have been harvested. They are calling on the Canadian government to pass…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have three comments in response. First, the parliamentary secretary said that a capital gain is a profit. It is not really a profit; it is inflation. Profit is when someone works hard and earns an income based on what they are selling. This is just inflation. If a person had to buy another asset, it would cost that much more, so it is not profit at all. Second, he said that compar…
Read full speech →Concurrence in Committee Reports
Madam Speaker, I know that my colleague has young children. I have young grandchildren, and I am deeply concerned about their safety in this age of technological accessibility to the Internet and all the poison there. On the other hand, I am also very concerned about protecting privacy. I have a wide-open question: How do we find a balance between those two competing interests?
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