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, 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, 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, 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 →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
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 →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, 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, 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, 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 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 would like to thank my colleague for a very inspirational speech. In his comments—
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, 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 →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary might not be aware of the recent case in British Columbia of a 13-year-old girl, Brianna MacDonald, who died in a homeless camp from a toxic drug overdose. She was in and out of the hospital many times, and despite her family urging the hospital to keep her for treatment, the hospital administration decided that at 13 years old, Brianna was able to make h…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it was on May 10 of this year that I posed a question about the Liberals' risky and failed experimentation program in British Columbia with the free distribution of hard drugs to our most severely addicted neighbours. Specifically, I wanted to know whether the Liberal members of Parliament would be voting with us, the Conservative members of Parliament, on a common-sense motion that…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberals, taxes are up, costs are up, crime is up, and now time is up. However, the NDP leader and his colleagues voted yesterday to keep the Prime Minister in power so he can quadruple the carbon tax to 61¢ a litre, the carbon tax that drives up the cost of everything and is driving a record number of British Columbians to food banks. Why is the Prime Mini…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her talk on transportation, particularly on the port of Vancouver. The member talked about supply chain disruptions in shipping grain from the Prairies to the port and off to overseas. One of those disruptions is the inability of the Port of Vancouver to load grain on rainy days, which we have quite a few of in Vancouver. Of al…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I know my hon. colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby has made a real study of this subject, so I am sure that he is aware of a Supreme Court of Canada decision called Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Attorney General of Canada, a decision from about 20 years ago. In it, the Supreme Court of Canada said that section 43 does not violate the Charter of Rights and…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, assault is against the law in Canada, and assault gets a very broad definition in the Criminal Code, section 265: “A person commits an assault when without the consent of another person, he [or she] applies force intentionally to that other person, directly or indirectly.” Note that the definition does not talk about how forceful the force must be, but only that it is intentional an…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to funding provided through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, since January 1, 2021: (a) what is the amount provided through the fund to date, in total and broken down by province or territory; and (b) what are the details of all funding recipients, including, for each, the (i) date of the funding, (ii) amount, (iii) recipient, (iv) location, (v) description of the related d…
Read full speech →Government Orders
With regard to any arrangements the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) has with banks or other financial institutions to back up their financing in the event that the CIB is dissolved: what are the details of any such agreements, or similar type of agreements that the CIB has entered into, including who the agreement is with, when it was signed, whether there is a cost to taxpayers, what collateral …
Read full speech →Government Orders
With regard to planned funding by the government related to "safe" or "safer" supply programs: how much does the government plan on spending on such programs, broken down by department, agency, and initiative in the current fiscal year and in each of the next five fiscal years?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in her very thoughtful speech, my colleague from British Columbia mentioned some things that happened in committee. The Conservatives supported the general framework of the legislation, but not some of the flip-flopping that happened on some very key issues. I wonder what my colleague thinks about how important it is for Canadians to have confidence in our criminal justice system an…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for Salaberry—Suroît for a very thoughtful speech and for highlighting the importance of an independent review commission. I want to thank the member for raising the case of Jacques Delisle as an example of how things can go wrong when the system is too politicized. I also want to thank her for highlighting the importance that the public must have conf…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, indeed, at second reading, we thought it was a pretty good bill. There were some drafting errors that we were pretty convinced we were going to be able to convince other committee members to amend. They disagreed with that, and what happened to the bill is that it came back worse than it went in, unfortunately, because, originally, an applicant for a judicial review of what they tho…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, after nine years of the incompetent Liberals, nine out of 10 middle-class Canadians are paying more in tax, despite promises that only the ultrarich will pay. A lot of Canadians are surprised to hear that they are now part of the ultrarich, like Karen, a retailer who bought her own commercial strata unit to save for her retirement, but now the Liberals are imposing another capital g…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge says that he is concerned about the economic effect of climate change. Well, I can say that so are the one million people who live in the Fraser Valley, who just received news last week that they will be getting zero dollars out of the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund. We are getting just empty words from the Liberal Party about worrying about …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, despite what the Liberals say, they actually do not have a plan for dealing with climate change. Just ask the people from Abbotsford, Princeton and Merritt in my home province of British Columbia, who got zero dollars from the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund. The Liberals' plan is to tax people, but not to actually help communities with climate-resilient infrastructure. Where …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I was happy to hear the Minister of Justice speak highly of the U.K. experience. A representative from the United Kingdom commission told us about the threshold language that it uses, “that there is a real possibility” that a miscarriage of justice occurred, which is much higher than the wording that is being proposed in Bill C-40. The witness also told us about a large body of jurisp…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we agree that the criminal justice review rules need to be revised. We just disagree that an alternative justice system should be created, as did the former minister of justice. A press release introducing the bill stated, “The proposed new commission would not be an alternative to the justice system. Applicants would first need to exhaust their rights of appeal before requesting a mi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Yes, Madam Speaker, the review threshold was at the centre of our debate. My hon. colleague from Edmonton Manning referenced evidence from the U.K. commission. Indeed, we thought that was very compelling evidence. I took it upon myself to read many of the cases, but not all of them as some were very lengthy. I was convinced that this is exactly what we wanted and I argued that at committee. None o…
Read full speech →Government Orders
moved: Motion No. 1 That Bill C-40 be amended by deleting the short title. Motion No. 2 That Bill C-40 be amended by deleting Clause 2. Motion No. 3 That Bill C-40 be amended by deleting Clause 3. Motion No. 4 That Bill C-40 be amended by deleting Clause 4. Motion No. 5 That Bill C-40 be amended by deleting Clause 5. Motion No. 6 That Bill C-40 be amended by deleting Clause 6. Motion No. 7 That Bi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, does my colleague agree that we could create an independent review commission that would not necessarily lower the threshold for review? David Milgaard's problem was never that the threshold was too high, but that the system was too cumbersome.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague on the justice committee for that question. Indeed, we take this very seriously. David Milgaard was badly served by our criminal justice system, as were many others. However, it is very important that the public maintains confidence in our court system. It actually works very efficiently. Does there have to be a review process in the event that a per…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, indeed, that was debated. The Bloc Québécois member on the committee argued passionately in favour of every person on the commission being bilingual. Conservatives argued that what is important is that bilingual services are available, and that there be at least one person on the commission, or a number of people, who can speak French as effectively as English. We did not think it w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, would the member for Edmonton Strathcona agree that we could pass legislation that would create an independent commission that is fair, open and efficient, but does not necessarily lower the threshold for review? The member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore said it does not lower the threshold at all. That then leaves me asking why we would change the wording. How is the bill better with the …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member had mentioned supply chain input costs all along the way. One cost input is the carbon tax. I was talking to a friend who is a vegetable farmer in southern Ontario; he says that it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to compete with non-carbon tax regimes, such as California and even South America, which import vegetables into Canada. It is difficult for even a loc…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, thank you for pointing that out. Mr. Morneau said he had pointed out, on several occasions, to the Prime Minister that he had to focus on improving Canada's productivity. Mr. Morneau said, unfortunately, the Prime Minister was not interested in that. He was more interested in distributing wealth, rather than creating wealth. I think that is one of the fundamental economic problems in …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, tonight we are talking about Bill C-49, an act to amend the Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic Accord. I am a member of Parliament from the other end of the country, the Pacific Coast, and it is a real honour for me to be joining in the debate about something that is so important to Canada. It goes to show that Canada really is a nation from sea to sea. I am from the other ocean, but …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, Canada is rich in natural resources. Any country in the world that is rich in natural resources develops them for the benefit of its citizens. We are a trading nation, and we have a lot of allies that want to purchase our resources. Again, I am thinking of liquid natural gas as one example of that. These are the sorts of things that we should be doing for our own benefit, as well as f…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am up with a follow-up to a question that I had put to the Liberal minister. On May 3 in question period, I asked a question about the failed drug legalization pilot project in British Columbia. That project was a joint initiative of the federal Liberal government and the provincial NDP government to basically decriminalize the possession of small amounts of hard drugs for personal …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that was a great question. I am sure the member is hearing from his constituents; likewise, I am hearing from my constituents that they are eager to have a federal carbon tax election. We have seen in some of the recent by-elections that this is resonating with Canadians from coast to coast to coast. It is certainly true in my region. I talked about productivity and efficiency. One fa…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, we often hear the Liberals say they are taking a science-based approach. The science is in, and it is not working. There were over 2,500 toxic deaths last year during the pilot project. It was worse than the year before. This is going in the wrong direction. We have known about this for quite a long time. The provincial government introduced this legislation a while ago, and unfortuna…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition signed by over 800 people, primarily from my home province of British Columbia but also from right across Canada, who are concerned that, since 2014 violent crime has increased by 38% and gang-related homicides has increased by 126%. Petitioners are concerned about the lack of regulations regarding the use of drugs in public places, about repeat offenders …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about Constable Greg Pierzchala of the OPP, who was murdered by a man who was out on bail for similar crimes. There were bail restrictions of course, but the police who were in charge of those told the justice committee that they did not have the tools, the resources, the ability or the manpower to be able to supervise those bail conditions. What can the minister tell u…
Read full speech →