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 →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present e-petition 4938, which has gathered more than 9,500 signatures from people across the country. The petitioners call on the House to oppose the portion of the Liberal Bill C-65 that would move the election date to one week later. This seemingly innocent change would guarantee pensions for current members of Parliament who were first elected in 2019 and who are still s…
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…
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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…
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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?
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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 …
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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…
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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…
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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 →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…
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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 …
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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 …
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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
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 …
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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…
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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…
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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 →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, in all of the debate about excess profits for large grocery stores, I am really puzzled by this one fundamental question. That is, in the supply chain, there are costs added everywhere, with input costs added at every stage. Everybody along the supply chain is making money somewhere along the line. Why pick on the very last person in the supply chain? Why not look at all the others as…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her thoughtful comments, although I do have to take exception to them. She said that Conservatives just want to criminalize all sorts of behaviour and get the streets cleaned up and that the very saintly Liberals want to help people. Their programs are failing. That is the whole point of this. They have taken one step down a very risky path, experimenting w…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, on May 3 in question period, I asked a question about the failed drug legalization pilot project in British Columbia. I say it was a failed project because we were about one year into a three-year pilot project. The evidence was clear that it was failing, with 2,500 toxic drug deaths in the first year of the project, a 7% increase over the previous year. There was crime and chaos on t…
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Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the Conservative Party's “axe the tax for summer” motion, which seeks to make life more affordable for Canadians and, in particular, help them with their summer road trip. I have related the story of my fond memories of taking road trips as a child. This motion comes in the context of a cost of living crisis that Canada finds itself in the middle of. What is the N…
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Madam Speaker, the fact remains that the government does not have money to rebate until it first collects the money. I am calling it a sleight of hand. Citizens are going to be taxed until they hurt, and then the government will give some of the money back and look like a hero, look as though it is doing something. The government members say they have Canadians' backs, but it is only after the gov…
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Madam Speaker, I am very sensitive to the fact that different provinces want to handle their tax regimes differently, and I respect Quebec for wanting to do that. British Columbia has its own carbon tax as well, so it is not even caught by this federal government backstop. However, I can say that the carbon tax is becoming as unpopular in British Columbia as it is in the rest of the country, parti…
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Madam Speaker, the member says the federal tax does not apply in British Columbia. It actually does. The federal government forced the British Columbia government to increase the carbon tax to beyond what the provincial government had ever planned to do, to match the federal level. I would just reassert that the carbon tax has become as unpopular in British Columbia as it has in other places in Ca…
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Madam Speaker, it gives me a great deal of pleasure today to stand up to talk about the Conservatives' motion for an axe-the-tax summer vacation road trip. I had a very happy childhood, spending many hours in the great outdoors in Edmonton, Alberta, all seasons of the year, even in the winter when everything was frozen solid, but the highlight of our family's year was always planning the summer ro…
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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 …
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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, 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 →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…
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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…
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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 →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 …
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Mr. Speaker, there was another story also coming out of the city of Victoria that a person charged with illicit drug trafficking three times was released on bail three times, and people are wondering what is going on with the police. Now the police, in their public notices, have taken to highlighting Bill C-75 of the Liberal government, which directs them to release people with the least restraint…
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Mr. Speaker, Constable Shaelyn Yang of the Burnaby RCMP was murdered in October 2022, about 18 months ago. She was stabbed to death by a drug-crazed person when she was doing a wellness check at a homeless camp in Burnaby. This happened right at the time when the current Liberal government together with the NDP provincial government of British Columbia tried a pilot project of decriminalizing drug…
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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…
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Mr. Speaker, it has been reported in the city of Victoria that the same man has been arrested three times in three days for auto theft. Where was he today? He was out on bail again, so it is catch and release three times, and the people of Victoria are wondering why the police are not doing their work. My question for the minister is this: How many times is enough before a dangerous repeat offende…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister, it is clear he is not worth the crime, chaos, drugs and disorder. His radical experiment in British Columbia with taxpayer-funded hard drugs and legalized street drugs has led to more crime, chaos and disorder. Common-sense Conservatives have put forward a motion to put an end to this risky experimentation. Will the Liberals vote w…
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the Liberal-NDP Prime Minister, it is clear that he is not worth the crime, the chaos, the drugs or the disorder. As a result of his extremist drug policies, we have open drug use in front of an elementary school in Langley, discarded needles at a playground in Willoughby and crack smoking at a bus stop in Brookswood. People from Langley want to know when the Prime…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, on May 5, 1945, the Canadian Army finally secured the liberation of the Dutch people from Nazi occupation. It was a welcome end to a fierce year-long campaign starting on D-Day in northern France, continuing through a cold winter bogged down at the Scheldt River, and finally ending with the liberation of Arnhem and surrounding cities. This victory came at a cost of 7,000 Canadian sold…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the result are in, and they are a disaster, with 2,500 opioid—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the results are in. They are a disaster, with 2,500 deaths last year and six, on average, every day this year. The Liberal minister responsible for hard drug use says that she is waiting for more information from B.C., but the B.C. government says that it has given her all of the information, as if 2,500 drug deaths in one year is not enough data to go on. Canadians want to know why L…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is time to turn the hurt that the Liberals have inflicted on Canadians into the hope that they so desperately need.
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