Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, on the west coast we do not just live near the ocean. We live on it. Time on the water is how we connect with friends, clear our heads and put food on the table. It is practically therapy, and we might even catch dinner, but now the Liberals are putting 9,100 jobs and a $1.76-billion industry at risk with proposed changes to the salmon allocation policy. Will this east coast minister …
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Mr. Speaker, 153,000 student visa cases were flagged for fraud, with less than 3% probed, and 92% of fraudsters were waved through for shots at work permits, residency and asylum. The Auditor General has exposed an immigration system so broken it cannot enforce its own rules. However, instead of fixing it, the Liberals are going to issue even more permits. Even Liberals say the immigration ministe…
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Mr. Speaker, there have always been conflicts abroad. The government's job is to make sure they stay there, because when they do not, Canadians pay the price. We fear a missing Iranian man may have been murdered by Tehran. Three more synagogues were shot at this week and another was vandalized. Meanwhile, IRGC agents continue to live in Canada, hanging out in cafes and going to the gym. Liberals m…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, today is February 3, the first day that 254 forestry workers at the Crofton Mill are out of work. Almost all of them are still without jobs, and another 125 workers will be following them to the unemployment line in the coming weeks. Since the Prime Minister took office, Vancouver Island has seen a steady drumbeat of mill curtailments and closures. Shifts are being cut, mills are bein…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise to present a petition from Canadians concerned about Bill C-9. Faith, as we know, is a matter of conscience, and the petitioners are worried that the state is interfering with their religious texts and teachings, will impinge on religious freedom and lead to government overreach in matters of faith. They are calling on the House to prevent government interference in faith, re…
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Madam Speaker, near the end of his speech, the hon. member spoke about the MOU with Alberta. We know Alberta has identified some of the very pieces of legislation listed as ones we want to affect through a sovereignty act. These are ones that are impediments to moving projects forward. My question for the hon. member is this: Why can we not have both? Why do we have to choose between what he calls…
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Madam Speaker, I think it is incredibly rich for the member opposite, who keeps referring to this as a new government, to look into the past to try to assume that Conservatives cannot change and that we cannot put forward new ideas. From a government with which we have offered to co-operate, it is especially distressing that he continues with the insults and the rhetoric and that he is not willing…
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Madam Speaker, the whole thesis that the Conservatives are putting forward through this sovereignty act is the idea that we should stop the flight of capital outside of this country. We should remove the barriers to investment here, the things that cause Canadians to want to invest in other countries, and help bring that capital and investment back to Canada by removing the barriers to that. That …
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
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Madam Speaker, last week in Davos, the Prime Minister outlined his vision to restore Canada's position as a leading middle power in the world. In the prequel to that speech last October, he reminded a room full of young Canadians that it will take time and sacrifice to realize that vision. In both speeches, the Prime Minister framed the hardship we will face in Canada to realize that vision as una…
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Madam Speaker, I have been thinking a lot about topics like this over the past weeks, and what I think this really reflects on is the concept of agency. Agency is one of the real things that divide us on this side of the House from our colleagues in government on the other side of the House. We firmly believe in agency, and we can see it in this concept of the sovereignty act. We firmly believe th…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Conservatives worked with the government to pass Bill C-5, giving the Prime Minister extraordinary power to approve major projects quickly. The same spirit of co-operation should bring the House together to support a Canadian sovereignty act, which would cut delays for everyone and put Canadians back in control of our destiny. The Major Projects Office is supposed to be a workaround f…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to welcome everyone back to this place, including Canadians who are watching at home. I am pleased to rise on our first day back to contribute to this debate on Bill C-228. I want to start by thanking my hon. Bloc Québécois colleague who introduced this bill. The context for this bill is important, because it concerns how we, as parliamentarians, understand our role in relati…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister invited Canadians to judge him by the prices at the grocery store. Seven months later, shoppers are still going home with half the cart for twice the price. The latest food price report says it is going to get 1,000 bucks worse next year. Meanwhile, another mill is closing in my community. As more people lose their jobs, anxiety is the only thing up more than the co…
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Mr. Speaker, these Liberals must be shopping in the fantasy aisle because Canadians are still getting skewered at the checkout. Conservatives voted against policies that make life more expensive. This Parliament, the Liberals voted against our motions that would have saved jobs, kept communities safe and lowered costs. Inflationary Liberal spending is driving students, seniors and now full-time wo…
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Mr. Speaker, I am really glad the hon. member asked me about Bill C-15 and particularly the MOU. One of the really big challenges with it is that no one knows what it means. We have first nations chiefs and B.C. saying there is a veto and that they will not approve it. We have the government saying that it is going to go ahead. When it comes down to it, we do not actually know what is going to hap…
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Mr. Speaker, I am so glad the hon. member asked me about the national school lunch program, because we absolutely believe that children should be fed, but we believe that parents should be able to do it. What is incredible is that if the federal government really wanted to make a difference and wanted its dollars to make the maximum difference, it would recognize that a fabulous local school board…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I want to say how proud I am to second this motion and the remarks the hon. member made this morning. Like my colleague, I have received a number of emails from faith leaders in my riding and would like the member to comment on this. One of the things that unite faith leaders across this country is the fact that their congregations are composed of people of all political stripes. On…
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Mr. Speaker, I am willing to accept that the government meant well in bringing the budget forward. The Prime Minister claims that he wants to reshape Canada's economy so that it is more self-reliant, more resilient and less vulnerable to outside shocks. That starts with food security. The Prime Minister has said that Canadians should judge his leadership by their experience at the grocery store. I…
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Mr. Speaker, believe me, I would like to think the best of my colleagues across the aisle. The challenge is that the programs are so confusingly organized that, while they actually help some people, the litany of complaints and the number of people in my riding and my communities who are having trouble navigating them mean that the programs the Liberals have established are creating immense backlo…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I apologize if I do not have this right because I am a new member, but we are having this debate because the Liberals cancelled a meeting, and the member is actually—
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Madam Speaker, I wish I could answer the hon. member fluently in French. I am working on it. I am a new member of the House, and one of the things that actually astound me about this Parliament is how little the Prime Minister's office and the government actually involve the House in making laws and making decisions. I would have thought that the Liberals' calls for collaboration and requests that…
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Madam Speaker, I have no doubt that some of my colleagues will speak more directly about the Liberal failures and the problems with the bill, but I want to focus today on an issue affecting more than 2,800 people in my riding and thousands more people across Canada, which is the frozen pensions of British Canadians. For 75 years, the U.K. has refused to provide annual increases to the state pensio…
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Madam Speaker, on the question of whether or not the Prime Minister is aware of this particular issue, I will say that if he reads his email, he would know that the British pensioners were actually here a couple of weeks ago. They had a Hill day. They had a suite. All MPs, including the Prime Minister, were invited to come by, and they had extensive briefings on the issue. If the Prime Minister ch…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, 375 workers at our local Crofton mill are losing their jobs 10 days before Christmas: 150 jobs gone in Chemainus and 165 jobs gone in 100 Mile House. Thirty-one B.C. towns have been gutted so far because the Liberals broke their promise to get a deal. What is the Prime Minister's take on stalled talks? "Who cares?”, he said; there is no “burning issue”. Well, the people who lost their…
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Bow River. I rise today to speak to Bill C-13, an act to implement the protocol on the accession of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. It may be a technical bill filled with tariff schedules, statutory amendments and trade protocols…
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Madam Speaker, I want to compliment the hon. member for really connecting his speech to his riding. I want to ask the hon. member about the country of origin quotas, which expired 18 months ago. I am going to provide him with the example of Canada Goose, which I believe he is familiar with. It is a Canadian company that generated $75 million of revenue in the U.K., but paid $10 million in duties l…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House to represent our beautiful riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith, a part of our country that is shaped in every way by water. Our sea, our rivers, our swimming holes, our creeks and our wetlands are an intrinsic part of our identity. They are where we fish, farm and play; where our kids swim in the summer; and where many of us first fell in love wit…
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Mr. Speaker, I asked a question, and I got a deflection. People in my community can speak to the impact of the industrial carbon tax, because unlike the Prime Minister, they do go to the grocery store. It is not just my local food bank, the Saanich food bank in that member's riding says they have also been seeing more young families, seniors and newcomers. Family Services of Greater Vancouver is a…
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Mr. Speaker, food banks across Vancouver Island are overwhelmed. We are seeing a surge in seniors, young families, newcomers and, increasingly, full-time workers who cannot afford the price of food. These are people who played by the rules, who worked hard and who never imagined they would need a food bank just to get through the week. Instead of helping, the Prime Minister is increasing the indus…
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Mr. Chair, in response to my last question, the hon. member explained some of the reasons he thinks Canadian lumber is special, which give us some time to make a deal, but I have spoken to the forestry companies and workers in my communities, and I can tell members that they say we do not have time to wait. The government has announced some limited relief, yet it seems to be in no hurry to move on…
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Mr. Chair, the member opposite admits we need the U.S. market and claims the U.S. market needs us, but the European Union negotiated a 10% flat rate with the United States while we sit at 45%, and purchases are rapidly shifting. The Prime Minister, in the meantime, says that he is in no hurry to make a deal because this is not a burning issue. What is the member opposite going to do when demand ha…
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Mr. Chair, the government keeps trying to tell us that $1.2 billion is a big number while telling us that $78.3 billion is a small number. The Liberals say that relief is on the way, but our communities tell me that it is going to come too late. The assistance programs that this government is rolling out, first of all, took six months to announce, and I am told that companies are being told that i…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have introduced the most costly and largest budget deficit in history outside COVID. It will drive up the cost of food, housing and everything else that Canadians buy. In Nanaimo—Ladysmith, food bank use is up and donations are down, in part because the people who formerly supported these services now increasingly need to use them to make ends meet. Liberals had the chanc…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, families grieve, addicts struggle and communities do their best to backfill for government failure, and the Liberal government's transformational budget has nothing for us. The word “addiction” appears only once, on page 247, to remind us that $1.2 billion in provincial transfers to support not only addictions, but home and community care and mental health services will vanish after t…
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Mr. Speaker, the budget spends a lot of money on some things, but it also promises to cut spending, including on services that Canadians value. I asked a question about this earlier this morning and was supposed to be reassured by an answer from my colleagues that the CRA would be stepping in to improve efficiencies by filing tax returns presumptively for a number of Canadians. With the CRA's accu…
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Mr. Speaker, I asked one of the members earlier about service cuts to places like my riding, which is very, very far away from Ottawa and where we really rely on our services. He answered by saying that the CRA would improve efficiencies by pre-filling applications and tax filings for Canadians. Given the extremely low accuracy of the CRA in answering questions, as I believe the CRA is answering q…
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Mr. Speaker, my riding, of course, is very far away from Ottawa, and we rely heavily on the services the federal government provides locally to be able to do things such as file taxes and figure out eligibility for various government programs. This is a budget that is going to make major cuts. I am wondering if the hon. member can share what services are going to be lost to the people in my riding…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-238. This bill would amend section 738 of the Criminal Code so that courts could make offenders pay back community organizations, like shelters, emergency services and victim support groups, that have faced rising costs because of human trafficking and serious drug offences under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. This is a worthy idea, and I ap…
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Mr. Speaker, Conservatives worked hard to repeal Liberal bail. We introduced legislation weeks ago. Unfortunately, the Liberals refuses to work with us. They refused to propose amendments, and ultimately, they defeated our bill because it was put forward by us, not them. Now the Liberals have introduced their own bill and are calling for co-operation. I want to be clear that we will work with anyo…
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Mr. Speaker, the member should tell that to the 700,000 kids lined up at food banks. How much more do they have to sacrifice for Liberal insiders? Canadians need a government that puts ordinary families first. While Canadians are sacrificing, the Prime Minister is handing out $700,000 salaries to his high-flying buddies like Halloween candy. When will the Prime Minister stop using taxpayer dollars…
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Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of the Liberal government, Liberal elites and insiders have never had it so good. The Prime Minister told Canadians they need to sacrifice. He promised he would spend less, but instead he spends more. The latest example is that the head of the Prime Minister's new defence investment agency, who has never served, will draw a $700,000 salary. Meanwhile, rent has doubled, …
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Mr. Speaker, it is a good reminder that I have naloxone in my truck, in my car and in my house. We have it in our community offices. It is ubiquitous in our lives. When it comes to the CBSA officers whom the government has promised more times than I can count, not only has it not hired those officers but there is also no money in the main estimates or the supplementary estimates (A) for those CBSA…
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Mr. Speaker, I have two teenagers, so when it comes to young people and their future, it is on my mind as a parent, as it is on the minds of parents in our communities. The current generation of youth is working so hard and facing so many obstacles. If we want to keep them out of gangs and out of trouble, we have to provide them with opportunity. That is one of the things that drives me.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite talks about the Liberal Party's receiving more votes in the last election than it has ever received before. Well, the Conservatives also received more votes in the election than we have ever received before. When it comes to transformational change, the Prime Minister will make that change for his buddies, but there is no minister of mental health and addictions in…
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Mr. Speaker, when I heard about Bill C-12, I was hopeful. I was hopeful because I believed that the Liberals had listened to what both Canadians and Conservatives have been saying about Bill C-2. On the surface, it looked like there was some reason to hope. Bill C-12 is a repackaged and less offensive version of Bill C-2. It does remove the most egregious of the sweeping new powers that the govern…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank, based in Nanaimo, feeds more than 15,000 families up and down the island who cannot afford to keep up with rising grocery prices. They have done everything right, but they are still waiting for the $5 million in federal funding they were promised by the Liberal government. The Prime Minister said he would be judged by the prices Canadians pay…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to join the debate on Motion No. 14, and I begin by thanking the member for York South—Weston—Etobicoke for bringing it forward. It appears that the minister has been listening to those of us on this side of the House, because the motion speaks to three things. First, it speaks about strengthening the accountability and effectiveness of Canada's international deve…
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Mr. Speaker, I especially appreciate the emphasis my colleague has put on Conservative support for the reconciliation process with first nations, Métis and Inuit communities, and also the emphasis he put on the expense of creating another costly bureaucracy when families are struggling so hard to make ends meet. The Auditor General's office is an independent institution that audits federal governm…
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Mr. Speaker, why did the government choose not to place the new commissioner under the independent oversight of the Office of the Auditor General, where accountability and transparency are already well established? This would give first nations, Métis and Inuit partners greater confidence in the commissioner's impartiality.
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