Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise for the good people of Simcoe—Grey and, more precisely, Clearview Township. I have a petition to present with respect to a deep concern within the community. The Department of National Defence has purchased 700 acres of prime farmland to build an over-the-horizon radar system. That is phase one. In order for phase two to be successful, it needs up to another 3,000 acres. The re…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member opposite for discussing the automotive industry for a small portion of his speech. I know that there is great concern in the county of Simcoe, as host to Honda as well as to Toyota. There are really only the big two now in Canada. We have a government that wants to buy Canadian and support Canadian. I would like to ask the member where we are at when we ar…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise on behalf of the people of Simcoe—Grey, and more specifically those in Clearview Township. The Department of National Defence has purchased one farm of roughly 780 acres, to install an over-the-horizon radar system in a phase one. In order to really complete the system, it is going to need phase two. All the residents are extremely concerned. The department nee…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a petition from the good residents of Simcoe—Grey who are opposed to the over-the-horizon radar system. If we can imagine for a minute, there is going to be close to 4,000 acres when the project is done, all phases, which will be totally flat. Every farm, every house, every barn will be knocked out, as well as all wooded lots, in the middle of the municipality. The m…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to announce this year's recipients of the Simcoe—Grey MP Community Leader Awards. Nelly Galifi manages the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul food bank and volunteers for its response line, helping many community members in crisis. Mary Beth Sharpe, for 19 years, managed the books at and lent her sewing skills to our not-for-profit Theatre Collingwood, as well as volunteering…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her passionate speech about democracy. I can tell members I had the opportunity on the weekend to attend the 50th anniversary of Wendy and Larry Long of Clearview Township. I congratulate them on 50 years. The common question was about floor crossers. People are concerned, are upset and have lost faith in politicians. The other part the Liberals are no…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the great residents of Simcoe—Grey and, more specifically, the township of Clearview. The Department of National Defence has purchased 700 acres of prime agricultural land to build an over-the-horizon radar system. The residents there are stressed and concerned. In order to do phase two, the department needs up to another 3,000 acres to make the radar run at its pe…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise here on behalf of petitioners from Simcoe—Grey once again. The Department of National Defence has purchased 700 acres of prime farmland with the goal of building an over-the-horizon radar system. This is fantastic land right on the edge of the Minesing wetlands. There are huge environmental concerns. In order for this to be operational, stage 2 would require up…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the good people of Simcoe—Grey to present a petition. The Department of National Defence has purchased over 700 acres of prime farmland in the Township of Clearview and will need up to another 3,000 acres to finish the over-the-horizon project. There are many concerns environmentally. The Minesing Wetlands are right beside this property. As well, we often hear abou…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise on behalf of the residents of Simcoe—Grey to present a petition. People in Clearview Township were shocked and surprised when the Department of National Defence bought a farm of 750 acres from one farmer and proposed an over-the-horizon radar system. We are very supportive of our military, as Canadian Forces Base Borden is within our border. The concern is that…
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Mr. Speaker, before the redistribution, Honda was part of my riding. I am very happy that the member who represents them now is seeing what is going on in our community. I know how important Honda is. I have many employees in my riding who work there. They do great community work and a lot of charitable work. Could the member for New Tecumseth—Gwillimbury update us on what the folks are saying and…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not going to ask a question, because I do not think I want to hear the answer. Quite frankly, if I am going to comment, I would say that I have been fortunate. Honda has been in my riding for many years, before this redistribution, and I have worked with them for many years. I can tell members about the frustrations that Honda has had with the Liberal government. “This is a new L…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the great people in Clearview Township in Simcoe—Grey. We are very supportive of our military. In fact, Base Borden is located within my riding, but the concern is over the site and location of a phase one, over-the-horizon radar system that is right beside the Minesing Wetlands and is also prime agricultural land. The residents are concerned with the purchase of the …
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on behalf of the residents of Simcoe—Grey and, in fact, those all across the country. The Department of National Defence purchased 700 acres off one farmer to build the over-the-horizon radar system. The people in the riding are not opposed to our military. In fact, they support the men and women. Base Borden is in my riding. However, they have concerns. This is p…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise to present a petition from the great residents of Simcoe—Grey and, more specifically, Clearview Township. This will be the first of many petitions. The Department of National Defence has purchased 700-plus acres of prime farmland overlapping the Minesing Wetlands to build a preliminary Arctic over-the-horizon radar system in Clearview Township. DND has now sent …
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member represents my neighbour riding. I am sure he knows, since he comes from a municipal background, as I do, that in the last 10 years, many municipalities have had major concerns. There is increased food bank usage and a huge homelessness problem. It is something my riding is trying to address. I know that a mayor in the member's riding declared a state of emergency to fi…
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly do not regret voting against this budget. My concerns were with the deficit, the expenses and the amount of money. We hear those numbers and stats, that the interest payments are more than the transfers to health care and more than the GST we collect. I am not upset with my objection, because I care about the next generations. When it comes to the pipeline, my opinion is t…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the great people of Simcoe—Grey to speak to Bill C-15, the budget implementation act. When the budget was announced, I, like many of my constituents, was shocked that the so-called new Liberal government could spend even more than the so-called old Liberal government. What a decade it has been. Almost every facet of Canadian life has declined. Our young peopl…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not here to split hairs, by any means, but those are the numbers that we got through our research, which is number one. At the end of the day, if the member opposite went to a grocery store, I think he would probably find those numbers are realistic. I often go to the grocery store and things are up even more than that. That is the average that we found. I believe those are the a…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is also a hard worker. He knows, and it is what I have heard, that these farming communities have no interest in selling. These farming communities have grown through the years, through generations. They have a lot of equipment. I do not know what happens when it comes to the expropriation process, but what I can say is that these individuals have absolutely zero inter…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, residents of Simcoe—Grey are proud to be the home of Canadian Forces Base Borden. They are also proud farmers, so when DND revealed it had secretly bought over 700 acres of prime farm land to build a radar site, residents were shocked. Now they are concerned, after DND started contacting residents directly, asking them to sell their land because it needs thousands more acres. They wil…
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Mr. Speaker, I know about the balance, as in my riding, between the military, which is very important, and agriculture. I know the government purchased roughly 1,600 acres for an Arctic over the horizon radar system. There seems to be a clash. The municipality and the Simcoe Federation of Agriculture are not against the actual technology; what they are against is the site of up to 4,000 acres. If …
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Mr. Speaker, there are some things in the member's speech that we agree on. They have our backs and we must have theirs. That is extremely important. We also agree that everyone should be safe from harassment. The Borden base is in my riding. I am very honoured to represent the men and women of the military who serve and have served in that area. I used to sit on the veterans affairs committee, an…
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Mr. Speaker, Honda Canada was in my riding until this latest election and the redistribution. I dealt with it all the time. I thank my colleague for pointing out the importance of those jobs. I remember when Stephen Harper, back when I was a mayor prior to my time here, introduced the gas tax. For a lot of municipalities, it was dedicated funding for roads and bridges. I know how important it was,…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the great people of Simcoe—Grey for again putting their trust in me to be their voice here in Ottawa. I am so thankful to my campaign team for their hard work and dedication, with special thanks to Duane McNabb, my campaign manager, and Karin Greig, my financial agent, who both filled such critical roles. Springtime is a busy time in Simcoe—Grey with so many grea…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his passionate speech today. We do not always agree with the Bloc, but I have to say that, in the member's speech, there was a lot of discussion about the carbon tax, when it was implemented and why it was withdrawn. There are definitely a lot of frustrations in my riding of Simcoe—Grey from people who have paid for years and years into something th…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, a new TD report says that the Liberal housing plan to build 500,000 homes a year is likely to fall well short, but that is really no surprise since this promise comes from the same party that said it would plant two billion trees. TD says that even 400,000 homes a year is not possible, since housing starts in Canada actually declined by 30,000 units this year. Without a budget, there …
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, first of all, I want to congratulate the member opposite for his victory and welcome him to the House. I know the member thanked his family for allowing him to run and for their sacrifices. I want to yell out a quick happy birthday to my daughter Sarah, who is 18 years old today. We do miss some events because we are in the House doing our job. Yesterday, we voted to have the govern…
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Madam Speaker, the government is just not serious. Canadians are facing a made-in-Canada GDP per capita recession. The NDP-Liberals have overseen the worst standard of living decline in Canada in 40 years. What is the Liberal plan? The Liberal plan is to quadruple the carbon tax, increase housing taxes and implement a capital gains tax increase. That is without a 25% tariff in place yet. A two-mon…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, in my riding I hear mostly from seniors who actually watch what is going on here in the House of Commons. The one thing I get asked continually is, “What about us? What have we done? Why are we forgotten?” It is continuous and now we have seen another package, seniors are not going to get the $250, so they are upset. My question to my colleague as the critic for seniors is this: Wha…
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Madam Speaker, earlier this week, the finance minister said that all is well with the Canadian economy, that it is Canadians that just are not feeling that good, that it is a vibecession. New economic data has just been released from Statistics Canada, which has now confirmed a sixth consecutive quarter with a decline in GDP. Add to that an incoming U.S. administration threatening 25% tariffs acro…
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Mr. Speaker, once again, we are here to get the documents. That is the discussion and debate we are on. I do not know why other parties are deflecting questions instead of dealing with what really needs to be done. It is a simple process. It is unfathomable that the House made a decision and we have a government that is not going along with it. What I am hearing in my riding is that people are fru…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for those nice comments. Just so everyone here is aware, I drove last night to make sure I was in time, and I think the hon. member flew, so I brought his clothes with me. I think he is thanking me for bringing his clothes. I hear all the time about wasted spending and have heard great thoughts about what we could do with that amount of money in my riding.…
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Mr. Speaker, once again, this discussion is about releasing the documents. That is the first thing. I come from a municipal background. I was a mayor for many years and was then on the two-tier county council. I can say that for a lot of programs, there are lots of announcements saying the Liberals are going to have all this funding and it is going to be fantastic, but it does not work. The rural …
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Mr. Speaker, I find it quite comical to get that type of question. Last week, we had a week in our ridings, and I hope the member opposite spent a lot of time visiting his constituents. No one talked about anything other than the scandal and corruption of the government at every event I attended. From veterans to those at birthday celebrations to new Canadians, they all wanted to know when the ele…
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Mr. Speaker, we could put our hands up and ask certain questions of members, not just on this side but across the whole House: Are services better today than when they were elected? Are their staff more frustrated today when dealing with these bureaucracies than when they were elected? I am sure the answer would be yes, and I think that would be true right across the board if people were to give a…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of all the great residents of Simcoe—Grey. I just want to give a quick thanks. Last week was Remembrance Day, and I was invited to 15 ceremonies. I attended two of them on Remembrance Day, the only two I could go to during that time period since I was driving. I just want to thank the volunteers in my EDA for helping out to make sure that a wre…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague's speeches, today and yesterday, were very interesting. In my riding, I am often asked to speak at high schools and talk to civics and leadership classes. More than ever, there really seems to be a distrust of many politicians of all stripes. We can name all the scandals one after another. Is the member opposite hearing this as well because of the continual scandals, an…
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Madam Speaker, I think at this time the interpreters may get a bit of a break in the speed of the discussion, which might be nice going into the weekend. I want to quickly say, as I am the last speaker today, that with Remembrance Week and Remembrance Day, it is important for all of us to pay tribute and make sure we attend services. To everyone watching, I am very fortunate to have Base Borden in…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague's question is important. I think it starts from the top. If we had a government that was looking out for the dollars of Canadians and understood how hard it is to make a dollar, it would probably make sure that message would get to the individuals who are involved in these offshoot companies. No one from the government spoke after there were 186 conflicts of interest. W…
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Madam Speaker, I do not know why the Liberals would not want to be open and transparent and let this go to the RCMP. It is not like we are sending documents to one of our parties. We would be taking them to an outside authority. If there is nothing to hide, why would the government not want to do it? This whole issue and delay is because of that one simple process. I have faith in our committees w…
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Madam Speaker, the idea behind what we are debating is that we want the documents to go to the RCMP. That is what the majority of the House has stated. It is a shame that is not what is happening. Obviously, there is some contempt of the House, and I think some real soul-searching should be done to see why the Liberals would not release those documents to the RCMP. It is an outside force. Let it d…
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to speak on behalf of the residents of the beautiful riding of Simcoe—Grey. As members know, last week was a riding week, and there were couple of celebrations that I was fortunate to attend. The first was the 40th anniversary of Jan Trude's first Tim Hortons. Jan owns all the Tim Hortons's in the Collingwood catchment area. It was a great anniversary. Forty years is…
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Madam Speaker, I go to many events, and the frustration is terrible. People are hurting financially and emotionally. What is going on in this country is shocking to people. It is unfortunate that people have a bad view of politicians. What has happened after nine years of the Liberal government is that people's perception and mistrust are at an unbelievable level. It is like never before. They tel…
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Madam Speaker, first of all, in the House today we are talking about documents. I do not know if the member saw we are talking about the documents, so I am looking for questions about the documents. A lot of the questions we seem to be getting from the NDP are provincial ones, so I do not know if the members would like to perhaps run as MLAs. That might be a good idea so they could get those ideas…
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Madam Speaker, I just want to begin by saying that this is my first time speaking to the motion. The residents of Simcoe—Grey want to hear from me. To me, this is not a filibuster. I would actually almost want an apology for him thinking that that is what I am trying to do here. I would like to add, quite frankly, that it is quite simple if he would like to move along. The only people who are hold…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Small Halls Festival, a unique eight-week festival with events across the communities of Clearview Township. Community centres, outdoor stages and churches in Creemore, Singhampton, Duntroon, Nottawa, Sunnidale Corners, Brentwood, Dunedin and Stayner will each host different events. Whether it is whisky or wine tasting, beer or food pairing,…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and its Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP), since January 1, 2016: (a) how many (i) individuals, (ii) employers, (iii) corporations, (iv) partnerships, (v) trusts, have successfully used the VDP (i.e. their application for the VDP was accepted), broken down by year; (b) how many (i) individuals, (ii) employers, (iii) corporations, (iv) partnerships, (…
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With regard to transcriptions or transcripts prepared by the government since January 1, 2022, and broken down by department or agency: (a) for each occurrence, what is the (i) date of the proceeding or event, (ii) location of the proceeding or event, (iii) description or summary of the proceeding or event, (iv) main participants speaking at the proceeding or event, (v) subject matter of the proce…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have long known that the carbon tax costs them more than they get back. Who else knows this? The Liberals do. That is because the Parliamentary Budget Officer revealed this week that the Liberals commissioned a report that confirmed what Canadians already know, that the carbon tax costs families more than they get back. Now the Liberals refuse to release the taxpayer-funded …
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