Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, the most difficult medication to buy is the one that is not available in Canada. It is the one someone finds out about after going to their doctor and being told that it is in the United States, and if they were an American citizen, they could get access to it. However, since they are a Canadian, they cannot. That is the news that too often happens to patients with rare diseases and t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to comment on what the hon. member said. I know that in my riding, seniors are telling me that it is not enough to use buzzwords. These buzzwords, written by the government's research bureau it seems, seek to convey that all is well since we have spent nearly $400 billion and we have achieved some significant results. In my riding, I am told that it is not enough to spe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be joining the debate on Bill C-10. There is a Yiddish proverb that says when one sweeps the house, one finds everything. I am not sweeping this House, as I am sure it is the cleanest house in Canada right now. I am sure the staff is doing amazing work. In reading the legislation now before the House, I had to sweep over articles of what the minister and the governme…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, to the minister's point, on November 18, 2020, in a House of Commons speech, he was referring to this legislation and talking about tackling these issues, saying “voluntary self-regulation does not work”, and “several other countries, including Canada, are concerned about misinformation, online hate and web giants' blatant inability to self-regulate.” He went on and on. The two issu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Drummond for his question. In my opinion, the events that occurred in January south of our border, that is in the United States, or more specifically in the capital, Washington, are the result of a misinformation campaign led by the former president of the United States for nearly two months. According to many conservative American newspapers, there is nothing…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the support should not come through the social media platforms, because they are spreading good journalism and good stories. I will give the member an example. I think we can all agree that the National Observer is mostly independent media of the centre-left. I am a reader. I am a fan of its journalism and work. I would have never found it if it had not been for a social media platf…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Madam Speaker, these have been hard years for Calgary. Harder still was the past year for aviation workers. After the mergers and downsizing in energy companies, WestJet became our largest corporate headquarters, with 14,000 employees; 5,700 remain today. The job losses in aviation and related fields are in the tens of thousands, with temporary layoffs and furloughs hiding the enormity of the situ…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, Calgary is home to proud entrepreneurs. Those risk-takers created WestJet, and after the devastation of our energy sector by malicious Liberal policy actions, it became our largest corporate headquarters. Now WestJet has gone from 14,000 workers to 5,700 due to a lack of support from the Liberal government. What is the Liberal government going to do to save and secure aviation and a…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am tabling two petitions today. The first petition is on behalf of constituents who are calling upon the government to support legislation that would ban the illegal harvesting of organs overseas and make sure that financial transactions done overseas without consent are banned in Canada. The petitioners draw the attention of the House to previous private members' bills that had s…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the second petition I have to present draws the attention of the House and the Government of Canada to the internment and concentration camps in the Xinjiang Region of China of the Muslim Uighur Turkic people. The petitioners are asking the government to formally recognize the genocide and to use the Magnitsky act to punish those who are organizing the genocide of the Turkic Uighur …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, as the member said, I do not think this is a partisan issue; it is just ideas being laid before the House for the procedure and House affairs committee to consider. One of the things he said is that the way we vote right now, and I think I am quoting him correctly, is “insane”. What about considering things like moving from having five members stand in order to cause a vote to 12 memb…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to be joining this debate. Just like the previous member, none of what I am about to say is my party's position, because we do not have one here. It is important that backbenchers be heard whether they are in the opposition parties or the government caucus. That is an important part of what we do. I also believe all Standing Order changes should be agreed to unanimously. Th…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I oppose the idea of a second chamber until we fix the way debates are done. To have a second chamber where speeches are read and it is a stultified debate, under the standard format we have now, does not help anything. It does not achieve the goals of members debating either the details of legislation being presented by the government or a private member's bill or a motion. I oppose …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I agree. Often, our opposition supply days get put on a Wednesday as a form of punishment because of wrangling and negotiations among House leaders in this chamber. If, ahead of every session or return to Parliament, specified opposition supply days could be agreed upon at the very beginning, perhaps by standing orders, we could get around this problem. We could then schedule every su…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I would never say you use some type of list. That would be against the Standing Orders. I do not know how you choose who speaks in the House, but catching your eye is the first difficulty of any member, especially new members who are much closer to you or to your sides. It would be a difficult task. Adopting the United Kingdom's format where the Speaker, at the beginning of the debate…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the member pointed out the practice that has emerged where there are unanimous consent motions after every single question period, just like there are points of order. I wonder if she would perhaps agree to a system where we do what happens during adjournment debates, that we move to the end of question period to stop that practice right now. I get the same amount of angst as many mem…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-263, An Act to amend the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act (equalization). Mr. Speaker, today I am tabling an act to amend the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act with regard to equalization. For short, it is called the equalization and transfers fairness act. This act would do the following: publish publicly all calculations on equalization; pub…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the member for Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame and I enjoyed a long time on the PROC committee in the last Parliament dealing with one of the government motions. There is a Yiddish proverb that says “Men don't build on strange ground.” I want to critique the member's proposal for a second chamber. Going back to what I said earlier, until we fix debate in this chamber, we should not…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his intervention. I would like to add that the Legislative Assembly of Alberta was prorogued five times between 2015 and 2019. We are not known for proroguing, but the provincial government does use this tool almost every year, unlike the other jurisdictions in Canada. I would comment that I like what the member is proposing for Fridays. We could extend Friday…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, during her first speech the member showed us that if we are speaking from our offices we should always have our hands moving and speak with our hands to set off the motion sensors and keep the lights from going off in our offices. She brought up a lot of really good points and a lot of things that should be considered. She spoke about the culture of Parliament and how we do our busi…
Read full speech →