Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member for Sarnia—Lambton is correct. I asked the government to tell me how many construction workers were brought in through all immigration streams under the different NOC codes. The minister claimed that he was not the minister responsible for NOC codes. It is about 4,500 per year since 2016. We have a shortage of 100,000 residential construction workers just in Ontario. They…
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Madam Speaker, the member is wrong. When the Paul Martin government was defeated in 2006 and a new Conservative government took over, it took a few years to realize that, in fact, there was a six million to eight million application backlog created by previous Liberal governments. At that time, the decision was made to reset the system to zero, because there was no way to fix it. Liberal governmen…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, athlete, author, thinker, businessman, husband and grandfather are a few of the ways to describe Bill Gairdner, who passed away at age 83 last month. He won a silver at the decathlon in the 1963 Pan American Games. He competed in 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics, in 1966 at the Commonwealth Games in Jamaica and in 1970 at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. He married his beloved wife, Jean, …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for the very detailed history lesson that he gave about the oath of allegiance. I would have liked to hear even more about that. I would say that section 128 of our Constitution needs a twin, rather than a son, a godfather or a sister. It needs a twin section. I like the way he approached this subject. Could my colleague give us some examples of what…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the current Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages: (a) has the minister advocated or taken other action to convince the Prime Minister to remove or pause the carbon tax from natural gas or other sources of home heating; (b) if the answer to (a) is affirmative, what are the details, including for each action, the (i) date, (ii) description of the action…
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With regard to the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) announced by the government in 2019, from September 1, 2019, to date: (a) how many applicants have applied for mortgages through the FTHBI program, broken down by province and municipality; (b) of those applicants, how many have been approved and accepted mortgages through the FTHBI program, broken down by province and municipality; (c) of…
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With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's Express Entry program: how many construction or trades workers have been admitted through the program, broken down by stream, year, and each of the major and minor groups within category 7 of the National Occupational Classification codes (trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations), since 2016?
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With regard to the processing times for applications submitted to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, as of October 30, 2023: (a) what are the processing times for the temporary programs, broken down by month in 2023 for (i) study permits, (ii) work permits, (iii) temporary residents; and (b) what are the processing times for permanent residency programs, broken down by month in 2023 for…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his speech about the free trade agreement and the bill, which will implement it in Canada. I travelled with him several times to Washington, and I must say that he is a champion of workers’ interests in the labour and battery sectors. Every time we met with the Americans, he would talk about that, trying to convince them. I think there is somethi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, on the same point of order, on what the parliamentary secretary just said, a member is allowed to reflect on their own votes. I do not believe the Standing Orders in the House of Commons directly affect how committees vote. I do not believe it has ever been part of the rules directly. Votes cannot be referred to in the House that are taken here. Part of the ruling that is made shoul…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, my second petition draws the attention of the House to the following: The value of the energy sector is about 10% of Canada's GDP. It pays over $26 billion in taxes at all levels of government, and it paid about $48 billion in royalties and taxes in 2022. Constituents are calling for Bill C-50, the “unjust transition act”, to be abandoned. They say that a central planning agenda is …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have two petitions to present today on behalf of my constituents. The first one draws attention to the fact that only 41% of doctors with international credentials work as doctors in Canada, and 30% of nurses with international credentials work as nurses in Canada. That is about 53,000 foreign or internationally trained professionals, and many of them have great difficulty. We jus…
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Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, my fifth petition calls for the Government of Canada, and the Speaker specifically, to give royal recommendation to Bill C-318 so that adoptive and intended parents are able to better support their families.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the fourth petition from my constituents calls for Bill C-50 to be abandoned, as the unjust transition act targets them specifically.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the third petition asks for an inquiry to be called into the foreign interference in our elections by the People's Republic of China.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the second petition calls for the government to ensure that hate crimes are prosecuted in Canada when they target certain religious groups.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, very quickly, I have five petitions to table on behalf of my constituents. The first one calls for a blue seal program, modelled after the Red Seal program, for medical professionals.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, there is not enough time to respond to that ridiculous statement. I just want to wish the member a happy defeat in the next election when the people of Timmins—James Bay send him packing, and I hope that he enjoys his retirement.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about Bill C-11, which was passed in the Senate. I think there is a big difference when we are talking about a bill that seeks to determine what people have the right to access online, the freedom of speech that they should have and what the government can control on YouTube, Facebook and the Internet in general. With regard to the cost of food, we know that more than two …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have respect for the member for Winnipeg North. He does the best he can for his Liberal side, rising consistently in the House and trying to do the best that he can with the miserable talking points that the Liberals receive. Let us go back to the record. There is RADARSAT satellite imagery of where Russian troops went across the border. The Stephen Harper government gave access to …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I hear a member heckling again. It is the same voice I hear all the time, from the member for Timmins—James Bay. He spends more time heckling and talking about Toronto subways than he does about the people from Timmins—James Bay. I want to wish him good luck in a future life when he perhaps will try to go and get a pundit job with maybe the CBC; sorry, not the CBC because we are going…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am delighted that answers to questions have been tabled in the House. The government has now created one carve-out for heating oil. It did it for electoral reasons. One of the Liberal cabinet ministers said exactly that, that if westerners, prairie Canadians like myself, expected to get a carve-out for natural gas, which is the primary fuel used to heat our homes in the winter, then…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a great honour to rise on behalf of the constituents of Calgary Shepard. This is the 14th report of the Public Accounts committee, a committee I got to chair briefly. I know that there are other members here who have had the honour of chairing that committee as well. It is one of the most interesting committees to be on because it is one that deals very closely with the A…
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Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary completely avoided answering the question from the member for Lakeland, demonstrating that the bill would not actually impact the workers most affected by the unjust transition act. I know she wants to avoid saying that. The member from the Bloc directly asked the parliamentary secretary why it is that the legislation is not called by what it would actual…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, artificial intelligence obviously depends on models and information that it scoops up off the Internet. There are two sources of information to build the AI model: low-wage workers working sometimes in deplorable conditions and also AI scanning through places like Google or DuckDuckGo or other browser engines. It hoovers up data and images. When AI picks up AI images and information…
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Mr. Speaker, I ask for a recorded division.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that felt like a long 20 minutes. I do want to make a commentary about the member admonishing the Conservatives for simply bringing forward concerns with legislation, expressed both by our constituents and stakeholders. The member for Battle River—Crowfoot mentioned that the legislation would not address the 60,000-plus complaints. I would draw the attention of all members of the Ho…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary has not answered the substance of my question. The moratorium that has been announced is based on an ASO technical report of experts, and 13 projects have been suspended. That is it, as for what has been impacted. This is also temporary. I will draw the parliamentary secretary's attention back to the legal arguments that have been undone by the government…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am glad to be able to rise, following up on my question from a few weeks ago about the so-called carbon tax exemption being provided on home heating oil, which only 3% of Canadians are going to be able to enjoy, and only with the condition that it is for just three years. After the three years, everybody who is on home heating oil will have their carbon tax massively increased, wh…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am joining the debate. I will read the parts of the motion that I want to talk about the most. First is “the importance of educating Canadians of all ages about the core values that Polish Canadians have imparted”. The second part I want to draw the attention of the House to is “the government should reflect upon Polish heritage for future generations”. I have a Yiddish proverb, a…
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Madam Speaker, after more than eight years, we have an immigration system with a backlog of over 2.2 million applications. It is shameful to make people wait to reunify their families. It is also shameful to make those with precarious status wait to find out whether they will be entitled to permanent resident status. Sometimes, they have to wait many years to find out if the answer is a yes or a n…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to respond to the comments made by the leader of the Bloc Québécois. Behind all the numbers there are families, people who came to Canada or are waiting for permission to come to be reunited with their family, as was the case for members of my family. However, the numbers also count for something. Since 2015, the number of departmental employees working on backlogged ap…
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Madam Speaker, to hear the parliamentary secretary tell it, Canada's immigration system has been working well for the past eight years. It is perfect and working exactly as the government intended. However, we know the application backlog is 2.2 million and growing. It seems to get a little bigger every month. Foreign students are turning to food banks every day, every month and every year. That w…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the member to comment on the issue of online applications submitted to the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Since September, the system has had a processing backlog of 2.2 million applications. A year ago, we were told that the new system that was created forces all people, whether in Canada or outside, to apply to change their immigration sta…
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Mr. Speaker, I serve with the member on the immigration committee, and I want to bring it back to that particular issue, which is the substance of the Bloc motion. There is an Auditor General's report that just came out about the immigration backlog and the eight immigration PR systems. The report mentions that there are two programs for permanent residency for privately sponsored refugees and gov…
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Mr. Speaker, my response will be about processing times. I actually do have a paper on that, and it is funny. The Auditor General's report found that, on average, privately sponsored refugees waited 30 months for a decision. Some of them waited two years before their file was even touched. I have the 2015 numbers, so I would like to refresh the member's memory. In 2015, study permits took 31 days …
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's question about residential, commercial and, of course, industrial infrastructure. Do we have enough highways, hospitals and clinics to provide the services people will need? The province of Alberta has the second-highest rate of interprovincial migration. Many people who come to Canada settle first in another province and then choose Alberta. Even with all th…
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be joining this debate. I will be sharing my time with the member for Edmonton Mill Woods, my colleague from up north, the deputy leader of the Conservative Party. I would be remiss if I did not start by addressing an issue that is top of mind for many of my constituents and for Canadians coast to coast. I want to remind everybody about the carbon tax flip-flop of the Pri…
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Mr. Speaker, the simple answer is no, that is not it. Pre-2019, I did not have constituents coming to tell me that they were worried about being able to purchase a home or being able to pay rent. It was not a problem until the Liberal government, with its NDP allies, decided that it was a good idea to overspend $600 billion during the pandemic, $205 billion of which had nothing to do with addressi…
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Mr. Speaker, we are debating this motion about wraparound services for immigrants and newcomers coming to Canada. The minister was just in Calgary. He would know that the Centre for Newcomers in Calgary and the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society have had their funding cut. They need another $3 million to provide the key on-the-ground services for newcomers coming to Canada. They have estimated a…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am tabling a petition on behalf of constituents in my riding. They are drawing the attention of the House to the fact that Canada has now the highest rate of common-law relationships among G7 countries, with a share of co-residing common-law couples increasing from 6% in 1981 to 23% in 2021. The petitioners also draw the attention of the House to the fact that nearly four in 10 chil…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, obviously, the members on that side are in panic mode because of falling numbers in the polls, so they are serving up election gimmicks. This week's food bank report says that one in six Canadians is one of the “working hungry”. They are working and going to the food bank. Herman, in my riding, tells me that he has been going to the food bank for almost two years, along with his broth…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it has been eight long, miserable years with the NDP-Liberal government. A year ago, its members voted to keep the carbon tax on home heating, and now they are in full panic mode. With polling numbers in free fall, their new re-election slogan is “elect them and they will only quadruple the carbon tax right after the next election”. There is no relief either for the second carbon tax …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, Shilan Mirzaei is a prominent Iranian human rights activist who has been wrongfully arrested for her defence of Iranian refugees in Turkey and her strong voice for human rights. Worse still, her arrest was made at the request of the terrorist regime in Iran. Mirzaei is now being held in a deportation centre in Turkey. She faces deportation to Iran and a certain death sentence. Turki…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am tabling a petition on behalf of my constituents, who draw to the attention of the House that Canada now has the highest rate of common-law relationships among G7 countries, with the share of co-residing common-law couples increasing from 6% in 1981 to 23% in 2021. There are other statistics that they draw the attention of the House to, including the number of children living wi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that is a worthy goal to have on the government benches, obviously. The House leaders, I am sure, are negotiating some type of agreement. If they are amenable to it, I am sure the Conservative House leader will obviously listen, but at the end of the day, I think we can both agree that this chamber, this House, has been clear in our support for Ukraine, the people of Ukraine and the…
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Madam Speaker, the member is absolutely right. I am concerned because with the Canada-Europe free trade deal that was signed, I do not think Canadian companies have been able to take full advantage of what is in the agreement. When it comes to agricultural goods, we know that is a sore point with the United Kingdom. I remember that when I was in the United Kingdom travelling for a study by the par…
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No, Madam Speaker, the member did not misunderstand. The committee is the right place for going into the details of the agreement. It is an opportunity for stakeholder groups to come before the committee, those that have gone into the weeds of it to see what it would mean for the customs code and what the implications are of expanding certain sections. What I was referencing is that I would like t…
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