Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague was speaking to the CPA in me when he mentioned tax reform. However, I wanted to say that during my 26 years as a CPA in public practice, I also noticed, without actually documenting it, the decline in the number of entrepreneurs starting out. Can my colleague comment on what he thinks would be helpful from the Conservatives' platform to help out small businesses sta…
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Mr. Speaker, my fellow committee member brought up a few things that the accountant in me likes to acknowledge, concerning the unintended consequences that happened with regard to the disability tax credit and to the seniors' supplement. I am wondering if the member has any insight, from when he was looking at this, as to whether the Liberal government has actually taken into account any of the un…
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Mr. Speaker, as a member of Parliament for a rural Alberta riding, and as someone who spent 26 years as a chartered professional accountant before coming to this place, I feel obligated to rise today to speak to Bill C-15 and to the government's latest disaster of a federal budget. I am going to dive into some of the fiscal details of the budget, but I want to be clear from the start: After 10 yea…
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Mr. Speaker, I have spent many hours on hold with the CRA. I have had a lot of frustration with the number of people reading off a checklist who have inadequate answers to the questions we go through. Even when we write the CRA, we do not always get the right answer. I am sorry the member feels that I have little respect for the CRA, but I have experienced, for a long time, a lot of frustration.
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Mr. Speaker, one thing that I find the government is supposed to do, as far as when I got into this goes, is help people out. Usually, helping out businesses to be profitable and give good jobs means making a good environment in our country for them to make profit. We are falling behind when we compare ourselves to the U.S. There are different tax credits. We had the 100% expensing of certain item…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said before, the government is not operating with the same fiscal framework that businesses are required to when they deal with the CRA for their taxes. They could never account for a liability as an asset, yet the government has done that. There have been a lot of changes to the CPP over the last few years that have made two different levels and added more burdens when it comes …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the vital role of the visitor economy in my riding of Yellowhead and across all of rural Alberta. Tourism is more than just sightseeing. For my riding it is an economic engine that supports nearly 9,000 jobs and more than 2,000 small businesses, most of which are locally owned and operated by proud Albertans. Yellowhead is at the heart of Alberta's visitor ec…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition from concerned citizens in my riding and across Canada regarding a proposal by the Liberal-led finance committee to remove the advancement of religion as a charitable purpose under the Income Tax Act. More than 30,000 registered charities, approximately 42% of all charities in Canada, fall under the category of advancing religion. These faith-based o…
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Mr. Speaker, I have been a CPA for 26 years. I have worked with Canadians as they navigate their personal taxes and finances under the fiscal mismanagement of the Liberal government. Budgets do not balance themselves, as the Prime Minister knows well, with his background. There is no excuse to continue the fiscal disaster he inherited from his predecessor. My question is simple: Will the Prime Min…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising to present a petition on behalf of the citizens of Yellowhead. A growing number of taxpaying residents of the Ghost Valley and Waiparous area, including Benchlands, the Summer Village of Waiparous, Ghost Country Place, Pearce Place and households along Richard Road, require access to a functional postal code in order to fully participate in modern daily life. Postal codes …
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Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak in strong opposition to Bill C-10, the so-called commissioner for modern treaty implementation act. Let me begin by stating what should be obvious but often gets lost in the noise of the Liberal government's grandstanding: Conservatives support treaty rights. We support the process of reconciliation with Canada's first nations, Inuit and Métis people…
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Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my speech earlier, the Conservatives have a long history of stating that they do recognize that there were problems in the past and that we have addressed them, starting with Mr. Harper. There were several times when actual action was done; it was not just words but things that were actually produced and going forward. I do recognize that there were these problems. We o…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree that the commissioner would have absolutely no teeth. It begs the question, would they really have any ability to do anything that is not already in existence? It would be very similar to the Auditor General, who has made all kinds of recommendations, but nothing is accomplished. The government can choose to ignore things. I do see the proposal as a waste of money, when we alr…
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Mr. Speaker, from my reading and learning over the last several months, I see absolutely no benefit to creating more reports. We need to actually have action. Just having another place for another bookshelf to store another report to collect dust would not be productive and would not get to the root of any of the problems. We need to actually implement what we have and listen to the reports we hav…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not a lawyer, but I am the member for Yellowhead, and I do have a jail in my riding. I have met with the guards a couple of times, and I have been told a lot of the problems they have. Specifically, because my area is relatively remote, they have a problem getting the people to help the prisoners improve in their lifestyles and that sort of thing. The prison does not have the res…
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Mr. Speaker, I ask for a recorded division.
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With regard to the statement made by Andrew Campbell, Senior Vice-President, Operations for Parks Canada, at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development's meeting on the Jasper wildfires, where he stated "we do not take notes at my operations team meeting": (a) is this a standard practice at all operations team meetings, and, if so, why and when did this become standard pract…
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With regard to the government’s firearms buyback program and the confiscation of firearms: (a) how were the prices determined; (b) what appeal procedures are available to hunters that believe the price being offered by the government is unfairly low; (c) at what physical locations are firearms owners supposed to go to drop off these firearms, and what are the hours of each location; (d) to what lo…
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With regard to government knowledge of the estimated firearms inventory in Canada: (a) how many firearms does the government currently estimate are legally owned in Canada, and by how many legal owners; and (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by classification and specific make and model of firearm?
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With regard to the Climate Action Incentive Fund, broken down by province and year: how much money was returned through the Climate Action Incentive Fund's Municipalities, Universities, Schools and Hospitals Retrofit stream, broken down by (i) municipality, (ii) university, (iii) school, (iv) hospital?
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, yesterday a devastating rockslide on the Banff Icefields Parkway near Bow Glacier Falls resulted in the loss of a life and injured many. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the family who lost their loved one, and I am wishing a speedy recovery to all those who were injured. We are grateful for the heroic efforts of our first responders, including Parks Canada staff, local firefighter…
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Mr. Speaker, years of poor forest management contributed to fires that devastated a third of the homes in Jasper last year. Parks Canada red tape, controlled by the Liberal government, is delaying the construction of new homes. Its process has just exacerbated the housing crisis in the region. Despite the Liberal government allocating $160 million, its solution seems to be treating Jasperites like…
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Madam Speaker, I heard my colleague say that he is from a rural area. My rural area is the third largest in Alberta, 83,000 square kilometres. There are sections where there are signs telling people to make sure they fill up because there are 200 kilometres before there are any services. When there are not even services for any kind of vehicles, how are people in rural areas going to be able to ha…
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Mr. Speaker, in regard to the member looking at the reports, did he find any evidence that the Liberals went in any other direction, looked at any other reasons for technology to save on efficiencies, or is it all about just going electric, not about other savings or other types of efficiencies?
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Mr. Speaker, unlike the member opposite, I do not like spending a whole lot of time listening to my own voice here. It has been a long time. The member has stated a lot of things, and I did not see where he was going with it. He did state that he has been a member in the House, feeding at the trough, for a very long time. However, he did not seem to tell me how long he has been part of the Liberal…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time. As a chartered professional accountant, now the proud representative of Yellowhead, I rise today to speak in opposition to the government's blatant mismanagement and disregard for taxpayer money, specifically relating to the shocking findings concerning GC Strategies and the ArriveCAN contracts. The Auditor General's report revealed that GC Strategies, a c…
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Mr. Speaker, the decision by the electorate on April 28 gave us a minority government, so there was not a strong mandate for the government on that end of it. The constituents in my riding sent a pretty strong message, with over 69% of them saying they were very much in favour of the—
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I am sorry, Mr. Speaker. As I was saying, my constituents were very much onside with the opposition here, and we want to send a strong message to make sure the last 10 years of fiscal mismanagement are corrected. We hope the government will follow suit in the next little while.
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Mr. Speaker, from our end, this is a beginning. This is in regard to one aspect of where the government mismanaged its spending in the past. We know this recent spending means the Liberals are going to have an extra $26 billion in contractors. We cannot continue with that without some better oversight. As we have said before, we need a budget to actually look at some of that spending. We all need …
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Mr. Speaker, timing seems to be everything. The Liberal government tried to get ahead of it. It announced Friday, just before it was going to be caught with its pants down, that it would be banning GC Strategies, but it probably already had advance notice of what it would be doing. Dealing with GC Strategies needed to be brought forward right now. This is one of the audit reports. It was only one …
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