Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think my hon. colleague answered his own question. The reality is that we have meetings regularly between each provincial health minister and the federal minister to outline priorities. Dental care was not one of those priorities. Increased transfers to the provinces to deal with our doctor shortage was one of the priorities put forward by our provincial ministers.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the new Conservative leader will put the people first: their paycheques, their savings, their homes and their country. Small business owners are the unsung heroes of the Canadian economy. These entrepreneurs employ nearly two-thirds of workers across Canada, providing meaningful paycheques to millions of Canadians. However, right now, under the Liberals, small businesses are being pun…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadian small businesses are struggling to stay open. In fact, one in six say they are considering shutting their doors. The CFIB has urged the government not to burden workers and employers with extra costs at a time when inflation has skyrocketed. However, on January 1, the Liberals plan to increase payroll taxes, putting further strain on business owners and providing less take-ho…
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Madam Speaker, I am so pleased to be speaking tonight to Bill C-22, an act to reduce poverty and to support the financial security of persons with disabilities by establishing the Canada disability benefit and making a consequential amendment to the Income Tax Act. I was thinking about this bill on my flight to Ottawa last night, and I would be remiss if I did not mention Bethesda Christian Associ…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Milton for his question, but the debate today is on Bill C-22, not Bill C-31. As I mentioned in my speech on Bill C-31, we have to look at the inflationary impacts of what we are doing. As I outlined in the suite of questions I posed, which I hope committee members and the government listened to, we need to do a full costing of this bill to see what impact …
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Mr. Speaker, I believe that this bill needs a lot more work. I hope that the Bloc Québécois will support this bill so we can study it in committee and make changes and amendments. This will ensure that the legislation is compatible with provincial programs.
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Mr. Speaker, on the points raised by the member for Victoria, I think they are essential. Going back to Darlene, whom I mentioned in my speech, when she goes out for coffee at Tim Hortons or an ice cream and a burger at McDonald's, she has to tabulate that every single month. She lives dollar to dollar. The Bethesda Christian Association that supports Darlene lives dollar to dollar as well. Yes, g…
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Mr. Speaker, just last year, or this year if I am mistaken, a woman in my community received MAID because she could not find adequate housing. What we need to do as a government and as a society collectively is to ensure that human dignity is respected, and we need to ensure that people living with disabilities have hope and support. I hope with this framework and with amendments at committee, we …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, in May I asked the Minister of Health what scientific advice he had received in regard to travel mandates. Today I ask the same question. On September 26, the ministers of health, public safety and transport announced the lifting of the pandemic precautions effective October 1 by allowing the special orders under the Quarantine Act to expire. This effectively meant that foreign nation…
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Mr. Speaker, I have no doubt that all members of the House, all 338 of us, care about the Charter of Rights and its application. What I am saying here today is that we have made so many consequential decisions, even on this side of the House, and have not properly examined the impact on our rights, the societal impact and the fiscal impact they are going to have on future generations in Canada. I …
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Madam Speaker, indeed, when we conducted the committee report in, I believe, 2017, I was a staffer, and all parties worked very closely together on the work at the environment committee at that time. When the member was giving his speech, I thought back to the long discussions we had in 2017 on the role of toxic chemicals and management, and some of the recommendations put forward on the chemicals…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise again today on Bill C-31. From the outset, let me make it clear that I will be voting against this bill, because the NDP-Liberal government is driving up the cost of living. The more it spends, the more things will cost. In reference to the commentary I just heard, Derek Holt, vice president and head of capital markets economics at Scotiabank, stated: [I]t see…
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Mr. Speaker, it makes perfect sense, because the federal government holds the spending purse. It is the federal government that plays a large part in funding every single major infrastructure project across this country. The federal government could say to the City of Vancouver or the City of Surrey that if it wants a sky train, it better increase zoning to allow for affordable homes around transp…
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Mr. Speaker, the member from Kingston and the Thousand Islands continues to heckle me.
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Mr. Speaker, to the member for Kingston and the Islands, collectively, the measures before us today, as outlined by two of the big banks in Canada, will have an inflationary impact on the economy of Canada.
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Mr. Speaker, I cannot speak to the specifics of the financialization and/or corporate preferential tax treatment outlined by the New Democratic member from Vancouver. However, I can say that the rate of home ownership in Canada has decreased to a level that we have not seen in a generation. All political parties, especially mine, want to restore and maintain the hope of young people to have a reas…
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Mr. Speaker, one of the things the government could is stop raising taxes. People cannot afford food. They cannot afford gas. They cannot afford heat. Why would the government not just change the personal exemption rate of $13,800, increase it and stop all this wealth redistribution? Let people keep more of their paycheques. That is the best thing we can do to help Canadians who are struggling rig…
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Madam Speaker, the measure we are discussing in the House today does not affect everyone. The bill before us today is for people only making under $60,000. The bill will apply only to Canadians who already qualified, as I outlined in my speech, for the GST credit. This bill applies only to Canadians who received a GST credit notice in July, when the government sent those letters out to Canadians.
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise on Bill C-30 today. Yesterday, I was intrigued by a poll commissioned by the national accounting firm MNP. It found that half of B.C. residents are having a hard time saving money, and that 46% in the Ipsos poll feel that transportation is getting increasingly unaffordable. According to the poll, 40% of British Columbians also said that housing was a real an…
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Madam Speaker, indeed, just the other night I stopped by for gas at the Centex station in Abbotsford. I had to fill up at $2.23 a litre to drive to the airport. I drive a RAV4, but even filling up a RAV4, at $150 for a tank of gas, is expensive. Grocery costs at the Superstore in Abbotsford go up and up. I made a dinner for my family on Sunday night, and I noticed the price of the filet of fish, t…
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Madam Speaker, I read Bill C-30 this morning and there is no mention of dental care in the legislation before us today. Bill C-30, as I outlined, is related to the GST credit. The bill before us today will effectively double the GST credit for Canadians who are eligible to receive it. Dental care is in another piece of legislation before this House, and it is not before Parliament today. I acknowl…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Penticton in the South Okanagan for his excellent question. In fact, beer producers, liquor producers and wine producers in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, like those in his riding, are wondering why, at this time of inflation, the government is putting yet an additional tax on them. There are thousands upon thousands of people who work in these s…
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Madam Speaker, on the weekend I had an opportunity to hang out with a number of young men at a sporting event in Abbotsford. I asked one of them whether the property he lived in was owned or rented. He said, “Thank you for even thinking that I would have the opportunity to buy a home. I don't think I ever will.” This was a young, educated man who was recently married, and he does not see an abilit…
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Madam Speaker, at the beginning of May I had the opportunity to ask the Minister of Housing what the government was planning to do about the housing crisis, which has only worsened since the spring. It is now October, and we still have yet to hear of any concrete plans about what the government is doing or when it will present real results to British Columbians and all Canadians who are struggling…
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Madam Speaker, I have not had a chance to table this petition since last spring when constituents in my riding of Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon were pushing the government in good faith to amend its air transport agreement with the Government of India to allow for direct flights from British Columbia to Amritsar in the Punjab. The petitioners are requesting this direct flight because it makes econ…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada needs to separate its rhetoric from reality when it comes to housing. We do not want to hear about announcements or committed funds. I am going to give the parliamentary secretary an opportunity to answer a straightforward question tonight. She talked about the housing accelerator fund that plans on creating 100,000 net new homes by fiscal year 2024-25 by ch…
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Mr. Speaker, this government may dismiss it as just inflation, but these are very difficult times for Canadians, which the Liberals keep dismissing. People in B.C. are struggling to feed their families and have to make tough choices between paying for food, gas, Telus, Hydro and Fortis. Countless people can barely pay their rent, never mind thinking of saving for a down payment for a home. Now thi…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, the new Conservative leader will put people first: their retirements, their paycheques, their homes and their country. On home ownership specifically, we need to restore hope. Right now, youth and newcomers cannot get a home, partially because local government gatekeepers block housing with heavy fees and long delays for building permits, leaving us with the fewest houses per capita o…
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Madam Speaker, the hon. member talked about natural resource development and about all the discrepancies of the Conservative Party. What he failed to outline is that, in 2018, the Prime Minister came to British Columbia and spoke, with great fanfare, about the $40-billion investment by Shell into LNG export capacity in British Columbia. Part of that project and the reason it went forward and was a…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am presenting today is regarding pregnancy centres. Many Canadian women depend on pregnancy centres for access to counselling, practical prenatal classes and necessities such as food, cribs, strollers, diapers and birth control. Residents are calling on the Government of Canada to protect the charitable tax status of pregnancy centres and to simply leave them alo…
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Mr. Speaker, I am tabling two petitions today on behalf of British Colombians. The first petition is regarding human trafficking. The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to strengthen the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act to address Canada's significant shortcomings on human trafficking, which were embarrassingly highlighted by the U.S. State Department's 2022 Traffick…
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Mr. Speaker, inflation might be over 7% nationally, but it is over 8% in British Columbia. These levels have not been seen since the last Trudeau was in office. Families in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon are struggling to put food on the table. They are struggling to pay $2.30 for a litre of gas and they cannot even afford to get to work, yet this government refuses to act. Last week, Scotiabank's …
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Mr. Speaker, June 21 was National Indigenous Peoples Day, and June is National Indigenous History Month. Throughout my riding, there have been events showcasing and celebrating indigenous and Métis culture. I am proud to represent the number-one riding in Canada: Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon. What makes my riding so great is that it is home to the Sts’ailes and the Stó:lo people, the Stellat’en p…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of constituents in Canada's number one riding, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon. This petition was born out of my community email blasts. I say in every single one, “Bring a petition forward.” Like most MPs, I have to devote a lot of staff to immigration-related issues. My riding encompasses the third most multicultural census area in Canada. …
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Mr. Speaker, I will stand by my words. Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon is the number one riding in Canada, and I am pleased to represent it every day. My constituents are calling upon the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to do a much better job with giving Canadians realistic processing times for applications and permits, such as temporary resident visas and permanent residence. Newcomers w…
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Madam Speaker, earlier in our debate today, the government of Canada outlined that its intent was not to regulate the programs and content that Canadians were viewing online, but simply to open the door to more Canadian content. In other words, it was skirting the question. Mr. Scott, the chair of the CRTC, said during the proceedings that this bill, Bill C-11, would allow the CRTC to prescribe re…
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Madam Speaker, I am just rising on the earlier point of order related to the agreement to extend the hours. Both the Conservative Party and the Bloc have confirmed that they did not agree—
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Madam Speaker, I have risen on this point of order on more than one occasion already in response to the member for Winnipeg North. Categorizing the Conservative Party as a hard-right political party is not parliamentary language and insinuates that my party is hateful. I kindly ask that the member take back that comment and continue his debate in good faith.
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Mr. Speaker, today I am presenting a petition on behalf of constituents in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon who are calling on the Government of Canada in good faith to negotiate a new air transport agreement with the Government of India to allow for direct flights from Abbotsford, Toronto or Vancouver directly to the Amritsar region of the Punjab. My constituents believe we need to get direct flight…
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Mr. Speaker, there are two comments that stood out in that speech. At one point, the member referenced that the bill would not control what people would say, but would only open the door for more Canadian content. In other words, that is the government, through this bill, controlling what people would see on the Internet, even if it is more Canadian content. The member might agree that seeing more…
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Mr. Speaker, when the government put forward the first iteration of the bill in the last Parliament, I received a number of communications from constituents who were concerned about amending the Broadcasting Act. The major issue they had with it were the channels they were forced to pay for when they bought a TV cable package. Does my colleague believe that the Government of Canada is applying a s…
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Madam Speaker, I believe that during his speech, the member for La Prairie said that a member from British Columbia claimed that the province wanted to be a nation. That is not correct, because I think that the member for La Prairie was talking about me. In fact, it is the member for La Prairie who, in trying to summarize my position, said that I wanted British Columbia to be a nation. Can the mem…
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Mr. Speaker, does the member believe British Columbia should have equal representation in the House of Commons? The band-aid solution we are applying here to Bill C-14 is really just avoiding the big questions our country is facing. Also, I would love to hear some more comments from the member on her interaction with the electoral commission about effective representation in rural Canada.
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Mr. Speaker, Public Safety Canada funded a program in Abbotsford, given some of the problems we face with gangs, gang violence and drug trafficking. It brought in counsellors who worked very closely with the Abbotsford police department and also worked directly with the students identified by the school district as being most at risk of entering a life of crime. Those counsellors were able to get …
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Mr. Speaker, today I am rising to speak to Bill C-5, an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. I am going to outline three basic criticisms of the bill, partly in the context of British Columbia, so that my constituents are aware of what the government is proposing to do. My first and largest criticism, which we have been hearing about in the House of Commons t…
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Mr. Speaker, that was a very good question. My office is adjacent to a shelter in Mission, British Columbia, and I speak to a lot of people who are both suffering from opioids and who live on the streets. A lot of them do not have access to care. A lot of them do not have access to wraparound services. A lot of them do not have access to housing. In British Columbia, before the agreement between B…
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Mr. Speaker, the only way I can answer that is to say that I have a friend in my community, and I will not mention his name, whose son was gunned down in his house. I knew his son. He was 19 when he died. I met him when he was 13 or 14 when I first started knocking on doors in politics. He was on the precipice of entering a life of crime and was gunned down in his house. To this day, his parents h…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, and it calls upon the government to expand rapid detox programs and provide housing and skills training to those who are struggling with addiction to get their lives back on track. The petitioners state that harm reduction monies are being used to keep addicts on drugs, thus shortening their lives and providing no real help to…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in this House with sadness, frustration and worry. These emotions are directly related to the Liberal government's agreement with British Columbia that will decriminalize fentanyl. Never before has the government made such a bad decision that will directly impact the safety and well-being of British Columbians. This exemption will now allow British Columbians to carry up …
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Mr. Speaker, today I will be tabling two petitions. The first petition is from a group of British Columbians calling upon the Government of Canada to strengthen the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act to address Canada's significant shortcomings on human trafficking, which were embarrassingly highlighted by the U.S. Department of State's 20th Trafficking in Persons Report.
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