Government Orders
Madam Speaker, let me say to the member for Markham—Unionville that I have heard his story. He came to this country. He has been everything from a labourer, to a salesperson, to an entrepreneur. He is also a husband and a dad, and his values are Canadian values. When this gentleman stands to talk about what value for money is, folks in my area would agree with this member. We cannot always be spen…
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Madam Speaker, I certainly appreciate the member's interventions in this debate. As a country, we are facing a number of things. Obviously, we are dealing with a pandemic, but we also need to be thinking about our aging demographics and the fact that so many people are going to need things such as health care, which puts more pressure on our tax base to be able to pay for all the spending that is …
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Madam Speaker, I am terribly disappointed with the conduct of the government, and Canadians should be as well. The Liberals rushed their Bill C-12 through to committee. The committee decided that it did not want to hear from Canadians and ignored the majority of the briefs. The MP for Saanich—Gulf Islands, as well as members of the environment committee, were quite frankly ashamed to see Canadians…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. I think it is important to say that the Liberals and the NDP rejected a lot of ideas. The Bloc Québécois, the Green Party and the Conservative Party proposed many improvements to Bill C‑12. This bill was not perfect, no matter what the government believed. The opposition members from the Bloc, the Conservative Party and the Green Party are the ones who had a lot …
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Madam Speaker, the minister continues the myth that this has been about Conservatives filibustering this bill. There was barely six hours of debate when they jammed this through to committee, and then the committee decided to accelerate it, so 70 plus briefs were not even considered before amendments. The minister favours an approach of not listening. Now he is putting down closure. He is actually…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is certainly an honour to rise on behalf of the good people of Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola to speak to my colleagues about Bill C-206, brought by the MP for Northumberland—Peterborough South, who has done an excellent job of finding an issue that resonates not just within his riding but right across the country. I will make a few short points about this, because I believe…
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Madam Speaker, the member and I sit on the environment committee together. He described the process of committee review as “collaborative”. The Conservatives actually supported the Bloc amendments as well as NDP and Liberal amendments. We actually came there to collaborate, but that particular parliamentary secretary and his team of Liberal members made a complete hash of the process. He talked ab…
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Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, is this not a strange set of circumstances? When the government House leader said that we would be debating Bill C-12 last week, I foolishly assumed he meant the actual bill. Multiple times last week it looked like maybe Bill C-12 would be debated, but no. The Liberals say that we Conservatives are delaying. Unfortunately, instead of debating the bill today, we are debating a motion…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-317, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (assistance for repayment of student loans). Madam Speaker, today I rise in my place to table a bill that proposes a new way that we can help support students who are struggling with student debt. My bill proposes to amend the Income Tax Act so that employers can voluntarily enter into an arrangement in which part of the e…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Prime Minister has set a tone from the top down in his government. Quite honestly, that tone is one of disregard for Parliament. I do not take it as being personally against parliamentarians in general. I believe he simply thinks that this is the way he would like it, so this is the way it should be. NSICOP may be valuable for our national security agencies and our …
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Mr. Speaker, I like to stay rooted in practical reality and not let overheated rhetoric rule the day. What I will say is that the Public Health Agency of Canada is the trustee of those documents. We want to have those documents. We would like to call them to this place so they can be deposited, and to send a signal from Parliament that we have asked for the information and that we and this institu…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise on behalf of the good people of Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola and join this serious debate. Obviously, the privilege motion and the finding by the Speaker mean that all business needs to stop so that we can discuss this issue, because there are some critical things at stake. I will quickly read the motion so that people who are just joining in can hear it…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The member for Ottawa South did not refer to the motion once during the entire speech. I can understand that some Liberals are getting a little sensitive, but the member has clearly been talking to the motion. Yes, he has walked a wider field than perhaps the member for Kingston and the Islands would like, but I believe he is on target.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, first, I think it is pretty clear to everyone here that the member is speaking in support of this motion. In the motion, it actually calls for the president of PHAC to come with the documents. It says right in the motion, contrary to what some members of the Liberal Party have said, that there are safeguards to ensure that the confidentiality and the national security concerns that ar…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I have a quick comment and then two brief questions. First of all, I want to congratulate the member for completely ignoring the question before the House today. He read his way right through it. Second, the member did give a very good, non-partisan overview of his committee, and so I would ask if he would be willing to come to my rotary club to give that presentation. We do not tal…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Five minutes ago I raised a point of order with you, and you asked the member to be relevant. He is basically reviewing the annual reports of his committee, which is not the subject of tonight's debate. He is not a rookie. He certainly has a committee role that is important, but I would ask you to rule whether he is being relevant to the issue or simply d…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I appreciate the member's service on that committee, but we are here to debate a specific motion. He has yet to address this. He is giving us background of his committee, of which I am sure he is proud. Perhaps, Madam Speaker, you could get him to come to the motion.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I must admit that during my time in this place, I have always found great value in private members' business. It is our opportunity as members of this place to bring forward legislation that we believe will ultimately better serve this great country. Yes, there is a lottery system in place, but there is also nothing to stop the government of the day from taking a great idea in a priva…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, if one is not part of the cabinet, the executive, then one has the responsibility to hold the government to account. Maybe that happens in the government caucus. However, I imagine that there are many people who just kind of raise their eyebrows. The member for Cumberland—Colchester made the motion for the production of documents on the Canada-China committee. There are members, backb…
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Madam Speaker, in his intervention, the member certainly chronicled a large number of concerns regarding China, but ultimately this motion is more about holding our own government to account. The government has said that it is concerned about national security and laid out a plan to have NSICOP do a review, but ultimately, the Speaker ruled that was not a committee of Parliament. Now the governmen…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I certainly want to thank the member for his presentation tonight. Last night he also made a presentation in a just-in-case speech, so I want to thank the member for his service. More importantly, the issues he spoke about were more about his commitment to this democracy and to this House. I think there is no greater honour than to be called a House of Commons person, because this i…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, in just over a week's time, we will all be back in our home ridings. While all of our ridings are diverse and unique, one activity that will be ongoing in many regions across Canada is annual summer road work and maintenance projects. I raise this point as a reminder because it is critically important that we remind our constituents to slow down and pay attention when passing through …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Greener Homes initiative that was announced in the Fall Economic Statement, but is still not available for applications and has had a message on its website to come back in the coming weeks for months: (a) when will the program launch; (b) how will the retroactivity be implemented; (c) what will happen to people who believed they were eligible, but due to the lack of application…
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With regard to the $2.3 billion over five years announced in Budget 2021 for conservation: (a) when will the ‘thousands of jobs’ be created; (b) where will the 1 million square kilometers of land be located; (c) has all the land been located; (d) have lands under provincial jurisdiction been identified and have provincial governments agreed; (e) what is the cost breakdowns for funds earmarked for …
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With regard to government funding in the riding of South Okanagan—West Kootenay, for each fiscal year since 2018-19 inclusive: (a) what are the details of all grants, contributions, and loans to any organization, body, or group, broken down by (i) name of the recipient, (ii) municipality of the recipient, (iii) date on which the funding was received, (iv) amount received, (v) department or agency …
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With regard to COVID-19 vaccines and having to throw them away due to spoilage or expiration: (a) how much spoilage and waste has been identified; (b) what is the spoilage and waste breakdowns by province; and (c) what is the cost to taxpayers for the loss of spoiled vaccines?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, this member has given a long speech and he has ridiculed and pointed fingers at certain members and their intentions, but he sounds like he is speaking from a position of absolute truth. Does the member have security clearance to be able to say that those documents say exactly what he wants to say? That is the problem. He is not part of the executive. He has a duty, like all of us w…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has had five years to reach a softwood lumber agreement and he has failed. In fact, in this place, he has referred to the subject of softwood lumber about four times each of the five years he has been in office. Contrast that with the subject of his predecessor, Stephen Harper, whom he has referenced over 220 times. I have a simple question. When will the Prime Mini…
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Madam Speaker, I know this is an issue the parliamentary secretary cares deeply about. He has given a lot of things for all members to think about today. One part of his speech, though, did catch my attention. This is a good-faith debate here, I hope. He mentioned that the government has an obligation to keep stability in the housing market. Especially in terms of financialization and its impacts,…
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Mr. Speaker, the member has worked on these issues for a long time and has done a lot for Canadians, particularly his constituents. One thing mentioned in the motion is a freeze on non-resident purchases. That would do much more than the 1% tax the Liberals have put in place. What does the member think? Does he think this is a much more substantive policy that can actually cool the market from the…
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Mr. Speaker, I attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' conference in Quebec City in 2019. At that conference, Selina Robinson, who at the time was the minister for housing for British Columbia, said that the government had come to the table with a national strategy but had actually not invested. I know the parliamentary secretary was there, and he seemed to take great umbrage at the ti…
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the intervention by the member from the Bloc Québécois. He was very thoughtful and covered a number of areas. In the speech given earlier in the chamber by the member from Toronto, he talked about how Mr. Harper tried to teach him a lesson about the Constitution. I remember that during the Harper years, Mr. Harper negotiated affordable housing frameworks with Br…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I do recognize this has been a challenging day for all of us. However, we have inherited the rules in this place and, quite honestly, those rules were based on the values of the members who originally debated and set forward those original Standing Orders, and which have been updated from time to time, after drawing consensus. The government has chosen in its procedures today to dra…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, the iconic image of a single protester standing in front of a large row of tanks in Tiananmen Square is something I will never forget. I was 12, and I will always remember the images of those tanks rolling through student demonstrators in Beijing. Those students were peacefully protesting political corruption, economic inequality and severe restrictions on their personal freedom and…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I hate to throw more onto the docket, but I have been informed that New Democrats are not supporting this and I named them earlier as having been partnered with the government. I want to apologize to those NDP members and thank them for telling me I was misinformed.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate that your position can be difficult at times. Today is a certain expression of that, but we have points of concern that have been raised about members' rights. I agree 100% that decorum is important, but decorum comes from having a process. When we have a motion of the government that clearly has not been used in this type of format for many decades, there are legitimat…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member of Parliament for Chilliwack—Hope. I will first take a moment to share a few words on behalf of the citizens of Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola. We are collectively shocked, saddened and outraged at the discovery of an unmarked gravesite for 215 children at the former indigenous residential school in Kamloops. This discovery is difficult t…
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear that the Bloc member and her party will be supporting the fourth party's motion today, because I do believe the motivations are good. When it comes to the individual cases, I would say that quasi-judicial bodies like tribunals are made for specific purposes. I was quite surprised to see that it originally ruled that it would hear this case. That being said, it is ind…
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Mr. Speaker, while I appreciate that the member said some very positive things, I think we should not try to make this process here today about that, or the government's relation with first nations or with Canadians. Every Canadian, I think, needs to know more about what has happened, and we need, as a people, to work with first nations on reconciliation. I am not going to taint this conversation …
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Mr. Speaker, let me be clear here, yet again. It is not just one simple people. They are first nations. There are over 660 first nation bands in this country, and each is unique. We, as parliamentarians, need to listen to them. We need to help provide supports and to partner on ways we can move forward in reconciliation. Reconciliation will mean one thing to some, and it will mean another to someo…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, this is Canadian Environment Week, and it is a great time to remind ourselves that our country's natural beauty needs protection. That is why the Conservative Party released its plan, “Secure the Environment”. This plan will protect our environment and uphold our commitments without pitting one region against another, the way the Liberal government does. We will ban the disposal of pl…
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Madam Speaker, as a fellow British Columbian, I join my colleague in calling for more transparency from the government. On this, though, we have seen the government and the Prime Minister, time and time again, instead of answering reasonable questions and working with the opposition to present more information so the public can know that the government understands that it must protect our national…
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Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate hearing my leader share the story of Roseann. Hearing that single story was heartbreaking. I can only imagine that the 215 other stories, at very least, would be unimaginable. I bring up again first nations from my riding. This is Upper Nicola Chief Harvey McLeod. He said: We always knew that this was happening there, but it was in our own minds, we had no proof o…
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Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate the minister and her words today. I would like to raise the experience and some of the words from Upper Nicola Band's Chief Harvey McLeod, whom I have tremendous respect for and who went to the school in question. He has said: I went back to the two years that I attended. I know that there were incidents happening there because I went through a lot of experiences …
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Again, on the point of relevance, the member seems to be referring to production orders in a completely different sense than what the motion talks about. The motion talks about the government not giving information to a committee. Now the House of Commons is debating that so we can hold the government to account. You were very clear, Madam Speaker, that t…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have two e-petitions to present today. The first petition is related to animal testing for cosmetics. The over 600 petitioners would like the Canadian government to examine some of the other practices around the world, particularly in Europe, and update our laws accordingly.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Red Deer—Lacombe for citing two things: one, that we need to have a thriving economy here in Canada; and two, that it should be led by the private sector, because it knows where the opportunities are and how to multiply returns for the benefit of everyone. Today Suncor and ATCO, in collaboration, announced a new project that would actually reduce greenhouse gas …
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Mr. Speaker, the second e-petition, which is very dear to my heart, is regarding the interprovincial transit of Canadian wine, beer and spirits. The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to support Bill C-260. Unfortunately, the Minister of Finance did not include such measures in the budget bill this time, but I am hopeful that, by hook or by crook, we will see interprovincial trade of b…
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