Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that was a typical Liberal answer, that the government has done so much for Canadians. That is cold comfort to the over 183,000 seniors who had their GIS benefits cut out from under them by the Liberal government. This is not just some crack that a few people fell into. There are 183,000 seniors living on bread and whose home heating is being cut off—
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Madam Speaker, today I am pleased to speak to Bill C-8, the federal government's fiscal update from this past fall. This gives me an important opportunity to share some of the feedback I have received from constituents over the holiday break. These constituents are really struggling right now because of the policies of the Liberal government and our current economic situation. Over the holiday bre…
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Madam Speaker, they cannot survive, and the Liberal government is ignoring them.
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Madam Speaker, we do not want to see the country undergo any more lockdowns. That is key. We want businesses to be open. We want them to be safely serving their customers. We know that a thriving SME sector is key to a thriving Canada. Conservatives will always have the back of small businesses and entrepreneurs across this country.
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Madam Speaker, the NDP has been raising this issue in the House, and I have been raising this issue for over a year. There were unscrupulous firms out there claiming they would help people apply for their CERB benefits, even in many cases when people did not truly qualify. When I brought this to the attention of a member of the Liberal government, their response was that it was not illegal. These …
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is ducking the question again. The most important question that my constituents and all Canadians want to know is this: When will the federal COVID-19 restrictions end? Canadians deserve transparency. They deserve to know what the Liberal plan is, if any, to end these restrictions. What is the metric and what is the timeline for Canadians to expect to see an end to COVID-…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague is absolutely right that COVID is the most important issue that Canadians are facing right now. We have been in this pandemic for nearly two years. Canada does have among the highest vaccination rates in the world, which is excellent to see. However, as we are seeing, Canadians are growing more and more tired and they do not see any hope of a pathway out of this. I…
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With regard to requests made to the government under the Access to Information and Privacy Act (ATIP), and broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation, or other government entity: (a) what is the current average time between when an ATIP request is submitted and the document package is released to the individual or entity making the request; (b) how many requests made under ATIP are still…
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With regard to the Chemical Management Regime as found under the Department of Health, the Department of the Environment and the Public Health Agency of Canada in the Supplementary Estimates (A) 2021-22: (a) what were the planned and actual expenditures of the Chemicals Management Plan from 2018-19 to 2020- 21, broken down by fiscal year and by program activity; and (b) what are the transfer payme…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to present my first petition in this Parliament. The petitioners are very concerned over the practice of forced organ harvesting and people travelling abroad to regimes where people are not adequately protected from the practice of forced organ harvesting. There is currently a bill before the Senate, Bill S-223, and the petitioners are calling on all parties in the Hous…
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Mr. Speaker, given the Supreme Court's recent decision in the last few years regarding the timing of trials, the Jordan decision, and considering information that we know, there is a high proportion of repeat offenders in Canada's criminal justice system. Could the member comment on the potential issue that this legislation could lead to our justice system being overwhelmed by repeat offenders, ba…
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Madam Speaker, it has become more and more apparent that this is a Liberal government that has run out of steam and run out of ideas. We are now nearly three months away from what was supposed to be, in the Prime Minister's words, “the most...[consequential] election since 1945”, yet Canadians still have little clue about what direction the Liberal government is taking our country. Canadians can b…
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Madam Speaker, we, as the opposition, have a sacred duty to hold the government to account. We have seen so many times during the past two years in this pandemic the government push forward with legislation that we found had serious flaws. We are not going to abdicate our responsibility. Our duty to Canadians is to hold the government to account to ensure the best possible legislation. If Liberals…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for his commitment to his constituents. There is an old adage that says, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The NDP have been fooled not once, but twice, by the Liberal government. First when it promised paid sick leave in May 2020 in order to get NDP support for a hybrid Parliament, and second with pharmaceutical and dental care. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, my grandmother works at the hospital. We have seen the intimidation during these protests. Could the member speak to the importance of ensuring that we stand behind our health care workers during this very difficult time?
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, since the flooding began in British Columbia, Canadians have stepped up. The heroic efforts of first responders, members of the Canadian Forces and just regular people have helped save lives and protect property. Faith groups and civic organizations have also stepped up in a big way to provide food and shelter to evacuees. As we work to rebuild the Fraser Valley, Canadians want to kno…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians were shocked to learn that the government failed to engage the Americans through the International Joint Commission to find a solution to repeated flooding in British Columbia. The flooding of the Nooksack River in Washington state has spilled over into Canada, resulting in billions in damages to British Columbians. Reports indicate that a mere $29-million investment could h…
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise and debate this important motion. I want to break it down because it really should be two bills. We are dealing with a Criminal Code matter and also a paid sick leave matter. I listened with some amusement when a Liberal MP stood and said these bills should be connected because we are talking about protecting hospitals, but people also get sick and they need…
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Madam Speaker, the price of everything is rising under the inflationary policies of the Liberal government, and few have been harder hit than Canadian farmers. The prices of fuel and drying grain have skyrocketed because of this escalating Liberal carbon tax. Now the Liberals are proposing a whopping 30% decrease in fertilizer emissions. We know the impact on farmers and families will be devastati…
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Madam Speaker, we all respect and treasure the artists in our country. I know that members of the Bloc Québécois particularly cherish their Québécois cultural sector, and I think all Canadians cherish the very unique, strong and beautiful cultural sector of Quebec. That is why it is important that these artists were able to access benefits at a time when we were not having concerts or opportunitie…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the question, and I am well aware that he comes from one of those real estate markets in our country that has been the most impacted by foreign investment. In a lot of places in the country foreign investment has been a blessing, but we have seen the terrible, negative consequences when we have so much foreign investment, speculative foreign investment, lead t…
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Madam Speaker, there is a lot of uncertainty in the world today. We have had a new variant of the COVID-19 virus, the omicron variant, come up, which is now public knowledge. We do not know what the next few months will bring. In principle, I would say that there may be a need for further pandemic benefits to support businesses if we do see a strong resurgence of this virus. However, what I am not…
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Madam Speaker, today I rise to continue debate over Bill C-2, the government’s inaugural post-election spending bill, targeted to support businesses and those impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns. This $7.4-billion piece of legislation may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the spending that was approved in the last Parliament, but we know our nation’s finances are increasingly in precarious sha…
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Mr. Speaker, I actually anticipated that the government would be bringing up a point of order on that subject. I am not referencing the absence of any members who are in Parliament today, and this is substantive to the debate that we are having here over the quality of Zoom virtual Parliament versus in-person Parliament. If we are not allowed to talk about that, then that is making a mockery of th…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not surprising to me to hear a Liberal talking about how they could benefit. That is what Liberals like to do. When we have these members talking about these provincial legislatures, the fact is that there are a number of provincial legislatures that are also sitting, and there are a number of parliamentary bodies across the world that are sitting. If the member wants to cherry-…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member and his party for largely collaborating with Conservatives on what we both agree is a very fundamental issue for Canadian democracy. The fact is that the Board of Internal Economy met and imposed a set of rules, and those rules are in place right now. There are people in this country who receive medical exemptions, and I trust our non-partisan, impartial, pr…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his re-election. It is well deserved. I am very confident in the House administration and the safety protocols that we put in place, and I think we should keep them going forward. There may be cases where COVID-19 comes up, but we know that vaccination rates in this country are high and thankfully getting higher every day, so we can look forward. We need…
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Mr. Speaker, I find it ironic that the party in the House that claims to stand up for the rights of workers and organized labour is suggesting that we need to create a system to ensure that sick people continue to work. Sick people should be taking time to get better, not forced to show up to work. That is what I think.
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Mr. Speaker, congratulations on being in the chair. It is great to see you there. I hope, together with the Speaker, you will vigorously defend the rights and authority of parliamentarians in this Parliament as much as he did in the last Parliament. I will be splitting my time with my esteemed colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles. As this is my first speech in Parliament since the elect…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that my colleague has a real heart for his constituents in the region. We have had a lot of talk about climate change tonight. We know that climate change is a large factor in why this flooding happened. However, we also know that we have not been putting in the effort to ensure people are kept safe, whether it be through building infrastructure or through better emergency…
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Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of debate and discussion tonight, and it has overwhelmingly been dominated by the theme of climate change. I agree that climate change was a significant factor at play in this disaster, but we have seen evidence and proof brought before us that this was in many ways also a man-made disaster, because of negligence and lack of investment. The most shocking thing I h…
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Madam Speaker, today we are debating a very unfortunately worded piece of legislation, Bill C-6, an act to amend the Criminal Code regarding conversion therapy. I say it is unfortunate because this legislation fails to accurately define what conversion therapy is. It fails to provide clarity for Canadians, and I believe that it puts LGBTQ+ Canadians, children, parents, religious leaders and medica…
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Madam Speaker, the Minister of Justice has been at pains to explain and to try to defend this legislation, saying that an exploration of sexual identity or sexual orientation would not be subject to criminal sanctions, but it seems to be very clear in the way that the legislation has been written and the intent behind it that there is no room for people to have confusion about their orientation or…
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Madam Speaker, the answer is simple: The definition is flawed. If the definition were not flawed, there would not be a problem here today. We proposed a very simple, straightforward amendment to fix the definition, and the government has refused to work with us on it. The fact is that the bill came out of committee in December and we were back at work in late January. The government could have put…
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Madam Speaker, I reject the premise of the member's question. If the government were to fix the definition to tackle the real problem that is conversion therapy, I would be more than happy to vote for this legislation. The fact that the government has not been willing to address those concerns that hundreds of constituents have written to me about and the views that thousands of people across Cana…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-316, An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Prisons and Reformatories Act. Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House and introduce my private member's bill, McCann's law. In 2010, Lyle and Marie McCann of St. Albert, Alberta, left their home on a trip to British Columbia. Shortly after their departure, they…
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Madam Chair, I am not going to debate your ruling. I would like to ask the House for unanimous consent to count my vote. I was here to listen to the entire vote, but we were going through a lot of technical aspects for it and I had to step out momentarily. I am just asking for unanimous consent from the House to count my vote.
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Madam Speaker, I had to step out of the House, unfortunately, very quickly for something, and I was alerted by the staff that I should come in here as quickly as possible because my vote might be invalidated. I hope you can clarify that just because I left the House for a moment, my vote has not been invalidated. I would like a ruling from you.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise and present three petitions. The first petition is from folks across Canada who are deeply concerned about the treatment of the Falun Gong people. We have learned stories of organ harvesting and abuses by communist China. The petitioners are calling on the government to use Magnitsky sanctions against those responsible.
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Mr. Speaker, the third and final petition is on behalf of folks in my home province of Alberta who are deeply concerned about the existing equalization formula of the fiscal stabilization program, which has not been changed in many years and has a cap of $170 per person. They are very concerned that the fiscal shock of the drop in oil price in 2014 has not been reflected in the economic formula an…
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition is in relation to the ongoing conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The petitioners are calling on the Canadian government to immediately engage with the Eritrean and Ethiopian governments in order to come to a peaceful solution. Thousands of people have lost their lives and it is a tremendously deteriorating humanitarian situation, so the petitioners would de…
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Madam Speaker, I have had many constituents who are against the practice of conversion therapy reach out to me. However, I have many constituents who are concerned with the definition used in the bill. They are worried that it could have implications for parental rights, religious freedoms and even getting proper medical information if they are thinking about going through a gender transition. Wha…
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Madam Speaker, released documents outline how the Liberal government is funding the PMPRB to combat a so-called disinformation campaign by opposition MPs and cystic fibrosis advocacy groups. These families are fighting for their sick children to have access to drugs that are readily available in most developed nations. Why is the Liberal government shamefully attacking the families of sick Canadia…
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Mr. Speaker, I did join the natural resources committee earlier this year. We knew the legislation was coming in December, but we did not have an idea of exactly when it would come. I am not aware of any pre-studies that were conducted. I know the minister stated that there was a lot of work being done in the back room on this. However, given the importance of this legislation, I would reiterate f…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is certainly entitled to his histrionics in this place. However, we have a case where we saw the government waste a number of productive days of debate when it prorogued the House. Maybe this bill would not necessarily have been talked about. In fact, I know it would not have been talked about, because the government did not have its act together and did not get it introduc…
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Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for the member. She is right that we will not be agreeing on this issue, necessarily. Being a member of Parliament from Alberta, I am a strong champion of our oil and gas sector and of the workers who work in it. The member opposite has her own constituency of which she is thinking. I respect the work that these resource boards do. I know they want to uphold the h…
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Mr. Speaker, I was elected as a member of Parliament in 2017 and was not privy to the discussions and the back and forth among the province, the industry and the federal government under the previous Conservative government when this legislation came forward. I am not in a position today to make any commitments on this issue. It is important that we continue to consult with industry, the province …
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Mr. Speaker, we know, in the context of June 2020, that we had an unprecedented drop in the value of oil. I do not understand quite fully the context of the government's decisions in this case, as the member said, to drop certain protections, but I can assure him, speaking for myself and the Conservative Party, that we understand that strong environmental and regulatory protections are absolutely …
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Mr. Speaker, in the interests of getting this important legislation passed so we can get it to the next stage and provide these protections for workers I could give a 20-minute speech, but I will be giving a significantly shorter speech on this. There is one personal note I want to add. I was texted this morning, after I completed my speech, that my first niece was born today. Her name is Maeve El…
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Mr. Speaker, I was quite shocked by the minister's remarks. This bill came through the Senate. It was passed in a single sitting at second reading. I sit at the natural resources committee. We passed it in a single meeting. Now, today, it is going to have less than a couple of hours of debate and it is going to pass in this House. Does the minister think that five years of inaction from his govern…
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