Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to serve with that member on the natural resources committee where we both worked hard to ensure this legislation would pass in an expedited manner. I cannot speak to the negotiations that the government had or the reasons it had for trying to move this through the Senate. However, I will commend the work of our senators, particularly one of the Conservative senators…
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Madam Speaker, I will answer that with pleasure. For example, how about not giving billions of dollars in wage subsidies to profitable companies engaged in share buybacks and dividend increases? We could have saved a few billion dollars for Canadians there. How about the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been sole-sourced to Liberal insiders during this pandemic? We could have saved a few …
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Madam Speaker, the member is absolutely right. The pandemic may end, and the health crisis may end in the next few months, and I certainly hope it does, but the mental health crisis and the other consequences of this nearly 18-month pandemic will be felt for years, if not generations, to come. When we look at the federal deficit picture, we have to take into account that, just because we get out o…
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Madam Speaker, today I am speaking to something very historic, which is the budget implementation act for the largest and most anticipated Liberal deficit budget in Canadian history. Usually when history is being made, there are those who will be remembered well and those who will not be. Judging by this budget, it is clear that the current government will not be well thought of by future generati…
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Madam Speaker, I too am worried. I am worried about inflation. If the spectre of inflation were not bad enough, what worries me more is the fact that the Liberal government does not seem to be concerned about inflation. The Liberals bring out a mixed bag of economists, and they say inflation is not a big deal. I am 30 years old, and I have never really lived in an economy where we had inflation, b…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, the unseasonably dry weather in northern Alberta has wreaked havoc on our local communities. Today, I am thinking of the folks out in Parkland County, where at least 300 people had to evacuate their homes in the face of a wildfire that broke out last Thursday night, covering over 2,200 hectares. I am incredibly proud of the leadership at Parkland County, including Parkland fire chief …
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Mr. Speaker, the latest Liberal budget has revealed yet another Liberal broken promise. In 2019, the Liberals promised to support communities where coal had been phased out with a $150-million infrastructure fund. In today's budget, I found no reference to their promise to these communities. The Liberals are leaving communities and the families that live in them behind. Why did the government brea…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it pleases me to rise and present a petition on behalf of more than 1,400 of my constituents, led by local businessman and community leader Mark Jansen. They are calling on the government, in light of the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and the threatened cancellations of Enbridge Line 3 and Line 5, to take immediate action to secure Canada's economic and energy sovereignty, …
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Madam Speaker, it is clear to me in listening to the member's repeated speeches this week that Conservatives are living rent free in the member's head. Given that the EI program is funded by premiums paid by employees and employers and given that this year the premiums will not be enough to cover the costs of the EI programs, what is the government's plan to make up the shortfall in future years? …
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Sarnia—Lambton. Today will be a historic day for Canada, a day that will be looked back on for decades to come as a day of infamy for the rights of vulnerable, disabled and mentally ill Canadians. Years from now, our country will be rocked by a political scandal when it is revealed how tens of thousands of vulnerable Canadians ended th…
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Mr. Speaker, credit unions are vital to our rural communities. Farmers, small businesses and residents rely on their services. Unfortunately, unlike big corporate banks, the tax code does not exempt credit union investment services from the GST. Rural Canadians who use credit unions have just as much right to access sales-tax-free investment services as those who use the big banks. Will the govern…
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Madam Speaker, I think it is incredibly sad that the hon. parliamentary secretary would discount the testimony, the views and deeply held beliefs of so many disabled Canadians. I would just say that it is easy to claim that there is no evidence when the government has never set up any regime to collect evidence that would suggest there are abuses happening. The government is not looking for abuses…
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Madam Speaker, my thanks to the member for her thoughtful question and her advocacy on this issue. I guess that is something we should be thankful to the government for, that it actually found some aspect of the Senate's amendments objectionable. Frankly, I think that a political game is being played here. The Liberals have claimed that Conservatives have been obstructing debate and that they had …
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives will always work hard to ensure that we pass legislation to help Canadians who are going through a year of pandemic and bankruptcies and who have the highest unemployment rate in the G7, but what we will not do is allow the Liberals to sneak a bill through the dead of the night on a—
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about his concerns with respect to the opposition bill, so I want to tell him about my concerns. There has not been a budget in two years. In fact, the member has not even experienced a budget since he has been elected. The other thing I want to raise is a comment of his colleague from Surrey—Newton. He said the opposition has misinformed concerns about bankruptcie…
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Mr. Speaker, in the last year during the COVID pandemic, the government has added debt equivalent to our entire nation's debt over the past 150 years, including two world wars and a financial crisis. We have not seen anything from the government by way of a plan to deal with our economic future. How is the government going to deal with rising bond yields? How is the government going to deal with i…
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Madam Speaker, rural Canadians have waited long enough to access reliable Internet services. A small Quebec community has been waiting for years to get access. The Liberals provided millions of dollars to upgrade this community's Internet. Unfortunately, all of the money has gone to help wealthy cottage owners, including the CEO of Bell Canada, instead of rural residents. Why did the Liberal gover…
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Mr. Speaker, I have some concern about the amendments related to mental health. There are very substantive amendments coming out of the Senate. My concern is related to the idea that a mental illness is incurable. In my experience and in listening to the testimony of Dr. Sonu Gaind from the Canadian Psychiatric Association back in 2016, the association is very hesitant to endorse the idea that a m…
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Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to my colleague's statement and he said that it is his life and he should be able to choose his own death. When I look at the member, with all due respect, he is a privileged, able-bodied person, so it is easy to make those kinds of statements. I ask the member to put himself in the shoes of a disabled person with the pressures they face, such as Roger Foley…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, the latest Liberal gun policies are a farce in a long line of epic Liberal failures. Within days of announcing yet another attack on farmers, duck hunters and sport shooters, the Liberals have doubled down on their hug-a-thug agenda, repealing mandatory minimum sentences for violent criminals. Canadians are being killed by criminals in possession of illegal firearms, yet the Liberal…
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in my new role as critic for rural economic development. Rural businesses are critically important for Canada's future. That is why I was disappointed to read the Liberal rural economic strategy, which completely leaves out our critical hunting and angling sectors. Hunting and angling contributes over $1 billion in annual GDP to Canada. Why are the Liberals ignoring…
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