Parliamentary Speeches

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, they say this Prime Minister has never met a tax he did not like. He said no to relief from GST on home heating and fuels, he said no to freezing the rising escalator tax on beer, wine and spirits, and instead of providing relief to Canadians, the Liberals are increasing the carbon tax by 25% on April 1. This Prime Minister does not understand science any better than he does the strug…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission (GLFC), since 2016, and broken down by year: (a) what are the details of all funding transfers between the DFO and the GLFC, including, for each, the (i) sender, (ii) recipient, (iii) date, (iv) amount, (v) type of funding or reason for the transfer; (b) which line item in the DFO's financial statements inclu…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, virtually all medical health experts contend that mental illness is not irremediable. Why the delay for a year? What is going to change in this next year that should not be dealt with right now?

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, the Liberal government continues to make Canada's credibility around the world a joke. It continues to dishonour our commitment to NATO funding, to our indigenous peoples and even to the United Nations. The international Great Lakes Fishery Commission is now on the razor's edge of collapsing, with our American friends walking away, fed up with our continued failure to honour our wor…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, if I recall, it was a Conservative government that put the truth and reconciliation recommendations in place, and it is the Liberal government that has not followed through. I will gladly support clean drinking water for every first nation, but there were 1.5 million trips to the food bank by Canadians. Every single Canadian eats. This opposition day motion would reduce the cost of …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member lives in Winnipeg. Just south of Winnipeg, I am sure there are a number of those 5,000 typical family farms that would be very near where he lives. What does he have to say to those operators, those family farms that he just accused of polluting through the use of fertilizer? What will he say to Canadians when those farmers are looking at a potential additional $150,00…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, as always, it is a privilege and honour to rise and bring the voice of Chatham-Kent—Leamington to this place. I will be splitting my time with my hon. friend and colleague from Thornhill. Food inflation remains a top priority for Canadians from coast to coast, with almost six million people reportedly living in food-insecure homes in Canada last year. This is per Canada's Food Price…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, my colleague from Newfoundland is very familiar with the fact that the federal government and the provincial governments have different jurisdictions, and with the trepidation that any federal government would have over imposing a tax on the provinces. However, this would certainly help the majority of provinces where there is a federal program and would go a long way in showing lea…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, as stated earlier, we are not opposed to having incentives or disincentives placed on large emitters where it makes sense, where there are options and where there are other practices that can lead to a reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions. A carbon tax is not that plan across the food value chain. That is the point of our opposition motion today. All the carbon tax does is rais…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I noticed at the beginning of my hon. friend's speech that he listed a litany of external reasons we are experiencing inflation. None of them are attributable to the government. Since the government has added half a trillion dollars in debt, how much more debt does he think it would take for it to actually have an effect on inflation, if half a trillion is having no effect?

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, numerous speakers on our side of the aisle have indicated that we support sending this piece of legislation to committee. We will be seeking amendments to improve it, but we do support it. As I said in my closing remarks, it is a step in the right direction. I share the member's concern about speed. The bill was announced seven years ago, and unfortunately we are again debating it her…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour and privilege to bring the voice of Chatham-Kent—Leamington to this place, and today it is to put some comments on the record regarding Bill C-20, an act establishing the public complaints and review commission and amending certain acts and statutory instruments. Before I get into the content of the bill, I want to begin by thanking the women and men who wear th…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, it is a good question. On the positive side, as I mentioned in my remarks, the timelines for responses are codified in the legislation, and those specific timelines will, I am sure, be examined at committee when this piece of legislation goes there. However, there is an open question: Will the government act on the very legislation that it has put in place? The government has shown at…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, everything the Liberal government touches gets broken. Fifty-four million dollars was spent on an ArriveCAN app that could have been built for $250,000. There were 10,000 people wrongly sent into quarantine because of this faulty app, which caused them mental duress and financial hardship. Inflation, house prices, rent, groceries, overdoses and violent crime are all at generational hi…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will pay tribute to my colleague from Tobique—Mactaquac, because I am going to quote a statistic shortly. As has been signalled, Conservatives support the measures that go to modernizing our system, decreasing the backlogs and speeding up justice. However, we are concerned about the lack of focus on victims. As my colleague from Tobique—Mactaquac illustrated, recidivism is up 25%. I…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, much of my hon. colleague's speech dealt with aspects of the bill that, as has been earlier indicated, the Conservatives will support. What he did not address was the balance, or more properly the imbalance, between attention to victims and attention to perpetrators. I believe he comes from a riding similar to mine that is more rural in aspect, certainly with large rural areas, and …

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, I cannot see why. Millions of Canadians suffer from age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. This presently incurable disease starts with a loss of visual acuity in the centre of the eye. Eventually, the condition almost always results in blindness. Many of our constituents and even members of our own families are affected, but now there are emerging treatment options. For instance…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure this morning to continue to put some thoughts on the record regarding the fall economic statement implementation act. Seven years ago, the current government inherited a balanced budget and a robust economy, but instead of maintaining balance or even paying down some debt, let us consider that for a moment, perhaps to prepare for the unknown, such as a pandemic or a…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, as the member knows, this side of the House did support the returning of tax to constituents. However, when I opened my speech yesterday, I said that the fall economic statement presented an opportunity for the government to make hard decisions. It did not. Now consumers and Canadians have to make those hard decisions. In the end, the more the government spends, the more things cost…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the member points to a series of behaviours that occur in so many other issues. There is talk. There are promises. There are announcements. So often there is not follow-through. I can think of another announcement in the spring budget, the funding for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which is seemingly not being honoured. There is a whole host of things that are talked about wher…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, on the surface, that would seem like a plausible argument. What I did not hear was the books of our oil and gas companies being brought to the fore in the six years previous due to the policies of the Liberal government. Record profits are not only being incurred in different parts of the country; that is how a market works. Is there a role for the government to step in there? That …

Government Orders

Some are; some are not.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the reality is that the government needs to look at the impact of all of its policies on consumers, who are facing 10%-plus food inflation and 6% to 7% on a monthly basis on all other costs of living. The impact of that on our most vulnerable is what concerns the members on this side of the House.

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, a month ago I asked the current government to give Canadian families a break and cancel the tripling of the carbon tax, which is applied to every step in the transportation of food production, processing and manufacturing. The response from the Minister of Environment was that a carbon tax stops hurricanes. The reality is that, with the storms we now face, there are many things outs…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, you might rule me out of order, because I wish to ask a question on the fall economic statement. Finally, I did hear a comment at the end of the speech that listed a few topics broadly that were listed. In an earlier exchange with the member for Calgary Shepard, he asked a question of the previous member. One of those things the hon. member across the way did not list was the $14.2-bi…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in this chamber and bring the voices of the constituents of Chatham-Kent—Leamington to this place, and it is an honour to speak to Bill C-32, the fall economic statement implementation act. The Conservative Party had two asks going into the fall economic statement process. One was to stop the tax increases and have no new taxes, which includes cancell…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal-NDP coalition's policies and resulting higher interest rates have fanned the flames for this cost of living wildfire. Given the debt that the Prime Minister has accumulated, how can Canadians now trust him to control spending? After all, does one trust the arsonist to put out the fire? We cannot inflate our way out of this mess, out of debt either, because that just erodes…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise to bring the voices from Chatham-Kent—Leamington to the chamber. When I started farming professionally some three and a half decades ago, I am not sure if I would have personally supported a measure like the one we are debating today. I would have thought it unnecessary. I live on a home farm, and I am a third-generation farmer. When my father began f…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, last night was Halloween, but for too many Canadian families, what is scary is a trip to the grocery store. When Canadians talk about bread-and-butter issues, they talk about bread being up 17% and butter being up 14% in the past year alone. Even apples for treat bags this year are up 17%, with record-smashing uptake at food banks across the country. Why? It is because farmers’ costs …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is not often I agree with my colleagues across the way, but on this issue I do. The hon. member was asked what he would replace our constitutional monarchy with. The U.S. News, and the last time I checked the U.S. was a republic, combined with a UN world report, surveyed countries with 76 attributes and determined that seven out of the 10 top-lived countries in the world had cons…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague from Calgary Shepard opened by saying that he was, perhaps, a bit too curmudgeonly, and that he was not around in 1971, so I do not know where that puts me, because I was around in 1971, so I may be on the other side of that. What we do share is that we are not burdened with a legal education, although one of my four daughters reminds me that perhaps I would benefi…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, in the earlier debate, the hon. member referenced questions that colleagues from this side of the House were asking as to the status of the consultations and the actual number of asks from provinces. I come much more from an ag background, where there is a long-standing tradition where ag is a shared jurisdiction. We have a long-standing tradition of a 60-40 cost share on much of th…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, with reference to my hon. colleague across the way who was questioning as to whether this inflation was being driven more by supply-side economics, I wonder if the member could comment as to whether it is the supply side from economic goods or the supply of cash, in his opinion, that is driving this inflation.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, when asked, farmers have stated that their number one worry is not the market, it is not the weather, it is not international trade; it is the policies of the federal government. The delivery of seeds and plants to the farm incurs the carbon tax. The manufacture and delivery of fertilizer incurs the carbon tax. The delivery of farm products to market incurs the carbon tax. The governm…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I heard the hon. member say that he hopes that inflation does not continue. What is this government's plan? It is proposing a one-off payment in response to high inflation. I am glad that the government is now acknowledging high inflation. If this continues, is the plan a continued series of one-off payments? What is the government's plan to address core inflation? I, too, agree and…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I appreciated my hon. colleague's speech, and I appreciated that I heard, twice, his use of the phrase “rein in spending”. Earlier in this debate, I asked our colleague, the member for Ottawa Centre what the government's plan was going forward and whether it was more of a series of one-off payments in response to inflation. I am encouraged to hear the beginnings of a plan through the …

Madam Speaker, it is always an honour and a privilege to rise in this chamber and represent the voices of those in Chatham-Kent—Leamington, particularly in this solemn hour and on this day of tribute. I have only known one sovereign. In fact, over 90% of Canadians have only known one sovereign: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Last night, before boarding the plane to come to Ottawa, I stopped and v…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, every Canadian and every human being should have access to food. On June 8, I attended the retirement of Jim Cornelius, the accomplished executive director of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for over 24 years, five of which overlapped my time with that organization. Established in 1983, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank has a footprint that can be seen all across Canada in growing projects in…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) and the Hydro One Conduit Project: (a) on what date did the current WDBA CEO, Bryce Phillips, become aware of the Kinectrics report on the Hydro One Conduit Project; (b) what was the project's injection failure; (c) did WDBA grant CIMA+ full authority over the role of designer and of contract administrator on the WDBA Hydro One Conduit Pro…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) and the design failure related to the Hydro One Conduit Project: (a) does the WDBA accept the independent engineering and geotechnical evidence that the failure was a design-related one, and, if not, why; (b) did the WDBA refuse the industry standard of accessing the professional performance insurance they were required to have, and, if so…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) and the Hydro One Conduit Project: (a) did the WDBA consider Farhad Ganji to be in a conflict of interest by managing the CIMA+ review of the WDBA Hydro One Conduit Project as a WDBA employee and former CIMA+ employee; (b) who made the determination to have Farhad Ganji be a lead in the review; (c) to whom did Farhad Ganji report, and to w…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) and the Hydro One Conduit Project: (a) did WDBA sole source a contract with AMICO for the WDBA Hydro One Conduit Project with an entirely different design criteria that involved the conduit fill specifications changing from 200 metres to 70 metres, and, if so, why; (b) how many days in April of 2022 was the project at a standstill, and why…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my hon. colleague from Banff—Airdrie for his opinion of the direction the government has given to the CRTC to implement Bill C-11. What does he think of the direction? I have not seen it.

Government Orders

Madam Chair, I want to echo the comments of my Bloc colleague. I too enjoy working with the member for Beauce and I want to acknowledge that his mastery of the English language is surpassing my mastery of his mother tongue. This past week, a number of us met with representatives from the Atlantic Grains Council, Quebec grain growers and Ontario grain growers. They supplied us with a lot of informa…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, would my colleague agree with the statement that world hunger is being induced by two causes? The one we think of right now is the lack of availability of food and the situation in Ukraine causing or exacerbating that, but the second thing that is causing hunger around the world, particularly in the global south, is simply the cost of food. It is becoming unaffordable in so many places.…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Regina—Lewvan. I wish I were speaking more about Canadian food security this evening than speaking about global food insecurity. Prior to being elected, I farmed for most of my life. I have spent a lot of time in agricultural organizations and I also worked with an internationally focused NGO. It has been mentioned here tonight, the C…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, yes, I absolutely will. I enjoy the work my hon. colleague and I do together at the agriculture committee. We need both short-term and long-term responses. There is a call for an immediate cash injection, and I support those efforts. From a longer-term perspective, Canada has expertise. In my time at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, I often spoke, and it was referenced earlier by the membe…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, some things we, in primary agriculture in Canada, take for granted are actually not very well known in other parts of the world. What we consider as second nature for conservation and agriculture, such as crop rotation and keeping the ground covered with residue, are not well known in places such as Ethiopia. It was the first to plow the land, and has been for 7,000 years, so there is a…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, next week I will give a member's statement acknowledging Jim Cornelius and his role. Yes, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, with a footprint across Canada in the agricultural community, grows food here, sells it into the market and then uses those funds to acquire food. In my remarks, I just touched on how Canada delinked our food aid to the rest of the parts of the world, so we are not des…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I guess my immediate response goes back to how one backs up a double-wheeled wagon. The fastest way to back up a double-wheeled wagon is to do it very slowly. Those from a farming background will know that, because if it is rammed through, it will have to be done again. That takes more time and more effort, with more acrimony and things like that. I would say we need to take the tim…