Parliamentary Speeches

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, only 6% of people in low-income countries have received a COVID-19 vaccine. The African continent needs hundreds of millions of doses just to get 40% of its people vaccinated, yet deliveries were slashed because of supply shortages, putting us all at risk. Global vaccine production must expand immediately, but Liberals are blocking WTO efforts to get this done. Will the government fin…

Speech from the Throne

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for pointing out something that is very important, which is that health care in this country is shared jurisdiction. The federal government has a role to play. The existence of the Canada Health Act is proof positive of that, where we set conditions for the provinces to get money. There are five conditions in the Canada Health Act that provinces mus…

Speech from the Throne

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague on his victory and welcome him to the House. About a year ago, health experts around the world warned us that if we did not vaccinate the entire world, we risked the development of a mutated coronavirus that would then prove to be problematic and perhaps even vaccine resistant. Part of this was manifested in South Africa and India going t…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague mentioned housing, and I think I speak for every member in the House when I say that it is the dream of every Canadian, and their right really, to have access to affordable, appropriate, secure housing. If there is any issue that speaks to a failure of public policy at all three levels of government, it is the fact that in this country we have a housing crisis. Thi…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I had the privilege of attending university with the member more years ago than I care to admit. I want to welcome him back to the House. I always appreciate his thoughtful speeches. My question concerns something that I think is most important to Canadians when we talk about the economy, and that is jobs. For Canadians, that is their economy. It is how they get their revenue, it is…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, no one is protected from COVID-19 until everyone is protected. The omicron variant makes this clear. For months, health experts, the WHO and New Democrats urged the government to ensure vaccines are available around the world. This is not just for equity reasons, but because it is essential to keep Canadians safe from new COVID variants. Not only did Liberals ignore this advice, but a…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, as this is the first opportunity I have had to speak at any considerable length in this House, I would ask the indulgence of my colleagues for a couple of minutes. I have some words of appreciation that I really must put on the record. First, I have to thank the wonderful people of Vancouver Kingsway for doing me the honour of giving me the privilege of representing them for the fif…

Speech from the Throne

Mr. Speaker, I actually rise to speak to the question of privilege raised by my hon. colleague from the official opposition. Before I start, I would take this opportunity to thank the wonderful people of Vancouver Kingsway for doing me the honour and privilege of electing me to represent them. I will be mercifully brief and concise. Yesterday, on the opening day of the 44th Parliament, we heard re…

Routine Proceedings

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-318, An Act respecting the development of a national renewable energy strategy. Madam Speaker, I am honoured to introduce the national renewable energy strategy bill. I would like to thank my colleague, the hon. member for Vancouver East, for seconding this legislation and for her tireless advocacy in support of environmental justice. The Intergovernmental Panel…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I have heard a number of members speak to an issue that I think is very important for you in assessing this ruling, and that is what kind of fetters may or may not exist to the House's power to order documents. There was a suggestion made that government officials may validly refuse an order of production from the House if they believe that another law prevents them from doing that. I…

Private Members' Business

Mr. Speaker, I would first like to state for the record what a privilege it has been to work with my hon. colleague on the health committee and how I could not agree with her more when she states the fundamental obligation of opposition, and frankly all members of Parliament, is to hold a government accountable. I want to state that, at its most basic, what this is about. Of course, there are fact…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is e-petition 3282, which has been signed by over 750 citizens. The petitioners point out that the CERB requirement of a minimum of $5,000 in earnings was arbitrary and that, perversely, it prevented some of the poorest Canadians from receiving benefits. It has been estimated that 175,000 workers did not get benefits because they earned under $5,000 in income. The …

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I want to get my hon. colleague's comments on an analogous situation. On October 26 in the House of Commons, members, also by majority, passed a motion requiring the government to produce documents to the health committee and it prescribed the process for doing that. The government had to produce unredacted documents to the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, who would then redact …

Private Members' Business

Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask this hon. member a question I asked a previous member. I am concerned, as a parliamentarian, that there is a disturbing pattern of a government that is simply refusing to recognize not only the democratic will of this chamber but the supremacy of Parliament. It appears that it is a government that thinks it is above the majority expression of the House of Commons. I …

Private Members' Business

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask a question about consequences. I was present in the House when the Conservatives were in power and were found in contempt for not producing documents to the House. I remember when Conservative ministers, like Paul Calandra, refused to ever answer a direct question. Now I hear the Conservatives in this House speaking of the absolute need for transparency and accountabilit…

Private Members' Business

Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on an earlier question I asked about consequences and what the long-term impact of this matter is. Governments come and go, but what has happened to this government over the last 18 months is a pattern has developed of Liberals simply flouting democratically passed motions in this House of Commons. They have done it with the production of health documents, re…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for raising the plight of students. He mentioned the crushing debt that students have to incur now to get a post-secondary education. The history of education in this country over the last 150 years has been one of extension. At one time, having primary school education was enough. In the 1950s and 1960s it was high school. Now, let us face it: …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce two petitions. The first is e-petition 2853, which has been signed by over 500 citizens. The petitioners assert that the climate crisis is the foundational issue of our time. It represents an existential threat to all species. Working with indigenous leaders, they ask that we protect our old-growth forests for our planet's health and future generations. To do…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I have been privileged to be in the House for 13 years. The hon. member is correct that it is absolutely routine every June to extend the hours so we can get important business done. That has happened under majority and minority Conservative and Liberal governments. The previous questioner talked about wasting time. My question to my hon. colleague is this. If we are so concerned ab…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, when there is a complete decoupling of house prices from domestic incomes, I think the conclusion is clear that foreign capital is definitely skewing the market. I agree with my hon. colleague that it is time to put effective curbs on foreign speculation, which is destabilizing our local housing markets and putting affordable housing out of the hands of millions of Canadians. Howeve…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I happen to be one who believes that the responsibility to provide affordable housing transcends all levels of government. We need the municipalities, the provincial governments and the federal government working together. I trace one of the problems to the current crisis that my hon. colleague talked about: this terrible situation in which our young children, for the first generation…

Routine Proceedings

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-306, An Act respecting the development of a national perinatal mental health strategy. Mr. Speaker, today I am honoured to introduce the national perinatal mental health strategy act. I would like to thank the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona for seconding this legislation and her tireless advocacy in support of perinatal mental health. This bill is a result …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, last October, this House passed a motion requiring the government to provide the health committee with important documents concerning the COVID crisis no later than December 7. Liberals bitterly fought against this move for accountability and transparency and admitted there were at least a million documents in their possession. As of today, eight months later, they have disclosed fewe…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be part of a party that has been groundbreaking in this country in forging respect for rights on gender and sexuality going back decades. I am always concerned when I hear a debate on rights and protection qualified by the word “but”, and that is what I am hearing here. I am hearing everybody say they are in favour of banning conversion therapy, “but”. The “but” seems to…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Auditor General reported the government's mismanagement of Canada's emergency stockpile resulted in serious shortages of protective equipment for essential workers. She found the Public Health Agency failed to keep a proper inventory of PPE and ignored a decade of warnings. She questioned PHAC's governance and oversight saying, “You don't wait for a rainy day to rush out…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak in support of this motion, with great thanks to my colleague for Etobicoke North. We entered the House of Commons together in 2008 and it has been a privilege to serve with her in that time. This motion's call for a new standing committee on science and research provides the opportunity to highlight how critical the need for this is and also some curren…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to Parliament's attention an unconscionable attack on workers, occurring in British Columbia. Two weeks ago, an employer group representing the hospitality industry served lockout notice on some 1,200 workers in 14 communities around the province. This has been accompanied by mass firings of hundreds of workers at the Hilton Metrotown and Pacific Gateway Hotel, two-thi…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, workers at the Pacific Gateway Hotel in British Columbia are on strike after management fired 100 long-service employees. Most of these union members are women, many people of colour. This hotel and others are cynically using the pandemic to gain economic advantage. Instead of standing up for workers, the federal government is using this hotel for quarantine while its management is as…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, we know this budget will do nothing to end fossil fuel subsidies. We see the federal government giving billions of dollars every year to companies like Royal Dutch Shell and Imperial Oil. We know that Canada's richest Canadians increased their wealth by $78 billion this year, yet there is no meaningful action on a wealth tax. I think my hon. colleague and the Liberals will vote agains…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the government has clearly failed to control the spread of COVID through our borders. The Liberals were slow to act. Measures have huge loopholes, and enforcement is weak. They apply hotel quarantine rules only to travellers arriving by air, leading thousands to simply cross at U.S. border points. Now we see that the Liberals are allowing two of the four Canadian airports that receive…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for sharing some interesting information about his riding. One of the greatest things in this chamber is that we get to hear about the vast diversity in our country. I learned a lot about his riding, so I thank him for that. The best expression of where we are fiscally in this country is that we are experiencing a K-shaped recovery. Obviously, many sectors …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the hon. member spoke of the hundreds of billions of dollars we spent in the last two years during these extraordinary times. He also spoke quite passionately about the need to support Canadians with mental health. It is well-known that the one in three Canadians who have no dental care suffer not only physical pain and serious medical issues, but also serious mental health issues d…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for St. John's East for introducing the motion before us today and for his tireless advocacy in support of universal, public dental care in Canada. Before I go further, I cannot let the completely incorrect comments of the member for Montarville go unremarked upon. He is absolutely 100% incorrect about the jurisdictional arguments he just made…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, as my hon. colleague knows, I moved the same motion forward. He raised the issue of class. It is not just that there are 12 or 13 million Canadians who do not have dental insurance; it is who those people are. They are primarily indigenous people, women, single parents, young workers, low-income Canadians or seniors. I wonder if he could spend a moment telling us about the social ju…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, the climate crisis is the foundational political issue of our times. There are rarely issues in politics that are existential, but this is one of them. Our planet is at stake. Ecosystems may be permanently destroyed, species may go extinct and human existence will be irreparably altered. Over the last 25 years, we have seen numerous targets and pledges made by successive Liberal gover…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my hon colleague, the member for Timmins—James Bay. Former NDP leader Jack Layton left a big mark in the House and also in the country. One of his famous phrases, which I have taken to heart, was that it was part of an opposition's job not just to oppose but to propose. From the outset, the New Democratic caucus, led by our leader, has taken that to he…

Government Orders

I do indeed, Mr. Speaker. You anticipated where I was going. Unfortunately, my Surface Pro is acting up and I cannot connect. The only way I can connect to give my speech is through my phone, and this is the only microphone I have.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, that gives me a chance to talk about the approach of the government. It is fair to say that the government has been incredibly secretive and has exhibited an unacceptable lack of transparency in the way it communicates. For instance, it refused to reveal a single word of a single paragraph of a single contract it has signed with vaccine manufacturers, despite the fact that other count…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, I rise to mark the passing of a great parliamentarian and outstanding Canadian, Ian Waddell. Ian was an MP, MLA and cabinet minister, a lawyer, author, film producer, social democrat and an indefatigable proponent of a more prosperous and just Canada. He served 14 years in this place, elected three times by the people of Vancouver Kingsway, and once in Port Moody—Coquitlam. After he w…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, of course, I think everybody in the chamber and every Canadian would like to see every Canadian vaccinated as soon as possible, but with certain practical realities. This motion would call for us to administer 18 million doses in the next three weeks, which is six million per week. That is double what Major-General Dany Fortin has said is Canada's capacity, which is 3.1 million. We ar…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I share this member's concern that we do not have enough vaccines, and that we are only vaccinating at about half capacity. He also spoke of the soundness of money, but I want to question the soundness of the proposed policy he is speaking to. This motion means that we would have to vaccinate at the rate of six million per week for the next three weeks. We are only getting two milli…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the hon. member correctly referred to Canada as a G7 country. Canadians were horrified to wake up at the beginning of the pandemic and realize that, as a G7 country, we do not have the capacity to make our own vaccines in this country. Of course, that is a product of decades of poor pharmaceutical policy, including the decision of the Mulroney Conservatives in 1988 to sell off Canad…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, that question gives me a chance to talk about Canada's completely unexplainable and, frankly, shameful position taken at the WTO where countries are asking for the World Trade Organization to temporarily relax intellectual property rules so that countries could be free to have access to the technology and intellectual property to manufacture vaccines on their own and Canada is not sup…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, my educated guess would be that those are all countries that have vaccinated higher percentages of their populations than Canada has. He is quite right. That points out that despite the rhetoric of the Liberal government, it has not done a good job procuring vaccines and it has, frankly, failed the provinces and Canadians in doing so. If I can get back to this motion, that will not be…

Madam Speaker, the Liberals continually say there have been two and a half years of bargaining, but, of course, that ignores the context in which the bargaining occurs. This is not the first time the Liberals and the Conservatives have ordered workers with significant economic power back to work. They did it before with Canada Post. Employers know they do not have to sit at a table and bargain in …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, with respect, I have some news for the minister: Strikes are intended to cause economic disruption. That is the whole purpose of a strike. A strike that does not have economic impacts is a strike that has no value whatsoever. There is no right to collectively bargain without the right to back that up by withdrawing services. If that right is neutered, there is absolutely no pressure…

Madam Speaker, I have to say for the record that the Conservatives are once again revealing their true colours. They have always disliked unions. They have always favoured big business. The funny thing is that the current leader of the Conservative Party has made a pitch to unionized workers across the country saying that they should join the Conservative Party. The only key power that organized l…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I do not know how many members of this House ever had the opportunity to sit at a bargaining table on the union side, but I did. The only power that labour ultimately has is the right to withdraw its services. Without that, it has no ultimate negotiating power. Here is something else: Strikes cause economic pressure; that is the very point of them. That right does not just exist for l…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are waiting patiently for their turn to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but we know that the vaccine rollout is nowhere near full capacity. Many provinces in the middle of the third wave are left waiting for batches of vaccines to be delivered. We are seeing people turned away from clinics in hot spots because they ran out of doses. Every day that vaccines are delayed means more p…