Parliamentary Speeches

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Globe and Mail report published on October 17, 2022, that the Office of the Prime Minister (PMO) knew of Laith Marouf's derogatory tweets a month before the contract with the Community Media Advocacy Centre was cancelled: (a) on what day did the PMO first become aware of the derogatory tweets; (b) who was the first person at the PMO to become aware of the tweet, and how did that…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the claim by the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, that he used the month between finding out about Laith Marouf's comments and speaking out publicly about them, to consult with departmental officials on the government's legal options for withdrawing the money from the Community Media Advocacy Centre: (a) what are the details, including a specific timeline, for any co…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, we have wonderful Canadians in every part of the country who work every day to make our communities an even better place to call home. That is why, like many of my colleagues, I have been pleased to present a Queen's Platinum Jubilee medallion to outstanding local Canadians who are making a difference in the name of service. In our service clubs, in our faith communities, in arts and …

Routine Proceedings

With regard to fines issued related to violations of the government's restrictions and measures put in place in response to COVID-19 (ArriveCAN, quarantine requirements, etc.): (a) what is the total (i) number, (ii) value, of fines issued each month since January 1, 2022; (b) what is the breakdown of the fines in (a) by (i) province or territory, (ii) type of offence or violation, (iii) entity whi…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank my Liberal colleague for raising the carbon tax during this debate and giving me the opportunity to respond. I really appreciate it, because when he talks about 80 euros over in Europe and only $50 here, it gives me the perfect opportunity to remind the Liberal benches and the NDP that they are going to triple the carbon tax in the coming years to $170. It gives me the opportu…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I want to start my speech tonight with an example from the real world. Let us say that Bob, for lack of a better name, was hired by a company to specifically develop targets to meet the goals of that business, and they wanted Bob to set not only the goals and the targets for that business but also the plan to achieve them. If I said that Bob had been working there for seven years, had…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I do not blame the hon. member for his intervention. I would be very uncomfortable that we are highlighting the failures of the carbon tax and the government's broken promises. I appreciate the opportunity to reiterate what I just said in my speech. The Liberals say things when it comes to the environment. They propose legislation, targets, plans, spending and taxes in the name of the…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will respectfully completely disagree with the premise and principle of what the Bloc is saying. At the end of the day, it is using the carbon tax as a tax to add to the price of doing business, whether it be in the oil and gas sector or any other sector. What we have seen is the Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Green Party support carbon taxes over the course of the last several years. We h…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, what I will say to the NDP on this front is that the last thing we need is an escalation and a tripling of the carbon tax for families, including those in the city of London and across the province of Ontario. The record that we hold up on Bill S-5 is that the NDP keeps falling for Liberal promises when they do not deliver. It is time for them to stop backing them up. It is time for t…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, any woman, any victim of a sexual assault and every parent in this country should be very concerned about that lack of a definitive statement on a guarantee that every single sex offender in this country would always automatically listed on the sex offender registry. That should be a given, and that should be an easy statement for the minister to commit to the House to fix this proble…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, this morning, in a stunning decision, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a Criminal Code requirement that sex offenders be automatically added to the sex offender registry. This should terrify every woman, every victim of sexual assault and every parent in this country. We cannot spare a moment to fix this massive public safety issue. What will the Liberals do to guarantee that e…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, we know the expression “read the fine print”, and I say that tonight to start my comments off on this particular piece of legislation because it is something that I find very applicable in a lot of the Liberals' initiatives and attempts over the past few months or so. I want to give an example. Going all the way back to April, something the Liberal-NDP group has been doing the last …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, my constituents in Cornwall, Morrisburg and Crysler thank the Liberal member for advising them to drive to Kingston or Ottawa or Montreal to get their passports. It is taking three months for people to get their passports. My point is that the Liberal government has zero ability to effectively manage programs. If it cannot get a passport right, I do not think it is going to have any…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, people on Vancouver Island do not want to see the carbon tax triple in terms of what we are having over the course of the next little while. What I will say about this is that we are in this cost of living crisis, in the name of that bill, because of the spending habits of the Liberals and New Democrats for the past seven and eight years and it is only going to get worse. We are in …

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to add my voice of disgust to the shocking news that the Prime Minister knew about disgusting, anti-Semitic hate that was being spread and funded by the government for a month before any action was taken. The worst part is he took action only after he got caught and exposed for doing nothing. I may not be of Jewish faith, but as a Christian, as a voice in this House and s…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I want the House to remain calm as I make this statement, which I do not say too often. The comments made tonight from the Bloc Québécois are exactly the argument that we are making as well, which is that a double layer of bureaucracy and an Ottawa-knows-best approach will not work. When it comes to the dental programs, we do not need to create another layer of bureaucracy when it c…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the parliamentary secretary's response, but I want to highlight a couple of things in the one minute that I have left. Again, there are 10 cabinet ministers apparently focused on this. Promises have been made of more spending, more staff and more hiring, but at the end of the day the one thing that is absent is that it is taking months upon months, and there are hundreds …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am so grateful for that very insightful speech from the NDP member, and here is why. NDP members are more excited to talk about our new Conservative leader than they are about anything else, including their relationship with the Liberal government. I think I know why. We are back from a summer around the riding, and I think folks in Elmwood—Transcona, people in Timmins and people on…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be back here in the House of Commons with my colleagues as we get back to the routine here in Ottawa, and to our job on this side of the House of holding the government to account on the many issues and problems our country is facing. On that, I want to follow up on my question from question period in June, before we rose, on the chaos we were seeing at the time at…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the new labelling requirements for beef and pork products: (a) is the minister taking any action to prevent the government from implementing the new requirements, and, if so, what are the details; (b) has Agriculture and Agri-Food conducted any analysis on the negative impacts of the new requirements on the (i) beef, (ii) pork, in…

Madam Speaker, it was a beautiful summer day along the St. Lawrence River on June 26, 1959. In the city of Cornwall, we are accustomed to having guests and dignitaries visit the city every so often, but on that day, at the Moses-Saunders Dam in the city of Cornwall, there were several important visitors. The United States president, Dwight Eisenhower, and then vice-president Richard Nixon were joi…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Commemorative Partnership Program, broken down between the two project programs (the Community Engagement and the Community War Memorial Program): (a) what specific amounts have been budgeted or allocated to operate the program, broken down by fiscal year dating back to January 1, 2016; (b) what is actual amount spent on the program; (c) how many applications were (i) made, (ii)…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I want to build a bit on the CRTC. We have heard a lot about the frustrations tonight. We have seen this time and time again with the Liberal government. Of course, the NDP is supporting them, and then a couple of years down the road when, for example, the CRTC has been given very vague definitions and broad powers to interpret a lot of these things as it sees fit, the government will…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, the chaos at Passport Canada and Service Canada is past being temporary. It is worse than ever. The lawn chair lineups are now starting at 4 a.m., 3 a.m. or 1 a.m. in many cities. Our office alone is handling dozens of transfer requests, each and every day, of people who are going to leave the country in the next day or two and still do not have their passports, despite applying mon…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comment on my tie, and members will note I am wearing the “loud MacLeod” tartan today, which represents the Glengarry county part of my riding. To the member's comment, I will go back to the opportunity to speak more broadly about criminal justice reform and reform to our justice system. On this piece of legislation, I know some of our Conservative colleagues, from co…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, to clarify for my colleague from the NDP regarding this piece of legislation, I agree. Looking at the proposal and the draft, this could strengthen it and ensure there is a full process for every complaint that goes through to a review of judicial misconduct. The bill would improve and modernize that. What I was alluding to in my speech was an opposition to Bill C-5 and the eliminatio…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I was not suggesting that people would get off scot-free. What I am saying is that Conservatives believe that, for the serious cases I listed, with the removal of mandatory minimums in Bill C-5, there should be a floor, a benchmark or a minimum punishment for some of the most severe and serious crimes being committed to go after the people who are going after our most vulnerable. Agai…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, as always in the House, it is a pleasure to rise to speak and raise the voice and the message from my constituents in the eastern interior riding of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry. I will be splitting my time here this afternoon with our opposition House leader, the member for Barrie—Innisfil. I want to start my intervention and notes on Bill C-9 today with a bit of a personal parlia…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, amendments could be made that could improve the quality of the bill. I have always tried to be constructive, and many of my colleagues have been. There are areas that could provide better definitions. There are areas that perhaps, as I mentioned, could provide specific exclusions. The reality of this is that the government bungled it in the last Parliament, in terms of the management …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, in the last Parliament, I had a petition on my social media for Canadians in my riding, particularly in my region, who were concerned about the overreach of the bill and the vague definitions. It was a slippery slope that did not go through. It is not a fake outrage. There are many things that the government, the NDP, the Bloc and others could do to give further clarity to the definit…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise tonight once again to speak to the government's proposed Bill C-11. In the last Parliament, it was Bill C-10, and it certainly generated a lot of feedback and frustration from Canadians across the country. We have been witnessing that here again in the last couple of months with this bill in its current form. I have been receiving a lot of emails and advocacy peti…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the government enforcement of measures related to commercial poultry imports at land border crossings: (a) what specific training is provided to border agents to ensure poultry imports crossing the border comply with trade agreements and are labelled correctly; (b) what is the estimated amount of poultry products imported each year, broken down by type of product and point of entry …

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the government enforcement of measures related to commercial milk and dairy imports at land border crossings: (a) what specific training is provided to border agents to ensure milk and dairy imports crossing the border comply with trade agreements; (b) what is the estimated amount of milk and dairy products imported each year, broken down by point of entry where they come into Canad…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to pay tribute to a wonderful community volunteer, Dr. Rachel Navaneelan, who is not only a well-respected dentist in our community, but founder of Rachel's Kids, a charity that provides supports to local children and those internationally as well. The backyard of her Riverdale home was buzzing on the weekend with her 17th annual garden party, which is a fun…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from the NDP's intervention. It is always nice and appreciated to give a Canadian shout-out to a Canadian artist. That is appreciated. On the revenues, as I said in my intervention, we need to make sure that companies such as Netflix, whether of a national or foreign nature doing business in Canada are paying their fair share, and also contributing to Canadia…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will be brief in my two minutes of what was hopefully going to be a 10-minute speech to reiterate something I have been hearing from farmers and businesses in my riding pertaining to fertilizer. I want to go on the record in the House and thank Duncan Ferguson, the president of the Glengarry Federation of Agriculture; Doug MacPherson, the general manager and president of Munro Agrom…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, my colleague from the Bloc and I are actually neighbours. Our ridings are side-by-side on either side of the provincial lines. I would like her to comment on the rising gas prices, which is something I know is impacting both Ontario and Quebec residents. We both have a lot of commuters who rely on driving to go to work, to access general services, to see their families and for their…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, my colleague and I served at the public accounts committee together for a while. The Auditor General concluded that the government is spending more money but getting less service for it. We saw it recently with the report tabled last week on services for veterans' disabilities. I would like him to comment, from his time at public accounts, about the frustrations. It is one thing to …

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, today I am presenting a petition to the House that was brought to my attention by Rosemary Abell and others with the St. Peter's Catholic Church in Cornwall. It has been signed and supported by 129 constituents of mine. This petition highlights the need for Canadian-based companies to better protect individuals who are subject to human rights abuses along the supply chain through glob…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I would say this move today is hypocritical of the government, but I am not surprised, because we have a Liberal-NDP group that does not want to talk about the economy. The Liberals and New Democrats do not want to talk about inflation and they do not want to talk about the cost of living. They surely do not want to talk about the carbon tax and the price of gas that they are backta…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, one of the big issues we talk about in the budget, as I am hearing, is gas prices. The member's riding is just on the other side of the provincial border, across from mine in eastern Ontario, and I know that commuters are having a very difficult time with rising gas prices. Can the member confirm that the budget reaffirms the commitment to a carbon tax that adds to the cost of fuel …

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, finally, after years of delay, Canada is one step closer today to the long-standing and discriminatory blood ban being lifted in this country. It has been a long time coming. The pain, the stigma and the frustration that many gay, bi and trans men have felt in this country for too many years has not been fair. While today's news is welcome news, it did not need to take this long. I ha…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, the very reason I am standing in the House talking about affordable housing is that I care. We care about it across the country. I will never challenge the intent of the government and say that it does not care about housing affordability, homelessness or helping first-time homebuyers. This is about the approach it is taking to try to get there. The Liberals have had seven years. Th…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, the line I use very often is that a week is an eternity in politics, and for the past five years it has become increasingly difficult and more stressful for anybody buying a home or looking to rent anywhere. In Cornwall and my riding of SDG, the average price of a home is now $430,000. In the province of Ontario, last month the statistics showed the price was over $1 million on aver…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the VIA Rail stations in Brockville, Smiths Falls, Alexandria, Kingston, Belleville, Cobourg, Oshawa, Port Hope, Gananoque, Napanee, St. Marys, Trenton, Wyoming, and Ingersoll, Ontario, and broken down by station: what are the details of all capital investments which have occurred at the station since 2010, including the (i) date of the investment, (ii) project completion date, (iii…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the minister has to keep reusing the same recycled talking points and twisting people's words because he is embarrassed, and rightfully so, of his record as minister. He claims to have a plan that would help make housing more affordable, but under his watch, we have seen housing prices double and rent become more unaffordable than ever before. More and more people are looking at the s…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saskatchewan for her speech. In her riding, like mine, the carbon tax is an issue that many Canadians are talking about in terms of affordability and the cost of living. One of the things I would like the member to comment on when we talk about the government's economic record and its fiscal plan, albeit from this fall looking ahead perhaps to the budget ev…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, after listening to the commentary and speech from my colleague across the way, I have to say that with respect to our responsibilities as members of Parliament, there are two things. One is to talk about all the things we would advocate with respect to spending, and the member went through a litany of what that would be. What was completely absent from all of that discussion was how…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, it is unbelievable how tone-deaf and out of touch the Minister of Housing is when it comes to the realities the average Canadian faces. He tries to brag about how well the government's housing plan has been working over the last five years while the average housing price in the country doubled under his watch. Rents are skyrocketing with no end in sight, and a record number of Canadia…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure, as always, to rise in the House to represent what I feel are the views in my riding of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, in eastern Ontario, in response to the government's economic plan. Since it tabled this legislation, which we have been debating over the last couple months, last week's circumstance of the surprise but unsurprising deal between the NDP and the Li…