Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is not a surprise that I am tabling this petition, given that there were forest fires across my riding, that divided my riding this summer. The petitioners cite that there is a climate emergency crisis in our country and that Canada's temperatures are rising faster than overall global temperatures. Extreme weather events, including unprecedented droughts, hurricanes, floods and for…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague is speaking like there is this big bad solar-powered windmill-shaped bogeyman that is going to land in Alberta and wipe out all these really important jobs. That is actually not the case. In fact, a study by Calgary Economic Development estimates that Alberta could see $61 billion pumped into its economy through clean tech investments. Studies also show that Alberta gai…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we have been hearing from clean-tech businesses that the investment tax credits that were announced in the spring still are not accessible. Here we are in October, and there have been huge delays. This uncertainty for businesses is a big problem, especially those that are looking to make investments in the clean-tech economy. When is the government going to roll out these programs? …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, where I come from, in my riding of Courtenay—Alberni, we see it as a duty and responsibility to build a diverse economy and build resilience in our communities. I think about the Port Alberni Port Authority wanting a floating dry dock. There are the Coulson Group, which is a global leader in firefighting aviation, wanting to expand and do more work here, and there is Nova Harvest in B…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to table this petition on behalf of constituents of my from Ucluelet and Tofino. Emergencies at Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park are attended by Parks Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian Coast Guard, West Coast Inland Search and Rescue, B.C.'s emergency response group and the RCMP. However, rescues initially fall into the hands of surfers and beachgoers. Th…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am glad the member talked about an integrated approach because the Portuguese model is a coordinated, integrated, compassionate model. Here in Canada, we do not have coordination. There are no resources. In fact, we are in a health crisis. I will say this: The Liberals' incremental approach costs lives in a health crisis. The disinformation from the Conservatives costs lives in a …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am here tonight on behalf of the 40,000 Canadian families that have lost loved ones since 2016, since the Liberals formed government, due to the toxic drug supply. I am here also on behalf of those living with problematic substance use and recreational substance use who are dying from preventable deaths. Just to give some context, right now in Canada, about 180 Canadians per milli…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I cited earlier the impact of corporate greed in our country. It is about $3.90 on a $100 bag of groceries. The carbon tax, which the Conservatives try to spin as the major contributor, is 15¢ on a $100 bag of groceries. We know corporate profits are going into the pockets of Galen Weston. In places like Tofino, Hornby Island and Ucluelet, there are co-op grocery stores that give th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for bringing up the Manitoba election. It gives me a chance to congratulate Wab Kinew as the new premier of Manitoba. He is the first indigenous premier in our country. My colleague talked about a sham and sheer propaganda. Let us talk about that when it comes to housing. He did not talk about the 30% corporatization of the housing market that is driving…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to present a petition today on behalf of constituents in my riding. The petitioners cite that, in 2018, the national anthem was amended with gender-neutral language to ensure equity and inclusion, but Canada's most notable symbols, the Canadian flag and the national anthem, fail to represent indigenous people. The first contact between indigenous and non-…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I really appreciate the comment and we are on the same page: that we need a wartime-like effort. We need to use every tool in the tool box to deal with this. Right now, the government does not have a plan. It has no plan on how it is going to build 3.5 million homes, and this is what we need to do in this chamber. We need to have that conversation and bring forward ideas. Like I sai…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for calling out and asking for good ideas. We saw the Conservatives in Ontario try a land giveaway of the Greenbelt that was going to put $8.3 billion into the pockets of developers. We hear the Conservatives talking about selling public lands and public buildings. I want to know if he thinks that what happened in Ontario was a good idea. What would the Conserva…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I know that when it comes to the Conservatives in Ontario, it is the developers who are benefiting when it comes to housing, which is the conversation of today. We have heard the federal Conservatives talk about selling off government land and government buildings. As New Democrats, we would see benefits in leasing those lands and working with the developers and non-market housing g…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have heard Conservatives talk about selling 6,000 buildings and 15% of public lands. We only need to look at Ontario, where the Doug Ford Conservatives did a deal for the greenbelt; they sold public lands and put $8.3 billion into the pockets of developers. In my home province of British Columbia, the B.C. Liberals sold private lands to benefit their friends, who were donors to th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am going to do a little fact-checking here. The member talked about the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem. He said that the carbon tax, all of it combined, is contributing 0.15% to inflation. That is 15¢ on 100 dollars' worth of groceries. What she did not talk about is corporate greed, which is costing $3.90 on 100 dollars' worth of groceries. We know why. It is becaus…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to rise today to speak to Bill C-56, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act. We know that the bill calls for two important aspects: to remove the GST from construction costs on new rental units and to enable the Competition Bureau to conduct better investigations, while also removing efficiency exemptions during mergers to improve …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, first, I want to congratulate my colleague on his election. One thing I did not hear in his speech was about corporate profits when it came to grocery prices. We know that corporate profits are contributing over 25 times the impact than the carbon tax, according to the Governor of the Bank of Canada. He cites that the carbon tax is 0.15% in terms of its contributions to the overall …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, let us face it: the Liberals' and Conservatives' free-market developer-style model has not worked. I sat in local government and if they actually put money on the table for non-market housing, that would get gobbled up in a heartbeat. Municipalities want to be partners, but they do not have the resources. They have been downloaded on and downloaded on since 1992 by Conservatives and…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the Governor of the Bank of Canada said the impact of the carbon tax is 0.15% of inflation. However, we look at oil and gas companies, which are having record profits; these big grocery stores are having record profits; and the big banks are having record profits. We can look at other countries, like Britain, where the Conservatives are in government, by the way; they have an excess…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on her new role. We have heard the Conservatives talk about selling off 15% of private lands and 6,000 government buildings. We saw what happened with the greenbelt with the Conservatives in Ontario. We saw what happened in British Columbia with private forest lands. Basically, it ends up in the hands of developers and it does not create any affordable ho…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, 250,000 small businesses in Canada may be forced to close their doors by the end of this year because the Liberals are not listening. These are businesses that provide good jobs and are vital to local economies. It is shocking that after years of small businesses being hit with one thing or another, the Liberals' plan is to offer a half-baked extension that will cost businesses up to …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate having the opportunity to table this petition on behalf of youth in my riding, climate activists from Qualicum Beach. First, the petitioners cite that children who were born in 2020 will face an average of two to seven times more extreme weather events than their grandparents did. They cite that in the 2020 report in The Lancet, 83% of children worldwide reported that the…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, removing the GST on rental housing is a start. This is certainly something that the NDP has been calling for. We have heard the Conservatives put forward a proposal of selling 15% of federal buildings and lands, and we have seen what that looks like at the provincial level, with Doug Ford and the Greenbelt. We also saw that in British Columbia with what they did with private forest …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we have heard that the Conservative leader wants to sell 6,000 government buildings. We know what that looks like, when the private sector gets involved with government. We just saw Doug Ford's government try to sell off the Greenbelt in Ontario, which would have amounted to $8 billion going to a handful of developers, with no assurances that the housing that would have been develop…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to table this petition on behalf of constituents from my riding in Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Courtenay and Cumberland. Canadians care deeply about the health of the ocean and depend on a thriving ocean ecosystem. However, in 2019, over one million cruise ship passengers travelled off of British Columbia on their way to Alaska. The petitioners cite that Canada's reg…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in British Columbia alone, more than 1,600 people have died, because of toxic unregulated drugs, since the start of this year. This summer I travelled to Portugal, where I saw that things could be different. We could a have nationwide evidence-based plan, including decriminalization, harm reduction, treatment recovery and prevention services, but the Liberals would rather stand by the…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am still in absolute shock. Last week, the Conservatives were the gatekeepers for the big grocery stores and CEOs. This week, they show up and they sound like New Democrats saying that CEOs and greedflation are part of the problem. What we actually need, and what people in our country need, is action. Will the Conservatives support initiatives that we brought forward, including ta…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as was highlighted earlier, given the escalation of events that have taken place in the past week, and the seriousness of this issue, my colleague talked about the need for action. She highlighted, at the very end of her speech, taking action with respect to applying sanctions against Azerbaijani officials. Does she support the NDP's call to apply sanctions against Azerbaijani officia…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we keep hearing from the Liberals and the Conservatives that this development-driven model is going to solve the affordable housing crisis. Nowhere in the world has a developer in the private sector model solved an affordable housing crisis. Right now, 3.5% of the housing stock is non-market housing. We just need to go outside these doors to see what it looks like for every large or…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to present this petition. I hope you had a wonderful summer in your riding. I was fortunate to go to Portugal and learn about the toxic drug crisis, so it is timely that I present this petition on behalf of constituents of mine who are calling basically for the same model and approach that Portugal took in terms of a health-based response to the toxic d…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it was refreshing to hear the Conservatives finally identify that corporate greed is driving inflation when it comes to food prices. We saw Conservatives in Great Britain, for example, charge an excess profit tax on the outrageous amounts of excess profits on oil and gas. Here in Canada we have excess profits on oil and gas, at the grocery store and at the big banks. We cannot even …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague talked about harnessing the experience of people directly impacted, and that it is not in this bill. I absolutely agree. The act would create indigenous engagement committees for port authorities. When I talk to Nuu-chah-nulth people in my riding, that is not good enough. They actually want a seat at the table. They want an appointment for each nation whose territory the …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to the question I asked earlier. We know the act creates indigenous engagement committees for port authorities, and I know that is important. However, when I meet with the Tseshaht and Hupacasath, whose lands the Port Alberni port authority resides and operate on, for example, and the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, they say they do not want just an appointment to the…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to government contracts with vendors providing IT services to departments operating under the Treasury Board of Canada, broken down by fiscal year, since 2017-18, and by department: (a) what is the total number of contracts signed; (b) what are the details of all contracts signed, including the (i) vendor contracted, (ii) value of the contract, (iii) number of IT workers provided, (iv)…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have a lot of respect for my colleague. I hope he has a great summer ahead of him. This motion is misguided. Cutting help to people is not the solution. In fact, we have seen corporate taxes go from 28% to 15% under the Liberals and the Conservatives. What has happened? Real estate trusts, banks, and oil and gas companies are raking in record profits. We also keep seeing increases…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to contracts awarded since the 2015-16 fiscal year, broken down by fiscal year: what is the total value of contracts awarded to (i) McKinsey & Company, (ii) Deloitte, (iii) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (iv) Accenture, (v) KPMG, (vi) Ernst and Young?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the electoral district of Courtenay—Alberni, since fiscal year 2018-19: what are all the federal infrastructure investments (including direct transfers to municipalities, regional district associations or First Nations, national parks, highways, etc.), broken down by fiscal year?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to federal investments and communities which comprise the federal electoral district of Courtenay-Alberni, between the 2005-06 and current fiscal year: (a) what are the federal investments in Innovation, Science, Economic Development, and Forestry, including direct transfers to the municipalities and First Nations, for the communities of (i) Tofino, (ii) Ucluelet, (iii) Port Alberni, (…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we have heard the Liberals say that they have everybody's back. I do not know about other members, but where I live, when I drive around, I see more homeless people than I have ever seen in my entire life. It can be seen right across the country. At least with the Conservatives, we know they are not going to build purpose-built housing. However, that is what the government promised.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, today I stood with the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, and its members talked about the emergency we find ourselves in in Canada. We are short 15,000 volunteer firefighters. They have seen a rapid decline, while the government has been in power, of 29% of volunteer firefighters. We know they are dealing with inflation. They have not seen an increase in their firefighter tax cre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member talked about getting help to people, but what has the government done? When it comes to seniors, the government increased the OAS by 10%, but only for those who are over 75. It created two tiers of seniors. The Liberals decided to neglect those seniors who are between 65 and 75. This is despite the fact that over a third of women over 65 are living in poverty. That is actua…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we keep hearing from the Conservatives about their corporate and free market-driven housing policies. Nowhere in the world has the free market solved an affordable housing crisis. We even heard from the member that his own city council rejected the Conservative Party's Ottawa-knows-best proposals. Will the Conservatives get on board with building non-market housing to solve the housin…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this debate is important to my riding. I met with Terry Farrell from the Comox Valley Record and Peter McCulley from PQB News. They talked about the sense of urgency right now, because they cannot compete with Google, Facebook and so on. PQB News had to lay off Scott Stanfield, one of the top local reporters in the Comox Valley, who has covered really important and critical stories.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there is no debate that I do live in the most beautiful riding in the country. To my colleague, who is also from British Columbia, I say that there was a really important study done by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, called “Sharing Risks and Benefits”, and it was by commercial fishers, to ensure that their needs are being met, because we have a broken commercial fis…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, like my colleague before me, I also want to pay my respects to all those who have been impacted by the terrible bus crash in the Prairies, and their family members. I thank all the first responders and everybody in our health care system especially. It is a traumatic experience for them and for everybody in those communities. We are in the middle of a crisis in my riding. There are …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, post offices are the heart of rural communities. We rely on them to keep in touch with loved ones and to pick up essentials, but consecutive Liberal and Conservative governments have been starving them of resources. It started with making postmasters find their own facilities. When that fails, the Liberals privatize our mail, destroying union jobs. Shockingly, when privatizing gover…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to table a petition on behalf of my incredibly and deeply frustrated constituents of Union Bay, which has become a test pilot for unregulated shipbreaking. They cite there are significant risks not only to the environment but to workers who are associated with shipbreaking due to the presence of a wide variety of hazardous materials in end-of-life marine …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the communities which comprise the federal electoral district of Courtenay-Alberni, since fiscal year 2018-19: (a) what are the federal infrastructure investments, including direct transfers to municipalities and First Nations, for the communities of (i) Tofino, (ii) Ucluelet, (iii) Port Alberni, (iv) Parksville, (v) Qualicum Beach, (vi) Cumberland, (vii) Courtenay, (viii) Deep Bay,…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, my riding is cut in half. Highway 4 has been closed for over a week because of wildfires. With the closure, local food banks are suffering, as people are trapped. This is impacting people who were already struggling with food insecurity. They are worried, and many do not know where their next meal will come from. Will the federal government provide emergency funding to local food bank…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, right now, as forest fires are raging across the country, from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, what are the Liberals doing? They are building pipelines and subsidizing oil and gas. While the Liberals are patting themselves on the back, right now a fire is burning in my riding, and not just anywhere. It is at Cameron Lake Bluffs, on the doorstop of Cathedral Grove, of the ancient rain…
Read full speech →