Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the question was about business investment. I will try again. C.D. Howe says that investment per worker has declined 25% since the Liberals took office. Weak investment yesterday and today means lower wages and lower productivity tomorrow. Two years ago, the Bank of Canada said we had to break glass on this issue. A year later, C.D. Howe said it was a four-alarm emergency, but here we…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised the best economy in the G7, and he is delivering precisely the opposite: the highest household debt, the highest food inflation and an economy literally shrinking under the weight of his policies. What is particularly concerning is the decline in foreign and domestic investment. C.D. Howe called it “Canada's investment crisis”. Adjusted for growth and labou…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition today, again, on Bill C-9. I may sound like a broken record here, but some truths just bear repeating. Petitioners in my community are calling on the government to reverse course and not remove long-standing protections from the Criminal Code that protect people of faith, Canadians of faith, reading sacred texts like the Bible, the Torah and the Quran. The p…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I know the parliamentary secretary has been working on this very closely on the justice committee. However, we heard the Minister of Identity and Culture say that the Bible and certain books of the Torah contain categorical hatred and that there should be discretion for prosecutors to press charges. I would ask her very simply whether she agrees with the minister or not.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, forgive me if I do not take advice from the former finance minister of Ontario. For a decade before his current job, he watched Ontario's auto sector decline, so it has been two decades of decline with this member. Here is my question to the hon. member: Part of their supposed strategy is exports to non-U.S. destinations. I have seen no evidence from the government that this is a real…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have to warn us today that I may reference and read from a very dangerous book, a book so dangerous that the government is moving to criminalize the very utterance of its words in public spaces, a book so dangerous that at least some Liberal members say it is full of hate, and a book so dangerous and so full of hate, the government says that it is seeking, through Bill C-9, to strip…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the unanimous voice of Conservatives, non-Conservatives, Canadians of a faith and Canadians of no faith has been that this bill would harm free expression and would derogate from Canadians' right to freely express their religious beliefs. I am sorry, but I disagree with that supporter.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will give my colleague a genuine answer to his genuine question. As I said in my speech, calls to violence are not protected under the Criminal Code or by free expression. That was true before Bill C-9 and it will be true after Bill C-9. I must disagree with the hon. member when he suggests a revision or an update is needed to deal with Mr. Charkaoui. That is not the case. He called…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, let me just start by saying it is not just my opinion that this bill is horrible. The Liberal government has unanimously gotten Canadians to oppose this bill. Christian organizations, Muslim organizations, Hindu organizations, non-religious organizations, constitutional foundations and civil liberties groups have all unanimously opposed the bill because they see the danger in opening …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, there are several parts of Bill C-9 that we were willing to work with the government on, and I am glad to see that we did find some common ground. Putting back the Attorney General's consent to invoking prosecutions was a positive that we supported. Increasing back to the Supreme Court jurisprudence the definition of hatred was a change we supported. Unfortunately, all of these change…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition on behalf of Canadians concerned with Bill C-9, the Liberal censorship bill, including Canadians who joined us yesterday on Parliament Hill to rally against it. The petitioners are particularly concerned that the Liberals and Bloc have passed an amendment that would remove long-standing protections for the good-faith expression of religious belief and the go…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition today on behalf of residents in my community on Liberal Bill C-9, in particular the Liberal and Bloc amendment to Bill C-9 passed at the justice committee that would remove long-standing protections for the good-faith expression of religious beliefs and the citing of religious texts. That amendment would subject people who read the Bible, the Torah or other …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, day by day, year by year, the dream of home ownership is fading away for young Canadians. The Prime Minister's promise was for 500,000 new homes, but CMHC reported this week that he will actually build only 216,000 and that homebuilding will decline every year to 2028. Does the Prime Minister dispute the CMHC's findings, and if he does not, will he admit that he made a promise he knew…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, where are the homes? They keep talking about building, but we see no action. In fact, not only will homebuilding decrease; CMHC says that home prices will rise. We will have less supply, more demand and higher prices. That is a nightmare scenario for young Canadians. It appears to me that the Prime Minister's lofty political promise was nothing more than Romeo's lie when he swore his …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition today on behalf of Canadians concerned with two serious measures that the Liberals have brought forward. The first is the power in the budget implementation act to secretly exempt individuals or companies from any federal law, which was never disclosed in the budget discussion. The second is to adjust how Canada budgets for itself, moving away from our long-…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the government proudly announced recently that it was removing its failed EV mandate and replacing it with a shiny new emissions standard, but, as Shakespeare warned us: Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under't. The surface appears to have changed. The explicit sales quota is gone, but beneath it seem to lurk the same coercive rules. The old mandate aimed for 100% zer…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the member doth protest, but he does not answer my question. I have another one, about the new EV industrial strategy, as it is called. I am not one for subsidizing companies, but if they are going to subsidize companies, as the Liberals are proposing, with a new subsidy for the purchase of American-made electric vehicles, should it not at least be available to all Canadians on an equ…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, last year, I thought being elected would be the most important accomplishment of my life, but I was wrong. Just six months later, I became a father with the birth of my first daughter, Rose Mantle. This Monday is Family Day across much of Canada, and I am honoured to celebrate Family Day for the first time as a father. In fact, I am hosting a free community skate in Uxbridge all Monda…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we saw the hubris of the finance minister in his response. We will not move on from the issues that are affecting Canadians. He should take the advice of the Prime Minister and look inside himself. Fresh data from the superintendent of bankruptcy in this country presents a very grim truth, that bankruptcies are rising and consumer proposals are rising. Canadians can literally no longe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member referenced the potentially devastating effects of expropriation, and in her speech she spoke about fairness and respect. I could not help but notice that she has afforded none of that in her fanatical drive to steal firearms from law-abiding firearms owners in Canada. I wonder, with police associations rejecting her gun grab, would she apologize to them today?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister enjoys illusions, as the Major Projects Office has not given approval to one project yet. Let me give him some other news. BNN Bloomberg reported that my home province of Ontario is the sick man of Canada, with lower standards of living than anywhere else in the country. In fact, by every objective measure, Ontario is doing worse now than it was when the Prime Minister wa…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, economists said yesterday that the Canadian economy is on life support. While the Liberals may clap like trained seals for lower rates, those lower rates are not resulting in more growth. Respectfully, a GST rebate will not revive this patient. The emissions cap, the shipping ban and other anti-development laws are binding the hands of Canadians who would build our country. Why will t…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition today on behalf of members of my community, Canadians who are concerned with Bill C-9 and the attack on religious freedom and freedom of expression proposed by the Liberal and Bloc members, and in particular their proposal to amend the Criminal Code to remove long-standing safeguards for the good-faith expression of sincerely held religious beliefs and the p…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am increasingly concerned that the government views the current logjam and the acrimony that seems to exist between Canada and the United States as beneficial to its political fortunes. Every time the U.S. enters the news cycle, it distracts from the Liberals' record of failures here at home: the highest food inflation in the G7 and a shrinking economy in the last quarter. Despite i…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up, the Minister of Public Safety reported that importers owe the Government of Canada in excess of $2.3 billion in customs duty. The purpose of the CARM system, the CBSA assessment and revenue management system, was to simplify reporting at the border to make it easier for the CBSA, the Canada Border Services Agency, to collect and account for goods. Instead, outstanding …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Okay, penthouse boomer, maybe you can share one of your homes.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, every week I hear from young Canadians who have been priced out of their neighbourhoods. In fact, the Missing Middle Initiative reports that half of young Canadians will have to leave the very community they grew up in. I am not hearing very much from the four youngest Liberal members of Parliament, who were all born in this century and who represent parts of Canada that are being hit…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister of Housing can share one of his homes with the Canadians who do not have one. A study by Canadian fintech KOHO Financial Inc. said that, at the end of the month, gen Z has just 16 bucks left to spend. The Prime Minister told young Canadians that his solution for them was to sacrifice more. There is nothing left to give. KOHO said that gen Z is in survival mode and, …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we support the government's modest efforts to open new markets for Canadian exporters. More trade is good. I support free trade. Unfortunately, despite our efforts to work co-operatively with the government, yesterday the government House leader went into the lobby and did an interview with CTV where he spread misinformation about the Conservative Party, saying that we were simply obs…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, what hubris from the other side, from the member for Winnipeg North. The Leader of the Opposition, even before that interview, made an offer in good faith to the government to work with it on trade-related matters and others, and we are doing that. The Liberals do not have to give us credit for that. Canadians will judge. However, I would ask the government, and especially government …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am presenting a petition from concerned Canadians today. They are concerned about the Liberal government's assault on freedom of expression and freedom of religion contained in Bill C-9, particularly the Bloc and Liberal amendment to remove protections for people of faith to have open discussions about truth in this country. The petitioners remind the government that it has no pla…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is a new year, but it is the same old story for Canadians trying to buy a home. They cannot. The Missing Middle Initiative reported this week that while the vast majority of gen Z and millennials want to buy a home, only about half can realize that goal. Home ownership for them has decreased from 60% to 52%. Their ambition to buy a home has turned into uncertainty, and that uncerta…
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Mr. Speaker, I will direct my comments to the member who should be representing John A. Macdonald's history and who has unfortunately and shamefully failed to do so. I ask the member to tell me when the statue will be put back up in the park in his riding. Tell me when and where, and I will join you in raising that statue to John A. Macdonald again, but I suspect he will not.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to reiterate a quote that I took to heart when reading John A. Macdonald's speech from 1881, where he said, if they could not complete these national projects, “that we should become a bundle of sticks, as we were before, without a binding cord, and that we should fall, helpless, powerless, and aimless, into the hands of the neighboring Republic.” I fear that is the case …
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the Leader of the Opposition this afternoon. Our motion today requests that the House call on the government to adopt what we have proposed in a Canada sovereignty act. A sovereignty act is our proposal to re-establish Canada as a competitive and world-class nation, confident in its ability to build national pipelines, projects and ports and all other …
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Mr. Speaker, we certainly do live in an alternate reality, because what I hear from people is that they are struggling to find their next meal. The 2.2 million Canadians at food banks would also agree with me on that. Investment is fleeing our country. Times are tough. Instead, the member seems to live in an ivory tower of elitism, suggesting that things are fine and things are great. Things are n…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am glad the member is talking about John A. Macdonald in the House. However, I think it is shameful that he represents our former founding father's home yet has refused to take a position on whether the city council should put his statue back up in City Park. I will give him the opportunity today: Does he believe that John A. Macdonald's statue should be returned to its rightful pla…
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Mr. Speaker, I did not hear a question in that, so I will take it as simply a comment. What I would say to the hon. member is that Canada has had great men and women, both French and English, in our history and we should celebrate all of them. We should not do as the Liberals have done, which is tell our country that those great men and women were racist colonialists and tear down their statues, e…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I believe I heard my hon. colleague refer in his speech to projects being fast-tracked. I wonder if he could clarify that for me, because my understanding is that all the government has done thus far is refer projects to a new bureaucratic office and that no decisions have yet been made. In fact, no projects have been fast-tracked today; they have just been shoved to a bureaucracy to …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition today on behalf of Canadians who are very concerned about the assault on religious freedom and the assault on freedom of expression contained in Bill C-9, particularly the possibility that people who express their faith and read their sacred texts will be subject to criminal prosecution. The petitioners remind the government, and particularly the Liberal mem…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, this week is the anniversary of the final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference. I want to quote two conclusions from that report. First, the report states, “the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic institutions. The PRC views Canada as a high-priority target.” The report goes on to say, …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I do not say this often, but unfortunately this is the problem when parliamentary secretaries come and simply read prepared remarks. Nothing in the response addressed my question about why the government has decided to move from considering China as a geopolitical adversary and our greatest threat to now forging a new strategic partnership. I will generously interpret the member's res…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, here is a resident the Liberals are not supporting. He wrote to me and said, “I have lived in the same neighbourhood for more than a decade, and almost every essential cost of living has increased dramatically.” He had the receipts for his groceries, which went from $200 a month to $600 a month. What did the Prime Minister say? He said we should judge him by the price of groceries at …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am a strong supporter of Ukraine, and I find great irony in the member opposite's speech. On the very day that he speaks to this motion, he stood up and voted against getting Canadian oil and gas to world markets. That requires our allies to buy Russian oil and gas, directly funding their war effort in Ukraine and leading to more death and destruction. Instead, the member should be …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am actually very encouraged by the member opposite's response, because I think I agree with him. My own view is that this case is dealing with tariffs that were imposed under the IEEPA legislation. In fact, the industries that are most hard hit, which as the member mentioned are steel, aluminum, lumber and autos, have nothing to do with IEEPA. With steel, aluminum and autos, those a…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am following up this evening on a question I asked earlier in the month in question period on the economy. One of the most important parts of our economy is our two-way trade with the United States. We know that there are significant difficulties there right now and that, unfortunately, our negotiations are stalled. The Liberals have not really gotten very far, unfortunately, with o…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am rising this evening to present a petition on behalf of residents in the town of Georgina, specifically in Keswick, on a new invasive aquatic species that was discovered in Lake Simcoe, in Cooks Bay, last year. This invasive species is known as water soldier, and the petitioners point out that it is a threat to both the aquatic and plant life in Lake Simcoe, as well as to our agri…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising today to present a petition on behalf of the people of Port Perry and Blackstock, in my riding of York—Durham, on the Liberal gun confiscation program. Residents in my riding draw attention to the fact that Canada already has a sensible firearms regulation system, that legal firearms owners are strong advocates for that system, and that criminals who illegally obtain firea…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, while a deal with the U.K. is certainly better than no deal at all, we have been put in this position because the Liberals, frankly, failed to maintain a better deal that we already had, which was the CETA agreement, the agreement that the Harper government negotiated with the European Union and that we had been trying to maintain with the United Kingdom. CETA is a much more liberal…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, if bureaucracies built homes, after 10 years we would all be living in a penthouse like the minister. What he fails to understand is that behind the numbers behind the crisis are real Canadians of the next generation, shut out of the Canadian dream to earn, to save and to own a home. In the GTA, housing starts are down 43%, and sales are down 65%. When the Prime Minister told young Ca…
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