Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals themselves are warning that public investment in ag research and development has fallen by 15%. Private sector R and D outsourced to universities is down 77%. The number of firms conducting research in Canada has dropped by 30%. However, the Liberal agriculture minister is slashing $115 million in agriculture research. Science took the hit for 75% of the cuts in his depar…
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Mr. Speaker, everything the Liberals say about our military is just an illusion. They promised our troops raises, but they never materialized. Retention benefits for reserves are missing in action. The Liberal minister is gutting housing support for our troops by up to $7,000 a year, plus he is hiking housing rents on Canadian Armed Forces members. Our military is short over 8,600 personnel and ov…
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Mr. Speaker, let us separate the fiction and actually have some reality here. Most of our troops are not seeing a bump in their paycheque because the Liberals continue to claw it back at every opportunity. Rents are up by more than 5% for military housing. Housing support is down in more than 10 of the major housing posting locations. These reckless cuts are making retention and readiness much wor…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister has driven Canada into a full-scale recession. Our economy has been shrinking for three of the last four quarters. We are the only G20 country in an economic downturn. While the government tries to downplay it, families know something is wrong. They feel it every day at the checkout counter. Manitobans are worried. I have spoken with farmers, families and sm…
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to poke holes in the justice minister's argument over the length of debate on Bill C-16. We only debated this for two days at second reading, and then we let it go on division so we could get it to the justice committee for study. We asked for eight meetings to actually do a proper study on this bill and to bring in the proper witnesses. The Liberals shut it down to only f…
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Madam Speaker, I have to say I am quite disappointed that here we are again with the Liberals' shutting down parliamentary debate on such an important bill. Bill C-31, the budget 2025 implementation act, no. 2, is a giant omnibus bill, over 330 pages long, with some proposed major changes to the way government operates. Under division 16 in the budget implementation act is the new defence investme…
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Madam Speaker, although we are legislators, it is our responsibility as members of Parliament to carry out our fiduciary duties and responsibilities to the taxpayers of Canada and to properly vet all of the legislation and spending of the government. This bill opens up a huge abyss of extra spending. We are not against spending on national defence. I know the minister tried to say that I am trying…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Calgary East for his intervention today and for laying out exactly how bad the Liberals have been, especially when it comes down to things like balancing the budget. Bill C-31 is over 330 pages. We look at this thing and they are doing everything in here. So much of it has nothing to do at all with the budget. I want to speak specifically about divisi…
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Madam Speaker, as my colleague from Yellowhead knows, Justin Trudeau said he would never buy the F-35. He then ran a competition, and they ran it again. Guess what. The F-35 beat all the other fighter jets every single time, on cost, lethality, survivability and interoperability. The Prime Minister is now playing politics with a jet we need in order to protect Canada and to work with our allies.
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Madam Speaker, the one thing the member for Winnipeg North never talks about is the creative accounting that the Liberals did to get the 2%. They added these in, which have never been added in before, until 2017, and then they added in the big numbers last year: veterans pensions; the Canadian Coast Guard's entire budget, even though it is not a defensive organization nor does it have the ability …
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Mr. Speaker, I can tell my colleague that if we look at actual things the Liberals have bought for our troops, we see that they have not resulted in increased lethality or kinetic capability within the Canadian Armed Forces. It took the Liberals over 10 years just to replace the sidearms for our forces. Today, members of the Canadian Armed Forces in Ottawa, in the national capital region, have bee…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, for over 50 years, the Snowbirds of the 431 Air Demonstration Squadron have served as an iconic symbol of Canadian identity, a powerful showcase of military excellence and one of the Canadian Armed Forces' most effective recruitment tools. Canadians have felt a surge of pride when watching the Snowbirds fly overhead. Sadly, 2026 may be the final season for the Snowbirds. In keeping wi…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound for his incredible service to this country as a colonel within the Canadian Armed Forces. He is right. So much has changed over the last five years. The Victims Bill of Rights has come in. It was adopted by the Canadian Armed Forces. It is in the National Defence Act now. That ensures the rights of the victim are always paramount…
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Mr. Speaker, there are some things in Bill C-11 that we did support. The problem is that at report stage, the government removed all of the amendments that actually improved the bill and have gone back to a paternalistic system that would not work for victims. We cannot support it.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois, the Conservative Party and the NDP worked very closely together to bring about the amendments that we wanted at committee. Even Liberal members of the national defence committee wanted to see changes brought in. The importance of choice is something that we heard over and over again. It was the only way we could ensure that the victims would be getting the justice …
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Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday here, the member for Ottawa West—Nepean asked a question on Bill C-11 of the Minister of National Defence. It was a Liberal member asking the Liberal minister if the Liberals would include a sunset clause, which they had removed and which we had already agreed to at committee stage. The parliamentary secretary actually voted for that amendment, to go from a three-year to a …
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Mr. Speaker, it is always important that I get to participate in these debates. First and foremost, I just want to thank the brave women and men who serve in the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Coast Guard, who are out there every day, risking life and limb to keep us safe here at home, to secure our borders and to protect our security. It is often said that having a strong military actuall…
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Mr. Speaker, I am always disappointed with the member for Winnipeg North. He does not listen to anyone because he is always too busy flapping his lips. If he actually read the testimony we had at the national defence committee, if he had actually heard from victims, they would all have told him that things have changed since Arbour did her report seven years ago. She did all her interviews, she wr…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present petition 451-00928, which is calling on the government to reinstate the agriculture research stations to be closed, announced on January 23. Over 665 positions were cut. This is a great concern to farmers and producers, as well as consumers in Canada, as we continue to undermine leading-edge research that is happening at Agriculture Canada research stations. To…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister can sit here and spin his numbers all he wants, but he fails to mention that he actually knew that basic training success rates have fallen down to 77%. It is so bad that one platoon graduated only 48% of its recruits. A military that cannot graduate its recruits, cannot integrate its members and cannot maintain basic standards is not a military that is ready to defend ou…
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Mr. Speaker, the defence minister told Canadians that he fixed the recruitment crisis, but like everything with these Liberals, it was just another illusion. A leaked military memo tells a very different story. Some recruits were unable to communicate in either official language, and there are damning reports of misogyny and racism. This is more Liberal mismanagement and more of the same. These Li…
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Mr. Speaker, we would like to request a recorded vote.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Nanaimo—Ladysmith for her very strong speech, and for taking the time to actually review the testimony that we heard in committee and using that in her debate today on Bill C-11 now that we have closure on it. The Liberals continually use the Arbour report as their shield and explanation for why they are plowing ahead with these changes, which militar…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like this motion to also be a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, it is disgusting to see the government actually using closure to shut down debate on such a serious issue, sexual misconduct within the Canadian Armed Forces. It is disgusting that it is taking away the voice of veterans, of people who are surviving military sexual trauma, and not listening to the amendments being brought forward on Bill C-11. I do not know why the government is in a …
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Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, I would request that it be a recorded division as well.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to do a bit of a recap on the history, including pointing out the fact that in 2014 when sexual misconduct was becoming a major issue, the previous Conservative government commissioned Justice Deschamps to write a report. That report then sat on the desk of the former Liberal minister Harjit Sajjan, who was in the process of trying to cover up the sexual misconduct of the forme…
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Mr. Speaker, we would like to have a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence admitted at committee that he took an old bill, Bill C-66, and brought it back to the current Parliament as Bill C-11. He never talked to anybody in the veterans community. He did not reach out and talk to members in the justice system within CAF. He never talked to anyone at the provincial level about the problems they are having in carrying on these …
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Mr. Speaker, I would ask for a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise with a heavy heart today. Bill C-11, when it was studied by the national defence committee, had great collaboration among Conservative, Bloc and NDP members. I believe that the members from the Liberals on committee were listening intently to what we heard from the witnesses who came forward. There were witnesses who were victims of military sexual trauma. They are survivors wh…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague and friend from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton for his hard work on Bill C-11 at committee, bringing in witnesses and listening to them. We worked across party lines to get the best possible amendments to this bill that listen to victims. The member talked about how the Liberals have now stolen their majority in a very sneaky way by getting floor crossers. Ca…
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Mr. Speaker, I would love to know exactly what Madam Justice Arbour thought. We invited her to committee, but she did not even bother showing up to defend her report. Let us put this in perspective. Madam Justice Arbour's study and report were done years ago. Things have changed. The director of military prosecutions had said that, on a short-term basis, they needed to adjust and pivot, and to mov…
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank my colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles for his service to Canada as a veteran, as a former commanding officer, whose family, his own son, is in the Royal Canadian Navy. My colleague talks about what we heard in testimony from those witnesses. There are more experts on military justice than just the one or two or three justices who have filed r…
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moved: Motion No. 1 That Bill C-11 be amended by deleting the short title. Motion No. 2 That Bill C-11 be amended by deleting Clause 7.
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Mr. Speaker, we continue to hear the Liberals use the Arbour report as their shield in why they are gutting all the amendments that were made by the defence committee, some of which were even supported by the Liberals, where we worked across party lines as Conservatives, Bloc members and the NDP. Much has changed since the Arbour report came out. We know that at the time, there was a mandatory dut…
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Mr. Speaker, we always have the same indignation coming from the member for Winnipeg North. He wants to talk about marginalization. He is marginalizing victims because he is not paying attention to what they actually said at the national defence committee in their testimony. They bravely stood in front of the committee, shared their experiences and demanded to have more freedom regarding which jus…
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moved: That Bill C-11 be amended by deleting Clause 8.
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moved That Bill C-11, in Clause 18, be amended (a) by replacing line 24 on page 10 with the following: “officer or non-commissioned member or former officer or non-commissioned member who is a barrister” (b) by replacing, in the English version, line 26 on page 10 with the following: “province and who has been or was a member of the Canadian”
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Mr. Speaker, the key pieces of the bill that we have to maintain are clause 7 and clause 8 as the bill came back from committee and report stage. Those clauses would instill and enshrine the rights of choice for victims of military sexual misconduct and military sexual assault. Those choices, especially as they fall under the definition of sexual assault in the Criminal Code, would need to be deal…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke, who has been a long-time member of the defence committee. She has heard from more veterans, I am sure, than Justice Arbour did in her hearings several years ago. There is a base in the member's riding, and she is always advocating on behalf of members who serve, including the victims of military sexual misconduct and militar…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Cowichan—Malahat—Langford for his service to Canada and the Royal Canadian Navy and his great work in standing up for victims. I first met the member's wife, Angel, who has also been a strong advocate of fighting for the survivors of military sexual trauma, when I was doing town halls across this country on military injuries, including military sexual tr…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Cowichan—Malahat—Langford for his hard work on this file as well. As a veteran, he has always been there to champion people who have experienced military sexual misconduct. We heard from the Victoria Police Department that it does not have the resources or the number of investigators needed, that it is already dealing with a backlog and that it has be…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Canada needs an Arctic gateway to get our energy, commodities and resources from the prairies to the world. Hudson Bay offers two great locations: at Churchill and Port Nelson. Sitting on the shores of Hudson Bay, they offer the shortest shipping routes from the Canadian prairies to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Energy companies stand ready to move liquefied natural gas through …
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising to respond to the point of order raised on Friday afternoon by the deputy government House leader concerning certain amendments made by the Standing Committee on National Defence to Bill C-11. The six amendments contested by the honourable member for London West, almost 10 weeks after they were reported by the committee, have one thing in common: They were originally ruled…
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Mr. Speaker, as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine drags on into its fourth year, billions of dollars in Russian state assets are collecting dust in Canada while Ukraine bleeds. The government talks about standing with Ukraine, and the Liberals are good at writing cheques using Canadian taxpayer dollars, but they will not touch the 23 billion dollars' worth of frozen Russian assets right here…
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Mr. Speaker, once again, the Liberals are giving to our troops with one hand but taking with the other. The Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence love to brag about their fake raise they gave to the forces. The reality is that many of our troops are taking home less on their paycheques because of Liberal policy changes. Sadly, military families were only given one week's notice before th…
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Mr. Speaker, all that bragging is just talk and no action. It is the Minister of National Defence's job to fight for the best interests of those who put on the uniform to fight for each and every one of us. These brave Canadians are deployed to Latvia and other places around the world without hesitation. They sacrifice months away from their loved ones in the name of Canada because the minister te…
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