Parliamentary Speeches

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, corporate profits are rising twice as fast as inflation. Meanwhile, wages for workers are rising only half as quickly. The government insists on saying that it is there for workers, yet it will not impose the excess profit tax on big CEOs who are profiting. Other countries are doing that. Why will the Liberals not do the same thing and be on the side of workers?

Emergency Debate

Mr. Speaker, we are gathered here tonight of course to send our support to our friends from coast to coast to coast who are faced with the aftermath of these natural disasters. We are talking about the importance of taking action now, and there is no question that needs to be done. There is also a question about what investment needs to be made and whether the government should be making investmen…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for this bill. I am glad the NDP was able to force the government to take action to ensure that dental coverage would be provided to Canadians, starting first with coverage for children under 12 and subsequently for seniors and people with disabilities, and so on. With that being said, it is, of course, important to make sure that indigenous children who get den…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am really glad to hear the Liberal member's speech. The Liberals have finally seen the light: the importance of a national dental care program, something they did not see when they voted with the Conservatives against the motion that the NDP put forward just a year ago. With that being said, we are looking forward to getting this program delivered for the people who need dental care…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I asked legitimate questions of the member and for her to insinuate that the tone I am using is somehow going to cause me to have a heart attack is deplorable. It is patronizing and it is unacceptable. I would ask for an apology.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, it is a disgrace that indigenous peoples are 11 times more likely to use a shelter. One in five Canadians cannot find housing they can afford, and home ownership is out of reach for too many young people. The Liberals continue to allow corporate landlords to treat housing as a stock market and not a basic human right. The government should not be in the business of financing corporate…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) Rental Construction Financing Initiative: (a) what is the current dollar value of monthly rent used by CMHC to qualify a project for the 30% median total income affordability requirement for at least 20% of units, broken down by region; and (b) what would be the dollar value of monthly rent for those regions if the affordability requi…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the Afghans who were validated by the Department of National Defence (DND) or Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and referred to Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), in response to the 2021 crisis in Afghanistan, broken down by the department that referred the file: (a) how many of these referrals have been received by IRCC; (b) how many referrals resulted in the creation of…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I do not know what rock this member has been living under. The truth of the matter is this: It was the Liberals who cancelled the national affordable housing program back in 1993. The NDP called for the government to build 500,000 units of true affordable housing to meet that need, a gap that the Liberals created when they cancelled the national affordable housing program. The membe…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, on April 8, 2022, I rose to ask the government when it would invest in a “for indigenous, by indigenous” urban, rural and northern housing strategy, which it has promised since 2017 but has failed to deliver. After the NDP pushed for action, the Liberals proposed just $300 million to initiate a strategy over five years. This is hardly a drop in the bucket and is not good enough. We …

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I am happy to rise and speak to Bill C-242. The heart of the issue of Bill C-242 is reuniting families. It is about ensuring that parents and grandparents can come to Canada to be with their loved ones. We know the value of that and cherish it as individuals. Like other people with children, I value the moments that my daughter and son spend with their grandmother and grandfather. O…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I thank the member for tabling this private member's bill, as it brings to the forefront the importance of parents and grandparents in this country. With that being said, one of the issues I raised at committee was around the appeal process, or lack thereof. In fact, there is no appeal process for super visas that are rejected. The only option is for people to go to judicial review.…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the estimated 3,700 evacuees that Canada transported or facilitated the transport of from Afghanistan in August 2021: (a) how many evacuees were Afghan nationals who have been validated by the Department of National Defence as having an enduring relationship with the Canadian Armed Forces; (b) how many Afghan nationals who have been validated by the Department of National Defence as…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to the National Housing Strategy: (a) how many applications have been received under the (i) National Housing Co-Investment Fund, (ii) Rental Construction Financing Initiative, (iii) Rapid Housing Initiative, broken down by program, stream (e.g. new construction, housing repair and renewal), stage of the application, year of submission, province, number of units and dollar amount for e…

Madam Speaker, today we are here to commemorate Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and Canada’s longest-serving head of state, Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen lived a long life of duty, stability and public service and was an enduring and steadfast presence on the world stage throughout her seven decades as Queen. I rise today to express my deepest condolences to the royal family as they mourn the l…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the member mentioned the red flag provision, which is an important provision. Community members are saying, though, that the process the bill outlines is an onerous one because people have to petition the courts to put it in place. How would the government address this issue? We need quick action when it comes to saving lives.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, this is an issue that should be of concern for all of us in this House, and that is the use of firearms in the case of intimate partner violence. In fact, in 2018, over 500 cases involved firearms in the case of intimate partner violence. What do the Conservatives think should be done to address the use of firearms in the case of intimate partner violence? I do believe this bill is …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, in Vancouver East on a per-capita basis, we actually have the largest number of artists in our community. They are actually very much looking forward to the passage of Bill C-11. Can the member explain to the Conservative members why this bill is so important to artists?

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, environmental racism runs deep in Canada and is a direct result of Canada’s historic and ongoing colonization. Environmental racism causes severe harm to people’s health, threatens culture and destroys the natural environment. Discrimination and systemic racism in Canada’s laws and policies, in addition to uneven enforcement of regulations and laws, have created patterns where margi…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, rents will continue to rise and things will only get worse for people already struggling to pay for groceries. Rent for a one-bedroom unit in Vancouver is over $2,300 a month, in Toronto over $2,100, and in Halifax almost $1,700. The Liberals' response to struggling Canadians is an extra $7 on GST cheques. The government is so out of touch with reality. Will the Liberals double the …

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, migrant care workers are primarily women who come to Canada, leaving behind their families, to take care of children, the sick and the elderly. The Conservatives unfairly imposed high requirements for permanent residency for caregivers, such as passing the English language test at level 5, which is higher than what is required to obtain citizenship; a 24-month work requirement; and ad…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, in the last petition, my constituents are noting that persons with psychosocial and other disabilities continue to be at grave risk of being detained in facilities and/or otherwise subjected to limitations on freedom of movement, including the use of physical restraints, chemical restrains and isolation, and being forcibly administered drugs, which frequently cause toxic and damagin…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, in the second petition, the petitioners are noting the Government of Israel's designation of six prominent Palestinian human rights and civil society groups as terrorist organizations on October 19, 2021. They are concerned that the six prominent Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations in question are being criminalized for critical human rights work. They point to …

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I have three petitions to present today. In the first one, the petitioners note that applicants for many processes and documents at IRCC, including citizenship applications and PR cards, face prolonged delays in processing. Many have received no response or details from IRCC on the status of their application or expected timelines, which prevents them from being able to plan importa…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, one in four homeowners believes they will lose their house because they cannot keep up with the rising interest rates. The Liberals' failure to help struggling Canadians is going to result in people being homeless, and no doubt corporate landlords are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of being able to sweep up these distressed properties. The Liberals cannot just stand by a…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, while families struggle to afford groceries, rent and gas for their cars, the Liberals shrug and say that things are better here than elsewhere. Since they like comparisons so much, I have one for them. Under the Liberals, the cost of a home in Canada has increased faster than it has in any other country in the G7. Canadians cannot find a home they can afford, and they want solutions,…

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary knows as well as I do that the reality is that the Department of National Defence had referred 3,800 applications to IRCC and only 900 of them have been confirmed. The rest of the 2,900 applications files are lost somewhere in the system. The same applies to the GAC referrals. IRCC cannot seem to find these files. As much as the parliamentary secretary and …

Adjournment Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to enter into the adjournment debate on a question that I raised with the government on March 4 related to Afghans who were fleeing Putin's war and other minorities who are trying to get to safety. I ask members to imagine this: We have an individual who fled the Taliban and made it safely to Russia. They were in the refugee camp when the war broke out. It is an unprovoke…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the hon. member is correct in the sense that urgent action is needed to address the climate crisis. The IPCC, scientists and, more broadly, Canadians already know that. However, what we saw, as the member has mentioned, is the government and, more specifically, the Prime Minister decide to buy a pipeline, one that is actually not economical at that. They are being particularly secre…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, one of the issues the member raised is affordability and the cost of living for Canadians. Many Canadians are, in fact, struggling and are trying to recover from the COVID pandemic. The reality is that big banks are making billions of dollars. In fact, Scotiabank netted $10.1 billion in profit and gave out billions of dollars in dividends to its shareholders. For BMO, it is the same t…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, in question period on March 21, I asked the government why 90% of the funding under the rental construction financing initiative went to for-profit developers and why the units being built often ended up being 30% to 120% above the average market rent. I called on the government to change the requirements to ensure that housing units built under this program are substantially below …

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, Canada is faced with a housing crisis and we have to address this issue, which in no small part was a result of the federal Liberal government walking away from the national housing program in 1993. Soon after that, we saw the financialization of the housing market take root. This is when corporations and wealthy investors make big money by putting people out of homes. They buy up r…

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, can members imagine going to school hungry? They would have a hard time concentrating. The sound of the teacher's voice would be a dull rumble in their stomachs. They would be feeling tired, and they would barely have the energy to lift their pencils. That is the reality for nearly two million children in Canada. Right here at home, one in three children is at risk of going to schoo…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I would like to start the debate with this: Dead people do not detox. I want, in particular, for the Liberal and Conservative members to let that sink in. I want the Prime Minister to know that his excuse that decriminalization is not a silver bullet is a false argument to deflect his lack of courage to take meaningful action to save lives. Let me be very clear: Overdose deaths are …

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, the government is very good at making announcements, but the reality is that it actually has not followed up. The parliamentary secretary just talked about the income support for Ukrainians. Where is it? How can people access it? Where is the information for people to obtain that support? I have constituents who are hosting Ukrainians and they do not know where they can get that sup…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, some of my constituents have concerns. The government has been slowly lifting some of the pandemic requirements, and that includes what is going on in terms of travel. The government knew that and anticipated it. On its website, it has put out information for the public as well. To that end, the government should have anticipated that travel would escalate, and therefore that demand…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, what is clear is that the Conservatives are ideologically driven, and the Conservative leadership candidate, the member for Carleton, has been on a path to try to discredit and politicize the Bank of Canada. That is clear as day. The Conservatives do not have any trouble in trying to invoke their ideology into the Bank of Canada, but they are ready to criticize others in the manner …

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, Putin's horrific actions in Ukraine are killing children, women and elders, and displacing millions of Ukrainians who are fleeing for safety. Since 2017, the NDP has been calling for visa-free access for Ukrainians. It is unfortunate that this has not been put in place, as it would have been the most efficient way to get people to safety. Instead, the government opted for a visa pro…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in support of the motion put forward by my colleague, the member for Victoria. The NDP motion calls for the government to stop using Canadian taxpayers’ money to subsidize oil and gas companies, and to instead reinvest that money into renewable energy and measures to help Canadians with the rising cost of living. The motion could not have come at a more desperat…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, on the issue of the NDP negotiating with the government on the supply and confidence agreement, we have advanced the notion to call on the government to end the oil and gas subsidies. We got a bit, only $9 million, in terms of a return, but of course the government went and gave a giant gift to the oil and gas sector. That does not mean to say we will not continue to strongly advoca…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I did not realize the member was a scientist. I did not realize we should trust someone who is frankly right in the pockets of big oil instead of the scientists who have brought forward the evidence. The last time I checked, I would rather trust the scientists than the Conservatives. Let me say this on the issue of carbon capture. If that is the technology to be used, as the member …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, instead of subsidizing very profitable big oil companies, the government can provide immediate relief to struggling Canadians by suspending the GST on residential energy bills, doubling the GST tax credit and increasing the Canada child benefit to all recipients by $500. That would be an immediate help for Canadians. By the way, the oil and gas industry should be paying for the work…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the cornerstone of our democracy rests in people's ability to vote. We have heard from constituents over and over again. In particular, in my riding of Vancouver East, my constituents have consistently told me that they want to see a democratic system where every vote counts. Prior to the 2015 election, the Prime Minister promised Canadians that would be the last first-past-the-post…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I was listening to the speech from the member, and it was perplexing to me to hear him suggest that the bill should be withdrawn and the heritage committee should study the matter. In fact, if this bill passes second reading, it would be referred to committee, where we would be able to call witnesses and ask questions pertaining to the bill. It is perplexing to me that he would want t…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, today the media reported that Afghan interpreters who helped the Canadian military are being tortured and beaten by the Taliban while they wait for the government to get them to safety. Yesterday, our committee was told that 3,800 Afghans had their identities verified by National Defence, but only 900 of those have had their applications processed. No one knew or could advise what hap…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the member made a thoughtful speech. He is clearly thinking about how he should proceed here. With that being said, he raised the issue around tradition versus what should be done to ensure inclusive approaches in the House of Commons. This is a really important issue here from my perspective. I think inclusivity should absolutely be the way to go forward. I was dismayed that the Bl…

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I rise today to follow up on the questions that I had brought to the government's attention and my concerns with its lack of action in ensuring that Afghans who are fleeing and hiding from the Taliban would be able to get to safety. I also raised with the government during this period that there are over 300 former Afghan interpreters whose families have been left behind. They have …

Adjournment Proceedings

Madam Speaker, the Liberal government just does not get it. It is not acting with the level of urgency that is required. It is not waiving the burdensome red tape that has been foisted on the families, asking them to fill out application forms, only to layer more application forms on them, even though all of that has been done. Even though the Department of National Defence has verified that these…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Canada's housing crisis has been escalated by those using the housing market to make huge profits. The largest 25 financial landlords hold nearly 20% of the country's private rentals. For every one affordable housing unit built, 15 are taken up by investors making money on the backs of Canadians. It is time to stop treating housing as a stock market. Will the government stop corporate…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. We are all hon. members here. I know that debates get heated from time to time, but it is entirely inappropriate for that member to refer to my colleague, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby, as a “lapdog”. It is entirely inappropriate to use that kind of language in the House and to refer to any hon. member in the House in that manner. Madam Speaker, …