Parliamentary Speeches

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge February as Age-Related Macular Degeneration Awareness Month. Macular degeneration is among the top five eye conditions leading to serious vision loss. It affects individuals' ability to read, to drive, to socialize, to recognize people. It largely impacts individuals’ independence and quality of life. In fact, many of us in this room may also develop age-r…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth report of the Standing Committee on International Trade, entitled “Transporting Goods in Rail Containers: Some Trade Implications for Canada”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fourth report of the Standing Committee on International Trade in relation to the motion adopted on Thursday, February 2, 2023, regarding prohibiting the importation of goods linked to the use of forced labour and developing a related strategy.

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the current income tax system for seniors gives couples numerous ways to lower taxes while singles get none. Senior couples can split their pension income, thereby allowing them to pay less tax and qualify for the age amount tax credit and old age security with limited or no clawbacks. The undersigned single members and other citizens of Canada call upon the Government of Canada to of…

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, it is deeply disturbing to hear about the growing persecutions of the Ahmadi Muslim community around the world. In recent weeks, the media burst with the news about the unlawful raids, detentions and killings of Ahmadi Muslims in Burkina Faso and Pakistan. The safety of the community in Afghanistan, Algeria and Sri Lanka is also deeply concerning. No individual should be persecuted …

Statements By Members

Madam Speaker, it is a great pleasure for me to stand in the House today and pay special recognition to my long-time friend and supporter, Sam Primucci. While many Canadians know and love Sam for his successful business skills in the food industry and his Pizza Nova chain, I know him for his warm and giving spirit to others. For this reason he was granted a leadership and community service award a…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, last month, my fellow MPs and I successfully visited Taiwan as a Canada-Taiwan parliamentary friendship group delegation. The focus of this trip was, as it always has been for the friendship group travels, trade opportunities and cultural exchange. Taiwan is an important stakeholder and a valuable partner for Canada and the international community. I was delighted to learn that there …

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I extend sincere congratulations to my colleague. This has been an issue the two of us, and others, have talked about so many, many times. It gives me great pleasure to stand here and congratulate you and ask you about timelines, because I do believe our government is quite supportive. Could you elaborate a bit on your expectations on the timelines you are looking for to move forwar…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 107(3), I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fourth report of the Liaison Committee, entitled “Committee Activities and Expenditures: April 1, 2022 - August 31, 2022”. This report highlights the work and accomplishments of each committee of the House, as well as detailing the budgets that fund the activities approved by committee mem…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, as nationwide uprisings of the Iranian people have entered into the third month, I want to once again express my solidarity with the people of Iran. This uprising, which began on September 16 after the barbaric murder in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, has spread to nearly 240 cities in Iran and globally. These ongoing rallies across Iran and around the world demonstrate the treme…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am really pleased this morning to stand and reference various areas in the fall economic statement. It was a very good statement that gave us an opportunity to see a focus on some of the areas that the government and all members of the House, I am sure, are concerned about and supportive of, especially for the residents of Humber River—Black Creek. The help for the cost of living, f…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the third report of the Standing Committee on International Trade, entitled “Canada's Environmental and Clean Technology Goods and Services: Selected International Trade Considerations”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, let me tell members, my constituents are getting that money back every single day. The carbon tax is refundable. Everybody is getting it back. Most importantly, we need that carbon tax because we need to start paying more attention to climate change. We look at what happened this summer in the Maritimes. From coast to coast to coast there was a tremendous amount of damage. It will be …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of the work the government has done since we came in in 2015. Seniors have been every bit as important as everyone else that we are trying to deal with. We have increased funds to them through the OAS and the GIS. There has been a 10% increase in the pension, which was not an easy thing to accomplish. We continue even in this economic statement. There is an additional …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, one of the things I neglected to mention is with regard to the Canada workers benefit, which I think is really important for all Canadians but especially for the residents of Humber River. I wanted to make sure to mention it. The Canada workers benefit will provide up to $1,428 for a single worker or up to $2,461 for a family this spring through the existing tax return payment. That i…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate all of my colleagues in the House who sit at the veterans committee and do this important work. Some years back, I was a critic and I had a great opportunity to learn about what was being provided and what was not being provided. I was quite appalled at the situation we were in. The fact that we are focusing on housing in this report, and that we are doing a concurrence…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the work that he does on behalf of veterans. I know we all care very much about this particular file. I have to ask if the member is aware that there is a dedicated unit for the issue of francophone veterans who are coming back. There has been a significant increase in support in francophone areas, as well as a dedicated unit. Is he familiar with that? What ar…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, we learned very early on in the COVID pandemic that masks save lives. As demand for life-saving masks spiked, we also learned valuable lessons about Canada’s supply chain for personal protective equipment. When COVID hit, we were not manufacturing medical-grade respirators in Canada, which were badly needed to protect our medical staff and essential workers. As Canadians do when faced…

Statements By Members

Madam Speaker, on Saturday I joined the human chain in Toronto, holding hands with thousands of other Canadians across the country in solidarity with the Iranian people protesting for almost two months now. These ongoing rallies across Iranian cities and around the world demonstrate a great resistance to the suppression of democracy and human rights. I would like to acknowledge the tremendous cour…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I agree that my hon. colleague's speech is not necessarily tied into Bill S-5, but all of it is extremely important. Bill S-5 is important, and all the comments my colleague has made are issues that we all have to be paying much more attention to than we have so far. Certainly, at various committees, work is being done. I encourage the hon. member and I know how sincere she is with he…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to have the honour to present, on behalf of the international trade committee and in both official languages, the second report of the Standing Committee on International Trade, entitled “Canada–United States Relationship and its Impacts on the Electric Vehicle, Softwood Lumber and Other Sectors”.

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to present this petition, especially following the discussion by my colleague on his concurrence motion pertaining to things that many of us in the House care about and would like to see an end to. Canadian lawyer David Matas and former Canadian secretary of state for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour conducted an investigation and concluded that the Chinese regime and its age…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge October 13 as World Sight Day, reminding my colleagues in the House and every Canadian about the importance of eye health. Unfortunately, we all take our eyesight for granted until it is often too late. There are 1.2 million Canadians who are currently blind or partially sighted and over eight million have an eye disease that puts them at risk for vision loss and…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran in the wake of the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, a beautiful 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the morality police on September 13. She was accused of violating the country’s strict codes on modest dress for women, and she was beaten to death while in detention. Mahsa’s killing sparked a nationwide uprising that is continu…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be back, glad to see you back in the chair here in the House and glad that we are getting on with the work that is important for all our constituents and for our country. I want to speak to Bill C-31. Just in case viewers have lost track given previous speakers, what we are actually focusing on in Bill C-31 is part 1, the dental benefit act, which would provide interim de…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to answer my colleague's question. It is good to see him on the floor again. We have gone back and forth between us on a variety of issues. I believe in investing Canadians. All our money does not come out of mid air. It comes from Canadians. It comes from each and every one of us. It is what we do with that money that matters. Investing in Canadians and giving them back …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will try to bring the temperature down a bit. We are here to debate and to discuss, but I do not want anyone to have a heart attack in the sense of trying to get a point across. The issue of housing—

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely did not mean to offend the hon. member. I know her passion when she speaks in the House, and I quite often applaud it and agree with many of the comments. However, I am very proud of what our government has done when it comes to housing. We have invested billions and billions of dollars across Canada with our rapid housing initiative, but all these things take time. They …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his continued work in the House on behalf of all Canadians. The whole issue of investing in people is an important part. We are investing in Canadians; we are not investing somewhere else. We are reinvesting tax dollars to help people have a better quality of life. When I think of the $10-a-day child care and why I am a huge supporter of that progra…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, today I rise because I want to honour the memory of a very important friend and a member of the Humber River—Black Creek community, Sharon Lustig. It is with profound sadness that I recognize Sharon's passing on September 5. She was a devoted mother to Ellen and Joel, a caring grandmother to her grandchildren and a loving wife of the long-standing Humber River Riding Association presi…

Madam Speaker, it is truly an honour today to join the acknowledgements for Queen Elizabeth II. Before I make my brief comments, I want to acknowledge the tragedy in Saskatchewan and the loss of two police officers in the GTA in the last few days. What a tremendous loss that is for communities at large in both parts of our country. I stand today on behalf of the residents of Humber River—Black Cre…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, today I want to acknowledge the tremendous work of representative Winston Wen-yi Chen, the tenth representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada since it was established in 1992. He is a friend of many parliamentarians. Representative Chen assumed his duties in Ottawa four years ago, and it has been a fruitful partnership ever since for both Canada and Taiwan. Repr…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, unfortunately, whatever happens to the south of us ends up being duplicated here in Canada, whether it is a month later, six months later or two years later. When we look at the killings and those mass shootings in the schools, when there are 19 babies killed, those were not done with a handgun. We have already banned some of those, but the handguns we are talking about are the ille…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, when it gets referred to committee in the immediate future, there will be an opportunity at the committee level to discuss all the options on the table, including the issue of buyback. Whatever we can do to get guns off the street is something I am very supportive of.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I want to acknowledge the continued great work that the member is doing as a member of Parliament. I was very focused on so many people in my particular riding who have been asking for such a long period of time for more to be done to eliminate handguns in our communities. If we did an analysis, we would probably find that one in four is carrying a gun in my riding of Humber River—B…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am very proud to rise in this House today, especially following my illustrious colleague, who never seems to run out of words and manages to fill the time slot all the time. I represent a riding that, like many others in a large urban centre like Toronto, has a tendency to have a lot of violence, and the majority of that violence is gun violence, so I am very pleased that Bill C-2…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 107(3), I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the third report of the liaison committee, entitled “Committee Activities and Expenditures: April 1, 2021 - March 31, 2022”. This report highlights the work and accomplishments of each committee, as well as detailing the budgets that fund the activities approved by committee members.

Statements by Members

Madam Speaker, today I would like to honour the memory of a passionate teacher, a dedicated volunteer and a great community leader, Ms. Sothymalar Paramsothy. Ms. Paramsothy arrived in Canada, along with her two sons, as a refugee. Like most Tamils, she balanced several jobs to make ends meet as she integrated into a new place. A teacher by profession, she worked part time in Dufferin-Peel Catholi…

Routine Proceedings

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-284, An Act to establish a national strategy for eye care. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy today to have the opportunity to introduce this bill calling for a national strategy on eye care, something that, for many years, Canadians have been calling for, and something that the government has promised many times before that. I want to acknowledge that I am introducin…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, we have put millions of dollars into the issues of addictions and mental health in the last several years. I think we are finally recognizing that arresting people and putting them in jail is not going to help. I was recently in Vancouver and was absolutely blown away by the number of people I saw living on the street, suffering from mental illness. The other day I was on King Edward …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that Bill C-21 has been introduced and very soon we could be dealing with the issues of firearms. As I indicated earlier, anyone who uses firearms in any kind of circumstances should receive much more of a penalty, not less.

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely agree. Those are the areas we are trying to work in. When there is an imbalance and we look at the fact that 9% of people who are in prison are indigenous, we have to ask why and look at the root cause. I agree with my colleague completely. That is why I said, in response to the previous speaker, that we could be sitting down, quite possibly around this beautiful table, f…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the wonderful member for Lac-Saint-Louis. I am pleased to speak to Bill C-5. I have to reference the previous speaker's speech. All of us come to the House to make life better. We have different opinions on how we achieve that goal, but after listening to the previous speaker, so much of what is on this side of the House is on all sides of the House. W…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, we are all doing what we are doing with the best of intentions, and in 2007, when mandatory minimums were introduced, many people thought they would really help to reduce crime and improve public safety. What we have seen is that they have done far more damage than good.

Statements By Members

Madam Speaker, the past two years have been difficult, fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but none more so than for our health care professionals, who have been challenged both personally and professionally. Situated in the traditional lands of the Anishinabe, Humber River Hospital has cared for more COVID patients than many other hospitals in Toronto. It played a key role in keeping the northwest co…

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today in memory of a great man, Maulana Naseem Mahdi Sahid, a dear friend of mine for over 30 years. He left this world last week. Naseem was a loyal and trusting friend that I, my husband Sam and the rest of our family are honoured to have known. He was born in Pakistan, arriving in Canada in May of 1985 as head of the Canada Jamaat, and served as…

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on International Trade, entitled “Main Estimates 2022-23: Vote 1 under Canadian Commercial Corporation, Vote 1 under Invest in Canada Hub”.

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise in the House today to welcome the Canada-Ukraine parliamentary program class of 2022 as it begins its first full week here in Ottawa. This program began in 1991 under the authority of the then Speaker of the House, John Allen Fraser, and happened every year until 2020, when it was put on hold due to COVID‑19. This year, we welcome back the program with the largest n…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to see you in the chair and pleased to be back in the House. I hope everybody had a restful period of time and we are all back here now. As I rise in the House today to speak to this year’s budget, I will be sharing my time with the member for Mississauga—Streetsville, a wonderful new member of Parliament we have here who is doing great things and who is great to work w…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I do not want to be too blunt about it, but the reality is that the federal government passes millions and millions of dollars down to the provinces for health care and so on, but the provinces' priorities are not always the same priorities that we at the federal level maybe think they should be. On the issue of dental care, many of the provinces probably would have never got around…