Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is indeed disappointing to see both sides of the House continue to behave like that. If the government can so blatantly be cavalier with committees, it is not surprising that others would be too. No doubt, Kristian Firth of GC Strategies saw how government officials appeared at committee and based his own conduct on that. Lines need to be drawn. Parliament's dignity must be defen…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am rising to add to the question of privilege raised yesterday following the tabling of the 17th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, a report that I tabled myself. This is part of an entirely troubling pattern that we have long been witnessing. Witnesses, whether government officials or not, are ignoring the rights, powers and privilege of parl…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to capital subscription payments made by the government to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: what are the dates and amounts of each such payment made to date?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have the pleasure and honour to present, in both official languages, the 17th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, also known as the mighty OGGO, entitled “Question of Privilege Concerning the Refusal to Respond to Questions by Mr. Kristian Firth”.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to government dealings with BTNX: (a) what are the details of all contracts that government departments or agencies have had with BTNX since January 1, 2020, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) value, (iii) description of the goods or services, including volume, (iv) manner in which the contract was awarded (i.e. sole-sourced, competitive bid); and (b) what are the details of all g…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am glad my colleague across the way was so adamant for the need to make the carbon tax revenue-neutral because it goes against a comment made by someone else who stated, twice in the House, that the government made a decision to make it revenue-neutral. This member then stood up another time and said that it is revenue-neutral at the federal level. Guess who that other member was? I…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have been looking back in Hansard. In the last few years, 36 members of the Liberals, which is actually 37 because one member added it today, stated that the carbon tax was revenue-neutral. Who says it is not? Public accounts actually said, last year, that $670 million of the carbon tax was used for government programming. Does that sound like the carbon tax is revenue-neutral as …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, two years ago this week, the member for Davenport stated that the carbon tax was 100% revenue-neutral for the government, yet Finance Canada in the public accounts stated that $670 million from last year alone was kept by the government and not redistributed. In fact, the public accounts actually said a couple of years ago that $100 million was kept for government programming. I wonde…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have two reports today. The first one is, in both official languages, the 15th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, a.k.a. the mighty OGGO, in relation to the motion adopted on Thursday, February 22, which asked the House to recommend that the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner investigate allegations of wrongdoing related to ArriveCAN. The seco…
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Madam Speaker, I spend a fair amount of time with that colleague on OGGO on the issue. I appreciate his comments and I take him at his word on his sincerity to address the procurement issues. One of the things that came up from the procurement ombudsman's report is what it calls a bait and switch, where services are proposed but actual services delivered to the government are less than what was in…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from OGGO, the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan. I think if we have three OGGOs in a row we will have an OGGO hat trick. I rise to speak on ArriveCAN. As it has consumed my life for the last year, why not continue to speak about it today on our opposition day motion? ArriveCAN to me seems to be a symbol of our government's inabil…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague for moving on from blaming Harper for all of Canada's problems to blaming someone else. When we talk about ministerial responsibility and when the Prime Minister's website talks about ministerial responsibility, they mean current ministers, not past ministers. The gentleman should direct his question to the Minister of Public Safety, the minister …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague from the Bloc is correct. The government should be looking in the mirror and asking what it could do to fix its broken procurement system. Whether it is spending three-quarters of a billion dollars over-budget on the offshore patrol ships that do not work or whether it is giving out billions of dollars to Deloitte and KPMG, the government needs to address the issues, st…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I agree a tiny bit with my colleague from Vancouver Kingsway's comments. There is some value done that cannot be done internally, but there is a lot being done that should have been done internally. I will give an example. The government gave three contracts to Deloitte, at $75,000 per contract, to do RFP fairness assessments for a security contract for the same event on Vancouver I…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is all of the above.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 14th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, also known as the mighty OGGO, in relation to the motion adopted on Wednesday, February 21, regarding a question of privilege. If the House gives its consent, I intend to move concurrence in this report later this day.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. If the House gives its consent, I move that the 14th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates presented to the House earlier this day be concurred in.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I note that all parties to the government operations and estimates committee have agreed to this motion so we can get to the bottom of the ArriveCAN scandal. Therefore, I ask that the House gives its consent. I move that the 14th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, presented earlier in the day, be concurred in.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, the mighty OGGO, in relation to the motion adopted on Wednesday, February 14, regarding a request to the Auditor General of Canada to conduct a performance audit on the contracts awarded to GC Strategies.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it was that minister's department that hid the RCMP investigation from the Auditor General. It was also his party that had those documents on Wednesday. What did those members do? They filibustered and then voted to excuse the witness. It is very clear that the government at every chance it gets will cover up the ArriveCAN scandal. I have a quick question. What is the government tryin…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, this Wednesday, at the government operations and estimates committee, the Auditor General will be appearing on her ArriveCAN audit. Given today's report, we will be ordering past and present ministers of public safety, procurement, health and treasury board to answer for ArriveCAN mismanagement and waste. GC Strategies, which we have now learned was paid $20 million, will be issued a …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, it is clear that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. What else is not worth the cost? The Prime Minister's $60-million arrive scam app. What started out as an $80,000 app is now at $60 million, and the Auditor General cannot confirm that it will not go higher. Taxpayers did not get value for the Prime Minister's $60-million arrive…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the $43,463,029 on page 133 of the Public Accounts of Canada 2023 Volume 3 related to the P.C. 2020-304, May 5, 2020, Certain Goods Remission Order: (a) what is the breakdown of the $43,463,029 by the type of goods which had their duties, tariffs or import costs reduced; and (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by country where the goods originated?
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With regard to the approximately $150 million and other contracts paid by the government to SNC-Lavalin for field hospitals: (a) what are the details of each time field hospitals have been used to date, including, for each, the (i) dates the hospitals were used, (ii) location, (iii) number of patients seen, (iv) types of services offered in the field hospitals; (b) has any of the equipment or supp…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, places of worship in Edmonton have always helped with food hampers for those in need, regardless of their faith. After eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, they are seeing record increases of those seeking help. What is the government's solution? More carbon taxes. One church alone in my riding is facing a bill of $30,000 in carbon taxes this year alone. The government is prob…
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With regard to cost estimates related to the Benefits Delivery Modernization Programme: (a) what methodology was used by Employment and Social Development Canada to conclude the programme would cost $1.7 billion; and (b) what methodology was used by the third-party review to conclude that the cost would be between $2.7 billion and $3.4 billion?
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With regard to heavy body armour acquisition and usage by the RCMP, since 2016: (a) how many sets of heavy body armour have been purchased for the RCMP, broken down by year; (b) what is the yearly breakdown of the total costs associated with the purchases in (a); (c) how many requests for proposals (RFP) have been issued for heavy body armour; (d) what are the details of each RFP, including, for e…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present the Conservative Party's dissenting report. It cost $32 billion for political interference by this government when it ignored CRA recommendations on prepayment controls for the Canada emergency wage subsidy and the CERB and instead based the $100-billion-plus program on the flimsiest prepayment controls. The head of the CRA testified in committee that the Liberal cab…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, since we have so many members from public accounts, I would like to table a motion. My colleague from the Liberal side who serves on public accounts with us brought up doing these things with first nations. These projects that have been identified for five years and 10 years were developed in conjunction with the first nations. The 112 projects that have been approved in conjunction wit…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Elgin—Middlesex—London. I want to spend my time in tonight's debate talking especially about the Auditor General's report “Emergency Management in First Nations Communities”, which came out last year. I have been involved in public accounts off and on for the eight years I have been in this place, and I have seen some eye-wateringly inc…
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Madam Chair, the point he overlooked mentioning is that we actually had to haul the minister into the public accounts committee to discuss the horrible report. I think that was only the third time in the past 100 years that this has been done. Another thing the member forgot to bring up, and he brought up a lot of excellent points, is that the ministry blamed first nations for a lot of these probl…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. Yesterday, the Prime Minister's hand-picked senators voted to keep the carbon tax on farmers and keep food costs high. In Edmonton, the veterans food bank is pleading for donations to help our veterans. That is the legacy of the Prime Minister: food banks for veterans begging for help. When will the Prime Minister listen to Ca…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the Speaker ruled on this issue, and I ask that you enforce the rules of the House. It is ridiculous. This member should be ashamed that he repeatedly pushes this garbage upon the House.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, there is also the second point about the member's unparliamentary language.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order concerning relevance. If the member wants to speak to free trade, then he can speak to the free trade agreement when that bill comes up. He has not referred to public accounts for one second. Further, on a second point of order, the Speaker has repeatedly made a very clear ruling in the House about comments such as those that the member made suggesting tha…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I have read the Public Accounts and it does cover the price on pollution. It clearly shows that the government is taking more than it is actually distributing to taxpayers. However, that is in the Public Accounts; the free trade agreement is not. I ask you to bring the member to order.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as a current member of the public accounts committee and a Public Accounts geek, I have read all three volumes, page after page, and none of what the colleague across the way has talked about has anything to do with Public Accounts volumes I, II or III.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is wonderful to see someone from the Bloc in the position of representing all of Canada and our main democracy. I know that the member supports that above everything else. In this year's public accounts, there is $3.5 billion in losses by the Bank of Canada, and this year it is projecting $3.9 billion in losses. I wonder whether my colleague could tell us some of the things we coul…
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Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 12th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, also known as the mighty OGGO, entitled “Supplementary Estimates (B), 2023-24”.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to table the Conservative Party's dissenting report to the Auditor General's report “Emergency Management in First Nations Communities—Indigenous Services Canada”. I have to congratulate the Minister of Indigenous Services and the department for probably the worst Auditor General's report since Mr. Michael Ferguson's 2017 report on the “incomprehensible failures” of the governm…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the wonderful service performed by the Christmas Bureau of Edmonton. The Christmas Bureau of Edmonton started as a wartime effort in 1940 when neighbours put food hampers together, often from their own near-bare cupboards, to support military families during the holidays. Over the past 80 years, the needs have changed, but the spirit of neighbours helping neighbour…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I trade barbs back and forth, in good nature, with the member for Winnipeg North all the time. I will point out to him, though, that in his speech he talked about how replacement workers were a cause of the 1919 strike. The Canadian Labour Congress website has no mention of replacement workers. What it does state is that a big cause of the strike was inflation. I am wondering if the m…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, after eight long years of the NDP-Liberal government, Canadians have made it clear they cannot afford any more. However, we should not to worry: Here comes the government with its fall economic statement. Canadians everywhere were no doubt rejoicing that the same people who brought them the $54 million ArriveCAN app and the $8 million luxury barn for the Governor General were here to …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the events attended in Toronto on September 24, 2023, by the Prime Minister with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, broken down by event: (a) how were the attendees chosen; (b) who vetted the attendees; (c) what process was used to vet the attendees; (d) how many people were in attendance; and (e) what were the costs associated for each event, broken down by item?
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Mr. Speaker, I move that the 26th report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, presented to the House on Tuesday, February 14, be concurred in. To start, I want to say that I will be splitting my time with my hon. colleague, the member for Battle River—Crowfoot. Before I begin, I want to mention that this week is the birthday of the member's predecessor, the wonderful Kevin Sorenson. It wa…
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Mr. Speaker, the question I would ask of the member is how he justifies the continuing cover-up of this slush fund. At committee, we tried to get this information. The Liberal government and its Bloc allies voted against requiring documents related to the Liberals' green slush fund to be released at committee. He talks about games. I would like his party to end the game of this cover-up and releas…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with what my colleague is saying. The money is not being used as it was intended. Whether someone is for one type of ideology or the other, we do have very clear rules about our spending. We have clear rules about how the Treasury Board should react and what rules they should follow. It is very clear from the greening government report from the Auditor General that the governm…
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Mr. Speaker, we do miss my colleague on OGGO. I enjoyed working with my NDP colleague from Vancouver Island. We certainly miss his interventions. It was, of course, the Liberals who talked about sunshine being the best disinfectant. A commitment to transparency is actually in the mission statement of this green slush fund. We have the government saying that openness is the default. We would like t…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to present our dissenting opinion. After eight years of the Liberal-NDP government, Canada has been plunged into a never-before-seen housing hell. Forty-eight per cent of Canadians have given up the hope of ever owning their own home, mortgages have doubled, rents have doubled and Canada is in a housing crisis. To address this, Conservative members of the committee recommend th…
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