Private Members' Business
moved that the bill be concurred in.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved that the bill be read the third time and passed. Madam Speaker, some will say that imitation is the finest form of flattery, so I feel exceptionally flattered that the government decided to take two sections of my bill and issue ministerial instructions, which are going to be of enormous benefit to those who are seeking to reunite their families under the super visa. What they did not do, th…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, that is a great question from the member and I briefly touched on that in my speech. The great thing about ministerial instructions is how they can be quickly and nimbly done, which is what happened. Actually, it happened when we were about to debate my bill at committee and vote on it clause by clause. Yes, that is wonderful, but the problem with that is the same thing can happen. …
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Madam Speaker, I know the member is very passionate about this and spoke very eloquently at committee about it. Someone in her riding had gone on maternity leave and, because of the three-year requirement for the income, missed the income requirement for the low-income cut-off. An appeal process would have been great for the bill. I know the member tried to have that added to the bill. It is somet…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to all flights taken by the government's fleet of Challenger and Airbus aircraft since the federal carbon tax came into effect on March 1, 2018, including those with and without passengers, broken down by aircraft and year: (a) how many legs has each aircraft flown; (b) what was the total number of kilometers flown; (c) how much fuel was purchased for each aircraft; and (d) what is the…
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With regard to the government's use of single-use plastics: (a) does the government know how many single-use plastics it purchases, and, if so, what is the total amount of single-use plastics purchases made since January 1, 2020, broken down by (i) department, (ii) agency (iii) other government entity; and (b) what are the details of each purchase, including the (i) date, (ii) amount, (iii) descri…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, this, today, is how ministerial accountability dies: a Prime Minister who obfuscates and will not answer, and a minister who refuses to resign. The Minister of Public Safety clearly and unequivocally did not tell the truth. Ministers in the past have resigned on principle, ministers like Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott. Will the Prime Minister show that he has some principles a…
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Mr. Speaker, what we are witnessing here today by the Prime Minister is a poor man's master class on how to avoid accountability. We deserve accountability. Canadians deserve accountability. The minister needs to be held to account. He has misspoken, he has misled and he has misinformed this House and the Canadian public. His position is completely untenable. The Prime Minister would not even answ…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, for the parliamentary secretary to have such little knowledge of the justice system makes sense given this bill. That question displays a stunning amount of ignorance. By eliminating mandatory minimums, the judge has discretion to go lower. The judge always had discretion to go higher. A mandatory minimum is not a maximum. The member should look that up. When we say that this would …
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Madam Speaker, I am in the chamber often and I certainly hear from members on the other side of the House this constant refrain: “We listen to the experts.” When Conservatives talk about vaccine mandates, the Liberals say, “We listen to the experts.” When we ask where those experts are or to produce that expert report, of course, it never gets produced. “We listen to the experts” would be the Libe…
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Madam Speaker, the problem with the question is that it compares American justice with Canadian justice and compares American mandatory minimums, which are extraordinarily high, with Canadian mandatory minimums, which are quite low in most cases. That is a false narrative and a false comparator. Mandatory minimums can serve a whole bunch of purposes, including showing society's denunciation of wha…
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Madam Speaker, the first problem with that question is that it compares the mandatory minimums in the United States with the ones here. The ones in Canada are significantly lower. Yes, some may have been struck down by the Supreme Court, but that does not mean we should strike all of them down. Does the member actually believe we should strike down—
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Madam Speaker, we have to look at certain ways of reducing harm with respect to drugs and drug addictions. This is a great way of doing things, but eliminating mandatory minimum sentences is, perhaps, one tiny aspect of it. Where is the funding to help people transition off of a life of addiction and other things? There can be ways to deal with that, but where is the real hard work that needs to b…
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Calgary Forest Lawn. I have had the misfortune of listening to this debate for the past hour and a bit. When I use the term “misfortune”, it is because of the absolute opacity of the government. It refuses to answer even the simplest of questions during debate. Liberal members give speeches where they are obsessed with the member for Car…
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Madam Speaker, I think the frustration that stems from most reasonable people in this chamber is about the fact that when a question is asked, what experts are you relying upon? What is the advice that has been given? Share that advice with Canadians. If you have reports or expert advice saying we cannot open this airport or we cannot remove restrictions and here is why, why not share it? The fact…
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Madam Speaker, I struggle to understand what those would be. I think many of them served a purpose and we all acknowledge that, but I do not know what we want to keep in place forever because of the chaos it is causing right now at airports. If we keep these measures in place forever, how are we ever going to get back to normal? That is the issue. Canadians want to get back to normal. They want a …
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Madam Speaker, the member keeps heckling and asking where my science is. We are not the government. We do not have access to the science it has at the Ministry of Health. Why will it not produce it? It probably has not done it, because it really cannot do much.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I cannot go over what we have done differently for the past two and a half years because I have only a few moments, but what I will say we would do differently right now is this. We would have released what the benchmarks are to get back to normal, because Canadians want to get back to normal. We all want to. I would release the science we are relying on to say we cannot open up now…
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Madam Speaker, again we see an example of what we get with this member in particular and the current government. They do not want to have an honest debate about subjects. When I say give the information, it is because just about every time they get up to speak they talk about how they are following the science, which is why they are going to vote against this motion. It is the crux of their argume…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is exactly it. We can go to a stadium and watch a hockey or basketball game without a mask. These members go to receptions every night in crowded rooms without wearing masks, but they wear their masks in the chamber. Yes, things have moved on. It is time for us to move on with these restrictions, as well.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am really happy to participate in this debate. It is hard to know where to start with this motion because, to be kind, it makes very little sense. The first thing we talk about is record profits or profits. The New Democrats talk about this as if it is something terrible or dirty. How dare a company make a profit? The thing they always have difficulty with, as I do not think there…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, coal workers lost their jobs years ago and they got nothing. That answer gives them nothing. They do not have a trust fund. They do not have an expensive Mercedes. They are on EI or nothing, because the government did nothing. To listen to the Prime Minister talk about some future fund while coal workers are sitting there with nothing is an embarrassment. Will the Prime Minister apolo…
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Mr. Speaker, the government has never met a single emission reduction target, and the commissioner of the environment has now told it how it has failed to meet another target. This is with respect to a just transition for coal workers, despite repeated promises that the government would be there for coal workers as it shifted away from coal. It was not. Coal workers were left out in the cold. Now …
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There is unprecedented demand, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it is very hard to calculate when a five-year or 10-year passport expires. The only person, and the only government, that would be confused by this unprecedented demand is this incoherent, incompetent government. What is truly unprecedented is the staggering incompetence that is putting so many Canadians in an absolutely untenable situation. We have…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to have a recorded division.
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, this is the 71st annual Mental Health Week, and all across the country we are trying to raise awareness of mental health issues that Canadians are suffering from. We also know the pandemic has been incredibly difficult on Canadians' mental health. In an incredible show of unity, this House passed a motion by the member for Cariboo—Prince George to enact a national suicide hotline numb…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am thrilled to hear that both the Bloc Québécois and the NDP will be supporting this bill when it comes to a vote tomorrow. I am disappointed to hear the parliamentary secretary indicate that she is not supportive of the legislation, especially for the reasons why the Liberals are saying they are not supportive. We just heard they are looking forward to having this bill studied. Fam…
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Madam Speaker, I was here from 2011 to 2015. The most shocking thing I have seen today is the member for New Westminster—Burnaby swallow himself whole. He routinely raged against any motion for closure and routinely raged against any motion for time allocation. It was as if the sky were falling. Now he is in the Liberals' back pocket, saying this is a great thing. Growing up, my parents always tol…
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to join in the debate for this bill. I want to thank the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for putting forward this legislation. I know she is a passionate defender of the environment and always has good intentions when she puts forward a piece of legislation. I share her concern with bills dying on the Order Paper as a result of an unnecessary and costly election that was …
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Mr. Speaker, well, let us talk about investments. We have all heard of the Midas touch. It turns things to gold. We have the Liberal touch, and it is not gold. Liberals have invested billions of dollars to increase housing affordability. What has happened? Housing prices have doubled. They spent $60 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and emissions went up. Helping the middle class? Sixty …
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked the Prime Minister to acknowledge the economic pain that Canadians are suffering. Rather than answering, he chose insults. Let us try again. Former Liberal MP Dan McTeague said food prices are going to go up 30% to 35% as a result of increases in diesel prices. Gas and diesel are up, food prices are up and Canadians are scrambling to make ends meet. All the while, gr…
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Mr. Speaker, I think the Prime Minister and I have a different definition of what investing is. This is what the Liberals' investments have done. They spent $60 billion since 2016 to reduce carbon emissions and, guess what. They have gone up. Now he is talking about a $100-billion investment. If it went up 27 megatonnes with a $60-billion spend, how much will emissions go up with this alleged $100…
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Mr. Speaker, “Trying to get trendy and virtue signal and involve yourself in political demagoguery doesn't achieve anything”. Who said that? It was former Liberal MP Dan McTeague at the environment committee yesterday, talking about attacks on the oil and gas sector. That statement applies nicely to the Prime Minister's emissions reduction plan. Energy costs are up. Greenhouse gas emissions are up…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government's invocation of the Emergencies Act and the Emergency Economic Measures Order: (a) how many (i) personal, (ii) business, banking accounts have been frozen under the order; (b) what is the breakdown of (a) (i) and (ii), by financial institution; (c) what is total value of the accounts in (a) (i) and (ii), broken down by financial institution; and (d) has the government…
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With regard to the government's invocation of the Emergencies Act and the Emergency Economic Measures Order: (a) which crowdfunding platforms or payment service providers registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada in relation to the order; (b) how many (i) suspicious, (ii) large value, transactions were reported by each platform or provider in relation to (a);…
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Mr. Speaker, today the Liberals released their 2030 emissions reduction plan, which is their attempt to reduce emissions across the Canadian economy, but last week the PBO showed that the Liberals did not actually account for the cost of something simple, such as the carbon tax, across the Canadian economy. If they were that lazy and sloppy in their examination of the carbon tax, how can Canadians…
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Mr. Speaker, that is not when the cost to the Canadian economy is factored in though, right? They cannot even do that simple math. Eight minus four is all they can do. Let us talk about some other Liberal math. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change said at committee that they have spent $60 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions since 2016. Guess what. Emissions have gone up. If the L…
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Mr. Speaker, we know this is question period, not answer period, but perhaps the member and the government should actually read the report before they give a statement in the House. The PBO analysis is absolutely clear. I am not surprised that the government does not do the hard work of the complicated calculations, because it has a Prime Minister who says, “I don't think about monetary policy”. E…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During question period today, the member for Winnipeg South said that the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed that 8 out of 10 Canadians are, in fact, better off as a result of the Liberal carbon tax. I have here with me right now Appendix A to that report, pages 18 to 21, to show that this is not necessarily the conclusion of the PBO. I would like unani…
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Mr. Speaker, the PBO released a report that literally blows the doors off the environment minister's talking points on the carbon tax. The tax will cost Canadians, and it is not neutral when we include the cost to the economy. Six in 10 Canadian families are actually now going to be losing money. Will the minister admit the carbon tax is just voodoo economics, or is he going to say the PBO experts…
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Mr. Speaker, the NDP-Liberal carbon tax is hurting rural Canadians. I hear this every single day. Laurie, in my riding, says she feels like she is freezing because she has to keep the temperature very low in her home because she cannot afford the cost of propane with the carbon tax on top of it. I am glad the members across think it is so funny that Laurie keeps the temperature so low. It is the k…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to the Ojibway national park bill, Bill C-248. The Conservatives have a long history of supporting the development and expansion of national parks. Most recently, we can talk about Rouge National Urban Park, which is an urban park of 79 square kilometres that was championed by Conservative MPs Paul Calandra and Peter Kent. We recognize the need to…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to reports to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and media reports that applications for Permanent Residency which are listed under officer DM10032 have not been advanced through the process since March 2020: (a) who or what is DM10032; (b) how many applications are currently assigned to or marked with DM10032; (c) of the DM10032 applications still awaiting a decision as of J…
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Madam Speaker, you are making me feel old. The nature of that question, quite frankly, is shameful. Energy security is one of the reasons why there has been such an issue with appeasing Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation. The threat of natural gas being shut off to Europe was a tool he used to try to exert his influence. We can actually do multiple things at once. Maybe the New Democrats ca…
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Madam Speaker, I am splitting my time with the member for Red Deer—Mountain View. I do not think any member of the House or any Canadian can not think of the devastation that is going on right now in Ukraine. The images that we see through social media and on the news are absolutely devastating. They are heartbreaking, and our hearts go out to the people in Ukraine and to Ukrainian Canadians acros…
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Madam Speaker, that is a legitimate question. What the member from the Green Party ignores is that, often, natural gas is replacing far more carbon-intensive and dirtier fuels such as coal-fired electricity plants. When we talk about using natural gas, what we are actually doing is taking a much higher-polluting source of energy and replacing it with a much lower-polluting source of energy. That, …
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Madam Speaker, I am not sure what the question actually was, but I will say this. As I said in my speech, the need for natural gas is going to go up by an estimated 22% by 2040. We can pretend that we are going to live in a world where we do not need natural gas and that renewables are going to magically take over all of our energy needs. That world does not exist. Until it does, we actually need …
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Madam Speaker, I would not say the primary purpose is so that there is competition. The primary purpose is that there would be more insurance companies that people could speak to, to try to find a better price. It is the cost of buying insurance. We should especially imagine a new Canadian family that is just trying to get themselves established. A $4,000 or $5,000 bill to have their parents or gr…
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Madam Speaker, that is a great suggestion. It is one I would look forward to being moved at committee. I think we should study it to make sure it is something that is feasible. Yes, I am absolutely open to that amendment.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, my colleague raises a great point there. When I suggested one person could stay for five months every year for 10 years, that person could also stay for a year or two. Imagine the economic benefit to people who have their parents here with them when they have their first child. They could be here for the first year to offer not only emotional support, but also economic support and a…
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