Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the Prime Minister spent $200 million more than Canadians needed to get through the pandemic. He did not mention that. We are getting used to the Prime Minister not answering questions. He hedges, deflects questions, and gives answers that are not related to the questions he is being asked. Citizens keep asking me whether the Prime Minister will answer a question o…
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Madam Speaker, I refer to the motion. What is driving inflation to this point? Our national debt. The national debt has increased by $100 billion, despite Liberal promises. We remember the promise they made in 2015 to run small deficits for three year and then return to a balanced budget. That was forgotten and there is now a deficit of $100 billion. Before the crisis in Ukraine, the Liberals incr…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute‑Saint‑Charles for his speech. We are here because our colleagues from the Bloc Québécois decided to present an opposition motion in the House of Commons from which I will read the preamble, which I find interesting. It states that “Canada is a democratic state” and that the “House believes in the principle of equality for all”. I will foc…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my hon. colleague's question, and even though he repeated it over and over and over again, I found it difficult to follow his train of thought because, at the very end, he said that we support the monarchy, but that we do not support it. I wish my colleague had listened more carefully to my speech, because what I said is that Quebeckers are currently more con…
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Madam Speaker, I am a little surprised that my colleague from Winnipeg North said that he agrees with part of my speech. I hope it is the part where I was speaking about the costly Liberal-NDP coalition, which will result in Canadians receiving a smaller paycheque on January 1. Does my colleague agree with the part where I said that the Liberal Party will soon increase the carbon tax, which will m…
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Mr. Speaker, to have unanimous consent, it would take the consent of at least one province. To have the consent of one province, it would take a province with a separatist government in power. Unfortunately for the Bloc, in the last election the Parti Québécois elected three members to the National Assembly of Quebec.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is acting like a child who has been handed a credit card with no limit, who makes only the minimum payments and who knows full well his children will be on the hook for what he spent. Want to go to London and stay in a luxurious $400,000 suite? Put it on the card. Want to send money to friends? Why pay $250,000 when you can spend $54 million on ArriveCAN? Put it on …
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Mr. Speaker, it was a slip of the tongue, but no, we will not forgive them for adding $500 billion to the debt during COVID-19, including $200 billion that had absolutely nothing to do with COVID-19. That is the reality. Let us talk about “ArriveSCANDAL”, the $54-million app that should have cost $250,000. It cost $8 million to do the updates on an app that never worked. The government even claims…
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Mr. Speaker, he is CBSA. He is the minister, so he is the one responsible for the ArriveCAN chaos. The Liberals are putting the lucrative contracts awarded to companies into quarantine. We want to know the details. The government paid $54 million to develop that app, which should have cost $250,000. Some 70 updates were needed for an app that never worked. The question is simple. Who are the other…
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Mr. Speaker, to our great surprise today, the Minister of Finance is now taking inspiration from the Leader of the Opposition's speeches. She realizes that budgets do not balance themselves and is asking ministers to find savings before proposing new programs. Hallelujah. The problem is that she should have listened to the member for Carleton much sooner. The Liberals added $100 billion to the nat…
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Yes, Mr. Speaker, let us talk about fiscal responsibility. The Prime Minister said in his inaugural speech that interest rates would remain low for decades to come. I remember that the Liberals promised to run small deficits because we had the means and said interest rates were going to remain low and that it was no big deal to continue to rack up debt. The Liberals added $100 billion to the debt …
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Mr. Speaker, here are some facts for the Prime Minister: 100% of Canadians are going to suffer the consequences of inflation; 80% of Canadians are worried about their finances because of the rising cost of living; 72% of Canadians think they are paying too much tax. The cost of food has gone up 11%, the biggest increase since 1981. As a result of the Liberals' inaction, inflation continues to clim…
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Mr. Speaker, it is because no one believes this Prime Minister anymore. That is the reality. He has lost all credibility with regard to public finances. Mario Dumont reminded us this morning that the Prime Minister promised in his inaugural speech that interest rates would remain low forever. Today, there are young families that could lose everything because of the Prime Minister's inability to ma…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to reiterate a question that has already been asked of my colleague and I would like a clear answer. Many have asked if the provinces were consulted. Did the provinces ask, yes or no, for this type of dental program that is presented in this grand bill that contains all kinds of things? The question is simple and I would like my colleague, who is good at dodging answers…
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Madam Speaker, we request a recorded division.
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Madam Speaker, the app must have been created in order to line someone's pockets. Let us break it down: $54 million works out to one million hours for an engineer, a professional, at $50 an hour. That means 31,000 weeks of work, which is 596 years of work for one person, or 596 people working for one year to create the app. The facts speak for themselves. Someone pocketed a bunch of cash in this d…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about greed inflation. I prefer to call it unjust inflation. I think that is more appropriate. Right now, all Canadians are feeling the rising cost of absolutely everything. I wonder why my colleague and the other members of his costly coalition chose to vote against the recent opposition motion calling on the government not to raise taxes on all Canadians, when …
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Madam Speaker, I think my colleague ought to apologize. I am not stupid. I am not someone who repeats words and uses words like that. I find this totally unacceptable. This is the second time today that my colleague has used this type of language. I would like him to withdraw his remarks and apologize.
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague on two points. I agree with his view of the government's incompetence in fighting inflation and improving the cost of living for everyone. I also agree with him when he talks about acting wisely to provide quick solutions for Canadians. Acting wisely would have meant voting for our motion to stop the government from going ahead with its plan to raise taxes,…
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Mr. Speaker, unlike the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition puts Canadians first. Since his resounding victory, the Conservative leader has been the voice of millions of Canadians, calling on the government to end the unjust inflation. Day after day, he asks the costly coalition to show some compassion for workers, fathers and mothers and cancel the planned tax increase, which will make l…
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Mr. Speaker, the only promises Liberals keep are the ones that empty the pockets of all Canadians. Yesterday, the Minister of the Environment said that Quebec would be spared from the decision to triple the carbon tax for Canadians next year. Can the Prime Minister confirm that Quebeckers will be completely spared the carbon tax hike, that no Quebecker will pay more taxes and that no one will be b…
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Mr. Speaker, the employment insurance tax hike means Canadians will have to give up another $2.5 billion from their paycheques. That will not help the unemployed; it will only pad government coffers. That money should stay in Canadians' pockets to help pay for gas, groceries, heating, and everything else that costs more because of this government's unjust inflationary policies. We can no longer af…
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Mr. Speaker, this is coming from the finance minister who has run up the biggest deficit in Canadian history, more than all previous prime ministers combined. She wants to lecture us on that. She has no credibility with Canadians. The cost of groceries is at its highest level in 40 years. It has risen more than 10%. What is even worse is that now, the Liberals want to take even more from workers' …
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Madam Speaker, for starters, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Cumberland—Colchester. Before I get down to business, I just want to say that this is my first speech in the House since my mother passed away this summer. She was my greatest supporter. She tuned in to every single one of my speeches, interventions and television appearances. I feel a little emotional about speaking tod…
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Madame Speaker, I would like my colleague, who comes from a large family, to tell me what his parents' reaction would be tomorrow morning if they were told their gas bill was going up by 40¢ a litre. Right now, British Columbia is one of the places where people pay the most for the gas they need to get to work or drive their kids to school. The price of a litre of gas in British Columbia is up to …
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Madam Speaker, I could also refer to some of the proposals put forward by the Bloc Québécois, my colleague's party, as a joke, but I will not go that far. However, it is ironic to see how strongly the Bloc Québécois supports a federal initiative that will take more money out of the pockets of all Canadians, including Quebeckers, either directly or indirectly. At this time, I see that the Bloc Québ…
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Madam Speaker, first, I am very proud of the new Leader of the Opposition, the member for Carleton, who does not hesitate to stand up and defend women who want to provide for their entire families. He has always spoken a great deal about the role of mothers in families. The Leader of the Opposition has nothing to learn from my NDP colleague in that regard. What we are talking about today is the co…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not the first time. Nova Scotia Power and Premier Tim Houston have said that ArriveCAN created issues for American teams coming to help restore power. The victims of hurricane Fiona need to know that their government is there for them. Sadly, the Liberal government is flying by the seat of its pants once again when it should be taking action. Unbelievably, Fisheries and Oceans C…
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Mr. Speaker, that is what Nova Scotia Power and Premier Tim Houston said. The Magdalen Islands, the Gaspé peninsula and all of Atlantic Canada were hit hard by hurricane Fiona at a time when the people of those regions are already grappling with the cost of living crisis. We have a question today. Can the government tell us how it plans to minimize the red tape involved in helping people rebuild t…
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Mr. Speaker, the rising cost of living is the number one concern of workers, families, students and businesses. While the NDP and the Liberals bicker about who is spending more, Canadians are unable to make ends meet. All G7 countries have cut taxes to help their citizens pay for groceries every week. In Canada, there have been no tax cuts and, even worse, taxes will increase on January 1. Will th…
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Mr. Speaker, allow me to share Mike's story. Mike makes $22 an hour, and governments take 30% of his salary from every paycheque. He wrote to me saying that he could not afford to feed himself properly and that his local food bank made him feel like he should not need their help. That is the reality for many folks today, with food prices up by more than 10%. Instead of making things worse for Mike…
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Madam Speaker, a question immediately came to mind when I was listening to the speech by the health minister, the same minister who refused to have any discussions with the provinces about health costs and what to do about health care. Did the minister consult the province of Quebec, the government of Quebec and, above all, the health minister of Quebec about establishing its dental care program f…
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Mr. Speaker, 600,000 Quebeckers are using food banks because they cannot afford to feed themselves. More and more of them are working folk. Rising costs are driving inflation, and workers cannot make ends meet. Groceries alone have gone up by more than 10%. Will the Prime Minister commit to leaving more money in people's pockets by immediately putting an end to these new tax increases?
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Mr. Speaker, let me explain to my colleague what “making ends meet” means. Back in the day, “making ends meet” meant harvesting enough to survive until the next harvest. Nowadays, “making ends meet” means surviving from paycheque to paycheque. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer Canadians are able to make ends meet now because everything costs more: interest rates, food, gas, rent and taxes. Instead of…
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Mr. Speaker, promises and more promises, but never any results: That is the hallmark of the Liberal government. The minister knew for months that Passport Canada was headed for disaster, and yet what did she do? She went full steam ahead anyway. People were told yesterday that they could wait in line to get a number, so they would be able to get a passport. People waited in line all night in the r…
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Mr. Speaker, let us just think about this for one second: This government is so out of touch that it cannot even provide basic services to the public. It waited until today to start talking to people who are waiting outside. The minister assured us that the government has installed toilets outside, which does not bode well for the rest of the summer. We anticipate that this is going to be a very l…
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Mr. Speaker, no one is listening anymore because no one believes this will change anything now. The Minister of Public Safety has no problem misleading Canadians to justify political decisions. The former minister of public safety has no problem interfering in a police inquiry into a tragedy to use that information for political purposes. According to RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell, the RCMP …
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Mr. Speaker, the figures speak for themselves. Inflation is at 7.7%, its highest level in 40 years. The grandiose speech by the Minister of Finance to the elite in Toronto last week was all smoke and mirrors. There was absolutely nothing in there to address inflation in this country. Even President Joe Biden temporarily lowered taxes to give Americans a bit of a break. It is well known that the Li…
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Mr. Speaker, answers like that one clearly show that the cost of living is not the only thing going up because of inflation. Liberal incompetence has also increased dramatically. Canadians currently waiting in line at passport offices are talking about mismanagement, complacency, crisis and a lack of compassion. Those are their words, not mine. The reality is that people are waiting for days for a…
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Mr. Speaker, the only one here making it harder for Canadians to travel is the Prime Minister himself. The only thing preventing Canadians from having access to a document as important as the passport is the Prime Minister's incompetence. The passport situation is a national crisis. According to columnist Mario Dumont, who spent the night at the Guy‑Favreau complex to get a passport for his daught…
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Mr. Speaker, we have been getting the same answer for three weeks, yet absolutely nothing has been done. Canada normally processed 90,000 passports a week before COVID‑19. Now it cannot manage to process 48,000 a week. What is the problem? Everything this Prime Minister touches goes wrong. All he has to say in response to the passport issue are the same talking points he was giving us two or three…
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Mr. Speaker, I am truly honoured to rise today to say a few words in the House about our leader, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and leader of the official opposition. The Winnipeg Free Press has described her as “Arguably one of the hardest-working MPs in Canada”. Without a doubt, she is one of the hardest-working MPs in Canada. That is exactly why the member for Portage—Lisgar suc…
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Mr. Speaker, we are still waiting for those results. Let me summarize the Liberal response to the cost of living. Last week, the Minister of Finance announced with great fanfare that she would do nothing. Everything is more expensive because of the cost of gas. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change is happy. Canadians are camping out in front of passport offices. The minister failed to an…
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Mr. Speaker, never in the history of this country have the people been so poorly served by a government. Everything the Liberals touch goes wrong, and Canadians are paying the price. If they want a passport, they have to stand in line. If they want to travel by plane, they have to stand in line. If they travel to the United States without a smart phone, they still have to have ArriveCAN. If they h…
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Mr. Speaker, the problem is the government's chaotic management. Regarding COVID‑19, the Minister of Health was slow at every step. Regarding passports, the minister did not know that Canadians would want to travel after COVID‑19. Regarding immigration, the minister asked Ukrainians to make an appointment online. Regarding international affairs, the minister has no problem with people attending a …
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Mr. Speaker, another example of Liberal incompetence is the mismanagement of the Pinocchio affair. Two senior ministers contradicted the Minister of Public Safety in committee by testifying that no police force specifically asked for the Emergencies Act to be invoked. The President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness said, and I quote, “I'm not aware of a…
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Mr. Speaker, who asked, when did they ask and what exactly did they ask for? The Prime Minister just said that police officers asked the government to implement extraordinary measures by invoking the Emergencies Act. The Prime Minister is repeating what the Minister of Public Safety said. This is scandalous. The Prime Minister is misleading the House too. He has a choice today. He can do the honou…
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Mr. Speaker, now the truth is starting to come out. Today, the Prime Minister said that “police do not grant themselves new powers”. He was admitting that the police did not ask for the Emergencies Act. That is the exact opposite of what the Minister of Public Safety has repeatedly said. Ministerial responsibility means nothing to this Liberal government anymore. Is the Prime Minister also going t…
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Mr. Speaker, the Emergencies Act cannot be invoked when other legislation can do the job. The Minister of Public Safety knew that, which is why he justified his decision by stating repeatedly that the police had requested these extraordinary powers. No police officer, police force, chief of police or commissioner has confirmed the minister's assertion. There is no misunderstanding. This Liberal mi…
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