Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to remind the House that I will be splitting my time with the member for Saskatoon West. Here we are again. I was in the process of recapping a bit of history on the draconian motions the Liberal government continues to bring. I had described Motion No. 6 in 2016. It was the same thing of wanting to extend the hours and basically obstruct, and that of course was where “elbowgat…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talked about everything but ArriveCAN. We are here today to talk about why the government wasted $54 million on this application. In my riding of Sarnia—Lambton, Canadians were refused entry into Canada. It was not because they were not vaccinated, but because they did not have ArriveCAN filled out. They were told they were going to be charged $6,200 each, and this was…
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Madam Speaker, I do not understand why the leader of the Bloc decided to introduce this motion here today. Quebeckers are concerned with other, more important problems, such as the cost of gas, food and heating, and immigration at Roxham Road. Does the leader of the Bloc believe that the matter he is raising is more important than inflation and immigration at Roxham Road?
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Mr. Speaker, I want to know why today's discussion is on this issue. Canada is facing a lot of problems, such as inflation, immigration, and the war between Ukraine and Russia. Why did the Bloc Québécois choose to talk about this issue today when there are so many more important issues to talk about?
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member opposite for her tribute. I also had a book of condolences in my office and the response from the community was overwhelming. The Queen certainly was very revered. All of us in this House were the Queen's reps and now we are the King's reps. I was very surprised when I called the Governor General's office to try to get pictures of the King for the airp…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is in deficit fantasy land. Our leader and our party have been calling for weeks for the Liberals to cancel taxes on Canadians, yet the Liberals are still planning to triple the carbon tax. I am going to ask this again today: Will they stop their punishing plans to increase the carbon tax and drive up the cost of gas, groceries and home heating, yes or no?
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Mr. Speaker, here we are again. The Liberal government, which promised Canadians that it would not shut down debate, is doing it again. It is shameful. These are important measures to get right. There are concerns that have been expressed on this motion, as well as the bill that it pertains to, and the government is not listening. I am very disappointed to see, once again, a lack of transparency a…
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives agree that oral health is very important, but the measures in Bill C-31 cover children under 12 who are mostly covered by other provincial programs, adding $500 or $600. Then there is the one-time $500 payment for rent. At the same time, the government is taking away more than $1,500 from Canadians by increasing the carbon tax and increasing payroll taxes. Does the…
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Mr. Speaker, analysts are saying that home heating prices in some places will increase by 300% this winter. That is triple. The Prime Minister's planned increases to the carbon tax and the payroll tax are cold-hearted actions. The Liberals are literally freezing Canadians out. Is it just inflation or will the government cut its planned taxes?
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives will always support lower taxes and putting more money back into the pockets of Canadians, but I wonder why the government brought forward the idea in Bill C-30 that with one hand it is going to give some money back to Canadians, but with other hand it is going increase payroll taxes and the carbon tax and take that money back. Would the member please explain why the…
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives will always support lower taxes. That is why we are supporting Bill C-30. My concern is that with one hand, the government is giving a few hundred dollars back to Canadians, but with the other hand, it is actually taking that money away by increasing payroll taxes and the carbon tax and by continuing to spend in a way that financial experts are saying is fuelling t…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the new Conservative leader will put the people first: their paycheques, their savings, their homes, their country. The carbon tax is an utter failure. The Liberal government would have us believe that it will drive emissions down, but emissions have gone up under its tenure. B.C. has had a carbon tax for 14 years and its emissions have gone up four megatonnes. Quebec has had a simila…
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Madam Speaker, I am puzzled by my hon. member's speech. NDP members have said that they want dental care for all Canadians who currently do not have coverage, so I do not understand why they have agreed to this program that only covers children under 12 in some families, when many provinces already cover that, and that the rest will be post-2025 after the election when the Liberals do not need the…
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Madam Speaker, I do feel I need to correct the record, because there are many errors in the speech of the parliamentary secretary The first is the claim that the Conservatives do not have any targets for climate change and emissions reduction. In fact, the Liberals' targets are Stephen Harper's 2030 targets, so that is not the case. The member said that we did not have a plan. Our leader outlined …
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Madam Speaker, the carbon tax is not working, but the Liberal government still plans to increase the tax and force Quebec to increase its tax too. What does my colleague think of that?
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for his speech. I am not certain that the $500 is an effective solution for those who cannot afford their rent. Does the member believe that it is a good initiative?
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Madam Speaker, I have two questions for the parliamentary secretary. My first question is as a person who was formerly on a board of a homeless shelter. We are seeing across the country and in my riding an increase in homelessness and an affordable housing crisis. How is $500 going to help the many people who are losing their homes in this affordability crisis? It is more like a band-aid on a gapi…
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Mr. Speaker, how is the tree planting going? Before the pandemic, half of Canadians were within $200 of not being able to pay their bills. During the pandemic, the Liberals increased taxes on home heating, gasoline and workers' paycheques. Now, when Canadians are falling further and further behind, they want to triple the tax on home heating and gasoline and take more money from workers' paycheque…
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Madam Speaker, there has been discussion today about how we are going to work with the provinces and territories to make sure they are not clawing back benefits. How is the government going to harmonize all the other federal disability benefit programs that exist to ensure that people are supported but there is not overlap?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I table a petition expressing concern that the Liberal Party of Canada promised in its 2021 platform to deny the charitable status of organizations that have different views. The signatories are concerned this could jeopardize the charitable status of hospitals, houses of worship, schools, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations that do not agree with the Liberal Party …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the minister for bringing forward this important legislation. I have one thing to ask, though. It is not clear to me exactly how much the benefit would be for. Is the thought behind it that it might be a topping up, similar to CERB? What is the amount we are thinking of?
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I think that three years is too long to wait for benefits. I would rather see the government put measures in place immediately and then continue to hold consultations to determine whether those measures are working.
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to return here to the House for a scintillating debate, and it is nice to start on a topic that all parties can agree on: the importance and the need for an increase to the support we are giving people who are living with disabilities. To start, I wanted to read a letter that I signed with members from all parties that went to the minister to request that we expedit…
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Madam Speaker, we want to make sure we are not giving something to the provinces they are going to claw back, because disabled people will be worse off as a result. There is some evidence of how much money it takes to live, which I think varies by location. A lot of times we see that when people are assigned a salary, if they are working in Vancouver or Toronto there is a supplement for addressing…
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Madam Speaker, I absolutely agree we need to hurry to get a benefit in place. With respect to the previous governments that have neglected this, I would say we cannot change the past. We can only change the future. Now is the time, and we need to move forward with this legislation.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for her advocacy for persons with disabilities. I am not very familiar with what is in place in B.C. in terms of supports, so I wonder if she could comment on what the province does currently and how she would like to see that augmented in order to correctly support people living with disabilities.
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Madam Speaker, certainly, everyone will support the need for a disability benefit. I just want to be sure I understand the situation. This bill has been introduced, but we do not know who would be eligible to collect it, how much it would be and when it would be implemented. Is that accurate?
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Mr. Speaker, there have been numerous comments today about how Bill C-22 is missing the eligibility criteria of who will receive the benefit, yet in Canada we have many insurance companies that provide disability benefits and have a comprehensive list of who qualifies for those. Has the government consulted with these people, or would the government consider doing that, so that we could include el…
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Mr. Speaker, Brandy, from my riding, is a single mom struggling to get by. The higher cost of gas and groceries has forced her to go to the food bank. Now the CRA, after seven years of auditing her without finding anything, has decided that she has to pay $30,000 in back taxes, and the minister has taken no action to revisit her case. Will the Liberals resolve Brandy's case and suspend the tax on …
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With regard to the Department of Justice's Laws website: (a) how are the entries under the "Frequently Accessed Acts" and "Frequently Accessed Regulations" lists determined; (b) broken down by item, on what date was each item currently on the lists referred to in (a) added; (c) what items were formerly on the lists referred to in (a) and during what time periods was each item on the lists; and (d)…
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With regard to Translation Bureau operations: (a) how many hours of simultaneous interpretation of parliamentary proceedings were provided in fiscal year 2021-22, broken down by (i) sittings of the Senate, (ii) sittings of the House of Commons, (iii) meetings of Senate committees, (iv) meetings of House committees; (b) how many employees have provided simultaneous interpretation in fiscal year 202…
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Mr. Speaker, that was at the time when Jody Wilson-Raybould was the justice minister. I remember one member specifically, and there are records in Hansard. I would encourage people to go back and look at Hansard because there were specific cases cited, rape cases and murder cases, where people did go free due to Jordan's principle at that time.
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Mr. Speaker, in addition to being able to remove a judge, should that be the conclusion of the trial, are there other consequences that can be applied to judges who are found not to have executed their duties well?
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite always does a great job on his speeches and, with his experience in the past, he always gives good detail. I did like hearing that there are measures in this bill, other than just getting rid of a judge, that would address issues at a lower level. There are things like training and apologies in public. I wonder if the member could elaborate on the whole suite of op…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Peace River—Westlock. It is a pleasure to rise to speak to Bill C-9, which is an act that would create a complaint mechanism for judges. We have certainly heard from all sides today that everyone thinks this is a great idea. This is not to say judges do not do a good job, because we know we have great judges in this country who work hard…
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the bill that Rona Ambrose brought forward had training as the main measure, training so that judges would understand sexual assault. With Bill C-9, we actually have a plethora of things that can be done to match the severity of the situation, whether it was an idle comment or a photograph that was taken prior to the sentence being made public. I think there is eno…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very sad to report that Sarnia—Lambton has the same homicide rate as Toronto. This is something that has escalated. When I first moved there, it was rare to hear of a murder in Sarnia—Lambton. We have had multiple murders already this year, and it is related to the drug trade. That is why I am specifically concerned that we are bringing forward bills in this House that would allo…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is very encouraging to hear all parties in the House agree that this bill needs to go to committee. Over the last 10 years, there have been multiple attempts by multiple parties to address the issue of pension protection in Canada. We have seen countless Canadians impacted: They have not received their severance or have received pennies on the dollar. Bill C-228 would do three th…
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Madam Speaker, the member opposite talked about the addiction crisis that is facing Canada, which is a very serious issue. What I do not understand about Bill C-5 is that it would allow people producing and trafficking drugs to potentially get house arrest instead of going to jail. I wonder how that will help the addiction problem in the country. Perhaps the member could clarify.
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Mr. Speaker, I know how hard the member works and how much she loves this country, but I would reject the notion that mandatory minimums are racist. By definition, regardless of the colour of one's skin or ethnicity, one gets a mandatory minimum. Because there is no rehabilitation and there is such a high rate of recidivism, would it not be better to address the root causes of this overrepresentat…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to ask another question, because I have a lot of concerns about Bill C-5 when it comes to victims of sexual assault. I have spent a great portion of my career here in Parliament defending the status of women in Canada, and to think that someone could be sexually assaulted and their attacker could actually get house arrest in the same community is very worr…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his excellent speech. His experience in the past has really made him knowledgeable on this issue. I am very concerned about this bill and the fact that drug traffickers and drug producers could end up with house arrest. I think this would exacerbate the drug addiction crisis that is happening in Canada. Does the member agree?
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Madam Speaker, the member opposite and I have worked together for a long time in this place on issues related to the status of women, so my specific question is on sexual assault. I have a real concern, with Bill C-5, that somebody who committed a sexual assault could actually not go to jail but be on house arrest in the community where they committed the offence. We know that although judges do g…
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Madam Speaker, earlier today, we heard one of the Liberal members talk about the high rate of reoffending. I fail to see how Bill C-5, if it lets people out of jail early, is going to do anything to protect the public safety when people are reoffending, which is what the Liberals said.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals insist the police asked them to invoke the Emergencies Act. Police forces say they never asked. The Liberals insist the Act was needed in order to tow the trucks away, which is not the case, as all border blockades were resolved beforehand and it was the province that leveraged the licences of tow truck owners to get their co-operation. The allegations about Russian and f…
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Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health needs to get in line with the rest of the countries, all 55 of them, that have dropped all the mandates. He was informed the other day that Canadians who are unvaccinated can travel on ferries as long as the journey is less than 24 hours, so why are unvaccinated Canadians not able to travel on flights within Canada since they are a…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise and speak to our opposition day motion because the cost of living is the number one issue in this country. It is unbelievable to me to think that a year ago 60% of Canadians were within $200 of not being able to pay their bills every month. Let us think about the increased costs that have happened during the pandemic and the multiple carbon tax increases from …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for agreeing that the right thing to do is give an exemption. I am not sure why his government has refused to do that. In fact, the Minister of Agriculture stood in the House and refused to answer that question. The Conservative position has been clear. We stood up and called for the exemption prior to March 2. We all realize that after that, when people pu…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her advocacy for those who are struggling. Listen, this is not a one-shot solution. There are multiple solutions that we need to bring to bear to address affordability. However, there is inequity, and one thing that I found really inequitable I heard today. The government paid out $20 million for businesses in the downtown core of Ottawa that suffered during the…
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