Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we want to go after all these people who are cheating on their taxes, but unless we fix the other side of the equation, which is the out-of-control spending of the government, it will not do us any good. I wonder if he could comment on that?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, one of the difficulties is that with the failure of the government on border controls in this pandemic and the flawed vaccine rollout that the Liberals are scrambling to catch up on, what has happened is that the government introduced programs to help businesses at the beginning, but a lot of people were falling through the cracks. Even though the defects in the programs were identi…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, what is a joke is the Liberals' existing plan for affordable housing, which is not working for anyone. I have been asking for funding for affordable housing in Sarnia—Lambton for years. In our opposition day motion, we highlighted the failure of the government in this area. Considering the Liberals voted against our Conservative motion with all of its common-sense solutions, I would l…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the ninth report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, entitled “Challenges Faced by Women Living in Rural, Remote and Northern Communities in Canada”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak about Motion No 62, the proposal for national dental care. All Canadians need dental care. The statistics today show that one in three Canadians lack dental insurance, so if we look at things positively, that means two thirds of Canadians have a plan. However, for that one third of Canadians who do not have a plan, this is a serious health concern. Also, one in…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the eighth report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, entitled “Women's Unpaid Work in Canada”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Wow, Madam Speaker, just wow. I guess I would ask the member opposite what he thinks about the fact that Catholic school boards across the country are concerned and that many of their lawyers have looked at this bill, looked at this definition and are still concerned. There are a huge number of people who have an issue. If I was not clear enough, 100% of people in my riding, myself included, are o…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the reality is that I am good at math and I know this bill is going to pass, but, as I also pointed out, men and women have died for our freedom of speech. I firmly believe the definition is not going to protect private conversations, it is not going to protect counselling, it is not going to protect preaching in the public square. I fully expect there will be court challenges in th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague is right at the heart of the matter on this one. We know the Liberals knew there was a problem with the definition because they put a clarification on their web page that specifically said that it would not apply to private conversations, counselling, preaching, all of these different things, but they would not put that wording in the bill. Judges have to judge what is …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am not sure if the member did not hear my speech, but I said at least 10 times in it that 100% of the people in my riding, including myself, are opposed to conversion therapy. I would tell young people that this is a harmful practice and we definitely do not want it. On the other hand, I would tell young people that, as a person who has been a youth leader and helped a lot of peop…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, when it comes to people of faith, many of them have just emailed and phoned, and it is not an organized effort. There have been efforts, as I mentioned, with the Catholic school board, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the CIJA organization and others, who have put their voices together. The point is not to do anything other than point out the number of Canadians, millions of Ca…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is good to have an opportunity to speak to Bill C-6. This is my first opportunity to speak to the bill. There has been a lot of conversation and I have listened intently to some of the debate. I will say at the outset that in my riding I received a huge number of phone calls, emails and letters about the bill. Many people were very concerned. There have been petitions brought for…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned that, as a result of the discussion around Bill C-6, he was asked about fixing the definition and that there was a web page put up. Could he comment on what the reaction was from other members of the community across Canada?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, yesterday was D-Day and Canadian men and women fought and died for the rights and freedoms that we are talking about today, including the freedom of speech. The minister is taking away not just the individual freedoms to post what people want, but in addition, shutting down debate here in Parliament and now infringing upon committees' rights. Does he not appreciate the fact that peopl…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to contracts entered into between the Leaders’ Debates Commission and the GreenPAC Future Fund since January 1, 2019: (a) what are the details of all contracts including (i) the date signed, (ii) the original contract value, (iii) the final contract value, if different than the original value, (iv) the start and end date, (v) the specific goods or services provided, (vi) whether the co…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-305, An Act to amend the Governor General’s Act (retiring annuity and other benefits) Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to introduce my private member's bill. Canadians were outraged when the former governor general left the office in disgrace and was able to collect pension and benefits of over $300,000. This private member's bill would ensure that anyone who doe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, unfortunately, the Liberal government put forward an omnibus budget bill that is 720 pages long with a plethora of things in it. Although this specific action I do agree with, the amount of debt that the government has racked up without providing for a growth budget has created $250 a month of payments, for the next 10 years, from every Canadian to the government in order to pay off…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to speak today to Bill C-21, hoping that I can bring a calm and reasoned approach to this discussion. All parties in the House are united in their desire to get rid of gun crime in Canada. The question is, what is the best way to go about doing that? We know that we need to be fact- and evidence-based. In fact, the Liberal government is always talking about h…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. We must absolutely consult with people who have a lot of experience to develop a plan for eliminating gun crimes in Canada and to bring in a program to compensate people who have to give up their firearms.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I was not involved in the previous Conservative government's decisions. My mother always told me that we cannot change the past; we can only change the future. In the go-forward, to really solve this crime, we are going to need additional efforts at the border because most of the guns are coming in from the U.S., as I said. With respect to the second question, I think the municipali…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, absolutely, the experts should be making those decisions, but in fact it is not clear that this is what happened in the order in council, which made no sense, about hundreds of guns and people with a lot of experience in firearms and their use. That is worthy of note. The other thing that is worthy of note is that a lot of the handguns being discussed are already prohibited or restr…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the prorogation of Parliament in August 2020: (a) respecting the Privy Council Office being informed that it was the Prime Minister’s intention to recommend to the Governor General that the Parliament be prorogued, (i) who participated in the communication, (ii) on what date and time, (iii) by what medium (e.g. in-person meeting, videoconference meeting, telephone call, email); (b) …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to four corners meetings convened by the Privy Council Office or the Office of the Prime Minister since January 1, 2019: (a) what was the date of each meeting; (b) what was the subject-matter of each meeting; (c) which departments, agencies or Crown corporations participated in each meeting; and (d) which ministers or ministers’ offices participated in each meeting?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Privy Council Office’s (PCO) 2021-22 Departmental Plans: (a) how and when was the figure established that 61 per cent of PCO employees described their workplace as psychologically healthy; (b) how did the remaining 39 per cent of PCO employees surveyed describe their workplace, broken down by responses; (c) were there any write-in answers to the question which generated the figu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have an opportunity to speak to the budget bill, because I have a lot of concern about the budget. I will start with the amount of debt the government has added. The Prime Minister has added more debt to Canada than did all the prime ministers, together, since the beginning of Confederation. We are now at a debt of $1.3 trillion and the government has asked to raise the c…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, certainly the member opposite would know that the Conservatives have supported to assist people to get through the pandemic. However, the government failed to close the borders adequately from the beginning, when it still allowed planes in from China, Iran and Iraq, and learned nothing from that. I was the shadow health minister. I read the pandemic plan. Border control is number one.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the good question. It is very important for everyone to pay their fair share. I think that the Liberals do not have a good plan for recovering money from the wealthiest people. When we look at the measures the Liberals have taken when they tried to raise taxes on the 1%, they actually got less tax revenue overall. That did not work out. They have done nothing …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that is a great question from my colleague, who works hard on the Canada-U.S. committee. There is nothing in this budget. In fact, not only is there nothing for oil and gas and for natural resources, but there is no contingency in this budget in case Line 5 does shut down. That will certainly drive the costs of everything up, including fuel that the government uses.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, what a great question that is from my colleague. It is a big fail for the Liberal government to announce that it is going to have this big child care thing without even checking with the provinces first, when it has made it contingent on the provinces participating. Clearly, this is just an empty promise, then. What we ought to do is make sure that the federal government can do someth…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I did not hear any funding for any growth in the natural resources sector, which is 17% of our GDP. Let us turn, then, to agriculture, which is 8% of our GDP. Can the minister talk about the funding and growth supports for agriculture?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I will expand it to the natural resources sector, because I did not see a lot in this budget for that, and it is 17% of our GDP. What are the measures and funding to spur growth in that sector?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Edmonton West, and I will be spending my time questioning the minister. The minister has described budget 2021 as a growth budget, and I want to begin with the oil and gas sector, which is quite important for my riding. This is a sector across the country that has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of foreign inve…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the seventh report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, entitled “A Study on the Implementation of the Pay Equity Act”. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report. As well, the committee is calling on the government to really accelerate…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I am very concerned about the amount of debt the government has racked up, $460 billion before budget 2021, which brought in another $101 billion. If we look at the debt of $30,000 that this has added to every Canadian, and I did the math, that is $250 a month, every month for the next 10 years, assuming no interest. That is for everyone: men, their wives, their children, every Canadi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, that was a great answer for the child care question, not. Let us move along, then. One of the files that I have has to do with the election. I noticed there was a section 91 change. This was something that came before the courts. Members will remember that in the previous session the government brought forward legislation to make it an offence to say false things about a candidate or …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I would just point out to the minister that electric batteries are not the agriculture sector of Canada, which was my question. Let us turn, then, to something that interests me as the chair of status of women, where we have been studying unpaid work and obviously looking at the child care issue. I see there is a pledge of $30 billion over five years, but it is contingent on the provi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for all of her hard work on the status of women committee. I wonder what the member thinks about this budget in light of what it would and would not do for women in Canada and what is needed.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am the chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, and we have just done a study on unpaid work. Certainly child care has been a huge issue during the pandemic, and even before, and when I look at this budget, I see the government has $30 billion for it over five years. However, this is contingent on the provinces putting their part in place. It also fails to recognize t…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for Etobicoke North for bringing forward this motion. The member for Etobicoke North and I have a history of trying to help science in Canada, which began when I was elected in 2015 and was named the critic for science. At the time, she was the Minister of Science. We got together and said we needed to make a plan that is good for science in Canada, becaus…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for all his hard work. I share his concern with this budget. There are a lot of things that have been promised time and again that have not shown up, and we are losing our ability to do things in the country. One of the things that was really absent in this budget was something to inspire the natural resources sector. There was zip-a-dee-doo-dah in…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his excellent speech. In my view, if the government really wants to avoid an election during the pandemic, it needs to have a plan to get us out of the pandemic. It does not have one. What does the member think the government should do?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for an amazing speech as always. I thought she made a very good point about how the government is trying to shame the opposition today for holding the government to account by bringing up the number of times it voted against a confidence motion, when the government has failed to work with other parties to come up with legislation that is good for Canadia…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for her speech. I think there many signs that the Liberal government is in a hurry to hold an election during the pandemic. Does my colleague agree?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is clear to me that the Liberals are in a hurry to call an election while we are in a pandemic. The government introduced the bill in December, before the committee had completed its report. Now the government wants to send the bill to committee. However, the Liberals are filibustering in committee. Would the member agree that the Liberals are in a hurry to call an election?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. It is pretty clear that the government is in a hurry to call an election in the middle of a pandemic. It introduced the bill in December, it has cut off the debate and now it wants to get the bill to committee. However, the Liberals are filibustering in committee. Does the member think the Liberals are in a hurry to call an election?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the minister for giving me an opportunity to speak to Bill C-19, because after four hours of debate, the government shut down the debate on it so it could get the bill to committee. However, the Liberals on the committee are filibustering, so the committee cannot get to that legislation. They are filibustering because the government is trying to cover up the Pr…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today is the day Governor Whitmer has ordered Enbridge Line 5 to be shut down. Yesterday, chambers of commerce in Canada and the U.S., our government, trade unions and affected states filed briefs of support in the court case to show support for keeping the line open. Independent studies show that at least 33,000 jobs will be impacted in both countries if Line 5 is shut down, 23,000 o…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is a total surprise and unbelievable that after four hours of debate the government would be rushing this legislation, which is about our tried and true democratic process. We have heard others say that the Liberals tabled the legislation before waiting for their own recommendations from the PROC committee, and now, after four hours, they are shutting down debate so they can get …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, certainly we want to do everything we can to protect workers and voters in this election should it occur during a pandemic. One thing we know is that we would likely see more mail-in ballots, and the members correctly have pointed out there are some provisions in the bill. Having ballot boxes at the polling stations to collect mail-in ballots will be a very good thing in case the ca…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary wanted to know what the Conservatives have done. I have done an email and letter-writing campaign to Governor Whitmer with all the stakeholders; brought petitions to the House; and participated in the lobby. However, despite all the government's words about how it will do everything politically, legally and diplomatically possible, here is the crux of the…
Read full speech →