Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians know a cover‑up when they hear one. That was a cover‑up. They turned the cameras off on a scheduled meeting about the $300‑million PrescribeIT scandal. They cancelled tomorrow's meeting so they can continue to cover it up. Can they offer some fig leaf of an explanation to Canadians as to why they are playing these dirty tricks if it is not a cover‑up?
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I asked several very specific questions. I asked whether Canada Health Infoway is independent or not. I asked whether the Minister of Health has oversight on its funding or not. I asked whether the Minister of Health has the power to fire the CEO of Canada Health Infoway or not. I have asked whether the minister would come to health committee to explain these things in more detail. Th…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure to be here so late. I am hoping that if some of the Liberals get sleepy enough, perhaps they will accidentally answer the questions and provide some light on what has gone on at PrescribeIT. We are here for this particular adjournment proceeding question because, on May 28, I pointed out to the health minister that she said in the House that she had spoken to th…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canada Health Infoway blew $300 million of taxpayer money on PrescribeIT. They have blown $1 billion over 10 years with nothing tangible to show for it. For six weeks, they have failed to produce the documents the health committee has ordered them to produce. The health minister now says this totally dysfunctional organization will undergo a mandate review. Can she tell us how long th…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, to answer the member's first question, I am terribly disappointed. That was no answer at all. I know my constituents very well. I am from the Waterloo region. It is the tech capital of Canada. My constituents, those who work in tech, would love to get a $50-million contract to do nothing. This organization, after 20 years and $4 billion, has done nothing tangible. I am asking the gove…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, we are here tonight because, on May 6, I asked the Liberal Minister of Health how much more money she was planning on giving Canada Health Infoway, given that it had blown $300 million on PrescribeIT for no tangible benefit to the taxpayer. She answered that the CEO of Canada Health Infoway's “behaviour was [totally] unacceptable”, and that is why she asked the board of directors to f…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, here is a question the Minister of Health has never answered. She knows that PrescribeIT was a $300-million waste of taxpayer money. She knows the organization in charge of that program was so badly run she had to get the CEO fired just last month. Given that she knows all this, what I cannot understand is why she would give that same organization, one that cannot point to one tangibl…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, am I to understand the health minister spoke with her representative on the board, but that board member did not tell the chair of the board that she had spoken with him? Did he mislead a committee of this House? If so, will she have another conversation with her representative on the board to dismiss another executive at Canada Health Infoway?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in response to my question regarding PrescribeIT on May 6, the Minister of Health said that she spoke to the board of directors of Canada Health Infoway, causing them to fire their million-dollar CEO, Michael Green. However, just the day before, the chair of that board, Dr. Peter Vaughan, said that the health minister had never personally raised concerns with him or the board about th…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure today to welcome 58 students and staff from Jacob Hespeler Secondary School in my hometown of Hespeler, who are visiting Parliament Hill today to observe our democracy in action. These students are taking part in an important learning experience, gaining first-hand insight into Canada's parliamentary system, civic engagement and public service. I would like to r…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals gave $300 million to Canada Health Infoway to build PrescribeIT, which the minister now acknowledges was a total failure. However, here is the problem. The board of Canada Health Infoway only fired its million‑dollar CEO after Conservatives raised these failures at the health committee. How much more money does the health minister plan to give this very badly run organiza…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin my speech by thanking OpenMedia, the Canadian Constitution Foundation and privacy lawyer David Fraser for their excellent work on Bill C-22. The analysis I am about to offer closely mirrors their own, and if the Liberal government members would simply listen seriously to these civil liberties groups, they would not have to hear from me on this bill, but they have…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the best way to keep a year's worth of surveillance location data secure is to not build a back door or to not save it in the first place. There is some bizarre verbiage in this bill about systemic vulnerabilities, but the point of part 2 of this legislation, as it currently stands, is to build the systemic vulnerabilities that it later says it is not building. It is frankly doublespe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am a great fan of my colleague who asked the question. I myself am a city boy, and I do not understand the metaphor. Can I just say what is particularly galling to me about this legislation? Conservatives like law and order. We support the police. We want bad guys in jail. We have put forward dozens, at this point—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I think it is very interesting that the member disagreed with everything I said but failed to point to one specific piece of my analysis that was wrong. Every piece of my analysis was correct. As to this talking point, I keep hearing that all the Five Eyes are doing it. I am proud to be Canadian. I am proud to have been born in the freest country in the land, and God help me, I am goi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am relying on the video that privacy lawyer David Fraser put together on the topic. I urge every member of the House, particularly those on the government benches, to see it. It is not outlandish. He is a very credible voice. He teaches at Dalhousie University. He speaks about the Salt Typhoon incident in which the Americans, one of those Five Eyes partners that my colleague from Wi…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, let us start that work right now. Please answer the question: Why will you not let us see the contract?
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have come over to the government's side temporarily to offer my question today, because I think it is a common-sense, bipartisan question. I think that anybody on the Liberal side or the Conservative side of the House should be able to ask this sort of question and get a reasonable response. I certainly did not want to be here tonight. I asked what I thought was a very reasonable qu…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, out of respect for the health minister, I informed her office that I would be asking this question. I hope she respects the House enough to stand and answer it. The Liberals blew $250 million on PrescribeIT. That is the same amount they spent on the sponsorship scandal. Taxpayers got nothing for this money. The Liberals are outright cancelling the program, acknowledging that it was a …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have a bad habit of announcing big programs for big money that do not actually work. In Kitchener South, Mohammad Keshvani invested $1.6 million of his own savings and loans to build Angus Valley Montessori, a beautiful child care centre that can serve 100 children. Parents are calling every day and more than 450 families are on the wait-list, yet those spaces are almost …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I wish we were here today to talk about health care. Instead, we have to talk about health care fraud. The fraud is undeniable. It is unfair, and the Liberals could stop it by voting for our motion today. For the Canadians watching at home, let me please explain. Currently, if someone declares themselves a refugee to Canada, they get Cadillac health benefits that tax-paying, law-abidi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I think it is the case that, fundamentally, failure has been rewarded in the Liberal government, year after year, for 10 years straight. That is why the passport office broke. That is why the post office has broken, and that is why the immigration system is broken. Eventually, those who govern need to exercise some judgment. They need to be able to say, “This isn't working well. We're…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I apologize for seeking to allay my colleague's misapprehension or misunderstanding of my comments. I said there are two million outstanding files in the immigration department, overall, awaiting processing. That is not the number of illegal refugee claims.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is important to put these numbers into perspective. Eventually, million, billion and trillion all becomes a haze. The cost of this program has gone up 10 times over the years that it has existed. It used to be $86 million. Now it is $1 billion, and that is about to exceed the entire federal health transfer to the province of Saskatchewan. It is bananas. It is out of control. It is …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would just ask my colleague opposite not to shout. I do not think that sort of aggression is warranted here. The Parliamentary Budget Officer made his report. He said this is the projection. It could change if Bill C-12 does not see court challenges. It likely is going to receive court challenges. Many groups have already said they are going to challenge Bill C-12 in court. The PBO …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, 21 years ago, residents of Kitchener, Ontario, were shocked to hear of a mass murder in our community. Self-described Satanist Michael Sirois rang the doorbell of 87-year-old Verna, whom he once knew from church. He stabbed her and 47-year-old Randy 27 times, including through both eyes. Danny Penner is the brother of Randy. He shared with me the incredible trauma these murders contin…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that minister knows very well that he has lost 32,000 people who have been ordered deported. As a physician, as the son of a refugee to Canada, this issue is very close to my heart. I wish we were speaking about health care today, but instead we must speak about health care fraud. We are talking about people who claim refugee status only after they are investigated or arrested for cri…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is such a pleasure to rise in support of this very excellent bill, presented by my very excellent colleague from Simcoe North. The bill is important. It speaks to principles that are fundamental to a just government, to fairness and to transparency. I am sorry to say that these principles have been sorely lacking in the actions of the Liberal government over the last 10 years. Fo…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am glad that got a laugh. What the bill would do is restore some of the fairness and some of the transparency. If it passes, which I dearly hope it will, and the CRA forgives more than a million dollars in loans or taxes, it would at least have to say who it gave it to and why. I think the vast majority of Canadians would never see a million dollars, let alone have a tax bill of o…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that the definition of disinformation includes purpose or intent, that it would be equivalent to intentionally misleading or lying. I just wonder if you would rule that it is unparliamentary to accuse the opposition of doing that.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I found most of that member's speech totally unnecessary. I will explain it very succinctly. Conservatives are here to oppose bad laws. Bill C-9 has become a bad law because of this bad amendment that the Liberals have agreed to, clandestinely with the Bloc, as reported by the National Post. When the former chair of the justice committee said that he thinks some religious texts are ha…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, Canadians do not want handouts when they lose their jobs; they want their jobs back. The Liberal solution to every single problem is to take tax money and then throw it at the wall. We want our jobs back. We want to work. We do not want EI. It is the opposite of what the Liberals ran on. It is the opposite of what the Prime Minister promised. After 10 years, it is still not going to wor…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I respect the honourable gentleman very much. I am very concerned that he did not listen to a word of my speech. We are in a trade war. I am asking the government to fight the trade war, to take actions on the trade war. We do not win a war by lying down and going to sleep. We do not win a trade war by going to the Oval Office and promising the President $1 trillion of Canadian investme…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, in 2023, I was a simple Canadian citizen, a physician from Kitchener, Ontario, and I was really concerned that the government signed a $15-billion contract on my behalf, and on behalf of all Canadians, with Stellantis, without showing us that contract. I know that my colleague from Vaughan—Woodbridge is a successful businessman in the steel industry. We now see, as it was disclosed at t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, it is such an honour to rise on behalf of the people of Kitchener South—Hespeler, thousands of whom work at the largest car plant in Canada, the Toyota factory in Hespeler. We, on this side of the House, have explained time and again how this electric vehicle mandate directly hurts workers right now and how it ends up being a cash transfer to Tesla, which does not make cars in Canada. I…
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Mr. Chair, the debate tonight should not be necessary. The Prime Minister of Canada called an election saying that he needed a mandate to take action to stand up against Trump and to build Canada strong. It has now been nine months, and he has not taken those actions. Many people took the Prime Minister at his word, but we all saw him nodding meekly in the Oval Office while President Trump threate…
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Mr. Chair, that is a big question for one minute. The major problem is 10 years of failed Liberal policies that have put us in such a weak position where somebody might want to have a trade war with us. We have more resources per capita than any other country. We have the space. We have the people. We have to let them get to work and get bureaucracy out of the way. The Prime Minister and his budge…
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Mr. Chair, I am a simple physician from Kitchener, Ontario. I grew up in Hespeler. I represent the people of Kitchener and Hespeler, and I care about the jobs in Kitchener South—Hespeler and the Toyota plant there. All of my effort is on that plant. There are many members on this side who have met with all of those groups. Those lobby groups know not to bite the hand that feeds them. They are stil…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that member did not answer the question, so I am going to ask it again. The Prime Minister caved on countertariffs, on digital services taxes and on legal disputes about softwood lumber. We thought he was getting nothing for Canadians, but it turns out he was getting lots for his company, Brookfield. Days after he was in the White House, the Americans signed an $80-billion nuclear rea…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think we have decades-old standards for how budgets are disclosed to the Canadian public. To suddenly change those standards is shifty or sneaky. Then, it causes me a crisis of faith to find out that, even based on the Liberals' own terms, they are not increasing investment by as much as they are increasing spending. I was looking at Brookfield Asset Management's stock price incre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as for the second point, it is easy to tell mistruths with statistics. Canada's federal debt is low compared to pure countries as a percentage of GDP, but in terms of Canada's total public debt, because the federal government off-loads so many services to the provinces, such as education, housing in some important respects and health care, the provinces have taken on terrible debts.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there are not many, and this does not surprise me. In general, politicians do not know how to build anything, because they do not build things. Builders build things, and home builders build houses. In Canada, home builders have always built homes. The reason they are not building homes now is that they are not allowed to. My friend Cal is a small-time renovator who lives in Kitchen…
Read full speech →Government Orders
The day-to-day operating balance was minus $4.1 billion under the Liberals' definition for 2024, and it will be $33 billion under their definition for 2025. Is this what spending less on operating expenses looks like to the Prime Minister, increasing the operating deficit by 700%? Have the Liberals gone mad? Do their promises mean nothing? How are we supposed to have a democracy when someone can r…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, Japan has a lot of problems. It had a lost decade. Now we have had a lost decade because the Liberals have copied its playbook.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is a real doozy of a budget. It is such a doozy that perhaps this will be my last speech in this Parliament, so let us make it count. I want to start with some confessions. I believe we need to spend less and invest more. I believe we need to build Canada strong. I believe we need to make generational investments in Canada's future. Unfortunately, this budget does none of those…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is adjusted for the inflation that they caused. The Liberals' new budget is generationally expensive. It is historically expensive. Every dollar the Prime Minister spends will come out of Canadians' pockets. The more Liberals spend, the more things will cost. Through either taxes or inflation in the future, the costs will come. Eighty billion dollars is $2,000 for each man, woman a…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have admired the hon. member's oratory skills for many years, so it is a real delight to get to ask him this question now. One part of his speech that I admired most was his defence of provincial jurisdiction. I think it is important that the people who would be most affected by a policy be the ones who design it, so then I was surprised when he said that he thinks the national ca…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, I visited the Kitchener food bank. Its CEO told me that visits to the centre have quintupled in the last 10 years. What happened 10 years ago to start all of this? The Liberals came into power, promising to grow the middle class, but after 10 years of their massive spending on nonsense like gender-neutral rice in Vietnam, the middle class in Canada can no longer afford to eat. Some …
Read full speech →Statements by members
Mr. Speaker, I represent Kitchener South—Hespeler, home to Toyota Canada, the largest car plant in our great nation. I remember when its expansion was announced in 1994. Then, as now, the plant was a source of great community pride. Year after year, it wins awards for the quality of its product and its investments in its people. In 30 years, it has never laid off a full-time employee. It employs m…
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