Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, this weekend we celebrated eight members of the Vernon Search and Rescue Group Society for decades of search and rescue service and community safety in North Okanagan—Shuswap and across Canada. At the ceremony we recognized Robert Cross, for 28 years of service; Geoff Vick, 31 years; Robert Hurtubise, 34 years; Coralie Nairn, 35 years; Don Blakely and Leigh Pearson, 37 years; James Vi…
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Madam Speaker, we know the Prime Minister is not worth the cost, but here is something that is: the 104th annual Falkland Stampede. North Okanagan—Shuswap is an amazing place with beautiful people and spectacular events. One of the longest-running events in the area, and one of Canada's longest-running rodeo stampedes, is coming up on the May long weekend. If anyone is looking for affordable famil…
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Madam Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the crime, chaos, drugs and disorder caused by his wacko policies. It is wacko to allow drug use in parks, hospitals and playgrounds. It is wacko that the government's policy is exposing kids and health care workers to lethal drugs. Will the Prime Minister and his government support our common-sense motion to ban hard dru…
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Madam Speaker, today I rise to present a petition on behalf of residents of the North Okanagan—Shuswap and other Canadians. Canadians with mental health illness should be provided treatment and support. The petitioners, therefore, call upon the House of Commons to reverse the law extending eligibility for MAID to people with mental illness as their sole medical condition.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the member that his government illegally invoked the Emergencies Act, removing civil liberties from Canadians. After nine years of radical NDP-Liberal government drug policies, and with the toxic drug deaths in B.C. reaching a 380% increase, the number of children aged 10 to 18 who have died from overdoses has increased by more than five times. Opioids and illic…
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the Prime Minister is clearly not worth the cost. His minister responsible for hard drugs on the streets is misleading Canadians. She said that the Liberal government is waiting for more information from B.C. on if it should reverse its decision that allows cocaine, opioids and fentanyl in parks, playgrounds and hospitals. The B.C. NDP government confirmed that it an…
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have is, again, signed by residents of North Okanagan—Shuswap and Canadians. It states that sexually explicit material, including demeaning material and material depicting sexual violence, can easily be accessed on the Internet by young persons. The petitioners, therefore, call upon the House of Commons to adopt Bill S-210 to protect young persons from exposure to …
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today to present a number of petitions on behalf of residents of the North Okanagan—Shuswap and other Canadians. The first one states that, whereas Canadians with mental health issues should be provided with treatment and support, and mental illness can be complex and include suicidal thoughts and symptoms, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada call upon …
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Mr. Speaker, the final three petitions, and I have risen numerous times on this issue, are presented because people are concerned about the way the Liberal-NDP government has overreached into their lives, especially when it comes to access to natural health products. The petitioners call upon the Minister of Health to work with the natural health products industry and adjust Health Canada's cost r…
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Mr. Speaker, the member has been here a long time and will hopefully not be here much longer, but he has been here long enough to know that one cannot say indirectly what one cannot say directly. He knows that. He should know better. He needs to apologize or leave the chamber.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister has shamelessly delivered record high deficits, driving up inflation and causing sky-high interest rates. His government has doubled rent, mortgage payments and down payments. Food banks received a record 2 million visits in a single month last year, and a million more are expected to use food banks this year. He has added more to the national deb…
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Mr. Chair, the member's question is a regurgitated question from the PMO. I am not sure how many times it has been asked tonight. Conservatives do care about the softwood lumber agreement and the families who depend on the jobs that are so reliant on this industry. We are having this take-note debate tonight to draw attention to a minister who has failed to get this job done and a succession of mi…
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Mr. Chair, international trade agreements are the responsibility of a federal government. It is possible that the provinces may be able to work a better deal than what the current federal government has done because it has not negotiated anything. It has simply failed. In the province of British Columbia, the lumber industry is also struggling, under an NDP government that will not get permits pro…
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Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Mégantic—L'Érable. I am honoured to rise tonight to speak in this take-note debate on softwood lumber as an elected representative of the hard-working forestry and related service-industry companies and their families in the North Okanagan—Shuswap. In small towns with sawmills, like Lumby, Salmon Arm, Sicamous, Revelstoke, Enderby, Chase, …
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Mr. Chair, I enjoyed working with the member for Courtenay—Alberni when he was on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. His question is about legislation I have not had a chance to read yet, so I cannot say whether I would support it. However, he just talked about clean, affordable energy from wood products. A number of years ago, we put in a pellet stove. We took out the old wood-burnin…
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Madam Chair, the member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue mentioned government loans and government security to reinvest in businesses and the forestry sector. The forestry workers I know are very proud of their work. The small mill owners, the loggers and the road builders, I think, would far rather develop things on their own. However, they are not able to because of the billions of dollars, $8 billion …
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Madam Chair, the member for Manicouagan and I previously sat on the fisheries committee together and I always value her input. The question for the member just now from the parliamentary secretary has me puzzled. He was asking her what she thought could be done better. I thought it was the government's job to do the best it can for Canadians. Obviously that is not happening because even he is aski…
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Madam Chair, I have only 20 seconds, but I can say it very succinctly. It was promised within 100 days. We are now at eight years and 97 months, or 2,929 days. The Liberals have not gotten it done. It is time to get it done.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of NDP-Liberal inflationary spending and taxes, Canadians are struggling. The NDP, the Liberals and the Bloc had a chance to listen to their constituents, the 70% of Canadians who oppose the April 1 tax hike and 70% of provincial premiers who have asked the Prime Minister to stop this painful tax increase before it is too late. However, they failed to hear from the…
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Mr. Speaker, $100,000 is not chicken feed. Richard, a farmer in the Shuswap, paid that out in carbon tax to run his farm instead of buying feed to raise chickens and put food on Canadians' tables. Now, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister wants to raise the carbon tax by 23% as part of his plan to quadruple it. After eight years, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost. Will he spike the hike, axe the …
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I do not see the relevance of this conversation to the debate at hand. I would like the member to get on with the actual debate at hand.
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to present two petitions. The first one is geared towards assisting in the recruitment of volunteer firefighters. It is from undersigned citizens and residents of Canada calling on the Government of Canada to support Bill C-310 and enact amendments to the Income Tax Act, subsections 118.06(2) and 118.07(2), in order to increase the amount of tax credits available for vo…
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Madam Speaker, the second petition I rise on today is from 69 residents of North Okanagan—Shuswap calling on the Government of Canada and the House of Commons to give citizens a voice on the subject of electoral reform and the right to make recommendations and to support Motion No. 86 calling for a citizens' assembly on electoral reform.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would like to bring to your attention your lack of consistency on this issue. The member from the NDP raised a point or order, and you immediately followed, saying that when presenting petitions, it should be the matter of the petition only that is addressed. Immediately following, another member made a quite extensive presentation regarding the petition …
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Mr. Speaker, I have been very patient. I asked you a direct question that I did not receive an answer to. I hope that will also be included in your response to the House.
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Mr. Speaker, Conservative members on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans submitted our supplementary report to this study on foreign ownership and corporate concentration of fishing licences and quota because Canada's fisheries are shared common resources owned by the citizens of Canada. The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and her department are mandated to manage and conserve Canada's…
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With regard to efforts by the government to combat illegal fishing by vessels off the British Columbia coast, broken down by year since 2019: (a) how many boats were intercepted for allegedly engaging in illegal fishing; and (b) what are the details of each incident where a vessel was intercepted, including, for each, the (i) name, (ii) country of origin, (iii) location where the vessel was interc…
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Madam Speaker, I believe the language the member used is unparliamentary. We cannot say indirectly what we cannot say directly. He basically stated that Conservatives are stealing from taxpayers. I would ask him to withdraw that statement and apologize.
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Mr. Speaker, according to Canada's Food Price Report just released by Dalhousie, food will cost a family of four an additional $700 next year, totalling $16,297. After eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, Canadians are being forced into the highest level of food bank use in history, proving the Prime Minister is not worth the cost, as he plans to quadruple his penalizing carbon tax. Will the…
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Mr. Speaker, when you tax the farmer that grows the food, it is only common sense that the food becomes more expensive for the people who buy it for their table. After eight years, the Prime Minister is still bent on his ideology of shaming people for buying what they need, which is food. This food has been produced under the increasing costs of the carbon tax, and now the Prime Minister plans to …
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With regard to the government’s commitment in budget 2022 to provide $28 million to train 1,000 new community-based firefighters: (a) how many firefighters have been trained to date through the program; (b) how much of the $28 million has been spent to date; and (c) what are the details of all expenditures to date?
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Madam Speaker, Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans submitted our supplemental report on the study of allocation of resources to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission because we are concerned about the persisting conflicts of interest and dysfunction caused by Canada's machinery of government structure for the commission. The conflicts of interest have resulted in th…
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Mr. Speaker, the member for St. Catharines seems to have forgotten to fit into his speech, which is supposed to be about the affordable housing and groceries act, that his Prime Minister had this big meeting with officers from all of the major grocery chains, and he promised to bring down the price of groceries by Thanksgiving. How much did that meeting bring down the cost of groceries by Thanksgi…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for bringing up the figure of speech I used, I guess wrongly. Yes, there were a lot of health care workers and other essential service providers who were doing incredible work during the COVID restrictions. I meant there was very little travel. All activity slowed down, so that was part of it. I thank her for that, and I was—
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Madam Speaker, no, I do not think a carbon tax in a free trade agreement is going to help Ukraine rebuild whatsoever. It will need the lowest cost and the most environmentally friendly energy possible. It can get that from Canada, yet we have a government that is throwing up red tape, bureaucracy and regulations in the way of doing any of that.
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Madam Speaker, I made no such reference. We saw how hot it was when the fires took place in the North Okanagan—Shuswap, in my riding, this year. However, the climate is a global issue. Canadian-produced LNG can be produced in a more environmentally friendly way than it can anywhere else in the world. If we can help get countries off dirty burning coal with our clean LNG, why would we not be doing …
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Madam Speaker, I will talk about how the government has failed to meet any of its targets for carbon emissions. The only time it met a target was when the economy was shut down because of COVID, when nobody was moving. Nobody was doing anything because of the travel restrictions. It has put out all kinds of ideologies and proposed all sorts of things, but it has accomplished so little in eight yea…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the member opposite the question back to her, but I do not think I am allowed to do that. Perhaps another time she would be able to explain why her Prime Minister, her leader, decided that there was no business case for exporting LNG from Canada to Europe when the U.S. has gone ahead and done this. Now, France has signed a 27-year agreement to import LNG from cou…
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Madam Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House as a representative of the amazing people and spectacular region of North Okanagan—Shuswap. Before I speak to Bill C-57, I would like to acknowledge that many of us have returned to Ottawa today after spending Remembrance Day and last week in our ridings. I would like to thank all of the volunteers who gave up their time to organize and pa…
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Mr. Speaker, the member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay is correct. We need to do everything we can to ensure the safety and well-being of our senior citizens, especially those who are in care homes and do not have families to support them. With respect to the technicalities of exactly what the current government can and cannot do, I would not want to be quoted on that. I believe it is a bit more…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in this House as a representative for the amazing people and spectacular region of North Okanagan—Shuswap. Before I speak to Bill C-34, I would like to acknowledge that this is Veterans Week. I also acknowledge the recent loss of a dedicated community volunteer, constituent and friend, Steve McInnis, a 37-year veteran with the Canadian Armed Forces, wher…
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Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent to see the clock at 5:30 p.m. so we can begin Private Members' Business.
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola for the question and for his support on something that I am passionate about, the prevention of aquatic invasive species into the Okanagan, Shuswap or any waters in B.C. On the three points the member mentioned, the current government has certainly failed. We are seeing taxes at higher levels than they have been in yea…
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Mr. Speaker, we are seeing that, after the inflationary spending of the current government, many businesses are struggling to survive. With the high interest rates that have been created, we are concerned about how many businesses may not be able to do so. However, to quickly sell them off to a foreign entity, which is really just looking to buy up businesses for pennies on the dollar, is not the …
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Madam Speaker, it was difficult to see the way the Liberal-NDP government decided to separate Canadians, initially, in this program. The member claims that the motion would provide equal benefit to all types of heating fuel. However, I question why he and his NDP colleagues continue to prop up the corrupt, divisive and unaccountable Liberal government time after time. They bring forward a motion l…
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to present three more petitions from citizens in the North Okanagan—Shuswap who are concerned about the NDP-Liberal government's overreach into their lives, especially when it comes to natural health products. The petitioners call on the Minister of Health to work with the natural health products industry and adjust Health Canada's cost recovery rates to accurately refl…
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Madam Speaker, I could only speculate on what the government may do. We know that it is going to quadruple the carbon tax. That is right; it will quadruple it. Perhaps the Liberal government needs to quadruple it to pay for some of these “free” heat pumps they are going to be giving out. It seems scandalous. It is like every other scandal within the Liberal government. There seems to be a free hea…
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Madam Speaker, that question gives me an opportunity to set the record straight here. When the carbon tax was originally brought in in B.C., it was a revenue-neutral tax. There were no extra funds going into the government coffers. When an NDP government was elected in B.C., that carbon tax became a revenue generator. It is no longer revenue-neutral. The government makes money off it. Will the mem…
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Madam Speaker, that question is very pertinent, and I am really glad the member asked the question. What we are going to do is not take the money out of Canadians' pockets in the first place. If it is not taken in the first place, it does not have to be provided back as an incentive or enticement to vote Liberal in the future. Why would Liberals take money out of the pockets of Canadians only to g…
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