Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, many religious groups have expressed concern about Bill C‑9, in particular about the removal of a long-standing good-faith religious expression defence. Now that the Liberals have decided to dismiss these very legitimate concerns, could the Liberal member clearly explain where the line now falls between the lawful expression of sincerely held religious beliefs and a criminal offence?
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity today to present petition e-7326 in the House of Commons. This petition has been signed by over 1,800 Canadians who are concerned about human rights abroad, particularly the case of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan. For more than three years, Imran Khan has been left to languish in prison in what the United Nations working committee on hu…
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Mr. Speaker, as usual, the Liberal member from Saskatchewan does not know what he is talking about. I have been here for a lot less than 10 years, and before I was elected, a Liberal MP represented my riding. During that time, the Liberals gave us the carbon tax, the “no more pipelines” bill and the west coast tanker ban, which led to thousands of job losses in the Saskatchewan oil patch. On the r…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity this afternoon to speak in favour of Bill S‑210, which would designate the month of September as Ukrainian heritage month. This bill is particularly relevant to Saskatchewan and the Prairies as a whole because of the long and rich history of Ukrainians and Ukrainian communities that has contributed to the development of that region of the country. …
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Mr. Speaker, of all the countries in the G20, Canada is the only one in a recession, and it is no mystery why. The Liberals' inflationary spending, red tape and antidevelopment policies created this recession and cost of living crisis. It is not global forces; it is Liberal choices. Why can the Prime Minister not understand that Canadians cannot afford to make ends meet, that his costly policies a…
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Mr. Speaker, does the hon. member have anything at all relevant to say about Bill C-16, which we are debating?
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition on behalf of concerned workers and business owners at the Regina International Airport. The signatories of the petition are concerned about the Liberals' proposed official languages administrative monetary penalties regulations and their application to businesses operating at airports. Smaller regional airports, such as Regina, do not have easy acces…
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Mr. Speaker, rising jet fuel prices are making international travel too expensive for many Canadians, but fortunately, next week, people in Regina and southern Saskatchewan can travel the world without ever leaving the queen city. The 55th annual Mosaic Festival of Cultures will be celebrated all across the queen city on June 4, 5 and 6. Pavilions throughout Regina will feature food, drinks and cu…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the defence minister was covering for cancelling the Snowbirds by telling Canadians the planes were unsafe, but according to CBC reporting, his own defence department says the Snowbirds can continue flying the jets until at least 2030. Who are Canadians to believe, the minister or his own department? Does the minister not have confidence in his own department, or did he mis…
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Mr. Speaker, in a recent video, the Prime Minister called Canada's closeness to the United States a weakness. This anti-American attitude, combined with the Liberals' decades-long opposition to pipelines, has caused the Americans to look elsewhere to meet their energy needs. Last month, the Americans suspended sanctions on oil imports from Russia. That is right, even Vladimir Putin is better at se…
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Mr. Speaker, every third Thursday in May, we celebrate Vyshyvanka Day. This year marks 20 years of this tradition in Ukraine and 10 years here in Canada. What began as a student initiative at Chernivtsi University has grown into a global celebration of Ukrainian heritage, identity and resilience. This Vyshyvanka Day, more than four years into Russia's illegal invasion, we are reminded that this sy…
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Madam Speaker, it is depressing to have to line up at a food bank when 10 years ago someone used to be able to afford groceries, but Canadians are starting to see that the Liberal promises are just an illusion. To quote an editorial in The Globe and Mail, “In the upside-down land of the Liberals, a spending spree is a spending cut, blowing a windfall of billions of dollars is prudent and failing t…
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Madam Speaker, after 11 years of the Liberals, they continue to spend like drunken sailors, with a deficit of $65 billion, debt servicing at $59 billion and the total debt a staggering $1.7 trillion. The costly credit card budget means more debt, more costs, more spending, more taxes and more of the same. Why have the Liberals doubled Justin Trudeau's deficit and doubled down on costly credit card…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to start this morning by thanking my grade 2 social studies teacher, Mrs. Rose Klein. It was many election cycles ago when I was in her class, which is where I first learned about elections. I could not have imagined that one day I would be standing here on the floor of the House of Commons debating a bill to make changes to the Canada Elections Act. That certainly speaks…
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Mr. Speaker, certainly undue influence and undue foreign influence is a concern in our elections. It is good to have a large number of grassroots Canadians participating in the democratic process, which is certainly preferable to a small number of well-to-do insiders. However, I would caution against the idea of public funds for parties or a per-vote subsidy for parties. If individuals want to get…
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Mr. Speaker, I should be clear that I am hopeful the measures included in Bill C-25 are sufficient to curtail the activities of the longest ballot committee. If they are not, then we will be right back here scratching our heads and looking for new ways to curtail its activities. I think that mandatory deposits are the most promising way, given the past activities of the committee.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the hon. member on becoming a grandfather for the fourth time, earlier this month. I wish him well with the new bundle of joy. I am hopeful that the measures in Bill C-25 are sufficient to curtail the activities of the longest ballot committee. However, I think it is very telling that its members were the ones behind the 2017 court case, which struck down …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today the Liberals want people to believe that they are in favour of pipelines, but it is all an illusion. Not so long ago, they declared that there was no business case for LNG development. The Liberal Prime Minister still has not gotten rid of the Liberals' antidevelopment laws. In my home province of Saskatchewan, natural resource development is not an abstract. It makes up 10% to …
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Mr. Speaker, last fall the media reported that Regina's new federally subsidized electric buses could run for only three hours per day in the winter, but in response to a written question, the Liberals said that they have “not been made aware of any instances where battery electric buses were unable to operate due to cold weather.” That is anywhere in the country. How is it possible for the Libera…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Natural Resources promised that Canada would “do its part” to help release oil reserves in order to stabilize the market, but Canada does not have a strategic oil reserve, in part because of Liberal energy policies that have kept Canadian oil and gas in the ground. Conservatives have proposed a strategic oil stockpile that would allow us to fuel our friends abroad, pow…
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Mr. Speaker, we should be extracting those reserves out of the ground and exporting them to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the Liberals have killed the northern gateway pipeline, the Keystone XL pipeline, the energy east pipeline, all of which could be exporting Canadian oil at $100 a barrel to the rest of the world. How much higher does the price have to go before the Liberals flip-flop ag…
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Mr. Speaker, obviously, if those programs were working, we would not have so many children living in poverty. Mahatma Gandhi once said that the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable, so it is unfortunate that child poverty in Canada has risen for the third year in a row. More than 800,000 children in this country are currently living in poverty, and that num…
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Mr. Speaker, last month during the Prime Minister's visit to Beijing, he announced that he finally had a deal to roll back that country's tariffs on Canadian canola. He even had a grandiose signing ceremony with Xi Jinping in front of Canadian and Chinese flags. Yesterday, however, the Chinese announced that they were postponing their decision until March 9. Is Beijing backing out of the deal, or …
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Madam Speaker, the finance minister promised three years ago to stabilize food prices, but today Canada has the highest food inflation rate in the G7, and more and more Canadians are struggling to afford groceries. Clearly, this problem requires a team Canada approach. Will the Liberals work with Conservatives to cancel the industrial carbon tax, the fuel standard tax and the plastic packaging tax…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today in the House of Commons on behalf of concerned residents of Regina and southern Saskatchewan. Signers of the petition are concerned about recent Liberal-Bloc amendments to Bill C-9 that could be used to criminalize passages from the Bible, the Quran, the Torah and other religious texts. They feel that government censor…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, last week the Prime Minister visited a grocery store to announce his Canada groceries and essentials benefit. While this program would do absolutely nothing for the vast majority of Canadians, it is even receiving lukewarm reviews from Regina's anti-poverty advocates. John Bailey, CEO of the Regina Food Bank, said that this rebate is not a magic bullet and that “it's not the only st…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have said many times now that the Canada groceries and essentials benefit would help 12 million Canadians, but what about the other 28 million Canadians who are struggling with rising grocery prices? Why not adopt policies that will bring down the cost of groceries for all Canadians, such as cancelling the industrial carbon tax, the federal fuel standard or unnecessary fo…
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Mr. Speaker, Statistics Canada has confirmed what Canadians already know: Food inflation is up 6.2%, and it is getting harder and harder for people to fill their shopping carts with groceries. The Liberal fuel standard adds 7¢ to every litre of gas. That is going up to 17¢ by 2030, and this drives up higher prices at the grocery store. Conservatives would be more than happy to work with the Libera…
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Mr. Speaker, last year I met with Holly Laird, executive director of the Regina Farmers' Market, whose organization had developed a program that was both inspiring and depressing. The Regina Farmers' Market had partnered with the YWCA to hand out food coupons so that families could afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. While it is inspiring to see neighbours helping neighbours, it is depressi…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today on behalf of members of the Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association. Approximately 2,200 people suffer a new acquired brain injury every year in Saskatchewan, with about 150 of those requiring significant long-term support. The most common causes of acquired brain injuries include strokes, falls and motor vehicle accidents…
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Mr. Speaker, in last month's budget, the finance minister said he made tough decisions to find savings, so I was surprised and disappointed to learn that the CEO of Farm Credit Canada racked up $300,000 in travel expenses this year and last year. Furthermore, almost all of those expenses were within Canada, to talk with FCC employees at their offices. Why can the FCC not spend $20 on a Zoom subscr…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition here today on behalf of concerned residents of Regina and southern Saskatchewan. The petitioners are concerned about the Liberal government's plan to ban the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. They say the plan is unrealistic due to the lack of capacity in this country's electricity grid, and the result wil…
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Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign, the Prime Minister said he would be elbows up when dealing with the existential crisis of Trump's tariffs. Now months after failing to negotiate a win, he is saying, “Who cares?” Well, I will tell members who cares. Conservatives care, and so do the 1,200 steelworkers at Interpro Pipe and Steel in Regina, whose jobs are under threat because of this trade …
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with a lot of what the member had to say about the need to diversify our export markets and increase non-U.S. exports. For many years, Conservatives have been saying that the northern gateway pipeline project would be a welcomed way to increase our non-U.S. exports. In order for that project to move forward, the Liberals would have to repeal Bill C-48, the west coast tanker ba…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, from 1932 to 1933, millions of Ukrainians perished in the Holodomor, a man-made famine deliberately engineered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. For many years, Saskatchewan's Holodomor memorial stood in Regina's Wascana Park, with the reproduction of the iconic Bitter Memories of Childhood statue as its centrepiece. Unfortunately, over time, the Saskatchewan winters took their toll a…
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Mr. Speaker, the Northern Gateway pipeline was going to diversify Canada's export markets by selling Canadian oil and gas to the world, but the Liberals killed that project with Bill C-48, the west coast tanker ban, which keeps Canadian oil and gas landlocked. Worse still, the Liberals' tanker ban applies to Canadian ships only, not American ones. If American ships can export American oil through …
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today on behalf of members of Regina's Jamaican community who are concerned about the devastating effects of hurricane Melissa, which recently struck that island. Of particular concern is the major damage the hurricane caused to hospitals in Jamaica. The petitioners have come up with a very innovative suggestion, which is to s…
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Mr. Speaker, the benefits to society from our natural resource sector far outweigh the costs. I would like to point out that the Government of Saskatchewan's annual budget gets 10% to 15% of its revenues every year from natural resource royalties. If my hon. colleague is suggesting the federal Liberal government should have less to do with oil and gas companies and should get out of the way, I wou…
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, we are seeing more of the same from the Liberals on this budget, which is the continuation of 10 years of poor leadership. This is, of course, going to lead to higher costs at the grocery store and higher costs for Canadians who are struggling to make ends meet. I would like to quote our former prime minister, Justin Trudeau, if I may, from just five years ago. He said,…
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Mr. Speaker, what I have found so troubling about the Liberals over the years is they constantly want to play a shell game when it comes to the budget. It used to be that they were going to balance the budget come hell or high water, when Paul Martin was prime minister, and then they changed their tune to say that it was not going to be balanced but was going to be a portion of the debt-to-GDP rat…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to rise today, but before I get too far into the details of the budget implementation act, I would be remiss if I did not provide the House with at least a bit of an update on the Saskatchewan Roughriders Grey Cup celebrations, which have been going on all week in Regina and right across Saskatchewan. Fans of the green and white poured into the streets …
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Madam Speaker, an agreement was finally reached last night at the APEC summit in South Korea. Unfortunately the agreement was between the United States and China, but not Canada, to reduce tariffs. The Prime Minister flew to Asia, met with the Chinese President and had a nice photo op, but there is still no deal. In this international game of Deal or No Deal, why is it always no deal for Canada fr…
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Madam Speaker, it is not just Chinese canola tariffs that are punishing Canadian farmers. India has slapped a 30% tariff on Canadian peas and a 10% tariff on lentils. Canada cannot export beef to the United Kingdom, but the U.K. can and does export beef to Canada. When will the Prime Minister finally stop with the photo ops and finally get a deal for Canadian producers?
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today on behalf of many Pakistani Canadians who are concerned about the arbitrary detention of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and the fate of his supporters. Signers of the petition believe that free and fair elections in Pakistan remain a distant hope after widespread reports of the massive rigging of last year'…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today on behalf of concerned residents of Regina and southern Saskatchewan. The signatories of the petition are concerned about a recent finance committee recommendation to revoke the charitable status of religious organizations. They feel that faith-based charities do good work in our communities, as secular charities do, and…
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Mr. Speaker, before the election, the Prime Minister said he could solve Canada's economic woes because he has a plan. This week, he finally revealed that plan to a roomful of young people. It turns out that the plan is that young people have to make sacrifices by giving on the dream of home ownership, paying higher prices at the grocery store and spending all summer unemployed. If this was the Pr…
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Mr. Speaker, Remembrance Day is all about thanking Canada's war veterans and remembering those who never came home. Sadly, Canada's Second World War veterans are getting fewer and fewer in number. Recently, Regina lost its last remaining World War II veteran. “Ossie” Lakness enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1943, shortly after his 20th birthday. He went on to serve as a quartermaster on the …
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Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign, the Prime Minister promised to “Build, baby, build.” He promised to fast-track nation-building projects and that these projects would be built at a speed not seen in generations. He said he was committed to “building the strongest economy in the G7”. Unfortunately, most of us thought he was talking about the Canadian economy, not the United States'. When …
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Mr. Speaker, this reminds me of the elementary school student who comes home with an F on his report card and says to his mom and dad that other kids flunked their report cards too. It does not mean someone is doing a good job just because they can point out someone who has a record that is just as bad. It is true that governments around the world have struggled with reining in unnecessary spendin…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin my speech this morning with a movie review, if I may. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, is widely considered to be James Cameron's masterpiece, won 11 Oscars and brought in $2 billion at the box office. Of course, I am talking about Titanic. One of the most memorable scenes from that movie is when the ship is first coming up on the iceberg and t…
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