Parliamentary Speeches
634 speeches by Michelle Rempel Garner — Page 9 of 13
Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in light of your ruling made yesterday, I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That, the house direct the government to provide complete answers to members—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I can tell members what we did not mean. We did not mean this flaming dumpster fire wreck of a bill that the government is ramming through, in spite of hundreds of people and millions of Canadians saying they do not want it. I offered solutions the government could have taken that Facebook, Google and other media companies already put on the table, such as creating funds that would …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Thornhill. I would like to start by giving a big shout-out and thanks to my colleague, the member for Lethbridge, for all of her exceptionally hard work in stopping this dumpster fire from happening, but here we are tonight. I think it is really important for people to understand why we are here and what is happening, so I want to brea…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. On a point of clarification, based on your ruling on this matter, would it be fair to characterize Kyle Harrietha's prediction in the ATIP that your ruling would “tut tut” the matter as correct?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this bill deals with a very important topic, which is the sustainability of journalism in Canada. There have been many stakeholders from across the country who have expressed deep concerns, and I also note that, at various stages of the debate, there were many witnesses from different regions, different demographics, who participate in media in Canada who were not allowed to testify…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, for us to actually address reconciliation, there needs to be more indigenous voices and indigenous reporting. This bill would do the opposite. I think about a young indigenous woman who wants to start as a journalist to tell her story and the story of her people, and this bill would prevent her voice from being shared on some of the platforms we need to share on today, such as Faceb…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is exactly the type of misinformation the Liberals want their controlled media sources to spread to Canadians. The reality is that, when he raises that issue of Australia, Australia amended its legislation so that Facebook and Google could work with journalists to create deals to support journalism in ways that go directly to journalism, outside of the legislative framework, un…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I have reserved the right to respond to the government's response to my question of privilege. I believe it was on Friday that the member for Brampton North added some government response to the question of privilege I raised last week with regard to the government withholding information on an Order Paper question and proof of this. The member for Brampton North said the following: T…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, when you are making your ruling on this, I would ask that you look to the response to Question No. 1113, which is the question on which my colleague from Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola is raising his additional information. I would ask you to look specifically at the language under the NRCan response, which is different from other departments. Other departments actually undertook…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to instances, since November 4, 2015, where the government awarded a grant or contribution to a for-profit corporation that has since went out of business or ceased operations: (a) how many such instances have occurred with respect to a grant or contribution valued over $10,000; and (b) what are the details of such instances, including, for each, the (i) recipient, (ii) date the grant …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government has had eight years to consult, and it should not be a leap of logic to understand that revictimizing families by allowing the transfer of serial rapists out of maximum-security prison is something the government should have worked to avoid, just like it failed with the Terri-Lynne McClintic case. If the member looks behind to his caucus, he will see his caucus cringing…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I think it is worth noting that the government has the authority to introduce legislation, such as bills the Conservative Party has just put forward, to ensure that offenders like Paul Bernardo, one of Canada's worst serial rapists, stay in maximum security. That is its job. The Prime Minister's Office and the Prime Minister knew about this for three months. He has a litany of highly …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege regarding evidence I have received through an ATIP request that demonstrates the government deliberately withheld information I sought from the Minister of Natural Resources through written Question No. 974. Question No. 974 was also the subject of a point of order I raised on January 31, 2023. As background context, on November 3, 1978, the member fo…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I remember sitting here five years ago when the public safety minister said he would make changes to the prison transfer program when another child killer, Terri-Lynne McClintic, was transferred to a minimum-security healing lodge. Right now, I am struck by the fact that the Prime Minister has only ever fired one person. Therefore, I have to wonder if the minister thinks the reason th…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, respectfully, I would argue the government has had five years to have a constructive conversation on this. The victim's family was revictimized when Terri-Lynne McClintic was transferred to a minimum-security prison. My colleagues have already gone down the line of the litany of failures of the minister. It is not just the Bernardo issue today. If he will not admit a gendered aspect t…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, my colleague is right; it is not all the municipalities' fault. It is her government's fault. It has had eight years and has spent hundreds of billions of dollars, and all it has to show for it are anxiety and panic among people who cannot afford rent. It is not just because of the lack of affordable housing, and that is a big part of it, but it is also because deficit inflationary sp…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, for those who are watching this morning, we are seized with in Parliament the recommendations of a report that relate to building housing. My colleague for Parry Sound—Muskoka just outlined some of how we could potentially build more housing in Canada. What I would like to do this morning is hopefully, for everybody who is here, outline why, with stories from my community and a person…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, my colleague just described a situation that is endemic across the country. The housing crisis is affecting everyone. There have also been many stories in the news of universities and colleges across the country where students cannot go anymore because they cannot find a place to rent. There were stories in the news about the deplorable living conditions students were facing. This wee…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. I just want to respond to the deputy House leader's assertion that I did not like the response. For your information, and for that of the table staff who are perhaps providing you information, the point is that the government said that it could not respond to the question in the time allotted. Therefore, it has stated that it could not respond. Whe…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, our planet and our country are literally burning. Objectively, the Liberal environment minister is making it worse. Not only has he allowed Canada's greenhouse gas emissions to climb to a record high, but he has also done so while dogmatically enforcing policies that are not getting the job done and are making the cost of living worse. That is because the Liberals' deficit-fuelled inf…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order to draw attention to a procedural matter related to Question No. 1337, which I submitted on March 21. In this Order Paper question, I asked for a detailed breakdown of spending from the mission cultural fund. For the sake of time, I will spare reading the text of the question into the record, but my point of order relates to a passage found on page 523 of …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, first of all, with regard to the for-profit licensed child care spaces, the bill does not recognize the fact that there might be a grandma, a retired person or an aunt who stays at home specifically to care for children and who takes in other children in the neighbourhood. They may not have the means to go through the licensing process, but they are providing quality child care. It is…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to sexual assault, physical assault or harassment complaints filed by those abiding by the government’s hotel quarantine measures since March 1, 2020: (a) how many sexual assaults, physical assaults or harassment complaints have been filed, broken down by type of complaint; (b) how many of the complaints in (a) resulted in criminal charges; (c) how many sexual assaults, physical assaul…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the government’s commitment to provide free menstrual products in federally regulated workplaces, since January 1, 2019: (a) how many consultations has the government held on this policy; (b) how many stakeholders has the government consulted with on this policy; (c) what are the details of the consultations, including, for each consultation, the (i) names of organizations consulted…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, let me start by saying something from my heart, something I think we all agree on in this place: Canadians deserve and need access to affordable, quality child care. This is important for so many reasons, particularly for gender equality. While our country has made gains in various measures of gender equality, we know that women still bear the disproportionate labour costs of child ca…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, of course creating more child care spaces is important, as is creating equity in how child care is valued in all of its forms. I just wish we could have our cake and eat it too with this bill. I will say that perhaps the NDP and Alberta's prospects would have been better if they understood that rural Alberta matters, too, because they sure did not do well there.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this bill will not meet all child care needs. What we should be looking at when it comes to child care is valuing the labour of child care no matter how it occurs, because if we do not use that as a principle, we are not as a Parliament respecting the diversity of our country, nor are we creating equity in how we value child care. That is the wrong message to send to Canadians. I unde…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's response. I also think he would understand that, when I hear from the government “Do not worry; just trust us”, I am not so sure about that. Also, the reality is that we do have a very important issue facing our country, which is climate change. The Liberal government has failed to meet its targets. It has failed to provide the type of infrastructure, for…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in debate tonight to talk about amendments that have been proposed to Bill S-5, which is an act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act of 1999. I have now had a chance to review many of the amendments that are before the House right now. I want to focus my comments on one particular area, and perhaps express some concern over the lack of clarity with…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, just to re-emphasize the point I tried to make in my speech, the government has not included any sort of clarity with this provision, either on scope or on enforceability. It is really unfortunate. It is a missed opportunity, particularly now that we are in report stage. The government needs to fix that.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, first of all, I would never defend the Liberal government, just to be very clear to my colleague. We agree that there has to be some change there. The reality is that Canada is a large country that is natural-resource-intensive in terms of its economic output. It is cold here. We do not have the substitute goods that we need, in the Canadian context, to lower the price elasticity of…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Mission Cultural Fund (MCF) since November 4, 2015: (a) what are the details of all spending from this fund, broken down by month, including, for each initiative funded, the (i) name of recipient, (ii) amount, (iii) location, (iv) date, (v) purpose, (vi) description of related events; (b) what was the amount spent from the fund, broken down by month; (c) what is the current stat…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member spoke about cats. When I think about my cat, my cat has this habit of jumping out of nowhere and grabbing me, and it is really annoying. It is kind of like another cat I know in this place, a cat who has taken an all-expenses-paid trip to the Aga Khan island, charged six thousands dollars' worth of hotel rooms, went on a Jamaican vacation with a donor to his family founda…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, oh, boy, I agree. They have got to get back to the table. The government also has to stop trying to trial balloon things, saying that this strike is the union's fault, because what that does, and what it is trying to do, is pit public sector workers against private sector workers and against everyone. We have to unite as a country. There are a lot of people who do not want us to be un…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have questions about Canada's grocery oligopoly. I do. However, the government has racked up so much debt. That money has caused an inflationary crisis, including food increases. With regard to energy, of course we need to address climate change. While we do that, why are we lining the pockets of autocratic countries? Why are we not investing in our own energy security? It is just t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this government has spent a lot on climate. Our greenhouse gas emissions are going up. We do not have substitute goods for high-carbon products and practices. We are not meeting our climate targets. They are not even measuring results of the program. On housing, we do not have affordable housing stock. On health care, people are waiting in emergency rooms. Everybody feels that tune, a…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is always a deep honour to rise and speak in this place. There is something uniting Canadians right now, and it is not a good thing. It is this emotion, this sense, this pulse that is kind of humming through Canadians. The beat goes like this: spend more, get less; spend more, get less. It is at the heart of family disagreements. It is at the heart of people feeling hopelessness. I…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that was a bit of a hot mike for my colleague. We have got to be compassionate for Canadians and feel what they feel. We have got to stop spending more and giving them less.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, “They will definitely be allowed to enter Canada with this letter” is what a senator's office told people when distributing hundreds of unauthorized travel documents, yet the then minister of defence said he did not know this was happening because he was not reading his emails. These actions put lives in danger and vaporized any illusion of equity in Canada's grossly inadequate evacua…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, we are late into debate here in the House of Commons today. For those who may just be catching up on what is happening, I would like to offer a little refresher, if I may. Today what was supposed to be debated in the House during this time period was legislation regarding the federal budget. That is what we were supposed to be debating right now. Of course, the federal budget is som…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would just note that, when the Liberal-NDP coalition was trying to shut me down on this, I was barely a minute into my speech. These members need to let me get to the point I am trying to make, instead of just trying to silence me, as the government is doing with its censorship bills. This is what we are dealing with here, being silenced. Instead of debating the budget, as we are …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the debate that is happening here today, to me, seems to be a repeat of the debate that happened at the immigration committee on a motion that went through the immigration committee. It is also happening on a day when the budget is being debated and I am wondering if my colleague thinks that the reason this is happening is because the Liberal-NDP coalition actually does not want to …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague raises an excellent point. I wish I had three hours to address the privacy components of Bill C-27. I am certainly very keen to follow, should this make it to committee, what happens there. I am of the opinion that this should not make it to committee. There are so many amendments that need to be made on the privacy components, but more importantly because AIDA was tack…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I had the opportunity to speak in a large debate, actually with Noam Chomsky, if one can believe it, with the Montreal institute for artificial intelligence, on a similar topic. The reality is that, with AI, the toothpaste is out of the tube. We are not putting it back in. It is incumbent upon humanity to answer that question with a positive outcome that we are putting guardrails ar…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to focus my remarks today on the component of this bill that deals with the artificial intelligence and data act. The first time I interacted with ChatGPT was the day after it was released. Upon seeing it easily parse human language, my first thought was, “holy” followed by a word I am not supposed to say in this place. The second thought was, “What will the government …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am so glad we are having this debate. The large language model technology ChatGPT, as well as the Sydney chatbot, is based on these other technologies. It scrapes and uses massive data sets that may or may not be ethical to use, or as my colleague rightly mentions, they may have issues intellectual property ownership. It is the Wild West. There are no rules around this. I would li…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Integrity Regime, since November 4, 2015: (a) what are the details of any memorandums, briefing notes, or other similar type of documents which discussed the status of McKinsey & Company’s acceptability to receive contracts under the Integrity Regime, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) sender, (iii) recipient, (iv) type of document…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we are here today in the middle of a debate where the Liberal government has curtailed debate on a censorship bill. It has actually censored debate on its censorship bill. To put into perspective what is happening here today, people who have reviewed this bill, from all political stripes, all walks of life and all backgrounds in Canada, have said this bill would create in Canada the m…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, what do CTV bureau chief Bill Fortier; the president of Save the Children Canada, Danny Glenwright; film director Adam Smoluk; Alana Warnick, star of Canada's Ultimate Challenge; and I all have in common? Well, we all graduated from Winnipeg's Glenlawn Collegiate Institute 25 years ago, and this May the school will celebrate its 100th anniversary. This western Canadian public school h…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would love to take a trip back down memory lane. In 2015, houses were half the cost in Canada, people could actually afford rent, the budget was balanced, we had economic growth and our international peers looked upon us to actually get things done instead of with embarrassment. Those were the golden days. If we could only have them back.
Read full speech →