Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago the government campaigned on a promise to “run modest...deficits of less than $10 billion...to fund historic investments in infrastructure” and then let the budget balance itself. For 10 years the Liberals ran increasing deficits, failed to build the infrastructure, ignored their promise and claimed that all that really mattered was declining debt to GDP. In 2024, the the…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, in the last election, the Prime Minister argued for an aggressive elbows-up approach with the United States. Then in November, in the wake of Donald Trump's crippling tariffs and the ongoing trade war, the Prime Minister was asked during a G20 summit when he had last spoken to the President. His response was to flippantly say, “Who cares?” This was an insensitive remark, particularly …
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Mr. Speaker, I am glad to join this debate. This is an opportunity for parliamentarians to hear about some of the dysfunction that exists at committees, which is at the hands, largely, of the chairs and probably, in some cases, the parliamentary secretaries that carry the government's water on committee. It is due to the chairs' inability to manage their committees. I am going to talk about the fi…
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Mr. Speaker, I have been here for 10 years, and I have no idea about that book. I do know a couple of things though. First, if the member had listened to my speech, he would have noted that it is entirely his caucus that is obstructing the work of the finance committee. Second, with respect to the opposition leader, with whom I have the privilege of serving on the finance committee, I noted that t…
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Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what has happened. The member was there for the filibuster that the parliamentary secretary undertook. The Liberals do not want to study anything else. They were fixated on pre-studying the BIA. Can they go 18 or 20 months without tabling a budget, and then all of a sudden the budget implementation act has to be pre-studied, even when they are still amending it in the …
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank the member for moving this motion. If he had not done so, we would not have had this opportunity to debate the deplorable conduct of the Liberals in committee. In his first intervention here, it was as though the member for Winnipeg North was unaware that his own colleagues are filibustering their own bills at committee. At the finance committee, not once…
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Mr. Speaker, I am being heckled by the member for Winnipeg North. Maybe he does not know that it is his own caucus colleagues who have filibustered Bill C-4 at the finance committee, but I will get to that. I want to take this in order. This committee formed and began in the spring. It had a chair who has demonstrated a disregard for the rules of committee, does not follow the practice and procedu…
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Mr. Speaker, I have been in the House for the Liberal government's 10 years, and it is terrible at managing the legislative agenda. When it comes to committees, I am very disappointed with what I have learned during this debate about the dysfunction at a number of committees, not just at the finance committee. The member is absolutely right; if a government is competent, it should have a legislati…
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I am afraid the member has run out of time. Questions and comments, the member for Winnipeg North.
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The member for Parkland.
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Questions and comments, the member for Wellington—Halton Hills.
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Madam Speaker, I am so pleased that this bill is coming to the floor of the House of Commons, and I thank the member for Simcoe North for bringing it forward. He talked a bit in his speech about the urgent need for this bill because this addresses a problem that is getting worse. As recently as 2020, the CRA would at least, in an Order Paper question, give the dollar figure for the top writeoffs. …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am glad to be able to speak to this bill. I feel quite strongly about the issues within it. This came to my attention a few years ago as a problem when, in an Order Paper question, which, unlike a question during question period, is something the government is required to answer. The government is not allowed to just tap dance around and refuse to answer an Order Paper question. T…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to trade with the Americans, the Prime Minister went from “elbows up” to “Who cares?” He backed down on countertariffs and on legal challenges to softwood lumber, but he got nothing in return when he went to Washington in October; well, he got nothing for Canadians. Days later, the Americans signed an $80-billion nuclear deal with the Prime Minister's company, Brookfield…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, back in the spring, I asked the housing minister an important question. I pointed out to him that what has happened under the government over the last 10 years is that Canada has become a country where there are just two kinds of families: families that already own real estate and families that have given up hope of ever owning real estate. That is because for young people today, th…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the member, in his speech, suggested that perhaps I have been around long enough to know a bit about the history of housing affordability in Canada. He is right. I spent 22 years in the mortgage business before I became a member of Parliament. I am quite aware of affordability and how it impacts families. What I know is that before the government took office, wages and per capita GD…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, this credit card budget loads today's spending on to tomorrow's taxpayers. Fitch credit ratings, which rates the government's credit, says the Liberal government frequently blows through its fiscal anchors and has “a high risk of further deterioration”. The Parliamentary Budget Officer says the government abandoned its previous fiscal anchor, which was there to preserve its AAA rating…
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Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer spared nothing in pointing out how terrible and how low the credibility of the government is. There is a 92.5% chance the Liberals are not going to sustain their anchor, so their anchors mean nothing and they have no credibility. The member is absolutely right. The Liberals, including a moment ago with the member for Winnipeg North, claim that their bu…
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Mr. Speaker, I mentioned the energy industry, and I support that industry as an economic driver of this country. I am appalled by the approach of the government to the industry. The government's approach has been to regulate it into the ground. All the energy industry needs is for the government to get off its back and allow private investment to return in order to employ Canadians in the highest-…
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Mr. Speaker, of course I support that objective. The problem is that the government has no credibility on executing any of the things it promises. The government has been in charge for 10 years, and we have no significant upgrades on military equipment. The Prime Minister travels all over the world, and every time he goes somewhere, a week or two later the country he has been to imposes a new tari…
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Mr. Speaker, I think everyone here is old enough to remember the year 2015. That was the year the Harper government brought the budget back into balance after successfully steering Canada through the great recession and when the New York Times congratulated Canada for having the world's most prosperous middle class. This was a few years after the Liberals tried to topple the government because Har…
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Mr. Speaker, we request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of a number of my constituents. I have a petition signed by hundreds of Canadians, most of whom reside in my constituency of Calgary Crowfoot. They draw attention to the transnational repression of Falun Gong practitioners here in Canada by the Chinese Communist Party. They call upon the Government of Canada to publicly call on the Chinese regime to end its persecutio…
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Madam Speaker, the employment rate and the unemployment rate can be measured separately. They are not the same thing. It has been remarked upon that Canada has the worst employment rate in more than 25 years. I wonder if the member could comment on the employment rate.
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Madam Speaker, in the member's speech, he repeatedly asserted that it was somehow because we had moved a concurrence motion, at the appropriate time, to give the House the opportunity to debate the business of a parliamentary committee and allow members to vote on it, that this was filibustering Bill C-4. Is he aware that his own caucus colleagues spent last week filibustering Bill C-4 at the parl…
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Mr. Speaker, I ask that the motion be carried. (Motion agreed to)
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of the government, Liberal elites and insiders have never had it so good, but the Prime Minister told young Canadians that they are the ones who need to sacrifice. While young Canadians have given up on home ownership, the Auditor General reports that the CRA allowed a telephone system contract to go from $50 million to nearly $200 million while it still does not answer…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of the Liberal government, Canada has gone from having the world's most prosperous middle class to a country of empty bank accounts, empty refrigerators and unaffordable homes. That is why Conservatives demand an affordable budget, one that cuts the hidden taxes on food, like the industrial carbon tax, the plastics ban and the fuel regulations; one that cuts taxes on wo…
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Mr. Speaker, there are plenty of volunteers, it would seem, for that debate. Maybe it will happen someday.
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Mr. Speaker, the member spoke about the Liberal Party's track record. He did not have enough time to list all of the transgressions of our ethics laws that took place in the last Parliament. It goes even deeper because the Federal Accountability Act of the previous Conservative government was brought in to deal with the corruption of the government before that. Would the member comment on the exte…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, over the years, I have become quite used to this. This is typical and happens over and over again. The Liberal government fails to pass laws. The Liberals table laws, fail to move them, delay and dither, waste time, prorogue in this case, and then blame the opposition that they cannot get their agenda through the House.
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Mr. Speaker, I hope the member is not implying that having an ethical government is not in the interests of the Liberal Party. I think that is what I just heard him say, that by having this debate about the Conflict of Interest Act, we are acting only in the interests of the Conservative Party. I would hope that all parties want a regime where the appearance of conflict of interest does not happen…
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Mr. Speaker, yes I do. I did not see and have not read the testimony from committee, but what the member is reporting to the House is troubling indeed and material to the debate we are having.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to debate this motion. I will say from the outset that I support the motion and the amendment. I have some history with these matters: I chaired the ethics committee and spent time off and on that committee over the last three Parliaments. It is a core function of committee to review legislation. Earlier in debate, the member for Winnipeg North mad…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak in the House, as always. Today we are talking about Bill C-12. It is a fairly large omnibus bill that would amend many different acts, and it goes into many different areas of national policy. It is a second attempt by the government to put forward a bill that would address a number of problems that are well known and well identified, problems that Conservati…
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Mr. Speaker, it is typical that the Liberals do not want to debate my speech. This is pretty rich coming from a government that had plenty of time to call the RCMP racist as an institution and is now switching from the debate at hand. I will take the next comment or question and leave it at that.
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Madam Speaker, on the same line of questions, would the member comment on how the Liberal government, and in fact from the response to the infamous tweet heard around the world, managed to break the system through the conflation of economic migrants and refugees.
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Mr. Speaker, the member raised a very important problem. Canada has a very serious problem with terrorist financing and money laundering, and the government needs to do something about it. Bill C-2 especially and Bill C-12 are very large bills. I did not get to that in my speech, but the Liberals made a mess of Bill C-2. Bill C-12 does not go all the way to fixing it and does not address the serio…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a fantastic question. I do not know the answer to it. It is a great question that the government will have to answer when this bill gets to committee. I mentioned in my speech the reporting to the Minister of National Defence, but the member is correct that the bill does not specify that. That was my presumption. Who will be in charge of the Coast Guard when this is all done, …
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Mr. Speaker, is the member concerned that our NATO allies will see right through the accounting trickery of shifting a budget for the Coast Guard from a civilian budget to the Canadian Armed Forces without actually improving or enhancing our defence preparedness?
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Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's speech, and yes, eight years ago the government, through a deliberate choice of the then prime minister, blew up the asylum system, and the conflation of economic migrants and asylum seekers began. We have been in opposition for the tenure of the government. The government then purports to table a solution in the bill to a problem we have spent eight years t…
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Mr. Speaker, during his speech, my colleague made reference to the tweet that resulted in the conflation of economic migrants and asylum seekers. When he mentioned this tweet, which single-handedly broke the asylum system, he was heckled by the Liberal benches. One member in the Liberal benches called it the best tweet ever, so it would seem that the Liberal government has learned nothing, certain…
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Mr. Speaker, on the point of order, I certainly did not refer to any member or statement, so I do not believe that a rule was—
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Mr. Speaker, the member's remarks reveal the exact point we are trying to make. There were five prime ministers between the two Trudeaus, and all five of them took fiscal responsibility seriously—
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Mr. Speaker, the member is correct. Brian Mulroney inherited a basket case that is even worse than what we have today. Nine years was not long enough for Brian Mulroney to undo the damage that Pierre Trudeau did to this country. Every time we have someone named Trudeau running this country, they destroy the energy industry in my city and wreak fiscal and economic vandalism on Canadians.
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Mr. Speaker, it is $100 billion. No, that is not Dr. Evil's ransom demand from the world. That is today's headline in the National Post. The potential deficit that will be tabled in the budget in November is $100 billion. This is today's front page headline. It is important to consider how we got here. A $100-billion deficit is staggering. This is almost twice the national transfer to provinces fo…
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Mr. Speaker, I will address one specific example that occurred under the Liberal government. From time to time, we hear its members patting themselves on the back over the Trans Mountain pipeline. They congratulate themselves for nationalizing what was private infrastructure and subsidizing it to a staggering sum, so we ended up using public money to build something that should have been built pri…
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Mr. Speaker, I was quite surprised by the line of questioning that came from the Liberals. They would have us think that we have never had it so good, that everything is rosy in Canada and that, after 10 years of economic and fiscal vandalism, Canadians should congratulate the government for a job well done. The Liberals have broken every single promise they have made on deficits, debt and fiscal …
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is probably pretty insulated from the damage he is doing to the country. As to why he is doing it or what the motive is, I would have to leave that to the Liberals. I have no idea why they are wreaking fiscal and economic vandalism on this country. I wish they would not.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the phenomenon of share buyback is symptomatic of just how horrific the investment climate is in Canada. Businesses would generally love to invest in plant, equipment, technology and things that would increase productivity, but in this country, there is no opportunity.
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