Parliamentary Speeches

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, as members know, we supported that amendment and continue to support that. My father, who was a businessman, used to say to me when I was young, “Son, what gets measured gets improved.” If we cannot measure something, it is very difficult to see whether we are improving or not. We simply do not know. I thought the NDP's amendment was a great one and that it would give us the ability…

Private Members' Business

moved that Bill C-281, An Act to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act, the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law), the Broadcasting Act and the Prohibiting Cluster Munitions Act, be read the third time and passed. Mr. Speaker, as always, it is an honour and privilege to rise in this House on behalf of the people of Northumberland—P…

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present today. One is in support of Bill C-257, which seeks to include political rights within human rights. As members know, unfortunately many Canadians are discriminated against because of their political beliefs. This legislation seeks to protect their political rights and the freedom of expression associated with them.

Routine Proceedings

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from a group of petitioners who are against the expansion of MAID to include infanticide. They believe that the lives of children are sacred and that MAID should not be extended to infants.

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I would like to start by thanking all of the individuals who played such important roles in getting this legislation before the House today, up for a final vote and, hopefully, off to the Senate. I will start with thanking the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan. He worked very closely with me in drafting and putting this legislation together. I would like to also thank …

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, what I would say to that is that this legislation actually proposes a framework for human rights reporting and with respect to prisoners of conscience. The more we can raise the awareness of the Canadian public, and I know that all of Canada is in favour of human rights, the more we can get that case to build. I might say that the NDP amendment would have been helpful with that as w…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, my point of order is with respect to the Minister of Tourism. I had intended to raise this issue earlier. The Minister of Tourism, in responding to a question, said, “it is so nice to have so many friends from the blue team from Alberta”. This is doing indirectly what he cannot do directly. Of course, members cannot comment on the presence or absence of a member.

Routine Proceedings

Madam Speaker, there is contempt. There is contempt for the lack of democratic process in this Liberal budget. That is what there is—

It is a different point of order.

Madam Speaker, I certainly respect any ruling you might make, but I did have my hand up prior to your saying that we would go to orders of the day after this. I would like my point of order heard before we—

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order before you make your decision on how to group report stage motions on Bill C-47, budget implementation act 2023, no. 1. Before I get to the specifics of my request, let me say at the outset of my appeal to the Chair how disappointing it is that the debate on the budget has been shut down at every stage of the legislative process so far. In its rush, the go…

Madam Speaker, as always, I appreciate your patience on these matters. It is normal, of course, for a government to table a budget and then get a bump in the polls, but this budget is so unpopular with Canadians that the Liberals actually dropped in the polls after the finance minister tabled it in the House—

Madam Speaker, I will jump ahead in my remarks here in order to expedite things, given your continued patience. I will start here and, I promise, get to my point relatively quickly. This little bit of context is important and germane to my point. I am just going through the facts here. On May 29, beginning at 4:30 p.m., the Chair was empowered by a programming motion to put every question necessar…

Madam Speaker, my point of order is a little different from what the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan was saying, but I look forward to hearing his comments with respect to that. I was literally stating the facts, which I believe, on a point of order, I am not only allowed but also obligated to do. Facts that I am describing are critical to the argument because, in order to introduce an …

Madam Speaker, I will be brief. Having been at the finance committee, I know the violation of privilege happened. This is totally separate and distinct, as I mentioned earlier in my point of order, from the point of order on the allowance of amendments at report stage. Points of privilege are, of course, incredibly critical to the functioning of the House. If the rules and the privileges are viola…

Madam Speaker, I believe that the parliamentary secretary for finance was in the House without a jacket on, which I do not believe is—

Madam Speaker, I believe that men are required to have a jacket at all times in the House. There are certain wardrobe requirements, and I believe wearing a T-shirt borders on being disrespectful to the House.

Madam Speaker, mine is on the same point. Please give the member—

Mine is on the question of privilege.

Oral Questions

Yes, it is working, Madam Speaker.

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I just have a brief point of order. I know the member is very passionate, but he has been yelling for an extended period of time, and our interpreters could be hurt by this. I would just ask him to maybe—

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, Philip Cross, former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, testified before the finance committee that Canada has had its lowest GDP per capita since the 1930s. Yes, that means we are languishing in the worst economy since the Great Depression. The reason is the Liberals' war on work. Excessive taxation and regulation is punishing our entrepreneurs and our workers. Parents and …

Private Members' Business

moved that the bill, as amended, be concurred in at report stage with further amendments.

Private Members' Business

Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.

Routine Proceedings

With regard to tax revenues collected by the Government of Canada: (a) how much does the government collect in tobacco taxes annually; (b) what is the amount of federal tax revenue that is lost annually from the sale of illegal, untaxed tobacco; (c) how does the government track and monitor the sale of illegal, untaxed tobacco in Canada; (d) what resources are presently committed by the government…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I just want to start out my speech tonight by talking about something that is related, although perhaps not directly on point, if I could have the indulgence of the House. An incredibly sad story came out of my riding in recent days. Vienna Rose Irwin, age two, was discovered in an open well outside of a day care in my riding. She had obviously passed away. I just want to take this …

Government Orders

I know.

Government Orders

Exactly. Madam Speaker, I just want to walk members through a couple of the actual numbers. Let us say that we have a parent who is earning $45,000 and a second parent who wants to go back and earn $20,000. Their participation tax rate, as I outlined it earlier, if they live in Newfoundland and have one kid, is 38%. I have a lot of these, but I am just going to go through and pick a couple of them…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I think that was a fantastic and fair question, and that is why we supported the amendment put forward by the NDP. We will continue to support that. Obviously, the residential schools and the stealing of indigenous children are absolutely beyond the pale, so inclusive of that or exclusive of that, Conservatives believe entirely that children should be raised as their parents and the…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank the member, first off, for extending her sympathies. I appreciate that, and I appreciate a lot of the member's response, but I just want to address a couple of points. One is that we want to enable and empower grandparents, and there is nothing in the legislation, to be clear, that would stop them from looking after kids, but if we were able to reduce the cost of living; red…

Government Orders

Can I have unanimous consent to table this after my speech?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, the key number there is per capita. The growth rate is 0.8% over the last 10 years. That is the worst since the Great Depression. We have record-high deficits. We have record-high debt. We have a slowing economy and record-low economic growth. This is very disappointing.

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, will she provide an allocation of the $12 billion unallocated in the budget?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, what has been the growth rate per capita, the GDP growth rate? What was been the per capita GDP debt growth rate in the last 10 years?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, I want to start out with some serious discussion. I believe we had a serious discussion at the finance committee. We are in perilous economic times. We are facing high inflation, high interest rates, increasing unemployment, record-high housing prices, low growth and record food bank usage. I would just like to start to get some basic answers, some straightforward answers to some straig…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, what will be the national debt at the end of 2023?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, what was the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2021-22?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, during COVID, from 2021 to 2022, and then the next year, from 2022 to 2023, the debt-to-GDP ratio went up. Is that not correct?

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, it went up from 42% to 43%, which is odd because, in this very House, the Minister of Finance said, “On this point, let me be very clear. We are absolutely determined that our debt-to-GDP ratio must continue to decline and our deficits must continue to be reduced. The pandemic debt we incurred to keep Canadians safe must be paid down. This is our fiscal anchor. This is a line we will no…

Government Orders

Mr. Chair, speaking of parliamentary budget officers, our current Parliamentary Budget Officer said he was troubled by the lack of transparency, specifically with respect to $12 billion in unallocated funds. Will the Minister of Finance agree to provide an allocation of that $12 billion?

Private Members' Business

moved: Motion No. 1 That Bill C-281, in Clause 2, be amended by replacing, in the French version, line 19 on page 2 with the following: “droits de la personne;” Motion No. 2 That Bill C-281, in Clause 3, be amended by replacing, in the English version, line 15 on page 3 with the following: “rules of the Senate or the Standing Orders of the House of Commons for responses to” Motion No. 3 That Bill …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I request a recorded vote.

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, we welcome the finance minister back to the House. However, let us be clear in that what we are asking for is two hours of her time. That is a billion dollars a minute. We have real problems. According to a university report, we have the third-largest increase in total debt-to-GDP ratio, which has resulted in one of the lowest GDP growth ratios. In fact, going forward, we are projecte…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the quieting of that childish temper tantrum. The Liberal budget bonanza is driving Canadians further and further into debt. Each Canadian family is being driven down, to the cost of $4,200 a month. What are Canadians getting for it? They are getting higher energy and food costs. I am going to repeat this question one more time. Will the minister appear for two hours…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, that is great news. I look forward to having the finance minister for two hours, as she just said. That is terrific. What we do not look forward to is the Liberal budget bonanza that is going to drive Canadians $4,200 deeper into debt per family. What will they get for that? Higher energy costs, higher food costs and a lower standard of living. Will the finance minister finally come t…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. There was some surprise when I told the Liberals that in fact some Canadians are facing 50% to 60%. Therefore, I would like to table a document from the C.D. Howe Institute that demonstrates that many low- and middle-income Canadians—

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are out of money, while the Prime Minister is out of touch, and soon he will be out of a job. Why is that? It is because the Liberal government is driving up the cost of living through its inflationary spending and higher taxes. It used to be that Canadians who worked hard and made the right decisions would get ahead in this country. Unfortunately, more and more Canadians ar…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, in most jobs, if one showed up only a handful of times in the first five months of work, one would be fired, but that is exactly what the Minister of Finance has done. Then she has the audacity to ask Canadians to cough up $490 billion but will not appear in front of their representatives for two hours. We know she has time, because she spent hours last weekend schmoozing with Liberal…

Statements By Members

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are struggling through the effects of inflation, high interest rates and slowing economic growth. Canadians need a finance minister who will stand up and explain to them why they can no longer afford a home, why families have had to cancel vacations and why millions are having to visit food banks. Instead, we have a finance minister who has spoken in the House only seven tim…