Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for inviting me to Prince George, British Columbia. I met people across this country who told me incredible stories. Some are getting by, most are falling behind, and there are people in this country who are just hanging on by a thread. Working-class men are taping up their boots because they cannot afford new ones. A miner in northern Ontario could not af…
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Madam Speaker, I find the question ironic coming from the Green Party, which, along with the Liberals and NDP, has as its stated purpose higher gas prices. The Green Party wants higher gas prices and it simultaneously complains about those prices. That is the obvious contradiction. The irony is that the member is not against oil company profits. He just thinks it should be foreign oil companies th…
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Madam Speaker, the member talks about electrification facilities in his neighbouring riding. The point I made at the outset is that we need to mine the minerals that go into those vehicles in the first place. That cannot happen if we impose seven- to 10-year delays on the approval of those projects in the first place. The reason countries like Chile, China and others are mining and manufacturing t…
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Mr. Speaker, this Prime Minister has added more to our national debt than all previous prime ministers combined. The $500‑billion inflationary deficit has increased the cost of everything we buy and the interest that we pay. The finance minister has admitted that she wants to raise EI taxes by $2.5 billion. This will take earnings off of workers' paycheques. Will the government cancel these tax hi…
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Mr. Speaker, it is never the right time to raise taxes on the working poor, yet that is exactly what the minister admits she will do. She admits that raising the EI premiums, the EI payroll taxes, will take $2.5 billion extra out of the hands of Canadian workers, and not to fund EI. She also admits through her own public filings that the government will take $10 billion more in EI taxes than it wi…
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Mr. Speaker, we were terrific economic managers together, and we will be again. I am just getting a little practice on answering questions. We will be doing more of it when we are in government soon. EI payments have gone up for the average $60,000-a-year worker, from $930 when I was the minister to $948 now. That is a small increase, but the big $2.5-billion tax increase is just ahead. The minist…
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Mr. Speaker, it is both. The total payroll tax of a $60,000-a-year earner went from $3,400 under the previous Conservative government to $4,168 today. The reality is that none of that was necessary and the Liberals want to use the money for anything but EI. On top of that, now they plan to triple the carbon tax, raising gas, heat and grocery costs and killing jobs for many people in many sectors. …
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Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely false. The Conservatives protected the CPP, increased benefits for seniors every single year we were in office and did it without any tax increases at all. We can do that again. Everybody agrees that we should keep contributing. Nobody agrees that we have to hike taxes on workers to do it. To get back to the carbon tax, the Liberals want to triple this tax on grocer…
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to express the official opposition's total solidarity with all the families in Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec whose lives have been disrupted by hurricane Fiona. We offer our condolences to anyone who has lost a loved one and our support to anyone who has lost a home or a business. Would the government please tell us its action plan to help, and how memb…
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Mr. Speaker, P.E.I. potato farmers were already suffering because of the self-imposed export ban. Now they may have lost another year's crop. Dairy farmers out east are without electricity, meaning they might lose livestock. Fishers are losing boats, wharves and other critical infrastructure. Traditional bureaucratic government programs are very slow to respond. What will the government do to spee…
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Mr. Speaker, Nova Scotia Power reported that the ArriveCAN app blocked American crews that were trying to rush into the province to help with the recovery response and wasted valuable time. Originally, the public safety minister denied that had happened, only to be contradicted by the emergency preparedness minister who said that, in fact, there had been an issue at the border. Will the Prime Mini…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the official opposition Conservatives and, I think, all Canadians, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in eastern Canada, the Atlantic provinces and eastern Quebec, and especially in the Magdalen Islands. We are here today to show our support, but also to make plans for getting everything back to normal. It will be a long and difficult road, but we will w…
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Madam Speaker, I would encourage all Canadians to give generously and help in any way they can. We congratulate the government for the announced response it made. However, we will follow up to make sure there is delivery. We do not want this to be “A” for announcement but then “F” for follow-through, which we have seen before. We want the government to deliver, and we will be watching carefully, l…
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Madam Speaker, we have to recognize the difference between fighting climate change and promoting the import of oil from overseas. The strategy of the other parties, the Liberals, the Bloc and the NPD, is not against oil. It is in favour of foreign oil, which comes from overseas. We import 130,000 barrels a day. Roughly 40% of the oil consumed in Quebec comes from the United States. The Conservativ…
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Madam Speaker, again there is no question that the Liberal climate policy has failed. The Liberals have missed every single target they have set. In fact, they said that if they brought in this carbon tax, they would hit the targets. They did not hit a single target. Now they say they have to triple the carbon tax and cost Canadians thousands of dollars. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has report…
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Mr. Speaker, this week, the Fraser Institute published a report showing that Canadians are spending more on taxes than on shelter, food and clothing combined. The government wants to increase taxes again even though house prices have doubled and the inflation rate for food is at a 40-year high. Will the government cancel its tax hikes on paycheques, gas, heat and food?
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Mr. Speaker, we, as the official opposition, join the government in offering our thoughts and prayers to anyone affected by this crisis, and we offer our full collaboration with the government to help in any way we can to serve the people who are affected. This week, the Fraser Institute published a report showing that Canadians are spending more on taxes than on food, clothing and shelter combine…
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Mr. Speaker, with Canadians now spending more on taxes than on food, clothing and shelter combined, and with this coinciding with 40-year highs in inflation and 40-year highs in food price increases, with reports of students in Toronto forced to live in homeless shelters, the government's plan is to raise taxes on paycheques, gas, heat and other essentials. In fact, it wants to triple the carbon t…
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Mr. Speaker, we are happy that the government has backed down from requiring people to use the disastrous ArriveCAN app or follow the unscientific vaccine mandates just to cross the border, but the inconsistency remains. The government now admits that it is safe for an unvaccinated person to get on an airplane or work in a government office, but unsafe for that same person to serve in the Canadian…
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Madam Speaker, in my 18 years in politics, I have never seen Canadians suffer as much as they are suffering now. I just criss-crossed the country and met a lot of people. In fact, 93,000 people registered for my events. I make a point of listening to all their stories, and I never leave the room until I have spoken to everyone who wants to meet me. I heard some heartbreaking stories. We are talkin…
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Madam Speaker, the only way for all Canadians to avoid inflation is for the government to stop causing it in the first place. The Canadian dollar is the only national currency and will always be the only national currency of our country. Unfortunately, the government is devaluing the purchasing power of that currency. With a half-trillion dollars of inflationary deficits, it has driven inflation t…
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Madam Speaker, the member is right about the fact that the Liberals are creating new programs when they cannot even manage the existing ones. Our health care system is already in crisis, and the federal government has done nothing to fix it. The government is doing nothing to protect our borders from people crossing illegally and from gun smugglers. This government cannot even issue passports. Why…
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Madam Speaker, the member is quite right to say that Canadians are suffering under the policies that he is supporting. He is a part of that costly coalition. Everything that is happening in Canada is the paradise for which the NDP has been dreaming of all these years. They are now realizing all of the policies they always wanted. Basically, we have an NDP prime minister. What has that given us? Fo…
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Mr. Speaker, it is no surprise that institutional investors have been able to outbid everyday working-class Canadians for housing. Why? Because the government flooded the financial system with $400 billion of newly created cash. When it pumped that cash into the financial system, it went into mortgage lending. Who is preferred to borrow that money? Wealthy, well-connected institutional investors. …
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals are like the Bourbon dynasty: They learn nothing and forget nothing. They are right back to the same policies. Pierre Elliott Trudeau ran monstrous money-printing deficits. Of course, that led to 12% inflation, 12% unemployment and then ultimately 19% or 20% interest rates. If we combine unemployment and inflation, we get the misery index. It reached a record-smashing 2…
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Mr. Speaker, it is good to see the Prime Minister here on a visit to Canada to refuel his private jet. However, here on the ground, in Canada, things are not going well. According to the Financial Post, rents are so high in Toronto that students are living in homeless shelters. Food banks are facing the highest demand in history. This is the worst time to increase costs for Canadians. Will the Pri…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has effectively admitted that his carbon tax has not worked and, therefore, he needs to triple it. According to the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, the forthcoming hike in the carbon tax will mean that the total cost increase for a Newfoundland senior living in the countryside, on their heating bill, will be 80%. Canadians cannot afford that, but just …
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Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Liberal Party has an opportunity to respect the fact that heating one's home in January and February in Canada is not a luxury, and it does not make those Canadians polluters. They are just trying to survive. This from a Prime Minister who burned more jet fuel in one month than 20 average Canadians burn in an entire year. Will the Prime Minister ground the jet, park …
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Mr. Speaker, we will not support tax hikes on Canadians. Speaking of tax hikes, they plan to raise taxes on paycheques. Now, yesterday, the finance minister claimed that all the EI tax hikes they would collect would go to EI benefits. In fact, I looked it up. Over the next three years, they are going to collect $10 billion more in EI taxes than they pay out in EI benefits, allowing the Prime Minis…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is quite wrong. Today, payroll taxes on the average $60,000-a-year worker are about $700 higher than when we left office and, by the way, we left with a balanced budget. Now he wants to raise those taxes even further, a bigger bite off of Canadian paycheques at a time when inflation is at a 40-year high, when students are forced to live in homeless shelters and when…
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Mr. Speaker, what an honour it is to have the legendary heroes of the Summit Series among us today. It is an honour to welcome to the House today members of Team Canada for the 50-year anniversary of their victory over the Soviet national team in the 1972 Summit Series. It was the year 1972 that the Cold War spilled into the world of sports. In July, American and world chess champion Bobby Fischer…
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Mr. Speaker, today we learned that the percentage of Canadians who have their own home is at its lowest level in 20 years. It was after this Prime Minister came to power that housing prices doubled. When he came to power, the average family could pay monthly home-related bills with 32% of their paycheque; now it is 50%. The government wants to make matters worse by increasing taxes on paycheques, …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. Deputy Prime Minister for her kind words and her congratulations. I look forward to being able to congratulate more young families on the ability to buy their own homes. It is nice to be in the House, but it would be nice for them to be in a home. Unfortunately, house prices have doubled under the government's policies. In fact, the share of the average Canadian's pay…
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Mr. Speaker, the answer is neither. Guess what Canadians paid in 2015 in EI if they earned $60,000? It was $930. Guess what they pay now? It is $948. That is an increase. Furthermore, if we look at total payroll taxes, they have gone from $3,400 to $4,100 under the government. That is a $700 increase, and the government plans to raise EI premiums, that is the paycheque tax, on January 1, along wit…
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Mr. Speaker, in fact, EI premiums do go into general revenues when they go into surplus, and that is what the government plans to do. It plans to raise both EI and CPP premiums, the paycheque tax, right at a time when we are facing 40-year highs in inflation, all-time highs in increased housing prices, 40-year highs in food price inflation, and record food bank use. This is the last time that anyo…
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Mr. Speaker, now the Liberals would have Canadians believe they have never had it so good. I guess if one is jetting around the world singing songs in a beautiful lobby, that might be true, but the 30-year-olds stuck living in their parents' basement because the Liberals have doubled housing prices might disagree. Those who cannot fill up their tanks with gas might disagree. Those who are among th…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am here today to honour the victims of the recent violence in southern Saskatchewan and particularly the James Smith Cree Nation: 10 lives lost, 18 lives changed forever, a community shattered, and a province and country in shock. We are here to honour the victims by remembering them, supporting their community in their grief and committing ourselves to doing whatever is necessary t…
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Mr. Speaker, on January 1, the government will be raising taxes on Canadians' paycheques. The government is planning to increase taxes on gas, home heating and groceries on April 1. House prices have doubled. The cost of food is going up faster than it ever has in the past 40 years. Canadians can no longer pay their bills. Will the minister cancel these tax hikes on seniors and workers?
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Mr. Speaker, the minister says that the Conservatives would leave Canadians to their own devices, but housing prices have doubled. In fact, when the Prime Minister came to power, the average Canadian could pay for their housing with 32% of their paycheque. Now that cost eats up 50% of their paycheque. The price of food is rising faster than it has in the past 40 years. Canadians have no more to gi…
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Mr. Speaker, all of that will be vaporized by inflation, which is costing families over $2,000 in extra costs, and that does not include the increased interest rate prices that people are paying on their mortgages. In fact, the average family used to pay its housing bill with 32% of its paycheque every month. Now it is 50% after seven years of the Prime Minister in power. What is his solution? It …
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Mr. Speaker, people cannot even afford to have a family in the first place, because they cannot get out of their parents' basements or out of 400-square-foot apartments after housing prices have literally doubled in this country under the Prime Minister. Now, with rising interest rates, which the government promised would not happen any time soon, families have to spend 50% of their income, the hi…
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Mr. Speaker, the government worked to double the price of housing in this country and give us the second-worst housing bubble of any country on planet earth. Now Canadians have had the costs they must pay for monthly housing bills go from 32% of their paycheque to 50% of their paycheque. What is the Prime Minister's solution? It is to reduce their paycheques by taking a bigger bite out of them wit…
Read full speech →Mr. Speaker, the House of Commons is reflecting on the exceptional life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada, our Queen. For about seventy years she was our head of state, and beyond that she also served the Canadian people. She was a role model for all those shouldering public service responsibilities. Her sense of duty reminded us that, for all the pomp and circumstance, the re…
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Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that my microphone was off while I was presenting the petition. I am wondering if I could present it again.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the people who signed my petition to immediately end all federal COVID-19 restrictions and restore freedom for all Canadians. That is what Canadians want, it is what the science supports, and it is what other countries are doing. It is time to do this for all Canadians. It is time for the restrictions to be lifted permanently, not just suspended, for everyone.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are calling for the government to lift all federal COVID-19 restrictions and restore personal and health freedoms. Canadian provinces and businesses, along with other countries like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Israel, have lifted all of their COVID-19 restrictions. The government says it is following the science and admits that it is now safe to sit next…
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Mr. Speaker, not once, not twice, but 13 times did this public safety minister claim that the police told him to suspend people's civil liberties with the Emergencies Act. Not only did the cops say that this is not true, but yesterday two of his fellow ministers, including the Deputy Prime Minister, said that it is not true. Today, the Prime Minister refused to say that his public safety minister …
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Mr. Speaker, he referred to disrupting people's lives. This is from the guy who took away the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people because of an unscientific mandate that robbed them of their individual freedom.
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Mr. Speaker, disrupting people's lives? This is a Prime Minister who disrupted the lives of tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands, because of a personal medical decision. Everything the government has been saying about our truckers has been false from the very beginning, starting with the claim that they would spread a virus even though they were in a truck all alone all day lo…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-278, An Act to prevent the imposition by the federal government of vaccination mandates for employment and travel. Mr. Speaker, today I am taking another step to give Canadians back control of their lives with the prevention of government-imposed vaccination mandates act. This bill would ban the government from imposing vaccine mandates as a condition of travel …
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