Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, according to Statistics Canada, over 100,000 jobs were lost in the first two months of this year. Today, Algoma Steel will be laying off 1,000 workers. These are families who are now left wondering how they are going to pay their bills and put food on their tables. After years of warning signs, the Liberal government continues to impose policies that weaken our competitiveness and cos…
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Mr. Speaker, when it comes to taking responsibility, the Liberal government has a long record of making excuses and getting very few results. After 10 years, Canadians are carrying record household debt, they are facing the highest food inflation in the G7 and they are living in the only shrinking economy in the G7. These are the consequences of policy choices that have driven up costs and made it…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-270, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (defence of person). Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to introduce the stand on guard act, my very first bill in the House. Our homes are supposed to be the one place where we can rest and feel safe, but across Canada, home invasions are rising, and too many families are living with fear inside their own homes. We have all…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to table petitions from Canadians who are deeply concerned by the sweeping powers contained within Bill C-15. The petitioners warn that this provision would allow ministers to exempt any individual or corporation from any federal law, except for the Criminal Code, without full public or parliamentary scrutiny. They believe it undermines the foundational principle of our d…
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Mr. Speaker, for over four decades, the people of Iran have lived under a regime that promised hope but delivered repression, corruption and violence. Like a lion long restrained but never broken, the children of Cyrus the Great are rising once again. This is not simply because of economic collapse but because a people can be pushed only so far before they demand their freedom. The regime answered…
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Mr. Speaker, consumer bankruptcies are up, to the highest level since the financial crisis. That means 141,000 Canadians are losing their homes, their savings and their sense of security. Clearly the Liberals' band-aid programs are not enough to prevent bankruptcies. Canadians need long-term solutions that bring down the cost of food and housing. When will the Liberal government stop the inflation…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of respect for the member, but I was deeply disappointed to hear the opening of his speech where he said that he disagrees with everything that the Conservatives are proposing. Does he disagree with increasing competition in grocery chains? Every first-year economics student learns that when markets have more competition, it drives prices down, it disciplines profits and …
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's suggestion. In speaking to my neighbours in Newmarket—Aurora, any sort of relief would be helpful at this moment. Monthly relief would also be helpful to them, but I do want to reiterate that Canadians have been asking for serious long-term solutions to the root of the problem that is driving up the cost of food disproportionately compared to other G7 countri…
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Mr. Speaker, in my community, police officers, firefighters, paramedics and nurses cannot afford to buy homes in the communities they serve. Eighty-seven per cent of Canadians are now worried about the housing market, and 86% of builders say they might not survive the next 12 months. In the middle of a housing crisis, homebuilding should be accelerating. Instead, home sales are down 45% in the GTA…
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Mr. Speaker, this is the same Liberal government that campaigned on building at speeds not seen in generations, but in the last year, home sales are down 45% in the GTA. The Canadian Home Builders' Association warns that allowing these conditions to continue will create a lost decade for home ownership. The longer the government delays, the more businesses will close and the more Canadians will lo…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Stormont—Dundas—Glengarry. It is a privilege to rise in the House and once again represent my neighbours in Newmarket—Aurora. Today I am speaking to Bill C-19, the Canada groceries and essentials benefit act, but before I go any further, I want to take the opportunity to thank the Newmarket Food Pantry, the Aurora Food Pantry and the cou…
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Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague's riding well. I used to cover it when I was in the financial sector. As I mentioned in my speech, Canadians have been pushed beyond their limits. They are doing everything they can to make ends meet, and they are exhausted. On that basis, every little bit helps. This $10 a week will provide some sort of relief, but the reality is that we need to address the root o…
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Mr. Speaker, I inevitably think of this one mother, a single mother of three, I met in Newmarket. She is a mother of three boys. When I knocked on the door, she was very reluctant to open the door, and I later understood why. She is struggling to pay her rent. When I introduced myself after she opened the door, she burst into tears and told me she cannot keep up with the rent and that she does not…
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Mr. Speaker, there are critical statistics every member of Parliament must take seriously. There are 2.2 million visits to food banks every single month. Canada's food inflation is 6.2%, and that is double that of the U.S. This year it will cost $17,600 to feed a family. That is a national emergency we must take seriously, and Conservatives want to expedite a real solution. Will the Liberal govern…
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the Liberals have tried this before, and it has only made matters worse. Canada is a country full of farms and fields, yet we are known as the food inflation capital of the G7. Food inflation has doubled since 2019. This is a homegrown crisis caused by high taxes on farmers, truckers and food processors, lack of competition in grocery chains and reckless inflationa…
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Mr. Speaker, I take that as a compliment. I rise today to table a petition from Canadians who are alarmed by the Liberal government's manipulation of our national books. They are calling for honesty and integrity in fiscal reporting, and demanding an end to the practice of redefining “capital investments” to shrink the deficit on paper. Under this practice, subsidies, tax breaks and corporate hand…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to table a petition, for a second time, from Canadians alarmed by the Liberal government's manipulation of our national books. They are calling for honesty and integrity in fiscal reporting, and demanding an end to the Liberal practice of redefining “capital investments” just to shrink the deficit on paper. Under this scheme, subsidies, tax breaks and corporate handouts a…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to a private member's bill brought forward by my colleague, the member for Edmonton Manning. His bill proposes something simple: a national medal of recognition for every living organ donor in Canada to raise awareness and education about the power of living donation. My family has lived with the cruelty of Alport syndrome, a genetic disease that steals kidney fu…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister once said that the grocery aisle would be his report card. Well, today in that aisle is a mother standing still, staring at the price of baby formula, which has gone up 84%. She does the math in her head and wonders what she is going to cut next, because feeding her baby is not optional. Under the Liberals, even that has become a source of fear and anxiety. Their po…
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Mr. Speaker, when Canadians tell the government they cannot afford food, its response is that they are taxed to death and cannot afford groceries but should cheer up: It has a program for them; they should be grateful and have never had it so good. Eighty-six per cent of Canadians list food as their largest financial worry. The food price report confirms grocery prices are set to increase by up to…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister wanted to be judged by prices at the grocery store, and eight months later, Canadians are judging and they are hungry. The food price report released today shows that the reality of Canadians is only getting worse. In 2015, a Canadian grocery bill was $163 a week. Under the Liberals, it has more than doubled, to $340. That is a grocery bill of $17,600 a year. Libera…
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Mr. Speaker, all we hear from the Liberals are empty promises. For the last decade, they have been promising the same things. They know these ideas do not work. The record speaks the truth. In the GTA, housing starts have plunged, not increased, by 34% in just nine months. Condo starts are down 51% and the slowdown in the construction industry means 35,000 lost years of employment for Canadians. I…
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Mr. Speaker, a resident pleaded with me, “My family and I are struggling with rent costs and the price of food.” They are not alone. A CTV News article tells us that 35,000 families are fleeing the GTA because staying in the GTA means living on the edge financially, with very little room to grow. Families are being uprooted, with generations torn apart. Canadians are forced to leave the very commu…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, this week, the owners of a small family-owned business in Newmarket—Aurora reached out to me. They have been serving our community of Bayview and Mulock for 50 years with no major theft or crime, but over the past two years, they have been hit so often that they have actually lost count. They have spoken to other businesses in the area and heard the same stories. The incidents are so …
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals say the cost pressures on Canadians are fake. I have another note from someone else in Newmarket who said that, as the cost of living increases and their salaries do not, they are being driven into poverty. Four out of five Canadians list food as their number one worry when paying their bills. Statistics Canada confirms that beef is up 17%, baby formula is up 6% and coffe…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government is the most expensive in Canadian history. A father in Newmarket, who is an engineer, said to me that they cannot cover the living costs. He can only pay for the mortgage, utilities and taxes. Food, transportation and insurance are out of pocket. While Canadians struggle, the Liberals keep a punishing fuel tax that adds up to 17¢ more per litre at the pumps, hik…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question on the credibility of the budget and the Prime Minister, which is what the Liberals like to talk about. There is a $100-billion procurement of submarines that the Prime Minister and the Liberal government forgot to include in the budget. What does that do to credibility? We have heard the Parliamentary Budget Officer talk about a 7.5% chance of the government keeping…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians have been clear, painfully clear, that we need a justice system that is respected by those who break the law and trusted by the people who live with the consequences. We need laws that actually protect families, not laws that look good on paper while leaving our communities vulnerable. Trust cannot exist without real accountability. When offenders face symbolic consequences,…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-14 would not repeal Bill C-75, which brought in the principle of restraint. I am even more concerned that it took the Liberals six years to learn that there is a crime wave happening in Canada. The principle of restraint is not working, yet Bill C-14 still directs that if a release is ordered, it must be on the “least onerous conditions” necessary. This is what breeds violence …
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Mr. Speaker, in 2022, the Liberals brought in Bill C-5, which took away the mandatory minimum sentences brought in under the Harper government. Bill C-14 fails to do two main things. There is only a partial reversal for house arrest eligibility, and it would not reinstate mandatory minimums. This bill fails to make real sentencing reform and would put our communities at risk. Recently, the Supreme…
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Mr. Speaker, I will repeat myself. Bill C-14 fails to do two main things. There is only a partial reversal of house arrest eligibility, and it would not reinstate mandatory minimums. As the member of Parliament for Newmarket—Aurora, I send monthly surveys to my constituents, and crime is one of their top concerns. It is not only because we now watch it on the news; it is because we hear it from ou…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleague. This is a direct result of 10 years of the Liberal government's weak bail laws. These are the consequences our communities are living through. It is a bit hypocritical that the Liberals appear to feel so strongly about it, when we, the Conservatives, put the jail not bail act forward for a vote and they voted against it.
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Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer rang the alarm on Friday. He told Canadians there is just a “7.5% chance” the Prime Minister will meet his own fiscal promise. The Liberals have twisted the definition so badly that he now recommends an independent expert body to police the numbers as he has uncovered a $94-billion reallocation in the budget. What is the Liberals' response? It is not a…
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Mr. Speaker, of course the Liberal government shrugs off its own experts when the truth is not convenient to it. One day after the budget dropped, Fitch Ratings rang another alarm, warning that the Liberals' reckless spending is eroding Canada's finances and putting pressure on our credit rating. Budget 2025 would blow the deficit up to $80 billion and push our general deficit far above the AA cre…
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Mr. Speaker, we now know that the government is going to be abandoning the most important fiscal anchor, the debt-to-GDP ratio, which our allies use. Every serious country around the world uses it to guide itself. Can the member speak to the seriousness of the fiscal anchor being abandoned and comment on why perhaps the government has chosen to do so?
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Mr. Speaker, we have heard the recycled ideas before, and Canada's housing industry continues to fall. Housing sales are down 82% in the GTA. Toronto's BILD association warns that this budget is built on backward-looking data that provides false assurances. In simple terms, builders cannot build, sellers cannot sell and buyers cannot buy. The budget would also cost 100,000 jobs and commit us to a …
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Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, Canadians saw the truth about the Liberal government's disastrous housing plan. The Liberals promised to build 500,000 homes a year, but it turned into a plan to kill 100,000 jobs. Toronto's Building Industry and Land Development Association says the budget is “particularly troubling”, not an actionable plan to reduce housing fees with any urgency. The Liberals promised to…
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Mr. Speaker, it is true that we have a problem with the CRA, a problem that has been growing over the last years and has not been addressed, unfortunately, by the government. When we have the Canada Revenue Agency, the agency that collects the revenue for our country, not being able to perform, it is very serious, particularly when we talk about the fiscal position of our country. The agency is no…
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Mr. Speaker, we do believe in supporting the oil and gas sector and building pipelines because that is to Canada's competitive advantage. A country either has natural resources or does not. We have been blessed with the fact that we do. Unleashing our oil and gas sector will create jobs. It will create prosperity. That is income for families who desperately need it.
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Mr. Speaker, there are some good elements in the budget. Unfortunately, when it comes to defence we see a new bureaucracy being created. We see billions of dollars thrown at this program, but there is actually no strategy. There are no details in the budget as to where the money is going to go. That is a problem because what we see is bigger programs and more spending, but nothing is getting cut. …
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my neighbour the MP for the soup and salad bowl of Canada. Canadians elected the Prime Minister because they believed that, maybe, his experience meant steadiness in uncertain times. They believed that perhaps, finally, someone would treat the nation's finances with care. This budget is a breach of that trust. It is a promise written with red ink in st…
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Mr. Speaker, of course, if we go back a few months, we heard, time and time again, one of those slogans that the government used and that the Prime Minister used, which was around spending less. We now have the budget, and we see that they are spending $141 billion more. The deficit is bigger than he promised. We have a mounting amount of debt, at $324 billion more. There are Canadians who voted a…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have been saying those same words for over a decade, but life has only gotten harder. They call it an investment, but it is not. It is a mortgage on our youth's future. A 19-year-old girl from Halifax was on national news saying she cannot afford groceries and she cannot find work. That is the reality behind their so-called investments. Youth unemployment is at 15%, not b…
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Mr. Speaker, young Canadians are asking a simple question: What is left for them to sacrifice after a decade of failed Liberal policies? They are saying they cannot find a job, they are delaying starting a family, they cannot buy a home and they are living in their parents' basement. What is left to sacrifice? What is the Liberal government's response? It is going to mortgage their future with mor…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of Canadians who are deeply concerned about the government's manipulation of our national books. These citizens are calling on the government to restore integrity and transparency in fiscal reporting and to stop redefining what counts as capital investment simply to make the deficit look smaller. The petitioners note that under this new def…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, there have been 2.2 million visits to Canada's food banks in a single month, and one in three of those walking through the doors is a child. That is over 700,000 little ones in a single month. Too many Canadian families cannot afford to feed themselves, and what do the Liberals say? They ask why parents should feed their children when the government can do it for them, as if dependenc…
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Mr. Speaker, youth unemployment is nearing half a million people. That is the worst in 25 years, and that is the price that young Canadians are paying after 10 long years of Liberal failure. They have already sacrificed owning a home and starting a family. Food prices have skyrocketed. Housing starts in Toronto have fallen to a 30-year low. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister stood before a room of st…
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Mr. Speaker, the deficit is doubling. The Liberals are changing definitions so they can manipulate the results and confuse Canadians. They are not spending less. Our youth are living with the fallout of failed policies. They cannot afford a home, and they are searching for jobs that no longer exist, while the Liberal government mortgages their future. When will the government open its eyes to the …
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Prime Minister told a roomful of students that they were going to have to make sacrifices, but after 10 long years of failed Liberal policies, they already have sacrificed their dream of owning a home and sacrificed their dream of starting a family, because they cannot afford it. They have watched food prices skyrocket, and housing starts in Toronto are at a 30-year low.…
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Mr. Speaker, we hear from the Liberal government that it takes fentanyl so seriously that it is willing go as far as looking into people's mail and violating their privacy, yet under the bill, there would be no mandatory prison time for fentanyl traffickers. I would love for my colleague to please comment on that.
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