Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think that was more of a comment than a question.
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Madam Speaker, first, I will deal with the assertion that the Prime Minister has never tried to avoid facing the House on this issue. On March 24, 2020, hoping that we would be in a panic, the government tried to get unanimous consent to push through a provision. This would have given it the power to avoid facing a confidence vote in the House for a little over year and a half. When the opposition…
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Madam Speaker, four and a half years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a worldwide pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic. Two days after that, the House of Commons suspended. About ten days after that, on March 24, it came back in an emergency session with the government's goal of passing a piece of legislation, which at that point had not been shared with the House of Commo…
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Madam Speaker, I think the member is mistaken with the list of cuts she gave. My party, under our current leadership and under, hopefully, some of our other leaders in the past, has demonstrated a concern for making sure we do not spend money we do not have. We do not promise to spend on programs we cannot actually finance. We also do not engage in wishful thinking, as the Liberals do, which will …
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With regard to the Canada Summer Jobs program: (a) what is the formula used to calculate the youth unemployment rate for each riding in Canada; (b) from what sources is the data used to calculate the youth unemployment rate obtained; (c) what method is used to apply census data on youth unemployment from the municipal level to arrive at useful youth unemployment data by federal electoral district;…
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With regard to the National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases: (a) since January 1, 2023, including announced commitments by all departments and agencies, what is the dollar amount that has been provided to, or committed for the purpose of provision to, the provinces and territories, through the National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases, broken down by purpose; (b) for which drugs, therapie…
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With regard to training and employment programs for offenders in federal penitentiaries: (a) does Correctional Service Canada (CSC) currently offer registration and training in any provincial or territorial apprenticeship programs and, if so, which programs and in which institutions; (b) are there provincial or territorial apprenticeship programs in which CSC has previously offered registration an…
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With regard to Health Canada’s (HC) Priority Review of Drug Submissions policy (hereinafter the policy): (a) since December 1996, how many submissions have been made under the policy, broken down by year; (b) since December 1996, how many submissions have been approved under the policy, broken down by year; (c) since March 2006, how many submissions have been made under the policy, broken down by …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, Health Canada's priority review program exists to allow the expedited review of new, potentially life-saving, therapies. Qualifying drug submissions are able to seek approval for therapeutic use in advance of other, less urgent therapies. Health Canada's posted time frame for this expedited process is a target of 180 calendar days. How often is Health Canada meeting this target? How…
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Madam Speaker, I will ask the housing minister something this time. Carleton Place, in my riding, has been Canada's fastest-growing municipality for the past four years. When the town was given zero dollars from the housing accelerator fund, I wondered why. It turns out there is a pattern here. Of the $1.5 billion awarded to Ontario under the fund, 97% went to cities and towns in which Liberals ho…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, on May 31, I asked the following question: ...with respect to the dairy barn at the Joyceville correctional institution that is scheduled to open in July, number one, what was the original budgeted cost? Number two, what is the actual cost? Number three, has dairy quota been made available by Dairy Farmers of Ontario? If so, what are the contract details and how much will that cost? F…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, one of the questions I asked was whether the minister can confirm where the quota is coming from, how much it will cost and what it will be used for. I would like an answer to that question.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, in my opening remarks I observed that the purpose of Motion No. 109 was “to ensure that no future government would be able to amend the Standing Orders without the consent of all recognized parties.” The mechanism laid out in the motion and the proposed additions to the standing order that are contained in the motion is to ensure that debate would continue as long as there is a meanin…
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, Corrections Canada has a mandate to retrain Canada's 10,000 inmates so they can find employment upon release. In the past three years, Corrections has issued 112,000 meaningless in-house vocational certificates and a grand total of 64 Red Seal certifications. Corrections has also made zero effort to engage in provincial apprenticeship programs, which could produce life-changing certif…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, on May 24, I raised the following question, which I will repeat verbatim for the purpose of context: ...pulmonary arterial hypertension, also known as PAH, is a disease that blocks arteries in the lungs, causing high blood pressure in the lungs and damaging heart tissue. Patients diagnosed with PAH have, on average, three years to live. In the [U.S.], a drug called sotatercept was r…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, last Friday I had the opportunity to sit in the Speaker's chair for an hour. I had no idea until that moment how hard it is to remember the names of people's ridings, so you have my empathy. I appreciate what the parliamentary secretary said in his response. It sounds like the November deadline, which I speculated and hoped would be achieved, is likely to be achieved. I am hoping th…
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Timmins—James Bay is himself out of order when he raises these irrelevant points about the lyrics, when the sole purpose of this is to interrupt the remarks of others. It is shameful. He ought to apologize to the House for his consistently shameful behaviour.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to withdraw the remarks, and I do deeply apologize to the member for Timmins—James Bay, who is indeed the model of decorum for all of us here. He sets the standard for all of us, along with the member from Kingston and the Islands—
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the final report of the Minister of National Defence’s Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination: (a) how and to what extent have the findings in Part III, section 6, entitled “Re-Defining Chaplaincy”, been rejected, adopted, actioned, interpreted, or otherwise implemented; (b) how and to what extent has Part III, recommendation 6.1 been adopted, actioned, or otherwise im…
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Perhaps we will give the member a chance to get to her seat. Everything is in order. The hon. member for Shefford.
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Is that agreed?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Is that agreed?
Read full speech →Government Orders
The hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George on a point of order.
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Madam Speaker, with respect to the dairy barn at the Joyceville correctional institution that is scheduled to open in July, number one, what was the original budgeted cost? Number two, what is the actual cost? Number three, has dairy quota been made available by Dairy Farmers of Ontario? If so, what are the contract details and how much will that cost? Finally, will any of the milk that is produce…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, several weeks ago, I asked a question about Red Seal training programs in correctional institutions. The answer seemed unsatisfactory, so I am providing further details today about issues that I think ought to be dealt with. There is no question that proper training, in a trade for which there is a market demand, helps incarcerated individuals to find employment upon their release. …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, amidst all that, the parliamentary secretary made the point in his final remark that I was trying to make: 64 individuals over a four-year period got Red Seal certification. I can work out the math myself. This is about 20 people or less per annum in their entire system. There are about 10,000 incarcerated individuals in Canada. That is pathetic. I know there are other things the go…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the cheapest, easiest way to save human lives is by installing and making available automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, and by building the skills in the community that would make it possible for neighbours and families to use them quickly and efficiently. This was the conclusion reported in March by an all-party parliamentary group in the United Kingdom. It suggested a variet…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, pulmonary arterial hypertension, also known as PAH, is a disease that blocks arteries in the lungs, causing high blood pressure in the lungs and damaging heart tissue. Patients diagnosed with PAH have, on average, three years to live. In the United States, a drug called sotatercept was recently approved by the FDA. This drug increases quality of life and lifespan for PAH patients and …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to take the opportunity to respond to the NDP member who spoke earlier with regard to leakage from abandoned wells. I would just observe that Canada can adopt regulations and rules that will be a world standard. We talk about doing the same thing with our carbon pricing. Therefore, if we believe we can be a world standard with rules that are adopted with regard to carbon pricin…
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Mr. Speaker, do you ever wonder why former inmates who have had vocational training while incarcerated are just as likely to reoffend as those who have not, despite the fact that Corrections Canada claims to have issued 112,000 vocational certificates in the past three years alone? Well, the answer is this: These vocational certificates are meaningless participation awards. In the same period, onl…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved: That: (a) in the opinion of the House, (i) the ability to propose amendments to the Standing Orders is essential to adapt and improve parliamentary procedures and to the rights of members, (ii) it is crucial to maintain open and transparent debate on proposed changes to the Standing Orders, free from undue procedural restrictions by the government or a subset of members, (iii) all Members o…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I actually have no comments on government legislation. As I observed in my remarks, my goal is to deal with programming motions of closure and time allocations, as they relate to motions to amend the Standing Orders, and absolutely nothing else. There is an argument that, because of the volume of business before the House, we need to have a limited time for each debate. That is the ba…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that my hon. colleague is right. He used the word “strange”. In a way, it is strange to have a system that allows party line votes on a motion that would change that system to a consensus system. I do not have the magical power to change that. I am simply making an observation, and I hope that the spirit of consensus will prevail here.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I hope so. To remember an example from 2015, I proposed changes to the Standing Orders that would affect the election of the Speaker. The decision made at the procedure and House affairs committee caused parties to alter how they handled the vote in each case. Parties were encouraged to allow their members to vote freely. Since the report from the procedure and House affairs committee…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I would like to say a few words about our colleague from Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel, who has served our country and the people of his riding for 40 years. It is a matter of coincidence that the man whose record the member is breaking is a man named John Graham Haggart, who was a Conservative member of Parliament elected in Canada's second election, in 1871, and who served until his deat…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to penitentiary farm and agriculture and agri-food operations at the Joyceville Institution and the Collins Bay Institution: (a) what funds have been spent on Public Services and Procurement Canada fees and disbursements and professional project management services, including, but not limited to, concept design, project leaders, tender packages, geo-technology, hydrogeology, engineerin…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. First of all, I agree that nobody should have been speaking during the member's intervention. I am happy to say I was not one of those people. With regard to the point of order raised by the member for Timmins—James Bay, he ended it by making a personal aspersion against the member. He said that the previous member, and I am not even sure which mem…
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Madam Speaker, my point is that at the end of his intervention, complaining about the unparliamentary behaviour of a previous member, the member for Timmins—James Bay added, gratuitous to the comment, that those are unfit comments from “a member as low as that member”. That, I think, is unparliamentary. I might be wrong, but I think that was an unparliamentary addition to the debate by the member …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am told it was five minutes, but the point is this. In the normal course of business, we present a motion in one language only. We do not stop the proceedings for an hour, as has actually happened, to give the opportunity for the second language to be produced. We would return to the debate and, if members could get the matter to you, Mr. Speaker, in both languages prior to the expi…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I want to point out something that I think is highly relevant but has not been mentioned in the previous submissions. I think it will be of use to you in coming to a decision. We know that it was one minute, more or less, before the end of the debate that this was raised—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the key thing here is that we cannot expand the scope to take in more subject matter than was in the original motion. We see that one of the amendments proposed by the government would expand to deal with settlements on the West Bank. This is not a motion about the West Bank. It is about Gaza. Indulging in a discussion about aspects of Israeli policy that deal with some other area, wi…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I rise today to address Bill C-347, an act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867 regarding the oath of office. The bill would, as its proposer said a moment ago, if enacted, amend section 128 of the Constitution Act, 1867 to allow individuals who have been elected to the House of Commons or appointed to the Senate to select between three different oaths of office. The first option wou…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to federal correctional institutions, since September 1, 2020: (a) which Red Seal apprenticeships are offered in federal correctional institutions; (b) how many inmates have been registered in Red Seal apprenticeships during their incarceration; (c) how many inmates have successfully completed Red Seal apprenticeships during their incarceration; (d) how many inmates have been released …
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With regard to all lines of business for Afghans being delivered by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, such as programs, temporary public policies, ministerial instructions, pathways, or other measures, as of December 11, 2023: (a) which lines of business are accepting applications; (b) which lines of business are not accepting applications; (c) which lines of business are processing ap…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, 'Tis a week before Christmas, and it's time to state That our PM is well past his best before date. After eight years of his rule, it's time to say thanks For doubling the number of folks using food banks. After eight years, when our kids nestle snug in their beds, They're just lucky there is still a roof over their heads, For on cold winter nights, under snow and the stars, Many citi…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, of course, I would never suggest that my hon. colleague was deliberately misleading the House. I am sure it was an unintentional error with regard to the riding in which our esteemed former speaker, Peter Milliken, resides. I will just make an observation about having views on a subject and then sending them off to a committee such as procedure and House affairs to have them studied…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, it seems to me that what is being referred to, and I am looking for my colleague's input on this, by both the member for Elmwood—Transcona and, most recently, the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, is a convention which does exist in the United Kingdom. In the U.K., when one is elected Speaker, the expectation is that they shed their partisan identity. They can choose to run agai…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the first thing I would say with regard to whether a convention of that nature exists is that the man who invented the concept of constitutional convention was Albert Venn Dicey. In his outstanding work, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, which everybody should have at their bedside, by the way, he says that there is a way of testing whether a convention exist…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, actually, in my remarks, I had meant to mention the issue of conflicts of interest and the appearance of a conflict of interest. I was going to say that the Speaker must be impartial and must be seen to be impartial, which is somewhat like a conflict of interest versus the appearance of a conflict of interest. In this case, I do not think that is what is going on, if we are talking …
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