Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to Bill C-20, a bill from the Liberal government to establish yet another federal Crown corporation, called Build Canada Homes, which would apparently finally find the solution to the economic woes in our housing sector that have stubbornly evaded solutions provided by existing federal bureaucracies. The stated purpose of Build Canada Homes is to “promote, support and …
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Mr. Speaker, the question from my colleague from the Bloc Québécois was a thoughtful one. I live in a community that is highly urbanized, but parts of it are still rural, so I sympathize with the question. I will revert back to what I had said earlier, which is that the market generally sorts things out. If there is a demand in smaller communities, it will be filled if the government gets out of t…
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Mr. Speaker, the question just underlines what I was saying: Governments do not build homes. People build homes. Home builders build homes. Electricians, drywallers, carpenters and land developers are the ones who build homes. The government just needs to get out of the way and create the environment that welcomes investment so people will actually build homes and so the market meets the demand.
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Mr. Speaker, that is an important question, but I am really the wrong person to be asking it to. Trying to get into the minds of the Liberals is hard to do, but what I have observed time and again is that the Liberal politics of the Liberal Party of the 2020s is all performative politics. It just wants it to seem that it is doing something. If there is a problem, it has a solution: another organiz…
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Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that every time the member for Winnipeg North stands up, he is accusing us of filibustering. This is an important topic. It is very important for Canadians, certainly in my home province of British Columbia, where housing affordability really is a crisis for young people. These are important issues. We need to be debating them in the House of Commons, and that is exa…
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Mr. Speaker, under the Liberal government, the Canadian dream of home ownership is rapidly fading for young people. CMHC reports that housing construction is actually going to be down over the next three years by up to 18% compared to last year. Why do the Liberals not just adopt the Conservative plan to eliminate GST on all new housing construction of up to $1.3 million and help restore the dream…
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Mr. Speaker, that answer is completely unacceptable. The Canadian Home Builders' Association says that, five years ago, new housing starts in the ownership market stood at 69%, the rest being in the rental market. Last year, that number dropped down to 49%. Despite all the nice talk, clearly the Liberal plans are not helpful for prospective new buyers. Again, why do they not just adopt our plans a…
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Mr. Speaker, indeed, we already have an agent that is responsible for that. That agent is called the Auditor General. The unfortunate part is that the Liberals have not been taking the reports from the Office of the Auditor General seriously. That applies to many matters, including when reports comment on their lack of action on indigenous rights and settling treaties. That should have been done a…
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Mr. Speaker, today we are talking about an act respecting the commissioner for modern treaty implementation. What would it do? The enactment would provide for the appointment of a commissioner of modern treaty implementation. The commissioner's job would be to conduct reviews and performance audits of the activities of the government related to the implementation of modern treaties, or rather, the…
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Madam Speaker, we are talking about the creation of a commission for modern treaty implementation, which would replace the very effective work that has been done by the Office of the Auditor General. The Auditor General is responsible for reviewing government operations for accountability, transparency and the effective use of public funds. Does my colleague agree that this new commission would ha…
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Mr. Speaker, indeed it is the government's job to implement these treaties. As the opposition, our job is to hold the government to account, as it is that member's responsibility as well. We need the Conservatives to form government. I am thinking of the Harper days when we actually got the job done. It can be done, and we are waiting for the government to finally take action to get the job done.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague from Skeena—Bulkley Valley on the work he has done with the Haisla Nation and others in British Columbia for advancing indigenous reconciliation. I thank him very much for that. With respect to accountability, the member pointed out correctly that the Auditor General is the ultimate holder to accountability of the government, and that office is bein…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-19, the proposed Canada groceries and essentials benefit act, is legislation introduced by the Liberals whereby they would give a handout to Canadian citizens to fill the gap they created in the first place. First, they erode Canadians' wealth by economic mismanagement, and then they give a temporary benefit and boast about their generosity. Perhaps the member could expand on h…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague's speech was very inspiring. One thing I have noticed consistently during my years in the House is that when it comes to managing the economy, the Liberals always attack the symptoms and not the underlying problems. It is like taking an aspirin when surgery is required. The Bank of Canada has said repeatedly that our lagging productivity metrics, when compared to those of…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not keeping his promise to young Canadians to help them buy their first home. In fact, according to the Missing Middle report, things are going in the wrong direction. Home ownership among 30-year-olds is at an all-time low. Less than half think they are ever going to own their own home, and housing starts are not even keeping up with population growth. Here is a…
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Madam Speaker, I enjoyed serving with the member for Rivière-du-Nord on the justice committee when I was there in the last Parliament. I am happy the member raised the issue of the Jordan decision. From time to time, there are delays in criminal trials, and the Supreme Court weighed in with a case called Jordan and set minimum timelines. This hits home for me because there was a high-profile murde…
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Mr. Speaker, I am puzzled about this debate around mandatory minimum sentences. When I read the proposed legislation, it definitely sounded like a back door for judges to be able to determine, with respect to a situation in front of them, that it would amount to cruel and unusual punishment to impose the minimum sentence. That is exactly the argument that judges have been using all along to declar…
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague talked quite a bit about mandatory minimums and addressing the concern that our courts have had, particularly the Supreme Court of Canada, in declaring mandatory minimum penalties to be unconstitutional, contrary to section 12 of the charter. The problem we are facing is that courts have recently come out with the concept of hypothetical fact scenarios. Rather than d…
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Madam Speaker, among other things, this bill introduces the concept of femicide, which is in response to a shocking rise in intimate partner violence in Canada. Effectively, that provision of Bill C-16 would elevate what might otherwise be second-degree murder to first-degree murder if done in the context of intimate partner violence. I think we are signalling that we are going to agree with this,…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very happy that my colleague raised the Senneville case, which is very problematic. To my reading of that case, the problem is that the Supreme Court of Canada thinks that it can make up hypothetical, imaginary fact situations rather than just dealing with the fact situation that is in front of it. Would it be an improvement to this bill if we were to prohibit that sort of ration…
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Mr. Speaker, this bill addresses, in part, the shocking rise of intimate partner violence in Canada and it introduces the concept of femicide, which is the murder of a woman in the context of an intimate partner violent crime. Effectively, what that would do is classify any murder, whether it was manslaughter or second-degree murder, as first-degree murder if it were done in the context of intimat…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for asking me a question, and I am going to answer it now. What would I do? We are talking about mandatory minimum sentences and a judge's inclination to conjure up hypothetical fact situations. I was reading section 63 of the proposed act, which would introduce proposed section 718.4 to the Criminal Code. It says that courts may steer around a minimum sentence if t…
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Mr. Speaker, about a year ago Alberta Central reported that with the opening of the TMX expansion, bringing more oil to global markets, the selling price of a barrel of Canadian crude went up by $8. This is not just the new barrels but all barrels. This is because, with the pipeline, we had more access to global markets and could bid up our price. Would the member agree that pipelines are good for…
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Madam Speaker, a little while ago I asked a question in question period on the topic of the ever-increasing price of groceries. Food inflation is running at about twice the rate of the average rate of inflation in this country, so many people are hurting in a real, tangible and, I might say, painful way. I made the point, in my 30-second question spot, that food inflation is hitting seniors partic…
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Madam Speaker, the member continues to use talking points from the Liberal Party: “We can't control inflation. It's something international. Other countries are doing it. We can't be responsible for what other countries do”. However, the government must be responsible for its own budgetary planning. I have been here for six years now, and I have heard many ministers of finance, one after the other…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal “keep it in the ground” caucus is saying that the MOU with Alberta is not a pipeline approval. There is no project, no route, certainly no consensus, and no private sector proponent. Now they are conveniently hiding behind the tanker ban, which is preventing us from getting our resources to market. All the while, American tankers are happily sailing right by, from Alaska d…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a great question. In my speech, I did not have time to get into the housing crisis. I talked about the health crisis, which is a reality, but the housing crisis is definitely a reality as well. A recent report from the CMHC shows that the Prime Minister's promise of building 500,000 new homes a year is absolutely failing. Not even half of them are being built. Things are headi…
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Mr. Speaker, I have sat through five or six of these Liberal budget speeches over the years and every one of them promises that finally we are going to tackle Canada's productivity challenges. We are doing it again. Here is a headline in today's The Globe and Mail, “Canada is stuck in a 'vicious circle' of low productivity, Bank of Canada says”. Why should Canadians be at all confident that the Li…
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Mr. Speaker, this is what we have been hearing from Liberal members of Parliament. They are saying our debt-to-GDP ratio is not as bad as the ratios in other countries. If we add in the subnational debt, it is. It does not look nearly as good as they like to say it is. I am going to go back to my points about productivity. Debt is not necessarily bad. It is not necessarily bad for a business if it…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-15, the budget implementation act. On November 4, a couple of weeks ago, the new Minister of Finance, the fourth one since the Liberal Party formed government 10 years ago, presented his first budget, an $80-billion-deficit budget. I have been a member of Parliament for six years now, and I have seen five budgets. All of them have consistently disappoin…
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Mr. Speaker, my riding is a border riding, or at least it used to be, until the most recent border redistribution. It is very close to the port of Vancouver, so we are deeply concerned about border security not only at land crossings, but also at ocean crossings around the port of Vancouver, which is the biggest port in the country, by the way. Absolutely, we need to improve that. I know that almo…
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Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot about the Liberal government's introducing the bill as a workaround for its old bill, Bill C-75, which introduced the principle of restraint. Therefore, why not just get rid of the principle of restraint as introduced by Bill C-75, rather than doing these awkward workarounds, which are likely not to be as effective as they could be?
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Mr. Speaker, I think there is probably broad agreement in the House that we need bail reform for serious, repeat violent crime. I am happy that Bill C-14 is taking a step in the right direction, but my question today is about repeat non-violent crime, the property crime that is plaguing our downtown cores. I have some statistics from the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association. For pro…
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Mr. Speaker, I have noticed that when we are talking about the economy, Liberals are very selective in the facts and the statistics they like to highlight. They say, “Oh, our debt-to-GDP ratio is not as bad as in other countries”, but they they consistently do not mention sub-sovereign debt. To compare apples to apples, they need to include that. Another thing the Liberals do not like to talk abou…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very happy my fellow British Columbia MP talked about softwood lumber, because that is crucial to British Columbia's economy. Everybody knows that. The solution is not more handouts; it is an open and free market with the United States. However, after 10 years, the Liberal government has failed to bring home a softwood lumber treaty. Why should Canadians have confidence that it i…
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to rise today to speak to an important legislation, which is Bill C-14, bail reform and sentencing reform. However, before I do that, I want to advise that I will be sharing my time with the very effective member of Parliament for Souris—Moose Mountain. Here we go again with bail reform 2.0. In the 44th Parliament, we had Bill C-48, brought to us by the Liber…
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Madam Speaker, indeed, Bill C-14 retains the principle of restraint, which has been at the centre of the problems in the administration of criminal justice in the last decade. It is at the heart of the public's loss of confidence in the administration of justice. I think that is a very important principle. I am sure our amendments at committee are going to focus on the secondary and tertiary groun…
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Madam Speaker, I agree that the House should give its best efforts, but that requires the Liberals giving their best efforts, as well, to passing this legislation. We are going to committee. We are going to request reasonable amendments to this legislation to make it better. I am very happy to have this high-level conversation in Parliament. There seems to be substantial agreement that bail reform…
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Madam Speaker, I share the concern with members of the Bloc Québécois that the Liberals are going to try to prevent any reasonable amendments to this legislation. However, I am an optimistic person. I will go back to the sex offender registry case that was found to be unconstitutional. All the parties worked together to pass that legislation through. We really did. If the Liberals are taking this …
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Madam Speaker, we are hearing a lot today that the Liberal government coming up with workarounds for the old Bill C-75, which introduced section 493 to the Criminal Code, which is the principle of restraint in the administration of bail in bail court. Instead of doing these workarounds, could we get rid of section 493 altogether? The Liberals are blaming it on the Supreme Court of Canada, but we w…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his tireless advocacy for first responders' safety and for introducing a private member's bill in the last Parliament and now again this time. Where would his private member's bill from the last Parliament be today if former prime minister Trudeau had not selfishly prorogued Parliament for purely partisan reasons?
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Madam Speaker, I enjoyed working with the member for Rivière-du-Nord on the justice committee in the last Parliament. He is talking about who is going to be tougher on crime, the Liberals or the Conservatives. He was on the committee when we received a letter from 13 premiers asking for bail reform. Bill C-48 was the response, and he was involved in that debate. It did not go far enough, and now w…
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Mr. Speaker, we have a new normal in Canada. Food banks are the lifeline for many Canadian families. The Liberals like to boast that they are helping families, but here is the reality: Food Banks Canada reports 2.2 million monthly visits this year, twice what it was six years ago. This is what their report says: “Behind every food bank visit is a story. A parent skipping meals so their kids can ea…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague made mention of a poorly thought-out social media post by the former prime minister, who said Canada is open, come on over, and a flood of refugees followed. I cannot help but make the comparison to another world leader who also makes poorly thought-out social media posts, shaping government policy on the fly. I would like my colleague to comment on the negative impact …
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague's speech was very inspiring. He talked about the importance of private investment dollars. I agree with him. I wonder if he could comment on how free enterprise private investment dollars have a unique ability to find the most productive place in the economy compared to politicians' poor track record of distinguishing between winners and losers.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, which highlighted some macroeconomic issues in Canada's economy. All day today we have been hearing from the Liberals saying our debt-to-GDP ratio is pretty good, but there are two factors they ignore. The first is subnational debt, so that we are really comparing apples to apples with other nations. The second is the economy's ability to service d…
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Mr. Speaker, my question relates to the culture of the Canadian Armed Forces tolerating sexual misconduct. The reports that are before us, by Arbour, Fish and Deschamps, all say that without changing the culture, the problem will not be solved. Is the hon. colleague optimistic that Bill C-11 would push the Canadian Armed Forces to reform its conduct, which is the root of the problem?
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Mr. Speaker, the reports that are before us, those by Arbour, Fish and also Deschamps, all say that the problem with the Canadian Armed Forces around sexual misconduct will not be solved until the culture there is solved, a culture that has found sexual misconduct acceptable or at least tolerated in the context of the military setting. Why is the member optimistic that Bill C-11 is finally the sol…
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Mr. Speaker, today we are talking about Bill C-11, the military justice system modernization act. The effect of the bill would be to remove the military court's jurisdiction to try offences of a sexual nature and move them to civilian courts, which would have exclusive jurisdiction. Our proud Canadian Armed Forces has a deep-seated problem that the bill aims to tackle. This is not new information;…
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Mr. Speaker, the member for Winnipeg North often asks questions of that nature, saying, “Why not just hurry things through?” I think there is a big advantage, to members of Parliament and the people we represent, to debating important legislation like this in the chamber. If it had been hurried off to committee, I would not have had the opportunity to research it, learn more about it and speak to …
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