Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to be here for this debate. Our country was founded in 1867 on the principle of the linguistic duality of two groups: anglophones and francophones. Of course, francophones do not exist only in the province of Quebec. We exist across Canada, and I am one of them. I would like to know what my Bloc colleague thinks of our country's linguistic duality. Does he think his bi…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join this debate as a francophone from western Canada to speak to Bill C‑246, which the Bloc Québécois member has introduced. He certainly has the right to have a debate. During his speech I heard him say that a nation clause would be added to our Constitution. It is always interesting to see a Bloc Québécois member make an amendment to the Canadian Constitution. I know …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to wish Canadians of Kurdish, Persian and Central Asian heritage a very happy Nowruz as this week marks the start of their new year. Nowruz is an ancient new year celebration adopted by many Central Asian peoples. For Kurds, this new year will be 2722, and the word “Nowruz” literally means a new year, marking the first day of spring. It is celebrated through a variety of …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is hard to follow the whip of one's own party when joining debate on this issue. I do not want to re-thread the same ground that he has already covered. I have already basically chopped off half of what I wanted to cover, but I want to specifically focus now on the actual parliamentary review committee. I have heard all types of things being debated in this House on what will actua…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely correct in her reading of the act. It is actually the same reading that I have, and I referred to “Meetings in private”, which is in subsection 62(4) of the act. What I was basically implying, and will say now, is that the best portion of the committee, the one I think the public will be most interested in, will be the discussion of the orders and regulations …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am going to remind the member for Vancouver Granville that it is the government's responsibility to set the hours of debate on the motion. It could have done this last week. It could have done this Monday. It could have had evening sittings on the motion in order to ensure that it passed. When we do bad-faith negotiations, like I believe the government House leader has done, this is…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I am not the one who is saying we should not look at anything that happened before. It is clear in the act and the motion what is supposed to happen. The motion specifically refers to February 14 to February 23, and in the act in section 62, and I invite the member to read the sections of the Emergencies Act I am referring to, it says: 62(1) The exercise of powers and t…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Rivière-du-Nord for his question. Canada was founded as a binational and bicultural country. The two founding peoples of our country were the francophone and the anglophone peoples. As my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord knows, I am a Franco-Albertan, but I am also a child of Bill 101. I lived in Montreal for a while. I think we need to recogn…
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Mégantic—L'Érable. I am pleased to be joining the debate on this motion. I would have much loved to have been there, but members can probably hear that I sound a bit ill. I have a cold, so I cannot fly there and take part in this debate in person. I want to outline to my constituents, Albertans, westerners and Canadians how the process w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am not sure how that is related to the redistribution of seats in Canada. However, I will thank the member for Timmins—James Bay. He does not have to tell a Canadian of Polish heritage, someone who was born behind the iron curtain as the son of a member of the Solidarnosc movement, about the behaviour, aggressiveness and military aggression capable by the Kremlin. Absolutely, he i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member for Winnipeg North is correct that immigration, historically for the last 150 years, has been the main driver of demographic growth in Canada. In successive waves, we have seen immigrants from eastern Europe add to the mixing pot that is Canada and add to its distinctiveness. I am one of those people and so is my family, who came from different regions and settled in Cana…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise in recognition of Rare Disease Day. The theme of this year's Rare Disease Day is “Share Your Colours”. I offer this limerick in honour of this special day: Millions in Canada, two-thirds of them youth Battle rare disease daily, a sad, sombre truth These diseases touch families and count several thousand From MS through Alport and von Recklinghausen They are tough on their child…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed by the member's answer to the question before, but also by the speech because it is a blank cheque that the member has given. This is not the NDP of Tommy Douglas, who said that the Emergencies Act is a sledgehammer on the peanut of what is going on right now. If this is not a blank cheque, then when should these emergency powers end? What is the view of the NDP? Wha…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member, who is a parliamentary secretary, the following question: When will the implementation of the Emergencies Act end, since the protesters in Ottawa have been dispersed and the blockades at the border were removed before the act was even invoked? When will the special powers that the government is asking for end?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the Emergencies Act allows the government powers without judicial oversight. That is what is going to happen. The Emergencies Act removes judicial oversight regarding the freezing of bank accounts. Earlier today, members on the Liberal side mentioned 73 bank accounts have been frozen. Andreas Park, a finance professor at the University of Toronto, expressed alarm at the scope of the…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, what I liked about my colleague from La Pointe-de-l'Île's speech was the way he summarized the events leading up to the current situation. He talked about the Prime Minister's lack of leadership and about how the PM hid in his cottage for three or four weeks and made only one public appearance where he insulted the people who had come to Ottawa to protest. It seems as though that is w…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, to continue the logic of the Liberal member who just asked a question, I have to say that never in my life have I had a police force or an acting chief of police turn down more powers for their officers. I have never heard a police chief or a police force say that they would like to carry out searches without a warrant. I think that this is true for everyone. The police will never say…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I will ask the member a question. He said that the point of all the protesters was to overthrow the government. I have been closely following the Ottawa Police Service and they are now laying out charges against people they detained and arrested. I have noticed that nobody has been charged with treason, conspiracy to commit sedition, seditious intentions or rioting. I wonder if the me…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the government may have heard the protesters who came here full of energy, but it did not listen to them. It is important to admit that. I have a question for the member. I held consultations when I worked in the private sector. Usually, when we hold consultations, it is to convince the people being consulted that we are right or to present an argument we want them to take seriously…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, one of the provisions in the Emergencies Act is warrantless search and seizure. This provision is especially relevant to the freezing of bank accounts of those known to be connected to the protesters outside or of people who are related to them, which could happen further down. I would like to hear the member comment on the fact that the government no longer needs to go to a judge t…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, if this was an honest attempt by the government to include the official opposition and convince us that the use of the Emergencies Act was warranted and met the threshold, I would have thought the government would have given us all the briefing materials, the evidence and the facts. It would have released them and made the judicial opinions from Justice Canada officials public. It d…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, there are three things I would like to address. The member talked about the independent judiciary being active right now. This member must know that the Emergencies Act actually removes the role of judges in FINTRAC and the freezing of bank accounts. This is the shortcut. A briefing one of our members received from government officials specifically says it takes too long to go to judg…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, before I begin, I just want to say that yesterday night, because of the police presence here, I missed a very important dinner with two very dear Kurdish friends of mine: Jowana and her husband Shaheen. I just wanted to mention that at the start. I listened to the member's speech and I want to put a couple of actual facts on the table. In the lead-up to the declaration of this emerg…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. With all due respect to my colleague from the Bloc, I believe this is the time for questions and comments; therefore, the member opposite has an opportunity to respond if she wishes to.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the member a question, but I also have a comment. We often hear the Liberals say that the government does not direct the police. In reality, section 5 of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act clearly states that the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, under the direction of the minister, has the control and management of the force and all matters c…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I remain unconvinced by the member's argument, and I recognize the fact that he was a lawyer by profession before he came to this place. I was not a lawyer, thankfully, in my previous life, but the member, during his speech, said that there must be a very high threshold to suspend civil liberties. I would say let us not use American language, and call them charter liberties or charter…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the member talked about withdrawing support if New Democrats see abuse. As she knows, the Emergencies Act provisions are already in force. What we are essentially talking about here is a confirmation vote by the House of Commons on whether to keep these provisions in place. What we should be doing is preventing harm from happening in the first place. What my caucus and many Conserva…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I have a commentary to make about the member's speech, just to set the record straight and correct the misinformation. For the last three weeks I too have been walking downtown every weekend and every day across this line, and I have met a lot of very friendly people. Of course, some people are profane in what they say; this is a protest, after all. However, the member was talking abo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is disconcerting to see the government moving again to shut down debate in the House. I thought we were being very reasonable when we moved the amendment to have just a little more transparency and accountability at a parliamentary committee of the House so we could consider this issue. For 21 months, seniors have been dealing with this problem. There are 204,000 Canadians affected…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I got more applause this time, so we should do this more often. Is it something I said? The government moved to shut down debate on this bill, and I had only two minutes to speak to it last Friday. I know I did not have a Yiddish proverb ready to go then, and that must be why we must rush this bill through the House now. I do have a Yiddish proverb today, though, just to show that I a…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the government runs the agenda of the House of Commons. They are responsible for the agenda. They could have tabled this bill before. They also could have not called an election in August. They could have had us return to the House to consider legislation right away. It is not as if they did not know this was a problem. This is simple legislation. Why did it take so much time to rec…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the GIS is definitely important to seniors in my riding. I believe that our amendment provides a potential solution that would ensure that the problem has been dealt with once and for all. I would not want us to quickly pass Bill C‑12 only to realize six months later that it is flawed and that some seniors are still falling through the cracks. There are 204,000 seniors who are affec…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member. He is one of the few members of the New Democrats, as are you as well, Madam Speaker, whom I quite appreciate as very reasonable members of the House. I want to address the first part of the member's question with respect to the urgency of the matter. The government is claiming there is urgency. The Senate is not even going to sit to consider this m…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member is absolutely correct. Oftentimes during this pandemic, we have seen the government approve a program, rush it through the House and tell us not to worry as it is going to work. Then we constantly hear from our constituents saying they cannot apply for it, their particular situation does not count or they use their personal chequing account for their business so they cann…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member for Beauport—Limoilou's comments about the government's motivation was spot on. The Liberals are using the seniors file to score political points, to boast they have rescued seniors from a problem the Liberals themselves admit they created in the first place. As my colleague mentioned, the opposition parties had said that they were in agreement. All we want is for the gov…
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Madam Speaker, it is a policy question he is asking, and I do not have a definitive answer. However, I worry about this. Why would we trust the Liberal government to create another government program when the Liberals have screwed up so many of them? They have rushed them through the House and tried to make it up through regulations or cabinet orders to patch programs incessantly. We can look at t…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for giving me a terrific idea. I ask for unanimous consent to return to earlier in Routine Proceedings so we can accept a report from a committee.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, forgive me for interrupting the business of the day. I was just wondering if the Speaker had called for reports from committee, or motions from committee. It is my first week as the deputy House leader on the opposition side, and I did not hear the Speaker say that.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member mentioned several times that this legislative measure will finally correct a mistake made on something that the government should have known from the start. I agree with him on that. Many Conservative and Bloc members mentioned it, and the government changed its mind on the subject during the election campaign. Does my colleague think it is a good idea to try to rush the …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to join the debate on this late Friday. It is always an honour to rise in the House, even for only two minutes. I will need to find a Yiddish proverb by the end of my two minutes. Again, I want to thank my constituents for sending me back here. I said that last year after we returned briefly for a session, but it truly is an honour. All of us should recognize, no matter…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following nine reports of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The first report is entitled “Report 1, Procuring Complex Information Technology Solutions of the 2021 Reports of the Auditor General of Canada”. The second report is entitled “Report 2, National Shipbuilding Strategy, of the 2021 Reports of the Auditor Ge…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Jodi in my riding of Calgary Shepard is the latest victim of the Liberal cost-of-living inflation. She is on a fixed income and got her January, 2022, ENMAX bill, which was $638 for her utilities. That was a $200 increase over the last month. She said that this was absurd, and she is right. It is absurd. She said, “This is tough. It is like another mortgage payment.” I would ask the g…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the late Colin Powell once told a US president that if you break it, you are going to own it. The Prime Minister broke the real estate market, and now he owns this entire crisis. The year 2021 was a boom year. A total of 667,000 residential properties changed hands that year, which is a 30% increase over a 10-year average. Average prices went from $434,000 to $811,000, which is an 81%…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program in the riding of Calgary Shepard: (a) how many applications were received in the riding of Calgary Shepard; (b) of the applications in (a), how many were (i) successful, (ii) denied or rejected; (c) what is the breakdown of the number of successful applicants by type of business (hotel, restaurant, tour operator, etc.); and (d) what is th…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to pharmaceutical drugs, treatments and therapies authorized by Health Canada since January 1, 2020: (a) how many pharmaceutical drugs (or new drug submissions) were granted authorization; (b) what are the details of each drug in (a), including the (i) name of the drug, (ii) date of the approval, (iii) purpose of the drug, including the disease or condition treated by drug; and (c) of …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to programs which provided money or financing to businesses, sectors, or communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy, the Tourism Relief Fund, and others, and broken down by program: (a) for each program, what is the total amount distributed to date in the riding of Calgary Shepard; (b) what was the total number…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) announced by the government in 2019, from September 1, 2019, to date: (a) how many applicants have applied for mortgages through the FTHBI program, broken down by province and municipality; (b) of those applicants, how many have been approved and accepted mortgages through the FTHBI program, broken down by province and municipality; (c) of…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would prefer to make a comment rather than ask the member a question. He explained his position very clearly as well as that of the Bloc Québécois. I would therefore prefer to comment on the narrative. I am a Canadian MP and I am of Polish descent. I was born in Poland and lived the history of eastern Europe. I would say that when we talk about NATO moving its borders closer to Russ…
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Mr. Speaker, I will just respond to some of the member's comments. I do not know if I will have a question. It is more just a commentary. She compared the Russian Federation and President Putin with a bully. We know that bullies only respond to strength, not to more talking. At this point, more talking without some type of action, without a response that strengthens Ukraine's capacity to defend it…
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Mr. Speaker, that was what I would term a strong endorsement of support for Ukraine and for ensuring its territorial integrity. I am of Polish origin. Many eastern Europeans fled to Canada over the last century. They usually came here in different waves. Eastern Europe is still a troubled region, typically because of the Russian Federation and the different names that it has been known by. The mem…
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