Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, Bill C-26 gives the Liberal Minister of Finance a blank cheque to spend $1.7 billion with no guarantees of results, targets or accountability to build homes. In fact, the word “housing” is in this bill only twice. My hon. colleague mentioned the rebate program, the program that was signed with the Province of Ontario, yet there is no specific program put in place through regulation on…
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Mr. Speaker, the member speaks about the Liberal commitment to bail reform, justice reform and listening to police and constituents. Would he not agree that we are here today because of Liberal policies that are soft on crime? We are here today because of Bill C‑75, the principle of restraint and bail reform; Bill C‑5 on mandatory minimums; and Bill C‑83, the “least restrictive environment”, which…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the chamber today to share some final thoughts on my private member's bill, Bill C-232, before we conclude second reading debate and proceed to an eventual vote. When I first introduced this bill in the 44th Parliament as Bill C-342, I made a promise to my constituents to see what I could do to help correct a bad policy decision made by the Liberal governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, I was at the same meeting the member referred to, the heart-on-our-sleeve meeting with victims. I heard their gut-wrenching stories and witnessed their bravery in sharing their stories, so I wanted to ask this question: Why did the government vote against excluding child sexual offences from the safety valve? If mandatory minimum penalties can be ignored, what exactly is mandatory abo…
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my hon. colleague. Does he think that the tripling of this tax by the CRTC will not hurt the cultural industries and artists we seek to support? I worked for the provincial government back in 1996 when the Ontario government passed the Ontario film and television tax credit. Back then it was Mike Harris's government, and the industry thrived. It grew tremendously…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her description of the excellence, the talent and the workforce that have been created. I had the pleasure of working for the Ontario government in 1995 when we came forward with the Ontario film and tax credit. We have generous tax credits provincially and federally, which have allowed the excellence of that industry to grow. However, does th…
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Mr. Speaker, in the short time I have available to me, I want to say how pleased I am to speak on our Conservative motion that “the House call on the Liberal Cabinet to use their powers under the Broadcasting Act to reject the CRTC's streaming tax increase and eliminate the streaming tax.” For the Canadians who are watching, the Liberal-appointed CRTC recently ordered online streaming services to …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister falsely claimed to Canadians that “affordability's the best it's [ever] been in over a decade”. We are 11 years into the Liberal government, and one in four Canadians is living in a food-insecure household. Two million Canadians are visiting a food bank each month, and over 13,000 residents in Niagara Falls need the services of our food bank, Project Share. …
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Mr. Speaker, Pete Townsend of The Who wrote the song Won't Get Fooled Again, which has these lines: Meet the new boss Same as the old boss This costly credit card budget confirms that. Can members believe that the man who claims to be the smartest person in the room has doubled Justin Trudeau's deficit? The Liberals are spending more on their servicing of the debt than they are on health care. The…
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Mr. Speaker, this week our local food bank held a volunteer appreciation day to thank its supporters for the role they play in helping to address and solve issues of affordability within our community. Project Share has been providing emergency food and support services to residents of Niagara Falls for more than 30 years. Sadly, more than ever, food banks in Niagara and across this country are be…
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Mr. Speaker, 2.6 million Canadians depend on trade with the United States for their livelihoods. Niagara is home to 641 businesses that generated $6.6 billion in exports to the United States. Trade with the U.S. is not a weakness, as the Liberal Prime Minister suggests. It is our daily reality. Mexico and the U.S. are talking trade right now. Meanwhile, Canada has not had serious talks with our la…
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Mr Speaker, seven years ago, the Hon. Rob Nicholson announced his retirement after a distinguished 24 years in public service representing the communities of Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Fort Erie. Having worked for Rob, I considered him my political mentor and viewed his dedication, integrity and character in public office as the embodiment of what is good in politics. This past fall, t…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise in my place today to participate in the debate on our opposition motion, which calls on the federal government to support the Conservative plan to double automotive production through a tariff-free auto pact. This bold new policy offers a fresh take on a similar policy, embodied by the old auto pact rules that resulted in Canada's auto manufacturing grow…
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Mr. Speaker, through our policy on this Canadian auto pact, we are talking about a policy to buy Canadian, sell here and build here. It only makes sense. We want to encourage those who want to produce, such as the big three automakers. General Motors has been in my community since 1929. They have invested and grown with this community. They have been in this community for almost 100 years. I want …
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Mr. Speaker, there is the notion that Stellantis's failure is partly to be blamed on the government and its failed EV policies. Again, Stellantis has written off $27 billion because of this fallacy of an EV mandate that the Liberals have put in place instead of recognizing that the market should determine what the sales levels in autos should be. Why not go back? We met with Unifor today, and the …
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Mr. Speaker, what we do not support is the Liberals' failed EV policy, which they are implementing. They fail to realize that 90% of the autos that are produced in this country are shipped to the United States. The success of the auto industry in Canada was based on the regulatory harmony that existed with our largest trading partner and customer for Canadian-made autos, the United States. The fan…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I said this earlier in my remarks: I stand in my place today putting forward this legislation because I made a promise to my constituents to listen and respond to their concerns and to take action to ensure that monsters like Paul Bernardo serve their sentence in a maximum-security institution, where they rightly belong.
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moved that Bill C-232, An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (maximum security offenders), be read the second time and referred to a committee. Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this chamber to debate this important legislation that would help restore Canadians' trust and confidence in our criminal justice system and in federal institutions like Correctional Service Can…
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Mr. Speaker, I stand in this place because I am responding to the concerns that were expressed to me by the families and friends of the victims in my community. They asked that we take steps to fix the flawed legislation from Bill C-83; to make the changes found in my legislation, Bill C-232; and to restore wording of the previous legislation, which the government removed and added the wording “le…
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Mr. Speaker, there are two provisions. The bill is about changing the wording with regard to “least restrictive environment” and going back to the previous Conservative wording. It also would designate people who are dangerous offenders and those who commit multiple murders as having a maximum-security classification so they serve their time in maximum security rather than medium security. It is a…
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Mr. Speaker, I recently met with the Niagara Home Builders' Association, and its members indicated to us that bureaucracy will not build homes. One builder has laid off 60% of their staff. They used to build 300 homes but are now building only 30. Their one solution to the housing crisis, and they told us this, was to adopt the Conservative plan of removing the GST on all new homes, not just for f…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, rejected asylum claimants should not be receiving better health care than Canadians who have paid into a system their entire lives. It makes common sense. At a time when six million Canadians cannot afford a family doctor and are waiting for care, it is unacceptable that bogus asylum seekers are receiving better health care than Canadians. When over 13,000 residents in Niagara Falls a…
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Mr. Speaker, the government's new EV strategy fails to put Canadian workers and automakers first. How is allowing 49,000 Chinese-made EVs into Canada and subsidizing the purchase of American-made EVs going to help the workers who were laid off from GM in St. Catharines? They are worried about the future of their engine plant. GM has been in St. Catharines since 1929. Will the Liberals support our …
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Mr. Speaker, that member is not talking to the Unifor members in St. Catharines, who had an EV battery engine plant, but GM moved it out because there were no sales. The Government of Canada should not be subsidizing American-made EVs using Canadian taxpayers' money, especially when U.S. actions have already cost 5,000 Canadian auto worker jobs. Will the Liberals simply join us, finally put Canadi…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague talked about the regulatory harmony that existed between Canada and the United States, which led to the growth of the North American auto sector. With this shift in the EV mandate, the government has moved over to a rebate system. With the regulatory environmental standards that the Liberals are now putting in place, would the member not agree that this will do more harm …
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Today, Mr. Speaker, just in media monitoring clips, there is a story from CTV News: “A new province-wide survey suggests more than half of British Columbians don’t feel safe in their communities, with respondents citing ongoing concerns about crime and violence.” CityNews Vancouver says, “Abbotsford Police calling for justice system changes amid growing extortion”. Those are just stories that are …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the government's decision to scrap its EV mandate confirms what Conservatives have said all along, which is that a forced 100% EV sales target was unrealistic and only created uncertainty. Bringing back EV rebates now offers little to Canada's auto workers, including those in St. Catharines, when up to $2.3 billion in taxpayer incentives will be subsidizing U.S. auto production and wh…
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Mr. Chair, my colleague's comments build on the weekend comments that he made. He has become a social media star, I would suggest, and it is great that he is doing that. They were great comments with regard to your concerns about this government's actions going from elbows up to, “Who cares?” Your notions about providing—
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Mr. Chair, I would like to welcome my colleague to the House. He has just come here, and he will probably work with his Liberal colleagues to build on that 10-year record of failure. That is why we voted against these budgets. For 10 years, we have voted against budgets that let the price of housing double. The price of mortgages has doubled and the price of rent has doubled, all during their peri…
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Mr. Chair, there is a sense of pride among auto workers in the quality of the products that they produce. In fact, in St. Catharines we do make the V8 engines that go into the Silverado in Oshawa. There is a reason the auto workers call themselves brothers and sisters as members of locals there. I have local 199 in St. Catharines. That is being put at risk by the policies of the government not to …
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Mr. Chair, would the hon. member not agree that there could possibly be other policies implemented by the government that have caused crises in the auto sector, for example, the lack of an industrial carbon tax in the United States and the lack of an EV mandate in the United States? The sector is telling all politicians here in the House that no one is going to be able to meet those EV targets and…
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Mr. Chair, the member indicated in his remarks that $220 million had gone to Stellantis and $400 million had gone to Algoma, and no guardrails were put in place for those dollars to flow. What does the member think are their main concerns? Why has the government been unable to get an agreement with the United States? It has been 10 years with regard to softwood lumber. Why is the government failin…
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Mr. Chair, Canada has a proud history of being an auto manufacturing nation. In fact, Canada's auto industry contributes $14 billion to our nation's GDP. In Niagara, General Motors has been in St. Catharines since 1929, nearly 100 years. However, whether GM will be open for business in St. Catharines to celebrate its century milestone has been cast in a nervous uncertainty, thanks to President Tru…
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Mr. Chair, my colleague said it best earlier: It is 10 years of failed Liberal policies. We have the tariff issue to contend with, but the success of the auto sector in this country was based on the regulatory harmony that existed between Canada and the United States since the implementation of the auto pact in the 1960s. What has happened since the tariffs have been put in place? Well, guess what…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight months, the Prime Minister has gone from elbows up to “Who cares?” when it comes to trade issues with the United States. These comments spark concern in my community, particularly with the thousands of current and former GM workers in St. Catharines who worry about the future of their auto plant. GM has been in St. Catharines since 1929. I can say that Conservatives care, …
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Mr. Speaker, this week, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada is hosting its annual Tourism Congress in Gatineau. This year's theme is “Tourism Builds Canada”. Tourism definitely powers my communities of Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. In fact, Niagara is home to more than 40,000 tourism workers. Across Canada, one in 10 Canadian jobs is in tourism, an industry that generates $130 bill…
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Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of Liberal government, Canada has the fastest-shrinking economy of any G7 country. Since the Prime Minister's visit to Washington, the U.S. commerce secretary stated that car assembly is going to be in America and there is nothing Canada can do about it. The Liberal Prime Minister recently promised the President that $1 trillion of new investment will flow into the Unit…
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Mr. Speaker, the member should talk to the residents in his riding who lost their jobs when GM cut the third shift in Oshawa. This summer, GM announced plans to invest $4 billion in three auto plants. That does not include the $800 million in Tonawanda, New York, just across the border from us, and it is not St. Catharines. As billions of dollars flee Canada for the U.S., Canadian auto workers are…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada has the fastest-shrinking economy in the G7 and the second-highest unemployment levels. If we listen to the U.S. commerce secretary, it is only going to get worse for auto workers, including those at the local GM plant in St. Catharines. In May, GM announced its largest investment ever in an engine plant just across the border from us in Tonawanda, New York. Meanwhile, it was c…
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Mr. Speaker, General Motors has had a presence in St. Catharines since 1929, nearly 100 years. If the Liberal government does not act, it might not reach the century mark. As billions of dollars flee Canada for the U.S., Canadian auto workers are watching in dismay as their Prime Minister offers up their jobs to the Trump administration, and for what, a free lunch? When will the Liberal Prime Mini…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, every dollar the Liberals spend comes out of the pockets of Canadians and inflates the price of everything, including food. The Prime Minister told Canadians when he was sworn in that they should judge him by the cost at the grocery store. Well, the results are in after six months in office. Food Banks Canada has given the Prime Minister and his Liberal government a D on poverty and f…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-232, An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (maximum security offenders). Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. After 10 years of Liberal soft-on-crime policies and reforms, Canadians are now looking to us to restore common sense to our criminal justice system in Canada. My private member's bill would help do exactly that, and it is a response to c…
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Mr. Speaker, the cities of Welland, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls have all indicated that our justice system fails Canadians when repeat violent offenders are allowed back onto our streets. That is why common-sense Conservatives have proposed a jail-not-bail law, a “three strikes and you're out” bill and more. Today, I will introduce a bill that proposes to keep monsters like Paul Bernardo lock…
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Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of passing catch-and-release laws that turn criminals loose on our streets, the Liberals are obstructing the passage of common-sense jail-not-bail proposals. Violent crime is up 55%. In Niagara, residents were horrified when they heard the news of Daniel Senecal breaking into a Welland home and sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl while her family slept. On Monday,…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise in this chamber as the first vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Science and Research, representing the Conservatives. Witnesses, committee analysts and parliamentarians from all parties contributed their valuable time and effort into producing this report in the previous Parliament, and I am pleased to see this report being tabled today. His Majesty's opposition did submit…
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With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada transferring refugees to Niagara Falls, Ontario, between January 1, 2024 and June 1, 2025: (a) how many have been transferred to Niagara Falls in total; (b) what is the monthly breakdown of the number of refugees transferred to Niagara Falls; (c) which hotels is the government using to lodge refugees in Niagara Falls; (d) how many hotel r…
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With regard to the federal Tourism Growth Fund that was announced by the Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec on November 20, 2023: (a) how much of the $108 million from the Tourism Growth Fund has been spent as of June 1, 2025; (b) what is the spending breakdown for each of the seven regional development agencies, inc…
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With regard to asylum claimants who qualified under the over-14-day exemption to the Safe Third Country Agreement, from 2019 to 2025: (a) how many claimants qualified under the over-14-day exemption, in each of the past five calendar years, broken down by year; (b) how many claims from (a), were processed in each province or territory, broken down by year; (c) how many claims from (a), were from e…
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