Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in the same vein, I had technical difficulties yesterday. If I could also have my vote included, I will be voting yea.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of the residents of Grand Cache, in my wonderful riding of Yellowhead. People are calling on the government to do one thing: restore fairness to the community. It is a remote and isolated town where everything costs more. While these are exactly the kinds of challenges the northern residents deduction is meant to address, a line on the map …
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Mr. Speaker, “I'll always be worried [the government will] come looking for something...I can never trust the information l get from them”. These are the words of a public servant who is afraid to retire because of a broken pay system the Liberal government refuses to fix. There are 133,000 employees in the same situation. The Auditor General has confirmed that billions have been spent with no cle…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the member opposite on how bureaucracy does not build any homes and how the government has to have a mechanism to do that. However, he said that the process was going to allow us to use unused lands in the different parts of the departments. Could he tell me where in the bill there are any limits, goals or numbers for departments to say what is possible fo…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I recently attended the Alberta Beef Industry Conference, and I want to send a shout-out to the cattle farmers facing today's challenges. Attendees learned about the issues of the day, but it was not all doom and gloom. One inspiring session was presented by James Lawrence, an Alberta boy, born and raised in Calgary, known as the “Iron Cowboy”. He ran Ironman triathlons, breaking many…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, tax policies do not exist in a vacuum. They only work if the system actually works for the people who rely on it. As a chartered professional accountant, I have spent 26 years in public service. I have filed thousands of tax returns. For decades, friends and clients relied on me to navigate our complex tax system. Canada's tax system is based on voluntary self-reporting, and that tran…
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Mr. Speaker, in December, I raised Grande Cache as an example of a remote area that is bearing the brunt of rising grocery costs. Residents of Grande Cache have been fighting for years to have their community recognized under the northern residents deduction, a program designed to acknowledge the higher costs of living in remote areas. Grande Cache is remote. Everything costs more, including trave…
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Madam Speaker, as a member of INAN, the indigenous and northern affairs committee, I welcome a lot of the member's suggestions because the criticism we get from the government is that we do not have suggestions. The member has touched upon a lot of the issues, specifically one that has hit my riding. Does the member think they could work with what they have available now, or does the process need …
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Mr. Speaker, I can feel the hon. member's frustration with regard to what has gone on. Does he see a pattern over the last 10 years? This is just an extenuation of what has gone on with things not being accounted for when it comes to the Liberals dealing with certain things, specifically things in the Indian Act. How is this going to make anything better?
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told Canadians he should be judged by the prices at the grocery store. The average weekly food bill was $159 a week when the Liberals took over, but today that has doubled in the big cities. That does not address remote areas, such as Grande Cache and most of my riding, where it is much worse. New fuel standards, the industrial carbon tax and inflationary spending a…
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague was speaking to the CPA in me when he mentioned tax reform. However, I wanted to say that during my 26 years as a CPA in public practice, I also noticed, without actually documenting it, the decline in the number of entrepreneurs starting out. Can my colleague comment on what he thinks would be helpful from the Conservatives' platform to help out small businesses sta…
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Mr. Speaker, my fellow committee member brought up a few things that the accountant in me likes to acknowledge, concerning the unintended consequences that happened with regard to the disability tax credit and to the seniors' supplement. I am wondering if the member has any insight, from when he was looking at this, as to whether the Liberal government has actually taken into account any of the un…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said before, the government is not operating with the same fiscal framework that businesses are required to when they deal with the CRA for their taxes. They could never account for a liability as an asset, yet the government has done that. There have been a lot of changes to the CPP over the last few years that have made two different levels and added more burdens when it comes …
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Mr. Speaker, as a member of Parliament for a rural Alberta riding, and as someone who spent 26 years as a chartered professional accountant before coming to this place, I feel obligated to rise today to speak to Bill C-15 and to the government's latest disaster of a federal budget. I am going to dive into some of the fiscal details of the budget, but I want to be clear from the start: After 10 yea…
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Mr. Speaker, I have spent many hours on hold with the CRA. I have had a lot of frustration with the number of people reading off a checklist who have inadequate answers to the questions we go through. Even when we write the CRA, we do not always get the right answer. I am sorry the member feels that I have little respect for the CRA, but I have experienced, for a long time, a lot of frustration.
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Mr. Speaker, one thing that I find the government is supposed to do, as far as when I got into this goes, is help people out. Usually, helping out businesses to be profitable and give good jobs means making a good environment in our country for them to make profit. We are falling behind when we compare ourselves to the U.S. There are different tax credits. We had the 100% expensing of certain item…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like the member to comment on this. We have heard a few speeches in the House today, and one of the Liberals said that the Liberals decided to take out the unused housing tax because it had “unintended” consequences. This was a recurring theme of theirs in 2024 when they came up with this at the eleventh hour to get rid of the changes they had made for trusts. I wonder whether…
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Mr. Speaker, I recently visited a penitentiary in my riding where there is chronic underfunding and overcrowding. I know it is going to be difficult to know what the Liberals are thinking, but maybe the member can comment on whether it is possible that the Liberals' solution is soft-on-crime bail rather than building extensions or new penitentiaries to keep more criminals in jail.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Food Banks Canada has given the Liberal government an F when it comes to poverty and food security. With Canadians paying over $800 more for food this year than they did last year, it is no wonder food bank usage has skyrocketed across the country. The hidden Liberal industrial carbon taxes on fertilizer and farm equipment, along with the so-called clean fuel standard, keep on increas…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the vital role of the visitor economy in my riding of Yellowhead and across all of rural Alberta. Tourism is more than just sightseeing. For my riding it is an economic engine that supports nearly 9,000 jobs and more than 2,000 small businesses, most of which are locally owned and operated by proud Albertans. Yellowhead is at the heart of Alberta's visitor ec…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition from concerned citizens in my riding and across Canada regarding a proposal by the Liberal-led finance committee to remove the advancement of religion as a charitable purpose under the Income Tax Act. More than 30,000 registered charities, approximately 42% of all charities in Canada, fall under the category of advancing religion. These faith-based o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I have been a CPA for 26 years. I have worked with Canadians as they navigate their personal taxes and finances under the fiscal mismanagement of the Liberal government. Budgets do not balance themselves, as the Prime Minister knows well, with his background. There is no excuse to continue the fiscal disaster he inherited from his predecessor. My question is simple: Will the Prime Min…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising to present a petition on behalf of the citizens of Yellowhead. A growing number of taxpaying residents of the Ghost Valley and Waiparous area, including Benchlands, the Summer Village of Waiparous, Ghost Country Place, Pearce Place and households along Richard Road, require access to a functional postal code in order to fully participate in modern daily life. Postal codes …
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Mr. Speaker, I agree that the commissioner would have absolutely no teeth. It begs the question, would they really have any ability to do anything that is not already in existence? It would be very similar to the Auditor General, who has made all kinds of recommendations, but nothing is accomplished. The government can choose to ignore things. I do see the proposal as a waste of money, when we alr…
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Mr. Speaker, from my reading and learning over the last several months, I see absolutely no benefit to creating more reports. We need to actually have action. Just having another place for another bookshelf to store another report to collect dust would not be productive and would not get to the root of any of the problems. We need to actually implement what we have and listen to the reports we hav…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak in strong opposition to Bill C-10, the so-called commissioner for modern treaty implementation act. Let me begin by stating what should be obvious but often gets lost in the noise of the Liberal government's grandstanding: Conservatives support treaty rights. We support the process of reconciliation with Canada's first nations, Inuit and Métis people…
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Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my speech earlier, the Conservatives have a long history of stating that they do recognize that there were problems in the past and that we have addressed them, starting with Mr. Harper. There were several times when actual action was done; it was not just words but things that were actually produced and going forward. I do recognize that there were these problems. We o…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not a lawyer, but I am the member for Yellowhead, and I do have a jail in my riding. I have met with the guards a couple of times, and I have been told a lot of the problems they have. Specifically, because my area is relatively remote, they have a problem getting the people to help the prisoners improve in their lifestyles and that sort of thing. The prison does not have the res…
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Mr. Speaker, I ask for a recorded division.
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With regard to the government’s firearms buyback program and the confiscation of firearms: (a) how were the prices determined; (b) what appeal procedures are available to hunters that believe the price being offered by the government is unfairly low; (c) at what physical locations are firearms owners supposed to go to drop off these firearms, and what are the hours of each location; (d) to what lo…
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With regard to the statement made by Andrew Campbell, Senior Vice-President, Operations for Parks Canada, at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development's meeting on the Jasper wildfires, where he stated "we do not take notes at my operations team meeting": (a) is this a standard practice at all operations team meetings, and, if so, why and when did this become standard pract…
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With regard to government knowledge of the estimated firearms inventory in Canada: (a) how many firearms does the government currently estimate are legally owned in Canada, and by how many legal owners; and (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by classification and specific make and model of firearm?
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With regard to the Climate Action Incentive Fund, broken down by province and year: how much money was returned through the Climate Action Incentive Fund's Municipalities, Universities, Schools and Hospitals Retrofit stream, broken down by (i) municipality, (ii) university, (iii) school, (iv) hospital?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, years of poor forest management contributed to fires that devastated a third of the homes in Jasper last year. Parks Canada red tape, controlled by the Liberal government, is delaying the construction of new homes. Its process has just exacerbated the housing crisis in the region. Despite the Liberal government allocating $160 million, its solution seems to be treating Jasperites like…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, yesterday a devastating rockslide on the Banff Icefields Parkway near Bow Glacier Falls resulted in the loss of a life and injured many. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the family who lost their loved one, and I am wishing a speedy recovery to all those who were injured. We are grateful for the heroic efforts of our first responders, including Parks Canada staff, local firefighter…
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Mr. Speaker, in regard to the member looking at the reports, did he find any evidence that the Liberals went in any other direction, looked at any other reasons for technology to save on efficiencies, or is it all about just going electric, not about other savings or other types of efficiencies?
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Mr. Speaker, unlike the member opposite, I do not like spending a whole lot of time listening to my own voice here. It has been a long time. The member has stated a lot of things, and I did not see where he was going with it. He did state that he has been a member in the House, feeding at the trough, for a very long time. However, he did not seem to tell me how long he has been part of the Liberal…
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Madam Speaker, I heard my colleague say that he is from a rural area. My rural area is the third largest in Alberta, 83,000 square kilometres. There are sections where there are signs telling people to make sure they fill up because there are 200 kilometres before there are any services. When there are not even services for any kind of vehicles, how are people in rural areas going to be able to ha…
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Mr. Speaker, it has been five years since the Liberal government pushed through its order in council targeting responsible firearms owners with a confiscation scheme. Zero individuals have had their firearms bought back, yet gun crime has gone up 116%. As a person with an RPAL, which, by the way, if the minister still does not know, is a restricted possession and acquisition licence, I am baffled …
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Mr. Speaker, from our end, this is a beginning. This is in regard to one aspect of where the government mismanaged its spending in the past. We know this recent spending means the Liberals are going to have an extra $26 billion in contractors. We cannot continue with that without some better oversight. As we have said before, we need a budget to actually look at some of that spending. We all need …
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I am sorry, Mr. Speaker. As I was saying, my constituents were very much onside with the opposition here, and we want to send a strong message to make sure the last 10 years of fiscal mismanagement are corrected. We hope the government will follow suit in the next little while.
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Mr. Speaker, the decision by the electorate on April 28 gave us a minority government, so there was not a strong mandate for the government on that end of it. The constituents in my riding sent a pretty strong message, with over 69% of them saying they were very much in favour of the—
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time. As a chartered professional accountant, now the proud representative of Yellowhead, I rise today to speak in opposition to the government's blatant mismanagement and disregard for taxpayer money, specifically relating to the shocking findings concerning GC Strategies and the ArriveCAN contracts. The Auditor General's report revealed that GC Strategies, a c…
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Mr. Speaker, timing seems to be everything. The Liberal government tried to get ahead of it. It announced Friday, just before it was going to be caught with its pants down, that it would be banning GC Strategies, but it probably already had advance notice of what it would be doing. Dealing with GC Strategies needed to be brought forward right now. This is one of the audit reports. It was only one …
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Mr. Speaker, as a CPA who has dealt with a lot of taxes for the last 26 years, I have witnessed many occasions when the government makes a big announcement, just like a lot of these ones here. They make a lot of hay out of how much it will change things, but in the end, it really makes little difference. On the GST, if the Liberals actually have some stats on how many people are new homebuyers who…
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Mr. Speaker, with my 26 years in public practice, I have seen a lot of tax changes that had very little effect. I intend fully, over the next Parliament, to help in whatever committees I can to encourage meaningful tax changes. Bill C-4 has a few that are starting, but they are a long ways from actually having an effective change for individual Canadians, so I think we have a long way to go. This …
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time. It is with the deepest humility and honour that I rise in this chamber as the member of Parliament for Yellowhead for my maiden speech. It was a privilege to witness His Majesty King Charles III deliver the throne speech in the Senate chamber. However, a throne speech is more than who delivers the words. It is a promise made by the Liberal government to Ca…
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Mr. Speaker, from my perspective, I do not think it is possible that these costs are not going to be passed down to all Canadians. The only ones that are not going to be seen are with foreign companies, and we are not going to get the benefits in our industries here in Canada.
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Mr. Speaker, I think I stated in my speech that my family has actually homesteaded in Alberta since the 1880s. After I finished my university degree, I moved to the family farm and raised cattle for 10 years. At a certain point, I moved to being just an accountant, but I know and appreciate the hard work of the farmers who live off the land and take all of their income from the land, and how hard …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I would first like to congratulate you on your recent promotion. I look forward to working with you, as well as my colleagues in this coming Parliament. It is an honour today to rise for the first time on behalf of the constituents of the beautiful riding of Yellowhead, Alberta. I, too, would like to recognize some of my town and county councillors in Ottawa today. Considering that th…
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