SoVote

Mr. Glen Motz (Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, CPC)

Jan/31/22 6:08:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would be happy to step in so we can move his questions to the end. I am thrilled to rise today on behalf of my constituents and the opposition to talk about the Speech from the Throne. In reality, expectations were high for the Speech from the Throne. Canada and Alberta have struggled for almost two years under lockdowns, restrictions and confusion. Canadians were hoping for a path back to a more normal way of life. They wanted a plan for a recovery. Instead, there were platitudes and rhetoric, with no clear plan in the Speech from the Throne. Canadians were right to expect more, since the Prime Minister triggered a $600-million election that he claimed was to address the pandemic. However, the results were clear: Canadians, 67% of them, voted against giving the Prime Minister and the Liberals more power. They had seen what he did with a majority the first time and were not willing to trust him or give that to him again. What have we seen since the election? The Prime Minister took a vacation during the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, he delayed the return of Parliament for 60 days as Canadians waited for Parliament and parliamentarians to get back to work, and, not surprisingly, he broke yet another promise to deliver action within the first 100 days. Instead of rallying the country as good leaders do during a time of crisis and challenges, he hatefully called people he does not know, and does not care to understand, misogynists and extremists. That is what he called them. He clearly does not take the concerns of Canadians or the threat of hate groups seriously. He is actually promoting hatred to advance his own agenda, which is disappointing for the leader of a country. In the lead-up to the speech, for Alberta and my riding there was a feeling of anger and a question of how much more we could lose. The government has shown that it is not a question of if it would level another attack at Alberta, but what would be attacked next. At the recent climate change summit, the only announcement was to penalize one of Canada's main economic drivers, despite that the energy sector is one of the few with a public net-zero emissions plan, well ahead of the government's own deadlines. Alberta and Canada need a government that supports our low-carbon energy sector and its hundreds of thousands of workers, a government working for the return of the 134,000 jobs that were lost. These were blue-collar, high-paying energy jobs that the government killed with its antienergy policies. Small businesses in the communities across my riding are looking for a plan to end the lockdowns and get people back to work, to get supply chains that are secure and reliable, to get new projects that need government support up and running. Families are looking for certainty to get back to normal, to end the fear and bring prices back under control. Many Canadians have rejected the Speech from the Throne as having nothing for them. They are angry at the overreach designed to keep government empowered at Canadians' expense. As Thomas Jefferson said, “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” Sadly, the Liberals move closer to tyranny every day. There was a surprise at how little detail there was in the throne speech after an election and two months to work on it. Inflation was mentioned, but only that it was not a real problem. Canadians deserve a plan to manage inflation driven by the government's decisions. They deserve a plan to get our economy back on track and to tackle the many other issues facing Canada and Canadians. My riding has a large rural economy. There are many farmers and ranchers who endured yet another tough year trying to survive a very severe drought. Our agriculture sector is critical to our trade, our international relations, our domestic economy, our rural economy and our food supply. Why were farmers and rural Canada largely ignored in the Speech from the Throne? They deserve better as they face challenging times, carbon tax bills in the tens of thousands of dollars and shrinking access to global markets. Dealing with today’s challenges should be the priority of the government. The throne speech should have reset policy mistakes, acknowledged them and addressed them for the benefit of all Canadians. As National Bank Chief Economist Stéfane Marion noted, in the last five years, private sector investment in Canada shrank every year, even with a good economy. Liberal policies have driven out investments and weakened our economy. Everyone can see it, so why not acknowledge reality, take some advice and change course? Why not acknowledge the serious crime problem that continues to grow, with more shootings by criminal gangs with illegal, smuggled guns? The policies of the last six and a half years have not only failed to protect Canadians, but made things worse. Instead of addressing the problem, the Liberals are doubling down on policy failures in the hopes that press releases and media stories will bury the actual facts. Why not acknowledge that our Canada is not prepared to address rising global tensions or cyber-threats? Russia is on the verge of invading the Ukraine. China continues its threats and intimidations of Canadians. The world is at its highest international tensions since the Cold War. A promise to stand strong against these aggressors rings hollow today as the Liberals are not sending the supports Ukraine needs. The most obvious policy, to ban Huawei, has remained in study for five years. What is also surprising is there is still no acknowledgement that the Liberals benefited in the last election from Communist China’s misinformation campaign targeting Chinese Canadians. Canada is standing more and more isolated from our allies, who no longer recognize us. We were left out of the Indo-Pacific security agreement. We have been excluded from the U.K.-U.S.-Australia security pact. We have been slow to denounce Chinese hacking, aggressions and attacks, and are often the last of our allies to make any decisions. Our allies, or perhaps, unfortunately, our former allies, have noticed. Our response to Russian aggressions seems to be only tweets. Take that Putin. While our response weakens internationally, our democracy weakens here. Canada and our Parliament need to revitalize our democracy and shared values, ones that follow the letter and spirit of our laws. The government has run roughshod over our democracy, and its lack of respect for our laws is apparent. This has included suing Parliament, blocking information disclosures, proroguing the House to block information on scandals and consistently breaking ethics laws, all while falsely decrying others as partisan. Should the entire House not decry a Prime Minister who breaks ethical laws multiple times, who tries to force changes to criminal court proceedings to support his donors and who appeases our fiercest enemies? We need to return to transparency to be accountable to Canadians, who we are here to service. We need a commitment to support all provinces, now in particular when they are all seeking help with health care costs. We need a team Canada partnership, not the fight club that federal-provincial relations have become. Better is possible. I would like the Prime Minister to show us better, not just promise it or tweet it. Do it. Show us cross-aisle co-operation. Show us support for Canada's and Alberta’s energy workers. Show us a willingness to reverse mistakes and fix problems in housing, in jobs and in the inflation fight we are in. The people of my riding and all Canadians deserve to be heard and respected by their government. They deserve a clear plan for their communities and their country. They deserve a plan to manage inflation and reduce costs, a plan to reduce crime, a plan to deal with our national security, a plan to restore our democratic values, a plan to end the perpetual pandemic and a plan for recovery. The Speech from the Throne failed to show a clear plan on the priorities of Canadians and for Canadians. Failure to plan is planning to fail. We have all heard that. This speech has no plan and therefore should fail to get the support of the House.

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Context: House Hansard - 20 - Jan/31/22

Mr. Glen Motz

Jan/31/22 6:18:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is important to recognize that, from my perspective, coming from rural Alberta and rural Canada, I am well aware of the programs that are available. However, many constituents in my riding say they do not qualify or that there is some other problem they face when trying to qualify. The programs do not go far enough. They miss the boat. Regarding this drought, for example, with some of the programs that were put in place, I still get producers saying they are going under. These are cow-calf producers and cattle feeders. I had a gentleman last week call me in tears saying, “I have a couple thousand head in my feed lot. The plants are not taking them. The feed lots are not taking them. I am losing $400 an animal. How am I going to survive? I cannot survive. I am going to lose half to three-quarters of a million dollars this year alone. There is no program that the government has in place to help me, none. Zero.” What we need to recognize, as parliamentarians, is that the government needs to be receptive to being flexible with the programs that exist and to make adjustments as needs arise.

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Context: House Hansard - 20 - Jan/31/22

Mr. Glen Motz

Jan/31/22 6:21:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would agree. Canada's agricultural sector in different parts of our country relies on foreign workers and temporary foreign workers to come in and help. Not only is the whole immigration process seriously backlogged, but I think personally there are ways to fast-track certain streams for the SAWP and for the temporary foreign worker program, for example in agriculture, that would allow people coming in to work in those sectors to be fast-tracked through. The employers and the businesses in this country go through a significant amount of effort and work to try to get these people in place, and sometimes they do not get them in time. There is a huge greenhouse industry in my riding and it relies on temporary foreign workers almost exclusively. It struggles. Rather than spend months to get an employee, sometimes employers spend—

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Context: House Hansard - 20 - Jan/31/22

Mr. Glen Motz

Jan/31/22 6:23:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I grew up on a ranch in central Alberta. In the west, we dig holes all the time. They are called dugouts, and that is how we feed our livestock. That is how we gather more water, because over the years we have had varying degrees of moisture. Yes, there should be programs in place to allow opportunities for dugouts to be built and for farming practices to be changed. From my experience in the agriculture industry, there are no greater stewards of our land than those in the agricultural sector.

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