44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 28, 2023 10:00AM
- Mar/28/23 2:56:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when the Conservatives were in power, an additional 2.7 million people were living in poverty. When the Conservatives were in power, Canadians received family benefit cheques, but had to pay tax on them.
Our government increased the Canada child benefit without taxing it. This represents up to $7,000 a year for families with children under six.
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- Mar/28/23 2:57:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, sadly, we all remember when the Prime Minister stated that small and medium-sized businesses were a way for people to pay lower taxes. That is when the Prime Minister looked in the mirror.
Real small business owners, however, have their hearts in the right place. When they see taxes going up, they are no longer able to provide the services they believe in. That is why, according to a recent poll, 45% of small business owners will have to cut salaries, 56% say they will have no choice but to increase retail prices, and 61% are opposed to the Liberal carbon tax.
Will the Prime Minister listen to small businesses and forgo the Liberal carbon tax?
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- Mar/28/23 2:57:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, not only are we listening to small and medium-sized businesses but we proved it during the pandemic, among other times.
I cannot say how many small business owners I have met in my riding and across Quebec who tell me the extent to which we were there for them. It is thanks to programs that we put in place during the pandemic that they were able to retain jobs and, thanks to those jobs, families are now able to pay their rent and buy groceries.
We have always been there for small businesses and for those most in need, and that will still be the case today with this budget.
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- Mar/28/23 2:58:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, expenses for our beloved Governor General of Canada's official trip to Germany totalled nearly $700,000.
We are talking $700,000 for a four-day trip when Quebeckers are tightening their belts. Meanwhile, her salary was just increased by $40,000 a year, which is almost as much as the average income in Quebec.
How many more times will $700,000 be thrown out the window before people understand that this expensive and useless position must be abolished?
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- Mar/28/23 2:59:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if my colleague were to look at the numbers and compare them, she would see that the cost of that tour was the same, on average, as other tours.
Obviously, we are going to do everything we can to keep costs down and to make sure that these tours cost as little as possible every time.
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- Mar/28/23 2:59:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we do not have the same information. I want to be clear that all my questions about the Governor General concern the office and not the individual appointed to the position.
It is the position itself that is problematic and costly. When we ask someone to literally stand in for the Queen of Canada, it leads to behaviour that is disconnected from reality. Ms. Simon is wasting her own talents in this useless position that is insulting to all those that were wronged by the British Crown over the years.
When will it be abolished?
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- Mar/28/23 3:00:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc is attacking the office. It is attacking the federation. It is attacking Canada. It is attacking things we all hold most dear.
The Bloc members are obviously here to promote sovereignty, to pick fights whenever possible and ensure that nothing works. Unfortunately for them, Quebeckers are very happy to be part of Canada and we intend to stay that way.
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- Mar/28/23 3:00:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government spent $21.4 billion on outside consultants in this fiscal year alone. That is a 95% increase under the Liberal government. This is at a time when Canadians are struggling to put food on the table. This is at a time when Canadians have record-high credit card debt.
Why does the government not show some compassion and stop helping high-priced consultants instead of struggling Canadians?
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- Mar/28/23 3:01:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important to understand that this government is implementing an ambitious agenda to help Canadians, support workers and ensure that workers can keep working. I believe that we have to continue to highlight the fact that we are implementing an ambitious agenda.
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- Mar/28/23 3:01:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the current government is a government that helps its friends. The trade minister gave $23,000 to her friend. The housing minister gave $93,000 to his friend. The current government spent $21.4 billion on outside consultants. This is at a time when rents and mortgages are doubling. This is at a time when the excise tax and the carbon tax are set to increase on April 1. Why does the government not find some compassion and help struggling Canadians instead of just its rich friends and consultants?
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- Mar/28/23 3:02:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important to be very careful how we characterize the use of consultant services. When a government is, for example, in a circumstance like a pandemic when it needs to scale up and expand its impact at a particular moment in time, it is important to be able to use contracting services so that we do not create permanent costs by engaging permanent employees. The use of contracts allows flexibility in government to expand to deliver services without permanently increasing costs. It is irresponsible to misrepresent that and to hold it out as something other than what it is.
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- Mar/28/23 3:03:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, at a time when Canadians are facing being caught in the vice of a cost-of-living crisis, the current Liberal government has done nothing but crank the handle. Rather than merely being content with raising the carbon tax, the tax on everything, the government is still spending millions upon millions of dollars on outside management consultants, and I have been schooled on being careful about that. There is something broken when the current Liberals cannot seem to understand that the spending is an inflationary dollar upon dollar. Why is the Prime Minister more focused on helping his high-priced Liberal consultants than on helping everyday Canadians?
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- Mar/28/23 3:03:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, the use of consultants is an ability that allows the government to maintain flexibility in difficult times. As an example, during the pandemic we had to vastly increase our ability to be there for Canadians and to be there for small business owners to make sure that their businesses did not fail so that they could have the success we are seeing in the incredible jobs recovery, which is one of the strongest of our comparator nations. It is in fact due to the ability to use the flexibility of contracts to achieve that. To mis-characterize that or to try to create shadows with it is irresponsible.
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- Mar/28/23 3:04:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as a joint Canada-U.S. command, NORAD is integral to maintaining peace, stability and sovereignty in our country. Given Russia's arbitrary and brutal invasion of Ukraine and other recent threats to global security, there is intense interest, among my constituents of Yukon and across the north, in our government's commitment to modernizing NORAD while respecting and protecting Arctic sovereignty. Could the Minister of National Defence update the House on the progress made to protect Canada's Arctic security?
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- Mar/28/23 3:04:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last week we reaffirmed our commitment to continental defence and Arctic security by investing $7.3 billion in bases across this country, including in bases that will house the F-35. These investments will ensure economic benefits for indigenous communities and Canadians across this country. As President Biden said, we can “rest soundly, knowing [that] NORAD [has] the watch.”
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- Mar/28/23 3:05:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday, 37-year-old Paul Stanley Schmidt was fatally stabbed, not shot, outside a downtown Vancouver Starbucks. His wife, three-year-old daughter and dozens of others witnessed this horrific almost casual attack. After eight years of this Prime Minister's soft-on-crime policies, Canadians face a national crime wave. Governments should alleviate suffering not increase it. When will the Prime Minister give jail not bail to violent criminals?
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- Mar/28/23 3:06:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our thoughts go out to the family of the individual who the member mentioned and to any individuals who are the victims of violent crime. Our government is taking needed action to deal with violent crime, including gun control. However, most importantly it is taking a multipronged approach to it by dealing with mental health, investing in mental health and investing in communities through the building safer communities fund. We know that we need to address the root causes of crime in order to keep Canadians safe.
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- Mar/28/23 3:06:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about facts. The brutal and horrific stabbing last Sunday marked Vancouver's sixth homicide in 2023, where 40 offenders were arrested for 6,000 crimes in one year. Canadians are afraid to walk city streets and take transit. Violent crime is up 32%. Gang murders are up 92% under this Prime Minister's watch. Ask the family of 16-year-old Gabriel Magalhaes who was stabbed not shot while waiting for transit in Toronto. Will the Prime Minister get serious, put innocent victims first and replace bail with—
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- Mar/28/23 3:07:28 p.m.
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The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- Mar/28/23 3:07:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, any kind of spike in violence, like the one on the TTC, is concerning to all of us. That is why we work with municipalities, like the City of Toronto and the City of Vancouver, to invest in the root causes of crime. That is why we are making investments in mental health.
We know that we need to be investing in the root causes, but we cannot ignore the impact that guns have on crime. That is why we will proudly take action, as we are with Bill C-21.
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