44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 27, 2023 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I want to focus on something pretty fundamental. It is the difference between the budget, which I did not vote for because it failed to address the climate crisis, failed to address mental health issues and puts more money into fossil fuels, and this bill, Bill C-47, the budget implementation act, in which to my surprise, having read 429 pages, I did not find anything I wanted to vote against.
Yes, the change to the Income Tax Act that would allow CRA to share data to allow dental care to happen is part of Bill C-47, but a whole number of budget measures are not mentioned here. I wonder if, as an experienced parliamentarian, the member can help others, in this educational moment, to understand the difference between voting against the budget, which I did, and voting for Bill C-47, which I surprised myself by finding I am going to vote for.
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- Apr/27/23 1:58:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am fascinated by the remarks of my colleague from Jonquière about small modular reactors. I do not think they are a source of clean energy and I think it is a big—
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- Apr/27/23 1:58:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I see no need to start over from the beginning, but I will say that my friend from Jonquière said some very interesting things about the nuclear industry and small modular reactors, which are not a source of clean energy. It is a serious distraction, moving us further away from the need to tackle the climate emergency.
My question is this. Why does he think we are facing a new nuclear threat?
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- Apr/27/23 3:01:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just in time for Earth Day, this government approved a devastating, nature-killing project, massively expanding the Port of Vancouver at Roberts Bank.
It is also a job-killing project, because the head of the longshoremen dock workers union says that it will be devastating, but wait, I am going to anticipate the minister's answer and save him some time. He is going to tell us that there are 370 legally binding conditions. Here is my favourite: 14.7.1, the construction cranes will be painted in a colour that matches the nature they are destroying.
How does he make this match up to the COP15 commitments to protect nature?
Shame.
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Mr. Speaker, I think that Bill C-241 would have fit very neatly in Bill C-47, the budget implementation act. There are many sections in the over 429 pages of Bill C-47, but there is one that goes directly to the issue that the hon. member has put forward in his private member's bill, which is a tax discount on tradespeople's tools. I wonder if the member saw that section and if he sees it as encouragement that perhaps the Senate, like the House, will pass Bill C-241.
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Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to join my friend from Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan virtually.
We are debating the budget tonight. I do not want to be too finicky about it. It is really weird, of course, that we have already voted on the budget. Like him, I voted against the budget. I could not support this budget after reading the 429 pages of Bill C-47.
I do not blame him as everyone is doing this. They are treating this debate as if it is about the budget, but the budget implementation act does not do anything about carbon pricing. It does not do anything about fossil fuel subsidies. Those were in the budget.
One thing I found in Bill C-47 that I really want to vote for is taking Russia and Belarus off the most favoured nation tariff treatment. I would have thought we would have done that a year ago, but I wonder how my hon. colleague feels about this. If he votes against Bill C-47, he will be voting against taking Russia off the most favoured nation list for our trade relations. It is peculiar, but I just wonder what his thoughts are on that.
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- Apr/27/23 10:25:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am grateful for the hon. member raising the Trans Mountain pipeline and the ballooning costs. They are not referenced in the budget, but they went, in one year, from $21 billion to now $30 billion.
I cannot blame the Prime Minister for the escalating costs. However, I can blame the Prime Minister and the former minister of finance for just about falling off the turnip truck and buying a pipeline that was not worth what they paid for it. Now the taxpayers are going to be forced to build it.
What does the hon. member for Langley—Aldergrove think about a $30-billion pipeline that was billed to Canadians as costing $5 billion?
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- Apr/27/23 10:40:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will not dispute it, but I deeply disagree with my friend from Northumberland—Peterborough South. I wanted to ask him a question on something I know we agree about, and that is the failure of the budget to invest in Via Rail. Can he comment on whether, particularly in his local area, enough is being done to get passenger rail back on track?
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- Apr/27/23 11:26:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I also remember that 2009 was when the Stephen Harper government launched an initiative to replace our 40-year-old payroll system, in which I do not think anyone ever failed to get paid, with what was described at the time as a modern, off-the-shelf commercial system. A different corporation, IBM, signed a contract in 2009 with Stephen Harper's government. They made out like bandits, and they built us a lemon.
It is quite true that the Liberals decided to start trying to drive that lemon, but both governments deserve a fair share of the blame. I really do not think it is fair to say the blame is even. Harper steered that ship and started by laying off all the staff in all the different payroll groups in every department.
Tellingly, the Treasury Board and finance never got rid of their own finance systems. They let all the other departments get stuck with the lemon. There is a lot of blame to go around. I hate to say it because everybody hates when we say it was all Stephen Harper's fault. However, that is what the history tells us, and that is what I remember.
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