44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 24, 2023 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, the petitioners who signed this petition are concerned about the ease of access to online sexually explicit material, including violent and degrading material. They are concerned that this is a public health crisis and a public safety concern. Petitioners note that a significant portion of commercially accessible sexual material has no age-verification software in place. Petitioners note that many serious harms associated with access to this type of material include favourable attitudes toward sexual violence and the harassment of women.
As such, the petitioners are calling for the quick passage of Bill S-210, the protecting young persons from exposure to pornography act.
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- Oct/24/23 10:25:30 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition I have today comes from Canadians across the country who are concerned about the Liberal government's decision to put themselves in place of parents and provinces. The petitioners support the Leader of the Opposition's comments when he said that the Prime Minister should butt out of these kinds of decisions. The petitioners want to support Premier Blaine Higgs and his policy 713.
The petitioners note that in the vast majority of cases, parents care about the well-being of their children and love them much more than does any state-run institution. The role of the government is to support families and respect parents, and not to dictate how they should make decisions for their children. Therefore, the petitioners call on the Government of Canada to butt out and let Canadians raise their own children.
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- Oct/24/23 10:26:16 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have comes from Canadians from across the country who are concerned about the Liberals' interference in charitable status. They note that in the Liberal platform, there was a values test on charitable status and that this could jeopardize the charitable status of hospitals, houses of worship, schools, homeless shelters and other organizations. They also note that the Liberals previously used a test to discriminate against groups that were applying for the Canada summer jobs grant.
The petitioners are asking the House of Commons to protect and preserve the application of charitable status rules on a politically and ideologically neutral basis, without discrimination on the basis of political or religious values and without the imposition of another values test. They also ask for affirmation of their freedom of expression as Canadians.
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- Oct/24/23 10:27:07 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have is signed by Canadians from across the country who are concerned that women's shelters are seeing increased demand and that the high cost of living and the housing crisis have made it harder for women and children fleeing violence to find a place to live.
At this time, they note that the Liberal government has dramatically increased spending on bureaucracy and consultations but is cutting $145 million of funding for women's shelters. The petitioners therefore call on the Government of Canada to restore the funding for these women's shelters.
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- Oct/24/23 10:27:46 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the last petition I have to present is from Canadians across the country who are concerned about the increased risk of violence that happens to women who are pregnant. Currently, the injury or death of preborn children as victims of crime are not considered aggravating circumstances for sentencing. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to recognize this and to legislate that the abuse of a pregnant woman and the infliction of harm on a preborn child be considered aggravating circumstances for sentencing in the Criminal Code.
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Madam Speaker, it is my honour and privilege today to speak on behalf of the good people of Peace River—Westlock to Bill C-57, the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement implementation act, 2023.
I am a free trader. I believe in free market economies. I believe that Canada is a trading country, and I think that it is incumbent upon us to pursue free trade agreements around the world. Canada is blessed to have a huge amount of natural resources, a large land mass and resilient people, who are able to produce those natural resources. We are able to outproduce our own need by multiples of hundreds, whether that is the food production that happens in this country, our forestry or the oil and gas sector.
I want to just talk a little bit about the Supreme Court decision around Bill C-69. It is connected to this by the fact that, when Bill C-69 was brought into force, it ended the pursuit of 14 LNG projects in this country. Prior to the Liberal government coming into power, these projects were being pursued; after Bill C-69 was brought in, they were abandoned.
At the time when Bill C-69 was put on the Order Paper and we were discussing it here in this place, we said that the bill was unconstitutional and that it would have a marked effect on the pursuit of major projects in this country. We were right on both counts. We saw 14 projects just disappear. The proponents of those projects said that there was no longer the business case to do them. The business case was entirely impacted by government regulation. We also saw, after five years of that bill being in place, that the Supreme Court agreed with us, saying Bill C-69 was unconstitutional.
Why does that matter in the context of the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement? I would remind everybody that Ukraine is now in a war with Russia. Energy is the major export of Russia to the world. What is funding this war is the energy that people are buying, no matter where they are in the world.
We just heard the NDP talk about how we should pick and choose which countries we should do business with when it comes to oil and gas. I would argue that the world market for energy is the world market for energy. If we put good clean Canadian oil and gas on the world market and compete on that market, we could displace other oil and gas. When we just take our products off that market, somebody else will go in and fill that void. That might be Russia; in many cases, it is Russia.
Now we know that the Germans, for example, have come to Canada and specifically asked Canada to increase LNG production. They said that if they do not get more LNG coming to Europe, they will have to revert to coal mining. When our Prime Minister was asked about that, he said there was no business case. He failed to recognize, or perhaps purposefully did not say, that the business case that no longer was able to be made by LNG companies in this country was predicated entirely on the backs of the new bill, Bill C-69. Those projects were in the works until Bill C-69 came into place and then slowly, one by one, the businesses that were pursuing LNG projects said that there was no longer a business case for them. So we have seen that go away.
Another thing that I am excited about in terms of free trade and free trade agreements is just how our Canadian technology can then move around the world. Our leader has often said that we will fight climate change with technology and not taxes. Our ability to then export those technologies around the world comes from when we sign free trade agreements.
I am sitting in the House here next to the member for Abbotsford. I know that, when he was the trade minister, he pursued an aggressive free trade agenda under the previous Harper government. He signed over 40 free trade agreements, which allowed our Canadian technology to then be transferred around the world. That made Canadian companies wealthy. That gave Canadians jobs. It also did amazing things for other countries.
Canada is a leader in agricultural techniques and technology. We often lead the way when it comes to dryland farming and those kinds of things. We are able to export not only our equipment, but also our know-how around the world.
When it comes to energy production with our small nuclear reactors, it is a flagship Canadian technology. When I was in elementary school, our social studies bragged about the CANDU reactor and how we would power the world with this Canadian technology. Free trade agreements have had a great impact on allowing our technology to pursue other markets around the world.
Also, our ability to export our LNG products also allows our clean technology products to be transferred around the world.
We export other things such as coal, which is mined in the most ethically sourced manner. In most cases, it is extremely mechanized. There are very few people involved in the actual mining of coal, mostly equipment operators. The rates of injury compared to the tonnes of coal being produced are the lowest. We have some of the best labour practices in the world when it comes to coal production.
Therefore, when our coal ends up on the world market, although we do not necessarily know what the end result of that is, we can say with confidence that our coal, our oil, our lumber and our power are the most ethically sourced. We know that our labour and environmental standards are second to none around the world. When we are exporting these products, we know we are doing good in the world, because we are displacing products that may not have those same standards being enforced.
When it comes to free trade agreements, I want to talk about competitiveness. When we enter the free market, we do not necessarily know where our products are going to end up and we do not necessarily know with whom we are going to be competing. There are price signals that impact our ability to sell our products.
Over and again, representatives from many companies come to my office to talk to me about competitiveness. They say that they have the best technology and labour laws in the world, as well as great ideas, yet they are unable to attract investment in their products because of regulatory uncertainty, high labour costs, high interest rates, these kinds of things. Therefore, more companies are saying they need to be more competitive on the world stage. The Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement would not only allow our products to go to other places, but would also allow Ukrainian investment to come in our direction, and we are very excited about that.
I know more companies are saying that their competitiveness is being undermined specifically because of things like the carbon tax. I am not sure if Ukraine has a carbon tax in place, but it could be a major challenge. If Ukraine does not and we do, we could hamstring our own companies if we enter into a free trade agreement with Ukraine or other countries around the world. Our companies would be competing with other companies that do not have a carbon tax on their products.
Let us say we want to sell LNG. Maybe another reason why there is no market plan for these LNG projects is because of the carbon tax, which came in around the same time as Bill C-69. Companies may say that if they are being charged a carbon tax on the production work they do in Canada when an LNG project in Australia does not have that tax on it, it is an increased cost that their competitors do not have to bear. We have to be concerned about this as we enter into these free trade agreements. We need to ensure that we not only have the ability to send our products out, but we are also able to compete with those companies in those countries.
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Madam Speaker, when I listen to the hon. member, he would have us think that Canadians have never had it so good. The reality is that after eight years of the Prime Minister, Canadians just cannot afford the cost. The carbon tax is killing the middle class. Housing prices are forcing middle-class Canadians out of their homes and into poverty. Everything in our country is broke. Crime, chaos and drugs are flooding our streets.
We need to return to normal. We need a government standing ready to bring it home for Canadians.
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Madam Speaker, perhaps the member lives under a rock. There is a war going on in Ukraine right now. The opponent to Ukraine is Russia. The single largest competitor that Russia has is in the oil industry. We can displace dictator oil, Putin's oil. Russia's oil sales are funding the war in Ukraine. If we do not sell Canadian oil or LNG, we continue to fund that war.
Our other resources are forestry and farming. They are big parts of my riding and I am happy to support those as well.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for reminding me that the carbon tax is driving inflation. I did not even mention that in my speech. What I did mention is that the carbon tax is driving our competitiveness issues. Many of our competitor countries do not need to pay the carbon tax, so our companies are starting from behind.
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