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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 266

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 12, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 266 - Dec/12/23
Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)
  • Dec/12/23 6:40:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I suspect that it has a lot to do with common sense. The Conservatives like to talk about common sense, and I suspect that the NDP, upon reflection and applying common sense, came to the conclusion that what the Conservative and Bloc coalition was proposing was maybe not in the best interests of workers. I think that is a possible scenario. When the member talks about releasing contracts or the details, I think of the Volkswagen contract. As a government, we recognize the green transition. We recognize things like climate change. We recognize that in order to provide good-quality middle-class jobs, we have to be prepared to invest in certain industries in a very real and tangible way. Ironically, we are not the only government that has made this decision, because we also see Progressive Conservative Doug Ford entering into agreements and using taxpayer dollars, as we have, to support and enhance an industry that is going to provide good middle-class careers and jobs well into the future for future generations of Canadians, something the Conservative Party opposes. I wonder if the member opposite has asked his good friend Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, the Progressive Conservative, for a copy of the agreement. If not, why not? I wonder if Doug Ford has provided that information to the member opposite. I know the Conservatives are trying to find some way to be critical of everything and anything the Government of Canada does at no expense, even if it means doing the opposite of what the member just finished talking about. When he talks about workers and the best interests of workers, seriously, at the end of the day, whether it is Stellantis or Volkswagen, we are talking about thousands of jobs. How can he possibly imagine that this is not in the best interests not only of those direct jobs but of the tens of thousands of other indirect jobs? He is concerned that the Progressive Conservative Province of Ontario and the Liberals at the national level have worked together with private industry in order to secure good, solid middle-class jobs for future generations of Canadians. The federal Conservative Party says “whoa”. That is true to form in the sense that the national Conservative Party today, as I said, is the MAGA right. We see an extreme right that believes government does not have a role to play in things of this nature. The party does not believe that government should be assisting or subsidizing, or whatever MAGA terms it wants to come up with. We on this side of the House recognize that the climate changes, that climate change is real today and that there is a responsibility of government to think ahead. That is why we have good, sound policies to support a transition that is going to see more green types of jobs, which will attract, I would suggest, even more jobs in the future. This makes Canada well placed in the future on this issue.
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