44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 12, 2023 10:00AM
- Dec/12/23 10:05:14 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party disagrees with the recommendations in this report. We do not support unfunded spending. We agree that graduate students and post-doctorate fellows play an important role within our universities and they are disproportionately affected by the carbon tax, runaway inflation, the doubling of rent and the doubling of mortgages. We all know that if the government brings forward new, unfunded spending, it is just future deficits for future generations to pay back, so we disagree with the recommendations found in this report.
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- Dec/12/23 2:01:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker,
'Twas the week before Christmas, just before the House break,Eight long years with a government on the take.The economy was stalled, Liberal spending was high,Canadians were struggling just to get by.No one could afford a house or pay rent,The carbon tax quadrupled is making a dent.Canadians struggling and having to choose,Between heating and eating, it was only bad news.For families lined up at the food banks to eat,The costly coalition was making Christmas look bleak.But alas there was hope, from the opposition side,A new Conservative leader was sure to provide.With a common-sense plan geared for all people,He would axe the tax and end the upheaval. His housing policy would fix what the Liberals had broken,He would ensure there would be no need for food tokens.After eight long years of wasteful spending,He would stop the debt from ever ascending. The member for Carleton will soon be PM,And this costly coalition will come to an end. I heard him exclaim as he rode out of sight,Your home, my home, our home, let us bring it home and to all a good night.
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- Dec/12/23 2:20:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is inflating grocery prices and forcing 28,000 young Quebeckers to write letters to Opération Père Noël asking for food instead of gifts. Meanwhile, he is also spending $1 billion on a green slush fund where public servants are saying that the money is being given to friends and wasted.
Now, a whistle-blower and former employee is saying that the minister lied to the committee about the scandal.
Why did this minister cover up the scandal and Liberal waste?
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- Dec/12/23 2:21:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader's plan to shut down Parliament last week failed. All his 30-hour temper tantrum achieved was to show Canadians his party's true colours and cost taxpayers $2 million in wasteful spending.
The Conservative Party tried to reduce access to affordable child care, cut construction of affordable housing and make cuts to the police and the Canadian Armed Forces.
The Conservatives want to bring us back to the Stone Age, but we are going to meet Canadians' needs.
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- Dec/12/23 2:22:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is not surprising that the Conservative leader does not want to talk about his failed Republican-style plan to shut down Parliament last week. All his 30-hour temper tantrum achieved was to show Canadians the party's true colours and cost Canadians $2 million in wasteful spending.
The Conservative Party tried to cut affordable child care, cut construction of affordable housing, defund the police and defund Canada's armed forces. While they want to bring us back to the Stone Age, we will stay focused on Canadians.
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- Dec/12/23 2:24:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the truth is that the Prime Minister is not spending money on any of those things. He has a food program that does not feed kids. It feeds bureaucracies and creates frameworks that kids cannot eat. He has a housing affordability program that doubles the cost of housing, a housing accelerator that has not built a single house and a carbon tax that has not reduced emissions.
Instead of spending billions on programs that cause inflation and do nothing but sound pretty, why will he not axe the tax on our farmers so they can feed Canadians this winter?
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- Dec/12/23 6:36:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the government is spending an enormous amount of money on subsidies to various manufacturers involved in batteries here in Canada. Over $40 billion is being spent on this particular business subsidy program. This subsidy plan will cost every single Canadian family about $3,000.
Conservatives are committed to always standing up for workers, which is why we have asked for clarity from the government about whether there are protections for Canadian workers in the subsidy contracts that it signed with companies. Will Canadian workers actually benefit from this enormous outlay of taxpayer money? It is $3,000 per Canadian family; Canadians would like to know, and they would like to know how much workers are going to benefit.
The parliamentary secretary is clearly eager to respond. He is saying that they are going to benefit “lots”.
What we have asked for, quite simply, is that the government show its work and release these contracts to the public, so we can know the impacts. The particular genesis for this demand is that we have found out that the companies involved are actually going to be hiring a large number of foreign replacement workers. Therefore, over $40 billion in Canadian taxpayer money—
An hon. member: Oh, oh!
Mr. Garnett Genuis: Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary seems to think this is funny. It is not.
Over $40 billion in taxpayer money is being used not to employ Canadian workers but to hire foreign replacement workers, who are going to come to Canada to do the job. That is concerning, obviously. Did these contracts include protections for Canadian workers or guarantees for jobs for Canadians? We would like to know. If the government left that out and just said it was going to give tens of billions of dollars to these companies, and it does not know whether or how much Canadians are going to benefit, then that would be seriously troubling. This is why, again, we have insisted that we want to actually see these contracts.
Consistently, Liberals have been filibustering in the government operations committee in order to block the release of the contracts. For a while, we had all opposition parties, including Conservative, Bloc and NDP, standing together and prepared to vote in favour of ordering the production of the contracts. The Liberals were against it. They were filibustering to block their release.
Then, tragically, we had a flip-flop from the NDP. Rather than standing with workers, as they like to say they do, the New Democrats betrayed workers. They said that they do not actually need to see the contracts anymore. It is a shameful betrayal of workers from the NDP, under pressure from its colleagues in the costly and corrupt cover-up coalition. The Liberals put a bit of pressure on their friends in the NDP with a little filibustering. It was not even a very long filibuster, and I would know. Simply because of a little bit of pressure, the New Democrats buckled and betrayed workers. The only party that will stand consistently with workers in the House of Commons is the Conservative Party.
I hope we get a direct answer to my question for the parliamentary secretary, rather than more of the unrelated bluster that we often get from the government. What did the government offer the NDP members, its colleagues in the costly cover-up coalition, to get them to change their position, flip-flop and betray workers? Moreover, why will the government not release the contracts?
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