44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 1, 2024 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured, as always, to rise in this House. I have been here 20 years, and I have never seen a time when I feel that our country and our planet are at risk as much as they are now. This is a time when people should be looking to parliamentarians to come together to deal with solutions. Instead, we are dealing with yet another Conservative motion, which shows that the Conservative Party leader's entire economic plan could fit on a lapel button.
I think what is missing in the discussion today is the fact that we are in the midst of a global crisis. Europe is worried that it could be dealing with a massive expansion of a potential war with Putin. There is the need for Canada to be a strong ally. Contrary to what the member who lives at Stornoway says, Ukraine is not some faraway land, as he quotes Neville Chamberlain, but it is the front line in the fight for democracy. This is something we should be coming together on.
We are seeing a mass humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza, with Canada cutting off supplies at a time when people are facing starvation. This is a humanitarian disaster that Canadians could step up for. Instead, we are siding with Benjamin Netanyahu. We are dealing with the fact that every hour 30 million tonnes of ice melt from the Greenland ice floes; that is 30 million tonnes an hour. Last year, 200,000 Canadians were forced out of their homes because of climate fires, yet the Conservative leader flew into the fire zones to brag that he would make burning fossil fuels free.
The Liberals do not really have an environmental plan. That is something we should be arguing; they do not. However, the Conservatives refuse to put forward a climate plan, other than to let the planet burn. That is the sum total of what I have heard from the Conservatives for the last three years: let the planet burn. At a time when our young people are facing a future that is increasingly unstable, we are left with yet another dismal debate in the House of Commons on slogans and bumper-sticker excuses.
When Kelowna was facing a potential catastrophic disaster with fires, the member for Kelowna—Lake Country was bragging that if her party formed the government, it would make fossil fuel burning free. In Alberta, when I was there last week, there was just a little powder of snow on the ground in January. It is above freezing now. It is now coming into the fourth year of a serious drought.
There are 13 counties in Alberta that have declared environmental disasters because they cannot get their crops out. In 2021, the cattle farmers were talking about how only 36% of their crops were in good condition; that was in 2021. They made it through that year by getting the holdover pay from 2020.
Now, coming into 2024 with no snow on the ground, we are seeing rivers drying up, and not a single Conservative from Alberta or Saskatchewan has ever bothered to stand up to defend their farmers in the face of the biggest climate crisis since the dirty thirties. They would throw them under the bus to satisfy their leader, who lives in a 19-room mansion, because it is about letting the planet burn.
The Conservatives from British Columbia will get up and falsely try to mislead their own citizens that they are paying a federal carbon tax when there is not one. Not a single Conservative from British Columbia has dared to stand up in the House to talk about the fact that the rising hydro prices in B.C. are from the depleted reservoirs from the droughts. British Columbia, a hydro superpower, had to import 20% of its energy capacity last year because it could not keep the lights on because of the droughts and the low reservoirs. That is the effect of the climate crisis.
We are dealing with real-time planetary breakdown of the disappearance of the ice shelves and of unprecedented fires, where much of last summer, across from Chicago and across North America, children could not go outside without getting sick. What did we hear from the Conservatives? Let the planet burn.
In all my years, there were times we came together on simple things, like jobs. However, that is not in the Conservative agenda because the Conservatives tell people that Canada is broken, even though we were voted number one in the world. If Canada is not broken, the Conservatives will make it broken.
Bill C-49 is a bill so that Canada could get in the game with the clean energy projects that are taking off in the United States, right now. Since 2021, under the Biden administration, $360 billion in clean energy projects got off the ground, and they are not getting off the ground here for two reasons. While the Liberals are trying to get their tax credits and work it all out, Biden is getting that money out the door. We are also seeing the Conservatives blocking sustainable jobs legislation and doing every kind of monkey-wrenching, idiotic stunt to stop workers from having a seat at the table.
Even more astounding is Bill C-49 where the Newfoundland and Labrador premier and the Nova Scotia premier have called for Ottawa to come to the table because the United States is moving ahead so rapidly on offshore wind development that would set up projects for construction and long-term jobs in the hundreds of thousands of homes that are getting clean energy. However, the Conservatives from Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia are determined to block jobs because that is what their leaders said: Make Canada broken. If it is not broken, they are going to break it. Their plan is to let the planet burn.
Here is the thing. The Premier of Nova Scotia said that Bill C-49 is the necessary first step in unlocking our energy potential, yet the member for Cumberland—Colchester, a guy who has just been elected for two or three years, is announcing that he is going to oppose offshore development and jobs in Nova Scotia. The member for Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame said that he thought the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador had been hoodwinked and that the premier was not bright enough to negotiate good construction and permanent jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador. There was a time when we all would have worked to get those jobs off the ground because we know sustainability in every part of Canada is important. However, these are clean-energy jobs, and that is something that the leader of the Conservative Party does not want to have happen, because his environmental plan is to let the planet burn.
The Conservatives talk about affordability. It was the Conservatives who led the fight against taking the HST off home heating. This is not about making it easier for people; it is about making people angrier. That is his one plan.
However, what really concerns me now is that we are in the midst of a climate catastrophe that is unfolding in real time, and we need to bring our plans to the table. We need to debate them. We need to find out how Canada can, number one, get in the clean-energy market that is taking off in China, in Europe and in the United States while we are sitting at the side of the road. Even more, there is the need to reassure this young generation that we will have their backs in trying to address the catastrophic collapse of the ice shelves and the unimaginable burning that we saw last year. We still have fires burning in northern Alberta today. That is unprecedented. The northern boreal forest burned at an unprecedented rate. What do we hear from the Conservatives? They do not have an environmental plan. They have a bumper-sticker slogan and if people push them hard, it is “let the planet burn”.
I did not come here to tell my kids and their next generation of kids, “Guess what. We let the planet burn because it was easy.” Yes, it is easy to let the planet burn and, yes, it is going to be hard to make sure that we stand up for our kids. Yes, it is going to be hard to stand up to Putin. Yes, it is going to be hard to come together, but we need to do that as a nation right now. This is a nation that will be judged on the absolute failure to put forward a plan in the midst of the biggest existential crisis the human race has faced, and it needs something better than a bumper sticker and a toxic lapel-pin slogan.
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- Feb/1/24 12:17:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, when I was listening to the member from Timmins, Ontario, speak about the floods and fires that happened in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, I could not help but remember the Order Paper question I received this week, which outlined that the government came to my riding on multiple occasions and said that it was giving billions of dollars to help rebuild British Columbia and to help rebuild the climate infrastructure we need for the future. Barely a penny of it has arrived.
Just this week, the Sumas River is on flood warning again. Just this week, we are about to have another flood. The government could have fixed that, but it cannot because the NDP backs up everything this irresponsible, slogan government does. My community is suffering because it is not taking action on the very things it talks about day in and day out.
When will the money for the DFAA to fix British Columbia actually be allocated to the communities that need it the most?
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- Feb/1/24 12:18:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we finally see someone from British Columbia stand up and actually speak for his community that is facing a climate disaster.
What have we heard? We have heard “get that tax off”, “let us burn the planet” and “all the people in British Columbia who are not paying a federal carbon tax, we have to get them all stoked”.
I would like to say to the member that, yes, he is ground zero in the climate catastrophe, and his leader's response is to let them burn. He has done nothing. Does that member have a climate plan? No, he does not. He has a bumper-sticker slogan and some toxic little lapel pin that says, “Let them burn”. That is their only response. They are leaving their people behind. We will stand up.
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- Feb/1/24 12:18:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, at the beginning of the member's comments, he made reference to Ukraine. I want to pick up on that point because it is somewhat profound.
We had the President of Ukraine come to Canada last year. We have a trade agreement, which has the support of Liberals, the New Democrats, the Bloc and, as I understand, the Green Party, too.
For the Conservative Party, one of the red herrings, the reason Conservatives say they do not support it is due to the fact that there is a reference to a carbon tax or a price on pollution. We then find out that Ukraine actually has had a price on pollution since 2011.
I am wondering if he could provide his thoughts in regard to the degree to which the Conservative Party is prepared to go in order to have the bumper sticker he is talking about.
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- Feb/1/24 12:19:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would interpret it slightly differently. What we have seen online is the far right is a Putin troll machine. We see that Tucker Carlson, a white supremacist who is a Putin propaganda puppet, was vetted and treated by the great leader, the great visionary of the Conservative movement, Danielle Smith. Then, the leader of the Conservative Party gets up and quotes Neville Chamberlain, of all people, about Ukraine.
As for the leader of the Conservative Party, his defence critic and his foreign affairs critic, I watched them stand up and vote against Operation Unifier.
They are sending a message to Putin and to Europe that the Conservative Party is against us standing the gaff with Ukraine. They are willing to let President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people fall to Putin, because they said they do not like the carbon tax. How on God's earth can one go into the—
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- Feb/1/24 12:20:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will take the liberty of asking my colleague, the member for Timmins—James Bay, who is also my neighbour, about a climate change issue that directly affects his riding, as well as mine. I am talking about the forest fires we have seen happening.
He talked about this when he discussed the impact on farmers. The carbon tax has a very small impact, we agree on that. However, I am wondering how we can actually help our farmers. I would have liked to hear more about that today. There are problems caused by drought, which I am sure has been an issue in his riding, as it has in mine. There is also the winter freeze, which must have affected his riding, since it affected our region. This has an impact on hay and all the other seedlings that are failing to grow. The AgriStability and AgriInvest programs have not been rolled out in our region.
What were the consequences for the member's riding? Has the federal government stepped up to help the farmers he represents?
I would like to hear my colleague's comments on this.
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- Feb/1/24 12:21:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it was very important to set up a plan to address the climate crisis in the Far North. The massive fires were an unprecedented disaster in our region. In the James Bay area, many huge fires affected indigenous communities. The federal government did not have a plan and provided no support. Canadians and Quebeckers need us to address the climate crisis to protect the future of our region.
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Madam Speaker, unfortunately, we are in a cost of living crisis. Inflation, tax hikes and rising prices are emptying people's pockets. Seniors' pensions are quickly losing their purchasing power. People are drowning in debt and barely staying afloat. What has the Prime Minister done? He has thrown them an anvil with this heartless plan to hike the carbon tax once again on April 1.
I should mention that I will be sharing my time with the great member for Peterborough—Kawartha.
Families and seniors are struggling to put food on the table. Everybody who goes to a grocery store knows exactly what I am talking about, and there is simply no end in sight. The latest food price report is deeply troubling. It shows that food costs will continue to climb, with the prices of meat and vegetables being the highest.
We only have to look at the skyrocketing numbers of people visiting food banks to get a clear picture of what is happening in our great country. Almost two million people are now using a food bank at least once a month. This is not just a statistic. We are talking about our fellow Canadians, many of whom have full-time jobs, who still cannot afford groceries. The problem is that their paycheques can no longer pay the bills and feed their families. It pains me to know that parents are cutting back on healthy foods for their kids because they simply cannot afford it.
My amazing wife Cailey and I were blessed with a beautiful baby girl just a few weeks ago, and it has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be responsible for and to care for others. My heart goes out to the families who are feeling the weight of the unpaid bills and their maxed-out credit cards. I know that moms and dads are having to make incredibly difficult decisions about how to feed their kids and how to give them the best lives possible. That should not include watering down baby formula just to be able to afford it. Even if they do that, many can still barely pay to heat their home or keep a roof over their head.
The cost to rent a place in Canada has hit another record high, going up another 8.6% in the last 12 months alone. For those looking to purchase a home, under the Prime Minister, we have now become a country where millions, particularly young people, will forever be shut out of the housing market. This is so disappointing to millions of Canadians. In the province of Manitoba, the average price of a home shot up 6.7% in the last three months alone. To make matters worse, the number of homes on the market plummeted 71% in the last couple of months, and the total properties sold is down 35%.
The one thing about the Liberal government that boggles my mind is that it always blames its communications for why people do not like its policies. In interview after interview, Liberal MPs say that, if they just found better words to explain their carbon tax, they could convince families living off their lines of credit that they are actually better off. If they could just hire a new wordsmith in the Prime Minister's Office, preferably one who does not use incredibly crude language on Twitter, they would figure out a better way to gaslight Canadians. At this rate, it will not be too long until there is a ministry of truth, where war is peace, ignorance is strength and the carbon tax is good for people's wallets.
When the carbon tax is applied to almost every aspect of our economy, it does not matter how many millions of tax dollars are spent on fancy commercials promoting it, people will still not buy it. Of course, the latest plan is to rebrand the Liberals' climate change incentive payments. This rebranding exercise explains a lot about how the government thinks and responds to issues. It is not about getting results or solving problems. Liberals think their words and wonderful symbolism will somehow fix people's problems.
The Liberal insiders and their consultant buddies are not going to like this, but I can save the government some time, effort and money that will be spent on rebranding the carbon tax. It will not work, so do not do it. Stop it. It is time to axe the tax.
It is a tax plan. It drives up the price of everything. It contributes to inflation, and it is making life harder for families to make ends meet. It does not matter what we call it. People cannot afford it. Families cannot pay their rent or mortgages using Liberal talking points. Houses do not get built at the photo ops of announcements, and press conferences threatening tax hikes on our grocery stores has not reduced food prices one bit.
I get that governing is difficult, and when one is out of ideas and out of touch, it gets a lot harder, so maybe it is time for that carbon tax election the Prime Minister clearly wants so badly. Everyone knows the hardships being caused by the ever-increasing carbon tax. Even the Prime Minister acknowledged that fact when, under heavy political pressure from his Atlantic Canadian members of Parliament, he gave one group of Canadians a carbon tax exemption. To quell his internal caucus revolt, he gave 3% of Canadians a temporary carbon tax exemption on their heating bills, lasting just past the next election to hopefully get their votes, but he left 97% of Canadians out in the cold.
The one lesson we did learn from the Prime Minister is that he has no shame in giving special treatment to one group of Canadians he thinks might vote for him. Here is my advice to the Prime Minister: Give all Canadians the same deal. Stop dividing Canadians. Stop pitting one region against one another and stop picking winners and losers. Heating one's home in this country is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
Not only should the Prime Minister exempt all home heating for all Canadians, but he should immediately cancel the upcoming tax hike on April 1.
I represent a rural riding made up of small towns and small cities, and the reality is that people must drive long distances to get where they are going. It seems like every hockey game or baseball game we play is about an hour away, each way. This is part of our way of life and our quality of life, and it is how we live our lives.
Some folks commute to the next town over for work. They could be commuting 50, 60, 80 or 100 kilometres each way to work to pay to put food on the table and a roof over the head for their families.
Portage—Lisgar is not unique in this sense, and many of my colleagues on this side of the House represent rural constituencies. What we all have in common is that there are no LRTs. There are no subways and no busses to take us from one town to the next. There are no bike lanes on our highways, and even if there were, it would not be very pleasant riding for six months on snow-packed roads with cold, wintery weather.
While the Minister of Finance can proudly claim she does need to own a car in her constituency, in my riding, we do not have a limo service that can shuttle us around from town to town.
A good example of how widely out of touch the Liberal government has become is how it has mishandled Bill C-234. Almost every single Liberal MP, including the Minister of Agriculture, voted against this common-sense legislation. The bill would have finally exempted farmers from the carbon tax on drying their grain or heating and cooling their livestock barns.
As someone who grew up on a farm, has worked for farmers and now represents the voices of farmers, I find it a bit rich when I hear Liberal and NDP MPs who have never stepped onto farm have the audacity to tell farmers they should just be quiet, shut up and take the carbon tax. It is offensive to farmers, and I am not surprised at how angry they are with this tax, but now they are going to have to brace for the upcoming increase on April 1, too.
Where does that leave the rest of my constituents, who live and work and play on the land? As it stands, the carbon tax is about $65 a tonne, and for every litre of gas they put in their car or truck, they are paying 14¢ a litre more. If someone is one of the countless people who drives a pickup truck and has a 90-litre gas tank, that is close to $12.60 every time one fills it up. The average rural person who is driving a pickup truck is paying at least $360 a year more in carbon taxes. That does not include the carbon tax on their home heating or that is baked into the cost of everything they buy in their day-to-day lives. Imagine when that $65 a tonne will go up to $170 a tonne in just six years.
In closing, I would urge Liberal MPs across the way to stand up for their constituents who cannot afford to pay their bills and put food on their tables. I urge them to vote in favour of the Conservative motion to scrap the carbon tax by April 1 to stop the unnecessary suffering people in this country are facing right now. I urge them to be honest with themselves and acknowledge the last thing people can afford right now is another tax.
It is time to axe the tax. It is time to build the homes. It is time to fix the budget, and it is time to stop the crime. To my colleagues across the way, they should give their constituents hope that their MP will stop making their lives more unaffordable because it is never too late to do the right thing.
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- Feb/1/24 12:32:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is interesting how Conservative members stand in their places and have no problems whatsoever giving misinformation. Let me give an example. The member talked about inflation and tried to give the false impression that inflation is being caused by a carbon tax, even though a majority of the constituents I represent will get more back in the carbon rebate than they will pay in carbon tax. That is a fact.
The Bank of Canada has been very clear that the impact of the carbon tax, as the Conservatives call it, is less than 1%. It is 0.15% on inflation. When one listens to the Conservatives, one would think it is an 8% increase. It is ridiculous the type of false information the Conservative Party is giving to Canadians. Why do they do it?
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- Feb/1/24 12:33:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I agree that the government's policies are ridiculous.
I think it is important to highlight that the carbon tax is not the only thing driving inflation in this country. I agree. There are a whole host of terrible Liberal government policies that are driving up the cost of living. The fact is that we have foreign investment fleeing this country, a number of businesses are closing in this country, and the number of businesses starting in this country is lowering.
The holistic view of the government is what we should be looking at. It is not just the carbon tax—
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- Feb/1/24 12:34:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, on a point of order, with respect to the principle of not intentionally misleading the House, the member said that foreign investment is fleeing the country, yet Canada is number one—
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- Feb/1/24 12:34:10 p.m.
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That is a point of debate, and I would rather we leave that for the discussion.
The hon. member for Portage—Lisgar.
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- Feb/1/24 12:34:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would say that, while the member may have convinced his constituents that they are better off, my constituents have the common sense to know that this country so badly needs to know that it is getting ripped off with this tax plan, which is doing nothing for the environment. It is time to bring home—
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- Feb/1/24 12:34:31 p.m.
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Continuing with questions and comments, the hon. member for Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou has the floor.
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- Feb/1/24 12:34:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to clarify a few things for the member.
First, they keep talking about the carbon tax, so apparently we have not said this enough, but there is no carbon tax in Quebec.
Second, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, fuel charge proceeds go to households and provincial governments in return for increased program spending. They have zero impact on balancing the budget.
Third, the Conservatives talk about the carbon tax and only the carbon tax. We are not getting anywhere. We are constantly going backward. This is 2024. They do not have an environmental vision or a transition plan. We are talking about forest fires and floods. My region has had both. They want to abolish abortion rights. They do not talk about economic realities. None—
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- Feb/1/24 12:35:30 p.m.
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I have to give the hon. member for Portage—Lisgar a chance to respond.
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- Feb/1/24 12:35:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, yes, there is a carbon tax in Quebec, called the clean fuel regulations, and it is adding extra costs to Quebeckers and people right across this country.
I mentioned during my speech how the other parties love to divide and distract, but I can tell members that, when I and many of my colleagues are back in our ridings talking to our constituents, they are talking about the fact that they cannot afford food for their children, that their mortgages have doubled or that they are being evicted because of the policies and inflationary spending of the government. They are mad, and rightfully so.
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- Feb/1/24 12:36:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that was an interesting speech from the member. I would like to congratulate him on the birth of a child. I think that is an important thing.
First of all, I want to say how much I love rain. I am lucky to like rain because I live in a rain forest. Right now, in my riding, we are in a moderate to severe drought across that area. At the same time, we are seeing extreme storms and rain in our area that are washing away so much because we do not have the normal amount of water being absorbed into the land. We are seeing forest fires in my area, and we have never seen that before.
Therefore, I feel so confused that Conservatives continue to mislead, especially British Columbians, who do not pay any federal pricing, that somehow their plan is going to work. Can the member tell us what their environmental plan is?
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- Feb/1/24 12:37:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the kind wishes on the birth of my daughter.
As a farm kid, I am well aware because we have been dealing with a number of droughts and floods for decades, but obviously there is some concern regarding the frequency of those. That is why I think it is important that we rely on technology and not taxes. I will use the case of agriculture as an example, in which we can use genetic improvements to improve drought and moisture resistance.
The reality is that punishing Canadians with this punitive carbon tax is not going to do anything to stop the pollution coming out of major economies such as China and India, which are a bigger cause of this. Driving Canadians into poverty is not going to help—
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- Feb/1/24 12:37:51 p.m.
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Resuming debate, the hon. member for Peterborough—Kawartha has the floor.
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