44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 16, 2024 10:00AM
- Feb/16/24 11:08:49 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I encourage all members in this House to get with the program. That is, the community volunteer income tax program, a collaboration between local community organizations and the Canada Revenue Agency to deliver free tax clinics for Canadians.
This collaboration between the CRA and dedicated volunteers across Canada allows us to give back to communities by helping residents to file their taxes. Local organizations across the country run these tax clinics for lower-income Canadians to help make sure they are getting their benefits, like the Canada child benefit, the Canada workers benefit, the Canada carbon rebate and many more cost-of-living measures they may be eligible for.
I am so proud of the positive impact we have made through the CVITP and look forward to repeating this success again in what will be a productive tax filing season this year.
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- Feb/16/24 11:09:41 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Prime Minister, it has never been more expensive to feed one's family, own a home and heat one's house.
The price of everything is up, and the average family of four will spend an additional $700 this year on groceries compared to last. Now the Prime Minister is hiking the carbon tax by 23% on April 1, but he is not done there. He is also jacking up the tax on beer, wine and spirits by 5% for good measure.
I do not know if the Prime Minister learned basic reasoning, so let me explain. If we tax the farmer who grows the food and the trucker who ships the food, we tax all who buy the food.
What is the result? Two million Canadians now rely on a food bank and 50% are $200 away from insolvency, yet the Liberals think rebranding the carbon tax will stop the financial pain. Here is a news flash: It will not.
Canadians live in reality. They know the carbon tax is a tax plan, not an environment plan. Only common-sense Conservatives will axe the tax on everything, for everyone and for good.
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- Feb/16/24 11:10:48 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal-NDP government, the lives of renters, mortgage holders and the unhoused continue to worsen, with crushing costs. The facts speak for themselves. Home prices now outpace incomes by 40%, earning Canada the worst record in the G7. While American rents fall, Canadian rents hit record highs. Canada built fewer homes in 2022 than in 1972, and housing starts were down in 2023. We now have the fewest homes per capita of any country in the G7, despite having the most land to build on.
Ottawa-funded gatekeepers and punitive taxes add hundreds of thousands of dollars of unneeded costs to the construction of each home. Canada's infrastructure funding should be tied to actually building homes. On top of that, we now hear that the radical environment minister does not even want to build new roads.
Our common-sense Conservative plan will ensure that infrastructure dollars go to the municipalities to get their bureaucracies out of the way, to build homes, not bureaucracy.
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- Feb/16/24 11:11:53 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, everyone knows how passionate I am about music and singing, which is why I was delighted to learn that Gabriel Fredette, a young firefighter from Lachute, in my riding, is one of the talented young artists selected to participate in the television show La Voix. He was even lucky enough to see all four coaches turn around and ask him to join their respective teams. In the end, he chose Mario Pelchat, one of my idols. His maternal grandfather, who passed away in 2020, loved the artist. Gabriel inherited his love for the guitar from his grandfather, Léopold Dumouchel, also a musician. He began strumming the guitar and writing folk and pop music during the pandemic. What a journey for this talented young man, who seems to have come out of nowhere.
I wish Gabriel all the best and a great, very successful career.
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- Feb/16/24 11:13:02 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise today during Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Week to emphasize the importance of menstrual equity, access to contraception and abortion rights for Canadian women and gender-diverse people.
I am happy to see my colleagues join me in celebrating the critical gains made by Canada's feminist movement in its fight for women's sexual and reproductive rights, but we cannot forget that there is still work to be done. It has now been over two weeks since Fredericton's only abortion clinic closed, and the government has done nothing. The Liberals pat themselves on the backs for supporting gender equality but refuse to ensure access to safe abortion, while the Conservatives are actively undermining this right through back-door legislation.
The human right to have safe and trauma-informed abortion care is only as good as the ability to access that right. Leaders must uphold the Canada Health Act and ensure access is available to everyone in Canada.
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- Feb/16/24 11:14:05 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, February 22 is now recognized as National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. This should not be just another day on the calendar, but rather a call to action against all forms of human trafficking. It is one of the faces of modern slavery, usually for sexual purposes or forced labour and slavery. Victims often suffer physical, sexual, financial, emotional and psychological abuse, and often have to live and work in horrific conditions.
Because of the damage and violence human trafficking inflicts on victims, it is linked to severe trauma, and recovering from its impact can take a lifetime. Here are a few statistics to illustrate the severity of this scourge: 93% of victims were born here; 97% are women and children, many of them indigenous.
There are still too many victims. This national day of awareness must empower us to better identify these heinous crimes, vehemently condemn them and to fight them more effectively.
We must take action.
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- Feb/16/24 11:15:11 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, where is the accountability? Where are the funds? What a boondoggle.
In a misguided attempt, the Liberal government tried to control our borders during a pandemic. It wasted at least $60 million on an app that should have cost no more than $80,000, and the app does not even work. Without competition, the Liberals handed out a contract for $20 million to a couple of guys operating out of their basement. Then they decided to throw in another $40 million for good measure, as well as some nice bottles of Scotch and a couple of fancy dinners for their friends.
This government has wasted $60 million on people who did no work on an app that does not work. That is Liberal accounting. That is the ArriveCAN scam. It is time to call in the RCMP.
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- Feb/16/24 11:16:11 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, in 2010, I was working in Africa when one of my colleagues turned to me and said that Canadian women are hypocrites. I was stunned. She went on to say that she had studied at McGill, and she knew Canadian women had reproductive rights, but it was not good enough for African women. I was mortified, and I decided right then that I was going to run for office and to change that policy.
Not always in this place do we get to come full circle, but three weeks ago, I was in Kinshasa, where I toured a safe abortion clinic funded by Canada. DRC has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, 10%, because of unsafe abortions.
Our commitment to sexual and reproductive health and rights is not ideology. It literally saves lives.
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- Feb/16/24 11:17:07 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this Black History Month, I would like to recognize an Ottawa-based organization: AKHRI - Mothers and Daughters Literacy. Its mission is to create lasting, positive, community-based change through basic literacy in rural and underprivileged communities in Somaliland. It empowers girls and women with the power to learn, to be heard, to be seen and to make a difference. I agree that educated, empowered women can change the world.
Successful economic development of a community or a country can be fast-tracked if education is made available to all and, specifically, if girls are educated. I would like to recognize and to thank the team, under the leadership of Anab Mohamed, for its noble and dedicated service to realize AKHRI’s mission.
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- Feb/16/24 11:18:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government, its arrive scam app that was supposed to cost $80,000 cost Canadians $60 million and, just like it, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the cost or the corruption. GC Strategies, the two-person team who worked out of a basement, got paid $20 million and did no IT work but did take senior Liberal officials out for whisky tastings and fine dinners, which were not worth the cost and not worth the corruption.
Will the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister join common-sense Conservatives as we call for the RCMP to expand the investigation into this Liberal scandal?
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- Feb/16/24 11:18:55 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to answer this question, which we have heard before and to which we have provided appropriate answers already. I am pleased to remind everyone that the Auditor General not only had the job, but the very important job of tabling a report on Monday, which we have looked at and are obviously very troubled by the findings in that report. We have taken into account all the recommendations in the report, and many have already been put into place for some time.
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- Feb/16/24 11:19:29 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the minister said the Auditor General had an important job, but he and all the Liberals voted against her conducting the audit. It was because the Leader of the Opposition moved a motion in November 2022 that we had that Auditor General investigation. Just like that was the right thing to do then, calling in the RCMP is the right thing to do now. This is an $80,000 app that ballooned to $60 million. We have a two-person firm, working out of their basement, being paid $20 million, and wining and dining senior Liberal officials.
Will the Liberals end their cover-up and join Conservatives in calling for an expanded RCMP investigation?
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- Feb/16/24 11:20:08 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member is completely right in pointing to the important work of the Auditor General. She did work very hard over the last few months, which is what we expect of her and her office. She tabled an important report on Monday. As she has said repeatedly, she is also completely willing and able to work with all other partners and institutions across the government, including with the RCMP, with which she is already in touch.
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- Feb/16/24 11:20:36 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, of course the Auditor General is willing and able to do her work, but the problem is that the government refuses to give her the documents she needs to fully account for the $60 million that was spent on this boondoggle. The Liberals, in the past, have used the executive to shield themselves from an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, like they did in the SNC-Lavalin scandal. This time, Canadians want to know who got rich, other than of course those two guys who worked out of their basement and who took Liberal bosses out for fine dinners and whisky tastings.
Will the Liberals join our calls to call in the RCMP to investigate this scam?
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- Feb/16/24 11:21:15 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we are very pleased, obviously, to hear the member clearly state that he has full confidence in the abilities of the Auditor General to keep doing her job, including supporting the RCMP when that is demanded by the RCMP.
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- Feb/16/24 11:21:46 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister is ultimately the one responsible for the arrive scam scandal, his useless app that was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up costing 750 times more. No one believes the Prime Minister's excuses anymore.
A former NDP leader said, “The scam of the century: [the Prime Minister] gave millions to a company with four employees”. One headline reads, “Arrive Scam: A $59-million-plus scandal thanks to the [Liberal] government's laissez-faire attitude”. La Presse called it “The tip of the iceberg of wasteful spending”.
After eight years, who in this government will finally dare to stand up and tell the Prime Minister that he is not worth the cost or the corruption?
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- Feb/16/24 11:22:27 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, not only should we be thanking the Auditor General for her work, but we also need to read her report very carefully.
The misinformation we are hearing from the other side of the House is unfortunately not helpful and can even be counterproductive. The Auditor General must continue with the serious work she does. We thank her for everything she has done so far, and we are counting on her to keep up the good work.
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- Feb/16/24 11:22:54 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the minister is denying the truth. I quoted newspaper articles that have been published since the Auditor General brought to light this scandal that saw Canadians pay $60 million for an app that should have cost only $80,000.
Radio-Canada found that GC Strategies, this infamous company that does not do IT work and that was paid close to $20 million to develop a useless app, actually got a lot more money than that. We are talking about $258 million.
Will the Prime Minister, who is not worth the cost, give the RCMP and the parliamentary committee access to all of the documents so that we can finally get to the bottom of this matter?
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- Feb/16/24 11:23:33 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member is quite right to talk about cost of protecting the health and safety of Canadians, including during a pandemic that cost tens of thousands of people their lives, including hundreds in his own riding. Millions of people lost their jobs, and we had to protect the integrity of our borders.
Despite how urgent and important this situation was, the Auditor General of Canada clearly indicated that it was unacceptable that public servants from the CBSA did not do their job properly.
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- Feb/16/24 11:24:07 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, last February, the federal government promised to increase health transfers. After a lot of political jousting, it forced Quebec and the provinces to accept six times less money than they needed.
A year later, Quebec has not received a cent. There is already a $1-billion gap in health care funding this year because Ottawa is withholding the money. Why is Ottawa withholding it? Because the federal government wants to impose conditions.
Will the government finally pay Quebec the money it promised instead of holding patients hostage?
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