44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 10, 2024 10:00AM
- May/10/24 10:29:10 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. minister for his speech. I want him to know that I was deeply moved and shocked by the story of what he experienced when he was younger. It reminds us of the importance of fighting against all forms of violence, all forms of sexual violence, especially against children. I was very moved and I hope that this type of trauma will never happen to anyone ever again.
Now, with respect to the bill, I commend the minister's openness to collaborating with Quebec and the provinces. He is saying all the right things. In reality, however, based on the way the bill is drafted, it is paternalistic Ottawa that is dictating what its priorities are and disregarding the model that Quebec has in place for pharmacare, which is meeting the most urgent needs. There is no coordination. There was no advance planning. We saw the same thing with dental insurance. Ottawa is giving $2 billion to Sun Life for management fees alone, while we have a public system in Quebec. The minister could have sat down and discussed how to coordinate this. He also talked about the importance of keeping the public health care system, yet he chronically underfunds the health care systems by covering 20% of the cost, when it should be 35%.
Why is there such a huge gap between the benevolent rhetoric and the actions that undermine the system in Quebec and the provinces?
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- May/10/24 11:34:35 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Quebeckers are suffering after nine years of this Liberal government and its wastefulness, which is driving up the cost of living.
This Prime Minister's reckless spending knows no bounds, and the Bloc Québécois is supporting him in this spending spree. That is evidenced by the fact that the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of hiring an additional 110,000 federal public servants. The Bloc agrees with sending Quebeckers' money to Ottawa and is voting in favour of that. What is the world coming to?
When will this Prime Minister, who is supported by the Bloc Québécois, stop increasing the suffering of Quebeckers with his wasteful spending?
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- May/10/24 11:38:20 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, 77% of climate experts think we are running headlong toward disaster. Only 6% think there is a chance of meeting the Paris Agreement targets.
Meanwhile, in Ottawa, we have the Liberals launching a brand new pipeline to transport oil from the tar sands. Then we have the Conservatives, whose only measure that is even vaguely related to the environment is their crusade against Tim Hortons paper lids and straws. Frankly, that is pathetic.
What will it take for Canada to listen to the science and stop sabotaging the fight against climate change?
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- May/10/24 11:53:11 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question because it gives me the opportunity to talk about an announcement that was made earlier this year, in April, with the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services.
A settlement was negotiated with the non-public funds workers in Petawawa, Kingston and here in Ottawa, which includes a significant wage increase of 13.75% over three years. To be clear, no employee is paid less than minimum wage.
We hope that a settlement can be reached with the three parties that are on strike right now, and we encourage them to return to the bargaining table.
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- May/10/24 12:27:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today in opposition to the Liberal budget. I am confounded by the fact that it has been called “building a strong economy that works for everyone” when the economy is neither strong nor working for everyone. That should be quite obvious to anyone paying attention.
In the spirit of my former colleague at the National Post, Rex Murphy, I would like to take some time to speak to the concerns of everyday hard-working Canadians to try to help make sense of how a government can call a budget, at this time and in this economy, strong and working for everyone.
I have been in Ottawa now for just over a month. I was sworn in as a member of the House in April. One of my key observations is that we have a Liberal government that is living in an alternate reality from the one I lived in before I was in politics and the one I cling desperately to every time I am here. It seems as though, in this economy, we have Liberal elites experiencing one thing and everybody else experiencing something else.
There are some things I would like to share with the Canadian people that I have observed since April when I was sworn in. For the last two weeks, I have heard the Liberal member of Parliament for Whitby defend high grocery bills and make excuses for the fact that it is very expensive for families to purchase the food they need, never mind the healthy food they need. Earlier today, he went on and on about that.
Last week, he said, “Mr. Speaker, I know that the member opposite feels that grocery prices are too high, and they have been, certainly. However, the CPI index has shown that food prices are stabilizing in our economy, which is good news for Canadians.” I would like to point out the obvious. Canadians listening to me right now might be asking if it is good that high grocery costs are stabilizing and if the objective of the government should not be to bring down the costs since they are so high. This is a good window into the kind of thinking going on. This is what I mean when I say we have an economy for Liberal elites and one for everybody else. Let us continue exploring this.
The day before the Liberal MP for Whitby made the comment that grocery prices are stabilizing, despite being obscenely high, a new food bank opened in Whitby. In his riding, the day before he said in Ottawa that things are going great and he has good news for Canadians, a new food bank opened up down the street from his constituency office. This is an alternate reality. The Liberals are creating some kind of bizarre picture of what is going on in this country, and people deserve to know that. They are saying how dare the Liberals produce a budget and call it “building a strong economy that works for everyone”.
Let me share some more observations from what I have seen since coming to Ottawa last month. Yesterday, across the street at the housing committee, Trudeau's housing minister, the member for Central Nova, said something that I had to ask him to repeat just so I could confirm it was even true because I was shocked. I thought I must have misheard him, but no, I heard him correctly. He said that the Liberal government's national housing strategy has exceeded its objectives. How is that possible? How is it possible that in this economy, they are running around Ottawa saying they have exceeded their objectives?
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- May/10/24 12:41:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I think our colleague has conflated a couple of things. The carbon tax is not an environmental plan. The carbon tax is a tax plan. We have advocated for, and I am very proud to say this because the riding I represent, Durham, is home to a fantastic nuclear energy facility, is technology and not taxes to respond to environmental concerns across this country.
The idea that the carbon tax is somehow going to address the hon. member's concerns seems completely misguided to me, and the idea that middle-class families have to pay more for groceries at the grocery store to respond to these environmental concerns seems like a completely backwards connection between the decisions made in Ottawa and the consequences at home.
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