- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Independent
- Spadina—Fort York
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 62%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $144,966.01
- Government Page
- May/9/24 1:32:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as a Toronto member of Parliament, I feel obligated to say that I will be voting in support of the motion. That is because my community is home to or immediately adjacent to every single one of Toronto's nine injection sites. I am also the MP for parents who have had to learn what to do when their child is pierced by a needle. That is not normal. That is not something that any parent should have to go through.
I was relieved when the B.C. government decided to do a 180, but I am concerned because the Medical Officer of Health for Toronto has doubled down, and the NDP mayor of Toronto continues to power through to decriminalization. I am curious to know what my colleague thinks about why it is that they continue to do this in spite of all of the evidence about how dangerous it has become.
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- Feb/16/24 12:07:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in Toronto, auto thefts have increased by 25.4% and half a billion dollars' worth of cars were stolen last year. Because the government was asleep at the wheel, our cities are less safe and experts are projecting car insurance premiums could be going up by as much as 25%. On average, that is an extra $600 a year that people cannot afford. Auto theft summits make for good photo ops, but what people need is action. The government must put up serious roadblocks to combat thefts.
Will the government finally give police and the CBSA the tools, funding and personnel they desperately need to keep us safe?
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- Nov/30/23 6:53:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in my November 1 question to the government, I pointed out that 24 Liberal MPs supposedly represent ridings in the city of Toronto. However, we would never know it from their deafening silence on issues of extreme importance to the city.
The Minister of Rural Economic Development said the quiet part out loud when she said other parts of the country should elect more Liberals if they want a carbon tax deferral, like Atlantic Canadians had received. Toronto has 24 Liberal MPs and they have been unwilling or unable to stand up for the city and get people, including refugees who have been forced to sleep on the city's streets, the help that they need.
The missing 24 MPs were missing in action when it came to the government honouring its promise to help Toronto with its COVID-created budget shortfall. This winter, Torontonians will be struggling to heat, and hopefully keep, their homes. Others are unable to find housing due to inflation and high interest rates. They would all like to receive a carbon tax deferral, too. However, their Liberal MPs did not show up to defend the people's interest and get a tax holiday. The two Liberal MPs from Alberta can hold their regional caucus in a phone booth, so they can be forgiven for not being very effective in getting the government to do anything, much less in bringing about a carbon tax holiday.
However, in my question to the Right Hon. Prime Minister, I asked if he could explain how his “Toronto 24” colleagues disappeared from their responsibilities to represent the city's interests. It is, indeed, odd that two dozen MPs vanished and their faces never even made milk cartons.
In attempting to answer my question, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing waxed poetically from speaking notes that did not address my question's salient points: one, helping Toronto with its housing issues and, two, living up to the federal promise to assist the city with its COVID-created budget shortfall. Indeed, the parliamentary secretary indicated that I had failed to mention the Toronto MPs who allegedly pushed the government to invest money in the city. It is hard to mention things that no one has seen. Perhaps they are not missing. Maybe they are just shy and, in an astounding world first for politicians, they just do not want to tell anyone about their hard work and success.
National failures have local consequences and because of the Liberal government's failure, Deb, who I spoke to earlier today, and other constituents living by Clarence Park are being overwhelmed by a tent encampment. They do not feel safe walking through the park. A neighbour was assaulted this week while walking her dog.
Others in Fort York saw a fire break out at an encampment two days ago and there is a new facility at 75 Elizabeth Street forced on local residents directly across the street from a day care and a children's playground. Unfortunately, we also cannot forget the low-barrier respite, now a shelter, being forced on Niagara and King West residents at 629 Adelaide Street West.
Therefore, I am forced yet again to stand up for not only my constituents but all Torontonians who are being failed by their 24 Liberal MPs. Since local Liberal MPs cannot or will not do it, I am here to ask: Will the federal government help Toronto with its housing issues and, in the process, finally honour its 2021 election promise to assist the city with its COVID budget shortfall, yes or no?
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- Nov/7/23 1:40:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will say right off the bat that I will vote in support of the NDP's motion. I think a lot of Torontonians will struggle to heat, and hopefully keep, their homes this winter.
However, I have trouble reconciling this position with the fact that there is only one opposition party that can compel the government to do anything, and that is the NDP. Instead of putting forward a motion to try to score political points, why will it not just compel the government, through the supply and confidence agreement, to actually do it?
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- Nov/1/23 3:25:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 24 Liberal MPs supposedly represent Toronto. Using the Minister of Rural Economic Development's handbook to get things done, how come none of those 24 MPs are standing up for people sleeping on Toronto streets?
They are also missing in action to get the government to honour its promise to assist Toronto with our COVID budget shortfall. Many Torontonians will struggle to heat and, hopefully, keep their homes this winter. They would like a carbon tax deferral too.
While the two Liberal MPs from Alberta can hold their regional caucus in a phone booth, can the Prime Minister explain how this Toronto 24 have simply disappeared?
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- Oct/26/23 3:16:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the horrific events in Israel and Gaza should not be used to support a particular cause. Innocent people have been killed. No one should use those deaths to justify more violence. Calling for a boycott of a Toronto business just because it is owned by a Jew is repulsive. Defacing offices of MPs or MPPs serves nothing. Hatred and intimidation do not advance the search for a just and durable peace in the Middle East.
Can the Minister of Public Safety ensure that Canada's hate laws are being upheld and that violent protests are not being permitted?
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- Jun/9/23 2:09:06 p.m.
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Unfortunately, what we have seen in Toronto, and frankly the country writ large, has been a surge in anti-Asian racism. According to the official statistics of the Toronto Police Service, the hate crime rates have surged since the pandemic by over 50% from 2019 to 2020, and a further 22.4% from 2020 to 2021.
The thing we need to bear in mind is that, culturally, as a community, we also do not have a tendency to report statistics. I can say, as a member of Chinese heritage myself, that we prefer to keep our head down, work, and hope that we will be respected and acknowledged. I think there is also a bit of historic lived experience where there is a distrust of the system, perhaps not in Canada, because of the experiences they may have had back home in Communist regimes, which are not necessarily places where people can trust that the system will take care of them or take their concerns seriously.
Therefore, while we have the official statistics of the Toronto Police Service, there are other avenues, such as Project 1907, which collected self-reported statistics from members of the Chinese community that were collected by members of the Chinese community. There was a level of trust, and they felt more comfortable. Those statistics are a lot more staggering, and I think more accurate, in truly capturing the immense number of hate crimes that have been committed. Those statistics report a very concerning quintupling, a 500% growth, in hate crimes. I worry a lot about that.
I can say that, during the pandemic, when my mother was still with us, would go to pick up groceries. She was living with a rare autoimmune disease that affected her lungs, so she coughed more, and she had trouble breathing when she was wearing a mask. I was worried that she would be a victim of some sort of targeted Asian hate crime just because of the way she looked and because she was coughing, not because she had COVID, but because of the condition she was living with. I worry a lot about people who look like me, such as the sponsor of Motion No. 63, and some other members, such as the member for Wellington—Halton Hills, as they think about the life they want to lead and the careers they aspire to when they see the vitriol some of us receive or that is targeted toward people who look like us on social media.
I cannot count the number of times I have been called a Chink. I do not want to put on the record the stuff I have been called, nor what people think is okay to say to my staff when they call in. I remember working late just a few weeks ago. The staff had gone home, and I was preparing for a late show. We had a call come into my Ottawa office, so I picked it up. I was there, so why not? There was a gentleman on the other end of the line who said that he was a constituent, which was obviously an indication that he was not. Thinking that I was a member of my staff working in my office, he then launched into how I should be ashamed of working for a Chink like me, and that he could not believe that the military would let someone like me serve in our Canadian Armed Forces.
In some respects, I signed up for this, but my staff did not. The members of my staff represent the diversity of my community and our country. They reflect the many faces of Toronto. One of my staff members is also of Chinese heritage. I am glad that I got that phone call and not her. She and other members of my staff also have to see the stuff that comes in to my office.
We have a dedicated folder where we gather this, and we use a euphemism for it of “negative feedback”, because it is so bad. I wonder sometimes if we should speak up and say something. When we do, our critics will say things like we are playing the victim or we are trying to get sympathy. On the other hand, if we do not speak up, we let this issue fester. We do not address it.
I am glad we are having this discussion today, but what I really want to see is truly some action. This matter relates to a broader issue that we have been debating extensively in this House, and that is the matter of foreign interference. Far too often, some regimes, and in this instance I am referring to the Chinese Communist Party, will use racism as a shield to try to defend themselves from very legitimate criticisms of the genocide being committed against the Uyghur peoples, the dismantling of Hong Kong's democratic institutions and the aggression in the South China Sea. They will try to wash it all away with a “How dare you? You must hate Chinese people. You are racist.”
I want to reiterate, as we heard from a number of different members, there is a key distinction between the Chinese people and the Chinese Communist Party. It is vitally important, with this cloud of foreign interference hanging over this place and our country and its democratic institutions, we shine a light into the shadows where foreign operatives hide. There is no better way to address these questions people have when they look at someone like me and wonder, “Where do his loyalties really lie? Is he really a Canadian?”
This is why we need to hold an independent non-partisan public inquiry into foreign interference. It is also why we need to add transparency with a foreign agent influence registry so we know who is working with who. If one is conducting legitimate advocacy, advancement for trade and different business, that is fine. Transparency is great. We cannot allow this cloud to continue to hang, because in the absence of transparency, these bad actors are able to take advantage of this to actually perpetuate racism themselves.
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- Jun/9/23 11:00:54 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on July 11, this Sunday, a rally will be held on Parliament Hill by 2,000 Iranian Canadians to again protest the failure of the Canadian government to get justice from Iran for the January 8, 2020, shooting down of flight PS752. That horrific act murdered 176 people, 55 of whom were Canadian citizens and 30 of whom were permanent residents. One of those victims was a friend.
Sunday's rally will also demand that the Canadian government abandon its ongoing reluctance to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, and demand that the government finally take action against Iranian operatives who are harassing and intimidating the Iranian community in Canada.
From Parliament Hill to Toronto City Hall and Richmond Hill, I have stood in solidarity with Canada's Iranian community. Will the government? To date, the protesters have received useless platitudes and empty promises. Hopefully the government's indifference will soon end.
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Madam Speaker, I feel a need to remind my colleague that the Conservative government has not been in power for eight years.
Moreover, I also want to reiterate, because I had this discussion with my colleague during a late show, that there is a difference between capital expenditures and operating expenditures. He loves to talk about the infrastructure the federal government has helped Toronto invest in, but that is like the bus the Liberals have thrown our city under. The operating expenditures are the gas and money which allow it to ride over us, reverse and run over us again. There is a vital difference. What we are missing is money for the operating expenses.
Which TTC bus routes would it like cancelled? Which homeless shelters should we close? Which ambulances, police cars and fire trucks should we have mothballed?
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Madam Speaker, as someone who will be getting married in the summer, I hope you will pass on tips on how to have a happy long marriage, beyond just saying, “Yes, dear.”
Budget 2023 has some positive aspects, but they are achieved by abandoning the now politically inconvenient fiscal anchor, which was the Liberals' long-boasted-about measure of fiscal responsibility. The Liberals are also jettisoning the people who helped them first come to power in 2015: young people and the middle class, their electorally convenient but quickly forgotten voter base. Additionally, the budget threw Toronto under the bus. They are the same people whom the Liberals relied on to cling to power, but continue to ignore now that they are back in government.
Budget 2023 would not do enough to offset the challenges facing Canadians, especially the failure to combat the most pressing housing and cost of living crises in Canadian history. We are in a crisis. A recent report on housing affordability from the National Bank of Canada states that it now takes 311 months, or just about 26 years, for a Toronto household on a median income to save enough for a down payment for a home. I want to reiterate that point. The unit of measure that Torontonians are using to project when, if ever, they can own a home is fractions of a century. That is wrong.
What the government is doing is clearly not working. It should be consulting experts, yet it ignored the National Housing Council, which is the advisory body that the Liberals themselves set up in 2019. It called for $6.3 billion over two years, beginning in 2022-2023. This call, I guess, was no longer politically useful, so it went by the wayside, as did the hopes and dreams of Canadians wanting to get their first home and those who have no home at all.
The failures of budget 2023 also point to an urgent need to rethink the national housing strategy. The government has sunk $82 billion into the strategy, but so far has little show for it. Adequate and affordable housing has become a dream. The state of housing in Canada is in crisis.
With housing the way it is, it is no surprise that homelessness is getting worse in Canada, yet the homeless crisis in our country was mentioned all of three times, and not in anything of substance or real policy, just three buzzwords. Sadly, if we examine the national housing strategy from the perspective of homelessness, even the Auditor General has found that the strategy “is not resulting in measurable decreases in chronic homelessness.”
The strategy is failing to meet its goal of cutting in half core housing needs and eliminating homelessness by 2030, yet despite having the independently researched and confirmed analysis of the government's failure to address homelessness by the Auditor General, budget 2023 does not include measures to improve homelessness in the national housing strategy. Homelessness in Canada is a crisis.
Canadians are facing some tough challenges, and it is not getting any better. In fact, it has gotten worse. Canadians have been hit with inflation, especially in food; increasing interest rates; and an economy sputtering along toward a potentially mild recession. I heard from Amy in my riding, who lives with celiac disease. She shared how rising inflation in food costs is especially hard for her and for everyone in Canada living with this lifelong condition.
We have new records being set, all of them the wrong records, on seemingly a monthly basis by food banks. In March, 270,000 people, which is the equivalent of more than four Skydomes, or Rogers Centres, or over 13 full Scotiabank Arenas, visited a food bank just to ensure that they did not go hungry. Worse still, the Daily Bread Food Bank has warned that among the fastest-growing number of food bank users are people with full-time jobs.
I want to zero in on Toronto, where these three crises of housing, homelessness and inflation have come together to present Torontonians with some of the most challenging barriers right now to their prosperity and the future of our city.
On March 29, the deputy mayor of Canada's largest city, and the engine of our Canadian economy, bluntly stated that the federal government shut the city out of the federal budget. Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie further stated that the government ignored a direct financial commitment it had made to Toronto during the last federal election to assist the city with ongoing COVID costs largely associated with transit and shelter.
At a time when the government wants to tout this budget as one focused on growth, it is unwilling to acknowledge that Toronto is in a state of recovery. The city is facing a budget shortfall in 2023 of $933 million. There is a lot at stake. To touch on a few major things, the city's ability to provide social services and to operate the largest transit system in Canada comes to mind.
The transit system is facing line cuts and decreased TTC ridership. Services combatting homelessness and the provision of social and mental health services are stretched to the brink. Our city is also facing policing reductions, even with increases in violent crime. Moreover, Toronto did receive federal assistance for a refugee shelter in 2022, but heard nothing for this year. What does the federal government think happened to the refugees? Did they just go home? No other municipality in Canada operates its transit and social services at the same levels as Toronto with three million residents.
Let us discuss an election promise. After almost a year and a half after getting re-elected, the government will finally remove the interest on Canada student loans and apprenticeship loans. There is no better investment a country can make than in its youth. I am grateful that the Liberals will finally honour an election promise.
Sure, it took me holding it accountable in my question to the minister responsible on February 17, 2022, and calling it out on September 23, 2022, when they quietly tried to sneak into the Canada Gazette the expiration of the loan interest waiver for students. I was more than happy to do the heavy lifting for the government with my private member's bill, Bill C-301, which mapped out exactly what needed to be done.
I am sure it was just a coincidence that, after the National Post featured my bill on November 2, and how the Liberals would have to potentially be forced to vote against their own election promise, the very next day, on November 3, the Liberals finally declared to the nation, in the fall economic statement, that they would do what they had promised.
If only the government could also move on creating a national pharmacare program. It would also help if it removed the tax it applied to all of the other taxes on gasoline. Surely, the government would agree with me that taxing taxes is wrong.
I also want to highlight that, while the government proudly boasts about child care, which I support, it does not contain a workforce strategy or advance higher wages for child care and personal support workers, as promised by the Liberal Party in the 2021 election. Affordable child care is great, but only if one has the spots and the child care workers to actually care for the children.
Budget 2023 could be viewed as a stopgap document, one that gives the government time to prepare for its next election platform. However, Torontonians and Canadians should not have their needs held in abeyance to the Liberal Party's re-election hopes down the road. Canadians want action now, not later.
Many Canadians are facing tough times and are having to make tough choices. With higher interest rates and the ensuing rising costs associated with inflation, Canadians are seeing higher food prices, higher housing costs, increased energy costs, and higher rent and mortgage payments. Canadians are feeling the pinch, and not just the low-income Canadians. Some of the government's much-discussed middle class are now visiting food banks. If they were looking for the government to help them, budget 2023 does not look like it is the answer.
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- Apr/20/23 5:38:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are here this evening because the Liberal Party made an election promise to Torontonians in 2021 to help our city with its COVID-19 shortfall. However, after relying on the voters of Toronto to cling to power, the Liberals have thrown our city under the bus.
Where are those Toronto Liberal MPs? They must have been kidnapped. The silence from them is deafening. Not one has stood up in the House for the very people who put them in office. While they remain silent, 270,000 people, which is the equivalent of five and a half SkyDomes, or Rogers Centres, visited a food bank last month. That figure represents the most ever recorded in the history of the Daily Bread Food Bank.
Before my hon. colleague reaches for their “lower poverty rate” talking points, I would like to point out that local food banks expect visits to increase by 60% from 2022 to 2023. This is a clear indication of the state of Toronto. The city is in a climate of high food prices, inflation, crushing interest rates and rising energy costs. It is a municipality that cannot pay or provide for desperate services, including services such as public transportation, social services, police, fire, ambulance, mental health care, day care and a list of other needs that a large metropolitan area requires, and especially one trying to improve itself.
Let there be no mistake: Toronto and the GTA cannot be the engine of the Canadian economy when there is no oil for that engine. Toronto cannot foster and herald in an economic recovery if it is bankrupt. A vibrant economic renewal out of the ashes of COVID cannot come about just by wishful thinking. It requires the delivery of promised help.
While Toronto's Liberal MPs remain in continuous hibernation, their constituents are dealing with transit service cuts that will have them waiting longer at the bus stop and the subway station. Also, as recent incidents have sadly indicated, these transit riders are placing their lives at risk. It is no surprise that violent crime is rising. That is a direct outcome of the decline in social services when meeting significant needs. The result is desperation, poverty and homelessness.
Scarborough Liberals were quick to wake up when distribution would cost one of them their jobs, but they were fast to scramble back to missing in action when TTC service cuts reduced, or suspended altogether, service for line 2, which ran into Scarborough, for their constituents.
When I first asked the question, the parliamentary secretary responding referenced their municipal councillor experience, but I was very surprised that there was no understanding of the difference between capital expenditures and operating expenses. Capital expenditures, which the member spoke about in response to my initial QP question, are for the acquisition of capital assets, such as the bus that the Liberal government has thrown Toronto under. Operating expenses, as the name suggests, are the monies required to operate that bus. Yes, they are two very distinct things indeed. However, there may be some similarity to the Liberals' election promises in their failure to honour them.
Will the government honour its promise to Toronto and help our city address its budget shortfall, yes or no?
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- Mar/31/23 12:29:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition from many concerned citizens of Toronto who are extremely upset by Harbourfront Centre's lack of public consultation in undertaking repairs to a cultural landmark. When Heritage Canada provided Harbourfront Centre with $20 million in repair and upgrade funding, it included the replacement of a much beloved and popular skating rink. Harbourfront, behind closed doors and without public consultation, decided to rip up this landmark's community skating rink.
The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to review its financial commitment to Harbourfront and its obligations. They also want the government to advise the centre that it has deviated from its initial goals and request the centre consult area residents on its new priorities, including maintaining the skating facility.
I thank the petitioners, especially Carol McCanse, for their hard work on this important issue. Harbourfront Centre should throw open its doors and listen to the voices of our community and the taxpayers who provided this $20 million.
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- Mar/30/23 3:10:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, budget 2023, a.k.a the stay-in-power-billions bonanza, threw Toronto under the bus. The city's deputy mayor warns of significant cuts to city services due to the federal government walking away from its election promise and ignoring Toronto's request for help with COVID shortfalls. The GTA is the engine of the Canadian economy and it is about to stall.
What services would the government like to cut during soaring food prices and a recession? Which homeless shelters should close? How many fire trucks, police cars and ambulances should be parked? Which after-school and day care programs should be cancelled? Which bus routes?
The Liberals relied on Toronto votes to cling to power. MPs have forgotten. In the next election, Torontonians will remind them.
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- Mar/23/23 7:31:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is a party line being towed here. The problem is, what party line, the Liberal Party's or the Communist Party of China's?
I call upon the government to step up and provide strong investigatory powers through the special rapporteur so that Mr. Johnston can unearth names and evidence of foreign interference in Canada, especially in Vancouver and Toronto during the last two elections.
Canadians deserve and demand to know what is going on. They want to see concrete action taken to protect our political and democratic processes and institutions from foreign manipulation.
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- Feb/9/23 6:02:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am optimistic that tonight's debate on a previous question in the House will be responded to by the relevant representative for Canadian heritage as opposed to intergovernmental affairs.
It is likely tough to be coherent and understanding when it is not a matter under the jurisdiction of one's own department. Regardless, I want to ask again what I initially thought was a really straightforward question on a matter that is not only very much on the minds of many of my neighbours in Spadina—Fort York, but represents, to quote a constituent, “A loss to our community, the Greater Toronto Area residents, and the businesses along and in the waterfront neighbourhood.”
On August 21, 2021, the federal government announced an investment of $20 million for urgent repair and upgrade work at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre. The rationale was that improving culture and community infrastructure builds strong, dynamic and prosperous communities. However, such lofty objectives have fallen short of reality.
Part of the problem is that after obtaining the funds, Harbourfront Centre ignored obtaining input from residents, who very much wanted to see the funds put to good use in revitalizing Harbourfront so that it could still provide the updated quality of service and recreation that attracts over five million visitors annually.
In the winter months, Harbourfront's skating rink provides a well-attended attraction that has become a vibrant heart of our community, and it has been that way for decades. However, do not take my word for it. After a recent town hall that I convened on Harbourfront Centre, here are some of the comments that my constituents have said about the rink and the lack of public consultation.
Tracy told me that her four children enjoyed skating there. She said that it was so fun and that it was a free winter activity. The fact that Harbourfront Centre did not even consult the community is, in her words, egregious. She even asked whether the decision to uproot the rink involved “some kind of backroom shady deal”.
Renata would like to remind the government that “downtown Toronto suffers from a shortage of parks and recreational activities for families during winter”. She implores that this “beloved institution” be kept open.
Joan talked about how the skating rink has been the heart of the community.
Joe did not mince words. He would like the government to know that he does not “like the fact that fat pigs appointed by our government do whatever they want to the benefit of big fat corporations to get what they want.”
Gordon Moores wanted his comments completely attributed to him. Gordon is appalled at this unconscionable decision and that it was done without consultation. He would like the government to know that when his wife was diagnosed with cancer, one of the very first things they did that same day was go skating on the Harbourfront Centre rink.
The Harbourfront Centre rink was the heart of our community, the heart of our city. It was the only place where people from across Toronto and across the GTA could actually skate right on the shores of Lake Ontario. It is something that many residents and many visitors have been doing for generations.
My question to my hon. colleague is this. Is he okay with the government giving away 20 million dollars' worth of taxpayer dollars with little public consultation?
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- Jan/31/23 5:50:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, Canadians are going through tough financial times. We see higher interest rates, inflation, high food costs and soaring housing prices. This all leads to a very shaky and uncertain future for many Canadians.
On top of this, the government is proceeding with a series of taxes on fuel at a time when many households are just trying to heat their homes. If the clean fuel standard led to just a $30 monthly increase for Canadians, what harm would it cause? The answer is, plenty. According to the Daily Bread Food Bank, “A $30 per month increase in rent would lead to 73,776 more visits to food banks annually in Toronto and 375,512 more visits across Ontario.” That 375,512 is equivalent to everyone in Spadina—Fort York, my riding, and two other ridings of my Toronto colleagues, the parliamentary secretary's colleagues. How disconnected from the economic realities of Canadians is the federal government?
The clean fuel standard adds $1,277 annually to energy costs. It also does not stop at creating higher prices for gasoline, diesel or home heating fuel. It is added at every component in production processes. For example, it is added to the cost of nitrogen that is purchased by farmers to grow food we all eat, to trucks transporting food to the grocery store, and to the selling of food to consumers. Even if people do not drive, they still eat, and the clean fuel standard will drive up those costs. These associated costs contribute to higher prices at the grocery store but also to inflation, and everyone is struggling with inflation.
On the one hand, we have the Bank of Canada trying to wrestle inflation to the ground by raising interest rates, and on the other hand we have the government trying to pile-drive Canadians into the ground by raising taxes. What a tag team of indifference to economic hardships that abound.
The government has refused my request to delay implementing the clean fuel standard until the Canadian economy no longer faces a looming recession, to a time when Canadians have some breathing room and the government has found realistic answers on how to get the country back on some semblance of sound financial footing. Moreover, to add insult to growing food bank visits, the lack of environmental benefit from the clean fuel standard is appalling. The only thing that is being cleaned is what little money is left in the pocketbooks of Canadians.
In light of the fact that the clean fuel standard would actually increase net emissions, what environmental catastrophe would occur if we delayed the implementation of the clean fuel standard by six months? Is this just another way for the government to pay for its wanton overspending off the backs of Canadians?
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- Jan/30/23 3:12:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in August 2021 the government invested $20 million for urgent work at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre. The rationale was that improving cultural and community infrastructure builds strong, prosperous and dynamic communities. Those objectives have fallen short of reality. Harbourfront Centre has ignored input from residents and local organizations. The centre claims that Canadian Heritage was informed of and approved the new plans, which included the elimination of a beloved and popular permanent skating rink. York Quay Neighbourhood Association and Waterfront for All were denied a meeting to discuss the rink's closure and the area's way forward.
Is the minister okay with giving away $20 million with little public consultation?
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- Nov/16/22 7:07:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in my question on September 28, I pointed out to the government that in Restaurants Canada's annual report, over the last 12 months 43% more restaurants had closed than opened. Additionally, the Business Development Bank of Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada report that our nation’s small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, are responsible for 10 million jobs in our country.
Like all SMEs, restaurants help to employ 88.3% of Canada’s private labour force. However, all is far from well. In August 2022, for the first time in history, there were over 180,000 client visits in one month to the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto.
In prepandemic times, just to put it in context, it would have had 60,000 client visits. If we fast-forward to January 2022, with the increases in inflation, there were 120,000 visits and, as mentioned earlier, in the most recent reported figure in August, that number has tripled, from 60,000 prepandemic to 180,000 client visits in one month.
There is serious hardship here. Many Canadians face a really harsh winter. This reality is not some partisan thing; it is a very serious situation. It is one thing for a senior minister to suggest that it is not going to be an easy time for Canadians, that it is not going to be an easy time for Canada and that we have to make do with today’s realities.
Does the government have any other viable plan, and if so, what is it?
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- Jun/14/22 6:19:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the price of gas has risen over 40% year over year. If we look up the price of gas in the GTA right now in, from Toronto to Richmond Hill, we will see that it is currently around 209.3¢ per litre. The cost of gas is up, way up, and so is the price of food.
Even if someone does not drive, farmers drive to plant, to harvest and to do so much more, and they need gas. To get the food they grow to our grocery stores, they need gas. Gas prices are up 40%. It is no surprise that food prices have risen almost 10%.
We have seen the largest increase in the cost of food since 1981. That is a 41-year record. In 1981, I was not even born yet. My parents were still in a refugee camp. If we take into account the fact that Canada’s median age is 41.1 years, that means for half of Canadians, myself included, the increase in the price of food is the highest it has ever been in our lifetime. The price of gas is also the highest I have ever seen in my lifetime.
The soaring cost of gas and food is crushing Canadians, but while Canadians are struggling, the government is just raking it in. How much is it bringing in? Let us do the math. Annually, 65 billion litres of gasoline and diesel are sold in Canada. The GST revenue that the federal government collects from just these two fuels alone works out to about $6 billion a year.
However, members will remember that gas prices are up 40%, so the federal government stands to pocket $2.5 billion extra that it never budgeted for or earmarked. Those billions of dollars belong to Canadians.
I know I have much more time to speak, but I am going to jump straight to the point. The federal government has a duty to give this slush fund back to Canadians. I will ask this of the government, yet again: Will the government provide relief to struggling Canadians, just as the fiscally prudent and compassionate Liberal Paul Martin government did? Yes or no?
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- Mar/1/22 6:52:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague said that I am late to the game. The province is starting to open up. When is this national convening going to happen? The inaction by the government has led to us losing Canada's most successful musical, Come From Away. In our hometown of Toronto, it has closed.
I want to localize the impact this has had due to inaction. Come From Away attracted more than a million patrons to Toronto. Box office sales surpassed $115 million with $15 million in HST. The show created jobs over 9,000 employee weeks. This was for the cast, stage managers, musicians, crew members and front of the house team members.
When will the national convening happen?
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