- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Kelowna—Lake Country
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $131,412.70
- Government Page
- Jun/7/24 11:52:04 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, housing starts are down, and under the NDP-Liberal government, the housing crisis continues to get worse. On the Liberals meeting their housing plan numbers, construction experts at committee have been saying that there is “not a chance” and that they are not attainable. Also, according to a new Rentals.ca monthly rent report, asking prices for rent rose by 9.3% compared to this time last year. After nine years, rents have doubled.
The Prime Minister has spent billions, but rent prices keep increasing, and building keeps decreasing. How can the Prime Minister spend so much and achieve so little?
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- Jun/7/24 11:50:46 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, it is more expensive to rent in Canada than ever. The top two most expensive places to rent are in my home province of British Columbia: Vancouver is number one, and Burnaby is number two.
In Vancouver, it now costs over $2,600 to rent a one bedroom or a staggering $3,600 for a two bedroom. Canadians' quality of life continues to drop. Food bank usage is at record highs, and tent encampments are growing. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
When will the Prime Minister build homes, not bureaucracy?
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- Jun/6/24 6:57:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member was talking about how this government operates and how it operates through such poor governance and mismanagement. Of course, even in the last 24 hours, we have had a new Auditor General's report talking about conflicts of interest and really serious allegations. I am wondering if the member could expand on some of the comments that he was making during his intervention on that topic.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the residents of Kelowna—Lake Country. Briefly, just before I start my speech, I want to honour and remember the sacrifices the Canadian military heroes made as we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
Today I rise to speak to Bill C-277, an act to establish a national strategy on brain injuries. Brain injury is an important issue I have heard about from residents in my community, as well as from meeting with individuals here in Ottawa as part of my role as shadow minister for disability inclusion. It is a positive step to see legislation brought forward to develop a national strategy on brain injuries for those living with brain injuries, as well as for those who support them. I am sure this is an issue that all of us in this place care about.
As such, this is something that I am glad to have the opportunity to speak to and lend support to. I also want to thank my Conservative colleagues, especially the member for Regina—Lewvan, who spoke in support of the bill previously and specifically mentioned how 5,500 women who are suffering injuries to the brain are, shockingly, suffering these injuries as a result of domestic violence. This is an eye-opening statistic that we legislators must not shy away from addressing.
Brain injuries having a national strategy is an issue that requires our attention for good reason. There are many who are affected by brain injuries across Canada. I am sure many of us know someone in our personal lives who has suffered a brain injury and who requires our support. Many of us likely have friends or family members who have been in an accident, have had a sports injury or health issue, or have been the victim of violence that has caused a brain injury. Many of us likely have also had to, or know someone who has had to, care for an individual suffering from a brain injury. The role caregivers play, who are most often a close family member, is a significant one, and one that warrants our gratitude, admiration and respect.
In Kelowna—Lake Country, just like across Canada, many are affected by brain injuries, both directly and indirectly through people they know. My community of Kelowna—Lake Country, and in fact our region, is fortunate to have many leaders who care deeply about the issue. Braintrust Canada organized bringing to Kelowna community leaders, public health officials and brain injury specialists for the West Coast Brain Injury Conference. It is there that experts will discuss brain injuries in the context of health, governance and societal fairness and inclusion.
Someone suffering from a brain injury can have it affect every part of their life. A brain injury can cause substantial disruption to a person's independence, abilities and work life. It can cause significant issues in interpersonal relationships with family, friends, co-workers or caregivers. Oftentimes, because it is an injury that is not always visible externally, brain injuries can go unrecognized. They can be episodic. This exacts a heavy toll on those suffering and their families, as it is often not given the same recognition as other, more outwardly visible, conditions.
A brain injury can affect many parts of a person's health. It can affect behaviour and how someone acts and makes decisions. It can affect cognition and how a person learns, processes and remembers. It can affect emotions and can lead to a number of related mental health challenges. Lastly, it can affect one's physical health and can cause mobility challenges and potentially physical conditions such as headaches, fatigue, pain and sensory problems.
Be it a traumatic brain injury caused by sports or a vehicle accident or violence, or a non-traumatic brain injury caused by a stroke, overdose or another reason, one thing is clear: It is a very serious injury that has long-lasting consequences and effects on a person's life.
Brain Injury Canada has determined that close to 4% of the population lives with a brain injury. That equates to a staggering 1.5 million Canadians who live with a brain injury, with 165,000 Canadians suffering a new brain injury every year. It is untenable not to have a strategy in place to support all those affected by these injuries. We also know that those living with a brain injury can face additional societal challenges.
According to Brain Injury Canada, those with a brain injury have an increased risk of homelessness because of many factors, including job loss and the lack of accessible treatment and supports. Those suffering from a traumatic brain injury can also have greater rates of incarceration.
Information provided by BrainTrust Canada shows that an individual has a significantly greater chance of developing a diagnosable mental illness after sustaining an acquired brain injury. As well, about half of people with traumatic brain injury are affected by depression within the first year after injury; nearly two-thirds are affected within seven years.
Traumatic brain injury is reported to increase the risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms. A Canadian study found that adults with concussion committed suicide at three times the population norm. Fifty per cent of patients with a concussion experience personality change, irritability, anxiety and depression after concussion.
Something that is especially worrying is the convergence between substance use and brain injuries. I am referring to overdosing leading to brain injury. This really must be talked about more. The opioid epidemic has greatly worsened under the NDP-Liberal government. While not always recognized in this regard, it is greatly contributing to brain injuries. Not all overdoses, thankfully, lead to death. However, opioid overdose can cause hypoxic brain injury, a very serious type of brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. Between January 2016 and June 2020, Canada saw over 21,000 opioid-related poisonings in hospitals that resulted in hypoxic brain injury. The huge rise of these injuries warrants an immediate strategy to address their occurrences and to help with treatment. In addition to contributing to this, some people with a brain injury find themselves self-medicating after their injury as well. Many have turned to substance abuse to cope with their injury. It has been reported that someone with a brain injury is four times as likely to develop addiction issues. It becomes a vicious cycle. This is tragic.
Through the development of a national strategy on brain injuries, which Bill C-277 aims to create, the issue of overdoses in the context of brain injuries can be better addressed. This issue must be part of the strategy. We all know well that the Prime Minister has done too little to address the toxic overdose crisis. It is hoped that the bill will provide another avenue to address the shortcomings of the Liberal government in terms of the substance abuse crisis that has been impacting our communities so terribly. Members of Brain Injury Canada, who are the leading experts on brain injuries and the impact these injuries have on Canadians, have given their support to the bill and its intentions. This collaboration will have to remain ongoing, to best ensure that those suffering from brain injuries are at the table for discussions.
Conservatives hope that, with their support of the bill, a strategy will soon be in place that adequately supports Canadians who sustain brain injuries. Even though the administration and operation of health care is provincial, there can certainly be federal leadership on a national strategy.
I hope the Liberal government will take this seriously. The Liberals have a track record of photo ops on announced strategies and frameworks, which then take years to make. They do a lot of plans for plans, which lead to reports for reports, with little results-oriented actions or analysis. People with brain injuries need our attention.
My Conservative colleagues and I support this issue being elevated here.
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- Jun/6/24 5:26:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member spoke quite a bit about the ongoing corruption. We know that with this particular fund, there was a conflict of interest, and the government seems to lack an ethical compass. It seems like so many of these different departments are not following processes and procedures and have conflicts of interest, with Liberal friends getting ahead. We can go back to the We Charity scandal and the arrive scam. There is just so much.
Can the member speak to the lack of governance, management and ethical compass?
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- May/31/24 11:37:28 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals are becoming more unhinged and out of touch. There is the perfect example of the Liberals' socialist agenda: They tax people to oblivion and then they look at what little they can give back, which is actually people's own money.
Now Canadians cannot even afford to feed themselves. They cannot afford to visit loved ones. They cannot afford to save for their future, certainly. Taxes keep going up, and the carbon tax just went up 23%.
The Liberals should give people a break. They should give people a tax break. Will the Liberals vote for our common-sense bill to give families a tax break and axe all federal fuel taxes this summer, or will they just keep Canadians at home?
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- May/31/24 11:36:21 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
On Monday, the House will vote for our common-sense Conservative motion to save Canadians 35¢ per litre on gas until Labour Day by axing the carbon tax, the federal fuel tax and the GST on gasoline and diesel.
Families really need a break. The tax holiday will save the typical Canadian family $670 this summer. Will the Prime Minister vote with us so that Canadians can afford a simple summer road trip, or will he keep Canadians home this summer?
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- May/31/24 11:10:11 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have blonde hair with hazel eyes. I am 5'7". I am wearing a black dress with a royal blue blazer. As the shadow minister for disability inclusion, it is my pleasure to recognize National AccessAbility Week. Let us acknowledge the contributions and leadership of persons with disabilities and of their allies, the organizations and communities that care for, support and champion persons with disabilities in Canada.
There is still much to do to make our society more accessible so that persons with disabilities can access many of the services and places most people take for granted. Even in this place, the highest institution in the land, word has come to my attention of ways that this place has not met accessibility needs and I am actively working with House administration on this.
This week and every week, let us recognize the important contributions of Canadians living with disabilities and those who support them, and commit to work on removing barriers to accessibility.
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- May/31/24 12:45:26 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what the government is doing is not balanced. The member speaks to what he considers successes of the Liberals' illicit-drug policies, but I would ask the member opposite why, if their policies are so fantastic and successful, they have been enacted only in British Columbia.
Residents from my community are at ground zero of the toxic drug crisis's horribly sad results. Only B.C. families and small businesses have been forced to suffer the consequences of the poorly thought-out and increasingly tragic policy. The facts are clear. Overdoses are up, overdose deaths are up and addictions are up. Unsafe drug paraphernalia litter our parks, playgrounds and streets. Government-supplied, taxpayer-funded hard drugs are being diverted to criminals and to children.
A common-sense Conservative government would end the failed NDP-Liberal drug experiment for good and make sure it is not allowed anywhere else in Canada. Conservatives will stop the crime and bring hope through addiction treatment and recovery to bring our loved ones home.
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- May/31/24 12:37:45 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the residents of Kelowna—Lake Country. To anyone in my community who might be watching at this late hour, now early the next day, I say hello.
I rise today to speak to the worsening addiction crisis in my province of British Columbian. Specifically, I will speak to the tragic failure of the NDP-Liberal government's drug decriminalization experiment.
The addiction crisis is something I raised in my very first speech in the House of Commons. It is an issue of importance to every resident of Kelowna—Lake Country and British Columbia.
The NDP-Liberal approach to addiction promised to reduce overdose deaths. However, according to the B.C.'s coroner's office, since 2015, the overdose rate has skyrocketed. In 2015, 20 residents of Kelowna and 529 British Columbians tragically perished from drug overdoses. In 2023, the first year of the NDP-Liberal B.C. decriminalization experiment, the coroner's office reported 2,511 deaths, the highest rate of overdose deaths in British Columbia's history. Roughly one person is fatally overdosing every four hours. In Kelowna, overdose deaths have been recorded in the triple digits for the very first time. These are not just statistics. These are our family members and our neighbours.
What the government is doing is not working. The Liberal and NDP members ignore solutions to get addiction treatment and recovery to people suffering from addiction. They did this when they voted down my private member's bill, the end the revolving door act. Dozens of leading addiction physicians have come out imploring the federal government to cancel or amend Canada's “safe supply” policies, citing that the federal government is misrepresenting the programs to the public. All this, yet the Liberal minister responsible for government-funded supply doubles down on their reckless drug policies.
I have spoken in the House on this tragic issue many times and asked how the NDP-Liberal government could continue with its decriminalization experiment, even when B.C.'s top doctor said that so-called safe supply is landing into street-level trafficking and ending up in the hands of children.
That was not the first time I raised this government's failed policies concerning child safety. Last spring, on behalf of parents in my community and from across B.C., I raised concerns about bringing their children to parks and playgrounds because the government was allowing open drug use. Liberal and NDP members chose to applaud themselves at the time rather than listen to the voices of the parents scared for the safety of their children.
Crime has become rampant in our neighbourhoods, hurting families and small businesses. Now, we have the serious problem of government-supplied, taxpayer-funded hard drugs. They are getting into the hands of organised crime to be trafficked in the black market across Canada, fuelling the toxic drug crisis.
The RCMP in Campbell River, B.C., and in Prince George, B.C., seized thousands of prescription drug pills, many of which were reported as being diverted from the B.C. government-funded supply program. Powdered fentanyl was seized that had been shaped into dinosaur gummies. B.C. nurses have strongly spoken out against the results in hospitals of the illicit drug policy experiment, which was approved by the Liberal government.
The B.C. NDP stepped back some of its drug policies due to an impending election. The Liberals will not commit to never approving again a similar request in another jurisdiction in this country.
Things are getting worse. More people are getting addicted. Families are losing more loved ones, and drug overdose is now the number one cause of death for British Columbia youth. Will this government stop its radical drug policies?
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- May/30/24 12:55:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that was a great intervention from my colleague. I have a quick question.
One of the numbers that she brought up was how much the average family would save by having the carbon tax, excise tax and GST rebate over the summer. We also know that there are reports that the average family will be spending $700 more on food this year, so the costs just keep going up.
How big a difference would the tax holiday make to families?
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- May/29/24 9:55:31 p.m.
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Madam Chair, does the minister believe that parental agreement should be required before their child is prescribed a dangerous drug like fentanyl?
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- May/29/24 9:55:14 p.m.
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Madam Chair, does the minister believe that there should be a minimum age for when youth can receive recreational fentanyl?
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- May/29/24 9:54:53 p.m.
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Madam Chair, government-funded drug policy protocols allow for prescribed fentanyl to minors without parental knowledge in B.C. Does the minister support this?
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- May/29/24 9:54:38 p.m.
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Madam Chair, has the minister taken any action to mitigate government-funded drugs from getting into the hands of children and teens?
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- May/29/24 9:54:26 p.m.
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Madam Chair, has the minister taken any action to mitigate government-funded drugs being diverted into the black market?
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- May/29/24 9:54:13 p.m.
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Madam Chair, has the minister implemented any of the recommendations from the letter that I referenced?
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- May/29/24 9:53:38 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I think we should take that as a no.
September 2023, the minister received a letter from 17 addiction medicine doctors who said, “We are regularly seeing and hearing in our practices that diverted hydromorphone is causing harm to both adults and children.”
Does the minister agree with that statement?
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- May/29/24 9:53:22 p.m.
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Madam Chair, has the minister given any directives at all to stop these illicit drugs from getting into the hands of children?
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- May/29/24 9:53:10 p.m.
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Madam Chair, is the minister taking action to stop these drugs from getting into the hands of children?
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