- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Banff—Airdrie
- Alberta
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $145,439.36
- Government Page
- Nov/8/23 2:15:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as we approach Remembrance Day, it is important to remember and recognize the sacrifice that so many Canadians made for our freedoms.
The toll of war weighs heavily upon our veterans, so it is our duty to honour their sacred contribution and ensure that they are cared for, yet this Prime Minister has told them that they are asking for more than he can give, and after eight years, we are seeing veterans suffering in record numbers.
We need to recognize that veterans, particularly those with injuries, are vulnerable to the cost of living crisis brought on by this government. The Veterans Food Bank of Calgary reports that demand for its services has doubled and expects the shelves to be empty by the end of the week.
Veterans are suffering right now, with more and more using food banks and homeless shelters. Now, the cost of living crisis has gotten so bad that there are serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are living in their cars because they cannot afford a place to live.
The Prime Minister is just not worth the cost. It is time to bring home a government that will honour the service and sacrifice of our veterans, not just on Remembrance Day, but every single day.
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- Nov/2/23 10:08:25 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, “All these were honoured in their generations and were the glory of their times.” For me, that verse from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is inscribed on the walls of the Veterans Memorial Buildings here in Ottawa, captures the valour of the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country in uniform in our armed forces, who are the greatest of Canadians.
It is an honour today for me to speak on behalf of the leader of the official opposition and all Conservatives as we approach Remembrance Week. We honour veterans for the great sacrifices they have made in every mission and conflict in Canada's history.
We owe those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, those who have had their lives forever altered and their families who were left behind a debt that we can never fully repay. The instinct to honour our fallen is evident around our country, from Canada's first road of remembrance, established on Shelbourne Street in Victoria, B.C. in 1920, to the Crow's Nest Officers' Club, which was founded during the Second World War by Captain Rollo Mainguy of the Royal Canadian Navy in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Canadians strive to memorialize our fallen, honour those who fought and returned home and show our support for those who still serve our country in uniform today. Parliament Hill hosts one of the greatest memorials, the Room of Remembrance, which contains the records of Canada's fallen warriors. The names of every man and woman who has laid down their lives in service to Canada are logged in books of remembrance, and each day new pages are turned so Canadians can contemplate the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in service. Each page is a simple list that nonetheless tells a moving story of individuals from every part of our land who spared nothing to keep our country free and who sacrificed everything in defence of all that we cherish today.
The name of Sergeant Charles Albani Dominique Parent of Rimouski, Royal 22nd Regiment, appears on page 57 of the Korean War Book of Remembrance.
Charles Robert Loft of London, Ontario, a flying officer with 419 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force, is on page 535 of the book that commemorates the Second World War.
Royal Navy Ordinary Seaman Sidney Macdonald Wheeler of Notre Dame Bay is found on page 204 of the Newfoundland Book of Remembrance.
Closer to home from me is Captain Nichola Goddard of Calgary, on page 219 of the In the Service of Canada Book of Remembrance. In Afghanistan, Nichola was the first Canadian female combat soldier since World War II to lay down her life in frontline combat.
Hailing from all regions of Canada and all branches of service, these and other courageous men and women represent only a fraction of the 120,000 Canadians who lost their lives protecting the freedoms they cherished and the country they loved.
They remind us of the importance of standing up for what is right and just and the need in a dangerous world to defend our values and freedoms. We must always strive to honour our fallen while showing our support and appreciation for our veterans and our men and women still serving in Canada's armed forces. All of them have served Canada with bravery, dedication and selflessness, and they paved the way for and now protect the peace we enjoy today.
Remembrance Day is also a time to reflect on the sacrifices of families who see their loved ones go into service. Many have lost husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. It is the terrible cost of war. We must always be mindful of the pain of loss and the need for support endured by the families left behind.
I want to read from a letter from the front that was sent by a Canadian soldier, Fred Adams of Ontario, who wrote this letter in May 1915 to his aunt. It reads:
Dear Aunt:
This is the first day they have allowed us to write letters since this battle began and I have no doubt you are anxious to hear from me. Well, we have lost an awful lot of our fellows, and to those of us who are left it seems just a miracle that any of us came through alive.... About two brigades of Canadians held about five times as many Germans. It would have done you good to see the boys. I did not see one show the white feather, but each had a set face and went right at it.... It was just a nightmare, a hell.... We could see the boys falling everywhere, and it was just awful to hear them cry out.... We have lost two of our guns and there are only eleven of us left out of the section. Well all the boys did the best they could and I for one am ready to do it again, only I hope the war will soon end, for the sake of the poor parents, wives and sweethearts of all the soldiers. Still I thank God that I am spared and always pray that He will soon end the war. With Love. FRED.
Sadly, Fred Adams was killed in action just days after this letter was sent to his family.
Letters such as Fred's are among the hundreds of thousands that came home from the front to worried loved ones at home. They are vivid reminders of the real people, with their humanity, their courage and their dedication, who are the reasons we enjoy the freedoms we do today.
It is a privilege of the generations that have received liberty as our legacy to honour the sacrifices of those who secured it for us at so steep a cost. It is our duty and their due that we pay tribute to their sacrifice by fixing their service and their sacrifices in our remembrance and by ensuring that we always cherish and uphold the very freedoms they fought for.
We will remember them.
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- Jun/12/23 2:04:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the world watched with dread in 1990 as Saddam Hussein launched an unprovoked invasion of Kuwait. Thousands of Canadians were part of the international coalition that resisted that lawless invasion, fighting to drive out enemy forces and to restore Kuwaiti sovereignty.
The evil of a tyrant was opposed by the valour of those who fought in the Persian Gulf, and because of it, Kuwait remains an independent country to this day, yet also to this day, unlike most of our allies, the Canadian government refuses to recognize Gulf War veterans as having provided wartime service.
It certainly was war, and any of our Gulf veterans who stood on the front line, putting life and limb in jeopardy to defend freedom, can provide their first-hand testimony to that fact.
These heroes deserve our heartfelt gratitude and our recognition of their service in defence of liberty and Canadian values. I thank all those who served in the Persian Gulf War, and to all of our courageous Canadian veterans.
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- Nov/3/22 11:10:06 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in his remarks, the Liberal member made the comment that one homeless veteran is one too many. I certainly agree with him on that, but it is everything that came after that which I disagree with.
He mentioned all kinds of dollar figures they are spending on studies and things like that. It is not a question of more money being spent on studies. This is a question of will. It is time for the Liberal government to take action instead of talking about the problem.
There are 5,000 homeless veterans and we have almost $1 billion in lapsed funding this year. How much of that lapsed funding was in these programs? When will the Liberal government stop keeping our veterans out in the cold and take action to address this issue, rather than study it and talk about it?
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- Nov/3/22 10:28:54 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague on the delays in service for francophone veterans.
There is no doubt. It has been very clear that francophones are, in fact, receiving even worse service than anglophones.
I will condemn that, but even more importantly, I will condemn the fact that the government is leaving veterans out in the cold. It is leaving them to wait for two years, in many cases, to even get their benefit applications processed. That is completely unacceptable, and the Liberal government should be ashamed of itself for the way it is treating our veterans and our veterans' families.
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- Nov/3/22 10:26:55 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am well aware of the fact that the Liberal government likes to make announcements, put out press releases and try to pretend like it is doing something. That is what we have seen from the Liberal government. This is another great example. It makes announcements about all kinds of money it is going to put into Veterans Affairs, but it does not spend it. A report just came out this week about almost a billion dollars in lapsed funding this year. That is money that was set aside to spend on programs for veterans that the government did not spend.
The government has certainly been accused many times, and rightly so, of spending far too much money, but one area where it should never save money is on our veterans. When there is money that has been put out there for veterans, when there is almost a billion dollars in lapsed funding sitting around while veterans' needs are not being filled, that is not providing service to veterans and their families. That is a press release designed to fool the Canadian public into believing the government cares when it clearly does not care about veterans or their families.
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- Nov/3/22 10:24:20 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank the member for his service to our country. That is something the Liberal government has failed to do in its actions. I am glad he highlighted there are so many groups. He mentioned one in his riding, but there are so many groups across the country that are picking up the slack. They are filling the needs the Liberal government is not ensuring are being filled. I am proud of so many Canadians who are doing just that. However, they should not need to do that. The government should ensure those needs are being provided for.
I will give an example. I mentioned earlier the training needed for employees at Veterans Affairs to ensure we never have another instance of suggesting to a veteran that maybe they should consider assisted suicide. There is an organization called Wounded Warriors, and it has the ability to provide that training tomorrow. The government is aware that could be the case, but it is not engaging in that.
This is a situation where the government is not doing enough to serve the needs of our veterans, and Canadians and organizations across this country are having to step up to make sure veterans have their needs filled. They are paying for veterans to get the mental health supports and physical supports they need. The government is not doing it, so people are stepping up across the country to make sure it happens.
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- Nov/3/22 10:12:55 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I move that the first report of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, presented to the House on Tuesday, March 1, be concurred in.
In May 2019, the veterans affairs committee published a report entitled “Moving Towards Ending Homelessness Among Veterans”. Then, after two elections and two Parliaments and more than two full years later, with no government response to that report, the veterans affairs committee published another report, again entitled “Moving Towards Ending Homelessness Among Veterans”, in June 2021. In between that time, a motion was also moved in the House of Commons, in June 2019, indicating that the House should affirm that it wants to end veterans' homelessness, with a date of 2025 to see it end.
It seems to me that we have a government that continues to talk and talk, but absolutely no action has happened from 2019 until present. We are talking more than three years later and we still have no action. We are still moving toward ending homelessness among veterans and it does not seem like we are moving very quickly. It does not seem like the Liberal government is moving very quickly. In fact, I do not think it is moving at all. That is why we are seeking to move concurrence in this report today.
I will mention that I will be splitting my time with the member for Barrie—Innisfil.
We have a government that received a very thorough report about the need to end homelessness among veterans from a parliamentary committee. It gave no response, and two elections later there is still nothing happening. That is why the report was moved by the veterans affairs committee and we are discussing it today.
Again, it just seems like under the government, we keep hearing it is going to do things. We keep hearing announcements in press releases, but there is never any action. The veterans who served this country made sacrifices, and in some cases very significant sacrifices with very significant physical and psychological injuries. They were prepared to serve this country at a moment's notice. They did serve this country and have suffered injury as a result. We have a duty and the government has a duty to ensure that we care for them. We must ensure that their needs are taken care of.
We have heard that we probably have in the neighbourhood of 5,000 veterans in this country who are homeless. That does not sound like we have a government that is caring for them and ensuring their needs are met. There should never be reports of a veteran being homeless or needing food. I know there are many food banks dedicated specifically to veterans out there in this country. That should never be the case, but under the Liberal government, it just seems to be getting worse and worse, with no action being taken. The Liberal government is failing the veterans who gave this country what we have today.
When veterans go to Veterans Affairs because they are in a crisis or have needs, they are met with layers of bureaucracy and endless wait times and processing times for their disability applications and pension applications. A service standard is required to be met, and that standard has not been met in seven years, not once since the Liberal government took office. The last time the service standard was met was in the last year of the previous Conservative government.
The Liberal government has even failed to meet its own internal service standards. What we are seeing now in many cases is that two years is not an untypical amount of time for veterans to wait for service. They say that the average wait time is 43 weeks to get an application processed for veterans' benefits.
In many cases, veterans are waiting two years, and there are even cases where applications have taken as long as 10 years to get processed. This is clearly not a government that takes ensuring veterans are cared for very seriously.
There have been a number of reports that have indicated such to the government. The Auditor General has indicated it in a report. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has indicated it in a report, and the veterans affairs committee itself has indicated it in numerous reports. The recent Auditor General's report said the government's “actions did not reduce overall wait times for eligible veterans. The department was still a long way from meeting its service standard. Implementation of initiatives was slow. Data to measure and improvements were lacking.” In other words, it is failing on every single measure.
It is even more concerning that less than half of first-time mental health-related applications are being processed within the already lengthy 16-week period provided. The Auditor General calls that a significant deterioration of the processing times of the previous Conservative government. We are talking about mental health crises in some cases.
What is happening instead? Instead, Veterans Affairs employees are suggesting to veterans that maybe they should consider assisted suicide. We have heard about the case that has been in the media, and we heard about it at the veterans affairs committee, where assisted suicide was offered to a veteran who did not ask for it. This veteran was in crisis and went to the government looking for help, and it was suggested to the veteran that maybe he should consider killing himself. Even when he said no several times, this Veterans Affairs employee continued to pressure him to consider it.
The comment made, according to testimony from another veteran at the veterans affairs committee, from this employee to the veteran was that accessing assisted suicide would be “'...better than blowing your brains out against the wall.'” Can anyone imagine that one of our veterans had that happen to them?
What is the Liberal government's response? It is not much, actually. It seems like it is trying to cover its own butt. Essentially, it tries to deny responsibility. When the minister was at committee, he continued to defer the responsibility for this to his officials. He seems to be completely removed from the operation of the department he is responsible for.
I forgot to mention that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil.
There was no apology offered to this veteran and no indication that anything was being done. Veterans Affairs said it was going to provide some training, but it could not give any indication when that would happen or how that would happen. I certainly did not leave feeling assured, and I know the many veterans across this country I have heard from certainly did not feel assured that the government was not going to do anything to ensure that it would never happen again.
We have often heard a saying from veterans, which is “Deny, delay, die”, the triple d's. That is really what veterans feel they get from Veterans Affairs. They get denied the services they need. There are delays in processing times, and now they are being told that maybe it would be better if they just died. We seem to have a minister who is asleep at the wheel. Our veterans pay the price for that. Things are just so backward right now.
Veterans and their families served this country. They sacrificed for this country, and we owe it to them to ensure they are getting the services they need. We owe it to them to ensure they are not left out in the cold, and that is actually what the government is doing. The Liberal government is actually leaving veterans out in the cold. There are 5,000 homeless veterans in this country, and the government is leaving them out in the cold instead of ensuring their needs are protected.
There have been parliamentary reports, PBO reports, Auditor General reports and reports from the veterans affairs committee, but the government is doing nothing to make sure our veterans are cared for.
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- Nov/2/22 4:10:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 66,349 is the number of Canadians who laid down their lives during the First World War. The number of Canadians who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Second World War is 44,090. The number of Canadians who gave their lives during the Korean War is 516. The number of Canadian Armed Forces members who lost their lives in Afghanistan is 158.
Those are the numbers, the statistics, but they are not just numbers or statistics. They represent real people who laid down their lives for our freedoms. They left behind families, who mourned them. They were someone's brother or sister, son or daughter, mother or father. They were young men and women who had hopes and dreams that will forever go unrealized.
They did it for all of us so that we can continue to live in freedom. They did it voluntarily, in the ultimate act of courage and sacrifice. It is a debt that we can never repay.
In much the same way, there is never enough we can do or say to thank those who served this country and came back forever changed. Whether their injuries are physical, psychological or emotional, they leave deep scars and often have a lasting impact on their relationships, on their families and on their futures. We owe it to them to listen, to seek to always do what is right by them and to ensure that what they fought for is never taken for granted.
We pay tribute to them for their loyal service and sacrifice. It is a great honour for me to be here today to express, on behalf of the official opposition, Canada's Conservatives and all Canadians, our appreciation, admiration and deep respect for them and to promise that we will always be there for them, like they were there for us.
Now, If I can, for a moment I will speak to a date that all Canadians should know well: April 9, 1917. It is said that from a Canadian perspective, World War One was both our greatest sorrow and our finest hour, and perhaps no battle symbolized that better than Vimy Ridge.
During four days in April 1917, four divisions of Canadians, fighting together for the very first time as a unified force, did what many felt was impossible: They took Vimy Ridge. It was our coming of age as a nation. It was a defining moment in Canadian history. As Canadian Brigadier-General A.E. Ross said of the victory, “[I]n those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.” However, we should remember that while it was our finest hour, it was also our greatest sorrow. Not only was it our greatest victory, but April 9, 1917, was also the bloodiest day in Canadian history. Over 2,500 Canadians gave their lives that day.
If Canadians ever have the chance to visit Vimy Ridge, which is something I wish all Canadians could do, I would ask them to do something: Take a few moments to reach down and feel the grass. That is the life that grows from dirt and mud soaked by the courageous blood shed by young men in the cause of freedom.
April 9, 1917, is a date we should all know well, as are August 19, 1942, the Dieppe raid; June 6, 1944, when Canadians landed on Juno Beach during D-Day; and April 24, 1951, when Canadians held the line in the Kapyong Valley by calling in an artillery strike on their own location to hit the enemy soldiers among them.
These are all significant dates in Canadian history and they are significant dates for the world. On these dates, Canadians helped shape the course of world history. They are events that we should all take pride in, just as all Canadians should take pride in the valour of fellow Canadians who have served and sacrificed all over the globe in the time since, in UN missions in places such as Croatia, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, Cyprus, Kosovo, the Congo, the Golan Heights and many others; in Vietnam; in the Persian Gulf; in Libya; in Afghanistan, which was the longest deployment of our troops since World War II; and right up to the present day in Operation Impact. All of the Canadian men and women who served in these places and others should know that their fellow Canadians owe them so much.
I stand here to acknowledge that governments can do better. We must do better. It will not be enough until every single veteran feels heard and understood, supported and cared for, appreciated and honoured. Much needs to be done at the political level, and that conversation must and will continue because no veteran should suffer in silence, not know where to turn or feel like the government is not there for them.
If I can, I will speak directly to all of Canada’s veterans. We must acknowledge the profound impact that their service all too often has. We must be there to care for their injuries, especially those we cannot see and may not understand. We have to ensure the necessary supports are there for their transition to civilian life and to support their families. Most of all, we need to listen and seek to understand so we can serve them as they have served us.
We all have a role to play in showing our respect. We should express that respect at all times and in all places. Whether big or small, every gesture and every show of support counts. It is important to wear the poppy, which is the symbol of remembrance, and to participate in local Remembrance Day activities.
It is not just during one event or one day or one week that we should be thinking about our veterans. We need to remember them every day of our lives.
If we were to ask any of our veterans to tell us the single most important thing we could do to repay them, I am sure they would all say the same thing: to never take for granted that which they fought for, our freedoms.
Please join me and my colleagues in Canada’s Conservative Party in making that commitment today. We pledge to uphold those freedoms. It is how we will honour their memories, thank them for their service and show our respect for their sacrifice. Freedom came at all costs and at all costs we must ensure it is maintained.
At the going down of the sun and in the morningWe will remember them.
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