- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Cumberland—Colchester
- Nova Scotia
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $134,737.37
- Government Page
- Sep/26/22 10:49:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to serve with the member for Charlottetown on the Standing Committee on Health, and I appreciate his actions there.
One of the things that certainly holds true, as we have heard from most of the Atlantic provinces today, and it is always interesting to hear, is how similar we are and how the great resilience of the people from Atlantic Canada certainly stands out in all of our minds. As I said previously, hopefully it is not just us patting ourselves on the back.
That being said, I think it is important to underscore, and I think we are all at the point that we need to realize, that cellphone service is part of critical infrastructure. We also know, and we have heard in this House previously, that former minister Ralph Goodale promised during Dorian that the CRTC would fix this. We know that has not happened.
I wonder how the member opposite is going to prod his government to ensure that this piece of critical infrastructure is better suited to serving the needs of all of our constituents.
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- Sep/26/22 9:49:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, one of the biggest concerns we have is that we not fall into the trap of saying, as the great Ronald Reagan once said, “I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”
How will that side of the House assure Atlantic Canadians that the help the government is promising will end up in the hands of Atlantic Canadians in a rapid, transparent manner, so that the process is simple and we are not tied up in bureaucratic red tape for the next four years?
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- Sep/26/22 8:14:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for her speech.
I have only one small question: Will the member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia support us in holding the government accountable for program delivery?
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- Sep/26/22 7:55:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I did not hear anybody talk about a magic wand in here, except perhaps the Liberals on how tripling the carbon tax is going to magically fix climate change. I am really unsure how that is going to happen.
That being said, I think that it has been very clear. It has been spoken out loud multiple times in Canada and with a loud voice, that we know that climate change is real on this side of the House, and we have great plans and policies on how we are going to combat climate change to make it real for the average Canadian.
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- Sep/26/22 7:54:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is important to understand that the Conservative Party is very much interested in technology, and not taxes. As we reflect upon the ability of the Liberal government to make changes that are impactful for the climate, we know that is just not happening.
We also understand that those of us who live in Atlantic Canada often live in more rural settings, often in single-family dwellings, and of course we often heat our homes with oil. That makes it much more difficult to make those transitions.
We do know about greener energy here from our great friends from the great province of Alberta. It is important to understand that it is the greenest energy that we can produce in the world, and we need to be more reliant upon that. We need to also look at things like carbon capture and storage and understand how we may be able to better use that technology to improve the state of affairs that we have at the current time.
As we look at those things as a comprehensive package, then we can understand that we can help Canadians move from exactly where they are into an important spot that is attainable, and not into fantasyland.
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- Sep/26/22 7:52:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate that important question from the member for Kings—Hants.
As time goes on, we are going to have a better idea in Cumberland—Colchester of exactly what has happened. We are quite thankful that the blueberry harvest is already finished, as that is a major economic driver. However, there are folks there who are dairy farmers and who continue to struggle at the current time. As long as power is restored more quickly, the likelihood of devastating effects with respect to that industry are lessened, of course.
Regarding some of the other things, we are in between seasons. Thankfully, with strawberries, we are between seasons there as well, so that is somewhat of a help. However, we also have to consider how many trees are down on top of other crops, and that is going to be difficult as we move forward.
We need to be dynamic in our support here to understand that as we get more information, those folks need to be supported quickly and we need to be able to get funds out that will enable those people to resume operations as quickly as possible, with money in their own pocket.
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- Sep/26/22 7:40:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the leader of the official opposition for his kind words and support in holding the government to account.
This evening, as we come together here as parties to have this emergency debate, it is important a few things happen. One is that we understand the timeline. I had the opportunity to be at home this weekend and experience this first-hand. I also think it important that the emergency debate this evening be related to the support for Atlantic Canadians and not to push some other agenda, which we have seen. Unfortunately, the government has continued to miss its targets with respect to climate change, which is, as we might say in Atlantic Canada, a darn shame.
That being said, because not everybody has experienced a hurricane, I want people to understand very clearly that the forecasting, as some of the other members have said, has been absolutely fantastic. My children would say that I said I did not think it would be as bad as it was. Maybe I am just an optimist, and that is probably a good thing.
At about 10 minutes to midnight on Friday night, the power went off. That was it. As I left home this morning, my family still did not have power. I spoke to my wife earlier this evening and we still do not have power. What does that mean? It means we need to be cognizant of those things that need to be refrigerated. We need to rely on others, people who, thankfully, have had their power restored, such as friends and neighbours. We need to rely on them.
My wife is a pharmacist and had perishables in her pharmacy. We had to understand how best to deal with those so that valuable stock was not lost.
Some of us are very fortunate to have a generator. I was quite thankful for a 15-year-old generator we purchased, sadly, after hurricane Juan. Then there was White Juan. The generator sat around a lot. Perhaps I am not that great at maintenance, but to get that generator going and be able to have some lights and power the fridge in my house is a great and wonderful thing during an event such as this.
I do want people to know that I live in the town of Truro. I am very fortunate that I have water. The folks who work in my constituency office live in a small place called Londonderry. If they do not have a generator that powers their pump, they are doing it the way we did when I was a kid when nasty storms came along. We filled up our bathtub with water so we could wash our hands and flush the toilet. Those things are still going on, and our hearts, prayers and thoughts are with people who are suffering in that way.
It is important to highlight those industries that are specifically negatively impacted. We talk about fisheries, farming and forestry. We know those industries are part of the backbone of Atlantic Canada. As my good friend from South Shore—St. Margarets has said multiple times, the wharves are the trans-Canada highway of the fishing industry. We know the fishing industry is a huge economic driver for Atlantic Canada. We also know the infrastructure for small craft harbours has been long neglected and those wharves are now even more seriously damaged. They are going to need significant and rapid federal help to get them fixed so the fish can be brought to market appropriately.
As for the farming industry, we do understand there is a significant amount of flooding, especially on Prince Edward Island. We have seen that. There are untold effects on how that is going to affect a sector that has been nearly decimated by mismanagement by the Liberal government. Again, it is a significant shame for those of us who live in Atlantic Canada.
Of course, there is the forest industry, with trees that are now piled on each other like a game of pick-up sticks. It makes it much more difficult and certainly significantly more dangerous for those who work in the forestry industry to work in that environment to hopefully get that wood harvested quickly, because with the price of wood, it is almost as valuable as gold.
One of the other things that is important to focus on is the lack of cell service. In this House, we have all become significantly reliant upon our cellphones. In the town of Truro, which is not big perhaps by downtown Toronto standards, to have 15,000 people with one bar of service makes it very difficult. It was difficult to communicate with the leader because I could not use video and things like that.
It significantly impacted search and rescue. Sadly, there was a young boy, four years old, who was lost in Pictou County, just adjacent to Colchester County. The search and rescue teams pointed out very clearly the need to have good cellphone service to coordinate a search and rescue operation. It just was not there and that made their work much more difficult.
Again, we know that the Liberal government promised after hurricane Dorian that cellphone service to rural and remote areas would be significantly improved upon. Here we are, three years later, and this is still a significant issue. It disproportionately affects those in Canada who choose to live in rural and remote areas. We believe that is something that needs to be fixed expeditiously.
Another thing I would like to expand upon is about our neighbours from Central Maine Power. My father was a proud employee of New Brunswick Power for many years when I was growing up. During these storms, I remember very clearly him helping out in the storms. He was mainly a ground crew guy because he was an office worker, but he was certainly happy to help out.
We know there are many reciprocal agreements that exist between New Brunswick and Maine and Nova Scotia and P.E.I. All of those power crews work together to help support each other, often as far away as New York State. Sometimes when there are major hurricanes in Florida, crews from our area will go all the way to Florida to help out.
Volunteers who are coming to Canada to help are being stopped at the border, and then ministers of the House and, indeed, as we heard today, the Prime Minister were misleading the House and contradicting what Premier Tim Houston was very clearly heard saying. He actually requested federal help to get these workers from Central Maine Power across the border. This is an intolerable consequence of the ArriveCAN app, which serves no purpose. I understand that those across the aisle really want to say, “Hey, do not worry about it. It is going to be over Saturday.” That is too late. This ArriveCAN app needs to end now because it serves absolutely no purpose.
One of the final things we need to talk about is the ongoing need for a clean-up. As I left my house this morning, mounds of brush needed to be picked up. Limbs of trees that were cut down are still going to be there. We need to have folks locally understand that this brush is going to be picked up before another event happens.
When I left this morning, it was pouring rain, with thunder and lightning. There was the threat of a waterspout coming up the Bay of Fundy up into the Cobequid Bay. One could imagine if a waterspout then made landfall with all of this brush piled up. We need to get it removed. We need to have it moved quickly and effectively and not at the cost of Atlantic Canadians.
There are two more things that I would like to touch on. We need to thank those volunteer fire brigades who have been essential in creating centres for people to go and be able to charge their devices, to have a coffee, to have a sandwich, to have a place that is clean and warm and dry, that they know that they can be a part of. Certainly, volunteer fire brigades are an ongoing tie that binds small communities together, so I give a big shout-out to them.
First responders continue to do their work through the difficult times. We know that in other hurricanes, sadly, the lives of first responders have been taken during the storm, so we are grateful that they were safe through this.
Finally, I want to speak to the resilience of those of us who live in Atlantic Canada. It might seem like I am patting myself on the back, but it certainly is an absolute pleasure to be part of a community that binds itself together by volunteerism and by the ability to say, “Hey, I know how to handle a chainsaw and I am going to help my neighbour.”
We know that this can-do attitude is really what helps propel Canada forward here at home and on the world stage as well. We know that Canadians garner tremendous respect for the work that we have been able to do in past world wars. I feel that this type of effort is coincident with that as well.
Those who have electricity should invite their neighbour in for a coffee, give them a warm meal. People should volunteer as they can, and make sure they check in on their neighbours, those who are vulnerable, those who they know perhaps are struggling and will continue to do so. We have been through this type of thing before. I am very confident that we are going to come back better than ever.
I want to thank everybody here in the House for their confidence in Atlantic Canada and their ability to support us.
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- Sep/26/22 7:10:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate and thank the member opposite for Ottawa Centre for his kind thoughts and words.
I have a couple of very important questions that I think Atlantic Canadians would really like answers to.
First, exactly how will funds be paid to those people who make claims? Will the federal government be paying them directly, or will they be funnelled through the provinces?
Second, and perhaps more importantly, why did we choose the Canadian Red Cross? This is not meant to be disparaging to the Red Cross, but we know very clearly, especially in small towns across the country and Atlantic Canada perhaps in particular, that food banks are out there helping out and there are often volunteer fire brigades that run on a donation basis. The Red Cross is a large, multinational corporate entity, and perhaps some of the profits will be eaten up through bureaucracy.
I guess the question is, why choose the Red Cross? Does that not create a discrepancy for the smaller institutions that are acting locally and really providing help at the coalface, as it were?
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- Sep/26/22 6:54:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, times are often difficult in Atlantic Canada. That said, we understand that it is hard for people to afford transportation. We often live in single-family dwellings that have to be heated, but we do not have natural gas coming to a significant number of homes, and buying a car is very difficult. We often say in Atlantic Canada that people buy a beater car to get through, which is around $2,500. How are they going to afford an electric vehicle to help support this?
I would also like to understand how tripling the carbon tax is going to cause a one-third decrease in the number of hurricanes in Atlantic Canada.
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- Sep/26/22 6:42:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member from the NDP for his kind words and for reaching out to those in my riding and the rest of Atlantic Canada who have been significantly affected by hurricane Fiona. I think it interesting we all appear to be on the same page here.
When we find out that the government can no longer manage these programs and there is an impossibility to get the money to people, will the NDP stand with the Conservative Party and ensure those Atlantic Canadians get what they need to rebuild their lives?
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- Feb/7/22 11:22:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is exactly the thing that we are trying to avoid here this evening. We think it is very important, even with respect to the audacity of the members opposite, that we need to turn the temperature down and we need to get the occupation finished and be able to move forward and get back to the great things that we have to offer here in Canada.
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- Feb/7/22 11:20:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think there is a time for meetings and a time for action. The government talks a lot about meetings, but the time has come to take action, to set a direction and to establish a plan for the future, not only for the occupation, but for our country, Canada.
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- Feb/7/22 11:18:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my speech tonight was an attempt to turn the temperature down here. This is a very volatile and unfortunate situation. It is really important that we understand that members on both sides of this House have continued to say that those acts are deplorable and despicable. I find it unfortunate if my colleague opposite wants to continue to perpetuate the idea that it is something that anybody in this House would stand for. That is very, very unfortunate. It is inflammatory. It is for those exact reasons that I chose not to talk about those things in my speech but to emphasize that we need to begin to get to the end of this very volatile situation.
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- Feb/7/22 11:08:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am always honoured to rise here in the House. I want to make it clear that I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.
At the current time, the interim leader of Canada's opposition has reached out to Canada's Prime Minister to ensure a peaceful and urgent end to a very difficult situation, and the question that needs to be answered is this: Will the Prime Minister respond?
What has become very clear in Canada is that the mood of Canadians is moving toward the beginning of the end of the pandemic. We realize that the health of Canadians is not only influenced by their physical health but also their financial, social and mental health.
I can clearly recall, in the early days of the pandemic, holding the hand of someone about to die from COVID‑19 who was there without his family and the only way of communicating with them was through an iPad. Some small redemption in those early days with respect to this person was that I had known him previously and he had shared with me his journey in life as a young person, how he had documented a bicycle trip across southern England, how he had been essential to the development of a hospital in Cape Breton, how his wife had died and how he ended up living in the small town of Truro, Nova Scotia. Indeed, to watch this 90-something-year-old male die without his family will forever have a profound impact on my view of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Canadians have suffered.
It is also important to reflect on the grave concern we should all now have with respect to the mental health of children and adolescents. Indeed, my own son has missed out on his high school graduation and the wonderful social times that many of us have experienced in the first two years of university. Getting our own place to live, solving our own problems, meeting new friends and learning how generally to be an adult all on our own are things that have been severely dampened by the COVID‑19 pandemic.
The unfortunate part of the pandemic and the associated isolation is that many people live in their own echo chambers. We have become isolated from the views of the others who would often surround us and engage us in exciting debate and discourse, which sometimes of course led us to agree to disagree, but other times led us to truly engage in conversation that would allow us to see another point of view and perhaps indeed change our own point of view.
Another example of not seeing other points of view is our inability to travel. We need to better understand other cultures, how they solve problems, how they communicate and how they live. It is important that we do these things. This leaves us with a need to question those things that are important to us and help us better understand how we need to help our fellow human beings. As we have these multitude of different experiences, they can help us grow as individuals, understand other cultures, learn new languages and be more resilient to take on our everyday lives. That is not to say that travel is an essential part of being a Canadian. It is simply to say that there are many things that can potentially make us more tolerant of others, which we have deeply missed during this pandemic.
For many others, it has led to the tragic end of a business that they worked so hard for and spent their entire life savings trying to build. The travel sector of course has been particularly hard hit, as has the hospitality sector. Restaurants are essential to our communities and the socialization that happens therein has suffered under this unbearable yoke. We all know that Canadians love to have a beer or a coffee and catch up with their friends, to see their expressions, to understand their burdens, to help shoulder the load and to share a great laugh. Sadly, this too has been transformed by COVID‑19, with no customers, no socialization and all of us living in our own echo chambers.
Moreover, Canadians and indeed people around the world have suffered with increased levels of anxiety. They have lost trust. They have lost hope for the future. They have lost their security. What is hope? One might define it as a feeling of expectation and a desire for a certain thing to happen. Unfortunately, there's been no certainty and the ability to plan for the future has been lost.
We do know there are several things that can benefit the health of our human species, such as good sleep, meaningful employment, doing something purely for the benefit of another, important relationships and physical activity. Essentially all of those things have been disrupted by the COVID pandemic.
As we are all aware, many, if not most, of the provincial medical officers of health are calling for the end of mandates. Countries such as the United Kingdom, with 64% vaccination rates, and Denmark, with 80% vaccination rates, compared with the over 86% that we have here in Canada, are removing mandates for masks, vaccines and passports.
We need to begin to recognize that the time to move forward is now, and that Canadians cannot be expected to live their lives in this perpetual state of uncertainty and without hope as we go forward. To be very blunt, there are many people out there who do not have many years left. I am a 53-year-old man. Realistically, I may have perhaps 15 vigorous years left. Prior to the pandemic, it would have been 17. Do I want to continue my life not seeing the joy of smiles on faces, not being able to travel, not being able to have social events with constituents, limiting my gatherings with family on special occasions such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, and having birthdays that are drive-bys with horns honking from neighbours with signs on their lawns? This, my friends and colleagues, is not living.
It is also very clear from recent studies that lockdowns are not effective. We now know how much the poor federal health care funding in Canada and the lack of surge capacity have perpetuated this pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, in my small town with 100 beds in our hospital, we perpetually worked at between 90% and 130% capacity. Our intensive care beds in Canada per 100,000 people are half of those available in the United States and one-third of those available in Germany.
Now, sadly, we have an unimaginable tsunami in terms of the backlog of cases for diagnostic imaging, laboratory and specialist appointments and missed treatments. How is this perpetual underfunding ever going to allow this catch-up to happen with an overburdened infrastructure and a tired, exhausted, burned-out human health resource of physicians, nurses and other allied health care providers?
How does this all end? Do we simply trudge forward, one foot in front of the next, without any hope, or is this a defining moment in humanity where those around the globe begin to realize that, unfortunately and sadly, sometimes there can be a fate worse than death?
How do we begin to move forward? One great way is to look at the legendary Colin Powell's legacy, the 13 rules of leadership. General Powell was arguably one of the most influential writers on leadership in the western world in modern times.
As he would suggest:
1) It ain’t as bad as you think! It will look better in the morning.
2) Get mad then get over it.
3) Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4) It can be done.
5) Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6) Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7) You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
8) Check small things.
9) Share credit.
10) Remain calm. Be kind.
11) Have a vision. Be demanding.
12) Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13) Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
These rules of leadership are not perfect. Leadership is not perfect. One of these things that we also must know about great leaders is that we must try. We must care. In the immortal words of John F. Kennedy, “We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
I implore the Prime Minister to check the ego, check the position and meet with leaders of the other parties and bring this situation to a peaceful and urgent end.
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- Feb/7/22 10:01:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am sorry for saying those things that I said previously, over and over again. I apologize for that.
The unfortunate thing is that, when we have these debates, perhaps everybody should pay very close attention to what is happening and that would make the debate much better.
Will you get your Prime Minister out there to talk to these people?
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- Feb/7/22 10:00:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to rise on this very important topic.
I really find it fascinating that the member opposite would suggest that somebody over here drove those trucks there. That is really quite fascinating that we are somehow responsible for this and that we are responsible for ending it. I believe that this evening our leader actually sent a letter to the Prime Minister imploring him to join the leaders of the other parties such that we can urgently come to a peaceful conclusion to this. The other thing that is interesting is that, my hon. colleague who spoke earlier—
An hon. member: Oh, oh!
Mr. Stephen Ellis: Mr. Speaker, the member opposite was not here to hear his speech in which he said very clearly that we agreed with law and order and that—
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