- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Cumberland—Colchester
- Nova Scotia
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $134,737.37
- Government Page
- Apr/16/24 12:13:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his passionate and factual remarks opposing the costly Liberal-NDP coalition and all its ridiculous programs.
My question is this: When the Bloc Québécois has the opportunity, will it vote against the budget, the government and the costly coalition?
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- Dec/11/23 3:53:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I realize that I have not been here that long, but as it would certainly appear the member has been here much longer than I have, he would well know that every vote against the budget item from the opposition, which it is appropriately meant to do, would be a confidence vote against the government for the reckless fiscal attitude it has concerning—
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- Nov/20/23 2:13:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in Cumberland—Colchester, the roster for visits to the local food bank is 1,800 people. Across the country, two million Canadians visit a food bank every month. After eight years, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
Under the NDP-Liberal coalition government, Canadians have seen housing costs double and mortgage payments have increased by 150%. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
Canadians are reaching out to all our offices in record numbers whether to bemoan the fact that they have been priced out of their lives by the punishing carbon tax or to convey that they are afraid to walk their local streets at night due to violent crime being increased by 39% under the NDP-Liberal government.
The $600 billion in inflationary spending and countless tax hikes by the NDP-Liberals has led to Canadians being unable to feed themselves, house themselves and to keep the heat on.
Therefore, common-sense Conservatives will demand three things in the government's mini budget: cancel the plan to quadruple the carbon tax; bring down inflation and interest rates by balancing the budget; and, finally, build homes not bureaucracy.
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- Jun/7/23 2:16:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government’s out-of-control spending leaves Canadians with the grim reality that money is tighter in their households every month. People in Cumberland—Colchester have contacted me almost daily to express hopelessness and dismay as they watch prices and interest rates climb. Today’s interest rate hike and its effect on mortgages will be disastrous.
The hard work by Nova Scotians for the betterment of the country has been rewarded with eight years of ridiculous inflationary spending, culminating, sadly, in the terrible budget we see before the House now. The Liberals have now approved $60 billion in new inflationary spending, more weight on the backs of Canadian families and businesses. These are people with hopes and dreams that cannot be achieved because of the Liberals' out-of-control spending.
The madness needs to stop now. The Liberals must give us a plan to end the inflationary deficits and spending in order to bring down inflation and interest rates so Canadians can thrive in this country again.
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- Jun/7/22 11:47:42 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech about the economy.
However, this is just a motion. It is not the Conservatives' budget. It is just a motion designed to help all the people in our ridings, be they in Nova Scotia or Quebec. It is just the Conservatives' straightforward way of trying to help all Canadians.
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- May/12/22 2:45:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is Mental Health Awareness Month. Everyone in the House can agree that the mental health of Canadians is a very important issue. Well, maybe not everyone can.
During the election, the government promised to invest $4.5 billion in funding mental health services through the Canada mental health transfer, including $250 million in 2021-22 and $625 million in 2022-23. However, there is no mention of the funding timeline in the federal government's budget 2022.
Why did the government break its commitment to fund mental health?
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- Apr/26/22 12:53:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is always an extreme pleasure to rise here in the House of Commons to represent the good people of Cumberland—Colchester as we debate the spend-DP-Liberal budget of 2022. I think it is important to understand this budget in the context of my province, my riding and my constituents, and of course to understand the budget itself.
My home province of Nova Scotia is mentioned four times in the 300-odd pages of the budget and the gazillion other pages. There is a discussion about twinning parts of the Trans-Canada Highway, a reference to remaining project funding through the failed Canada Infrastructure Bank and a reference to a Nova Scotia agreement on offshore revenues. I am not sure the relevance of all those things. The final reference is about the shortage of doctors and nurses in Nova Scotia. We all know the Prime Minister promised 7,500 doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners, whom he is going to create out of thin air, but that has not materialized. Sadly, 88,000 Nova Scotians do not have a family physician. We also know very clearly that we are short 60,000 to 70,000 nurses in the entire country. We have that burden as well.
Sadly, despite requests by all the premiers unanimously, there is no funding committed for an increase in the Canada health transfer. The Liberals did talk about loan forgiveness for physicians and nurses, but they must agree to work in rural or remote areas. Physicians can easily, as I well know, accumulate 250,000 dollars' worth of debt during their education, and the proposed loan forgiveness of $60,000 seems woefully inadequate.
Another major concern in my riding of Cumberland—Colchester is agriculture. Aside from the government's bungled creation of the potato wart problem due to its ineptitude in its relationship with the United States, there is no other mention of agriculture in budget 2022. In Canada, we have eight agricultural colleges, and in my riding we have one. The fact that there is no mention of agriculture in the budget and no funding for agriculture is just a sad misplacement of priorities.
We also know that this comes at a time when Canada could play a significant role on the world stage with respect to feeding the world. This great responsibility comes in relation to Russia's illegal war on Ukraine, which my colleague spoke about in depth. The opportunities that exist now for Canadian farmers come at a time when fuel prices are at an all-time high in the history of our nation. Of course, there is also an unfair tax on fertilizer that the government continues to place against farmers. This is a gross abuse of our farmers at a time when the potential for feeding the world is at an all-time high, and sadly we wonder whether Canada is going to be able to participate in that at all.
The budget speaks a bit about the environment and climate change. We are unsure of how this is going to relate to Nova Scotia, with the vague wording in the budget of “proactive management of marine emergencies and...more types of pollution”. I do have an idea of what that means, but certainly there is no proverbial meat on the bones to help people understand how that may relate to Nova Scotia.
There is no mention at all of climate change as it relates to the Isthmus of Chignecto, which I have had the pleasure to speak about here in the House before. We know this is a vital land link that links Canada to the great province of Nova Scotia. There is no mention of that and we know it is a climate emergency waiting to happen.
We also know in Nova Scotia, and hopefully my colleague from Winnipeg knows this as well, that seniors are important to all Canadians and certainly to those of us in Nova Scotia. The crisis that seniors are dealing with now, the affordability crisis, does not appear to be talked about in the budget either. There is no new financing added to the cheques of seniors. It is sad. The budget does mention undertaking another study, spending money that could easily be put in the pockets of seniors for a yet-to-be-named aging at home benefit. There does appear to be financing for seniors who need to make their home more accessible and for projects allowing seniors to participate in their communities more fully. However, as we know, this does not put oil in their tanks, gas in their cars or food in their bellies.
There is absolutely no financial relief for the seniors who helped build this great nation. Indeed, the budget has the audacity to say that Canadians who are seniors “do not have to worry about the value of their benefits keeping pace with inflation”. I find that hard to believe. It goes on to say, “the share of seniors in poverty is only about half that of the overall population”. Is that something to brag about? I am not entirely sure it is. Is that really the ambitious goal the government has set? Does it believe it is okay for our seniors or any Canadian to live in poverty? I should think not.
This leads me to speak, in a very personal way, about Daniel, who reached out and wrote to me about his budget. He really wanted me to speak about the affordability crisis in the House of Commons, which of course we know is ongoing for many Canadians. He came to my office last week when we were home on constituency week and gave me a budget for his monthly income of less than $800.
Daniel is a frugal guy. He has a mortgage of $547. He has life insurance on his home at $35, car insurance at $84, insurance on the house itself at $125 and bank fees of $20. Phone, cable and Internet are, shockingly, $230 per month, property insurance is $35, life insurance for himself is $100 and medical insurance is $140, plus $10 a month for each medication, and he is on eight of them. His power bill is $200 per month, and on top of all of this are groceries and gas. Without any food or any gasoline for his vehicle, Daniel is paying out about $1,596 per month. He is, of course, struggling to pay his bills on his $800 monthly income, but fortunately for him, his wife can work a bit as well to help support the family.
As members can imagine, in this household there is no money left over for any extras. There is no frivolous spending. There are no extras at the grocery store. He has reduced his trips to town for groceries and other essentials to once a month, which saves on his gasoline bill since he is not going to town as much. There is no mass transit where Daniel lives, and I am not entirely sure, when I look at this meagre budget, where he might cut things out.
We are all beginning to realize that this is “just incredible”. It is really “just inconvenient”, and for some it is “just inconceivable” how we are now in a life affordability crisis.
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- Apr/6/22 3:05:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the Prime Minister has not met his commitment to Canadians for 7,500 doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners. Oddly enough, at the health committee, we heard from the College of Family Physicians of Canada that we need at least 3,000 to 4,000 family doctors alone. Also, the Canadian Nurses Association states we are short about 60,000 nurses.
In this budget, will the spend-DP-Liberal Prime Minister admit he is failing Canadians from Springhill to Tidnish, to Stewiacke, all of Nova Scotia and all Canadians, and commit to sustainable and predictable health care funding?
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