- Member of Parliament
- Minister of Health
- Liberal
- Ajax
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $134,982.00
- Government Page
- Nov/9/23 3:06:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the pandemic was a really difficult time. It was impossible to imagine that there would ever be a vaccine available for the entire population. At that point, the government made sure to make a choice that took into account every legitimate option. As a result, our response to the pandemic was one of the best in the world. The vaccine was available to all Canadians. We are really proud of that.
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- Oct/21/22 11:25:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, CBSA is looking into this matter. It is aware of concerns with respect to the contract. I can assure the hon. member opposite that in all matters with respect to contracts, we adhere to the absolute highest standards and demand those standards in every interaction of the government.
Again, I would point out the imperative nature of the action that the ArriveCAN app was able to facilitate. We were in a situation in which the opposition was calling for the border to be closed. We wanted to make sure Canadians could travel safely. We introduced an app that facilitated that in a time of crisis and made sure that Canadians could travel.
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- Oct/21/22 11:43:26 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I have already explained, the agency responsible for contracts is well aware that there are questions. In every situation, in any situation, we will ensure that we are fully accountable. We will answer questions. We will monitor the situation to ensure that our system is working properly.
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- Apr/18/23 2:34:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member across is well aware, this government has taken a series of measures to help those who are dealing with the global impact of inflation, and the party opposite has voted against every single one of those measures and continues to oppose measures like the important grocery rebate that we put forward.
However, I would say this to members of the party opposite. I get that they do not like the Prime Minister. I get that they have personal animosity and partisan attacks that they want to level against him, but I would ask them again: Do they believe that a prime minister should not be able to travel at Christmas with his family, or do they believe that he should not have security when he does so?
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- Apr/18/23 2:32:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on the point of poverty, when that party was in power, there were 2.7 million more people who were in poverty than there are today, and that includes 800,000 children.
If a prime minister is to travel, there has to be security, so I would ask members of the party opposite this: Is their position that there should be no security for a prime minister who travels on vacation with his family, or is their position that a prime minister should never take a vacation with his family?
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- Mar/28/23 3:03:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, the use of consultants is an ability that allows the government to maintain flexibility in difficult times. As an example, during the pandemic we had to vastly increase our ability to be there for Canadians and to be there for small business owners to make sure that their businesses did not fail so that they could have the success we are seeing in the incredible jobs recovery, which is one of the strongest of our comparator nations. It is in fact due to the ability to use the flexibility of contracts to achieve that. To mis-characterize that or to try to create shadows with it is irresponsible.
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- Mar/28/23 3:02:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important to be very careful how we characterize the use of consultant services. When a government is, for example, in a circumstance like a pandemic when it needs to scale up and expand its impact at a particular moment in time, it is important to be able to use contracting services so that we do not create permanent costs by engaging permanent employees. The use of contracts allows flexibility in government to expand to deliver services without permanently increasing costs. It is irresponsible to misrepresent that and to hold it out as something other than what it is.
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- Feb/15/23 3:06:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have already indicated that these are decisions made by the public service at arm's length and that it is inappropriate for the members opposite to imply they would use political influence to influence these contracts, but I will talk about what has grown since the Conservatives left power and we have had the opportunity to serve Canadians.
As I indicated earlier, there are almost two million more people who have jobs today than when the Conservatives were in power. There are 2.7 million fewer people in poverty, hundreds of thousands of children and hundreds of thousands of seniors who are not in poverty today. That is what has improved. That is what has changed since the Conservatives left power.
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- Feb/15/23 3:05:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has been in this place for some time. He would recognize that he is absolutely correct to state that the public servants we have are the best in the world. We owe them a tremendous debt for all they do, and that is why we ensure that they are the ones who actually make the decisions with respect to those contracts. Those are made at arm's length. The reality is that one day the Conservatives are trying to cook up these conspiracies and talk about “shadow” whatever they are talking about, and the next day they are talking about Dominic Barton, the former campaign manager to Stephen Harper. They are saying he is right and should be lauded as one of the great Canadians.
I do not know what they are talking about over there.
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- Feb/14/23 3:02:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on numerous occasions the member opposite has inferred that political interference would be something that they would engage in to tell the public service who they would engage in contracts.
Let me say that, on this side of the House, we will tolerate no such action. The independence of the public service in engaging contracts is absolutely important. The number of conspiracy theories the member has peddled have been disproven in front of committee. There are forums on Reddit where he can continue to pursue these, but I would suggest that the House of Commons is not the appropriate forum.
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- Feb/14/23 3:00:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the use of contracts by the government, which is done independently, at arms length, by the public service, is something that is incredibly important in the provision of services.
I would say to the member opposite that right now there are almost two million more Canadians who have jobs who did not when the Conservatives were there. There are 2.7 million Canadians who are not in poverty now, who were when the Conservatives were in power. The idea that progress is not being made is not substantiated by fact.
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- Feb/13/23 2:52:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government, as in all things that it does, ensures that we are present at international events, that we are there for Canadians domestically and internationally. That will continue to be the case.
I appreciate the member's interest in this item, but I would say that there is an opportunity right now to discuss many issues that are in front of the nation. I know they have a particular preoccupation with the Prime Minister, with him personally, for their own reasons, but there are major issues facing the nation right now, and I look forward to those questions.
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- Feb/10/23 11:57:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, for the first part, it has been seven years and not eight years, and I know the Conservatives have a great difficulty with math.
Talking about other errors in arithmetic, the reality of the Conservatives when they were in power is that they did not talk about those who were dealing with poverty, and they did not talk about the most vulnerable when they had an opportunity. It was this government that set targets on poverty, and that has actually hit and exceeded them every single year. It is this government that has reduced the levels of poverty in this country, such that over two million fewer people are in poverty now than when the Conservatives were in power. That means over 800,000 fewer children are now in poverty than when the Conservatives were in power.
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- Feb/9/23 2:53:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary has been up many times on this subject. The reality is that the process of collecting money is ongoing. I would remind the party opposite that it opposed, at that moment in time, many of the measures that were critical to making sure we got money out instantly to those who needed it to keep doors open and to keep businesses going. We have an opportunity to talk to those businesses every day and hear that is the truth.
They are not only wrong about that, but when they say things like eight years instead of seven years, and I know they are bad at math, I would ask them to be a little more realistic in how they are speaking.
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- Feb/7/23 3:08:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I iterated previously in the House, the work that we engage in and the decisions that are made to engage in those contracts are an independent process. They are run by the public service. They allow the public service to expand their impact without permanently expanding the number of employees.
That public service has been there for Canadians through an incredibly difficult time in the pandemic to make sure that we delivered critical services to Canadians. What these contracts allowed the public service to do was to expand their impact without permanently expanding the number of employees.
There are many wild accusations made by the other side. Already, many of them have been disproved. They have the opportunity in committee to be able to explore these issues and whatever other conspiracies they wish—
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- Feb/7/23 3:03:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on this issue, the official opposition has cast all kinds of aspersions that have already been demonstrated to not be true, saying relationships exist that do not exist and, furthermore, holding out that these decisions are made by the government when they know that they are made by the independent, non-partisan public service.
Canada is known around the world for the quality of the contracts that we engage in. We have incredibly rigorous processes that govern these. The reality is that contracts allow government to expand its services without it permanently expanding the number of employees. It is an intelligent way to use resources.
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- Jan/31/23 2:50:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the member well knows, Canada has a reputation around the world as having the highest degree of excellence in the way it conducts its business and contracts. That is something of which we are deeply proud.
I understand that members in opposition want to foment issues, but there is an excellent opportunity in committee to ask these questions directly. If members want to have real answers, then there will be the opportunity for mature, reasonable discussions during that period of time. However, talking down the way in which we conduct contracts does not behoove anybody.
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- Jan/31/23 2:47:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have to take exception to this notion that Canadians have never done worse, and talking down our economy. I would point out that when the members opposite, the Conservatives, were in power, the economy had 1.5 million less jobs; there were over a million and a half more people in poverty; Canada was at the bottom of the G7 across about every single indicator and, in fact, had the worst growth rate in terms of GDP of any government since 1946. Next year, Canada will be number two, as projected by the IMF, in GDP growth. When Conservatives talk down our economy, they should be careful they do not get reflected back to their own record.
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- Jan/31/23 2:46:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in all things, the government ensures that the contracts it enters into are efficacious and get good value for money and ensure we deliver services to Canadians. The questions that are being posed are fair. We will get an opportunity in committee to be exhaustive and get answers. However, understand that Canada has a reputation around the world for the quality of the contracts it enters into. That is absolutely something we are committed to continue to ensure we get value for money for Canadians.
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- Jan/31/23 2:23:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when the world is going through something incredibly difficult, we have a choice of what we can do. We can look people in the eye and tell them straight that they are in the most difficult time that humanity has gone through since the Second World War, or we can retweet what is going wrong in the world and make YouTube videos.
It is time for serious leadership. Do members know what has happened over the last eight years? Every time we put concrete solutions in place, the party opposite has obfuscated. The Conservatives tried to block supports for dental, supports for rent, supports for child care and supports for OAS.
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