- Member of Parliament
- Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (on parental leave)
- Liberal
- Burlington
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $131,115.10
- Government Page
- Dec/11/23 2:19:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of Montreal, it is nice to see the Leader of the Opposition show up for work today. I guess there was not a fundraiser that he could attend.
However, if we want to talk about last week, what Canadians saw on display was the Leader of the Opposition bringing right-wing Republican tactics to try and shut down the government.
Canadians do not want the kind of chaos they see in Washington. They want responsible leadership in Canada, and that is not what we witnessed from the Leader of the Opposition last week.
On this side of the House, we will continue to stand up for Canadians and stand up to bullies.
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Madam Speaker, I am glad that, when the member was growing up, she had the opportunity to be cared for by her grandparents, but we know that for many people in Canada, that is just not an option. They do not necessarily have family nearby or a family that is able to do that, so having access to affordable child care is really a lifeline for most parents in Canada.
When the member opposite talks about this bill not creating spaces, she is absolutely wrong in that. We would create 250,000 additional spaces. Already, 56,000 spaces have been created, over 30,000 in Ontario. That number is set to grow in Ontario, to 86,000. She talks about the fact that there needs to be consistent, sustainable funding in this legislation. This legislation says that there would be consistent, sustainable funding from the federal government to provinces and territories.
I hope that the member will support this legislation, because it would help thousands of parents and families in her community. I also hope she recognizes that, at third reading, there are no more amendments. I hope we can count on her support.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the leader of the New Democratic Party and the entire NDP caucus for their collaboration and for their support of Bill C-35. This is something that all parliamentarians can be extraordinarily proud of. It is historic and it will transform this country.
We have heard the Conservative leader of the official opposition call the support that the federal government is providing to families through child care a slush fund. Tonight the Conservatives said this is just slogans, meaningless and a false promise, although, as I mentioned, thousands of Canadian families are directly benefiting from this program already.
I am wondering, first, what the leader of the NDP thinks about those comments and, second, how he thinks Canadian families take those comments when they are seeing thousands of dollars returned to their pockets every year.
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- Jun/13/23 3:07:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday we celebrated the launch of the social finance fund, a $755‑million initiative to advance the growth of the social finance market.
Social finance plays a crucial role in tackling issues such as access to affordable housing, food insecurity and poverty. By increasing access to flexible financing opportunities, the social finance fund will help social purpose organizations grow, innovate and enhance their social, economic and environmental impacts.
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- Jun/12/23 2:55:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what the member opposite is saying is absolutely false. What we did during the pandemic was support Canadians. When he is talking about that additional funding, he is talking about things like child care, $30 billion that is helping Canadians access child care.
We do not know how the Conservatives are going to vote on it, but what we heard during their speeches in the House is that they are pretty against affordable child care. They are pretty against Canadians having access to thousands of dollars in their pockets at the end of the year, that is helping them pay for the high cost of groceries, that is helping them with their mortgages, that is helping them take, maybe, a family vacation.
Let us see what they do. Let us see if they truly care about—
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague asked a very good question of the Conservatives during the report stage on what the amendment was that they had proposed, and they were unable to answer. I congratulate the member for that.
In response to the member's question, the agreement that we have signed with British Columbia commits British Columbia to creating 40,000 additional child care spaces. What I would say about this legislation in particular and why it is so important is that it would commit the federal government to funding, to child care and involvement in child care indefinitely, for the long term. Without this legislation, we could see, as we saw in the past in 2006, a Conservative government coming in, ripping up those agreements and leaving Canadian families in the dust. That is what they did almost 20 years ago.
The legislation says to the member's daughter and his granddaughter that the federal government believes in their access to child care. It believes that people have a right to affordable child care and that we are committing ourselves, as a federal government, as Canadians, to building this system so that they too can have access to that child care. They can pursue their career and their dreams and we will be there for them.
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Mr. Speaker, I would say through you to the member and those moms that this is exactly why Bill C-35 exists. It is so typical of the Conservatives to say there is a problem, throw their hands up and do nothing. What Bill C-35 would do is commit the federal government to long-term funding to create additional spaces to make sure there is that access right across the country. In fact, included in the legislation is a comment specifically about rural child care. The member should talk to the provinces and territories, because they have really good access plans when it comes to increasing access to child care.
However, if it were not for this legislation and those agreements, none of those problems would be solved. We are working to do that.
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- Apr/20/23 2:32:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is important for us to compare and contrast with what the Conservatives did, because since 2006, they did not increase vote A funding for core services to any of the services we provided to Canadians. That means that, as the population of Canada has continued to grow, we actually have been spending, since we came into government in 2015, to deliver services for the population we have.
Unlike the Conservatives, we know we need to deliver good services for Canadians. We have made those investments and we are seeing those investments delivered to Canadians. The Conservatives can talk about cuts and they can talk about austerity, but we are going to continue to invest in government and, most importantly, in Canadians.
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- Mar/9/23 2:54:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what Canadians know is that they cannot trust the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to protecting their savings and when it comes to protecting their bottom line. The Leader of the Opposition thought that to get out of inflation, we could just invest in cryptocurrency, and that did not go so well.
Do members know what else he said? He said that child care was a slush fund for parents. I have travelled across this country and have heard from parents from coast to coast to coast about how this is helping them at a time where there is a high cost of groceries, when rents are high and when they need to provide for their families. Unfortunately, what they have learned is they cannot trust the Leader of the Opposition.
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- Nov/22/22 3:10:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today I was really pleased to announce the $400-million community services recovery fund for the charitable and not-for-profit sector here in Canada. We are going to be working with national funders, the Red Cross, community foundations in Canada and the United Way to deliver this to folks and organizations on the front lines of delivering the most important services right across this country.
I encourage all members to let organizations in their communities know that they can—
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- Jun/8/22 3:18:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me start by thanking the member for Whitby, who is the hardest-working member in this House when it comes to social finance.
Social purpose organizations like charities and non-profits play a key role in addressing complex social and environmental issues. They are more important than ever, as many of these issues have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why we launched the renewed investment readiness program in the summer of 2021, which will provide another $50 million to continue to support social purpose organizations in building capacity and increasing their investment readiness. This will also help the social purpose organizations take advantage of the $755-million social finance fund.
I thank the member for Whitby for his excellent work.
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- May/20/22 12:02:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I said last week, that is correct. No Canadian should be paying extra fees if they have submitted all the correct documents and everything is in order with their application, and if their application is not processed within the processing times. If that is in fact the case, there is a refund process.
I would be happy to follow up with the member opposite to share with him how he can share that with his constituents, but it is also available on the Government of Canada's website.
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- May/19/22 2:54:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I find it hard to understand the Conservatives. They tell us to do things to help Canadians and when we do just that, they tell us to stop.
We are investing in child care. This is real money going back into the pockets of Canadians. We are funding education for Canadians. These are real supports for Canadians. We are here to help them. That is exactly what we are going to do in Quebec and across the country.
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