- Member of Parliament
- Member of the Board of Internal Economy
Deputy House leader of the government
- Liberal
- Kingston and the Islands
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $112,228.33
- Government Page
- May/10/24 12:38:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on the issue of the carbon tax, I would like to hear what the member's thoughts are specifically as they relate to the over 400 Canadian economists who have signed an open letter stating that more people get back more than they pay, confirming what the Parliamentary Budget Officer said. They state that it is good environmental policy and, most importantly, good economic policy, which one would think the party that purports itself to be the champion of running an economy would agree with.
Is the member then suggesting that those 400 Canadian economists are just Liberal elites? Maybe he is, and that is fine, but can he confirm that?
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Mr. Speaker, I will start where the last comment left off. I should remind the hon. member for Northumberland—Peterborough South that it was the Harper government that saw 40,000 auto sector jobs leave this country over a 10-year period. That was 40,000 people and their families who had to make very difficult decisions about what to do next.
Since then, the government has been working with other partners throughout the world to attract investment here, and now we have attracted new investments to this country. This is what I will get to in why this legislation is so important, but in the process of attracting investment, we are now seeing, in a riding neighbouring both his and mine, a brand new manufacturing facility for raw minerals, to make electric vehicle batteries. It will produce enough materials to make 800,000 cars a year. There will be a piece of my riding, his riding and, indeed, Hastings—Lennox and Addington and a couple of other neighbouring Conservative ridings in every vehicle in North America in the future. This is great not just for our ridings but also for our country.
Therefore, I took great exception when the member said in his speech earlier that jobs are leaving. On the contrary. Despite the fact that some other members of the House think they are all going to catch on fire, with respect to manufacturing specifically and the vehicles of the future, we are going to see, in the future, that Canada is a leader in those manufacturing jobs. That is why bills like this are so important, because what we are talking about is protecting the interests of Canadians at the forefront. The bill is about modernizing the legislation, to give the minister and those responsible the tools they need to be always watching out for the best interests of Canadians.
This is another one of those bills where I would think it would go without saying that all members of the House would support it, and the indication I am starting to get is that they will. I am lost, because I was actually supposed to speak to this much earlier in the day but did not get the opportunity because, instead of talking about very important things like this, once again we saw the same old Conservative delay tactic of introducing a concurrence motion on a report. Again, these reports from committees come in abundance to this place. Typically, they are just tabled and dealt with, but Conservative members thought that this would be a great way to burn three hours of government time today. I am forced to speak to this later, and they know what they are doing; they are basically pushing everything down the line. The next time my good friends from the Bloc or the NDP stand up and ask why we need a time allocation motion, this is why; it is because of what is happening in the House today.
The legislation before us is so critically important in order for us to be able to protect intellectual property, investments and, quite frankly, Canadians. What the bill would do, specifically, is authorize the Minister of Industry, after consultation with the Minister of Public Safety, to impose interim conditions on investments in order to prevent potential national security injury from taking place during the review. It would also authorize the Minister of Industry, where they consider that the investment could be injurious to national security, to make an order for further review of the investments under the national security provisions of the act.
I think that why this legislation is so important now is that we are getting to a point where investments are flowing freely in and out of countries and where this government has brought in more trade agreements than every other government in the past, in terms of working and trading with other nations. There was a time, many decades ago, when, believe it or not, Liberals were not in favour of trade. Where have we gotten to now? We have gotten to the point where it is now Conservatives who are questioning trade.
Before our eyes, we are seeing exactly what is going on in the United States of America. Republicans who are supposed to be pro-economy and pro-trade have now turned into isolationists. I hear Conservatives heckling me, but it was just yesterday or the day before that the member for Cumberland—Colchester asked me a question and referred to the trade agreement with Ukraine as woke legislation and questioned whether or not Canada was taking advantage of Ukraine.
All the Conservatives who are currently heckling me are going to have to explain to me why a party that is in favour of trade so much would start questioning a basic trade relationship with a country that we see as an ally, a country that we are supporting during a war. They are going to have to explain that to me, because I can say with a great degree of confidence that we will not hear that MAGA terminology used on this side of the House.
I know we will not hear it from my Bloc colleagues and I know we will not hear from my NDP colleagues, but now we are getting a new faction of the Conservative Party that is openly questioning why we are supporting Ukraine and why we would even think about trading with Ukraine. That is where we have gotten to in this country. That is where we are now. This is not the Brian Mulroney Conservative Party. This is the new MAGA of the north. That is what we are looking at across the way.
I am not saying all Conservatives are like that. They are? Some of them are nodding. I could be wrong, but they come into this House and start making wild claims, like electric car batteries spontaneously burst into fire, like we heard a couple of days ago. The member tried to substantiate that claim on a number of points of order, as she is trying to do now.
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- Oct/17/23 12:22:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I know the member was talking about inflation. What we have seen and what we know with the numbers that have come out today is that the only sector of the economy that continues to experience significant growth in terms of inflation and indeed is pushing up the inflation numbers is the transportation sector. I wonder if the member can comment on how she sees the government bringing in policy that will help to decrease inflation, specifically in the transportation sector.
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Madam Speaker, I understand that the member cares deeply for the oil and gas sector. She talks about it quite a bit, and I appreciate her prerogative on that. Even if one does not think there is a future in clean tech and that there is opportunity here, this still gives the opportunity to unlock the potential of new jobs in a clean sector. All one has to do is open their eyes and look around throughout the world. This industry is really in a growth stage right now. Even if one does not necessarily agree that it is the future, why would they not still take a very easy risk on betting that it will be a positive outcome for the Canadian economy?
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Madam Speaker, I do not particularly disagree with the member's concerns about the future and Canadians being able to properly take care of themselves. What I do have a concern with is the approach taken by the opposition party as we talk about deficits.
The one key part of the economic equation that the member is missing out on when he is discussing this is economic growth. The reality is that if we can grow our economy as quickly as it has been growing, it puts us in a position to be able to take on more debt.
It is not just me saying this. Every Conservative prime minister in the past has run countless deficits. As a matter of fact, if we look at Mulroney and Harper, out of the 16 budgets they introduced, only three did not run deficits.
Can the member comment on how economic growth plays into this equation?
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Madam Speaker, what an absolute load of revisionist history that was. The member said that the economy was not doing well even before COVID. We had the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7, and we still do, by the way. We had an AAA credit rating. We had the lowest unemployment rate since we started recording it in the 1960s. To suggest that the economy was not absolutely booming in Canada before COVID is absolutely ludicrous, but I am not surprised to hear it from that member.
What I find even more interesting from Conservatives is that they seem to be really hung up on the idea that we are branding a GST rebate as a grocery rebate. Who cares what we call it? At the end of the day, the Conservatives are voting against it. They are voting against Canadians' getting more GST back to help them with the rising costs that have been affected by global inflation.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to speak to the budget implementation act. This is a budget that will impact so many Canadians in various ways, and I will spend my time focused on a few of those.
The one issue I want to talk about, which I have not heard talked about a lot, is the initiative that has been put into the budget with respect to doubling the tax credit for individuals who are in the trades for the tools they need to purchase for their particular trade. We know that, in our country, there is a lot of demand right now for people in the trades. We would pretty much pay whatever is asked these days if we are looking to hire a plumber, electrician, drywaller, a painter or just anybody in the trades. There is high demand right now in this country, and we need to get more people involved in the trades. I have been saying for years now that I genuinely believe that this is where the money is in the future.
So many people throughout Canada's history came to this country seeking better lives. For some reason, at least within my family, and I think of my grandparents who immigrated from Holland and Italy many years ago, all they wanted for their children was to be professionals in terms of doctors, lawyers and other such professions. There seems to have always been this stigma towards getting involved in the trades, as though it was somehow not as well regarded as being a doctor or lawyer. However, this is where we need people working right now. I encourage people, on a daily basis, including my son who just graduated from high school, to get involved in a trade, especially if they do not know what they want to do with their lives. It is a great way to get started in the workforce by getting involved in a trade. This budget specifically seeks to assist people in doing that by doubling the tax credit available for the tools that are required for a skilled trade.
Another item in the budget that I have not heard talked about a lot are the supports that are in there for Ukraine. I am glad to see that the rhetoric from politicians in the United States, and I think particularly of Donald Trump and Governor DeSantis of Florida, who have been questioning the role of the west, or in their case the role of the United States, in Ukraine has not found its way into this House. There seems to continue to be broad support in terms of resources from Canada going to Ukraine.
It is indeed an issue of democracy to stand up and support Ukraine in any way possible. We can think about what this world would be like if Vladimir Putin was successful with his efforts in Ukraine. He certainly would not stop there, and look to other countries to invade until, I am sure, he met his end objective, which is solidifying that Soviet bloc that used to exist during the Cold War. So it is in the interest of western democracies, western civilization, to ensure that Ukraine is successful and wins this unwanted war with Russia, or with Vladimir Putin specifically, I should say. To that end, it is the responsibility, at least in my opinion, of other allied countries to support Ukraine in any way we can. That is why I am very pleased to see ongoing supports in this budget that specifically target it.
When I was on the defence committee, I had the opportunity to travel, study Operations Unifier and Reassurance, and see the incredible things that Canadian troops were doing abroad. It was really moving, while I was in Ukraine as part of the defence committee study, to sit with the chair of Ukraine's defence committee and hear him say to us that other allied countries were lining up behind the Canadian brigade. They wanted to be part of the Canadian brigade, because it was Canada leading it.
That says a lot about a country. That says a lot about the reputation that a country has throughout the world, when there are other brigades being led by the United States, for example, and countries like Italy and Poland are saying that they want to be part of the Canadian brigade. That speaks tremendous value to what we have to offer. I am very glad to see the ongoing resources that are being allocated through this budget toward supporting Ukraine.
I am even more encouraged by the fact that we are not having that rhetoric that we are seeing in the United States coming from people like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, specifically about questioning whether or not there is a role for our country to be playing in supporting Ukraine. Indeed, there is.
The other thing I wanted to talk about, again an issue that I have not heard talked about a lot in this budget debate, is specifically the section of it that relates to crypto protections. It is not a mystery to most Canadians who have been following politics that the Leader of the Opposition, back in the heyday, not long ago, of cryptocurrency, when he went and purchased a shawarma, I think he was live on Facebook or Twitter at the time, made the exchange by paying for that with bitcoin. It was celebrated by him and his entourage with him at that event.
From that moment on, he started talking up cryptocurrency and how important it was to embrace the change of how we were going to transact in the future. There is no doubt that there are real discussions to be had about blockchain and crypto currency, more generally speaking, but the reality of the situation is that, in Canada, we rely on the Canadian dollar as our only peg, as we reference back to value and what we are going to use as a form of currency in this country.
When we have the Leader of the Opposition, who is openly out there, encouraging people to invest in bitcoin, almost as though he is encouraging them to bet against the Canadian dollar, it is extremely discouraging.
In this budget, there are specific resources being put towards the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to consult with banking institutions to ensure that they disclose what their exposure to cryptocurrency is, in terms of how much they are investing in it. Also, it would be a requirement for federally regulated pensions to disclose how much of those pensions are invested in crypto currency.
There is also a provision to ensure that any tax deductions being made as they relate to GST and HST, and the treatment of anybody who was mining specifically, and if they were making claims against paying GST and HST, and trying to get a refund out of it, would not be considered supply for HST purposes, and the input tax credits specifically would not be available.
It is extremely important that we stand firmly behind the Canadian dollar as the only form of currency in this country. The Bank of Canada, only two blocks away from here, provides a valuable service to our country, in terms of being at arm's length from this place and from the government, and being given direction on what we expect the inflationary rate to be, and to ensure that it gets to that as expeditiously as possible, and to maintain that.
That leads me to the last part of my speech, and that is specifically with respect to inflation. Inflation is, indeed, something that is not just happening in Canada, despite the fact that folks from across the way would like to suggest that this is a made-in-Canada problem, that only Canada is experiencing inflation. That could not be further from the truth. Canada is actually, of the OECD countries, one of the countries that is experiencing lower levels of inflation.
That does not provide a lot of comfort, and understandably so, to those who are experiencing inflation, especially as it relates to some of those very important items that we need, like groceries. However, it is important to understand the context. It is important to understand that inflation is not something that is just in Canada. It is throughout the world. When we live in a globalized economy and have as many trade deals as Canada does with other parts of the world, it is only understandable that we will be impacted by others' inflation as well.
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- Apr/17/23 5:15:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question, and I am so glad that I was asked it.
The reality is that if our economy continues to grow, and grow at a faster pace, which it is through immigration, through investing in people and businesses, then we are taking on debt and our net benefit, our net bottom line, is actually ahead. That is why Conservatives have done it. That is why Liberals have done it. That is why, out of the last 16 budgets introduced by Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney, only two ran surpluses. Every other run ran a deficit, because they all understood the economics would be the exact same. I guarantee the member that if the Conservatives end up on this side of the House, they will continue to do the exact same thing.
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- Feb/7/23 3:31:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have answered this question several times in the past. When the member was asking a question prior to question period, he specifically brought up the PBO's report, and I referenced his question on that later on. If they are looking at how one element of something will impact the economy and society without considering all the other variables and inputs that go into it, they can draw pretty much any conclusion they want.
When I look at things holistically, either I can take up the anecdotal comments from the Conservative Party about pricing pollution or I can listen to the 99% of economists throughout the globe who say that putting a price on something will change and incentivize behaviour and habits in the marketplace. Forgive me if I do not listen to the Conservatives' rhetoric on this. I would rather listen to the experts.
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Madam Speaker, for a rudderless ship, I would say we are doing pretty well. The reality is that even when we look at something like Canada's inflationary rate among G7 partners, we have the second best next to Japan. When we look at economic growth, before the pandemic, out of the G7 partners, we were the fastest-growing economy. We are the best positioned to come out of the pandemic. The reality of the situation is, despite the fact that Conservatives might not like to acknowledge it, we are doing quite well, especially compared to our peer countries.
Would the member at least acknowledge the fact that, looking at Canada compared to some of the other countries we compare ourselves to regularly, we are doing a pretty good job?
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Mr. Speaker, I have been sitting here listening to this debate all day and this is the first time that I have gotten up to even ask a question. I cannot help but reflect on the fact that, time after time, every Conservative who gets up to speak to this links the concept of economic reconciliation to fossil fuel extraction. It is as though that is the only part of reconciliation that the Conservatives are interested in.
I have heard very few comments about anything other than this idea of economic reconciliation. I know the member is extremely proud of the fact that he thinks that the Conservatives think a lot about the economy, as he indicated in his speech, but is there any other part of this bill or, indeed, the reconciliation process that the member or any Conservative member would like to talk about other than economic reconciliation?
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- May/30/22 10:46:13 p.m.
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That is another great ruling by you, Mr. Chair.
The commercial and recreational fishing sectors are also key economic drivers in coastal communities. Ocean-based recreational fisheries contribute approximately 2% to Canada's marine economy output and are important economic pillars. Whether they are large or small-scale operations, commercial fishing and associated businesses are often the single-largest sources of local jobs in Canada's coastal regions. In 2018, the commercial fishing industry directly contributed $2.3 billion to Canadian gross domestic product, while the aquaculture industry directly contributed $700 million and the fish processing industry contributed $1.2 billion. The total direct and indirect contribution of the seafood industry to the Canadian economy accounted for $7.6 billion in 2018.
Canada's commercial fishery sector is highly export-oriented, producing the country's greatest single food commodity export by value and equivalent to about 80% of production volume. Commercial fisheries also support fish and seafood processing, which are key parts of the value chain and significant employers in indigenous and other coastal communities. An estimated 20,400 individuals are directly employed in fish and seafood processing, with an additional 32,167 indirect jobs stemming from the industry. Canada's fish harvesters have responded to growing demands from markets to demonstrate that their fish products come from sustainable fisheries.
Across Canada, there are approximately 45 fisheries that are part of 32 marine stewardship council certifications, having demonstrated that they meet the criteria established by the global—
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Madam Speaker, I think of both things that I brought up today: my grandparents immigrating to Canada and my desire for a clean, renewable economy that is built here in Canada. That is how we are going to get through this pandemic, the effects of the pandemic and the debt that has been taken on during the pandemic. We are going to do it by growing our economy in the right places, the places that have longevity to them, the places where we know that when we invest in technology, if we can be on the forefront of it, we will become an exporter of that technology around the world and reap the benefits from that.
That, in my opinion, should be an end goal here, and that is what I see in the budget, but also as it relates to our willingness to be an open country, to be a country that is willing to accept people from around the world and celebrate the differences they bring here, provided they want to be constructive participants in a strong economic force.
I think back to when my grandparents immigrated in the 1950s, which I referenced earlier, both sets of grandparents, from Holland and from Italy. They came here looking for a new life and prosperous opportunities so that their children could succeed. Indeed, on my mother's side, my three uncles ended up starting a housebuilding company, building custom homes, and they were quite successful during their careers.
Providing opportunities to people from around the world to come to Canada is what we have been doing. Over a million new people live in Canada now, compared to 2015. By doing these sorts of things, by being an open and welcoming country, investing in our economy and making sure that we have the right investments, we are going to grow our economy. That is how we are going to deal with the hardships of the pandemic and what was required in terms of spending during the pandemic.
I heard the member for Souris—Moose Mountain speak about carbon capture. I do not want to single him out, because a number of Conservatives have spoken about it. Carbon capture is certainly something that we can consider in the short term. It can be effective in the short term, but I cannot understand, for the life of me, why we would want to suggest that it is a long-term solution.
I am not sure if members have seen the movie Don't Look Up. It is a recent movie out on Netflix. The whole premise is that there is an asteroid coming toward earth. The default reaction is how to deal with this asteroid, but before long it turns into a conversation, in particular by those on the right, about letting the asteroid hit earth and capitalizing on it by mining the various minerals and riches the asteroid is bringing with it.
That, in my opinion, is exactly like talking about carbon capture. We know there is a problem. Why is the solution to the problem to take the problem and bury it two kilometres underground? It does not make sense to me. Of course, the Conservatives' default reaction to dealing with fossil fuels and the problems that come from fossil fuels is how to capitalize on them. I do not think this is the solution. I think the solution is investing in making sure that we build the battery technologies of tomorrow. Let us be an exporter of those battery technologies, looking at different ways to invest in zero-emission vehicles.
Zero-emission vehicles are here. We passed the tipping point. By 2035 in Canada, all vehicles sold for regular use will have to be net-zero-emitting. The vast majority will be electric. Why are we not investing in the technologies that will be required? The electric vehicle right now is where the Model T Ford was in terms of the runway for vehicles. We are just at the beginning. If we give it 10 or 15 years, we will see that the battery technology is going to very quickly adapt so that we will be able to drive 1,000 kilometres on a charge and charge almost instantaneously. That is the future.
We should be investing in this technology, so that we can be on the forefront of it, so that as a country we have the companies right here in our country because the government believes in this technology, and so that we can be exporters of that technology throughout the world.
Therefore, I am very glad to see the $1.7 billion going toward zero-emission vehicles in this budget because I think that is going to get us there.
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- Apr/25/22 6:09:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I listened attentively to the speech from my colleague from across the way, and she particularly talked about the debt-to-GDP ratio in Canada. I think what she misses is the bigger picture, and in the bigger picture we have the second lowest debt-to-GDP ratio among the G7 countries, at least for 2021. We have prepared ourselves in a way that allows us to benefit from the investments we made in Canadians during the pandemic by coming out stronger on the other end of the pandemic. We are seeing that with the levels of employment and we are seeing that with the economic growth in Canada.
I realize that Conservatives will quite often say, “Do not worry about what other countries are doing; just worry about what is happening in Canada.” The reality of this situation is that in a global economy and with a global market, where we are continually interchanging goods and services throughout the world, we cannot look at one country in isolation.
I am wondering this. Can the member at least comment on the fact that we do have the second-lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7 countries, and does she think that is a good thing?
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- Mar/31/22 4:47:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I remember one of the comments from the member previously, and it was about the path to balancing a budget. I would say to the member for Calgary Centre that the most important thing is to be aligning ourselves in a favourable position as it relates to our debt-to-GDP ratio, because that is what is important. That is what signals the ability we have to repay that debt, and that is so much more important, as previous Conservative governments themselves signalled through their budgets.
On the member's question specifically about how we deal with the challenge as it relates to lack of employment, yes, it is a big challenge that we have. My understanding is that in 2021 alone, half a million new immigrants who came to Canada became permanent residents. I think that is one of the ways, quite frankly, that we are going to deal with this.
My parents came to Canada in the 1950s, post World War II, in search of new opportunity. Their parents looked at Canada as a shining light in the world; as a place to become prosperous and a place to set up new roots. I think we can do the same thing now to make sure that we keep growing our economy so that we can take care of baby boomers.
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- Mar/31/22 1:45:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am wondering if the member can also refer to the debts of the other G7 countries, because the reality of the situation is that it is more important to base the value of the Canadian economy against the economies of our trading partners. To value what the Canadian economy is genuinely worth is to value our debt-to-GDP ratio. The reality is that we have the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio, so that actually means that we are in the best fiscal position when compared to our G7 partners in terms of where we can go to rebuild our economy.
I am wondering if the member can weigh in a little on those facts.
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