- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 68%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $133,355.09
- Government Page
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the excellent member for Red Deer—Lacombe.
It is a very challenging time for Canadians. We have food price inflation that we have never seen before in this country. Food bank usage is at an all-time high. A third of all food bank users are children. We have seen reports from experts that the inflationary policies of the NDP-Liberal government are contributing to food price inflation.
As we move into the holiday season, Canadians are getting ready for Christmas and are struggling. Rents are up. Mortgage payments are up. The interest payments that people are paying on everything they borrowed, whether it is through a line of credit, a credit card or their vehicle loans, are up. They are looking for a little relief.
When we talk about food in particular, the food that we get does not come from the grocery store. That is not its point of origin. Food comes from the farmers who grow it. One way that we could address food insecurity and food price inflation is by reducing some of the pressure on our farmers and producers.
Conservatives put forward common-sense Bill C-234. It would remove the carbon tax for our farmers on their grain drying and on the heating and cooling of their buildings. When we have farmers paying an average of $150,000 for their carbon tax bill, which is set to quadruple with the Liberals, it is incredibly concerning what the downstream effect of that is going to be for Canadians when they go to the grocery store. Our farmers have two options. They can either cut production to cut their carbon tax bill or pass the increased costs on to consumers, who are already feeling the effects of food price inflation. This is after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government and the unsustainable path it has put us on.
What we hear from Liberal members is that the alternative, Canada's Conservatives, would cut. What we will cut is Liberal corruption. What we will cut is Liberal taxes. I could list a few of the areas very quickly where the Liberals have found no dollar that they are not willing to take from Canadians' pockets in the form of taxes. Instead of helping Canadians out, the Liberals help out friends and insiders.
We had the infamous $54-million arrive scam. This is not a project that Conservatives support, and we would cut that kind of spending. There is the billions of dollars that Liberals have given to their friends in high-priced consulting fees. In true Liberal fashion, when they were called out on their high-priced consultants, no one ever having spent more on consulting than the Liberals, they hired a consultant to tell them how to spend less on consultants. That cost taxpayers three-quarters of a million dollars. We would cut that.
We can look at the $1-billion green slush fund, which is mired in scandal. We had a whistle-blower at committee just this week talking about $150 million. The Liberals allowed that money to line the pockets of well-connected insiders. We have two Liberal appointees now under investigation by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner for voting to give themselves $600,000 between the two of them. We would cut that kind of spending. Of course, we would root out that kind of corrupt behaviour.
Another director on that board has also been identified as having furthered their own interests—
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- Sep/20/23 2:19:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, instead of celebrating this harvest season, farmers across Canada are shuddering at the thought of their first carbon tax bill. When the NDP-Liberal government triples the carbon tax, farmers will be forced to pay $150,000 in additional taxes, all for the crime of working hard to feed this country. The NDP-Liberal government's punitive tax is felt all the way from the farmer who grows the food and the trucker who moves it to the Canadian who eats the food if they can afford it. Onions are up 60%, cabbage is up 70%, carrots are up 74% and even potatoes are up 68%.
After eight years under the current Prime Minister, families will pay more than $16,000 more for groceries this year alone. With food banks lined up out the door, from Victoria-by-the-Sea, Prince Edward Island, to Victoria, British Columbia, Thanksgiving is going to be tough. The NDP-Liberal tax is truly farm to table, and the Prime Minister is not worth the cost.
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- Jun/5/23 3:08:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while Canadians are struggling to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families, and while record numbers of Canadians are going to food banks, with nearly 1.5 million Canadians going to food banks in a single month, the response from the Liberal government is to increase the tax on everything.
With carbon tax 2, Canadians are going to be paying more than 61¢ a litre in tax on gas, which is going to not only raise the price of getting to doctor's appointments, but also raise the price of food production for our farmers who make our food. Why is the government continuing to hammer Canadians with higher taxes?
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- Apr/28/23 11:42:54 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals are unreal. They are the only ones who think that “arm's-length” means literally holding a meeting at arm's length from the Prime Minister's desk. They allowed Beijing to directly interfere in our elections and gave direct access to the Prime Minister and the person who is supposed to investigate interference in our elections. It is unbelievable. It is frankly not credible. Conservatives have called for hearings to occur on this, and we have invited, because he asked in the newspapers, Mr. Alexandre Trudeau to appear at committee to answer questions.
The Prime Minister's brother is going to answer questions. The board that is falling apart is answering questions. When will the Liberals finally give Canadians answers?
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- Mar/23/23 2:05:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, members of our Canadian Forces are being told they are asking for more than the Prime Minister will give. Take, for example, the brutal conditions at my alma matter, the Canadian Forces School of Communications and Electronics at CFB Kingston.
Troops are housed in four-person rooms with poor HVAC, broken shared facilities, no privacy, no kitchenettes, no access to storage and bathrooms full of mould. Just yesterday, one member told me he is living in the shacks. His room is heated to 33 degrees and is full of mice. “Would you let your family live here?” he asked. Of course, the answer is absolutely not.
Even the equipment is in shambles. LSVWs and lineman construction trucks are well overdue for replacement. No wonder morale and recruitment are dismal when the government will not provide our men and women in uniform the equipment or living quarters they need.
We ask everything of the men and women in our Armed Forces. It is about time the Liberals give them what they need to get the job done.
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Mr. Speaker, my friend from Kingston and the Islands sounds a bit hangry. Let us go get a shawarma.
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- Oct/6/22 5:25:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to be able to rise following the great comments from my colleague for Prince Albert who was able to offer an education to some members on the government benches and their coalition partners on how the policies of this government are hurting Canadians and hurting farmers.
The member raised a very interesting question about affordability and the impact of this carbon tax as it affects food prices in Canada and as it affects the affordability crisis that Canadians are facing. The cost of this Liberal government is driving up the cost of living for all Canadians and at a time of year when demands on food banks are particularly high in a regular year. We are seeing, real time, the effects that the inflationary crisis, the made-in-Canada Liberal inflationary crisis, has on our food banks, which is that they do not have enough food to support the people who are there looking for their help. I will take a quick second to say to anyone who is watching and is able, who maybe has put off a donation to their local food bank, that now is the time to dig deep, because our neighbours, people in our communities, are hurting.
This affordability crisis is also being driven by the carbon tax, which is a tax on everything. We have heard, in recent days, what the effects are of that increase that is projected to come, the tripling of that carbon tax. It is going to raise the price on people's shelter costs. It is going to raise the prices on people's ability to clothe themselves. It is going to raise the prices on people's ability to feed themselves.
We know that when the input costs go up that it is going to raise the prices all the way from farm to table. I know that some members might be surprised to learn that food does not originate in the stockroom at the grocery store. It comes from Canadian farms.
We need to get serious about tackling this inflationary crisis, get serious about bringing down the food costs that Canadians are dealing with. The best way and the immediate way we can do that is for this government to commit to Canadians that it is not going to triple the taxes on Canadians.
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- Sep/28/22 7:35:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, after the Liberals finally caught up with our international allies and declared that it is safe for people to get onto planes and trains or return to work in the federal public service without a COVID vaccine, they are still saying that it is unsafe for a person to serve our country in the Canadian Armed Forces.
We know that the Liberals replaced COVID science with political science a long time ago, so it comes as no surprise that they would continue such an unscientific and contradictory mandate. Canada's soldiers, sailors and airmen are the best in the world. Let me say that again: They are the best in the world.
We have watched time and time again as they have answered our country's call and calls for aid from nations around the world. Just this week, we have witnessed them come to the aid of our friends in Atlantic Canada in the aftermath of a hurricane, where we heard grandmothers breathing sighs of relief at the sight of our soldiers rolling into tiny villages to lend a hand.
With Russia on the war path, Canada's armed forces must be prepared to defend our allies and our borders. It is high time for the Prime Minister to drop the last of his politically motivated and divisive COVID mandates and give our brave men and women in uniform their jobs back.
This week we heard that Friday will be the last day for COVID border restrictions, such as the proof of vaccination, quarantine, testing and isolation requirements for people entering Canada, as the government catches up to all of the provinces on following the science. We know that, at the same time, the mandatory use of the ArriveCAN app will cease.
This is important because Canadians have had an incredibly challenging time. We have seen people lose their jobs. We have seen people struggle with the isolation of lockdowns. We have seen people miss monumental events such as welcoming new life and saying goodbye to loved ones.
At a time when Canadians are facing unprecedented, in many of their lives, cost-of-living increases, the government has collected or issued fines worth over a million dollars to people trying to enter Canada. It is because of the failed ArriveCAN app that it has issued those fines. The government needs to do the right thing, and it needs to do the compassionate thing. It needs to rescind the fines, cancel the collections and refund the payments to Canadians. Frankly, it needs to apologize for the impacts of this failed app on Canadians.
I do not know what the difference is in the science today and the science Saturday that will see these mandates end, but it is high time that they end. We are glad that they are ending. We call on the government to do the right thing and refund those who have been wrongly fined with the ArriveCAN app.
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