SoVote

Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)

May/8/24 4:30:34 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the following two reports of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. The first is the 13th report, entitled “Braiding Learning and Healing: A Pathway to Improving Graduation Rates and Successful Outcomes for Indigenous Students”, and second is the 14th report, entitled “'We Belong to the Land': The Restitution of Land to Indigenous Nations”. I would like to thank all the witnesses and staff for their help with these two reports. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive report in response to each of these two reports.

111 words

Mr. Ben Carr (Winnipeg South Centre, Lib.)

May/8/24 4:31:22 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, if the House gives its consent, I move that the 65th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, presented to the House earlier this day, be concurred in.

33 words

The Deputy Speaker

May/8/24 4:31:34 p.m.
Watch

All those opposed to the hon. member's moving the motion will please say nay. It is agreed. The House has heard the terms of the motion. All those opposed to the motion will please say nay.

37 words

Mr. Ted Falk (Provencher, CPC)

May/8/24 4:31:54 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, these petitioners wish to present an issue to the House. They are seeking to support the health and safety of Canadian firearms owners. The petitioners recognize the importance of owning firearms, but they are concerned about the impacts of hearing loss caused by the damaging noise levels of firearms and the need for noise reduction. They acknowledge that sound moderators are the only universally recognized health and safety device that is criminally prohibited in Canada. Moreover, the majority of G7 countries have recognized the health and safety benefits of sound moderators, allowing them for hunting, sport shooting and reducing noise pollution. The petitioners are calling on the government to allow firearm owners the option to purchase and use sound moderators for all legal hunting and sport shooting activities.

130 words

Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

May/8/24 4:32:46 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-310

Mr. Speaker, it is a huge honour to table this petition on behalf of residents from Ucluelet, including fire chief Rick Geddes. This petition was obviously done before the budget, but this is on behalf of 120,000 volunteer firefighters and 10,000 search and rescue volunteers who are calling on the federal government to increase the volunteer firefighter and search and rescue tax credit from $3,000 to $10,000. They did not quite get that $10,000, but it was doubled. It is a privilege to table this petition, and I want to thank members from each party who tabled a petition in support of my bill, Bill C-310.

112 words

Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)

May/8/24 4:33:30 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition that I am honoured to present on behalf of folks who note that, first of all, Statistics Canada makes it clear that there are 4.8 million Canadians who do not have a regular doctor. The petitioners go on to note that this is a number that has remained stable over a number of years. It is even worse in rural communities, although it is quite bad in urban centres as well. The petitioners have a very simple recommendation. They are calling on the House of Commons to ensure that the Government of Canada works with all provinces and territories across the country to come to a holistic and fair solution to Canada's family doctor shortage.

123 words

Mrs. Shannon Stubbs (Lakeland, CPC)

May/8/24 4:34:12 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-310

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to present a petition on behalf of the good people of Hairy Hill in Lakeland. It calls on the government to increase the tax credits for volunteer firefighting and search and rescue services. Volunteer firefighters make up about 71% of Canada's total firefighting essential first responders, and approximately 8,000 essential search and rescue volunteers respond to thousands of incidents every year. Most rural communities and regions, like those all across Lakeland, completely rely on local volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers. Those essential volunteers put their lives on the line and sacrifice their time, training and heroism on behalf of their fellow Canadians and allow cities and municipalities to keep property taxes lower than paid services. Increasing the tax credit would allow those essential volunteers to keep more of their hard-earned money in the communities where they live and would help retain volunteers at a time when volunteerism is decreasing. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to support Bill C-310, an act to amend the Income Tax Act, to increase the amount of the tax credit for volunteer firefighting and search and rescue volunteer services.

197 words

Ms. Julie Dzerowicz (Davenport, Lib.)

May/8/24 4:35:31 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to present petition e-4746 on behalf of some of the residents of my riding of Davenport. It is on guaranteed basic income. Whereas Prince Edward Island has brought forward a guaranteed basic income proposal that is supported by the provincial government, which would serve as an ideal model for evaluating potential GBI programs and funding mechanisms, and due to the changing geopolitical landscape, today's world is highly unpredictable and unstable. The world of work is also changing with the rise of automation, artificial intelligence, and other technologies. In order to look at how best to modernize our social safety net to better support Canadians in the 21st century, the undersigned Canadians who support a guaranteed basic income call upon the Government of Canada to implement a national framework for GBI that would test various funding and implementation models and their effects on poverty, inequality, innovation, and labour productivity.

156 words

Gbi
Proposal

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

May/8/24 4:36:33 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, this petition from residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands and beyond concerns Canada's engagement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, otherwise known more familiarly as NATO. The petitioners point out that the Minister of National Defence's primary responsibility is to protect Canada within its borders and that the Minister of National Defence is not mandated to engage in wars in other countries or make treaties that encroach on other territories of other sovereign states. They make the point that the Canadian military does, in fact, participate in invasions in other countries by being a partner in NATO. The petitioners call on the House of Commons to immediately withdraw all connection, co-operation and material support from NATO from Canada.

123 words

Mr. Frank Caputo (Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, CPC)

May/8/24 4:37:30 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill S-210

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. In this case, It is in support of a petition that implores the House, in brief, to pass Bill S-210 from the Senate, the protecting young persons from exposure to pornography act. Those who have studied and are aware of this bill know this is in regard to age verification to access pornography.

74 words

Mr. Frank Caputo (Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, CPC)

May/8/24 4:38:35 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, and today I am doing so with respect to a petition to reverse religious discriminatory practices and allow chaplains to pray for fallen soldiers during Remembrance Day. This is obviously in relation to the Department of National Defence's recent changes that essentially make Remembrance Day ceremonies areligious.

68 words

Mr. Dan Mazier (Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, CPC)

May/8/24 4:38:40 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-5

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise to present a petition on behalf of constituents. I rise for the 36th time on behalf of the people of Swan River, Manitoba, to present a petition on the rising rate of crime. The community of Swan River is demanding that their voices be heard. They live in the chaos caused by the Liberal government's soft-on-crime laws, such as Bill C-5, which allows criminals to serve their sentences from home. The Manitoba West district RCMP reported that in 18 months, just 15 individuals racked up over 200 charges. The people of Swan River are calling for jail, not bail, for violent repeat offenders. The people of Swan River demand that the Liberal government repeal its soft-on-crime policies, which directly threaten their livelihoods and their community. I support the good people of Swan River.

148 words

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

May/8/24 4:39:44 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all questions be allowed to stand at this time.

15 words

Stand
Ask

The Deputy Speaker

May/8/24 4:39:49 p.m.
Watch

Is that agreed? Some hon. members: Agreed.

7 words

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

May/8/24 4:39:52 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all notices of motions for the production of papers be allowed to stand at this time.

22 words

The Deputy Speaker

May/8/24 4:39:59 p.m.
Watch

Is that agreed? Some hon. members: Agreed.

7 words

Mr. Tako Van Popta (Langley—Aldergrove, CPC)

May/8/24 4:40:32 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about budget 2024 and the budget implementation act. In the budget report, the Liberal government makes a claim that the GDP, the gross domestic product of our economy, is set to grow by 3.5% this year. GDP is a good measurement because it talks about the health of the economy, and admittedly, a 3.5% growth is not bad, if that is indeed what it is going to be, but members are not to forget that this is just a forecast. However, factoring in unprecedented population growth in Canada, and we are 3.5 million people more now than we were in 2019, the statistics look rather anemic. David Williams, vice-president of policy at Business Council of British Columbia, notes that annual GDP per person in the province of British Columbia is actually shrinking. Per person GDP has been decreasing steadily under the Prime Minister. The calculations have been done by economists, and it works out to about $4,200 per person. Canadians are not getting richer, despite the optimistic spin the Liberals and the finance minister are putting on what is really an anemic economic performance. Budget 2024 also announces once again, just as the Liberals have done in every budget since I was elected five years ago, that their economic policies will improve Canada's productivity numbers. Our poor productivity metrics is a well-known problem, which has been admitted to by our current Minister of Finance. It works out to the following: For every $100 an American worker produces, their Canadian counterpart pumps about $72 into our economy, so only 72% is efficient. That does not mean Canadians are not working as hard as Americans. We are probably working as hard or harder than our American counterparts, but we do not have the tools, the technology or the investment to grow the economy. As America's productivity improves, Canada's is lagging due to mismanagement and bad leadership by the Prime Minister. His former minister of finance, Bill Morneau, in a book he published shortly after he resigned from his position as the finance minister, said that he tried try to get his boss, the Prime Minister, to focus on the problems with Canada's lagging productivity, but the Prime Minister showed little interest. He said that the Prime Minister was more focused on wealth redistribution rather than on wealth growth, looking at the things that grow the economy, such as encouraging private investment in innovation and resource development, making strategic tax cuts and deregulation, getting new Canadians working sooner and developing strategies for scaling up our technology sector so that job growth happens here in Canada rather than south of the border in Silicon Valley, Boston or Texas. I would add to this as well that a strategy for growing our productivity is freeing up interprovincial trade. Economists say that would add substantially to our productivity. What are we getting instead are tax increases on Canadian investors, which is scaring people away so their investment dollars might just go somewhere else. I pointed out that the current Minister of Finance has also commented on this, and she has recently said that economic growth, business investments and productivity are an urgent challenge for Canada, if not the most important challenge for Canada. It sounds like the Minister of Finance understands that this is a challenge for Canada, as did the former minister of finance, but in Canada, our Prime Minister admits he does not spend a lot of time paying attention to these sorts of things, such as monetary policy or the impact his fiscal policy might have on inflation and interest rates. Leadership sets the tone. What we have here again is lots of promises. The Liberals will say, “Sunny ways are just around the corner”, and that we should just believe them this time. As always, our Prime Minister gets an A for announcements and an F on delivery. In talking about the budget, I just want to touch on inflation, interest rates and debt servicing. Under the misguidance of the current Prime Minister, Canada's inflation hit an all-time high. The Bank of Canada had to respond with higher interest rates, which are having a negative impact on citizens, on homeowners and on businesses, as well as on the national economy. With a debt of over a trillion dollars now, interest rate payments are over $50 billion a year, which is more money than Canada transfers to provinces for health care. I just want to summarize with this: Struggling families cannot afford higher taxes and more inflationary spending that drives up the cost of everything and keeps interest rates high. There used to be an understanding here in Canada, an unwritten social contract saying that if one worked hard, got an education or on-the-job training, and then got a good job and a powerful paycheque, that one could save up to buy a house. One could buy the house, maybe pay the mortgage off in 25 years, or if one made a few extra payments early on, in 20 years, and then save up for one's retirement. It was simple but secure. Under the Liberal government, that dream is all but dead. To hear the Liberals speak, sunny ways are just around the corner. The Liberals have been around for nine years, promising that “this time you can believe us”, but they are not delivering. It is time for the Conservative Party to take over the governing side of the House to get Canada's economy back on track. It is time to turn the hurt that the Liberals have caused into the hope Canadians desperately need.

958 words

Hon. Steven Guilbeault (Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.)

May/8/24 4:47:25 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I request that the ordinary hour of daily adjournment of the next sitting be 12 a.m., pursuant to order made Wednesday, February 28.

28 words

The Deputy Speaker

May/8/24 4:47:51 p.m.
Watch

Pursuant to order made on Wednesday, February 28, the request is deemed adopted.

13 words

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

May/8/24 4:47:59 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I would suggest to the member across the way that, in fact, Canada is not broken and that we are on the right economic track. The Conservatives are very good at spreading misinformation. That should not be a surprise to anyone who follows the debate. For example, the member said that we are scaring away investors. Last year, Canada was number one in the G7 countries for GDP, based on the population base in terms of direct foreign investment for the first three quarters. Worldwide, we were number three on a per capita basis. How can the member or the Conservative Party across the way try to mislead Canadians by saying we are scaring away investment when we see that kind of reality staring us in the face?

130 words

SoVote

House Hansard - 311