SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

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

May/22/24 9:59:30 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. It is interesting to hear my hon. colleague speak, because even during question period today, his leader rose and talked about greedy CEOs. He got quite a reaction, because it is fairly well known that, despite the fact that the NDP leader constantly speaks about Loblaw and the connections that he makes, his brother is lobbying on behalf of Metro. NDP members, particularly their leader, take shot after shot at the Liberal Party. Then what do they do? They vote with the Liberals time after time. They have not seen a single solitary thing, in my view, that the Liberals themselves have not taken credit for. At what point will the member start providing the opposition that I have seen him provide in the House to the Liberals, in the form of tangible opposition, and by that I mean voting against them when they are providing poor governance?

168 words

Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

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

May/22/24 10:26:46 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people from Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, I typically say, but on this occasion I rise with the difficult task of pointing out just what this member has done. He has spoken about a far-right group, and I am reading from a Global News story that talked about sexually assaulting the spouse of a member of the House. The member across the way just compared the leader of His Majesty's opposition to that group, when the leader of His Majesty's opposition himself called them “odious” and “losers”. Made aware of disgusting comments made, I am not even going to use this man's name. This person, who continually carries water for a Prime Minister who invited a Nazi into this House, who said that a woman experienced it differently, who has done all sorts of things, who pressured the first indigenous attorney general in this country's history into obstructing justice, has the audacity to do that. He should be ashamed. He should apologize and withdraw right now.

188 words

Context: House Hansard - 315 - May/22/24

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

May/22/24 10:52:49 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-234

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people from Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. It really is a pleasure. I always joke that I am not sure how a kid from North Kamloops ended up in the House of Commons, but here I am. Before I begin, I want to recognize some people from my riding. The first is Bruce Barrett. Mr. Barrett, as I called him, was my art teacher at Westsyde Secondary School. I just saw that he has passed away. Bruce Barrett had a very gentle heart. I did not get to know him well, but I knew him to be a very good person. I send my condolences to his family. May perpetual light shine upon him. I also want to recognize the life of Pearl Bostock. I went to high school with some of Pearl's grandchildren. I see that she has recently passed away. I send my deepest condolences to her family. May perpetual light shine upon her. Lastly, I want to recognize the life of Marlene Campbell. I went to kindergarten with Marlene's son. To this day, I would often call her Mrs. Campbell because I had trouble calling her by her first name. I was in her daughter's wedding party. I have known her for over 40 years. I still have not come to grips with the fact that she recently passed on, and there are some lessons that she taught me that I am going to touch upon in this speech. I offer my condolences to her husband, Bruce, to her daughters, Claire and Joan, and to sons, Matthew, Luke and John. May perpetual light shine upon her. I was speaking about Mrs. Campbell, and one of the things that I learned from her, and sometimes we would agree and sometimes we would disagree, was the value of simplicity, frugality and transparency. I walked into her house a couple of years ago, and I said that it felt like I was back in 1986 because the house was exactly the same. There is a part of me that thinks government should be like that. Why does government have to be flashy? The whole point of the government is to get the job done. If the government is actually getting the job done, we should not need a 400-page document, and it really looks like a mini phone book now, telling us how great the government is, that we have never had it so good. This is a government that is creating board after board, tribunal after tribunal, making government bigger and bigger. I believe the public service has grown by 42%. However, is the passport service any better? Is immigration any better? The former immigration minister and now housing minister lost track of what, a million people? Is he a potential leadership candidate? He lost track of all of these people, and with this inflation, not only in finances, but with government just building upon government. Perhaps the question we have to ask ourselves is not why we are spending but how we should be spending efficiently. The reason I say that is because I have frontline government workers that come to me day after day, it feels like, saying that they get told from the top, but nobody talks to them about efficiency. They are actually being told to cut because the government has promised so much. We chuckled when the member across the way talked about building four million houses. This is a government that cannot even plant two billion trees. Planting a tree is a problem. Staying out of the penalty box with the Ethics Commissioner is a problem. They cannot even do that. They cannot plant a tree. They are actually double counting. I filled in at a committee, and the government was double counting from two different programs to make it look like it was meeting different targets in planting trees. These are not the lessons of simplicity and frugality. The government can extol its programs all it wants and say something is a success. I received a letter from a dentist who services my family saying to hold on a second when it comes to dental care. He said this is not what we think it is. In fact, I would love to bring the letter to the House. Perhaps I could bring it to the House to give it to the member for Winnipeg North. We could table it. Liberals are so confident that dental care is the be all and end all. What about the people who cannot find child care services? What about that? Unlike Mrs. Campbell, the government does not fashion itself on simplicity, transparency and frugality. In fact, it is a government that said it would be open by default, yet all it does is attempt to obfuscate when the going gets tough. Members can look at ArriveCAN, where Liberal friends got rich, and they do not want people to know that. They are fine spending money, but more concretely, these Liberals are fine spending our money, Canadian's money and my family's money, the tax money. I love pasta as much as the next person. I will admit it. My mom makes the best gnocchi out there. For those who do not know, gnocchi is a little dumpling. She makes them by hand using two fingers and they are hand rolled. They are very labour intensive because each one literally needs to be hand rolled. I like pasta. I would like to think I even make a mean carbonara. Here, what do we have? A private business, presumably making a profit, and the government is giving it $1.7 million for 10 jobs. It looks great. It wants to save the riding, so they are giving $1.7 million for 10 jobs. The government calls that an investment. The NDP will do cartwheels talking about corporate bailouts and corporate giveaways, and then will vote with the government on the line items that enable that very giving. I like pasta, and there is a lot of pasta to be bought. I do not know why the government is saying, to perhaps four to five families, that every dollar they pay in taxes will go to the tune of $170,000 per job. Let us talk about these auto contracts the government loves to talk about. There are some estimates that we are subsidizing to the tune of $1 million a job. I drive an electric car. I drive it, but what I am seeing is that demand is going down. I really like my vehicle. I do, but demand is going down, and they are saying they are investing. I have made some bad investments in my day, and when the stock went down, we suffered from it. This budget talks about protecting farmers from the cost of climate change. If Liberals want to do something for farmers, they could pass Bill C-234 in its original form, rather than obfuscating and the member for Winnipeg North telling us we have never had it so good. At what point will the government wake up and realize the budget does not balance itself, that it has doubled the debt, and now with interest rates being double, and in some cases triple, Canadians are hurting. Its members talk about school programs. How many students are going hungry because of their policies? I could go on for hours about this. I could go on for hours about what the member from Winnipeg said, but I am going to move a motion, seconded by the member for Edmonton West. It is an amendment to the motion. I move: That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following: “Bill C-59, an Act to implement certain provisions of the fall economic statement tabled in Parliament on November 21, 2023, and certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023, be not now read a third time, but be referred back to the Standing Committee on Finance for the purpose of reconsidering all of its clauses with the view to amend the bill so as to give Canadians a break this summer by eliminating the carbon tax, the federal fuel tax, and GST on gasoline and diesel.”

1407 words