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Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was respect.

Last in Parliament October 2015, as Independent MP for Edmonton—St. Albert (Alberta)

Lost his last election, in 2015, with 20% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Employment Insurance April 24th, 2015

Mr. Speaker, budget 2015 predicts a $3.6 billion employment insurance surplus, which the government is using as a revenue source in order to balance its budget. However, the number of Albertans applying for employment insurance benefits rose by a startling almost 30% in February. Now that the EI surplus has been depleted, how will the government fund the anticipated spike in employment insurance claims?

Justice April 24th, 2015

Mr. Speaker, the government has spent almost $5 million fighting 15 losing court cases, including over $1 million trying to defend minimum mandatory sentences and abolishing early parole eligibility.

Why does the Minister of Justice insist on wasting taxpayer dollars on expensive litigation after routinely ignoring internal Department of Justice advice that his proposed legislation is almost certainly not compliant with the charter?

Petitions April 1st, 2015

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present two petitions.

The first petition is from 32 individuals in or near the riding of Edmonton—St. Albert.

The petitioners call upon the House to refrain from making any changes that would compromise farmers' rights to add to their costs. They also call upon this Parliament to enshrine in legislation the inalienable rights of farmers and other Canadians to save, reuse, select, exchange and sell seeds.

Similarly, I rise to table a petition from 205 members of the Edmonton—St. Albert constituency.

The petitioners call upon the House to adopt international aid policies that support small family farmers and to ensure that Canadian policies and programs are developed in consultation with small family farmers to use and freely exchange seeds.

Employment April 1st, 2015

Mr. Speaker, today is April 1, and it is no joke that thousands of temporary foreign workers are packing up and getting ready to leave Canada. In Alberta alone, an estimated 8,000 workers will be affected. This is a loss not only for the Alberta employers who cannot find Canadian workers; it is a bigger loss for the hard-working, dedicated employees who come to Canada with the dream of making a better life for themselves.

The government owns this problem. For years it was told that there was nothing temporary about employee shortages in specific industries, but rather than allowing these valuable employees to permanently immigrate, it relied on four-year temporary foreign work permits, thus creating a revolving door of TFWs.

Some serious but isolated abuses of the program have ruined it for the thousands of workers who love Canada and for the many employers who would love to keep them.

It is time to take the “temporary” and the “foreign” out of TFWs. We owe hard workers prepared to take unskilled jobs that cannot otherwise be filled permanent residency and then citizenship. After four years in Canada, they deserve more than a deportation order.

National Defence March 30th, 2015

Mr. Speaker, last October 22, moments before he murdered an unarmed sentry guard and then stormed into this very Centre Block, an armed terrorist recorded a video confirming that his actions were in retaliation for Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and our then recent decision to deploy the RCAF to Iraq.

Given the increasingly complex quagmire in Iraq and Syria, and therefore the dubious nature of long-term positive outcomes, is the government not concerned that by extending our modest commitment for another 12 months, an unfortunate consequence could very well be more retaliatory attacks on Canadian soil?

National Defence March 30th, 2015

Mr. Speaker, tonight the House will vote on extending our commitment to degrade ISIL until March 30, 2016. I want to support the motion but I am having a difficult time seeing positive outcomes for the well intentioned goal of degrading ISIL. In fact, the U.S. is worried that Shia militias will retaliate against Sunni civilians if occupied territories are recovered from ISIS. CIA operatives believe that the real threat in the region is not ISIS, it is the Shia militia that wants to replace ISIS.

Assuming that ISIL can be degraded, does the government believe that that will lead to more or less stability in the region?

Petitions March 25th, 2015

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise and table a petition containing 33 signatures of constituents of Edmonton—St. Albert calling upon the government to pass a resolution to stop measures against the Chinese Communist regime of systematically murdering Falun Gong practitioners and publicly calling for an end to the persecution of the Falun Gong in China.

Financial Administration Act March 25th, 2015

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-660, an act to amend the Financial Administration Act, balanced budget and public debt repayment.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise and table an act to amend the Financial Administration Act for balanced budgets and debt repayment. This legislation, if adopted, would provide for statutory requirements for the government to table a balanced budget and repay the over $640 billion in public debt.

This legislation allows for a 3.5% cushion or contingency fund for normal contingencies, and allows an exception for a deficit in times of exceptional circumstances, provided that the Minister of Finance clearly explains those extraordinary circumstances to this House. Significantly, surpluses would be statutorily used to pay down the public debt in an orderly manner. Governments would be unable to use windfalls to go on spending sprees.

The government, since the 2013 throne speech, has promised balanced budget legislation but has yet to deliver on that promise, notwithstanding reminders from this member.

Accordingly, I encourage the government to honour its pledge to prudent fiscal planning. I encourage all hon. members to support the balanced budget and public debt repayment act.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Government Spending March 23rd, 2015

Mr. Speaker, since coming into office in 2006, the government has spent nearly $750 million on government advertising.

Some of it admittedly is quite helpful, such as informing Canadians of new programs, assuming that those programs actually exist, or health and safety risks. Others are pure shilling for the government agenda and partisan objectives.

Does the government that brought us the Federal Accountability Act not believe in protecting taxpayers from using public dollars that advance partisan ends?

The Environment March 23rd, 2015

Mr. Speaker, in February alone, 14,000 Albertans lost their jobs. Then last week, another 1000 job losses were announced in the energy sector.

Late last year, the Prime Minister emphatically stated that it would be crazy to impose carbon emission standards given the fragility in the energy sector, but then he surprisingly told Peter Mansbridge that he was musing about a carbon levy.

When will Canadians hear more details about the Prime Minister's proposed multi-billion dollar, job-killing carbon tax, levy, tech fund, or whatever else he decides to call it?