Mark Strahl

[Infrastructure, February 15th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the radical minister made it very clear that the Liberal government will no longer allow funding to go toward building roads, and it is no surprise that a guy who scaled the CN Tower or climbed on top of a premier's roof would come up with an extreme policy such as building no more roads in this country. We need a strong road network to move our goods, to get our kids to school and to get our workers to their jobs.

When will the Prime Minister condemn this radical policy from his extremist environment minister and stop punishing Canadians, who need to drive their cars to live their lives?

[Infrastructure, February 15th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister appointed a radical activist to be the environment minister, we knew that the Liberal government would be implementing extreme and divisive policies, but this latest Liberal announcement takes the cake. This may be the first time that any government anywhere, at any time, has promised to stop building roads. However, that is exactly what the Liberals have done. This extreme new policy means that the Liberals are against adding more lanes to the Trans-Canada Highway between Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

Why do the Liberals want to kill these projects, which will help end gridlock and get people to work?

[Public Services and Procurement, February 13th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal-NDP government's arrive scam app is not worth the cost or the corruption. The Auditor General has now confirmed that what should have cost taxpayers $80,000 ended up costing at least $60 million, with $12 million of that going to well-connected consultants who did no work on the app.

The final true cost may never be known because the government's record-keeping was so outrageously poor that the Auditor General said it was impossible to calculate all the costs associated with this boondoggle. What did this colossal waste of tax dollars result in? At least 10,000 Canadians were erroneously sent into quarantine. The Prime Minister's arrive scam app is not worth the cost or the corruption.

Conservatives are calling on the RCMP to expand its investigation into this scandal based on the revelations in the Auditor General's report. Will the Prime Minister join us, or will the costly coalition continue to cover up this corruption?

[Conservative Party of Canada, January 30th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians will face a choice in the next election.

One choice is the out-of-touch, NDP-Liberal coalition. It is a costly coalition with an ever-increasing carbon tax pushing grocery and gas prices higher and higher. It has doubled the cost of housing and increased violent crime by 40%; its dangerous, taxpayer-funded drugs have destroyed thousands of lives.

However, the other choice is the common-sense Conservative plan to axe the tax on gas, heat and grocery bills; to build more homes instead of more bureaucracy; to cap spending and cut waste to bring down Liberal inflation and interest rates; to make our streets safer by bringing treatment, not taxpayer-funded drugs; and to bring in jail and not bail for repeat violent offenders.

The choice is clear, and in the next election, Canadians will choose a common-sense Conservative plan to bring it home.

[Amber Alert Program, November 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to my constituent, Alina Durham, for her tireless efforts to bring attention to the issue of adult missing persons. Her daughter, Shaelene Keeler Bell, was reported missing on January 30, 2021. Tragically, Shaelene's body was found several months later in the Fraser River.

Alina has used her personal tragedy to draw attention to a gap in Canada's missing persons protocols. Right now, Amber Alerts are only issued if the victim is under the age of 18. There is no Amber Alert system for adults.

To honour Shaelene's memory, I have introduced a private member's motion, Motion No. 89, which calls on the government to work with the provinces and territories to expand protections for victims of crime over the age of 18 by amending the criteria for the activation of an Amber Alert for missing persons.

I want to thank Alina for her advocacy for missing adults, and I hope that all members of this House will join me in supporting my private member's motion in honour of Shaelene.

[Canada Labour Code, November 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, it is abysmal. The Liberals have not only driven out hundreds of billions of dollars in investment in our country, but they have driven away the jobs that go with that.

Whether it is in forestry, mining or oil and gas, the Liberal-NDP government consistently opposes those projects that put people to work, that give them economic opportunity and the opportunity to provide for their communities and families. Instead, it advocates against those projects and gets them shut down. Then when the workers send their hard-earned money to Ottawa, the government turns around and gives it to multinational corporations to hire foreign temporary replacement workers. We will never support that kind of a plan.

[Canada Labour Code, November 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for recognizing it is the Conservatives who are fighting for more powerful paycheques, and that would start by getting rid of things like the NDP-Liberal carbon tax, which drives up the cost of everything, including groceries, gas and home heating. We certainly want to have more money go to workers. As well, when the workers' money is taxed, we do not expect that money to go to foreign replacement workers, which is what we have seen under the Liberal government with the Stellantis battery plant and the Northvolt project in Quebec.

The Conservatives support workers, whether they are in trade unions or not, and workers support the Conservative Party, as we have seen from the bring it home events that the Leader of the Opposition has held right across the country. The polling certainly shows workers are on the side of the Conservative Party, just like we are on the side of workers.

[Canada Labour Code, November 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I understand why that member does not want to talk about his voting record on anti-replacement worker legislation, because he too voted against anti-replacement worker legislation in 2016 and again in 2019. However, he is good company, because so did the Minister of Labour. It was not an urgent issue until it was urgent that they get the support of the NDP to maintain their power-sharing agreement in Ottawa.

Now he has seen the light, and the light comes from the NDP, which is demanding this is the new way things are going to go. The NDP-Liberal coalition is alive and well. I understand why that member does not want to talk about this legislation or the fact that he has consistently voted against the interest of workers in our country.

[Canada Labour Code, November 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of my constituents in Chilliwack—Hope.

I will be splitting my time today with the hon. member for Calgary Rocky Ridge.

It has been an interesting debate this morning. We have heard the Liberals talk about how the legislation is long overdue. They have asked how anyone could not support this type of legislation. The fact is that over the last couple of decades, and even during the eight long years of the Liberal government, every member of that caucus has voted against anti-replacement worker legislation on multiple occasions. The last two Liberal speakers voted against anti-replacement worker legislation a couple of times each, both in 2016 and 2019.

The Minister of Labour, who has been on a cross-country tour meeting with union leaders to extol the virtues of the bill, voted against similar legislation when it was introduced through private members' bills by the Bloc Québécois and the NDP. He has voted against it on numerous occasions. Therefore, everyone will forgive us if we take with a grain of salt the high and mighty words and condemnations of other members of Parliament when the Liberal government has members, including the Minister of Labour, who voted the other way on this type of legislation on multiple occasions.

What has changed? We know what has changed. The government, which is continuing to make life more difficult for Canadians, owes the NDP. The NDP is back-seat driving for the Liberal government and it is quite happy to go along as long as it gets chauffeurs for their ministers and continues to enjoy the benefits of power. Multiple times the Liberal government voted the other way, so it is hard to take them seriously when Liberals talk about the urgency and necessity for legislation that they themselves railed against in the very recent past. Therefore, we will take no lessons from the Liberals on supporting union workers.

We will take no lessons from the government, which hectors the official opposition on its support for Canadian workers. Not only is the government supporting replacement workers, but it is using taxpayer dollars to do it. Let that sink in. We are talking about union and non-union workers getting up before it is light out and going to do their blue-collar jobs, in many cases sending 30%, 40% or 50% of their paycheques to different levels of government, including Ottawa. The government is then giving that money to multinational corporations that are going to use foreign replacement workers to build the plants.

It is bad enough that the government would bypass skilled Canadian labour to build projects such as the Stellantis battery plant, but to take the money those workers send to Ottawa and use it against them is the height of hypocrisy. The Liberals want to lecture others about replacement workers, but they are using foreign replacement workers not only at the Stellantis plant but at the Northvolt project in Quebec.

We now know that hundreds of taxpayer-funded, which means worker-funded, foreign replacement workers will be filling jobs that should be going to Quebeckers despite over $7 billion in taxpayer subsidies going to this project. This is the record of the Liberal government when it comes to replacement workers. It is bringing in foreign replacement workers to do the work that we know Canadians can do. The Liberals have talked about the Stellantis battery plant not having the specialized skills available to set up the plant, that they need 900 to 1,600 foreign workers, depending on who one talks to, from South Korea.

I have news for the government: We have the skilled labour that can set up those plants. We know that if we give them the plans and blueprints, they have the know-how and they will get the job done. However, the government is bringing in foreign replacement workers.

Because the government refuses to release the contracts on these “investments” of workers' money into those projects, the Conservatives have demanded that the industry committee look at this. We are demanding the release of the contracts. How many foreign replacement workers did the government negotiate in these deals?

There is $45 billion in major projects. We know now that two of them include foreign replacement workers, and we assume that the others do as well. We want answers. That is why the member for South Shore—St. Margarets has demanded emergency meetings on this issue. We will not allow the government to let this slide, at $15 billion a crack at these plants and bringing in foreign workers.

This is supposed to be about Canadian jobs and Canadian workers, yet the government continues to provide the money that Canadian workers send to Ottawa for foreign replacement workers. That is absolutely shameful and reprehensible, and the official opposition is demanding answers. We want those contracts released. If the government is still proud of those contracts, it should have no problem releasing them. However, of course, we have to fight tooth and nail every step of the way, and we are up for that fight as well.

The government continues to punish workers, not just union workers but all workers, with its carbon tax and its policies that are driving up interest rates, making it harder for workers to afford a home. It is hard to take the Liberals seriously. They feign how much they care about workers, but everything they are doing is punishing those workers who simply want to provide for their families.

We heard just this morning that a record number of Ontarians are seeking help from the food bank. That is the record of the government when it comes to workers. People are using the food bank for the very first time. Two million people a month are using a food bank. People do not know how they are going to afford to live in their own home when their mortgages come up for renewal. More money is going to service the national debt than is going to health care facilities in the provinces. These workers have to wait eight to 16 hours for their kids to be seen when they have RSV or other seasonal issues. When they are sitting in the emergency room, they can know that it is because of the reckless fiscal policies of the government that punish workers, that more money is going to service the Prime Minister's deficits and debt than is going to our health care system. Therefore, we will take no lessons from the Liberal government on supporting workers.

We will support workers by standing up for the jobs they need and standing up for the projects in which they work. The Liberal-NDP government has been the most anti-worker government in Canadian history, voting against, acting against and advocating against major energy projects, for instance, that give family supporting jobs right across the country. The government opposes those. The Liberals cannot tell me and other members of the Conservative Party that they are pro-worker. They are against the projects that workers need to put food on the table. They tax those workers and send that money to foreign replacement workers. Their policies are making the cost of living for those workers out of reach. Interest rates are going up and up. Inflation is going up and up. The government is not only doing nothing, it is making it worse.

[Canada Labour Code, November 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the member's speech. He talked about how necessary it is to have anti-replacement worker legislation, so I would like to give him the same opportunity as his colleague from Mississauga, who refused to answer.

If this legislation is so good and so necessary, why did he vote against similar legislation in 2016 and again in 2019?