Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023  I am very concerned by the way the government has ignored our Canadian Armed Forces and how it has gone from a proud, honoured institution to where it is now, again, in a decade of darkness, which occurred, of course, under the Chrétien era. We are living that again. Members and veterans of the armed forces have told me that they are actually in a decade of disaster because of the dithering and delays being carried out by the current government.

Committees of the House  That is not to say I agree with the premise of his question. I would go back to a previous Liberal government. We had a decade of darkness. We had the Prime Minister's father, who decimated the military and really even firmly withdrew us from the orbit of the western defence system. If we want to keep going back in time, I guess we can, but I am going to focus on the government that is here.

Committees of the House  Not since the Korean War has the case for increasing defence spending been more obvious, yet despite the state of the world, the NDP-Liberal government is cutting defence spending. This is not the first time the Liberals have led the CAF into a decade of darkness, but this time it is different. Even under the Chrétien Liberals' cuts in the 1990s, Canadians were still eager to join up. Those days are gone. That is because an entire generation of Canadians have spent the last nine years hearing the Prime Minister downplay our once proud country.

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, we know that, back in the day, the time under Jean Chrétien and the Liberals was called the decade of darkness. I had a veteran tell me here the other day that, under the current Liberals, this has been a decade of disaster. When we were in government, never did anyone complain about housing, being unhoused or having to use food banks; that all happened under the Liberals' watch.

Housing  In 2017, our Prime Minister launched a badly needed $80-billion national housing strategy to fill the big gaps left by the previous Conservative government's denial of federal responsibility for housing. Countless Canadians remember what life was like during Prime Minister Harper's “decade of darkness”. Last week showed that today's Conservative leader is cut from the same cloth. On Thursday and Friday, Conservative MPs voted against funding indigenous housing, funding 15,000 permanent affordable homes, constructing 71,000 rental homes and so much more.

National Defence committee  Where we're supposed to have seven or eight LAVs, we're only running four or five, because we don't have enough LAVs that are usable at this point in time. We heard during the Liberal decade of darkness that instead of giving our troops bullets, we're training them to go around and go “bang, bang”. Are we going back to that, especially with this billion-dollar cut that the Liberals have done to our Canadian Armed Forces?

Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, 2023  Speaker, during the leadership of Prime Minister Harper, more money was spent on defence than there had been since the decade of darkness. The country is stronger and envied by many because of what we have in our professional military and the women and men who make Canada look good on the world stage.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is actually repeating Liberal history, known as the decade of darkness. Soldiers and their families back then were forced to use food banks. There were slashes to training programs. They operated with old equipment and were sent to Afghanistan without proper boots or uniforms.

Finance  What services and what benefits are they planning to cut that Canadians will no longer have access to? We saw under Harper's decade of darkness, if my colleague wants to continue with the alliteration, that they cut services and benefits to Canadians. On this side of the House, we believe in supporting Canadians.

Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, as someone who was here in the tail end of the decade of darkness and witnessed the Harper government run deficit after deficit after deficit, attempting to cut its way to economic growth and exhibiting a period of economic growth that was the worst since the Great Depression, I really am loath to buy into the idea that austerity and cuts can get us to prosperity.

Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1  It will take cities, provinces and the federal government all working together. There is still much more to do, but I am glad that, after a Conservative decade of darkness, Canada again has a government that is a willing partner in housing. While our government is focused on programs that make life more affordable for Canadians, such as dental care and child care, the opposition on the other side is opposing us every step of the way.

Labour  Speaker, we will take absolutely no lessons from the Conservatives when it comes to negotiating with unions or providing services to Canadians. Canadians well remember the decade of darkness under Harper. The Conservatives cut services, muzzled scientists and tried to crush the labour movement across the country. After all that, they want to come and give us lessons.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  However, I also hear that there are still gaps in learning because of the gap having been so neglected for so long. I was talking about a decade of darkness. That was a decade of lost multiple generations of students, who were not funded comparably to their provincial systems and who fell behind. In fact, not only were those school systems not funded; institutes who helped first nations do things like gather data were also defunded.

National Defence committee  Undoubtedly the Canadian Armed Forces is experiencing another...well, we did have a decade of darkness, and now, if we don't have an election by 2025, it will be a decade of decimation.

Vaccine Mandates  Pilots represent years and millions of dollars of intensive training thrown aside because of a decision to punish them for exercising their own medical choices. Coupled with sky-high attrition rates, it is beginning to feel like another decade of darkness. These are our heroes. We owe them the dignity of service for which they have sacrificed so much. It is time for the government to end the vaccine mandates and restore those it has wronged within our Canadian Armed Forces.