House of Commons Hansard #108 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was seniors.

Topics

(Return tabled)

Question No. 526Questions Passed as Orders for ReturnsRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Conservative

Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB

With regard to official government social media accounts, including ministerial accounts, broken down by department and agency, and broken down by social media account: (a) what social media platforms does the government currently use; (b) what is each account's name, handle, or other identifier, broken down by platform; and (c) which accounts' contents are managed by (i) departmental officials, (ii) ministerial exempt staff, (iii) both?

(Return tabled)

Questions Passed as Orders for ReturnsRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

Jean-Yves Duclos Liberal Québec, QC

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all remaining questions be allowed to stand.

Questions Passed as Orders for ReturnsRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Is that agreed?

Questions Passed as Orders for ReturnsRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Conservative

David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK

Mr. Speaker, I thank the members in the House for having such great confidence in me, in spite of the campaign that my colleague for Carleton launched as well. I was very thankful, Mr. Speaker, that you did not have to cast the deciding vote.

I am very thankful for the support of government members, but I think they are going to be disappointed here in the next few minutes, just as Canadians have been disappointed in the last year that they have had to face the consequences of having elected the government across from us.

Certainly this has been a long year. The economy has slowed down and obviously it is affecting Canadians across the country. I want to talk a little bit about my area—

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Order. We have resumed debate. I encourage members to take their conversations into the lobbies, out on the front lawn, or somewhere other than in here.

I encourage members to listen to the hon. member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands who has the floor.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:20 p.m.

Conservative

David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK

Mr. Speaker, I did want to take a bit of time to talk about the impact that the current government has had on my area.

As members know, Cypress Hills—Grasslands is a large part of southwestern Saskatchewan and agriculture has been a big issue. Agriculture has done well over the last few years. Prices have been up. We have had some fairly good crops. Obviously, the snow and the weather this fall has impacted agriculture in a huge way. There has also been quite a change in cattle prices over the last year, so a lot of the cattlemen are facing pressures that they have not faced over the last couple of years.

Certainly, one thing that has helped over the past few years has been the previous government's commitment to trade agreements. It signed over 35 trade agreements around the world, which has impacted agriculture directly in our part of the world. It is good to see that CETA did not fall apart under the current government. It appears that it did everything it could to create problems with respect to having CETA implemented but we see that there was a step taken here in the last couple of weeks, and it looks like it will be implemented at some point in Europe, and that is a good thing.

There is a question I guess on what the future of the TPP is. We have seen a change of government in the United States. President-elect Trump has made it very clear that he does not support TPP. We in this country believe that the trans-Pacific partnership generally is a good thing for Canadians and that having that partnership with those specific nations would only benefit us in terms of trade.

The second area in my riding that is of great importance to me is oil and gas. The energy sector has been a major factor in our part of the world and it is unfortunate to see the government, and the Alberta government in particular, create so much uncertainty for the oil and gas sector in western Canada. I am from Saskatchewan. I am very thankful that we have had a strong government there, one that is committed to natural resources, and a premier who was willing to speak his mind and who in many ways led the way around the world in terms of leadership on this issue. I should mention the carbon capture and storage project that is in place in southeastern Saskatchewan. It has had a huge impact and is an example of what we can do in terms of innovative technology with respect to carbon.

We would expect that the government would have a bit more interest in the kinds of things that will allow our oil and gas industry to develop responsibly, one of which is the Keystone pipeline. It has been very important to many of us. There has been pipe lying in my riding now for almost 10 years for the Keystone pipeline. I think some of it has been re-coated once already because it had been lying out long enough that it needed it. I would certainly like to see that pipeline laid underground rather than sitting on top of the ground. Hopefully, that will happen soon. So far, the government across the way has said that it will not interfere with the Keystone pipeline construction. We can only take it at its word. We hope that it is not misleading Canadians on this. We look forward to the revival of interest in Keystone across the border and the movement of several hundred thousand barrels of oil a day down into the United States to the gulf, which actually does give us an opportunity to export some of our product and to find new markets as well. Therefore, when I hear the natural resource minister say that the government is not really that interested in Keystone anymore, we need to remind him that this is an important part of economic development in western Canada and that he does need to continue to support that. It will be interesting to see whether that pipeline and growth in that sector will be supported by the government because it has already been approved in western Canada and it needs to move ahead. We do not believe that the government should stand in the way. Hopefully, it will keep its word when it said that it would not do that.

Western Canadians are becoming disenchanted with the current government and are somewhat tired of feeling like they are not being heard at all by the government, particularly on natural resource development.

The government will need as much help as possible with economic growth. We are over a year into its mandate and it has yet to create one single full-time job, which it should be apologizing to Canadians for instead of bragging about its economic platform. Its spending is ballooning, getting larger all the time, and growing at an incredible rate. Its deficits are skyrocketing. It does not seem like that long ago that we thought it was ridiculous that it was promising $10-billion deficits, and people in our part of the country even rejected that notion. We are now looking at deficits in the neighbourhood of $30 billion, and perhaps more, extending out as far as we can see into the horizon and out to the future. People are tired of broken promises and they are already tired of stagnant federal leadership. It has only been a year and they are already getting tired of what they are seeing.

It is just incredible that after all of this and all the noise that we have heard from the Liberals, there has not been one full-time job that they can show has been created in this country by their economic plan. Their economic plan has failed. Canadians are already paying for it. We find out that the Liberals are borrowing an extra $32 billion over the next five years, with no reason to believe that things are going to get better.

Speaking of $30 billion takes us somewhat into the area of this new infrastructure investment bank that the Liberals are proposing and suggesting moving about $35 billion, I believe, into this bank. It does not appear that it would be very useful or helpful for Canadians to have a large-scale infrastructure bank that protects billionaire investors who would come perhaps from other countries and from Canada. Their liabilities would be limited while the taxpayers' liabilities would be infinite. It does not seem like a fair way to treat Canadians; it does not seem like a fair way to treat taxpayers.

We had a very successful infrastructure program going. The Liberals just seem bound and determined that they are going to wipe that out just because they can.

There are a lot of other things that are taking place. There are the Liberal tax hikes that Canadians are facing. Red tape is increasing. It is just making things even worse for Canadians. We remember things like the fact that the Liberals cancelled the family tax credit for sports and arts classes; they cancelled small-business tax cuts. That was significant across the country because at the same time they want to increase CPP premiums so businesses and individuals would be tagged for up to $2,200, perhaps even more than that, in order to cover those increases that the Liberals think they need. That CPP tax hike is something that Canadians need to be paying attention to because it would not actually impact this generation. It would take 20 to 30 to 40 years before it would be fully realized. Some people would be paying into this for a number of years and would never get anything out of it. They do not seem to understand that is the case.

The carbon tax is another issue. I spent six years on the natural resource committee, and we talked a lot about carbon, carbon dioxide, carbon taxes. We talked about carbon exchanges and we talked about putting a price on carbon. It seemed like every one of these schemes that is being suggested in Canada has been tried somewhere else and it has failed somewhere else. Now we come late to the game and we insist on then being part of this whole process.

I move:

That the House do now adjourn.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

The question is on the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

No.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

Yea.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

All those opposed will please say nay.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

Nay.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

4:30 p.m.

NDP

The Assistant Deputy Speaker NDP Carol Hughes

In my opinion the yeas have it.

And five or more members having risen:

Call in the members.

(The House divided on the motion, which was negatived on the following division:)

Vote #151

Committees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

5:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

I declare the motion rejected.

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

5:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Questions and comments after the speech by the hon. member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

5:10 p.m.

Winnipeg North Manitoba

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, I must admit I am a little surprised. We just had a vote as a result of a member who wanted to see the House take a break. In government, we are here to work.

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

5:10 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

FinanceCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

5:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Order. I know members are anxious for the House to continue.

The hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.