House of Commons Hansard #7 of the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was housing.

Topics

Questions on the Order PaperRoutine Proceedings

12:20 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

The House resumed consideration of the motion for an address to Her Excellency the Governor General in reply to her speech at the opening of the session.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:20 p.m.

Winnipeg North Manitoba

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, we had a wonderful Grey Cup game in 2019, which I made reference to. Being from Winnipeg, one of the things we really enjoy is a nice Saskatchewan-Winnipeg rivalry. We won the Banjo Bowl, but I believe they won the Classic. However, we know that we have good football fans in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan.

My question to the member is in the spirit of teamship and having a good game. Would the member not agree that the people we represent would like to see us work collaboratively to see if we can produce that much more for Canadians as a whole, in many different ways?

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:25 p.m.

Conservative

Warren Steinley Conservative Regina—Lewvan, SK

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to talk about collaboration and teamship. I congratulate Winnipeg on winning its first Grey Cup, maybe since I was born.

I love to work with the government when we have common interests. One of those common interests, with the member from Manitoba, is getting pipelines built in the oil and gas sector. I am hoping we can work together to either scrap Bill C-69 or amend it so that we can get the hard-working oil and gas sector workers back to work as soon as possible, get some pipelines built and use some good EVRAZ steel to make those pipelines.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:25 p.m.

Green

Paul Manly Green Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Mr. Speaker, in the debate earlier today, we heard about the Canada child benefit. I heard the hon. member across the way talk about reducing debt for the next generation and reducing taxes. In addition, there was the analogy of getting married, having children and then having a foreclosure sign. In this time of a climate crisis, it is far more likely that the last image is going to be of a family who lost their house to a wildfire, who fled a flood or who had their house decimated by a hurricane or tornado.

Right now, we are at the end of the COP25 conference in Madrid and the government has not brought forward a change to its climate targets for 2030. They have set net-zero for 2050. That is a long way away. I am going to be a very old man by then. My oldest daughter and my granddaughter appreciate the child tax benefit, but my youngest daughter is anxious. She is anxious like other people who worked on my election campaign who are on a child strike right now: They do not want to have children because they are worried about the future. As parliamentarians and leaders, we need to deal with this climate crisis properly.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:25 p.m.

Conservative

Warren Steinley Conservative Regina—Lewvan, SK

Mr. Speaker, I believe we have a lot of challenges facing this country, including environmental challenges. I have three young children and I want to be committed to leaving a greener, cleaner environment for them. It is incumbent on all of us to do so. I do not want to leave the next generation with a financial or environmental deficit. We have to work hard to make sure we create environments for success in all those areas.

We had a great plan In our campaign to make a cleaner environment by cleaning up lakes, rivers and oceans and by stopping pollution being dumped into the oceans on either coast. I am very much committed to ensuring we have a greener, safer and cleaner environment for the next generation.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:25 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised that in the throne speech we simply hear the Liberal government saying that it will continue its good work on housing. In the Lower Mainland, and in my riding of New Westminster—Burnaby, there is a fundamental affordable-housing crisis. People are struggling. They have to choose between paying for their medication and paying to keep a roof over their heads. We see families who are literally fighting to keep a roof over their heads. Some are failing to do so, and an increasing number are found on the streets.

Given all that, seniors are not able to afford the skyrocketing cost of rent, simply because their pensions cannot keep up, and they are finding themselves on the street. John Young of New Westminster was in the parkade in his last possession, his car, because he could not afford to keep up with rental payments.

Why is the government not taking the affordable housing crisis in this country seriously?

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:25 p.m.

Conservative

Warren Steinley Conservative Regina—Lewvan, SK

Mr. Speaker, I will not answer for the Liberal government, but I believe that we should all work together to make life more affordable for all Canadians. That is something we can agree on.

In the riding of Regina—Lewvan, I heard time and again across the doorsteps that people are paying too much in taxes. All parliamentarians need to work together on affordability, and put suggestions forward to the minority Liberal government to ensure that Canadians can get ahead. Working hard and getting ahead in Canada is something that we can all diligently work toward as a group in this House.

As this is probably my last question, I want to take this time on behalf of my wife Larissa and our kids Jameson, Nickson and Claire to wish everyone a very merry Christmas across Canada and merry Christmas to the constituents of Regina—Lewvan. Have a very happy 2020.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:30 p.m.

Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook Nova Scotia

Liberal

Darrell Samson LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be back here in the House for the 43rd Parliament and to have an opportunity to speak to the Speech from the Throne.

Between July and December, I missed being able to deliver speeches in the House, though I must say I got plenty of speech-giving opportunities during the election campaign.

It gives me enormous pleasure to return to the House for the 43rd Parliament. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the Speech from the Throne. It is a very important speech to share with Canadians because it is a road map, the vision of our government. I kind of missed being in the House between June and now because of the election. I like to share what is happening in my constituency of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook and to continue to advocate on behalf of my constituents.

I have to thank the people of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook for putting their confidence in me once again to continue to work with them and for them. That is exactly what I shall continue to do as we move forward. I also want to thank the many volunteers in my riding and outside of my riding. A large number of volunteers participated throughout the campaign, from day one right through to October 21. That is really what democracy is all about when we think about it. These individuals want to be engaged in the electoral process and they want their words to be heard. The support that I received from them is much appreciated and I thank them for that.

As well, I want to thank my family. As members know, being parliamentarians is not a task that allows us to be home as much as we might like to be. The real work is in the community for our people, but members have to be here in the House to make laws and to work together to make life better for Canadians in general but also for the people in our ridings.

I have to say that I felt throughout the campaign that there were two elections happening. I would like to share a few words concerning the election and how my constituents and I were able to see how things were happening at the national level and at the local level. To be quite honest, at the national level, it was a different campaign that Canadians had not experienced. By that I mean there were insults and misinformation and there was even some fearmongering. All kinds of things were happening throughout the campaign at the national level on television that many Canadians did not feel very comfortable with because that is not the way we do business. We work together. We trust each other to get things done for Canadians.

At the end of the day, I ended up putting my head down and concentrating on the work at hand, working closely with my constituents, listening to them. That allowed me to articulate some of the great things our government was able to do in the last four years, talking with seniors and how we were able to support them, investing in bringing many seniors above the poverty line, and moving the age of retirement from 67 to 65. The Conservatives raised it from 65 to 67, but we stopped that quickly.

The conversation around climate change is important. Climate change is a very important file. It is probably the greatest challenge of our time. Many people in my constituency have many suggestions to make. They welcome some of the great things we did, such as increasing environmental protection of water and land from 1% to 14%, and they understand that we will move it up to 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030. Those are very important discussions to be having.

I had the opportunity as well to speak with many veterans. Nova Scotia has the highest number of veterans and military personnel in Canada by ratio. Let me add that my riding of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook has the most in Nova Scotia, so it is extremely important that I continue to have a dialogue with veterans and individuals in the military.

Colleagues are probably aware of this, but I have been honoured and privileged by the Prime Minister to take on the role of parliamentary secretary for veterans affairs and defence . That is a privilege because I have been working closely with veterans and individuals in the military. I have also been working at the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs for the last two years.

We have had some great conversations locally, but not such great conversations, I believe, nationally. At the end of the day, Canadians made the right decision and brought us back here to form government. However, we have been handed a new, important task of a minority government. I believe that this government is the best government to lead Canada for the future of this country.

We know that we need to do more on pharmacare. That is extremely important. We have to do more on social enterprises. We have to do more on housing.

We also know that we have to move forward aggressively on trade deals. We did so in the past. We had 14 trade deals signed in one mandate. I do not want to go too deep into that, but the three important ones are NAFTA, which we did extremely well, and of course, the Asia-Pacific one and the one with the European Union. Both of the last two brought 500 million people to the table who we can trade with. That is a billion people.

We have the challenge of how we are going to work together. I was very pleased to listen to some, not all, leaders of the opposition in the House last week who clearly stated that they understood the challenge. The challenge is that Canadians want us to work together. Canadians want us to collaborate. Canadians know that we are the party to do so and we shall do that because it is extremely important. We are going to have to stop pointing fingers, I guess, and stop blaming people. A good idea is a good idea, no matter where it comes from in this chamber. It is extremely important to remember that.

I now want to talk about minority governments. We have had some fabulous minority governments that have been very successful in making major changes for Canadians. I think right away of the Lester B. Pearson minority government. It was known as the golden age. It was given that title because it was a very important time. I will share some of the key successes during those years.

An extremely important one is the Official Languages Act. It is funny because here we are 50 years later modernizing the bilingualism act. It recognized both founding fathers or peoples. Today we are much richer not only with respect to understanding each other, but also in allowing us to trade with many countries, because of the two official languages we have in Canada.

Another is the Canada pension plan. Only last year, this government was able to work closely with the provinces and territories to bring forward a much needed updated Canada pension plan that Canadians can be proud of. Canadians will benefit more and more as we move forward.

Medicare is another success that came from a minority government. It is extremely important. I have to share this. One of the key individuals who led the Liberal government through that minority government was Allan J. MacEachen from Cape Breton Island. He became the deputy prime minister of the country and sat next to Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

We brought forward the new student loans program. We had a question today about it. Our government has made major changes to that in the last two or three years which will make life better for young students who are trying to get ahead.

We also ended capital punishment during those years.

Let us talk about the Martin minority government. I can think of two major improvements for Canadians. The first is same sex marriage. That is extremely important. Our government led the charge on that one. The second is the gas tax, which was a new program incentive to support municipal governments and invest in new infrastructure. It is so important that last year, for one year, we doubled the investments from the gas tax.

Those are some of the great changes that were made through minority governments.

Am I happy? I would rather have a majority government, but I will say this. I know that with a minority government and the people in this important chamber, we will get the job done in many areas. Canadians want us to do it and I know we can and shall do it.

I would be remiss if I did not talk about national unity. That is a very important topic. National unity did not start yesterday, last week or last year. We have a great nation because we have challenges. When we have challenges, they become opportunities, and we take advantage of those opportunities to make life better.

I have to share this with members of the House. In the very early eighties, my dad, George A. Samson, a plumber and electrician from Cape Breton Island, to be more specific Isle Madame, who had a grade six education, was a councillor in the municipal government. He enjoyed speaking and representing the people. In 1980, he was invited by the Davis government in Ontario to an assembly of many Canadians to talk about the Constitution and national unity. It was quite a pleasure and exciting for him to be part of that. He contributed to those discussions. I know that allowed many great things to happen as we moved forward in the eighties.

We have to stop this division and stop focusing on our differences. We need to focus on our strengths. What we are asking for today is something that Canadians have done so well in the past.

When I hear about prominent politicians running around saying there are differences and creating regional insecurity, it hurts, I have to be honest, because I know we can do much better.

I want to share a quote from the first Prime Minister of Canada, John A. Macdonald:

If I had influence over the minds of the people of Canada, any power over their intellects, I would leave them this legacy—“whatever you do, adhere to the Union—we are a great country and shall become one of the greatest in the universe if we preserve it; we shall sink into insignificance and adversity if we suffer it to be broken.”

I could not say it any better.

That is what this is all about. It is about working together. How great is this country? It is one of the greatest countries in the world. We have been rated number one on quality of life four years in a row. That is not bad. We are number three in education, number four in freedom, number six among the best countries to do business with and number nine in happiness. What a great country. Let us continue working together to make life better for all Canadians.

To do what we are doing, we need to continue to get support from members of all parties. We have to help and work closely with the business community to make sure it has the tools to connect and take advantage of the international trade deals we sign. We have to work together on climate change, because it is the greatest challenge of our time. We have to work together to make sure we have what we promised on pharmacare for all Canadians. It is extremely important. We must continue to work together for housing, creating more housing for seniors. That is the next challenge.

We are focused on these challenges, and that is important. We have to focus on families, youth, veterans and seniors. These are important issues and we need to work together to make this happen. I believe we will. We need to make this work.

Let me focus on Wexit. Westerners are anxious. We will work with them, because when times are hard in one part of this nation we come together and find ways to connect and support. That is what we will do.

I have already seen movement in Alberta on climate change. The premier said he is now open to that. That is what I call making a great effort to work together to continue building on this great country.

What about the pipeline? We already have 2,200 people working on the pipeline and by summer we will have 4,200 working on it. We are now moving forward on the pipeline, as we committed and promised.

I am also hearing about Bill C-69 in Wexit. I believe the Prime Minister said the other day that we are open to listening if we need to tweak it somewhat. He even asked the premiers to get together and work at it to see if they had some suggestions. That is the third thing.

The fourth issue I am hearing a lot about is equalization payments or the fiscal stability program. That is what it is for. We have been trying to support westerners and will continue to support them. One way to do it is by making adjustments. When we make adjustments because there are hard times, we are supporting those provinces, and when times are good, we expect them to support the rest of Canada.

It is a pleasure to be back in the House of Commons to speak on behalf of the residents of my riding of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB

Mr. Speaker, I know the hon. member across the way likes to paint everything as coming up roses, but of course not everything is perfect.

Earlier this week, the taxpayers' ombudsman announced a review of CRA and the Canada child benefit. She said there are negative impacts on people's lives and she has repeatedly raised this with the government.

Applications from vulnerable families have faced continual documentation issues with the CRA: women fleeing domestic violence have needed signatures from abusive partners, newcomers are not receiving benefits because of documentation issues and families have been ordered to repay benefits.

Why did it get to the point that the taxpayers' ombudsman, after repeatedly talking to the government about fixing this problem, had to announce she is conducting a review into why it is so difficult for Canada's most vulnerable families to receive the Canada child benefit?

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS

Mr. Speaker, I am glad the member brought up the Canada child benefit. When I was campaigning in my riding over the last two months, I heard a lot of really good things about the Canada child benefit. Many families are receiving the help they need to continue to support their kids. That is essential.

I welcome the member's asking a question about the CRA and the vulnerable Canadians facing challenges. That is how we work together. If the ombudsman wants to do a report or an investigation, I believe that means there have been a sufficient number of complaints. Our job is to then look at that to see how we can solve the problem. At the end of the day, if something is wrong then it is our responsibility to fix it. We will, with the member's support.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:50 p.m.

NDP

Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to debate with someone who will be working with me closely. As the spokesperson for the NDP on veterans affairs, I welcome the member to his role as parliamentary secretary and look forward to collaborating to get results for the veterans of this country.

Today I would like to speak about seniors in this country. Earlier this year, I presented a private member's bill to the House of Commons because I realized that seniors across Canada are being cut off from their guaranteed income supplement every July. In fact, it is between 30,000 and 40,000 seniors. That is happening because they are having challenges for one reason or another, such as ill health, the loss of a loved one or health challenges that prevent them from getting their taxes done on time.

I presented a private member's bill to give all seniors in this country receiving the guaranteed income supplement, who are some of the poorest in our country, a one-year grace period so that they do not lose their guaranteed income supplement if they get their taxes in a little late.

Will the member support me as I reintroduce that bill in the House?

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS

Mr. Speaker, I am eager to begin work on the veterans file with the member at the veterans committee. It is extremely important that we continue doing the work we need to do to support our men and women.

The member's question about seniors is very important. Our government said that it would be introducing a tax cut in the new year, as promised. It is extremely important and will help seniors. For example, I believe that the first $12,400 that every Canadian makes is tax-free. Our government said that it would change the amount to $15,000. Hundreds of thousands of seniors will benefit from this tax cut and will not have to pay any taxes. Also, students who work part-time will not need to pay taxes on the first $15,000 they make. For many of them this means no taxes at all.

We are working to support seniors, but this tax cut will also help students and thousands of other Canadians.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:55 p.m.

Bloc

Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC

Mr. Speaker, my colleague spoke at length about the fight against poverty, in particular child poverty. I am a family law lawyer by training and this is an important issue for me.

He spoke a lot about child benefits, which effectively can have a significant impact on families. However, there are vulnerable families who really need these benefits but do not qualify for them. I am referring mainly to families with children who have been placed in care or in shelters. In these cases, the families lose their family benefits even if the child only spends one day a month in a youth facility.

These families, which are often working on their parenting skills, are at a disadvantage as they have even fewer resources than other families. I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about that.

Is he open to discussing changes to the program?

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question, which is definitely extremely important.

In my speech, I talked about the benefits families receive. That is extremely important. For example, just in my riding, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, families receive $5.2 million a month, or $60 million a year. We only have to multiply that amount by 338, the number of MPs, to see the total amount that Canada is investing to support families. That does not specifically answer my colleague's question, but I wanted to briefly address this.

With respect to the families you mentioned, I have heard that some families do not qualify for the benefits because their children are not with them for the whole week. I will therefore look into it. It would seem logical to me that these families should at the very least receive a certain percentage of the benefit based on the number of days that the child spends at home.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

I would remind hon. members to address their comments to the Chair.

The hon. member for Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL

Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity, as it is my first speech, to thank my constituents in Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, central Newfoundland, for giving me this wonderful honour.

I want to ask a question of my colleague, but first I will congratulate him. He said he was going to tone it down, so he did. What we witnessed here was done with relative restraint. I have seen him in full oratory flight, and to say that he can shiver the timbers of this very hall is an understatement. I thank him for toning it down a little, as I am sitting just to the front of him.

On this past campaign, a lot of what I heard had to do with prescription drugs and their prices. The rise in prices, especially over the last five to 10 years, has been somewhat dramatic. That is understating it.

Over the past little while, the conversation has brought us to a point where we have to engage seriously with the provinces across this country, in a respectable manner, for us to provide relief, especially for seniors, who are most vulnerable.

I would like for my colleague, with his relative restraint, to get passionate this time and talk about how he cares for the seniors of his riding.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS

Mr. Speaker, I have to apologise if I am at times looking across this chamber. I am a former schoolteacher, and that is what I needed to do to make sure I had the attention of all individuals in the classroom. I had to look them in the eyes to know they were there with me when I was speaking. I apologize for that, but it is part of who I am and I am proud of it.

I thank my colleague for his comment. I did promise to tone it down and I am working on it, but it is not an easy task. One cannot take oneself out of that.

My colleague spoke about the prices of prescription drugs and that is extremely important. I want to share with him and the House what our government did in its last mandate. We created the Canadian drug agency. It allows us to purchase drugs in bulk. By doing that we are able to save $3 billion per year, so that is extremely important.

My colleague made reference to how important that is for seniors. It is extremely important to seniors. In the few weeks following the election, I was able to spend extra time at home with seniors and we had some great conversations. I will continue to do that as we move forward.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

1 p.m.

Conservative

The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

We are going to resume debate. Just before we do that, I recognize there are hon. members who rise each time when we invite questions and comments and I encourage them to keep doing that. That is how they get the eye of the Speaker, and I assure members that if they will keep doing that, we will certainly get to them. Be persistent, and we will make sure that each member who wishes to participate in questions and comments gets an opportunity to do so. It just may not happen in that particular round, but we will eventually get to the member.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

1 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK

Mr. Speaker, I want to inform you that I am splitting my time with the member for Calgary Centre.

It is my honour to rise in the House today for my maiden speech. I first want to thank the voters of Saskatoon West for putting their faith and trust in me as their representative in this House of Commons for this, the 43rd Parliament. I am humbled and honoured and grateful that they would trust me with this privilege. My pledge to them is that I will do my very best to represent them here in Ottawa and bring their views to Ottawa.

I want to thank my election team of Sunny, Braden, Alex, Kaitlyn, Donna-Lyn, Josh and Jared. I offer a special shout-out to the University of Saskatchewan Campus Conservatives club, which helped with a lot of door knocking. I offer big thank you to my friend the hon. member for Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek and her husband, Milton Block, for all of their encouragement, and to so many volunteers and donors who made this all possible.

As everybody in here knows, family support is critical to our success, and so I want to thank my parents, Alvin and Irene Redekopp; my sister, Gaylene Molnar, and her family; my two wonderful sons, Kyle and Eric Redekopp; and of course my beautiful wife, Cheryl Redekopp. I could not have done this without them.

It is for these people and for the 75,000 other people who live in Saskatoon West that I am replying to the Speech from the Throne today.

Unfortunately, I cannot and I will not support it.

This throne speech calls for “unity in the pursuit of common goals and aspirations.” The Prime Minister talks about listening and about parliamentarians working together, but the throne speech says almost nothing about the aspirations of people from Saskatoon. Not only that, the Prime Minister brings in policy after policy that targets the people of Saskatoon and our economy.

Let me explain the economy in Saskatchewan. If we think of a three-legged stool, the first leg is agriculture: wheat, canola, barley, oats and things like that. The second leg is mining: potash, uranium, gold and diamonds. The third leg is oil and gas. Last year, in 2018, these three sectors accounted for 36% of our GDP in Saskatchewan. The seat of the stool is manufacturing and construction. We manufacture machinery, industrial equipment and food products, while construction is the infrastructure that supports all of that work and all of the people. In 2018, those two sectors were 14% of our Saskatchewan GDP. Taken together, the legs and the seat of the stool account for 50% of Saskatchewan's GDP.

The other half of our GDP is the services that support our residents: things like stores, restaurants, education, health care and everything else. These things all sit on the stool, but the legs of our stool, the foundation of our GDP, are mining, oil and gas, and agriculture.

We all know that these three sectors are suffering in Saskatchewan.

In terms of the oil and gas leg, the no-more-pipelines bill, Bill C-69, has restricted capacity to ship our oil to markets. The selling price of oil is down, investment is down, and therefore there are fewer jobs.

The mining leg is also affected by Bill C-69. It politicizes the impact assessment process and adds significant time and uncertainty to the approval process. Companies no longer see Saskatchewan as the safe, stable place it once was to invest. Therefore, investments are going elsewhere and jobs are disappearing.

On the agricultural leg, the Liberals' continuing relationship failures with China have hurt our canola producers.

What does all this mean to the people of Saskatoon? When the legs of the stool are crippled, everyone suffers. Unemployment is up and people are struggling to pay their bills. During the election, I talked to many households and many families who were struggling to make their monthly payments, and on the campaign I spoke to many of the people we talk about who are short $200 every month.

I want to provide some vignettes of some real people and how this affects them.

I think of a young man who used to work on an oil drilling rig. He drove seven hours from Saskatoon to work in Drayton Valley, Alberta. He worked a two-week shift of 12-hour days, made really good money and spent that money in Saskatoon on vehicles, restaurants, stereo equipment, etc. I know this because this young man is my son. In 2015, the Liberals came to power. They introduced the no-more-pipelines bill and the no-more-tankers bill, and this drove down the price of our Canadian oil and reduced our investment. As a result, my son lost his job and, there was no more spending in Saskatoon.

Another example is a manufacturer who supplied components to the mining and the oil and gas industries. The manufacturer employed 140 people in Saskatoon. Those were well-paying jobs supporting 140 families in Saskatoon. I know this because my brother-in-law works at that company. Because of Bill C-69, investment in resource projects decreased, and the result was that people were laid off as the company adjusted to decreased business.

Fortunately, Saskatonians are resilient and creative problem-solvers, so they looked elsewhere and found business to keep the company going, but the business is smaller than it would have been had the oil and gas market kept going strong.

Let us think of an entrepreneur who build new homes for families, directly employed four people, indirectly hired 40 different contractors to complete all the work required and created several million dollars of economic spinoffs in Saskatoon. I know this because this was my business. Because of the Liberals' mortgage stress test, new homebuyers are forced out of the market. Because of changes in building codes, the cost to build a home significantly increased, and as a result, construction activity in Saskatoon has significantly slowed down. In fact, housing starts are at the lowest level in 14 years. Many good people in the construction industry are suffering or have lost their jobs.

What did I expect from the Liberal government throne speech in the spirit of working together? I certainly expected support for western Canadian jobs. After all, two days after the Liberals were reduced to a minority in October, the Prime Minister said he clearly has more to do to earn the trust of people in Saskatchewan. I expected support for oil and gas, mining and farmers.

What did I actually hear?

I heard a vague reference to natural resources and farmers, no mention of the Trans Mountain pipeline, no mention of a national energy corridor, nothing about repealing or even making changes to Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, and certainly no concern for our rapidly growing and dangerous debt. I think Rex Murphy said it best when he said the Speech from the Throne “is a semantic graveyard, where dullness and pretentiousness conspire, successfully, against the life and lift of our two wonderful official languages.”

Housing was mentioned in the throne speech, and I hope the government will follow through on that issue. There are many people in my riding for whom good, stable housing is out of reach. As a former home builder, I call upon the government to relax the mortgage stress test, as this has had a significant negative impact on construction in Saskatoon.

One thing barely mentioned in the throne speech was the word “job”. The Liberals are quick to offer money to Canadians for this or that and to offer handouts to make up for their lack of action on the economy, but let me tell members something about people from Saskatoon: We are proud, hard-working folks, and we do not want handouts; we want good-paying jobs.

Saskatoon is also filled with entrepreneurs, people willing to take great risks in order to employ others and build our economy. Entrepreneurs do not want handouts; they want a stable playing field with reasonable regulations and the freedom to work hard, succeed and then enjoy the benefits when success does happen.

There were two other words conspicuously absent from the throne speech: “balanced budget”. I am gravely concerned that the Liberal government has chosen to spend seemingly unlimited amounts of money on every kind of program, with no concern for the underlying economy that pays for all of this. We are burdening our future generations with debt that will have to be paid back at some point. I call upon the government to at least plan to return to balanced budgets.

Finally, Saskatchewan people care deeply about our environment. All three of the stool legs I spoke of earlier are rooted in our land. No one is a better steward of our land than people from Saskatchewan. We all understand that healthy land, water and air are critical to our long-term success, but we cannot adopt a zealot-like approach, assuming that the only way to have a healthy planet is to stop human development and to stifle innovation and economic growth. We cannot sacrifice the agriculture, mining, and oil and gas industries of Saskatchewan and Alberta in exchange for a photo op with Greta. We cannot stifle economic growth and continue to increase taxes on our people.

This throne speech made it clear that the government intends to continue to raise the carbon tax. Taxes will rise, with no meaningful impact on carbon. This will hurt ordinary Canadians and business owners.

In conclusion, Canada's Conservatives are focused on the aspirations of everyday Canadians, like the good people of Saskatoon West. We are the party of the middle class, and we will continue to present real and tangible ideas that will allow people to get ahead and get the government off their backs.

As I close, I want to congratulate and thank the leader of my party for his tireless dedication and work over the past 15 years. I also want to wish everyone in this chamber a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

1:10 p.m.

Winnipeg North Manitoba

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, I hope over the break my colleague will reconsider his position on the throne speech. The throne speech is a general document that highlights what is going to be taking place at a very high level. It talks about such things as Canada's middle class, our environment and our relationship with indigenous people, and we should reflect on what has taken place over the last number of years. We are going to continue to move forward. The results have been overwhelmingly positive. We have taken people out of poverty and we have an economy that is moving forward. In excess of a million jobs have been created. There will be highs and lows.

Would the member opposite not agree that when we reflect on the past four years, Canada's middle class has been doing quite well and will continue to do so under this government's agenda?

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

1:10 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK

Mr. Speaker, I was struggling a bit with the space-time continuum message in the throne speech. It was, as the member mentioned, at a very high level, and I think far beyond the grasp of most people who listened to it. There was very little content. If we think about what has been happening over the past years, there has been an increase just this last month of 71,000 people who have lost their jobs. This is not good for the people of Canada. It is not helping the middle class.

In fact, the middle class is struggling. When I was on the doorsteps this past election, I kept hearing over and over about how difficult it was to pay the bills and how difficult it was to find a good-paying job. I think there is a lot left to do.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

1:10 p.m.

NDP

Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB

Mr. Speaker, we heard the previous Liberal speaker talk about how important it is to come together when times are tough and when workers are on the ropes, and to stand together in order to make conditions better. What we saw several weeks ago, with the successful settlement of the CN strike, was what is possible when the government does not prejudice negotiations between an employer and employees when they go to collective bargaining.

Unfortunately, that is not the approach the government took in the case of a rotating strike by Canada Post employees over a year ago. Instead, it prejudiced the negotiations early on by taking sides. It propagated the message, which was often untrue, from Canada Post management, and it legislated those workers back to work. Those workers are still waiting for a deal and there continues to be delays in the process under the Liberals' legislation. The Liberals legislated them back and were responsible for the legislation that governs that process now. Not only that, they are the ones who hired the management at Canada Post and the minister has the opportunity to intervene.

Will the minister get involved and get these workers, who are working in a workplace with an unacceptably high rate of injury, back to work under fair conditions?

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

1:10 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Redekopp Conservative Saskatoon West, SK

Mr. Speaker, I am quite honoured that the member opposite believes that I am a minister in the government. I cannot speak for the government, but I do agree that we need to allow the businesses of our country to have a stable and fair playing field. We need to stay out of their way so that they can do what they do best.

Businesses flourish when they are given the right regulatory regime, the right financial resources and the right tax structure. We are very smart people in Canada. We can accomplish great things and we can employ a lot of people. Therefore, if we were to form government, that is where we would go: allow businesses to flourish, create jobs and build up our economic activity in Canada.

Resumption of debate on Address in ReplySpeech from the Throne

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague for his great speech here in the House of Commons and to welcome him to this place as well.

My hon. colleague for Scarborough—Guildwood was talking about the Canada child benefit earlier today. It used to be called the universal child benefit, which was our idea. I think it was a great idea to put child care dollars right in the hands of parents, rather than bringing a big government bureaucracy to bear on that.

I wonder if my hon. colleague has any suggestions on how we can reduce government bureaucracy and empower Canadians to take care of themselves in their own communities.