Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise on behalf of the good people of Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola. I plan on sharing my time with the member for Edmonton Centre.
Before I begin my comments today, I note that why we are here absolutely cannot be overlooked. At a time when regular Parliament was already adjourned, the Prime Minister wanted to shut down the few parliamentary committees that were meeting. Why did he want to shut them down? It was because the committees heard evidence that clearly did not reconcile with things the Prime Minister and one of his ministers had told Canadians. The cover-up on this continues, which is truly shameful, and here we are with what I view as an absolute embarrassment of a throne speech. However, before I get to that point, let me preface my comments by mentioning what troubles me so greatly about the Prime Minister.
He has no moral qualms about looking Canadians in the eye and making promises he has no intention of keeping. The Prime Minister is prepared to promise almost anything he thinks young people want to hear. He does not appear to care about making all kinds of empty promises to Canadians.
How can we forget his promise to not prorogue Parliament or introduce omnibus budget bills?
I could spend my entire speech listing the many broken promises of the Prime Minister. Sadly, he repackages a Liberal Party greatest hits list of broken promises and recycles them, again and again, into his throne speeches. To me, that is wrong on every level, and I would like to think that it is non-partisan to be so greatly troubled by a leader who has no regard for the value of his word to Canadians.
Let me provide a small example. In my riding, along with many others in Canada, we are potentially losing our automated 24–hour VHF radio weather warning service. Let us forget that the Prime Minister boasts that now is not the time for austerity as he looks to cut these services to Canadians. The justification for this proposed cut is that we can get the same information from our smart phones. That might make sense, or at least it is an argument, but unfortunately there is a problem. In my riding, there are still rural communities and recreational areas with no wireless service whatsoever. It is insulting to them to learn of this news, because these rural communities in many cases are the ones that most depend on the VHF weather service because they do not have wireless service. This is despite the fact that for five years now the Prime Minister has been promising to deliver wireless connectivity to rural areas.
In fact, in this throne speech, this always-broken promise is recycled: “The Government will accelerate the connectivity timelines and ambitions of the Universal Broadband Fund to ensure that all Canadians, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet.” It has been the same failed promise for over five years. Nothing happens. Very few faces change in the Prime Minister's tired cabinet of underperformers. What about the promise to cut cellphone bills by 25%? That did not even make it into the throne speech.
It is hard to believe that yet another promise to Canadians was not kept. This brings me to another important criticism of the throne speech.
The members who were in the House in previous Parliaments know that, at the end of the day, there is a limited number of bills that can be passed. That is a reality that all governments have had to accept.
Instead of setting a realistic agenda, the government included other promises in the throne speech that it knows full well it cannot keep.
In other words, the throne speech is intentionally drafted in such a way that it has an element of failure built right into it. It is not unlike being at the restaurant Tucker's Marketplace here in Ottawa and loading up a plate with every food choice possible knowing full well there will be more food on the plate than anyone could ever possibly eat. What happens to a person in this scenario? We all know a person who does this. They focus on things that appeal most to them and others will be left behind. In other words, they prioritize what is most important. This is perhaps the greatest failure of the throne speech, because if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority at all, in effect. I am reminded of the classic Liberal leader candidate debate and the words of Stéphane Dion, who famously said, “Do you think it's easy to set priorities?”
The throne speech really took a page from Stéphane Dion's play book, as it really did not target any specific priorities. What we got instead was a real buzzword salad, including the Prime Minister's new favourite expression: build back better. What does that really mean?
Austerity is another popular word at the moment. I do not think it means what the Prime Minister claims it means. The problem with this style of throne speech is that it inevitably leads to broken promises. It has only increased cynicism about Canadian politics. Let us not forget that cynicism used to be something the Prime Minister also claimed to care about.
After all, it was the Prime Minister who said, “Canadians are tired of the cynicism and mistrust that has characterized federal politics for far too long.” Of course, that was back in 2015. Flash forward to today, and now he drafts throne speeches that he knows full well his legislative agenda cannot and will not accomplish. Why do it? In this case, we know that cover had to be provided for the WE scheme.
Let us step back for a moment. No one made the Prime Minister promise that he would not prorogue Parliament. No one made him promise not to use omnibus budget bills. The Prime Minister decided on his own to make those promises. This brings to mind his throne speech. The Prime Minister could have written a Speech from the Throne that identified his government's priorities, and those priorities could have been realistically tailored to legislative agendas.
Instead we get an exceptionally long hodgepodge of “liberology” with no clear priorities. What happened to better is always possible? Why does this throne speech give us so many of the same promises and buzzwords? Canadians need a bold and new vision.
We needed new ideas and clear direction on what will be actually accomplished. Even more importantly, we need to know how it will be accomplished. Perhaps these expectations are too high for a throne speech. The Speech from the Throne is considered to be of great importance, but the Prime Minister broke his promise to not prorogue Parliament. The Prime Minister set those high expectations himself.
Although I understand that not everyone can publicly agree, I suspect we all know that this throne speech was a failure. It is just a cover for the WE scandal.
I have one other point to make before I close. There is something in the throne speech that I do agree with, as I like to close on a positive. It is a comment from the throne speech: “Canada has the resources—from nickel to copper—needed for these clean technologies. This—combined with Canadian expertise—is Canada’s competitive edge.” On this point, I agree.
It is a refreshing change to see the Liberal government recognize the importance of mining and the natural resources sector to the Canadian economy. How can that truly play a role in the development of new technologies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change?
I have one more point to raise.
Where exactly do the Liberals want to see these mines located? More often than not, when a resource project is proposed, the usual opponents come out in opposition, and all too often the Liberal government sits in silence and looks the other way. That is not leadership.