Debates of Dec. 15th, 2023

Finance

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. government House leader is rising on a point of order.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Madam Speaker, according to Standing Order 18, I do not think the member opposite should be making false accusations like that. That is completely inappropriate.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Members need to be very careful and respectful toward each other in the House.

I will pull out the standing order. Standing Order 18 states:

No member shall speak disrespectfully of the Sovereign, nor of any of the royal family, nor of the Governor General or the person administering the Government of Canada; nor use offensive words against either House, or against any member thereof. No member may reflect upon any vote...

We keep going back to that.

I want to remind members that they should not call members serial criminals. I would ask members to please stay away from that.

I would ask the hon. member to withdraw that comment.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, on the point of order, with respect, first of all, it was the member for Kingston and the Islands who said “serial criminals”. What I said was “lawbreakers”. The Prime Minister twice broke ethics laws. The small business minister broke ethics laws—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

This is going into points of debate. I want to ask the hon. member to please withdraw the comment about serial criminals. It is causing disorder. Withdrawing the comment would allow the debate to continue.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. We need to be very careful about situations in which one member says something that is obviously verifiably true and then other—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order.

The hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan should be careful and judicious in what he is saying.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, I will not speak to the substance of the issue. However, if we have a case where one member says something that, in their sincere view, is true and that they have good evidence to believe is true, but others do not like it and react to it, I think it is fair to ask who is responsible for that—

[Gudie Hutchings, Liberal, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Madam Speaker, congratulations on your grandchild.

I would like the member opposite to withdraw the comment where he said “all cabinet”.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

If the hon. member does not wish to withdraw, I am going to move to the next speaker.

The hon. member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, in this House, we have members of cabinet who have been found to have broken Canada's ethics laws.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, while I am being interrupted—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I already have an hon. member who is speaking on a point of order. He has withdrawn his comment, and I will now allow him to finish his speech.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister broke ethics laws twice. The small business minister and the former housing minister broke ethics laws. The member for Hull—Aylmer broke ethics laws.

[Leah Taylor Roy, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I was told my comment was not relevant. I do not know what the relevance of this is to the question I asked.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member may not like the response, and the call for relevance now becomes more a point of debate. If the hon. member has another question after that, she can bring it up.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, what we have here in the House is that the members are again looking to defend the indefensible, and it is a group of people who are going to have to defend that “record”, a word which can be taken two ways. However, we are able to represent our constituents and our communities, and we are going to stand up for lower prices for families, even if the Liberals will not.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Madam Speaker, another way to approach this is that it is in the DNA of the Liberal Party. When we look back 30 years ago to the Chrétien era, we had things such as Shawinigate and the sponsorship scandal. These were the beginnings of the things that we are now seeing and have seen over the past eight years.

The member spoke about the ArriveCAN app. Could he speak about some of the other scandals and problems that we have seen with the corruption in the current Liberal government?

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, it is a very interesting question because we have a situation where the government continues to engage in conduct where it is taxing Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars, in other cases billions of dollars, to line the pockets of the well-connected. We saw the response to that when it came to outside consultants and its record use. No government has ever used more outside consultants than it has. It then asked a consulting company, and spent three-quarters of a million dollars, to find out whether that consultant thought it should use consultants less.

The same is true with the billion-dollar green slush fund. We learned this week about $150 million that has been embezzled by Liberal insiders. Two Liberal-appointed members of the billion-dollar green slush fund are now under investigation for breaking Canada's ethics laws. This is top down. They see that example. It comes from the Prime Minister and now we have his appointees who are also breaking the same laws the Prime Minister has broken.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, I heard the member earlier in his intervention talk about how Conservatives voted non-confidence, this, that and the other thing.

Does he actually think that means something to his constituents? Does he think his constituents take comfort in knowing that he voted against Ukraine, voted against the 988 crisis helpline and voted against countless measures for farmers?

Does he actually think this narrative of, “We voted for non-confidence in the government,” really means something to people who were going to be on the receiving end of those very important supports?

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, we voted against the government and that member who sent turbines to Russia to fund Putin's war machine. We voted against a government that sent detonators overseas to be used by Russia, that are blowing up and killing Ukrainians. We voted against a government that had to be embarrassed by a Conservative member into finally delivering on a 988 suicide prevention hotline. We voted against a government that has driven up costs for Canadians, doubling the price of housing and doubling the price of rent. There are record lines at our food banks.

My constituents sent me here. I am a member of the official opposition. I oppose the government and its corruption, and I am going to stand against that every single day.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, I would like to add my congratulations to you becoming a grandmother. That is very exciting.

As this is likely the last time I am to take the floor for this parliamentary session, and for this year, I want to extend my gratitude and thanks to all of the staff on Parliament Hill who have made this such a wonderful place to work. As always, they do such hard work.

I would also like to note that, in accordance with Standing Order 25, I move:

That this House do now adjourn.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The question is on the motion.

If a member participating in person wishes that the motion be carried or carried on division, or if a member of a recognized party participating in person wishes to request a recorded division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, we have been trying to get Bill C-234 passed, but in the absence of any agreement, we would like to request a recorded vote.