Debates of Dec. 15th, 2023

Finance

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

There is no unanimous consent.

We are going out in style for Christmas.

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

Madam Speaker, it is fascinating that the member for New Westminster—Burnaby has debased himself to the point that he had all his members leave the chamber to call quorum, along with the member for Kingston and the Islands—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order. I would advise the hon. member to be very careful with how he indicates whether individuals are in the House or not. If the hon. member could get back to his speech, that would probably be wise.

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

Madam Speaker, we have members of Parliament who have been elected, such as the member for New Westminster—Burnaby and the member for Kingston and the Islands, who have taken to defending a government that is corrupt, and that corruption is costing Canadians.

That cost to Canadians is fuelling the inflationary fire that is driving up the price of everything. That is why, at this time, it is so important that we have more competition. Competition in our banking sector is incredibly important because, if there are fewer banks, then the banks that we do have will charge higher rates. Those higher rates are going to drive up the prices that Canadians are paying every month for their rent and for their homes.

We have members, such as the member for New Westminster—Burnaby, who are defending a Prime Minister who has been twice convicted of breaking Canada's ethics laws. He is the first Prime Minister in Canada's history who has broken Canada's ethics laws—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby on a point of order.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, the member is well experienced. He knows that personal insults and speaking in—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order. I cannot hear the hon. member who has the floor on a point of order. If the hon. member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo has a point of order, he should wait to call a point of order.

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby has the floor.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, congratulations on becoming a grandmother. It is exciting.

I just want to cite the rule of relevance, the member is wandering all over the place. I hope that he has read the report. If the member could stick to the report that is before the House and stop with the personal insults, I think that would be appropriate.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, it is a bit rich coming from the member for New Westminster—Burnaby—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

What is the point of order? The member seems to be debating.

I would like to remind the hon. member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes to please speak to the motion for concurrence. As well, if the hon. member could mention the motion or something that is within the motion, that would be very helpful.

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

Madam Speaker, on the same point of order with respect to relevancy, on each occasion when the Chair has advised that I go back to speaking to the issue I referenced, every time that I have spoken, I have done that. I did it in the 60 seconds prior to the member for New Westminster—Burnaby interrupting me.

He might not like what I am saying, but it certainly is relevant to the topic when we are talking about a report from finance and we are talking about competition in the banking sector, which is having an effect on affordability for Canadians and the cost of the government's inflationary policies that are in support of them. It is absolutely germane—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I appreciate the additional information. I would just ask members to please, as they move forward, if they wish to bring forward other points of order, that they actually mention the standing order they are bringing up. A lot of them seem to fall more into debate. There will be an opportunity for questions and comments, and not just five minutes but 10 minutes, so other members will be able to put points or questions forward.

The hon. member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes may continue with his speech.

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

Madam Speaker, as I was saying, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby has defended this Prime Minister and the policies that he has put forward, including the billion-dollar green slush fund. This is at a time when Canadians are struggling greatly with affordability. This week alone we learned that, at the billion-dollar green slush fund, $150 million has been misappropriated. Canadians cannot afford the government to be borrowing money to have Liberal insiders then embezzle that cash and have Canadians pay interest on it while these Liberal appointees are off lining their pockets. Those are the policies that are being supported by the member for New Westminster—Burnaby, instead of coming here to advocate for Canadians and speaking to an issue that is as important as competition in our banking sector.

This report from the Standing Committee on Finance could not be discussed at a more germane time for Canadians than right now. Lineups at our food banks have been precipitated by the inflationary spending of this government. Home prices have doubled. A report from rentals.ca says that it costs the same to rent a room in a two-bedroom unit as it was to rent a unit when this government came to power in Canada. This is unacceptable.

We need to consider the real-world impacts for people who are acutely aware and feel these effects in the market as they happen. If we take one of the players out, one of the players offering the lowest rates as would happen with this merger, what happens to those prospective customers? What happens to the rest of the market? Well, the prices are going to go up.

I remember a time when people like the member for New Westminster—Burnaby would have fought for Canadians and not fought for a Prime Minister twice found guilty of breaking ethics laws; a Prime Minister with a cabinet of serial lawbreakers. I remember those times, but they are not the times we are living in now. So desperate is that member to support this Prime Minister that he has turned his back on Canadians, and so Canadians are the ones who are left to pay the price every single month that they can ill afford to.

We can look at the tens of billions of dollars that this NDP-Liberal government has committed to spending on overseas replacement workers taking Canadian jobs. We hear from local unions about the effect that these policies are having in terms of lost wages for their members. We are seeing lost wages and lost jobs and Canadians are seeing their government borrow money to finance it. Who pays the interest on that debt? Well, Canadians do.

This Prime Minister told us that interest rates would stay low for a long time. We will remember that was his famous line when pressed on it. However, interest rates did not stay low. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance said the same. The Governor of the Bank of Canada had said the same. However, Canadians are now getting hammered with rising interest rates, just like they will get hammered with rising interest rates with a bank merger like this. It is unconscionable—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

Order, please. There seem to be discussions going back and forth. I want to remind members to please step into the lobby if they want to have a conversation.

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

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

Madam Speaker, after eight years of the NDP-Liberal government and its inflationary policies, rent has doubled, mortgages have doubled and food bank usage is at record highs, with a third of food bank users being children. It is clear that the Prime Minister and his cabinet of serial law-breakers are just not worth the cost to Canadians. It is the first time in Canadian history that a government has absolutely lost its ethical compass and ability to follow the law, and Canadians are paying the price.

When we have the opportunity to influence the market in a way that is going to encourage competition, that is what this House should be doing. It should be encouraging an environment where Canadians can pay lower prices. That is what we are going to do. We are going to support that kind of competition because Canadians cannot afford otherwise after eight years of the Prime Minister.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Madam Speaker, last Thursday night we saw Conservatives vote to gut food safety programs. They seem to like salmonella and botulism. They do not seem to like investing in food safety, air safety and national defence. They wanted to cut the RCMP dramatically and over $100 million from policing across the country. They voted to gut half a billion dollars from affordable housing. They voted 120 times to destroy everything that has been put into place by generations of Canadians to reinforce and provide services and support to Canadians.

I have a lot of respect for my colleague, but it was unbelievable to see him vote to cut food safety, air safety, affordable housing, indigenous services, national defence and border services. From correctional services, they were going to gut $300 million, which would basically open the door to any prison because we would not be able to afford to run prisons. Why did they vote to gut all of those services that Canadians need?

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

Madam Speaker, Conservatives last week had the opportunity to vote non-confidence in the government because we do not have confidence in the government. We have had the opportunity to do that dozens and dozens of times, just like we will vote against a Liberal budget that promotes higher taxes and less competition and is doubling shelter costs for Canadians, with longer lines at our food banks. We are going to vote for policies that take off the carbon tax so Canadians can afford to feed themselves and to heat their homes. That is unfortunately not what the NDP or its Liberal coalition partner is interested in doing.

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

Madam Speaker, my colleague made many important points about the immense corruption we are seeing from the coalition right now, but I want to ask him specifically about the arrive scam scandal because I know he has done a great deal of work on it.

We have seen how rotten the procurement system has become under the government and how these tiny companies that ostensibly do not do much of anything can receive contracts and pass those contracts on. They are sitting on this unexplained gold mine, where the government pays them and they pay somebody else less and collect a fee along the way, getting millions of dollars for at best being LinkedIn recruiters. The government has refused to come clean about who is responsible for the decisions to hire these companies.

We asked about that repeatedly, and I put in an Order Paper question, in fact, to try to get the answer. Who is responsible for hiring GC Strategies for ArriveCAN? Can the member share what he thinks is behind this deep rot at the heart of our procurement system that is leading to the waste of millions and millions of dollars?

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

Madam Speaker, the $54-million arrive scam app is another example of this out-of-touch government being more concerned about lining the pockets of their well-connected insider friends than delivering results for Canadians or delivering services at a price that ought to be paid. This is an example where $11 million flowed through a two-man shop. As the hon. member said, they were basically glorified LinkedIn recruiters.

When pressed on this, we have a government that is charging $54 million to the taxpayers and is not able to tell us who selected any of the vendors. If we were to bring in the minister, the deputy minister, the ADM and their officials, no one made the choice, they would say, to select these recruiters and ghost contractors. It is important to note that some of these same contractors who worked on the $54-million arrive scam app are under RCMP investigation.

This is a government that is facing more investigations than any government in history and seems to have the limitless support of the NDP while the RCMP, the Ethics Commissioner and the Auditor General have all orders of the government under a magnifying glass.

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

Madam Speaker, I am glad the member opposite mentioned being out of touch. In his rather freewheeling remarks on the motion before us, he referred to me as not being able to represent my constituents because of my personal situation.

I am wondering if he might explain to me how the 83% of members opposite are able to represent the over 50% of people in their ridings who are women when they are all men.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

That question is not really related to the motion before the House. I know that it was part of the member's speech. I am just saying that it is not part of the motion itself, but I will allow the hon. member to respond.

I would remind members that they should not make personal attacks on each other within their speeches or questions.

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

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

Madam Speaker, the member opposite and her colleagues are part of a government that has a cabinet filled with serial lawbreakers, and it is unbelievable that they are able to face Canadians when this is the record they have. Multiple members of the cabinet have been caught breaking the law. If anyone would like me to detail—