Debates of June 5th, 2023

Public Accounts

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Madam Speaker, speaking of elections, let me congratulate Alberta and all Albertans for electing another UCP Conservative majority that once again rejected the Liberal-NDP government, including the job-killing carbon tax, the inflationary carbon tax—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

May hon. members afford the courtesy to the hon. member to answer the question?

The hon. member for Calgary Forest Lawn has the floor.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Madam Speaker, I am just as excited as they all are that Albertans rejected the same failed carbon tax the Liberal-NDP government keeps boasting about. I congratulate Albertans, Danielle Smith and the UCP majority government—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Questions and comments, the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

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

Madam Speaker, Edmonton is entirely orange now. All MLAs across Edmonton are now New Democrat, and most MLAs in Calgary are actually New Democrats as well. I think that the member neglected to say that the Conservatives have lost the cities, of course, in Alberta.

More importantly, what this member is doing with his dilatory motion is blocking the request for an emergency debate tonight on wildfires that have swept through Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. This shows profound disrespect by Conservatives to those volunteer firefighters who are persevering and fighting the fires, as well as people in northern Alberta who are fighting the wildfires. Conservatives are saying they do not give a damn—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Calgary Forest Lawn.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Madam Speaker, let me just start off by reminding the member that Edmonton is in Alberta and that Albertans overwhelmingly selected a majority Conservative government, rejecting the same carbon tax that we are debating right now.

He wants to talk about disrespect. We can talk about the one in five Canadians who is skipping meals and the 1.5 million people who are visiting food banks because that party is making food, groceries, home heating and fuel more and more expensive with the failed carbon tax. We cannot call that party an opposition party anymore, because it is part of the government.

It has failed to hit a single emissions reduction target, yet it is making things worse for those struggling Canadians and putting more tax on the backs of Canadian families.

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

Madam Speaker, here is a rebuttal. What do the Conservatives block? They are blocking dental care for seniors, people with disabilities and families with youth under the age of 18. They are blocking a grocery rebate that about 11,000 people in his riding would benefit from. They are blocking affordable housing.

In fact, the Conservatives are being pyromaniac gatekeepers, blocking all those things that the NDP has forced the government to do, which would actually benefit people in his riding.

Why are the Conservatives going through this charade?

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Madam Speaker, let me be very clear. What Conservatives are blocking is this Liberal-NDP government piling another 4,200 dollars' worth of debt on to the struggling backs of hard-working Canadians. That is what we will continue to block.

We have two simple asks. The Liberal-NDP government needs to lower the deficit and lower the inflation. We see nine out of 10 young people blocked out of home ownership, and we see mortgages and rents going up. That is because these two parties got together and put Canadians further into debt than any government before them combined, which raised the interest rates. Today, we have a housing crisis along with a crisis of cost of living. It is because of the failed policies of this government.

Conservatives will continue to stand up for Canadians, make sure that we lower the price and bring it home for them.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate)]

Madam Speaker, I thank the members of the House for rejecting that motion to adjourn; this gives me the opportunity to speak to this very important issue. I found it interesting that it was a report from the public accounts committee that was looking to be concurred in, but little was actually said about the report.

Instead, there was just a lot of talk about a price on pollution, something that the Conservatives should realize they have lost the war on. They keep fighting this fight thinking that, somehow, more members in the House are going to change their opinion on the matter. That is just not true.

Canadians should know what is really going on right now, which is that the soldiers of the Leader of the Opposition are doing his dirty work for him. Earlier today, in a news conference, he said that he was going to put up every roadblock possible to ensure that we could not get the budget through.

I have news for Conservatives. We are absolutely going to be here as long as it takes to get the budget passed. We are going to pass the budget; we are not going to bend to their two ridiculous demands in the process. We can keep playing these games all they want. We can sit here into July if they want, but we are going to deliver for Canadians. That is what we have been sent to do.

Canadians should also know about the games the Conservatives played on Friday. There is a great montage and summary of all that, which I have shared on Twitter. This shows the extent to which they used the hybrid provisions that we have in the House, provisions that are there to assist members in participating from outside this chamber, in order to delay absolutely everything.

I hope that Canadians are aware of that. Typically speaking, on any given motion like this, we would have maybe one or two people who would have to raise a point of order after the debate. They would do this if something happened to their phone, where they were not able to utilize it properly or it flagged and said to “please verify”. Do we know—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman is rising on a point of order.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary knows full well that we are debating the budget bill. This has nothing to do with the budget.

Second, because this has relevance, the Speaker, on Friday, committed to looking into all the problems we had during that vote.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

That has been dealt with, and there has been a ruling by the Speaker.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

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

Madam Speaker, the member is not even aware of what we are debating right now. I do not blame him, because the Conservatives are up to so much stuff over there. Just for his information, we are debating a concurrence motion that his colleague put forward from the public accounts committee. That is what we are debating, but I am not surprised that Conservatives are absolutely clueless as to what is going on in this House right now, given the fact that 40 Conservative members, on Friday, raised a point of order after the vote and wasted a total of 23 minutes just in one voting exercise. So—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley is rising on a point of order.

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

Madam Speaker, we are debating a concurrence motion. I do not see what the relevance to the concurrence motion is. This member—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member knows that there is a lot of leeway on relevance, and I will allow it. The hon. member has 20 minutes to bring us back to relevance.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

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

Madam Speaker, the relevance is that I am speaking to the motive for placing this concurrence motion before the House right now. That is the relevance of it. Nonetheless, I think it is important that we get back to the business at hand.

Therefore, I move:

That the House do now proceed to Presenting Petitions.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The question is on the motion.

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

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Call in the members.

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

Vote #347

Committees of the House

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I declare the motion carried.

Human Rights

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, I am honoured to table a petition. The petitioners are asking for support for Bill C-257, which would add protections for people who have political differences to make sure they are valued the same as other human rights in the federally regulated sphere. This is an important initiative, and certainly these petitioners need to be heard by their government. I hope the government will respond accordingly and favourably.