Debates of Dec. 11th, 2024

(Return tabled)

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that the remaining questions be allowed to stand.

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

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Motions for Papers

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all notices of motions for the production of papers be allowed to stand at this time.

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

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

The House resumed from December 9 consideration of the motion, of the amendment as amended and of the amendment to the amendment.

Reference to Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that was probably the longest petitions segment we have had in a long time, but I am glad everybody had a chance to deliver petitions signed by their constituents, or signed by their EDAs. Some of our friends across the way probably put them together, but nonetheless, who am I to judge?

Why are we here? We are here once again talking about SDTC, the Liberal green slush fund. I think this is the third time I have had a chance to speak to this. Every time we get a chance to speak to this, we go back into our ridings and we hear more anger and frustration from our constituents regarding the NDP-Liberal government. I will just warn the Speaker that he is probably going to get a lot of points of order from our friends down along the way. I see my friend, another B.C. counterpart from the NDP down there, who likes to filibuster. He likes to take up a lot of the Conservatives' time and protest all the time about all the bad stuff that us Conservatives do, yet he has propped up the government for four years now.

The NDP-Liberal government has now frozen the business of the House for weeks because of its green slush fund scandal. We have been unable to deal with any of the pressing issues facing Canadians, because it refuses to release the documents, the unredacted documents, detailing over $400 million of taxpayer funds that were handed to Liberal insiders. That is the honest to goodness truth. There were over 186 conflicts of interest. A senior civil servant slammed the Liberal government's outright incompetence. The Auditor General said that the industry minister did not sufficiently monitor contracts given to Liberal insiders.

As a matter of fact, the chair of SDTC directed funds right to her own organization. That is what we are talking about today. That is what we have been talking about for the last weeks, or months, really. It is shocking. I have been a member of Parliament for nine years, and I was elected during the sunny ways campaign, where the member for Papineau stood before Canadians and said that when he was Prime Minister, his government would follow the law and be the most open government in the history of our country.

What have we seen is scandal after scandal after scandal. What is shocking to me is how the NDP just fell in line with the Liberals and have really carried the water for them many times. It is always funny when pieces of legislation come before the House and we hear, “Just get it to committee. We will do good work at committee and everybody can have a say in it.” What we have seen over the last four years, whether it is with the WE scandal, SDTC or so many more, is that the NDP has carried the water for the corrupt Liberal government.

New Democrats stand up and like to be holier than thou and very sanctimonious in their deliberations and interventions. They say, “How dare they?” Their leader puffs up his chest and says, “I'm right here, bro” and is on social media talking tough. He did a press conference before QP today, where he was all tough talk and what have we.

The leader of the NDP stood before Canadians and ripped up the agreement between the two parties, and then quickly taped it up and said, “I'm sorry, dear. I didn't mean to do that. I love you.” Every step of the way, he has propped up these guys. Just recently, he once again chose the Prime Minister over Canadians. It is shocking time and time again. He says that he is against the carbon tax, yet he has voted 24 times, maybe even more, in favour of it.

Liberals could end this right now by handing over the documents Parliament requested so that we can allow the RCMP to do its job and investigate the Liberal cronies at SDTC, but they will not do that.

Instead, Liberals stand before the cameras and say, “If only the Conservatives would stop doing what they are doing.” We are the only ones doing our job and making sure that the government is held to account for $400 million. I see the gallery is filling up again. It is Wednesday afternoon after question period and we have a semi-full gallery. I want to let the people in the gallery know that it is $400 million.

What do the Liberals want us to do? They want us to send it to committee, to let the committee study it and see if there was any malfeasance or bad stuff going on. I have said before that, if somebody steals from you, Mr. Speaker, do you go to a committee or do you go to the RCMP? That is why we are here today.

Another thing I want to talk about today, one that is near and dear to me, is another crisis that is taking place, and that is the opioid crisis. The reason I bring that up is for us to imagine how far that $400 million could have gone to help the opioid crisis. How many beds could that $400 million have built?

The Liberals stand and say it was the Conservatives who cut all the jobs at CBSA, but in 2014-15, one of the highest amounts of funding went to the CBSA. Once the Liberal government and the Prime Minister were in place, in 2016-17, over 1,000 jobs were cut. Over $440 million were cut. It is in the Liberals' own public accounts. No one has to believe me. Canadians can bring up the public accounts and see for themselves.

Let us get back to what I was talking about: the opioid crisis. We are powerless to stop illicit drugs from coming into our country. Over 47,000 Canadians have tragically lost their lives to the opioid crisis since 2016, and that situation continues to worsen. In British Columbia, the decriminalization of hard drugs was touted as a solution to reduce stigma and save lives, yet the policy failed. It failed to deliver the intended results. Instead, communities have seen increased drug use in public spaces, needles outside of schools and in playgrounds, public disorder, diversion to youth and organized crime, and no meaningful reductions in overdose deaths.

I am going to say this again because I believe it bears repeating. Overdose is the leading cause of death for youth aged 10 to 18 in the province of British Columbia. That is staggering. I ask Canadians listening in and those in the gallery to look around their neighbourhoods and communities. Do their communities look the same as they did nine years ago? They do not.

I can say that it was not that way before the Prime Minister, and it will not be that way when we elect a strong Conservative prime minister who will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime. The sole focus of the next Conservative government is cleaning up the mess that the Liberal government has made.

We cannot talk about the opioid crisis without talking about safe supply programs, where these government-funded drugs are being diverted and sold illegally, undermining their purpose and fuelling addiction in vulnerable populations, including our youth. The situation is further exacerbated by the flow of deadly substances like fentanyl across our porous borders.

I talked about this earlier. Liberals like to blame Stephen Harper and the former Conservative government, yet it is the government that has been in power for nine years that cut funds and jobs at the CBSA for consecutive years when it took power. The Liberals like to blame everybody but themselves.

Despite clear evidence of dangers posed by these substances, enforcement and border controls remain insufficient to stem the tide. Clearly, stopping fentanyl from entering our country and destroying our communities is not a priority for the government. The government has spent billions on policies that perpetuate addiction, without addressing the root causes or providing support for treatment and recovery.

I will bring it back to the topic we are talking about today: the SDTC fund, where over $440 million of Canadian taxpayer funds was stolen and divvied out by a Liberal-appointed committee to the chair, to other friends and to families and colleagues of the Liberals. Canadians should be outraged at this. How can the Liberals continue to ignore the pleas of families and communities devastated by this crisis? They have had nine years, and all they have been doing is making it worse.

Bill C-5 is a classic example of the Prime Minister's hug-a-thug, revolving-door criminal justice policy that is making our communities unsafe. Bill C-5 eliminated mandatory jail time for certain violent offenders. We want jail, not bail, for criminals who will endanger Canadians. This is why we introduced a motion in the House this week calling on the NDP-Liberal government to reverse Bill C-5, bring in harsher jail sentences for drug kingpins, ban precursor chemicals that organized crime groups use to make deadly fentanyl, scan the containers at our ports and put more boots on the ground at our borders. Ninety-nine per cent of the containers that come through our borders are not scanned. It is unbelievable.

Unfortunately, to Canadians' shock and awe, the Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition voted against it. It voted against the safety of our communities and of Canadians. I ask this of any Canadian who is watching right now: Is this the government they elected in 2015? Is this what they expected? Many Canadians took the bait, hook, line and sinker. The Prime Minister likes to stand before Canadians, put his hand on his heart and dab away a fake tear. He has lied, misled Canadians all along the way.

I cannot talk about the opioid crisis without talking about young Brianna MacDonald. For those who might be just tuning in and those in the gallery, Brianna MacDonald was a 12-year-old. She was on the streets of Abbotsford. She turned 13 on July 15. That is my son's birthday. She died on August 23 in a homeless encampment from overdose. That is my daughter's birthday. Lance Charles, her dad, and Sarah MacDonald were here. Over 30 times, they took Brianna to the hospital to plead for help, for health care, for the doctors or somebody to intervene and help Brianna. What were they given? They were told that if Brianna wanted to kill herself, it was her prerogative. Instead of help, Brianna was given needles and instructions on how to do the drugs better. She was 13 years of age.

I cannot talk about the Liberal government and its failed soft-on-crime, hug-a-thug policies, without talking about Mr. Hubbard in my community. Mr. Hubbard is a senior. He was out in the morning and returned home in the afternoon to find his place being looted by criminals to fuel their drug addiction. He tried stopping them. What happened was that they drove over him, dragged him down the road and left him for dead.

We are tough in northern B.C., in our region. Mr. Hubbard lived, but he has had reconstructive surgery on his face, and he almost lost his arm. He has to endure more operations down the road. However, the same day this incident took place, the RCMP caught a couple of the perpetrators. Within 24 hours, they were back out on the street. It is crazy, but that is what we are seeing time and again from this hug-a-thug Liberal Prime Minister and his friends in the NDP. They talk a big game; they always talk about doing the right thing, yet they fail Canadians every time they get a chance.

We talked about the $400 million of taxpayer funds taken out of the pockets of Canadians and handed to Liberal insiders. We talked about the 186 conflicts of interest that were found by the Auditor General. Again, this debate could end right now if the Liberals just turned over the documents, unredacted, so that the RCMP could have a look at them and see what went on. Instead, they continue to try to cover their tracks and defend their corrupt friends. Meanwhile, Canada is broken. Time and again, we receive messages from our constituents, who are frustrated: “Can't you do anything about the government? Can't you call an election? Can't you force an election?” We are trying.

Canadians are struggling just to get by while the Liberals are focused on enriching their corrupt friends. However, it should not surprise anyone. The legacy of the Prime Minister is one of chaos, scandal, corruption and cover-up, and it did not start today with the green slush fund. It has been a nine-year pattern of dodging accountability and transparency. Did he not say that his was going to be the most transparent government in the history of the country? Somehow, the NDP and the Bloc are still supporting the Prime Minister.

I could go on for hours about the scandals and conflicts of interest that the Prime Minister and the Liberal government have been caught in: the Aga Khan, WE Charity, SNC-Lavalin, blackface, clam scam, arrive scam, GC Strategies, cash for access, gropegate, elbowgate, surf is up in Tofino, the Emergencies Act, sole-sourced contracts, foreign interference and the condo on Billionaires' Row with his media buddy.

The latest scandal to rock the government is, of course, the other Randy. First, he found himself in hot water when texts emerged of a Randy texting the business partners of a shady, fraudulent company. If anybody has seen these text messages, they know that it is an actual shakedown of $500,000. It is a strict no-no for Crown ministers to be caught bidding on federal contracts, so the former minister explained that it was the actions of another Randy, an individual who, as far as we know now, does not exist. His partner said that it was autocorrect nine times. What a farce.

Honestly, the excuses we get from the Liberal front bench on their misgivings is really farcical. I am sure they are going to write a movie about it at some point; all of these scandals and the corruption that take place are really out of a Hollywood script.

All I have to say is that it was not this way before the current Prime Minister. It will not be this way when Canadians elect a strong Conservative prime minister who will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.

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

Mr. Speaker, I just want to allow the member to correct some of the numbers that he gave out.

The member said in his speech that we eliminated border jobs, which is completely untrue. When Stephen Harper came into power, there were 14,833 CBSA employees. When he left, there were 13,774, which is a reduction of 1,059 CBSA employees—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

Mr. Speaker, why are people heckling me when I am just trying to give out data?

Not only did we restore all those jobs, but we also created an additional 371. Therefore, I just want to give the member the opportunity to correct the record, because the numbers certainly do not reflect the statement that he made.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. colleague is misleading Canadians. I am reading right from the public accounts, and it says that for 2014-15, expenditures under a Conservative government were over $2 billion. When the Liberals took government, in 2015-16 and 2016-17, over $400 million was cut from the CBSA, including 1,000 jobs. It is in the public accounts for 2012-17, CBSA spending by program. That parliamentary secretary can look it up himself right there.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the union also identified the 1,100 jobs that were eliminated from CBSA by Stephen Harper and many of the member's colleagues who sit with him here today. The jobs included the sniffer dogs and the people doing intelligence research. They were the frontline workers, men and women who also had to go on strike to get proper protection in the workplace. Therefore, the suggestion that the Conservatives had nothing to do with that and did not take away frontline officers is erroneous. That Conservatives are insisting on attacking the union is outrageous, because the men and women on our front line, protecting our border, deserve the proper supports and protection. They have press releases, press conferences and numerous interventions in the House on this. For the Conservatives to continue to run this line of attack on the union is rather unfortunate.

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as I am heckled by the member right over here, I simply ask this: Why do the Conservatives continue to attack the union when we know that the CBSA is 2,000 to 3,000 officers short and, at the same time, it was the member's former government that got rid of the detector dog program and the sniffer dog program, which were some of the best programs in the world?

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, talk about unhinged and erratic behaviour. Perhaps he is feeling the heat because he is complicit in all the Liberal scandals that have taken place over the last four years. His Twitter-tough leader puffs up his chest, stands before Canadians and says he is going to rip up the contract.

We will take no lessons from the NDP, which has absolutely decimated my province and has no clue what it would do if it ever formed government. The New Democrats are again going to be reduced to the third party in the House, or even the fourth. They are complicit in the Liberal scandals and the Prime Minister's scandals, so we will take no lessons from the New Democrats at all.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, after carefully listening to my colleague's speech, I would encourage him to update his talking points. The Bloc Québécois supported the non-confidence motion against the government on Monday. My colleague needs to get that through his head. We know that the Conservative Party has little to offer in the way of constructive contributions and keeps repeating the same thing, but it needs to be a little more diligent.

The second point that my colleague needs to update is this. The Bloc Québécois did not vote in favour of the Conservative Party's motion to eliminate the goods and services tax, or GST, on new homes because the Conservative motion expressly stated that the provinces would be asked to do likewise. A little more diligence is needed from the Conservative Party, a party that touts provincial and Quebec autonomy. The Conservatives say they want to ask Quebec to manage its own tax policy.

I would like my colleague to explain something. If it is serious about that, why is the Conservative Party trying to dictate what the provinces and Quebec should do with their tax policy? How long has that been part of the Conservative Party line?

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is as serious as a heart attack.

I stand corrected. I thank our hon. colleague from the Bloc for standing with us in that last confidence vote. Aside from that, I will cede the floor to the next question.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I remember the scandal that brought down the former Liberal government of Paul Martin, with the ad scam; that scandal was only $80 million to $90 million. This is $400 million of taxpayer money that was stolen and given to Liberal insiders and friends. The House has been seized with this for months now.

How bad are the unredacted documents? How much must they implicate Liberal friends and family that the Liberals have seized the House and refuse to release the unredacted documents to the RCMP? How many must be going to jail?

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that is the million-dollar question right there, or the $440-million question. How bad is it and where did the money go?

We know $440 million of taxpayer funds was siphoned away from the fund and it went to the Liberal chair. It went to her business. It went to other members of that committee's businesses. What did it fund? I believe it funded a Chinese company, an electric car company, that has egregious human rights issues. There are other companies that it funded, probably more that are Liberal friends.

This is the question we have: How bad is it that the Liberals will not release those documents? They have to be running scared.

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

Mr. Speaker, we can see Conservative misinformation in real time, in the exchange between the member and me earlier. I questioned him about CBSA officers being removed under Stephen Harper's government. He said, “No, no, I looked at the public accounts. I have the dollar figure here. I have the number of people.” Admittedly, he should not have given away the years, because he exposed himself, but he said from “2012 to 2017”.

From 2012 until 2015, it was Stephen Harper in government. The member admitted, in his answer, that the jobs were eliminated under Stephen Harper. He is right. He is right about the jobs being eliminated during that five-year period. He is just wrong about who was in government during that time.

Will he now, given the fact that he has given the numbers himself, admit it was Stephen Harper who eliminated those jobs?

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. colleague said I exposed myself. I have been a member for nine years, and my recollection is that only a Liberal MP exposed himself, three times, and actually was punted out for that.

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I will not go down the path of whimsy and folly of this guy over here. He stands up all the time and is hopeful that he is going to get called to the front bench, and he is only going backward.

With that, I am just not going to go down the path with him.