Debates of Nov. 25th, 2025

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

[Nathalie Provost, Liberal, Secretary of State (Nature)]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to address the House as the member for Châteauguay—Les Jardins‑de‑Napierville. My journey since December 6, 1989, has led me to live a range of experiences, and today I draw the attention of the House to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This is an extremely important day for me.

It is a day that is recognized around the world, marking the beginning of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

It is a day to say clearly that this is not a private matter. It is a social issue, a human rights issue and a matter of public safety.

My name is Nathalie Provost. I survived the Polytechnique femicide on December 6, 1989, the day 14 of my sisters lost their lives simply because they were women and they just wanted to fulfill all of their dreams.

I rise today to speak as a woman, and obviously as a survivor, but also as a federal member and as someone who has witnessed the consequences of violent sexism. I am rising here in the House on behalf of those who can no longer speak and those who are still waiting to be protected.

Today's date, November 25, is significant; it was selected to honour the memory of the Mirabal sisters, activists from the Dominican Republic who were murdered on November 25, 1960. They died for standing up to dictatorship and patriarchy.

In 1999, the United Nations officially declared it the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, with a universal message: Violence against women is a violation of human rights.

In 1991, Canada established December 6 as a national day in memory of my colleagues, the 14 women who were murdered at Polytechnique. The violence I experienced in 1989 was undeniably an act of violence against women and an unmistakable case of femicide that stood out for its unprecedented scale. The fact is that in Canada and around the world today, a woman or girl is killed every 48 hours. It is a much too common occurrence, so we have an important duty to remember.

Femicide is a societal problem that concerns us all and cuts across part lines. One in three women in Canada will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. I am an extremely privileged woman. However, I look back to the story of my mother, the story of my maternal grandmother, and the experiences I have heard about from children and adolescents. I know that this reality concerns us all because men are also our allies. They are our fathers, our brothers, our friends, our companions, and our partners.

All of us know someone who has experienced violence against women, and yet, less than 10% of sexual assaults are reported to the police. Violence against women and gender-based violence goes far beyond headlines.

They affect every region of the country and every social sphere.

Rates of violence against trans women and non-binary people are above the national average. 2SLGBTQI+ people often face higher rates of violence. Obviously, we must also turn our attention to indigenous girls and women. They are six times more likely to be murdered than non-indigenous women. They experience higher rates of sexual violence and exploitation. They disappear, and their homicide cases go cold. That is unacceptable.

It is unacceptable that, despite reconciliation being at the heart of our values, Canada has still not managed to bring these numbers down. This should not be about numbers. These are human beings, women who deserve our full attention, women who deserve to live their lives, and like my sisters, they have every right to chase their dreams. They face particularly difficult challenges.

I do not have any statistics on racialized women with me, but I have no doubt it is worse for them than for women who, like me, are non-indigenous and white. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, and I really hope to draw our collective attention to all the marginalized women out there.

Today, we are not here just to review the facts with respect to our government's measures. We are here to take action and change the conditions that enable this violence.

Actions speak louder than words.

Budget 2025 invests $223.4 million over five years, with $44.7 million ongoing, to strengthen our action in response to gender-based violence, support women's organizations, and advance the vision of a Canada that is free from violence. This is part of an overall budget investment of $660.5 million over five years to further advance gender equality, support women's groups, and assist groups that support the 2SLGBTQI+ community. We are doing even more to make bail more difficult to obtain in cases of sexual offences. Bill C‑14 was introduced to strengthen protections for victims and uphold their right to safety and justice.

Lastly, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Indigenous Services Canada have committed funds for the construction and operation of 38 emergency shelters and 39 transitional housing units across the country as part of the indigenous shelter and transitional housing initiative. The federal government has proposed an investment of $1 billion in transitional and supportive housing through Build Canada Homes. These are all concrete measures. They are things we can do right here and right now.

I hope this message will be heard over the next 16 days, and every day that follows. I think that we, as the elected members of Parliament, must work together to make Canada a great place to live, a great place for all women to live. As we know and as we have discussed, the rise in social isolation, the rise of masculinism, the fragmentation and polarization of ideas are all trends that primarily and seriously impact the health and safety of women, and the health and safety of people in general, especially those who are marginalized.

Most of all, these trends are going to impact our collective well-being and our prosperity. If we truly wish to build Canada strong, we must build it with everyone, including women, by working to end violence against women.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank and congratulate my colleague, the Secretary of State (Nature).

I believe that there is no such thing as too many opportunities to talk about women and violence against women. We have the chance to talk about it here from November 25 to December 10, although we should be talking about it all year round. In fact, that is what we do at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, but I will come back to that. The period from November 25 to December 10 is a key time of year when men and women come together to look at what is happening in our communities, in our country, in our provinces, in our cities and in our towns. How are women's issues being approached? How are women being treated?

I want to share some background information about the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. There are three key dates, as my colleague mentioned. In 1999, the United Nations declared November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

There is obviously December 6, a date that is painful for all Canadians and, it goes without saying, for all Quebeckers to remember. I am the same age as the women who were murdered on December 6 simply for being women and perhaps for studying in traditionally male-dominated fields. They were murdered. My colleague called them her 14 sisters, but I would call them our 14 sisters.

There is also December 10, Human Rights Day, which celebrates the adoption of the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights back in 1948.

The news for women is not especially positive today. The picture is not completely bleak, but neither is it very rosy when it comes to women's safety. A woman or girl is murdered in Canada every 48 hours, meaning every other day. In 2024, 240 women and girls were murdered. There have been approximately 15 femicides in Quebec over the past year. These women, these people, were murdered simply for being women.

Our committee is in the middle of a study about women's safety and the Criminal Code. We have heard chilling statements from witnesses. They told us there is an epidemic of violence against women. I would go even further and call it a national crisis. I think we have a national crisis on our hands when it comes to the status of women and women's safety.

Here are some statistics. Sexual assault is up 76% since 2015. Homicides are up 30%, and violent crime is up 55%. Two or three weeks ago, the Liberal Minister of Justice said that the violent crime index in Canada has increased by 41%. According to police across Canada, the number of female victims of domestic violence has risen by 40% nationwide, which is very high. That is extremely concerning.

A number of initiatives have been implemented. Every small step, every small gesture, no matter how small, is important and brings us one step closer to being able to keep women safe.

I drew up a list of the work we have done. Perhaps some will say that the women on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, and the men who sometimes attend, are hyperactive. The committee has conducted about nine studies that have resulted in resolutions, recommendations and observations that have been presented to the current government to get things moving and speed up action to improve protection for women.

Let us talk about coercive control. As I was saying earlier, the committee did a study on that topic, and the report will be tabled today.

The House passed a bill on this subject that even made it to the Senate. It was Bill C‑332, if memory serves.

This bill had to do with criminalizing coercive control. This is no one's fault, but that bill died on the Order Paper when the election was called. I would therefore like to issue my colleagues a challenge. If this is not already in the works, would it be possible to fast-track the bill to get it moving forward again? The House of Commons passed it, and it got to the Senate. It did not have much further to go.

I hope that the Chair will allow me to make a somewhat more partisan comment. I am not the most partisan person here, so I hope he will indulge me.

First, there is no full-time minister for the status of women. We know that the minister has other jobs and other portfolios to deal with. She is not just responsible for the status of women. Second, we learned in the budget statement that the funding for the department responsible for the status of women has been cut by 78%. Off the top of my head, I think that can be found on page 209 of the French version of the budget.

It seems to me that there is an inconsistency when government members who are wearing the ribbon are presenting these kinds of numbers and rising in the House to pay lip service to women's issues, while, at the same time, cutting the budget to protect women. Something is wrong here.

I would therefore urge the government to bring back Bill C‑332 and fast-track it. We all agreed on it. Let us hit one out of the park and move forward with a bill to criminalize coercive control. All of the stakeholders we have met with in recent weeks are calling for that. While we are at it, perhaps the government should also reconsider the budget it has allocated to the Minister for Women.

I will close by saying that one of the arguments in favour of criminalizing coercive control is that coercive control, as invisible as it may be, can lead to physical violence.

I am sure my colleagues know where things go from there.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is my turn to extend my regards to the Secretary of State for Nature, a Polytechnique survivor, and to the member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, with whom I have the pleasure of working on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. As she mentioned, it is an extremely active committee.

On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I also wish to recognize the women and men who dedicate themselves every day to combatting violence against women. It is a never-ending battle that sees both wins and losses, but it continues to be fought tirelessly, with conviction and courage, by psychologists, social workers, women's shelter workers, police officers, and many other stakeholders of both sexes. They are all working relentlessly to fight violence against women. We are profoundly grateful to them and we unreservedly support their vital contribution to this cause.

In Quebec, November 25 marks the start of the “12 Days of Action to End Violence Against Women” campaign. I encourage all Quebeckers to use this time to reflect, to take action, to talk with others, to raise awareness, and to participate in events that focus on eliminating violence against women.

We must maintain constant vigilance against any sort of backsliding. We have seen some examples of that. According to the federal government, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which is observed annually on November 25, is “a global call to prevent and address gender-based violence...in all its forms”. The government says it is a “global call”, and yet shortly before this important date, the Prime Minister struck a deal with the United Arab Emirates and declared that Canada's foreign policy was no longer feminist.

According to Human Rights Watch, the United Arab Emirates' penal code “reintroduced the criminalization of consensual nonmarital sex....Unmarried couples who have a child face no less than two years in prison....Unmarried pregnant women face difficulties accessing prenatal health care and registering their children”. In the United Arab Emirates, domestic violence is tolerated and women must submit to men in matters relating to marriage, divorce and married life. In short, Emirati women are second-class citizens. The Prime Minister knows this; the Prime Minister knew this.

How did he react? He said that Canada no longer has a feminist foreign policy. We are far from a “global call” to “eliminate violence against women”. What is more, the Prime Minister failed to appoint a minister for the status of women to his first cabinet. He is not doing anything meaningful to get rid of assault weapons, despite the willingness expressed by previous Liberal governments to do so. The Prime Minister was unaware of PolyRemembers during the last election campaign. What this tells us is that the struggle for equality, for the advancement of women's issues and for the elimination of violence are far from over.

The Liberal Party is looking more and more like the Reform Party. It is oil, oil, oil and nothing to fight climate change. It is oil, oil, oil and nothing for gender equality, nothing to help eliminate violence against women. When the Prime Minister goes abroad to the G20 and says that Canada's foreign policy is not feminist, he is saying that money matters more to us than women. The Conservatives like hearing the Prime Minister make such statements. Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole, in particular, was delighted by this. Abandoning feminism now, as the Prime Minister has done, establishes a value system in which women are clearly not at the top. The Prime Minister's term is off to a bad start.

We all have a responsibility to work to eliminate violence against women.

Every time a government waters down its discourse, every time it is tempted to sideline feminism because it might curtail business, every time it opts for neglect, silence, omission or concession when presented with a cheque for a huge amount of money, the cause of women is set back. These issues need to be addressed when women are being threatened and abused, not when their lives have improved and they are doing well.

The Liberals had an opportunity to send the world a message in support of women. They chose the opposite. It is a sad state of affairs and not a good way to start these days of action to end violence against women.

The Liberals should be ashamed of themselves.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I seek unanimous consent to speak.

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Is there unanimous consent?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with humility and resolve on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the first day of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. This is a day that demands truth-telling. It reminds us that for an issue as urgent and as widespread as gender-based violence, words alone have never been enough. Safety requires real action. Every level of government carries that responsibility. I would like to thank the Secretary of State for Nature for beginning our day and reminding us of that.

When governments hesitate, when they fail to make violence prevention a priority, lives remain at risk. We see the consequences in our communities. We feel them in our families. We witness them in grief carried by loved ones who should have never had to bury our daughters, sisters, aunties and friends.

Gender-based violence flows through our homes, our bones, our workplaces, public spaces and online spaces. It does not confine itself. It reaches everywhere, which means that our response must reach just as far.

Experts, frontline workers, municipal leaders and even former attorneys general have all said the same thing: Gender-based violence and intimate partner violence amount to an epidemic in Canada. An epidemic demands a whole-of-government response. Nothing less is acceptable.

Ending violence means speaking clearly against the growing forces of far-right misogyny, anti-feminist rhetoric and anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ hate. These ideologies do not exist in isolation. They have long been tied to violent extremism. We remember the women murdered at École Polytechnique in 1989. We honour them by refusing to let hatred take root again. Again, I would like to honour the Secretary of State for Nature for sharing her story.

Today, some elected representatives openly court groups that spread these hateful beliefs. Others have softened or abandoned their commitments to gender-based equality to appease anti-feminist voices. This is a betrayal of every woman and every gender-diverse person who has ever feared for their safety. We must stand against this extremism with absolute clarity and without hesitation.

We cannot confront gender-based violence without naming racism and the ongoing legacy of colonialism and genocide. Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people face higher rates of violence in this country and are six times more likely than non-indigenous women to experience femicide. The crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people is not symbolic. It is not historic. It is a national emergency. In fact, the former prime minister recognized this as an ongoing genocide, yet in this year's budget, the Liberals did not include a single mention of this crisis. We are not invisible.

This omission is even more alarming when the budget centres projects of national interest that involve resource extraction on indigenous lands and territories. We know that man camps and transient workforces increase violence against indigenous women and girls. The status of women committee, in fact, confirmed this in a study during the last Parliament, calling for greater corporate responsibility and meaningful safety planning. Still, the government presented a plan crafted without the participation of indigenous women and without meaningful commitments to community safety. This is unacceptable. This is turning a blind eye to our genocide.

Indigenous women will not sit quietly while governments ignore our right to safety and our right to dignity. We deserve more than symbolic gestures. We deserve life-saving investment, long-term commitment and accountability rooted in justice.

The budget also lacked concrete plans for affordable housing, rent-geared-to-income units and safer shelter places. These are not optional supports. They are essential lifelines for people fleeing violence.

We know that poverty reduction is not separate from safety. It is the foundation of it. People cannot escape violence if they cannot afford to survive. This is why New Democrats continue to push for deeply affordable housing and a guaranteed livable basic income. We know that safety grows from stability; safety grows from dignity.

I offer my deepest gratitude to frontline organizations that continue to meet this crisis with courage and compassion. They hold the line when every other system breaks down. They create refuge where none exists. When the government attempted to gut the women and gender equality department, these organizations advocated and protected this vital funding. Their work quite literally saves lives.

However, we cannot accept half measures. We cannot accept a government that ignores reproductive health, cuts essential supports for refugees or sidesteps the needs of survivors. To fight gender-based violence is to defend human rights in their entirety. Every policy choice strengthens or weakens that defence.

These struggles are not abstract. They are about real people with real stories. I hold deep the love for survivors, for families and for communities, including my own.

Unfortunately, as we begin the 16 days of activism, we are also witnessing a troubling shift on the global stage. On the eve of this campaign, the Prime Minister has chosen to court closer ties with the U.A.E. while diluting Canada's commitments to gender equality. This signals to the world that Canada no longer expects meaningful progress on human rights in exchange for diplomatic favour.

Today, I call on all parliamentary colleagues to join me in a simple but profound commitment. Let us defend the right of every person in this country to live free from violence. Let us defend the right of every person around the world to live free of violence. Let us choose courage over convenience. Let us act.

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I believe the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands seeks unanimous consent to speak to this important issue. Is there unanimous consent?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank all my colleagues for doing me the honour of allowing me to rise today to respond to the speech by our colleague, the member for Châteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville. It is an honour.

This is an emotional topic for everyone here. As the other members have already said, our colleague, the member for Châteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville, who is also the Secretary of State for Nature, was one of the victims on December 6, 1989. We will never forget the massacre at École Polytechnique.

For years, we have been reading the names of the 14 women who were murdered and the two women who were injured. Everyone knows that our colleague is one of them. The Standing Orders forbid me from saying her name out loud, but it is an honour to work with her in this place. She is a woman of extraordinary courage because, after that disaster, after that massacre, she continued to advocate for gun control with PolyRemembers.

We can always do more to address violence against women. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women was created because of the massacre that took place here in Canada. It is hard to believe. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Despite the École Polytechnique massacre and the heightened awareness of violence against women, it persists. Violence by an intimate partner against a former partner and the killing of her children are things that continue to happen.

As my colleagues have mentioned, of course we recognize that particularly vulnerable are indigenous women and girls.

There was an inquiry into the murders of indigenous women, but the recommendations have not yet been implemented.

The recommendations, the calls for justice, of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls inquiry gather dust, and indigenous women and girls continue to go missing and continue to be killed.

Globally, right now, there is an extreme increase in gender-based violence as an act of war in Darfur, Sudan, with connections to Canadian arms manufacturers in Sudan now. Women and girls globally are far more vulnerable to violence because they are women. Femicide occurs far more frequently around the world than we see with our male colleagues, many of whom are feminists. There is no question that to be born female in this world means to be more at risk than to be born male.

Violence against women and girls is a scourge that continues. I celebrate the work of the Moose Hide Campaign and the many men who stand up to say they want to be seen as a man who condemns toxic masculinity.

I am being careful; there is much I could say about our failures domestically, but today is a day of internal reflection. We know we have to do more in our society as a whole. We know we need to raise up and thank the courageous women on the front lines who defend the right of women to live in security.

I will never forget the words of Margaret Atwood on this point. She said that men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them. That is a deep reality. I know that when I walk alone in a parking lot and hear footsteps behind me in the dark, I am afraid in a way that my husband in similar circumstances would not be.

We in Canada can do more. We need to honour the memory of the young, brilliant women engineering students who had their whole lives ahead of them. Thank God one of our colleagues survived the shootings and is now here as a voice against violence against women and for better gun control. Now sheer happenstance has laid in her path the role of Secretary of State for Nature. I want to thank her, honour her and celebrate her work.

I ask that all of us together live up to the promise that Canada holds for the world as a place that will condemn the Taliban and a state that practises apartheid against women and condemn violence against women wherever it occurs. We must increase our efforts as a country united to end the scourge of violence against anyone, and on this day redouble our efforts to end violence against women.

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I want to thank our colleagues for their interventions and for sharing their insights and comments on such a sad yet important subject that concerns us all.

I wish to inform the House that because of the ministerial statement, Government Orders will be extended by 37 minutes.

Status of Women

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, entitled “Coercive Control in Canada”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

We know that coercive control is often the precursor to violence against women in Canada. The recommendations in this report, if acted upon, will go a long way to helping eliminate that violence.

Falun Gong

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition today on behalf of many Canadians who are calling upon the House of Commons and the Government of Canada to call for an end to the persecution of the Falun Gong in China, to take stronger measures to combat the Chinese Communist Party's transnational repression here in Canada and basically to just take stronger actions against the Communist regime.

Ship Recycling

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table e-petition 6675, signed by petitioners primarily from Union Bay, British Columbia.

They highlight that the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy conducted a study in Baynes Sound. They found discharges of effluent with toxins, of both acute and chronic concentration, exceeding the provincial water guidelines. The petitioners highlight that copper, lead and zinc all surpassed the chronic levels set out by the guidelines, with copper at 23,950% above, lead at 1,200% above and zinc at 7,320% above chronic levels. A pollution abatement order was issued in January 2024.

The petitioners call on the Department of Environment and Climate Change and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to use their mandate to enforce section 36 of the Fisheries Act in order to help stop the pollution in Baynes Sound from unregulated ship recycling. They call on the government to develop enforceable federal standards to reduce the negative environmental and social impacts of unregulated ship recycling that meet or exceed those set out in the Hong Kong and European Union conventions for the safe recycling of ships.

Environmental Education

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise this morning to present a petition from the constituents of Saanich—Gulf Islands.

These petitioners want to raise an issue related to how critical it is that Canada pay attention to the educational system and improve the education of our young people around ecological and social economic crises, but particularly to focus on the environmental and sustainability concerns in order that the environmental education of Canada lead to Canadian leadership, in which it is understood that we do not trade off economic growth against a livable future.

The petitioners call on the House of Commons to take a leadership role in enacting a Canadian strategy to support educators, communicators and community leaders. We need to support them.

I am proud to say that my daughter is now a full-time environmental educator in the city of Vancouver, in the K-12 system.

Questions on the Order Paper

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

Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

[For text of questions and responses, see Written Questions website]

The House resumed from November 24 consideration of the motion that Bill C-15, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on November 4, 2025, be read the second time and referred to a committee, and of the amendment.

Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Mr. Speaker, before I could finish my speech yesterday, I was talking about how the budget would fail to make any investments in treatment and recovery. Instead, the Liberals would continue with their failed policies and funding streams that enable drug use.

The Minister of Health is approving supervised drug consumption sites across the country, including next to day cares, schools and playgrounds. Parents should never have to walk their children past people smoking fentanyl in broad daylight. Children should never find used needles in their playground. Health Canada's own data shows that the most-used substance at these federally approved sites is fentanyl, nearly every second visit. How is this safe?

It is not just Conservatives who are saying this; law enforcement agencies are sounding an alarm too. In a letter sent to the Liberal government earlier this year, the chief of Ottawa Police warned that a federally approved supervised drug site in downtown Ottawa has become a focal point of community safety concerns. He reported an escalation of open drug use, aggressive behaviour and public intoxication in the neighbourhood. Law enforcement officers warned that the impacts have become so serious that nearby child care centres have shut down over safety concerns. When day cares are forced to close because children are not safe, the government should stop repeating what it is doing.

During my visit to B.C., a recovered addict told me, “If you give me the foil and the crack pipe to do drugs, you may as well give me a bullet and the gun to kill myself.” These were his words, not mine. The next day, I visited a vending machine in Kelowna; it dispensed drug paraphernalia such as crack pipes and foil. There were no ID requirements or questions. It was so easy to use that a toddler could figure it out. There are no barriers between the addict and their next hit, because the government has removed them.

This budget could have invested in treatment and recovery. Instead, it continues to pour money into the tools that fuel addiction. Recently obtained information confirms that the government's own emergency treatment fund is being used to purchase smoking kits; in other words, these are taxpayer-funded crack pipes. How can a government claim to support recovery while enabling the very practices that keep people trapped in addiction? When I was in B.C., I met with recovered addicts. They all told me the same thing: They cannot recover while surrounded by drug use; they cannot recover while the government hands out supplies, and they cannot recover when drug consumption is encouraged in their own neighbourhood.

Canadians deserve better. Canadians are sick and tired of Liberal politicians who pretend policies and funding that enable drug use are safe. They are not safe; they are lethal. However, as I stated, there is nothing in the budget to support real recovery and treatment.

I want to return to the other issue that Canadians were hoping to see when they opened the budget: affordability. They wanted financial relief; instead, they got a credit card that would drive up the cost of living. The people of Riding Mountain are some of the hardest-working Canadians we will ever meet. They put in long hours, and they played by the rules; after 10 years of the current government, they were asking for one thing: a government that makes life more affordable. However, instead, Canadians watched the Prime Minister break every fiscal promise he made. The Prime Minister said he would be responsible, but the budget shows he is willing to gamble Canada's future on record levels of borrowing.

I fear not only for Canadians who are struggling but also for the future generations that are already burdened by the financial impact of the budget. I assure members that on this side of the House, Conservatives see a better path forward. We believe Canadians deserve a government that respects taxpayers, restores affordability and brings hope for those who have been affected by addictions through real recovery and treatment. We must work harder so that Canada and the good people who call this nation home can once again be financially strong, proud and free.

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

Mr. Speaker, the member, I know, has asked questions of Liberals with regard to safe sites. I am sure he is aware that there is a process for acquiring a safe site, which actually includes community involvement. It also includes having letters from the provinces and territories.

Is the member aware of any province, territory or community with a safe site that has actually said no, they do not want a safe site? Is he aware of one in Canada?

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Mr. Speaker, did the member not hear what I just said? I had people coming up to me in communities begging for help. Meanwhile, the government, his government, is actually enabling drug addictions. It is not helping people. It is hurting people, harming people, thousands of people. He has done absolutely nothing about it, and the budget would do absolutely nothing to address that problem.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to ask my colleague about the insane policies of the Liberal government, in which it ignores the importance of treatment and plows recklessly toward more drug use in our community while claiming safe supply will cure all.

I would like to hear from the member, why is the government so driven to be against treatment options for addicts?

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Mr. Speaker, actually, I cannot understand it. I really do not understand why the government is so hell-bent on fuelling addictions. To see the despair in people's eyes, with people who are trapped in a system that our government is supporting, is absolutely heartbreaking.

We were doing a community walk, and I was watching where addicts would gather at night and create fires. It was right on public walkways where children were going by. It was very heartbreaking. I talked to one person, a woman, and all she wanted was help. It was easier for her to get a crack pipe or a needle than it was to actually get a bandage to cover her wounds. That is how sickening this is.