Debates of Oct. 22nd, 2026

Health

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Madam Speaker, we, in the House, have had this question come up a number of times, and I am happy to reiterate some of the basic facts and maybe get into them in the returns.

The reality is simple. When the minister found out, the minister acted. It is not reasonable to expect the minister to act before she found out on its surface. It is important that tax dollars are used properly. That is a fundamental principle of any democracy. That is a fundamental principle of any government. We have an independent review of the organization's governance and structure under way in a third-party audit of the organization's findings.

This is the start of any such process. This is what proper governance looks like. The Auditor General would agree, as she found that doing a study herself would be “duplicative and therefore of limited added value for Parliamentarians and Canadians.” There is a process under way. We follow the rules in this country. We follow due process in this country.

I look forward to hearing the results, as I know all Canadians do, and to making sure that we can further protect the spending of Canadian dollars.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Madam Speaker, is the member talking about further protecting the tax dollars of Canadians? There has been $300 million to a failed program and 200 million tax dollars that went unaccounted for during 10 years under the Liberal government's watch, and the parliamentary secretary says, “Well, the minister acted when she found out about it.” What was she doing all this time? What were Liberal health ministers doing all this time? What part of ministerial responsibility does the minister not accept?

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Madam Speaker, this is a question that has come up a number of times. The minister acted when she found out. There is an independent review under way. The Auditor General has found that additional action by the Auditor General would not add value. At this point, that is where the record stands.

The Economy

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, a few weeks ago, I asked the government if it would adopt the Conservative plan to repeal its antidevelopment laws, remove capital gains taxes on investment gains reinvested in Canada and remove its industrial carbon tax.

The response from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship was quite remarkable. He rose in this place and said, “We used to build things in this country.” I thought what a telling response that was, what a strange response from a parliamentary secretary speaking for a government that has been in power for 11 years, to concede that under the Liberals' watch, Canada has indeed become a country where things do not get built.

It was quite surprising, and I could not help but say then that the parliamentary secretary is going to be really upset when he finds out who has been in charge for the last 11 years. It is as if the government were having an out-of-body experience, viewing what has transpired in Canada and the transformation that has occurred in Canada during its tenure.

The parliamentary secretary must be really upset to find out now that the government for which he is a spokesperson brought in a ministerial order, immediately upon taking office, to cancel the northern gateway pipeline, that the government brought in a bill, Bill C-48, to slam the door shut on a northern pipeline by banning shipping traffic, or to prevent shipping traffic coming into either the port of either Kitimat or the port of Prince Rupert. He must have been really disappointed that the government passed Bill C-69 in 2019, which, following several years of continual moving of goalposts, made it absolutely impossible for any private sector proponent to propose, gain approval for and build a pipeline in Canada.

The parliamentary secretary must have been very disappointed that the government chased TransCanada Pipeline out of the country. It changed its name to TC Energy and focused its energy and investment activity in Mexico and the United States. He and the other Liberals must be very disappointed to suddenly learn that their government has presided over a decline in per capita GDP growth during the time they were in office and that they have presided over a now continual collapsing of housing starts, which they keep promising are going to increase but do not. This is the record. It is the Liberals' responsibility, and it is during their tenure that we became a country where we failed to build projects.

I do implore the Liberals to adopt the Conservative plan to actually repeal the laws that prevent projects from getting built, instead of their approach, which is to grant themselves more power to then politically interfere by declaring which projects the laws of Canada will not apply to.

I will have to leave it at that, and we will see what the parliamentary secretary has to say in response.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and appreciate his work on natural resources.

There are a number of things I want to go through that he discussed. I will take them in the order that he presented them.

He discussed a number of different things that occurred over the last 10 years. He failed to mention, however, that the regulatory burden has increased in Canada, yes, but it had increased, in an unbroken sense, through the Harper years as well. What we are doing with Bill C-39 is rationalizing systems that have become burdensome, not just under the Trudeau government but under many governments before. That is work we should all support in the House.

The member talked about the northern gateway pipeline and purported to say that it was killed by a Liberal government. I would observe that the approval was actually struck down by the Supreme Court first because of the failure of a Conservative government to follow due processes there. That is a reminder to us that we need to make sure that in this Canadian context, we are doing things prudently and wisely. Running things through is not how things get built in Canada. Things get built in Canada through collaboration between a federal government and the provinces, first nations and those who have come after. Collaboration is the name of the game.

The member also mentioned the tanker ban. While the tanker ban was enshrined in law during the Trudeau years, it has existed since the 1980s under the Mulroney, Campbell, Chrétien, Martin and Harper governments, before it was enshrined in law. In fact, it was never tested in that time. There is often misinformation going around that tankers are still running through that area. That is not the case. I have heard it many times, so I will pre-empt that.

When the member talked about pipelines not being built, he failed to mention TMX, a pipeline that was built and in fact reduced our reliance on the United States significantly. It is the only reason we are not 100% reliant on the United States for export.

I will also say that while I too have my challenges with the approach to energy generation and production in the Trudeau years, we did see oil production increase by 34% in Canada at a time when global oil production increased in the same period by six per cent. We did that while reducing emissions by six per cent, while the population increased 15%. Although the record is mixed, there are many positives in there as well.

We are currently seeing record oil and diesel production. If we want to talk about our region of Calgary, as the member and I share a region, we are seeing a lot of positivity. Housing prices are down, rents are down, and there has been an increase of 62,000 jobs since the start of this calendar year.

It seems to me that our plan is working.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Madam Speaker, time did not allow me to talk about TMX in my remarks.

The government seems to seek extraordinary credit for nationalizing and building TMX at a 500% cost overrun from what a private builder would have built with private money after the government chased that private developer out, which is astounding. The debacle of TMX is a further example of the failed approach of the government. The northern gateway pipeline was conditionally approved. Almost literally, the first thing the government did when it was elected in 2015 was kill it with an order in council.

The government has a history of failing to allow projects to be built, and we will judge it by the shovels in the ground, of which there are currently none.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Madam Speaker, I will also mention northern gateway. The Harper government's failure to properly manage the consultations on that was one of the consequences that led to TMX being such an expensive project. We have learned a lot. We have developed as a nation. Jurisprudence has gone along there. Even though the costs were high, I will also say that TMX is an incredibly profitable pipeline in a real sense and also in the economic lift sense.

There is much going on that many Canadians are very excited about. We are seeing development occur. The member talked about shovels in the ground. There are a number of projects with shovels in the ground. We have the sunrise pipeline, for example. We have a number of other pipelines moving. There are about four that have started construction and have had those shovels in the ground the member is looking for since this summer. I think we can anticipate more.

As has already been discussed, we are shooting for shovels in the ground on the big pipeline, Pacific link, that west coast pipeline, by September of next year.

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

The motion that the House do now adjourn is deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 6:07 p.m.)