Debates of Oct. 5th, 2026

Byron Springbank Veterans Monument

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in Springbank Park, 14 life-sized steel figures now stand in a circle, soldiers and peacekeepers, side by side. We can walk around them, and they almost seem to move. People can scan a QR code and learn the stories of those who have served, and serve, our great country. This is the Byron Springbank Veterans Monument, designed by artist Kay Jang. Nearly 20 years in the making, it started as Reverend Frank Mantz's dream. The Byron-Springbank Legion Branch 533, with the whole community behind it, made it real. The Legion now has a permanent home for Remembrance Day, and every Londoner has a daily reminder of what we owe to those who served for our freedoms.

I was proud to join the dedication on October 3. To the Legion, Veterans Affairs Canada, the Byron Springbank Veterans Monument consortium, every volunteer, every donor, every family and every member of the Canadian Armed Forces who serves, who has served and who will serve in the future, we want to take this moment to thank them, with the monument and with every single action that we take in this country. We owe it to them for our freedoms.

Fuel Prices

[Helena Konanz, Conservative, Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Mr. Speaker, in my region, people often ask me how our country, with the fourth-largest oil reserves on earth, pays such high prices at the pump. A lost Liberal decade of high taxes and red tape has held back Canadian energy projects to process more Canadian-made fuel. We cannot control the global price of diesel, but we can reduce the costs that Ottawa adds.

Our Conservative emergency fuel relief plan would eliminate all federal taxes on diesel sales until at least Canada Day, eliminate red tape on diesel production and bolster the production of Canadian-made diesel. Our plan would immediately reduce the cost for members of my community to drive, ship, log and farm, while creating more Canadian jobs down the line.

Will the Liberals support our Conservative plan to give relief to Canadians?

Cops for Cancer

[Ernie Klassen, Liberal, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of recognizing the incredible efforts of those involved in the Cops for Cancer tour as bike riders made their way through White Rock and South Surrey. For nearly 30 years, participants have cycled, raising funds for childhood cancer research and support programs. Students from Peace Arch Elementary and White Rock Elementary came out in full force, lining the route with cheers, signs and high fives to welcome the cyclists. Their enthusiasm was a powerful reminder of the strength of community when we come together for a cause greater than ourselves.

White Rock RCMP Constable Carly Godlien rode in support of Caitlyn Sears, a courageous young girl undergoing treatment for leukemia.

Thanks to the dedication of riders, volunteers, sponsors, educators, students and community supporters, more than $270,000 was raised to help those affected by cancer. I ask members to join me in thanking everyone who participated and supported this event.

Energy Resources

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has the world's fourth-largest proven oil reserves. We have the resources to fuel our country, and yet Canadians are paying more at the pump. We cannot control everything that drives up energy prices around the world, but we can control the barriers that we put in our own way. After 11 years, Liberal taxes and red tape have made it harder to build the projects that turn Canadian resources into Canadian fuel, jobs and opportunity. It does not have to be that way. Canadian workers should be turning Canadian resources into Canadian prosperity. Conservatives have a plan to move Canada forward, cut taxes, remove unnecessary barriers and get Canadian resources to market.

Diesel is not a luxury. It fuels our farms, our trucks and the equipment that keeps the country moving. When diesel costs more, Canadians pay more. Canada has the resources. We have the workers. We have the opportunity. What Canadians need is for government to get out of the way and to allow resource development, with Canadian resources, by Canadian workers and for Canadian prosperity.

Académie Ste‑Thérèse

[Madeleine Chenette, Liberal, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to welcome to Parliament students from Académie Ste‑Thérèse, an institution that has been deeply rooted in our community for over 40 years now. Académie Ste‑Thérèse supports young people aged five to 17 from more than 1,000 families in the Laurentians and Laval, with a mission that perfectly sums up its ambition: to create a bright future for its students.

Their learning continues right here and now, at the heart of our democracy. I hope this visit will give them a better understanding of the work we do here and, above all, show them that politics and the institutions around us belong to their generation, too. I hope they have a wonderful visit, and my colleagues and I are delighted to welcome them to Ottawa today. Welcome, everyone.

The Economy

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister made a big show about promising to buy and build Canadian, yet an analysis by the Toronto Star demonstrated that since he made that promise, government purchases from American companies have increased and the share of money destined for American companies has increased by 50% to $7.8 billion.

Why does the Prime Minister say one thing, do the opposite and force workers who lost their jobs to send their cheques to the United States?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the government has put the buy Canadian policy in place, and with it comes major projects, major investments, including $2 billion in General Dynamics Systems, in London, and $100 billion in TKMS for submarines. It is legal for half of the investments to be made here in Canada.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister made a big show of promising to buy and build Canadian, but it was all talk and no results. Today, an analysis by the Toronto Star demonstrated that he increased the amount destined for American companies to $7.8 billion. The share of the money for government contracts that goes to the U.S. is up 50%.

Why did the Prime Minister put on a big show of theatrics with elbows up, break his promise and force Canadian workers to send more of their tax dollars south?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this government has put in place “buy Canada”, and with buy Canada, we have $2 billion invested in General Dynamics in London, and we have over $100 billion coming up in submarines, to be invested in Canada, across this country.

The Leader of the Opposition may have been sleeping, but last week the Government of Alberta, the Government of Canada and Pembina announced the largest pipeline in Canada.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, after announcements and promises, today we found the results. The Prime Minister promised, just like he is promising today, that he would repatriate production and Canadian purchases to this country. Instead, he has actually increased the dollar value and the share of federal government purchases that go to the United States of America. While Canadians are out of a job because tariffs have prevented them from working, the Prime Minister forces them to send their tax dollars to the same American companies we are competing with.

Why is the Prime Minister sending our money south?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, while the Leader of the Opposition is sleeping, this government is acting.

I am going to give him a little geography lesson. At the Matawinie mine in Quebec, we have shovels in the ground. At the Contrecoeur terminal at the port of Montreal, we have shovels in the ground. At the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, we have shovels in the ground. At the north coast transmission line in British Columbia, we have shovels in the ground. For the Darlington project, which is in Ontario, we have shovels in the ground.

We are building Canada strong.

Steel and Aluminum Industry

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister loves to take credit for projects that were approved before he ever became Prime Minister. Soon enough, he is going to be announcing that he is granting a permit for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Speaking of those projects, not only has he failed to buy Canadian; he now cannot build Canadian. Just after the announcement that, after a 10-year delay, LNG phase two is going ahead, we now learn that the steel will not come from the out-of-work Hamilton steelworkers. It will come from China.

Why is the Prime Minister sending our steel jobs to Beijing?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad the Leader of the Opposition has brought up the second-largest private sector investment in Canadian history, an LNG Canada success story that will make this country more independent and more prosperous. It is a project that will have 15,000 tonnes of Canadian steel in the broader ecosystem.

This government is building Canada strong.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the principal supplier of steel for the project will, again, be China. That is something we found out the very week the legendary company Stelco announced it was going to be laying off 350 people and idling its plant in Hamilton.

The Prime Minister puts Canadian steelworkers out of a job and grants a permit for Beijing to dump its artificially subsidized steel on Canadian soil.

Why can we not build Canadian with Canadian steel?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, there is a chance to build with Canadian steel. It is called the Pacific link pipeline. The Leader of the Opposition might be sleeping and he might be in the ground, but we are putting Canadian steel in the ground with the Pacific link pipeline.

The workers of Stelco deserve better from their American-owned parent, which made representations. This government will pursue it to the full force of the law to honour those commitments.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, of course they deserve better from their American owner. Canadians deserve better than a Prime Minister who sends their tax dollars down to reward those same companies with purchases up 50% as a share of government purchases.

We then have LNG phase two. It took the Liberals 10 years to get it going. Those steelworkers, who thought they might have a hope to supply the bones of that project, learned that the Prime Minister has sold them out and granted a permit for that steel to come from China.

Why will he not put Canadians first, with Canadian steel in Canadian projects?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, there is 15,000 tonnes of Canadian steel in Coastal GasLink for LNG phase two. LNG phase two was approved less than two years from the start of LNG phase one.

The Leader of the Opposition and all of the members of his party have a chance to stand up for Bill C-39 to get Canada building strong right across this country. That is what this government is doing.

Natural Resources

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, the Prime Minister announced that his new western pipeline will be a project of national interest. His concept of the “national interest” is pretty odd. He thinks that the national interest means getting taxpayers to pay for a pipeline that will cost at least $40 billion, without any impact assessments and without complying with environmental laws. That is $40 billion, at a minimum, of our money for a pipeline that the private sector refuses to invest in because it is so unappealing.

How is bleeding Quebeckers dry during an economic crisis in the national interest?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this pipeline is in the national interest because it will make Canada more independent, more prosperous and more inclusive. It is a pipeline that will support indigenous peoples, British Columbia and Alberta.

There is another project, but I will describe it after the next question.

The Economy

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, making Quebeckers pay for a pipeline is not in the national interest.

Things that we do believe are in Canada's national interest are things like tackling climate change, protecting our culture from the web giants and supporting our forestry industry and our processors in the face of the tariffs. We also believe that it is not up to the Prime Minister alone to define what is in the national interest.

Who does the Prime Minister think he is, to place his projects—which he chooses all by himself, in his office and according to his own personal definition of the national interest—above the law?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to this specific issue, we are following Bill C-39, the building Canada strong act.

The other major project I wanted to mention is the Churchill Falls project, which is in the interests of both Quebeckers and Canadians.

The Government of Canada is making this project possible. It is the largest investment in clean energy in history—not just in Canada, not just in Mexico, not just in the United States, but in the history of North America.

The Environment

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in the case of Bill C-39, the Prime Minister is using the crisis with Donald Trump to adopt permanent changes that would otherwise be unacceptable. He is circumventing laws with his new pipeline, which he will personally select based on his own criteria.

The proof that Donald Trump is an excuse is that the Prime Minister is repealing a provision of Bill C-5 that limited its emergency powers to five years. Donald Trump will no longer be around in five years, but the Prime Minister will be able to continue suspending environmental laws indefinitely.

What is that if not an abuse of power?

[Mark Carney, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we are going to maintain all laws, standards and environmental rules with Bill C-39. It is a question of government efficiency, not a question of standards. We can and will maintain high Canadian standards, but decisions will be made within one year, with “one project, one review”.

Housing

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised that he would double homebuilding, but once again, it was all talk and no results. In fact, homebuilding is down, and today, Habitat for Humanity International published a report showing that 56% of Canadians who do not own homes believe they never will. That is the highest number out of 22 surveyed countries. Also, two-thirds of Canadians have skipped other payments so that they can pay for their housing.

Canadians are paying for this costly Prime Minister. When will he adopt our plan to build homes and not bureaucracy?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, this summer, when asked what he would do about building housing, said absolutely nothing. That was his response. Leave it to the market to solve all our housing woes.

We have established Build Canada Homes to build affordable non-market housing. We have over 19,000 homes under way right now. We are building Canada strong and we are offering Canadians in Ontario up to $200,000 off the price of a new home. This is leadership. We are delivering that. We are delivering the homes that Canadians need.