Andrew Scheer

[Finance, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, carbon tax Carney is the Prime Minister's official economic adviser, and his plan was always to push out the finance minister and take her place. Let us look at his advice so far. He forced her to bring in the GST tax trick. Carney also forced through insane inflationary spending, smashing through that $40-billion guardrail. Carney's economic plan is so bad the finance minister resigned in protest rather than humiliate herself into reading his homework. Now nobody knows who the finance minister is.

Enough is enough. Why will the Prime Minister not do the only honourable thing left and let Canadians decide for themselves in a carbon tax election?

[Business of the House, December 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it being Thursday, it is time for the highlight of many people's week: the Thursday question.

However, before I move to that, as this is the last Thursday before we rise for the Christmas adjournment and we will all be back home in our ridings meeting with our constituents and providing them assistance with all sorts of issues, I just want to take this opportunity to wish all my colleagues, on all sides of the House, a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

I am thankful for the excellent work that is done in the House to support members in their work. I offer a special tribute to the pages, many of whom are away from home going to school, and I know that many of them will be returning home as well; and to the House of Commons support staff, who make sure that we are served at a most excellent level of professionalism so we can carry out the work on behalf of our constituents.

We are about to enter the period of time when the days stop getting shorter and start getting longer again, which is of course a beautiful metaphor for what Christmas is all about: the light of our saviour, Jesus Christ, coming to redeem mankind. For those people who celebrate other holidays, especially Hanukkah, there is a similar metaphor with the light that comes with the lighting of the menorah over that period of time as well.

I want to wish all Canadians who happen to have tuned in just in time for the Thursday question a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I wish the same especially to my government counterpart across the way. Maybe she could take this opportunity to tell us and all Canadians what the business of the House will be for the rest of this week and into next week as well.

[Finance, December 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, if the minister had just read a little further, he would have read that this is not because of anything the government has been doing, except causing our economy to slow down and underperform. That is why the bank has taken this step.

A guardrail is something we are supposed to stay far away from. If we even brush up against it, that is a sign we are way off track. If we smash through it, we go flying off a cliff. Now, even Liberal MPs are terrified and are ringing the bell, trying to get off before they smash through the guardrail. One of them said, “I think that if we state that we have a $40-billion guardrail, we [better] stay within those numbers”, and another is begging for a fiscally responsible framework.

Will the Prime Minister allow a free vote, or will he force his Liberal MPs to stay on that bus as it goes—

[Finance, December 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, even the bank officials admitted that they had to cut rates because the economy is performing so poorly under the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister.

Canada's phantom finance minister has been pulling the strings for a while. Carbon tax Carney has been forcing radical new spending and forcing the finance minister to smash through her $40-billion guardrail. Now that Canadians are fed up and angry, the Prime Minister is going to blame the finance minister, dump her and replace her with Carney in a classic example of an incompetent boss blaming subordinates.

Does the finance minister not realize that she is about to join a long list of cabinet ministers who have had their careers and their reputations ruined by the Prime Minister?

[Finance, December 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has lost control of spending and his cabinet, and the fiscal feud over the $40-billion guardrail is worse than we ever thought. New reports show that the Prime Minister is set to replace Canada's first female finance minister with his old boys' network pal, carbon tax Carney. Canadians are on the bus, watching in terror as the Prime Minister yanks her out of the driver's seat so that Carney can send us smashing through the guardrail and over the cliff.

Does the finance minister still have her hands on the wheel, and will the deficit be below that $40-billion guardrail?

[Privilege, December 11th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly listened to your ruling. I understand that it was basically addressed to the question of privilege raised by the NDP member about what may or may not have happened in the lobby. You have ruled that what goes on in the lobby does not fall under the purview of a question of privilege.

In response to that, points were raised about the erratic and unhinged behaviour of the NDP members in the chamber, even though the mace was off the table. I am just wondering whether you are going to come back to address those questions that were raised as well.

[Syria, December 11th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I was just giving the government an opportunity to defend its own economic update, but this one is different—

[Syria, December 11th, 2024]

You have no idea what I was going to say. It gets good.

Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the House leaders. I move that, given that the Liberal government will—

[Syria, December 11th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker—

[Nobel Peace Prize, December 10th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During question period, there was a disturbance in the gallery, and it was very alarming to see the NDP member for Port Moody—Coquitlam almost immediately not just reference it, but incorporate it, it seemed, into her question.

It was a prepared question. We could tell it was prepared because even after you admonished her for pointing out the disturbance in the gallery, she could not adapt and repeated it three times. It seems like this was a coordinated event, and that someone was invited into the chamber and the member knew there would be such a disturbance. I would ask you look into the matter and report back to the House as to how this individual gained entry into the gallery and on whose behalf this person was invited.

This comes on the heels of a security scare today in the Wellington Building and a protest in the Confederation Building last week, where members of Parliament were impeded access to their offices, threatened and forced to face toxic behaviour. This is a pattern of behaviour we are seeing from the NDP. As we come to the end of this session, it is incumbent upon all members to respect the security and safety of this place.