Andrew Scheer

[Public Services and Procurement, June 11th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, he is settling into old Liberal habits of not being bothered by wasting taxpayers' money and funnelling it to his friends.

The Prime Minister is trying to act like he is new to the job or he just got here. He was Justin Trudeau's senior economic adviser while the contracts were being handed out. The Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, the Minister of Jobs and the Minister of Foreign Affairs all have their fingerprints on the scandal, and he chose them to sit around his cabinet table.

Why is it that every time the Liberals get caught in a corruption scandal, Liberal politicians get rewarded and taxpayers get the bill?

[Public Services and Procurement, June 11th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I have breaking news: Conservatives will force a vote here in the House of Commons to get Canadians their money back for the ArriveCAN scandal.

The Auditor General slammed the Liberal government for giving GC Strategies, the top arrive scam contractor, $64 million in contracts since it took office. There was $64 million given to a two-person IT company that did no IT work and is under RCMP investigation.

Instead of empty words like “We accept the Auditor General's findings”, how about the Prime Minister shows some concrete action, votes for our motion and gets Canadians their money back?

[Business of Supply, June 9th, 2025]

Mr. Chair, the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands asked a question directly to the minister. You have, correctly, reminded colleagues this evening that they should be asking their questions through the Chair. This is an important principle in our system because it provides some separation between members directly, so there is a bit of separation there. I just want to make sure of that.

[Business of the House, June 5th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, it being the first Thursday that I have had the opportunity to do this, I would like to welcome my counterpart back to this role. We have worked together in the past, and while we definitely do not agree on much, we do have a great working relationship on behalf of our two parties, which represent the millions of Canadians who voted for us. I look forward to continuing that constructive work together in the weeks and months ahead.

I would like to know if the government House leader can update the House as to what the business of the House might be for the rest of this week and next week. We know the government has put some bills on notice and introduced some legislation. I wonder if he could tell the House if, along with finally adopting the Conservative policy of scrapping the consumer carbon tax, the Liberals will do two things. First is finish the job and take the industrial carbon tax off the backs of our steel and aluminum workers. Second, now that they have finally admitted that it was such bad policy, will they apologize to Canadians for collecting such a terrible tax for so long?

[Hon. Marc Garneau, June 4th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, my hon. colleague was trying to seek unanimous consent for the House to have an emergency debate on the unjustified U.S. tariffs applied on Canada. It was ruled out of order by the Speaker. The Speaker made his decision earlier, but of course the House can do whatever it agrees to, so we are seeking unanimous consent for the following motion: That, notwithstanding any standing order—

[Finance, June 4th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, if photo ops and phony rhetoric actually got things done in this country, then Justin Trudeau would still be prime minister.

However, in all seriousness, the Liberals' half-trillion in new spending without a budget will make inflation worse. The PM said that he wants to be judged by prices at the grocery store. So, let us look at those prices. The verdict is in: Beef is up 34%; apples are up 18%; coffee is up 9%.

Will the Prime Minister listen to Parliament and table a budget that controls spending, lowers taxes and cuts inflation so that Canadians can afford to put food on the table?

[Natural Resources, June 4th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, one way to deal with the Americans is from a position of strength, but now the Prime Minister is saying that he will not even approve a new pipeline unless there is consensus. This is already unravelling. The radical B.C. premier is saying no pipeline through his province, and there is not even consensus in the Liberal cabinet, with top ministers committed to killing oil and gas projects.

The vast majority of Canadians do not want to give a veto to politicians. They want to be less dependent on the Americans and earn more powerful paycheques from selling our oil and gas around the world.

Will the Prime Minister show some leadership and commit to approving a pipeline today?

[Canada-U.S. Relations, June 4th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear, Trump's tariffs on Canada are wrong, unjustified and an attack on our workers and our economy. Now, while other countries have gotten deals to lower their tariffs, not only has the PM failed to do that, but he has gotten Canada's tariffs doubled on steel and aluminum. He promised he was the man with the plan; he cannot even get a deal.

Our workers are terrified about losing their jobs. The Prime Minister promised that he would collect $20 billion in retaliatory tariffs, but then secretly dropped those tariffs to zero during the campaign. If he is so sure that he is still going to collect $20 billion, why not table a budget and prove it to Canadians?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, May 28th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my new colleague for her question. I can reply with a message of goodwill. If the government genuinely wants to bring real change for Canadians, we will work with it, and we can find common ground.

However, we have already seen that there are few signs of change. These are the same ministers that were in place under Justin Trudeau. These are the same policies and the same carbon tax on steel and aluminum producers.

We will look at the bills that are introduced. If the government really wants to change the former Trudeau government's policies, we can find solutions and give bills our support. However, if this government does the same thing as all the other Liberal governments, such as increasing taxes and red tape and violating Canadians' freedoms, it will be hard to—

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, May 28th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right. In 2011, the government did not miss a beat. It had the budget ready to go after the election. The budget drives departments. A federal budget sets the plan, sets the stage, for every single government department. It sends the signal to businesses, to job creators and to investors as to what they can expect the rules of the game to be for the next 12 months or so. It also sends a signal to the bond markets about how the government is going to manage its finances.

It is as if someone were to go into a bank and ask for a loan but could not show pay stubs or expense accounting. A bank would charge a higher interest rate if they were not sure where the person would get the money to pay off the loan. The same is true for governments. Governments have to go out and ask people who have money whether they can borrow that money. When the people who buy government debt and, in effect, lend money to the Government of Canada do not see a fiscal plan, they are going to charge a premium for lending that money to the government.

I believe that, without that plan, we are going to see higher interest rates, and that means more tax dollars going to pay bankers and bondholders than going into tax relief or improving services for Canadians.