Andrew Scheer

[Infrastructure, April 15th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the member can try to change the channel from his own corporate welfare scandal, but the fact remains that the Lake Erie Connector is a project owned by a subsidiary of Fortis Inc., which according to its own website, had revenues of $8.9 billion in 2020. Fortis is a massive energy company that makes huge profits. Last year, it paid out over $800 million in dividends to its shareholders. Why did the government not just tell Fortis that if it needed $600 million, it could pay for it itself?

Every day we hear from small business owners who are losing their entire life's work. Why does the government think that it is the billionaires who need a bailout?

[Infrastructure, April 15th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, if the project is so good, why can this multi-billion dollar company not pay for it itself? It can. In fact, it was already going to. Fortis Inc. was already committed to the Lake Erie Connector project.

The Infrastructure Bank was supposed to leverage private sector money to get new public infrastructure built. Instead, it is using tax dollars to build projects for billionaire private companies, which were already going to build the projects in the first place.

Simple question: Who will own the Lake Erie Connector project once it is completed?

[Infrastructure, April 15th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, remember when the Prime Minister gave Loblaws $12 million for fridges? How about the $50 million he gave to Mastercard? Oops, he did it again. On Tuesday, the government cut a cheque for $655 million to a company owned by Fortis Inc. for the Lake Erie corridor project. This is a company worth billions.

The Liberals are now giving tax dollars to a for-profit company to sell electricity to the United States. Could the minister tell us why?

[Infrastructure and Communities, March 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the Auditor General found that half of the Liberal government's $188-billion program, over $90 billion, actually comes from the previous Conservative government's plan. The Liberals are putting their name on our homework. They cannot even track the money they have spent, and 20% of the department's funds are not even getting out the door. That is $9 billion shuffled around the department. Construction workers were counting on those funds to get their jobs back.

Can the minister explain why she allowed $9 billion to get lost in her own department instead of getting shovels in the ground?

[Infrastructure and Communities, March 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, in a scathing report yesterday, the Auditor General confirmed what the Parliamentary Budget Officer has been saying all along: The Liberal government has no idea what it is doing when it comes to infrastructure. It let $9 billion lapse and it does not have basic accountability measures in place. It has no idea if its plan is even working. This is bad news for communities looking forward to new, important projects and the billions of dollars in lost projects due to lapsed funds is bad news for workers who have missed out on three construction seasons.

Why should Canadians believe that the Liberal government will get anything built in the future when it cannot do it now?

[Fisheries Act, February 18th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I will absolutely respect the guidance there.

Out of the interests of allowing the House to proceed to orders of the day, I will briefly touch upon the aspect of this bill that allows municipalities some time to upgrade their systems. The coming-into-force component of this bill is designed to allow municipalities across the country that may not yet have the capacity to fully treat the water they admit into waterways to do so in due course.

I thank the indulgence of members. I think it is very telling that when the Conservatives propose meaningful measures to improve the environment, the Liberals get pretty squirmy.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Fisheries Act, February 18th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I am, of course, speaking to the bill. The irony here is that the parliamentary secretary—

[Fisheries Act, February 18th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, the Liberal government has a terrible record on the environment. It has not planted a single tree of its promised two billion, and its carbon tax is neither revenue neutral nor lowering emissions. It has damaged more lakes, rivers—

[Fisheries Act, February 18th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, this is a very succinct explanation. As members know, private members' bills are often accompanied with a rationale. In fact, usually members talk about the need for their bill. Of course, the need for this bill is to take meaningful action on the environment.

I am almost finished my remarks. I know we have always given the the government House leader great latitude when he has the floor in the House, and I promise him that I will not be but a few more moments.

[Fisheries Act, February 18th, 2021]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-269, An Act to amend the Fisheries Act (prohibition — deposit of raw sewage).

Mr. Speaker, this bill would make it illegal to dump untreated waste water into any body of water that contains fish habitat. This bill would remove the power of the federal minister to grant permits to municipalities to dump raw sewage into waterways, like when the former environment minister gave permission to Montreal to dump eight billion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River.

When it comes to the environment, the Prime Minister acts completely phony. He talks a good game, but when the City of Montreal asked to be allowed to dump its raw sewage into one of Canada's most important waterways, he told them to go ahead. This bill would remove the power of federal ministers to grant permission to municipalities to damage vital fish habitats.

The Liberal government has a terrible record on the environment. It has not planted a single tree out of its promised two billion. Its carbon tax is neither revenue neutral—