Arif Virani

[Finance, December 10th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I have been listening patiently through all of question period to attacks on the current finance minister. I am going to say what a strong female leader looks like.

A strong female finance minister empowers women to participate in our economy. How does she do that? She puts in place, and has the courage to put in place, something like a Canada child care program, which has resulted in an 85% women's labour force participation rate in this country. That is an all-time high. That is what a feminist looks like. That is what a great woman leader looks like. That is what a great finance minister looks like, and that is somebody who I will stand by every single day in this chamber.

[Finance, December 10th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I have been listening patiently during this entire question period, and I have heard a lot of attacks on the Minister of Finance. I will tell Canadians why we support that incredible female leader. It is because she empowers women around this country. How does she do that? She puts in place programs like the Canada child care program.

[Public Safety, December 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the safety of Canadians is all of our responsibility. The tool that we have in this chamber is the Criminal Code of Canada. The tool that the provinces have is implementing the administration of criminal justice in their localities.

What does that mean? That means hiring police officers. It means hiring Crowns to argue about bail cases. It means ensuring JPs have the training to apply the law. It means ensuring that there are detention facilities to house people who are being denied bail. These are critical facets that need to be invested in.

We are doing the work we need to on the Criminal Code, and we will continue to do so. What we expect is co-operation from the provinces.

[Public Safety, December 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I, like every member of Parliament, am very troubled by that story about that young man losing his life so cavalierly. Our condolences go out to his family and to his entire community.

With respect to keeping Canadians safe is this, we are working on multiple fronts. Part of that deals with gun control, and that is assault weapons and handguns. Another part of it is the bail reform, which we implemented at the behest of the provinces. If there is more that needs to be done under the Criminal Code, we are open to that. However, we are also keen on seeing in the province of Alberta and other provinces investments being made in courtroom spaces, in police officers, in JPs and in Crown attorneys, so we can all do the work we need to keep Canadians safe.

[The Economy, December 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the measures that we, on this side of the House, are taking target poverty and people with disabilities.

As far as people with disabilities are concerned, we have introduced a benefit specifically for them already. In the past few weeks, we made a change to the GST that impacts all Canadians.

We are always going to fight poverty. The numbers show our success when it comes to the poverty rate. It was fairly high under the Conservatives, but dropped over the past nine years with us.

[The Economy, December 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we are going to stand by our record of defending seniors. On multiple occasions in this chamber over the last nine years, we have done things like change the retirement age from 67, as proposed by the Harper Conservatives, back down to 65; made targeted investments to improve old age security for those over the age of 75; most recently, we have put in place a dental care plan for seniors that has had, despite assertions by the Conservatives that it does not even exist, two million people sign up and over one million people actually receive services for the first time in decades. That is a record of serving seniors, assisting seniors and meeting them where they are. We will stand by that record.

[Finance, December 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the spending that our government is doing. Let us talk about what observers are observing. Tiff Macklem, and I am pretty sure the Leader of the Opposition knows who that is, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, says, “We're no longer trying to get inflation down. Government spending is not pushing against us getting inflation down, we've got it down.” Let us talk about David Dodge, the former Bank of Canada governor, who was in place when that member was in cabinet. He said that “because it was obsessively focused on reducing the federal deficit over fiscal years 2011-12 through 2015-16, the Harper government unnecessarily contributed to a slower, rather more muted recovery....” We are not going to follow that playbook, because it did not work.

[Finance, December 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, on December 16, we will present our economic record in this chamber and we will talk about the fall economic statement. I anticipate that we are going to hear a lot about the economic record that we have amassed. One thing I anticipate we will hear about is what we have done with respect to child care. With respect to child care and the economic affordability model, we have brought it down to $10 a day in eight provinces. That has resulted in 110,000 women joining the workplace. What is that record? Eighty-five per cent of women are now participating in the workforce in Canada. That is a record high. That is what we stand behind on this side of the House.

[Finance, December 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we are very proud of our economic record, which we will present to the House next week, on December 16. We will be presenting our economic record. The inflation rate has remained within the Bank of Canada's target range for several months now. The Bank of Canada has cut its key interest rate four times in a row to date.

That is our economic record, and we are very proud of it.

[Leader of the New Democratic Party, December 6th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, what is really important is to focus on some of the issues. One of the issues Canadians are rightly concerned about with the House is foreign interference. They are asking things such as, how do we target foreign interference?

What I find fascinating is that we have had a lot of discussions about the leader of the NDP. That leader has actually had the courage to get a security clearance and get a briefing to help to protect this country. In fact, there is only one leader of a party who has not done exactly that, and that is the leader of the official opposition. I find it quite appalling that, for a man who would purport to assume and to want the highest job in this country, he does not have the courage to work on getting a clearance, getting a briefing and protecting this country.