Blaine Calkins

[Business of Supply, June 11th, 2025]

Mr. Chair, how many crude oil pipeline projects did the Liberal government inherit from the Harper government?

[Business of Supply, June 9th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I was hoping to split my time with the member for Barrie South—Innisfil, but you just told me that it is probably not going to happen. I am not going to get into some procedural wrangling with you about the close of the day.

I want to thank my colleagues in the Conservative caucus for using this opposition day to highlight a very serious matter about just how incompetent this start is for the new Prime Minister and the so-called new Liberal government.

However, because this is my first time on my feet in a speech scenario in this Parliament, I want to first of all express thanks and appreciation to everybody back home. As members may know, there was a redistribution in the last election. Ponoka—Didsbury is a new political entity. It did not exist in the previous three sessions. I was proudly the member of Parliament for the folks of Red Deer—Lacombe. I just want to say, to anybody back in Red Deer who is watching today, that I thank them so much for those three elections where they sent me to Ottawa to work on their behalf. I certainly enjoyed getting to know so many of them and working so hard on their behalf. I appreciate the good wishes and sentiments that many of them have sent to me in my new role.

Of course, there are the four bands at Maskwacis, whom I have actually represented since 2006 when the riding used to be called Wetaskiwin. I will certainly miss the conversations I have had up there with them. I am sure I will always be available if anybody there wants to have a chat with me. I am happy to continue to advocate for all people of Alberta, not just the people I represent or once represented. However, I want to thank them for the kindness they have shown me, the patience they have shown me and the goodwill they have extended to me for almost 20 years as the member of Parliament who represented that particular area.

When we lose about 50,000 people through redistribution, we have to gain another 40,000 or so back. With the good people in Mountain View County and in Red Deer County, we are just getting to know each other a bit through this election. To the people in Innisfail, Bowden, Olds, Didsbury and Benalto, I am very much looking forward to working very hard on their behalf and getting to know them all well. I am going to have to buy an economical vehicle. The riding has gone back up to a whopping 35,000-plus square kilometres, but they sent me here with a great endorsement. I want them to know, the over 56,000 of them who put an X beside my name, that it is not lost on me. The only promise I ever make during a campaign is that I will do my best on people's behalf, and they have that commitment from me.

I also want to thank all of the volunteers who came out and helped on the campaign. There are too many to name them all, but I just want to thank particularly Angie, Alyn, and Al; they were great. Larry, Ross, Abigail and Onsy were invaluable to me, and numerous other people came out and knocked on doors, put up signs and helped with the campaign. I thank them so much.

Last, to my family, this is my seventh term in the House of Commons, and I would not have been able to do any of the things that I am able to do here on behalf of the good people of central Alberta over the last seven elections and 19-plus years, if I did not have the support and blessing of my family: my wife, Barbara; my children; my parents, Gord and Bev; my brother Tim; my sister Wendy; and everybody who has supported me. When we run for office, we can give as much time to this endeavour as we want. It is hard to maintain friendships and family relationships sometimes, but they have stuck with me. For that, I am eternally grateful.

Here we are, talking about the opposition day motion. Quite succinctly, to those who are watching back home, what are we talking about today? The House actually just voted very recently, last week, asking that the government reverse course on its decision to blow off the Canadian people and not table or present a fiscal budget this spring.

Mr. Speaker, I have been here for a long time, almost as long as you. We have had offices and have been acquaintances for quite some time. I do not remember ever not having a budget in the spring. Everybody else has a budget. The provinces and territories have budgets. Our cities, towns and counties have budgets. The Lions Club has a budget, for heaven's sake, but not the Government of Canada. For some reason, we cannot seem to get that done.

The man with the plan is seemingly turning out to be a man with a scam in mind, if people ask me. What could possibly be the reason the government would not table a budget? Is it because it is in a minority? That does not make any sense, because, like I said, the Speaker and I have been here for the last seven Parliaments. The Speaker might have actually come in 2004, in which case I have been here for seven Parliaments and the Speaker has been here for eight. Only two of those Parliaments were majority Parliaments. The other five, in my case, and six, in the Speaker's, have been minorities, yet every minority government up until this point in time has had no trouble tabling a budget.

As a matter of fact, in 2005 the Speaker was here when Paul Martin, the prime minister at the time, and Jack Layton were able to draft up a budget on the back of a napkin. It was not a problem at all. Does everybody remember the napkin budget? They were able to do that in a minority Parliament and bring forward these ideas in a budget in 2005 to Canadians. For some reason, the current government does not seem to be able to do that, so it obviously has something else in mind.

Is it because the government does not have any experience? Is this Parliament so new that the government does not have any experience? That cannot be the case, because the current finance minister was a member of cabinet the entire time the Justin Trudeau government was in office. He is a very experienced parliamentarian.

As a matter of fact, the previous finance minister is only a couple of desks down. Anybody could ask the previous finance minister, who, if people remember, so ceremoniously presented the fall economic statement last year. We would think that just the Liberal budgets would cause chaos, but no, we actually had a situation in Parliament where I think the government was in contempt of Parliament for not tabling the fall economic statement, if I remember correctly. That was the debate at the time.

The government had asked for the House resources for that entire day, so proud of its fall economic statement, and then of course we remember how that turned out. As a matter of fact, it is actually such that, I think, if I have the stats correct, 80% of the spending in the current ways and means motion is under the care and control of people who have been in cabinet before, so it cannot be a lack of experience.

Is it because the government has a scam? I think it is. I think it is going to cook the books on operational versus capital. We are going to see this in the fall.

[Finance, June 9th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, it is official: the new Liberal Prime Minister refuses to present a spring budget even though Canadians have been without one for over a year. In that time, students have had budgets, families have budgets, small businesses have budgets, towns and cities have budgets, provinces and territories all have budgets, banks have budgets and I am pretty sure Brookfield has a budget.

Why does this government not have a budget? The last guy thought budgets balanced themselves. Does the new guy think budgets just draft and table themselves?

[Business of Supply, June 9th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my common-sense Conservative colleague from Cloverdale—Langley City for the part of her speech that focused on agriculture. I was very fortunate as a youngster to grow up in Lacombe County. I grew up on a mixed farm in the early seventies that eventually became a cow-calf operation.

I remember going to town with my grandpa when I was about five years old. We would leave the windows rolled down on the truck. We were not worried about crime. The truck came right from the assembly line with a gun rack in the back. We could leave the .22 in there, pull up to the store in town, get the things we need and go home. We could actually produce high-quality food that people could afford.

As a matter of fact, when I was a kid, families could be single-income in this country, could have a nice home in a safe community and could afford groceries. What happened in the seventies? His name is Pierre Elliott Trudeau. With everything that has happened, we are continuing to pile red tape on farmers and make it so costly to produce food.

I wonder if my colleague could elaborate on how devastating this is.

[Business of Supply, June 9th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I think the member has already been admonished once, in a joking spirit, but perhaps we should start taking these rules a little more seriously.

[Blair Vold, June 4th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today to honour the life and legacy of my friend Blair Vold of Ponoka, Alberta, who passed away on May 11.

Born on October 13, 1955, Blair embodied what it means to be Albertan: hard-working, resilient and devoted to community. He was best known for his life in cattle sales and service on local boards, including being president of the Ponoka Stampede. He was a man who earned tremendous respect and accomplishments in Alberta's business and agricultural community.

Above all, Blair was a devoted husband to his beloved wife, Sheryl; a proud father to Nansen, Labrie, Gjenna, Sarah and the late Cooper Tonneson; a loving son to Dolores and the late Ralph Vold; a cherished grandfather; a caring brother; a loyal human to his dog, Odie; and a dear friend to all who knew him.

I will miss our conversations, his welcoming and hospitable character, his charitable spirit and the fun-loving, mischievous glint in his eye. I say to Blair, “Rest easy, cowboy.”

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, June 2nd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I want to welcome my new colleague to the House of Commons. My understanding is that he is an experienced legislator. He has, I believe, served in the National Assembly of Quebec and was even the finance minister. Unfortunately, he has been overlooked for a cabinet appointment with the new government. I am a little surprised and I am wondering whether he too is surprised that after the fourth full day of debate here in the House of Commons, the government has yet to actually table any legislation. Would this have been the case if he had actually been in cabinet?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, June 2nd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, congratulations to you on your new role as Deputy Speaker. You and I are fellow Albertans who have been in this place for a long time.

My colleague from Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek gave us quite the list of things Liberals had said that they would do, just for us to find that they were going to do the exact opposite once they were elected. That seems to be pretty much the way the Liberals operate in Canada. They say whatever they need to say, and create whatever state of fear they need to create, to get elected, and then they come to Ottawa to basically renege on all of the promises they made.

In my constituency, there are a lot of hunters, anglers, farmers and ranchers who own firearms. We heard His Majesty the King in the Speech from the Throne talk about respecting law-abiding firearms owners, yet when we take a look at the estimates tabled by the government, we see that it is going to spend four dollars going after law-abiding gun owners for every one dollar it is going to spend going after gangs and criminals.

I am wondering if my colleague would talk about how Liberals seem to say one thing and do the exact opposite, not just on energy, agriculture and firearms, but on basically everything they do.

[Privilege, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask my colleague the same question I just asked the last speaker. The Prime Minister touts himself as a feminist, yet time and again throughout his leadership, the axe has fallen on women he had appointed to his cabinet, including Jody Wilson-Raybould, Jane Philpott, special adviser Celina Caesar-Chavannes, and now the former finance minister.

How many more women will end up under the axe of the Prime Minister before the leader of the NDP chooses to actually stand up and do what he needs to do: have no confidence in the Prime Minister and save our country from the disaster that is unfolding?

For the Liberals across the way, I hope somebody has found where the fire alarm is and they are going to pull it, because they have about 25 minutes before question period.

[Privilege, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister launched his leadership to great fanfare as a self-professed feminist. Since the time that he proudly announced his gender parity cabinet, and all of the other things he clings to for whatever reason, for photo ops or whatever the vanity project happens to be, we have seen a trail of women's careers and reputations damaged by this individual.

It started with Jody Wilson-Raybould, Jane Philpott and Celina Caesar-Chavannes, and now we see what has happened with the former finance minister. What is actually shocking to me is that all of this damage to these women's reputations and careers seems to be fine with the leader of the NDP, because he is putting the interest of getting his pension ahead of the careers and reputations of women who have had leadership roles in Canada.

Why does my colleague suppose that is?