Candice Bergen

[Ethics, October 23rd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, it certainly would be nice to have a villa in the south of France. However, it does get chilly in the south of France. To escape the harsh Canadian climate, one would need a warmer destination, such as Barbados. The Minister of Finance knows all about the benefits of Barbados, such as a nice climate, beautiful beaches and, of course, a place to avoid paying taxes.

I ask the finance minister simply: Did he recuse himself from discussions around the Canada-Barbados tax treaty?

[Business of the House, October 19th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I have the usual Thursday question, and I will keep it short today. I will just ask the government House leader if she could please tell us what the government has planned for the rest of this week and for next week.

[Ethics, October 19th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, Morneau Shepell thought that the Minister of Finance had placed his shares in a blind trust. We all thought he had placed his shares in a blind trust. He had not done that and in fact he was enacting legislation that would directly benefit him and Morneau Shepell.

I have a different question. Maybe the minister will answer this. At any time, did the minister discuss Bill C-27 with Morneau Shepell while he was the finance minister? At any time, did they discuss this bill?

[Ethics, October 19th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, in 2013, the executive chair of Morneau Shepell said, “We need legislation enabling Target Benefit Plans...in all Canadian jurisdictions”, so he made it happen. He became the Minister of Finance and he tabled the legislation himself. To make this conflict much worse, Morneau Shepell continued to pay that minister tens of thousands of dollars a month.

The question the minister has not answered is this. Why did he not recuse himself around discussions about Bill C-27?

[Ethics, October 18th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the fig leaf that the Prime Minister is trying to hide behind is getting smaller and smaller by the moment. We have a Minister of Finance who has for the past two years owned tens of millions of dollars' worth of shares in Morneau Shepell. All along he has been doing two things: first of all, making a whole lot more money in the last two years; second of all, enacting legislation that benefits that company.

We are going to give the Prime Minister another chance. Does he defend the behaviour of the Minister of Finance making money off of assets that he owns while enacting legislation as Minister of Finance?

[Ethics, October 18th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, after months of calling hard-working Canadians tax cheats, we now know that the Minister of Finance found a loophole and has all of his Morneau Shepell shares—by the way, about $40 million worth of them—tucked away for a rainy day in a numbered company in Alberta. The hypocrisy of this is mind-boggling, but what is beyond mind-boggling is the Prime Minister defending this, saying he knew about it all along and he is perfectly okay with it. Is that where the Prime Minister stands today on his finance minister using loopholes to cover up and protect his assets? Is that what we are hearing?

[Ethics, October 16th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, we have a Prime Minister who, for the first time in history, is being investigated by the Ethics Commissioner. We have a finance minister who is refusing to obey the law. That is nothing to be proud of. In fact, the stench coming from the two most senior Liberals in that government and in that caucus is overwhelming and cannot be ignored. It begs the question: What else is that finance minister hiding from Canadians?

[Ethics, October 16th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, this cannot be sugar-coated. According to the law, the Minister of Finance had 60 days to disclose his assets to the Ethics Commissioner. He did not do it. It is that plain. It is that simple. Has the finance minister become so arrogant and so entitled that he actually thinks he is above the law?

[Taxation, October 6th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, our farmers are not reassured. That is because the finance minister has been sitting in his ivory tower for the last two months dismissing and demeaning Canadians' real concerns. How cold hearted the Liberals have become, all because they need more money for their out-of-control spending.

Ahead of Thanksgiving, could the finance minister please give hard-working small businesses and farmers some good news, and tell them they have abandoned this cold-hearted, mean-spirited, hypocritical tax grab.

[Taxation, October 6th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the finance minister is looking forward to a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend at some fancy location while he ponders all of the tax savings he is getting with his family fortune being sheltered in Barbados.

I am also certain that my local farmers and local small business owners will not be so relaxed. They are worried sick because of these tax changes, unanswered questions, and uncertainty.

How can the finance minister protect his own family fortune while people are being taxed, people who are creating jobs and are the middle class? Does the finance minister not understand how hypocritical these tax changes are?