Dan Albas

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, February 3rd, 2023]

With regard to contracts that were cancelled by the government since January 1, 2019, broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation or other government entity: (a) how many contracts have been cancelled; (b) what is the total amount paid out in cancellation fees or penalties; and (c) what are the details of all such cancellations, including, for each, the (i) date the contract was signed, (ii) date the contract was cancelled, (iii) vendor, (iv) value, (v) description of goods or services, (vi) reason for the cancellation, (vii) cancellation fee or other similar type of cost to the government?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 30th, 2023]

With regard to contracts that were cancelled by the government since January 1, 2019, broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation or other government entity: (a) how many contracts have been cancelled; (b) what is the total amount paid out in cancellation fees or penalties; and (c) what are the details of all such cancellations, including, for each, the (i) date the contract was signed, (ii) date the contract was cancelled, (iii) vendor, (iv) value, (v) description of goods or services, (vi) reason for the cancellation, (vii) cancellation fee or other similar type of cost to the government?

[Petitions, December 14th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I am here today to present a petition from people across Canada who are growing increasingly concerned with what is happening in Iran with respect to the Government of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp. There is a growing sense that the Government of Canada is not taking action on this issue.

We can all think of Mahsa Amini and some of the other people who have lost their lives through state-sanctioned executions, such as Mohsen Shekari, Majidreza Rahnavard and Kian Pirfalak, who was nine years old. These names join the other 55 Canadians and 30 permanent residents who died when the IRGC shot down Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752.

This petition seeks to immediately list Iran's IRGC as a terrorist entity, deport from Canada any individual connected with the Iranian government or the IRGC, seize the Canadian assets of these individuals and redistribute them to the victims of this regime.

I hope the House of Commons and the Government of Canada hear the plea of these petitioners and take swift action with respect to this matter.

[Merritt RCMP Detachment, December 2nd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, on this day I would sincerely like to thank the members of the Merritt RCMP detachment. The last 12 months have been very challenging for the community of Merritt. Flooding led to evacuations, and evacuations sadly attracted crime, such as looting and vandalism. This all significantly adds to the workload of every officer in this community, not to mention officers and their own families also being impacted on a personal level.

More recently, over the past few weeks, there have also been several other serious and alarming events. Over this time frame there have been crimes of serious concern that have included multiple shooting incidents, a kidnapping, a wanted suspect at large and, late last week, a stolen vehicle that resulted in a police chase with an armed suspect. Throughout all of this, the dedicated members of this small detachment have gone above and beyond to keep their community of Merritt safe.

I ask all hon. members to please join me in thanking them for their dedication and service to their community, and to thank all the RCMP who are doing the same thing, each and every day, for Canadians.

[Carbon Pricing, November 30th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the government does not have a plan for the environment. It has a tax plan that it is going to triple.

Even the Governor of the Bank of Canada has said that the carbon tax is inflationary. These surcharges are a textbook example of made-in-Canada inflation. A food processor, like my constituent, has to pass on those surcharges. The carbon tax is driving up the cost of groceries and forcing more Canadians to the food banks.

Will the Prime Minister give people some hope and cancel his plan to triple his carbon tax?

[Carbon Pricing, November 30th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, a successful agri-food business owner in my riding has shown me his freight bills with large surcharges from shipping companies that have been added due to the carbon tax. This entrepreneur takes great pride in using made-in-Canada inputs but wonders how much longer he can continue to absorb these extra costs.

Will the Prime Minister stop this made-in-Canada inflation and cancel his plan to triple the carbon tax, or will he just triple down and let his carbon tax cancel this entrepreneur's made-in-Canada success story?

[Government Priorities, November 30th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, back in August, the Prime Minister made a speech in which he talked about the complex challenges facing Canada. The Prime Minister was clear that strong institutions are among those things that guarantee our freedom.

Let us pause for a moment and reflect on the current state of our institutions. There is an immigration backlog of over a million people. Many Canadians still cannot obtain a passport in reasonable time. Canadians still pay the highest wireless bills in the world, yet we see the government desperately trying to regulate and censor online content despite the fact that many Canadians lack high-speed Internet services to access it. We have a government actively outlawing our grandfathers' hunting rifles while looking us in the eye and saying that it is not. Canadians are paying more and getting less.

It seems like everything is broken under the current Liberal government, but we can fix this. Canada needs an accountable and affordable Conservative government. Under the leadership of the member for Carleton, we will bring back hope, win the support of Canadians and clean up this Prime Minister's mess.

[Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022, November 28th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I too share concerns with Bill C-27, particularly around the artificial intelligence and data act. Specifically, I agree with her. Having one minister solely delegated the responsibility for a wide variety of different regulations that might affect private as well as public data is too much. As Parliament, we should be looking into this and setting out the parameters.

The government has basically told the private sector that it can hold it accountable for serious harm, something it does not even define in the law, in Bill C-27, while at the same time giving itself the ultimate loophole. It says it can exempt itself. Not only that, but some of the organizations are trustworthy, as it says in the bill. The minister can say that any provincial or federal commission or body he or she wants can be exempted, allowed to use artificial intelligence and held to a different standard than the private sector is.

Does the member agree that this particular section, more than anything, needs to be looked at? I believe it is too much government overreach. It has essentially given itself the ultimate loophole.

[Public Complaints and Review Commission Act, November 25th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague mentioned that justice delayed is justice denied. One observation I have, and I am not pointing the finger at anyone within the organization, is that the current review process the RCMP has for complaints, whether because of vexatious complaints or faulty processes, seems to be quite long. It can take over a year before someone even has their file updated so that the process begins.

Given the fact that the government does not seem to pay attention to its own bureaucrats when they say they have an issue with passports and need to increase resources and staff, does he feel that the government will be able to successfully implement this new complaints process so it includes both RCMP and CBSA complaints?

[Pension Protection Act, November 18th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here, or least to be with the House virtually. It is always an honour to rise on behalf of the good people of Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola.

I would like to thank the member for Sarnia—Lambton for her leadership in this Parliament on this issue. God knows we need these issues brought up because, in some cases, the issue around pension reform and the need to resolve it is long standing and has happened over periods, not just of governments, but of decades.

We have two issues in this particular space when it relates to pensions. One is legacy pensions, which is broadly what we are dealing with today. The other one is new ones, meaning that fewer companies are deciding to use the standard defined benefit pension plan. I am just going to take a quick moment to share a few reasons why that is.

Obviously the business environment has changed. Technologies have come in. We have seen new business models operating that challenge the status quo and have created all sorts of issues for legacy businesses as technology continues to change things.

The government tried to deal with this by bringing in Bill C-27 in its first mandate, but that particular bill went nowhere because the government probably did not do its homework and got hung up over one particular area that people were contesting around conversion, the conversion of a defined benefit to a target pension plan.

The reason why I raise this issue is because the government has failed when it comes to addressing both legacy issues, as well as trying to invoke new methods for bringing in benefits, whether they be a target-based benefit or a defined benefit. If we want to see more people having secure retirements, then that is part of the solution. I do not think the government has done a very good job, which brings me back to legacy issues.

Defined benefit pensions, those are usually handled, most of the time, by the companies themselves. There is no legislation that says that when they are in a surplus position, who actually owns that. Is it the actual company or is it the pensioners or the current workers? That problem, unfortunately, does not happen that often because it is very seldom that these particular private, defined benefits are running at a surplus. In fact, it is the opposite.

We have seen cases such as Sears. I represent a riding that has a large percentage of seniors. They rely on that income. It breaks one's heart when one finds out that they are no longer going to be receiving the benefit they paid into.

There has been inaction on this by the Liberal government since it came into office, but I would not put it all on them. If we just look to those who are fortunate enough to have a pension program, and it is usually in the public sector, the answer has already been given by successive governments over the decades. If there is a shortfall, the taxpayer will fill that gap. However, for these private pensions, that has not been answered.

Unfortunately, we have seen recessions. We have seen where stock markets have been hit hard, in the early 2000s, obviously in the financial crisis in 2008-09, and the subsequent great recession, and now we are looking at where there is a lot of talk about a possible recession. This is the worst time to be bringing these things up.

When these issues happen, when scarcity is abound, this is where everyone tightens up and demands to have what they are owed. The member for Sarnia—Lambton has been trying, struggling through the process of a private member's bill, working through committee, to put a new balance in place that would at least address this.

We do have the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. Bill C-27 that I referred to earlier did talk about having more rules and oversight in place that would force new target benefits to come up with plans to bring themselves back into a surplus position when there is a drop.

That is really important because joint-sponsored pension plans often have these things where they will, on a temporary basis, cut some secondary benefits to smooth things out, and once the plan comes back into balance, then the regular benefits continue. Those kinds of tools, where a pension plan can smooth out those outflows to make sure there is always a plan to get back into surplus, work. It has been shown in joint-sponsored plans, and it could work in defined benefit programs as well, but the government has a responsibility to start the discussion.

Unfortunately, the government seems to have taken the opinion that, if one touches it, one has basically bought it. It has, so far, decided not to enter into this space since its retreat from Bill C-27. Again, this country deserves better. It deserves to have both certainty for the existing legacy pension plans out there in the federal space and, I believe, an overall discussion on provincial plans. So far, when it comes to that kind of discussion, successive ministers of finance, whether it be former minister Morneau, who is the minister no more, as I like to joke once in a while, or the current Minister of Finance, they have not made this a priority. Thus, this is where members of Parliament need to fill the gap.

The superpriority, although it is an essential process that has been pointed out by the Canadian public, where they feel that if the government cannot put in place a framework that assures them of that, then, by goodness, they should receive superpriority in the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act at the very end. It is an option that will have trade-offs in the corporate side, where it will make it in some cases harder for corporations to receive financing for their bonds. However, in the absence of better leadership by the government, members of Parliament have been forced to do this.

It is terrible that we have a government in office that votes down, or I should say denies, unanimous consent. Members of Parliament wanted to see the superpriority component of this bill included. For the Liberal government to continually say no and use whatever tools it can just shows the government is completely opposed to anything in this space. That is lamentable because ultimately it is Canadians who do not have an assured pension, such as public servants or most of us, if we are vested, do.

I would encourage the government to come clean. I would encourage Canadians to talk to their members of Parliament. Most of all, I would encourage the government to start taking this issue seriously, put forward consultations with both provincial governments and the Canadian public on how it intends to deal with legacy issues if it is not going to go forward with the Bill C-228 provisions presented by the good member for Sarnia—Lambton.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak today and wish all of my colleagues a good day.