Ed Fast

[Privilege, May 9th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the member that members on this side of the House who believe in the truth do believe it.

Having said that, I believe it is Canadians who will judge for themselves. They have seen this movie before time and time again, with the Prime Minister prevaricating, exaggerating, denying and then being found out. Then it is oh well; too bad, so sad. This is the Prime Minister who twice has been found in breach of Canada's ethics laws. He just swats them to the side as if he can get away with that. We can do better than that as a country.

The member should take this debate seriously, because it is our national security, our sovereignty as a country and our democracy at stake. These are not trifling arguments that I have been making. I have been very serious about them. I hope that he and the rest of Canadians actually take this seriously.

[Privilege, May 9th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I will repeat this, and I want to do it unambiguously so there is no mistake about what I intend to say here. The Prime Minister knew over two years ago that our colleague in the House was being targeted by a hostile foreign regime, and the Prime Minister did nothing to inform our colleague in the House about that threat and intimidation. It was only recently that we learned about it, and not through the Prime Minister or any minister of his government. We found that out through the media, The Globe and Mail.

That should never happen in this country on something as critical to our democracy as the right of each member in the House to vote freely without intimidation. That should be unchallengeable, yet the government and the Prime Minister failed to advise our colleague of this threat to his family. I find it incomprehensible that we as MP colleagues in the House would do that to each other. That should never happen.

Yesterday, we found out that the diplomat involved in promoting this threat and intimidation against our colleague was expelled by the Prime Minister. All I will say to that is it is too little, too late. The damage is already done with the threats and intimidation. This should not have happened. The least that the government and the Prime Minister owed to our colleague was transparency and the right for him to be informed the moment that CSIS became aware of this and the communication went to the Prime Minister's Office.

I have already mentioned that what is at stake here is not only our right to vote in the House freely, to express ourselves freely, to take positions that are consistent with human values and to do so without the threat of intimidation. It goes far beyond that. Every single Canadian who is watching these proceedings will be asking themselves, “Well, hold it. Am I at risk? Could a hostile regime from around the world, from elsewhere, say Russia or Iran, interfere in my life and threaten me in that way to try to achieve some nefarious outcome that is in their interest and against my interest?” They could say that, yes, and Canadians across this country should be concerned.

However, do members know who should be really concerned? It is Canadians of Chinese background who are concerned that agents of the Communist government would seek to influence them here in Canada to promote the interests of Beijing rather than the interests of Canada. That is what is at stake here.

I fear for our country if we as members of Parliament cannot even ask or expect our government to notify us as these threats emerge. I have no doubt that CSIS would have communicated this to the Prime Minister's Office. I have no doubt at all.

We know from the Prime Minister's chief of staff that the Prime Minister reads everything. Yes, that is what she said. She said he reads everything, as if she looks over his shoulder every waking moment of the day. However, that is what she said. That was her testimony at committee, and I take her at her word. The Prime Minister reads everything, and no doubt this would have come before him because of the serious nature of this threat to the members of this body, this august chamber.

Let me talk about why we have focused on the Communist regime in China. It is this regime that actually perpetrated this violation of our colleague's privileges in this House. I did mention the publicly acknowledged genocide of the Uyghur minority population in China, but this regime is also responsible for many other threats to our country.

We know that there have been at least eight different foreign police stations established by the regime in our country, and to date, no one has confirmed that all of them have been shut down. We have been pleading with the Prime Minister for months to shut down these foreign police stations that Beijing has established here in our country in violation of our sovereignty. The latest report has it that at least two of these foreign police stations are still operating in Canada. That should not be happening in our country, but it is happening under the Liberal government.

What about the two Michaels? It took forever to repatriate those two Canadian citizens because of bogus charges levied against them in China.

We know there has been election interference. By the way, that is another case the Prime Minister has said he was never advised about. There was election interference during the 2019 election and the 2021 election, but he said that nobody ever told him. Really? There were two elections and there was foreign interference in each one. CSIS knew about it and never brought it to the attention of the Prime Minister's Office. We know he reads everything. It is implausible. It is unbelievable that he would not have known, yet to this day he denies actually knowing about that.

We know that with that election interference, at least 11 candidates were targeted in order to be defeated. The conclusion has been drawn that the overall election results were fair and represented the right outcome. I am not challenging that conclusion at all. What I am saying, however, is that for those 11 candidates, like my friends Kenny Chiu in Richmond and Alice Wong in Richmond, it made all the difference because they are not in this House today. It is election interference that the Prime Minister and his government did not take seriously. Bob Saroya is another one of our colleagues who is not in this place. The overall election might have been fair, but for those three individuals and the other eight, it made all the difference. We have to take foreign interference in our elections seriously.

To close, I am going to talk again about what is at stake for our country.

Our national security is at stake. Our economic security and prosperity are at stake because these hostile foreign regimes have been active in intellectual property theft, stealing our research, breaking contracts and violating the international rules-based order. That is serious stuff. That is something this House has to take up and take seriously.

With respect to the personal security and safety of Canadians, I have already mentioned my colleague from Wellington—Halton Hills. His family was threatened by a hostile foreign regime. It is critical that we take this seriously.

Other things at stake are human rights, freedom, the rule of law and democracy. That is what is at stake here in this debate. I encourage all my colleagues to support this motion and vote in favour of it.

[Privilege, May 9th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to discuss the motion before us, which is a privilege motion raised by the member for Wellington—Halton Hills. I am so pleased to engage in this debate and to be here in support of my friend, a fellow member of Parliament who, very clearly, has had his privileges as a member of Parliament violated. It is that motion that is before us today.

Members will have noticed that over the last month, when I have spoken in the House on different occasions, I have spoken about whom Canadians can trust. Whom can Canadians trust with their privacy, for example, or with their economic prosperity? Of course, each time, the conclusion I have reached is that we cannot rely on the deeply flawed, failed Liberal government to be a trustworthy defender of Canadian interests.

Today, I would like to continue that thought as we talk about whom we can trust to defend Canada's national security and sovereignty and our fundamental democracy. I would like to suggest, again, that we cannot trust the Liberal government to defend the most cherished institution in the country, which is our democracy and our right to vote, to think and to speak freely.

Recently, a very serious vulnerability in Canada's security and democracy was exposed. It turns out that my friend and colleague in the House, the member for Wellington—Halton Hills, had his family, his extended family in China, threatened and intimidated. This was because he, as a member of the House, promoted and voted for a motion that effectively declared that the persecution of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, China, amounted to a genocide.

That is what we do in the House. We make judgments. We weigh evidence and information that we receive, and we come to policy conclusions. We pass legislation. We pass motions in the House. That is democracy in action, but it appears that the Communist regime in Beijing did not take kindly to the member for Wellington—Halton Hills actually supporting this effort and voting in favour of it. It appears that a diplomat here in Canada, for the Chinese government, promoted the intimidation of my colleague's family members overseas, as well as aiding and abetting in threatening them.

The Speaker recently ruled that this, in itself, was a prima facie case of privilege, which required redress through the procedure and House affairs committee, as well as a debate in the House. That is the debate we are having today. I would love to flesh out exactly why it is that member after member of our Conservative Party has been engaging in this debate tonight.

The motion we have before us is a very serious matter; it affects one of the most respected members of the House. We have heard from all parties in this esteemed House that the member for Wellington—Halton Hills is one of the most knowledgeable, competent, capable and ethical members of this House, and we all have great admiration for him. He does his job on behalf of his constituents extremely well.

We found out that this member is being attacked by a foreign government because that government does not agree with Canada's human rights regime or that member's views on what constitutes true freedom. That member stands up in this House and speaks to and defends the rights of the Uyghur minority in China to be free from forced labour and from persecution. When he is then attacked by a hostile foreign regime, this House needs to take action.

It turns out that the government should have known about this over two years ago. In fact, we know that CSIS became aware of intelligence two years ago that the member for Wellington—Halton Hills was being targeted and that his family members were being targeted with intimidation and threats because of the position the member had taken in this House supporting the Uyghur motion. However, the Prime Minister did nothing about it.

Our Prime Minister claims that CSIS never brought it to his attention, but that is simply implausible. It is something of a critical nature, going to the very root of our democracy. It is about the right to vote freely in this House, to speak our opinions, to take positions and to shape the policies of our country. These things are of such importance that the intelligence would have been brought to the attention of the Prime Minister. There is no doubt in my mind.

However, we are told in this House day after day that the Prime Minister did not know about this until a week ago. Over time, more and more Canadians are realizing that the Prime Minister cannot be believed. That is why it goes to trust. I started off by saying that the question Canadians are asking themselves more and more often is whether they can trust the Liberal government. The answer we are hearing more and more is “no”. People cannot trust the current Liberal government anymore; it is not transparent about what it does as a government or about what it says here in this chamber.

The government would have known, at least two years ago, that the member for Wellington—Halton Hills was being targeted by a hostile foreign regime, and it did absolutely nothing to inform the member. In fact, do members know how the member for Wellington—Halton Hills actually—

[Business of Supply, May 2nd, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I was very disappointed to hear the hon. member spend most of her time attacking the previous Conservative government. She did not mention that her government, her Liberal government, has been in power for eight years and has spent and spent and spent. In fact, it has spent somewhere in the order of half a trillion dollars. She talked about how much money her government has spent on housing, affordable housing. The problem is that it is not about how much one spends. In fact, spending has driven much of the inflation in the housing market that we see today.

I would like to ask her to explain how it is that her government has been in place for eight years and has spent a historic amount, not only on affordable housing but on many other things, yet housing in Canada has not become more affordable. It has become more and more expensive. It has doubled in price. Rents have gone up. Down payments have gone up—

[Petitions, May 1st, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I am tabling in the House three similar petitions in which the petitioners firstly note that the risk of violence against women increases when they are pregnant. It is very important to note that currently an injury to or the death of a preborn child as the victim of crime is not considered an aggravating factor.

Justice calls out that an attacker who abuses a pregnant woman and her preborn child be sentenced accordingly. Really, the sentence should match the crime.

The petitioners therefore call upon the House to legislate the abuse of a pregnant woman and/or the infliction of harm on a preborn child as an aggravating factor in sentencing under the Criminal Code.

The three petitions all ask for the same thing.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I am very proud of the Harper years. During the Harper years, of course, the globe experienced an economic crisis that Canada also had to address. The member knows that Canada was the last country in the G7 to enter that global recession and the first to emerge from it. This occurred because of the management of Stephen Harper. I am very proud of our accomplishments.

By the way, the member is right that, in 2015, we left the Liberal government a surplus of $2 billion. We had balanced budgets. Since that time, the Liberal government has been unable to achieve balanced budgets. In fact, the deficits this government has incurred are actually atrocious when we look at the generational debt that has been created for my children and my grandchildren and for his.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I think my colleague and I might agree that the EI system must be reformed but disagree on how it should be reformed.

In terms of his suggestion that I would advocate for shrinking government, I will say that I did not mention that in my speech. I talked about controlling spending. If we control spending and grow the economy, we suddenly have the capacity to deliver the services that Canadians need. It is about balancing those two things, and I believe that, as a Conservative government, we will be able to get that done.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, my colleague across the way just had an opportunity to ask the defence critic that question.

I would suggest to the member that it was her finance minister who, last year, said that she could balance the budget in four years. How would she have done that? It would have required controlling spending and being responsible with taxpayer dollars, which is something the finance minister has been unable to do. That is why we will not support an irresponsible budget.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I quote:

...let me be very clear. We are absolutely determined that our debt-to-GDP ratio must continue to decline and our deficits must continue to be reduced. The pandemic debt we incurred to keep Canadians safe and solvent must [and will] be paid down.... This is our fiscal anchor. This is a line we will not cross.

Who said that? It was our finance minister. A year ago, she made that bold statement, said those bold words, when she proclaimed to the world that Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio would be Canada's anchor and that she would not cross the line of allowing it to increase.

Here we are a year later. Can we guess what happened? Our finance minister took a big step across the line. The issue for Canadians is this: Whom do they trust to manage this country's finances?

We asked for three things. We asked that the war on work and lower taxes for workers be ended, that the inflationary deficits that are driving the sky-high cost of living be ended and that the gatekeepers be removed from home construction across Canada so Canadians can have their dream of home ownership restored. None of those three requests were followed through on by the Liberal government.

I want to touch on a couple of issues, including affordability and inflation, the problem of uncontrolled spending, the staggering cost of government and, finally, economic performance. I do not know if I will have enough time to cover all those issues, but I will do my best.

First is affordability and inflation. Taxes on everything are going up. There is a reason that Canadians should not trust the current government to manage finances. It is a tax-and-spend government under which the cost of living has skyrocketed, including the cost of groceries, gas at the pumps and home heating.

Let us not forget the cost of housing. Under the Liberal government, nine out of 10 Canadians now say that dream of home ownership has disappeared. It is a dream I grew up with. I assumed it was attainable for most, if not all, Canadians. Today, nine out of 10 young Canadians say that dream is no longer a reality for them. A down payment on the average Canadian home, the average mortgage payment and, quite frankly, the average rent payment have doubled in Canada over the last seven years under the Liberal government.

Inflation has eroded what a dollar buys. We see stagnating wages across the country. It is at the point now where the gap between the rich and the poor is growing ever greater. Those with assets are growing richer, whereas those who earn paycheques are growing poorer. We now have one in five Canadians skipping meals just to get by and have enough to eat. Let us think about that. There is a perverse situation in which the poor are going to food banks and asking for medical assistance in dying, or in other words, assisted suicide. This is not because they are sick but because they do not want to go hungry. Is that the perverse situation in which we find ourselves in Canada? The government is expanding access to medical assistance in dying, while at the same time, it is not providing the resources Canadians need to at least survive and have some kind of satisfaction in their lives.

I will talk about the problem of uncontrolled spending, which is a critical issue for this country. Today, the government is spending $151 billion more than it did in 2015, when it came to power and took over from the Harper government. That spending has created unprecedented inflationary pressures that are driving the skyrocketing cost of living for Canadians, who just cannot afford life in Canada anymore. Today, we have a deficit of $43 billion. Does everyone remember when the Prime Minister, back in the 2015 election, promised tiny deficits of no more than $10 billion? Every year since then, budget deficits have been much greater than that.

We all acknowledge that, during COVID, there had to be supports and benefits provided to Canadians to allow them to make it through that very troubling period. However, we are out of COVID now, and the deficits continue despite the government's promises to return to balanced budgets. The Minister of Finance promised we would return to a balanced budget. She promised that last year, just one year ago, and today she broke that promise. Promise after promise after promise is broken by Canada's corrupt and failed government.

The result, of course, is that over the last seven years, Canada's national debt has doubled. In fact, the government has racked up more debt than all other Canadian governments combined. That, by definition, is profligacy. That is irresponsible use of taxpayers' money. The government does not understand that we have to live within our means, the way any Canadian family has to.

I will go on and talk about the staggering cost of government. Under the current government, the federal public service has increased by nearly 31%. In seven years, over 80,000 new federal government positions have been added. I can ask an average Canadian citizen out there whether they are getting better service. Those 80,000 professionals who have been hired by the government must be providing an enhanced level of service. How are passports doing? What a failed program that is. How are visas doing? That is a failed program. Immigration is a failed program. It goes on and on and on. Service is going down, and the cost of government is going up. Who pays for it? Canadians do.

Finally, I will talk about economic performance. One thing I had hoped the government was going to include in the budget was something addressing the issue of competitiveness. We compete with other countries around the world for capital, for investment and for human resources, and we have a productivity gap in this country that continues to grow. Canadians are producing less and less product. That is undermining our national competitiveness, and it is driving inflationary pressures. Every economist will tell us that. There was nothing in the budget to address that gaping hole in our productivity.

I have had so little time to flesh out why we, as Conservatives, cannot support the budget. This is a failed budget. Canada has a failed government, and Canadians deserve better.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the way Canadians judge a budget is by looking at the previous year's budget to see whether the government has actually implemented the promises it made in that budget.

I went back and looked at the previous year's budget, and there was a commitment that the government was going to introduce a policy to ensure that “profits from flipping properties held for less than 12 months are taxed fully and fairly”. I would love to hear the member's comments on how that implementation has gone. Has the government actually implemented any policies that would basically cut down on the flipping of properties and the financialization of housing in Canada? How is that process going?