Garnett Genuis

[Petitions, September 16th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, my ability to be succinct is my best quality.

[Petitions, September 16th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I do not know how to say “succinct” in French.

[Petitions, September 16th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, my succinctness is one of my best qualities, as members of office have said.

[Petitions, September 16th, 2025]

I have four more, but I'm happy to end earlier.

[Petitions, September 16th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I want to propose a petition brought to me by constituents that deals with Senate reform. Petitioners are concerned about unequal representation in the Senate. In particular, they are concerned about the fact that there are some provinces in this country with lower populations that have more representation in the Senate relative to provinces such as mine, which have a much lower number of senators than their population would suggest they should. This is obviously an artifact of a certain history, but we should move forward and affirm a concept of Canada where regions are treated equally and not facing discrimination on the basis of historical circumstances.

Petitioners in this case are proposing the establishment of equal representation for each province in the Senate. I look forward to hearing the government's response to that proposal.

[Petitions, September 16th, 2025]

The second petition is in support of the people of Lebanon.

Petitioners note that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that started on October 8, 2023, has had terrible consequences for the Lebanese people. They further note that Hezbollah is a terrorist Iranian regime proxy that acts to serve the regime's ideology against the interests of the people of Lebanon. The people of Lebanon want a complete end to colonial oppression by the Iranian regime.

Petitioners, therefore, call on the government to seek the complete disarmament of Hezbollah, the end of Iranian aid to Hezbollah and the restoration of Lebanon's sovereignty with all of its territories governed by an elected sovereign Lebanese government.

I do note that significant progress has been made toward this end since the collection of signatures for this petition. While there has been ongoing work to secure Lebanon from the influence of this terrorist organization, I feel that, notwithstanding some of the change in circumstances, it is still important to table that petition.

[Petitions, September 16th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I delayed standing up because I know other members have petitions as well, and I have more than one to table today.

First of all, I would like to begin by tabling another petition similar to that tabled by colleagues in response to this very concerning recommendation from the Liberal-dominated finance committee in the previous Parliament.

Notwithstanding his protestations, the member for Winnipeg North can observe in this report, as petitioners say, recommendations 429 and 430. Recommendation 429 proposes applying a political values test to charitable status determination and revoking the charitable status of organizations that take a position on abortion that is different from that taken by the government. Recommendation 430 of that same report, endorsed by the Liberal-dominated committee, calls for the removal of “advancement of religion” as a charitable tax purpose. That would effectively strip charitable status from all houses of worship, regardless of religion.

Petitioners further note that stripping charitable status from these organizations would result in a revocation tax, which would force them to hand over all of their property. That is an extremely draconian proposal from the Liberal-dominated finance committee.

Petitioners note that religious charities in Canada provide vital services for society, including food banks, care for seniors, newcomer support, youth programs and mental health outreach, all of which is rooted in their faith tradition, and that singling out or excluding faith charities from the charitable sector based on religious belief undermines the diversity and pluralism foundational to Canadian society.

Petitioners ask the government to reject these recommendations and refrain from including them in the next federal budget, which we will see eventually, I suppose, and to affirm the charitable status of faith-based organizations whose work flows from sincerely held beliefs and whose contributions serve the common good in Canada.

[Citizenship Act, September 15th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, it is important for you to rule on the rules, because the member opposite suggested that somehow debating this bill is preventing the Liberals from bringing in a budget. Would you, Mr. Speaker, be able to clarify that the amount of time we spend debating this bill has absolutely nothing to do with the timeline available to the government, and, in fact, they could have brought—

[Request for Emergency Debate, September 15th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, Canada faces a deepening youth unemployment crisis, and I am rising today to request that the House of Commons hold an emergency debate on this crisis.

Parliament has not sat since June, and in that time we have had three new reports from Statistics Canada that underline the dire situation facing Canadian young people. The unemployment rate has gone to 7.1% overall. For youth, it has hit 14.5%. Clearly, youth unemployment is already at recession levels, and it continues to get even worse.

Incredibly, about one in five returning students was unemployed this summer. In August alone, the drop in jobs, if we combine employed and self-employed, was 109,000. Effectively, that is 109,000 fewer jobs. This was in just one month. That is an emergency, and that emergency calls for an emergency debate.

We have been trying to get the government to take this crisis seriously. Before the summer began, we proposed a summer study on youth unemployment at the human resources committee; Liberals blocked that study. When the July numbers came out, we again sought emergency hearings, but the Liberals refused to bring the committee back to work.

This summer, even while Liberals refused this work, I and other Conservative members criss-crossed the country to meet with young people, employers and Canadians of all backgrounds to gather feedback on the jobs crisis. The Liberals spent two and a half more months sitting on their hands.

Now Parliament is back, and the delays must end. Our youth cannot wait anymore. I have talked to young people who have put in over a thousand applications—that is over a thousand applications—and are still looking.

Liberal policies got us here. Liberal policies continue to block economic development. Liberal policies wrecked our immigration system. Liberal policies have created a cost of living crisis. They should stop dithering and start working.

Many Canadians are struggling. Many are asking their employers for additional hours and many are working two and three jobs just to get by, and this is putting further pressure on the labour market. The jobs crisis is biting more and more Canadians.

Parliament is back. Let us finally get back to work. Let us have this vitally important emergency debate. Let us confront this generational challenge so that our young people can work again.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Return, September 15th, 2025]

With regard to information accessed and used by the government for decisions about immigration and credential recognition, and using the most up to date figures available: (a) how long does it take for each licensing body in Canada to provide an answer to an internationally trained professional on whether or not their credentials will be recognized in Canada; (b) for each licensing body, do they offer competency-based testing, multiple choice testing, or another form of testing; (c) for each response in (b), what is the cost of testing, and how much of that cost is borne by the individual seeking to be licensed; (d) what percentage of new immigrants who earned credentials overseas are able to use those credentials in Canada; and (e) what percentage of Canadians born in Canada who earned credentials overseas are able to use those credentials in Canada?