House of Commons photo

Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was firearms.

Last in Parliament October 2015, as Conservative MP for Yorkton—Melville (Saskatchewan)

Won his last election, in 2011, with 69% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Points of Order June 6th, 2006

Mr. Speaker, I am quite surprised that the Liberals would draw attention to probably one of the biggest fiascos that has ever been perpetrated on Parliament and the Canadian people. This is what the Auditor General said:

--significant costs incurred by the Canada Firearms Centre in 2003-04 were not reported properly to Parliament--

She also said:

--it also decided not to seek additional funding through Supplementary Estimates in 2003-04.

In light of what the Auditor General said, I am not misleading Parliament. Let me give the House a couple of other quotations from the Auditor General's comments:

What's really inexcusable is that Parliament was in the dark.

She said:

This information was not systematically provided to Parliament.

Again, she went on to say:

--it also decided not to seek additional funding through Supplementary Estimates in 2003-04.

That was a decision by the Liberal government to do that, to not inform Parliament. I will ask the people of Canada to decide whether that is deliberate or not, when we make a conscious decision. She went on to say:

The ability of the House of Commons to cap government spending is fundamental to Parliament's control of the public purse. This means that departments and agencies need to give Parliament good estimates of their spending plans and report their actual spending properly.

She also went on to say:

Senior accounting officials of the Treasury Board Secretariat have told us that a department and its minister are responsible for the accuracy of their financial reporting.

Her entire report goes on to document the problem. I would like to refer the Speaker to a ruling from May 31, 1982 on page 17912 of the Debates. It stated:

Expressions which are unparliamentary when applied to individuals are not always so considered when applied to a whole party.

Another ruling from May 1, 1980 at page 606 of the Debates said a similar thing, but in that case the words were directed at the government instead of an individual member.

I would like to point out that the Auditor General basically said the same things. Her report has been tabled and is before the House and I quoted from it. How can that be unparliamentary?

Further, I would like the Speaker to be aware that the member will be proposing a motion to replace me as chairman of the Standing Committee on Public Safety because of something I said in the House. That is intimidation and a breach of my privileges. Marleau and Montpetit states:

By far, the most important right accorded to Members of the House is the exercise of freedom of speech in parliamentary proceedings. It has been described as: “…a fundamental right without which they would be hampered in the performance of their duties. It permits them to speak in the House without inhibition, to refer to any matter or express any opinion as they see fit, to say what they feel needs to be said in the furtherance of the national interest and the aspirations of their constituents”.

On page 84 of Marleau and Montpetit it states:

Speakers have consistently upheld the right of the House to the services of its Members free from intimidation--

The precedent cited on that same page is from Speaker Lamoureux who went further and suggested that members should be protected from threats or attempts at intimidation.

I believe the Liberal Party is now resorting to intimidation against members for what they say on the floor of the House. That affects our privileges and I think it is quite clear I did not mislead Parliament.

Firearms Registry June 1st, 2006

Mr. Speaker, first, the Liberals incorrectly claimed that the long gun registry would cost a mere $2 million. We now know that it is $1 billion in direct costs only. They tried to keep the escalating costs of the registry hidden from Canadian taxpayers.

We have heard from the Auditor General and senior bureaucrats that the Liberals deliberately hid millions of dollars from Parliament.

Can the Minister of Public Safety tell us how this government will do things differently?

Firearms Registry May 17th, 2006

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we heard the Auditor General's condemnation of the Liberal waste and mismanagement in the long gun registry. The government is committed to addressing the issue of the registry. Today we delivered.

Could the Minister for Public Safety tell the House his plans for the long gun registry?

Firearms Registry May 16th, 2006

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General has reported on what we have suspected for years. The cost of the gun registry continues to spiral out of control. The Auditor General's 2002 report criticized Liberal spending. At that time the former prime minister said, “We have to make sure it does not happen again. It is simply inexcusable”. However he and his Liberal government continued to fail to keep costs under control.

Could the Minister of Public Safety tell us how the Liberals managed to fail so completely and misspend millions of taxpayer dollars?

Questions on the Order Paper May 12th, 2006

How many individuals are there in Canada who are considered too dangerous to own firearms including: (a) number of convicted violent criminals, prisoners and parolees; (b) number of persons prohibited from owning guns; (c) number of persons with an outstanding criminal arrest warrant; (d) number of persons charged with a violent criminal offence that are out on bail; (e) number of persons with a restraining order against them; (f) number of persons that have had their firearms licence refused or revoked; and (g) number of firearms licence holders that are under investigation for incidents that may result in their firearms licence being revoked?

Questions on the Order Paper May 12th, 2006

With regard to the federal Chief Firearms Officer Services Policy Manual which states: “An individual may be authorized to carry restricted firearms or certain handguns (as precribed in Section 12(6) of the Firearms Act) for two purposes: (1) protection of life, and (2) lawful occupation which includes employees of the armoured vehicle industry and those who require firearms for protection of life from wild animals while working in the remote wilderness”: (a) how many “protection of life” carry permits have been issued since December 1, 1998, in each province and territory; and (b) what types of firearms were applicants permitted to carry for their own protection?

Petitions May 5th, 2006

Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to table quite a number of petitions from constituents across Canada, mostly from western Canada.

The petitioners point out that under the current federal criminal law an unborn child is not recognized as a victim with respect to violent crimes. When Olivia Talbot of Edmonton was shot and killed in November 2005, her 27 week old unborn son, Lane Jr. also died. Because we offer no legal protection for unborn children today, no charge could be laid in the death of baby Lane.

The vast majority of the public supports laws that protect unborn children from acts of violence against their mothers, which also injure or kill the baby in their womb. Forcing upon a pregnant woman the death or injury of her unborn child, is a violation of a woman's right to give life to her child and protect her child.

The petitioners call upon Parliament to enact legislation which would recognize unborn children as separate victims when they are injured or killed during the commission of an offence against their mothers, allowing two charges to be laid against the offender instead of just one.

Agriculture May 3rd, 2006

Mr. Speaker, for 13 long years Canadian farmers waited for the Liberal governments of the past to provide real support for the agriculture industry. During these dark years, farmers were abandoned by the Liberals and left alone to face the BSE crisis, floods, frosts and droughts, skyrocketing input costs, and plummeting markets.

Today, I would like to congratulate our finance minister and the Conservative government for finally giving agriculture the attention and funding it so richly deserves. Yesterday's budget included $1.5 billion more in new funding for Canadian farming communities this year. In addition, this Conservative government will replace CAIS with effective income stabilization and disaster relief programs.

Finally, agriculture producers who are barely holding on have hope. Finally, farmers devastated by frost, drought and flooding will be helped. Finally, the farmers in the RM of Porcupine, who received 40 inches of rail last year, will have relief.

It took 13 years and a change of government, but Canadian farmers have finally been heard.

Agriculture May 1st, 2006

Mr. Speaker, the situation in agriculture has been deteriorating for a decade, especially for grains and oilseeds producers. Drought one year, untimely frosts the next and flooding have made it impossible for them to cope.

Evidence of the crisis is obvious: land values are going down and unpaid bills from last year make it impossible to get credit to put in this year's crop. On top of all this, rising fuel costs and low commodity prices are having a devastating impact on our farmers' ability to manage.

Nowhere is this crisis more evident than in the northern part of my riding around Porcupine Plain. At least 100 farmers will be unable to seed a crop on a major portion of their land because of 40 inches of rain last year. Water still covers much of their fields. Deep ruts make planting almost impossible in those fields that were harvested.

The CAIS program is not working effectively. Urgent assistance is needed and I call on the government to address this crisis now.

An Act for the Recognition and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms April 10th, 2006

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-223, An Act to amend An Act for the Recognition and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and to amend the Constitution Act, 1867.

Mr. Speaker, property rights need strengthening in federal law because they were intentionally left out of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. My bill would make up for this grave omission by strengthening the property rights provisions in the Canadian Bill of Rights.

Last year the Canadian Real Estate Association commissioned an extensive survey involving almost 10,000 respondents. Ninety-two per cent of telephone respondents thought it was important that the government fairly compensate property owners if their property was expropriated and 88% thought it was important for the government to fairly compensate property owners if restrictions were imposed on how their property was used.

In addition to strengthening property rights protection in the Canadian Bill of Rights, my bill would also require a two-thirds majority vote of the House whenever the government passes laws that override fundamental property rights.

Court case after court case have proven that Canadians have no protection whatsoever to the arbitrary taking of property by the federal government. It is time to correct that injustice.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)