House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2025, with 60% of the vote.
National Defence February 6th, 2017
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' approach for replacing our fighter jets makes absolutely no sense at all. The sole-source Super Hornet deal will cost up to $7 billion for only 18 jets for only 12 years of service.
This week, Boeing's competitor announced a price drop that puts the F-35 at the same price as the Super Hornet.
Will the Liberals finally listen to our air force and our defence procurement experts and start an open competition today to replace our aging F-18s?
National Defence February 6th, 2017
Mr. Speaker, it was revealed that the Super Hornets the Liberals are purchasing would be operational for only 12 years. It is unbelievable that the Liberals would waste $7 billion on an aircraft that they have already planned to mothball.
As we know, finance is not the Liberals' strong suit, but let us give them a hand. That costs over $300 million per jet. That is a colossal waste of taxpayers' money. That is a colossal waste of time for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Why will the Minister of National Defence not quit wasting time, resources, and money and move immediately to an open competition?
Foreign Affairs February 2nd, 2017
Mr. Speaker, yesterday it was revealed that the new Minister of Foreign Affairs was given different instructions from her predecessor. Specifically, troop deployments will now be based solely on Canada's national interest. It makes us wonder what they were based on before.
For months we have been asking the Liberals to explain how their intention to send our troops on a UN mission in Africa serves our national interest.
Can the minister confirm that the previous peacekeeping plans are now on hold, or have the Liberals abandoned them completely?
National Defence January 31st, 2017
Mr. Speaker, we learned today that the Liberals' plan to sole-source the Super Hornet is going to cost taxpayers between $5 billion and $7 billion to buy an obsolete fighter aircraft.
The Prime Minister campaigned on purchasing the Super Hornet for $65 million each, but that number is going to more than double and could actually exceed $300 million a plane.
Will the Prime Minister do the right thing for our air force, for our taxpayers, and stop this political purchase and immediately proceed to launch an open and fair competition to replace our CF-18s?
Questions Passed as Orders for Return January 30th, 2017
With regard to the government’s decision to explore purchasing 18 F-18 Super Hornet planes from Boeing: (a) what is the projected acquisition cost of these planes; (b) what is the Department of National Defence’s projected operational life span of an F-18 Super Hornet; (c) what is the projected yearly operation costs and maintenance of the fleet of F-18 Super Hornets; (d) what measures are in place to ensure that there is a fair and open competition for the permanent replacement fleet; (e) what specific measures are in place to ensure that Boeing does not receive an unfair advantage due to its status related to the interim fleet; (f) what are the dates, times, locations, and lists of attendees of all meetings between the government and Boeing since November 4, 2015; (g) what are the details of communications which have been received from the United States government to date related to the interim purchase of 18 Super Hornets from Boeing, including the (i) date, (ii) sender, (iii) recipient, (iv) title, (v) relevant file number; and (h) on what date were each of the non-disclosure agreements referred to in the response to Q-531 signed?
Questions Passed as Orders for Return January 30th, 2017
With regard to the Canadian Armed Forces’ Operation IMPACT: (a) what was the original risk score assigned to the mission; (b) what is the current risk score assigned to the mission; (c) since the beginning of the mission, has the risk score changed and, if so, (i) when did it change, (ii) how many times has it changed, (iii) for each change, what was the original score and the new score; (d) are various risk scores applied to different Canadian Armed Forces personnel based on (i) location, (ii) rank, (iii) task; (e) if any responses to (d) are in the affirmative, what are all the risk scores that have been designated since the beginning of Operation IMPACT; (f) has the Department of Finance or the Department of National Defence changed the tax relief for personnel deployed on designated international operational missions for Operation IMPACT; (g) are all members of the Canadian Armed Forces deployed on Operation IMPACT entitled to the same tax relief measures; and (h) have any members received the tax relief measures provided to the members deployed since the beginning of the mission and, if so, what are the specific details of such relief measures?
Questions Passed as Orders for Return January 30th, 2017
With regard to the Fifty per cent Aboriginal Hiring Strategy agreed to by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC), now Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC): (a) between 1996 and 2016, what percentage of employees of AANDC/INAC have identified as Aboriginal, broken down by year (i) at the director level and below, (ii) at the director-general level and above; (b) between 1996 and 2016, how many individuals who have self-identified as Aboriginal (i) have been hired into full-time positions, (ii) have been hired into part-time positions, (iii) have been promoted within the department; (c) since 1996, what efforts have been made by AANDC/INAC to (i) increase the recruitment of Aboriginal employees, (ii) increase the retention of Aboriginal employees, (iii) provide promotions to Aboriginal employees; and (d) between 1996 and 2016, what percentage of part-time employees who have self-identified as Aboriginal have become permanent employees?
Questions on the Order Paper January 30th, 2017
With regard to the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces' Treasury Board submissions, for each fiscal year from 2014 to present: (a) how many submissions were approved for (i) capital equipment projects, (ii) infrastructure, (iii) information management and information technology; (b) for each item in (a), what is the title and value of each submission; and (c) did any of the submissions in (b) refer to article 506.11(a) in the Agreement on Internal Trade, and if so, which ones?
Foreign Affairs December 14th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have refused to provide any details about the deployment of 600 Canadian troops to a dangerous African mission. Canadians are demanding the facts.
Yesterday, the defence minister broke his promise to provide Canadians with the information by the end of this year. He is now saying he is going to hide that information until next year. This is not like keeping our children's Christmas presents a surprise. The lives of our soldiers are on the line.
Will the Liberals finally start being transparent about their blatant political decision, and allow for a full debate and a vote before they deploy our troops to Mali?
Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act December 13th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Etobicoke Centre for his passion for Ukraine, as well, and for that question.
He knows all too well that Ukraine has great potential and that we could capitalize; Canadian entrepreneurs, Canadian businesses, and Canadian people could go over there and do business.
Ukraine wants to do more and more business with the European Union. As the breadbasket, it has this great opportunity for food processing, for more agricultural production, for taking over there our infrastructure for grain handling, for grain processing, as well the livestock industry. As the breadbasket, as we have often seen in Ukraine, it has this huge production capability, this rich black soil from one end of the country to the other. Really, it is an opportunity for it to capitalize on this natural asset. Too often it has been held back from really exploiting because of Soviet communism, because of Holodomor where the people were actually starved to death and not even allowed to plant those fields.
We want to make sure that the people of Ukraine, as well as the people of Canada, can join together to open every door to prosperity, which would bring about a better Ukraine.