John Barlow

[Business of Supply, June 9th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his excellent work on this issue and his great speech.

Listening to the speeches for most of the day today and during question period as well, I find it disheartening that writing this letter is all of a sudden going to solve the problems that ISIS is causing in the Middle East, especially with the Yazidi girls who have been forced into sex slavery. We had the news that 19 Yazidi girls were burned alive the other day.

We also heard today during one of the questions from across the floor that our CF-18s just fly over and all of a sudden this is going to solve some problems. Our CF-18s were having a much bigger impact on what was going on in there.

What is the connection that my hon. colleague feels in the inability to see a genocide and what has happened with our CF-18s?

[High River Community Cancer Centre, June 8th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak about a passionate, young entrepreneur in my riding of Foothills.

Tate Barton lost his mom to cancer when he was just six years old. Unfortunately, Tate and his family spent a lot of time in the High River hospital during his mother's last years, but he also saw an opportunity to make a tribute to his mom, in her honour.

Over the last three years, Tate has set up his lemonade stand at the annual Little Britches Parade in High River. He has raised more than $10,000 over the last three years, all of which he has contributed to the construction of the new High River cancer clinic. Thanks to Tate, the High River Rotary Club, and the High River District Health Care Foundation, they have raised more than $1 million for this project. Now construction on the much-needed High River Community Cancer Centre is under way and will be completed in November.

Okotoks is hosting its own lemonade day on June 11 and I invite all members to support the young entrepreneurs in their communities and to thank Tate and the community of High River for their incomparable spirit.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 1, June 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I found it interesting that my colleague was comparing Canada and Norway, and the rainy day fund that Norway has.

I would just like to point out, Norway does not have equalization payments to the provinces. Being from Alberta, I know exactly the impact that has had on our province; $10 billion has left our province.

Is the hon. member saying we should eliminate equalization payments to the provinces? I am sure people in Alberta would have no problem with that.

[Criminal Code, May 31st, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to acknowledge the work the justice minister and the committee have done on this legislation. I know how difficult this has been, given the timelines. I appreciate the amendments brought forward by the Conservative members on that committee and the fact that they have listened to the concerns of Canadians and have addressed some of them.

However, the one issue I have heard at the town halls and the feedback I have received from my constituents is on the framework for a strategy on palliative care, which is one of the recommendations of the joint committee study. There is no funding in the 2016 budget for palliative care. We tried to put an amendment through last night, which was voted down. What is the long-term plan for palliative care? Will there be funding and is this something to which the Liberals will commit?

[Finance, May 30th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I could just give him my question. It seems like he is ready.

I know the Liberals are in denial about the Conservatives and the surplus, but it is there. Those are the facts. It is clear they do not understand economics and they do not understand the consequences of deficit spending. They can deny it all they want.

They talk about decisions made by science. Here are the facts. We left them a surplus, and the spending habits of the Minister of Finance are simply out of control. Why is the finance minister doing what every other Canadian knows is dangerous, running a budget on a credit card? When will the finance minister admit his spending is out of control?

[Finance, May 30th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think Canadians realized that sunny ways would be quite this expensive.

Here are the facts. The Conservatives left the Liberals a surplus. Canadians were enjoying the lowest tax burden in 50 years, and in one month the Liberals spent a $10-billion deficit, obliterating the Conservative surplus.

Why has the Minister of Finance been so reckless with the tax dollars of hard-working Canadians?

[Life Means Life Act, May 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for all the work he has done on his private member's bill and how hard he has worked on bringing this forward.

However, judging by some of the comments from our colleagues across the floor, I think they are missing the point. This is something we are trying to put forward for victims' families.

I would like my colleague to talk about the impact on the families of the victims because they have to go through the parole process time after time, and it forces them to relive the nightmare. The bill would protect them from having to go through the nightmare of losing a loved one again and again. Could he please talk about the impact of not having to go through that parole process?

[Income Tax Act, May 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it was interesting that my colleague's other colleague was mentioning how important it is that these tax cuts would help children in his riding go to summer camps and these kinds of programs. I would ask this. Why would the member support eliminating the children's fitness tax credit, the arts credit, and the textbook credit? These are also programs that I know my family relied on a great deal for our children to go to sports and be healthy and active. If that is such an important issue for this member, why would he support eliminating the children's fitness tax credit?

[Privilege, May 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I find it very disappointing. On a day when we are speaking about something that is extremely important, the first time in Canadian history that a prime minister has been accused of something like this, and the Minister of Health is talking about Bill C-14. There are some relevancy questions here, and I would appreciate if she would bring this back to the topic we are talking about, which is the actions of the Prime Minister, not Bill C-14.

[Privilege, May 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we have talked a lot in the last day and half about the incidents that may have led to what happened yesterday. I want to take this from a different angle.

I do not feel that the mood in the House yesterday before the vote was heated at all. In fact, there was nothing really going on prior to the incident. I feel that there is a lot of excuses going on about what led to the hon. Prime Minister leaving his seat to walk across. What really struck me in all of this is that I would hold our Prime Minister to a much higher standard. Members are talking about the tone in this House. The Prime Minister is the person who should be setting this tone, and he certainly set the tone yesterday, a tone that I do not think as parliamentarians we should be following.

Certainly the feedback I am getting from my constituents is not necessarily who was impacted, but the fact that the Prime Minister of Canada rose out of his seat, and in what I would describe as a huff, walked across the floor and grabbed another member. I think our Prime Minister should be held to a much higher standard. Personally, I am embarrassed that our Prime Minister took these actions.

I would like my hon. colleague to talk about what he thinks about the tone the Prime Minister set yesterday.