Judy Sgro

[Public Safety, June 12th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, fentanyl has torn through communities and ripped families apart throughout various areas of Canada. Our government was given a strong mandate to keep all Canadians safe.

Can the Minister of Public Safety update the House on the recent law enforcement seizures, which are keeping drugs off the streets of Canada?

[Human Rights Advocate, June 10th, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, Jimmy Lai, a 77-year-old pro-democracy advocate and journalist, stands for values cherished by Canadians: media freedom and the rule of law. Despite his age and health issues, Mr. Lai remains imprisoned in torturous condition under Hong Kong's repressive national security law, the provisions of which are inconsistent with international human rights law.

In March 2024, the Subcommittee on International Human Rights issued a news release to “call for the release of Jimmy Lai, and express their solidarity with everyone advocating for freedom and justice in Hong Kong”, echoing that Jimmy Lai “stood up for truth and for his fellow Hong Kongers, and now we must stand up for him.”

Parliament has a proud tradition of supporting such individuals, as shown in 2023 when it granted honorary Canadian citizenship to Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza. I now call upon the Government of Canada to make Jimmy Lai an honorary citizen of Canada.

[Humber River—Black Creek, June 2nd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured, as are my colleagues, to rise in the House for the 45th Parliament and to thank the constituents of Humber River—Black Creek for giving me the great opportunity and privilege of representing them for the 10th time here in Ottawa.

I want to thank my tireless husband, Sam, and my children, Cathy, Deanna and Sam, for their continued support. I give a special thanks to my son-in-law, Graziano, for his immense support during the election; daughter-in-law, Claudia; and the grandchildren.

I also thank my staff, Amy, Albert, Abby, Stephanie and Xania, for their dedication to helping the residents of Humber River—Black Creek every day.

I would not have been elected and re-elected without the tireless efforts of many volunteers during the campaign, to name a few: Terryl, Chris, Juan, Marina, Chris, Dave, Miss Emma and Marianne. There are many more I would like to acknowledge; however, unfortunately, my time is limited.

I will continue to honour my oath to serve our community of Humber River—Black Creek with dedication and integrity as we work together to build a better Canada.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, June 2nd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I am very excited about welcoming another female to the House of Commons. I very much look forward to our working together and advancing the issues we care about.

As to the removal of interprovincial barriers, I remember being in Vancouver and wanting to bring a case of wine with me, wonderful wine, and I was told I could not take it. I could take two bottles of wine, but I could not take that wine properly through the system and ship a box or case of it to Toronto.

That is just one small example of barriers that prevent people in my riding, which the member asked about, who are in the construction trades from going to another part of Canada to work. They very much want to but are not licensed to, so we should eliminate all of those requirements. A licensed construction worker in Toronto should be able to freely work elsewhere, whether in Newfoundland or Saskatchewan. Those barriers have been put up for a variety of reasons and need to be gone so that people have the freedom to go and come as they please.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, June 2nd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome my colleague back. I look forward to working with her in the upcoming months and hopefully years.

We all care very much about the issues of seniors and ensuring that they have services and adequate pensions. All of those things are important. If we are able to transform the economy and move forward in the direction we are excited to go in, all Canadians will benefit, including our senior population, which is an important part of Canada and an area that all of us care about.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, June 2nd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome my colleague to the House of Commons. I very much look forward to having the time to be able to work with her as we move forward on these very important things.

I do not have a problem with the issue of waiting until the fall to have a budget. There is so much happening at this time. I just wonder how anybody would sit down to really try to do a budget at this particular time. The fall will come, when we will have a much more accurate viewpoint of where we are going with our issues with the south. Hopefully, we will have lifted all of the barriers together with our premiers, and we will be moving forward with a much more accurate budget when it comes out in the fall.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, June 2nd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, you look great in that robe and in your new role. You certainly have worked hard, and it is great to see you there. I send my congratulations to you and to your family. I am sure they are very proud of what you are doing.

I will be sharing my time with the new member for Cardigan following the retirement of the Hon. Lawrence MacAulay. When someone says “Cardigan”, we automatically, after so many years, think about Mr. MacAulay, who did such a great job representing Cardigan. I wish him well in his retirement.

I am honoured to rise for the first time in the House during the 45th Parliament. I also want to thank the constituents of Humber River—Black Creek for re-electing me and asking me to represent them here in the House again. Since I came in during a by-election in 1999, this is, I believe, the 10th time I have had an opportunity to be in the House. It was an honour then, and it continues to be a tremendous honour today. It is an accomplishment, I have to admit. I am not quite sure how I managed all those years, but clearly we did.

I want to thank His Majesty King Charles III for delivering the Speech from the Throne. I will quote from it because I think it captures how we are all feeling today and the direction we want to go. He said:

We must be clear-eyed: the world is a more dangerous and uncertain place than at any point since the Second World War. Canada is facing challenges that are unprecedented in our lifetimes.

Many Canadians are feeling anxious and worried about the drastically changing world around them. Fundamental change is always unsettling. Yet this moment is also an incredible opportunity.

It is an opportunity for each and every one of us who has the privilege of being a member of the House of Commons. His Majesty continued:

An opportunity to think big and to act bigger. An opportunity for Canada to embark on the largest transformation of its economy since the Second World War. A confident Canada, which has welcomed new Canadians, including from some of the most tragic global conflict zones, can seize this opportunity by recognising that all Canadians can give themselves far more than any foreign power on any continent can ever take away. And that by staying true to Canadian values, Canada can build new alliances and a new economy that serves all Canadians.

I think the speech captured very much, in those comments, how Canadians are feeling. They are feeling nervous and anxious. Every time we put the television on, we are never quite sure what our neighbour to the south is going to say.

I think it is imperative that we take the opportunity the leadership from our Prime Minister is clearly giving us. It is an opportunity to participate together and for all of us in the House to work together to make sure that Canadians have the best opportunities possible so that our country can grow to be what we want it to be, but we must work together. Without us working together, we are not going to achieve these things. I continue to ask that we co-operate with each other and that we put Canadians and our country first, no matter what.

Today, of course, I rise with this message to talk about purpose and unity for Canada. Together, we stand at not only a critical time, but also an opportune time. The government is here to renew our commitment to the Canada we are shaping for today and the future, together with all my colleagues in the House.

As a nation, we must continue walking the path of truth and reconciliation. A tremendous amount of work was done under our previous prime minister, and it needs to continue, grounding our future in justice and respect for indigenous people. Canada is proudly multicultural, bilingual and democratic. The riding of Humber River—Black Creek, which I am honoured to represent, is one of the most diverse ridings. Families from every corner of the globe create a community where they build new lives, speak dozens of languages and bring their unique cultures to strengthen Canada and our community.

We will eliminate international trade barriers and launch national infrastructure projects through the one Canadian economy. I wish all the premiers and the Prime Minister tremendous luck and faith today as they move to identify not only those transformational projects that really matter to other parts of Canada but also how we are going to work together to achieve them.

When I first came here almost 25 years ago, I headed a task force. In that task force report, one of the recommendations, and this was in 2001, was to eliminate interprovincial barriers. It was clearly a significant roadblock for the economic well-being of all of our provinces, yet here we are in 2025. Only after the threats from our southern neighbour are we actually trying to remove those interprovincial barriers. I wish all of our premiers well at this particular time as they move forward.

With the new “build Canada homes” initiative, we will increase the affordable housing supply, reduce development costs and promote innovative modular construction. I have received a lot of information on the housing file, as many of my colleagues have. With regard to the prefab homes, there is the ability to put up some of these homes within a month. This is a critical time for us to be looking at how we can change the way we have been doing things and remove the red tape we have all talked about so we can move forward on this.

Canada is a global leader in clean energy, skilled trades and innovation, as well as international relations, security and public safety, which are all critically important themes as we move forward.

To protect our sovereignty, we are reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces. Federal investments in the RCMP and national security have to be a priority for the House as we move forward to protect our sovereignty and Canadians. Public safety is not just about policing, though. It is also about prevention, community and trust.

We are strengthening our laws to make bail much more difficult to get for any repeat offenders. We are reforming firearm regulations with stronger red flag laws and yellow flag laws and revoking licenses from those with violent or protective order histories. We have heard far too much about domestic violence happening in our communities, and we have to spend far more time and attention on that issue.

We are going to cap the operating budget growth at under 2% and balance the operating budget within three years. That is a huge goal, one that I believe would be very significant for us to achieve and for all of us to achieve.

We will cut waste. What government does not say that? We will reduce duplication and use technology, though, to improve service delivery across the public sector. It is this new technology that promises the best opportunity for us to do this.

I truly hope that those are not just words. It seems like every government, for the many years that I have been doing this, even at the municipal level, says the same thing. It is really hard to do. It was one of the issues that made me leave the municipal level to come to the federal level, because there was that frustration in trying to reduce waste and cut costs but not having the revenue to do the services we had to do.

Together, we all can build a stronger, safer and a more united Canada.

[Committees of the House, December 17th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his best wishes.

Certainly, we recognize the value of our lumber, our minerals and all of the very sacred items we have in Canada that help to keep our country strong and open more opportunities for all of our businesses as we move forward.

[Committees of the House, December 17th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague who is the vice-chair of the international trade committee. He is doing a fine job and we work well together.

At the end of the day, it is about Canada first all the time, for all of us. All of us in the House have the same destination, to make sure we are doing things.

When it comes to the whole issue of climate change, the Liberal Party of Canada has a plan. I would ask anybody to look at the news, even last night, in spite of all the other things that were on the news. We talked about the amount of destruction happening around the world because of climate change. I believe we have a path forward that will work to try to change the conditions the world is facing.

[Committees of the House, December 17th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I want to acknowledge that my hon. colleague has contributed tremendously to the House. He has made the debates in this House very interesting and quite comical at times.

Certainly, we have put together the Canada-U.S. team of negotiators who are working already, 18 hours a day, on a variety of areas of strength and opportunities that we have to negotiate further with. We have a lot of positive things to offer and we know how to retaliate when necessary.