Justin Trudeau

[The Economy, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the new member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount for her commitment to making life more affordable for all Canadians.

One of the first things we did when coming into office was to scrap Stephen Harper's flawed plan to send child care cheques to millionaires, by implementing a non-taxable Canada child benefit that provides more generous support to the Canadian families that need it the most. Since then, millions of parents have received support, including thousands of families in the member's riding that just got their monthly payment last week. This is a concrete way we are directly making life more affordable for Canadian families with hundreds of dollars a month.

[Government Accountability, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are feeling the impact of the rising cost of living across the country, especially when it comes to groceries and housing. That is why we are taking immediate action to put more pressure on the CEOs of the major grocery chains to make groceries more affordable. We will also support small businesses by extending the loan repayment deadlines and we will help get more apartments built by eliminating the GST on new construction.

We are already seeing the benefits. This week, a Toronto-based company announced that it will build 5,000 new rental units across the country, a project that it had put on hold.

We will always be there to help Canadians.

[Government Accountability, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are feeling the impact of rising prices across the country, including on things like groceries and housing. That is why we are taking immediate action to increase the pressure on CEOs to ensure groceries are affordable, we are supporting small businesses by extending the term loan repayment deadline and we are increasing the construction of apartments by removing the GST.

We are seeing the impacts already. This week a Toronto-based company shared that it will now build 5,000 more new rental units across the country, which were otherwise on hold.

We will continue to focus on delivering for Canadians, while he focuses on fights.

[Government Accountability, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, while the Leader of the Opposition concentrates on personal attacks on me, I will stay focused on Canadians, on building more affordable housing, on delivering things like the grocery benefit, on delivering child care at $10 a day right across the country over the objections of Conservatives and on delivering a dental benefit for families that cannot afford to send their kids to the dentist, something Conservatives voted against.

We will continue to stay focused on fighting for Canadians while the Leader of the Opposition fights with everyone around him.

[Housing, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Etobicoke Centre for his question and hard work.

This week, we announced that it will be easier for developers to access low-cost financing to build apartment buildings for families, students and seniors. This measure will help build up to 30,000 new rental units per year.

Together, we can get more housing built so everyone has an affordable home.

[Foreign Affairs, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the hard-working women and men of the Parliamentary Protective Service ensured the safety of everyone in this room by thoroughly clearing, through metal detectors and security, everyone who came into this room. When it comes to the respect for the independence and the authority of the Speaker, this government will continue to respect the independence of the Speaker's office and therefore the responsibility of the Speaker in this matter.

[Foreign Affairs, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the Speaker of this House of Commons invited an individual without apparently doing that Google search, but it is not up to the government of the day to oversee or to have a veto power over those who the Speaker or, indeed, members of official parties choose to invite into this House. If the member wants to change hundreds of years of parliamentary privilege and Westminster democracy then, absolutely, let us have a debate about that.

However, on this side of the House, we respect the independence of the Speaker's office.

[Foreign Affairs, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, as colleagues know, the Parliamentary Protective Service is engaged in and has ensured the safety and the physical safety of everyone in this room.

I would like it, perhaps, when the Leader of the Opposition gets up again, if he could say the name, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and actually speak about Ukraine. We would very much like to hear that for once from the Leader of the Opposition.

[Foreign Affairs, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I agree. We have already begun doing those three things.

[Foreign Affairs, September 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I think we all recognize that what happened in the House on Friday was completely unacceptable.

We also understand that the situation, and the respect we all owe the Speaker of the House, required us to give the outgoing Speaker some space to come to terms with events, and I think it played a very important part in his decision to ultimately not only apologize, but resign.

The respect we owe this institution and this place demanded that we give him some space.