House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 50% of the vote.
Criminal Code May 16th, 2023
Madam Speaker, this may be a point of clarification versus a point of order.
The member started his speech before question period, and he was told he could finish after question period and the votes were over. However, he started in one seat, and now he has moved somewhere else in the chamber. Is that permitted, or should he have stayed in the seat he was in?
Business of Supply May 11th, 2023
Madam Speaker, the hon. member closed off, close to what I was hearing, I think, and it will probably be in his answer as well.
Is the fear for the member opposite, regarding where the current immigration levels are expected to go, that Quebec would lose its power here in the House because the numbers would increase in other areas of the country, whether it be in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario or the Atlantic provinces? If they saw an island start to grow its populations much higher than they are, it would mean more seats in the House for those places versus what would happen in his home province of Quebec.
Business of Supply May 11th, 2023
Madam Speaker, the member opposite keeps referring to the fact that he does not agree with what Canada is trying to do when it comes to immigration levels. I would ask him to either correct me if I am wrong or agree with me that Quebec sets its own immigration levels as a province within this Confederation. Is that still the case today, or is it changing?
Business of Supply May 11th, 2023
Madam Speaker, the member mentioned medically trained people who are here in this country and ready to go to work.
Would the member not agree that that is more of a provincial issue to solve, with the individual medical associations and health authorities in each province? That seems to be a bit of a thorn in everybody's side, when the federal government tells the provinces what to do with their hospitals and who gets employed there.
It is an answer to some of our immigration issues. Would the member agree that we should do everything we can to work with the provinces to make it much easier?
Privilege May 9th, 2023
Madam Speaker, the member opposite's speech here this evening was very informative and very well put together. We keep hearing that there are 11 individuals who were in some way influenced or compromised or whatever in the 2019 election and the 2021 election. I do not know who those 11 are. I do not know if the member knows. However, the member who we do know was interfered with by threats from the Communist Party of China is the member for Wellington—Halton Hills. Does the member know who any of the others are? I, for one, would like to know who all 11 people are and to see exactly how they were compromised.
Privilege May 9th, 2023
Madam Speaker, a lot of the speeches we have heard in the House on this topic centre on the idea of a public inquiry, and the member mentioned that. If a public inquiry were held and it upheld what has been said by the members on this side with respect to who knew what, heard what or participated in what and when, would the members opposite accept that ruling or would they say that there was something wrong with the public inquiry?
Privilege May 8th, 2023
Madam Speaker, the member mentioned in his speech that we are in unfamiliar territory with this particular issue. In Newfoundland, we would probably refer to it as uncharted waters. How do we get more familiar with it so that we know exactly what we are doing or what we should be doing?
Business of Supply May 2nd, 2023
Madam Speaker, Conservatives keep going back to punishing municipalities that do not build affordable housing and taking away their infrastructure. How can they build more housing if they do not have money for the infrastructure from the federal government, as a partner in it? They are defeating the very purpose of what they are trying to do.
I came from the municipal level before I got here, and the municipality has to be involved in any home-building projects in a community, whether it is issuing permits or making sure they are inspected properly for the Canadian building code. We cannot eliminate the so-called gatekeepers that they keep referring to as municipalities. They have to be a part of it. They have to be a part of this equation.
Again, punishing them and taking away infrastructure defeats the purpose of trying to get more housing built in any community.
Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1 May 1st, 2023
Madam Speaker, I know the member opposite cares about Newfoundlanders and Labradorians almost as much as I do. He mentioned a couple of things in his speech, but before I get to the real question, I want to say that I am sorry to hear that he had a fire in his library recently. He lost a number of books, one of which he had not finished colouring.
The member mentioned the shipbuilding strategy. It was the Liberal government that established the shipbuilding strategy to make sure ships were built at home, in Canada. Can the member recall when the Conservative government cancelled the shipbuilding strategy altogether? It let our men and women in the Coast Guard work in rusty buckets. It was the Liberal government that straightened that out and continues to do so today.
Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1 May 1st, 2023
Madam Speaker, that hon. member's speech was somewhat disappointing to many of us on this side.
Let us talk about election promises to get elected. I recall a time when former prime minister Stephen Harper sat in front of the cameras at NTV News in St. John's and promised to remove from the equalization formula the funds that come from resource development in our province. As soon as he got elected, he said that he did not say that. It is still on film at NTV News, if anybody wants to take a look at it. How can the member square that circle and condemn the government for not meeting its total obligations it may have made in the campaign? I ask because Conservatives wrote the book on that.