Kevin Lamoureux

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, that was one very good example. Let me cite another example. On one piece of legislation at committee, Conservative Party members moved over 20,000 amendments. They did not figure that out themselves; they used AI, of course. The point is that they will do anything to prevent legislation from passing, even at the cost of providing something worthwhile for Canadians, sadly.

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, absolutely not. The Conservatives cannot make filibustering motions to try to adjourn debate in the afternoon, nor concurrence motion after concurrence motion in order to avoid debate on government legislation, and then criticize the government for not being able to get its legislation debated. Members cannot continuously filibuster legislation and then ask the government why it has not passed bills.

We need to look at what the opposition is doing. If Conservatives continue to filibuster legislation and put up roadblocks to prevent it from passing, the government has a choice. It can either admit defeat or bring in time allocation. For the sake of providing services for Canadians and being there in a real and tangible way, we have made the decision to bring in time allocation to force legislation through in order to provide the resources that Canadians need in every region.

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, we have acknowledged the needs of Canadians day in and day out. That is the reason we bring forward budgets that are a true reflection of what Canadians' expectations are. We recognize that.

I would suggest to the member opposite and to all the Reform-Conservatives over there that they need to look in a mirror and ask a question. They were also given a mandate, which was not just to filibuster and kill every piece of legislation in the House of Commons. They also have a responsibility, and there are consequences to the actions they take. I would not have a problem at all debating the member or any member of the Conservative Party in front of a public school classroom about the irresponsible behaviour of the Conservative Party and how that behaviour is hurting Canadians in every region of our country.

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, a good way to conclude this is to say that the leader of the Conservative Party is behaving like an individual who is standing on a corner and gives a child a dollar to buy a chocolate bar, but every time the child takes a step, he sticks out his foot and trips the child. Then he wonders why the child is not getting anywhere. It is because the leader of the Conservative Party continues to prevent things from happening.

It is a conscious decision by the Conservative Party to prevent legislation from passing. It then blames the government for the legislation's not passing, and therefore argues that the House is dysfunctional. What is dysfunctional is the Conservative-Reform party of Canada today. At the end of the day, the people the Conservatives are hurting are the people we all represent.

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

The member should not be interrupting—

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I think that it is highly inappropriate for members to continue to stand up on a point of order on just a 10-minute speech. I do not know how many points of order there have been. It is very disruptive and does not contribute to debate.

What the member is referring to is when I made reference to the fact that one has the leadership within the Conservative Party actually meeting with organizations like Diagolon. I think that most Canadians would see that as a bad thing. That is where the leadership is getting the advice to do the type of things that it is doing today.

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is unfortunate. I know it might please the member opposite and maybe some of the Conservatives in the back room. They do not necessarily like hearing the truth, so they stand in here to try to disrupt debate, which is something I find really unfortunate. Quite frankly, I think I should be allowed to start from the beginning.

Having said that, with regard to the Conservative Party and its attitude, where is it getting its mandate from? Who are the people that the Conservatives are trying to please? Let there be no doubt: The Conservative House leadership team, headed by the leader of the Conservative Party and his attitude toward the chamber, is being driven by the far right. Maybe some of the Reformers do not quite get that, but that is the reality.

That is the reason why the leader of the Conservative Party was very comfortable with walking in to the trailer of a member of Diagolon. All of my colleagues know that it is a far right, scary group. If someone does a Google search on it, they will find out. That is who is giving the marching orders, in many ways, for members of the Conservative Party. We are starting to see more and more of that coming from them virtually every day.

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, before the interruption, I was talking about how Liberal members are out connecting with Canadians and reporting back.

When we think of the amendment being proposed today, it is absolutely ridiculous. I believe there are very few outside of the Reformers who would actually support such a silly amendment, because they would understand it is nothing more than a filibuster or an obstruction tactic from the Conservatives.

I was reflecting on how the Prime Minister and members of the Liberal caucus do their consulting. Who do the Conservative Party members consult with? Who gave them the idea to continue the filibustering we are seeing? I have a fairly good sense. It is the MAGA right, the far right element in the Conservative Party today, the individual who wants to demonstrate, even though it is not true, that the institutions we participate in are dysfunctional. The Conservatives bring in amendments of this nature and then say the government cannot pass legislation, when they are the ones who are going out of their way to prevent legislation from passing.

This is a Donald Trump type of tactic from the MAGA right and that has seeped into the leader of the Conservative Party today. It is that far right element trying to take away the validity of what takes place on the floor of the House of Commons.

I pointed out who the Prime Minister is meeting with, but who is giving advice to the Conservative leader? Do we remember Diagolon? It is a pretty far right group of people, and we have the leader of—

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is truly amazing. We have the Conservative Party of Canada, which many would call the Reform Party, because it is, for all intents and purposes, more the Reform Party than it is the Conservative Party, and I will try to explain to those who might be attempting to follow the debate.

We are talking about the fall economic statement, which is something that was introduced late last year. The Conservative member who moved this motion is criticizing the government for taking so long to get this legislation passed, which is truly amazing, because it is the Conservative Party that is preventing the legislation from passing by filibustering the legislation, and today is an excellent example.

What is the member actually moving? He is moving a motion to delete the short title of the legislation. What is the short title of the legislation? It is the “Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023”. This is a relatively large piece of legislation, and this member, who I hope did not require AI assistance this time around, comes up with an amendment to delete that short title. Then he says that not doing this, not passing this legislation, has a consequence. Well, the member is somewhat right, even though he does not admit that the Conservative Party, or the Reformers in the Conservative Party, are the problem in terms of why it is not passing, and many of them are rural members of Parliament.

Within this legislation is action that would double the rural top-up for the carbon rebate. This means that the Reformers across the way, the Conservative Party, are in fact keeping money away from rural communities in Canada, because they made the decision that they do not want this legislation to pass. To amplify that, they bring in a silly motion meant for one purpose, which is purely obstruction.

Then the member asks who the Liberals are talking to, and he is critical of some of my caucus colleagues. Let me frame it in a different way. After all, the member himself said, “The buck stops with the one who is in charge”, implying the Prime Minister. Let me reverse this on the member opposite. He is trying to ask who we are talking to versus who the Conservatives are talking to, so let us talk about the leaders.

The Prime Minister of Canada came to Winnipeg one day, and we were talking about child care. He came to Stanley Knowles School in my riding, and we talked about the importance of $10-a-day child care. What is wrong with talking to child care workers?

The next time the Prime Minister came to Winnipeg, we went to the Grace Hospital. It was the premier, the provincial minister of health, the Prime Minister and the federal Minister of Health. They talked about the $200-billion transfer for a generation of providing services in health care on issues such as mental health, family doctors and so forth. We were surrounded by the real VIPs, which were the health care workers who were there. These are the people we are listening to.

In fact, the last time the Prime Minister came to Winnipeg, we met again with the premier and the provincial minister of housing. We also had the mayor of Winnipeg, and along with the Prime Minister was the Minister of Housing. We talked about the issue of housing and, again, we had stakeholders there.

When we think of the budget or the fall economic statement, what we will see is that they are a reflection of what Canadians are telling us.

Whether it is the member for Avalon, me or the member from Surrey, we take the ideas and the thoughts that constituents and Canadians tell us and bring them here to Ottawa. The budget and the fall economic statement are a reflection of Canadian values and what they are—

[Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, May 8th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I can assure you I will remain very relevant. In fact, the person who moved the motion—