Kevin Sorenson

[Rural Crime, March 28th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for bringing this motion forward. I have served on the Alberta rural crime task force. The member has worked very closely with us, and I appreciate that.

On the stories the member has shared today here in the House, all members of Parliament, especially rural members from Alberta and Saskatchewan, can share similar types of stories. However, as we conducted our meetings throughout the riding, I realized that many of my constituents were living in fear, and she brought that out very well in her speech.

Also, many of my constituents were uncertain as to what their response should be when, not if, they were broken into. Living on a ranch and a farm, I have been a victim to a very small degree with having fuel stolen. Someone came in and ripped a line off of a piece of equipment, broke the fuel pump, and did other things.

I wonder what the member has heard from the government. Are government members going to be supporting her bill? What timelines would be involved in this study? What could go on after the study? Is this the type of recommendation that could work together with provinces, as the member from the NDP shared, or is this something that would eventually come back to committee and be studied?

This is a non-partisan issue. Can the member share on that?

[Firearms Act, March 28th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for the work she has done on this issue. Over the years, her name, the name of Garry Breitkreutz, and other come to mind.

I came into politics to get rid of Bill C-68 and the long gun registry. The day we did it as a government, my constituents were thrilled. We were frustrated with the cost of it. We were frustrated that it did not concentrate on crime, that it concentrated on legally owned firearms by farmers.

There are reasonable people in all parties and I would put out my plea to them. We have gun shows on weekends throughout my rural the riding. These gun shows are for collectors who sell their firearms. People come from across Canada to these gun shows and from Consort, Hanna, Camrose, Castor, and many other places in my riding. Their frustration is with respect to the registration number. Every firearm sold has a licence to purchase it, but the idea that people will have to get hold of Miramichi or a gun group somewhere on a weekend to verify that licence, they know it will shut down these gun shows.

Would my colleague respond to that?

[Committees of the House, March 28th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all parties for their unanimous consent to table this report.

I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 43rd report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, entitled “Report 3, Settlement Services for Syrian Refugees—Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, of the Fall 2017 Reports of the Auditor General of Canada”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to the report.

[Government Response to Petitions, March 28th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. I have checked with the House leaders of the various parties, and I believe if you were to seek it, you would find unanimous consent to revert to presenting reports from committees to allow me to table a report from the public accounts committee.

[Committees of the House, March 22nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 42nd report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, entitled “Report 1, Phoenix Pay Problems, of the Fall 2017 Reports of the Auditor General of Canada—Part 1”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee request that the government table a comprehensive response to the report.

[Business of Supply, March 1st, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my colleague's presentation, and to be quite frank, I was very disappointed in the way she painted with such a broad brush the faith-based communities as being opposed to basic human rights, and the issues around the attestation.

I remind her that the right to freedom of belief and opinion is guaranteed by Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Most Canadians should be very concerned with the direction the government is going in basing funding decisions on whether someone holds a certain belief.

I would like to talk about an organization with which the people in Alberta and across the country are quite familiar. I am receiving hundreds of letters from my constituents, for example, Catholic churches, Protestant churches, and other churches saying they typically have summer programs, and now cannot hire anyone because they cannot affirm the attestation.

The Mustard Seed in Calgary ministers to tens of thousands of Albertans, vulnerable and homeless people, and typically has accessed this program to allow young people to see the plight of homelessness and feed them. However, it is saying it is not going to get pushed into the government's attestation, and the fact that it wants to take it from a neutral position into an affirmative position on certain issues it has never taken a position on before. Consequently, many young people are not going to be able to serve.

With all due respect, what is next? We are doing this on Canada summer jobs. If we do not line up exactly the way the government sees, which program will be next?

[Canadian School Counselling Week, February 27th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, February 5 marked the launch of the first-ever Canadian School Counselling Week. Each year, the week will provide a great opportunity for Canadians to recognize and highlight the tremendous contributions that school counsellors make to the personal, social, and educational well-being of students. I am proud to say that Ariel Haubrich, a constituent of mine, is the president of the school counsellors chapter of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. The CCPA is a national association providing access to exclusive educational programs, certifications, and professional development, and provides direct contact with professional peers and specialty groups.

As many young people throughout this country try to find their way in this world and struggle with mental health issues and learning disabilities, the need for counsellors is growing. We all know that nothing is as important to us as the well-being of our children. Therefore, on behalf of my honoured colleagues and of parents all across Canada, I would like to take this opportunity to thank school counsellors and the CCPA for the care and guidance that they provide to our children.

[Impact Assessment Act, February 27th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, later today the finance minister will present the 2018 budget. So far in their budgets, we have seen the Liberals run massive deficits, waste billions of dollars on pet projects, and rack up our national debt. Our growth here in Canada lags behind that of the United States. The member talked about the capital that is leaving not just Alberta and Saskatchewan but Canada. It is one thing for them to rack up the national debt when growth is dragging and yet capital is coming into Canada, investment is wanted in Canada, but that is not happening now. There is $15 billion of lost investment.

Could the member expand on that thought and the negative impacts this has on growing an economy?

[Senator Bert Brown, February 14th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay my respects to the late former Senator Bert Brown. My thoughts and prayers are with his daughter, Angela. Bert died on February 3, just shy of his 80th birthday and three years after the passing of his beloved wife, Alice.

The distinguished Albertan studied civil engineering at the University of Oklahoma, earned a pilot's licence after Vietnam veterans taught him how to fly, advised Alberta's premier on the Charlottetown Accord, and was a licensed realtor, former newspaper columnist, past director of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, and member of the board of my riding association.

In 2007, former prime minister Stephen Harper appointed Bert Brown to the Senate of Canada, three years after he took the most votes in Alberta's third senate election in 2004. Prior to his appointment, he spent 20 years fighting for an elected, equal, and effective Senate. Bert is best known, especially in my part of the country, for plowing the message “Triple-E Senate or else” into his neighbour's barley field.

Bert will be sadly missed.

[Business of Supply, February 12th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, today's is a very important debate. We are here debating the Trans Mountain expansion project and the ability to move our energy to the tidewater. The reason we are having this debate is that since the Liberal government has come into power, we have seen capital for these types of projects leaving Canada. We have seen investment dollars leaving Canada.

It was best said by the Suncor president Steve Williams, when he said, “Absent some changes and some improvements in competition, you're going to see us not exercising the very big capital projects that we've just finished.”

What Mr. Williams was talking about, the “absent some changes” is that the Liberal government has brought in changes to make these types of projects much more difficult. Certainly, investors are not going to put their capital at risk. They realize it is high risk now with this government. I wonder if the hon. member would comment on the investment attitude of those investors, but also the atmosphere around this capital coming into Alberta and Canada.