House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2025, with 60% of the vote.
Housing November 19th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberals are not worth the cost of housing. In December 2023, the incompetent Liberals gave the City of Toronto $471 million in the so-called housing accelerator. What was the result? In October 2024, housing starts, versus October 2023, are down 33%. The only thing this housing accelerator is accelerating is bureaucracy.
When will the NDP-Liberals get it through their thick heads that we actually need to build houses for Canadians, not bureaucracy?
Questions Passed as Orders for Returns November 19th, 2024
With regard to the processing of applications at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC): (a) how many employees or full-time equivalents have been processing applications at IRCC, broken down by month since January 1, 2024; (b) how many applications were processed by IRCC, broken down by month since January 1, 2024; and (c) what is the daily target or quota of processed applications for those IRCC employees who process applications?
Questions on the Order Paper November 19th, 2024
With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC): (a) how does IRCC use artificial intelligence (AI) in the processing of applications; (b) what concerns or issues about the use of AI in the processing of applications is IRCC aware of, and how has each one of those concerns or issues been addressed; and (c) does IRCC use AI in any circumstances outside of the processing of applications and, if so, how is it used?
Committees of the House November 19th, 2024
Madam Speaker, it is well known how the temporary foreign worker program has been turned into a disaster by this NDP-Liberal government. What is amazing to me is the member from the NDP, and all the other NDP members, who could actually bring the abuse of this program to a halt. They could stop all of the corruption that is going on if only they had the guts to vote no confidence in this government. Instead, they continue to prop up this moribund, corrupt Liberal government every chance they get.
Committees of the House November 19th, 2024
Madam Speaker, yes, we will absolutely eliminate forced labour from our supply chains, as opposed to this government that pretends it is going to and had a minister charged in their mandate letter to introduce legislation to get forced labour out of our supply chains, but no minister has done that. Instead, it relies on some private member's bill from a random backbench Liberal and says that it has actually done something.
Committees of the House November 19th, 2024
Madam Speaker, the Liberals passed a terrible piece of legislation. I voted for it, because at least it was better than the garbage the Liberals have delivered over these years. I do not know how that member sits there. You have allowed billions of dollars of goods made with forced labour to come into Canada, and you stand there and laugh. Your government is corrupt. It is a disgrace—
Committees of the House November 19th, 2024
Madam Speaker, the one who should apologize is the one who gave the unhinged rant that was just delivered.
Yes, a private member's bill was passed, which requires a voluntary website where they have to maybe disclose whether or not they think they might have forced labour in their supply chains. Look, I am sorry, but the bill is a joke.
Committees of the House November 19th, 2024
Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Prince Albert.
After hearing the parliamentary secretary's speech, I thought it would be fun for us to take a little trip back in time to understand how we got here and why Canada has such an abysmal track record on stopping goods made with forced labour from entering Canada. It is as a result of the corrupt Liberal government.
I have the former minister of labour's mandate letter from 2021, almost four years ago. The mandate letter says:
With the support of the Minister of Public Safety, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, introduce legislation to eradicate forced labour from Canadian supply chains....
That was in 2021. I just checked and it is 2024. No, we have not been asleep for these past three years. We have just watched the corrupt, incompetent Liberal government do absolutely nothing on this file. Why would the government not do anything? Our largest trading partner, the United States, took bold action right away and has had remarkable success in seizing goods made with forced labour. Canada, on the other hand, has seized one shipment and then released it. That is the Liberal track record on forced labour.
We have to ask ourselves why. Why have the Liberals not done anything about it? Is it because, perhaps, Beijing-controlled companies donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Trudeau Foundation? That could be it. Could it be, according to journalist Sam Cooper, that members of the Liberal cabinet have been co-opted by Beijing influence? That could be one of the reasons. The result of this has been an embarrassment, and our trading partners are taking notice, including the United States.
We have an issue that has not gone away. In fact, in October 2022, a mere two years ago, the former minister of labour was at committee and I presented what was going on: The United States had taken bold action. It published an entities list that listed dozens and dozens of Chinese corporations that it knew were engaging in the use of Uyghur forced labour. Those entities were banned from bringing goods into the United States.
I asked the minister why the Liberals did not just copy it. If they cannot do the work themselves, why would they not just take it? I offered to hand it to the minister. I said we could cut down on goods coming in with forced labour right now. It would take five minutes. Did the Liberals do it? No, of course they did not. They did not use the United States' entities list.
What has been the result? The United States has now seized 3.62 billion dollars' worth of goods that were made with forced labour. Over the same period of time, how many goods made with forced labour has the corrupt Liberal government seized? Does anyone want to hazard a guess? Do any of the Liberal members want to hazard a guess? I will tell them how much: zero, nothing. The Liberals seized one shipment and had to turn it back.
One might ask why, if the Liberals went through the step of seizing these goods, they would ship them back. That is an interesting question. It comes down to the rules that Canada adopted to allow CBSA to seize goods. Those in the United States know this is tough, so they said that if a shipment is suspected of being made with forced labour, whoever is importing or shipping the goods would have to prove that they were not made with forced labour. The onus, the burden, goes back to companies, and of course, since most of them cannot prove it, the U.S. seized 3.62 billion dollars' worth of goods.
What did the corrupt Liberal government do for the standard? It set the standard that the CBSA has to prove the goods were made with forced labour, which, with the resources the CBSA has, it cannot do. The CBSA seized one shipment, but could not prove that it was made with forced labour, so it was allowed to come into the country. The Liberals are actively allowing this to happen. They have taken no steps.
The minister was obligated in his mandate letter to introduce legislation. It has been almost four years, and the minister has not introduced a single piece of legislation to cut down on this. The government has not changed the standard that it forced the CBSA to adopt, which does not make it easier to seize goods made with forced labour. As a result, the CBSA has seized nothing. We know that goods coming into Canada are made with forced labour, and I think Canadians would be outraged if they knew they might be buying goods made with forced labour.
Forced labour is a despicable way to produce goods, and there have been videos and exposés on how this is happening, particularly in the Xinjiang region of China. For the Liberals to have done nothing is, quite frankly, disgusting. They now stand here and hide behind their refusal to provide documents from the green slush fund, as if this is the problem. They have had four years to do something. The debate on their failure to produce documents to show their corruption has been going on for four weeks, but this is suddenly the problem. This shows how bereft of a moral compass the government is.
I will go back to why this has happened. Why is Canada not doing anything under the Liberals to seize these goods? Is it because Beijing-controlled companies donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Trudeau Foundation? I do not know, but it looks a little fishy. Is it because there have been exposés by journalists who have made it very clear that there is a lot of influence from Beijing in the Liberal Party's cabinet?
When we look at the results of this, we are led to the conclusion that, as Shakespeare said, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” There is something rotten in the Liberal government. It has been woefully inadequate in its response to the forced labour issue, and there are serious consequences to that.
The United States is our largest trading partner. Canada is a trading nation. It is in our free trade agreement with the United States that we have to eliminate forced labour from our supply chains. The government has not done that. It has not done a single thing in four years, and there will be consequences.
A giant report was just delivered to the United States Senate on forced labour in supply chains, and guess where the U.S. is point the finger. It is at Canada and Mexico. It is despicable that the government has done nothing to crack down on this while Chinese corporations abuse Uyghurs in forced labour camps and send goods to Canada with no fear of consequences. The government's lack of action is disgusting enough, but now it is putting our trading relationship with the United States in jeopardy. Why is it doing that?
There is something very rotten going on with the Liberal government on this issue. As I said at committee to the minister, the government could take quick steps right away. It could adopt the entities list that the United States has published. The United States government did its due diligence. It looked into companies that are known to produce things in the Xinjiang region of China or have supply chains that have goods that come from there, and it said these entities could not export goods to the United States. The government could just copy and paste that. I know the government has a hard time doing anything and copying and pasting would be so much work, but that is a simple way to right away crack down on the issue. It has not; it has refused. Canadians should wonder why.
Committees of the House November 19th, 2024
Madam Speaker, in the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, there is a provision to prevent the use of forced labour in supply chains. The United States enacted strict and bold legislation to do this four years ago. It has seized goods worth $3.62 billion because it took it seriously. The Liberal government has not taken it seriously. I know the Bloc Québécois cares about it and I know the NDP cares about it.
The Liberals do not care, because they have seized zero goods, not a single dollar's worth of goods in four years. They talk about some proposed legislation and say that they are doing this and doing that, but what they have done has accomplished nothing. How can the member stand here and justify the U.S.'s seizing 3.62 billion dollars' worth of goods and the corrupt Liberal government's seizing zero?
Housing November 4th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, Liberal housing adviser Mike P. Moffatt has asked, about the Liberal housing accelerator, if anyone in the federal government could tell him why Toronto deserves $471 million in housing accelerator funds to massively hike development taxes. Housing starts in Toronto are down 20%. Even Liberal advisers know that the housing accelerator is a joke.
Will the NDP-Liberals finally realize that they are funding bureaucracies, tripling development charges and not getting any houses built for young Canadians?