Kyle Seeback

[Housing, November 4th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberals, almost 50% of young Canadians believe they will never own a home.

This Liberal housing accelerator is an absolute joke. Common-sense Conservatives have a plan. We would axe the GST on new home builds. On an $800,000 house, this would save $40,000. The Conservative leader has now written to the premier of every province asking them to match this tax cut.

When will the NDP-Liberals finally get it through their heads that they are funding bureaucracies and axe the tax on new builds so young people can buy a house?

[Carbon Pricing, October 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, this is exhibit A of the problem. First of all, the member noted the use of electric arc to heat up and process iron ore. Electric arc cannot process iron ore. It only works with recycled steel. The member does not even know what he is talking about regarding the steel industry, which means the government probably does not know. That is problem number one.

Problem number two is that CEOs have converted some of their blast furnaces into electric arc and they still pay carbon taxes. They told me how much carbon tax the steel industry pays. It is a gigantic number. They said that as a result of that, if carbon pricing goes up, there will be no steel industry whether they convert to electric arc or not. I am trying to speak slowly and clearly so I can hopefully get an answer.

Everything the member just said is irrelevant to what the steel industry said. Whether they convert everything to electric arc or not, they are still paying carbon taxes on the other energy they use, and it will drive them out of business. There will be no steelworkers. Why will the Liberals not admit it and axe the carbon tax?

[Carbon Pricing, October 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, a couple of weeks ago, I asked a question about the steel industry. I talked about the brave steelworker who stood up to the Liberal Prime Minister when he was trying to justify the alleged work the Liberals are doing for the steel industry. The Prime Minister had an encounter with this brave steelworker, who, as far as I am concerned, spoke truth to power, which is a rare thing.

The Prime Minister was talking about how he is doing such great things by putting steel tariffs there, following the Conservatives, who called for steel tariffs, and he talked about some investment and said to the steelworker that $400 million is going to keep his job. The steelworker said, “What about the 40 per cent taxes I am paying? And I don’t have a doctor.” The Prime Minister said, “The $400 million invested means you are going to have a job.”

This is where the steelworker got very interesting. He said, “I think you're only here for another year. We won't see you around probably in another year, I'm guessing.” On this count, I think, this steelworker is where most Canadians are. The Prime Minister went on to try to convince him of the various things the government is doing that are so great. This is what the steelworker finished with. He said, “I don't believe you for a second.”

I would agree with this brave steelworker who said that to the Prime Minister. Now, why would he say that? For one thing, the carbon tax is going to kill the steel industry.

About six months ago, I met with the CEOs and the union representatives for steel manufacturing in Canada. All of them said very directly to me that if the carbon tax continues to go up, there will be no steel industry in Canada. This was not just the steel CEOs. Representatives of the United Steelworkers were there and they said the same thing: The carbon tax is going to kill the steel industry in Canada. We can talk about how terrible the carbon tax is for a whole bunch of things, but this is a concrete example where there was unanimity. The steelworkers said the carbon tax is going to kill the steel industry. All of the steel companies said the carbon tax is going to kill the steel industry. Despite this, the Liberals just keep beating the drum that somehow the carbon tax is good for Canadians.

We have seen what the carbon tax has done to the price of food. We now have two million people going to food banks in Canada every month. If, when the Conservatives were in government, someone had said that in 10 years, every month two million Canadians would be going to food banks, we would have thought they were crazy. Little did we know how corrosive the carbon tax would be to the social fabric of this country.

Going back to the gist of my question, I got such a terrible answer from the minister, saying the Liberals are always going to be there to stand up for steelworkers. Those words and $1.50 can get a double-double at Tim Hortons. Well, no, it would have gotten one before the Liberals took power; now it is more like $2.50. The point is that they are hollow, empty words that fly in the face of what the steel industry is very clearly and directly saying: that the carbon tax will lead to the death of the steel industry in Canada if the Liberals go ahead with their plan to quadruple the carbon tax.

In the face of that overwhelming evidence, how can the Liberals justify quadrupling the carbon tax, to steelworkers in this country?

[Housing, October 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberals are not worth the cost of housing. Rent has doubled. Housing prices have doubled. We used to pay off our mortgage in 25 years. It now takes 25 years to save for the down payment.

Thankfully, Conservatives have a plan. We will axe the GST on new homes. On an $800,000-house, this will save $40,000. This tax cut will spark 30,000 additional homes' being built every single year. The Canadian Home Builders' Association said, “today's announcement by the Conservative Party of Canada...will make a big difference”. The West End Home Builders Association said, “removing the GST for new homes under $1 million may be the most significant housing policy commitment in the past two decades”.

NDP-Liberals puff up with fake pride with every fake photo op they have on housing. Common-sense Conservatives will get the houses built for all Canadians.

[Committees of the House, October 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, 1,450 CBC staffers are taking home six-figure salaries. Since 2015, the number of CBC employees taking six-figure salaries has spiked by 231%, again, all the while, with absolutely declining viewership, not meeting any of their KPIs and giving themselves these lavish, gigantic bonuses. Catherine Tait has not ruled out taking more bonuses. It is really incredible.

In the face of all this, a responsible CEO would say they have made some serious mistakes, they are running the corporation into the ground, they are going to turn this thing around, and the first thing that is going to happen is they are not going to take any bonuses until the ship gets going in the right direction. However, that is not what is happening. In the real world, all these executives would lose their jobs for this terrible performance, but in the Liberal world, they give themselves gigantic bonuses, pat themselves on the back and then lay off the workers. That is the record of the Liberal government with the CBC, which is, again, why we are here today.

I have heard members from the Liberal government say how dare we take up valuable House time to discuss this. I think Canadians want to know what the government has done to the CBC, how it has run it into the ground. I understand, when we have a Prime Minister who says he admires the basic dictatorship of China, that he does not want debate in the House of Commons. That all tracks. I am sorry it is so inconvenient for Liberal members to have to try to get up and pathetically defend how they have run the CBC for the last nine years. I agree it is a hardship.

They actually have to stand up and defend their terrible record. However, they do not want to, so they say things like we are taking up House time. Parliament is here for a reason: to debate issues. If that is inconvenient for them, if they admire China's basic dictatorship so much, maybe there is somewhere they could go and be dictators. There are lots of countries around the world they could move to with basic dictatorships, China being one of them.

We are going to debate this because it is important to Canadians to expose what they have done to the CBC, what the people at the CBC are doing to the workers at the CBC, and we are not going to stop. They can cry about it all they want. The facts are these: they cannot defend their management of the CBC; they cannot defend the bonuses the CBC has given to itself; they cannot defend that the CBC awarded itself these gigantic bonuses and then tried to lay off 800 workers; they cannot defend that viewership at the CBC is down 50%; they cannot defend that the CBC has not met 79% of its own KPIs and then gave itself bonuses; and they cannot defend the fact that, when the CBC realized how outrageous it was to give itself bonuses while missing 79% of its KPIs, it just changed the KPIs.

The CBC learned from the best. It learned from a corrupt Liberal government that says, “Just do whatever you want; everything will be fine.” That is how the CBC is being run under the Liberal government.

I would like to conclude with this. I move:

That the amendment be amended

(a) by adding, immediately after the word “including” the following: “how the Liberal threat to cut funding led to hundreds of CBC-Radio Canada job cuts”; and

(b) by adding the following at the end:

“, provided that it be a further instruction to the committee (a) that it report its findings to the House no later than December 17, 2024, (b) that, during this study, the following witnesses be ordered to appear, for no less than two hours each: (i) Catherine Tait, and (ii) Marie-Phillippe Bouchard; and (c) the Minister of Canadian Heritage be ordered to appear for at least one hour; and (d) that, in addition to the witnesses mentioned in paragraph (b), it hear at least three hours of additional expert testimony.”

[Committees of the House, October 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to hear a Liberal member, after nine years, realize the Liberals have now also broken the CBC. They broke housing. They have broken the criminal justice system. I can go down the list of what they have broken over the last several years, including when the Prime Minister broke the English language by inventing the word “brokenist”, which was a treat for all of us to listen to just last week.

What came out of the committee is this: Given the job cuts announced at CBC/Radio-Canada for the year 2024, it would be inappropriate for the CBC to grant bonuses to the executive members. Because the Liberals broke the CBC so badly with terrible appointments and terrible management, a committee had to take the unprecedented step of telling the CBC not to give out bonuses when they had performed so poorly.

It is really unheard of. This has not happened in the history of the CBC, so I have to wonder how the government so incompetently managed the CBC through the people it appointed to run it. The Liberals have done an absolutely abysmal job. They have run the CBC into the ground.

Viewership at the CBC has collapsed by 50% since 2018. In any other environment, say, if I had declined my goal production in hockey by 50%, I am guessing my team would not be giving me a bonus. I have never run an NHL team, but I cannot imagine a player going to the owner and saying, “I scored 40 goals last year. This year I scored 20. I want to talk about my bonus.” It just would not happen. However, because the Liberals are just so incompetent with everything, everyone now thinks they can do whatever they want.

The CBC executives, because there is really no one running the ship over there, do not know what is going on. Their incompetence is spreading to every department. These people thought, “Let me think about this for a second. Viewership is down by 50%. We failed to meet 79% of our performance targets. Let me think of what we should do about that. I have an idea: let us cut 800 employees and give ourselves bonuses.”

This is the madness that is going on at the CBC, and it can only happen under the absolutely corrupt, bankrupt-of-ideas Liberal government. As we often say, a fish rots from the head down, and the rot from this government is spreading everywhere. It has spread so badly that Catherine Tait at the CBC thought this was a good idea. I can just see it now: They call everybody into the boardroom to pitch some ideas. Viewership is down 50%. They did not meet 79% of their KPIs. They go around the table to figure out the solution. They need to get things back on track. What if they cut 800 employees? “Oh yes, I like that.” What if they gave out $3.8 million in bonuses? “Oh yes, I like that. That is exactly the direction we need to go.” Then the Liberals stand here, do nothing and defend it.

How the CBC is behaving is offensive to average Canadians, so the committee had to take the unprecedented step of saying the CBC should not be paying out bonuses while laying off people. The government did not say anything. Its members just said, “Well, whatever,” as they do on most files. They are out of touch, asleep at the switch and making a mess of everything. They made a mess of this.

I want to go just on a bit more. Catherine Tait's salary is between $468,000 and $551,000 a year. That is a pretty good wage. Most Canadians would be really happy to make a wage like that. In fact, they would be happy to make a fifth of that. As the performance of the CBC was going into the tank, she decided bonuses were great and the bonuses could be up to 28%. She tanked viewership, they have not met any of their KPIs and missed 79% of them, and what she thought would really fix things up was giving herself a $154,000 bonus. I really cannot make this stuff up.

Any average Canadian hearing this would say it has to be a joke, an article in The Beaverton or something like that. No corporation would behave this way except if it was being run by a really incompetent Liberal government. The government appointed people to the green slush fund who just paid themselves and their companies whatever they wanted. There is now an RCMP investigation. As I said, a fish rots from the head down. This Crown corporation sees that Crown corporation making it rain by sending its money to all its buddies' companies, and it wants to get in on that action and gives itself some gigantic bonuses. It is absolutely reprehensible conduct by a Crown corporation that is running itself into the ground.

The CBC dished out $18.4 million in bonuses to non-union staff and, wait for this, $3.3 million in bonuses to 45 executives. That is more than $73,000 each. After the CBC had given itself this wonderful Christmas present, these gigantic bonuses, it decided to give some employees at the CBC a Christmas bonus as well: It sent pink slips to 800 employees. That is what it decided was a good thing to do as it made it rain for itself.

That is why a House of Commons committee took the unprecedented step to say this had to stop. We would think that if there was a decent minister over there, or a decent Prime Minister, the government would have put a stop to that, but no, absolutely not, just like it did not put a stop to all the corruption at the green slush fund. The government let it go on for years despite all the warnings and all the questions at committee. It said these people can run amok and do whatever they want, and that has spread. It has now spread to the CBC.

Then where did the CBC go? It realized it missed 79% of its KPIs and people were questioning its bonuses. It asked, “Does anybody have any ideas what we should do? Should we try to actually do content that people want? Should we make sure our local affiliates are getting some coverage?” No. Someone put up their hand and said, “What if we just changed the KPIs so we all reach them? Then we can keep getting our bonuses.”

Again, we cannot make this up. When the CBC realized it could not meet any of its own KPIs but still wanted to make it rain for itself, it just changed the KPIs. Why would it do that? I go back again to this: A fish rots from the head down. The corruption that the government has engaged in for the last nine years has spread out all over the place, and people feel like they can do whatever, as a former member said, the “H-E double hockey sticks” they want. This is what happened.

The committee had to get into it and say it had absolutely had enough. If we look at the CBC itself, the bonuses alone have cost taxpayers $132 million since 2015. Think about that, $132 million, all while the CBC is missing all of its performance metrics. This is a corporation that has completely lost its moral compass in dealing with people. Imagine sending out layoff notices to 800 employees just before Christmas after giving these bonuses. It is the epitome of disgusting. If anything, the CBC should have been taking care of those workers as opposed to making it rain for itself with these exorbitant bonuses.

However, it did not happen, and there was no condemnation from the Liberals. The Prime Minister did not say this was absolutely unacceptable and the CBC should reverse this decision—

[Labour, October 28th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I can tell that the Unifor workers at Local 1541 are going to be absolutely inspired by that heartfelt response from the NDP-Liberal minister.

Why are the NDP-Liberals never responsible for anything? Two million Canadians using a food bank is not their fault. Violent thugs out on bail is the province's fault. For a local employer trying to bust a union, there is nothing they can do but read their talking points.

If the NDP-Liberals are not responsible for anything and cannot fix anything, why do they not get out of the way and let a common-sense Conservative government fix their mess?

[Labour, October 28th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, Unifor Local 1541 has been without a contract since March 2023, and it has been on strike for almost six months. The employer has called Canadian workers lazy, refused to negotiate a wage increase and refused to bargain. He is effectively trying to bust the union. The union met with the NDP-Liberal minister almost two months ago and took the unprecedented step of asking the minister to intervene. His response has been crickets.

Why is the NDP-Liberal minister abandoning Unifor Local 1541?

[Liberal Party of Canada, October 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, gun crime is up 116%. The carbon tax will be up to 61¢ a litre. Groceries are up 45% since 2015. After nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, even Liberal MPs agree that taxes are up, costs are up, crime is up and time is up for the unpopular Liberal Prime Minister.

Apparently, Liberal MPs confronted the Prime Minister this morning, but there was one small hitch: They had to get written approval to speak to him. We can talk about freedom of speech.

While the Liberals are busy fighting among themselves, Conservatives are focused on what is important to Canadians: axing the tax, building the homes, fixing the budget and stopping the crime. As Conservatives, we do not agree with virtually anything the Liberals have done. They are destroying Canada.

However, what has become increasingly clear is that a whole bunch of Liberal MPs agree with us. The Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the cost or the corruption. It is time for him to go.

[Innovation, Science and Industry, October 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty simple who we are targeting. We are targeting the corruption the Liberals enabled, the corruption they are hiding and the corruption they refuse to produce the documents for.

These are documents the Speaker ordered the production of, so Canadians should ask themselves why the Liberals are not producing them. They are not producing them because they are so damaging. The documents are so bad, they will destroy the government. Therefore, the Liberals have used up seven days of House of Commons time to hide their corruption.

They need to stop the corruption and produce the documents.