Larry Maguire

[Mental Health, October 20th, 2022]

Madam Chair, I certainly am very glad that my colleague asked that question because it is a very important one, and it is one that I did not have enough time to fully flesh out in my speech earlier this evening.

I spoke to Chief Balcaen, the head of the Brandon police, this past week as well. I got caught up on the situation that has caused a lot of the homelessness, which puts a lot of stress on everyone's mental health. I also mentioned the increasing prices of food, heat and energy.

The other area we are struggling with is in our rural areas. Number one, even if there were enough health workers to meet the need, people would have to travel great distances to get that service. There are not enough support workers in, I would say, just about any area of Canada. There are certainly not enough psychologists or mental health workers in other areas.

There has been an increasing number of people who are dealing with homelessness and mental health issues. As I said, in Brandon it has doubled over the last number of years. From the statistics I have seen, I know that is relevant to just about every city in Canada. We certainly do need an increase in the number of health workers in the mental health field.

[Mental Health, October 20th, 2022]

Madam Chair, I offer my thanks to my colleague. I had two more lines.

Communities such as the city of Brandon and, in particular, organizations such as Samaritan House, need the federal government to step up to help. I am willing to work with any member of the government to get this done. My door is always open, like all of my colleagues, I am sure, in the whole House, but we need help. The government has the power to bring these issues forward, get the mental health transfer in place and begin action on a whole host of solutions, which I have put on the table tonight.

[Mental Health, October 20th, 2022]

Madam Chair, I want to thank my colleagues for initiating this take-note debate on mental health. While we may have different ideas on ways the federal government can assist the provinces, municipalities, organizations and families, it is imperative that we do not let this issue fall by the wayside, which has been addressed in many of the questions that have come up this evening.

As we all know, there are significant challenges when it comes to helping those who desperately need access to mental health and addiction services. We have all had our mental health impacted from various circumstances, but particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19. Breaking the routine of our daily lives impacts us all.

In the last election, I ran on a few specific mental health proposals that I felt would help improve the lives of those who need that help. We proposed that the federal government partner with the provinces by dedicating a significant portion of stable, predictable health funding to mental health to ensure that an additional million Canadians can receive mental health treatment every year. I noted the Liberals were also offering something similar, as has been talked about this evening, which was the introduction of a mental health transfer of $4.5 billion over five years. Unfortunately, that has yet to materialize, but, hopefully, the conversation we are having tonight will spur some action.

In the last election, we also proposed that the government encourage employers to add mental health coverage to their employee benefit plans by offering a tax credit of 25% of the cost of additional mental health coverage. We know that the government cannot solve this problem alone, and we must leverage existing benefit plans to help add capacity and funding to the system.

Another idea was to create a pilot program to provide grants to non-profits and charities delivering mental health and wellness programming. In communities and neighbourhoods across the country, there are already non-profits and charities supporting those in need. If the government can provide small grants for them to expand their operations and to use their existing infrastructure and networks, it could have an immense and immediate impact for those they serve.

Just this past week in the city of Brandon, my hometown, the Samaritan House Ministries, which does fantastic work under the leadership of Barbara McNish, announced that it has reached a crisis point. It goes without saying that the people of Brandon and area are incredibly generous and kind. From grocery stores to everyday citizens, people are stepping up to donate what they can. However, the demands coming through the door at the Samaritan House are so great that it needs help too. Tonight, I am here to plead with the federal government to immediately make the financial resources available to places like Samaritan House to ensure no one goes without a bed this winter. As the cold weather will soon be on its way, it is in desperate need of expansion.

In the past couple of years, the number of people in need of emergency housing in the city of Brandon has doubled. There are many reasons for this, such as addictions, mental health issues, poverty and food insecurity. The people at the Women's Resource Centre in Brandon also say the centre is working with a record high number of women experiencing homelessness. With the dramatic rise of energy, food and housing prices, it is only expected these numbers will continue to grow.

I am also here to call on the federal government to immediately work with local organizations in the community to build more co-op housing. The co-op housing model works. In the city of Brandon, the federal government will find willing partners who are ready to build if the funds are made available.

Like many communities, we are also seeing an increased number of people who are battling addictions. Not only do we need to send a strong message to organized gangs who are bringing and distributing illicit drugs into our communities, but we need to offer people suffering addictions a way out. We need to revise the federal government's substance abuse policy framework to make recovery its overarching goal. We also need to orient the Canadian drugs and substances strategy toward ensuring that everyone suffering from addiction has the opportunity to recover and lead a drug-free life.

In the last election, I ran on a commitment to create 1,000 residential drug treatment beds and build 50 recovery community centres across the country. Without timely access to addiction services, we will never be able to help people recover.

In closing, I urge members to go back to their caucuses and be a mental health advocate. I ask my colleagues in the Liberal caucus to please review the ideas I have put forward and adopt them.

[Taxation, October 6th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, daily, Westman residents tell me it is getting tougher to make ends meet. Under the Liberal government, Canada is the only G7 country to raise taxes on energy. This drives up the cost of everything, particularly for those in rural Canada. It is not just; it is inflation.

Will the Prime Minister leave these dollars in the pockets of cash-strapped seniors and families by cancelling the plan to triple the taxes on gasoline, groceries and home heating fuels?

[Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, September 15th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and to offer my sincere condolences and those of the constituents of Brandon—Souris to her family and loved ones.

Upon the death of Her Majesty, it feels like we have lost a member of our family, because we have; someone so familiar, so ever-present and so enduring. Her Majesty was timeless.

On the year of her Platinum Jubilee, and after her final official duty of asking the incoming British Prime Minister to form a new government, she sadly left us after a lifetime of service.

From serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a mechanic in the British army during World War II, to her passion for assisting charities, and her many official duties, she has never been one to stay idle.

Her Majesty was not just the Queen of the United Kingdom and the head of the Commonwealth, she was Canada's Queen.

She said this during her visit to Canada in 2010:

My mother once said that this country felt like a home away from home for the Queen of Canada. Prime Minister, I am pleased to report that it still does.

No matter where she went, throngs of Canadians, both young and old, would wait for hours to shake her hand or to get a glimpse of her. It has been inspiring to see so many from around the globe share their heartwarming stories and their interactions. For many, Queen Elizabeth II was a symbol of grace and eloquence. To others, she was their head of state and commander-in-chief. To all of us, she was an extraordinary woman and embodied the very best of duty and service to others. She transcended generations. While everything changed around us, she was a pillar. During the most tumultuous times, she provided stability. She was a north star to many and a role model to millions. Quite simply, she was not just a queen; she was my Queen.

From a young boy going to school in Elgin, Manitoba, she was present in our morning singing of God Save the Queen, and her picture was prominently displayed in our school. Our family watched Her Majesty's annual Christmas Day speeches and took to heart her words of encouragement and calls to action. For her, faith, family, community, charity and dedication to her subjects were paramount. From being the first monarch to open a Canadian parliamentary session, to celebrating Canada's centennial, to being there on the day we patriated our Constitution, she was ever-present.

Anyone who went to a hockey game at the old Winnipeg Arena would fondly remember the most magnificent painting of Her Majesty nicely settled between the two flags.

For myself, the first act of becoming a member of Parliament in 2013 was to swear that I would be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is the same oath every single living member of Parliament, current or retired, has taken for 70 years.

Over her reign, many Canadians, including myself, felt a deep connection to the Queen. During her reign, she made 22 visits to Canada. From dropping the ceremonial puck, as has been mentioned many times today, at a Vancouver Canucks hockey game, to watching her daughter compete at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, she and her family were no strangers when they visited our country.

Personally, I had the opportunity to meet her son, Prince Edward, twice while I was a member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly. The first time was during a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting, which, ironically, was held on Prince Edward Island. The second time was in Winnipeg, where he presented the Duke of Edinburgh gold medals to Manitoba's top cadets, two of whom were from my provincial constituency of Arthur-Virden at that time.

My most memorable occasion with Her Majesty was having the opportunity to shake her hand during one of her six visits to Manitoba. It was at the legislature in 2002 to celebrate her Golden Jubilee while I was an MLA. While it was only a brief encounter, her warmth and grace shone through. It was during that visit that thousands of Manitobans had travelled to the city to celebrate her jubilee.

It was also an extraordinary moment when she unveiled the refurbished Golden Boy statue, which is pitched on the dome of the Manitoba legislature. To have the Queen, on her Golden Jubilee, unveil the Golden Boy, which is one of Manitoba's most famous symbols, is a memory I will never forget.

During Her Majesty's many trips to Manitoba, she was able to visit even the smallest rural and remote communities, including Churchill, Thompson, Gillam, Flin Flon, Norway House, Swan River, The Pas, Dauphin, Carman and many others. She visited these communities to better understand the province and the people who call it home.

Just recently, The Brandon Sun ran a wonderful story about the Queen, Prince Philip, Princess Anne and now King Charles's 1970 visit to the Bailey farm outside of Carberry, Manitoba. They were able to take a moment out of their busy schedule to ride horses and inspect the crops at the Bailey farm. Sure enough, 40 years after her farm visit, Mr. Bailey had an opportunity to meet the Queen in Winnipeg. She spoke fondly of her time on his family farm. This speaks volumes to me that the Queen was just as comfortable on a farm in rural Manitoba as she was at a state banquet or at Buckingham Palace.

Her love for the outdoors and horses remained constant throughout her years, and of course we all know of her dogs, her dear corgis. Since 1969, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has donated eight horses to Her Majesty, with her favourite being the first horse, which was named Burmese. When Burmese retired from parades and public duties, the Queen said, “Right, I’m retiring too, from those I’m not going to ride anymore because without Burmese it won’t be the same.”

To symbolize their unique relationship and her connection with Canada, a statue of Burmese and Her Majesty can be found north of the Saskatchewan legislature and a second can be found outside the Governor General's residence here in Ottawa. They will stand as a lasting reminder of her love of our country and will connect us with past and present.

I wish to remark on Queen Elizabeth II's devotion to task.

Last week was historic. On Tuesday, she welcomed Liz Truss, the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a formal handshake. Our Queen passed away on Thursday, and on Saturday, a new leader of the official opposition in Canada was elected. I doubt three such significant events between our two nations will ever happen again in such a short span of time.

After seven decades, it is hard to imagine a world without her. It is impossible to encapsulate her positive influence in Canada and in our own lives. Her Majesty's legacy is profound, and it marks the end of an era and the beginning of another. May her memory live long in our hearts and her devotion to duty inspire us as we carry on our work to serve the people we represent.

God save the King.

[Westman Farmers, June 21st, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Westman’s farmers and ranchers. Despite the challenges Mother Nature has thrown at them, they press on each day. A Colorado low hit in late spring that hurt the livestock producers as calves were being born. A constant barrage of rain delayed seeding and turned fields into mud. A late frost bit canola and other crops just as they were peeking out of the ground, and now flea beetles are running amok. Somehow, our farmers pushed through. They persevered. They are out there as we speak, producing the food on which the world relies.

As the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, many are worried about the price and quantity of food in the year to come. Our farmers can help. Now more than ever, we need them to succeed.

I salute all those men and women working around the clock doing what they do best: growing and raising the food we eat every single day.

[Criminal Code, June 21st, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I respect my colleague as well. We have had many of those good conversations.

I want to say that it is not the registration of a firearm but the licencing of it that will help prevent crimes. The only difference is that firearms should be licensed according to their function, not their form.

[Criminal Code, June 21st, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for Jonquière for his compliments on my abilities.

This is exactly the point that my colleague was just trying to make: The government has never come up with a definition of an assault rifle. My colleague, as we know, has gone to great lengths to try to find that in all of the debates and in all of the information that is available today. The government cannot even define it for us.

That is why this legislation is such a flawed piece of work. It needs to go to the public safety committee so that it can come back, as was indicated by the member and my colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound here, with recommendations that will really help fix the problem, instead of blaming law-abiding firearms owners.

[Criminal Code, June 21st, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, as ill-informed as it might be.

I just wanted to say, though, that for the last three elections, if he has been paying any attention at all, this side of the House has been calling for greater efforts to stop smuggling guns into Canada. All of the police chiefs and heads of police in the provinces that I just spoke of in my speech—and I know he was listening to it, because that was what he was referencing—show us that 80% to 85% of these crimes are caused by illegal guns that have been smuggled into the country, and that is where our focus should be. That is where the dollars can be spent the best to try to prevent the unconscionable street crime that we are seeing.

[Criminal Code, June 21st, 2022]

Madam Speaker, right off the bat, I want to point out that our Conservative team was willing to split this bill so that the House could swiftly pass the clauses on which we all agree. There are parts that we still need to debate, but we were prepared to make sure that the other elements could quickly proceed. We would have immediately sent on to the committee stage the elements of Bill C-21 that are focused on protecting potential victims of firearms crime and tightening up laws that address firearms smuggling. Those elements would have also included red flag provisions to allow law enforcement to remove firearms from dangerous domestic situations more quickly and to allow more severe penalties for criminals smuggling guns.

It was a reasonable proposal and it was disappointing that the government did not accept the offer. As with all firearms-related legislation, the government is far too comfortable with labelling those who disagree with it as firearms lobbyists. It is more than willing to disparage us and law-abiding firearms owners than to propose legislation that fixes the root issue of firearms violence. In the 2019 election, the Liberals tried to scare people into voting for them in our riding by sending out a brochure with firearms on it. It did not work, and they got 12% of the vote. The Liberals once again tried to scare people in the 2021 election, and the result was the same:12% of the vote.

The good people of Westman are not buying what the Liberals are trying to sell. A couple of years ago, I took my RPAL, my restricted possession and acquisition licence, and went for training in the basement of the late Don Teale. Like hundreds if not thousands before me, I sat in his makeshift classroom in his home in Brandon with a dozen or so Westman residents who had signed up to take their firearms training. As I walked into the room, I could tell that a few of the other students were slightly perplexed about why I was taking the safety training with them.

Not long afterward, Don, who was a plain-spoken and straight-shooting veteran, told them how happy he was that a sitting member of Parliament was educating himself for the firearms act. Don was right. I was not in his basement because I wanted to purchase a firearm; I took the training to get a better idea of the rigorous process that Canadians must go through before they can get a firearms licence.

As a lot of MPs might know, there was a movement a couple of years ago from law-abiding firearms owners urging legislators to get their PAL or their RPAL. They were tired of politicians getting up and speaking about the firearms act without ever reading or understanding it. They were upset that too many are quick to disparage firearms owners without understanding the law or the process.

There is no evidence to justify many changes found in the Liberals' firearms legislation. In fact, they are only further burdening law-abiding firearms owners, rather than actually going after the people who commit the crimes. I, for one, would prefer that our law enforcement agencies and our Government of Canada spend their time, energy and resources in cracking down on gangs and criminals.

Since the Liberals announced Bill C-21, I have received countless emails from law-abiding firearms owners who feel that once again the government is using them as a scapegoat instead of tackling the root of firearms violence in Canada. I have heard from retired law enforcement officers, veterans, competitive sport shooters and everyday Canadians who are tired of being blamed and shamed by the Liberal government. They are fed up with the Minister of Public Safety's gaslighting.

To give just one example, the minister said, “Bill C-21 doesn't target law-abiding gun owners, it targets handgun violence, it targets organized crime.” Of course this bill targets law-abiding firearms owners. Suggesting it does not is an insult to the intelligence of those who have been following this debate. I am looking forward to watching the deputy minister appear at the public safety committee to inform the MPs that we have all just misunderstood the minister once again.

The reason firearms businesses have run out of stock is that as soon as this bill was announced, everyone with an RPAL went out to purchase a handgun before the freeze takes effect. Anyone who tries to phone the RCMP firearms centre right now will sit on hold for hours, as everyone is trying to purchase or transfer a firearm right now. How could the Minister of Public Safety go on national television and say something so erroneous? Does he actually believe what he is saying? He knows perfectly well that Bill C-21 is going to prevent Canada's RPAL holders from ever purchasing a handgun once this legislation passes.

The truth of the matter is that the Liberal government decided to target law-abiding firearms owners from the moment it came into office. The Liberals repealed various elements of the common sense firearms act that my colleague just talked about, Bill C-71. They deleted the sensible change of introducing an automatic authorization to transport firearms and they then removed any oversight of the classification of firearms.

Let us fast-forward to 2020, when the Liberals reclassified hundreds of firearms as “prohibited”. With the stroke of a pen, they made millions of firearms illegal to use in Canada. Some of these firearms have been in people's possession for decades, and now the government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase them so they can be destroyed.

If those hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on policing, social programs or literally anything, there would be a much better chance of reducing crime. Once again the government has failed to make a serious case for one of its bills, and in doing so, it is unnecessarily going after millions of law-abiding firearms owners who have done everything by the book.

According to Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, “it is the experience of law enforcement that most of these guns are illegally obtained,” and I would add, “from the United States”.

As our Conservative shadow minister of public safety said in her speech, the committee recently studied guns and gangs and had a very robust debate. It had police and crime experts appear, and not one recommendation in its report was to ban handguns. That is because none of the experts, none of the police experts and none of the community anti-gang experts said that banning handguns would be a solution. All of them said that such an approach would not work.

In relation to some questions we just had, the committee heard from the Toronto police that over 85% of handguns used in violent crimes are smuggled in from the United States. From Quebec, Chief Inspector Benoît Dubé said that most firearms linked to crime seized in his province come from the United States. He said, “We need to focus our efforts on the borders between the United States and Canada.” According to Chief Inspector David Bernard from the Montreal city police service, approximately 80% of illegal firearms seized in Quebec have been smuggled in from the United States.

To date, we have seen very little evidence from the government to suggest that law-abiding firearm owners are responsible for the rise in firearm homicides and shootings. What we do have is a gang and organized crime problem in Canada. On a weekly basis, we are hearing about deadly shootings happening across the country. All this violence has led to the tragic loss of too many, and it is having an impact on countless communities and neighbourhoods.

According to the latest Statistics Canada data, there were 8,344 victims of police-reported violent crime in which a handgun was present during the commission of an offence, which is a rate of 29 per 100,000 population. Since the Liberals were elected in 2015, gun crime has gone up steadily each year, and for residents in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and other cities, gun violence is an everyday occurrence.

I have always stood for common sense firearm safety and strong consequences for those who commit firearms offences. If the Liberals had proposed a bill that explicitly focused on guns, gangs and criminals, they would have found a much more receptive audience on this side of the House.

For years, we have been calling on the government to address gun smuggling and improve the ability of border agents to prevent the flow of illegal firearms into Canada. I cannot and will not support legislation that specifically targets law-abiding firearms owners and ignores the root problems of illegal firearms.