Larry Maguire

[Brian Franklin, May 12th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the life of Mr. Brian Franklin, who sadly left us all too soon after a brief battle with cancer. He was a pillar in his community of Deloraine, and he was known far and wide for his public service and his love of hockey. Brian was a teacher for 36 years and was one of the best math teachers in the province of Manitoba. He served as a town councillor, and then as mayor of Deloraine for 16 years. He brought people together and was always willing to listen to those who needed help.

My greatest memories of Brian were seeing him at the hockey rink or on the golf course, and I was thrilled when he became the president of Hockey Manitoba. I was incredibly proud of how he led the organization and helped shape the future of so many players.

I consider him a friend, and I know that all who knew him are grieving his passing. My heart goes out to his wife, Val, and his children, Tony and Carrie, as they celebrate his life. May he rest in peace.

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, my colleague just listed a whole host of reasons. We can go back in history all we want, but we have a war in the world right now that started about two months ago with Ukraine. This changes the dynamics of all of our export opportunities in this country. It even changes the role of our exports to our allies in western Europe, which are that much more important because those natural resources, and I am on that committee, are also impacted by events in China. We have seen some of the interference it has had in our own democratic process here in Canada, and it is much more relevant to speak to that right now than it was in the past.

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, in the speech by the member for Kingston and the Islands there may be some disinformation when it comes to being measured, but the misinformation from the member for Timmins—James Bay is completely false.

The situation that we are faced with today in defence around the world is probably one of the major reasons, as pointed out by my colleague from Wellington—Halton Hills, that committees are already busy. This is an emergency. When there are references to interference in elections and a committee is not taking the time to look at that, does the member not think that would warrant having a committee to look into this special situation with China?

[The Budget, April 26th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on her speech. It is a pleasure to sit with my colleague on the natural resources committee.

It is no coincidence that the price of a house has doubled in Canada, because the government has doubled the debt as well in the years the Liberals have been in government. It is a parallel, and it is not a plan for the future.

Prime Minister Harper was the first to apologize to first nations for the indignities that had taken place, so there is room for all governments to be involved. The current government is not the first one to do any of these things.

Liberals talk about the money they are putting into housing. We are still tremendously short of housing in Canada, yet inflation has doubled and the price of a house has gone to $840,000 from $420,000. How can they sustain this and say that the spending they have done is not causing inflation, when the Parliamentary Budget Officer himself has indicated that only a third of their spending has gone toward the pandemic?

[Natural Resources, April 8th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the hypocrisy of the Liberal government knows no bounds. After voting against our motion to leverage Canada's energy sector to free Europe from its dependence on Russian oil and gas, the natural resources minister's announcement in France shows Conservatives were right on the issue. Oil and gas is the answer to Europe's energy needs.

Will the minister commit to measures to get energy infrastructure built to Atlantic tidewater?

[Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, April 7th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, this past week, the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair opened its doors to thousands of enthusiastic visitors after a three-year hiatus due to COVID-19.

Held annually in Brandon, the fair is one of western Canada’s largest agricultural events and one of only two fairs in Canada to receive royal designation from Queen Elizabeth II. We could feel the energy in the Keystone Centre as visitors took in the world-class show jumping and heavy horse competitions. Show jumper Piet Van Genugten and his horse Haido performed impressively and won the Wawanesa Insurance Grand Prix as the finale to the week.

Livestock displays, live entertainers and hundreds of exhibits engaged folks of all ages and all walks of life. The hands-on agricultural education program and petting zoo put smiles on plenty of kids’ faces. Thousands of people, myself included, were incredibly happy to get back to this time-honoured tradition in our community.

Congratulations to Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba president Kathy Cleaver and her board on another great fair, and thanks to all the volunteers who invested their time in the fair’s success.

[Business of Supply, April 5th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I heard my colleague across the way say, with respect to the Strong, Secure, Engaged defence plan, that the government is continuing to spend. I know we are in a position right now where the rest of the world is trying to impress upon Canada the need to get to 2% spending. The current government promised it would not lapse spending, but in the three years leading up to the end of the fiscal year of 2021, we have seen a $10-billion lapse in that spending.

Can he account for that, given that when COVID started we were printing new money at $5 billion a week? Can he put this into perspective as to where we are today?

[Climate Change, April 4th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, in the last Parliament, the Liberals voted against a Conservative bill to introduce a carbon capture tax credit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now, the NDP-Liberals are agreeing with Conservatives about the technology’s potential and are prepared to introduce such a tax credit themselves.

Why did it take the NDP-Liberals over a year to consider our proven Conservative solution to this environmental concern?

[Business of Supply, March 31st, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, we have a system in Canada today that has over a 50% tax rate for a lot of Canadians who are in those brackets the member was just talking about. How much further can we go? As an example, what the Liberals did in one of their first budgets was to increase the tax on those making over $200,000 by 1%. Only a Liberal government could do what it did. It raised the tax to 1% but received less money. All I am saying is that Canadians will find new accounting processes to change the law or get around what the Liberals are trying to do with regard to this, even though we tried to be fiscally accountable in the years I just pointed out and did balance the budget with a plan. All I am asking for today in this budget is that there is a plan to allow Canadians to escape from some of the inflation that has been caused by the pandemic.

[Business of Supply, March 31st, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I think my colleague knows that it was the Harper government that went after the offshore accounts of people who were transferring funds out of the country in those areas. I will go back to saying that we need to be very responsible in regard to how money is managed. We know we had to do some spending to get through the pandemic, but even the Parliamentary Budget Officer has said that pandemic issues account for only a third of that money. The other two-thirds were not used in those areas. That is what I mean by responsible spending and responsible accounting.