Randall Garrison

[Business of Supply, May 11th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I am a bit perplexed by the Bloc motion today. I understand that there is a feeling that the French language and Quebec's weight in Canada are the real concerns. There are two ways, I guess, that such concerns could be approached. One is the defensive and negative way, which I see in this motion. The other is to tap into the great source of immigration abroad in the francophonie. There are more than 450 million French speakers around the world; they have some of the largest and fastest-growing populations and some of the youngest French-speaking populations. They could be a source of those immigrants.

Would an alternative approach not be to try to make sure that we raise those rates of immigration to help replace the aging population here and to help bring the diversity of francophones into Canada?

[Business of Supply, May 11th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, as someone who is an immigrant to Canada myself, having come here 50 years ago, and as an MP who has attended citizenship ceremonies where I have seen the pride when newcomers become part of the fabric of Canada, and I have seen the many contributions they make in my riding, I am a bit confused by the Conservatives' speeches today.

I have seen the Bloc members congratulating the Conservative leader, I guess, in supporting this motion. What we have before us is a motion that styles immigrants as a threat to some Canadians and blames immigrants for housing shortages and for delays in the health care system.

I am really unclear, having heard the speeches that sound like they support immigration, about what the Conservatives are doing with the motion before us today.

[Privilege, May 9th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I have intervened on this topic several times to implore members of the House to lower the temperature. I applaud the member who just spoke, because she did attempt to lower the temperature in the House and focus on real solutions.

How does the member see a way out of this impasse in the House, where everything is being held up? Would she agree with me that the things that were in the Conservative motion were quite reasonable, including the necessity of calling a public inquiry, so we are not constantly saying ”he said, she said” about what has happened here and we can get an independent authority to judge the facts about foreign interference?

[Business of Supply, May 4th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, once again, I am going to express my concern that the level that this debate has descended to in the House actually does much of the work of foreign powers that would like to disrupt our democracy.

Instead of focusing on the very good proposals put forward by the Conservatives in their motion today, which I do support, the debate has been of such a calibre that we lose sight of those things and how adopting those measures would help us counter foreign influence from China and other powers.

I would like to give the member a chance to talk about the content of the Conservative motion today, which I fully support.

[Business of Supply, May 4th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, as a New Democrat, I am concerned about foreign election interference. We were the first party to suggest a public inquiry. However, I have two concerns, and the member's speech raises both of them for me.

One is that if we turn this into a bitter partisan issue, we actually will be doing the work of the foreign agents who seek to disrupt our democracy instead of working to solve the problem. The second one is that if we exclusively focus on China, we will miss other attempts to interfere in our democracy, including things like the convoy that the member supported, where a million dollars flowed from the U.S. to try to overthrow the government here.

[An Act Respecting Regulatory Modernization, May 3rd, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to my colleague's speech. While my riding is not fully agricultural, we have a lot of small producers in my riding. They are concerned about food security and about quality of food. I know that my colleague, the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, is busy consulting in the agricultural community on this bill.

The member's speech raised a significant concern for me when he talked about presumptive approvals of things in agriculture, using countries with what he would call similar standards. However, in agriculture, that usually means the United States, which has significantly lower standards in most agricultural and food products. We know that in things like milk and cheese, there are extra additives allowed in the U.S. that are not allowed in Canada. Does the member share that concern, and does he think there are adequate protections in these presumptive approval processes?

[Business of Supply, May 2nd, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I respect the compassion and understanding the hon. member for Chicoutimi—Le Fjord has shown for those constituents who are facing a housing crisis because of the affordability question.

What I do not really understand is when I look at the Conservative motion, it looks like a bonanza for developers. It talks about upzoning, where developers will benefit, and about selling off federal properties so developers can redevelop them. Where is the mention of affordable housing, which he talked about so eloquently in his speech? Where is that in this Conservative motion?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to see the commitment in the budget implementation act to the red dress alert, but I want to ask the member whether she shares my concern about the announced cuts of $150 million to women's shelters across the country. That money was provided during the pandemic, when domestic violence rates spiked, and those rates have not gone down, so it is critical that money be provided in a timely manner once again to women's shelters.

[Petitions, March 29th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to table petition e-4151, which deals with the scourge of international parental child abduction. This is where one parent takes a child out of the country to attempt to deny the other parent contact with their child.

The petition points out that the last time the House of Commons studied this problem was more than 25 years ago. It calls on us to designate April 25 as a day of observation for victims of international parental child abduction, and it calls on the House to study ways that the government could provide effective assistance for parents trying to recover contact with their children and to protect those children's rights to be in contact with both parents.

[Historic Places of Canada Act, March 21st, 2023]

Madam Speaker, in my riding, I see a large number of historic sites, many of which I dearly love, as do local residents.

If I run through that list, there is Craigflower Manor House, from 1856; Craigflower Schoolhouse, from 1855; four Esquimalt naval sites; Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse, the first permanent lighthouse on the west coast of Canada; Hatley Castle; the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory; and the Weir's Beach Earthworks, which commemorates a Spanish landing site. What is particular about the list is that first nations have, of course, lived forever in my riding, and they are not on this list. I hope this bill will, by including first nations representation, get us a better and more representative list of historic sites in my riding. I wonder if the member shares my enthusiasm for these improvements in our list of national historic sites.