Ron Liepert

[Questions on the Order Paper, March 21st, 2022]

With regard to the government's contract with Switch Health to conduct COVID-19 PCR tests for international passengers arriving at the Calgary International Airport: (a) what is the number of COVID-19 PCR tests performed on travellers who entered Canada at the Calgary International Airport between December 1, 2021, and January 31, 2022; (b) what percentage of the tests in (a) were positive for COVID-19; and (c) what are the details of the contract with Switch Health related to the testing for international arrivals at the Calgary International Airport including (i) the value or amount, (ii) the start and end dates of the contract, (iii) whether the contract was sole-sourced or awarded through a competitive bid process, (iv) the number of PCR tests expected to be conducted under the contract?

[Business of Supply, March 1st, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I recall sitting in the House about a year ago when the leader of the Bloc Québécois stated that oil is dead. As we have seen in the last few days, it is obvious that the member was wrong. It is a situation where we have seen the oil and gas sector become a major contributor again to the Canadian economy, which will help health transfer payments to the Province of Quebec.

I wonder if the leader of the Bloc Québécois would go on record admitting that he was wrong when he said oil is dead. Oil is actually going to help what the member is looking for, which is more federal health transfers to the Province of Quebec, and this ties into exactly what he is asking for today.

[Member for Calgary Signal Hill, November 26th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your appointment. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the volunteers who helped me get elected for a third time in Calgary Signal Hill. After serving two terms in the provincial legislature and five elections, that is a tremendous accomplishment. I appreciate my constituents' support.

Whether it was Joanne, who organized my campaign, Nancy, who led our phoning efforts, or Geoffrey and Kal, who showed up every day to go door knocking with me in this unnecessary election, I am incredibly thankful.

The one thing this unnecessary election did give me was the opportunity to talk to thousands of my constituents, and this confirmed how unhappy my constituents are with a government that cannot get anything done. We are here, as Conservatives, to hold the government to account.

[Natural Resources, May 11th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, it is now less than 24 hours before Enbridge's Line 5, carrying important petroleum products through Ontario and Quebec, is due to be shut down. If the Michigan governor follows through on her promise, thousands of jobs in western Canada will be in jeopardy. More important, the impact will be felt by Canadians east of the Great Lakes.

When we wake up in the morning, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, who has spent much of his adult life hanging from the sides of buildings protesting pipelines, will have to explain to his constituents why they do not have propane to heat their homes. Liberal MPs from Toronto who want to phase out fossil fuels will have to explain to their constituents why planes carrying vaccines can no longer land at Pearson airport because there is a shortage of jet fuel.

On second thought, maybe Conservative MPs should allow the Michigan governor to shut down this pipeline, because she may be able to drive home a point to political parties in this place that no amount of debate to date could accomplish.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, March 12th, 2021]

With regard to government expenditures on aircraft rentals since December 1, 2019, broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation and other government entity: (a) what is the total amount spent on the rental of aircraft; and (b) what are the details of each expenditure, including (i) amount, (ii) vendor, (iii) dates of rental, (iv) type of aircraft, (v) purpose of trip, (vi) origin and destination of flights, (vii) titles of passengers, including which passengers were on which segments of each trip?

[Committees of the House, February 22nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I am not sure how the member covered all of that in 20 minutes. He covered a lot of ground around the programs and who has been missed.

I want to ask the member if he would not concur with the fact that at the end of the day, the tourism industry, and a lot of these small businesses, do not want government handouts. They want to get back to business and doing what they do, which they could if we had had a better program in place for vaccines and that sort of thing, with the possibility that the border could be opened this summer.

Both Alberta and British Columbia rely heavily on U.S. tourism. I would like the member to comment a little on that.

[Committees of the House, February 22nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, first I would like to thank the member for Edmonton Centre and the member for Niagara Falls for bringing forward this concurrence motion. It is becoming quite obvious that the only way we can get the current Liberal government to act on anything is if we bring it to the floor of the House and put it to a vote. We saw that this afternoon with the vote on the China situation.

What has got this parliamentary secretary so worked up is that he is afraid of another vote in which either his entire cabinet is going to abstain or disappear from the vote or he is going to have all of his colleagues vote in favour of another Conservative motion. I really think he is quite concerned about how he is going to manage this situation, and it just shows what terrible disarray the government finds itself in today.

The member for Winnipeg North made one comment that actually made sense, which was that if we took a full day to debate every situation that the government has failed to act on, we would never get through all of these debates because there are so many of them.

The parliamentary secretary is great at talking about science and data. On what basis did the government bring in the decision to quarantine at hotels when the public health folks—

[IT Support, February 4th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, we live in a crazy world today, but fortunately we are still in a democratic country. Now we know that the Prime Minister is an admirer of benevolent dictatorships, and if he had his way, I am not sure that Parliament would be in session today. He likes to govern from the tent outside Rideau Cottage, but that is not what Canadians want. They want their government to be held accountable, and that is taking place today, thanks to the House of Commons IT's fabulous team. It is a little clunky at times, I must admit, like last night during a vote. I am a technological klutz, but every time I have had a technical issue, I have called our IT folks. The response has been swift, it has been cordial and it gets resolved every time.

The IT team at the House of Commons has brought Parliament into the living rooms of every Canadian, so today I would like to give a big shout-out and my thanks to all of the folks who are in a backroom somewhere, maybe even working from home. They are keeping democracy alive and well in Canada.

[Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020, February 2nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the other night when we had the emergency debate, I watched with pleasure as my colleague from Calgary Forest Lawn put this particular member in her place by chastising her for her comment when she said “Yahoo” to jobs in western Canada after President Biden cancelled Keystone XL. My colleague put it so well when he said that if the member really cared about western Canada and western jobs she would apologize for tweeting “Yahoo” when that pipeline was cancelled.

[Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020, February 2nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I was watching the news last night and noticed a story about some vaccines in Thompson, Manitoba. I believe that is the hometown of the member who asked the question. It is reassuring that some vaccines are getting to these communities.

There is no question that in the last 10 days, while the government has failed to deliver vaccines to the provinces, half a million Canadians have not been vaccinated. There are ways to fix this problem. The government has no plan, which is not surprising considering who is leading it.