Ron Liepert

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

Madam Speaker, that proves that the member does not understand. I do not know if he is like the Prime Minister, who was a trust fund baby, as I do not know his background, but I know that the Prime Minister has never been responsible for signing a paycheque in his life. I know he has never been responsible for meeting payroll. If members believe that it is not Canadians who are shouldering the government debt, then I do not understand the rationale.

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

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today on Bill C-14, the government's economic statement. As we all know, the economic statement was released late last year and is a substitute, in the government's mind, for not bringing forward a budget. We are now approaching two years since the last budget and Canadians do not know what the future holds with their dollars.

First, let me say that the economic statement by the current finance minister is an improvement over the one last summer, which was the economic snapshot or, as some called it, the “economic selfie” by the former minister of finance, Mr. Morneau. This is an improvement. What is also an improvement is the fact that the current finance minister has probably come a little closer to the chaos that is being created by the government for in the financial future of our country.

In the economic statement, the estimated deficit for this fiscal year, which is rapidly drawing to a conclusion, was somewhere in the range of close to $400 billion. I predict today that because of the bungling by the government, the delay in vaccines that is causing Canadians to be out of work for longer than anticipated, which is going to significantly affect the revenue picture of the government because Canadians are not paying taxes if they are not working and corporations are not paying taxes if they are not open, the fiscal deficit of the government, whenever the government gets around to bringing forward a budget in the House, will be much closer to half a trillion dollars.

Let us talk about what half a trillion dollars looks like. If we take all of the normal spending of government in a year, some $350 billion, the government is spending that plus another one and a half times that this fiscal year. How is that sustainable? I know the Prime Minister has said on a number of occasions that it is better that the government take on the debt than individuals on their credit cards. That is fair enough. Let me be clear on this, because I know that the Liberals will say that Conservatives do not care about helping Canadians in the pandemic when nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the question is, where is this money going? We have seen no ability by the government to be transparent with all of these dollars.

Let me go back to the Prime Minister's statement that somehow it is okay to run debt as a government versus individuals. Who does the Prime Minister think government is? It is 35 million Canadians who are going to be shouldering this debt as we move forward. It would be really helpful if the government would be more transparent and show members where this money is being spent, because that clearly has not happened until today.

I get a lot of emails, as I am sure most MPs do, from constituents asking me to ask the Prime Minister this or that. If I were to stand here and ask the Prime Minister all of the questions that my constituents have requested that I ask him in the last three months, we would be here all night. I am going to try to focus on three areas. One is vaccines, two is the Governor General and three, most important to my province, is jobs.

First of all, we have heard a lot about vaccines. I asked a question of the minister today, and in typical fashion of this government, there was no answer. I used the example of a picture of Rogers Centre in Toronto full of people, which it has not been for well over a year now. Rogers Centre holds 50,000 people and 50,000 people is what the provinces were vaccinating on a daily basis 10 days ago. However, everything stopped 10 days ago, which means that half a million Canadians have not been vaccinated in the last 10 days because the Liberal government bungled the vaccine purchase.

I get emails every day from Canadians in the U.S. who are getting vaccinated there. S. How does that make any sense at all? Canadians are going down to the U.S. and getting vaccinated, and Canadians here in long-term care homes and seniors are not getting the vaccine. Something is wrong. The government has to own this problem.

I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about something that my constituents keep asking me about, and that is how we could be in this situation where we have a Governor General who has effectively resigned for all of the right reasons and yet will be collecting, going forward, expenses and a pension after just three years in office. Canadians cannot accept that. The government needs to fix that problem, and fix it soon. Liberals will pay a price at the polls, whenever they have the courage to go there. Canadians are fighting a pandemic and they see this kind of entitlement going on and see a government that is not prepared. It is just saying that this is the way it is, and that this is what the legislation says. The government is in a position to change the legislation. If it does not, I will say here today that this will be an issue in the next election.

Finally, I want to talk a little about jobs and the effect this pandemic and, in many ways, the inappropriate programs introduced by the government have had on jobs in my province. There were a number of things that happened well before COVID that impacted my province directly as a result of government action.

I will start with one of the first things the Prime Minister did when he was elected. He cancelled the Northern Gateway project. Today that project would be creating thousands of jobs in Canada, not just in Alberta but across Canada. However the Prime Minister, who always talks about making decisions based on science and data, decided one day when he was flying over northern British Columbia that this was going to be a campaign promise. It was a bad choice, because today that project would be wrapping up. People would have been employed for the last two or three years, and we would now be shipping a product that is in demand internationally. That is number one.

Then, of course, we had the so-called energy east project that was cancelled. I could go on with the kinds of bad decisions the government has made that have affected jobs in my province. However, we have a major issue in Alberta, and to a lesser degree, probably, in Saskatchewan and other parts of western Canada. I do not know where a 40-year geologist is going to find work in this transition to a new green economy.

This new green economy is not going to create the wealth that the energy industry has created for this country over the last two or three decades. I would just ask the Liberal government to think about that as part of its economic statement when it considers going hell-bent for leather into making sure that it transitions out of oil and gas to a green economy. I know the government is not going to worry too much about it, because it has its farm team over there, which used to be called the NDP, to support it on all these initiatives. Neither of those two parties cares what happens to this country. It is a mess, and they are doing nothing to fix it.

[Health, February 2nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, on my desk is a picture of Rogers Stadium in Toronto. I would show it to you, but you would accuse me of using a prop.

I will just say that the picture is of a stadium full of 50,000 people. Coincidentally, that is the same number of people who were being vaccinated every day in Canada up until about 10 days ago. After 10 days of no vaccinations, do the math. That is a half a million people.

Could the Prime Minister tell us what modelling the government has done to determine how many Canadians' lives could be lost because of this 10-day gap in the government's bungling of vaccination procurement?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 25th, 2021]

With regard to the various financial relief programs put in place since March 1, 2020: (a) what is the total amount dispersed through each measure to date, broken down by program; and (b) what is the estimated level of fraudulent applications for each program, including (i) estimated percentage of fraudulent applications, (ii) estimated number of fraudulent applications, (iii) estimated dollar value of fraudulent applications?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 25th, 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?

[Petitions, December 4th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to table a petition on behalf of dozens of Albertans who are asking for the government to enforce some of the actions of those involved in illegal vital organ sales, primarily from Communist China.

[Foreign Affairs, December 2nd, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, for nine months Canadians have isolated, worn masks and had their lives significantly disrupted, but those are inconveniences that pale in comparison to what two Canadian citizens have had to endure in China. It is going to be two years, in a couple of days, since Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were detained arbitrarily by the Chinese government.

Michael Spavor's family members are constituents of mine, and while believing that much has been done to secure his release, they are getting concerned for his well-being and for the toll that this is starting to take. While Meng Wanzhou is given due process and almost total freedom in Vancouver, Michael Spavor has been a total prisoner of the Chinese government, in apparent retaliation for her arrest.

The Spavor family is grateful for the work of Canadian officials, including ambassador Barton, during these past two years. However, today I am calling on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to elevate this file and secure the freedom of these two innocent Canadian citizens.

[Natural Resources, October 29th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, there were two major announcements this past week regarding our energy sector.

The first was the merger between Cenovus and Husky, which, unfortunately, is going to result in some more job losses in my home city of Calgary. However, the announcement that received less attention was Suncor's repatriation of 700 jobs from Mississauga and Oakville to Calgary.

This should be a wake-up call for the Liberal members across the way who represent those ridings. These jobs are leaving Toronto and coming to Calgary, but it proves how the energy sector has had a stronger impact on the entire Canadian economy than the government will give it credit for.

Government policies around the green agenda, banning plastics, are not only a direct attack on western Canada, but also on jobs across the country. It is time for Liberal MPs to stand up to their leader and say no to his desire to phase out the oil sands and ruin the economy of western Canada.

[Criminal Code, October 27th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed listening to the presentation by my colleague from the Bloc Québécois. It is not very often that I find myself agreeing with just about everything he said.

I ask the member for his thoughts on what I am hearing from the majority of my constituents. They support medical assistance in dying but are asking that we look at going somewhat further, with things like advance consent for when people are no longer of sound mind and cannot make a medical decision. I would like the member's impression on whether or not that is something we should be allowing sooner rather than later. Also, how can we get the government to undertake this study immediately?

[Criminal Code, October 27th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I heard the member mention on several occasions what this legislation does not prohibit. He mentioned, for example, consultations with teachers and religious leaders. I am wondering if he would be in favour of an amendment that would put into the legislation what it does not prohibit.