Ron Liepert

[Questions on the Order Paper, June 19th, 2019]

With regard to the impact of Bill C-69, An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, on Alberta’s economy: did the government conduct an economic analysis of the impact of Bill C-69 on Alberta’s oil and gas sector and, if so, who conducted the analysis and what were the results?

[Government Policies, June 7th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I will start again.

As I said, I spent some time preparing a report card for constituents on my four years as a member of Parliament. While I was doing that, I was thinking about what the Prime Minister's report card would look like. Let us look at the Prime Minister's past four years.

We had four years of massive budget deficits when we were promised a balanced budget in 2019. There were four slaps on the wrist by the Ethics Commissioner, one of which was with respect to the finance minister, because he forgot about his French villa. We had three women kicked out of the Liberal caucus because they stood up to the current Prime Minister. Then we had the meeting with either the prime minister of Japan or the prime minister of China. The Prime Minister gets an F on this report card for failure. The Prime Minister is not as advertised.

[Government Policies, June 7th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I recently prepared and distributed a report card to constituents on my four years as a member of Parliament. While I was preparing that report card, I wondered what the Prime Minister's report card would look like. Let me tell members that it was four years of failure, because we have four deficit budgets—

[Jim Hawkes, May 14th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to acknowledge the passing of a former member of Parliament for the riding of Calgary West, Jim Hawkes. Mr. Hawkes, or Jim, as he preferred to be called, was a member of this chamber from 1979 to 1993, winning, I believe, six elections. He served in a variety of capacities, including as chair of the former standing committee on employment and immigration, parliamentary secretary to the deputy prime minister at the time, Don Mazankowski, and chief government whip from 1988 to 1993.

As the current member for Calgary Signal Hill, which will revert to Calgary West in October, I can attest that even 25 years after leaving office, Jim was recognized and well known throughout the community. He was respected by the people he served. He was an honest, decent, fair man, and he worked tirelessly for the constituents of Calgary West.

Jim Hawkes was a true gentleman, and he will be sorely missed.

[Natural Resources, May 10th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, these Liberals love to throw numbers around, so why do I not help them out a bit?

We have heard, time and again, “347 days”. Well, let me ask the government about that right now. It has been 347 days since the government spent four and a half billion taxpayer dollars on a pipeline. At the time, the finance minister said that construction of the new pipeline would start immediately, but 347 days later, we have not had one shovel of dirt turned, so I would like to ask the finance minister this question: When is construction of this pipeline going to start?

[Government Spending, February 4th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians will soon be presented with a new budget, and for the fourth consecutive year, the government will be running a substantial deficit.

Since coming to office in 2015, the government has added almost $60 billion to the debt. The debt now stands at two-thirds of a trillion dollars. Our annual interest payments are $26 billion annually, and that exceeds all of our military spending. Worse yet, these interest payments do not reduce the overall debt and continue to increase our debt each year. Huge new spending, additional taxes and larger deficits, none of this was promised in the last election.

The current government will be seeking a new mandate soon, and I urge all Canadians to think about those broken promises and elect a strong Conservative government.

[National Suicide Prevention Action Plan, February 4th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to participate in this important debate on Motion No. 174. I do so not with any particular satisfaction, but I believe that few in this place are better qualified to speak about the hurt and pain that can be caused by someone taking their own life.

I want to say how privileged we all are to be in this new chamber. I would like to echo the comments by the mover of this motion that this is an opportunity for all of us to do what is right.

My remarks today are mine and mine only, and were not prepared by anyone else.

Three days from today, Thursday of this week, will mark one year since I received a phone call at midnight from my wife, saying that our 45-year-old daughter had taken her life. It is a call that no parent should ever have to receive.

Again I would like to thank the member for Timmins—James Bay for raising this important issue in the House. I recognize that with limited time before this session of Parliament ends, this motion might not go much beyond the debate, but the debate itself is important. It is important because suicide is not an easy issue to talk about, but hopefully, if at least one person hears our words today and decides not to act, it will be time well spent.

The member who introduced this motion today focused a great deal on situations in his riding, especially those impacting our first nations communities. I do not for one minute want to downplay those tragic situations, but I want the House and all Canadians to know that this is not a problem experienced strictly by our aboriginal population or by marginal groups, because in the past year I have had countless people either write to me or tell me personally about the loss of a family member or friend by suicide.

It is easy to say that suicide is a mental health issue and if we just spend a little more money, that would be the answer, but I happen to believe differently. There is no question that factors such as depression or mental instability can be directly related to suicide. However, in recent years, several prominent business leaders in Alberta chose to end their lives; suicide can be caused by financial stress or a dependency that was more serious than it appeared. I do not consider that to be mental illness. I know others will disagree, and that is why it is important to have this discussion and develop an action plan, as suggested in this motion.

If spending more money to deal with mental illness is not the solution, then what is? I have thought a lot about it and I think that education is where we need to start. Learning about suicide should maybe start in grade school, and not be about why suicide is wrong but for students to hear real-life examples of the hurt and pain that is left behind when someone chooses to end their life. I say that because suicide is not an easy subject to talk about, but it does help to get rid of some of the anger. I think if a young person is made aware of that hurt and pain, it may change future decisions. If young people realized that nothing they ever did in their lives made a parent more angry, they might not make that decision.

When I think of my daughter, I think of someone who never wanted to hurt anyone or anything. In fact, she would become very angry when hearing the news of a person or animal being abused or mistreated, so we have to ask ourselves why she would hurt everyone around her by taking her own life. Obviously, that never occurred to her.

I am sorry, Mr. Speaker; when I practised this morning, it was much easier.

I ask whether it would have made a difference if in grade school she had heard first-hand about the pain and suffering experienced when a family suicide occurred. Perhaps it would have more impact if it were in junior or senior high, because it is a time in life when young people are easily influenced, but as the member mentioned in his opening remarks, the opposite seems to be occurring today. Young people are following celebrities on social media who choose to commit suicide, so they think it is okay. Unfortunately, that social media focus in on the person taking his or her own life rather than those who are left behind to pick up the pieces.

Last week I followed closely the victim impact statements that were made by families of those killed in the Humboldt bus crash. They were heart-rending but powerful. I ask, what if similar stories were shared with school children by families of suicide victims? It might have lifelong impact.

Also, early in life we teach our children a lot about sharing and not being selfish. Committing suicide may be the most selfish thing one can do. I would say that our daughter was somewhat selfish. However, I doubt that it ever occurred to her that committing suicide was a selfish act, so I think we need to instill in our young people that suicide is a selfish, hurtful act. It is hard to do that, however, if someone feels uncomfortable talking about their situation, so I hope that we can encourage Canadians through this debate to share their stories with others and help prevent similar situations of hurt and pain.

I have heard it said that suicide has almost become an epidemic. It seems as though every day we see in the obituary column that another young person has died suddenly. If all suicides were caused by depression, people could probably be treated, but unfortunately they are not. We must deal with the fact that suicide seems to have become the easy way out. For the individual at that moment in time, it may seem that way, but rest assured that such a decision leaves a lifetime of hurt, pain and anger.

What can we do as political leaders to combat that?

We need to start to have these discussions. We cannot be afraid to open up about our hurt, pain and anger. We cannot think that because our daughter chose this action, it has somehow brought shame on our family. We need to get over the feeling of guilt and anger and help others. Therefore, I urge anyone who experienced suicide by a family member or friend to consider sharing their feelings openly, to be a source of hopefully preventing someone from taking their own life. By being open, they can also be a resource for someone today facing what we experienced last year.

Many in this chamber are fortunate not to have a personal experience with suicide. Standing here one year ago today, actually in the other chamber, that was me. Today, one year less three days later, I look at this issue through an entirely different lens.

Supporting this motion and participating in the debate today is easy for me. Hopefully my remarks, and those of others who speak, will ensure this motion moves forward so we can begin the work of developing a national action plan to combat this epidemic.

[Petitions, January 28th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I, too, am pleased to table a petition supporting Bill S-240. As has been said, this would make it a criminal offence for Canadians to go abroad to receive an organ without the consent of the patient. I am sure there is not a member of the House who has not met with the members of this group who have told us the horrendous stories. The bill is currently before the foreign affairs committee, and we would ask that it be studied and hopefully passed before this session of the House concludes this spring.

[Privilege, December 4th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order about an answer the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development gave today. If I heard correctly, the minister said that among the jobs created in Canada since the Liberals took office in 2015, there were 2,200 new jobs created at Nova Corporation. The CEO of Nova Canada happens to be a constituent of mine, so I sent him a note and asked him to check it. He said no, they had maintained 2,200 jobs that already existed in 2015, and not—

[Natural Resources, December 4th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, only in Canada and only under a Liberal government would my province be forced again to take OPEC-like initiatives and reduce production of our precious natural resources. Only in Canada under a Liberal government at the same time would we be importing 100,000 barrels of oil per day from Saudi Arabia and paying world prices. Only in Canada under the current Liberal government would we ban tanker traffic on the west coast and allow Saudi ships to park along the pristine eastern shores and along the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Only the current Liberal government would buy a pipeline that was operating effectively and kill two other pipelines. Only this Prime Minister would go to South America and state the reckless comments that he made about those construction workers who would be building those pipelines today.

I urge all members of this House to support our Conservative motion today because Canadians are fed up with the current government, they are fed up with the Prime Minister's stupid comments and it is time to kick him out of office.