House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2015, with 44% of the vote.
Employment Insurance February 16th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, last week I was in Saskatchewan and heard first-hand the impact that growing unemployment and lay-offs are having. Families are struggling and have no cushion to fall back on. Our EI system is so broken that fewer than 4 in 10 unemployed Canadians are actually getting benefits. The government needs to act swiftly to help them. Will the Liberals move immediately to drop the threshold for eligibility to 360 hours and extend the length of benefits? Yes or no.
National Defence February 16th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister just gave two examples of combat missions. Which is it? Is it a combat mission, yes or no?
The Prime Minister is leaving questions about his new mission in Iraq unanswered. There will be no air strikes, but there will be a refuelling aircraft on site to support air strikes. Our ground troops will identify targets for air strikes. The Prime Minister is tripling the number of people involved in this combat mission, and his Chief of the Defence Staff has admitted that it will be more dangerous.
Why is the Prime Minister beefing up the military mission even though he promised Canadians that he would shrink it?
National Defence February 16th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, during the election, Canadians were led to believe that under a Liberal government the mission in Iraq and Syria would be scaled back and that Canada would no longer participate in a combat mission. However, General Vance said that with the Liberals' new mission, the lives of the men and women of the military are actually at greater risk. Then over the weekend, the Minister of National Defence also admitted that this is indeed an expansion with increased risk.
Can the Prime Minister please explain how we can call this a non-combat mission when there is in fact more risk for our troops on the front line?
International Trade February 4th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, does the member often sign deals that he does not agree with?
After promising openness and accountability, the Liberals signed onto a trade deal negotiated in secret with no economic impact study—he just admitted it: he wants to do the study after signing—and no mandate from Canadians to sign.
Now that they have signed, further changes are impossible. Since they are gambling with Canadian jobs, perhaps it was appropriate that they signed it in a casino.
Will the government admit that it just signed away any possibility of making changes to the wrongheaded Conservative trade deal?
International Trade February 4th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government signed the trans-Pacific partnership, which the Conservatives negotiated in secret, without conducting an economic impact study. Canadian innovators and creators are afraid of losing billions of dollars by giving the United States the upper hand on intellectual property. The founder of BlackBerry even called the agreement “the worst thing in policy that Canada's ever done”.
Why is the Prime Minister bent on signing an agreement that we know will hurt jobs and innovation in Canada?
International Trade February 4th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her answer, but she said, “in a timely...way”. Does she not think these victims have already waited enough?
Yesterday, the government signed the trans-Pacific partnership, which will add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the public drug insurance plan, according to a recently published study.
My question for the government is simple. Does it plan on compensating the provinces for the increased costs of their public drug insurance plans, yes or no?
Justice February 4th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, Canadians learned today that it is upwards of 3,000 indigenous people, who suffered abuse in residential schools, who have had their claims denied because of a technicality.
It was the Department of Justice that came up with this loophole, and argued against these victims in court. This is contrary to the spirit of reconciliation and a violation of the residential schools agreement.
Will the Minister of Justice instruct her officials to back down? Will she also apologize for this tactic and provide the compensation these survivors are entitled to?
Employment Insurance February 3rd, 2016
Mr. Speaker, he says that studies need to be done. He admits that they have no study and yet they are signing the agreement today. The economy is faltering. The Liberals also made a lot of promises about employment insurance, and they have yet to make good on those promises.
The Prime Minister will arrive in Alberta where thousands of workers have lost their jobs. I sure hope he arrives with something more than “hang in there”, which we heard him say recently.
Will the government ensure these workers and their families get the support they need by getting rid of the Conservative restrictions and extending employment insurance benefits, and will this be done immediately?
International Trade February 3rd, 2016
Mr. Speaker, we will take that as a no to publishing an impact assessment.
The Prime Minister won the election on a promise to do things differently, and yet today his government is signing a treaty that was negotiated by the Conservatives in secret. This agreement will have a direct impact on Canadians. Independent studies are saying that it could cost Canada 60,000 jobs. Our men, women, families, and communities will be affected. Why is the Prime Minister so determined to make the same mistakes as his Conservative predecessor? It is the same battle, Mr. Speaker, whether the government is Liberal or Conservative.
International Trade February 3rd, 2016
Mr. Speaker, the TPP was secretly negotiated in the dying days of the Conservative government.
Independent studies say tens of thousands of Canadians stand to lose their jobs. Those are not just numbers; they are people's livelihoods; they are Canadian families. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both come out against this deal.
The Liberals are not only willing to accept a worse deal than the U.S., but they admit that they have no studies of its impact on Canadians. Will the Liberals commit to completing a thorough impact assessment and then making the study public?