Mr. Speaker, I am going to start with a happy bit. It was five years ago on Sunday that I stood in the House and announced to the whole nation that my daughter's water broke and I was going to be a grandfather for the first time. This past weekend, we celebrated my granddaughter Ren's fifth birthday. She is the light of my life, and I never knew that someone's heart could grow so big. She is incredible. I know she watches when I am up speaking, so I just want to say happy birthday to my granddaughter Ren and that Papa loves her.
I have an incredible team, and they prepared these speaking notes for me, but I am going to go off-script, as I often do, and I am just going to talk about home. The last couple of weeks have been absolutely devastating for my riding of Cariboo—Prince George, with the loss of West Fraser in 100 Mile and the loss of the Drax pellet plant in Williams Lake. Not only that, but I know there are more closures yet to come in our province of British Columbia. I know that a significant closure will be announced later today. I have been on the phone non-stop with mayors and councillors. I have been on the phone non-stop with British Columbians who have lost their jobs, and they are facing uncertain times.
It is really frustrating for me. For 10 years, I have been in this House and worked collaboratively across party lines. For 10 years, we have been hearing that forestry matters from members on the other side and that they would get a softwood lumber agreement in place, yet they have not. In the last three weeks, I have raised the issue again. For the first time since I have been a member of Parliament, and perhaps ever, we had an emergency take-note debate on forestry. It was the first time ever. While I applaud the Speaker for allowing us to do that, it is shameful, because these are real jobs. This impacts Canadians from across our country at a time when we cannot afford to lose more jobs.
We can never afford to lose more jobs, but the Prime Minister campaigned on being the man with the plan who could get a job done, which is what Trudeau did in 2015. He then told us all, Canadians and the families and communities that depend on forestry, that he could get a job done within 100 days of the new U.S. administration, and here we sit 10 years later.
It is hard for me, because I want to think that everybody has the best interests. I want to see the good in people. It is really hard when I stand up and raise the issue, and we have colleagues across the way who heckle us and tell us that we are making it up, or who laugh and say that it is feigned anger or feigned outrage. It is real.
It is real disappointment, because Canadians put their trust in these guys across the way. The calls I have taken have been absolutely heartbreaking. There are communities such as 100 Mile, where the loss of West Fraser is $1 million out of its tax base. Its budget is $3 million, so 30% of its municipal tax base is gone. What happens when those families leave? They do not come back, so we have communities all across our province that are drying up. That is no BS; it is the truth. The budget does nothing for that.
We have a Prime Minister who shrugged his shoulders two weeks ago and said, “Who cares?” when asked when he last spoke with Trump. He said, “Who cares?” To him, it is not a “burning issue”, and it really does not matter.
That was a flippant, arrogant answer, but it should not surprise any of us. We see that every day when he is here. It so frustrating, to hear families on the other end who are crying and emotional, with mayors and councils who are wondering what is going to happen when the other shoe drops. Members should believe me; that is going to happen.
Today, Algoma Steel announced 1,000 job layoffs. We have more to come in the forestry industry. At this time of year, it is hard to hear. It is hard to sit here and listen to the garbage being spewed from across the way at us.
Members know the budget was 500 pages long, yet mental health was mentioned once. We have an opioid crisis; over 50,000 Canadians have died since 2016, which is more than in World War II, yet there was not one mention of that in the budget.
The Liberals have spent $1 billion in the last 10 years on their safe supply, perpetuating addiction, killing people and killing Canadians. Can members imagine how many beds that $1 billion could have created? How many recovery centres could it have funded?
I know the one guy they allow to stand up, out of the 171 members they have on that side, is going to talk about this being a generational budget and talk about bail reform. We can look at the violence against nurses, health care workers and first responders that is being perpetuated every day. We had a bill that passed in the last Parliament; it should have been law by now. It would have given protection to those who protect us, yet at the dissolution of the past Parliament, it fell off the Order Paper because of these guys' playing silly buggers, because of the games that they are playing.
The Senate unanimously passed Bill S-233. We brought it back here three weeks ago to try to do the same, to give assurances to those who stand for us, our silent sentinels, those who run into burning buildings, those who hold our hand as we take our last breath. We tried to tell them that we are fighting for them just as they fight for us, that violence is unacceptable and it is not part of their job description. However, the other side is playing political hot potato with them as well. I cannot imagine anyone who would want to be part of that team. I cannot imagine being on the doorsteps in their ridings, trying to defend their record. For 10 years, we have listened to the promises and listened to the garbage being spewed from the other side. They have failed every step of the way. That is being witnessed and experienced in our ridings today.
Last week, it was 300 jobs in my riding. That brought the total to over 3,000 jobs lost. Today, there were 1,000 layoffs at Algoma Steel. I am sure that, by the end of the day, we are going to see more jobs lost. That blame falls squarely at the foot of this front bench and the Prime Minister. The Liberals campaigned by saying they had a plan. They sold a bill of goods to Canadians once again. Today is not a day for celebration at all. I know they are going to stand up and say Canadians have never had it so good. We now spend more servicing our debt than we do in health care transfers. It is shameful how far we have fallen.
I wish I had 20 minutes because I could go on and on about the failures of the government. It is absolutely shameful. I will cede the floor for questions.
