Finance  Mr. Speaker, maybe some of his friends from Cape Breton are rich, but I can tell you not a lot of mine are. I will continue to talk to the people in Milton, who certainly do not share the same set of friends that the Prime Minister does. The Prime Minister indicated that Canadians made a choice.

Finance  Mr. Speaker, Canadians certainly understand that the current Prime Minister knows how to spend, but the question is whether or not he knows how to balance the budget. We still do not have a date. If he wants to compare records in terms of what the previous Conservative government did in order to ensure that middle class and struggling Canadians did well, I might invite him to take a look at the education tax credit, the tuition tax credit, the children's fitness tax credit and the children's arts tax credit.

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has just clearly said that it is their number one priority to protect Canadians' data. Perhaps he would like to explain to us today why Canada Post allowed a breach of the private data and credit card numbers of 4,400 cannabis purchasers in Ontario, That was just hacked within the government that he says protects Canadians' privacy.

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, that pre-written apology the Prime Minister just gave in response will be cold comfort to any Canadian whose private financial data could be hacked in the future. The government cannot protect the privacy of data. When the Prime Minister indicates that the long-form census is the reason Canadians are in favour of the removal of their data from their banks, the reality is that there is a big difference.

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, yes, let us be straight with Canadians, and enough of the hypocrisy from the other side of the chamber. Let me put it this way: Canadians expect informed consent when people are taking their financial data. I would like to know from the Minister of Innovation and Science, did he seek to consult with Canadians before he allowed Statistics Canada to send those letters to Canadian banks?

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, to the member's comment “bring it on”, he can consider it brought on, and we look forward to fighting this issue. The track record of the current government when it comes to consultation is just so suspect: it introduced small business tax changes with fully drafted legislation, and when it consulted on intellectual property, it got 18 comments.

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, this Prime Minister is so out of touch that he cannot see the fact that Canadians have a big problem with the government having real-time data on how they go about their daily lives. If someone goes to Tim Hortons, the government knows they are there. If someone goes to the grocery store, instantly the government knows they are there.

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, we have to rely upon what journalists are digging up because the government provides no information to us. What I have read this morning, and I take it to be true, is that Statistics Canada, the government, did seek real-time transactions, and that is exactly what I am describing.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege concerning a deliberate attempt by the government to deny me information I requested through Order Paper Question No. 1316. This question read as follows: With regard to the tweet by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on November 7, 2017, which stated that “Canada salutes Nicaragua and Syria for joining on to the Paris Agreement”: what are the titles of all individuals who approved the tweet?

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, StatsCanada has written Canada's nine largest financial institutions and demanded that they hand over millions and millions of financial transactions by hundreds of thousands of Canadians, and were it not for a Global News report, Canadians would never know that the government was this far into their personal information.

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, this is not the first time the government has sought to receive private information from Canadians and not told them. In October 2017 and January 2018, Statistics Canada demanded that the TransUnion Credit Bureau hand over millions of files to the government, and these were not anonymous.

Privacy  I want to be very clear, Mr. Speaker. The Prime Minister is telling Canadians that it is okay for their government to understand all of their financial information held by banks, all of their financial information held by credit agencies, all of their financial information held by utilities and by their mobile phones.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I too would like to present a petition signed by thousands of concerned Canadians regarding the situation in Afghanistan with respect to Sikhs and Hindus and their difficulty getting sponsorships here in Canada. This petition calls upon the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to use his powers to create a special program to help persecuted minorities in Afghanistan, and it asks the Minister of Global Affairs to raise this issue that is so very pressing.

Health  Mr. Speaker, on May 3 of this year, I rose in the House to ask a question that was supposed to be asked by our colleague Gord Brown. I wanted to know whether there was going to be compensation for the forgotten thalidomide survivors coming from the promised spring budget. The Prime Minister said on that day, “We will have more good news to share shortly on this issue.”

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, what I am looking for comment on is the reason why the Prime Minister is withholding documents for a straight-up defence of a person accused of a serious crime. If he will not tell us who he is protecting, maybe I can surmise that it was the President of the Treasury Board who did receive a letter from Irving, asking for his intervention.