Petitions  Mr. Speaker, we are joined today on the Hill by some great members of the heroic, freedom-loving Latin community here in Canada. It is a great pleasure for me to table a petition on their behalf, highlighting the plight of some political prisoners in Venezuela. The people of Venezuela, the people of Cuba and of various other Latin American countries have suffered greatly under the scourge of communism, socialism and dictatorship.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I would like to present one petition to the House in support of Bill C-257, an excellent private member's bill that would protect Canadians from political discrimination. It is a bill that I put forward in the House. The petitioners want to see the House pass it as quickly as possible.

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister used to say that no relationship was more important to him than Canada's relationship with indigenous peoples, and yet the NDP-Liberal government has been using indigenous contracting to funnel money to well-connected government insiders in ways that produce no actual benefit for indigenous communities.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, very clearly, under the NDP-Liberal government, contracting out is out of control. There has been a ballooning of external contracting, as well as significant growth in the public service. Do I think it is never reasonable to contract out? No, I do not think that.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question from my colleague. We are seeing democratic decline in this country and a lack of respect for our democratic institutions. The Prime Minister recently announced that the government is spending millions of dollars to look at the link between democratic decline and climate change.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, I was greatly amused by the member's question. I thank him for bringing joy and levity to the House. Of course, we are speaking about the predatory, unholy mixing of the elite consultant class with the state. The member could reflect on how this procurement scandal really speaks to the negative effects on workers of big government trying to take more and more control, a government that is in bed with a few well-connected consultants, and that this kind of state capital, as opposed to a true free market system, is what is undermining the well-being of Canadians.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, it is hard to predict the timeline, but I have a great deal of hope about the critical steps that a Conservative government would take to fix the budget, and that includes establishing a dollar-for-dollar rule. This is common sense, that if a government is going to spend a dollar on something new, it should be able to explain where that dollar is coming from.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, I am not aware of some of the long-tenured, historical events about which the member is speaking. I am a relatively young member of the House, so events before a certain date are before my time. It is pretty rich for the Liberals, after eight years in power, to always want to draw our attention to things that happened in decades past.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, the member opposite was enthusiastic about hearing the rest of my speech, and I invite him to hear it now. The Prime Minister is responsible for $46.5 billion this year in debt service costs. That is more than the federal government will transfer in health care. Astronomical amounts of money are being given to bankers and bond holders for the Prime Minister's out-of-control debt.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to address the House today. Yesterday, common-sense Conservatives announced our demands for the upcoming federal budget. We called on the government to axe the tax on farmers and food by immediately passing Bill C-234 in its original form. We called on the government to build the homes, not bureaucracy, by requiring cities to permit 15% more homebuilding each year as a condition for receiving federal infrastructure money.

Privilege  Madam Speaker, it is a great honour to follow my friend, the chair of our committee, the member for Edmonton West and the Edmonton mall, who made many excellent and important points. I want to thank the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes for initially raising this matter of privilege yesterday.

Points of Order  Mr. Chair, I rise on a point of order. What you just said is not consistent with what you had previously said, nor is it consistent with the precedent set by the previous Speaker regarding the member for Miramichi—Grand Lake. I am not sure why you are saying now that you are reversing your previous decision in defiance of precedents set by the Speaker.

Canada-Ukraine Relations  Mr. Chair, the discussion that is happening, particularly what was raised by my colleague from Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, is very important. The global context we are in is one of a new global cold war where there are two different blocs. There is the bloc of democratic nations and a kind of anti-democratic bloc that is increasingly working together.

Points of Order  Mr. Chair, let us be very clear about the precedent that was set by the Speaker's decision with respect to the member for Miramichi—Grand Lake. When there are regimes that are clearly deplored by all parliamentarians, by all Canadians, and that are subject in some way to sanctions by the Government of Canada, then casting those kinds of aspersions to say that members in the House are affiliated with or are supportive of those regimes has been deemed to be unparliamentary.

Points of Order  Mr. Chair, he was saying exactly the same thing about the NDP, so he should have to apologize.