Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Madam Speaker, there was a letter that was signed by seven out of 10 provinces and all three territories asking the federal government for a delay. The case is bolstered by those health ministers and ministers responsible for mental health and addictions. We have a very tight ti

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague is well aware of all our work on the special joint committee. We sat together on that committee from the beginning. In our recommendation of our most recent report, we put in that recommendation “qualitative benchmarks”, not any kind of a referen

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Madam Speaker, I would like to inform the you that I will be splitting my time. Today, we are not debating Bill C-62; we are actually debating Motion No. 34, which is a programming motion to get the bill through the House of Commons. We are having to resort to a tactic that I do

Canada's Agriculture Day  Mr. Speaker, there are some incredible challenges facing Canadian farmers: changing markets and price fluctuations in commodities; rising debt levels; and climate change-driven extreme weather events. Despite these challenges, farmers in Canada continue to confront and to overcom

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Mr. Speaker, following up on the question from the member for Fredericton, I was a member of that special joint committee, and I agree with her that its work was quite important. I think that every member, both from the House and the Senate, approached the subject matter with the

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Mr. Speaker, I agree with many points my hon. colleague made in her speech. It is why I voted against the Senate amendment to Bill C-7 in the previous Parliament. It is why I voted for the member for Abbotsford's bill, Bill C-314. It is why I agree with the recommendation that ca

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Mr. Speaker, as the parliamentary secretary well knows, we really only have two sitting weeks left for this bill to reach the Governor General's desk. We are already pretty much halfway through one of those two. I think that the House of Commons is going to do its duty and pass t

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Mr. Speaker, on the situation we find ourselves in this week, and last year with Bill C-39, we can draw a direct line back to the Senate amendment that was placed on Bill C-7. The government did a complete 180. It came out with a charter statement explaining why it was excluding

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that we have gotten ourselves into trouble with the use of arbitrary timelines. The Senate amendment to Bill C-7 kicked the can down the road two years. Last year's Bill C-39 added a year, and now Bill C-62 would add three years. I just want the membe

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague is mixing up the timelines here. He keeps referring to eight years; in fact, the essence of the bill we are talking about happened three years ago. Now, if the member wants to talk about someone suffering from stage 4 cancer and just taking some

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Madam Speaker, the New Democrats actually also voted against what I thought was an ill-advised Senate amendment to Bill C-7. There is plenty of blame to be thrown around. I understand that. I have done more than my fair share this week against the Liberals, but the fact of the ma

Government Business No. 34—Proceedings on Bill C-62  Madam Speaker, it has been reported in the media that some senators have been openly musing about blocking Bill C-62. Given that we are dealing with such a short timeline, I am just wondering whether my colleague has any thoughts about the unelected Senate's openly voicing blocki

Government Business No. 35—Extension of Sitting Hours and Conduct of Extended Proceedings  Madam Speaker, I am going to try to lower the temperature. I really want to put today's motion in the context of Bill C-50 because I think that bill in particular illustrates the reasoning behind the motion. When Bill C-50 was at committee, the Conservatives, I highly suspect, u

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, about an hour ago I substituted at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. We had a briefing from the assistant deputy minister responsible for the Middle East branch of that department. Now, this is in the context of the Leader of th

Families, Children and Social Development  Madam Speaker, as Canadians observe Ramadan and Easter this month, many are scrambling to put food on the table. Organizations such as Feed Ottawa are working hard to make sure no one is left behind, but it should not be up to them alone. The Conservatives refused to help, voting