The Budget  Madam Speaker, that is one of the critical things that we are entrusted with here as members of Parliament. The fundamental principle is that Parliament controls the public purse. That means it is incumbent on each and every one of us, as members of Parliament, to have access to

The Budget  Madam Speaker, it is hard to give a brief response. I want to see universal child care back in this country. We do not get to it with the child care benefit. However, I do agree that it makes sense to target child care needs to parents who need the help. I also support getting

The Budget  Madam Speaker, I neglected to observe that I stand on the traditional territory of the Algonquin First Nation and do so with gratitude. The name of my riding derives from the name Saanich of the W_SÁNEC people of southern Vancouver Island, who have unceded treaty rights, and in

The Budget  Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Brampton Centre for sharing his time with me. It is such an honour for me to speak to budget 2016 this afternoon. I am going to divide the 10 minutes that I have into three general categories: first, the overall quality of the budgetary i

Petitions  Madam Speaker, I rise to present two petitions this afternoon. The first is from petitioners who are calling on the Government of Canada to act to protect animals from the impacts of testing in laboratories, particularly the use of animal testing for cosmetics, which I think we

Petitions  Madam Speaker, there are many hundreds of signatures on the second petition I am presenting, which calls for the Government of Canada to act against and pressure the government of the People's Republic of China to protect people who are practising Falun Gong and Falun Dafa from r

Audrey O'Brien, Clerk Emerita  Mr. Speaker, it is such an honour to stand and salute our clerk emerita, Audrey O'Brien. I am without words to express my gratitude as a newly-elected MP coming to this place and embracing my new bible, a big green book, which I took home and read immediately. I am not kidding.

Government Appointments  Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. In light of a series of very controversial order-in-council appointments in the dying days of the previous government, would the Prime Minister join with political scientists such as Carl Baar and Peter Russell and accept as a

Situation in Indigenous Communities  Mr. Speaker, it is inadequate to thank my colleague for a truly deeply moving and important speech in this place. When will the private member's bill that the hon. member is putting forward come up for a vote? How can we help?

Situation in Indigenous Communities  Mr. Speaker, I think all of us tonight are feeling very united in a commitment that is shared and non-partisan. I want to make this more as a comment than a question because I do not want to put my hon. colleague on the spot. The systemic violence of the residential school syste

Situation in Indigenous Communities  Mr. Speaker, my friend the hon. member for Peace River—Westlock is a new member of this House, but I have come to know him through another connection, and I am impressed by his eloquence. I want to put to him something that was just posted on Twitter by Cindy Blackstock. I think

Situation in Indigenous Communities  Mr. Speaker, I agree. I want to commend my Conservative colleague and echo his comments. This is an evening that rarely occurs in the House of Commons where we are united in our sense of deep grief and, at least for myself, a sense of helplessness. We are members of Parliament,

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I am also surprised to hear the hon. member refer favourably to the previous government's record on debt. Although Conservatives generally have a reputation for being concerned about debt, I watched closely as the former prime minister took our national debt from $48

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I have to admit that I am more torn than I want to be with respect to this budget. I was expecting so much more. I really did believe we would see the kinds of investments into infrastructure that would stimulate our economy, thus justifying the deep deficit. I find

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I also want to begin by telling my hon. colleague, the leader of the New Democratic Party, how much I respect his dignity, his perseverance, and his being in the House today to present a very important speech on this budget. I find the budget deeply disappointing an