National Volunteer Week  Madam Speaker, this week is National Volunteer Week, a time to recognize Canada's 12.7 million volunteers for the tremendous impact they have had on the lives of their fellow citizens and their respective communities. I am blessed to have a strong group of dedicated, hard-working

Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, the federal government is absolutely serious and committed to achieving our Paris Agreement targets. We made that very clear. We are going to be leaders and collaborators in fighting climate change, and it will take all of the provinces, territories, and municipaliti

Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my NDP colleagues for their leadership in pushing forward pay equity legislation at the national level. I would have wanted all of this done yesterday, but what we did hear on the committee, if I recall correctly, is this last bit of pay equity equa

Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned at the beginning of my 10-minute speech, what we are very much trying to do is prepare the way for Canada and Canadians to prosper and succeed moving forward. We are strengthening Canadians and have actually reduce income taxes, which was one of our fi

Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, it is an absolute pleasure for me to stand in this House on behalf of the residents of Davenport, a riding I am very proud to represent, to speak to Bill C-74. Budget 2018 continues what we have tried to do since we were elected in late 2015 and in our first budget

Impact Assessment Act  Mr. Speaker, at the base of this bill is the recognition of and respect for indigenous rights. I think that is consistent with what UNDRIP is about. The bill would require the involvement of indigenous peoples throughout an assessment based on the recognition of and respect for

Impact Assessment Act  Mr. Speaker, I do not agree with the premise that it is an omnibus bill. I think it is a very comprehensive bill, because it is actually changing a number of acts. It is changing the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the National Energy Board Act, the Navigation Protection A

Impact Assessment Act  Mr. Speaker, we spent a couple of years on this consultation process. It actually comprised four complementary reviews. It was extraordinarily comprehensive. Not only did we go across the country, we also made sure to get comments online. I know that the residents of Davenport d

Impact Assessment Act  Mr. Speaker, I will be happily splitting my time with the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands. It is an absolutely great honour for me to rise in the House and speak on behalf of the residents of Davenport to Bill C-69. It has quite a long name, an act to enact the Impact Asses

Gender Equity  Mr. Speaker, I know we are all looking forward to hearing the Minister of Finance deliver federal budget 2018 later this afternoon, with the anticipated focus on gender equity and increasing women's participation in the workforce. Recently in my riding of Davenport, I met with

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for sharing that story of a member of her constituency. We have made a tremendous amount of progress. We have made a very definitive commitment. We are spending $10 billion more to better support our veterans. We have increased compensation for pai

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, we have made tremendous amounts of improvement and the member is right. When our veterans are ready for post-release, we try to do everything we can to provide them with the supports they need. I mentioned that we had put a lot of money into ensuring that there are

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is an absolute pleasure for me to rise to speak to this opposition day motion on behalf of the residents of Davenport, who I am so proud to represent. A couple of my colleagues asked why I was speaking to this motion since I was from a downtown riding of Toronto

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question, but I do not know the answer. It is a great one and might be a great question for the Minister of Finance. He can rest assured that every single penny of that almost $1 billion is going toward tax fairness and going after tax evaders.

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, one of the key promises we made in the 2015 election was on tax fairness, and I am very proud that our government has taken a number of steps toward tax fairness. We have talked ad nauseam about the $1 billion we have invested to go after tax evaders and tax cheats