Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, it has been months since we have had a jump in EI in Edmonton, and it has been months since the government excluded Edmonton region from the EI extension. It is not an issue associated with the fire recently in Fort McMurray. We have raised this issue several times w

Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 1.  Mr. Speaker, I would like to clear up a few rather disingenuous comments made by my colleague with respect to past history. The truth is that the Mulroney government inherited a massive deficit from the Liberal government. The deficits it ran were solely due to interest payments

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to join my colleagues on both sides of the House to present a petition from 4,000 members from both my riding and across Canada who are requesting Parliament and our Canadian government to publicly call for an end to the persecution of the Falun Gong

Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 1  Madam Speaker, I want to clear up something about the CRA. The biggest drop and the lowest number of CRA employees in the last 15 years came under the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin many years back. They slashed it 24% in the last two years of their mandate.

Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, I would ask the member about the comment “supporting those who need it most” with regard to the middle-class tax cut. Statistics show that 66% of Canadians who pay income tax make below $45,000, which is not at all addressed in the middle-class tax cut. How would i

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I do not find a lot to disagree with in my colleague's comments. The issue is we do not have proper palliative care. He is talking about a situation where in a utopia proper palliative care is offered and all other options are offered and available, as opposed to wha

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, it was very clear in my speech. My concern is that the bill does not address conscience rights for health care providers. It has to be paramount in the bill before it goes forward. Doctors, nurses, and medical practitioners should not be forced against their conscien

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I, too, believe that we need a much better oversight written into the law, both for conscience rights and for independence of people making this decision. I implore the government to work hard. We recognize that this assisted dying or suicide bill will eventually go

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, before I start, I would like to thank my friend from Yellowhead for his kind words on Fort McMurray. The devastation there is overwhelming. I would like the people there to know they have my prayers, and I am sure the thoughts and prayers of everyone in the House tod

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Regina—Lewvan for his question. I hope he enjoyed a wonderful week in Edmonton, my hometown, recently. I agree with him that the EI policy needs to be reviewed for Regina as well. The region includes a lot of hard-hit oil areas, and it is d

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, it is important to revisit the member's comments. If you go back in time, I think you will remember that it was your party that teamed up with the separatist Bloc Québécois and the NDP, and the coalition demanded an immediate $50-billion deficit. This was during th

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix. I rise in the House today to speak to the Liberal government's proposed budget or, as I like to call it, the government's line of credit plan, which aims to withdr

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Mr. Speaker, if we Google “RCMP intimidation”, the search results include harassment claims, an RCMP culture of bullying, harassment, Insite, and the RCMP's biggest crisis. Considering that there are all of these issues outstanding with regard to RCMP intimidation and harassment

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, the reality is the majority of TFSA accounts are held by individuals in the low and middle class. We can sit here and say it benefits the wealthy, but the reality is that 73% of those maxing out their contributions are making less than $80,000 year, so it is benefiti

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, we do not agree with your position. The TFSA has been shown to benefit the massive numbers of people have taken advantage of it, and they are in the middle to lower class. Clearly, 50% of the contributions are made by people who make less than $50,000 a year. It bene