Yasir Naqvi
Ottawa Centre, Ontario · Liberal · Canada
“They have an impact on our country, our economy and people's livelihoods. Of course, they have an impact on young people as well. That is why I think it is incumbent upon all of us, regardless of which political background we come from, to share those ideas.”
“This will create opportunities for young people in skilled trades that are so needed across the country, and it will align with Canada's housing infrastructure and defence needs, where a tremendous amount of investment is being made.”
“In particular, I want to thank him for really making clear how much he believes in this country and how much he believes in a strong Alberta within a very strong and united Canada. I thank him for that. The member is absolutely right.”
“Listening to the debates that take place in this particular House allows us to to be better champions of Canada and to better understand, love and respect this country. I look forward to that opportunity. I would like to ask the hon.”
“Mr. Speaker, let me start by wishing you a restful summer. I know it has been a very busy sitting. I want to thank the entire House of Commons staff for their remarkable work in supporting us in the important work we do on behalf of our constituents. It is a great honour for me to serve Ottawa Centre. Some hon. members: Oh, oh!”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member again for the work he is doing. I briefly want to talk about the Canada summer jobs program, because I know it benefits young people across the country in all our respective constituencies. In my riding of Ottawa Centre alone, almost 600 jobs have been created.”
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“Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to be able to work with my colleague on the Standing Committee on International Trade. He has contributed a great deal to the work of that committee. The committee adopted an important amendment that was put forward by the opposition member. [ English ] That particular amendment would enhance transparency. It would allow for Global Affairs Canada to report back on the progress and the implementation of the agreement. I thought that was a good amendment, and that is why we agreed and made it part of this legislation.”
“Mr. Speaker, the member for Langley Township—Fraser Heights was one of the members I had the chance to travel with, and I got to know him personally quite well. I appreciate his public service and his representation of his community. He would remember that in every conversation we had, including with the Minister for International Trade from the United Kingdom, we brought up the issue of these non-tariff barriers, saying that we should find a way to move forward to ensure that our cattle ranchers and beef producers are able to export to the United Kingdom. There are some issues around sanitary and phytosanitary circumstances. By having a deeper relationship and making sure the U.K. is part of this agreement, there will be more opportunities for us to really make effective arguments to the U.K.”
“I urge all members in the House to support the legislation so that the U.K. can become part of the CPTPP. Therefore, we could have even stronger ties and bonds and economic prosperity, both for Canada and the United Kingdom.”
“It is an important issue. It is an issue that Canada continues to raise with the United Kingdom. In fact, just last week, some of us parliamentarians, from both the Liberal and Conservative sides, were in the United Kingdom as part of the Canada-U.K. Inter-Parliamentary Association. If someone were to ask all the members who were on the trip, we would tell them that, in every single meeting with U.K. MPs and with U.K. ministers, the issue of British pensioners was raised. It was always a very thoughtful, robust conversation. We did our utmost best to really highlight the unfairness on the British government's part in not indexing the pensions of British pensioners who live in Canada. We will continue to do that work, and we will continue to advocate for them. At the end of the day, this agreement is a good news story.”
“We did hear from a lot of stakeholders who came to the committee and presented really thoughtful opinions. I know that, in the House, members have been talking about it. We heard from the cattle industry, which has some concerns about access to the U.K. market, and we are quite sympathetic to those concerns. We are continuously engaging with the government of the United Kingdom to reduce these barriers. Having, of course, a more coordinated approach and making sure that we are part of an agreement like this will give us more opportunities to open those markets, but I do want to acknowledge their concerns. I want to say that we are quite aware of them. The other issue is, and I know this will be discussed, British pensioners. Of course, a lot of us have heard from those British pensioners. They also presented at committee.”
“I believe the United States is first, China is number two and the United Kingdom is the third largest single-country trading partner for Canada. We continue to see really impressive trade growth between our two countries. According to the notes that I have, since 2016, Canada-U.K. trade increased by almost 53% to $61 billion in 2024, and that was under the signed Canada-EU economic agreement. That was then continued through the Canada-U.K. trade continuity agreement. Our two respective leaders, our prime ministers, our Prime Minister and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are also working very closely together because they want to grow that relationship. They want to make sure that there is more trade taking place between Canada and the United Kingdom. This agreement, of course, is going to play an important role.”
“(1530) For Canada and the United Kingdom, as natural allies and friends with deep historical ties, to be able to take that step to join in and be part of this really thoughtful, large and comprehensive agreement is a very important message to the world and to other countries, which says that protectionism is not the way to create prosperity for our citizens. In fact, the way we should do it is by creating alliances, by making sure that we are part of each other. I think it is also important to recognize that the U.K., as I was mentioning, from a cultural, historical and a people-to-people ties perspective, is very close to Canada. We share a lot. Economically, the United Kingdom is also an important partner of Canada's. In fact, the U.K. is Canada's third largest single-country trading partner, which is remarkable.”
“It is an important step and a symbol, in terms of the group of countries that have trans-Pacific as a natural point of bond, reaching out to a European country like United Kingdom and making it part of it. In this moment in time, it is a very important message being sent, that we are not going to go the way of protectionism as we are seeing stated explicitly by the current administration of the United States. Putting tariffs on countries is not how we are going to grow our economy. In fact, we think that a free trade, liberalized trade, rules-based trading system is the best way to grow our economies, where we actually rely on each other's economy, leverage our comparative advantage in things that we are self-sufficient in producing and growing, exchange that, sell to each other and be able to benefit from other economies.”
“It takes all of us to do this important work, and I am really mindful of the participation and the role of all of us in this endeavour. CPTPP, or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, is an important trade agreement that includes 11 founding members that make up the agreement. They include countries like Australia, Chile, Mexico, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, Vietnam, our own country Canada, Malaysia and Peru. For the first time, a new member has been added, and that is United Kingdom. The way the CPTPP is designed, it requires consensus among all founding members to agree to new members becoming part of it. Therefore, the 10 countries, including Canada, have collectively negotiated and have agreed that the United Kingdom can be made part of CPTPP.”
“The work that took place in relation to Bill C-13 is an example of that. Again, I want to acknowledge all members from the official opposition, from the third party, the Bloc Québécois and, of course, the government members for their thoughtful work in this regard. I also want to take the opportunity to thank the British high commissioner to Canada, Robert Tinline, for his work. It is a pleasure to work with him. I also thank our folks at the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom, Canada House, including the deputy high commissioner, Robert Fry, who is a seasoned diplomat. Also, as of this week, former member of Parliament, a colleague from this place, the Hon. Bill Blair, has assumed his role as the high commissioner for Canada in the United Kingdom. He will be serving as well.”
“This particular piece of legislation deals with United Kingdom's becoming part of that agreement and Canada's ratification for that particular accession. Very similar to what I did yesterday, when I was speaking to Bill C-18 , which deals with the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, I do want to acknowledge the work that has been done on this important legislation and this agreement, starting with the officials at Global Affairs Canada, who work extremely hard in representing our country. They work diligently and they make us proud. They wave our flag boldly and proudly, so I want to take this opportunity to thank them. I also want to acknowledge the work of the Standing Committee on International Trade. We have a really good committee with all three recognized parties. We work well together in co-operation.”
“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate being acknowledged. You always look good in the chair and you do a really good job. I am hoping you will give me some leniency while I am speaking. I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands . I am thrilled to share my time with her, as I consider her to be a close friend in this place. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to Bill C-13 , which is an act to implement the protocol on the accession of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the CPTPP. I often try to say that five times really fast to see if I can get the acronyms right. Nonetheless, it is an important agreement that Canada is a part of.”
“Mr. Speaker, that was a very good question. As I mentioned, this is a more modern free trade agreement than we have done in the past. That is why we do not call it a free trade agreement. Rather, we call it a comprehensive economic agreement. I think this is the kind of template that we will be able to use in other places, like ASEAN and Mercosur. We are negotiating with the Philippines and Thailand as well. There is a great desire for engagement with Canada. People want to buy Canadian-produced goods, especially when it comes to our agriculture and energy resources. That is the work we are doing through agreements like the one we are debating here today.”
“Mr. Speaker, that was a very good question, and the member is absolutely right. The agriculture sector was extremely enthusiastic, because it opens up a very big market. Some of the big barriers that exist are around sanitary and phytosanitary conditions. The agreement allows for better regulatory harmonization, for better process and understanding, and for high-quality products that are grown in Canada to be sold in places like Indonesia. I think it is good news for our farmers. Our farmers were present at the committee process, and they agreed that the agreement will allow for them to export more Canadian-produced goods to places like Indonesia.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her important question. I was very pleased to work with my colleagues from the Bloc Québécois on the amendment to the bill. [ English ] It was a good amendment. We agree with the member that having a report-back mechanism in the agreement is a good procedural step to ensure that we as parliamentarians will be able to take full stock of the promise of this legislation. I thank the member opposite for his constructive approach to this and look forward to continuing to work with him.”
“Mr. Speaker, I think we all share the goal of making sure there is energy security, and not only energy security. In order for us to really fight climate change, we need to make sure there is more enhanced electrification, not only in Canada but around the world. I think that is going to be an imperative. For us to do that the best way, we need to make sure we have net-zero electricity. Some may disagree, but I fundamentally believe that nuclear energy is a very important source of that net-zero technology. Canada has been a leader in safe nuclear technology. We have demonstrated that in places like Ontario, the province I come from. I think there is an opportunity to help meet those climate change goals around the world. Canada can take a leadership role in that.”
“Other major countries, like the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam are also ASEAN countries, and this agreement would set the template in terms of the work that we need to do. I want to thank the deputy minister of trade from Indonesia, who was instrumental in this. When I met with her in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the ASEAN ministerial summit, she committed that she would make sure that ASEAN also finalizes an agreement this year, in 2026, so that we can keep building stronger economic ties with other countries and create well-paying jobs for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.”
“The last point I want to talk about is why this agreement is important for the work that we are doing as a country in trade diversification. I think this House spends a lot of time talking about the challenges we are going through, like the protectionism that we are seeing right now, especially as it relates to our American partners. Our effort is to diversify our trade. Our effort is to double our non-U.S. exports in the next 10 years. That is the goal that the Prime Minister has set. This agreement is a really important example of how we can do this, and not only that, but it is an opening for us to finalize our agreement with the ASEAN countries, which Indonesia is part of.”
“It is remarkable in terms of creating energy around the world, not only in Canada, and companies like AtkinsRéalis are quite keen to be engaging with countries like Indonesia. The agreement would allow them to do that on a preferential basis and to find ways to sell that technology. This would mean not only helping Indonesia to have more energy security and to meet its net-zero targets by 2050, but also, and most importantly, creating really well-paying jobs for Canadians. In my province of Ontario alone, we have one of the world's best supply chains for nuclear energy, and if we are able to open more export markets for that technology, it will only mean more jobs for Canadians. This agreement would create that opportunity and allow for Canadian companies like AtkinsRéalis to sell in places like Indonesia.”
“I particularly thank all our farmers, who work so hard day in and day out to make sure that we are producing world-class food, not only for Canadians but to sell around the world. I think they realized that Indonesia is a growing market, economy and population, and that Canada can be selling that sustainable, good-quality food to Indonesians. The other sector that was really highlighted during the committee process was the nuclear sector. A representative from a nuclear company, AtkinsRéalis, spoke about the opportunities the agreement would create around energy security and the ability to export Canadian technology when it comes to safe, reliable, stable nuclear technology. As members know, CANDU is a Canadian innovation.”
“Their enthusiastic support for this was quite remarkable. Whether we were talking about the cattle or pork industries or speaking of the pulse and soy industries, they were all really keen for this agreement, because for them, this agreement would give preferable market access to a large economy. They would see Canadian exports rising significantly in an already robust market because of the preferential treatment that they would receive under the agreement. They were really keen, and they really stressed to all of us that we should try to conclude and pass the ratification of the agreement through Parliament as quickly as possible. As such, I want to take this opportunity to thank them and all of those important associations.”
“The agreement is quite focused. It is also quite expansive in terms of the breadth and scope for Canadians. As I mentioned, it is a fairly comprehensive trade agreement that addresses market access for goods, services and investments, and includes provisions on small and medium-sized enterprises, labour, environment and women's economic empowerment. It is truly a model agreement, when it comes to free trade agreements, in terms of how modern trade agreements can be developed. Canada, working along with our friends from Indonesia, is able to set the stage for it. (1610) The committee process was a really positive one. We got to hear from many stakeholders who represented various diverse backgrounds, and they spoke to us in support of this agreement. The two who really came to the fore for me were from our agriculture and agri-food sector.”
“It has been said during second reading, and we heard this during committee, but it is worth repeating how important this Canada-Indonesia comprehensive economic partnership agreement is, which is affectionately referred to as the “Canada-Indonesia CEPA”. It represents an important milestone in Canada's trade engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. It was concluded in December 2024 and signed, as I mentioned earlier, in September 2025. This agreement seeks to deepen economic ties with Indonesia, which is a nation of nearly 280 million people. It is a big country in the Indo-Pacific region and had a thriving economy of $1.9 trillion in 2024, so imagine how beneficial a bilateral comprehensive economic agreement with a country that size could be for Canada. That is what we have been able to accomplish through this very important agreement.”
“It was Parliament working at its best in committee, and it demonstrated how working together for the well-being of Canadians, for our own constituents, is extremely important. I also want to extend my gratitude to the Indonesian ambassador here in Canada, His Excellency Muhsin Syihab, who recently arrived in Canada. He has a lot of knowledge about Indonesia, of course, and is keen to learn about Canada. He is a very enthusiastic champion of this legislation. I thank him and look forward to working with him in terms of implementing this agreement, once it has passed in the House and in the other place and becomes law, so that we can create those opportunities for Canadian companies in the Indonesian market.”
“There are a number of officials from Global Affairs Canada who were on the negotiating team, and who worked for multiple years to negotiate and finalize this really important agreement in the best interest of Canada. I want to take a moment to thank all those officials for their hard work and for their service to our country. I want to acknowledge all the members of the Standing Committee on International Trade. It is a real pleasure to work with them, and I mean from all three parties, including the government side of the committee. It was a very co-operative committee with a co-operative process whereby we could work together. We were able to share ideas with each other. There were some changes: As members can see from the report stage, some minor changes were added to the bill, and it all happened in a thoughtful, consultative way.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-18 . Bill C-18 is a very important piece of legislation. It is critical at this moment in our history for Canada's economic growth and prosperity, and for making sure that we are able to create the important jobs necessary for Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Before I get into some of the substantive parts of this legislation, I want to take this opportunity to thank some people for their important work in getting us to this point. Of course, the Minister of International Trade has been very active in making sure that this agreement was concluded. He was part of the signing ceremony, along with the Prime Minister , with our Indonesian administration counterparts.”
“Mr. Speaker, there is obviously a very serious divide within the Conservative Party, as there are some who support the bill and others who oppose it. By bringing these arguments forward, its members are delaying the safety of society. We have something called the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, which protects everybody's religious freedoms. The charter remains in place.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for raising a very important point. The games that the Conservatives are playing are very dangerous because they are making our communities and our society even more insecure at this moment. All the Jewish community groups have been asking for this legislation. They support this legislation. They want this legislation to be passed. As we are seeing the rise of anti-Semitism, they are asking us to make sure that we take every step necessary to protect our places of worship. That is what we are trying to do. By impeding and delaying the bill, they are making our communities unsafe.”
“Mr. Speaker, the most incredible thing about this country is that we always find a way to make sure that everybody's freedoms are protected. That is what the charter tries to do. It protects the rights and freedoms of people to make sure we can find that perfect space where we can all live in harmony, which is sometimes challenging to do. What we are trying to do is protect the cultural rights of people, which are embedded within the fundamental values essential to Canada and written in the charter. By working together, we can make sure we continue to build a harmonious society.”
“Mr. Speaker, just like the member opposite, I have been meeting with many faith groups, and I have shared with them the same information I will share now. We have something called the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Religious rights are protected within the charter. I think that relying on some sort of an exemption, which may have been created before the charter existed, is really misleading folks. What we need to focus on is that the charter has very robust protections when it comes to freedom of religion. Bill C-9 would not infringe upon that right whatsoever.”
“I urge all members of the House, particularly my Conservative colleagues who talk a lot about hate crimes, and rightly so, to support Bill C-9 and support this motion, so that we can help build safer communities for everyone in our country.”
“I worked extremely hard to make sure that it would be in the platform of my party, the Liberal Party of Canada. I spoke about it during the election many times. I was really happy to see that it would be a part of Bill C-9 , one of the earliest pieces of legislation that the government tabled. However, in my view, the bill has been dragged all this time by unnecessary filibustering by the opposition. It is highly unacceptable. In fact, it is perpetuating an unsafe environment. We need to make sure that we pass laws like Bill C-9 as quickly as possible, because this is not a partisan issue. This is a matter of making sure that together we are protecting our communities.”
“We have had multiple instances in Ottawa Centre, in my community, where an elementary school has been used as a site for people to protest around gender identity. They felt that somehow kids were being brainwashed, that they should not be taught about gender identity and that they should not get an education around health and sexual well-being. They have been using an elementary school as a site of protest, which is highly inappropriate. If people want to protest a curriculum, they should go to the ministry of education or go to the school board's office to protest. This is an important piece of legislation. This is a piece of legislation that my constituents have been asking for, for some time. In fact, I started working with them prior to the last federal election.”
“We were able to do that through a piece of legislation, a safe access law, that has been held as being charter-compliant. A similar principle, in my view, has been applied to this legislation, albeit federally, which will apply across the country. Of course, this is not a provincial offence but a criminal offence. However, the aim and the purpose is the same, which is to create safety around specific important places of worship, such as synagogues, mosques, churches, gurdwaras and mandirs. Also, most importantly, it would give an opportunity to individuals to access those places of worship or other important institutions. This is about individual rights. Another example I will give that I have been quite concerned about in my community has to do with schools.”
“I want to thank friends like Danya Vered and Adam Silver, who have championed and advocated for this legislation on behalf of the community to ensure that we create provisions and laws in our criminal courts that would not allow something like that to take place and that people can peacefully live their Jewish way of life and be able to practise their faith. Of course, this legislation is not just limited to the Jewish community. It applies to all faith communities. There has been precedent to do this. This is not something unique. In my former role as the attorney general of Ontario, we brought in similar legislation at the provincial level to protect women accessing abortion clinics or sexual health clinics, so that they would not be harassed or intimidated from accessing the very vital right of access to medical care.”
“There have been instances in my community here in Ottawa with various important institutions where members of the Jewish community regularly congregate or meet as a social space or even at a long-term care home. The Hillel Lodge, for example, where seniors who are mostly of Jewish faith live, was subject to a protest. Of course, that was extremely traumatizing and troubling for the members of the community. (1520) I have been working very closely with our Jewish community here in Ottawa, for instance, with the Jewish Federation of Ottawa.”
“Second, it would create a new stand-alone hate-motivated offence. Third, it would create an offence for wilfully promoting hatred through the public display of hate or terrorist symbols. Last, it would codify the Supreme Court of Canada's definition of “hatred” in the Criminal Code. The most important part of this legislation is around making sure that people are not obstructed or intimidated when trying to access their place of worship, for example, somebody who wants to go to their synagogue on the Sabbath or somebody who wants to go to their mosque for jummah prayers. These are very important rights that we have as Canadians to practise our faith freely without any fear of harassment or intimidation. This legislation would create a criminal offence around anybody trying to take away that particular freedom.”
“It is incumbent on all of us to work together, not in a partisan fashion but as Canadians and as parliamentarians, to exercise our responsibility and duty to pass laws that would allow for the safety of our community and that would allow for our Jewish neighbours, our Muslim neighbours and our neighbours from other backgrounds to be able to live peacefully, as we are all supposed to do and as Canada was founded upon. Bill C-9 captures this. This bill, as many members would know, proposes to do four important things. First, it would create two offences for obstruction and intimidation intended to prevent someone from accessing a place used by an identifiable group. I will speak to that particular provision in detail a little later, because it is something that I have been working on.”
“In my role as the member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, I have some history of working on the various provisions of Bill C-9, which are very much aimed at ensuring that we rid hate from our society and that we take all important necessary steps to ensure that people of all backgrounds and religions, including people who belong to the Jewish faith, the Muslim faith, the Christian faith and any other faiths, feel safe in practising their faith, in living according to their faith and in being able to visit places of worship. Bill C-9 tries to do this. As many have spoken about in the House, the incidence of hate crimes is rising in Canada. The issues around anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hatred are significant.”
“Mr. Speaker, thank you for recognizing me and giving me an opportunity to speak on this motion. I know my colleagues are still working their way out of the chamber as we end question period, so I am just going to make sure that you are seated and that there is some time and space in the House so that I can speak. Before I get into my comments, I want to start by saying that I will be sharing my time with the member for Nipissing—Timiskaming . She will be speaking for the latter 10 minutes. The motion deals with Bill C-9 , which is a very important piece of legislation that I am glad to have an opportunity to speak to. It is something I am really hopeful will pass through the House as soon as possible.”
“Mr. Speaker, I think we are starting to recognize that the opposition has finally gotten the memo that we may be in the middle of a trade war, in which our closest ally and trade partner has turned its back on us. That is why we are so focused on making sure that we diversify our trade. That is why we are working hard to open markets in China, India, Japan and Australia, where the Prime Minister is visiting right now, as well as places like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. While those members on their side are trying to figure out whether they are having a hissy fit about this or not, we on this side are focused on creating good-paying jobs across Canada.”
“Mr. Speaker, when was the last time you thought about the health of your heart? For many Canadians, the risk of cardiovascular disease is not top of mind, but the One Million Canadian Hearts campaign led by the Ottawa Heart Institute, located in my riding of Ottawa Centre, is hoping to change that. As part of the activities to mark 50 years of operation, the Ottawa Heart Institute has launched this campaign to screen one million Canadians for cardiovascular disease risk factors. This work will raise awareness, enable early treatment and, ultimately, save lives. Fifty years after its founding by Dr. Wilbert Keon, the Ottawa Heart Institute is celebrating a legacy built on innovation, compassion and relentless pursuit of excellence. Congratulations to everyone who works at the Ottawa Heart Institute on their 50th anniversary.”
“Madam Speaker, first of all, if that is the focus of the argument, it is a very small number of people, so to then argue that somehow the entire $1 billion is being spent on people whose asylum claims may have been refused is an erroneous argument. Again, the way that argument is being presented is divisive. The other thing I will say is that if people's asylum claims have been denied, they are probably going through the appeal process. There are constitutional, legal obligations that we have to follow. We cannot just pretend that the law does not apply because somebody is not a Canadian or a permanent resident. There are many factors in play to make sure people are getting the care they need while they are working through the process.”
“Madam Speaker, just yesterday I had a very thoughtful and detailed meeting with a doctor who is part of the Canadian Refugee Health Network, the executive director of Somerset West Community Health Centre, which is located in my riding, to have this exact conversation and to talk about the changes that are being proposed around copayment on some of these supplemental benefits. We went through the kind of impact that could have. My commitment to them is that I look forward to sharing their findings with the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and having a conversation to see if there is a better way to look at the cost aspect of this program, but also, at the same time, to ensure that good health care is being delivered for these individuals.”
“Madam Speaker, I will leave the future of the Conservative Party in the hands of the voters. I think what we are seeing from some of the Conservative members is that they do not disagree with the position of our party and are actually choosing a different direction. I am sure it is not easy for anybody to leave their political party and join another one. Imagine the limits they are being pushed to by the level of discourse that we are seeing in the House for them to make this kind of decision. The member asked me what my first reaction was, and it is that there is not even a pretense of a dog whistle anymore. They are saying the things that we thought the Conservatives used to believe in, about us versus them, about immigrants versus non-immigrants and about refugees versus non-refugees, but they are now just saying it out loud.”
“Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, which is a fair one. [ English ] Of course, we need to make sure our asylum claimant system works well. Nobody is debating or denying the fact that there are backlogs, that it could be managed better. I am not suggesting that there be no evaluation of this program or the way we review asylum claims, and the speed at which we do so, from an administrative and procedural perspective. I appreciate that tone of debate but not the kind we have seen from the Conservatives on this thus far.”
“Madam Speaker, I wish the member opposite would have written this motion or been the spokesperson for this, but I am sorry, that is not the language his leader has been using. We do not have to go too far to see it. We can just go on X or Instagram and look at it right now. I agree with the member that the debate around the state of our health care system is an extremely important debate, but how is this $1 billion all of a sudden going to open all the hospitals that are being closed, for example, or help the people who do not have doctors? In fact, I will say, if these people who live in our communities, who are our neighbours, do not get health care, we can guess where they are going to end up. They are going to end up in emergency rooms. That is going to cost us more and cause more concerns and pains to our communities.”
“If Conservatives think this is how they are going to get popular again and maybe form government, they are dreaming in la-la land. They are. They will keep their base. Good for them. Their base will never vote for us anyways. Let us work together. Let us build this country together. I look forward to working with all the members of the House to do that.”
“Let us come up with thoughtful, sophisticated things. In my last two minutes or so, I would again say to the House that we can do better. We can do better in our debate. We can do better in how we speak to all Canadians, whether they are citizens or not. We should never talk about us versus them. Guess what; I was one of them too at one time. How long will it be before this debate comes down to me or my children becoming “them” again? There is no us and them. We are all in this together. (1100) We build this country together, as everyone before us has done. We will continue to do so. I know the hon. members across the aisle believe that as well. I want them to stand up to their leadership and say no to this kind of debate, absolutely no. This is not what Canadians are asking for.”
“Has the government taken appropriate steps to bring the number down? Absolutely. In fact, we have seen it when it comes to the level plans, the number of temporary foreign workers, and in our arrangement with the United States on how we manage our borders. All of these things have been done, and we have seen results as a product of that. Therefore, of course, the cost of the program will come down as well. The government is also looking at a copayment model. As many would know, that is part of the budget process that IRCC is working through to ensure that the costs could be managed. That is the thoughtful debate we should be working through in the House, not just trying to say that the entire program is going to fake or bogus refugees. Again, those are not my words but those of the opposition.”