Karim Bardeesy
Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park, Ontario · Liberal · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the continuing work of the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, the leader of the Green Party, on issues related to contaminants and leakage. I also want to thank her for the interventions regarding the work of the late Dr.”
“Mr. Speaker, treaty rights are sacrosanct to this government, as are the regimes that we have in place, including the regimes for non-compliance and the environmental damages penalties that we have under the legislation. Incidents such as the recent spill at Cold Lake are taken very seriously.”
“That work continues, with Environment and Climate Change Canada and indigenous groups working together through that working group to develop long-term, science-based solutions that will form recommendations to the minister . I think the hon.”
“It is a core responsibility of the current government, and, I would say, of government, both now and for future generations. We need to address risks associated with tailings management in a way that gives sustained attention and brings solutions grounded in sound science.”
“Mr. Speaker, we know that small businesses do well when consumer spending is up, and that is why we have made investments like the Canada groceries and essentials benefit. Wages are increasing faster than inflation, and we have cut taxes through measures like the superproductivity deduction to make it easier for businesses to invest.”
“I would add that, with some of the investments we have been making in science and research and some of the advances in technology, we hope this work can continue to accelerate and to inform policy-makers, government and hon. members in an even more timely fashion.”
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“However, I read some very specific language in the legislation. I want to read out here what it says under proposed subsection 3.2(1): The following definitions apply in this Act. launch vehicle means (a) a rocket; or (b) a vehicle, other than a rocket, that is designed to ascend to Earth orbit or beyond. re-entry vehicle means a vehicle that is designed to be returned by its operator, substantially intact, from Earth orbit or beyond to Earth. In the very text of this legislation, we have the imagination, the promise and the hope of space exploration. The thing that is inspiring millions of Canadians and has inspired hundreds of millions of people around the world with the Artemis II mission is part of the framework of this legislation today. It is talking about vehicles that were not earlier contemplated in our aeronautics legislation.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to this bill today and to set it in the context of what has been already an incredibly exciting year for space in Canada, a year in which we have sent and seen return back, from the far side of the moon, Colonel Jeremy Hansen. With Dr. Jenni Gibbons, they were a key part of that work with respect to the Artemis II mission of the Canadian Space Agency. I appreciate the comments from my colleagues from Souris—Moose Mountain and London—Fanshawe with respect to some of the particularities of the bill and their concerns. It is rare that we get a piece of legislation that has some inspiring words in its text, but I am going to share some of these and will come back to the manner in which this is inspiring specifically. There were some questions around what was in the legislation and some vagueness.”
“Mr. Speaker, we agree that steel is a fundamental strength of the Canadian sector. Our buy Canadian policies are all geared toward using as much Canadian steel as possible. We look forward to working with the United Steelworkers and other industrial unions, as well as employers and businesses, to maximize the use of Canadian steel in Canada.”
“Mr. Speaker, I entirely reject the premise of that question. We are there for the workers right now. My colleague, the deputy government House leader , is in Windsor today marking the reduction of the excise tax, which will help workers and all residential households in Windsor. In addition, the third shift has come to Stellantis in Windsor. The millionth battery cell has just been manufactured at the NextStar plant. We are working hard to develop the economy of Windsor with Windsorites, while also helping them with the diversification that they and we know we need to do in this changing era.”
“Mr. Speaker, Hamilton has a proud history of steelmaking, and there is a proud sector there of steel mould-making that supports the broader sector of southern Ontario manufacturing. On this side of the House, we are controlling what we can control, which means expanding trade to places where we have previously not been doing as much trade, establishing new trade agreements and supporting those mould-makers, steel manufacturers and others with tariff relief and opportunities to move beyond that. We know we will be in regular dialogue with those members of the community, so that we can have their backs.”
“Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we are controlling what we can control. We cannot control what is happening on the other side. We are in regular contact, both with U.S. administration officials and with the companies, the steel makers, the mould-makers, the aluminum providers, all those companies that are key to this trade relationship, not just with the U.S. but increasingly across the world. We will continue to be in regular contact. We will be there to support this sector.”
“Mr. Speaker, the U.S. trade relationship remains key, and that is why this government is working hard every day to make sure we get the best possible deal and not just any deal. At the same time, we are supporting trade diversification. In the last year, our exports to Europe are up 31%. Our foreign direct investment is at an 18-year high. We are working very attentively at the industry committee. We are working very attentively to listen to what the steel and the mould-makers are telling us, and we will be there with the supports that are needed.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is a very simple answer, which is that we are fighting for them every day and we are not going to do any deal at the expense of a bad deal. That is the answer. When it comes to the auto sector, our companies continue to innovate. Our companies' owners are saying they want to be part of the electric vehicle future. They want these investments in electric infrastructure. I was pleased to join, on behalf of the Minister of Industry , in announcing a new investment in hydrogen electric vehicle heavy trucking. When I visited that company, Elemental Trucks, its team said that this was huge news for their sector. This allows them to use Canadian components and Canadian innovation not only to deliver to Canada but to export across the world.”
“Mr. Speaker, we know that trade with America continues to be important, but Canadians recognize, definitely in my riding, that we need to diversify. That is why we are doing trade deals with other countries. That is why our auto strategy attempts to diversify to other countries and attract new investment. While things are difficult, we know that there is good news, including new foreign direct investment statistics. In 2025, there was $96.8 billion in foreign direct investment to Canada, the largest amount in 18 years. That is good news while we are diversifying our trade.”
“The least we can do right now in the House is to pass the bill, send it to committee and give it the consideration it deserves as we take on this scourge.”
“We can address the online advertising marketplace and other advertising marketplaces that lure people in. A few months ago, Jim Bradley, an important person in my life and in the lives of many people in Ontario, passed away. The member for St. Catharines eulogized him very well in a member statement around the time of his passing. Jim Bradley was a lifelong defender of public health and a lifelong opponent of the expansion of gambling. The House has made a decision to honour Jim Bradley, to honour the young people we want to protect and to honour all people who are at risk of this kind of pernicious pull into an activity which can be controlled in a safe way but is not, because of the advertising and the very specific connections through online luring into unrestricted gambling on sports. This is something we can do.”
“With respect to public health spaces, when it comes to online gambling and the prospect of it having an addictive quality, people conjure up restrictions on tobacco and alcohol advertising. Indeed, that is useful guidance. However, this is an even more pernicious issue, because when it comes to advertising gambling or advertising tobacco, we know that these are known vices. Sports is not a vice. Sports is a beautiful thing. We want more participation in sports. We want our young people to actually be inspired by their female and male sports heroes in professional leagues. It is quite concerning to see the alignment in some cases between sports betting companies, the advertisers, the leagues and the teams, but we can do something about it.”
“His life is in shatters. It is, again, the toxic combination of new technologies and the advertising that is leading to this. These are things we invite our kids to participate in. There is a toxic combination of new technologies and new marketplaces that the choice of the House five years ago opened up. It has resulted in a tsunami of advertising, celebrity figures and others to all be exposed, including outside provinces in which these marketplaces exist. For instance, although Ontario runs the largest privatized electronic gaming marketplace, young people in provinces outside Ontario also have the potential to be exposed. We need to protect all young people and ourselves from this. We need to preserve and hold as sacred as possible the rituals and passions that make sports beautiful.”
“I want to share a news article from today's New York Times about a police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, who resigned abruptly after his deputies saw red flags, including missing money. He has pleaded not guilty to embezzling city money to gamble on sports. In December, he asked one of his lieutenants for a $500 loan. He took money that was to pay informants and left behind an IOU note. Three of his deputies confronted him in January. When they gathered in his office, he explained that he was addicted to gambling. The deputies were confused. They had never seen him gambling, one said, according to an arrest warrant. The gentleman tapped his phone on a conference table and said, “It's on the app.” In a year, he had wagered about $4.46 million on DraftKings and FanDuel accounts, according to investigators. His career is over.”
“These are people and teams we identify to our children as heroes. At the same time, we are potentially subjecting them to one of the most insidious forms of addiction, which can empty their pocketbooks and destroy their families. They are specifically targeted to young men through algorithmic means and various forms of targeting. This is something the House cannot allow to stand. I appreciate the concerns of my colleague opposite about jurisdictional issues, but the evidence is too strong. The choice that Parliament made five years ago has, yes, resulted in the growth of an industry, but at that time, we did not have the technological power to identify and lure people in this way.”
“They could also bet on obscure sports, like Ping-Pong. Over the next few months, they devoted more of their time and money to betting.” We know that online advertising. especially for online sports betting, has historically used celebrity likenesses. We are familiar with the use of Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid. The Maclean's article continues: “One analysis by CBC Marketplace and the University of Bristol found that sports viewers in Ontario spent an average of 22 per cent of each game looking at gambling ads in some form, with the vast majority plastered directly on the court, play surface or rink itself. In one Raptors-Bulls broadcast, nearly 40 per cent of the game had sports-betting ads somewhere in frame.” (1820) Sports are joyous activities. They are activities we want our children to participate in.”
“There was a recent Maclean’s article about the growth of online betting and online sports betting in particular, and it very well captures how it is online sports advertising that is part of the key lure. This is a story about an anonymized man named Phil. I quote from the Maclean's story: “Phil was a fantasy football fan and, suddenly, when he researched players and teams on TSN and other sites, his screen was covered with ads for betting platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings. His friends, with whom he’d dabbled in sports betting, were all switching to the apps. It was more exciting. They could bet not just on wins and losses—” This was the original idea of the single sports betting. “—but all sorts of in-game happenings: the number of touchdowns or goals, how many catches a specific player got, a coin flip.”
“It is the toxic combination of the online tools that are available, plus the advertising lure and the great appeal of a fundamental activity that is joyous, that is resulting in some of these concerning trends. Here is some more information from a study last month in Ontario: “The rate of young men contacting Ontario's mental health helpline for gambling-related problems has increased by more than 300 per cent after the province allowed private online gambling....The study further found that between the dawn of online gambling privatization in April 2022 and August of last year, the number of active player accounts per 100,000 people aged 15 or older increased from roughly 2,160 to more than 7,300, a 239 per cent increase.” The stories that come out are sometimes told anonymously and sometimes told in hushed tones.”
“These are fundamentally positive experiences that unify and bring together millions of people around the world, millions of Canadians, especially young Canadians. It is especially pernicious that it is the joy of those activities that is subject to the advertising lure, not the activity itself but the betting on those activities, which I think really demands action. Where are we in the last five years? Here is some information on young people and their online betting habits. According to a joint report by Greo Evidence Insights, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction and Mental Health Research Canada, Canadians who reported betting online in 2024 were 45 times more likely to qualify as problem gamblers than those who played the lottery exclusively.”
“I am going to focus my remarks especially on sports betting and the advertising components of that because I think that is the nub of the issue that is emerging at this point in time and that is causing so much public concern. It is a quiet concern at the moment, in households, in high schools, in university and college campuses, but it is starting to spread. We are starting to see the evidence of a real damaging phenomenon, which is being aided and abetted by ubiquitous advertising for online sports betting. This is maybe a propitious time to have this conversation. We are about to have the NHL playoffs, in which three Canadian teams will be participating. We are about to enjoy and be one of the co-hosts of the FIFA championship.”
“Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to the bill, which is the least we can do to tackle this emerging scourge in our public life, in the lives of our kids and teens and young adults, this scourge that affects and has the risk of tainting some of the most joyous activities that we take part in as a country. It has now been five years since Bill C-218 , which allows provinces and territories, through their conduct and managing responsibilities, to enable single sports betting. Where are we now? What has happened in those five years? We have seen a massive expansion in sports betting and betting generally, gambling generally, enabled by some very potent online tools. Here are some examples of what is happening.”
“In the images the astronauts sent back to Earth, some people were reminded of their love and care for the planet, our own fragile home. Others saw their faith in God or in the great cosmos affirmed. We all saw new beauty to behold and new mysteries to explore.”
“Mr. Speaker, last week, humanity reached the far side of the moon for the first time. It was an awe-inspiring and incredibly proud moment for Canada. [ English ] Humanity has gone to the far side of the moon. It is a moment of awe and a moment of pride. Artemis II did not just happen. No one just gifts Canada a seat. We are there because of decades of commitment to our space program. At home, millions of people watched the lift-off and landing in gatherings across Canada, breaking through the doomscrolling to celebrate together as we watched Canadian Space Agency astronauts Colonel Jeremy Hansen and Dr. Jenni Gibbons carry out their mission. What we say about Artemis is one thing, but what it says about us and what it says about Canada and Canadians is multitudes. How big we are, and how small.”
“Mr. Speaker, as the member knows, we made record investments in science and research in the 2024 budget, and now in the 2025 budget on our impact-plus research chairs program. Some of the work we do is through government science, and we get good advice on that from our hard-working chief science officer. More important, and in a greater forum, we make significant investments through researchers outside government. I had the recent opportunity to go to Vancouver Island and visit Ocean Networks Canada to accompany my colleague, the member for Victoria , at the University of Victoria's Pacific Marine Institute for Marine Energy Discovery and the Centre for Aerospace Research in North Saanich. I look forward to continuing to build on that work with the member and with the member for Victoria.”
“Mr. Speaker, my colleague has been a long-time advocate for the kinds of policies that get results for the climate and affordability, and I want to share my appreciation for that. He has laid out some very good specific numbers that show what is possible with the right kinds of investment in the right kinds of vehicles. The flip side is that if we go back to a 60-year-old policy and abandon 50 years of auto emissions standards, it is a complete reversal. It embraces a far right idea. Yes, my colleague is right that we have to work together to provide those opportunities to Canadians so that, overall, our marketplace provides vehicles that are safer, more reliable and more affordable, and that reduce our emissions profile.”
“Mr. Speaker, my colleague is quite right. He clearly demonstrated the possibilities. We have made commitments on this, but there is still a lot more work to be done. That is one of the reasons why the ministers and the Prime Minister have been travelling to Europe and other countries to forge partnerships with respect to critical minerals. Yes, we need to invest more in processing these minerals to manufacture products used in automobiles.”
“Mr. Speaker, yes, I agree. We do need to have a focus on affordability and bringing jobs back to Canada. That is why these investments and the strategy, which responds to the moment and the situation that was created in the last year, not 10 years ago but in the last year, are the right strategy for Canada.”
“Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, this plan is pro-dealership, including through the EV rebates. We have a critical minerals strategy, not only for domestic but for export. We have a software and a parts industry, including in the hon. member's riding, and she has been such a champion of those sectors and emerging sectors that are more tied to this space. I know she has an interest in artificial intelligence, and we have had a standing committee study on this. There are a variety of technologies being produced or being invented in Canada that can reach into this new era of electrification, a new era of safety and affordability.”
“Mr. Speaker, that is a good question and here is my answer. We have reinstated the incentives and we have created a new electrification strategy. In these changing times, what with the war in the Middle East, I think that our existing policies and the incentives that will be announced next week will be well received by Quebeckers and Canadians.”
“Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians want the Civic, they want the RAV4 and they want some of the cars that are coming out of the plants that we think we can attract. I think Canadians want the vehicles that are being made here, and they want to be part of the electric future, which does not mean just the vehicles, but all the connected technologies, software and parts that are made in Canada. When we take a look at the bigger picture, yes, we have some of the vehicles, and yes, we are building more and more of the technologies that are connected to that.”
“We are just reopening back to that era. When we were in that era, I did not hear Conservatives being especially concerned that we were having a limited number of Chinese EVs in the country at that time. Any future Chinese EV enlargement will be subject to the kinds of investments that we are saying we need to look for. Again, we have a five-part strategy that focuses on investment, on workers, on sustainability, on consumer incentives like the EV rebate and on a strong trade arrangement. Our auto strategy is coherent, and it is complete. It depends on Canadian workers, a history of investment and a need to adapt to the new era. An auto strategy that harkens back to an era that is 60 years gone, in which our main partner is not interested anymore, is not destined to succeed. For that reason, I will be opposing this motion.”
“I look forward to hearing how the Conservative caucus is going to repair that damaging interaction. (1105) There are a few parts of the motion about Chinese tariffs and access to the Chinese market. I have not heard the other side yet refer to the real, substantive gains that were made in that arrangement for canola farmers and producers in western Canada. I know that when I went to Saskatchewan and Alberta in the past weeks, I heard with great acclaim how appreciative they were that we had some very focused arrangement with China that allowed the unleashing of the canola trade, which had been restricted. Let us just remember that this is a very focused reopening of access to the Canadian marketplace for Chinese EVs that harkens back to what we had a few years before the specific conflict we had with them.”
“We are also going to push back, so if a company is not building enough here, we will make sure it is not able to sell as much here. That is a key part of our strategy through our remission framework. It would be helpful, of course, if that perspective on getting the best deal for Canada was shared by every member of the caucus on the other side. If I understand the motion correctly, it calls for a trade deal to be done similar to the Canada-U.S. auto pact. I do not know if the member for Bowmanville—Oshawa North brought the auto pact with him when he went to Washington, D.C., but I think it is very unfortunate that the sole representative of the Conservative caucus who went to Washington, D.C., was talking down Canada after his engagements. I think that weakened our trade position rather than strengthened it.”
“Yes, there are elements in this motion that we applaud. In fact, we are working daily with the administration and on this side of the House to make sure that we get the very best deal for Canada. The Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade , obviously the Prime Minister , the Minister of Industry , the Minister of Foreign Affairs and others are engaged regularly on the set of questions around this. It is a testament to the engagement we are doing that we have been able to get to this point where the tariffs have not unduly hurt us. In fact, Canada, overall, has the best tariff arrangement of any country in the wold, and we are going to continue to defend that. We are going to continue to defend those CUSMA exemptions.”
“The policy and our new strategy also celebrate workers. We are working hard with workers and with union leaders, as I have mentioned before, to make sure that where there is a threat that investments are being pulled out by some North American automakers, we are being very aggressive in making sure we are standing with workers to say that those investments we are committed to must return. We are also creating a new work-sharing grant, creating a new workforce alliance and providing employment assistance and re-skilling supports for up to 66,000 workers with a $570-million investment. Finally, our strategy, and some of my colleagues have already referred to this, is about defending our trade interests. Canadians chose, in April, this party and people on this side of the House to defend Canada's trade interests in Washington, D.C.”
“These vehicles have not just long-term benefits to Canadians, but short-term benefits to Canadians. I gassed up this weekend, and we know that because of the war in the Middle East, there has been a spike in gas prices. My RAV4 used to cost me about $47 to fill up. Over the weekend, it was over $60. I know from my constituents and from the constituents of members on both sides of the House that they are feeling anxiety around this moment in the war. They are feeling anxieties in lots of ways, including for the people who are suffering in that war, but here at home, it has a real effect on gas prices. A smart electric vehicle rebate policy, one that highlights and elevates the rebate this year so that it is available when people are thinking about these issues, is an especially important part of our policy.”
“This is what this strategy will do. Speaking of making vehicles more available, it is a key part of our strategy that we have reintroduced electric vehicle rebates, something that was advocated strongly by this caucus, especially by the member for Guelph , who is the chair of our auto caucus, as well as members of our climate caucus and indeed all members on this side of the House, who made a very strong advocacy to bring these rebates back. I am very pleased to report, and people can go to the Transport Canada website now, that the program for electric vehicle rebates will be launching on March 31 for eligible vehicles that are bought or leased on any date after February 16. This is an exciting time for Canadians to access the vehicles they want to buy, where they just need a bit of a bridge in financing to make them more available.”
“There was an era in which eight-track tapes were playing in our vehicles. There was an era in which the K-car was being driven around. There were eras when engines— An hon. member: Oh, oh! Karim Bardeesy: Mr. Speaker, maybe there are some K-car drivers still here. The kind of strategy the opposition is talking about is one that frankly needs the heritage licence plate on it, because that is kind of the strategy being proposed here. This focus on emissions reduction in a smart way, working with partners, that makes vehicles better is a key part of our plan and a key part of our progress. In every era of automotive production around the world, governments are working with business and working with the technologies that are available, or that could be available, to make cars cleaner, safer, more reliable and cheaper.”
“What the opposition party is doing is aligning itself with a radical, far-right idea, which has been embraced by elements of the U.S. administration, to say it wants no vehicle emissions standards whatsoever. It is an abandonment of 50 years of progress, and it is something that we cannot accept on this side of the House. We are going to align with jurisdictions and places like California and Europe. We are going to adapt our Canadian standards, but we are going to make sure they are increasingly stringent because this is what Canadians want and because it will clean our air. We know from history that when this was done, manufacturers have adapted. Manufacturers will adapt to cleaner vehicles. (1100) There was an era when seat belts were not required in vehicles in Canada.”
“Our strategy also includes a real important focus on sustainability. I think it is really important to point out how disruptive the opposition party is when opposition members use perhaps the more generic words in the motion to talk about “harmonizing tailpipe emissions reductions with our North American partners”. What they are doing when they say this is rejecting 50 years of increasingly stringent auto emissions standards, which have cleaned our air, helped adapt the vehicles and helped adapt the technologies, so that new investment is in the cleanest vehicles. New investment is in those things that consumers want, but that are also good for the climate. Increasingly stringent vehicle emissions standards are good for our climate. They are good for consumers and they are good for Canada.”
“That is a key part of our strategy. Our strategy involves an investment in electric charging infrastructure of over $1.5 billion through the Canada Infrastructure Bank to create a charging and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure initiative. We need a national EV charging network to benefit from the vehicles of the future, vehicles that Canadians want to buy now, but they have some issues around range anxiety and they have some issues around accessing these vehicles. We also realize as a government that there is an economy to be built around electrification. There are distributed benefits that go far beyond southern Ontario when we take electrification seriously and when we make those investments. It is a common good. It is a shared good. It is something that requires government investment. Through our investments we are doing just that.”
“The intellectual property is here. The profits return here. The workers are here benefiting. Those parts plants exist all across southern Ontario and beyond. We also have the broader set of sectors that benefit from this strategy: electric facilities, battery supply chains, electrification and software developers. The very modern vehicles, the very modern methods that are now in cars these days, are part of a sector that is being built here in Canada and is growing in Canada. We cannot have that sector without, first, the investments that I talked about at the beginning, but it takes more than just those investments in the plants themselves. It also takes an investment in the electrical strategy and the connectivity that we need for vehicles, for plants and for consumers to be able to access the new modern vehicles.”
“Thomas plant. As we know, there are plants and facilities where there have been some struggles and some challenges in Brampton, Ingersoll and Oshawa. I think colleagues have heard the government, the Minister of Industry and the local MPs in those areas who are working on behalf of those workers in those plants to fight for that investment, making it very clear to the companies that if they do not honour their commitments, then we will take legal action. However, the broader space of auto investment in Canada goes far beyond any individual plant. The plants are key core parts of production. We cannot have an auto sector that is thriving without those plants, but there is a lot more to it. We have world-leading parts manufacturers, many of whom are employing more people outside Canada than in Canada. However, that benefits Canada.”
“It is a plant that is attracting new investment. (1055) In Windsor, we have the third shift that was announced at Stellantis. The NextStar plant, with government investment, has recently churned out one million new fuel cells, and the engine plant at which Unifor Local 200 is based is making engines for the very vehicles that my colleague, the member for Dufferin—Caledon , wants to be made. There was a bit of dismissal around the Unifor 200 plant facility in Windsor, but that is an essential plant. At a plant in Oakville, there has been multi-billion dollar retooling done by Ford. In St. Thomas, a new PowerCo battery plant is rejuvenating a part of Ontario that includes the riding of my colleague, the deputy government House leader . That area has not had auto investment in a while after the departure of the Ford Crown Victoria St.”
“I will talk a bit about what is happening in different parts of Canada when it comes to investment, which is, in some cases, prompted by some of these government investments, but it is also prompted by the choices of U.S. and international automakers to invest here. Let us look at some communities, such as Woodstock, Cambridge and Alliston, which is where Toyota and Honda do their manufacturing. Again, three-quarters of manufacturing in Canada is currently done in those plants. The Cambridge and Woodstock plants recently received their 23rd J.D. Power Plant Quality Award, including 13 that are gold or platinum, which is a testament to the quality of the plant. A number of members joined the roll-off of the 2026 RAV4 in Woodstock, which is plant recognized by the home office as one of the best in the world, or the best in the world.”
“In fact, the Conservatives continue to repeat a deadline they think we should have adhered to in the service of any deal. The motion before us is calling for something that would not have been deliverable if we had listened to that party's advice. Instead, we came up with, and we continue to work on, a strategy. It is an important five-part strategy, and I just want to outline it here briefly, because I think it is important for the House to hear the full extent of what this strategy is doing. First, the strategy is focusing on attracting investment, with $3 billion allocated from the strategic response fund and up to $100 million from the regional tariff response initiative to attract new investment.”
“However, we are now in a new era of automotive production because of this disruption that the chief government whip so articulately pointed out. It is a disruption that we had not been hearing much about from the opposition until lately. First, I want to say that, I think in April 2025, the Canadian people had a choice about who they were going to trust to have these kinds of negotiations and discussions with the U.S. administration. Quite clearly, they chose that it was going to be this party on this side of the House that was going to be conducting those negotiations. I do recall that many questions from the other side of the House, when we got questions about trade from the other side of the House, were generally encouragement to rush to a deadline.”
“Were those naysayers correct? No. In fact, right now, Toyota and Honda manufacture approximately three-quarters of the assembled vehicles in Canada. That was the right move at the time, despite the naysaying. Policy-makers adjusted and adapted. In the 2000s, during the financial crisis when the competition for investment heightened and there were deep financial issues, especially with the North American auto companies, what did policy-makers do? The party on the other side, when in government, was a bit slow on this, but eventually it joined with the Government of Ontario and the U.S. administration to invest in auto companies, including those here. We had a rich tradition for most of the 2000s and 2010s of Ontario and Canada co-operating to attract new investment, and the attraction continues to this day.”
“If we follow the history of this file, my constituent Dimitry Anastakis, the renowned automotive historian in Canada, has written about the different eras of automotive production in Canada. We started with the pre-auto pact era policy. Then policy-makers came together, from Canada and the United States, to create the auto pact, which resulted in a real golden age of production and new facilities. With new pressures and new opportunities, policy-makers on different sides adapted. The third era of auto production in this country involved the invitation of Japanese automakers in the 1980s, with governments co-operating to do that at a time when a lot of people thought this was something of a risk and that the entry of non-North American automakers was something that was a threat to auto workers and a threat to auto production.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to the motion, which I will be opposing because it would roll back 50 years of environmental progress and protection. It embraces not the last era, but three eras before of automotive production in Canada. It also rejects a strategy that we know is already working to bring modern vehicles, with a modern means of construction, to a modern workforce, which is the best workforce in the world, as recognized by so many. Investing in that and in the capacity we have to build the cars and the technologies of the future is what our strategy does. Again, the motion harkens back to the era of the auto pact.”