David Bexte
Bow River, Alberta · Conservative · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, I rise to table the Conservatives' dissenting report to the flood damage report. Canadians do not need another report telling them that floods, fires, droughts and storms are costly. They see it when basements flood, roads wash out and communities are forced to evacuate.”
“Mr. Speaker, Canadians are less safe today than they were a decade ago. Violent crime has risen by 55% since 2015. Liberal weak-on-crime policies have left Canadians feeling less secure. Police need effective tools to stop dangerous criminals. With proper judicial authorization, lawful access is key to investigating serious crimes.”
“Mr. Speaker, the minister avoided the answer. Veterinarians and animal health technicians play a critical role in the Canadian agriculture system, and they are in short supply. Neither vets nor animal health techs are covered under the Canada student loan forgiveness program, unlike other professionals.”
“The Liberals promised to listen and make changes. Instead, they are ramming a contentious bill through Parliament. The Liberals are ignoring legitimate concerns raised by experts and Canadians. They should be embarrassed.”
“If finding a surety is difficult, the answer cannot be lowering the standards. The amendment focuses almost entirely on the circumstances of the accused, but what about victims, families and communities? The threads of the fabric of our communities are at risk.”
“I need to mention that after years of Liberal judicial appointments, the Liberals have established a culture in the judiciary to defer to the perpetrator. This is maybe not deliberate by every judge.”
The complete record
Every one of 222 lines we hold for David Bexte, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 5.
“Mr. Speaker, it is really disturbing to see this kind of thing. I hazard to speculate on where the sources might be, but it is very obvious that a lot of agencies and people will benefit from advertising this kind of behaviour and will profit from this kind of behaviour. I would not want to say that this was deliberate, but we need to establish a system that ensures abuse like this does not take place and cannot be tolerated.”
“Mr. Speaker, this is exactly what Canadians are expecting, but they do not trust that the government is going to follow through on accountability and responsibility measures to ensure that is the outcome that will be achieved. We are absolutely in support of stronger mechanisms, stronger controls and better accountability. I hope that a committee will be able to address enforcement and get those institutions corrected.”
“Future performance is best demonstrated by past behaviour, and the Liberal government has not shown us anything promising in the last 10 years. Only Conservatives will stand up for Canadians' individual freedoms, their safety and the integrity of the systems that make this country strong.”
“Without strong enforcement mechanisms, meaningful change will not follow. The bill also includes a proposed change to the safe third country agreement, but it fails to explain how or when it will be negotiated with the United States. In the meantime, Canada continues to accept asylum claims from G7 countries that are safe, democratic and fully capable of protecting their own citizens. (1140) The Liberal government's record on immigration and refugee integrity is clear: The backlog has soared, the rules are weak and the system is being abused. Conservatives believe in a compassionate and rules-based immigration system, one that prioritizes those most at risk, treats Canadians and newcomers with respect and restores integrity to the asylum process.”
“It was never intended to become a back door for economic migration, but that is exactly what is happening under the Liberal government. Social media posts are now encouraging temporary residents to claim asylum as a way to stay in Canada after their student visas or work permits expire. This is a dangerous trend. It undermines the credibility, the capability and the fabric of our immigration system and hurts those who truly need Canada's protection. Bill C-12 , in parts 5 through 8, proposes several changes to our immigration and refugee system, but these changes do not go nearly far enough. The bill would largely shift responsibility away from the government and onto the courts, and it would permit certain actions through regulation instead of legislating clear, enforceable rules.”
“My own father fled Communist East Germany with nothing but his hands, his family and the hope that Alberta would be a place where his children could live freely and safely. He came to Canada the fair and legal way. He never cut corners or skipped the line. When false claims flood the system, it is real refugees and hard-working Canadians who pay the price. Our housing crisis worsens. Emergency rooms are overwhelmed. Many Canadians still do not have a family doctor. Classrooms are overcrowded. Teachers are struggling and students are falling behind. All across the country, essential services are stretched beyond capacity, and we need a system that protects the most vulnerable, not one that rewards abuse. Our asylum system was designed to help those fleeing persecution, in accordance with the 1951 UN refugee convention.”
“The Liberals have exploited Canadians for the past decade on this matter. A decade ago, Canada's asylum system was in control. The backlog accounted for fewer than 10,000 cases. Today, that number has exploded into the hundreds of thousands, and many of these claims are bogus. This is unacceptable. Let me be clear that it is wrong to jump the line. It is unfair to take advantage of a system that was built to protect people fleeing real persecution. There are Nigerian Christians who face death for their faith. There are Ukrainians fleeing war. In decades past, Canada opened its doors to Vietnamese boat people escaping communism. These are the people our asylum system should protect.”
“The Liberals have also refused to back down from supporting safe consumption sites near schools. My Conservative colleague from Riding Mountain called on the government to shut down these sites near children. The health minister suggested more might be approved, even after admitting that these locations often become hot spots for fentanyl use. Law-abiding Canadians deserve better. They deserve strong protections for privacy and freedom. They deserve laws that keep our communities safe and hold criminals accountable. They deserve a government that takes the drug crisis seriously, not one that shrugs it off as a mere challenge. Bill C-12 also touches on immigration and asylum, areas where Canadians' compassion has been abused by the government. Canadians are generous and fair-minded, but that must never be taken for granted or exploited.”
“We are seeing the impact in communities across the country. Just this week, in Medicine Hat, police and ALERT carried out a major drug bust, seizing 598 grams of fentanyl, as well as other illicit drugs and cash. That amount of fentanyl alone represents nearly 300,000 fatal doses. (1135) Across Canada, fentanyl superlabs are producing massive quantities of this deadly drug, and police in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec have seized tens of kilograms of fentanyl and thousands of kilograms of precursor chemicals. These operations often include stockpiles of weapons and explosives and pose a serious threat to public safety, yet the government's response still falls short. Without tougher sentences and stronger enforcement, fentanyl will continue to devastate families and communities.”
“While Bill C-12 does well in filling in an important loophole by banning precursors of fentanyl, it fails to address sentencing for fentanyl dealers. Tougher penalties for traffickers and producers are essential if we are serious about stopping the spread of this and other deadly drugs. The fentanyl crisis demands urgent action. From January 2016 to June 2024, over 49,000 Canadians died from apparent opioid toxicity. Nearly 80% of those deaths involved fentanyl. Emergency visits for fentanyl poisoning have more than doubled since 2018. This is unacceptable. Earlier this year, the Prime Minister downplayed the opioid crisis during a campaign stop in Kelowna, calling it only a “challenge”. That is deeply offensive to the families of the more than 49,000 Canadians who have died from overdoses in under 10 years.”
“These are alarming trends. The Liberals' soft-on-crime policies are making our communities less safe. Bill C-75 , passed in 2019, introduced a principle of restraint on the granting of bail and prioritized early release for offenders in lieu of public safety. This has led to catch-and-release practices for serious criminals, including those trafficking fentanyl and firearms. Bill C-5 , passed in 2022, repealed mandatory prison sentences for crimes involving firearms and reinstated house arrest for serious offences, such as sexual assault, kidnapping and human trafficking. These changes send the wrong message to Canadians and put people at risk. Conservatives proposed Bill C-325 to reverse those changes and strengthen sentencing. The Liberals and the NDP voted against it.”
“Some of the most troubling parts of Bill C-2 have been removed, such as part 4, which allowed Canada Post to open any mail, including letters, without a warrant, as well as part 11, which banned cash payments and donations over $10,000. Those were egregious overreaches. It was due to pressure from the Conservatives that, thankfully, those parts were removed. However, my Conservative colleagues and I believe this still falls short on many issues facing everyday Canadians. For example, crime is rising across Canada. Since 2015, violent crime has increased by 37% in my home province of Alberta. Nationally, homicides are up nearly 28%. Gang-related homicides have risen 78%. Firearms-related violent offences have more than doubled, rising 116%. Extortion is up a whopping 400% in Alberta, and sexual assaults have increased by 75%.”
“It includes changes to border security, crime prevention, privacy laws and immigration. For example, it amends the Customs Act to allow the CBSA to use facilities free of charge for enforcement. That is good for the budget. Bill C-12 also amends the Oceans Act. It enables the Canadian Coast Guard to conduct security patrols and share information with law enforcement and intelligence partners. It increases penalties for money-laundering violations and expands FINTRAC's authority. That is laudable. However, it also allows for more information sharing between government departments, raising serious concerns about privacy protections. We will not allow the Liberals to quietly erode Canadians' rights in the name of administrative efficiency.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-12 today. Conservatives have forced the Liberals to back down from Bill C-2 . That bill would have given the government broad powers to access Canadians' personal information from banks, telecoms and other service providers without a warrant. The Privacy Commissioner confirmed that the Liberals did not consult him before proposing these sweeping powers. Law-abiding Canadians should not lose their freedoms because of the Liberals' overreach. Now the Liberals have introduced Bill C-12. Conservatives will examine the legislation carefully. We need to ensure that it does not infringe on Canadians' privacy rights. We will hold the government accountable to protect individual freedoms and ensure transparency in how it exercises its power. Bill C-12 is a broad omnibus bill.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am another Alberta MP here, watching $1 trillion going out of the country. The Prime Minister keeps breaking his promises. He said Canada would be an energy superpower, yet he will not green-light a single pipeline. He promised the fastest-growing economy in the G7, but now we have the fastest-shrinking one. He said he would create jobs, but 86,000 are gone. Enbridge is calling out the Liberal anti-energy policy and is building two new pipelines in the United States. Does the Prime Minister understand that his war on Canadian energy is sending good-paying jobs to the U.S.?”
“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my hon. colleague's speech to the House, but I cannot help but be frustrated, and my constituents are frustrated, by the release of criminals back into society. He stated that people who are arrested must be detained if there is a risk of reoffending, yet we see evidence time and time again that they are let go. I visited detachments and police in my riding. They are afraid, and they fear for their own safety when repeatedly arresting the same criminals again and again. I wonder if the member could square that circle and resolve that discrepancy.”
“Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister said that Canadians should judge him by the price of groceries. Well, the verdict is in, and the Liberal government is guilty. In Vulcan, the local food bank is overwhelmed. Hampers have doubled year over year. Families are driving at least half an hour just to pick up food, and the food bank is spending thousands on gas cards just so that people can afford the trip. Families are skipping meals, and the Liberals are skipping accountability. Taxes on fertilizer and farm equipment stress the food chain and raise prices in the store. Will the Prime Minister scrap his industrial—”
“Mr. Speaker, I would absolutely agree. The Prime Minister has failed. The Prime Minister is quotable and quoted. It is indelible. He made it absolutely clear how he would be measured by the prices at the till. He failed. Prices are increasing by every measure and in every category across the country. For every demographic and for every person in remote communities and in urban centres, life has continued to get worse. There is no projection that it is going to get better. By any reasonable measure, the Prime Minister has failed on that commitment miserably.”
“Mr. Speaker, seniors are probably some of the most vulnerable members of the population, especially low-income seniors. That still does not change the fact of the decline of the value of the Canadian dollar due to inflation, the overspending of the government over the last decade and the continued projection to double the deficit and thus increase the printing of money. That is what is further reducing the value of the Canadian dollar and its purchasing power. This is going to continue to make everything about life more unaffordable. We need to fix those policies and spend within our means, so the Canadian dollar will mean something again and so it can buy the food that all of the people of the country, children, the middle class, seniors, everyone, need to survive.”
“Mr. Speaker, that is awfully rich coming from those across the aisle. They had a past prime minister with drama school experience and have a current Prime Minister — An hon. member: Teaching is a job, actually. David Bexte: Mr. Speaker, teaching is a job, but is a drama school job a real job? The current Prime Minister has an elitist attitude and does not buy his own strawberries. It does not change the attack from the across the aisle on food affordability. Canadians are suffering. That is related to inflation, and the inflation, by and large, is from all the policies of the previous decade of Liberal governments. That is just not acceptable.”
“The Liberals have failed. The Conservatives will make life more affordable again by standing up for farmers, standing up for families and standing up for Canada's right to put food back on the table.”
“We will cancel the food packaging and plastics taxes that make fresh produce more expensive. I want to note that the number one way for families to afford food is to afford it in their homes, to not suffer from high inflation and to not suffer from declining paycheques, yet the Liberal government believes in the nanny-state mentality, which leads to the fallacy that a bureaucracy of scale is a better solution. We believe that families are better equipped to take care of themselves as long as the government gets out of their way and stops making their lives less affordable. Food affordability is not an abstract statistic. It is about whether parents skip meals so their children can eat. It is about whether seniors choose between groceries and medication. It is about families working full time and still having to go to the food bank.”
“Stats Canada reports that the realized net income for Canadian farmers fell by $3.3 billion, an almost 26% drop. Total farm net income has decreased by just over 40% since 2023. At the same time, farm debt increased 14%, the largest increase since 1981. Canadian farmers are being taxed, regulated and forced to operate under impossible conditions while families pay more for groceries. The Prime Minister once said that he would be held to account by the prices that Canadians pay at the grocery store. Well, the bill has come due, and Canadians cannot afford it. The Conservatives will act, and we will scrap the punitive industrial carbon tax on farmers and truckers and the rest of industry. We will eliminate the fertilizer restrictions that strangle Canadian agriculture.”
“Greenhouse gas emissions could rise by 50%, and health care costs related to food-borne illnesses could be over $1 billion a year. (1545) Rural Canadians will be hit the hardest. The industry is struggling with $8 billion in front-of-pack labelling changes and compliance costs, and yet again, that will get passed on to families. As I alluded to a minute ago, farmers are reeling. Net income for an average sized farm in my own province has decreased by nearly 41%, much higher than the national average. Farmers in my riding of Bow River have sounded the alarm that the industrial carbon tax balloons their costs to do business, costs such as power and fuel to run pivots and machinery, to heat their barns and shops and to dry their grains.”
“Those costs do not disappear. They are passed directly to Canadian families, with higher prices at the till. Fertilizer taxes and restrictions make it more expensive to grow and force farmers to change crops to something less productive. This is forcing a greater reliance on imports. Again, the foreign exchange problem makes that more expensive. Imports from countries that do not suffer from a massive industrial carbon tax make the competition and math untenable. The Liberals' plastics ban and new packaging requirements make matters worse. Deloitte estimates the P2 ban could increase fresh produce costs by 34% due to waste and spoilage, reducing availability by over 50% and wasting half a million tonnes of food.”
“Families earning $75,000 or less now spend 57% of their income on essentials. Poverty and food insecurity have surged 40% in two years. Why is this happening? Inflation is a huge part of it. With their programs, the Liberals have spent money like drunken sailors, have increased the printing of money, have reduced our foreign exchange capacity dramatically and have made everything more expensive. All the inputs for farming, all the inputs for agriculture and all the imported foods we have are far more expensive than they used to be. There is another failed Liberal policy that contributes to this. The industrial carbon tax is crushing Canadian farmers. It is also crushing Canadian truckers and food processors. Every step of the food chain, from growing crops to transporting goods to running grocery stores, gets hit with higher costs.”
“In Toronto, the Daily Bread Food Bank recorded roughly 3.5 million visits in 2024, a 273% increase since before the pandemic. In Ontario, 25% of food bank users are employed full time. This is absolutely shocking. Canadians are working full-time jobs and they still cannot afford groceries. To note a real experience, my family has been blessed enough to be able to donate a side of beef to the local food bank every year for many years. This beef used to last over a week, and now it just flies off the shelf. It is gone in less than a day. The demand is hard to fathom. Grocery store shelves tell the same story. Since March, sirloin beef is up 33%, canned soup is up 26%, coffee is up 22% and staples like potatoes and onions are up 16% and 11%. Lots of this food is produced locally and the price is still rising; it does not matter.”
“These are our neighbours, our friends and our families, and they are suffering under these poor Liberal policies on harmful food inflation. The Liberals want us to believe that this is a global issue. The Liberals want us to believe that this issue can be solved by more government programs and more bureaucracy. However, here is the truth. Food prices in Canada have risen 48% faster than in the United States, but what is the Prime Minister 's excuse? Food banks are being depleted from coast to coast, and the latest annual survey from Food Banks Canada suggests that food bank use in Alberta over the past five years has been one of the highest increases in food bank use in Canada, up by 92%. A third of the food bank usage in Alberta is now by children.”
“Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time. As we have heard today and repeatedly over the last little while, we know that Canadians are struggling desperately to put food on the table. This past August, food inflation managed to outpace overall inflation by 84%. The average family of four is now spending nearly $17,000 a year just on groceries. That is over $800 more than last year. Abacus Data found that 61% of Canadians are not confident that they will be able to afford groceries six months from now. For households earning under $50,000, that number rises to 73%. There is no question that younger Canadians are feeling the pinch more than most, as 81% of those aged 18 to 29 regularly worry about being able to cover essentials.”
“What do Canadians get? They get a bait and switch, a national interest list that does not even include a pipeline project. Albertans know that the answer is not to keep strangling jobs with Ottawa's red tape. It is time to scrap this emissions cap. It is a production cap. Stop killing Canadian energy and revive our country.”
“Mr. Speaker, just yesterday, the Liberals voted to keep the Liberal energy production cap in place, a move that kills Canadian jobs and weakens our economy. This is not just bad policy. It is common sense ignored. The Liberals are choking off Canadian energy. The Prime Minister pats Beijing on the back, a regime building two new coal-fired power plants every week. The Parliamentary Budget Officer stated that the emissions cap will wipe out $20 billion in GDP. It will cost over 40,000 jobs. That means families are struggling, communities are hurting and a country is falling behind. The emissions cap is a production cap. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers stated that the emissions cap has driven investment out of Canada. The Prime Minister promised a new era and that Canada will become an energy superpower.”
“Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the comments and for taking the time to respond. Actually, I expected that the Liberals would not have copied so much of the Conservative platform. It is all a question of half measures, but we are the party of building, we are the party of cutting taxes and we will not hold up tax cuts. It is a pleasure that the Liberals are supporting the Conservative platform. We wish they would finally just go all the way and go all in with no half measures.”
“Madam Speaker, I appreciate your indulgences in a new House with new members who are just learning the ropes. We talked about range anxiety with EVs a lot in the debate, but grid anxiety is something that is emerging. Blackouts all over the world, not just in Alberta and western Canada, are showing that the combination of different input sources to electricity are not balanced, and we have not quite gotten that figured out yet. If we just add more and more demand to the grid, we know, by projections, that the grid will be 50% too small for any projected use. It is a 30-year project at least to get the grid up to some sort of scale that will handle the load that is anticipated by this. There is a lot of grid anxiety.”
“Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member opposite's comments because the last time he had a question for me, he acknowledged I was right, so I really thought that was good. In this case, he thinks I am far-right, farther right or more right. An hon. member: Oh, oh! David Bexte: I am fantastically proud. I love it. Madam Speaker, getting back to the subject, I would say this is a first step. We have seen this game play out before, time and time again. I know it is gas vehicles today, but all internal combustion engine-derived equipment is on the block, and it is just a matter of time.”
“I will fight for the people who get up before dawn and keep working long after the sun goes down. I will fight for Alberta. I will fight for common sense, because if we lose this battle, if we let them take the diesel out of our fields, the gas out of our trucks and the independence out of our lives, we will not be a free country anymore. We will be an experiment. I did not come to this chamber to watch Canada become a failed one.”
“They pull this technology into their businesses at the right time and in the right way, with no mandate, no federal handouts and no Liberal intervention required. There is nothing green about wrecking Canadian agriculture. There is nothing progressive about taking away the tools that build this country, and there is nothing just about a transition that bankrupts farmers and truckers just to hit a government quota. This is not a climate plan. It is a “government knows best” plan, a central planning fantasy dreamed up by people who have never seen a -30°C morning or changed a set of hydraulic hoses in the dark. We are witnessing a deliberate dismantling of the Canadian economy dressed up as environmental virtue, and I will not stand for it. I will fight this EV mandate.”
“However, in Canada, we are going full speed off the cliff because ideology matters more to the Prime Minister than the people who actually keep this country alive. Let me be very clear and dispel a myth held by many of my Liberal friends across the aisle. I support innovation. I support energy alternatives, and I support real choice in the market. The agriculture and energy industries have been some of the earliest adopters of new technology: GPS-guided equipment operating down to the millimetre; precision ag that conserves water, fertilizer and pesticide; daily satellite imaging to monitor field health; and automated drilling rigs powered by AI. However, that is only when it actually makes sense. I should know as I was in the middle of it. The people I am speaking about do not need government to force them into the future.”
“After federal and Quebec subsidies were paused, EV registrations dropped by over 40% in early 2025. Auto trader and dealership groups have reported declining interest for years, while inventories pile up and sales slow down. What is the plan? It is to force EV quotas, slap $20,000 on car companies and then pretend there is a consumer demand while prices skyrocket and unsold stock collects dust on the lot. GM and Ford are begging the government to scrap the mandate. Toyota is warning that people do not want to buy what the Liberals are forcing them to buy. Even Europe, where green ideology runs deepest, is hitting the brakes. Germany and Italy are demanding carve-outs. Farmers are protesting by the thousands. In the United States, several states are already delaying or scaling back their mandates.”
“We refuel in 10 minutes, not three hours, because out here, range anxiety is not an inconvenience; it is survival. The Liberals will say not to worry because they will build a charging network. Really? They had better start fast because their own report says they will need 679,000 charging ports by 2040, and right now they have 30,000. They are already 95% behind schedule, and the policy has not even kicked in yet. On top of that, we would need to double the grid capacity, a 30-year project at best estimates. What about cost? Natural Resources Canada says it will take over $300 billion to prepare for this so-called gas-free future. That is roughly $11,500 per vehicle on the road today, a hidden tax on every Canadian driver on top of the $20,000 coercion fine. (1855) While the government pushes its fantasy, EV sales are collapsing.”
“However, the government wants to regulate it out of existence. One regulation can make that entire fleet obsolete overnight. That is not policy; that is economic destruction. Every part of life on the land depends on engine-driven machinery. That is what took farming from a family feeding a few dozen people to that same farmer today feeding hundreds of thousands. That is the scale we are talking about, and now the government wants to pretend we can swap out a diesel-powered combine for an electric toy with a three-hour charge time and pray it does not die before the frost hits. Let me tell people something about real farming. We do not get to pause and recharge when it is -20°C and the cows need to be fed. We do not get a do-over if we miss the seeding window or cannot finish harvest before the first snow.”
“It will be working Canadians, the people who need their vehicles for work, not for show, and the people who drive F-350s, not Teslas. Let me walk everyone through what that means on a farm. Grain elevators used to be 12 miles apart because that is how far a horse and wagon could travel in a day. Today, grain has to be trucked 30 miles, 60 miles, 100 miles or more because local rail lines have been torn up or left to rot. The only way to move that grain now is by truck and trailer, and not the kind that we plug into a wall outlet. Let us look at some numbers: $130,000 for a service truck, $350,000 for a basic tractor, over $1 million for a four-wheel-drive tractor, $1.3 million for a combine, and these are just the base models. There is no electric replacement for that equipment, none.”
“They do not pretend to save the world one virtue signal at a time. They get up before sunrise. They get their hands dirty. They produce something real. Today, those Canadians are under attack by a government that seems more interested in scolding them than serving them. Let us talk about the EV mandate, this Trudeau-era fantasy still being pushed forward by the Liberals. Under this policy, the sale of new gas-powered vehicles will be banned by 2035. Starting in 2026, just months from now, manufacturers will be forced to meet EV sales quotas or pay penalties of up to $20,000 per vehicle that does not comply with the mandate. Who pays for that? It will not be the Prime Minister ; he does not even buy his own groceries.”
“Farmers use a combine just before sunset, when the beauty hides the urgency, the sweat and the push to beat the frost. It is not just in the fields. It is someone crawling under a frozen truck to fix a brake line, welding pipe in a -30°C wind or scaling a rig tank in the dark, soaked in grease and grit, because the world does not stop just because it is hard. These people feed this country. They fuel the economy. They do the work that does not make headlines but keeps the lights on. They are farmers, ranchers, rig hands, truck drivers, mechanics, welders, electricians and diesel technicians. They are the kinds of people this country was built on and still depends on every single day. These are not folks sitting on panels at the World Economic Forum. They do not fly business class to climate conferences.”
“Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Miramichi—Grand Lake . I rise today to speak for the people the Liberal government has forgotten or maybe never understood to begin with: the people who make this country run. They are up before the sun, coffee in hand, long before the world starts moving. They drive into town for feed, parts and mail. There is no home delivery here. They are starting a frozen tractor at -20°C to feed cattle that we depend on as much as the cattle depend on us. They are planting the first seeds of spring, carrying the quiet hope of harvest months away. They are checking cows in the dead of night, calving by flashlight and welcoming new life into a hard world. Then there is harvest, the golden hour.”
“Mr. Speaker, I think that, without a doubt, the oil and gas industry is probably the most nimble high-value and high-impact industry that can react to an opportunity, yet the lost Liberal decade was the result of the same obstructionist members from the previous 10 years who, by and large, still reside in the front bench across the aisle. They would like us to believe they can conduct a ballet pirouette that would put Karen Kain to shame and allow projects to proceed all of a sudden. A project like northern gateway hit all the high points. Does the member opposite think that it would qualify?”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government looks to the last 10 years on indigenous relations to reinforce its record, but it will not look to the last 10 years for its economic record. Can the member comment on why the highest-impact item, oil and gas, has not been included in the economic plan?”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to express how disingenuous it is for Canadians to believe that Conservatives do not support tax cuts. Conservatives support tax cuts all the time and everywhere. The issue is always that the Liberal government never goes far enough. There is always a poison pill in the legislation, and we just cannot let these things pass. The Liberals have been very voracious with announcements of their spending promises, but there is just no verifiability without a budget. How is the government planning to fund these expenditures? How is the government going to support this without tabling a budget?”
“Madam Speaker. I would like to thank the member for Edmonton West . That is supposed to be a joke. The Prime Minister does not buy his own groceries, so of course he does not notice when the cost of beef jumps 34% or the cost of infant formula climbs 9%, but I do, and so do families in Bow River, who are skipping meals so that kids can eat. We do not need lectures. We do not need spin. They need relief. The policies of the past Liberal government have not been working. The current Liberal government is not going to work. Will the Liberals finally bring forward a budget that cuts inflation and cuts more taxes so all Canadians can afford dinner again, or is this just the price of bad Liberal policy?”
“Madam Speaker, I am not sure whether the Prime Minister does his own grocery shopping yet or not, so maybe that is why he still thinks that food prices are just fine. Let me walk him through this. My wife and I, with two carts, spend many dollars at Costco. Beef strip loin is up 34%. White rice is up 14%. Coffee is up 9%. Sweet potatoes are now a luxury. I have not even talked about strawberries. What is the Prime Minister 's response to half a trillion dollars in new spending, with no budget and no plan? Will the government finally present a budget that feeds families instead of feeding inflation, or is this just the price of Liberal leadership?”
“Mr. Chair, we just had an election, but we had a decade of the government being involved in this sort of thing. I will move on to the next question. Why is it okay for tankers to bring oil into the east coast?”