Michael Kram
Regina—Wascana, Saskatchewan · Conservative · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, many religious groups have expressed concern about Bill C‑9 , in particular about the removal of a long-standing good-faith religious expression defence.”
“Overall, on a per capita basis, Saskatchewan welcomed more Ukrainians than any other province in the months following Russia's invasion. I have to say that designating Ukrainian heritage month is a fine idea, particularly for the people of Saskatchewan. Therefore, I certainly support Bill S-210 .”
“This Ukrainian Easter egg is one of the most popular tourist stops along the Yellowhead Highway, visited by thousands of tourists every year, including my fiancé and me just last summer. Of course, many Ukrainian Canadians, as well as Canadians without Ukrainian heritage, celebrate Vyshyvanka Day every year on the third Thursday in May.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity this afternoon to speak in favour of Bill S‑210 , which would designate the month of September as Ukrainian heritage month.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity today to present petition e-7326 in the House of Commons. This petition has been signed by over 1,800 Canadians who are concerned about human rights abroad, particularly the case of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan.”
“The first is St. Michael's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Regina, which will be celebrating its 100th anniversary next year. I know that I and many members of the community are looking forward to the centennial celebrations. The second is St. Onuphrius Ukrainian Catholic Church.”
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“Mr. Speaker, last year I met with Holly Laird, executive director of the Regina Farmers' Market, whose organization had developed a program that was both inspiring and depressing. The Regina Farmers' Market had partnered with the YWCA to hand out food coupons so that families could afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. While it is inspiring to see neighbours helping neighbours, it is depressing that we now live in a country where food banks and food coupons are increasingly becoming the norm. Last year, the Prime Minister said that Canadians should judge him based on the prices at the grocery store. The best way to bring down grocery prices is to cancel the industrial carbon tax, the federal fuel standard and the burdensome labelling and packaging requirements that are driving up food costs in the first place.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today on behalf of members of the Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association. Approximately 2,200 people suffer a new acquired brain injury every year in Saskatchewan, with about 150 of those requiring significant long-term support. The most common causes of acquired brain injuries include strokes, falls and motor vehicle accidents. In order to support people living with brain injuries, the Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association is encouraging all members of Parliament to support Bill C-206 , an act to establish a national strategy on brain injuries.”
“Mr. Speaker, in last month's budget, the finance minister said he made tough decisions to find savings, so I was surprised and disappointed to learn that the CEO of Farm Credit Canada racked up $300,000 in travel expenses this year and last year. Furthermore, almost all of those expenses were within Canada, to talk with FCC employees at their offices. Why can the FCC not spend $20 on a Zoom subscription, instead of $300,000 on the CEO's travel expenses?”
“Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition here today on behalf of concerned residents of Regina and southern Saskatchewan. The petitioners are concerned about the Liberal government's plan to ban the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. They say the plan is unrealistic due to the lack of capacity in this country's electricity grid, and the result will be the price of both new and used vehicles being driven up. I am pleased to have the opportunity to present this petition here today in the House of Commons.”
“Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign, the Prime Minister said he would be elbows up when dealing with the existential crisis of Trump's tariffs. Now months after failing to negotiate a win, he is saying, “Who cares?” Well, I will tell members who cares. Conservatives care, and so do the 1,200 steelworkers at Interpro Pipe and Steel in Regina, whose jobs are under threat because of this trade war. How can the Prime Minister look the 1,200 steelworkers at Interpro Pipe and Steel in the eyes and tell them “Who cares?””
“Mr. Speaker, I agree with a lot of what the member had to say about the need to diversify our export markets and increase non-U.S. exports. For many years, Conservatives have been saying that the northern gateway pipeline project would be a welcomed way to increase our non-U.S. exports. In order for that project to move forward, the Liberals would have to repeal Bill C-48 , the west coast tanker ban. Can the hon. member share her thoughts and views with the House on repealing Bill C-48 so that the northern gateway pipeline project can move forward?”
“Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today on behalf of members of Regina's Jamaican community who are concerned about the devastating effects of hurricane Melissa, which recently struck that island. Of particular concern is the major damage the hurricane caused to hospitals in Jamaica. The petitioners have come up with a very innovative suggestion, which is to send ships from the Royal Canadian Navy to the region so that the medical facilities aboard the ships can be used to save lives until the hospitals on the island are back up and running. I am please to have the opportunity to present the petition today in the House of Commons.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Northern Gateway pipeline was going to diversify Canada's export markets by selling Canadian oil and gas to the world, but the Liberals killed that project with Bill C-48 , the west coast tanker ban, which keeps Canadian oil and gas landlocked. Worse still, the Liberals' tanker ban applies to Canadian ships only, not American ones. If American ships can export American oil through Canadian waters, then why can Canadian ships not do the same with Canadian oil?”
“Mr. Speaker, from 1932 to 1933, millions of Ukrainians perished in the Holodomor, a man-made famine deliberately engineered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. For many years, Saskatchewan's Holodomor memorial stood in Regina's Wascana Park, with the reproduction of the iconic Bitter Memories of Childhood statue as its centrepiece. Unfortunately, over time, the Saskatchewan winters took their toll and the memorial fell into disrepair. Recently, the Provincial Capital Commission, in consultation with the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress's Holodomor construction committee, completed a restoration project of the memorial so that it remains a dignified public reminder of the resilience of the Ukrainian people in Ukraine, Saskatchewan and around the world. I thank everyone who contributed to the restoration of Saskatchewan's Holodomor memorial.”
“Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, we are seeing more of the same from the Liberals on this budget, which is the continuation of 10 years of poor leadership. This is, of course, going to lead to higher costs at the grocery store and higher costs for Canadians who are struggling to make ends meet. I would like to quote our former prime minister, Justin Trudeau, if I may, from just five years ago. He said, “Interest rates are at historic lows, Glen.... And as we move forward, because of historically low interest rates, the debt servicing costs will be low.” We can see now that leadership from the Liberals was totally misguided. Canadians are paying more and more on debt servicing charges from the deficit.”
“Mr. Speaker, the benefits to society from our natural resource sector far outweigh the costs. I would like to point out that the Government of Saskatchewan's annual budget gets 10% to 15% of its revenues every year from natural resource royalties. If my hon. colleague is suggesting the federal Liberal government should have less to do with oil and gas companies and should get out of the way, I would be 100% in agreement with that. I would love to see the Liberals repeal Bill C-69 , the “no more pipelines” bill. I would love to see them repeal Bill C-48 , the west coast tanker ban. That way we could extract all of the resources that are literally underneath our feet and export them around the world. It is unfortunate that the Liberals always seem to get in the way.”
“Mr. Speaker, what I have found so troubling about the Liberals over the years is they constantly want to play a shell game when it comes to the budget. It used to be that they were going to balance the budget come hell or high water, when Paul Martin was prime minister, and then they changed their tune to say that it was not going to be balanced but was going to be a portion of the debt-to-GDP ratio. Now they are saying they are going to balance the operating budget but will keep spending and spending on interest payments on the debt and on infrastructure investments. It is important to understand that money is money and spending is spending, and Canadians will have to pay it back with interest, which is something the Liberals either do not understand or do not seem to care about.”
“I have no doubt that the Liberals will say that I am being negative, but I am not. I am just being honest. There is no message more positive and hopeful than this: Canada can do better than what we have seen from the Liberals over the last 10 years. Canadians should be able to move out of their parents' basements and put roofs over their heads. They should be able to feed their families without resorting to food banks, and they should be able to have a comfortable future without drowning in more and more debt every year. If the government wants to learn from the Grey Cup champions, here is a quick film review: end inflationary deficits, restore fiscal discipline and deliver immediate relief on the things Canadians buy every week. That is the way to turn a cellar-dweller into a champion.”
“They also felt the need to come up with a gender-inclusive and intersectional piano curriculum. That was to the tune of $17,000. Pardon the pun. There was one study that focused on grocery carts, but sadly, it did not have anything to do with the rising cost of groceries that people put into carts, only people's feelings about the grocery carts themselves. In any case, that study has cost Canadian taxpayers over $100,000 to date. Canadians deserve better from their government. There were some very practical solutions to the rising cost of living that Conservatives suggested be put into the budget, such as cancelling the industrial carbon tax, the federal fuel standard and regulations on plastic food packaging, all of which drive up the cost of groceries and the cost of living. Unfortunately, the Liberals refused.”
“For example, the budget highlights the importance of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council because of its “important role in advancing the government's growth agenda by advancing research and attracting top international research talent”, but the budget document provides very little detail about what types of projects the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is going to fund. Let us take a look at some of the projects it has funded recently. It spent $20,000 to study the gender politics of Peruvian rock music. I do not know why we needed to spend $20,000 on that, but the Liberals seemed to think we did. The Liberals funded another study about online selfies, including fat fashion photography on Instagram, social justice selfies and selfies that violate social norms. That one cost us $94,000.”
“They are budgeting, they are cutting back and they are sacrificing. Many of them are turning to food banks. However, the Liberal government, with the team's coaching staff and general manager, keeps calling plays that make life harder. For 10 years now, under two Liberal prime ministers and four Liberal finance ministers, we have seen the same pattern: more spending, more borrowing, more debt and more interest payments. While the Prime Minister likes to say that the Liberals are “spending less to invest more”, the reality is they are spending more, lots more. According to the budget's own numbers, the government is projected to spend more money every year for the rest of the decade. Sadly, in many cases, when the Liberal government chooses to spend, it is often not for valid fiscal reasons, but for ideological ones.”
“Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for interest payments on the federal debt. That is because, according to the government's own numbers, interest payments next year are expected to be higher than they were this year. Interest payments the following year are expected to be higher still. In fact, interest payments on the debt are projected to break a new record every year for the rest of the decade, according to the budget. (1655) In football terms, if a quarterback was tackled by a 300-pound defensive lineman this season, they can expect to be tackled by a 400-pound defensive lineman next season. The following season, they will have a 500-pound defensive lineman tackling them. That is what these interest payments on the debt are doing to Canadians. Canadian families are doing their part.”
“That is where the reality of this burden becomes clear. For some families, $3,400 is a month's mortgage payment. For others, it is groceries for two months. For others, it is a used vehicle for their teenage son or daughter who needs to get to work. For a family with kids, it could be an entire year of RESP contributions. In football terms, this is like starting every offensive drive with a quarterback sack. Before the quarterback even has a chance to call a play, and before a Canadian family can plan their household budget, they are getting team tackled by the record-high cost of the government's debt servicing. As football fans in the rest of Canada watched the Roughriders win the Grey Cup last Sunday, many of them probably said to themselves that there is always next year, that maybe their team will have better luck next season.”
“It shows a deficit of $78 billion this year, a record outside the pandemic. The total accumulated debt is $1.3 trillion, which is also a record, and interest payments on the debt have skyrocketed to $56 billion a year. That is also a record, and $56 billion per year in interest payments is such a huge number that it is difficult for people to visualize just how much money that is. Let us take a look at how much money that is on a per household basis. When we divide $56 billion by the number of households in Canada, we get about $3,400 per household per year. That is the amount of money that leaves Canadian households, not because of anything they did wrong and not because of anything they purchased but because the federal government spends more money than it has. What could a Canadian family do with that $3,400 per year?”
“It is the result of hard work and tough decisions that began weeks or months, and sometimes years, in advance. Every time a football team starts with a good field position, makes a consistent drive down the field and then finishes the drive with a touchdown, that success was the result of strong leadership, which includes recruiting the right players and coaches and coming up with the right playbook. On the other hand, when a team has poor leadership for many years, eventually that poor leadership manifests itself on the field in the form of costly penalties and giving up quarterback sacks. That is exactly what the budget feels like to me. There are too many penalties, a bad field position and a lot of talk about future touchdowns that never seem to happen on the field. Let us take a closer look at what is in the budget.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to rise today, but before I get too far into the details of the budget implementation act, I would be remiss if I did not provide the House with at least a bit of an update on the Saskatchewan Roughriders Grey Cup celebrations, which have been going on all week in Regina and right across Saskatchewan. Fans of the green and white poured into the streets on Sunday evening to celebrate the 25-17 Grey Cup victory over the Montreal Alouettes. I am sure that, from now until Christmas, Grey Cup champion merchandise will be flying off the shelves at the Rider team store. As exciting as Grey Cup Sunday is, it is important to remember that a Grey Cup championship does not just happen by luck on one day of the year.”
“Therefore, this petition is asking the Government of Canada to call on Pakistan for the immediate release of Imran Khan from prison, for there to be free and fair elections in Pakistan under international supervision, and for the restoration of democracy in that country.”
“Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today on behalf of many Pakistani Canadians who are concerned about the arbitrary detention of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and the fate of his supporters. Signers of the petition believe that free and fair elections in Pakistan remain a distant hope after widespread reports of the massive rigging of last year's general election in that country. They are also concerned about the lack of independence of the Supreme Court of Pakistan following a recent constitutional amendment supported by that country's military.”
“Madam Speaker, it is not just Chinese canola tariffs that are punishing Canadian farmers. India has slapped a 30% tariff on Canadian peas and a 10% tariff on lentils. Canada cannot export beef to the United Kingdom, but the U.K. can and does export beef to Canada. When will the Prime Minister finally stop with the photo ops and finally get a deal for Canadian producers?”
“Madam Speaker, an agreement was finally reached last night at the APEC summit in South Korea. Unfortunately the agreement was between the United States and China, but not Canada, to reduce tariffs. The Prime Minister flew to Asia, met with the Chinese President and had a nice photo op, but there is still no deal. In this international game of Deal or No Deal , why is it always no deal for Canada from the Prime Minister ?”
“Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a petition today on behalf of concerned residents of Regina and southern Saskatchewan. The signatories of the petition are concerned about a recent finance committee recommendation to revoke the charitable status of religious organizations. They feel that faith-based charities do good work in our communities, as secular charities do, and oppose the revocation of charitable status in the Liberal government's upcoming budget or at any other time in the future. I am pleased to have the opportunity to present this petition here today in the House of Commons.”
“Mr. Speaker, before the election, the Prime Minister said he could solve Canada's economic woes because he has a plan. This week, he finally revealed that plan to a roomful of young people. It turns out that the plan is that young people have to make sacrifices by giving on the dream of home ownership, paying higher prices at the grocery store and spending all summer unemployed. If this was the Prime Minister 's plan all along, why was he not honest with young people about the sacrifices he had in store for them?”
“As the number of World War II veterans becomes fewer and fewer, I encourage all Canadians to take the time to thank a veteran of the Second World War while they are still with us.”
“Mr. Speaker, Remembrance Day is all about thanking Canada's war veterans and remembering those who never came home. Sadly, Canada's Second World War veterans are getting fewer and fewer in number. Recently, Regina lost its last remaining World War II veteran. “Ossie” Lakness enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1943, shortly after his 20th birthday. He went on to serve as a quartermaster on the HMCS St. Stephen , guarding supply convoys as they crossed the hazardous U-boat-infested North Atlantic waters. After the war was over, Ossie went on to live a fulfilling life, farming near Govan, Saskatchewan, starting a family with his wife Reta and enjoying curling in his spare time. His funeral will be held tomorrow at St. Mary's Parish Hall in Regina.”
“Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign, the Prime Minister promised to “Build, baby, build.” He promised to fast-track nation-building projects and that these projects would be built at a speed not seen in generations. He said he was committed to “building the strongest economy in the G7”. Unfortunately, most of us thought he was talking about the Canadian economy, not the United States'. When the Prime Minister was in Washington this week, he promised to invest $1 trillion in the American economy. That is on top of the $500 billion in investment that fled Canada in the last five years and the $50 billion that left just this year. Canadians deserve a government that keeps its promises and stands up for Canadian jobs and Canadian investment in the Canadian economy.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is interesting how the Liberals keep moving the goalposts. I remember when Paul Martin was prime minister. The goalposts were to balance the budget “come hell or high water”. A few years later, the Liberals said they were not going to balance the budget, but it would be a function of GDP. They would keep it under a certain percentage of GDP. Now they are talking about separating the deficits between operational deficits and fixed assets, or whatever the term is. It is so frustrating that, as we are sailing straight toward an iceberg and straight toward a $62-billion deficit, the Liberals are trying to play a bait-and-switch game and move the goalposts. It is time for the Liberals to take some responsibility for the fiscal mess we are in and turn this ship around.”
“Mr. Speaker, there is nothing more frustrating than world leaders from Germany, Greece, Poland and other countries saying they would like to buy Canadian oil and gas so they can stop buying from Russia and dictators in the Middle East, and the response from the Liberals being that there is no business case for oil and gas exports to Europe or other allies around the world. There is nothing more frustrating than having all these economic opportunities literally sitting underneath our feet while the Liberals keep making up excuses about why we should not be developing our resources and why we should not be making life better for Canadians. It would be wonderful to get these opportunities and projects off the ground to make life better not only for Canadians but also for our allies around the world.”
“Mr. Speaker, this reminds me of the elementary school student who comes home with an F on his report card and says to his mom and dad that other kids flunked their report cards too. It does not mean someone is doing a good job just because they can point out someone who has a record that is just as bad. It is true that governments around the world have struggled with reining in unnecessary spending, but that is no comfort to Canadians struggling to make ends meet, struggling with the cost of groceries and struggling to pay rent. The fact that other countries are having similar problems is cold comfort and is not an excuse for the government to not get our fiscal house in order.”
“Fortunately, pennies have been taken out of circulation, so I will stop my analogies there, but I hope I have made my point about the enormity of this economic iceberg Canada is sailing into. The Liberal Titanic may have gotten a new captain last winter, but the course that was charted 10 years ago under Justin Trudeau has not changed. We are still sailing straight into an Everest-sized economic iceberg. It is time to change course. I encourage members today to support the Conservatives' motion.”
“How big does that amount of money look? The largest-denomination bank note issued by the Bank of Canada is the $100 bill. If someone were to go down to the bank, go to the ATM and withdraw $62 billion in $100 bills, it would be 620 million $100 bills. Each $100 bill is about 0.1 millimetres thick, which means that if we were to stack those 620 million $100 bills one on top of the other, the stack would reach 62 kilometres high. Put another way, that is about seven times the height of Mount Everest. If we were to use $10 bills, we would have 70 Mount Everests. Using rolls of toonies, there would be enough toonies to wrap around the entire planet. If the rolls were loonies, there would be enough loonies to wrap around the entire planet twice.”
“Another unfortunate thing about the Liberals' massive, out-of-control deficit is that the number has gotten so big that it is difficult for people to understand just how big it is. When the price we pay at the grocery store, gas pump or a favourite restaurant goes up, we understand right away how much money that is. This is because people make these purchases all the time and notice when a tank of gas or a favourite meal costs more than before. However, when we are talking about the size of the federal deficit, the number is so huge that it almost becomes meaningless to ordinary people. That is especially true when the Liberals refuse to table a budget and hide how much the deficit actually is. For argument's sake, let us take the $62-billion deficit from last December's fall economic statement. How much is $62 billion?”
“The burden of debts and deficits on our economy over the last 10 years has caused us to have the worst per capita economic growth rate in the G7. Under the current Prime Minister 's watch, since he took office earlier this year, 86,000 net jobs have been lost, leaving Canada with the second-highest unemployment rate in the G7. Food inflation has doubled. In fact, in a recent report from Food Banks Canada, the government received a failing grade when it comes to food insecurity, down from a C grade just two years ago. Since the Prime Minister took over six months ago, $54 billion in net investment has left the country. Without investments in new factory equipment, new farm machinery and new businesses, the productivity of the Canadian worker and the standard of living of Canadians will continue to decline.”
“He went on to say: It's not a funny fiscal outlook. It's a really serious fiscal outlook. We don't lightly use the word “unsustainable”. Unsustainable means you don't have the option of saying, “Maybe I'll wait a couple of years and see how things go.” It means, if you don't change, this is done. The Parliamentary Budget Officer might as well have stood up and yelled, “Iceberg, right ahead!” The Liberal government needs to change course before it crashes the ship into the iceberg, but unfortunately, the current captain of the ship is continuing on the same course Justin Trudeau had us on. We are already seeing the harms caused to our economy and our standard of living. (1200) In 2015, the Liberals said that their deficit spending would lead to investment, but 10 years later, investment per worker has fallen by 10%.”
“Fast-forward to December 2024, when the Liberals were to present their fall economic statement. By that time, their deficit had ballooned to the figure of $62 billion, an amount so embarrassing that the finance minister chose to resign that morning instead of facing the embarrassment that would inevitably come with a deficit so massive and out of control. That raises the question of how much the deficit is in 2025. Sadly, no one knows, because the Liberal government has until this point procrastinated, postponed and delayed the tabling of a budget and has continued to sail full steam ahead as though nothing was the matter. We got a glimpse of it recently from the Parliamentary Budget Officer when he testified before the government operations and estimates committee. He described the government's finances as “unsustainable”.”
“A generation ago, the Chrétien-Martin Liberals were the party of fiscal responsibility. Former finance minister Paul Martin once said the Liberal government would balance the budget “come hell or high water.” Tough choices were made in the 1990s, but eventually, the books were balanced, because the government understood that a nation cannot spend its way into prosperity with money it does not have. Conservatives may have disagreed with some of the decisions that were made along the way, but on the core principle of fiscal responsibility, there was support from both parties. Unfortunately, in more recent times, Justin Trudeau said the budget would balance itself. In 2015, he said the Liberals would run three small deficits for three short years and then the budget would be balanced.”
“Historians have long agreed that if the lookout had seen the iceberg just a few seconds earlier, the ship could have turned in time and the disaster could have been avoided. Imagine for a minute if, instead of seeing the iceberg only one minute or two minutes before the crash, they had seen the iceberg 10 years in advance. How would events have turned out differently? It would not have made for a very good movie. If the lookout could have seen the iceberg from miles and miles away, it would have been pretty easy, presumably, to avoid crashing into it. Ten years is how much warning the Liberal government has had about the dangers of Justin Trudeau's reckless spending and the continuation of those reckless policies under the current Prime Minister for the past six months. However, it was not always like this.”
“Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin my speech this morning with a movie review, if I may. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, is widely considered to be James Cameron's masterpiece, won 11 Oscars and brought in $2 billion at the box office. Of course, I am talking about Titanic . One of the most memorable scenes from that movie is when the ship is first coming up on the iceberg and the lookout yells, “Iceberg, right ahead!” All of a sudden, the captain and crew spring into action, reverse the engines and turn the wheel and rudder as hard as they can to try to save the ship from hitting the iceberg. Unfortunately, it is too late. The ship crashes into the iceberg and sinks to the bottom of the ocean.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised criminal justice reform, but half a year later he has broken that promise. Liberals are obstructing the jail not bail act from passing, keeping in place Liberal soft-on-crime, catch-and-release laws. Because of lax Liberal bail laws, homicides are up nearly 30%, auto theft is up 25% and sexual assaults are up 76%. Today, Conservatives are proposing to pass the jail not bail act immediately to keep Canadians safe. Will the Liberals scrap their failed bail policies, or will they get out of the way and let Conservatives do it?”
“Mr. Speaker, Liberal bail has unleashed crime and chaos on our streets. The Liberals' law, Bill C-75 , requires courts to release violent career criminals at the earliest opportunity under the least onerous conditions. Just two weeks ago in Regina, a man under a probation order terrorized a neighbourhood by chasing multiple people down the street with a machete. The Prime Minister promised to flip-flop on bail, but his bail laws are still in place six months after taking power. Will the Prime Minister scrap Liberal bail, or will he get out of the way and let us do it?”
“Mr. Speaker, it is my deep honour today to welcome the Balfour family to Ottawa. James, Heather and Taylor are visiting us today all the way from Regina, Saskatchewan. Today is the birthday of their late daughter Rachel, who was killed when she was poisoned by fentanyl in 2019. Every year, the Balfour family tries to do something meaningful to remember and honour Rachel on her birthday. This year, they have chosen to share their story with us here in our nation's capital. Tragically, the Balfours are not alone in their loss. Last year, approximately 20 Canadian families per day lost a loved one to an opioid overdose. For Rachel Balfour, her family and the thousands of Canadian families just like them, it is time to get fentanyl off our streets so that no family has to mourn another senseless loss to the scourge of fentanyl.”
“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comparison, but I did not hear an answer in all of that. In last year's fall economic statement, the budget deficit was $62 billion. A deficit of $62 billion was so embarrassing that the finance minister had to resign that morning rather than deliver the bad news. I will ask the current finance minister again, how much is this year's budget deficit, and how high does it have to be before he resigns from embarrassment?”
“Mr. Speaker, in the not too distant past, the Liberal Party used to be the party of fiscal responsibility. I remember when former finance minister Paul Martin promised to balance the budget “come hell or high water”. Now Liberal deficits are causing inflation, and Canadians are paying the price. My question for the current finance minister is this: How much is this year's budget deficit, and will the Liberals ever balance the budget again?”
“Mr. Speaker, last week alone, the Regina Police Service responded to 54 suspected overdoses, including four fatalities. According to multiple news reports, fentanyl is suspected in most if not all of these cases. The crisis has gotten so bad that the provincial Ministry of Health has issued an overdose alert for Regina. When will the Liberals finally crack down on organized crime and mass fentanyl production labs so we can finally get fentanyl off our streets?”
“On Monday, will the Prime Minister support our Conservative motion to put taxpayers first and get Canadians their money back?”
“Mr. Speaker, many Canadians are struggling with the ever-increasing cost of groceries, record food bank use and rising unemployment. However, one group of Canadians is not struggling at all, namely the Liberal-friendly insiders at GC Strategies. This two-person company billed taxpayers for $64 million over 106 contracts, often for work that was never done. However, GC Strategies did not act alone. According to the recent Auditor General report, under the Liberal government, security requirements were not enforced, contracts were not monitored and federal organizations did not follow procurement policies. While Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony were getting rich, their Liberal accomplices were getting promoted to the front benches of the House of Commons.”