Arnold Viersen
Peace River—Westlock, Alberta · Conservative · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, one of those really great laws is Bill S-211 , which requires companies selling or distributing goods in Canada to produce an annual report. The Liberals, contrary to the law, revised their directive and exempted a bunch of their corporate buddies from having to file the report. Now the U.S.”
“Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned executive bonuses, and I just want to point out that the company also gave some great bonuses to its executives, while it has built zero kilometres of rail line. I just thought I would put that on the record as well. I want to ask my hon.”
“Mr. Speaker, $200 million is what we are talking about with this launch pad. In my riding, a sawmill was recently shut down, with 190 jobs lost. That $200 million would have gone a long way there. The member for Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park and I were debating this earlier, and he talked about how we needed a Canadian Cape Canaveral.”
“Mr. Speaker, I assure members that I only have one petition to present today. I rise to present a petition on behalf of Canadians who are concerned about human rights protections in India.”
“The petitioners are asking that the government ensure that any and all trade deals with India are premised on mandatory human rights provisions, that extremists are sanctioned and that the government promote a respectful human rights dialogue between Canada and India.”
“Since then, only minor tweaks have been made to that. Because of that, there are a host of companies that work hard on creating a product that is well serviced and lasts a long time. It does not ever really end up in the landfill, because they just keep rebuilding it and keep working it over.”
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Every one of 305 lines we hold for Arnold Viersen, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 6 of 7.
“The Liberals said they were not going to do that but would have a workaround. We expected that over the summer we would see the government pick a number of projects, particularly oil pipelines for energy to the west and east coasts, getting our energy to market and making Canada the “energy superpower”. However, we did not see that. What we saw was 66,000 jobs lost in Alberta over this year. Excluding COVID-19, it is the worst job loss in Alberta since 2017. Last month, total unemployment hit its highest mark since May 2016, again, excluding COVID-19. This slump cannot be totally blamed on what is happening south of the border. This is entirely because the major projects of our country are being completed: The Site C dam is basically done, and the west coast LNG project is basically over. We see that the government has failed entirely.”
“We were fundamentally opposed to the idea that Bill C-5 would, basically, work around the rule of law in Canada and allow cabinet to pick and choose. However, we said that if this is what it would take to make Canada an “energy superpower”, which were the words of the Prime Minister , we would support Bill C-5 with the expectation that we would see major energy projects proposed clear across this country, from east-west pipelines to west coast pipelines. Given the fact that Bill C-69 and Bill C-48 were the major impediments to these major pipelines, and given that Bill C-5 was basically skirting around these two pieces of legislation, which we have been calling for the repeal of for nearly a decade, we were saying that if the government got rid of these bills, these projects would go.”
“Mr. Speaker, back in June, I asked the government how many new pipeline projects we could expect completed within the next two years. I would point out that over the last dozen years, the government has cancelled a dozen pipelines and 14 LNG projects because of the changes it brought to the legislation right here in Canada. In response to the question I asked in June, the government replied that this was a golden opportunity to vote in favour of Bill C-5 , which basically makes a workaround to all the terrible legislation the Liberals put in place over the last 10 years and allows the cabinet to pick and choose its favourite projects going forward. Bill C-5 was promised to build the economy of tomorrow. As one could expect, we waited with bated breath over the summer to see what was going to happen. We had worked to expedite Bill C-5 .”
“Madam Speaker, I certainly appreciate the antics of the member opposite, which kind of prove our point. The point is that under a Conservative government, we did not have border issues like we do today. We did not have to spend billions of dollars on border security. The Liberals say we did not spend as much money as them, but the goal is not how much money we spend; the goal is how secure our border is. If we had to spend zero dollars to have a secure border, I would be in favour of that. We do not have a secure border anymore. The Roxham Road situation totally proves that point, and it is a significant problem that appeared under the Liberal government.”
“Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague from Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola could not be more right. We have worked together a lot on trying to fix a lot of these problems. I would note, again, the Harper government put in place the ability to mark sex offenders' passports, to revoke sex offenders' passports and to prevent them from getting passports on the front end. Again, we are talking about fewer than 20 actions taken by the government to deal with sex offenders going abroad to perpetrate their crimes.”
“Madam Chair, I think my entire speech outlined the fact that I have zero confidence in the particular Liberal government across the way to actually implement any of these things. I gave a speech about all the great things in section 13 of this bill and my hopefulness about what they are. However, the government has had 10 years to implement all of these things. These are complaints and issues that have been raised from the day I got elected, back in 2015, so I am not hopeful. There has been zero communication about section 13 in light of passport revocation and any of these kinds of things I have raised around this. I think this bill deserves all the scrutiny we can give it.”
“(1105) In Canada, sex offenders are required to report, within seven days before leaving the country, their dates of departure and return, and every address or location at which they expect to stay while outside of the country. As I stated before, we do not really know whether they are reporting or not. The RCMP, because of the lack of information sharing, is unable to even pursue these cases. I am hopeful Bill C-2 would fix this problem, and I hope the government can assure me this would indeed be the case.”
“The Americans have noted that every time a registered sex offender comes to Canada, nearly 1,000 times a year, they at least inform the Canadian authorities that a registered sex offender is approaching the border, and we have refused many of these people. The Americans have asked that we do the same thing back, and I think that that is why it is being done. What is not clear from this is, will it work inside Canada? Will the CBSA be able to speak to the passport office? Will the CBSA be able to speak to the RCMP about the sex offender registry? That is not clear at all from the particular communications that the government has come out with.”
“The only thing the government could share with us was how many notifications the RCMP has received from sex offenders who are on the national sex registry and who had indicated their intention to travel internationally, broken down by year. In 2022, it had 1,773 registered sex offenders register to travel outside of Canada; in 2023, 2,204; in 2024, 3,320. As of May this year, we had nearly 1,000 registered sex offenders notify that they are leaving the country. I am pleased to see that the government is addressing the barriers that exist in the area of communications back and forth. I think it is doing this entirely because the American government has been complaining about this.”
“Now, this is where section 13 may be on the right track. I have yet to hear much from the government about this. Would section 13 fix this problem? Section 13 talks a lot about inter-agency communication to try to prevent this kind of thing. I am hopeful that this would be the case. However, the law has been in place since 2015 for all of these things to happen, and under the Liberal government's watch, it has not been enforcing it. It has not been using the law. It has not been using the official registry at all. Our reporting system seems to be, basically, voluntary and without any accountability. If it were not for the work of civil society groups calling attention to this, there may be no action whatsoever.”
“Particularly, if the RCMP is responsible for this registry, certainly it should be able to track this kind of thing, but it says it is unable to track this. How is this possible? That is my question to the government. Do we not have a moral obligation to prevent the abuse of children outside of our jurisdiction? There is a requirement for sex offenders to register when they leave the country, and it is an offence to fail to do this. I asked the RCMP how many sex offenders fail to report their absence, and of course, because it does not know how many people are leaving, the RCMP came back to me and said it is unable to confirm how many registered sex offenders fail to report their absence. The RCMP may become aware of it after the fact and then be able to investigate, but it is unknown how many failures happen.”
“Under the Liberal government, he got his passport back and was travelling abroad to impoverished countries over the past number of years. I find this to be unconscionable. Of 42,500 convicted child sex offenders, over the first seven years of the Liberal government only 13 passports were cancelled or refused. Every year, I submit Order Paper questions to the government, asking what it is doing about this. Interestingly enough, I received one of these Order Paper questions back just yesterday. I asked the RCMP, for example, how many sex offenders leave the country. It wrote back to me saying the RCMP is unable to track the number of sex offenders who leave the country. What is the point of having a national sex offender registry if we cannot track where these people are going? I thought that was kind of the entire point of it.”
“Initially there were a number of them, but then it kind of just fell off, and by the time 2018 rolled around, there was none. Canada has nearly 60,000 registered sex offenders; 72% are child sex predators, so that is over 42,000 convicted child sex offenders. The Liberal government has only cancelled 13 passports, zero passports in the last three years, and has only refused eight. (1100) Based on the work of organizations that I work with, we are aware that Canadian child sex offenders who have been convicted of horrific crimes against children receive passports from the government and, in the past few years, have been travelling abroad. For example, horrendous child abuser Donald Bakker, one of Canada's most notorious, served jail time for travelling to Southeast Asia to abuse children as young as seven years old.”
“I have not heard anything from the Liberal government saying one way or the other whether this would fix that problem, as it has not been part of the- stated messaging around the bill. I would note that section 13 is a large section of the bill, yet we hear very little about it. Nonetheless, this is something that I have worked on for many years. Every year or so I do an Order Paper question to the government asking how many passports it has revoked, how many passports it has cancelled and how many refusals of passports it has offered. From 2015 to 2018, over the first two years of the Liberal government, only 13 cancellations or revocations took place, and only five refusals, to prevent the sexual abuse of children abroad. Many of these were initiated under a Conservative government.”
“Basically, it was to stop Canadian sexual predators from travelling and exploiting youth in other parts of the world, especially in underdeveloped countries. However, I recognize part 13 would allow law enforcement and border security agents to communicate better, and I am hopeful that this would help a lot. We have also talked in this place about managing passports and marking passports to show that somebody is a registered sex offender. When I talked to those in the passport office, they said they were unable to get that information from the RCMP, because the RCMP is not allowed to share that information with them, and so I am hopeful that the bill before us will pass.”
“There are some good things in Bill C-2 , particularly in part 13. Under this government, convicted sex offenders or child predators have had more freedom to travel than Canadians who chose not to get vaccinated. Under the Liberal government in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, massive restrictions were placed on people's ability to travel, yet the government continued to issue passports to folks who were on the registered sex offender list. This is not required or necessary, because in 2015 the Conservative government amended the passport act to give the Minister of Foreign Affairs tools to refuse or cancel passports in order to prevent the commission of sexual offences against a child in Canada or abroad.”
“I will start by reading what it says on the inside of every Canadian's passport, right on the front page: The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada requests, in the name of His Majesty the King, all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely, without delay or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary. This passport is the property of the Government of Canada. It must not be altered. You must take every precaution to safeguard it. In the front of our passport is an endorsement of the individual bearer of the passport, which is basically saying that Canada is hoping that the countries Canadian people use their passport to travel to will give security and allow their passage, so to speak. We are asking people to welcome Canadians to their country when we offer them a passport.”
“Madam Speaker, I want to start my speech with this: Jesus is Lord. There has been an outpouring of condolences to the family of Charlie Kirk, and I would like to give the family of Charlie Kirk my condolences as well. He was a big advocate for the Christian faith and for declaring that Jesus is Lord, and here I do that as well. The bill we are discussing today, Bill C-2 , has a whole section dedicated to how law enforcement deals with the sex offender registry and the sex offender list, and I would like to dedicate most of my time today to discussing that.”
“Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am presenting is from Canadians from across the country who are concerned about recommendations 429 and 430 in the finance committee's pre-budget consultation report. These recommendations call for the removal of the charitable status of religious organizations. The petitioners warn that this could harm faith-based charities, including food banks, seniors homes, newcomer supports, mental health programs and youth programs, all of which are vital programs rooted in our community. They note that freedom of religion is protected by the charter and that targeting these organizations based on religious beliefs erodes Canada's foundations. The petitioners urge the government to reject these recommendations and uphold the charitable status of faith-based organizations across the country.”
“Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of petitions to present today. The first petition is on behalf of petitioners who are calling for a federal budget. They say that a federal budget is a critical tool for ensuring transparency and accountability in government spending and priorities. They also state that Canadians are facing significant economic uncertainty, including inflation, housing pressures and cost of living challenges, and they deserve to see the government's financial plan to address these issues. Petitioners also say that delaying the presentation of the budget undermines the ability of Parliament and the public to scrutinize and debate the government's fiscal policies. Therefore, they call on the government to present a budget before the House rises this spring.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the hon. member for his election. He had one of the most exciting victory parties. I got to watch it online. He livestreamed the whole thing. I want to congratulate him for that as well. I am wondering if the hon. member could talk a bit more about the housing situation in the Lower Mainland of B.C.”
“In a strong and free Canada, Canadians must have the choice to drive a vehicle that meets their needs at a price that they can afford. It is time to axe the ban on gas-powered vehicles.”
“Mr. Speaker, never has it been more difficult for V8 truck owners in this country. After years of Liberal mismanagement, they have created hardships for farmers, families and forestry workers in northern Alberta. Now, the Liberal government plans to ban gas-powered vehicles and force Canadians to drive electric vehicles. It is just one more example of “Ottawa knows best”. I will tell members what Albertans and rural Canadians know. The farmer hauling his livestock cannot wait for hours to recharge during a trip. The hunter who needs to bring home his moose cannot stick it in the back of a Prius. When it is -40°C out, oil and gas workers cannot rely on EVs to haul the heavy equipment needed to keep the heat on for the rest of the country. Even in Quebec, the number one selling vehicle is the gas-powered, F-series pickup.”
“Madam Speaker, I am in my correct seat today, so thank you for recognizing me. I want to thank the hon. member for his great speech. I know he has had a long career in the law profession, and I think land development was the area. Can the member comment a bit about what the trend lines are around new home building in his neck of the woods?”
“Madam Speaker, I want to welcome the hon. member to this place. I know he is a new member and that this is going to be the adventure of a lifetime for him, as it has been for me. Does the hon. member know why, when the government is cancelling the consumer carbon tax for a whole host of reasons, which Conservatives have laid out over the years, it is not removing the industrial carbon tax?”
“Madam Speaker, after the Liberals' Bill C-69 cancelled a dozen pipeline projects in Canada, Germany, Japan, Greece, Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, South Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan all pleaded with Canada for our LNG. Now, in the middle of a jobs crisis, the promise of an energy superpower and the world wanting our energy, we could use Canadian steel and Canadian labour to build Canadian pipelines to get Canadian energy to the world. How many new pipelines can we expect to be operational in the next two years?”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have destroyed the immigration system in our country, and that has caused the complete destruction of our housing industry across the country as well. Will the member apologize for the last 10 years of Liberal failure?”
“The petitioners ask the Government of Canada to ensure that all trade deals with India are premised on mandatory human rights provisions, that extremists are sanctioned and that the government promotes respectful human rights dialogue between Canada and India.”
“Mr. Speaker, the second petition I have is from Canadians across the country who are concerned about human rights protections in India. The petitioners say that, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, various actors are supporting and enforcing sectarian policies seeking to establish India as a Hindu state. The petitioners are saying that Christians in India are being targeted by extremists vandalizing their churches, attacking church workers and threatening or intimidating the congregations. The petitioners also state that crimes against the Dalit groups, including Dalit women and girls, are increasing. The petitioners say that Indian Muslims are also at risk of genocide, assault and sexual assault.”
“The petitioners are asking our Canadian government to closely monitor human rights conditions in Turkey, sanction the officials who have committed these gross human rights violations against eight Canadians and call on the Turkish, Pakistani and Bahraini governments to end all human rights violations in their respective countries.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of many Canadians who are concerned about human rights protections in Turkey, Pakistan and Bahrain. The petitioners say that Turkish, Pakistani and Bahraini officials have committed gross human rights violations against thousands of Turks, including eight Turkish Canadians. The petitioners say that Turkish officials have wrongfully detained over 300,000 people without reason, and these petitioners say that multiple international human rights groups can confirm these gross human rights violations in Turkey.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of concerned Canadians, especially those serving in the armed forces. These Canadians are concerned that the Liberal government is not doing enough to ensure that servicemen and servicewomen have the freedom to express their religion. They note that Canada has a strong tradition of respecting, honouring and affirming the role of faith traditions in the armed forces. These Canadians call on Parliament to affirm that the Canadian Armed Forces ought to support the freedom of servicemen and servicewomen through public prayer, in keeping with the hard-won and honourable traditions of the armed forces, especially on Remembrance Day.”
“Mr. Speaker, this is exactly the type of thing I was talking about. We need to understand that the forest is an organic organism that moves, and it has been managed for over 100 years in Canada, 200 years in some places. We need to ensure that the fuel load is managed, because the fuel load is the thing that causes the fires. When the fuel load is low, we can manage the fires. When the fuel load is high, we get a never-ending cycle of wildfires.”
“I am thinking, “Oh, there is a devastating fire right next to the community”, but as I have gotten to know the community, I have learned that it does this every spring to take the fuel load down and protect the community, so we have a lot to learn from the folks at Tallcree.”
“Mr. Speaker, I just want to recognize the community of Chateh, and particularly Damian from there. I was able to visit Chateh during the election. I want to also point out the community of Tallcree. It has its own wildland firefighter crew. It is contracted to the Province of Alberta, but it actually tours all around the world fighting fires. That community in particular has an aggressive back-burn, or springtime burn, program. It has protected its community by burning off the swamp grass in every direction from its particular community every spring. It is always quite shocking when I come down the hill or around the corner into there.”
“Mr. Speaker, I would recommend that everybody follow their local municipality's Facebook page. In my own riding, that is generally the best place to go. Either the band office will have its own Facebook page or each community will generally have its own Facebook page. That is generally the way to be the most up to date. Also, if anyone wants to do a two-way communication, the comments section underneath is often a good place to find that.”
“If we do not harvest the trees, if we do not take the fuel load out of there, it is only a matter of time before the forest will burn, which has not been recognized by the Liberal government, and so here we are once again in a fire season.”
“The Species at Risk Act is a noble cause to bring back species that are at risk, but forest management does not get done. We also have the 30 by 30 and our national parks program. All of these policies get laid over top of each other. There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs, and that is the reality of life. When we layer on all of these policies and policy changes over time, when forestry companies are unable to enact their 100-year plans, and watch the forest grow old and the fuel load grow higher, they will say, yes, climate change is a real thing, but it is the fuel load that is there and they just know it is a matter of time before that forest burns.”
“The forestry industry complains a lot about the fact that its 100-year plans are being put in jeopardy because of government programs or government policy dictated, too often, from on high, and I just want to mention a few of those things. One is the softwood lumber tariffs, which have caused instability in our ability to market our softwood lumber, and that has caused somewhat of a reduction in the allowable cut or the ability to cut. When sawmills do not make money and when they go out of business, trees no longer get harvested, which ends up resulting in a larger old-growth forest with a higher fuel load. The Species at Risk Act came in, sterilized the landscape of human activity, and forced all industry out of particular areas, with no consideration for forest management at all.”
“That was in the 1950s. Back then, this country believed in developing our resources. People believed that the trees were there to be harvested. This had been a thing throughout all of Canada's history. When the first people came from Europe to Canada, they noted the trees and harvested them to build ships, which was one of the first reasons that people came to Canada, or to “New Found Land”, as they called it. We saw that extended for a very long time. Managing the forest to promote the production of the trees and to limit forest fires to ensure that we could harvest those trees was the program of Canada for a very long time. We have seen in recent generations that the program for Canadian forests has changed slightly.”
“When we listen to the Liberals, we hear that they do not want to talk about solutions to the wildfires; they want to talk about their perceived cause of the wildfires, and they keep mentioning that it is climate change that is causing them. I grant the premise that climate change is a contributing factor to all of the fires, but what we repeatedly hear from forest management folks is that it is the fuel load. It is the amount of old-growth forest in Canada. We have done an incredible job for over 100 years in managing our forest fires. I remember a story that my grandfather told me. He came to Canada when he was 21 years old. He was in northern B.C. when there was a forest fire happening, and people were conscripted. He said that several times when he was in town on Main Street running errands, he was conscripted to go fight forest fires.”
“(2215) Buckles & Blues in Whitecourt was giving a 20% discount on food and clothing for people who were having to buy new clothes because they were evacuated without being able to collect their clothes from their house. Global Pet Foods in Whitecourt was donating thousands of dollars to the food bank for the evacuees, and it is offering a 15% discount for any evacuees buying pet food and kitty litter. These are a number of the stories of how Albertans have stepped forward and reached out to help those being evacuated. Now, this is not a new story. The reason we are here tonight is to debate the emergencies that the wildfires have created.”
“Becki Pound was recognized on Facebook for helping Josee Bernier and her family, who had evacuated from Swan Hills. The Pembina West Co-op was donating meals to the Swan Hills evacuation centre in Whitecourt. I would also note that church communities have been taking on dinner duties at the evacuation centres. The church communities have stepped up to volunteer to sponsor one of the meals each day at the evacuation centres. I recognize the church communities across the riding that have stepped up in this way. Businesses have been out helping the Dene Tha’ First Nation evacuees from Chateh. Loon River First Nation was providing meals, accommodations and fuel to anybody coming by who needed those things.”
“They have supported many of the families who are struggling, particularly in the community of Whitecourt. We noted that this was a repeated comment on Facebook about how the business community had really stepped up, and people were very proud of the community of Whitecourt. There is an organization called Mama Gray's Kitchen in Whitecourt, which was were feeding people out of the back of a pickup truck. They were basically tailgating downtown for the Swan Hills residents. They were giving out free taco bags, watermelon, ice cream cones and soft drinks. A lady in Barrhead stopped in at Subway, and when she heard that the folks in front of her were from Swan Hills and were evacuees, she paid for their lunch. The people whose lunch was paid for recognized that on Facebook.”
“That is because Albertans step up in these times of need. I have a number of stories of folks that have just reached out on Facebook. People from around Barrhead noted on Facebook that if folks needed a place to host their horses or their dogs, or to park their holiday trailer, their yard was an open place to do that and they had horse facilities available. Eryk, Kim, Shawna and Theresah, on Facebook, offered residents of Swan Hills a place to stay and to park their trailer. Amy offered kennel spots for dogs and horses, 12 minutes outside Barrhead. People have thanked the residents and business owners in Whitecourt for helping evacuate the people in Swan Hills. Food vendors have stepped up and offered free food to folks who have been evacuated. Hotels have been hosting pets.”
“I recognize that our emergency debate tonight is about the wildfires in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and I hope it was merely an oversight that Alberta was not included, given the fact that Alberta feels that it is taken for granted regularly. Once again we see that perhaps Alberta was overlooked tonight. Nonetheless, there are thousands of people displaced from their homes at the moment. Perhaps the wildfire situation in Alberta is not mentioned because Albertans are as resilient as they are. I want to thank everybody who has stepped up across Alberta to help in this time. I know that there are evacuee registration centres across northern Alberta. When I visit these places, I am often surprised to hear that although we hear in the news that thousands of people are evacuated, the evacuation centres are only hosting hundreds of people.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to stand and acknowledge the fire situation in this country. As this is the first time I am on my feet to give a speech in the House, I want to thank the good people of Peace River—Westlock in northern Alberta, the honey capital of Canada, the promised land, as I like to call it, for re-electing me for the fourth time and giving me a mandate in this place. In our riding, we have forestry, farming and the oil patch, and all of that happens out in the boreal forest in northern Alberta, so the topic that we are discussing tonight is near and dear to my heart. Forest management is a thing that I have had many talks with many people about over the last number of years. Over 4,000 people are evacuated from their homes in Alberta at the moment.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the Liberals always want to point out the causes of things as things that they cannot control, and yet a whole host of government policy has been put in place that has limited the forestry companies' abilities to manage the forest. I wonder if the hon. member has more comments about forest management practices that she has heard about. She mentioned 30% by 2030. Are there other government policies she notes the Liberal government has put in place that limit this ability?”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my hon. colleague on her election. One of the things that we have mentioned we hear from the Liberals over and over again is about how climate change is affecting these natural disasters. Now, if that is the case, one would think that after 10 years of Liberals being in power, they would have managed to come up with systems that would take that into account, yet here we see, over and over again, fire season after fire season. What we have seen is that Liberal government policy has impacted forest management. What does the member have to say about that?”
“Madam Speaker, one of the things that I noted the member did not mention was forest management practices. The forestry industry has a 100-year plan to harvest trees, and we have seen, over the years, its ability to harvest trees reduced by government action. I am wondering what the member has to say about any of that.”