Garnett Genuis
Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta · Conservative · Canada
“It is getting increasingly harder for young people to find their first job, and for young families to afford their first home and be able to afford to take those critical steps forward in life.”
“I look forward to talking to people and listening to them over the summer. I would encourage colleagues from all parts of the country to also listen to, respect and try to understand the concerns Albertans have.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his kind words. Indeed, I would welcome him, and all members of this House from all parties, to come to Alberta this summer. Let me know. I would be happy to host. Members could spend some time talking to people in our province to understand some of their concerns.”
“This plan includes vital reforms to parental leave to make it easier for parents who are trying to start a family, maintain a connection to work and earn an income at the same time.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to extend my best wishes for the summer to all colleagues from all sides. We have fought hard for our constituents, for our convictions and to advance the common good of this country.”
“We have always sought to be productive and constructive by putting forward these good ideas and asking the government to adopt them. Therefore, as we face these ongoing challenges, an affordability crisis and a youth unemployment crisis, will the government take a serious look at what we have put forward, including the Conservative youth…”
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“At a time when many university graduates are already working outside their field of study because they were given bad advice about the needs of the labour market, and at a time when industry is desperate for workers with underappreciated but critical skills, such as those in the trades, this budget doubles down on Liberal profession prejudice and fails to make the transition to a coherent philosophy of work. Budget 2025 puts well over $1 billion into helping university research councils try to attract foreign researchers to move to Canadian universities from other countries. Meanwhile, the budget fails to reinstate the apprenticeship grant, a clear broken promise from the Liberal 2025 election platform.”
“Conservatives are committed to fighting profession prejudice, and we will defend a philosophy of work that emphasizes universal human dignity and the universal dignity of work done by human beings. To the young people watching, I say that when they are picking a career, they should focus on what they like to do and on what the labour market is looking for, and ignore the bad advice of disdainful elites hawking their profession prejudice. (1105) This brings me back to the budget.”
“Profession prejudice leads elites to make artificial distinctions between what they think are jobs of the future and what they think are jobs of the past, often denigrating physical work and work in resource development. Most often, these predictions about such things turn out to be way off the mark in terms of what is the future and what is the past, yet impressionable young people are often fooled into absorbing these predictions into their own career planning. The result of all this has been profound mismatches in our labour market: high unemployment coexisting with labour shortages, especially labour shortages in areas where well-paying, secure jobs nonetheless lack the arbitrary social esteem dispensed inconsistently by elites and elite institutions.”
“Profession prejudice has led authority figures to steer young people towards university to get a good job, even if they are much better suited to and could make more money working in the trades. Authority figures often have an unconscious bias towards their own chosen path, thinking that the road to dignity and meaning necessarily involves following the path they followed. Creating a more equal society does not mean sending everyone to university; it means recognizing the dignity of every person regardless of the work they do. Profession prejudice has given us profound skill mismatches. It has given us people pursuing programs of study deemed to be more prestigious and more likely to signal their worth to elite society, but then those same people are finding out afterwards that they cannot get a job in their field.”
“Work is much more than a means to earn wages; it is the means by which so many people contribute to their communities, create new things, demonstrate their proficiency and creativity, build community and support the people they love. This philosophy of work is understood intuitively by many working people across this country and around the world. Sadly, however, many modern elites implicitly or explicitly reject this philosophy of work. Instead of valuing all human work, many of our elites have come to esteem different kinds of human work differently, based on self-interested class prejudice. The rampant existence of profession prejudice, prejudice that values different kinds of work differently and that treats people differently based on the jobs they do, has been deeply harmful to our society and to our economy.”
“If a human person is giving a speech, fixing a car, performing a surgery or cleaning a bathroom, in each case that person brings themselves into that activity, with their creativity, effort, desire for excellence, and humanity. Work has dignity, therefore, not because of the nature of the activity specifically but because it is done by a human person and because it expresses the desire of that person to contribute and to create a better world through their work. Therefore everyone who works can and should take pride in the work they do, as long as they are bringing the fullness of themselves and their human dignity into the work they are doing as the creator or co-creator of some new reality. This is a clear, coherent and necessary philosophy of work. When done with pride and commitment, work generates all kinds of personal benefits.”
“I want to talk about jobs, the dignity of work, the esteem we have for different kinds of workers, and the harm that the budget will do to critical sectors of our economy. Before I get into those details, I want to talk about a philosophy of work, because policy, intentionally or not, always must reflect some philosophy. I believe that all work done by human beings has a special kind of dignity. This is the consequence of a more foundational belief in the universal dignity of human persons. If we understand human beings as having inherent rights and inherent dignity, then we are led from there to the conclusion that the work done by human beings has a special kind of dignity as well because it involves the commitment and effort of a human person.”
“Mr. Speaker, when the budget was initially tabled, Canadians rightly were focused on the big picture: the fact that the government's fiscal plan fudges the numbers and still contains the largest deficit in this nation's history outside the COVID period. Taxpayers have spent more and gotten less in the last 10 years under the Liberals, and that is not changing under the Prime Minister , who is running a record-smashing, $78-billion deficit and is still leaving Canadians less able to afford basic essentials. This is the big picture, but today, as Parliament begins debate on the budget implementation act, I want to use this critical opportunity to expose the designs hidden deeper within the budget.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. The member is conflating two very different cases. The Chairs have ruled in the past about equating members' positions with those of violent authoritarian regimes or suggesting they are acting as agents of violent authoritarian regimes. That is clearly very different from saying that something a member does not like may suggest other things about their motivations. Those are obviously two very different things. An hon. member: Oh, oh!”
“Mr. Speaker, the third and final petition I am tabling today raises concern about recommendation 430 in the finance committee's pre-budget report. This recommendation calls for the stripping of charitable status from all houses of worship from all faith communities. Petitioners are deeply concerned about this proposal, and although this was not contained in this particular budget, the government has yet to repudiate this recommendation. Petitioners call on the government never to implement the recommendations of its own Liberal-dominated finance committee, particularly recommendation 430.”
“[ English ] The petitioners urge the government to raise the duty-free limit for packages from Ukraine to at least $150, which is in line with humanitarian principles and reciprocal measures under the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.”
“Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am tabling today has been brought to me by members of the Ukrainian community. They highlight that more than 200,000 Ukrainians have found safe haven in Canada since 2022. While the cost of living is affecting Canadians across the country, it is also deeply challenging for newcomers. Many face emotional and financial pressures, including the high costs of importing personal belongings from Ukraine. [ Translation ] Canada's current duty-free limit for international packages remains at just $20, and that has not changed since 1992. Because of this, Ukrainians are often subject to customs duties when receiving personal items sent by their families, which makes their lives more difficult.”
“The petitioners are therefore calling upon the Government of Canada to protect all Canadians whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable by prohibiting MAID for people whose prognosis is more than six months. Offering death is not true compassion. True compassion is offering support, listening and hope.”
“Mr. Speaker, I have three petitions to present today. First, I rise to present the following petition. The petitioners state that it is unacceptable for Canadians to choose medical assistance in dying due to a lack of available services or treatments. This is not a real choice. They point out that allowing MAID for people with disabilities or chronic non-terminal illnesses devalues their lives. It sends the dangerous message that life with a disability is optional. A recent article in Le Soleil told the disturbing story of a sick man who was basically advised by a social worker to give up the fight and choose death. That is not compassion. It is a betrayal of our duty to protect human dignity.”
“Mr. Speaker, I know it is difficult for some members of the Liberal caucus to understand, but parents would actually prefer to be able to afford to buy food themselves for their kids. They used to be able to before the Liberals took office. The latest numbers today show that more than one in four people in Canada is living in a financially insecure household. That is the legacy of that party. It was not this way before; it does not have to be this way again. When will the Liberals change course?”
“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister proposed the worst budget deficit in history outside of the COVID period. Every dollar he spends costs Canadians in taxes and through inflation. More spending by government means more sacrifices for Canadians, with more than one in four Canadians now living in financially insecure households. Will the Prime Minister at least consider reducing his deficits to levels we saw under Justin Trudeau?”
“In fact, the budget uses language that almost seems to admit that Liberal immigration policies over the last 10 years have been profoundly ineffective and, really, have undermined the consensus we had on immigration prior to that. I want to ask the member a simple question about his portfolio. Does the member agree that Liberal policies on immigration were a contributing factor to the high levels of youth unemployment we face?”
“Mr. Speaker, a lot of what the member said really had nothing to do with the question that was asked. I have highlighted our Conservative youth jobs plan, a constructive proposal around unleashing the economy, fixing immigration, fixing training and building homes where the jobs are, and I highlighted that this budget simply has no jobs plan. We would have liked to see the Liberals adopt our plan. It is interesting that the parliamentary secretary for immigration is here tonight. We have repeatedly heard, at the human resources committee, about the link between failed Liberal immigration policies and unemployment.”
“The Conservatives have mapped out a clear plan to get us there. We put forward the Conservative youth jobs plan in hopes that the Liberals would include parts of it in their budget, that they would borrow our good ideas around unleashing the economy, fixing immigration, fixing training and building homes where the jobs are. However, the Liberals chose not to implement those ideas and not to come up with any new ideas of their own. Instead, they put forward a budget with no youth jobs plan. It simply identifies the continuing existence of a few programs that have been in place since the 1990s. Why did the Liberals not take this opportunity to use our good ideas to confront youth unemployment and put them in the budget?”
“What matters when it comes to unemployment is the result, not the good intention of politicians and not the existence of programs or the expenditure on those programs. What matters is whether young people are working. Tragically, the situation right now, as a result of 10 years of bad Liberal policies, is that we have the worst employment numbers in over 25 years. I will note that frequently the Liberals' response is that they have the Canada summer jobs program, a program that has existed since the 1990s. The Canada summer jobs program provides jobs, on average, for eight weeks. When we have a crisis of almost half a million young people who are unemployed and we say we are going to subsidize a few more eight-week jobs, that is clearly not a solution that meets the moment, that meets the magnitude of the crisis.”
“Instead, what we see from this budget is more of the same bad Liberal policies that got into this mess in the first place. We see a budget deficit of over $78 billion; the continuation of policies that constrain the growth of our economy, deter investment, fail to unleash our economy and make it harder for our economy to move forward; a doubling down on failure in many areas; and a failure to implement the proposals we put forward, which would have created jobs and opportunities. The best the Liberals could do is announce the continuing existence of programs that have been in place since the 1990s. What we hear when discussing unemployment is government members say they have this strategy and that program. Those programs have been in place since the 1990s, and the Liberals have no new ideas. They are clearly not delivering the goods.”
“Mr. Speaker, I was profoundly disappointed this week to see that the Liberals' budget contains absolutely no jobs plan. The situation right now is very dire as it relates to unemployment, particularly unemployment for youth. As members know by now, as I have said it many times, we are in a situation where youth unemployment is at 14.7%, approaching 15%. Close to half a million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed. We have the worst employment numbers in over 25 years, yet budget 2025 has absolutely no jobs plan. The Conservatives put forward constructive proposals in the lead-up to the release of the budget as part of the Conservative youth jobs plan. We proposed measures to unleash the economy, to fix immigration, to fix training and to build homes where the jobs are.”
“Mr. Speaker, very simply, the parliamentary secretary began her speech by saying that the Liberals' plan is working. Objectively, it is not. Youth unemployment numbers continue to go up, and members who disagree should simply access the Statistics Canada reports, which show the numbers going up. The member can identify the continuing existence of programs that have existed since the 1990s, such as the Canada summer jobs program and youth employment strategy, but the Liberals' approach on a range of policy areas is clearly not working. It is in the numbers. Does the member not believe the numbers, or does she hope we are not aware of them?”
“Madam Speaker, members have raised the issue of the regional differences in unemployment, with regions of high unemployment and low unemployment. That is why our plan includes measures to make it easier for employers to provide employer housing, make it easier to build homes where the jobs are and make it easier for young people who are living in regions of high unemployment to move to regions of lower unemployment. It should not just be about bringing in workers from outside the country; it should be about creating opportunities for relocation within Canada in regions where there is low unemployment. I wonder if the member could comment on that part of our plan: building homes where the jobs are.”
“Previous governments had immigration policies that emphasized bringing in people who could fill skill gaps, while minimizing competition. It is the Liberals' failures that have led to these problems, and they have to be accountable for them.”
“Madam Speaker, Liberals get really frustrated, it seems, when Conservatives raise the link between the Liberals' immigration failures and unemployment. We have highlighted a number of areas of failure that contribute to youth unemployment: their failures on the economy, on training and in many other areas, but I think Canadians and young people I talk to in urban centres, from diverse backgrounds, understand how the Liberal failures on immigration policy have contributed to youth unemployment. That is because the Liberals have not aligned our immigration policy with the needs of our economy in terms of skills and numbers. Liberals have created an immigration policy that experts have said at committee is leading to intensifying competition for entry-level jobs.”
“Madam Speaker, as I said earlier, I am hearing from young people that many of them feel they are worse off than their parents' generation were in this country, especially after 10 years of the Liberals. We see continuing policies that limit economic growth and that have messed up our immigration system; we see misalignments in training and other areas. That is why we need jobs, homes and hope for youth. That is why we put forth our constructive Conservative youth jobs plan. I wonder if the member can share what he is hearing from the young people he talks to, especially in his region in northern Ontario. I know he is very active in and around his constituency. What is the dynamic there in terms of young people's perceptions of the opportunities they have and will have relative to the opportunities that their parents had?”
“This is why we put forward the Conservative youth jobs plan, which would deliver hope and create opportunities if it were implemented.”
“Madam Speaker, the employment rate is the percentage of young people in total who are employed. It is different from the unemployment rate, which measures the percentage of young people in the workforce who are not working. We are seeing historic lows in the employment rate. The percentage of young people in the 15 to 24 age bracket who are working is at its lowest level in more than 25 years. This indicates that unemployment is at about a 15-year high. It also indicates that many young people are, in many cases, giving up. There is a lot of frustration with what they are facing and there is an increasing sense of hopelessness, so we are trying to offer young people hope. We are trying to say that a better future, with jobs, homes and hope, is possible.”
“Madam Speaker, the implications of artificial intelligence demand careful consideration. That being said, the unemployment rate in Canada is much higher than unemployment rates in other countries facing the same realities created by the development of artificial intelligence. We are in a similar situation in the technology field. The unemployment rate is much higher. The problem here stems from the immigration system and government policies, and that is limiting the economic response.”
“Rather than throw out slogans like “talking down” and “more spending on the same thing”, let us talk about the real numbers and solutions. We have put forward a plan. Where is their plan?”
“Madam Speaker, that was a uniquely ridiculous question, even from a Liberal member. I have never talked down Canada. I am proud to live in this country and fight for this country. I am fighting for this country for my children and grandchildren, and all of our children. However, we have to recognize the reality of what the member's government has done to this country over the last 10 years. The realities are unmistakable. If the member talks to young people, she will hear about the challenges they are facing. The fact is that we are approaching half a million unemployed young people. The unemployment rate for youth is at almost 15%, and we are going to see new numbers coming out on Friday. Young people are deeply concerned about this reality, which is getting worse.”
“(1555) This is our Conservative jobs plan: unleash the economy, fix immigration, fix training and build homes where the jobs are. It responds to the youth jobs crisis, which is approaching half a million unemployed young people. It is time for action. This report calls for that, and I hope we see action from the government on this unemployment crisis.”
“To fix training, we have put forward a substantial, rigorous proposal to make training more available to young people in areas that align with the needs of the labour market. We propose that students pursuing in-demand studies receive relatively more generous financial support. Sadly, the Liberals have already dismissed this proposal. We say that when we have skills gaps in this country, rather than focusing on bringing in people from abroad, we need to focus on training Canadian young people to fill the skill gaps that exist. Finally, we propose substantial new incentives to make it easier for employers to build homes where jobs exist. We proposed a 100% accelerated capital cost write-off for companies that build employee housing to address the challenges employers in remote areas sometimes have in attracting employees to those areas.”
“Fixing immigration means putting the immigration system back in line with the needs and interests of this country, especially when it comes to employment and opportunity. Part of fixing immigration is fixing credential recognition. We have people coming here who could be working in areas where there is significant demand for those skills, but instead, when their credentials are not recognized, they are forced to compete against young people for entry-level jobs. Let us get skilled professionals who have come from abroad out of those entry-level jobs by recognizing their credentials. Let us address programs, like the temporary foreign worker program, that are driving aggressive competition for entry-level jobs and shutting out our young people.”
“Unleashing the economy means repealing Liberal bills that block development and energy development, making it more difficult to construct a home and more difficult for major projects to move forward. It means implementing a genuinely pro-development agenda that does not involve picking and choosing a small number of preferred projects or preferred companies for subsidies. As we have sometimes seen, some preferred companies that have gotten subsidies move jobs out of the country anyway. Unleashing the economy means removing the barriers the Liberals have put in place to allow all companies working on developing major projects to see a runway absent aggressive regulation and taxation and see their projects move forward.”
“We have put forward the study and we have put forward a Conservative youth jobs plan. The government does not have a plan. Its policies have created this crisis and are making this crisis worse, but we have offered constructive solutions. We have put forward the Conservative youth jobs plan, which would confront this challenge. Our plan has four simple parts. I hope the government will respond to these proposals constructively in the budget tomorrow. I hope we will see an affordable budget that includes elements of the Conservative youth jobs plan. The plan is simple: number one, unleash the economy; number two, fix immigration; number three, fix training; and number four, build homes where the jobs are.”
“We are not there yet, but it is clear that the author understands something profound about the wider social effects that come from losing the next generation. We can end this Liberal dystopia and bring back jobs, homes and hope. The government should choose tomorrow to release an affordable budget and start to confront these challenges. Recognizing the acuteness of the crisis facing young people, Conservatives have taken a very constructive approach. We have initiated a youth unemployment study. In fact, we were pushing for this study back in the spring. The Liberals blocked that from happening, and we were not able to start that work until the fall, but here we are. We have heard witness after witness highlight the failures of the government when it comes to economic and immigration policy.”
“Living, breathing, vibrant communities are ones in which young people have jobs, homes and hope so that they can stay with, live among, learn from and support those who are aging. Youth unemployment is driving young people out of communities and preventing them from forming new families of their own. This affects everybody. We all need to worry about youth unemployment because we are all in this together. We cannot allow Liberal economic failures that make life less affordable for everyone to drive intergenerational conflict. Young people being forced to leave communities when they cannot form families of their own creates significant problems for their parents and grandparents. For those who have not read the dystopian novel The Children of Men by P.D. James, I certainly recommend picking it up.”
“However, when young people cannot afford to get started in life, cannot afford homes, cannot afford to start families and, in many cases, are forced to leave their communities because they cannot afford to stay, then we see a kind of demographic distortion, where older people are left without a proportionate number of younger people in their community to pay into the systems they rely on and to be with them in living, breathing, continuing and growing communities. We must recognize the natural complementarity that exists between generations. The increasing disconnection in our society between generations is why younger people are increasingly overwhelmed while many older people face a crisis of loneliness. I will be sharing my time.”
“When people form families and have children, it reflects their economic position, their ability to provide for that next generation, or the sense of their own readiness to do that. It also is an expression of hope for the future that they can provide for their children. However, when they cannot find a job or afford a home, it is hope that dies last. Young people need jobs, homes and hope. We also need to think about the wider social effects of youth unemployment. Some may hear this discussion about the great challenges facing young people and ask if that really matters to them. Our country faces a brutal cost of living crisis that affects everyone: the old, the young and those in between. Bad Liberal economic and immigration policies are not just affecting the young, they are in fact affecting everybody.”
“They need a job so they work hard, earn income and experience the joy, connection and meaning that comes through work. They need a home so they can live independently and start a family on their own. They need hope that all these things are still possible and that a country at least as good as the one their parents grew up in is still possible in 2025. In these conversations with young people, the significant barriers to family formation caused by a bad economy are also top of mind. Canadian women report that, on average, they would like to have 2.2 children over the course of their lives, yet the actual fertility rate has dropped to 1.26 children per woman, which is a gap between desire and outcome of almost one child per woman. It is not hard to see why desires in this regard are not being met.”
“Even for those hopeful about stepping onto that first rung of employment, earning enough for a down payment on a home still feels impossibly out of reach. In response to my question, “Are you better or worse off than your parents' generation?”, one student put it to me this way. She said that they are supposed to have more things because of technology, access to information and innovation, but that in reality they have more access to what is not essential and the things that are essential in life are moving completely out of reach. This is the alarming reality for many young people. Despite their best efforts and all the sacrifices they have already made, the basic essentials, a job and a home, are out of reach. Quite simply, what young people today need is three things: jobs, homes and hope.”
“The current youth unemployment rate is 14.7%. It is continuing to rise and is approaching 15%. [ English ] Over the last month, I have been visiting university campuses and asking students a very simple question: “Are you better or worse off than your parents' generation?” Sadly, but overwhelmingly, students have been telling me they are worse off, and it is not difficult to see why. Young people are concerned about whether they will be able to get a job when they graduate. Some are pursuing further studies just to compete for positions that actually do not require those additional qualifications. Young people across this country from a broad range of backgrounds recognize they face brutal and near impossible competition for entry-level jobs due to Liberal immigration and economic policy failure.”
“Motion for concurrence Madam Speaker, I move that the first report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities presented on Monday, September 22, be concurred in. This afternoon we are seized with debate on the first report of the human resources committee, a report that unanimously expresses the committee's alarm about the catastrophic youth employment rate. That rate is in fact the worst it has been in more than a quarter century. (1550) [ Translation ] Since the government blocked natural resource projects, disparaged a critical sector of our economy, wreaked havoc on our immigration system and failed to align skills training with actual labour market needs, we are now facing an alarming reality: Almost half a million young people are unemployed.”
“Mr. Speaker, very respectfully to my hon. friend, I will say that we need to measure the performance of the government by the results. The appeal of the parliamentary secretary , ministers and others is to say we should look at all the things they are trying to do, but I think the government will be judged by the results in the aggregate. Here is the reality: After the government has blocked natural resource projects, denigrated the natural resource sector, made a mess of our immigration system and failed to align skills training in the main with the needs of our economy, we are now in a situation where there are close to half a million unemployed young people. I am sure of the personal sincerity of the parliamentary secretary , but despite best efforts, unemployment numbers have continued to go up.”
“They would have liked to see the government come constructively to engage with the ideas we put forward as an opposition. We have put forward a detailed Conservative youth jobs plan that is about unleashing the economy, fixing immigration, fixing training and building homes where the jobs are, and on each of those points we have articulated a policy. I hope we will see the government stop denigrating good ideas and recognize how its policies have contributed to the problems we face right now. Instead, I hope it will listen to our ideas in a constructive spirit and consider implementing some of them as part of a plan that it can put forward in the budget, building on what we have proposed. Will the government do that?”
“We have presented these ideas in a constructive spirit, and the government is denigrating our ideas and failing to present any proposals of its own. The best it can do is point to programs that have existed in this country since the 1990s as if they are something new. It talks about the continuation of programs that have existed since the 1990s that are clearly not meeting the present moment in terms of the metastasizing youth jobs crisis. Then, we have had announcements to replicate existing programs: for instance, on top of the existing credential recognition fund, to create another, separate credential recognition fund without really contending with the fact that the government's existing programs are not working to meet the crisis we have. I think Canadians are very disappointed by the performance of the government on this file.”
“In response to these events, Conservatives have put forward the Conservative youth jobs plan, which highlights our response, what we are constructively proposing to the government and suggesting it implement as part of the upcoming budget. Our proposal is to unleash the economy, fix immigration, fix training and build homes where the jobs are. This is a plan with detailed policy behind it that we have put to the government and encouraged it, again, in the constructive spirit Canadians expect of us, to implement. Unfortunately, we have not seen any jobs plan from the government. In fact, it has taken to denigrating our constructive proposals rather than seriously engaging with them. This is unfortunate.”
“Over 460,000 are currently unemployed, and we are getting closer and closer to 15% unemployment for young people. This is a serious problem. It responds to clear policy failures from the government, failures on the economy, immigration, training and a number of other areas. We have been hearing about how the cost of living crisis, the price of groceries and the price of housing are contributing to unemployment, because it makes it harder and harder for employers to be able to afford a living wage when what is required to live in Canada is much more than it used to be because of the increase in the cost of things.”