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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Every one of 885 lines we hold for Garnett Genuis, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 12 of 18.
“Mr. Speaker, this evening we are discussing the jobs crisis facing Canadian young people. Conservatives have been sounding the alarm about this jobs crisis ever since the last election and, in fact, in many ways before that. The crisis has continued to get worse. Over the last three years since we came out of the pandemic, unemployment numbers have continued to go up, especially for young people, so it is not just something that has happened in recent months, but something that has continued to get worse in recent months. This is now, I think we can say, a metastasizing crisis that affects not only the present but the future, as young people miss out on the critical skills and points of development that come with those first jobs. Right now, we are approaching half a million unemployed young people between the ages of 15 and 24.”
“Mr. Speaker, that is a very important question. I think that ministers have to be able to answer reasonable questions about the effects of their bill. This is not an opposition bill we are talking about; it is a choice made by the government. It chose this path even though it had a number of other options in the field of immigration and citizenship. However, the government is unable to answer basic questions about implementing its own proposal.”
“Mr. Speaker, I agree that this is an important and legitimate question. Do I know the answer? No, because it is obviously the government's job to answer that question. They decided to introduce this bill. They should therefore be able to answer reasonable questions. How many people will be affected by these changes? What impact will this have on employment or on the health care system? There are other examples. It is clear that the government has not taken these impacts into consideration.”
“It was their 10 years of failure that led to the mess we have, and now the best they can say is they are going to try to fix it.”
“Mr. Speaker, that is the kind of gross misstatement of our position that members have come to expect from the member for Winnipeg North . We are going to be debating against each other in Winnipeg on November 12. The member has committed to booking the hall and picking me up at the airport, so I am looking forward to that. We will continue this conversation. I will pick up on one thing the member said and highlight the absurdity of it. He said the Prime Minister is committed to “stabilizing our numbers”. The Liberals have been here for 10 years, and they want to say now that they are committed to stabilizing the numbers, without any acknowledgement of how they became unstable in the first place. It was not some act of nature that destabilized the immigration numbers and now the Prime Minister is going to come in and fix them. No.”
“(1650) The bill says that if I move out of Canada, it would be possible for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren after them to continue to be Canadian citizens, provided that in each generation, people make a few extended visits to this country. That does not align with the best of our tradition. It is a further diminishment of what common citizenship is supposed to be about, which is being a community of people from diverse backgrounds who are committed to advancing and defending the common good together. We need to go back to a stronger sense of Canadian citizenship based on shared attachment and a commitment to the common good.”
“The Liberals' priority is not to clean up the mess they created in immigration or make the system more effective, efficient or aligned with our interests, but to provide a further expansion of the ability of people who might not have any substantial connection to Canada yet have some Canadian ancestry to gain citizenship. The legislation is particularly poorly aligned with what Canada is supposed to be about. Canada is supposed to be about the fact that citizenship is not based on ancestry but on a commitment individuals make to this place and to each other. That is what our citizenship is supposed to be about. As Cartier said, we are one political nation. We are not defined by common ancestry; rather, we are defined by being one common community that includes people of different linguistic, religious and ethnocultural backgrounds.”
“Thus, in the last 10 years, the government wrecked the consensus we had around support for what was at the time a well-managed, effective and generous immigration system. Here we are today. We need to fix immigration, and we especially need to align our immigration system with the economic needs of our country. Instead of putting forward a plan to fix immigration to align it with the needs of our economy, we have this legislation. The Liberals want to put in place a framework that would allow a family to live outside Canada, generation after generation, with no limit, and continue to pass on Canadian citizenship infinitely, provided that people visit Canada during that period of time.”
“By the way, when the immigration issue was brought up at the human resources committee, the Liberals objected, saying it is not related to the committee's mandate. The human resources committee is supposed to be studying the impacts of various policies on youth unemployment. The Liberals do not want to talk about one of the primary causes of youth unemployment, which, according to economists, is an immigration system that is poorly aligned with our labour market. Needless to say, prior to the government being in power, there was a consensus in support of an immigration system that was fair, generous, worked well and aligned well with the needs of our country. We can help the most vulnerable and defend and advance our economic interests. It takes focus, discipline and precision, which the government has not had.”
“We have proposed a number of different programs and methods that would force results, instead of pouring more money into the problem without a clear direction or vision of how it will be solved. If we have one fund that is supposed to be doing this, why are they creating an additional fund that is supposed to be doing the same thing as the first? I would love to know what results the minister thinks that replication of an existing structure is going to achieve. Canadians are not interested in more Liberal announcements. They are interested in a real plan that will deliver results. We have profound failures in immigration that need to be fixed. I would love to see the government put forward legislation to address some of these problems in the immigration system.”
“I found it quite interesting that recently, the Liberal minister responsible for this area announced the intention to create a new fund to try to solve this problem without appreciating or acknowledging that an existing federal fund is supposed to be doing this. Maybe the minister should acknowledge it. Rather than creating a separate fund on top of the existing fund, we should hear what the minister thinks of the performance of the existing fund. (1645) Clearly, there has been a failure to address this issue of credentials recognition, which is exacerbating the challenges we see in youth unemployment. Conservatives have been highlighting this issue of credentials recognition as an important way to resolve challenges we see across our economy.”
“Identifying people with the right credentials and qualifying people to work when they come to Canada are critical for aligning our immigration system with the needs of our labour market, yet we have seen over the last 10 years a persistent failure to do this. We have all heard the stories of people with incredible qualifications who come to Canada and work entry-level jobs just to get by and provide for their families. I want to salute the sacrifice and virtue of the individuals who are willing to do that. At the same time, it is a broken system that forces people to be in that situation when they have credentials they could be using to benefit our country and are not.”
“When we fail to have an effective credential recognition system for newcomers, it hurts our job market in two ways. When someone comes with a skill they could be using to fill an essential skill gap but is instead forced to work an entry-level job, that person is not filling the area where a skill is needed. Meanwhile, they are competing with a young person for an entry-level position. It is a loss for those trying to enter the workforce, who are facing more competition, and a loss for employers looking for people they can identify at higher skill levels. Effective credential recognition is critical.”
“There are four elements to that youth jobs plan: unleash the Canadian economy, fix immigration, fix training and build homes where the jobs are. Let us focus particularly on the subject of today's debate, which is immigration. The Liberals have broken our immigration system. They have failed to align our immigration system with the needs of our labour market. There are many ways in which this is evident. We had economists testify before the human resources committee about how Liberal immigration policies have exacerbated competition for entry-level positions while failing to identify the skills we need and bringing people in to fill those skills. One area where this is quite evident is the Liberal failures on credential recognition.”
“I want to start by highlighting the context of where we are with immigration and how it relates to some of the work I have been doing as the Conservative shadow minister for jobs. Members know or should know that we have a serious metastasizing youth unemployment crisis facing this country. The nature of that crisis is simply that youth unemployment is now at 14.7%. The numbers have continued to grow, approaching a 15% youth unemployment rate. Over 460,000 young Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 are presently unemployed, so, yes, it is a youth unemployment crisis. Not only have the Liberals been asleep at the switch, but their policies have been making the problem worse. They do not have a plan to address it. They do not have a plan to reverse the damage their policies have done. We have put forward a Conservative youth jobs plan.”
“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address the House today with respect to Bill C-3 to highlight some of the real problems with the government's approach to immigration. We have seen, over the last 10 years, the profound failures of the government's approach to immigration. Rather than confront those failures, the government is proposing legislation that would further weaken our immigration system. We have grave concerns about the approach the Liberals are taking and how they have tried to deceptively bundle weakening provisions with a few things that we proposed in the past. They have bundled some of those good propositions with the significant problems they have integrated into this bill that will weaken Canadian citizenship. I will lay that out in a few minutes.”
“The petitioners say that Canadians do not want an ableist health care system where the lives of those with disabilities are seen as not worth living. The petitioners propose, in this case, that the government protect all Canadians whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable by prohibiting euthanasia for those whose prognosis for natural death is more than six months.”
“Mr. Speaker, if members want more petitions, please ask, but the final petition I will table this evening deals with the issue of euthanasia. The petitioners are concerned in particular about the adverse effects of the current euthanasia regime on people with disabilities. They note that allowing so-called medical assistance in dying for those with disabilities or chronic illness devalues their lives, tacitly endorsing the notion that life with disability is optional and by extension dispensable. The petitioners highlight concerns about how offering euthanasia as a “solution” for disability or chronic illness reduces incentives to improve the treatment and care of people with those conditions.”
“They want to see the government table regular reports in the House on the human rights situation in North Korea, including to highlight a number of prison camps, like Kwan-li-so and Kyo-hwa-so, which they would like us to pay particular attention to. The petitioners want the government to advocate for North Korean defectors and refugees so their rights are protected and so they are allowed safe passage to South Korea, where they will be able to live and be recognized as citizens. They want us to promote human rights in North Korea and engage internationally and work collaboratively with other countries and bodies to promote political freedoms for the people of North Korea. I commend this petition to members for their consideration.”
“Mr. Speaker, the next petition I would like to table highlights and raises concern about human rights abuses in North Korea. The petitioners identify a number of aspects of this worsening human rights situation: the prioritization of food distribution to those considered useful to the existing regime; the vast security apparatus that suppresses dissent through coercion, surveillance, fear and punishment; the public executions; and the state-sponsored abductions of citizens of other nations. The petitioners further draw attention to human rights abuses involved in the rendition of North Korean refugees from the People's Republic of China, despite the human rights abuses they are subject to. The petitioners call on the House to take action on this.”
“They want to see the government develop a plan and report to Parliament on progress towards job creation, training alignment and youth labour market participation.”
“The petitioners raise concerns as well about how immigration policy is impacting the youth unemployment crisis, and how immigration policies have not been well aligned with our labour market needs. Further, the rising cost of living makes it harder for young people to afford housing near or where available jobs are and for businesses to attract and retain employees. Persistent youth unemployment weakens Canada's economy and social well-being. The petitioners want the Government of Canada to do what Conservatives have already done, which is to present a clear plan to reduce youth unemployment developed in consultation with young Canadians, employers and educators. Conservatives have already done that through the Conservative youth jobs plan.”
“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to table a petition on a very sombre subject, which is the ongoing youth unemployment crisis. Youth unemployment is approaching 15%. More than 460,000 young people aged 15 to 24 are out of work. The petitioners highlight that youth unemployment is alarmingly high across Canada. They note that the current situation leaves many Canadians in these critical formative years unable to secure stable, full-time employment, despite having education and the skills and being ready to work. They also highlight that training and skill development programs have not kept pace with the realities of Canada's labour market, and that many young people are left without the skills that align with what employers are looking for.”
“Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned some important issues. Of course, if the Liberals were serious about getting real bail reform through this House, they would have supported our motion, which advanced the jail not bail legislation of the hon. member for Oxford . Sadly, they do not support real bail reform, which is why they did not support our efforts to move it forward. They are the ones obstructing the work that needs to happen.”
“We have a well-connected Prime Minister coming from that world, and he paved the way to moving jobs out of this country. It goes to show that elite corporatist decision-making very often does not align with the interests of workers and Canadian families, and that the kind of model he advocates in his book is not one that aligns with anything many Canadians would like to see. I will sit down and invite the member for Winnipeg North to respond.”
“This is a big problem, and I think we are going to see the implications of it going forward from a Prime Minister who believes in elite corporatist decision-making and who is connected to and invested in many of the corporations that could well benefit from that process. If we want to talk about what is aligned with our values and what is going to advance the common good, I note we have a jobs crisis right now in this country, and we are seeing more decisions that lead companies to move jobs out of the country. These are companies like Stellantis, which received significant government subsidies and chose to move jobs out of the country. We sadly have a Prime Minister who led by example. Brookfield's corporate headquarters was moved out of the country while he was running the show.”
“In opposition to that approach, the Conservatives believe in genuinely free markets and open and transparent democratic decision-making where, yes, we deliberate about the common good, but where all of society, a much broader range of individuals, is able to participate in discussions and decisions about the common good and where economic activity is driven by creative competition in which all businesses can take part, not in which there are a small number of favoured elites. There is an elite corporatist philosophy coming from the Prime Minister , and it is combined with a personal reality in which he is personally invested in or connected to many of the companies that could play a consequential role in benefiting from the corporate-government relationship the Prime Minister has advocated for.”
“To a lot of people, the language used in the Prime Minister 's book Values , such as elite corporatism or stakeholder capitalism, whatever one calls it, sounds nice in a sense because the implication is that people will be coming together and discussing the common good. However, in practice, what it ends up being is a small circle of elite and powerful people coming together and theorizing about what the common good is, while doing a lot of things that are particularly in their own interest.”
“With Bill C-5 , the government did not choose to reform the assessment process. Instead, it said it is going to create an opportunity to fully abridge that process for certain favoured companies or favoured projects. (1805) What we see developing with the Prime Minister is the implementation of his elite corporatist agenda. It is the idea that large businesses and politicians at the elite level come together to say what they like and do not like and what they think should and should not happen, and then they provide a red carpet for favoured projects or subsidies for favoured projects or approaches, leaving in place all the existing roadblocks for other kinds of businesses and those who are not as well connected or part of the elite corporate circle involved in making these decisions.”
“I would encourage Canadians to read his book Value(s) because I think it is quite revealing about the Prime Minister’s approach to things. It is revealing in that he very much believes in this kind of stakeholder capitalist, elite capitalist model of decision-making, which is not free markets, but rather, it is elite business leaders and elite politicians getting together to make decisions, to pick winners and losers, to decide what is going to go forward and what is not going to go forward. We see the Prime Minister leaning into this elite capitalism, elite corporatism philosophy with some of the proposals he has put forward, which is, on the one hand, more government involvement and control in the market, and, on the other hand, simultaneously, government abridging processes for favoured companies.”
“For those watching at home, this is how a conflict of interest screen works. I buy a Dunkin’ Donuts, and then I put it in a blind trust. In my job as a minister, or a prime minister, a decision comes forward with a potential subsidy for Dunkin’ Donuts. It is in a blind trust, but I still know I used to invest in that. This is the problem for the whole architecture of this, frankly. If the Prime Minister made all of these investments, continues to hold the investments, knows he has them, yet is involved in decisions that would materially benefit him, even though he cannot control further decisions made with those companies, that still raises some major questions. It is important to analyze the Prime Minister 's own words and his own philosophy as it relates to relationships between corporations and government.”
“On to the subject of this debate, which will maybe be a bit of a prelude to that grand event coming up in a few weeks, we are talking about the Prime Minister ’s conflicts of interest. The Prime Minister we have in office at present is the most conflicted prime minister in this country's history. He will have to, or is supposed to, recuse himself from decisions related to more than 100 different companies he has an interest in. This conflict of interest screen will be administered, conveniently, by his chief of staff, as well the Clerk of the Privy Council. The process of a blind trust is that somebody else is making decisions about what is done going forward with those investments, but of course, a person cannot necessarily unknow what they had that was put into that conflict in the first place.”
“I have been visiting a number of university campuses precisely to ask this question to students: Are they better off or worse off than their parents generation? I know many students I talk to are telling me they are worse off as a result of the failing economic policies of the government. We can talk about economics. We can talk about foreign policy. We can talk about House procedure. I am happy to debate that member anywhere, on anything, anytime, and I think the students of Winnipeg will benefit from that greatly. This will be Wednesday, November 12 in Winnipeg, but it will be the responsibility of the member for Winnipeg North to arrange some of the logistical details and to pick me up at the airport.”
“Mr. Speaker, I do not normally plan my date schedule on the floor of the House of Commons, but since the member for Winnipeg North is so eager, this seems the right time to invite all members to join us in Winnipeg during the November break week. I will fly to Winnipeg. Wednesday, November 12 would probably be a good day. It is the day after Remembrance Day, so it is not going to conflict with anything, but students will still be in their classrooms. I will rely on the member to make some of the logistical arrangements on the ground himself, since I am providing the courtesy of flying to his hometown. This will be a great debate in front of students and other members of Parliament, I am sure.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberals love to talk about political food programs instead of affordable food. That was the question. Before Liberal inflationary spending and hidden food taxes, Canadians could actually afford to feed themselves. Parents do not want the state parenting their children for them. Parents want the government to eliminate food taxes and stop inflationary spending so they can afford to feed their kids themselves. We have the Liberal fuel standard, the food packaging tax, the industrial carbon tax and inflationary spending. When will it end?”
“Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals, food prices have gone bananas. They are so bad that one in five food bank users works full time. Even people working full time cannot afford to eat in Canada. Now food banks are feeling the crunch, jammed with 2.2 million visits in a single month, and the Liberals think Canada is ripe for more inflationary spending, which is rubbing salt on the wounds. When will Liberals stop squashing workers with their inflationary spending and realize it is time to reverse course?”
“Mr. Speaker, I do not quite follow the question. I will continue to tell the truth, as I always have in the House, which is to articulate the specific numbers around youth unemployment and crime, to call on the government to make changes that recognize the challenges their policies have created and to make things better.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are focused on the past. It is a past when, objectively, housing prices were much lower and crime, rent and unemployment were lower. We think that noting the numbers from the past is important, but so is looking to the future and casting a vision that gives young people hope once again. The reality is that many young people are concerned about what their future will be like because of policies of the Liberal government. It is not enough to manifest hope; we need concrete proposals. That is why we have put forward the Conservative youth jobs plan that would reverse bad Liberal policies and get young people back to work.”
“Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleagues are going to study the specific provisions of this bill in committee. We will have the opportunity to listen to witnesses and expert analysis, and I know that we will be able to respond based on this expertise and propose ideas following the discussions.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is very simple. I will encourage the member to consult the labour force survey, which comes out every month from Statistics Canada and reveals the state of the job numbers. He may not like spending changes or decisions made by the previous government, but objectively, young people were better off, our streets were safer, crime rates were lower, housing prices and rent were way lower and job numbers were higher. Objectively, we have the worst employment rate for young people in more than 25 years. The Liberals want to measure success by intentions and government spending. We measure success by results that are available from Statistics Canada. The government should hold itself accountable to results, not rhetoric.”
“We call on the Liberals to adopt Conservative jail, not bail legislation and to adopt the Conservative youth jobs plan. Those are the solutions we need.”
“Rather than calling on other people to make sacrifices, the government should have the humility to recognize its own policy failures and how the choices it has made on the economy, on crime, on immigration and in many areas have led to a situation where young people are more pessimistic about the future than they used to be. We are here in this House to talk about restoring opportunity for young people and about restoring hope. I believe our country can have a bright future, but it is in the hands of the members of this House to make that future happen. It is not by sticking our heads in the sand like an ostrich that we make a future better for young people. It is by confronting the real data and real challenges when it comes to public safety and youth unemployment and making things better.”
“The government is constantly trying to externalize the source of these problems, yet we know that rates of violent crime were dropping prior to the current government coming into office and began increasing as soon as the government came into office. This is because the Liberal government made policy choices around more generous bail for repeat violent criminals. It made policy choices that got us here. We will certainly study the provisions in Bill C-12 in detail. We look forward to the study that will take place at committee. However, there has been a complete failure by the Liberal government over the last 10 years to take public safety and crime seriously. It has not recognized that it is Liberal bail, Liberal policy choices and bills proposed and passed by the government that got us into this situation in the first place.”
“I was at Concordia University in Montreal yesterday speaking to young people about the situation, asking them whether they were better or worse off than the previous generation. Many young people are worried about their future. They have already suffered so much, yet the Prime Minister , rather than taking responsibility for 10 years of Liberal failures, is telling them that they will have to sacrifice even more. It is time for the government to stop blaming others and take responsibility for its own failures. As we talk today about Bill C-12 , the same is true when it comes to public safety and criminal justice.”
“It is not to take responsibility for the failures of the Liberals over the last 10 years, but to blame the victims of bad Liberal policies. The Liberal approach is to constantly frame the problems we face as a country as if they are somebody else's fault and somebody else needs to take action other than the people who made the policies that got us there in the first place. We have put forward a Conservative youth jobs plan to reverse the harm done by the Liberals. We have invited them to adopt that plan, but not only have they failed to adopt our jobs plan; they have not even put forward a plan of their own. Their policies attacking energy and job creation, which are pushing the essentials of life out of reach, are making young people increasingly worried about their future.”
“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to join the debate on Bill C-12 . Yesterday, the Prime Minister spoke to young people. This might have been an opportunity for him to apologize for the 10 years of Liberal failures that have led to historically high unemployment for young people. We are now at a point where the employment rate for young people is the worst it has been in over 25 years. Youth unemployment is approaching half a million young people. It is approaching a rate of 15%. What is the response of the government to this catastrophe created by its own policy decisions? It is to tell young people that they need to give up more, that they need to sacrifice more. This is the framing we see from the Prime Minister .”
“Mr. Speaker, respectfully, that nonsense answer obviously had nothing to do with the question. When we are talking about youth unemployment, I think it is time for the Liberals to sacrifice their tired talking points and actually get serious about addressing the problem. Last week, we introduced the Conservative youth jobs plan to unleash the economy, fix immigration, fix training and build homes where the jobs are, so instead of preaching sacrifice, why do the Liberals not propose a youth jobs plan? Better yet, why do they not simply adopt ours?”
“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told young Canadians that there would be more sacrifices in their future. Young people are already facing a bleak future because of Liberal policies exploding housing and food prices and historic highs in unemployment. Past generations sacrificed to make life better for their children, but now young people are being told to sacrifice their future because of elite Liberal policies. Will Liberals stop breaking their promises and restore hope for the future of this country?”
“Mr. Speaker, on the subject of enforcement and crime in this country, I want to highlight and get the member's thoughts on another act of vandalism that we saw in Edmonton against a church. This was St. Clare's Parish, with some very offensive graffiti sprayed on the church. Stained glass windows were broken. I know that in this member's own riding, there have been instances of attacks on churches. When it comes to our police officers, I know many are very frustrated by the fact that they try to enforce the law, yet the government has let them down by creating a framework in which criminals are repeatedly released on bail. I wonder if the member wants to share his thoughts on these acts of vandalism against churches and how we can support police officers who want to enforce the law.”
“The government has spent 10 years running down trades workers and the sectors they work in by attacking the natural resource sector, by attacking the forestry sector and by undermining the value of trades work. When will it get a plan?”