Ken Hardie

[Electoral Participation Act, June 17th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the Conservative leader refuses to get security clearance, so the Conservative leader will not know who in his caucus either deserves not to be in the caucus, or deserves not to be given the leader's signature to run in the next election.

Would my hon. colleague suggest that the Conservative caucus is a safe place for MPs who might be working against Canada?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1, June 17th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I think the hon. member's comments give rise to that old saying that we can put all the accountants end to end, and they will never reach a conclusion. I wanted to quote a few things from the International Monetary Fund and get the hon member's reaction to that. It says, “Canada's fiscal track record continues to compare favourably to many other advanced economies.... Debt remains low in international comparison”. It also says, “The increase in the capital gains inclusion rate improves the tax system's neutrality with respect to different forms of capital income and is likely to have no significant impact on investment or productivity growth.”

That does not suggest that things are going to go to hell in a handbasket. I am just wondering, with what the hon. member has read and with what I have just mentioned, if there is some kind of disconnect that she could explain.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1, June 17th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, yes, there is alternate news here all right. Inflation in 2011 was 2.91%. It is now 2.7%. I wanted to also mention that in the summer of 2015, Canada was still technically in recession from the downturn in 2009, and it is simply because the Harper government turned off the taps way too soon. It took until we came along, recovering from the pandemic, when we added over a million jobs and cut the poverty rate and the unemployment rate significantly. Therefore, I wonder whether the hon. member could go back and kind of revise his perspective on things.

[Online Harms Act, June 7th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it was very good to hear the word “quickly” in the hon. member's comments. When something gets posted, it gets propagated at the speed of light. We heard earlier today in the debate that there were questions about using existing mechanisms to deal with this, but existing mechanisms are notoriously slow.

What factors would need to be considered in this bill to, in essence, use the precautionary principle? If it looks awful, there should be a way of dealing with it very quickly and not just leaving it up there while some process works its way through.

Can the hon. member comment on that?

[Committees of the House, June 5th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the seventh interim report of the Special Committee on the Canada-People's Republic of China Relationship, entitled “The Special Committee on the Canada-People's Republic of China Relations condemns the verdict of Hong Kong's High Court on pro-democracy activists”.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

[Human Rights in China, June 4th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, as we consider the relationship between Canada and China, I am rising today to mark the 35th anniversary of the massacre of those who joined the movement for democracy in China in Tiananmen Square.

In response to that movement, which spread to 400 cities and, according to observers, caused deep divisions within the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the decision was made on June 2, 1989, to send in the military to put an end to the protest.

Nobody knows the cost in terms of the lives taken on June 4 or in what had been a gradual shift to a more liberal society for China, but the level of suppression ramped up significantly. Today, one can be arrested anywhere in China or in Hong Kong if one dares to comment on or to observe this anniversary.

Democracy is a resilient force, and thousands of Chinese diaspora here in Canada and around the world are speaking up today on behalf of the Chinese people who must mark the day and harbour hopes for the future in silence.

[Business of Supply, June 4th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, earlier today, we heard our Conservative friends talk about the carbon tax, manufacturers making obscene profits on the backs of Canadians, and the big grocery chains. If that was the case, if that was the true cause of high food prices, would the grocery chain profits not have been much lower, if in fact their input costs had been jacked up so high?

How does the member assess the Conservative message to Canadians on this issue?

[Business of Supply, June 4th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I did an analysis, following publicly available data from credible sources. It said that the impact of the carbon tax on a loaf of bread in a jurisdiction where the federal plan applies is 0.2¢ a loaf.

With that, I will ask the hon. member whether the Conservatives need to be called out on the narrative they continue to spin, which is that somehow the carbon tax is responsible for high food prices and maybe the corporate profits.

[Business of Supply, June 4th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I have been on the fisheries committee since 2015, and we have just witnessed a huge run of red herring. I think there should be a harvest, actually.

Is the member who just spoke comfortable with the fact that big grocery racked up $6 billion in profits last year? Was it too much, not enough or just right? What does he think?

[Business of Supply, June 4th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, we should do something pre-emptive here, because when it is time for the Conservative Party to speak on this, I anticipate an attack on supply management. We have seen that from some Conservatives. We have seen it from Conservative media commentaries.

Does the NDP support supply management and will it rebuff any attempt to blame high food prices on this measure?