Larry Maguire

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I am really glad to see that my colleague from Quebec agrees with me in regard to our Conservative idea of taking some of the government buildings we have and turning them into affordable housing. I think affordable housing has proven to be the area of most need in Canada.

I wonder if he could expand on anything else, besides using those buildings for affordable housing, he thinks would be of benefit to those who cannot afford a home today, and what he thinks of the idea of taking the GST off of homes built by anyone, but particularly younger people in Canada, that are under a million dollars.

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the member made some good points, but after nine years, there have been too few homes built in Canada to come anywhere close to keeping pace with the need.

It is very obvious in the fact that the only thing that has happened is that rents, mortgages and housing costs have doubled. However, the Liberals do not think that taking the GST off any homes built below a million dollars would be helpful. It certainly would be to the young people I speak to.

Can the member for Kings—Hants indicate why the Liberals have not been anywhere near successful in meeting the demand?

[Committees of the House, December 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, the hon. member across the way is putting words in my colleague from B.C.'s mouth here—

[Privilege, December 2nd, 2024]

Madam Speaker, in my speech this morning, I talked about accountability and transparency. I will ask my colleague about what she just mentioned about transparency and accountability. As much as I may like fruitcake more than she does, a couple of people across the way are acting like squirrels chasing nuts around. They are trying to pick up the nuts and put them in a tree so that they can be dealt with after the next election. We will deal with it after the next election.

However, there is a real conflict of interest here, and maybe this is why they are trying to distract us. We have already seen one minister who has been taken out of the government. We are very concerned about the fact that there may be more ministers. If the SDTC scandal is unveiled, more ministers across the way will be fired.

I wonder if my colleague could comment on that.

[Privilege, December 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member said that the RCMP did not want any more documents. The RCMP does not have to have more documents; it just has to get the same ones it has, unredacted.

[Privilege, December 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. parliamentary secretary had listened to my speech, he would know that I said this is not a left or a right issue, it is about accountability for Canadian taxpayers' money.

The Liberal government has been distracting the Canadian public and the press away from just about everything except their own accountability for the last six months. It was prior to the House rising in June that these documents were to be presented. The ones the government presented were so blacked out, there was no point in even presenting them.

The Liberals are covering up the biggest $400-million scandal in Canadian history, by their actions through the Sustainable Development Technology Canada board of directors that has not been accountable. The Liberals appointed all nine directors, and they are not taking accountability for it today. Why the cover-up?

[Privilege, December 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we just went through the Association of Manitoba Municipalities elections in Manitoba. We have a new vice-president who comes from my constituency, whom I respect very much.

It speaks to accountability in all levels of government. We have a situation here where if we were greedy and trying to confiscate things, it would refer to the Liberal government backed by the NDP, or we would have already had an election to get to the bottom of it.

[Privilege, December 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his excellent question, and I apologize for not getting the translation right the first time.

I want to commend him for it, because in my own constituency, I have French communities. I grew up with and went to school with persons of French culture and heritage in my own little area of southwest Manitoba. We are certainly a bilingual province with St. Boniface and St. Vital.

My colleagues from all sides of the House acknowledge that in Manitoba and want to continue to get to the bottom of issues like this scandal, so that we can get on with important issues like what my colleague from Quebec just raised. One of the biggest issues is to provide accountability and respectability amongst all Canadians, and it does not matter what province we come from.

[Privilege, December 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if I could get the member to repeat the question. It was not coming through in the translation.

[Privilege, December 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for that excellent question, because he makes the point that I was trying to in this speech as well that everything the Liberals are doing these days is a distraction from what Canadians really expect them to do, which is to get to the bottom of why we had a Sustainable Development Technology Canada scandal in the first place, so we can get back to work on issues that matter.

I will just read a bit of the speech that I could not get done with when I was railing on some of the Liberal points that I was trying to make ad lib.

Let us ensure that Canadians have success for affordable housing. Let us lower the cost of living by axing the carbon tax and delivering common-sense solutions. Let us restore safety to our streets by ending catch-and-release policies. Above all, let us restore trust in government demonstrating transparency and accountability.

I think that is exactly what my hon. colleague from Barrie—Innisfil was speaking about.