Today's Question Period

“Mr. Speaker, Canada needs a pipeline to the Pacific Ocean so we can sell more of our products overseas, somewhere other than the U.S. It will make our economy more independent and strengthen the Canadian dollar and the purchasing power of all Canadians. The Prime Minister has always been against it, but he flip-flopped last week in Alberta. When he came back to Ottawa, there was a rebellion among his MPs. I took the words straight from his agreement. Is he going to vote against his own words, or can Canadians believe what he says?”

“Mr. Speaker, eating the whole meal would be great if only Canadians could afford to buy the meal. He is talking about a carbon tax that still applies to farm equipment, to fertilizer and to those who deliver food. This has caused food inflation to the point that it now costs $17,000 a year to feed a family of four. Why will he not cut hefty taxes on groceries so Canadians can feed their families?”

“Mr. Speaker, Canada needs a pipeline to the Pacific to sell $30 billion of our energy overseas, outside of the U.S. market, making us more independent and self-reliant, and our dollar, and therefore Canadians' purchasing power, stronger. The Prime Minister always opposed the pipeline, which his party killed, but last week he flip-flopped and promised, in a deal while he was in Alberta, that he would build such a pipeline. I took the very wording right out of that deal and put it into a motion before the House of Commons. He experienced a massive rebellion in his own caucus. If he is going to vote against his own words, how can Canadians ever believe his words?”

“Mr. Speaker, I took the wording for the motion right out of the Prime Minister's deal. If he votes against the motion, he is voting against a pipeline to the Pacific; he is voting against overriding the discriminatory and anti-Canadian ban on shipping our energy abroad; he is voting against consultation with first nations people and the British Columbian government, and he is even voting against his own beloved carbon capture and storage, all of which I took word for word right out of his own deal. If the Prime Minister is in favour of pipelines only when he is in Alberta, but against them when he is in B.C. and Ottawa, how can Canadians keep track of where he stands on anything?”

“Mr. Speaker, not only do we acknowledge the obligation to consult with our first peoples, but we put it right in the motion. It is right there for the Prime Minister. We put it right there so the Prime Minister could vote for the words that he put in the agreement, but let us be honest: He never planned to honour the agreement. He whispered quietly to the “keep it in the ground” Liberal caucus, “Don't worry; there will never be a pipeline. We'll delay it until after the election, and then, God forbid, if we win, we would kill it altogether.” Why can the Prime Minister not say one thing to all Canadians and champion the pipeline with us today?”

“Mr. Speaker, we put the interties proposal right in the motion, right out of the Prime Minister's deal. We put the carbon capture right in the motion, right out of his deal. We put the pipeline and the overriding of the oil shipping ban right in the motion. It came right out of the deal that he signed. Now it is clear that the only thing the Prime Minister really cares about is that it does not include an industrial carbon tax that would drive jobs out and drive grocery prices up. Why is it that the Prime Minister wants a carbon tax without a pipeline, when what we really need is a pipeline without a carbon tax?”