Speaker Agrees the Liberal Government Failed to Protect MPs from Foreign Interference

Plus, NDP-Liberals building homes at a snail's pace, hard drugs recriminalized in B.C., attending the National Prayer Breakfast, and hearing back from my constituents.

Speaker Finds Liberals Allowed MP Rights were Violated by Inaction

As I talked about in last week’s edition of Resuming Debate, I was one of 18 parliamentarians targeted by the People’s Republic of China state-sponsored hacking group called APT31, also known by its full name as Advanced Persistent Threat 31. The attack was a pixel reconnaissance attack, which works by embedding a tracking pixel in a photograph or image that is sent by email to the target, and when you open the email, loading the image of, say, a headline and image associated with the article, then various information is taken from your device and sent to APT31. This PRC foreign interference attack was one of many directed toward vocal critics of their totalitarian regime, and it raises multiple questions regarding Canada’s ability to uphold its sovereignty and national security.  

While it is already infuriating enough that China state-sponsored hackers were targeting Canadian parliamentarians, such as myself, it is almost more infuriating that I only learned of this attack last week from United States officials, a foreign government, and not our own. It is not only unacceptable that the Liberal government did not inform parliamentarians about being targeted by this attack; it is immoral and unethical. 

I did not get a chance last week to speak in Parliament at length about the ramifications of this attack, however, I was recognized late Wednesday night once the Speaker ruled Liberal government inaction was a violation of the rights of parliamentarians.

Watch parts of my speech in Parliament as I share my outrage that the Liberal government failed in their moral and ethical responsibility to inform those targeted:

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NDP-Liberals Building Homes at a Snail’s Pace

Housing is a multi-generational problem. It is a central focus of mine and I have frequently given speeches in Parliament or written op-eds strongly criticizing the Liberal government’s approach to solving the housing crisis. After nine years, the NDP-Liberals finally realized how dire the situation has been for Canadians amidst collapsing poll numbers and a worsening economic crisis, so they pitched a series of half-baked gimmicks that come up short to being a real defensible plan. Let me take the time to throw some numbers your way. 

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2023 report stated that Canada needs 3.5 million homes built by 2030 just to restore housing affordability. Let’s break that down. Canada had 240,000 housing starts in 2023, already down from 271,000 starts in 2022 and is further expected to go down. Nevertheless, let’s subtract that. That leaves 3,260,000 homes. That is about 543,000 homes per year. And 10,449 homes per week, or 62 homes per hour, or about 1 home per minute. That is how many homes we need right now to achieve housing affordability. With their record of failure how confident are you they can meet this need?

Let’s take a look at the NDP-Liberal government’s numbers. They classify their housing plan as a “bold strategy” to “unlock 3.87 million new homes by 2031.” However, the devil is in the details. The 3.87 million figure includes a “minimum of 2 million net new homes,” on top of the CMHC’s forecast of “1.87 million being built anyway by 2031.” They go on to say that federal actions in Budget 2024 will support “at least 1.2 million homes,” but they delegate the other 800,000 homes to “all orders of government.” So, in essence, they have committed to 1.2 million homes. Here is that number broken down: 171,429 homes per year. 3,297 homes per week. 12 homes per hour. This is a fraction of our current needs, let alone the needs for the next several years.

These numbers prove one thing: the NDP-Liberal government committed themselves to performing below their own metrics and standards. Their numbers fall short of the existing housing starts and completions over the past several years, which means we will fall even further behind the CMHC’s 3.5 million target for homes needed right now. 

To make matters worse, they have promised to throw $15 billion at building just 30,000 new apartments in urban, suburban, and rural areas, a cost of $500,000 per apartment. That used to be the cost of an apartment just a few years ago. They do not mention the type of apartments they plan to build either, so we do not know how many will be housed in these units once they are finally built. 

Time and time again, the NDP-Liberals believe that throwing money at the problem is the solution, even when they are proven wrong. Over $100 billion in spending has been announced solely for the housing crisis since they formed government in 2015, yet prices of new homes continue to skyrocket and building costs increase. We are short of residential construction workers and they keep disencentiving the trades in favour of more university education, many without a clear path to a meaningful, well paying middle class career.

Common Sense Conservatives will restore hope and bring back the dream of homeownership for Canadians. To learn more about how Conservatives will restore housing affordability, click below to read our model legislation to address the problem, the Building Homes Not Bureaucracy Act.

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Hard Drugs Recriminalized in B.C.

Yes, you read that correctly.

This past week, the NDP-Liberal government approved the NDP-run British Columbia’s request to “recriminalize” hard drug use after their failed experiment to decriminalize deadly drugs such as fentanyl, heroin, meth, and opioids, among others. The federal government allowed the B.C. government to decriminalize hard drugs in what they believed would divert those suffering from drug addiction away from the criminal justice system. What happened instead was drug deaths increased by nearly 400 percent while violent crime continued to rise. Despite B.C.’s failed experiment, the NDP-Liberals have not committed to rejecting Toronto and Montreal’s request to decriminalize hard drugs. 

Common Sense Conservatives introduced a motion this past week calling on the NDP-Liberals to reject Toronto and Montreal’s request to decriminalize hard drugs, as well as to reject other provinces or municipalities. Our motion also called for the government to end taxpayer-funded hard narcotics and redirect this money into treatment and recovery programs for drug addiction.

The NDP-Liberals have dedicated over $1 billion to the opioid crisis, including announcing $359 million in Budget 2023. Furthermore, they spent over $100 million on so-called “safe supply,” and Budget 2023 promised nearly $220 million on “safe supply” projects (amongst other things). What are the results of their expenditure? Since 2015, over 42,000 Canadians have died from a drug overdose, a 166 percent increase. In 2023, toxic drugs claimed the lives of 1,706 Albertans. 

It is evidently clear that the NDP-Liberals are not worth the cost and are not committed to protecting our loved ones who are suffering from drug addiction. A Conservative government will reintroduce the full ban on hard drugs, stop taxpayer-funded drug consumption sites, and focus on detox and recovery. 

Watch my colleague and fellow Conservative Albertan MP Laila Goodridge’s video on the NDP-Liberal’s failed “safe supply” experiment. 

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Attending the 59th National Prayer Breakfast

One of my personal highlights every year as a Member of Parliament is to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, which I had the privilege to attend on Tuesday, May 7. This event is the longest-running interfaith breakfast in Canada and brings together representatives of all national political parties represented in Parliament. This year’s breakfast was its 59th edition and was attended by both the Prime Minister of Canada and the Leader of the Official Opposition. The ceremony presented attendees an opportunity to reflect on the importance of servant leadership and the role that prayer has for parliamentarians and Canadians across the country.

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Hearing from You!

Over the past year, my office has sent household mailers to residents of Calgary Shepard so I can hear about the issues that you care about. Before I share some of the findings, I want to give a special thanks to all those who took the time to fill out those mailers. Your responses help me understand the common sentiment of Calgary Shepard, which helps me better represent you in Parliament. 

After hearing from you, it is quite clear that the hard-working residents of Calgary Shepard are feeling the strain from the high cost of living, particularly due to the carbon tax and the high inflationary spending of this government. Additionally, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the Liberal broken immigration system, rising mortgage and rent prices, and our country’s passive national defence and sovereignty when it comes to foreign interference, plus many other issues. 

Here are some of the polling results from those mailers regarding recent legislation that has been introduced in Parliament.

See results below:

Supporting Conservatives in Green Lighting Energy Projects:

Axe the Carbon Tax:

NDP Bill C-372 that Proposes to Ban Oil and Gas Promotion:

Once again, thank you for taking the time to respond to these mailers. Be sure to be on the lookout for when the next one comes.