Working Collaboratively With Provincial Governments

Plus more dissent on hunting rifle ban, saying 'no' to creeping tech censorship and more...

Working Collaboratively With Provincial Governments

Right now, there are over one million job vacancies across Canada. I hear often from constituents about their desire to see politicians work together. I have been making a deliberate effort to meet with provincial labour and immigration ministers. We have critical needs for skilled trades workers, and many other professionals. Immigration is a key piece to solve the issue. I met with Alberta Minister of Trade, Immigration and Multiculturalism Rajan Sawhney to discuss backlogs and giving Alberta more autonomy in processing immigrant applications. I also met with Ontario Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Monte McNaughton to discuss immigration to Ontario and identify the main challenges to his province achieving its goals of a better workplace and better wages.

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More Dissent on C-21 Hunting Rifle Ban

Late November, a Liberal MP introduced an amendment to bill C-21 that, if passed, would ban millions of hunting rifles with a new prohibition of any ‘rifle or shotgun, that is capable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner and that is designed to accept a detachable cartridge magazine with a capacity greater than five cartridges.’ Effectively, this will massively expand the law to impact hunters, sports shooters and Indigenous subsistence hunters

The response from Canada’s hunting community was immediate. The Coalition for Canadian Firearm Rights (CCFR) came to Parliament to share their concern about the overreach. But, with NDP support, there was nothing that would stop the Liberals from ramming through their overreach on hunting firearms.

Then the cracks started to show.

First, Liberal MP Brendan Hanley agreed with conservatives that the bill was overreaching and sought clarification on the amendment. Until his concerns were addressed, he said he could not support it.

Soon after, another Liberal MP broke rank and shared his reservations about C-21. From the article, he is quoted:

“I have spoken to the minister in charge, (Public Safety Minister) Marco Mendicino, and I’ve indicated to him that he doesn’t have my full support until I really understand this and until I’m completely convinced (the bill) won’t affect hunters, sport shooters and trappers in the North. I have also indicated that I’m not satisfied that his people have done a good enough job to consult.”

Even a prominent NDP MP shared his deep concern that his constituents, law-abiding hunters, are in the crosshairs of this misguided law called C-21.

Then, the Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s largest Indigenous organization, passed an emergency resolution opposing the legislation outright, citing infringement on their right to hunt and harvest.

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Auditor General Finds Over $30 Billion in Questionable Spending

I previously documented some instances of problematic contracts issued by the federal government during the COVID pandemic. Conservatives warned that wasteful spending would result in a cost-of-living crisis. We called for proper oversight over pandemic spending as the Prime Minister spent more than all of his predecessors combined. Hundreds of millions of dollars went to companies that either had ties to the Liberals, went bankrupt, were drastically overpaid, or sold items that were not even needed. Of the nearly $600 billion that had been spent since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, over a third of expenditures, $205 billion, had nothing to do with COVID at all.  

What we are now learning is there are more significant problems with pandemic spending than previously understood. The Auditor General, conducting a deep dive into the $210 billion in payments sent out via the federal government’s major financial aid programs, confirmed that a minimum of $27.4 billion in suspicious COVID-19 benefit payments requires further investigation due to poor management. The report chronicles numerous shocking CERB payments, such as $1.6 billion to individuals who appear to have quit their jobs (instead of losing it due to COVID-19), $6.1 million to prisoners and $1.2 million in payments to dead people. The AG noted that the federal government will likely fail to recover significant amounts in overpayments. That is on top of $4.6 billion that were confirmed to be government overpayments across the variety of COVID programs launched since the start of the pandemic. In the case of the $100 billion wage subsidy, the report estimates $15.5 billion in overpayments, with no standards or metrics to judge the program’s success.  

When confronted with the results of the report, Minister Lebouthilier – the minister responsible for the Canada Revenue Agency — claimed the AG’s report was “exaggerated” and suggested that the results were politically motivated, doubling down twice on the allegation when pressed for answers in Parliament during question period.

Canadians are suffering as a result.  Forty-year highs in inflation and unprecedented labour shortages are pushing our economy to the brink. One in five Canadians are skipping meals, 1.5 million Canadians are visiting food banks in a single month – half of which are children. Credit card debt is at a record high. It takes 67% of income to service a traditional mortgage, and average rent across Canada is nearly $2000 a month. Inflationary waste is driving up the cost of living. And yet, the Liberals are determined to double down on this failed inflationary approach with current and future programs. Canadians can no longer afford this government.   

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Saying No To Big Tech Censorship

The Peoples’ Republic of China’s COVID-zero policy has reached a peak amongst the people. Countless protests and demonstrations have been happening against the cruel policy. Images and videos have been passed along to the media through smartphones for the world to see the way the PRC has been treating its citizens. One way data is shared is by using the Airdrop function on Apple devices. Bypassing the censorship walls that coat the country has been a great help to demonstrators, however, a few weeks ago, Apple disabled the Airdrop function in the PRC, hobbling efforts to pass information securely.

This week, conservatives passed a motion with unanimous support, condemning Apple and other tech giants for their part in helping the PRC muzzle the voices of peaceful protesters. Big Tech is seeming less and less an ally of free speech. A very troubling trend.