Dan Mazier

Mr. Speaker, Greeting · 21 wordsbefore I begin, I want to acknowledge the sacrifice made by the brave men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces.Greeting Claims · 58 wordsOn Saturday, a fire swept through a training exercise at CFB Wainwright, ¹and Canada lost four of its brave soldiers.² These soldiers were doing exactly what we asked of them: training to defend our freedoms. I ask that all of us keep the families of these soldiers, and those fighting for their lives, in our hearts and prayers. Positioning · 74 wordsI rise today to speak to Bill C-40, which would turn the Liberals’ Defence Investment Agency into a new Crown corporation. Barely a year after creating this agency, the Liberals are already proposing to give it a new name. Canadians do not need another bureaucracy, another ministerial title or another government announcement. They need a military that has the equipment to defend our country. We cannot defend Canada with press releases or Liberal promises.Positioning Claims · 44 wordsAccording to the government’s own data, only 61.3% of military force elements were ready for operations.³ Since the agency was created last October, the Liberals have talked about speeding up defence procurement, ⁴but they have failed to deliver equipment for the Canadian Armed Forces. Positioning · 69 wordsI should also note that the Prime Minister’s friend from Goldman Sachs, Doug Guzman, was hand-picked to be the CEO of the Defence Investment Agency.⁵ He receives a taxpayer-funded salary of nearly $700,000.⁶ I think this is important to flag, because the Prime Minister has a trend of rewarding his buddies.Motive imputed While Canadians struggle to make ends meet, it has never been so good to be a Liberal insider.PositioningOff point Claims · 66 wordsThe Liberals say that this new Crown corporation will operate at arm’s length from the government, yet the bill itself says that “the Corporation must do as the Minister directs”.⁷ A Crown corporation that must follow the minister’s order is the Liberals’ definition of independence. This raises serious questions about transparency, oversight and expanded powers that would be given to the associate minister responsible for procurement. Reasoning · 21 wordsBillions of taxpayer dollars are at stake, and every one of those dollars must deliver real capability for our armed forces. Claims · 307 wordsLet us talk about the Liberal government’s record on procurement. Let us think about the last time we went grocery shopping. I know that many Canadians have flipped over a box or a jar to check where the product was made. Since the trade war with the United States began, 61% of Canadians say they are buying more Canadian products.⁸ Canadians are making an effort to support Canadian workers and Canadian businesses. However, despite Canadians’ reading labels, their own government is not. The Prime Minister has criss-crossed the country promising that Ottawa would buy Canadian. Most people have never heard how that is supposed to work, so I will explain. Every year, Public Services and Procurement Canada spends tens of billions of Canadian tax dollars on everything from software to steel.⁹ Last year, the Liberals launched their buy Canadian policy, ¹⁰which was supposed to give Canadian suppliers an advantage when the government awards big contracts. In other words, when Ottawa goes shopping, it is supposed to shop in Canada. While the Prime Minister’s buy Canadian promise sounded like common sense to most Canadians, the results tell a very different story. The Liberal policy does not require a company to be Canadian-owned to qualify as a Canadian supplier.¹¹ That means foreign firms can wrap themselves in a Canadian flag and qualify as Canadian despite being controlled overseas, and that is what is happening. In the policy’s first six months, more than 70% of contracts awarded under buy Canadian went to foreign-owned entities.¹² A Toronto Star analysis found that in the Prime Minister’s first 16 months in office, his government awarded $7.8 billion in contracts to American-controlled companies.¹³ The share of federal contract dollars awarded to U.S.–controlled companies has increased from 20% to 31%, a 55% increase.¹⁴ Of the 10 companies receiving the largest federal contracts, six are American.¹⁵ Positioning · 109 wordsWhile the Prime Minister travels across the country telling Canadians to buy Canadian, his own government is shopping down south with their tax dollars.Partly on point Perhaps we should not be surprised by this because when the Prime Minister chaired Brookfield Asset Management, its board approved moving the company’s headquarters from Canada to New York.¹⁶Off point Why does this matter to Canadians? In September alone, Canada lost 68,000 jobs, including 13,000 in manufacturing.¹⁷ While Canadian businesses fight unjustified tariffs just to keep the doors open, the Liberals keep sending Canadian tax dollars south of the border. If the Prime Minister really wants to buy Canadian, he should start by reading the labels.PositioningPartly on point The question · 71 wordsWhen Canadians hear the words “defence spending”, they picture fighter jets and soldiers with the equipment they need. They do not picture a research ship counting fish off our coast, but under the Liberal government, that is exactly what is being labelled as defence spending. At a government operations committee, I asked department officials a simple question: Are the Coast Guard’s offshore fishery science vessels now being counted as defence spending? Claims · 128 wordsThe deputy commissioner answered yes, and members will not believe this, “100% of the expenditures of the Coast Guard are counted against the NATO targets.”¹⁸ Nobody disputes the importance of these services, but important services are not the same thing as military defence. The Liberals moved the Coast Guard under the Department of National Defence, ¹⁹and suddenly every dollar it spends helps the Prime Minister claim he is meeting our NATO targets. Moving an expense from one government category to another does not magically turn fisheries research vessels into battleships. Meanwhile, the government’s own reporting revealed that only 52% of key systems in the Canadian army’s fleets were serviceable.²⁰ Instead of inflating numbers with fishery science missions, the Liberals should fund the military capabilities Canada’s armed forces need. Positioning · 65 wordsWe cannot talk about defence without talking about veterans. It is difficult to comprehend this, but thousands of veterans are homeless in Canada. When veterans lose their homes, we probably will not find them in a shelter. They may be sleeping in their car or on a friend’s couch. These are the men and women who once put on a uniform to defend our country.Positioning Claims · 165 wordsUnfortunately, earlier this year, the Liberal government decided they could not find any homeless veterans to support. It is unbelievable. A briefing note obtained through an access to information request shows that in February, the Liberals moved more than $3 million out of the veteran homelessness program.²¹ Government officials claimed that organizations had struggled to identify eligible veterans and that all opportunities to use the money had been “exhausted”.²² That is the same briefing note that predicted that veteran-serving organizations may raise concerns. That is undoubtedly so.Unearned certainty Those concerns were not difficult to predict. At a government operations committee, non-profit veterans organizations expressed frustration, disappointment and even disgust that this funding was allowed to lapse. Debbie Lowther of VETS Canada said her organization helps 400 to 600 veterans every year, ²³and about 80% of them are referred by Veterans Affairs Canada itself.²⁴ The same Liberal government that sends hundreds of veterans to these organizations every year claims it could not find any veterans to help. Positioning · 103 wordsThe Liberals cannot claim to take the defence of our country seriously while turning their backs on the people who already defended it.Partly on point Bill C-40 is the Liberal approach to governing. In a nutshell, it is more bureaucracy and less accountability. Whether it is a buy Canadian policy that sends contracts south, fish-counting ships labelled as defence spending or $3 million pulled away from homeless veterans, the pattern is the same. The Liberals love to change labels, hoping that Canadians will not ask for results. Canadians deserve a procurement system that meets our armed forces’ needs, supports Canadian workers and respects tax dollars.Positioning