Pat Kelly · TranslatePolitics.ca

Government Orders

Business of Supply

2026-05-26

“You're ignoring the problem. The government's own debt-to-GDP ratio shows it broke its spending promise. How much interest does the government expect us to pay for its reckless borrowing?”

“You keep talking around the debt. I'll pin you down. The debt-to-GDP ratio is higher this year than last year, isn't it? Yes or no?”

“You didn't answer my question. I want Canadians to think about how much the federal debt costs their family each year. I'm sad that families are spending a lot on interest for the government's debt.”

“I want the minister to answer whether rising interest costs will crowd out health transfers. I'm pointing out a big jump in interest costs to make my question look important.”

“The minister didn't answer the question. He just repeated an old promise. Canada pays $54 billion in interest this year. Is that more or less than the federal health transfer?”

“I want the government to admit their promise about balancing the budget was wrong. They didn't keep it. Now there's a big deficit. When will it be fixed?”

Statements by Members

Alberta

2026-05-26

“I'm mad. The government should have done things differently. The Prime Minister should say he's sorry and do something so people in my province don't get madder.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, I am a fifth-generation Albertan, and I believe in the future for a strong Alberta within a united Canada. I will vote for Alberta to remain a province of Canada. However, members of the House must understand that many Albertans are angry, and I am one of them. We are angry that, since 2015, this Liberal government has made decisions and introduced laws that harm Alberta right up to this very day. Now is the time for the Prime Minister to show leadership. It is time for him to acknowledge how much harm his government has done to the unity of this country. It is time for him to show humility. It is time for contrition. It is time for action that will prove to Albertans that their federal government cares enough about Alberta to admit to its mistakes. It is time to show Alberta that Confederation works and to convince Albertans that the best is yet to come for Alberta within this great country, Canada, that so many Albertans and I love so much.

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Government Orders

Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act

2026-05-25

“The minister won't answer the question. He dodges every time. Is three hours really enough time to debate a budget bill? The minister must think so. He wants us to rush this bill through. The Liberals want less debate and more spending. I don't like that. We need a real answer from the minister.”

“We're just a few hours into debate on your new budget. You're already shutting down debate and questions with your majority. That's anti-democratic. You want to borrow so much it'll take years of taxes just to pay the interest. I think that's reckless.”

Private Members' Business

Financial Administration Act

2026-05-07

“I am happy my colleague introduced this bill. The government is not giving us enough information. This is a growing problem. Why do you think this bill is necessary?”

Government Orders

Business of Supply

2026-05-07

“The member made good points. The Liberals failed to argue in court to protect property rights. They say they oppose the bad decision. But they made a weak argument. It is hard to appeal now. What does the member think about that?”

Adjournment Proceedings

2026-05-05

“I'm going to mock the idea that the government is controlling spending. They keep changing their targets. They're congratulating themselves for reducing a deficit they created. I want to point out that they're not being consistent. They're just patting themselves on the back for fixing a problem they made. I don't think the government is doing a good job.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, is he talking about maintaining their fiscal anchors? Is this parliamentary secretary serious? He was not here, I guess. Maybe he has not been here to see how many fiscal anchors have been declared and discarded since 2015, even the one he cited in his remarks. He possibly misspoke, but he said that they have a declining debt-to-GDP ratio. They do not. If we look at the budget, it is right there in the statement. They got rid of that fiscal anchor. That is not the current one. He talked about the Liberals congratulating themselves on their deficit being $11 billion lower than what they forecasted five months ago. That is like congratulating themselves for taking off the carbon tax after they put it on in the first place. I do not know what else to say. The standard of living is unchanged in 10 years with these guys.

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“I want the government to take responsibility for its deficits. The Liberals talk big about building projects, but they have no track record of actually doing it. Their deficits are out of control.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise on adjournment business to seek a little more accountability from the government for its response to a question that I asked in question period a couple of weeks ago. I questioned the government about the deficit, which had not yet been tabled. I simply asked whether or not the government could give assurance to the House that it would not be higher than the projected deficit that Justin Trudeau submitted in the last financial update that was tabled in the House when he was prime minister. Some will recall the chaos around that. The finance minister resigned two days or so before it was to be tabled. For those of us who were here then, we did not even know if there was going to be a budget that day. It was chaotic. There were boxes. Nobody knew if we were even going to get a briefing in a lock-up over it. It was delayed. There was no speech. When we did receive the budget, there was no signature and no name. It was like an anonymous budget just dropped by a random Liberal minister who was called upon to do it. The finance minister resigned over that budget or had resigned already. The former prime minister resigned not long after that. The issue then was the deficit. The deficit was so big then that nobody was willing to take responsibility for it. The Liberals' own cabinet and caucus decided enough is enough and it was time to bring in somebody who could actually balance the budget or at least control spending and restore fiscal sanity. However, as it turned out, it actually got worse. The first budget the government tabled was more than twice the last budget, which was so bad it resulted in resignations. In response to that, this is what the member said. He would not give assurance that there would not be more than $30 billion in deficit. It turned out to be $67 billion. However, he said, “We are building big, we are building bold and we are building across this country.” What are Liberals even talking about? What are they building? They are not building anything. They talk about the need for energy infrastructure. They talk about the need for all kinds of infrastructure. They have been campaigning and talking about this since 2015 without doing anything. Here we are, over a year after the Prime Minister said they were going to build major projects at unimaginable speeds. The government gave itself extraordinary new powers to approve new major projects. None have been approved. None are being built. The Liberals are not building big across the country. They are just talking about it. Each time, it is as if they are having an out-of-body experience when they say, “Oh, if only we had a pipeline, we could be an energy superpower.” They had one on the table that was approved. The very first thing they did in 2015 was cancel the northern gateway pipeline. Then they chased out the proponent of the energy east pipeline. Then they chased out the private sector builder of the Trans Mountain pipeline. The government has no track record on building anything, and the budget that it brought in is twice as bad as Trudeau's final budget, the one that triggered his resignation.

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Government Orders

2026-05-04

“Liberals ignored the issue for 11 years. Now they're ignoring witness testimony to ram through what they want. No one even suggested misconduct cases must stay in military courts. The Liberals are making things up.”

“I completely agree with my friend. The government is abusing its power and tearing up all the good work we did in committee to improve this bill. Canadians elected a minority government. They wanted parties to work together and build consensus. But now the government is acting like it has a majority and ignoring everything we did. That's not right.”

“You completely missed my point. I wasn't talking about language at all. I was calling out the Prime Minister for treating MPs like his personal employees. We're elected by the people to represent them, not to be the Prime Minister's yes-men. He needs to stop trying to sidestep accountability by using us as his shield.”

“Sexual misconduct in the military is a long-standing problem. The previous Conservative government received the Deschamps report and would have fixed it if re-elected. But the Liberals did nothing for years and covered up misconduct by top officials. Now they're finally acting but ignoring good ideas from other parties. I'm disappointed it took so long and the Liberals are gutting important amendments.”

Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, sexual misconduct in the armed forces is a known long-standing problem. It was known during the previous Conservative government. The previous Conservative government received the Deschamps report, which recommended changes, some of which required legislation, in March of 2015. The report was tabled and its recommendations were accepted just before the 2015 election. If Conservatives had been re-elected in 2015, the legislative changes necessary to address investigations and prosecutions into sexual misconduct would have been taken care of 10 years ago, but that is not how it turned out. The Liberals won the 2015 election. During the entire 42nd Parliament, the Liberals did absolutely nothing. They made literally zero effort to pass the necessary legislation between 2015 and 2019. We have to go through this to really figure out how we got here, when the Liberals are time allocating this bill today, in 2026. During the 42nd Parliament, the Liberals' main contribution to the issue of sexual misconduct was to cover it up. That is what it did when it touched the highest levels of the chain of command. Some will remember that former defence minister Harjit Sajjan helped cover up known sexual misconduct by the then chief of the defence staff, Jonathan Vance, along with some help from the Trudeau PMO. After the next election, in the 43rd Parliament, the Liberals still did absolutely nothing to implement the Deschamps report. They let new reports pile up, such as the Fish report and the Arbour report, while a succession of senior officers continued to be publicly accused of sexual harassment. Three elections in, the Liberals finally got around to tabling an earlier version of this bill in the spring of 2023. That was eight years after the Deschamps report, and then they made almost no effort to move the bill in the House. It sat there collecting dust on the Order Paper for a whole year before receiving, I believe, exactly one day of debate in the spring of 2024. Some will remember what the Liberals did in the fall of 2024. They sacrificed their entire legislative agenda in defiance of two orders of Parliament. They willingly did so rather than comply with rulings from the Speaker that found prima facie evidence of contempt of Parliament related to the corruption of the green slush fund and the lies told about the disgraced former minister Randy Boissonnault at committee and his conflicts of interest. That lost legislative session ended with the implosion of the Liberal cabinet, the resignation of the then prime minister and the prorogation of Parliament. It ended the Liberals' attempt, their first attempt, to legislate the changes recommended by Justice Deschamps. Conservatives have always supported, and continue to support, the recommendations contained in the Deschamps report. We agreed with the recommendations when we were in government. Conservatives have continued to agree with them while in opposition during the 42nd Parliament, the 43rd Parliament, the 44th Parliament and, now, the 45th Parliament. When the Liberals finally called this bill, Bill C-11, last December, on a Friday, Conservatives allowed it to pass at second reading without even one full day of debate. Now we have the amendments. The amendments we are debating are the result of the defence committee's work earlier this year. The defence committee heard brave, courageous testimony from victims of sexual assault, abuse and harassment within the armed forces. They heard about traumatic, harrowing experiences. The testimony that was heard at the defence committee was given serious consideration. The appropriate jurisdiction of investigations and prosecution is not a simple question. It is true that Justice Arbour recommended that all cases be referred to the civilian system, but it is also true that many victims expressed a variety of concerns about access to justice within the civilian system. That is why Conservatives and Bloc MPs, even the NDP, all recommended that the best way to give victims their best shot at receiving justice is to allow the victim to choose which system makes the most sense in their particular case. The simplicity of this recommendation speaks for itself. There have been other inquiries and studies done at the defence committee, and none of the inquiries, the studies or parliamentary reports disagreed that there are barriers to justice within a system where the victim and the accused are part of the same chain of command. Nobody is disputing this. However, as was pointed out by witnesses during the committee's study, the civilian system is also riddled with barriers to justice for victims. Official languages is an issue if a member cannot get service in the official language of their choice in the provincial system of where they are stationed. Delay is another one. That is why the committee recommended choice. It would not be forcing anybody to have their case studied within the military system. It would be giving choice. During this committee study, no party had a majority. All the MPs worked together, regardless of their party affiliation. There were many amendments proposed, and there was very powerful and compelling testimony that drove these amendments. That is what Parliament is all about: hearing from the witnesses at committee and working together to recommend improvement to the legislation. That is good opposition politics. That is good government party politics. However, we know that now everything has changed. The Liberals have a majority, and they have already demonstrated the contempt they hold for opposition MPs and for ideas other than their own. In its arrogance and unbridled hubris, the Liberal government is ignoring the wisdom born of co-operation and collaboration. There were 14 amendments, which were all supported by multiple parties, and now the Liberals are intent on ramming the bill through, after spending almost 11 years failing to introduce and pass it. The member for Nunavut, in particular, contributed to the bill in a very meaningful, important way. This is what Canadians want. Her party did not even have a seat at the committee table, but she as an MP produced a good, sound, principled amendment that was debated and adopted at committee. Canadians say they want their elected representatives to be open-minded. They want them to work together and want them to respect and co-operate with each other. That is what the defence committee members did. They took seriously the amendments offered by an MP who did not even have a vote at the committee. However, between the clause-by-clause review at the committee and the present, today, when the Liberals now have a majority and have used time allocation to curtail debate on this, the member for Nunavut has crossed the floor and joined the Liberal caucus. She had a history of principled opposition to government. She was one of the few NDP members who remembered that her duty was to oppose the government and not to hold the opposition party to account. I hope the member for Nunavut will remember this and will not end up opposing her own contribution to the bill, because she proposed the amendment that would allow choice and flexibility in cases of sexual misconduct in the military. She was doing her job, so now that she sits on the Liberal benches, I hope she will actually follow through and support her own amendment. The member for Nunavut is not the only one. There are other members who have crossed the floor. We now see the Liberals and their true colours: power at all costs and control at all costs, with power concentrated entirely in the hands of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's contempt for Parliament as an institution is becoming obvious to all. I am actually concerned about his limited civic literacy, when he speaks in English and calls other MPs his deputies, and when he sets up photo op signings, pretending to sign bills into law. It is almost as if he needed to be told that it is actually the Governor General who signs laws, not him; that she does so only after they have been agreed to by a majority of members of Parliament, of both Houses of Parliament; and that none of those members in either chamber are his deputies. I am disappointed that the government took 11 years to deal with a well-known and long-standing problem and that it is proposing to gut this bill after such clear and powerful committee testimony. I supported the bill in principle and sending it to the defence committee. I support the conclusions of the defence committee, which made important amendments to fix the bill. I oppose the Liberals' attempts to undo the committee's work by gutting the amendments today.

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Oral Questions

Finance

2026-05-01

“I want you to admit that your budget spends too much. Even Andrew Coyne thinks the economy is in decline and that you're not doing anything about it. Will you stop spending so much?”

“Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland were so embarrassed by the deficit projection that they both resigned instead of facing it. Now we have another bad budget with double the deficit. After 10 years, the Liberals are still spending and borrowing recklessly. When will the Prime Minister admit nothing has changed?”

Government Orders

Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act

2026-05-01

“I'm piling on. This is what happens when the government picks winners and losers with everyone else's money.”