Warren Steinley

In response to a question from Alexis Deschênes

“The government is wasting money on outside consultants, growing the civil service, and sending money to other countries. I want this spending cut.”

“Mr. Speaker, there are so many ways the Liberals have wasted money. I can talk about the $300 million in PrescribeIT. I can talk about the tens of billions of dollars given to third party consultants and about the growing size of bureaucracy. If they hire more consultants, they should not have to have a larger bureaucracy. We can talk about the millions, even billions, of dollars sent out of the country in international aid, which is probably on an ideological basis not on a humanitarian basis. There are a lot of areas where there is money wasted by the government. I want to make sure that those are cut and that the provinces remain full.”

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In response to a question from Mark Gerretsen

“We helped the Liberals pass an economic bill, but they have not used it once. Even when we try to help them grow the economy, they fail.”

“Mr. Speaker, I would love to debate back and forth with my colleague, because, as I said, we helped the Liberals pass Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act. We needed it. We co-operated. They needed it to make the economy stronger, but they have not used the bill once. Even when we are trying to help them grow the economy, they fail. I will take no lessons from the colleague across the way. We will do our job and study legislation, but when we do help, they still cannot get the job done.”

In response to a question from Tamara Kronis

“The government's economic update fails Canada and breaks promises to Saskatchewan. It cuts research stations, ignores the Snowbirds and the RCMP museum, and fails to fix child care or housing.”

“Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to join in this debate on Government Business No. 12 on the spring economic update. A lot has changed since the spring economic update. The most recent PBO report says the government has slowing growth, a larger than promised deficit, a weakening fiscal outlook and a 1% chance of meeting the government’s own fiscal anchor. That has all happened since the last spring economic update. We are debating Government Business No. 12, and it feels like Groundhog Day. Every time the Liberals bring a closure motion forward, the member for Winnipeg North gets up and says the Conservatives are blocking and filibustering. It is an example of the far-left ideology over there. It is always someone else’s fault. There is always a reason why they did not get the job done. If Liberal legislation did not get passed, it is the Conservatives’ fault. If the Liberals cannot meet any of their economic targets, it is Donald Trump’s fault. If the Liberals cannot get trade deals done, its the fault of the global crisis. There is always something to blame for why the Liberals never follow through on their promises. If they cannot get houses built, it is the municipalities’ fault. If they cannot get more trade deals, perhaps it is the Easter bunny’s fault. I do not know. The Liberals always have someone to blame, and that is the far left in a nutshell. It is never, ever their fault. One thing I want to talk about when it comes to ideology is child care in Saskatchewan. This is the Liberals’ flagship. This is their baby. They thought it would change the lives of parents. I want to talk about the latest report on child care in Saskatchewan, which says 92% of people in Saskatchewan say it is difficult to find child care. Families are being told that child care is more affordable, but affordability does not matter if there is no availability. The report goes on to say that so many communities in my home province of Saskatchewan are being called child care deserts. There are simply not enough day care spaces. Get this. It further says the people the Liberals pretend to care about and want to help are the ones who are hurt the hardest. It is often the parents who need flexibility the most. The nurses, first responders, retail workers and anyone working evenings, weekends or shift work are left without options. This is what the Conservatives talked about all along when the Liberals brought forward their child care program. We said parents need choice. Make it the parent’s choice. Allow private day cares to stay open. Allow parents to have the choice of where they want their children to go. Supplement public day care with private day care so that there are more spaces. The Liberals promised to build 255,000 day care spaces, and they have only made 65% of that target. Shame on them for over-promising once again and leaving parents holding the bag. There are a few other things I want to talk about that were in the spring economic update but never materialized in Saskatchewan. When the people in Saskatchewan look at the spring economic update, what do they not see? They do not see funding for the Snowbirds. It took the Liberals only 10 years to ground the Snowbirds program in Saskatchewan. The iconic Snowbirds are housed in Moose Jaw. The aerial acrobat team is the pride of Canada, and it took the Liberals only 10 years to ground it. They are going to over-promise and over-commit once again. They promised to have the Snowbirds flying by 2030. I do not think that is going to happen, and I do not think anyone on these benches thinks the Snowbirds are going to be flying any time soon. A lack of preparation and planning by the Liberals caused that. Let us talk about what else is not in the spring economic update for Saskatchewan. There is no money for the RCMP Heritage Centre. It is in my home riding of Regina—Lewvan. The Liberals have promised money since 2015 to help the RCMP Heritage Centre become a national museum. They promised it in the 2015 campaign, the 2019 campaign, the 2021 campaign and the 2025 campaign. It was in their platform, and they still have not followed through on the commitment to make the RCMP Heritage Centre a national museum. That is a shame, because it does wonderful work and tells the stories of our brave men and women in uniform. That is something that should be done sooner rather than later. I hope they follow through on that commitment, because they promised it time and time again and they have never delivered. Another thing in the spring economic update that would not help Saskatchewan is the closing of agriculture research stations in Scott and Indian Head. I do not know when the Liberals became the anti-science party. I do not know why they do not want to believe in the science of agriculture across our communities. The research stations are so important because there are four different types of soil in Saskatchewan. That is why there is one in Scott, one in Indian Head and a federal research station in Swift Current. They do different experiments on these different soil types. If the Liberals close two of these research stations, they are going to throw away decades of research that has been done to help the soil become more fertile and to help us make sure we have better crop varieties. They do not say much about the fact they have cut funding to research stations. They do not talk about the cuts they have made, and there are so many more places where the Liberals have wasted billions of dollars. Then they decide to cut the Snowbirds and the agriculture research stations, and not fund their commitments to the RCMP heritage museum that they have promised time and again. The last thing I would say, and this has been really quiet on the Liberal front, is that the government is talking about the potential of selling airports, which I find is a very interesting strategy coming from the Liberal side. The Regina airport is located in Regina—Lewvan. I do not know what the Liberals do not like about Regina—Lewvan, but I hope they will come visit. We would give them a tour so they could see a lot more of this beautiful part of the city in Regina, Saskatchewan. I invite them all to come out. They could see— An hon. member: Oh, oh! Warren Steinley: Mr. Speaker, that is a very interesting point from the Liberal across the way. I wonder, if I crossed the floor, if the Liberals would fund the RCMP Heritage Centre. An hon. member: Oh, oh! Warren Steinley: Mr. Speaker, we hear them cheering that, yes, they would. They tricked one of the Conservatives by promising to fund something in their riding. That is how the member for Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong got tricked into moving over to the Liberal side. She was promised money from the housing minister. I find it very interesting that the Liberals are willing to try to buy people. I will tell my friend across the way a little story. My daughter saw some of the comments with respect to floor crossing, and she asked me if I would ever cross the floor. I told her that I would not in a million years. She said, “Good. I’ll still be proud of you.” There is the saying “from the mouths of babes”. Even 11-year-olds know that we should really keep our word all the time. I think sometimes we get the most truth when we talk to young people across the country. That is what the Liberals have lost in the economic update as well: the fact that young people are struggling more each and every day. The fact that the vast majority of young people in Canada do not believe they are ever going to afford a home is not good enough for our country. We need to do better for young people. The fact that 2.2 million people go to food banks in this country, which is the breadbasket of the world, is not good enough. A vast majority of those people going to food banks are children, young people and students. The fact that people are languishing on wait-lists for years in the health care system is unacceptable. The fact that we gave $1.6 billion to failed asylum claimants for health care benefits but we do not look after seniors who need hip and knee replacements is unacceptable. One thing I want to get to before I wrap up is the fact that when we say that Canada can be better, and when we question if the Liberals are doing good enough for Canadians, they call us unpatriotic. That is unacceptable. The Liberal government is not Canada. Every member of the chamber loves our country, but we think our country can do a heck of a lot better than it is doing right now. We are the only G7 country in a recession, and the blame lies at the Prime Minister’s feet. He promised the world he could deal with Donald Trump. There is a video that says this. That was an absolute crock. The Prime Minister has failed at every promise he has made. He promised to build at speeds not seen in generations. That is not true. He said he would deal with Donald Trump. That is not true. He said he would make sure that the budget was balanced. That is not true. Do members remember when Stephen Harper said that budgets are like potato chips and that one cannot not have just one? It has been 11 years of straight deficit budgets that keep getting bigger, and Canadians are left holding the bag.”

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In response to a question from Arnold Viersen

“The government is spending too much, which increases our deficit, drives down our dollar, and makes life more expensive. Also, building homes will cost more because dozens of lumber mills have closed and the government has failed to get a softwood lumber deal with the United States.”

“Mr. Speaker, we know that the value of the Canadian dollar has gone down. Actually, it has just gone down again over the last couple of days, so our dollar is not going as far as it did in years prior. When it comes to interest rates, what has happened to the Canadian dollar and our purchasing power is that the more the government spends, the greater the deficits are. The PBO just said that the deficit is actually going to be $50 billion higher than first projected only a couple of months ago. When the government continues to have a reckless spending problem, it leaves Canadians with less money in their pockets, and inflation goes up. Government members talk about procuring wood to build homes in Canada, but having 36 mill closures over the last couple of years in B.C. and Quebec is also going to make homebuilding less affordable. They cannot get a softwood tariff deal done with the United States, which they promised to do.”

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In response to a question from Kevin Lamoureux

“The provinces need federal money to build homes, but the federal government should not create a new agency to do it. The government should give money to the provinces instead of trying to build homes itself.”

“Mr. Speaker, I do not have to be very bold. I think the provincial governments do need some federal funding. I do not think the federal government needs to have another bureaucracy in order to listen to municipalities and provinces and get them the funding they need to build homes. It does not have to be in the business of homebuilding. It can actually help the provinces when it comes to funding. The government does not have to pick winners and losers, which I know Liberals like to do. After Build Canada Homes comes to fruition, I am very sure that Brookfield will be building a lot of homes in Canada.”

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“I oppose this bill. Crown corporations do not build homes faster or better than private builders. This new government company has no clear goals, no targets, and no plan for how many homes it will build. It will waste billions of dollars paying bureaucrats and giving bonuses to executives instead of actually building homes.”

“Mr. Speaker, I am happy to join this debate on Bill C‑20, Build Canada Homes, which was a promise the Liberals made in the 2025 campaign. I cannot remember the name of the Liberal guy I ran against, but he was very excited about this, saying that he was going to get these homes built and that this was going to be a great policy. I remember thinking, from a Saskatchewan point of view, that we are home to many Crown corporations. I know how Crown corporations work. I have been in government in Saskatchewan. I cannot recall a lot of situations when Crown corporations were involved and became more streamlined or development happened faster and things got done more quickly. That was not really the case when Crown corporations get involved with development on a local scale. However, I do have a couple of points I want to make during this speech. I will read testimony from actual experts in homebuilding. Mike Moffatt, from the Missing Middle Initiative, said, “BCH lacks a clear goal, lacks targets and lacks key performance indicators and accountability measures. The public has not been told how many homes the program will complete, what types of homes, what the rents and prices will be, or over what time frame.” At HUMA, David Wilkes, Building Industry and Land Development Association, said, “To put that [housing] crisis into perspective, in 2025 just over 5,000 new homes were sold in the GTA, the lowest level since we began tracking in 1981. That is an 80% decline from the 10‑year average and follows similarly weak years in 2024 and 2023.” He also said, “It is important to note that 95% of the housing in Canada, both ownership and rental, is delivered through the private market.” At HUMA, Scott Andison, Ontario Home Builders’ Association, said, “When new home construction slows, the impact extends beyond the housing industry alone. Communities lose jobs, government loses revenue and fewer homes are being built for families to create memories.” He also said, “As the industry association representing home builders across Ontario, we know that builders are the experts and the ones who are best suited to construct the homes we need, not the government.” I will be honoured to share my time with my colleague, the member for Calgary Centre. That got me thinking back to when I was in government with the Saskatchewan Party in Saskatchewan. In 2011, we brought forward the Saskatchewan advantage housing plan. Most Liberals will not believe this, but we actually put numbers and targets in this housing plan so that people knew what we wanted to accomplish. We had five programs during that housing initiative called head start on a home, affordable home ownership, rental construction incentive, $35 million for rental housing, and habitat for humanity partnership. The numbers actually coalesced with the programs. We wanted 1,100 units for head start on a home, 600 units for affordable home ownership, 2,900 units for rental construction, 160 for rental housing and 30 for habitat for humanity, so a total of 4,690 homes. Can colleagues imagine a government bringing forward a program with the actual targets of what it wanted to build so that citizens knew what they were voting for? That is my problem with the Build Canada Homes program. My problem is that the government threw $13 billion into a pot to create a whole new bureaucracy. I would love it if one of my Liberal colleagues would tell me how much of that $13 million is going to go into bonuses for executives. How much is going to go into actually paying bureaucrats to sit in Ottawa and not put shovels in the ground? We did just get a lot of numbers related to bonuses for Crown executives this past year. What was the total payment for Crown executives? I think millions and millions of dollars went to executives of Crown companies who did not provide any results. My fear with Bill C‑20 is that there are going to be a lot of bonuses for executives and hardly any homes for Canadians.”

In response to a question from Kevin Lamoureux

“A real housing plan includes specific numbers. When I was in government in Saskatchewan, our plan set clear targets to build 4,690 homes in five years. Why does the government's bill have no targets for how many homes it will build or what kinds?”

“Mr. Speaker, here is what really confuses me about this. I was part of a government in Saskatchewan that had a housing plan. It actually had numbers in it. This plan in 2011 by the Saskatchewan government said head start on a home would build 1,000 homes, the affordable home ownership program would build 600 homes, the rental construction incentive would build 2,900 homes, with $35 million for rental housing, and Habitat for Humanity would build 30 homes. When someone actually has a plan, they put numbers in it. This plan promised to build 4,690 homes in five years. Why does the Liberal government not have the number of homes in its plan and the kinds of homes it would build?”

“The Liberals have been in power for years, and their policies and red tape caused the housing crisis. They should not blame anyone else for it.”

“Madam Speaker, I listened to one of the Minister of Housing’s answers, and he said, “We are in a housing crisis”. The simple question is “Why?” The Liberals have been in government for 11 years, and they are acting like this housing crisis came out of nowhere. The policies that they have put in place caused this housing crisis with red tape. We talked to municipalities. The fact that the Liberals are blaming this housing crisis on anyone other than themselves is confusing, because the Liberals have been in government for 10 years. Who created this housing crisis?”

“The Liberals cut funding for farming research and weather radar research in Saskatchewan. Because of this, two research farms are closing and it will be harder to warn people about bad storms. How can the government brag about research funding when they made these cuts?”

“Mr. Speaker, my colleague across the way talked a lot about investment in research, so I am going to ask a straightforward question. When it comes to investment in research in Saskatchewan, we are losing two research farms in the agriculture industry because the Liberals have cut the funding for agriculture research. Also, at Environment Canada, they have cut funding for radar research, which is going to hamper our ability to give warnings when heavy snow, rainfall and blizzards happen. If he is going to brag about the research funding the Liberals have done, what about the people they are leaving behind in Saskatchewan with the agricultural research cuts and the radar research cut at Environment Canada?”

In response to a question from Xavier Barsalou-Duval

“Canada is in a recession and poverty is getting worse. A new report gave the country failing grades for jobs and food security, and a quarter of Canadians cannot afford enough food. I want my leader to explain how Conservative plans will fix the economy.”

“Mr. Speaker, on Friday, it was announced Canada had entered a recession and it is no coincidence that shortly thereafter, Food Banks Canada brought out its poverty report. Perhaps Liberals will not believe what we are saying about their reckless policies that are harming Canadians. The Food Bank report gave Canada an overall grade of a D+, an F for employment rate and an F for food security. Right now, one in four or 25% of Canadians are food-insecure. Can the leader talk about Conservative policies that will bring back a Canada that will work for all Canadians?”

“The Prime Minister caused a recession and avoids answering questions about it. Where is he?”

“Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister was asked about the recession he created, he ran away like a scared jackrabbit. Can the member tell me where the Prime Minister is?”

In response to a question from Buckley Belanger

“Members of Parliament are qualified because the people elected them to speak for their communities. The Liberal member from Saskatchewan does not represent his voters. He voted for higher taxes and to take people's guns away.”

“Madam Speaker, the question we were just asked by the only Liberal in Saskatchewan was about the qualifications of a member of Parliament. Our qualifications are that we work hard, we get voted in by the people and we bring their voices to the House. My big problem with this member is that he represents northern Saskatchewan and has voted against every common-sense motion we have had. He voted to add taxes to streaming services. He voted to not scrap the industrial carbon tax. He voted to keep the gun confiscation plan in place. Everything his constituents sent him here to support, he has voted against. I would like some comments from my colleague on that. Do not forget the Snowbirds.”

In response to a question from Mark Gerretsen

“Liberal taxes and policies put Canada into a recession and made life too expensive for families. The Prime Minister does not understand how hard things are for everyday Canadians, and I want my colleague to talk about how out of touch he is.”

“Madam Speaker, what we always hear from these Liberals is that Canadians have never had it so good. Now that we have been talking about how Canada was on the wrong track and we are in a full-fledged recession because of these Liberal policies, they think this side is giddy. No, we are just disappointed. We have been bringing up stories about how everyday Canadians are finding it hard to make ends meet for years, and how taxes and the carbon tax are burdening mothers and fathers. Do members remember the consumer carbon tax? Well, the Liberals want all the credit for taking it away. They put it in there in the first place. They took thousands of dollars out of families’ budgets every year, and now they want to think that Canadians are giddy that we are in a recession. No. It is such a difficult time right now for people around the country, and the Prime Minister is so out of touch. He will not answer a question about the recession. When he did talk about it, about three weeks ago, he said, on affordability, that Canadians have never had it so good. Could my colleague please respond to how out of touch the Prime Minister actually is?”

In response to a question from Brad Vis

“Canada is the only G7 country in an official recession. The Prime Minister is hiding from the media and refusing to admit this. He needs to face the problem and start fixing our economy.”

“Madam Speaker, that speaks for itself. The fact is that the Prime Minister is so out of touch that he refuses to recognize that there has been a recession in Canada. To the point, the Prime Minister has not talked to anyone about a recession since Friday. He has been in hiding. He is in the witness protection program. He will not let the media ask questions. They can take some pictures of him in some meetings, but that is about it. As I said at the outset of my comments, the first step to fixing a problem is recognizing that there is one. This Prime Minister is trying to bury his head in the sand and does not realize that he has taken Canada down the road to a recession. Among all G7 countries, Canada is the only country that is in an official recession now. The Prime Minister should open his eyes and realize that there is a problem in this country and that he has to get to work to fix the economy.”

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