Michael Cooper

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are paying near record high fuel prices. Justin, from my riding, is raising four children on a single income. He has to drive 65 kilometres to work because he cannot afford to live any closer, and now he can barely afford to get to work due to skyrocketing fuel prices. Why will the Liberals not help folks like Justin by adopting our Conservative plan to save Canadians [more]

Prime Minister Mr. Speaker, theis out of touch, blaming everyone but himself for skyrocketing fuel prices. He blames foreign factors. Yesterday, he blamed the provinces, but it is his industrial carbon tax and clean fuel standard that are hiking prices. Prime Minister Instead of playing the blame game, why does thenot simply control what he can control and lift all federal taxes on fuel until at [more]

Mr. Speaker, my question was about pump and dump. It was about corruption. Here we have the Liberal government funnelling $20 million to Maritime Launch Services, bailing out a nearly bankrupt company, upon which the chair of the board immediately sells three million of his shares, walking away with $1.8 million. Does the parliamentary secretary consider that to be normal? Is that just business [more]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question about corruption surrounding the Liberal government's now infamous lease with Maritime Launch Services for a so-called space port. We know that the government entered into this lease, notwithstanding that Maritime Launch Services had no history of launching anything into space. Indeed, Maritime Launch Services had a history of not doing much of anything because [more]

C-218 Cloverdale—Langley City Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of Bill, the right to recover act, introduced by my friend, the member for. The title of the bill fully reflects the substance of the bill. It is the right to recover: to give persons struggling with mental health challenges hope and help, instead of state-sanctioned, state-administered death, by putting an indefinite pause on [more]

Would you agree that it facilitates secret lobbying?

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. C-22 Bill, the Liberals' surveillance law bill, gives the government sweeping new surveillance powers to access the private digital communications and information of Canadians. This bill has serious privacy implications, to put it mildly. As the Privacy Commissioner himself observed, “the interception of communications and the search and seizure of information are [more]

I understand what you're saying, but it's very narrow. It's only oral communications, not written or other communications. It's only when it's initiated by the lobbyist—not someone else—and only when it is, of course, to a designated public office holder. In other words, what is allowed is secret lobbying. If the lobbying occurs on a street corner, as opposed to in the member of Parliament's [more]

That's right.

Would it be fair to say that this secret lobbying is widespread as a result of this gap and this loophole?

It just seems perfectly reasonable to me that if you're involved in a matter of policy and you take it upon yourself to lobby a public office holder—and you didn't initiate the meeting in advance but you stop the public office holder at the airport or at a reception—then it should be very easy to understand that that's lobbying and, therefore, should be reported.

Thank you. Mr. Ali, you stated in your opening statement that Canada has one of the most transparent lobbying registration regimes in the world. I think that's probably true, but it's not to say that it is fully transparent or is at where it should be at. I would note that in the case of what is reportable in terms of lobbying activities, it applies only to oral communications arranged in [more]

Your recommendation is just to leave it as is, and what I'm putting to you is that this leaves a lot of room for a lot of lobbying that goes on under the radar. I would submit that this is a problem. Similarly, with respect to registration by default, which is the recommendation of the Lobbying Commissioner, you stated that this would create a burden, particularly for small businesses that [more]

Mr. Conacher, would you agree that there is a significant transparency gap insofar as only oral communications that are arranged, advanced and initiated by a lobbyist are reportable?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to move the following motion that I put on notice on Friday. The motion reads as follows: That, given that the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is a trusted and respected defender of the privacy rights of Canadians; and given that Liberal members on the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security denied the Commissioner an opportunity to protect [more]

We have heard testimony that somehow anything other than the status quo would be burdensome. It seems to me that we ought to be looking at the nature of the activity. Namely, is it lobbying, or is it not lobbying? If it is lobbying, then it should be reported. Would you agree?

You referenced British Columbia. How has it worked in British Columbia over the past few years? Has it been overly burdensome?

I'll give the balance of my time to Mr. Hardy.