Housing  Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, rent and housing have doubled. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment across Canada is over $2,000 per month compared to $1,100 in 2015. After eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, average mortgage rates have doubled and now cost Canadians over $3,000 per month.

The Economy  Madam Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister, the cost of groceries is also rising in Canada, at its fastest rate since 1981. In fact, Canada's Food Price Report 2023 predicts that families will spend over $1,000 more on food this year. That is another 5% to 7% increase in food prices over last year, the largest increases since it began reporting 12 years ago.

Public Sector Integrity Act  Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to a bill that I believe is long overdue, as it addresses something that I believe is long overdue to be addressed. Bill C-290 would amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to strengthen the current whistle-blower protections for public servants.

Government Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, after eight years under the Prime Minister, Canadians have never had it so bad, while Liberal lobbyists and high-priced consultants have had it so good. The amount that the government has paid to McKinsey, formerly led by a personal friend of the Prime Minister, Dominic Barton, has gradually grown from $50 million to over $100 million.

Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act  Mr. Speaker, I absolutely reject the premise that the government is not already involved in funding public, not-for-profit child care programs. Conservatives understand that we cannot meet demand without both the private and the public sector. We also need a national labour strategy.

Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act  Mr. Speaker, I too have communities in my riding that have very young demographics, and they do not have access to the kind of child care the current government is proposing to fund exclusively. At a time when families are struggling, when they are already worried about how they are going to pay for their mortgage, feed their families or heat their homes, they should not have to worry about access to child care, which many already are, because this bill does nothing to improve access for people who do not have it right now.

Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act  Mr. Speaker, I will try to speak to the first issue the member raised around provincial jurisdiction. We know that while this bill does not make financial promises, the government has already signed framework agreements with all the provinces, and indeed it has cited the framework agreements as a reason for why it has not put very much detail in this bill.

Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in this place and contribute to the debate on Bill C-35, an act respecting early learning and child care in Canada. As a mom and a grandmother of 11, I understand the importance of having access to quality child care, and I join my colleagues in recognizing those who work in this sector and the very important work they do, and I thank them for it.

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to government purchases of personal protective equipment (PPE) that was made with forced or child labour, since January 1, 2020: (a) what safeguards, if any, were in place to ensure that the government was not purchasing PPE that was made with forced or child labour; (b) has the government received any reports of PPE it procured that was made with forced or child labour, and, if so, what are the details, including (i) the manufacturer, (ii) the value of the purchase, (iii) the description of PPE purchased, including the volume, (iv) the date on which the government became aware, (v) whether the report was investigated, and, if so, what was the outcome, (vi) the date on which the investigation into a report was completed; (c) for each situation in (b) where the government was found to have procured PPE made with forced or child labour, what corrective action, if any, was taken by the government; and (d) has the Canada Border Services Agency seized or intercepted any PPE entering Canada, and, if so, what are the details of each instance, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) manufacturer, (iii) description of goods seized, including the volume?

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to the decision made by Public Services and Procurement Canada on November 10, 2021, to hold deliveries from Supermax Healthcare Canada to the government: (a) what are the details of the allegations that were shared with the government, including the (i) specific claims of forced labour, (ii) steps taken to authenticate those claims, (iii) details of any consultations with the Government of Malaysia to investigate the claims, (iv) details of any engagement or consultations with the United States and other trading partners to validate the claims, (v) description, including dates of all actions taken in response to the allegations; (b) what is the government's rationale for not cancelling the existing contract; (c) was there an analysis conducted as to whether this was in violation of tariff #9897 which prohibits goods mined, manufactured or produced wholly or in part by forced labour; (d) if the answer to (c) is affirmative, was this shared with a minister's office and, if so, which minister's office; (e) how many of these goods allegedly made with forced labour entered Canada and were sold by Canadian or international distributors; (f) what are the names of the other six suppliers that had allegations made against them; (g) what are the details of the investigations into such suppliers, including who was consulted, and how the investigations were conducted; (h) why was the decision made to maintain the two existing contracts with Supermax; (i) what are the details of the contracts in (h) including, (i) the value of the contract, (ii) whether it was signed, (iii) whether there was an open procurement process, (iv) the volume of goods, (v) steps taken to ensure that the goods were not manufactured with unethical labour at any point in the Supermax supply chain; (j) did the government hire any third parties or consult with any other government or non-governmental organization to validate the letter that was received by Supermax which defined their policies, audit and investigation strategies, and, if so, what are the details, including which parties were consulted; and (k) what are the government's estimates of the total volume of Supermax Healthcare Canada products that have entered the Canadian market through contracts between the government of Canada and Supermax Healthcare Canada, since March 17, 2020?

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) and the awarding of a contract to Sinclair Technologies Inc. in the amount of $549,637.00 for a radio frequency filtering system for the RCMP: (a) is PSPC aware that Sinclair Technologies Inc. has been controlled by Hytera Communications since Hytera's acquisition of Norsat International in 2017, and, if so, on what date did PSPC become aware; (b) which federal departments or agencies, if any, conducted a national security review of this contract; (c) did PSPC seek the advice of the Minister of Public Safety before awarding this contract, and, if so, did the Minister or his office approve this contract; (d) what changes, if any, did PSPC make with respect to the awarding of contracts with national security implications, following the tabling of the report from the Standing Committee on Government Operations entitled "Ensuring Robust Security in Federal Purchasing" in June, 2021; (e) how is the awarding of contracts to companies controlled by Chinese state-owned enterprises consistent with Canada's Indo-Pacific Strategy; (f) how is the awarding of contracts to companies controlled by Chinese state-owned enterprises consistent with the Communique from the Five Country Ministerial held on September 12 and 13, 2022; and (g) what was the government's rationale for awarding this contract to Sinclair Technologies Inc. rather than to a Canadian-owned firm?

Questions on the Order Paper  With regard to the government's plan to provide automatic advance payments on the Canada workers benefit: (a) does the government have any projections on the number of overpayments and payments made to ineligible recipients that are expected to occur following the move to the automatic advance payment system, and, if so, what are the projections, in terms of (i) dollar value, (ii) number of recipients; (b) what mechanisms, if any, are in place for those who might not qualify for future payments to opt-out of the automatic advance payments; and (c) what are the details about how the government will be recovering the overpayments or payments made to ineligible recipients?

Government Contracts  Mr. Speaker, over the last eight years under the Prime Minister, Canadians have been struggling. They are struggling under his wasteful, inflationary spending. Mortgage payments are taking a bigger bite out of paycheques. Food banks have seen a massive increase in families needing their services.

COVID-19 Emergency Response  Mr. Speaker, in 2021 the government procured a system to track vaccines. This system, VaccineConnect, is set to cost Canadians over $59 million. The government then decided to delay the development of key capabilities, forcing employees to use spreadsheets instead. This led to significant waste of vaccines and taxpayers' dollars, including confusion on expiration dates.

COVID-19 Emergency Response  Mr. Speaker, perhaps that member would like to have a conversation with the Auditor General. In her report this morning, she made it clear the government is on track for almost $2 billion in wasted vaccines by the end of this year, over 15 million doses wasted so far, with the potential of the majority of another 55 million doses set to expire in 26 days.