Phil McColeman

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence knew in advance that the families of the fallen would be excluded from the Afghanistan memorial dedication. He was there, after making this cruel and heartless decision. Canadians have witnessed his government's shameful contempt for those who gave their lives. Why would he dishonour his position and approve such a ceremony?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence knew in advance that the families of the fallen would be excluded from the Afghanistan memorial dedication. He was there, after making this cruel and heartless decision. Canadians have witnessed his government's shameful contempt for those who gave their lives. Why would he dishonour his position and approve such a ceremony?

Mr. Speaker, air force Captain Kimberly Fawcett was deployed twice to Afghanistan. Now she is fighting the Liberals to pay for her prosthetic limb. She lost her limb in an accident that killed her infant son Keiran. Captain Fawcett was carrying out her family care plan with the approval of her commanding officer. She defended our country in Afghanistan, but the military and Veterans Affairs say they will not pay for her prosthesis. When will the Liberals do the right thing and cover the costs related to her injury?

Mr. Speaker, let me say what is shameful. It is shameful that it took 29 days for the minister and the Prime Minister to get back to the House. It is shameful that every Liberal in the House stood yesterday to defend the benefits going to Chris Garnier, a convicted murderer sitting in a penitentiary absorbing veterans benefits. Would the Prime Minister tell the House why he thinks convicted murderer Chris Garnier is entitled to benefits meant for veterans?

Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: dysfunction, mismanagement and incompetence. Twenty-nine thousand veterans are in a backlog waiting for a decision. Of those, 3,000 have waited for over a year. There has been $42 billion spent by the minister and nothing has improved. When is the minister going to stop wasting time and money and help veterans directly?

Mr. Speaker, he killed officer Catherine Campbell. He put her in a compost bin, and he dumped her under a bridge. He has never worn the uniform, yet she wore two uniforms, one as a police officer and one as a volunteer firefighter.By his lawyer's own admission, Christopher Garnier developed his PTSD from strangling her to death.When will the minister take charge of his department and revoke veterans benefits for this killer?

Mr. Speaker, when veteran Sean Bruyea questioned the rhetoric of this government, the first thing the Minister of Veterans Affairs did was have his staff fact-check his claims, but when they confirmed the numbers, the minister sent in high-priced lawyers to shut Mr. Bruyea up. Why does the minister protect the rights of convicted murderer Chris Garnier and attack the rights of veterans like Sean Bruyea?

Mr. Speaker, to dedicate the memorial to our Afghanistan heroes and to exclude the families of the fallen from participating in that ceremony is not only insulting to those who gave their lives, it is cruel to the families and shameful.The chief of the defence staff has already done the right thing and apologized, but the Minister of National Defence was at the secret ceremony and obviously knew of the details in advance. Why did he approve a secret ceremony for the Afghanistan memorial?

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Veterans Affairs.Late last Friday the minister quietly announced that he was severely cutting the number of wreaths to be distributed for Remembrance Day ceremonies. With all of the extravagant and unnecessary spending that the government is involved in, why is it that commemorations to honour the sacrifice of Canadian veterans are the first things to get cut?What was the minister thinking when he signed off on this shameful idea?

Mr. Speaker, when asked why veterans cannot access benefits meant for them, the minister told veterans, “When you prepay at the pump, you put in 80 bucks, you don’t fill it up, you get that credit back.”There is one guy out there who has no trouble accessing funds meant for veterans, Christopher Garnier, a murderer who never served a day in his life and went straight to the front of the line.When will the minister revoke veterans benefits for this killer?

Mr. Speaker, while our veterans have faced the most unimaginable of horrors, our Prime Minister cannot stomach the truth of those horrors. For veterans, PTSD is a burden they carry from serving a grateful nation. Chris Garnier developed PTSD strangling officer Catherine Campbell, putting her body in a compost bin and dumping her under a bridge. Chris Garnier is not a veteran, so why is he getting veterans benefits?

Mr. Speaker, the National Council of Veteran Associations has confirmed that the Liberals have betrayed veterans and that veteran Sean Bruyea was right all along.The Liberals are also deliberately blocking ill and injured veterans from accessing the career transition service. However, when murderer Chris Garnier applies for veterans benefits, they put him at the front of the line.Why does the government attack veterans and put the needs of murderers ahead of them?

Mr. Speaker, deficit day has finally arrived. The Liberals promised they would borrow $10 billion this year. They broke that promise. The Minister of Finance claimed he would balance the books by 2019. He quit on that one too. He then promised that the debt-to-GDP ratio would not go up. He cannot even hit that target.Given all these broken promises, why should Canadians believe anything presented in the budget?

Mr. Speaker, the issue here is transparency. The finance minister is cooking the books to suit his reckless political spending and agenda. He was left with a Conservative surplus. He did turn that into a Liberal deficit. The finance minister needs to come clean and show some transparency. Will he tell Canadians exactly how he spent $10 billion on the reckless Liberal schemes in March?

Mr. Speaker, on August 24, 2015, the Prime Minister made this pledge to veterans: If I earn the right to serve this country as your prime minister, no veteran will be forced to fight their own government for the support and compensation that they have earned. That was when he was trying to get elected. Now that he is in power, the Prime Minister says veterans are asking for too much, but he has plenty of money for his pet projects, including a disastrous trip to India.Will the Prime Minister do the honourable thing and quit breaking his promise to veterans?

Mr. Speaker, today, the comments in the debate around the Chris Garnier case show a clear lack of leadership and the ability the minister and the Prime Minister have to intervene and stop this outrageous situation, where this murderer is receiving veterans benefits. This is not a theatre today for the minister to pat himself on the back. This is a place where we ask him to solve ths now or resign.

Mr. Speaker, there is no such thing as free money, and small business owners are going to pay the price. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business called it a “brutal budget for small businesses” that is filled with broken promises and higher taxes. Small businesses are the job creators in this country, but clearly the Prime Minister still thinks that most small businesses are just rich tax dodgers. Why is the Prime Minister killing jobs by punishing small businesses with higher taxes?

Mr. Speaker, every Liberal stood in the House and voted to maintain the benefits to murderer, Chris Garnier. True leaders, when they realize a mistake has been made, correct it. Chris Garnier never served one minute of his life in a military uniform, yet he is getting benefits for which veterans are waiting. This is outrageous, and we demand the government take leadership and revoke his benefits.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister gave $10 million to Omar Khadr because he did not want to fight him in court. However, he spent over $40 million fighting our veterans in court. He refused to revoke the veterans benefits going to convicted cop murderer, Christopher Garnier. When did the Prime Minister decide that veterans were asking for too much?

Mr. Speaker, spending borrowed money on pet Liberal projects is not a jobs plan. The Minister of Finance has been all over the map. He is abandoning his campaign budget promises. His spending targets keep changing, and he is constantly floating new ideas to raise taxes on businesses.Private sector investment has fallen off a cliff since the finance minister arrived. What is the plan to get businesses—not government, but businesses—investing in our economy again?

Mr. Speaker, the minister continues to defend the indefensible on the Garnier case. Catherine Campbell was brutally murdered, put into a compost bin and dumped under a bridge. This is a one-off situation. This is a mistake by Veterans Affairs to make this decision in the first place, yet he and the Prime Minister will not even speak to the issue of addressing it, as Canadians are demanding, especially veterans. If he is not willing to do this, it is his place in the House to resign his position.

Mr. Speaker, it is bad enough that he squandered the surplus, but the Minister of Finance does not have to keep squandering his credibility while he does it.For months, the Minister of Finance has ignored the independent analysis of the PBO, private sector economists, and his own Department of Finance. Instead, he has decided to rely on his own magic to build a reckless budget.Why does the Minister of Finance think that his mismanaging of the public purse is a gain?

Mr. Speaker, that answer either means that the Liberals either do not know how the finance department does its financial reporting, or they do not want Canadians to know. In either case it is very troubling.The finance minister has inaccurately and repeatedly stated “We inherited a deficit”, but his own department said it inherited a $1 billion surplus.Canadians know that the Liberals inherited a surplus. Liberals in the House yesterday confirmed that we left them a surplus. Why is the finance minister the only one in Canada who does not know?

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we learned that the Liberal government was excluding ill and injured veterans from its job placement program. The minister claimed it was not true, but internal briefing notes from his own department clearly state otherwise. The Liberals said that the new program was meant to support veterans “who leave the Canadian Armed Forces for reasons other than illness or injury.”Why are ill and injured veterans being blocked from receiving this benefit?

Mr. Speaker, veteran Sean Bruyea had the courage to call out the Liberals' broken promises to veterans. When he did, the minister smeared him in the press and sent in high-price lawyers to shut him up. There was nothing for veterans in the economic statement, but there were $600 million for the media, whose union has launched a campaign in support of the Liberals. Why is the Prime Minister trying to buy off the media in an election year instead of supporting veterans?

Mr. Speaker, it must be frustrating for the Minister of Finance that the facts keep getting in the way of his rhetoric. Once again, he has been completely contradicted by his own department, which reported that he inherited a $7.5 billion Conservative surplus. Will the Minister of Finance at least try to salvage some credibility and finally admit that the Conservatives left him a surplus, and his own reckless spending squandered it?

Mr. Speaker, that was a pretty straightforward question, and I believe the finance minister owes Canadians a straightforward answer. The Liberals came to this Parliament with just two policies to implement before Christmas: the refugee plan and their tax plan. In both cases, they completely miscalculated the cost to taxpayers. Having already dug themselves into a hole, the Liberals are now refusing to acknowledge their promise to hold the deficit to $10 billion. How high are they prepared to go?

Mr. Speaker, mismanagement by the Minister of Veterans Affairs has created massive backlogs of disability claims. We have known this for over a year, yet the backlog continues to get worse. The minister likes to compare his transition from TV host to minister with that of injured veterans struggling to rejoin the civilian world. However, unlike veterans, he has never been made to wait in an endless line by the very government he had to pledge his life to. The minister owes veterans an apology.

Mr. Speaker, the credibility of the Minister of Finance took another big hit this week when he admitted that he does not care about this whole balanced budget thing. Let us flash back to what he said on his very first day in this House: We intend on getting to a balanced budget during the term of our mandate. Five months later, he is laughing it off. Why does he not understand that Canadians deserve a finance minister who takes the job of managing their money seriously?

Mr. Speaker, despite promising not to do so in the last election, these Liberals took veterans back to court. Now we have learned that veterans are being forced to wait longer and longer to get the benefits they have earned.Today the Prime Minister is hurrying off to Asia to deliver on his priority: infrastructure handouts to the world's wealthy. Can the Minister of Veterans Affairs tell us why veterans are being shortchanged while the Prime Minister sends half a billion dollars to wealthy bankers in Asia?

Mr. Speaker, Liberals are already increasing payroll taxes, clawing back tax-free savings accounts, and implementing a job-killing carbon tax. They are also planning to get rid of boutique tax credits without any details of who will be affected.Can the finance minister tell us whether he plans to eliminate tax credits for first-time homebuyers, students, apprentices, families with children in sports and arts, or all of the above?

Mr. Speaker, from day one, the Liberals have shown a complete lack of interest in the needs of small businesses. After ending the small business hiring credit, they broke their promise to lower the small business tax rate. The chamber of commerce says businesses are worried about a big CPP tax increase, which it says is “headed for the middle class like an elbow to the chest”.Why is the finance minister so intent on squeezing every penny he can out of middle-class businesses and workers?

Mr. Speaker, we learned last week that defence plans on how to deter a 9/11 cell terrorist attack were inadvertently leaked to the CBC. On one hand, the minister puts a lifelong gag order on bureaucrats who are directly involved in executing his political orders, while on the other hand, the minister's department is openly sharing national security documents.When will the minister stop playing politics with the defence department and take seriously the responsibility for Canadian security?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals talk about not breaking promises. Well, they broke their promise to veterans and took them back to court.Yesterday we learned that veterans are being forced to wait longer and longer to get the benefits they earned. The number of homeless veterans has risen by 62% since the Liberals took power.The Prime Minister is in Asia delivering on his priority, $500 million in infrastructure handouts to the world's wealthy.Can the Minister of Veterans Affairs tell us why are veterans are getting less while the Prime Minister gives half a billion dollars to wealthy bankers in Asia?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal platform promised Canadians a balanced budget in 2019, but even before their first budget, the Liberals are throwing their entire fiscal plan out the window. Economies are often unpredictable, but serious governments keep their promises and fiscal targets. Why are the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance betraying the promise of balancing the budget?

Mr. Speaker, it is shocking to hear this wrongful denial. The Liberals cannot even get a handle on their own baseline numbers. His own department is reporting a $600 million surplus for the first half of 2015. The Parliamentary Budget Officer forecasted a $1.2 billion surplus for the year, yet the finance minister and the parliamentary secretary appear to be working from a different set of numbers. These are taxpayers' dollars, and Canadians deserve transparency. Could the parliamentary secretary explain where he got his numbers?

Mr. Speaker, the long list of Liberal promises now includes transparency, thanks to the Minister of Finance. The PBO delivered a scathing indictment of the government for its lack of budget transparency. The minister refuses to acknowledge that we handed them a surplus. We know the Liberals jammed as much new spending in last year's budget and books as they could. If he truly wants to be transparent, will the minister tell Canadians how much the March madness spending spree has cost?

Mr. Speaker, the evidence continues to pile up that the finance minister has a serious problem when it comes to transparency. Page 7 of his own February economic update details how his Liberal spending spree was already well under way last year. Again in March he burned through billions in one month and has driven us into a deficit. Why does the finance minister refuse to take responsibility for his own deficits?

Mr. Speaker, during the last election, do members remember what the Prime Minister promised? It was small, modest deficits.Since then, the Prime Minister has been nickel-and-diming Canadians by raising taxes and eliminating tax credits. This week, the Liberals tabled 300 pages of billions of dollars of new taxes and user fees on struggling Canadians, including increases for passports, fishing licences, and permits for small businesses.How much more will these Liberals take out of the pockets of hard-working Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have been forced to confirm that they are cutting benefits for veterans with severe and permanent injuries under the Prime Minister's veterans pension scheme. Veterans like Medric Cousineau have received letters that provide proof of the Prime Minister's betrayal. Even Liberal members of Parliament are calling this unacceptable.Does the Prime Minister agree with his Liberal MP from Nova Scotia, or does he still think veterans are asking for too much?

Mr. Speaker, TD Bank officials said the Liberals are breaking every single fiscal promise they made during the campaign, and Bank of Montreal officials warned that their spending spree will not come close to producing the growth the Liberals are imagining.Can the Minister of Finance confirm that his fiscal plan is to blow the bank, blow through all of his fiscal promises, and then cross his fingers that the budget will somehow balance itself?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Liberals have broken their trust with veterans. Brian Forbes, chairman of the National Council of the Veterans Associations, had this to say about the Liberal promises. He said, “It's fair to say the disappointment (with the new plan) has been immense because it just didn't do the trick.... If you're going to make a promise to provide lifetime pensions, then do it.”Despite the Liberals' rhetoric, veterans consider the promises made to them to be broken. Why is the Prime Minister the only one convinced that they have kept their promises to veterans?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are losing their jobs, they are holding back investments, and they are on the edge about their financial futures. Yet, all we hear are Liberal plans for massive spending, saying that their deficits could go as high as $30 billion.Could the Minister of Finance confirm that the Liberals still plan to target small business, including engineers, doctors, veterinarians, and other professionals, to finance his spending spree?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals promised Canadians a revenue-neutral tax cut, made possible by taxing high earners. However, just three days into this Parliament, the Minister of Finance admitted that they have the math completely wrong: a promise made, a promise broken.Will the Minister of Finance make up for his $1.2 billion shortfall by raising taxes, or does he plan to tack another $1.2 billion onto the structural deficit that he is building?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are spending as if we were in the great recession, even though we are not. The economy is growing. They could provide targeted supports to parts of the economy that need help today and invest in infrastructure over the long term, but they are not going to do that. They are obliterating every one of their promises by running a $30 billion deficit. They just cannot resist spending more. How can the Liberals justify spending money they do not have to fight a recession we are not in?

Mr. Speaker, there is no jobs plan in this budget. It is a plan for massive spending on Liberal interests, and the Minister of Finance has no plans to pay it back.The Liberals talk about economic growth, but this budget is pure smoke and mirrors. Why is the Minister of Finance burdening Canadians with $100 billion in new debt, and why do job creators have to pay for it?

Mr. Speaker, on August 24, 2015, the Prime Minister made this pledge to veterans, “If I earn the right to serve this country as your prime minister, no veteran will be forced to fight their own government for the support and compensation that they have earned.” That is when he was trying to get elected. Now that he is in power, he is fighting our veterans in court, because they are asking for too much, but all they ever wanted was for him to keep his promise.Will the Prime Minister do the honourable thing, and apologize for breaking his promise to veterans?

Mr. Speaker, today, veterans are camped out across the street from the Supreme Court to raise awareness for homeless veterans. Yes, it is the same Supreme Court where veterans are forced to fight the government.While trying to get elected, the Prime Minister promised veterans that they would not need to fight him in court. However, now that he is in power, he tells them that they are asking for too much. When will the Prime minister start keeping his promises to veterans?

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Minister of Finance will officially plunge Canada into an extended period of massive borrowing. Already TD Bank has said that the Liberals will put Canada into a deficit for at least 10 years. Experts across the board are increasingly warning that this year's $30 billion Liberal spending spree will not have any major impact on economic growth.We are not in a recession and this budget will not deliver any major boost to the economy. Why exactly is the Minister of Finance borrowing $30 billion?

Mr. Speaker, we left a surplus in October 2015. Those are the words of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.It is clear. The Liberal plan is spend, spend, spend. The government has already gone after families, taken away income splitting, cut tax-free savings accounts and signalled that it will take away tax credits from students, apprentices, first-time homebuyers, and families with children in sports and arts program.How is the Minister of Finance going to pay for his massive spending? Who is next on his hit list?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence knew in advance that the families of the fallen would be excluded from the Afghanistan memorial dedication. He was there, after making this cruel and heartless decision. Canadians have witnessed his government's shameful contempt for those who gave their lives. Why would he dishonour his position and approve such a ceremony?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence knew in advance that the families of the fallen would be excluded from the Afghanistan memorial dedication. He was there, after making this cruel and heartless decision. Canadians have witnessed his government's shameful contempt for those who gave their lives. Why would he dishonour his position and approve such a ceremony?

Mr. Speaker, to dedicate the memorial to our Afghanistan heroes and to exclude the families of the fallen from participating in that ceremony is not only insulting to those who gave their lives, it is cruel to the families and shameful.The chief of the defence staff has already done the right thing and apologized, but the Minister of National Defence was at the secret ceremony and obviously knew of the details in advance. Why did he approve a secret ceremony for the Afghanistan memorial?

Mr. Speaker, today, the comments in the debate around the Chris Garnier case show a clear lack of leadership and the ability the minister and the Prime Minister have to intervene and stop this outrageous situation, where this murderer is receiving veterans benefits. This is not a theatre today for the minister to pat himself on the back. This is a place where we ask him to solve ths now or resign.

Mr. Speaker, every Liberal stood in the House and voted to maintain the benefits to murderer, Chris Garnier. True leaders, when they realize a mistake has been made, correct it. Chris Garnier never served one minute of his life in a military uniform, yet he is getting benefits for which veterans are waiting. This is outrageous, and we demand the government take leadership and revoke his benefits.

How about a small company?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have been forced to confirm that they are cutting benefits for veterans with severe and permanent injuries under the Prime Minister's veterans pension scheme. Veterans like Medric Cousineau have received letters that provide proof of the Prime Minister's betrayal. Even Liberal members of Parliament are calling this unacceptable.Does the Prime Minister agree with his Liberal MP from Nova Scotia, or does he still think veterans are asking for too much?

Mr. Speaker, deficit day has finally arrived. The Liberals promised they would borrow $10 billion this year. They broke that promise. The Minister of Finance claimed he would balance the books by 2019. He quit on that one too. He then promised that the debt-to-GDP ratio would not go up. He cannot even hit that target.Given all these broken promises, why should Canadians believe anything presented in the budget?

Mr. Speaker, the minister continues to defend the indefensible on the Garnier case. Catherine Campbell was brutally murdered, put into a compost bin and dumped under a bridge. This is a one-off situation. This is a mistake by Veterans Affairs to make this decision in the first place, yet he and the Prime Minister will not even speak to the issue of addressing it, as Canadians are demanding, especially veterans. If he is not willing to do this, it is his place in the House to resign his position.

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Veterans Affairs.Late last Friday the minister quietly announced that he was severely cutting the number of wreaths to be distributed for Remembrance Day ceremonies. With all of the extravagant and unnecessary spending that the government is involved in, why is it that commemorations to honour the sacrifice of Canadian veterans are the first things to get cut?What was the minister thinking when he signed off on this shameful idea?

Mr. Speaker, during the last election the Prime Minister promised only modest deficits, but, alas, that promise was broken. Since then, Liberal ministers have been looking for ways to raise taxes on hard-working Canadians to pay for the Prime Minister's billions of dollars in broken promises. We now learn that the President of the Treasury Board is planning to raise user fees, which is just a tax by another name. Will the President of the Treasury Board tell Canadians which fees are going up, by how much, and when?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals promised Canadians a revenue-neutral tax cut, made possible by taxing high earners. However, just three days into this Parliament, the Minister of Finance admitted that they have the math completely wrong: a promise made, a promise broken.Will the Minister of Finance make up for his $1.2 billion shortfall by raising taxes, or does he plan to tack another $1.2 billion onto the structural deficit that he is building?

Mr. Speaker, from day one, the Liberals have shown a complete lack of interest in the needs of small businesses. After ending the small business hiring credit, they broke their promise to lower the small business tax rate. The chamber of commerce says businesses are worried about a big CPP tax increase, which it says is “headed for the middle class like an elbow to the chest”.Why is the finance minister so intent on squeezing every penny he can out of middle-class businesses and workers?

Mr. Speaker, as much as the minister would like to paper over it, the Prime Minister took our veterans to court. The Liberals also promised to reverse the Martin Liberals' cancelling of lifelong pensions for injured veterans. After getting elected, “pension” became “pension option”, and after beating veterans in court yesterday, it was reduced to “benefit option”. Will veterans get a lifetime pension as promised, or will the Liberals just keep playing a shell game with the existing benefits?

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I apologize for my outburst during question period. However, as the father of an intellectually disabled adult son, I find it reprehensible that the Minister of Democratic Institutions would use the disabled, insinuating—

Mr. Speaker, it is not just that the Liberals will break their fiscal promises this year, we are now told that the real big ticket spending will not start for a couple of years. For the Liberals, a $30 billion deficit is just a starting point. Already the Minister of Finance is talking about raising taxes on small businesses, taxing start-ups, and professionals. What other businesses will see their taxes go up in tomorrow's budget?

Mr. Speaker, mismanagement by the Minister of Veterans Affairs has created massive backlogs of disability claims. We have known this for over a year, yet the backlog continues to get worse. The minister likes to compare his transition from TV host to minister with that of injured veterans struggling to rejoin the civilian world. However, unlike veterans, he has never been made to wait in an endless line by the very government he had to pledge his life to. The minister owes veterans an apology.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Liberals have broken their trust with veterans. Brian Forbes, chairman of the National Council of the Veterans Associations, had this to say about the Liberal promises. He said, “It's fair to say the disappointment (with the new plan) has been immense because it just didn't do the trick.... If you're going to make a promise to provide lifetime pensions, then do it.”Despite the Liberals' rhetoric, veterans consider the promises made to them to be broken. Why is the Prime Minister the only one convinced that they have kept their promises to veterans?

Mr. Speaker, we learned last week that defence plans on how to deter a 9/11 cell terrorist attack were inadvertently leaked to the CBC. On one hand, the minister puts a lifelong gag order on bureaucrats who are directly involved in executing his political orders, while on the other hand, the minister's department is openly sharing national security documents.When will the minister stop playing politics with the defence department and take seriously the responsibility for Canadian security?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal platform promised Canadians a balanced budget in 2019, but even before their first budget, the Liberals are throwing their entire fiscal plan out the window. Economies are often unpredictable, but serious governments keep their promises and fiscal targets. Why are the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance betraying the promise of balancing the budget?

Mr. Speaker, it is time for the Minister of Democratic Institutions to stop using persons with disabilities as tools to prop up her argument. Elections Canada is constantly working to make voting easier for persons with disabilities. She knows that work is ongoing and she knows that the work has absolutely nothing to do with changing the voting system.Will the Minister of Democratic Institutions stop using persons with disabilities as a ploy for her increasingly weak arguments against holding a referendum?

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we learned that the Liberal government was excluding ill and injured veterans from its job placement program. The minister claimed it was not true, but internal briefing notes from his own department clearly state otherwise. The Liberals said that the new program was meant to support veterans “who leave the Canadian Armed Forces for reasons other than illness or injury.”Why are ill and injured veterans being blocked from receiving this benefit?

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order resulting out of question period and the question we have been asking about the Afghanistan fallen and such. There have been discussions among the parties and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That in the opinion of the House, the government should recognize the sacrifices Canadian military families make on a daily basis and the contributions of these families to the fabric of our society and show appreciation for their ongoing commitment to the safety and security of Canada by designating the third Friday in September of each year military family appreciation day; that the Prime Minister apologize to the military families that were excluded from participating in the secret dedication ceremony for the Afghanistan memorial; and that the government right this wrong and make the Afghanistan memorial accessible to the families of the fallen.

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are losing their jobs, they are holding back investments, and they are on the edge about their financial futures. Yet, all we hear are Liberal plans for massive spending, saying that their deficits could go as high as $30 billion.Could the Minister of Finance confirm that the Liberals still plan to target small business, including engineers, doctors, veterinarians, and other professionals, to finance his spending spree?

Mr. Speaker, TD Bank officials said the Liberals are breaking every single fiscal promise they made during the campaign, and Bank of Montreal officials warned that their spending spree will not come close to producing the growth the Liberals are imagining.Can the Minister of Finance confirm that his fiscal plan is to blow the bank, blow through all of his fiscal promises, and then cross his fingers that the budget will somehow balance itself?

Mr. Speaker, today, veterans are camped out across the street from the Supreme Court to raise awareness for homeless veterans. Yes, it is the same Supreme Court where veterans are forced to fight the government.While trying to get elected, the Prime Minister promised veterans that they would not need to fight him in court. However, now that he is in power, he tells them that they are asking for too much. When will the Prime minister start keeping his promises to veterans?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals talk about not breaking promises. Well, they broke their promise to veterans and took them back to court.Yesterday we learned that veterans are being forced to wait longer and longer to get the benefits they earned. The number of homeless veterans has risen by 62% since the Liberals took power.The Prime Minister is in Asia delivering on his priority, $500 million in infrastructure handouts to the world's wealthy.Can the Minister of Veterans Affairs tell us why are veterans are getting less while the Prime Minister gives half a billion dollars to wealthy bankers in Asia?

Mr. Speaker, there is no such thing as free money, and small business owners are going to pay the price. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business called it a “brutal budget for small businesses” that is filled with broken promises and higher taxes. Small businesses are the job creators in this country, but clearly the Prime Minister still thinks that most small businesses are just rich tax dodgers. Why is the Prime Minister killing jobs by punishing small businesses with higher taxes?

Mr. Speaker, air force Captain Kimberly Fawcett was deployed twice to Afghanistan. Now she is fighting the Liberals to pay for her prosthetic limb. She lost her limb in an accident that killed her infant son Keiran. Captain Fawcett was carrying out her family care plan with the approval of her commanding officer. She defended our country in Afghanistan, but the military and Veterans Affairs say they will not pay for her prosthesis. When will the Liberals do the right thing and cover the costs related to her injury?

Mr. Speaker, the long list of Liberal promises now includes transparency, thanks to the Minister of Finance. The PBO delivered a scathing indictment of the government for its lack of budget transparency. The minister refuses to acknowledge that we handed them a surplus. We know the Liberals jammed as much new spending in last year's budget and books as they could. If he truly wants to be transparent, will the minister tell Canadians how much the March madness spending spree has cost?

Seventy-three per cent fair.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are spending as if we were in the great recession, even though we are not. The economy is growing. They could provide targeted supports to parts of the economy that need help today and invest in infrastructure over the long term, but they are not going to do that. They are obliterating every one of their promises by running a $30 billion deficit. They just cannot resist spending more. How can the Liberals justify spending money they do not have to fight a recession we are not in?

Mr. Speaker, it was not just the Liberal platform that promised a balanced budget. I will remind the finance minister that the Prime Minister explicitly directed him to balance the budget in his term. The very first point in the mandate letter from the Prime Minister was to meet “our fiscal anchors of balancing the budget in 2019/20”.Will the finance minister confirm that he will do as the Prime Minister has directed him and balance the budget in this term? If not, what was the point of the mandate letter?

Mr. Speaker, that was a pretty straightforward question, and I believe the finance minister owes Canadians a straightforward answer. The Liberals came to this Parliament with just two policies to implement before Christmas: the refugee plan and their tax plan. In both cases, they completely miscalculated the cost to taxpayers. Having already dug themselves into a hole, the Liberals are now refusing to acknowledge their promise to hold the deficit to $10 billion. How high are they prepared to go?

Mr. Speaker, when veteran Sean Bruyea questioned the rhetoric of this government, the first thing the Minister of Veterans Affairs did was have his staff fact-check his claims, but when they confirmed the numbers, the minister sent in high-priced lawyers to shut Mr. Bruyea up. Why does the minister protect the rights of convicted murderer Chris Garnier and attack the rights of veterans like Sean Bruyea?

Mr. Speaker, the evidence continues to pile up that the finance minister has a serious problem when it comes to transparency. Page 7 of his own February economic update details how his Liberal spending spree was already well under way last year. Again in March he burned through billions in one month and has driven us into a deficit. Why does the finance minister refuse to take responsibility for his own deficits?

Mr. Speaker, while our veterans have faced the most unimaginable of horrors, our Prime Minister cannot stomach the truth of those horrors. For veterans, PTSD is a burden they carry from serving a grateful nation. Chris Garnier developed PTSD strangling officer Catherine Campbell, putting her body in a compost bin and dumping her under a bridge. Chris Garnier is not a veteran, so why is he getting veterans benefits?

Mr. Speaker, that answer either means that the Liberals either do not know how the finance department does its financial reporting, or they do not want Canadians to know. In either case it is very troubling.The finance minister has inaccurately and repeatedly stated “We inherited a deficit”, but his own department said it inherited a $1 billion surplus.Canadians know that the Liberals inherited a surplus. Liberals in the House yesterday confirmed that we left them a surplus. Why is the finance minister the only one in Canada who does not know?

Mr. Speaker, he killed officer Catherine Campbell. He put her in a compost bin, and he dumped her under a bridge. He has never worn the uniform, yet she wore two uniforms, one as a police officer and one as a volunteer firefighter.By his lawyer's own admission, Christopher Garnier developed his PTSD from strangling her to death.When will the minister take charge of his department and revoke veterans benefits for this killer?

Mr. Speaker, on August 24, 2015, the Prime Minister made this pledge to veterans, “If I earn the right to serve this country as your prime minister, no veteran will be forced to fight their own government for the support and compensation that they have earned.” That is when he was trying to get elected. Now that he is in power, he is fighting our veterans in court, because they are asking for too much, but all they ever wanted was for him to keep his promise.Will the Prime Minister do the honourable thing, and apologize for breaking his promise to veterans?

Mr. Speaker, there is no jobs plan in this budget. It is a plan for massive spending on Liberal interests, and the Minister of Finance has no plans to pay it back.The Liberals talk about economic growth, but this budget is pure smoke and mirrors. Why is the Minister of Finance burdening Canadians with $100 billion in new debt, and why do job creators have to pay for it?

Mr. Speaker, it is bad enough that he squandered the surplus, but the Minister of Finance does not have to keep squandering his credibility while he does it.For months, the Minister of Finance has ignored the independent analysis of the PBO, private sector economists, and his own Department of Finance. Instead, he has decided to rely on his own magic to build a reckless budget.Why does the Minister of Finance think that his mismanaging of the public purse is a gain?

Mr. Speaker, despite promising not to do so in the last election, these Liberals took veterans back to court. Now we have learned that veterans are being forced to wait longer and longer to get the benefits they have earned.Today the Prime Minister is hurrying off to Asia to deliver on his priority: infrastructure handouts to the world's wealthy. Can the Minister of Veterans Affairs tell us why veterans are being shortchanged while the Prime Minister sends half a billion dollars to wealthy bankers in Asia?

Mr. Speaker, the issue here is transparency. The finance minister is cooking the books to suit his reckless political spending and agenda. He was left with a Conservative surplus. He did turn that into a Liberal deficit. The finance minister needs to come clean and show some transparency. Will he tell Canadians exactly how he spent $10 billion on the reckless Liberal schemes in March?

Mr. Speaker, when asked why veterans cannot access benefits meant for them, the minister told veterans, “When you prepay at the pump, you put in 80 bucks, you don’t fill it up, you get that credit back.”There is one guy out there who has no trouble accessing funds meant for veterans, Christopher Garnier, a murderer who never served a day in his life and went straight to the front of the line.When will the minister revoke veterans benefits for this killer?

Mr. Speaker, let me say what is shameful. It is shameful that it took 29 days for the minister and the Prime Minister to get back to the House. It is shameful that every Liberal in the House stood yesterday to defend the benefits going to Chris Garnier, a convicted murderer sitting in a penitentiary absorbing veterans benefits. Would the Prime Minister tell the House why he thinks convicted murderer Chris Garnier is entitled to benefits meant for veterans?

Mr. Speaker, it must be frustrating for the Minister of Finance that the facts keep getting in the way of his rhetoric. Once again, he has been completely contradicted by his own department, which reported that he inherited a $7.5 billion Conservative surplus. Will the Minister of Finance at least try to salvage some credibility and finally admit that the Conservatives left him a surplus, and his own reckless spending squandered it?

Mr. Speaker, spending borrowed money on pet Liberal projects is not a jobs plan. The Minister of Finance has been all over the map. He is abandoning his campaign budget promises. His spending targets keep changing, and he is constantly floating new ideas to raise taxes on businesses.Private sector investment has fallen off a cliff since the finance minister arrived. What is the plan to get businesses—not government, but businesses—investing in our economy again?

Mr. Speaker, despite promising not to do so in the last election, the Liberals continue to fight our veterans in court. Today, in the Equitas case, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled against veterans. Does the Prime Minister regret breaking his promise not to take our veterans back to court?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister gave $10 million to Omar Khadr because he did not want to fight him in court. However, he spent over $40 million fighting our veterans in court. He refused to revoke the veterans benefits going to convicted cop murderer, Christopher Garnier. When did the Prime Minister decide that veterans were asking for too much?

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance was wrong when he said his government had inherited a deficit. His own department states that, from April to October, the federal government posted a surplus of $600 million. It is in black and white, posted publicly on its website and available for all to see. We Conservatives left a surplus. Did the parliamentary secretary, in answering my question, wilfully mislead the House? If so, will he stand in his place, correct the record, and apologize.

Mr. Speaker, it is shocking to hear this wrongful denial. The Liberals cannot even get a handle on their own baseline numbers. His own department is reporting a $600 million surplus for the first half of 2015. The Parliamentary Budget Officer forecasted a $1.2 billion surplus for the year, yet the finance minister and the parliamentary secretary appear to be working from a different set of numbers. These are taxpayers' dollars, and Canadians deserve transparency. Could the parliamentary secretary explain where he got his numbers?

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Minister of Finance will officially plunge Canada into an extended period of massive borrowing. Already TD Bank has said that the Liberals will put Canada into a deficit for at least 10 years. Experts across the board are increasingly warning that this year's $30 billion Liberal spending spree will not have any major impact on economic growth.We are not in a recession and this budget will not deliver any major boost to the economy. Why exactly is the Minister of Finance borrowing $30 billion?

Mr. Speaker, during the last election, do members remember what the Prime Minister promised? It was small, modest deficits.Since then, the Prime Minister has been nickel-and-diming Canadians by raising taxes and eliminating tax credits. This week, the Liberals tabled 300 pages of billions of dollars of new taxes and user fees on struggling Canadians, including increases for passports, fishing licences, and permits for small businesses.How much more will these Liberals take out of the pockets of hard-working Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, the National Council of Veteran Associations has confirmed that the Liberals have betrayed veterans and that veteran Sean Bruyea was right all along.The Liberals are also deliberately blocking ill and injured veterans from accessing the career transition service. However, when murderer Chris Garnier applies for veterans benefits, they put him at the front of the line.Why does the government attack veterans and put the needs of murderers ahead of them?

Mr. Speaker, the credibility of the Minister of Finance took another big hit this week when he admitted that he does not care about this whole balanced budget thing. Let us flash back to what he said on his very first day in this House: We intend on getting to a balanced budget during the term of our mandate. Five months later, he is laughing it off. Why does he not understand that Canadians deserve a finance minister who takes the job of managing their money seriously?

Mr. Speaker, we left a surplus in October 2015. Those are the words of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.It is clear. The Liberal plan is spend, spend, spend. The government has already gone after families, taken away income splitting, cut tax-free savings accounts and signalled that it will take away tax credits from students, apprentices, first-time homebuyers, and families with children in sports and arts program.How is the Minister of Finance going to pay for his massive spending? Who is next on his hit list?

Mr. Speaker, on August 24, 2015, the Prime Minister made this pledge to veterans: If I earn the right to serve this country as your prime minister, no veteran will be forced to fight their own government for the support and compensation that they have earned. That was when he was trying to get elected. Now that he is in power, the Prime Minister says veterans are asking for too much, but he has plenty of money for his pet projects, including a disastrous trip to India.Will the Prime Minister do the honourable thing and quit breaking his promise to veterans?

Mr. Speaker, veteran Sean Bruyea had the courage to call out the Liberals' broken promises to veterans. When he did, the minister smeared him in the press and sent in high-price lawyers to shut him up. There was nothing for veterans in the economic statement, but there were $600 million for the media, whose union has launched a campaign in support of the Liberals. Why is the Prime Minister trying to buy off the media in an election year instead of supporting veterans?