Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in the House. I have always been proud to stand behind my colleague, the member for Calgary Shepard, and today I am quite literally standing behind the member for Calgary Shepard as I give my speech.

After nine years of the Prime Minister's reckless policies, Canada's border is broken. Drugs, stolen cars and even terrorists are now evading detection at our border, and the Prime Minister's border incompetence is threatening our international reputation, particularly our reputation with our closest ally and most important trading partner.

One example of the Prime Minister's recklessness in the past was his infamous “#WelcomeToCanada” tweet, which led to a large influx of irregular migrants who came through Roxham Road for years. This was a problem that took the Liberal government years to get under control, and it is a broad problem for which we are still facing the consequences of today.

One of the largest beneficiaries of the Prime Minister's policies on crime has been the organized crime linked to drugs, stolen cars and terrorism. Organized criminals are specifically targeting Canada because it is a low-risk, high-reward environment. We have heard this consistently at the public safety committee in relation to the issue of auto theft. Criminals will look around the world to find the path of least resistance, and Canada's policies under the Liberal government have made it far easier for organized crime to take root in our country. The government's bail policies, lax border policies, criminal justice policies and inattention to our border have led to organized crime taking root in our country.

We know that Canada has become a manufacturing hub for the deadly fentanyl drug, and the strict border provisions that were introduced during the pandemic saw the Canadian fentanyl market shift from being an importer of fentanyl to becoming a massive domestic producer of fentanyl. CSIS has found that synthetic drugs are increasingly being produced in Canada using precursor chemicals largely sourced from China. That is the quote. However, 80% of the chemicals used in fentanyl production are completely unregulated, meaning that criminals can easily import them from China. We know that there are over 350 organized crime groups that are actively involved in our domestic fentanyl market. CBC has even reported that violent cartels are attempting to establish a foothold in western Canada.

We need to stop the deadly flow of drugs coming into our country and the deadly flow of drugs leaving our country. It has become an international embarrassment that our country is now being seen as a drug provider for the world. In fiscal year 2022, the Canada Border Services Agency claimed that it intercepted a total of 563 grams of fentanyl throughout the year leaving Canada. However, in just one shipment, the Australian Border Force intercepted 11,000 grams of pure, powdered fentanyl entering from a shipment that came from Canada. Therefore, CBSA caught 563 grams in all of fiscal year 2022, yet in just one shipment, the Australians intercepted 11,000 grams coming from Canada.

The Vancouver Police Department has reported that approximately 50% of all hydromorphone, the drug that the Liberal government has funded with taxpayer dollars as the so-called threat-reduction measure, is being diverted from the government's so-called safe-supply program for hard drugs. On July 15, the chief of the London Police Service stated, “Diverted [so-called] safe supply is being resold into our community. It's being trafficked into other communities, and it is being used as currency in exchange for fentanyl, fuelling the drug trade”.

This Prime Minister's reckless drug experiments are now threatening our closest trading relationship. In the 12 months up to September 2024, the U.S. border agency seized 11,600 pounds of drugs entering the United States from Canada. Now, there are some who might say that we should not be talking about this issue because it is making us look worse. However, we cannot deal with the problem until we acknowledge the problem, and when we acknowledge the problem, we can finally take action on solving the problem. The United States is not going to be satisfied with our silence on this issue. It will be satisfied when we take action on this issue.

The seizures of fentanyl doses have more than tripled from 2023 and 2024, rising from 239,000 doses to 839,000 doses. In fact, in Langley, British Columbia, there was a recent lab bust of a mega lab, and there was enough fentanyl captured at that lab to kill 90 million people. That is more than two times the population of Canada. That was just at one drug lab that was busted in British Columbia. We must fix this. This is costing Canadians their lives. We must fix this, not just because it is a threat to our trading relationship, with our closest trading partner, but also because we need to save Canadian lives and the lives of all the people who are suffering around the world from these drugs that are leaving Canada.

Under the Prime Minister, 47,000 Canadians have died from drug overdoses. That is more people than we lost in the Second World War. It represents a 200% annual increase in drug overdose deaths after the Prime Minister's radical drug experiments. Drugs, crime, disorder and a broken border, sadly, are a consequence of the Liberal government's radical policies. It threatens our relationships with our closest partners.

After nine years of the Prime Minister, there has been a 632% increase in U.S. border patrol encounters with people illegally attempting to enter the United States from Canada. Tariff-screening data shows that, in 2023, there were 484 matches on a U.S. tariffs watch list at land ports of entry along the Canada-U.S. border. Since 2017, these numbers have gone up 123%. These are individuals who are known to the U.S. government for their links with terrorist organizations. The only reason they were apprehended was that they attempted to cross into the U.S. Just this summer, we saw that three ISIS fighters who were operating on Canadian soil were apprehended just before they were able to carry out attacks on innocent civilians both here and in the United States.

Responsibility for the broken border falls squarely at the feet of the Liberal government. The brave men and women of the CBSA do not have the resources and support to do the job that they need to do. The previous Conservative government increased the budget of the CBSA by 45% from 2006 to 2015. There were 26% more personnel at our border from 2006 to 2015, and there were a total of 1,000 more full-time equivalents from 2006 to 2015. We will never apologize for our Conservative record.

Canada has the largest undefended border in the world. It is a beautiful thing that we can have a border with closest trading partner that is open. I know there are so many strong relationships across the border, strong relationships that we need. The fact that we have had this for so many decades is a wonderful thing, but the Liberal government has taken that for granted. It has underfunded our border, and we have seen a rise in crime in this country because of its radical criminal policies and its radical drug liberalization policies. Now we see that that border that we have, that privilege that we have as a country, is coming under threat under the new U.S. administration. We cannot take it for granted. This is an existential crisis.

I have farmers in my riding who are texting me to talk about the stress they are under. We know that farmers do face a lot of mental health challenges. They have to face drought. They have to face a volatile commodities market. Now, they are facing the threat of a 25% tariff from the U.S. administration. We cannot afford the Liberal government taking our trading relationship and our borders for granted anymore. We need it to take strong action to ensure our safety, the safety of our allies and our economic opportunities.

We had the CBSA union at the public safety committee, which said that “Canada's ability to prevent smuggling lacking, but its capacity to gather reliable and sound data [about smuggling] is also inadequate,” while going on to say, “there's almost a zero per cent chance that any illegal weapons entering the country via rail will ever be found.”

We know that the vast majority of gun violence in Canada is committed with illegally smuggled firearms coming in from the United States. Last week, we saw that the Liberal government continued its attack on law-abiding, responsible, licensed firearm owners. The Prime Minister is desperate to distract from his miserable record of a 116% rise in gun violence since he took office in 2015. Rather than waste money on a flawed confiscation scheme that would only affect legal, law-abiding, licensed gun owners, maybe the Liberal government should be spending that money on the border and increasing the confidence of our trading partners that we are taking action on the drug trade and on illegal people crossing the borders. That is the kind of action that our trading partners want to see, yet these Liberals want to play divisive politics.

A Conservative government would fix our broken border. We would increase border patrols, work with provincial law enforcement, tighten visa rules, crack down on illegal drug production, secure our ports with increased boots on the ground and expand the mandate of the CBSA so that it can do the job we need it to do.

Dane Lloyd

$573,998.00