By Umendra Singh
Long time Liberal Party MP Sukh Dhaliwal is confident about Canada’s Prime Minister – mainly because of the person leading the government, Prime minister, Mark carney.
“He has a great record in Canada and around the world – All over the world people respect him. He has led the Bank of Canada as well as Bank of England, he has worked in the United Nations and he has been the deputy Finance Minister – so he has a greater,” Dhaliwal said.
“He led this country through one of the worst global financial crises in 2008. You compare his achievements to that of Opposition and Conservative Party leader – Pierrie Poilievre who has done nothing but indulge in sloganeering,” Dhaliwal said in an interview,
“And now look at the six major projects he has announced – over the next debate, it will generate a lot of evo0mic benefits
I see his actions to take Canada as self sustaini9ng nation in future. That is what he is doing,”
Secondly, he has brought in so many bills to improve law and order situation in the country, Dhaliwal said.
“A second bill he has brought in to give power to CBSA to stop smuggled narcotics and weapons. He has emphasized on stopping smuggling through Canada Post
He has also brought in a bill to stop bogus or non genuine refugee and asylum claims. Gibing power to CBSA to stop people claiming refugee status when they are not genuine refugees.
There is also a bill to deal with child sexual exploitation and there is a bill to protect religious places and places of worship.
Carney ahs brought in a bill to exempt GST on buyers buying houses sold for $1 million or less. This will help people who are trying to get into housing.
There are also bills for childcare, pharmacare. And social justice.
For the first time, has brought budget in two parts – operating budget and separate capital budget.
He will balance the operating budget in next few years. Ministerial departments have already been asked to cut expenses.
Dhaliwal compared Carney to Poilievre, saying Poilievre has no ideas but just slogans.
He said that not only Canadians have rejected him but his own constituents in his constituency rejected him by defeating him in the last general election, forcing him to move to a safe Conservative seat in Alberta to get back in Parliament. A sitting Conservative MP had to resign his seat shortly after the general election, to force a by-election for Poilievre to et elected.
And now some of his MPs are deserting him, he said,
Dhaliwal admitted that extortion of businesspersons is causing chaos. But he said that the Liberal government is working on the problem.
He said local police departments don’t have resources to deal with extortion related crimes.
He said he believes a provincial gang unit, CFSEU -BC, is a provincial integrated anti-gang unit that has 400 police office and 100 support staff who investigate gang crimes and could be an answer to extortion. But the provincial BC government has been non-responsive.
“That unit has capability to deal with situations like extortion. I brought this forward to the province and wrote letters to the Premier and the Minister of Public Safety, but they never responded. The provincial government never responded,” Dhaliwal claimed.
The unit has its own lab and resources and does get federal funding – and it could get more federal funding if it starts focussing on extortions.
But the province was not willing to listen to him. Dhaliwal said he also write a letter to the Conservative critic on public safety to garner support for this idea, but he also did not respond.
“He does not care/ All they care about is slogans,” Dhaliwal said.
“If you talk to the Surrey Police Board or the Surrey Mayor, they will tell you the same thing – that this provincial unit is best suited to deal with extortions,” he said/
Although this idea has not gone forward, Dhaliwal said the Prime Minister has moved forward quickly get all BC police departments in one place to work together on dealing with extortion related crimes.
Dhaliwal said Bill 12 which passed on last day of last Parliament that stipulates that anyone who applies for refugee status/asylum in Canada after June 2025, they would not be eligible if they had been in Canada for more than six months. All those charged with criminal offences, like extortion related crimes, will also not be eligible to make refugee claims.
For example, media reported that at least 9 people charged with extortion related crimes in BC have also field for refugee claims after they were charged. Bill 12 will make them ineligible to make a claim for asylum in Canada.
Talking about major projects, Dhaliwal said that the first three of the six major federal projects announced by the Pime Minister Carney are in BC.
The Surrey-Newton MP emphasised that no matter how enticing trade deals might be, Canada can not sacrifice its standards on human rights for trade deals.
“Whether it is India, China or Russia or any other countries, our standards on human rights can not be sacrificed. And these countries can’t be interfering in our politics and in our internal affairs,” he said.