Debates of Feb. 29th, 2012

Jacques Gourde Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services

Mr. Speaker, with respect to language of work, the NDP has not done its homework and seems determined to impose pointless and burdensome paperwork on businesses. Our government is determined to promote and protect the French language in Canada.

Jacques Gourde Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services

Mr. Speaker, French is an integral part of our history, our identity and our daily lives. French is Canada's founding language, and our Conservative government is proud of that. Our government will create an advisory committee to determine whether there is a problem with respect to the French language in private enterprises operating under federal jurisdiction.

Sylvain Chicoine Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' senseless crime bill will come with equally senseless costs. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that the average cost per offender will be 16 times higher. Even worse, correctional supervision will be available for fewer offenders. The upshot: the Conservatives want Canadians to pay more to be less safe. It makes no sense.

Is this really what the Conservatives want, for Canadians to pay more to be less safe?

Rob Nicholson Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Mr. Speaker, I completely disagree with that. I noted that the PBO, Kevin Page, said yesterday that there was no way judges would give conditional sentences for the nature of some of these crimes. He talked about kidnapping and sexual assault. Do not tell that to Sheldon Kennedy who has been lobbying for many years to get rid of conditional sentences for sexual assault. I am going with Sheldon Kennedy on that and that is exactly what this government will do. We are going to crack down on this kind of activity.

Jack Harris St. John's East, NL

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives, as usual, are cherry-picking the facts. The minister knows that this rule also includes non-violent offences and such things as theft.

The independent Parliamentary Budget Officer was only dealing with one small part of Bill C-10 and concluded that the changes would be extremely costly and would punish fewer criminals for less time. It would cost 16 times more money to keep fewer criminals under correctional supervision. That is just nonsense.

This bill is expensive, it will not make our streets safer and nobody wants to pay for it. Why are the Conservatives forging ahead with something that is doomed to fail?

Rob Nicholson Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Mr. Speaker, we are looking at all victims in the country. When we have individuals, organized crime and gangs bringing drugs into our country, we need to send a message out to them that we are not prepared to stand by and let these people go ahead and try to destroy young people in our country without serious consequences.

That is exactly what this government is doing. We will continue to stand up for victims and law-abiding Canadians. That is the mandate Canadians gave us.

Joyce Murray Vancouver Quadra, BC

Mr. Speaker, yesterday a senior in Vancouver Quadra wrote to me that she received an election call giving wrong poll station information so she reported it because, “it is my duty to report it in defence of Canada's treasured democracy and moral integrity”.

Campaign Research, the robocall company caught making Conservative—

The Speaker Andrew Scheer

Order, please. The member for Vancouver Quadra has the floor.

Joyce Murray Vancouver Quadra, BC

Mr. Speaker, Campaign Research, the robocall company caught making Conservative-funded false calls in Mount Royal, also provided services to the Conservative campaign in Vancouver Quadra.

When will the Prime Minister accept his responsibility and investigate these nationwide complaints—

The Speaker Andrew Scheer

Order. The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Dean Del Mastro Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party conducted a clean and ethical campaign in ridings right across this country. We hired legitimate companies to undertake legitimate exercises throughout that campaign to ensure that voters got out to vote. In fact, some 900,000 more Canadians voted in the last election.

What the Liberal Party has done, and shame on it for doing so, is it has brought forward all of these allegations with no evidence, none whatsoever. It is an unsubstantiated Liberal smear campaign and the Liberals should be ashamed of themselves.

Denis Coderre Bourassa, QC

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister asked earlier, “Where is the beef?” We want to know, where is the poutine?

When someone buys a disposable phone and registers it with a false name and address, that usually means they want to abuse the system. This is not complicated. The only people who know who Pierre Poutine is are the Conservatives and their leader. We want to know who this Pierre Poutine is. Will the Conservatives come clean on this?