Debates of Oct. 28th, 2014

Foreign Affairs

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today the U.S. Secretary of State is visiting Ottawa and holding talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We welcome Secretary of State Kerry and we thank him for his expression of solidarity with our country.

We know the mission in Iraq was on the agenda. Could the Minister of Foreign Affairs inform the House whether the extension of Canada's combat role in Iraq was discussed?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we welcome Secretary Kerry who is visiting Ottawa and expressing his solidarity and the solidarity of the United States of America with Canada, with all Canadians, and especially paying respects to the two servicemen who passed away.

I can confirm that this was not part of the discussions we had with Secretary Kerry.

International Development

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we want to ensure we have clarity and transparency on the mission.

On another topic, there is urgent need for more help on Ebola. We note that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, is visiting West Africa and has underlined the urgent need for increased aid and more medical workers to help stop new infections.

Will the minister be offering Mr. Kerry a scaled up Canadian commitment in response to this global health crisis?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Minister of International Development and Minister for La Francophonie]

Mr. Speaker, there were requests about Canada's participation to help combat this terrible disease.

As I said, as of no later than Friday, the disbursement from Canada were $57 million. That brings our contribution to the second largest amount of all contributors in combatting Ebola.

We will ensure that we keep monitoring the situation very closely. As I said, we have helped in prevention and education with UNICEF, 900,000 people so far.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, is calling on the international community to do more to combat the Ebola crisis. West Africa desperately needs more personnel and basic medical equipment. An American ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, is calling on everyone to urgently provide beds and medical personnel.

Will the government offer any such assistance to the U.S. Secretary of State?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Minister of International Development and Minister for La Francophonie]

Mr. Speaker, we are in constant contact with our allies, and in particular with the United States. As I said in the House just last Friday, Canada has already contributed $57 million, which makes us the second-largest donor in the fight against the Ebola crisis.

We have been there since April 2014. We have already provided equipment and logistical assistance to the World Health Organization. We continue to assess all opportunities. For example, with UNICEF, we were able to help educate 900,000 people on preventive measures.

National Defence

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Americans are specifically requesting beds and medical personnel, and so is the World Bank.

The combat mission in Iraq is another issue at the top of the U.S. Secretary of State's agenda. There is certainly a lot of speculation about extending the Canadian combat mission.

Is the government planning to discuss this issue with the Secretary of State, and is it planning an additional commitment over and above the current six-month mission?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, that did not come up in the meetings we had with my U.S. counterpart.

The combat mission is an important part of the mission. We also spoke of the need to go after the financing of terrorism. We also spoke of the need to combat radicalization. We also spoke of the need to bring in the Sunni Arab world, which under the leadership of President Obama has seen significant engagement.

There are many way with which we can tackle this. We can provide training and logistical support. Canada is prepared to do our share. Canada is prepared to do our share of the heavy lifting, which we think is important.

Employment

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the government cannot seem to get its act together on labour market information. It gets the job vacancy numbers from Kijiji. It does not count aboriginal Canadians in the unemployment rate. It has gutted Statistics Canada.

Now even the TD Bank has given up on the government and has created its own indicator. The new TD LMI shows that the Canadian labour market has been very weak over the past two years.

When will the Conservatives stop playing with numbers?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Minister of State (Social Development)]

Mr. Speaker, our government recognizes the need for better labour market information. We are addressing that. We have launched two comprehensive new surveys for labour market information, a quarterly job vacancy survey and an annual national wage report.

We are listening to the experts. We are ensuring that we have accurate labour market information.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the temporary foreign worker program train wreck is due in part to the lack of reliable data.

In fact, TD Bank no longer trusts the government's labour market information. After having to develop its own methodology, it discovered that Canada's labour market has been ailing for two years, contrary to what the Conservatives claim.

Instead of messing with the numbers and pretending that the labour market is not in big trouble, will the Conservatives tackle unemployment with a real job creation plan?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Minister of State (Social Development)]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are not just looking but moving forward on ways to improve our labour market information.

There are other things we are doing. We have made strong reforms to our temporary foreign worker program so we can ensure Canadians have first crack at the jobs that are available. We have also introduced the Canada job grant so employers are linked directly with skills training for jobs that are available. We recognize there are gaps in certain regions in the country in regard to labour skills and labour needs.

We are working on the whole sector in terms of labour market information and addressing those labour market needs.

Employment Insurance

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, as usual, the Conservatives and the Liberals want to dip freely into the EI fund. This time, it is to finance their so-called job creation plan.

An economist called the Liberals' plans an election gimmick, while the Parliamentary Budget Officer has revealed that the Conservatives' plan will cost half a million dollars per job. In short, these are two bad plans funded with money that belongs to unemployed workers.

How can the Conservatives justify using workers' contributions to finance a program that will create virtually no jobs?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the premise of the question is inaccurate.

We have frozen EI premiums for three years, which represents $550 million in savings for job creators and for workers in 2014 alone.

The new small business job credit would lower insurance premiums by 15%, which will enable small businesses to save a lot more money.

It is an advantage that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order. The hon. member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley.

The Budget

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, at $550,000 a job, we can get two senators for that price.

Not only would this 450-page omnibus bill continue the raid on employment insurance, it is packed full of other measures that Conservatives want to hide from Canadians, like the Conservative private member's bill to strip social security from refugee claimants to federal judges to airports, and the elimination of the Canadian Polar Commission, dozens of laws changed with a single stroke of a pen.

Could the Minister of Finance answer just one question? What do any of these initiatives have to do with the budget?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, our budget implementation plan goes to reducing taxes, creating jobs and economic growth, and there are many measures that would achieve that.

It would extend the existing tax credit for interest paid on government-sponsored student loans and interest paid on a Canada apprentice loan. It introduces a new reporting standard to meet Canada's G8 commitment to increase transparency for entities operating in the extractive sector. It would strengthen Canada's intellectual property regime and amend legislation to implement reforms to the temporary foreign workers program. It would make the tax system fairer and simpler for farming and fishing businesses. It would do a great deal for the economy.

Employment Insurance

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, there is some worrisome news for the Conservative government. There seems to be division within the Conservative ranks over who the employment insurance fund actually belongs to.

Last night, the Conservative member from York Centre passionately told the finance committee that EI funds did not belong to the government but to the workers and employers who paid into it. We could not agree more, yet the Minister of Finance's own omnibus bill continues to rip-off more than half a billion dollars from the EI fund, which has been panned by experts. This plan shows to be destructive and expensive.

Will the minister take his own colleague's advice and scrap this dangerous EI scheme?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I think perhaps the NDP member is thinking of the previous Liberal government, which increased EI premiums to $65 billion and then used them as a slush fund. The Liberals raided and completely wiped it out. This is not something we will do.

The NDP also supported a 45-day work year that would drastically increase premiums by 35% at a cost of $44 billion. Unlike the opposition—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for St. Paul's.

Infrastructure

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Toronto Mayor-elect John Tory is committed to working with all levels of government to invest in the infrastructure on public transit, essential to making our community competitive.

The Ontario finance minister is already committed to working collaboratively with him to make these critical investments.

Will the Minister of Finance stand up for his city and reverse his decision to slash infrastructure spending by almost 90% this year and increase the funding necessary to improve the quality of life for Torontonians, which will create jobs now?

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Minister of Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, first I have to congratulate the people who have been elected yesterday in the municipal elections. We are happy to work with them and we will continue to work with them.

We have tripled federal infrastructure investments since we took office. For the next 10 years, that is $53 billion that municipalities can count on.

In respect of jurisdiction, we will not manage everything in Ottawa. We will work with provinces and municipalities.

[Arnold Chan, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the government just does not get it. Its building Canada fund commits only $210 million for each of the next two years.

In yesterday's municipal elections, voters sent a clear message that the current plans for infrastructure, and in particular, public transit, are not good enough.

In the GTA and indeed across much of Ontario we saw a wave of candidates who are focused on city-building and building access to public transit.

Will the government heed the calls of Ontario's municipalities and commit to invest more in infrastructure?

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Minister of Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, I am a former mayor. I do not need a lecture from the member about how things work in a city. I know that before our government there was very little money available for cities and for infrastructure in this country. Since we came to power, we have significantly increased support for our municipalities, and we will continue to do so. Announcements are happening all across the country. I am proud of our government and of our Prime Minister.

[Arnold Chan, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Speaker, even the Parliamentary Budget Officer suggested last week that the government could make significant investments in the budget and still maintain the Conservatives' goal of a 25% debt to GDP ratio. This would kick start much-needed investments in public infrastructure across the country.

Will the government heed the advice of the Parliamentary Budget Officer and commit the much needed investments in public infrastructure?