Debates of Dec. 10th, 2014

Veterans Affairs

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, while the government sends our brave men and women off to war, it refuses to admit that when they come back with physical or mental challenges there is a moral and social obligation to care for them. It has lawyers in B.C. right now arguing the point, spending thousands of Canadian tax dollars, that there is no moral or social contract for our veterans.

Does the parliamentary secretary believe or does he not believe that there is a legal, fiduciary, moral and social obligation to care for the heroes of our country?

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite knows full well the case is currently before the courts and that we are not in a position to comment on it.

What I will say is that this is effecting a policy that was brought forward by the Liberal government in 2005, which was supported by all parties in this House.

I would encourage—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

It is getting quite noisy. The hon. parliamentary secretary still has the floor. Many members are carrying on conversations. I would ask them to do so outside the chamber, so the parliamentary secretary can finish his response.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we will continue to stand up for Canada's veterans, even though the opposition, both the Liberal Party and the NDP, continue to vote against every single initiative we bring forward—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

The hon. member for Random—Burin—St. George's.

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Veterans Affairs misleads Canadians when he says that his harmful cuts to veterans are in the back room.

Last year, direct spending on health care services was cut by $82 million and spending on disability and death compensation was cut by nearly $70 million, but spending on back office programs rose by more than $13 million and the minister's political staff increased by over 400%.

The minister has abandoned veterans. It is a national disgrace

When will the minister resign?

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, since taking office, our government has made substantial investments to help Canada's veterans with benefits and services.

On this side of the House, we support our veterans. The reality is that we voted for the agent orange compensation program; they voted against it. We voted for the Canada remembrance program; they voted against it. We voted for the health care program and reestablishment services; they voted against it. Their rhetoric in this place does not match their record. They should stop playing and start voting—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

The hon. member for Guelph.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Mr. Speaker, for the additional millions the minister is spending on communications and political staff instead of on veterans' benefits, one would think that his parliamentary secretary—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

Perhaps if members would remain quiet they might be able to hear the member. The hon. member for Guelph has the floor. There is so much noise that it is really taking up a lot of time. Let us give the hon. member for Guelph our undivided attention and listen to the question.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One would think his parliamentary secretary would have better answers for his failure on this file by now.

Now that his deep cuts to service delivery have been exposed, the minister is scrambling to refill these frontline positions, including in the communities where he closed regional VAC offices. However, we still see evidence that the most serious cuts have been to staff delivering benefits and that money is going from the front line to his back room.

Why do our veterans have to beg for the services they deserve?

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the member opposite and that party over there to start standing to vote in favour of the initiatives our government has brought forward to support Canada's veterans.

Their record is completely opposite. Let me give some examples of the some of the initiatives they have voted against. They have voted against the veterans independence program; Community War Memorial Program; the partnership program; the community award memorial program; the earnings loss and supplementary benefit retirement program—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order.

The hon. member for Bourassa.

The Environment

[Emmanuel Dubourg, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in 2009, the Prime Minister made a formal commitment to significantly reduce greenhouse gases by 2020.

Yesterday, the Minister of the Environment said that we would completely miss that target unless we regulate the oil and gas industries.

The Prime Minister was in favour of regulations for eight years, and now he has no plans to regulate the industry.

Can the Prime Minister tell Canadians that the Conservatives never planned on meeting that target in 2020?

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, what that member said is ridiculous.

To be clear, the Prime Minister said that Canada would not take unilateral action to regulate the oil and gas sector. We have been very clear that this is a North American issue that needs a North American solution. We have always said that we would like to work collaboratively with the Obama administration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector. We are going to do this without a job-killing carbon tax like the New Democrats and Liberals want to put in.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday 28 countries made new commitments to resettle Syrian refugees, but to our shame, if not surprise, Canada was not one of them. The minister appears deaf to the pleas of the UN, and certainly blind to the plight of millions of Syrian refugees about to face a very harsh winter. Sweden has resettled 30,000 refugees while Canada has agreed to take in only 1,300 and has failed to meet even that small commitment.

Will the minister stop playing these games with the numbers and start to do his part?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, someone is going to have to teach Franz Kafka over there the difference between a resettled refugee and an asylum claimant.

Canada has approved the resettlement of 1,150 Syrian refugees, mostly this year but starting in 2013. Canada has received 1,900 Syrian refugees since the start of this conflict. Canada has received over 22,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees in recent years.

Danish and French socialists have sent war planes to join us in the fight against ISIL terrorism. Barack Obama's Democrats are fighting ISIL terrorism. Why have the New Democrats and the Liberals taken Vladimir Putin's position on this issue?

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

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, 28 countries expressed their solidarity with Syrian refugees. Germany has already taken in 20,000 refugees and Sweden has taken in 30,000. Winter is approaching for these people. They need our help.

The United Nations refugee agency representative in Ottawa called on Canada to answer the UN's call.

Will the minister finally commit to accepting more Syrian refugees?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, the United Nations High Commissioner is asking us because we resettle one in 10 refugees worldwide every year, because we have already resettled 22,000 refugees from Iraq and Syria, and because there are already 1,900 Syrians in Canada.

What is hard to understand is why the New Democrats and the Liberals do not even stand with Danish and French socialists and Barack Obama's Democrats in the fight against terrorism and the Islamic State. That is what Canada is doing. Why are they taking the same position as Vladimir Putin?

The Budget

[Alain Giguère, NDP, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on another subject, the Conservatives' job credit will cost taxpayers $550 million, but it will create just 800 jobs. The government implemented it without studying the proposal at all. The minister relied exclusively on a Canadian Federation of Independent Business study. The problem is that the study the government based its proposal on had nothing to do with employment; it was about retirement benefits.

How can the minister justify throwing away half a billion dollars without having done any analysis at all?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Finance carries out thorough analyses of each measure that we propose, and it analyzed the small business job credit.

Small businesses made it very clear that their payroll taxes are the biggest obstacle to employment across Canada. Canadians know that the Liberals and New Democrats would raise taxes for job creators, which would hurt our economy.

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

Mr. Speaker, we know about the Conservative fondness for offshoring and outsourcing Canadian jobs, but it has gotten so ridiculous that even the Minister of Finance is happy to outsource the analysis of his own schemes to a business lobby group.

He did not do his own assessment of his half-billion dollar EI scheme, but relied on one of these lobbyists. It turns out that the study he relied on was totally bogus. That is the problem with outsourcing, namely quality control.

Will the minister finally admit that his $550 million EI rip-off is a complete fraud, and that maybe next time he should do his own homework?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, as I explained before in French, we do an analysis of every single proposal.

It was not necessary to do an employment count because there were many other reasons to go ahead with this excellent initiative that will benefit 780,000 small businesses, some 90% of all businesses.

Everybody knows that increased taxes are a killer for employment, and we have done the right thing for small business and the Canadian economy.