Debates of March 25th, 2014

Foreign Affairs and International Development

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

No.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.

[Some hon. members]

Yea.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

All those opposed will please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

In my opinion the yeas have it.

And five or more members having risen:

Pursuant to Standing Order 66, the recorded divisions stands deferred until Wednesday, March 26, 2014, at the end of government orders.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Finance

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, for approximately 20 years, increasing household debt has been one of the major economic problems of the western world.

In Canada, in the early 1980s, household debt represented, on average, two-thirds of a household's disposable income. In 2013, that ratio surpassed 160% and today it is closer to 168%. It just keeps climbing, and we have taken on more debt than ever. For each dollar of disposable income, households now owe an average of $1.65.

What is the explanation for this? It is simple: household spending is increasing faster than income. Basically, middle-class salaries have been stagnating for many years. That is why the NDP believes it is time to take action for families and the middle-class. After 13 years of Liberal government and a decade of Conservative government, it is clear that nothing is being done.

The NDP is not the only one criticizing the inaction of previous governments. The Governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz, described household debt as a major threat to the Canadian economy.

The NDP is proposing clear, concrete solutions that the government can implement immediately. It just takes a little leadership to put them in place. It is not enough to think only of their little friends, their relatives and the banks. They have to take the consumers' side. That is what the NDP is doing.

That is why, today, I would like to lay out some small measures on which the government can act. The first of those measures would be to put limits on ATM fees. We in the NDP feel that it is time to limit the fee for a withdrawal at an ATM to 50¢. Bank fees are increasingly abusive. With the hidden fees, the situation is becoming a nightmare. Consumers are finding themselves faced with exorbitant fees whenever they want to take their own money out of an ATM. It really makes no sense, and that is why we must act.

Why is the NDP proposing a 50¢ limit per ATM transaction? Because we have an American study showing that operating costs are about 36¢. Allowing a profit margin of 14¢ per transaction, a 50¢ fee would be quite reasonable. Everyone could handle that, banks as well as consumers.

We also think that prohibitive credit card interest rates should be stopped. We will ensure that people have reasonable access to credit cards at prime plus 5%. That is something that we said during the last campaign, and we will say it again in the next campaign in 2015, because it is essential.

Finally, it is time to stop paying to pay. We succeeded in having the Prime Minister commit to legislation that would prevent additional fees for paper bills. Now we have to make sure that he keeps his promise and that he will move really firmly to abolish those $2 fees we see on our bills just because the bill from our telephone company or our bank comes in the mail.

Those are the three measures I am presenting today. I invite the Conservative government to show strong support for these NDP measures.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, let me first reassure the hon. member that in an uncertain world, Canada's economic action plan is working. It is creating jobs, keeping the economy growing, and returning Canada to balanced budgets. Since the beginning of the recovery from the global recession, Canada has achieved the best job creation record of any G7 country and one of the best economic performances in the G7.

Both the independent International Monetary Fund, or IMF, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD, reaffirmed this. Both are projecting that Canada's economic growth will be among the strongest in the G7 in the years ahead. Canada's economic action plan 2014 builds on this success by continuing our government's support for families and communities across our great country. Our government is keeping taxes low, putting consumers first, protecting Canadians' health and safety, and making communities more resilient in the face of natural disasters.

Let me begin by outlining the actions we are taking to put Canadian consumers first. Since 2006, this government has take significant action to support and protect Canadian consumers by reducing taxes and tariffs, ensuring marketplace fairness, and promoting competition in a number of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, and air services. We have also taken important steps to improve product and food safety. Economic action plan 2014 expands on the government's consumer-focused measures to improve the bottom line for Canadian families and ensure that they are getting value for their hard-earned tax dollars.

One key focus for our government has been improving competition in the telecommunications market. Economic action plan 2014 proposes new measures to do this. Our government will cap wholesale domestic wireless roaming rates and provide telecommunications regulators with the power to impose administrative monetary penalties on companies that violate rules, such as the wireless code.

Furthermore, our government will also take steps to improve access to broadband Internet service for Canadians in rural and northern communities. We will invest $305 million over five years to extend and enhance broadband Internet service for Canadians in these remote communities. Enhancing and extending broadband access will help to create jobs, growth, and prosperity for rural and northern Canadians by increasing their ability to participate in the digital economy. In addition, small and medium-sized businesses will benefit by having increased access to information and markets.

Our government is also taking action to help lower costs for consumers in the financial sector. Economic action plan 2014 advances our government's commitment to protect consumers of financial products and services. We will ensure that banks offer low-cost basic banking services that meet consumers' banking needs; that they expand no-cost basic banking services for youth, students, and vulnerable groups, including seniors; and that they continue to provide free monthly printed statements for credit cards. Our government will also be working with stakeholders to help lower the costs that merchants pay to accept credit cards while encouraging merchants to lower prices for consumers.

In addition, our government will work with Canadians on developing a comprehensive financial service consumer code that will better protect consumers of financial products and services and ensure that they have the tools they need to make responsible financial decisions for themselves and their families.

I will finish with this message: Canada's economic action plan is working for Canadians. It is putting their interests first, it is helping support their families and communities, and it is creating jobs, opportunities, and long-term prosperity for all Canadians.

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, while the Conservatives continue to applaud themselves, we in the NDP are talking to people on the ground.

I am thinking about ordinary people on the ground. I know that bills are going up everywhere. In Quebec City, for example, rents are 40% higher than they were 10 years ago. That just goes to show how difficult things have become. This means that more and more of our income is going to rent, electricity and food, which is constantly rising in price, too. Never have families struggled so hard. Never have they had such a hard time making ends meet.

Thinking of families, thinking of people in our society, those most vulnerable, the middle class, everyone, thinking very much about these people, we in the NDP have proposed some simple solutions. Fifty cents per transaction at ATMs—that is simple. All it takes is a little leadership to make it happen.

We are proposing to limit interest rates on credit cards at prime plus 5% and eliminate paper billing, and not just promising to eliminate it as we have heard the Conservatives do many times. Those are three proposals. I would like the Conservatives to respond to those proposals and not just throw around numbers.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party recognizes that Canadian families are trying to make ends meet, which is why we have lowered 160 different taxes since we came to power in 2006, giving the average Canadian family over $3,400 a year extra in its pocket at the end of every year, unlike the opposition NDP, which wants to raise taxes and implement a $20-billion carbon tax that would raise taxes on all Canadian families. Instead, what we are doing is taking action to help Canadian families.

We are ending pay-to-pay policies so that customers will not have to pay extra to receive paper bills. We are expanding no-cost basic banking services. We are working with the provinces and territories to crack down on predatory payday lenders by supporting ongoing efforts to make consumer protection regimes more robust. We are empowering consumers by requiring disclosure of the cost of different payment methods. We are taking action to end unjustified geographic price discrimination against Canadians.

These actions build on what we have already done to empower consumers, such as banning negative-option billing for financial products, making mortgage insurance more transparent, shortening cheque holding periods, and much more. The list goes on. What we are doing is helping Canadian families meet the demands of today.

Veterans Affairs

[Bruce Hyer, Green, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today I speak in the interest of veterans in Thunder Bay—Superior North and across Canada. The welfare of Canada's servicemen and women is an issue that cannot be ignored. Our veterans have put their lives on the line to protect our country. All too often, they come home wounded, disabled, and in need of care, but the Conservatives' treatment of our veterans has been shameful.

In February, the government closed eight Veterans Affairs offices across Canada, including ours in Thunder Bay. Ten staff members lost their jobs at our office, as did hundreds more across the country. In my community, we held a town hall meeting to protest those closures at a memorial service for the office on the final day. I know that countless veterans and their supporters spoke out at similar events from coast to coast.

Veterans travelled to meet the minister, but he brushed them aside. The Conservatives plowed ahead with the closures without a second thought.

The Veterans Affairs office in Thunder Bay served over 2,000 former service members. Our veterans came to the office for assistance with paperwork, much-needed physical and mental health support, employment and training services, and much more.

The current government is dismissing our men and women once again, telling them to access these services online or be put on hold on the phone. Perhaps the member opposite could explain to me how one staff member with only general training and no knowledge of Veterans Affairs is supposed to do the work of six and serve 2,000 people. How will the government provide assistance for aging veterans who are less familiar with computers? How exactly will the 1-800 operator respond to immediate mental health concerns?

The Conservatives simply will not face the facts about their mistreatment of veterans. In the fall, Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent called for the government to address “urgent shortcomings” with the changes to the Veterans Charter. The new Conservative system of lump-sum payments leaves soldiers who have serious injuries at risk of poverty.

For the Conservatives, simply ignoring an ombudsman is something of an improvement, however. When the former ombudsman, Pat Stogran, criticized the government's “insurance company mentality” in their service of veterans, Conservatives gave him the boot. They would rather silence or even fire veterans advocates than admit their own failures. Things have gotten so bad that wounded veterans have been forced to sue the government just to get the support they need.

Instead of standing up for our veterans, the Conservatives have argued that they have no responsibility for looking after injured veterans. Their refusal to acknowledge their obligation to our men and women who have served is not only disappointing, it is very disturbing. Pat Stogran called the argument ludicrous and contrary to Canadian values. It is truly a sad state of affairs when veterans who have fought overseas have to fight their own government back home for the compensation they need and deserve. Two thousand veterans were injured during their service in Afghanistan. The current government has seen their sacrifice, only to snub them when they return home. It is shameful.

I ask this again. Will this minister reverse these disgraceful cuts to Veterans Affairs and show our former service members the respect they deserve and provide the services they need?

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to rise in support of our government's continued efforts on behalf of Canada's veterans and their families.

Indeed, the Government of Canada's record is clear. We are dedicated to ensuring that we are there for those who have served our great country so well and that we provide the care and support they need, when and where they need it. That is why we have earmarked $785 million more this year for Veterans Affairs Canada compared to what the department received in 2005. That is why, since 2006, we have invested a combined total of almost $5 billion in new funding to enhance veterans' benefits, programs, and services. Yes, members heard that right: $5 billion.

What is more, we will continue to make the necessary improvements to serve veterans better and faster and in more modern and convenient ways. That is why, in 2009, for example, we worked with the Department of National Defence to established integrated personnel support centres on major bases across the country. Through this initiative, we now have more than 100 Veterans Affairs employees working alongside their counterparts from the Department of National Defence on 24 military bases and wings across the country, as well as at seven satellite offices. Through this single initiative, we are providing one-stop service to better ensure that veterans and releasing members are fully aware of the help available to them.

In addition, veterans can now visit any of the nearly 600 Service Canada locations across the country for information about the services and benefits available to them. Thanks to this partnership with Service Canada, we are providing veterans with more points of contact and greater access to professionally trained front-line staff located closer to their homes.

As well, in those communities where the local Veterans Affairs office was closed, we have assigned a full-time permanent Veterans Affairs employee to the nearest Service Canada location. It is also worth noting that the nearest Service Canada location in Thunder Bay is just four kilometres away. In five of the other affected communities, the former Veterans Affairs office and the nearest Service Canada site are actually in the same building.

Most of all, no matter where veterans live, our government is continuing to provide the home visits, face-to-face care, online access, and toll-free telephone services that they have come to expect and depend upon.

Some Veterans Affairs Canada offices may have closed, but we have not gone anywhere. In fact, we have opened more doors for veterans and their families, and we are proud of that.

[Bruce Hyer, Green, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if we get a late show on top of a late show if the minister or the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs do not show up.

The response from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans on this makes the government's position abundantly clear: it has no plan to reverse its damaging changes to veterans benefits and no plan to support injured veterans. Rather than ensuring that these men and women have the services they need, they are offering a 1-800 number and claiming that the government never promised them support in the first place.

The current Conservative government is adding insult to the injuries that these veterans have sustained in defence of our nation.

Enough is enough. I urge the minister, wherever he may be, to reverse the closure of Veterans Affairs facilities and to begin making up for this neglect of our veterans.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Before we go to the hon. parliamentary secretary, I will remind the hon. member that it is customary that we do not refer to the presence or absence of other hon. members in the chamber. During adjournment proceedings, there is not the opportunity for members to bring points of order on this particular issue. I would remind the member of this, and, of course, I am sure that he is aware.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Mr. Speaker, let me repeat that our government is committed to making sure that veterans and their families receive the care and support they need, when and where they need it.

I am also pleased to repeat that we have no plans to reduce such care and support. In fact, no government has ever made greater investments in support and services for veterans.

That is why we continue to have Veterans Affairs case managers provide home visits to veterans who require them, regardless of where they live. That is why we continue to assist them with their shovelling of snow in the winter and the cutting of their grass in the summer. That is why we continue to provide them with the health care services and financial benefits that they need.

It is not complicated. Our government is proud to stand with, care for, and support the remarkable men and women who have served our great country and those who proudly still wear our nation's uniform.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Cardigan not being present to raise, during the adjournment proceedings, the matter for which notice has been given, the notice is deemed withdrawn.

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 2 p.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:26 p.m.)