Debates of March 27th, 2014

Employment Insurance

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism]

Mr. Speaker, try as he might, he will never be able to shout as loud as the member for Acadie—Bathurst.

In point of fact, I am not satisfied with the service. We have to do better. The service standard we aim for is that 80% of EI applicants get their first cheque within 28 days. Right now we are at 69%. We need to do better. I have my parliamentary secretary leading a study with Service Canada and my department on how we can improve operational efficiency to meet that 80% benchmark.

Justice

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Mr. Speaker, could the government explain how in an alleged period of austerity since 2006 the government has spent more than $482 million, almost half a billion dollars, on outside lawyers? There have been lots of cuts to public servants, cuts to social programs, cuts to EI, cuts to veterans, cuts to railway safety, cuts to health care for retired workers, cuts to infrastructure, but lots of money for legal fees.

How can the government defend such outrageous expenditure while real people suffer?

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice]

Mr. Speaker, it is worth noting that while the government at any given time is involved in some 50,000 litigation cases, about 85% of those are not initiated by us. I would also note for the hon. member that last year we were successful in nearly 75% of those cases.

We have instituted several efficiencies at the Department of Justice and they are already having an effect. The number of hours of litigation decreased by 2% last year. We remain committed to defending the rights of Canadians and to ensuring that hard earned tax dollars are spent efficiently and effectively.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration refused to rule out the ridiculous idea of imposing language requirements on the spousal sponsorship program, when questioned by my colleague from Markham—Unionville. Aside from criminality or age, the state should not impose conditions on who Canadians can marry and bring to this country. This harmful policy will only serve to keep families apart.

Will the minister now clearly commit to not imposing this draconian requirement?

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

Mr. Speaker, no, we have no intention of imposing language requirements for spouses, but we will continue to study these issues and to hear from Canadians. It is irresponsible of the Liberal Party, as it does almost every day, to cite a comment at a round table and then suddenly fearmonger among Canadians about an important issue.

What we are trying to do here is to protect women in the immigration system from violence. Do the Liberals have any idea of what the issues are on that front, and will the member opposite agree that there are barbaric practices that should be called just that, which their leader still refuses to do?

National Defence

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this morning we learned that the Canadian Forces did not have any psychologists on the ground in Afghanistan. To obtain psychological assistance, the soldiers had to turn to the U.S. Army. It was therefore impossible for francophones to consult a psychologist in their mother tongue.

Soldiers on mission are under an incredible amount of stress. Receiving psychological help in one's mother tongue is essential to preventing post-traumatic stress. Can the Minister of National Defence explain why no psychological support was available in French in Afghanistan?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I can tell the hon. member that unprecedented investments and commitments were made for our men and women in uniform in Afghanistan. We hired more health care workers, an unprecedented investment. I can assure the hon. member and all members of the House that the wellbeing of our men and women in uniform will continue to be a priority of this government.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is shameful. Respecting our official languages is not an option. It is the law.

If psychological support is not available when soldiers need it, that can lead to very serious consequences. The men and women who serve their country deserve respect and services.

National Defence itself acknowledged that relying on the Americans was not a long-term solution and posed some cultural and linguistic challenges. Nevertheless, nothing was done, even though there was a desperate need for psychological support.

What does the minister intend to do to ensure that such a shameful situation never happens again?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the Department of National Defence and those who work within the department and our armed forces are absolutely committed to making sure that the men and women who needed help in Afghanistan and within the armed forces get it as soon as possible. There have been unprecedented investments and efforts in this area and that will continue under this government.

Democratic Reform

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of State for Democratic Reform regarding the fair elections act and how it will protect taxpayers from partisan abuse of their tax dollars. This is very important to all Canadian taxpayers as there have recently been alarming reports about possible violations of the Elections Act by sitting NDP MPs.

Can the minister please explain how the fair elections act will protect taxpayers from these kinds of abuses that we have seen from the NDP?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, of course, this is not the first time New Democrats have broken the law. They accepted $340,000 in illegal union money, which is an offence under the Elections Act, and I think they thought they could get away with it again when they employed parliamentary resources, which may ultimately have pushed them over the spending limit in key byelections, another offence under the act.

Additionally, the fair elections act will create new and tougher financial penalties for parties that exceed their spending limit and that will, hopefully, root out some of the abuses for which the NDP has become so well known.

Public Safety

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness has a responsibility to ensure that Canada's laws are maintained. However, Blacklock’s reported this morning that the Canada Border Services Agency issued a directive entitled, “Export Program Examination Priorities”, stating in part that due to “the limited number of resources available for export examinations; other commodities, including outbound smuggling of narcotics,...should not be undertaken”.

The minister must accept responsibility for this directive. Why is the minister not only condoning but actually authorizing the illegal movement of narcotics across the border?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to inform the member that we have indeed increased the number of border service officers so they can provide better service and make sure that our frontier is open for trade and commerce and closed for any illegal activities.

I will be happy to get back to the member on that particular point.

Housing

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the homelessness partnering strategy funding will be renewed next Tuesday.

It took one year for the government to announce the new criteria. Obviously the negotiation process has been delayed and now services will be interrupted. Organizations that help the homeless are laying off their employees and cutting services to the most vulnerable.

Can the minister tell us how many organizations will be affected and what she is going to do to remedy the situation?

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

Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely wrong. We are very proud of our renewed homelessness partnering strategy, with a focus on housing first. In fact, Canada is leading the way when it comes to helping those who are homeless.

We are known now throughout the world for what we are doing because of the At Home/Chez Soi pilot project and, from that, the Housing First initiative. We are looking forward to working with community entities and with the communities who know best where these funds can be directed. Our government takes real action to help those who are vulnerable.

Agriculture and Agri-Food

[Rob Merrifield, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Mr. Speaker, last year was a record year on the prairies for the harvest, almost 50% higher than the average, which was amazing. Grain prices internationally were also very high, which meant the commodity price was high, so it should have been wonderful news for the prairie farmers. Unfortunately, we have a bottleneck with the railways. The minister actually briefed the opposition on what the Conservatives are going to do to fix it and next time I am going to ask him to use bigger pictures and less print so that they can really get it.

I would ask the parliamentary secretary if he would stand and explain one more time to the opposition in the House exactly what we are going to do for prairie farmers.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Yellowhead not only for his excellent question but also for his involvement in the implementation of practical solutions.

Canadian farmers rely on the rail system to get their crops to market in a predictable and timely manner, and that is why our government is taking concrete action to get grain moving faster. Yesterday, we introduced decisive legislation to establish minimum volume requirements for the movement of grain, to strengthen contractual mechanisms between producers and shippers, and to increase interswitching limits to create more rail competition and efficiency.

I know my colleague supports this legislation. I ask opposition members to get on the side of farmers, to move this legislation through quickly.

Public Safety

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I recently met with armoured car drivers who highlighted the dangerous working conditions they deal with every day.

Reductions in crews and a lack of appropriate training and support are threatening the safety of these workers and the public. We have sadly seen this in recent deaths and injuries in armoured car robberies and public shootouts in Edmonton, Toronto, and Longueuil.

So far, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness has remained silent, when this is clearly his responsibility. Will the minister now agree to a national task force to investigate the deteriorating working conditions for armoured car drivers, before another tragedy takes place?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, in life it is important to understand what our responsibilities are. If my colleague wants to address this issue, I invite him to consult the provinces because that is clearly their responsibility.

The Environment

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this is a question about math and red herrings.

Yesterday, the minister said our greenhouse gases would be 130 megatonnes less than what they would have been under the Liberals. That number, picked out of the air, is known as the “business as usual” target.

Here is the math. The Copenhagen pledge made by this Prime Minister, no previous prime minister, was to reduce emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. Environment Canada now says that by 2020, emission levels will be virtually unchanged.

Is Canada still committed to the Copenhagen target? Why does this minister seem to believe that business as usual is government under some other party?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, our government is taking action to address climate change.

Since 2006, we have invested more than $10 billion in green infrastructure, energy efficiency, adaptation, cleaner technology, and cleaner fuels. Thanks to our actions, carbon emissions will go down by 130 megatonnes from what they would have been under the Liberal government.

We are accomplishing this without the Liberal and NDP carbon tax, which would raise the price of everything.

Oral Questions

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, during question period, the Minister of National Revenue stated in the House that we were being irresponsible by misrepresenting facts. I would like to table some documents from her own department that are actually based on the question. If we are asking questions in the House based on information, it is not fair to accuse people of misrepresenting, hence lying. For that reason, I would like to table the documents—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

Does the hon. member have the unanimous consent of the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

No.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order.

I have here the document by CBSA that I referred to in question period. The minister obviously seems to be unaware of that document. Could I gain unanimous consent to table it in both official languages?