Debates of May 7th, 2014

Veterans

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, as we know, the Conservatives had to be publicly shamed into paying for the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan to attend the memorial in Ottawa this Friday. Now, there are reports that Conservatives are asking World War II veterans to pay to attend the 70th-anniversary memorial in Normandy.

All we are asking, therefore, is for the Prime Minister to guarantee, which is a very simple thing to say, that no Canadian World War II veteran will be asked to pay their own way for those D-Day memorials. Yes or no?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I have to correct what the leader of the NDP said in his preamble. The government has made clear from the outset its intention to pay for all the families of the fallen and to make sure that their costs are covered for the Afghan ceremony on May 9. We are very proud to do that.

Also, we are taking a very large delegation of veterans with us to the D-Day ceremonies, and of course, as has always been our policy, we will make sure that veterans do not pay their own costs for that.

Justice

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's attack on the Supreme Court was beneath the office that he holds. Canadians across the country have noticed that the Prime Minister has still not withdrawn his remarks about the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Will he do so now?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, as I have said before, it was alleged last week by another source that the government, myself particularly, were not properly informed of issues of eligibility on the Supreme Court appointment. As I said, that is clearly not the case. In fact, because I was fully aware of this matter and also aware of the fact that it could be brought before the courts, and eventually was brought before the courts, we decided to seek advice from outside the courts from independent experts, and we followed that advice. Those actions on my part, and on the part of the government, were entirely appropriate.

Employment

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we hear more examples every day from the broken temporary foreign worker program: a crane operator in Vernon, with 37 years' experience, who lost his job because of the program; a high school fast food worker, whose hours were cut by two-thirds as guest workers were brought in; or Canadian pilots who, according to the labour minister, are seeing their wages driven down by temporary foreign pilots.

Tonight will the Prime Minister vote for our plan to fix his mess?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the government has for some time been recognizing some of the problems. That is why in the past three years we have brought in a series of reforms and continue to bring in reforms, reforms that have in fact lowered the application intake by 30%. We have done that in spite of the fact that the Liberal Party has voted against those reforms and the Liberal Party members have constantly been lobbying the government and lobbying the minister to bring in more foreign workers, something the member himself has done. Obviously, we are going in a very different direction than the Liberal Party.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the number of temporary foreign works across the country has doubled since this government came to power. Although the Minister of Employment and Social Development insists on claiming that there is no problem, we know that the program is being abused and mismanaged.

Will the Prime Minister vote in favour of overhauling this broken program this evening?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, in the past three years the government has made improvements to the program and has implemented rules to strengthen it. These measures helped lower the application intake by 30%, despite the fact that the Liberal Party voted against all of these reforms and that Liberal Party members are still lobbying us to bring more temporary foreign workers into their ridings.

Our approach is obviously quite different from that of the Liberal Party, which wants to expand the program.

Pensions

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General noted that he found a pattern across the Conservative government. It was a pattern of simply reacting to events, not planning and thinking of the longer term. In particular, he looked at the public sector pensions.

The President of the Treasury Board has already actually nodded in agreement and said that he agrees with the Auditor General's report, but can he tell us how he got into a situation where there is no long-term analysis of these three pension plans to ensure that they are actually sustainable for the longer term for those beneficiaries and for Canadian taxpayers?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday in response to the Auditor General's report, we are in broad agreement that governance issues respecting those plans should always be reviewed and that there should be greater collaboration and greater expression to the taxpayers on how these plans are actually governed. That is the direction the government was going in, in any event.

On the question of sustainability, though, I can say that we have taken action as a government to make sure that taxpayers pay only 50% of the cost of the public sector pension benefits. We have raised the maximum pension age to 65. These are things that make sure that this pension plan will be sustainable for the future and for the taxpayers.

Northern Economic Development

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General also outlined how Conservatives have bungled the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency from the start.

The government has failed to create a real headquarters in the north and has no plans to do so. Thirty-five per cent of CanNor's staff are in Ottawa, compared to less than a third in Iqaluit. One senior position was even filled by a person who lives in Iqaluit but was moved to Ottawa.

Why is the minister moving northerners to Ottawa instead of creating a northern headquarters, as she promised?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency accepts the Auditor General's recommendations, and the minister has already given the agency clear instructions to immediately improve its administrative procedures.

We will continue to make record investments in the north to help foster a strong northern economy that creates jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity for the benefit of northerners and all Canadians. We will do it without a $20-billion NDP carbon tax.

Public Works and Government Services

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

Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals, SNC-Lavalin managed to get a $6 billion contract over 10 years to manage federal buildings.

This led to expenses that included $2,000 for two plants, $5,000 to change six light bulbs, $1,000 for a doorbell and $36,000 to clean the Minister of International Development's office. It was essentially an open bar.

However, we learned in the Auditor General's report that was released yesterday that the next contract for federal buildings will be worth double the amount.

What does the minister plan to do to prevent this kind of abuse?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, we are very aware of our responsibilities to Canadian taxpayers.

That is why we took the necessary measures to identify the problems with contracting. I am pleased to say that we have recovered some money. We will award contracts and administer them effectively.

Taxation

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

Mr. Speaker, I ask the Minister of Finance, tax evasion and tax avoidance costs Canadians billions every year, but when the Auditor General asked the Department of Finance how it planned to crack down on these tax cheats, his department stonewalled and actually hid documents from the Auditor General.

When will the minister give up on his “hear no evil, see no evil” approach to tax cheats and hand over all the documents the Auditor General needs to do his important work?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, let me just reply to the comments regarding the availability of documents. Of course, for over 40 years, there has been a consistent government approach when it comes to cabinet confidences. We are applying that approach, “we” meaning the public officials, because of course, the politicians do not get to make those decisions.

However, there are other ways we can co-operate with the Auditor General, and we will find ways to do so.

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

Mr. Speaker, I guess he just figured out the pecking order in cabinet. It is déjà vu all over again for this minister. Either he is unwilling or is unable to answer basic questions about his files.

Maybe hiding information is common practice on Bay Street, but it is not acceptable when he is the Minister of Finance and it is the Auditor General who is demanding important documents from his department. The Auditor General said he was surprised the Conservatives refused to hand over these documents.

Why is the minister hiding information about billions in tax avoidance and lost revenues? When will he actually get tough on tax crime?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, I will say it again for the record. These are cabinet confidences. Public officials other than governmental officials, politicians, and cabinet ministers get to make those decisions.

This is in compliance with a Supreme Court of Canada ruling. I thought the hon. members on the other side supported the Supreme Court of Canada, but maybe not.

Employment

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

Mr. Speaker, We can all count on Conservatives for one thing: they are always happy to play fast and loose with the facts. However, the Auditor General is just the latest person to point out problems with the government's numbers.

This is the same information used to determine labour market opinions for companies applying for temporary foreign workers.

How does the minister expect Canadians to trust this program when the job data it is based on is so unreliable?

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

Mr. Speaker, I regret to inform the member that she is mistaken. The data to which she refers has nothing to do with approvals under the temporary foreign worker program.

Moreover, I have been consistent in saying that we do not have general labour shortages. However, we do appear to have sectoral and regional skills gaps, which she, I believe, has herself recognized. We need to do a better job with respect to labour market information generally to inform the public discourse on the skills gap. The key thing is that we all work together to prepare Canadians for the jobs of the future. That is why we are pleased to have delivered the Canada job grant.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives knew for over two years and did nothing. No wonder that minister keeps trying to distract with his attacks on the NDP.

Even the Minister of Labour raised the alarm about hiring foreign airline crews due to concerns that wages would be driven down and Canadians would lose their jobs. For years now, the minister has ignored the warnings and failed workers in Canada.

Why is the minister still dragging his feet instead of fixing the mess he made of this program?

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

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister pointed out, last year we further tightened the program, which has resulted in a 20% to 30% reduction in the number of labour market opinion applications. Employers are now facing sanctions, including being added to the blacklist if they have not complied with the rules of the program.

We are well on our way to finalizing the second package of reforms to address abuses of the program and any aspects of it which may be resulting in distortions in the Canadian labour market.

I invite from her, or colleagues in any of the parties, constructive and specific ideas about how we can strike that appropriate balance between legitimate labour mobility and protecting the Canadian worker.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government was warned a number of times about problems with the temporary foreign worker program. Conservative MPs even sounded the alarm two years ago about Canadian airline pilots and flight attendants being replaced by foreign workers. However, nothing changed. The ministers at the time passed the buck.

Today, how can we believe the Minister of Employment and Social Development's claim that he wants to change the program when, two years ago, he did nothing, even when his own caucus alerted him to problems?

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

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the member is mistaken in saying that nothing has changed. On the contrary, we changed and tightened the program rules a year ago. We extended the mandatory period for which employers seeking foreign workers must advertise positions. We added a number of questions to the applications for labour market opinions. We introduced application fees, which has caused the number of applications to drop by 20% to 30%. We will be making even more changes in the near future.

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

Mr. Speaker, the temporary foreign worker program is the victim of the incompetence of successive Liberal and Conservative governments and a lack of reliable data.

The monthly data from Statistics Canada do not show where the job vacancies are in a given province. The tools used by the Conservatives do not distinguish between Fort McMurray and Medicine Hat. The Conservatives do not even know if there is a lack of architects or medical researchers.

Does the problem not come down to the fact that the minister is no more reliable than his data?