Debates of March 18th, 2010

Navdeep Bains Mississauga—Brampton South, ON

Mr. Speaker, the Speech from the Throne was full of spin and very light on substance. When the Prime Minister called on the Governor General to prorogue Parliament and give himself three months off, he claimed he needed time to recalibrate. Yet when we came back and heard Her Excellency deliver the speech, it was really full of rehashed ideas.

The speech lacked vision. Something that really stuck out in my mind was the lack of investment in the middle class and the fact there was really no plan for job creation. In fact, the government subsequently imposed a $13 billion job-killing payroll tax in the budget, which will have a devastating impact on all Canadians, particularly in my riding of Mississauga—Brampton South.

In its reply to the Speech from the Throne, the Liberal Party has proposed an amendment to reflect our wish that Her Excellency not be burdened with future excessive requests for prorogation. I hope the government takes that into consideration.

I would like to give some context of how we got here. How did we arrive at a point where we have had four speeches from the throne in four years? While the government and Prime Minister wanted three months off to recalibrate, all we received when we returned was a potential change to O Canada and, fundamentally, the status quo.

Back in December 2009, the government was being rocked by the Afghan detainee controversy. It was really desperate to avoid accountability. When confronted with the serious allegations on the issue, the Prime Minister decided to do what he does best: He shut down Parliament. Again, in a crisis, he realized that he was in trouble, so he asked the Governor General to prorogue the House of Commons.

This was further validated by a remark made by his former chief of staff Tom Flanagan:

I think his problem is that the government's talking points really don't have much credibility. Everybody knows that Parliament was prorogued in order to shut down the Afghan inquiry, and the trouble is that the government doesn't want to explain why that was necessary.

There were rallies across the country against prorogation. Canadians, including angry constituents of mine and across the country, were coming out regardless of their political affiliation and signing petitions and engaging on the issue, trying to demonstrate clearly to the government that this was completely unacceptable.

I realized just a few days ago that the Prime Minister has a love for social media. He was on YouTube. I hope he also had an opportunity to visit a Facebook website that has over 220,000 individuals against prorogation and read the comments and thoughts on his actions when it comes to prorogation.

On January 25, when we were supposed to be in the House of Commons, my colleagues and I and the Leader of the Opposition were here in Ottawa. We were doing what we should have been doing, that is, working on behalf of our constituents and Canadians. We organized well over 30 round tables, featuring a whole range of discussions on issues that matter to Canadians. This was done before and after the Olympics. We put forward concrete proposals and solutions before the Speech from the Throne and the budget to demonstrate that we were working and, more importantly, that we had concrete ideas to help advance the agenda for Canadians.

We recognize that we sit in a House of Commons with a minority government. In that situation, we would have thought the government would take upon itself the ideas we had presented and incorporate them into the budget and the Speech from the Throne. Unfortunately, it did not respect the will of the House, whose majority is comprised of opposition parties.

As I said before, we have had four speeches from the throne in four years. In my opinion, the root cause of this particular pattern is the fact the government really lacks accountability. It is running and hiding whenever it can. Sadly, it is an example of a pattern that Canadians are all too well aware of. I am going to cite some examples that will illustrate this point when it comes to accountability.

The government fired the nuclear whistleblower, Linda Keen, for her warnings about the Chalk River reactor. As president of a quasi-judicial organization who was doing her job to look out for the best interests of Canadians and to promote safety, she was fired for being critical and honest and upfront with the government.

The government also refused to renew the contract of the RCMP Public Complaints Commissioner, Paul Kennedy, after he was critical of it. That is another example of another individual being refused or ultimately pushed aside. It also shut down the Military Police Complaints Commission before Richard Colvin was set to appear, and failed to renew the contract of the commissioner, Peter Tinsley.

Unfortunately, I also saw first hand that the government had a book, a dirty tricks manual, to grind parliamentary committee business to a halt. I saw this firsthand in my committee, when the government would play games to avoid accountability.

The government also withheld information from the elections commissioner, which necessitated a police raid on the Conservative Party headquarters.

It also refused to provide adequate funding for the independence of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The Parliamentary Budget Officer is very clearly doing his job and, of course, time and time again his numbers have consistently refuted the government's numbers, and the budget officer has questioned the credibility of the government's numbers in accounting and forecasting. Again, the government has marginalized him and his office.

The government also attacked the public servant Richard Colvin for doing his public duty to truthfully respond to questions from Parliament.

I digress a bit, but another broken promise was clearly with respect to the upper House, the Senate. The government promised only to appoint elected senators, but we have seen in the past few weeks that recalibration was really about appointing a whole new set of senators.

The government promised never to raise taxes. On that I give the example of the EI payroll tax increase, which is a job killer. Furthermore, the government broke its promise on income trusts, and raised personal income taxes when it came to power.

Thus there is this consistent pattern of lack of accountability when it comes to the government. This is really the root cause of why we had the Speech from the Throne. As I said, it is the fourth one in four years.

I could go on with many other examples, but the government has a pathological aversion to accountability. It holds our institutions in contempt and tries systematically to undermine public authority, while increasing the power and control over an already over-centralized PMO. It is no wonder that it produced a Speech from the Throne that offers nothing for the middle class or on creating jobs.

What is missing from the Speech from the Throne? What elements are fundamentally missing that should have been included? Despite its extraordinary length, the speech contained no specific measures to create jobs or to help the middle class, as I said before. It had no specific investments for research and development and had nothing new on clean energy.

Of course, the government is going to continue to invest in clean energy, but it has cancelled our eco-energy program and has ensured that we are well behind other countries in terms of investments in this particular sector. In fact, China has invested far more in green technology and in creating green jobs than Canada.

There was nothing on pensions. Even though this is supposed to be a priority, the government said it wanted to consult Canadians. Again, it is punting the issue and dragging its feet.

However, we have put forward concrete proposals when it comes to pensions. We were very clear about our proposals in the letter we sent in advance of the budget and the Speech from the Throne. This is an issue that is a cause of concern to many Canadians. It comes up time and time again and it was missing from the Speech from the Throne.

There was nothing on culture. Can one imagine a Speech from the Throne with nothing in it on culture, and nothing on dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans?

The key issue for me is the fact the government should be dealing with the number one issue, the economy. Its $13 billion payroll tax is in sharp contrast to creating jobs. In fact, numerous independent sources, like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, have indicated that this particular measure will kill over 200,000 jobs.

I want to quote the National Post, which I think fundamentally summarizes my position on the Speech from the Throne. It stated that:

the [Prime Minister's] government used just 740 words last year to set the stage for its $56-billion deficit. Yesterday it needed more than 6,000 words to prepare us for the next stage. Yet we still have only the vaguest notion of what specific actions will be taken to get Canada's economy back in balance.

The Speech from the Throne is all about rhetoric, spin and gimmicks. The government is not accountable. I have listed a whole range of examples on that. Unfortunately, the government has done very little to help my constituents, the middle class and to create jobs.

Paul Calandra Oak Ridges—Markham, ON

Madam Speaker, talk about rhetoric. The hon. member stated in his address that his party held some round tables. While we out in our ridings consulting with Canadians, the Liberals were holding round tables because they were afraid to be back in their ridings.

Despite all these round tables, when the throne speech was brought forward by the Prime Minister and the budget, the Liberal Party did not even move a simple amendment to the budget, something that is standard around this place. The party brought nothing forward.

When the Liberals had an opportunity to have their issues or policies debated for a full day in the House, they spent the entire day talking about the fact that they actually had no ideas. They want us to stop advertising and they want us to stop consulting with their constituents because they have no ideas.

The Liberals have no ideas on the environment, the budget, on how to get Canadians back to work, creating jobs, job growth, protecting Canadians, national defence or natural resources.

The member was critical in his speech, but he did not provide one solution, one thing that the Liberals would do differently.

It is remarkable that after all this time in government, there has been one vote of non-confidence, which the government survived. We have had two minority governments now that have lasted longer than most other ones.

The member should be proud of—

The Acting Speaker Denise Savoie

I would like to give the hon. member for Mississauga—Brampton South the opportunity to respond.

Navdeep Bains Mississauga—Brampton South, ON

Madam Speaker, I will provide a response on two components.

With respect to the round tables, not only did we hold them in Ottawa, but I held one in my riding, constituency of Mississauga—Brampton South. I got together over 250 small businesses with the leader of the official opposition to look at solutions. We heard directly from people in the audience and from the panel members about the government's job-killing payroll tax, which again counterproductive to creating jobs.

In terms of putting forward a concrete proposal, the leader of the official opposition put forward a set of solutions well in advance. We dealt with issues such as jobs, pensions, clean energy and jobs in the environment. Shortly thereafter we also proposed a list of examples of where the government could save money, because the government is wasting taxpayer money. That amounted to over $1.2 billion.

The initiatives that we proposed, with the pensions and supplementary pension plans, with cash advances on capital cost allowances to help small business and other proposals would be funded by government's waste of taxpayer money. Not only have we put forward ideas, we also had cost savings to go with that as well.

Jim Maloway Elmwood—Transcona, MB

Madam Speaker, the member for Oak Ridges—Markham certainly follows the adage that the best defence is a good offence. When we listen to the government, people would think we were the ones who prorogued the House.

The brain trust in the Conservative government decided that this was perhaps a good idea, to prorogue the House and set the stage for a potential election, following the great results it expected from the Olympics. The government did this when it was 10 points ahead in the polls. It did not anticipate that this would be a total political disaster, that it would end up losing its 10% and would be in the mess it is in right now.

Now the Conservatives are very sensitive about that issue. I think they are trying to deflect the whole issue to other issues. They are trying to say that provinces prorogue houses. Provinces do but they do it in consultation with the opposition.

Navdeep Bains Mississauga—Brampton South, ON

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague's assessment is absolutely correct in that the prorogation resulted in rallies across the country. Regardless of political affiliation, Canadians came out and showed their outrage against the government's maneuvering tactics to avoid accountability.

As I indicated before, the Prime Minister has now shown some new love for social media. His YouTube video was up a few days ago in which he responded to Canadians. I strongly recommend the Prime Minister also visit the Facebook website, where over 220,000 Canadians showed their protest against the prorogation.

The fundamental issue is the government is continually putting forward Speeches from the Throne because it is trying to avoid accountability. Sooner or later it is going to have to respond to the concerns of Canadians.

Jim Maloway Elmwood—Transcona, MB

Madam Speaker, I want to draw the member's attention to page 1 of the throne speech. It talks about the earthquake disaster in Haiti. We applaud what the government did and how it responded to the Haitian disaster, but there was a disaster in Chile as well, just days before the throne speech was read. Yet there is no matching funds for Canadian donations. There are no Canadian warships loaded with supplies going there or any talk of waiving any immigration rules.

Last Saturday, a social event in Winnipeg raised $10,000. Hundreds of people attended. This weekend in Winnipeg there is a social event with over 1,000 tickets already sold to raise funds. These people are asking this question. Why is the government reluctant to provide the same treatment to the victims of the Chilean earthquake as it did for the victims of the Haitian earthquake and match the funds?

Alice Wong Richmond, BC

Madam Speaker, helping people who are struck by unfortunate disasters is the priority of Canadians. However, sometimes we have to do one thing at a time. Canada definitely shows sympathy for the Chileans and their troubles. I am sure CIDA is constantly monitoring the situation and will render whatever help we can as a nation.

John Cannis Scarborough Centre, ON

Madam Speaker, I listened very carefully to the parliamentary secretary when she talked about creating jobs for youth, et cetera.

In the throne speech the Conservatives said, “as chair of G8 and G20 this year, our government”, meaning the Conservative government, “will lead the call for a globally coordinated approach to the withdrawal”, and I underline the word “withdrawal”, “of economic stimulus”.

The whole world is saying we have to invest so that jobs can be created to get us out of this downturn in which we find ourselves.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister said that the government was going to encourage stimulus spending, but the throne speech said the opposite.

Could the parliamentary secretary please clarify this confusion?

Alice Wong Richmond, BC

Madam Speaker, I think in difficult times we had special measures to tackle the economic downturn caused by the international recession. However, there is a time when we have to plan for the exit. Now that the economy is getting better, we should also plan ahead to tackle the big problem of deficits. This is true for all over the world. The world leaders will sit together and work out a plan. We are proud that Canada is hosting the G8 and the G20. We are taking the lead.

Jim Maloway Elmwood—Transcona, MB

Madam Speaker, I would like to know whether the member could simply talk to her minister or the Prime Minister and ask them when the government is going to provide matching funds for the Chilean earthquake. Days are going by and people need help. It is about time the current government stepped up to the plate and did the right thing.

Alice Wong Richmond, BC

Madam Speaker, I am proud to say that Canada is the first to help many nations when there is a disaster. Our nation is working very closely. I am sure the minister responsible for CIDA is watching our Chilean friends closely so that we can give them whatever help we can.

Rick Dykstra Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity that has been given to me by the Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism by sharing her time with me. She is doing an outstanding job on behalf of this government. Her riding is in British Columbia but her travels with respect to multiculturalism have taken her across this country. For a member who was just elected a little over a year ago, she is doing an outstanding job for our government, and I applaud her for that.

The response to the throne speech which the Prime Minister gave on March 11 focused on what we need to do as a government and what this Parliament will focus on, with jobs and economic growth remaining our top priorities. In order to deliver on jobs and economic growth, three specific things were outlined in both the throne speech and in the Prime Minister's reply to the throne speech.

The first was tax reductions and enhanced EI benefits, which will provide direct support to Canadians. Let us not forget that the success of our long-term economic strategy is based on short-term stimulus funding. It is also based on tax reductions, both corporate and personal, to make us more competitive from a corporate and personal perspective. This will leave Canadians with more money in their pockets and the ability to spend that money as they wish.

Individuals who are unemployed, hopefully only for the short term, are going to see enhanced EI benefits. These enhanced benefits will provide direct support to Canadians right across this country.

The second thing the Prime Minister mentioned was infrastructure programs in partnership with the provinces, territories and municipalities across the country. Twelve thousand projects are under way. Those 12,0000 projects represent a direct investment in our communities, putting people to work and laying the foundation for prosperity.

From a local perspective I have to look no further than the Applied Health Institute at the Welland campus of Niagara College, which is in a riding not held by a member of our party. It is located in a riding held by a member of the New Democratic Party, a member who voted against the 2009 and 2010 budgets. The Applied Health Institute represents an investment of $20 million from the federal government, $20 million from the provincial government, and $20 million from Niagara College.

The Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and I were able to tour the institute earlier this year. We toured the construction sites. This institute is going to change the face of the college for years to come. It will change the face of the Niagara community just based on its long-term focus as a health institute.

At Brock University, construction is well under way of the bioresearch facility,110,000 square feet of research space, of incubator space. This will create the types of long-term jobs that will contribute to the success of the Niagara community.

The third thing the Prime Minister addressed was economic growth. We have to make sure that we regain our economic form within the G20 and the G7. Businesses are hiring again. Just last month 20,000 new jobs were created in this country. Close to 160,000 net new jobs have been created over the last eight months.

This speaks very well for the future of our strategy. This speaks very well for where the budget that was most recently introduced in the House is going to take us.

We are planning for recovery. We are planning to wind down our stimulus plan by March 31, 2011. Let us not forget the purpose of the two year stimulus funding. Our stimulus plan put $19 billion back into the Canadian economy. It was very specific. It was a short-term approach to make sure that people were getting back to work during the recession. However, to be responsible, we need to make sure that those projects are completed on time and on budget. We need to make sure that they lead us out of the stimulus funding program and back into a situation where we have not just recovered from an economic perspective, but that our finances are back in the black.

We also want to ensure that we are restraining federal spending. It is important to understand that as outlined in the throne speech, the 2010 budget is all about making sure that we have complete fiscal control of the federal budget and federal spending, but we are not going to do it in the way the previous government did in the 1990s.

We are not going to cut transfer payments on education. In fact, over the last five budgets, each and every year we have seen a federal government which has invested in education in this country.

We are not going to reduce transfer payments with respect to health care to the provinces and territories, as happened in the 1990s under the previous government. We believe the provinces have the responsibility for the delivery of health care and the federal government has the responsibility for ensuring that we help cover the costs.

There has been a lot of talk by the opposition and the government about pensions. We are not going to reduce pensions. We are going to make sure that the funds are there in order to cover the costs for the pensions that we are responsible for at the federal level.

Third and most important, we are going to focus on the continued growth of our economy. We need to build the jobs and the industries of the future. We recognize that to ensure long-term growth, the private sector needs to grow, and in order to grow, businesses need to make sure they are competitive. That is why by 2015 we will have the lowest corporate tax structure in the G7, which will make us that much more competitive. The corporate offices of Tim Hortons is just one example of companies that are coming back to Canada and have recognized that it is a wise and solid investment and a wise and solid business decision.

That is why we will continue to invest in infrastructure across this country, whether it be bridges, buildings, roads or sewers. Where our responsibilities are, in partnership with the provinces, territories and the municipalities, we will ensure that we are ready, that we are targeted for growth and understand the need for solid infrastructure. This is what individuals base their decisions upon with respect to their private lives in terms of where they are going to live and raise their children, where their families are going to grow. It is also an opportunity for corporations and businesses to understand that this is a country that is ready and willing, when it comes to infrastructure, to partner with them to grow their businesses in this country.

That is why we are creating the conditions for economic growth through lower taxes and a stable investment climate. We have the strongest banking system in the world. We have the strongest economy coming out of the recession. We are making the tough decisions to ensure that when the recovery is in full swing, Canada will be in first place, just as we were with respect to our gold medal total at the Olympics.

The Prime Minister also outlined three additional issues in his response to the throne speech.

First, we will ensure that Canada is the best place for families. We will support families and communities and keep our streets and our communities safe by continuing to get tough on criminals and to get tough on crime.

Second, we are going to ensure that from a national perspective, we will safeguard our national security. We will stand up for those who helped build Canada, because Canadians believe that sacrifice and hard work should be recognized. As we strive to create an even better future for our families and communities, our government will stand up for those who built and defended their communities and this country.

The Speech from the Throne also made clear that Canada's military mission in Afghanistan will come to an end in 2011. The throne speech outlined that our efforts will focus on humanitarian aid and development.

Finally, we will strengthen a united Canada in a changing world. We will protect our unparalleled natural beauty. We will be asserting our sovereignty in the north. We will recognize our aboriginal heritage. We will stand up for what is right in this world.

The throne speech identified the importance of our economy, identified the importance of families in our country, and identified our country's role in this world. I am proud to say that the throne speech is a great foundation upon which this government is going to build over the next number of months and years.