Charles Hubbard

[Budget Implementation Act, 2006, No. 2, October 25th, 2006]

My apologies, Mr. Speaker.

When he was the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister indicated to the widows of this country, to Mrs. Joyce Carter, that he would bring forward a program to enable the widows to receive the VIP after they became eligible as a result of their economic situation.

I would ask the minister if his cabinet, his government, is going to honour that commitment so that the widows of those veterans who contributed so greatly to our country will now receive the VIP, to which they are certainly entitled.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2006, No. 2, October 25th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the hon. minister's report, but of course we have to remember that in terms of the surplus he worked with, it was a result of 13 good years of Liberal management. In fact, I have been told, and I will have to check the record, that the last time a Conservative minister of finance--and the Conservatives have been the leaders of the government in this country for a period of time--came to this chamber and reported that there was not a deficit was in the year 1912.

So we are looking at the year 2006 and another milestone in the history of the record of the Conservative Party. It takes a long time. I hope the minister has good luck with future budgets, because we hope that next year again that there will be another surplus or at least a balanced budget. We also have to remember that this quarterly report indicates that we are working very well as a government. In fact, the surplus looks to be coming along again.

I have one brief comment to make to the minister. In terms of November 11, it is certainly a time when we honour our veterans, and with it there is a program that has helped out veterans and their widows in this country. Many of those widows today are more than 80 years of age.

Prime Minister Harper, when he was Leader of the Opposition, promised--

[New Brunswick, October 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday of this week, a new government took office in New Brunswick. The people of New Brunswick are excited with Premier Graham's new approach to government, a can-do approach, a government committed to improving the economy of our province.

Within hours of assuming office, the new premier fulfilled several of his campaign promises: financial assistance to students, assistance for seniors, a removal of part of the excise tax on gasoline, and moneys for the Saint John harbour cleanup.

Yesterday in Saint John, New Brunswick, the Irving Group announced that they were studying the building of a new refinery with a cost of $5 billion. It would make Saint John, New Brunswick the centre of energy for eastern Canada and the eastern seaboard in the United States.

Yes, New Brunswick is now led by an aggressive, dynamic premier. He will build a new New Brunswick. With it, he needs partnering with other groups. I am sure he will work with all interests to improve the province of New Brunswick and its economy.

[Canada Transportation Act, September 20th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I think we all fully recognize that all of us on this side of the House are very interested in transportation, because transportation is the keystone of our economy. We certainly need changes in terms of the matters that the bill brings forward, but we also have to be concerned about the reviews, which apparently will be a report to Parliament once every three years and, second, a complete review of this change within the transportation system by a commissioner after an eight year period.

In Atlantic Canada, transportation is very, very important. I know that the minister responsible for transportation has to be concerned about some of the factors that have been affecting transportation, especially with the ferry between Digby, Nova Scotia and Saint John, New Brunswick. For those living there and doing business and wanting to travel to western Nova Scotia, that ferry has operated for many, many years. In fact, it gives our industries and our fishery groups in western Nova Scotia an opportunity to get their goods to the Boston market with efficiency and with the good transportation that people in the New England states would require. I hope we will look at that when this bill gets to committee.

As the previous speaker has indicated, we have to be concerned about air safety and the selling of air tickets and the good air traffic that we need for this country, but railways are important. I believe it is section 53 that talks about relationships with provincial railway companies. I would hope that if the minister is to regulate and bring forward regulations dealing with his connections with our provincial railway companies, the federal standards and the federal methods will be applied to the particular arrangements that might be made.

We want to see good legislation. We will work in committee to improve it. Hopefully, those users of our transportation sectors, those who may complain about being captive shippers or others who are concerned about matters relating to their industry, their region, their city or their province, will make their requests to appear to the committee. I know the committee will work in good faith to make sure that Bill C-11 reflects a high standard of legal documents and will provide a good transportation system to all Canadians.

[Criminal Code, June 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, again I listened with interest to the hon. member. In fact, in his maiden speech, he also referred to problems in his area that were mainly drug related.

In terms of the bill, we are dealing almost entirely with firearms, but there are many other ways in which people are assaulted. They are assaulted with knives and also today with syringes, which people use in the drug trade and which may contain AIDS. All of these are also are assaults on individuals. Could the hon. member comment briefly? We are dealing mainly with firearms, but the root cause of a lot of the problems that he refers to is the drug trade in his area.

We do not have mandatory sentencing for a lot of the drug trade, but should that also be included in terms of mandatory sentences for those who are involved with second and third offences for the sale and growing of marijuana?

[Firearms Registry, May 18th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the minister for his recognition that there will be 200 continued jobs in the riding of Miramichi. At least two of his colleagues in the front row of this House had promised that during the last election.

We certainly look forward to what happens. I hope that those employees will continue to have employment. They are good people. They worked well. The report that was referred to in the House yesterday is certainly no reflection on their work.

[Firearms Registry, May 18th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, a very important element of the national gun registry is located in my riding of Miramichi. It consists of nearly 200 highly skilled employees, mainly women, who serve Canadians in both official languages. Yesterday's announcement certainly causes great concern for the future of their employment with the Government of Canada.

Could the Minister of Public Safety please inform those people, and this House, of their future as employees with the Government of Canada.

[Interparliamentary Delegations, May 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present to the House, in both official languages, the report of the delegation to the OSCE, Canada Europe Parliamentary Association, respecting its participation in the winter session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly held in Vienna, Austria, February 23-24, 2006.

[The Budget, May 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, if time would permit, I would like to some day debate the hon. minister on his concept of what the individual is and what the rights of the individual are as opposed to the needs of our government and society. It is very different on that side of the House from what it is on this side of the House.

The hon. minister also alluded to the fact that he had nearly the perfect person as Minister of Finance. There have been certain perfect people in this world, but they have often met with very disastrous results. I certainly hope he is not alluding to probably the only perfect one who has walked this earth.

In terms of what we have heard this past weekend in our relationship with our counterparts in the United States, there is a great need in this country for us to make a quick move in terms of getting passports for people in order to make sure our economy continues in a very effective way. We know that is going to cost money. We know that it is quite costly to the Canadian people today, at about $85, to pick up a passport.

Maybe the hon. minister could give the House some information on whether or not his department is coming up with a better way and a cheaper way so that most Canadians will have good access to our American neighbours when the need comes next year.

[The Budget, May 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the hon. member, but he said things are not doable by his government. However, they were doable by our government.

We have a great number of people in the country, working mothers and families with low income, who cannot afford the kind of child care that his government would propose for them. They need government assistance. They need a government program that is regulated and is good for all Canadian children.

The member put forward a tremendous amount of money that a universal day care program would cost. I think he alluded to $15,000 per child. Would he refresh my memory on what he said the costs would be for a universal day care program?