Don Boudria

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 21st, 2005]

Eighth? I am sorry. It is the eighth consecutive balanced budget. I was underestimating how good we are.

We have this budget bill, Bill C-48, which will assist those who are less well off in our society.

The hon. member across has said, in a kind of Hobbesian state of nature way of looking at things, to just reduce taxes and let people fend for themselves, presumably where life will be brutish and short, as Thomas Hobbes used to say, and that will fix everything.

I do not agree with that way of looking at it and I do not believe Canadians do either. We are here for the greater good as well as ourselves individually.

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 21st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to some of this and it was a little hard to take, particularly on the factual side.

The hon. member is talking about the state of the Canadian economy. I have been around here a few years. I remember Conservative years. I remember the economy having an unemployment rate that was larger than the Prime Minister's shoe size, only by a fraction. I remember the period of time when the interest rates were about the same size.

I remember that not in one single budget in eight years--and I will not say that they did not balance because Conservatives never can balance a budget and we all know that--could they live with their own forecasts of the deficit they said they were going to have. Those are the years we remember.

Now we have 6.8% unemployment. We have booming sectors of the Canadian economy. We have jobs being created right across the nation. We have an excellent budget, the seventh consecutive balanced budget. We have a budget that has been improved on by this bill and I will be the first to admit that.

[Interparliamentary Delegations, June 20th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 34(1) I have the honour to present, in both official languages, two reports of the Canadian delegation of the Interparliamentary Forum of the Americas or FIPA.

The first one is on the meeting of the group of women parliamentarians at the Americas of FIPA held in Bridgetown, Barbados from March 20 to 22.

The second is on the fourth plenary session held in Brasilia, Brazil from May 19 to 21.

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 20th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Three times in the last five minutes, including twice in the last 30 seconds, a member has referred to other hon. members by their names in the House of Commons. It is clearly out of order, whether to denigrate another member or to compliment his own leader, which he was attempting unsuccessfully to do. Either way, that is not in order. Our rules are very clear.

[Agriculture, June 16th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

The egg and poultry industry contributes some $13 billion per year to the Canadian economy and provides about 72,000 jobs.

In negotiations with the World Trade Organization, is the government prepared to protect over-quota tariffs at their current levels to discourage further imports beyond the level of market access already negotiated at the WTO?

[Committees of the House, June 16th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 43rd report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding its order of reference of Thursday, November 25, 2004, in relation to electoral reform.

[Committees of the House, June 15th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, again if the House gives its consent, I move that the 42nd report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be concurred in.

[Committees of the House, June 15th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, in a similar way, I understand there has been the usual consultation among all parties and I seek unanimous consent to table the 42nd report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the change in membership of one hon. member.

[City of Kingston, June 15th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, our country's heritage is alive and well in the beautiful city of Kingston, Ontario.

Today, the Ontario Lieutenant Governor, James Bartleman, together with Kingstonians will gather for a very special military tattoo: First Capital Day.

On June 15, 1841, Governor General Lord Sydenham, accompanied by the public and a young lawyer by the name of John A. Macdonald, opened the first Parliament of the United Provinces of Canada in Kingston.

One hundred and sixty years later, both the provincial and federal governments have recognized Kingston as the first capital of Canada. Thanks to the hard work of Mr. Ian Milne and Dr. Margaret Angus, the founders of First Capital Day, the event has been marked with much celebration for seven years now.

On behalf of the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Kingston for this wonderful celebration of our nation's heritage.

[Committees of the House, June 14th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, that was a pretty sad spectacle if I ever saw one.

First, I never said that John Reid was not to be reappointed. I have no idea whether it is even possible to have a second mandate for a commissioner because none has ever been granted. The government will decide whether it offers a candidacy. That is the way the process works. Maybe the member should look at his computer because he is not listening to the answer, not that it would make much difference.

Second, he referred to something about 20 years. I have been here 21 years and half of that time were Conservative years. The country was in deficit and going into debt. Almost every week a minister would resign under that regime. Ministers of finance had no credibility. The popularity of the government was about my shoe size. We all remember those Conservative days. We know that it is the same Conservative Party that went down about 10 percentage points in one year. No matter how one splices that, it cannot look different because that is how it is.

Everyone knows they are trying to get out of the mess they got themselves into this morning by failing to produce an opposition day. They are trying to splice that together again, but the last splice did not work and this one will not either.