Anne-Marie Day

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, May 3rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel. I would like to talk to her about a specific issue.

We are both members of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. The member for Burlington, Ontario, spoke in committee a little while ago. He must be in the lobby. He must understand.

I know that the Standing Orders prevent me from saying where a member is, so I apologize. Still, I know he is there.

During a meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, the member mentioned that the budget will help aboriginal communities. Fortunately, a professor from First Nations University of Canada in Alberta told us that, among other things, the budget was cut by 100%. I hardly dare say it.

If that is what they call helping aboriginal communities, what more could they do to hurt them?

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, May 3rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for her charming speech.

When we talk about sustainable development, we are talking about development that we will be leaving to future generations. I have one daughter who is 26 years old and another who is 21. It is our young people who will be here tomorrow and who will look after our country's future.

When we talk about the environment, we are talking about the security of these young people. When we talk about oil development, about big businesses that exploit and export everything abroad without considering the cost to the environment, we are putting future generations in debt.

Yes, the budget is balanced, but by bringing down a balanced budget, the government is putting future generations in debt. They are the ones who will have to clean up the environmental mess we are making today. What does the member think of that?

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, May 3rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his speech, which I appreciated enormously.

In this budget, everything possible is being done to exploit natural resources and send them out of the country as fast as possible.

Is the bottom line that this country is for sale? Why are we not doing any primary processing? Why are we not creating value-added jobs?

How would the member answer that question?

[Government Priorities, April 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this government has given Canadians cuts to Service Canada, longer and longer wait times for employment insurance, and now, a minister who does not want to answer questions because answers are not on the day's agenda.

The Conservatives seem to be incapable of telling the truth. From the F-35s to changes to old age security to health care cuts, we are still waiting for answers.

It is time to put a stop to this culture of secrecy. When will Canadians get some answers? When will we start seeing some ministerial accountability?

[Employment Insurance, April 23rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, that is not an answer and it does nothing to reassure the thousands of workers who have lost their jobs, workers like the ones at Aveos who still do not have work to pay their bills.

We are asking the government to invest in public services instead of making cuts. The government created the Employment Insurance Financing Board of Canada to the tune of millions of dollars that did not go to help the unemployed.

Why waste money on a financing board that is not being used, when essential services for the unemployed are inadequate?

[Housing, April 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, access to housing is an important human right. If there is a shortage of available housing, that right is jeopardized. Where is the Conservatives’ plan? There is absolutely nothing for affordable housing in the recent budget. Housing comes in a distant second to fighter planes and gifts to the big oil companies. That is not surprising, since the Conservatives have been cutting housing since 2006.

What are the Conservatives going to do to provide every Canadian with a roof and to combat homelessness?

[Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act, March 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member.

The member who spoke before her talked of bogus refugees. I find that shameful. A refugee is first of all a person. They are a refugee no matter what their reason for leaving their country, perhaps on ethnic or religious grounds, or to obtain protection because they are lesbian, gay, transgendered or transsexual. A refugee is a refugee. Refuges arrive in Canada without passports, with the clothing on their backs, without food and possibly even without money. They are refugees and they need humanitarian aid.

A refugee will be integrated into Canadian society and become a worker. We need workers, we need these people. As for the false paranoia that terrorists and the like masquerade as refugees, they do not have to hide among the refugees because they can hide anywhere.

Canada must continue to welcome refugees. What does the member think of that?

[Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act, March 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her very eloquent speech. In my riding, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, 14% of the population is made up of immigrants and children of immigrants. Some of these people came to Canada as refugees, others as landed immigrants. The bill, as written, seems to create a two-tier system, meaning that some refugee claims will be processed more quickly than others.

What will happen to 16- to 18-year-olds, young people who have not yet reached the age of majority? The government says that mothers and their children under 16 will be kept together in these famous centres, but what will we do with the fathers? Will they be separated from their families? How much will these famous refugee detention centres cost? There is talk of $170 million for health insurance and other services.

[March 15th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the unemployed cannot wait months to pay their bills. The number of claimants in dire straits who are unable to pay for basic needs such as food and housing keeps going up. A loaf of bread costs $3.69 or more.

Job creation is well below what the government initially projected. The Conservative government does not have a job creation plan. If it does, where is it?

To serve the public well, the Conservative government has to take the necessary measures to restore the levels of service to what we had before. After all, Canadians are entitled to receive the benefits for which they have paid.

Will this government admit that the major cuts made to Service Canada over the past year were completely unjustified and inappropriate in an economy that is still fragile and unstable?

[March 15th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as I begin, I would like to thank the minister's representative who will be answering my question.

Last December, just before the holiday break, I asked the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development what the government was going to do to help Canadians who had not yet received their employment insurance benefits after weeks of waiting. On the eve of the holidays, I was very worried about the deplorable situation in which many families in my riding found themselves when employment insurance claims were not handled within the prescribed time limits. My office in the riding of Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles answered calls from dozens of claimants who said that they were unable to speak to anyone at Service Canada and that they were still waiting for their employment insurance benefits.

I would also like to remind members that this situation is ongoing, that calls for assistance in my riding are growing, and that it is quite unacceptable to make citizens wait this long. Workers have paid their premiums and they are entitled to receive their benefits in an efficient and timely manner in order to look after their families in difficult times.

We all know that the Conservative government has cut jobs at Service Canada since the end of the recession. Unfortunately, since the government has failed to come up with a real job creation plan, the unemployment rate remains high. In October 2011, over 360,000 people—I am rounding down—were waiting for their benefit claims to be processed. In October 2007, just before the beginning of the 2008 recession, that number was 82,000.

Canada's unemployment rate was 7.4% in November, 7.5% in December and 7.6 % in January 2012. In February, the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 7.4%, but we know that is because fewer people were looking for jobs, which is hardly good news.

With respect to the quality of services to the public, I would like the minister to explain a few things. Why does processing take considerably longer than 28 days in 25% of claims? Why do more than 22,000 people have to wait over 128 days for their employment insurance benefits? Why have Service Canada employees been told not to let clients know about the Office of Client Satisfaction unless clients mention the office by name?

When the minister responded to my question in December, she said that more resources would be allocated to address the increased number of claims that Service Canada receives during the holidays. Internal and media sources confirm that the usual extra holiday hours were not authorized this year. Additional resources were not on the job until January. The NDP believes that that is too little, too late. The minister also says that the processing system is being upgraded to improve efficiency and responsiveness.

I would like the minister to provide details about the timeline for this new system and measures that have been or will be implemented to minimize the impact of these delays in processing people's claims.

More specifically, I would also like to know exactly when Service Canada will be fully functional. In other words, when will it be in a position to ensure satisfactory service provided by employees who are not on the brink of exhaustion?