Daryl Kramp

[Interparliamentary Delegations, November 30th, 2011]

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 Canadian joint delegation of the Canada-China Legislative Association and the Canada-Japan Inter-parliamentary Group regarding its participation in the 15th annual Assembly of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians Conference on the Environment and Development or APPCED, which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from June 6 to 9, 2011.

[Safe Streets and Communities Act, November 29th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to the member opposite. I served as a police officer for a number of years and I recognize the reality of the balanced approach. We do have to have prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Like most Canadians, I certainly do not have difficulty with that.

However, we also have to recognize there is an element of society, unfortunately, that is dangerous. These people need to be isolated from the public as a matter of protection.

I am just hearing about money for jails. I am wondering how many opposition members have actually visited some of our penal institutions. Many of them, quite frankly, are archaic. They are barbaric. There is no possibility, or even facility, for rehabilitation and/or self-improvement. We have to bring things up to a level of accommodation where we can provide that balanced approach.

We do need protection and prevention, but it does take all. The bill obviously does not deal with the total scope. There are other bills that deal with prevention as well, but this deals with protection and victim protection.

I hope the opposition members would recognize that and in due course give the bill support, because of those principles.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, November 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly know the background of the hon. member and her years of dedication to the health field.

As a person living in a rural area, I can say that it has always been a challenge to have a family physician. We have addressed that in a number of different ways, through relocation fees, subsidy and support. The most important thing is that we are doing what we said we would do. In the March budget, we laid out the elements that we would do. To the shock and horror of the opposition we are doing what we said we would do. We are doing what the Canadian population elected us to do. Is it not refreshing to have some honesty on the scene for once?

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, November 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I will just flip that around. If there was a tax credit that the hon. member might be able to use on his farm but his income suggested it was not there, should every dollar that would be used as a tax credit automatically be sent to him as a refund?

That is not doable in today's economy, let alone in a booming economy. I would suggest to the hon. member, with all consideration, that he give his head a shake and try to be real in situations like this.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, November 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague seems to be suggesting that there is no need for a tax credit, and that we should just give everybody in Canada a refund. Where does he think those kinds of dollars would come from? That would upset the apple cart so much that there would hardly be any dollars left for anything in life.

Governments have to make a decision and that decision is based on what they think will get the best results. We responded directly to the firefighters, to their organization. This is what they asked for. There are 85,000 volunteer firefighters in this country. I have talked to a number of firefighters. We attended the various sessions on the Hill and we attended their organizations. The vast majority of firefighters is very pleased with the government's approach.

There is always the hope that every bill, every option and every motion will cover every person in Canada, but that is not the case. The people I have talked to say this initiative has been very widely accepted by the vast majority of volunteer firefighters.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, November 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, today I am honoured to have the opportunity to speak on our budget implementation act. I am pleased to offer my own insight into what I really believe to be a budget for the times. The strength of our economy is referenced again and again by national and international bodies such as the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. They all confirm that what we have been doing as a government is the right thing at the right time.

Clearly and indisputably, this budget is what is needed to take us on the road to recovery. However, our government does believe that one must be prudent and realistic, and recognize that challenging times are still ahead. The state of the world economy may still impact us in a negative fashion from forces beyond our control whether they be the Middle East, U.S.A. or Europe. Being a responsible government, we must do what we can and what we will do here is to manage the efficient and effective use of taxpayers' dollars. We must support families and individuals in a caring and compassionate manner.

In this budgetary process we propose and we will promote job creation and economic growth, certainly our number one priority, in a number of ways: by providing a temporary hiring credit for small business to encourage additional hiring; by expanding tax support for clean energy generation to encourage green investments; by extending the mineral exploration tax credit for flow-through shares investors by one year in order to support fully Canada's mining sector; by simplifying custom tariffs in order to facilitate trade and lower the administrative burden for business; by accelerating the accelerated capital cost allowance treatment for investments in manufacturing and processing machinery and equipment for two years in order to support the manufacturing and processing sector; and by eliminating the mandatory retirement age for federally regulated employees in order to give older workers the option to remain in the workforce.

We will support communities by legislating a permanent annual investment of $2 billion in the gas tax fund to provide predictable, long-term infrastructure funding for municipalities. We will enhance the wage earner protection program to cover more workers affected by employer bankruptcy or receivership and we will introduce a volunteer firefighter tax credit for volunteer firefighters.

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time this evening with the member for Prince Albert.

By increasing the ability of Canadians to give more to legitimate charities, we will introduce a package of integrity measures designed to help combat fraud and other forms of abuse. We will help families by introducing the new family caregiver tax credit to assist caregivers of all types of infirm dependent relatives. We will remove the limit on the amount of eligible expenses caregivers can claim under the medical expense tax credit in respect of financially dependent relatives. We will introduce a very popular new children's arts tax credit for programs associated with children's artistic, cultural, recreational and developmental activities.

We will certainly invest in education and training by forgiving loans for new doctors and nurses in underserviced rural and remote areas. We will help apprentices in the skilled trades and workers in regulated professions by making occupational trade and professional examination fees eligible for the tuition tax credit. We will improve federal financial assistance for students by making it easier to allocate registered education savings plan assets among siblings without incurring tax penalties or forfeiting Canada education saving grants.

We will respect taxpayers by phasing out the direct subsidy of political parties by closing tax loopholes that allow a few businesses and individuals to avoid paying their fair share of tax.

Yes, by doing all of those things and many more, we are doing an absolutely tremendous service to a significant group across this country. We are supporting families. We are supporting seniors. We are supporting volunteer firefighters. We are supporting small business. We are keeping taxes low. We are keeping Canada on track for balanced budgets. We are supporting our farmers, our forest industry, and our manufacturers. We are investing in our environment. We are supporting students. We are protecting consumers. We are supporting Canada's charities and yes, as I mentioned earlier, we are phasing out per vote political subsidies for political parties which will support all taxpayers and which I note will negatively affect our governing party the most.

The budget implementation bill in process is a comprehensive piece of legislation covering a broad scope of Canadian society. I would like to offer some personal insight on one particular component of the budget and that is the measures for small business.

I was a small business owner for over 35 years, prior to my election in 2004 as a member of Parliament. I have extensive experience in retail, wholesale, hospitality, sports, tourism and trade. As such, I am pleased that we will implement a number of key measures to assist small businesses, which are the cornerstone of our economy. We will do it in a number of ways.

One is by a new-hire credit for small business. This is a temporary one-time credit of up to $1,000 toward a small firm's increase in its 2011 employment insurance premiums over those paid in 2010. This new credit will help up to 525,000 employers defray the cost of additional hiring. That is over half a million businesses, a significant impact for Canada, particularly in the rural areas.

We are reducing the red tape by upgrading the BizPaL service and further consulting Canadians through the Red Tape Reduction Commission. I commend the hon. Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism for the work he is doing.

For our youth entrepreneurs there is $20 million to support the Canadian Youth Business Foundation activities. This foundation works with young entrepreneurs to help them become the business leaders of tomorrow through mentorship, learning resources and start-up financing.

We are extending the work-sharing arrangements to help business keep workers. We are providing $10 million in additional support to assist those employers that continue to face challenges by making available an extension of up to 16 weeks for active or recently terminated work-sharing agreements.

We are extending the accelerated capital cost allowance to help manufacturers and processors make new investments in manufacturing and processing machinery and equipment.

This builds on our government's significant action to reduce taxation for small business where we increased the small business limit to $0.5 million. This refers to the amount of income earned by small business eligible for the reduced federal tax rate where we reduced the small business tax rate from 12% to 11%.

We are lowering the federal corporate income tax rate to 15% by 2012, as passed in Parliament.

These reductions will help create jobs and economic growth for Canadian families and communities.

We have increased the lifetime capital gains exemption. We are helping companies invest in themselves through a temporary 100% capital cost allowance rate for computers. We eliminated the corporate surtax for all corporations in 2008. While the elimination of the surtax benefits all corporations, it is of particular benefit to small business corporations since the surtax represents a larger proportion of their overall tax payable.

In addition, the creation of the Red Tape Reduction Commission has helped reduce unnecessary and ineffective regulations so small business can focus on growing and creating jobs.

Our government recently released a code of conduct for the credit and debit card industry in Canada to protect small businesses.

For much of my life I was very active in the sporting world. I observed that in the game of hockey there are two types of players. There are those who simply heckle and have no focused commitment and there are those who act decisively and get positive results. Our Conservative Party believes that our team must have a solid game plan in order to get that puck down the ice and in the net.

The budget implementation bill would do just that. It certainly deserves the unanimous support of the House. I am pleased to see the overwhelming encouragement and support from my colleagues across the House in support of our initiative.

[Recognition of Service, November 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, today I am doubly proud to congratulate two gentlemen from the riding of Prince Edward—Hastings who have recently been awarded prestigious honours for their service to Canadians.

On November 4, Dr. Robert McMurtry of Picton became a member of the Order of Canada.

Dr. McMurtry, an orthopedic surgeon, created Canada's first trauma unit at Sunnybrook Hospital and has been instrumental in strengthening health care delivery in Canada and making a positive difference in the lives of others.

As well, Mr. Martin Vermeer, a retired Canadian Forces veteran, recently received the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation. Throughout his lifetime Mr. Vermeer served the community of veterans with distinction and dedication.

On behalf of my constituents from Prince Edward—Hastings and all Canadians, I say congratulations to Dr. McMurtry and Mr. Vermeer.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, November 15th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am tremendously impressed with and confident in the good work done in the finance committee by that member. Having served on that committee, I know a tremendous amount of consultation has been done with Canadians across the country. Many members of the opposition have been saying that no one has really had a chance to provide input, but that is absolutely absurd.

Could the member tell us what kind of consultations go on across the country and from whom she has heard information in addition to the departmental and government agencies?

[Ending the Long-gun Registry Act, November 1st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, a law is only good if it accomplishes what it sets out to do. Clearly, the firearms registry does not do that. I say that as a former police officer. I have never gone to the scene of a crime and seen a circumstance where the registry would have had an effect. I have looked down the barrel of a gun the wrong way. The registry is not an asset.

I have been at a number of domestic calls where one must always assume the worst. One can never prepare. The registry has never helped. I have said that to many of my colleagues across the country and they have repeated that, yet I hear the opposition members bringing a general testament that it is of assistance.

Could the hon. minister give us the exact circumstances she has heard from the opposition that shows the many occasions where it has been effective? Are there any?

[The Economy, October 27th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, under the first phase of Canada's economic action plan, we made a commitment to protect Canadians from the worst effects of the global downturn with a massive investment in Canada's infrastructure. It has been a huge success in creating jobs and improving communities across Canada.

To ensure that all these projects were completed and delivered the maximum results, we worked constructively with communities and showed flexibility where needed, extending certain deadlines.

I am pleased to say that all of the numerous projects in my riding are near completion and many are under budget.

I thank all my municipalities, their leaders and staff for their co-operation and diligence in partnering successfully. Working together, we have stimulated economic activity, created thousands of jobs and the projects funded will provide lasting benefits for our communities.

This program and these projects are a win-win for our municipalities and for Canada.