Jeff Watson

[Automotive Industry, April 21st, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, during a period of global economic uncertainty, our government acted responsibly to ensure the survival of Canada's automotive industry. In co-operation with the Obama administration and the Government of Ontario, we acted to secure this vital manufacturing sector and protect its nearly half a million Canadian jobs.

Could the Minister of Industry update the House on the progress being made on our government's robust commitment to the Canadian auto sector?

[Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, April 13th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, during today's meeting of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, committee members formally expressed their displeasure with the antics of the Liberal member for Parkdale—High Park. As if it was not bad enough, his own party, the Liberal Party, has removed him from the committee as one of its permanent members.

Could the chair of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities please inform the House of the motion adopted this morning and when it will be reported to the House?

[Liberal Party of Canada, March 24th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank those Liberal members who voted for the estimates last night. For a moment, it looked like they had come to understand what Canadians already know, that our economic action plan is protecting the jobs of today while creating the jobs of tomorrow.

Alas, that moment faded when the Liberals voted again, but this time against jobs and growth.

The confusion is clearly coming from the Liberal leader. Last week, he prorogued himself to go on a tax and spend road show and missed his party's motion.

Yesterday, we told the Liberal leader that his motion was divisive, and we were right. He divided his caucus. While some stood against him, even more chose to sit out the Liberal leader's motion. One Liberal MP even told the media it was “clown city”.

Maybe the MPs the Liberal leader locked out of his spenders conference have caught on to what we have been saying, “The Liberal leader is not in it for Canadians; he is only in it for himself”.

[Taxation, March 18th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal leader has found himself at odds with Canadians. He cannot stand our jobs and growth budget. He cannot stand that our economy is recovering. He cannot stand that Canadians have rejected his tax and spend ways. So, he is taking a break and he is on his tax and spend road show.

The Liberal leader may try to convince Canadians his uncosted spending promises provide an alternative to our jobs and growth budget, but his alternative is clear. The Liberal leader will raise our taxes and kill jobs. We know this because he said it: “we will have to raise taxes”.

The Liberal leader might think his March break lecture will change the facts, but Canadians know better. Higher taxes kill jobs. When the Liberal leader chooses his tax and spend road show over the work of this House, he proves what we have been saying along. The Liberal leader is not in it for Canadians, he is only in it for himself.

[Taxation, March 11th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, mere days before Christmas 1995, Canadian retirees collecting U.S. social security got a massive 70% tax hike from the Liberal government, devastating their retirements. Thousands banded together to fight, led by the now late Olive Smith of Essex, forming Canadians Asking for Social Security Equality. Sadly, the Liberal government did not right its wrong. It fought these seniors for a decade hoping they would lose heart, or worse, that it would outlast these seniors and their outrage.

Budget 2010, thanks to this government, restores tax fairness to these retired Canadian seniors.

I extend congratulations to CASSE. I extend thanks to Bill Thrasher and other seniors who never gave up, to the member for Calgary Southeast who, before me, led this fight for seven years in this House, to our finance minister and our Prime Minister.

Olive Smith and her fellow seniors departed can finally rest in peace.

[THE BUDGET, March 8th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, talking about rolling over when it comes to seniors and voting against them, let us look at what the NDP has voted against. How about pension income splitting? It was a very significant step forward. We increased the age limit for RRSP to RRIF conversions to 71 from 69, increased the age credits and doubled pension income credits. I remember that budget after budget, as measures came forward for seniors, members of the NDP voted against measure after measure.

Thankfully, in spite of them, we have been able to deliver those types of benefit to seniors. However, time and again the NDP have rolled over and voted against those measures. I suspect the same will happen when it comes to our beloved seniors collecting a U.S. social security benefit the moment that they get tax justice, after over a decade of bitterness, finally getting that measure.

I call on the members for Windsor—Tecumseh and Windsor West to stand in their place today and actually vote for the budget and vote for what they have said all these years that they have supported. Now is the time to put actual action to the words they have been speaking for a decade. Otherwise, we can only conclude that they did not really mean it.

[THE BUDGET, March 8th, 2010]

I was almost optimistic, Madam Speaker, that I would get an apology from the member to those seniors. He has been around long enough to know that Canadian seniors collecting the U.S. social security benefit were done wrong by that Liberal government when it was in power in the nineties. The Liberals tried to balance their budget on the backs of seniors. We are not doing that. We are grandfathering them.

The Liberals violated a very basic principle of justice. We do not increase taxes on those who have already retired. They have mapped out their retirement savings, how much they have saved, how many years they expect to live and now we whack them with a major tax hike. We just do not do that. The hon. member can still redeem himself. He could stand in his place when the budget vote comes up and say that the Liberals made a mistake and that he will support the budget and restore them.

On the issue of research and development, maybe the member missed the Association of Universities and Colleges Canada. I will quote very briefly. It was pleased that the government was continuing, not starting, to invest in university research and innovation which creates jobs today and builds the economy of tomorrow. It said that the budget sends an important signal and shows the government recognizes the vital role universities play in creating opportunities for Canadians in the new economy.

[THE BUDGET, March 8th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, let me begin by commending the appointment of the hon. member for Mississauga—Erindale as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice. His constituents already know he is an exceptional member of Parliament. It is a well deserved step up for him and I commend him on it.

Members are debating Canada's economic action plan, part two. Before I get to that, to provide context, one should talk about what the government has achieved with respect to Canada's economic action plan, part one.

As a bit of background, the Windsor-Essex region has an economy that is primarily dependent on the automotive industry, and within that the economy is largely dependent on the traditional Detroit three manufacturers. The parts sector and machine tool, die and mould sector have created a cluster of manufacturing around those businesses.

The region has struggled with high unemployment even before the downturn. It was higher than provincial and Canadian averages, in large measure because of the restructuring that was beginning during the earlier part of the decade. Sadly, during the recession, of course, the region reached the highest unemployment in urban centres in all of Canada, which was about 3.5 percentage points higher than the next highest unemployment rate for an urban centre. During the great recession the region was an area of great historic need.

What was the government's reaction to that? It was historic investment. The government was able to stabilize the base of the economy for the region, and beyond that for southern Ontario, by participating in a significant restructuring of Chrysler Canada and General Motors Canada. It allowed the government, of course after stabilizing the base of the economy, to do a few things beyond that.

The government was able to support working families by extending employment insurance benefits, investing literally billions of dollars back into the employment insurance system, and supporting workers while they were looking for alternative employment. The government also provided billions of dollars in retraining for those families that wanted to pursue different careers and move into different sectors.

The government invested heavily in the work share program, which I can say saved literally thousands of jobs in the Windsor-Essex region. It was a very significant program that is still supporting some of those jobs as I speak. The government has made some enhancements in the economic action plan, part two, to ensure that it continues to be a good program.

The government was also able to stimulate the economy beyond the auto industry. It was the highest per capita infrastructure stimulus funding in all of Canada. There were significant investments through the government's knowledge infrastructure program, which included funding of $40 million toward a new Centre for Engineering Innovation at the University of Windsor, and $16 million toward a Centre for Applied Health Sciences at St. Clair College. There were significant strategic investments for the medium-term to long-term economy in the region, which included training for health care professionals and engineers for the knowledge jobs of the future.

The government invested millions to improve the region's airport and to build a retention treatment basin to capture combination sewer overflows into the Detroit River. That was a very significant step forward in terms of addressing the Detroit River area and the environment, which are of concern.

The government was also able to focus on how to diversify the economy. People in our region have talked about it for a long time, but now the government is actually doing it under the economic action plan through a new economic development agency for southern Ontario, FedDev Ontario, and companion programs like the community adjustment fund to help single industry communities make that transition. The southern Ontario development program is helping small-sized and medium-sized enterprises along with the Community Futures Development Corporation for rural economic development in the region.

Those are some tools that are helping the government retool the machine tool, die and mould sector in the region, and to do things beyond just production for the automotive industry, like aerospace, nuclear and the green energy revolution that is coming to the province. The region is preparing for green energy manufacturing and is moving to have a maintenance and repair operations centre for the aerospace industry.

With improvements to the airport the region is seeing regional tourism strategies come together, which are linking the finest aspects of the region's cultural assets like its Underground Railroad heritage, its environmental assets, and the budding Lake Erie-North Shore wine region with the cosmopolitan flair of a newly emerging city of Windsor for a very strong tourism approach.

Those are all significant investments coming under part one of Canada's economic action plan that are building a sense of hope and optimism in our region for the first time. We feel like we have turned the corner. Unemployment is coming down. There are approaches to the future. Our economy looks a lot better. We can honestly tell the people that in a time of historic need for this region, our government, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, has made historic investments.

It was not that long ago when we had three Liberal cabinet ministers in three ridings who did not deliver a fraction of that kind of investment to the region. They used to say that Canada and Ontario stopped at London. That is no longer the case because of the attention of this federal government, the Prime Minister and this cabinet.

What have the two Windsor NDP MPs been doing during this entire time? They have spent their time voting against every single dollar of investment, voting against the restructuring of the auto industry and voting against stimulating and diversifying our economy.

What can we expect as we approach part two of Canada's economic action plan? I do not know but I suspect more of the same over there. What are we doing with part two of the economic action plan? Obviously we are ensuring that our economic recovery takes hold by providing further public stimulus until such time as private stimulus leads the way in our economy.

We have developed a credible plan for tackling the temporary deficits. We have established the foundation of strong pro-growth economic policies including, among many things, one that is very significant and literally makes Canada a tariff-free zone when it comes to manufacturing inputs. That is critical as we reach a point where we have a dollar that is at par with the United States which gives us tremendous purchasing power. We also need to solve the productivity gap and make our businesses more competitive so those investments in technology and equipment will be made tariff-free now. That is a significant step forward.

Increasing investment in research and development, particularly closing the loop in our R and D web at $10 billion science and technology strategy, but the area where we need to make the last bit of progress is in the commercialization of research and development. We do a lot of great research in this country and now we need to commercialize it, which would also solve part of the job creation. Spawning new industries can come from that. Therefore, our colleges and universities are getting an additional leg up and our granting councils are getting additional investment.

What is being said about our budget? We have many endorsements from national agencies but locally who is supporting this budget? The mayor of Windsor is saying very positive things about our budget. Our regional chamber of commerce has come out strongly endorsing this budget as being good for our region. I was just speaking with the University of Windsor president, Dr. Alan Wildeman, last night who said that they were very much in favour of this, particularly in a budget where we are seeing the need to generate multi-billion dollars worth of savings over time, that they get a boost in funding. So there is lots of good news there.

The other major winner in this budget are Canadian seniors who collect a U.S. social security benefit. A horrible tax fight was foisted on them by a previous Liberal government after they retired, eating into their retirement savings and throwing many of them out of their home. Our Prime Minister committed to it in the last election as a government initiative and, before that, it was my personal crusade to right that wrong, and now it is in the budget. Those folks who retired prior to January 1, 1996 are now grandfathered the way they should have been in the first step. I challenge the Liberal members across the way to stand and vote for them and correct the mistake that was made if they have the decency to do it. I call on the two NDP members for Windsor who said that they were in on this issue, to stand up for those same seniors today and vote for the budget later on. I will be watching them and I know seniors will be.

[Provincial Choice Tax Framework Act, December 8th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the member's speech. She talked about the insane price of gasoline in the northwest part of Ontario.

Today Bill C-311 passed out of the environment committee and went back to the House. That is the NDP's climate change bill. Experts told us that would peg gas at about $2.50 a litre, about triple the price of gas in Ottawa today.

I wonder if the member is as concerned with that and if she has been as honest with the same people on fixed incomes about what the NDP's climate change bill will do as she has been about what she thinks the effects of the HST will be.

[Infrastructure, December 7th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, our government continues to invest in vital infrastructure across Canada in order to stimulate the economy and create jobs for Canadians.

I agree with the Prime Minister that we need to increase trade and not protectionism during these tough economic times, especially in my region, which was hit hard by the recent downturn.

Could the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities tell the House about the new developments with respect to the Detroit River international crossing and its significance to Canadians?