Mike Lake

[Foreign Investment, September 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, our government will always act in the best interest of Canadians. This transaction, of course, will be scrutinized very closely. The Investment Canada Act process has provisions to protect national security.

[Peter Lougheed, September 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the Government of Canada to pay tribute to a great Albertan, the Hon. Peter Lougheed.

Peter Lougheed truly was a great man, universally respected, and in the words of the Prime Minister, “quite simply one of the most remarkable Canadians of his generation”.

Mr. Lougheed was a master politician, a gifted lawyer, a professional athlete and a philanthropist.

He worked tirelessly for his community, province and for all of Canada. In fact, Mr. Lougheed was a vital part of making Alberta the economic success it is today.

On this day I want to offer my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of former premier Peter Lougheed, especially his loving wife of 60 years, his four children and seven grandchildren. Our thoughts and prayers are with them today.

[Foreign Ownership, September 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the six criteria that make up the net benefit test are very clear. Any Canadian, including the member opposite, can look them up online in section 20 of the Investment Canada Act. Simply Google the Investment Canada Act and they will be able to find those criteria. They include the level of economic activity; the degree and significance of participation by Canadians in the Canadian business; and the effect on productivity, industrial efficiency and other factors, including the effect on competition within the industry. It goes on and on. I do not have time to list them all, but let us be very clear that the minister will make the decision in the best interests of Canadians.

[Foreign Ownership, September 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's investment review process is sound. It ensures that foreign investment is of net benefit to Canada.

Our government has a clear track record of encouraging economic growth, job creation and prosperity in Canada. The minister will take the time required to carefully examine the proposed acquisition to determine whether it is in the best interest of Canadians.

[World Autism Awareness Day Act, June 19th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, today I am not going to get into a whole bunch of statistics and definitions. Instead I am going to talk about my own experience as the father of a now 16-year-old boy with autism, my son Jaden. Before I do that, though, I would like to extend some recognition.

First of all, I would like to thank Senator Munson for moving this important legislation forward in the first place. I would like to thank my good friend and colleague from Kitchener—Conestoga for sponsoring the bill in the House.

I would particularly like to thank the Minister of Health, who declared that as of April 2, 2009, each April 2 will be known as World Autism Awareness Day in Canada. That is an important step. That is what the bill addresses in legislation today.

I would also like to thank colleagues from all parties, who have been very supportive of my family. They have met Jaden and wanted to know more about the situation, know more about autism, so that they can be more informed as they go out into their own constituencies.

First and foremost, I want to thank my son Jaden, who is a tremendous example for me and obviously one of the most important people in my life.

I also want to thank my wife Debi and my daughter Jenae, who hold the fort down at home.

My daughter is now 13 years old. When she was four or five, she did a little interview with the autism newsletter. One of the things that she said is “I'm Jaden's little sister, but I'm like his big sister”. She went on to say that she had to protect him and keep him safe from things like permanent markers and hot stoves. At 13 years old, Jenae is still keeping Jaden safe.

My proudest moments as I think about my daughter are the moments when she does not know that we are watching. We hear her playing games with Jaden, interacting with him, keeping him out of harm's way or helping him because he is upset with something and trying to talk him through it. She is an amazing little big sister to him.

Why is autism awareness so important? It is important because early diagnosis is critical for people with autism. There is a short window of time when kids are young. We have more and more information about autism. There has been more and more research that shows that early treatment is absolutely essential for people with autism. In order to get that early treatment, we need doctors to be aware of the signs of autism, we need parents to be aware of them and we need the broader public to be aware of them.

Looking back in our own circumstance, when Jaden was 18 months old and knowing what we know now, we could have recognized the signs of autism had we been more aware, but even at the time, the doctors suggested that some boys just talk late, so they sent us for speech training and workshops and things like that.

It was six months later, after we had lost six months of that window, that we read a book about autism and recognized what we were dealing with. It was autism. A cousin mentioned it to us as well. It was six months later that we finally received a diagnosis. Thankfully, that delay does not happen as often today as it did over a decade ago, because people are more aware.

Another reason that awareness is so important is that families need support. I remember one particular circumstance when I was having a discussion about respite with someone who knew my son had autism but did not know what we dealt with on a daily basis. He asked me, “Why should the government provide a babysitter for your son?” It was one of those things that made me realize that people do not understand it the way we live it. They do not see the 24/7 stress that families are under, the constant need to be on high alert for fear of the child's safety or for the other kids.

Jaden is like a three- or four-year-old in a 16-year-old's body now. The difference from when he was three and four, though, is that he is much quicker and much stronger than he was. When he sees a dog across the street, he still has no concept of traffic, but he can get to that dog very quickly. If we are not paying constant attention to him when we are out, he will just run across the street if he sees a dog.

In fact, when we were on Parliament Hill a couple of years ago for Canada Day and a man was walking a German shepherd dog across the lawn, we had our eyes off Jaden for a second, and he bolted to this German shepherd. Before we had time to even think about it, he had grabbed the German shepherd by the neck and was sticking his face into the German shepherd's face.

It turned out that the man who was walking the German shepherd was a security guard and the German shepherd was a trained dog. The man happened to know Jaden and made sure he got in between so that the dog would not react to him, but we can imagine if it was some other dog; Jaden would have no awareness of that.

The same things apply in relation to water, traffic and those types of things. We have to be constantly vigilant that Jaden does not get himself into trouble because he sees those things like a three- or four-year-old would see them, not like a regular 16-year-old would see them.

We also need to be aware of the things they do see but maybe do not understand. A common story is that a child at six or seven years old looks like any other child, but when the child throws himself down in a grocery store or acts up in a restaurant, people wonder why the parents are not disciplining the child or doing something about it. There was a story of a family that got kicked out of a restaurant in Edmonton because of a situation like that. As families, we need people to understand that.

There are some funny stories that go along with that, and every family has their own. In my case, I remember one particular time when Jaden was about eight years old and we were walking through a parking lot. He walked up behind a lady who was walking on her own and grabbed her hand. Jaden was a very cute eight-year-old, and she thought it was very cute. Then he proceeded to take her fingernail and pick his teeth with it, at which point she was not thinking he was quite as cute any more and went running off with a little scream. There are moments like that.

There was the time that I was at an Oilers game. I worked for the Oilers before I was elected and decided to take Jaden to an Oilers game. He was probably in that same timeframe of six or seven years old at the time. We were sitting in the seats watching the game and everything was good. All of a sudden, out of the blue, he decided to reach over the shoulder of the five-year-old girl in front of him and grab the ice cream off of the top of her cone, stick it in his mouth and eat it straight out of his hand. It took a few seconds for me to explain to the father what was going on, and, as usual, he was good with it once he understood.

These are the things that happen, and we need people to understand.

When Jaden was 13 years old, just three years ago, he went through a time when he was experiencing an absolutely debilitating anxiety, a time that was very difficult for us as parents. There were times when he would go through two hours of absolute stress and anxiety. His body would get rigid, he was scared and he could not explain what was going on because he could not talk. We would just have to hold him and hope the anxiety subsided. It was a very difficult time for the family. Those are the things that people do not see, and sometimes family members need a break from those things. Families need people to understand what they are going through.

I notice, as always happens when I talk about my son, that time is slipping away quickly, so I am going to move on to a couple of other things that I want to talk about. I want to talk about people with autism contributing and give one more example from our family's life.

As people with autism get older, they can contribute in vocational things. In Jaden's case, he can work in the library. There are many who can contribute as artists or researchers or computer programmers.

Something that has happened recently in Jaden's life that has been really meaningful to us is that he is now in a regular grade 10 classroom, and his classmates chose to include him in a musical theatre production of Oliver that they were doing. These kids practised for dozens and dozens of hours as they got ready for this performance. One would think that they would be laser-focused on having the smoothest performance they could possibly have. The choreography was fantastic and took a lot of work to coordinate. However, instead, they invited Jaden to be a part of this process.

There was a scene of Jaden dancing a little off the beat from the rest of the kids, from time to time meandering a bit to the side of the stage and wandering off. One of his friends grabbed his elbow and brought him back to the rest of the group so that he could continue to participate. They worked hours helping him to understand what the steps were and to include him in what they were doing.

I cannot say how much it meant to my family and Jaden that they included him, but also how much it meant to those kids in the end, who really benefited from learning that important life lesson at that stage in their lives, a life lesson that will move them to include people in employment in the future and to look for opportunities for people like Jaden to contribute throughout their lives.

I will conclude by recognizing all of the people who have autism themselves, as well as their family members and friends who live with this disorder each and every day of the year. I want to let them know how much I admire them for their perseverance and for what they contribute to make the lives of those around them better. God bless them.

[Copyright Act, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the copyright legislation that the hon. member talks about has been before the House for a few years now. In fact, it had more consultation probably than any bill that has ever been before the House.

As we heard during the committee process, witness after witness commended the government for finally moving ahead on something that was long overdue.

[National Research Council, June 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to table, in both official languages, the National Research Council of Canada's 2010-11 departmental performance report.

[Business of Supply, June 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talked about research and listening to Canadians. Before he voted against the budget in 2012, I wonder if he actually took the time to take a look at the budget document. If he had taken that time, he would have seen some interesting investments that were made in the interests of all Canadians, investments like $60 million for Genome Canada to launch a new applied research competition in the area of human health and to sustain the science and technology centres until 2014-15. It is on page 54 if he wants to read it. There are $6.5 million over three years for a research project at McMaster University to evaluate team-based approaches to health care delivery, $17 million over two years to further advance the development of alternatives to existing isotope production technology and $10 million over two years to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research to link Canadians to global research networks.

I could continue to read through the budget document for the hon. member, but I would suggest that he take the time to read the document himself.

[Business of Supply, June 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member suggests that maybe I missed the point of the opposition motion today. I would suggest that there really is no point to the opposition motion today.

In terms of the member's comment about taking the advice of the experts, the Minister of State for Science and Technology takes the advice of those experts every day. The minister meets with stakeholders across the country on a regular basis in round tables and meetings where he hears their views.

We only have to look as far as economic action plan 2012 to see how the government has taken that advice. We can see things like the reinvesting of $37 million annually, starting in 2012-13, to the granting councils to enhance their support for industry and academic research partnerships. I have more lists I could go through if I get another such question.

[Business of Supply, June 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission.

In 2007 our government released our science and technology strategy. It lays out a framework to guide strategic investments with the goal of fostering Canadian advantage in three areas: entrepreneurial advantage, knowledge advantage and people advantage. This strategy is guided by four core principles: promoting world-class excellence, focusing on priorities, encouraging partnerships and enhancing accountability.

In 2009 we announced Canada's economic action plan in response to the global economic crisis. As part of this plan, and consistent with the S and T strategy objectives, the government created the knowledge infrastructure program. More commonly known as KIP, the $2 billion program was designed to provide significant, short-term economic stimulus in communities across Canada while enhancing the long-term training and research capacity of Canadian universities and colleges.

Including funds leveraged from the provincial and territorial governments, educational institutions and private sector partners, this program resulted in a total investment of more than $5 billion in 190 communities across the country. The work at these facilities created and maintained jobs for engineers, construction workers and many others when they were needed most. But the impact that these investments had on research and training in Canada was truly remarkable and provided clear evidence of this government's commitment to research in Canada.

These projects contributed to the development of Canada's knowledge advantage by enhancing research facilities. KIP has improved the ability of institutions to conduct research in life sciences, information and communications technologies, energy and environment, and other disciplines, as well as in key sectors such as automotive and aerospace.

An example of our support for scientific research is our project at the University of Manitoba for its regenerative medicine renovation and development project. Thanks to funding from KIP and the province, a major renovation and expansion of the school's medical sciences building was completed. The expansion accommodated new labs, offices and study space to support new faculty, graduate students, lab technicians and post-doctoral fellows. The project enhanced the university's ability to educate future doctors and develop one of the top three regenerative medicine programs in Canada.

KIP helped develop Canada's people advantage by expanding training capacity at colleges and universities. In total, KIP projects added 2.2 million square feet to classrooms and training facilities, as well as 2.6 million square feet of laboratory space.

It may interest the hon. member for Burnaby—Douglas to note that support under this category included a $39 million KIP project at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in his riding. Critical renovations to infrastructure at BCIT included state-of-the-art teaching technologies and sustainable building systems, including a micro-electricity grid. Furthermore, the project included completing seismic upgrades and modernizing safety and ventilation systems. The project was also designed to meet the requirements of LEED, leadership in energy and environmental design gold certification.

Also in the member's riding, the government funded a major overhaul of Simon Fraser University's chemistry facility. With $24.4 million in KIP funding, SFU completed a $49.4 million overhaul of the facility that brought the labs up to modern standards. Built to the LEED gold standard, the extensive improvements included a new exterior envelope and roof, seismic bracing, new fume hoods, lab benches, new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, and upgraded mechanical, electrical and safety systems.

A total of 380 projects increased the energy efficiency of campuses, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 175,000 tonnes of CO₂, which is the equivalent of the emissions of 34,000 passenger cars. These projects also provided estimated operational savings of $23 million per year.

One particularly interesting example is the construction of a 120,000 square foot environmental demonstration and training facility at the Nova Scotia Community College. The hon. member who just spoke might be interested in that. It incorporated solar panels, planted rooftops, living walls covered with vegetation, wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and geothermal heating and cooling.

Roughly half of all KIP projects resulted in significant health and safety improvements, addressing areas such as accessibility for persons with disabilities, fire safety, security systems, air quality, water leakage and resistance to earthquakes.

Finally, the program helped develop Canada's entrepreneurial advantage through new and expanded business incubation facilities that supported effective collaboration between academia and the private sector. These facilities are crucial in helping to accelerate the commercialization of the academic research into products in the marketplace, to expose more professors and students to real world applications and to encourage more private sector innovation and growth.

One of the best examples of this type of project is the MiQro Innovation Research Centre at Université de Sherbrooke. The Government of Canada partnered with the province of Quebec on this $218 million project to build a centre of excellence for electronic research and assembly. The new MiQro Innovation Research Centre is expected to become a world leader in assembling the next generation of microchips, thanks to collaboration with key local industry partners, including IBM Canada and Teledyne DALSA, Inc.

In just 31 months, KIP went from concept to conclusion and provided key stimulus to our economy at a critical time. In addition to supporting scientific research infrastructure, the program also clearly demonstrated the government's commitment to sound management of public finances.

The Auditor General's report examined the effectiveness of the implementation of all economic action plan programs, including KIP, and noted, “the total time needed to design, review, and approve programs was reduced from the approximately six months normally required to two months”. The AG's report held up KIP as “an example of speedy implementation”.

The report recognized the effectiveness of KIP's project monitoring and reporting systems, its speedy implementation and its effective collaborations with provinces and territories, as well as colleges and universities. Thanks to those partnerships, KIP stands out as a tremendous example of governments working together to take action during a time of great economic uncertainty.

We are quite pleased that the Auditor General of Canada confirmed that the program was delivered effectively and efficiently. KIP not only made a difference in meeting immediate economic challenges, but it also set the foundation for future prosperity in the knowledge economy. The program was an excellent demonstration of our strong commitment to supporting Canada's science and technology sector. The investments made provided a strong base for research and helped create new facilities that would help attract new students and provide a better educational experience for tomorrow's highly skilled workers.