Debates of Nov. 27th, 2008

Economic and Fiscal Statement

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, at a time when Canadians are concerned about their country's economic future, at a time when the international financial markets are in crisis, the world is heading into recession, Canadian businesses are facing closures, and Canadians are worried about their jobs and savings. Canadians today deserve a government that would actually provide a real action plan to help the Canadian economy meet the challenges ahead.

However, instead of presenting us with a plan, the Conservatives have chosen symbolism over substance, rhetoric over real action and deception over decisions. They have given Canadians nothing but gimmickry when Canadians need a game plan.

The Conservatives have done nothing today to help protect the jobs and savings of Canadians. The Conservatives do not have an economic plan: there is nothing for manufacturers, nothing for the automobile industry, nothing for forestry, and nearly nothing for seniors and workers facing layoffs.

Today the Prime Minister is trying to distract Canadians from his own economic incompetence. He hopes we will not notice that he bungled the economy during the good times and that he has no economic plan for Canada during these tough times.

It is no wonder, today, that the Prime Minister wants to change the channel from economics to politics. We will not allow him to change the channel from economics to politics.

Our job as members of Parliament is to turn the channel back to the economy, back to the people. Canadians are hurting, and it is not about politics, it is not about political parties; it is about Canadians.

It is about the young Nova Scotian man whom I chatted with last week on the plane on the way to Halifax. As we chatted, the discussion soon went from small talk to big concerns. He told me that in recent months he had lost a lot of his investments and savings in the markets. He turned to me and he said that he and I had time to recover from this, but he was really worried about his parents because they feared they could no longer live on their retirement savings.

It is not about politics; it is about people.

It is about the friend I went to school with, whom I saw the other day when I stopped for gas at Sanford's corner store in Burlington, Nova Scotia. Jamie told me that after 20 years of working at the local gypsum company, he was being laid off, along with 49 other rural Nova Scotians, most of whom had spent their working lives there.

This is about Maynard Williams who owns Cornwallis Chevrolet in New Minas and his 32 employees who fear for their future.

These ordinary Canadians did not talk to me about political party financing. They talked to me about what was important to them. They talked about the economy. They talked about their jobs. They talked about their savings.

That is what I will be doing today and that is what the Liberal Party will be doing. We will be standing up for Canadians to protect their savings and their jobs, not play petty politics.

The Prime Minister is failing Canadians by not giving them a plan for the Canadian economy. He is failing Canadians by not telling them the truth, and the truth is, Canada is back in deficit. The Prime Minister is failing to tell Canadians why we are back in deficit, the fact that his bad tax policy and his big spending policy is responsible for that deficit.

If members look at page 50 of the economic statement, they will see there, in black and white, that next year Canada will face a $5.9 billion deficit.

Earlier today the Minister of Finance said,“It is misguided to engineer a surplus just to say we have one”. That is exactly what the Conservative government is doing. It is pretending it has a surplus when in fact it has a deficit.

The government is trying to hide this new Conservative deficit, first, with rosy growth numbers, as we enter a recession. In fact, it is predicting 0.3% growth while the OECD's prediction is 0.5% shrinkage in the Canadian economy.

To further bury the new Conservative deficit, the Conservatives are planning massive cuts. It should not surprise anybody that one of the massive cuts they are planning, and that they actually are proud enough of to list in this document, is their pledge to cut pay equity for women.

We should not be surprised that, as they start to cut during tough times, they choose ideological cuts, because during the good times what did they cut? They cut literacy, they cut women's equality and they cut the court challenges program.

Most disturbing, in order to hide the new Conservative deficit, the Conservatives are preparing to sell off an imaginary list of government assets. They are preparing to sell in a buyer's market.

The Conservative government is not a government that is considering asset sales out of a sense of market opportunity obviously. That is a government that has put itself in a position where pawning off assets is required because of not market opportunity, but because of fiscal desperation. It is akin to selling the house to pay for the groceries.

I can see it now. The signs will be going up on government assets across Canada, “Come on down to deficit daddy's big blowout sale. Make us an offer. Seller highly motivated”. The Minister of Finance is highly motivated to bury the deficit he fathered.

The previous Liberal government did not book revenue until an asset was actually sold. That makes sense to me. However, the Conservatives are booking revenue before they know what assets they are going to sell. Today, we asked financial officials for a list of the assets they intended to sell. The fact is there is no such list. The $10 billion figure for the assets comes out of the air because it matches exactly the amount of money they required to pay off the deficit they created.

There is no list of assets that the Conservatives intend to sell. They are not that far along the process. There is no price yet set for those assets, but they have already booked the revenue.

The Conservatives are not being honest about the deficit and they are not being honest about the cause of the deficit. Last week, Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, was clear when he said:

The weak fiscal performance to date is largely attributable to previous policy decisions as opposed to weakened economic conditions.

It is pretty clear, and Mr. Page is very clear, that these bad policy decisions were the Conservative government’s misguided tax policy and their big spending policy. In fact, under the previous Liberal government, spending increased over a period of 13 years, on average, 2.5% per year, consistent with inflation. Under the Conservatives, government spending has ballooned by 25% in 3years, an annual growth rate of 8%.

It is a big spending, bad tax policy government that has created a made in Canada, new Conservative deficit. Three years ago, the Conservative government inherited the best fiscal and economic environment in the history of any incoming government in Canada. It had a $13 billion surplus and the best economic growth in the G-8. Today, Canada is in deficit and for the first half of this year, we had the worst economic growth in the G8. That was long before the global financial turmoil.

Not only did the Conservatives’ bad tax and big spending policies waste the surplus, they eliminated the contingency reserve, Canada’s rainy day fund. The Conservatives spent the cupboard bare during the good times and gutted Canada’s fiscal capacity to help vulnerable Canadians today during the tough times. Today, during these tough times, when Canadians are looking for some level of economic leadership, some sense of hope for the future and ideas to build a better and more secure economic future, they are getting no plan from the government.

The differences between the government’s approach in Canada and the approach taken by our largest trading partner, the U.S., could not be more clear. The headlines said it all yesterday. “Canada bides time, U.S. sets course.” Canadian Prime Minister waits, president-elect Obama acts. While we watch the U.S. take bold steps, in Canada all we see are political schemes.

For a few days now, President-elect Obama has been gathering the greatest economic minds in the United States in order to fashion an economic action plan to help protect jobs and the American economy.

However, in Canada we have a Prime Minister who calls himself an economist, who has been in office for three years and who promised Canadians in the last election that there would be a new economic plan within weeks of him taking office, in fact this fall, and we still do not have a plan.

Instead of showing leadership, the Prime Minister is playing politics, and nowhere is that more evident than in the auto sector. As the American Congress and Senate are working with the U.S. auto sector to develop a plan, our government is waiting and hoping that we somehow are going to be able to join a deal at the last minute.

What the Conservatives do not seem to realize is those American congressmen and senators are exacting commitments from the auto sector to put jobs in their districts. Yesterday, when the member for Guelph asked the industry minister to tell the House “with whom in the Bush administration and in the new Obama economic team he has met to ensure that Canadian jobs are protected”, the minister dodged the question. He was afraid to admit he failed to get any meetings of significance in the U.S.

The fact is, more than ever, Canadian auto workers need a Canadian government that is a voice at the table in the U.S. on this issue. However, when the industry minister recently went to Detroit for meetings, he forgot that on that day the Detroit auto leaders were all in Washington. It is bad enough to have a Conservative industry minister who is not at the table, but he does not even know where the table is. Let us hope his bungling does not mean that at the end of the day, Canadian auto workers are lucky to get a few scraps off that table.

Other countries are acting too. Great Britain, Germany, France and Japan are all taking significant action at this time of crisis and there is no plan from the Canadian government whatsoever. I can only think of four reasons why the Conservatives are not acting, why they have no plan.

Number one, is it because their reckless spending and bad tax policy has eliminated their fiscal capacity to help Canadians now?

Is it number two, that their absolute belief in rigid neo-conservative ideology leaves them blind to the fact that market forces alone will not solve this mess? They do not believe that government can and must play a role in helping people during tough times.

The third possibility is that the Conservatives have no idea what to do. Given how badly they bungled the economy during the good times, it is increasingly likely that number three is at least part of the problem.

The fourth is they just do not care.

Whatever its motive, by doing nothing to protect Canadian jobs and Canadian savings, the Conservative government is failing Canada. It is just not good enough.

It should not really surprise us that the government has no plan or vision today during the tough times because over the last three years it has failed to produce any form of plan or vision for Canada. In the last three years, the government was more interested in buying votes than building prosperity, and it is failing once again.

It was the economists who told the Conservatives that their tax policy was wrong, that we were the only country in the world that was increasing income taxes while cutting consumption taxes. They did not take that advice then. It is the economists who are telling them that we need a real plan for infrastructure today to invest in people, to create new jobs, new green jobs, to help Canadians with their post-secondary education, to help them train and retrain in lifelong learning, to develop the skills they need to survive and thrive in the new economy. The Prime Minister has been calling himself an economist for so long that he forgets he is not a real economist and he will not listen to the real economists, not in the good times and not in the bad times.

When Canadians need strong economic leadership, all they are getting from the Conservatives are cheap political schemes. We need leadership today. We need a new deal, but the Prime Minister is telling Canadians, “No deal”.

This is not about politics. This is about people.

Members of the Liberal Party, as responsible members of Parliament, will be defending the people of Canada. We will be standing up for Canadians. We will be offering Canadians a clear vision of hope for a better future and pride in a stronger Canada, not cheap politics like the Prime Minister has done.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last week I said the following in reply to the Speech from the Throne:

These are times of crisis and our constituents are counting on us. There are times in political life, particularly in a minority Parliament, where ideology and a lack of openness are decidedly out of place.

That is what I said last week in the hope that the government would understand its responsibilities. The opposite has happened. What the Conservative government presented today was not an economic statement but an ideological statement. This ideology so blinds the government that it fails to see how urgent it is to act.

Instead of presenting a plan to help the economy recover and breathe some air into it, the Prime Minister has chosen to smother it. The Prime Minister has decided to turn his back on our companies, regions and people. The Conservative government has abdicated all its responsibilities. Worse yet, instead of attacking the economic crisis, the Conservative government has decided to attack democracy instead, as well as the rights of women and working people. The Prime Minister has preferred ideology to economics. He has placed partisanship above democracy. He has chosen to attack Quebec.

The government has created a democratic crisis out of thin air. The economy is threatened by Conservative Party ideology. Our democratic principles are under threat. The Conservative Party is a threat to the rights of women and working people, as well as to Quebec’s financial welfare. This economic statement is clearly contrary to the basic interests of Quebec. Quebeckers are watching us. How, in turn, will the members of the House be able to look Quebeckers in the eye if we fail to take decisive action to fight with all our might against the economic crisis that is descending upon us? How will the members of the House be able to look citizens in the eye if we fail to protect democracy, the rights of women and working people, and the financial situation in Quebec?

One thing is certain: all the Bloc Québécois members will be able to look Quebeckers in the eye because we will not yield on these basic principles.

All members remember that the Prime Minister chose to call an election for strictly partisan reasons. He decided to spend more than $300 million, an amount that could have been used to counter the economic crisis. Above all, the Prime Minister wasted precious time. The difference between this Conservative government and other governments throughout the world is striking. The Government of China, for example, decided to take action by putting in place a $700 billion recovery plan. Europe announced a $318 million plan. Our American neighbours have voted for a plan worth almost $850 billion. Most European countries have a deficit and yet they do not hesitate to take strong action in order to support and stimulate their economies. The American deficit has ballooned; nevertheless the government did not hesitate to take strong action to support and stimulate the economy. If governments throughout the world are acting with vigour, it is because they understand the urgency of the situation.

Despite the surpluses accumulated over 10 years, the Conservative government not only refused to present its plan, to provide relief, it consciously chose to stifle the economy to advance its outdated ideology on the reduction of government.

Naturally, we are prepared to cut our salaries and to reduce growth of expenditures by the government bureaucracy. But the purpose of these savings should not be to reduce government in order to avoid a one-time deficit, but to support the economy, to support the people.

The Prime Ministersays he has already taken action by reducing taxes, but if the actions by the Prime Minister were sufficient, how can it be that, as he himself admits, Canada will be moving into a recession, if it is not already in one?

Anyone can see that the Conservative government has no imagination, no new ideas, no serious plan for dealing with the crisis. This is the absolute opposite of the Bloc Québécois, a party that has put forward an economic recovery plan with constructive, realistic and necessary suggestions. By rejecting those suggestions, the Prime Minister has shown that he had absolutely no intention of showing any openness, of making the necessary compromises. The Prime Minister has put ideology before the economy.

We are all familiar with the Conservative party of the Prime Minister, which in reality is nothing more than the Reform Party in disguise. This statement proves it. The government has decided to take advantage of the crisis to attack the rights of women and workers. The government is proposing to suspend public servants' right to strike. It has decided to attack women's rights by submitting their right to pay equity to negotiation. Since when are rights negotiable? It is scandalous. We will never accept such an attack by the government on women's and workers' rights. We will never allow it.

Instead of being concerned about the economy, the Prime Minister has once again decided to attack Quebec. The Prime Minister declared his love of Quebec throughout the last campaign. Now we can see clearly that those declarations were not sincere. Once again he has repeated his desire to impose a federal securities commission, thereby ignoring the unanimous position of the National Assembly.

He goes still further by opening the door to a centralized pension plan in Ottawa. What is more, by capping equalization payments, the Conservative government is seriously threatening the financial situation in Quebec. According to a Toronto-Dominion Bank study, this decision could cost the Government of Quebec $450 million annually. This is called offloading one's problems on someone else. These decisions follow on the abandonment of the forestry and manufacturing industries, the abandonment of the Quebec regions, the cuts to culture and the cutbacks to economic development bodies. The Bloc Québécois will never stand for it.

Not content with putting ideology before the economy, not content with attacking workers, women, and Quebec, the Prime Minister is adding insult to injury by putting his own extreme partisanship before democracy. When speaking on December 8, 2005 about reforming the financing of political parties, the Prime Minister said:

These measures are directly inspired by reforms introduced by René Lévesque 30 years ago, reforms of which all Quebeckers can be very proud. Quebec has led the way in electoral reform.

By announcing his intention to eliminate public funding of political parties, the Prime Minister is betraying the memory of René Lévesque. Public funding was at the heart of René Lévesque's reform. This desire to slash funding is a direct attack on democracy. Using the economic crisis as an excuse and under the pretense of saving $30 million, the Conservative government has shown the world the extent of its hypocrisy.

Hardly a few weeks ago, the Prime Minister called an election for strictly partisan reasons. He spent $300 million, ten times more than what he is trying to save by eliminating political party funding. What will the Prime Minister announce next in the upcoming budget? Does he plan to shut down Parliament to save $500 million?

The Prime Minister has manufactured a democratic crisis, simply to give himself a partisan advantage, because this government's goal is to silence all forms of opposition: silence artists, silence women, silence unions and silence the opposition.

It is sad and it is unbecoming of a prime minister.

The few positive measures in this update are old, recycled measures and they fall short. The decision to purchase mortgage pools makes sense, but if the government is going to help the banks, why not impose conditions? Why not take this opportunity to set up an oversight team to ensure that small- and medium-sized businesses have access to credit?

As for RRIFs, it is not enough to reduce the mandatory withdrawal by only 25% and for only one year. The government should have raised the age limit for converting RRSPs to RRIFs to 73.

The Conservative government has put their ideology before the economy and before the people. It has attacked women's and workers' rights and it has attacked Quebec.

This update clearly goes against Quebec's values and interests, and we will categorically oppose it.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I seek the unanimous consent of the House to share my time with the hon. member for Outremont.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Is there unanimous consent for this division of time?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Toronto—Danforth has the floor.

[Jack Layton, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear colleagues.

We are standing at a historic moment in this chamber, Mr. Speaker. The Canadian people were waiting for bold and dramatic action around an economic crisis that is affecting their families.

Everybody we talk to back in our ridings is concerned. People had hopes and aspirations regarding what might happen here this evening. They believed that the parties should work together around an economic crisis. That has not happened. That is not what we have seen. That is not what Canadians were hoping for.

Instead, what we have seen is a government that has failed to act. It has failed to act boldly as other governments around the world are doing to tackle a crisis the likes of which we have not seen in generations. We have seen a government that also failed the fundamental test of leadership, which is to work with other parties, particularly in a minority House, in order to chart the pathway forward.

People were hoping that something would change. Knowing that Canada has a minority government, they were hoping perhaps that the opposition parties and the government would work together to find ways of helping families that are suffering in this crisis. But this evening, the government rejected the idea of working together for families. Instead, it chose to pursue the partisan objectives of the Conservative Party. That is unfair. We cannot accept that. We reject that.

We needed a stimulus to our economy and we needed it desperately. In fact, the people who are being laid off day in and day out were counting on the government to step forward with the kind of economic strategy that would have at least put some light at the end of the tunnel. They were counting on a government that might understand what they are facing when they go home with a pink slip and might say that it will take a look at the supports that are there, like employment insurance, and fix them so families can feed their kids. Instead, we get partisan games.

What do the Conservatives expect to say to workers who are working in factories right now, knowing full well that the management of those factories need backing for their line of credit so they can pay their bills and keep on producing? They were counting on the government to step forward, like other governments around the world have done, and say that it will stand behind our businesses, stand behind our workers, stand behind our communities and support Canadians instead of just looking after itself. The Conservatives have turned it right around and that is not acceptable.

What we see is a smokescreen. We have seen it before from some of the same individuals in Ontario when these same kinds of strategies and tactics were used. We have seen it before but I had hoped it would be different.

I met with the Prime Minister and all the leaders here to see if we could find ways to work together. I have done it in minority Parliament after minority Parliament. Canadians want us to work together. Did we hear the slightest indication from the Prime Minister and his representatives on the front bench that they were prepared to work together? Not in the slightest. Instead, it was abuse, insults and putting down people who serve in elected office. I am sick and tired of it and I think Canadians are too.

People were hoping to see some real action to protect their pensions and to protect their savings. They look at what is happening in the United States and they see President-elect Obama laying out a plan that provides at least some sense of hope and optimism. What we hear in Canada is denial. We hear the government saying that there really is no problem. It says that it has done everything so well that there is no problem. How out of touch can the government be?

People are crying out for actions or initiatives like the ones they are seeing in other countries. But this government is not listening and is just saying things that do not make sense.

I want to salute the speakers before me in this debate from the opposition side who have had the courage to stand up against this kind of ideological politics.

Canadians have ideas about how we can move forward. We have been consulting with them. We have brought those ideas forward here. We have said that there must be action to protect consumers who are being gouged by the very companies that are receiving help from the government. There is no sense of responsibility, aid or assistance.

We wanted to see investment in innovation so we could become more productive. We wanted to see investment in infrastructure. We have thousands of projects across our country that are ready to be built, with workers ready to build them.

We need to invest at this critical time in order to create jobs and help Canada's communities and families. Those are our priorities, and I hope we can come up with an effective plan for people.

I am here to say this evening that we are not about to play the partisan games and watch the attack on democracy unfold while thousands of Canadians are being thrown into the streets because of the recession and the loss of jobs. We are not prepared to support an economic statement that leaves Canadians behind. We will be voting against it, and proudly so, on behalf of the Canadians we represent.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today we will receive a fiscal update and some proposals to deal with a crisis. I want to take a look at something very specific in terms of finances. The Conservatives boast of their excellence in management. Since their election at the start of 2006, program spending has increased by 24%, or $40 billion. That is the kind of management we have been subjected to.

Today, part of their almost imperceptible ideological manoeuvring is to blame those who have been elected, to make a politician a figure to be hated, just as Karl Rove taught George W. Bush to do in the United States—attack and divide. We already know that only 59% of the population votes and even that is too much for the Conservatives because they want to muzzle the opposition and cut off their funding. And they will do all of this without taking any action during the worst economic crisis Canada has seen in generations. It is shameful.

For the Conservatives to be able to propose any concrete change or bring any structural ideas, something that would build the economy, something that would help create and maintain jobs, they would need to admit that there was a problem or that they had ever done anything wrong. Of course that would require a modicum of modesty. Now that they are back in here with a minority situation, they will not even recognize that they have done anything wrong or that the public does not trust them enough to give them a majority.

Let us look at the facts. Right now in Canada 350,000 families, which corresponds to the 350,000 manufacturing jobs that have been lost because of the Conservatives, do not believe the state or the government has a role in the economy. They, therefore, have held back. They give across-the-board tax cuts but, of course, if a company did not make a profit last year it did not pay any taxes and it did not get anything back on a tax cut. Who got the money? Companies in the oil sector and the banks, the ones that did not need it. The companies in the forestry sector and the manufacturing sector in B.C., Ontario and Quebec, in particular, those are the families that have lost their jobs and those are the communities that are without work. That is the desperate situation that we are already in and the Conservatives refuse to recognize it and will not act on it.

What a colossal fraud, Mr. Speaker. Just look at them go. Last week, Kevin Page said that we were headed for a $6 billion deficit because of their poor choices. And what do they have to say in today's statement? One has to read it to believe it; it really is something else. Let me read one sentence, and I am not making this up: “The government is planning on balanced budgets for the current and next five years, although given the downside risks, balanced budgets cannot be guaranteed.” They have managed to say one thing and then say the complete opposite in the same sentence. Is that what they call good management of public assets? This is pathetic. That is what we have had to put up with for the last two and a half years.

That is why the NDP, on behalf of Canadians, is looking at the numbers and the proposals, such as the proposed sale of public assets. They want to sell off major assets that took years to acquire just to have a balanced budget. Take all of the institutions we have built and created in Canada over generations: social rights, the right to collective bargaining, which has been recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada. For no good reason, they want to abolish these rights in one fell swoop by eliminating the right to strike. They want to take away women's right to equal pay for equal work.

I invite my colleagues to take a look —and it is well worth your while—at the difference between the speech as read by the rather dry and accusatory minister, that unadulterated homo reformensis , and the slightly broader document, expressed a little more lyrically, which proposes what another system might be like. They are doing this for the benefit of their reformist base. They never learned their lesson from the last election.

Our constitutional system has a remedy for this. Part of that remedy will come from the NDP. I trust that everyone on this side will stand up against this right of centre ideology that no longer has a place in a country that is open and established, a modern country whose socio-economic institutions respect everyone. Our families and future generations are entitled to better than this. We will do our part to restore equality and freedoms here in Canada.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order. That brings to a conclusion the discussion pursuant to the special order relating to the economic statement.

The House resumed consideration of the motion for an address to Her Excellency the Governor General in reply to her speech at the opening of the session, as amended.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Resuming debate. Is the House ready for the question?

[Some hon. members]

Question.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The question is on the motion, as amended. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion, as amended?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

On division.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

I declare the motion, as amended, carried.

(Motion, as amended, agreed to)

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I move that we see the clock as 6:30 p.m.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am rising to speak on the issue of international trade.

I think it is fair to say with the events that have transpired today and the hard ideological thrust of the government that we saw just a few short minutes ago that events may have gone much further than was foreseen by the government when the finance minister rose to impose that ideological closure on the government.

I am rising to speak on another aspect of the government's ideological plan which came to light just a few days ago when the government pushed through the signing of the Canada-Colombia trade deal with the Colombian government.

As we know, this agreement has been widely derided because of the lamentable human rights situation in Colombia. Essentially we have a situation where the number of trade unionists killed, ordinary working people who simply want the right to be able to negotiate collectively with their fellow workers, has reached epidemic proportions. Thousands of those who work in the labour movement, those simple workers who are getting together with their co-workers, having chosen to have an organized workplace, have been massacred by paramilitaries who have close ties with the Colombian government, with virtually no protection from the Colombian government at all.

What did the Canadian government choose to do? It chose to sign an agreement. This is the protection that is offered to Colombian workers who are being massacred. I should mention that the number of ordinary workers killed, massacred by these paramilitaries with the tacit approval of the government, has increased this year. We are not just talking about an epidemic; we are talking about an epidemic that is getting worse.

Essentially the government's plan is to put in place a fine. There is a token fine if the murder of human rights activists or organized workers continues. In the Canadian government's wisdom, this ideologically bent government has put in place a token fine.

People can continue to be massacred and killed indiscriminately, and the government will then ask the Colombian government, politely, to pay a small fine to itself. In other words, there is a solidarity fund, and the Colombian government has to cough up a small token amount. I do not know if there is a volume discount, so that it pays $100,000 if five or six labour unionists or human rights activists are killed, but it pays that fine and then the Colombian government decides how to use it. It is laughable. It is irresponsible.

My question to the parliamentary secretary is simple. Is this the Conservative tough on crime agenda, that a government that has egregious and consistent human rights violations, and egregious and consistent violations of the fundamental right to organize in the workplace, can simply get away with a little fine to itself? Is that what the Conservatives propose for Canadian criminals?

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade]

I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Speaker. I also welcome my colleague from Burnaby—New Westminster back to the House of Commons.

The hon. member talks about Colombia's past and in doing that he studiously ignores the present, the future, and typical of that member, he studiously ignores the facts.

The Conservative government views the pursuit of liberalized trade, and the promotion and protection of human and labour rights as mutually enforcing. In fact, this balanced, responsible approach is guiding the Conservative government's re-engagement with the Americas.

When negotiating free trade agreements, our government's approach ensures that these agreements include robust provisions on environmental and labour cooperation. They commit partners to working together to ensure high levels of protection for workers and the environment. This proves that trade and investment liberalization can go hand-in-hand with labour rights and environmental protection.

Last week the Minister of International Trade signed a comprehensive free trade agreement with Colombia. This agreement and the parallel agreements on labour cooperation and environment signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs will bring real economic benefits to Canada and Colombia. At the same time, these agreements bind both Canada and Colombia to meaningful, enforceable standards on human rights and the environment.

On labour, both countries have committed to ensure that their laws respect the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of 1998, which covers the right to freedom of association and to collective bargaining, the abolition of child labour, the elimination of compulsory labour, and the elimination of discrimination.

I am sure the hon. member would like to ignore that part of the agreement, but it is there in black and white.

The agreements also commit to providing protections for occupational safety and health, acceptable minimum employment standards such as minimum wages and overtime pay, and to providing migrant workers with the same legal protections as nationals in regard to working conditions.

The labour cooperation agreement includes binding obligations and provisions that enable members of the public to submit complaints, known as public communications, to the parties concerning perceived failures to meet the obligations under the agreement. We believe as well that trade liberalization and environmental protection can, and must be, mutually supportive.

On the environment, both countries commit to high levels of environmental protection, enforcing their domestic laws and policies, and not derogate from these laws in order to increase trade or investment. The agreement further encourages the use of voluntary practices of corporate social responsibility and honours international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

A key priority of our government's engagement in Colombia is the promotion and protection of the environment and human rights.

Colombia, as a nation, has come a long way.

This member along with myself and other members of the committee were in Colombia only a few short years ago and it was not safe to travel in Colombia at that time. I have friends from Colombia who left that country because of lawlessness and because they were worried about their own personal safety.

Colombia has come light years. It is a changed country. We can encourage that. We can welcome Colombia into the league of nations or we can turn our back on it. We have done the right thing in signing a progressive trade agreement with Colombia.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the response of the parliamentary secretary is kind of laughable.

He was in Colombia with myself and other members of the standing committee. That standing committee voted very clearly not to proceed with an agreement with Colombia until there was a full, impartial and independent human rights assessment.

Parliamentarians disagree with the parliamentary secretary. We travelled throughout Bogota with armed guards, at one point what was almost a regiment of the Colombian military. So much for his pretension that things have improved in Colombia.

The number of trade unionists and organized workers killed actually increased in 2008, and they simply wanted a better wage for themselves and their families.

Can the parliamentary secretary confirm that the cap on the only clause of the agreement that has any weight at all is capped at $15 million? In other words, the Colombian government can kill as many people as it wants and have a volume discount for that $15 million fine that it will pay to itself?

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member continues to ignore the facts and mislead Canadians on this important file. The reality is that the Government of Colombia has taken positive steps to promote security and peace within a framework of human rights protection and the rule of law. Yes, we were in Bogota, and yes, I walked the streets of Bogota by myself, and yes, I felt safe.

Our Conservative government firmly believes that the economic opportunities brought about through free trade can strengthen democracy in Colombia. We also believe that increased business and a spirit of responsibility can go hand in hand.

Let me be perfectly clear: Canada’s efforts in Colombia aim to not only promote prosperity, but also to strengthen peace-building efforts and respect for human rights.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted.

Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 5:41 p.m.)