Debates of June 5th, 2008

World Environment Day

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today is World Environment Day, but for the third year in a row, no one in Canada is celebrating.

For the first time in Canadian history, we have a government that is actually opposed to aggressive action to protect the environment. The whole world knows that the greatest challenge we face is global warming. Our international allies are making great efforts to ensure their greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and the terms of the Kyoto protocol are met.

However, for the last two and half years, the government has done nothing but destroy Canada's efforts to fight global warming. The government cancelled billions of dollars from programs to fight GHGs. The Minister of the Environment has refused to provide strict caps on emissions by the large polluters. When the premiers of Ontario and Quebec created a cap and trade system, the government did nothing but attack the effort.

The time is long past for action. The government should listen to Canadians, stop denying the science of climate change and global warming and work with the members of the House for a solid solution.

Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

[Daryl Kramp, Conservative, Prince Edward—Hastings, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it has now been two days since the Liberal leader has failed once again to acknowledge his campaign expenses being paid back. We are wondering just how long this is going to go on.

Where is his fundraising coming from? The wealthy elites, the people whom no one knows. At some particular point, the opposition leader has an obligation to be honest, forthright and open and tell the Canadian people what is going on, not just sit behind obscure rules that mean something only to the Liberal Party and not to the honest, decent, law-abiding citizens of our country.

Member for Papineau

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure you will agree, it is not every day that one of our colleagues in this House is honoured with an award for their entire career.

On May 31, 2008, in Toronto, the African Canadian Achievement Awards of Excellence commended and celebrated the many achievements of our colleague, the hon. member for Papineau, and her invaluable contribution to her community.

In her roles as teacher, union representative, president of the Fédération des femmes du Québec, and as an advocate for social rights and for Quebec sovereignty, the hon. member, who is originally from Haiti and loves the French language, has demonstrated, through her bold stands and perseverance, that one can contribute to the development of the Quebec nation without forsaking one's origins.

On behalf of all my colleagues, I would like to congratulate and sincerely thank the hon. member for Papineau for being a source of inspiration for all Quebeckers.

Cadman Affair

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party's position on the Cadman affair has been contradicted not only by Chuck Cadman himself and the RCMP, but by specialized independent legal analysts, who confirmed yesterday that Tom Zytaruk's audio tape had been doctored.

In light of everything that has happened and how events have unfolded, the Liberal Party owes Canadians an honest explanation of its involvement in this affair. The Liberal leader needs to assure Canadians that the Liberal Party and his office acted properly. There are a number of questions they should answer.

The Liberal Party is using this tape to discredit the Prime Minister, even though he refutes the allegations and maintains that the recording was altered. When did the Liberal Party get the doctored tape? From whom did the party get the tape? Who in the Liberal Party got the tape?

From the start, the Liberal Party accepted the transcript and the Zytaruk tape as gospel. What is the party's involvement with Tom Zytaruk?

National Hunger Awareness Day

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize National Hunger Awareness Day and applaud the efforts of those all across the country who work tirelessly to reduce hunger among children, youth and families.

In a country that is as prosperous as ours, this year's HungerCount report, produced by the Canadian Association of Food Banks, paints a shocking picture of hunger in Canada. Allow me to read some of the most striking statistics.

Over 720,000 people are assisted by a food bank every month in Canada and 39% of those are children. Of the people who use food banks, 13.5% have jobs, yet still cannot afford to feed their families.

On behalf of all my colleagues in the House, I commend the efforts of all of Canada's food banks and their supporters and volunteers. With all Canadians working together, we can significantly reduce the number of Canadians who go to bed hungry on a daily basis.

Liberal Party of Canada

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals need to come clean on their involvement with the doctored, edited and incomplete audio tape, which they continue to use in their attack against the Prime Minister regarding Chuck Cadman. Now that we have heard from two world renowned forensic audio specialists that the tape was doctored, the Liberals need to give Canadians a complete and honest explanation of their involvement.

There are many questions the Liberals must answer, including the following. The member for LaSalle—Émard received an advance of Tom Zytaruk's book. When did he receive the advance copy and with whom in the Liberal Party did he share it?

The book was scheduled to be released on March 17, but was leaked on February 27. Did any Liberals, including agents of the party or family members of senior staff, work with Harbour Publishing to promote the book's contents in advance of its official release date? Was the Liberal Party aware of, or involved with, the doctoring of the Zytaruk tape? Why did the Liberal Party not make sure the tape was authentic?

Canadians want answers from those unscrupulous Liberals.

National Hunger Awareness Day

[Tony Martin, NDP, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today is the third annual National Hunger Awareness Day. Each month more than 720,000 Canadians visit one of almost 700 community food banks for assistance. About two of every five users are children. For every person coming, the Canadian Association of Food Banks estimates there are another four or five struggling to get the food they need. This is wrong in a land of plenty.

We salute the agencies and volunteers in those food banks, but we know hunger exists because of a deep and persistent poverty. We lack a national plan to end poverty. The government thinks a job is the only answer, yet Canada has three-quarters of a million working poor who need help because they work at jobs that pay too little with few benefits and are part time or temporary. Poor paying jobs and hunger are an injustice, an indictment of wrong priorities by a government.

We in this party say food, clothing, shelter and a decent job are necessities of life. We call on the government to adopt a national poverty plan. We can eliminate hunger.

World Environment Day

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

Mr. Speaker, today we are celebrating World Environment Day . This year's theme is “Kick the habit! Towards a low carbon economy”.

The Liberal Party, along with the other opposition parties, worked on Bill C-30, Canada's Clean Air Act, to ensure that the Conservative government would take real action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the Conservatives have refused to bring the bill back to parliament for debate.

The government does not believe in imposing hard targets for large final emitters. It does not believe in higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks. It does not believe in allowing Canadian companies to trade emission credits internationally.

The environment will be celebrated throughout the world today. It is time for this government to take concrete action. The first step would be to reintroduce the Clean Air Act.This would be supported by the three opposition parties, who have worked hard to ensure that the government implements real measures.

First Nations

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am calling on the Prime Minister to expand the scope of the ceremonies surrounding the official apology to Canada's aboriginals who suffered abuse in federal residential schools.

According to information sent to the opposition by the government, the apology in the House will take the form of a simple ministerial statement. The scant importance the government is attaching to this event is completely at odds with the spirit of reconciliation that should prevail under such circumstances.

Last week, the Bloc Québécois gave the government some proposals that are geared toward reconciliation. It is crucial that we learn from the errors of the past and take action now to improve what the future holds for the generations of today and tomorrow. This lack of collaboration must not been seen as a lack of sincerity and respect, or as a paternalistic act that would force the first nations to refuse to accept the apology.

Ethics

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party has drawn the attention of Canadians back to the Cadman affair to avoid its current problems with the member for Beauce.

Yesterday the Conservatives produced a sworn affidavit from Dona Cadman, in which she stated, again, that Conservative officials offered her husband a bribe in exchange for his vote. What is more, the audio experts provided by the Conservatives confirmed that the section of the tape where the Prime Minister talked about financial considerations was not altered and that those were accurately his words.

Yesterday, the parliamentary secretary falsely accused the Liberals of doctoring the tape, but when asked what parts were doctored, he could not answer.

If the Conservatives really believe the tape is false, they should be suing Tom Zytaruk and have him charged for conspiracy to incriminate the Prime Minister. Of course, they would have to sue Dona Cadman and her daughter as well.

This is a blatant yet closely diversionary tactic by the Conservative Party to change the channel on its silence on the security breach of the ex-foreign affairs minister.

The Environment

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Liberal star candidate, Justin Trudeau, has been doing some late night blogging. It turns out he is advocating for a job-killing, national carbon tax on Canadian families and small business. However, he conveniently fails to mention the real implications of a carbon tax. He wrongly says that it will be revenue neutral. Sure, the Liberals told us they would kill the GST, too.

The fact is if we are going to reduce greenhouse gases, we have to take action against big polluters, not middle class families, not seniors and not small businesses. Why does the Liberal Party insist upon waging a tax war against the average Canadian?

This government believes big polluters should be forced to cut their greenhouse gases. That is exactly what we are doing.

Perhaps Liberal Party candidates should spend more time with average Canadians, rather than punishing them with higher taxes.

The Economy

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian economy is paying the price for Conservative mismanagement. It was the finance minister who told investors around the world that “the last place” to invest was Ontario.

Will the Prime Minister admit that the first good thing he can do for Ontario's economy is to fire his finance minister?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Liberal Party should look at the words spoken yesterday by the Liberal member for Scarborough—Rouge River. He said:

I took a look at the economic data for the area I represent in the greater Toronto area and Ontario and the statistics are pretty good. For the last month that we looked at, employment was up; the participation rate in employment was up; the unemployment rate was down; the number of social assistance cases in the greater Toronto area was down; inflation is down; the prime rate is 5.75%; commodity demand, all up.

There are a lot of good things to say about the economy. Maybe that is why the Liberal Party supported the government's economic plan.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, before the finance minister has destroyed all the good work done by the MP for Wascana, he should fire his finance minister before Scarborough is affected. That is the point.

For that matter, he should do the same thing with his Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, because he is doing as much damage in Quebec as in Ontario. He need only listen to what was said yesterday by the Quebec counterpart of the Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, who said that this is reminiscent of the Duplessis days, that he is out of touch with Quebec's economic reality. He must therefore change—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the Leader of the Opposition should quote his own member from Scarborough—Rouge River who said:

I took a look at the economic data for the area I represent in the greater Toronto area and Ontario and the statistics are pretty good. For the last month that we looked at, employment was up; the participation rate in employment was up; the unemployment rate was down; the number of social assistance cases ...was down; inflation is down; the prime rate is ...up. For a buyer that is ...good.

That is why the Liberal Party—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is praising the Liberal record.

We have a Minister of Finance who says that companies should not invest in Ontario. We have a Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec who recommends against working with regional development partners in Quebec. We have a Prime Minister who makes us wonder—and I am asking him now—whether he cares what his ministers say or whether he shares their view.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition began by criticizing the Canadian economy and when I quoted his own party member, he said the economy was doing well.

This is the problem with the Leader of the Opposition. A couple of questions ago, the economy was terrible. Then when I talked about his own member, he said it is great and it is due to the Liberal Party. The reality is this--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order. The right hon. Prime Minister has the floor. We have to be able to hear the response.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Calgary Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the simple reality is this. The reason the Liberal Party has supported the government's economic plan and allowed it to pass this spring is that more Liberals support this plan than support the carbon taxes of their own leader.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Finance deceived Canadians about the real state of the Canadian economy. He was economical with the truth.

He cited a report from the OECD to support his claim that everything is rosy. What he failed to quote was the prediction in that report that the Conservative government will have deficits in 2008 and 2009.

Why can the Minister of Finance not tell the truth to Canadians about these deficits? They deserve the truth.

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I would have thought that someone who taught at Harvard would have learned to read reports before he speaks of them.

If he actually read the report, he would see that it refers to all governments in Canada with respect to the risk of deficit, and it refers to a different accounting system, that of cash accounting as opposed to full accrual accounting.

This government will not run a deficit. I cannot speak for the provincial governments.