Debates of Oct. 22nd, 2009

Justice

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, our government has been committed to restoring justice within our justice system. A key component of that is abolishing the deeply flawed two-for-one practice that allows violent criminals to walk free after sentencing, sometimes following as little as one day in jail.

I am proud to say that I have supported the abolishment of this practice since I earned the right to represent the people of St. Catharines, and I introduced a private member's bill to end this practice.

The Liberal Party supported the end of two for one when it left this place on June 8, but it seems the Liberal senators still favour the practice of extra bonus credit for time served. However, despite Liberal senators' opposition to this legislation, today the bill received royal assent.

The Liberal Party supports tough on crime legislation when the cameras are on and then ignores the plight of victims when the cameras are off.

It is time the Liberal Party of Canada stopped playing politics with our justice system.

Small Business Week

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this week we mark the 30th anniversary of Small Business Week, organized by the Business Development Bank of Canada.

This event started in 1979 in British Columbia and went national two years later. This year's theme is “Your dream, your business, your passion”. This anniversary edition of this annual celebration is held until October 24, and events are taking place from coast to coast to coast.

For the 22nd year, the Young Entrepreneur Awards were handed out to entrepreneurs under the age of 35 in each of the provinces and in one territory. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them. You have a brilliant future ahead of you. This award proves that your dreams can come true. In business, it is not your age but your ideas that will set you apart from your competitors.

Small businesses are the pulse of our economy, which is why it is so important for our country to keep the jobs related to them. When one is the owner of a small business, one understands all the sacrifices that need to be made to achieve success.

Justice

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians from coast to coast to coast support our government's legislation to guarantee mandatory minimum sentences of imprisonment for serious offences related to drugs, organized crime, violence or attacks against young people.

We all know that the production and trafficking of drugs is a major source of illicit revenue for organized crime, but enough is enough and Canadians are calling for action.

They want the government to defend victims of crime and crack down on gangs and organized crime.

Bill C-15 on drugs received support in this House, so what are the Liberal senators waiting for, an order from Toronto? The Liberal leader has to stop playing partisan politics on the backs of victims of crime. When is he going to tell his Liberal colleagues in the Senate to pass this important legislation? Let us pass this bill quickly. Canadians are calling for it and we must take action.

Harmonized Sales Tax

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Grand Chief Stan Beardy of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation and first nations across Ontario are deeply concerned about the impact of the unfair HST on their communities.

Ontario first nations are currently exempt from paying tax at the point of sale, but the harmonization of Ontario's taxes will remove this exemption, raising everyday taxes for Ontario's first nations. First nations communities already experience higher than average levels of poverty. Removing the exemption will create even greater financial burdens for Ontario's first nations.

The Ontario minister of finance agrees that the point-of-sale exemption for first nations is a right. At the federal level, the Minister of Finance and his Conservative government continue to claim that the harmonized sales tax is a strictly provincial initiative.

If the HST truly is a provincial initiative as he claims, the federal Minister of Finance should defer to the Ontario minister and ensure that the point-of-sale exemption for first nations people is maintained. The minister's refusal to do so to date speaks for itself.

Liberal Party Platform

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Liberal leader released a Liberal platform that is filled with huge, irresponsible and uncosted spending proposals.

For example, he repeated his commitment to the Liberal EI 45-day work year. This plan is offensive to hard-working Canadians and will cost $4 billion per year. The Liberals continue to want to impose a national day care system that the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada has costed at $6 billion per year. These two proposals alone would cost $10 billion per year and there are dozens more.

Yesterday, Canadians were reminded that the Liberal leader does not want to help hard-working Canadians and that he does not trust parents to raise their own children. We know how he is going to pay for these Liberal pet projects: by huge tax increases on hard-working Canadians.

This is more proof that he is not in it for Canadians. He is in it for himself.

Supreme Court of Canada

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

Mr. Speaker, in a ruling handed down this morning, the Supreme Court of Canada declared Bill 104 unconstitutional. This law is designed to close a loophole in Quebec's charter of the French language that allows parents to enrol their children in public English language schools even though they are not entitled to.

This shocking decision is contrary to the primacy of the French language in Quebec and ignores the language laws passed by the National Assembly of Quebec, the supreme body of the Quebec nation.

Historically, the Supreme Court of Canada has always ruled against the legitimate choices of the Quebec people, who are seeking with Bill 101 to ensure the survival of French in Quebec.

In 1979, 1984, 1988, 1992 and again today, the Supreme Court denied the Quebec nation the right to adopt the means of protecting the French language appropriately.

It is even clearer today that the Supreme Court of Canada is the court of another nation, the Canadian nation. The real way to ensure that French survives in Quebec is for Quebec to become a sovereign nation.

Canadian Forces

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House to pay tribute to a young man from Cape St. George, a community in the riding of Random—Burin—St. George's. Frank Rubia has been promoted to master warrant officer in the Canadian Forces communications branch and was also appointed chief communications operator.

Frank, who just recently returned to Canada from a tour in Afghanistan, is now responsible for all Canadian military communications systems deployed at both the national and international levels.

The men and women of the Canadian Forces put their lives on the line every day. Their efforts to bring peace and security to troubled regions are critical to creating a better future.

Canadians are proud of the important work that our troops do both here and overseas. The people of Cape St. George and particularly Frank's parents, Roderick and Audrey Rubia, are very proud of his accomplishments.

I ask the House to join me in welcoming home Master Warrant Officer Frank Rubia and congratulating him on his appointments.

Liberal Party Platform

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Liberal leader unveiled the first glimpse of the Liberal Party's platform. It calls for massive new spending which can only be paid for through tax hikes.

Now officially part of the Liberal platform is the Liberal leader's irresponsible and expensive 45-day work year that would cost Canadian taxpayers $4 billion. He has also promised a national child care program that is said to cost $6 billion annually.

While our Conservative government is focusing on the economy and committing to returning to a balanced budget once our economic recovery is assured, the Liberal leader is committing to a massive new permanent spending deficit.

Canadians know how he will pay for his spending promises. He has told us before. He will have to raise taxes.

Promising unaffordable spending and crippling tax hikes shows the Liberal leader is not in it for Canadians. He is in it for himself.

Infrastructure

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are worried about their jobs and their families, yet the Conservatives are engaging in an orgy of pork-barrelling.

Three independent investigations confirm the research done by the member for Parkdale—High Park: a shocking proportion of the recovery plan is meant for Conservative partisanship.

Will the Conservatives admit that this poses a threat to Canadians who did not vote for them?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the recreational infrastructure Canada program is very important for the Canadian economy and for communities. I do not understand why the Liberal Party of Canada is opposed to these projects, even in its own ridings.

The hon. member's allegations are completely false. In fact, the Liberal deputy premier of Ontario said as much.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, what the Conservatives have done here is cheating pure and simple, and it gets worse. They are not just butchering the taxpayers' dollar to pump pork into Conservative ridings. Nearly half the Conservative caucus is now under investigation for phony cheque presentations and they are running the most twisted, expensive government advertising in Canadian history headed toward $100 million or more. Independent experts say it is blatantly partisan, a form of political corruption. When is it going to stop?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has an important economic action plan to deal with the effects of the recession. It has been widely noted by experts around the world the superior performance of the Canadian economy due in part to the effectiveness of these programs. Obviously when we are spending tens of billions of dollars of public money we want to inform members of the public as to how their money is being spent, to rebuild confidence in the economy, and that is exactly what is happening. The Liberal Party should welcome the continuing good news we are hearing about the Canadian economy rather than complain about it.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives taint themselves with their abusive tactics: corrupt advertising, phony cheques, partisan logos, billboards on doorknobs, untendered contracts, and worst of all, the twisted distribution of infrastructure money to discriminate on a partisan basis against millions of honest, hard-working Canadians.

Why, for example, is a disabled child in Dartmouth worth less to the government than such a child in Whitby? Why?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I guess when one is stuck in a party that is talking only to itself, one can whip oneself into that kind of lather.

I see this allegation, for instance, that RInC moneys have been distributed in a way that discriminates against Liberal ridings. This of course is a list of projects agreed to with the provincial Liberal government of Ontario and the Deputy Premier Mr. Smitherman himself said there is no such discrimination.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it would seem the Conservatives have something to hide about the Champlain Bridge contract.

Usually, information on a website is not changed from one day to the next unless there is a good reason to do so.

My question is very simple. Did the Prime Minister's spokesperson, Dimitri Soudas, have anything to do with the changes to Senator Housakos' website?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the contracts for repairs to the Champlain Bridge are awarded by an independent crown corporation, Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated.

The process was fair, open and transparent, and there was no involvement by any minister's office. If my colleague wants to make accusations outside the House, he is free to do so.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is quite clear that we are talking about influence peddling and certainly about partisan use of taxpayers' money, because, as we now know, Senator Housakos was a member of the board of the engineering firm BPR. Today, he is one of the Prime Minister's most important organizers in Quebec.

My second question is just as simple. How many sole-source contracts has BPR received from the federal government since the Conservatives came to power?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, we have been listening to baseless accusations here since the beginning of the week. I repeat: if they have any serious accusations, they should make them outside the House. An independent crown corporation awards the contracts in a fair, open, transparent process.

Justice

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

Mr. Speaker, the government is using all kinds of ridiculous excuses to justify not eliminating the practice of releasing offenders after they have served one-sixth of their sentence. Yesterday, the Minister of Justice and the political lieutenant for Quebec stated that getting rid of this practice was a very complicated undertaking and that they could therefore not include it in their white-collar crime bill. However, all it would take is revoking sections 110.1 and 126.1 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

Can the Prime Minister tell us what is so complicated about eliminating the practice of releasing offenders after one-sixth of their sentence?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Justice announced that our government will impose mandatory prison sentences for fraud in excess of $1 million. I hope that the Bloc Québécois will support this measure. It will strengthen the criminal justice system's ability to crack down on white-collar crime, and I believe the Minister of Justice indicated that our government will follow up with other measures.

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

Mr. Speaker, it will make the system so much stronger that the Minister of Justice was unable to refer to a single case from the past 20 years. I am so impressed by that kind of strength.

The only reason that the government is not planning to eliminate release after one-sixth of a sentence is that it wants to introduce another bill with a poison pill so that it can play the tough guy. They remind me of right-wing American preachers. It is hypocrisy, pure and simple.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the only hypocrisy is the fact that the Bloc leader has been against strengthening the criminal justice system here in the House for the past 19 years.

As I just said, yesterday, the Minister of Justice announced harsh sentences for fraud over $1 million. The leader of the Bloc says that he cannot think of an incident where that happened even though the francophone media report such incidents every day. I hope that the Bloc leader will support these reforms.

Infrastructure

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this week the Prime Minister's Quebec lieutenant said that he did not think there was a problem with two Federal Bridge Corporation officials participating in a Conservative Party cocktail fundraiser, yet the crown corporation's vice-president of communications acknowledged that its code of conduct officially prohibits such partisan activities.

Will the Minister of Public Works , who should be extremely vigilant when it comes to the ethics involved in awarding contracts, stop condoning such unacceptable behaviour?

[Christian Paradis, Conservative, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the contracting out for the Champlain Bridge repairs is handled by a company that is independent of this government. It is an independent crown corporation, namely, Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated. The process was fair, open and transparent. If there are any legitimate accusations, I invite members to bring them forward outside of this House. However, no one will, because they are all talk.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Mr. Speaker, by promising to take care of the individual who exposed the incestuous link between the Conservative regime, the Federal Bridge Corporation and BPR, Senator Housakos is acting like any good Conservative: go after the whistleblower instead of those who break the rules.

I again ask the Minister of Public Works : will he finally admit that he was wrong and clearly denounce the violation of the code of conduct by two Conservative officials?