House of Commons Hansard #52 of the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was farmers.
Julian Fantino ConservativeAssociate Minister of National Defence
Mr. Speaker, that is just absolutely idle rhetoric. In any event, the member opposite is engaging in fearmongering about the importance of the F-35 program, a program that is critical to managing Canada's sovereignty, supporting our military men and women and creating aerospace jobs for Canadians, in spite of the chirping from across the aisle.
Matthew Kellway NDP Beaches—East York, ON
Mr. Speaker, this is not just about another procurement boondoggle, this is about the safety of our troops. We ask a lot of our troops and we in the House in return owe them the very best chance to return home safely to their families. However, the government continues to rush headlong to purchase a fighter jet that cannot even communicate with the ground forces it is supposed to support.
When will the government stop playing politics with the safety of our troops? When will it admit it made a mistake and put this contract out to tender?
Julian Fantino ConservativeAssociate Minister of National Defence
Mr. Speaker, there was a competition with respect to the F-35. The issue is that the F-35 won out over other aircraft. It is the fifth generation, the best we can provide to our men and women to enable them to complete their missions and to return safely at the end of those missions.
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
Mr. Speaker, it is not just Minister Fournier who felt shortchanged yesterday at his meeting with the Minister of Justice, it is all of Quebec. What Minister Fournier and Quebeckers are asking is that our rehabilitation model, which has proven its worth for 40 years, be protected.
My question is simple. Is the Minister of Justice prepared to make amendments to ensure not just the immediate protection but also the long-term protection of our society? That is what we want.
Robert Goguen ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice was very pleased to meet with Minister Fournier yesterday. In these talks, they continued to discuss a very important factor: rehabilitation in the criminal process. We will continue to work with Minister Fournier. We accepted one of his three amendments, and by working with Quebec, we will truly find the solution. We know that Quebec focuses heavily on rehabilitation. Judging by the number of Liberals here, perhaps they need to focus on rehabilitating their party.
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
Mr. Speaker, we miss Brian Murphy and Claudette Bradshaw a lot. They focused on the people rather than on demonstrating their arrogance as the Conservatives have been doing.
The reality is that right now we have immediate safety. We are in favour of immediate safety, but if there is no long-term safety, then there is no rehabilitation. The Conservatives have not conducted any research and they do not have any expertise. What Quebeckers and Canadians want is for amendments to be made so that the system works. In the days of Brian Mulroney, this minister agreed that the Quebec model should be protected. How did he become such a dinosaur?
Robert Goguen ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice
Mr. Speaker, the people of Quebec support the safe streets and communities bill. Every day, they wait for these important measures to be implemented to protect them. Quebeckers and this party understand what safety means. The word safety is not part of the Liberals' vocabulary.
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice has obstinately refused to counter the sensible, documented arguments made by Quebec's justice minister with anything but his own prejudices. Those arguments show that Bill C-10 will cause an avalanche of costs without reducing crime. Given the justice minister's position, I am wondering if this government still has a Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.
If so, I would ask that minister to rise in this House and tell us if he at least tried to explain to his colleague, the justice minister, what co-operative federalism means.
Robert Goguen ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice
Mr. Speaker, contrary to what Minister Fournier may have misinterpreted, Bill C-10 was based on Justice Nunn's report and—
The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer
Order, please. The Chair has recognized the hon. parliamentary secretary and he has the floor.
Robert Goguen ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice
Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, BIll C-10 was based on an important study prepared by Justice Nunn. That study led to amendments to the legislation that protects the public from young offenders. This legislation targets only violent and repeat offenders. This is a small percentage of the population—between 3% and 4%.
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Mr. Speaker, the evidence keeps mounting. The government is failing Canadian families. Campaign 2000's annual report card shows that 1 in 10 Canadian children still live in poverty. Household debt is at an all time high, while low and middle income families have to work more hours just to get by.
As a country, we need to do better. What is the government going to do to make life more affordable for Canadian families struggling just to make ends meet?
Diane Finley ConservativeMinister of Human Resources and Skills Development
Mr. Speaker, we have done an awful lot. It is too bad that the NDP members did not actually support any of our efforts to help struggling Canadian families. For example, they did not support the $100 a month in universal child care benefits for parents of children under the age of six to help them choose the child care that the family needed.
The NDP members did not support the introduction of the working income tax benefit to help poorer families get over the welfare wall so they could work and look after their families. Nor did they accept any of the tax cuts that we brought in, so that families could enjoy, on average, $3,000 a year more in their pockets instead of the government coffers.
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Mr. Speaker, what the NDP voted against was keeping seniors in poverty. We voted against inaction on child poverty and we voted against the short-sighted policies of the Conservative government.
The reality is that most families need to work two jobs just to make ends meet, yet nearly three million children do not have access to regulated child care. An affordable high quality child care program can pay for itself. Just look at Quebec.
Why will the government not move forward on a real national child care plan that actually reduces child poverty? Why will it not act?
Diane Finley ConservativeMinister of Human Resources and Skills Development
Mr. Speaker, we did that. It was one of the very first things we did back in 2006. We introduced the universal child care benefit which is $100 a month to parents of each child under the age of six, so that they could choose the form of child care that best meets their needs. Maybe they live in the city and want to access traditional day care, for which we helped create over 100,000 new spaces.
We also gave them the choice that if parents wanted to stay at home and raise their own child, they could do that. If they wanted the child to stay with granny, they could do that. They are the experts on child care and we support them.
Manon Perreault NDP Montcalm, QC
Mr. Speaker, according to the Campaign 2000 report released this morning, Canada has failed to fulfill its obligations towards underprivileged children and families. Children with disabilities are particularly affected. One parent in four cannot work because of having to care for a child.
When will this government decide to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which recognizes the right to a decent standard of living for everyone?
Diane Finley ConservativeMinister of Human Resources and Skills Development
Mr. Speaker, I am very proud that our government ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In addition, we have implemented a number of measures to help them.
For example, we introduced the registered disability savings plan to help families plan for the future of their family members who are disabled. We also modified and made major reforms to our Canada student loans program to help the disabled have access to the skills and training they need for the jobs of the future.
We are--
Marie-Claude Morin NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Mr. Speaker, according to Campaign 2000, some 750,000 Canadian children under 15 are living in unsanitary housing. The problem is more acute among aboriginals. Canada is the only industrialized country that does not have a national affordable housing strategy.
It has been 20 years since the House unanimously adopted a resolution to end child poverty and not a single measure has been taken. Only the NDP has made concrete proposals. What is the government waiting for to follow through?
Diane Finley ConservativeMinister of Human Resources and Skills Development
Mr. Speaker, it is the NDP that has done nothing to help people who need affordable housing. For example, under our economic action plan, we provided funding to more than 14,000 projects to build and renovate affordable housing. The NDP members are the ones who voted against that measure. We also provided funding to help in the construction and renovation of affordable housing for aboriginals and seniors. The NDP voted against that measure.
Kyle Seeback Conservative Brampton West, ON
Mr. Speaker, our government believes that polygamy has no place in modern society. Polygamy inevitably leads to the exploitation of women, sometimes even young girls, who are given no other choice. This is unacceptable to Canadians and to our government.
We have already raised the age of consent from 14 to 16 and currently have legislation before this House that would crack down on a wide variety of child sexual offences.
Could the minister please update the House regarding the decision from the B.C. Supreme Court on this issue?
Rob Nicholson ConservativeMinister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, needless to say that the B.C. Supreme Court has upheld the prohibition against polygamy. Polygamy has no place in modern society and the prohibition is consistent with Canadian values, the charter and the Canadian Bill of Rights.
In our view, polygamy is harmful to society, to those involved with it, particularly to women and to children born within polygamous families.
Again, we are very pleased with the decision today.
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Mr. Speaker, warning signs of mismanagement are mounting at Citizenship and Immigration. Excessive backlogs and wait times, cuts to successful programs, and a failure to address pressing labour needs are well-known. However now the Auditor General finds that officials lack the training they need, the manuals are out of date, and they are using 50-year-old health screening standards. Most glaring, they are missing a quality management system, even though one was first recommended in 2000.
Taking 11 years to even start quality control is unacceptable.
Could the minister explain his failure to Canadians?
Jason Kenney ConservativeMinister of Citizenship
Mr. Speaker, we have accepted the Auditor General's recommendations and have already been working with all the relevant agencies to improve practices in this respect.
However, when it comes to immigration security screening, our government is moving forward with biometric visas, so that we can obtain biometric data and fingerprints on people, foreign nationals, seeking to enter Canada in order to check them against a security watch list. The NDP opposes that.
Our government has taken real action to start reducing the big backlogs in immigration that we inherited from the Liberals. Guess what? The NDP opposed every measure that we have taken.
If we had followed the advice of the NDP, the total immigration backlog would now be 1.5 million rather than going down. We are taking action to improve--