Debates of Oct. 16th, 2012

Omnibus Legislation

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Liberal Party is correct in observing that this procedure was debated some 20 years ago and decisions were taken at that time. The government is acting within the spirit and letter of those decisions.

We are very proud of the fact that we have before the House a very comprehensive economic action plan to which this government is responsible to the House of Commons. These are important measures to ensure that the Canadian economy continues its superior performance among developed nations.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, everyone can clearly see the difficulty facing this government, which has ministers who will not accept responsibility. It has a Prime Minister who refuses to tell his ministers that they have a duty to tell Canadians the truth in the House of Commons. These ministers blame everyone else and refuse to take responsibility for what they said when they were in opposition. How hypocritical.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I respect the rulings handed down 20 years ago by the Speaker of the House of Commons. We have before this House a very comprehensive economic action plan and I hope Parliament will support it.

I understand that the Liberal Party wants a separate legislative package for MP pensions so they can get a special deal and a special process. We are determined to act comprehensively across all economic matters.

Food Safety

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the same weekend that XL laid off employees, it also sent out a statement criticizing CFIA's re-certification process. How did the minister respond to this attack on his own department? He called it a “private sector business decision”, once again shirking his own responsibility for this fiasco.

Sadly, it is Canadian farmers and ranchers who are going to be hurt the most from Conservative mismanagement.

Why is the minister washing his hands of this and why will he not stand up for Canadian farmers?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. From day one, we have acted on this issue. CFIA was involved immediately. It notified public health officials, who continue to scour the country, looking for anyone affected by this tainted product. We look for all those illness. Hopefully, there will be no more.

We have had a number of technical briefings in this same time frame to keep Canadians up to speed on what is done and what needs to be done to ensure their food is safe.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we know what the priority of the government is. It is to flood Canadian TVs with advertising all about the Canada's action plan. It spends tens of millions of dollars, but it has cut funding for food safety. Yet the minister refuses to explain why the government is cutting food inspectors.

We asked for details on sick Canadians. The minister will not answer. We asked for a list of CFIA's inspectors. The minister has no answer.

That is a minister guided by politics and self-preservation, not accountability. When will he finally stand in the House and tell Canadians the truth?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, all the decisions made to this point over this issue have not been political decisions. These are science-based, rational decisions made by the professional people at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and at public health agencies both federally and provincially. That is a good thing.

The only political decisions that have to be made are to continue to building the capacity of CFIA and public health to get those jobs done. We hope the NDP will join us in that endeavour.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we still have not heard an answer. While Canadians continue to get sick and livestock producers worry about their income, what is the minister doing? He still refuses to accept his responsibility.

Last week, I met with stakeholders and discussed the matter with some producers. I heard a great deal of criticism regarding the minister's failure to take action. People do not understand why he refuses to address the safety needs in the cattle industry.

Instead of posing for photo ops, will the minister come up with a plan to restore consumer confidence in the industry?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, the one thing this government has in common with the cattle sector, whether we talk about the cow-calf operators, feedlot operators or the processors themselves, is that we all agree that consumer confidence is based in food safety. To that end, we continue to build the robust food safety system that is required. We have some more tools coming to the House, hopefully the latter part of this week or early next week, Bill S-11, the safe food for Canadians act. We hope the New Democrats will help us move that expeditiously.

Employment Insurance

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Agriculture is not the only one who has a complicated relationship with the public.

Let us look at the facts. First, the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development said that all workers would benefit from the new working while on claim project. Then, she admitted that, in fact, all workers would not benefit. Unable to offer a solution to all unemployed workers in Canada, she split them into two groups: those who would be entitled and those who would not.

It is all smoke and mirrors with the minister. When will she fix the program so that it benefits all unemployed workers?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Speaker, this government's priority is job creation, economic growth and the security of Canadians. That is why we try to eliminate obstacles that prevent unemployed people from working. With the new system, the pilot project, that is exactly what we will do. And we introduced changes so that people who were receiving benefits while working, last year, are integrated into the new system.

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the minister simply has nothing to offer unemployed Canadians except empty words. She talks of jobs but her government put forward a reckless job-killing budget that New Democrats were proud to vote against.

The fact is few will benefit from the minister's changes to working while on claim. The majority will still be worse off now than before the minister started tinkering. People looking for work deserve better. When will the minister get to work and fix the mess that she created?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Speaker, the New Democrats have just admitted that they were proud to vote against all the initiatives that have helped to create 820,000 new jobs in our country, the best record in the G7 in terms of job creation. They voted against all the initiatives to help people who had lost their jobs get back to work. Our working while on claim pilot project will support individuals who have lost their jobs get back to work. The job alerts program that we have multiplied will help Canadians get back to work.

We are helping Canadians get back to work. The New Democrats are voting against Canadians.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives continue to show they just do not understand Atlantic Canada. Now they are denying EI benefits to more than 180 people because they work for family members. Atlantic Canada and our many fishing communities are built on family businesses and they should not be penalized. Not everyone can work for a large corporation.

Why will the government not start helping fishing communities instead of trying to punish them?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Speaker, the member has his facts all wrong. There are many situations where family members can work and receive EI benefits.

The situation he is talking about is where 60 individuals have been directly affected by a multi-year investigation into fraud and deliberate misrepresentation that is cheating Canadians out of millions of dollars of EI payments. The process and the investigations are ongoing. If the charges are proven to be true, then appropriate action will be taken by the federal courts.

Fisheries and Oceans

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly how Atlantic Canadians feel, that they are being attacked by the government.

Let us talk about the fishing industry and how the government continues to download costs.

Management of the fishery is a shared responsibility but the government is slashing funding for the at-sea observer program and offloading its full cost, and costing fishermen and their families an extra $100 a day in expenses.

The attack on Atlantic communities continues. When will the government start working with our fishing industry and our--

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and for the Asia-Pacific Gateway]

Mr. Speaker, what we are doing is ensuring that we provide the services to Canadians in the most efficient and effective way possible.

When Canadians benefit from those services, as some do in the fishing industry by monitoring or gear identification and so on, we expect those who benefit from it to pay their share of it, and that is what we are doing in this case.

Government Appointments

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency has felt the cut of the Conservative knife. Over 100 jobs have been eliminated, millions in grants have slashed and regional development agencies are starved but Conservative patronage appointee Kevin MacAdam still has his job, even while he spends years learning French, collecting a salary and living expenses from Canadian taxpayers.

The Public Service Commission ruled that this pork patronage broke the rules. Therefore, why is the former aid to the Minister of National Defence still drawing a salary and living expenses from Canadian taxpayers?

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

Mr. Speaker, I answered that question yesterday and the answer is the same today.

This is not a political issue. However, if the member wants to check the public court records, they state that the commissioner found problems with the way the public service ran its hiring process but did not find any political interference by ministers or political staff.

In the meantime, this matter is before the courts.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the government's priority is to flood our TVs with government propaganda, spending tens of millions of dollars on ads, but cutting funding for Atlantic economic development.

No one believes there was no political interference. No one believes that Kevin MacAdam would have got this patronage post if he had not been a buddy of the Minister of National Defence. This Conservative government's defence comes from MacAdam's court filing, hardly an objective source.

If the Conservatives claim to have nothing to hide will they now release the full report of the Public Service Commission?

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

Mr. Speaker, this is within the purview of the Public Service Commission. The hon. member should listen to what the Public Service Commissioner had to say. He said very clearly that the commission had found problems with the way the Public Service ran the hiring process. He also clearly said that it did not find any political interference by ministers or political staff.

I want to know where the hon. member is getting his information because it is incorrect.

Public Health Agency

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, CFIA's job is to keep bacteria like E. coli out of our food. Once bacteria has entered the food chain, it is clearly a public health issue.

Canadians are worried and our Public Health Agency legislation is very clear. When Canadians are worried, government must provide a trusted public health voice to speak to them directly.

Will the Minister of Health finally do her job, stop muzzling the Public Health Agency of Canada and allow it to speak directly to Canadians about the safety of their food?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Minister of Health and Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency]

Mr. Speaker, the Public Health Agency has been working with the provinces and territories from the very beginning of this process and it continues to do so.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!