Debates of Nov. 22nd, 2012

Search and Rescue

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives do not understand how big a problem the closure of the Quebec City search and rescue centre will cause.

They are endangering the lives of mariners and pleasure boaters and have no regard for French-language services. The proof is that there will be only one bilingual employee per shift at the centres in Halifax and Trenton. Just one.

What will happen if two francophones on two different boats have a problem at the same time? Will one of them be put on hold?

Will it take a tragedy for the Conservatives to realize that their plan is ridiculous? What are the members from Quebec doing to stand up for francophones and the French language—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order.

The hon. Minister of National Revenue.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the hon. member that we are maintaining our bilingual capacity through the consolidation of the MRSC in Quebec, and we are ensuring that the Coast Guard does have the resources it needs to do the good job that it does every day, which is to save the lives of people.

Human Resources and Skills Development

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago in a statement about the 200 B.C. mining jobs that went to temporary foreign workers, the minister said that she was not satisfied with the process. The company said it followed the rules and would now like to know what she meant, and so would Canadians.

Is she saying that the company was dishonest in its application or is she admitting that she did not apply her own rules appropriately?

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

Mr. Speaker, our goal is to make sure that Canadians get first crack at every job that is available in this great country. That is why employers who want to bring in temporary foreign workers are required to prove that they have made a legitimate and responsible effort to find qualified Canadians.

We want to make sure that the process in place for employers to follow does exactly that. That is why we are reviewing it, to make sure that the process will protect jobs for Canadians.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has already admitted that the process is not working. British Columbians were passed over by a process the government implemented, and this from a party that suggested the unemployed should go and work in a mine.

The Conservatives are failing unemployed Canadians. Either the company played by the rules and the process is broken, or the company broke the rules and those are illegitimate visas.

Which is it and why will the minister not suspend those visas?

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

Mr. Speaker, we do want to make sure that Canadians get first crack at all the jobs that are available in this country. That is why we require employers who want to bring in foreign workers to prove beyond a doubt that they have conducted a responsible search for qualified Canadians.

We want to make sure that the process is robust enough to support Canadian workers and we are reviewing it to make sure it does just that.

The Environment

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of the Environment admits that climate change is a danger that needs to be addressed. However, he has manipulated accounting rules, used projected values instead of actual emissions and taken credit for provincial and territorial actions rather than tabling a comprehensive climate change plan.

Will the minister admit that his sector by sector approach is nothing more than a delay tactic and will the government bargain in good faith at next week's UN meeting on climate change?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, our accounting methods for our sector by sector approach to responsibly regulating Canada's emitting sectors have been recognized and accepted internationally. We are half way toward accomplishing our Copenhagen 2020 reduction targets.

I will go to Doha quite proudly next week to re-engage partners from around the world because climate change is a global problem and requires a global solution. However, I can assure my colleague that Canada is doing its part.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if only that were true.

My question is for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, who did not answer my question yesterday about the sponsorship of spouses in Syria.

According to his department's website, these sponsorships take an average of 20 months in this country in crisis. I have three questions for the minister.

Did the minister send a written administrative directive to his department to make sponsorship files in Syria a priority? If so, when? And since it is not working, what will he do to speed things up?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Mr. Speaker, I answered the question yesterday. I said that we already had. I repeat, we already have. This means that we have fast-tracked processing for sponsorships of spouses in Syria. The vast majority of the cases in the system have already been accepted.

I will give the member another opportunity to condemn the comments made by his colleague from Ottawa South, who attacked Alberta MPs, chastising them for defending the interests of their constituents and the Canadian economy and telling them that they should go back to Alberta and not represent their constituents here.

Housing

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today is National Housing Day, but there is nothing to celebrate. One and a half million Canadian households have desperate needs in terms of housing, and 600,000 Canadians are in danger of losing their housing subsidy if the Conservatives do not renew the social housing agreement.

Canada is the only country that does not have a national housing strategy. The Conservatives have a golden opportunity to discuss this with the provinces during the first ministers' meeting in Halifax.

When will they stop ignoring social housing needs?

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

Mr. Speaker, unlike the NDP, the Conservatives believe in action and that is exactly what we have done. That is why, under the economic action plan, we spent a lot of money on creating more than 16,000 projects to provide affordable housing to Canadians. We believe that every Canadian must have access to affordable and safe housing.

[Mike Sullivan, NDP, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, facts are facts and Canadians are going hungry. This fall, reports showed record food bank use and Campaign 2000 yesterday reported that one in seven children is still living in poverty. Both also point to affordable housing as key to solving the problem. Provincial, territorial and municipal governments are committed to providing affordable housing but the Conservatives are missing in action.

The NDP has the solution. The only question is whether the Conservatives will support our national affordable housing strategy.

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

Mr. Speaker, once again, the NDP talks and we take action. Under the economic action plan, 27,000 new affordable housing units were created. We did that in spite of NDP opposition. We provide funding for over 600,000 affordable units across the country, despite the opposition of the NDP.

We are working to ensure all Canadians have access to secure affordable housing, just as they deserve, in spite of the opposition of the NDP.

National Defence

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as an Afghanistan veteran, I know the importance of military health care providers and the valuable work they do daily in Canada and overseas. I understand that Canada's armed forces and civilian medical personnel have recently been recognized for this outstanding work for their achievements in Afghanistan.

Would the Minister of National Defence provide the House with an update on this recognition?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Pickering—Scarborough East for his service as a soldier and a member of this House.

NATO did in fact award Canada the Dominique-Jean Larrey Award, the highest NATO awarded bestowed for medical support. This is in recognition of the excellent work Canadians did at the Role 3 hospital established and run by great Canadians at the Kandahar airfield between 2006 and 2009. It recognizes the exemplary health care provided to the wounded in an extremely difficult security environment in Afghanistan. Casualties treated at Role 3 facility had a 98% survival rate. This is a testament to the extraordinary dedication and professionalism of the Canadian military health care providers. I congratulate them all.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, a sad refugee case is dominating the Saskatchewan legislature. To be clear, this is not a bogus asylum seeker. No claim has been rejected. This refugee was diagnosed with cancer but the federal government will not cover his chemotherapy and other drugs. The provincial government is now picking up those costs.

Premier Wall says that federal policy on this issue is “unbelievable and inconsistent with Canadian values”.

Will the government fix this outrageous problem for this genuine refugee and for Premier Wall?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Mr. Speaker, once again the member betrays a misunderstanding of our refugee determination system. A genuine refugee comes to Canada as a permanent resident and, therefore, qualifies for comprehensive provincial health insurance. Rejected asylum claimants and pending asylum claimants are not refugees until they are determined to be so by our fair and generous legal system, during which time they receive comprehensive health insurance but not extended benefits. Those who are rejected and are pending removal are effectively illegal immigrants.

If the member is suggesting that we should create a new federal health insurance program to provide comprehensive and extended benefits to rejected asylum claimants who are pending removal, he ought to propose that.

Science and Technology

[Laurin Liu, NDP, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the National Research Council, or NRC, is closing the only federal research centre based in Quebec. Researchers with the NRC's interactive language technologies group are being forced to move to Ontario. Closing this centre will reduce the amount of scientific research done in French.

Will the minister remind the NRC that its mandate is to promote research across the entire country?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Minister of State (Science and Technology) (Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario)]

Mr. Speaker, I am a little disappointed that the opposition puts science at such a high level that it is the very last question in QP.

The member should know, however, that what we are doing is taking advantage of an opportunity for collaboration and synergies between scientists. No researchers are affected here. In fact, this is an opportunity, where one office lease is expiring, to just close that office and move the science to another office that is nearby, with better results for Canadians at less cost and no carbon tax.

Health

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Mr. Speaker, our government has consistently been there to provide leadership and support to the provinces and territories to help them with their health care priorities. We are providing the provinces and territories record amounts of support by increasing the size of the Canada health transfer by nearly 35% since we formed government. Unfortunately, some members of the NDP have had difficulty understanding what an increase in the amount of money in transfers to the provinces means.

Could the minister please update this House on what our government is doing to help support the Canadian health care system?

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

Mr. Speaker, my colleague is absolutely right. Our government is playing a leadership role. Unlike the previous government that balanced the books on the backs of the provinces and the territories, we are increasing the health transfers to historic levels of nearly $40 billion by the end of the decade.

In fact, the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that the provinces were spending less than our 6% annual increases. These numbers show that the federal share of health care spending is increasing. We are also the single largest investor in Canada for health science and research, investing $1 billion per year in health research and innovation.

Canadian Heritage

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the revisionist approach to history taken by the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages is raising eyebrows across Canada. Most experts agree that the Conservatives' approach is inappropriate and, more importantly, dangerous.

While the advertising budget for the War of 1812 has tripled, more than 80% of Parks Canada's archeologists and conservators have lost their jobs. The very survival of our heritage institutions and historic sites is at stake.

Does the minister realize that, although he is rewriting it, history will be the judge of his bad faith?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said several times in the House, our government has made unprecedented investments in the cultural sector, including the War of 1812 exhibit.

It also includes a new Museum of Canadian History, with a $25 million investment that the NDP members have already said that they will be voting against. Every time we have made investments in arts and culture, they have voted against it.

Through the leadership of the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, we have brought in a new Copyright Act, which is protecting our artists and unleashing the potential of our entertainment software industry. We are proud of our artists and we wish they would start talking—