Debates of Dec. 11th, 2012

Employment Insurance

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, now that the minister has reversed herself on working while on claim and has been forced to stop picking the pockets of eligible Cape Bretoners, she has to stop tinkering at the margins and fix the broken EI system.

There is no shame in admitting a mistake. The shame is continuing down the same path when one knows it is wrong. Will the minister now stand in the House, acknowledge the problem and commit to fixing it?

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

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what we are doing. We are streamlining and automating the processing so that the unemployed get their cheques and payments much quicker.

However, we are going beyond that. We are helping those Canadians find new jobs. We are helping them get the schooling and training they need for the requirements of the jobs of today and tomorrow. We are helping them get back to work. We are doing it sooner and taking away the disincentives that existed in the previous system preventing them from taking those jobs.

We are fixing the system for the benefit of Canadians. I do wish that once in a while the NDP would support those efforts.

The Economy

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Mr. Speaker, it is easy to overlook the role that sound public policy has in building a strong economy. Our government is focused on job creation, growth and long-term prosperity. Since July 2009, Canada has created nearly 900,000 net new jobs, the strongest growth record in the G7.

This did not happen by accident and despite ongoing global economic turbulence, Standard and Poor's today reaffirmed Canada's AAA credit rating, joining Moody's and Fitch by again giving our country a top score.

Could the Minister of Finance update the House on our economic record?

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, along with reaffirming Canada's top credit rating, Standard and Poors praised Canada for its “strong track record in managing economic and financial crises and delivering economic growth”. The report added that our government has demonstrated an ability and willingness to implement reforms to ensure sustainable public finances over the long term.

While we are focused on growing Canada's economy, the Liberals have no plan and the NDP is pushing dangerous economic schemes and higher taxes, the last thing Canadians—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for Halifax.

The Environment

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, last Friday's Supreme Court ruling underscores the importance of ensuring that the polluter pay principle is put into action when it comes to contaminated sites.

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Halifax has the floor now.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

The taxpayers of Newfoundland and Labrador will be on the hook for over $100 million in environmental cleanup costs because they have to get in line behind AbitibiBowater's creditors.

This gap in bankruptcy legislation leaves taxpayers on the hook for industry pollution, so what will the Conservatives do to address this problem?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question. First of all, Canadian companies, and Canadians in general, are subject to some of the strictest environmental laws in the world when it comes to maintaining their operations, right from their environmental assessments through to their operations and the mitigation of their sites at the end of the day.

Our government has invested well over a billion dollars in our federal contaminated sites action plan. We will continue to make those investments, but will also continue to carry forward our prioritization plan as a part of it, getting the most toxic sites cleaned up first and working through the list from there.

Labour

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are taking a page from the Republicans in the U.S. by attacking the rights of workers. After their back-to-work legislation and attacks on pay equity, the Conservatives are now pushing Bill C-377 through, even though it is highly flawed and violates the Constitution.

The Canadian Bar Association told us in committee that it violated the Constitution, specifically the right of association.

Can the Conservatives soft-pedal their partisan actions for two minutes and refer the file to the Supreme Court before violating constitutional rights and provincial jurisdictions?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I confess that it makes me feel bad to hear such distress and desperation in the voice of the hon. member, even now at Christmas time. It is a festive season, but for some reason the NDP seems so stressed out that it accepted $340,000 in gifts, not Christmas gifts but illegal gifts from the unions and now its members realize that transparency is upon them and that we are going to find out how all of this money that these unions forcefully take from workers is spent. The NDP seems so worried about that. Thou doth protest too much.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when something is illegal, the RCMP comes into your office, the way it did with the Conservatives.

The Conservatives' fable about the electoral fraud changes so often and has become so outrageous that I think the parliamentary secretary will get a diploma in the creation of conspiracy theories.

Now their party's lawyers are saying they are not guilty, since there is no one left who remembers not voting because of the fake phone calls. That is a tacit admission that they were behind the trickery.

Instead of trying to protect someone—who knows who—in their headquarters, will the Conservatives side with the victims of this fraud and support the NDP in beefing up the law?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, this NDP front group scoured six ridings, which had 350,000 voters in them, and could not find a single voter who would claim to have been prevented from voting in the election. In fact, one of the NDP activists, or the so-called Council of Canadians activists, who came forward actually had to drop out of the case because she did not even live in the riding she was contesting.

This is nothing more than an attempt by union bosses to finance a junk lawsuit at the expense of Canadian workers. We will not stand for it.

41st General Election

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, let us get back to reality.

The Conservatives are in Federal Court once again for breaking electoral laws. They refuse to explain why their lawyer stonewalled Elections Canada for 90 days, refuse to admit that the investigation now includes over 56 ridings and refuse to say what happened to the RMG evidence. The Conservatives' CIMS database contains every voter contact, fundraising surveys, and even mail outs from the Hill and, yes, information on sending people to the wrong polling locations.

Are we really to believe that this gold mine of information just vamoosed, disappeared? Why the cover up?

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

I did not hear anything in that question that touched on the administrative responsibility of government. I see the hon. parliamentary secretary rising, but I do urge members that if they have something in their preamble, they do have to tie it back in to where the government has responsibility.

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the question was out of order, but in the spirit of Christmas time, I will be generous enough to answer it.

The hon. member made reference to the NDP front group that is bringing this case forward. Of course, two of the leading financiers of the whole operation include one CUPW, which donates to the NDP front group. It also sent six delegates down to an anti-Semitic conference in Brazil just a few weeks ago, where that conference called for the liberation of a convicted murderer and terrorist. Another one is CUPE, which gave $50,000 in illegal union money to the NDP. That is the kind of company they keep over there.

Employment Insurance

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the human resources minister said that “we recognize that services are not what we want them to be”. That would be like Gary Bettman saying, “Boys, we're having a little trouble getting the season started”.

When she took over, 21 days was the time limit to get cheques out, 80% of the time in 21 days. Now people are waiting five and six weeks. She has gutted her department because of the fiscal incompetence of the government, but the problem is that she does not care. Just like Bettman does not care about the fans, she does not care about vulnerable Canadians.

When is she going to wake up and realize that Canadians are being hurt?

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

Mr. Speaker, we recognize that we want to improve the system. We always want to improve the system. That is why we are investing in new systems that will be more efficient, more effective and that will speed up the processing.

If Liberals were truly concerned about helping the vulnerable, they would have voted to support investment in these things. They would have voted for some of the tax breaks that would help people, like the working income tax benefit and the extension of EI benefits to help the unemployed. Instead, they voted against the unemployed.

Housing

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked the government when it would address the situation of the Native Inter-Tribal Housing Co-Operative in London West. The minister's response was that it was a provincial responsibility. Well, it is not.

The urban native housing program is a CMHC program. For this co-op, there are 26 agreements under phase 1 and 2 of the program, all coming to term at different times in the next 3 years.

If the agreements are not renewed, many people now living in subsidized units in this co-op and others may lose their home and face homelessness. Again, when will the government act?

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

Mr. Speaker, because we believe that all Canadians should have safe, secure and affordable housing, we have invested in supporting some 600,000 families receive affordable housing.

CMHC provided mortgage subsidies that were below market prices for the duration. We do provide extensive funding to the provinces and territories because we believe they are best positioned to know how to support the efforts in affordable housing according to the needs in their area. That may include rent subsidies for projects such as these.

The Environment

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise in the House today and represent the people of Victoria.

Against the wishes of many residents, Conservatives recently approved a mega-yacht marina in Victoria's inner harbour. A planned environmental assessment was cancelled, yet another victim of last spring's omnibus budget bill.

When will Conservatives stop ignoring the people of Victoria and start consulting with them?

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Minister of State (Transport)]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the member for Victoria to the House of Commons. He may not be here for a long time, but it will be a good time.

The big picture is our economic action plan has made Canada a leader in troubled global times. Canada has the lowest debt burden, by far, of all the G7 countries. We have created almost 900,000 net new jobs. We are governed by the best Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the world.

Search and Rescue

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think our new member will be here for a long time.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for New Westminster—Coquitlam has the floor and I would like to hear the question.