House of Commons Hansard #75 of the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was firearms.
Vic Toews ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, Canada does not condone torture and does not engage in torture. CSIS and its employees are bound by Canadian law. Our government expects CSIS and security agencies to make the protection of life and property the overriding priority.
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government is showing utter contempt for the Supreme Court of Canada and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We must not forget that in 2009 the Conservative public safety minister said, “this government does not condone the use of torture in any way”. He also said, “If there’s any indication, any evidence that torture may have been used, that information is discounted”.
Would the minister please tell us what has changed? Why the sudden tacit endorsement of the use of torture as a matter of policy?
Vic Toews ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, information obtained by torture is always discounted. However, the problem is whether one can safely ignore the information if Canadian lives and property are at stake.
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, I have a supplementary to that question in order to get the minister to clarify his statement.
Will the minister table before the House the exact nature and wording of the directive that he issued to CSIS employees? Will he also explain how it is that the directive that he is putting forward is in any way compatible with Canada's obligations under international law and the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada? It is critical that those two points be clearly made to the minister who just gave the answer.
Jason Kenney ConservativeMinister of Citizenship
Mr. Speaker, we need to be clear. Canada does not condone torture, we do not engage in torture and CSIS and its employees are bound by Canadian law. The minister of course clarified what I would hope the leader of the opposition and the third party would agree with, which is that, in situations where a serious risk to public safety exists and where lives may be at stake, CSIS should make the protection of life and property its overriding priority.
Of course we oppose the use of torture but we believe that Canada's security agencies should prioritize the protection of life.
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, I think we will let the ministers try to explain that outside so we can turn our attention to another matter that is of great importance as well.
I would like to ask the minister a very direct question with respect to the pension answers that we have been getting. His colleague, the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, who was on deck yesterday, indicated that people around her age, which I now gather is in the mid-50s range, will—
The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer
Order, please. The hon. member for Toronto Centre has the floor.
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
We are all very young at heart, Mr. Speaker.
However, the fact is that the government has a new plan. It seems to be warning 55, freedom 95.
The minister seems to be asserting that the government somehow is able to dictate what will happen after 2015. What is he telling vulnerable—
The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer
The hon. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism.
Jason Kenney ConservativeMinister of Citizenship
Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the Liberal Party always talks about the importance of evidence-based policy. Here is some evidence. The population is aging. We are going from an OAS system that we set up with seven workers to every beneficiary to a system that will have two workers for every beneficiary; from a $35 billion expenditure now to over $100 billion in the future; and from 15% of government expenditures now to over 25% of public expenditures. This is why virtually every OECD country has made responsible long-term changes and this government must follow that course.
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, that is interesting. These events do not appear to have been open and transparent to the government at the time of the last election. How strange. These secrets are being revealed now, as though no one knew about these changing demographics. That is the point.
Why did the government choose to attack the most vulnerable Canadians? Why attack the only Canadian program that has helped reduce poverty? Why attack the poor?
Jason Kenney ConservativeMinister of Citizenship
Mr. Speaker, that is a ridiculous question, especially from a party that claims to believe in evidence-based policy. Here is the evidence: we have an aging population; the number of workers and contributors is diminishing considerably; and the number of beneficiaries of programs like old age security is growing. As a result, we need to protect today's pensioners and make responsible changes, as virtually all other industrialized countries have done.
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I met with workers from Electro-Motive Diesel, families who were left to pick up the pieces of the government's failed jobs plan, fathers like Ryan whose five-month-old son now faces an uncertain future.
The Prime Minister had no problem using these workers for an election photo op but in their time of need he is nowhere to be found.
Will the government at least ensure EMD workers are not robbed of their pensions and severance, too, or will it continue to leave them out in the cold?
Christian Paradis ConservativeMinister of Industry and Minister of State (Agriculture)
Mr. Speaker, we are aware of the decision by Electro-Motive Diesel to close the plant in London and we sympathize with the workers affected by this sad decision and their families.
That being said, I just want to reiterate for the member that this issue falls entirely within the powers of the Ontario government and there was no ability for the federal government to intervene.
We will continue working to create jobs and opportunities for workers in London and all across Canada.
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Mr. Speaker, the government can always find a scapegoat. What about a jobs plan?
Our manufacturing sector is being shipped off piece by piece and the government is letting it happen. London is rallying behind its EMD workers but they all know that this could happen to anyone anywhere. We know that, under the government, big corporations and well-connected friends win out over families every time.
When will the government finally wake up to reality? When will it stop subsidizing the companies that ship Canadian jobs overseas and start protecting communities like London, Ontario?
Christian Paradis ConservativeMinister of Industry and Minister of State (Agriculture)
Mr. Speaker, the member should get her facts straight.
I would remind the member that raising the capital cost allowance rate for locomotives was unanimously supported by the industry committee in February 2007, including by the NDP member for Windsor West. That cost allowance was eligible for people who bought locomotives, not for the ones who built the locomotives.
The member should not mix up anything here. We empathize with what happened but it is a matter for the Ontario legislature.
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Mr. Speaker, these are the facts. This government has presided over repeated rounds of job losses and factory closures: we need only think of White Birch Papers, Mabe Canada, AstraZeneca and Electro-Motive. Families suffer with every closure. This government's policies have led to job losses, record levels of family debt and a 2% reduction in real wages in the past year.
When will this government implement a job creation plan? When will it finally start caring about Canadian families?
Jim Flaherty ConservativeMinister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, the jobs and growth policy was in the last budget, and there will be more in this budget, of course. This is the budget that the NDP, including the member opposite, refused to support. This is the budget that contained the job creation tax credit for small business, the family caregiver tax credit, the children's art tax credit, the volunteer firefighter tax credit and tax relief for the manufacturing sector, and all of that was opposed by the NDP members who now have the nerve to stand here and ask where the jobs plan is that they voted against.
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about economic growth. Let us look at the figures from the OECD and its economic growth projections for 2012 for industrialized countries.
Canada ranks 14th. It gets worse. When we look at the IMF data, economic growth projections for 2012 for all countries, Canada is 152nd, behind Bulgaria and behind Benin. This is scant comfort for people who have lost their jobs in the last few months.
The Minister of Finance is failing and the government is failing. When will they get to work on a jobs plan so that Canadians can get back to work?
Jim Flaherty ConservativeMinister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, the member opposite certainly is entitled to his point of view but he does not need to yell. I am right here and I can hear him well.
The reality is 610,000 net new jobs, a job growth rate of 3.7% since the end of the recession, 90% of the jobs full-time and 80% of them in the private sector. This is the best job creation record in the G7.
Françoise Boivin NDP Gatineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party says that it does not want to reopen the abortion debate, but I believe it forgot to tell the member for Kitchener Centre. Yesterday, he suggested doing just that. However, the law in Canada is clear: women have the freedom to choose. The government cannot say that it does not want to reopen the debate and then allow one of its members to do so.
If the debate is closed, will the Prime Minister tell the member that the matter is not up for discussion, or has he simply lost control of his caucus?
Rob Nicholson ConservativeMinister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has been very clear that the government is not reopening this debate.
Françoise Boivin NDP Gatineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, what would be clear would be to say that the government will make sure that the motion is voted down. That would be clear.
Women rightly believed that the battle had been won a long time ago. What is surprising is that we know that all Conservative communications must go through the Prime Minister's Office before being made public.
Are we to conclude that the comments made by the member for Kitchener Centre were approved by the Prime Minister's Office? This would directly contradict what the Prime Minister said. Will this government state loud and clear that it intends—