Debates of March 26th, 2012

Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, New Democrats came together to elect the leader of the official opposition. It was a race between many respected and dynamic candidates. We can be proud to say that New Democrats across Canada elected a strong and experienced leader to lead Canada's New Democrats to form the next government in 2015.

I am proud to have a leader who worked alongside Jack Layton to unite Quebeckers and Canadians together, a leader who shares our values, a leader with experience and conviction and a leader who will hold the Conservatives to account and fight for everyday Canadians.

More than ever, we are strong and we are united. So today we continue Jack's legacy and rally behind our new leader, the leader of the official opposition. I could not be more proud.

Congratulations to our new leader.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians who want more jobs and lower taxes gave our government a strong mandate to create jobs and economic growth. By contrast, the NDP chose a new leader who will continue to push its high tax, high spending, job killing agenda.

The NDP leader has vowed to bring back a risky job killing carbon tax which would raise the price of everything even though Canadians have overwhelmingly rejected carbon taxes. Canadians cannot afford the NDP's dangerous economic experiments. He has vowed to bring back the wasteful, ineffective long gun registry. This hug-a-thug, soft on crime leader will return Canada to policies favouring the rights of criminals over those of victims.

The NDP leader's drive to hike taxes, his divisive personality and his ruthless ambition would put Canadian families--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

I know it is the first day back but hopefully we can get through question period with a little bit of order.

Employment

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, since the Conservatives took office, Canada has lost hundreds of thousands of good jobs in the manufacturing sector. The Prime Minister is so clueless that he even went to Electro-Motive in London, Ontario, to tell everyone how great his economic policies were. After all the fanfare, the plant is now closed, and all of those jobs have been exported.

Now the Aveos workers are in the same boat. In Winnipeg, Montreal and Toronto, thousands of families are reeling. Why are the Conservatives not doing anything?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, to begin, I would like to congratulate the member for Outremont on his success at the New Democratic Party leadership convention. He has certainly accomplished something impressive.

In answer to his question, as my hon. colleague should know, our government has already created over 600,000 jobs thanks to our economic action plan to fight the crisis. We have already created more jobs than any other G20 country, nearly 90% of them full time. There are new jobs in every part of the country. We have done well, and we will keep doing more of the same with our next budget.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are saddling future generations with the biggest environmental, economic and social debt in our history. They are gutting the manufacturing sector and destabilizing the balanced economy that we have built up since the second world war. Today we learned that Canada's youth unemployment rate is 14.7% and that 400,000 unemployed young people are looking for work but finding nothing.

Will the Conservatives address this situation in the budget and provide jobs and hope for our young people?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, we will certainly seize the opportunity afforded by our budget to continue moving in the right direction and building on our success.

The Leader of the Opposition wants to talk about the importance of economic growth for young Canadians. The reality is that since the worst point of the recession through until today, over 610,000 net new jobs have been created and over 90% of those are full-time, well-paying jobs in every region of the country. We are going in the right direction. At the same time we have lowered taxes to the lowest point they have been in 50 years.

We are putting more power and money and influence into the pockets of individual Canadians so they can choose how they want to live their lives rather than the big government, central control approach that is the hallmark of the NDP.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about how Canadians are going to live their lives when thousands of families are about to lose their livelihood with the shutdown of Aveos. These jobs are about to exported. That is the only direction they know.

The government is throwing up its hands and saying there is nothing it can do. There is something it could do and it could do it now. The government could enforce the act, save these jobs and do something for a change.

Why will the government not act?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the Leader of the Opposition missed the statement that the Minister of Transport made earlier today where he said exactly that: The Air Canada Public Participation Act is the law. The law is the law. The minister is asking the transport committee to step forward and investigate this matter to see what the best approach would be going forward.

With regard to jobs overall and the economy, our government is leading and showing the way forward, with over 610,000 jobs created and the lowest taxes in 50 years. These benefits are being seen all across the country.

The Leader of the Opposition may not like the fact that we are getting results but Canadians know it and they understand that our government has the right way forward.

Health

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we know that Conservative inaction has meant mounting job losses, not gains.

The Conservatives promised to protect health care funding but they turned their backs on Canadians, short-changing provinces by $31 billion, that is $31 billion less for doctors, nurses, and front-line health services that we all depend on.

Will the Conservatives finally work with the provinces to protect our public health care system? Will they live up to their campaign promise on health care transfers?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, our government is committed to a universal, publicly funded health care system. Unlike the previous Liberal government, which gutted our health care transfers, we have actually increased funding to a record level. We have announced a long-term, stable funding arrangement with the provinces and the territories that would see transfers reach an historic level of $40 billion by the end of the decade.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that is not what they campaigned on. The Prime Minister made a single health care promise in the last election and he is intent on breaking it. Without consultation, the Conservatives are wreaking havoc on provincial budgets. They have shortchanged the provinces and now they are shortchanging families who rely on these health care services. It is no wonder the provinces feel abandoned.

Why did the Conservatives not tell Canadians their real plan for health care cuts? Why were they hiding it?

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

Mr. Speaker, even the former adviser to the interim leader of the Liberal Party and NDP strategist agreed that this is the best offer the provinces and the territories could get from the federal government. I think it is an extraordinarily generous offer. It is more generous than the provinces had any right to expect. If I were the provinces, I would stop griping and take the money and get to work reforming the system.

As indicated by recent Canadian Institute for Health Information data, the federal transfers are projected to grow faster than average provincial spending on health care. I will work with my provincial—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

The hon. member for Toronto Centre.

Air Canada

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to simply ask the minister a question again on the Aveos issue.

If the law is the law, the law is very clear. The law requires Air Canada to maintain its operations for maintenance and overhaul in three cities, in Montreal, in Toronto and in Winnipeg. The minister himself said the law is the law, and so the question for the minister is very clear. When is the Government of Canada finally going to step up to the plate and enforce the law, which is the law of the land and the law of Parliament? That is the question.

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, he should, as I said, refer to the comments that were made by the Minister of Transport on this very item, where he said that we will be taking that responsible action.

However, to be clear, on the issue of both Aveos and Air Canada, if both opposition parties had their way, the legislation that we put before Parliament would not have passed; Air Canada would have been grounded; hundreds, if not thousands, of people would have lost their jobs; and tens of thousands of Canadians would have been stranded around the world.

On both Aveos and Air Canada, this government is taking the responsible and effective approach, the exact approach that Canadians expect from this government.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that answer is complete nonsense and the minister himself knows it.

Twenty-five hundred people, not hypothetical jobs, not theoretical jobs of what might have happened in 1985 if something else might not have happened, but real people, with real jobs, with highly skilled jobs and real lives are on the street because the government has taken absolutely zero action. Referring a matter to a transportation committee does nothing for the workers who have been laid off.

When is the government going to take Air Canada to court and enforce the legislation, which is—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

The hon. Minister of Canadian Heritage.

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, I see from the energy of the leader of the Liberal Party's question that it is pretty clear, given what we saw over the weekend, that the job he is most concerned about is his own.

The fact is—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Oh, he does not like it, but that is the truth, Mr. Speaker.

The reality is that the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities is showing leadership on the Aveos question, just as we have shown leadership on the broader Air Canada question.

As I said, we have put forward the responsible approach to dealing with Aveos to ensure that the Air Canada Public Participation Act is reviewed and enforced. Also, we want to ensure that Air Canada remains a healthy air carrier and continues to serve all Canadians.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is very obvious. The government is not prepared to do what is necessary to protect both public safety and jobs. When the bill was passed, they promised to protect two things: public safety and job security. Why is the government not prepared, right now, to guarantee that Canadian law will be obeyed and that Canadian jobs will be protected? That is what must be done.

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, of course, the law must be obeyed. That is why the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities made an announcement just before question period.

In all areas, whether we are talking about Aveos, Air Canada or the entire economy, our government's economic action plan, from the beginning of the recession up to this point, and into the future, will continue to be an approach that will protect jobs in all regions of the country.

Government Priorities

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are shifting their responsibility for health care, prisons and old age security onto the provinces. That means higher costs and fewer services for Canadian families. A budget is about making choices. The NDP wants seniors to live in dignity. The Conservatives want to cut old age security benefits.

Why not give our seniors priority over prisons and F-35s? Why not take care of seniors first in the upcoming federal budget?