House of Commons Hansard #142 of the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was changes.

Topics

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

The Chair would ask the hon. parliamentary secretary to quickly come to his question.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON

Mr. Speaker, the member is quite right. The NDP is number one at delaying, obfuscating and ensuring that the economic policies which create jobs do not get through.

I am wondering how long the hon. member thinks we should hold back economic progress in this country so that the NDP members can debate among themselves and with their big union bosses.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Guy Caron NDP Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC

Mr. Speaker, I do not know where to begin.

How nice that the parliamentary secretary thinks he can rewrite history to say that the NDP is going to filibuster or speak out on this. No, the NDP only does that when we have good reason to do so. The NDP opposes not only the provisions of Bill C-38, but also its undemocratic nature and the manner in which it was introduced.

I called this the anti-jobs, anti-growth, anti-prosperity bill, and that is exactly what it is. The parliamentary secretary must realize that we need to have these debates not only for discussion in this House, but for all Canadians. They have a right to know that decisions are being made transparently and responsibly. They have a right to understand the debate on the various issues. That is what the government refuses to do.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

The last question should have gone to the NDP. It was my mistake in the rotation. Therefore, I will take one more question from the NDP.

The hon. member for York South—Weston.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON

Mr. Speaker, this bill is part of a larger pattern, a pattern of hidden agendas. It was not in the campaign, in the Speech from the Throne or in the budget but now we find out about it as a result of the budget implementation bill. It is also part of a pattern of attack on Canadian working people.

I want to talk about the 30% wage reduction for those who are coming off EI. A 15% across the board wage reduction in any occupation in Canada that a temporary foreign worker will come and work in and something like a third of the jobs that the Conservatives keep talking about that have been created are actually being held by temporary foreign workers, not by Canadians.

Then there is the federal contractors' fair wage policy, the federal contractors' employment equity policy and the move from age 65 to 67 without a move to allow those people to continue to work. The federal labour code actually permits employers to force people to retire at age 65, not at age 67, as the government wants them to do.

I believe this is part of a significant pattern of attacking working people in Canada. Would the member like to comment further on that?

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Guy Caron NDP Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC

Mr. Speaker, the member gets it. The government does not.

In my speech I mentioned that this is an anti-jobs bill. In fact, the budget itself will directly eliminate 19,000 jobs. If we include the provisions that are not in the budget, but that are consistent with the undermining efforts already started by the government, it is closer to over 30,000 jobs. It is anti-growth because the government’s policies, in both the budget and the budget implementation bill, will lead to a 1% drop in the GDP.

The government brags about its accomplishments. It says that we urgently need to continue going in the same direction as this bill, but this does not make any sense for all Canadians, especially those who are working, but also those who, unfortunately, are currently not working for reasons very often beyond their control.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

It is my duty, pursuant to Standing Order 38, to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, the Guaranteed Income Supplement; the hon. member for Winnipeg North, Air Canada.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

Kevin Sorenson Conservative Crowfoot, AB

Mr. Speaker, it is again an honour to be able to stand in this place to debate the bill and to speak in support of budget 2012. Today we are here debating, at third reading, Bill C-38, the jobs, growth and long-term prosperity act.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend an event in southern Saskatchewan. Many people came up to me and said they bet I was happy that the budget is now passed, that the implementation bill is passed and that it is all over. I explained to them that, although we got through report stage and we dealt with the amendments, we have not completed it yet, we have not finished voting on this. They said, “You mean you've got to go longer on this?”

For all those who may be watching, many know that most members of Parliament from all sides of the House were up for 41 hours. There were 21 or 22 hours of voting, but when we look at the clock, most were up for well over 40 hours during that span, and it is not finished yet.

In fact, this week before we rise for summer break, we will be sitting until midnight every night and there very well could be a vote later this evening. And so, it is not completed yet.

Why? It is because the opposition, in the last report stage, brought 871 amendments before this place. The Speaker had to advise the opposition that the rules and practice of this place do not lend themselves to taking 871 consecutive votes and so he cut them back to 159.

Today, again, we get to debate the implementation of the bill.

The budget was tabled March 29. This House has been debating it for close to three months. The finance committee has held special meetings, subcommittee meetings, as per the request from the opposition. Together, all these committees have held more than 70 hours of meetings and have heard from more than 100 witnesses who came in front of the committee to testify.

Bill C-38 has had more debate in Parliament than any other piece of legislation for the past 20 years.

As the member of Parliament for Crowfoot, in Alberta, I could say a great deal in support of budget 2012 and Bill C-38.

Speaking positively, I can begin my remarks by assuring my constituents and all Canadians that our Conservative government has committed, in this budget, to maintain health care transfers to the provinces at record levels. We have made this long-term commitment.

Where I come from, we do not soon forget the type of budget that the former Liberal government brought forward to this place, which balanced the federal books, and we applaud it for that, but did it on the backs of taxpayers and, in large respect, it did it by cutting $20 billion to the social and health care file.

We have said we are not going to do what the Liberals did.

My constituents have told me that access to quality health care service is one of our most important priorities. Especially in a rural area, we want to make certain it is stable.

Mr. Speaker, before I go on any further, I should have mentioned before that I will be splitting my time with my good friend from York Centre.

My constituents know that health care is important. This budget and our government answers to the idea of long-term funding that would be assured to the provinces.

As the government, we know that in the short term we must provide the policies that would lead to the fiscal conditions necessary to foster a strong health care system that would serve all Canadians over the long term. A strong economy is where Canadians can find work that would allow them to pay their taxes to the federal government and to the provincial governments, so that many of the programs and services they rely on will be able to deliver for them. Budget 2012 would establish the policies that would maintain the services our government provides and ensure that they are sustainable.

There are a large number of initiatives in Bill C-38.

How would Bill C-38 take short-term measures to ensure long-term sustainability? There are a number of examples. First, it would do so by streamlining the process for the approval of energy projects. This one topic we could speak on at great length, especially for provinces with a growing resource sector. It goes even further than that because it would allow for jobs to be created across the country.

The budget implementation bill will spell out how it would help Canadians to find jobs and to create new jobs. We can stand in the House and the opposition will say that we are not doing anything to help Canadians find work and we will stand up and talk about the 700,000 jobs that have been created in this economy. Having a strong economy is the key to being able to find work for most Canadians.

The budget would help remove redundant or extra layers of bureaucracy. It would take the Department of Fisheries and Oceans out of the creeks and watersheds of the Prairies and focus its work on the fish habitats on our coasts and in our lakes. I was not going to speak specifically to this point, but I think I want to because when I go out and visit my county councils and my municipal councils, especially in the rural municipalities but even in some of our towns and smaller cities, they talk very pointedly about this being their number one issue.

People might chuckle, but it used to be that when we went out years ago, most of these rural councils talked about the importance of strychnine, because of gopher and rodent control there. That was their issue. Second to that was the issue of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and even navigable waters, because every time they wanted to do even some minor project two and a half hours from Calgary, they would have to bring someone out just to give it a check of approval. Then they would have to bring another department out to do a check of approval. The councils complained that we were killing them with red tape and asked us to do something. I am thinking of Wheatland County and Stettler County, I believe, from which I received letters asking me to do something about this.

The opposition comes and says they are killing the fisheries. That is not a fact. That is rhetoric. We are delivering requests that Canadians have made to this and former governments over the years. We are responding in Bill C-38.

Obviously, I support the budget. I looked at some of the amendments. When we have 800 and some amendments we are not going to read through all of them, but I did look at some of them. I found it disappointing. It was blatantly obvious that what the opposition members were trying to do was not make the bill better. They would say we cannot make the bill better, so we have to scrap it, but they were going to try to amend it. Basically what they were doing was simply stalling everything they could. Of the amendments I read there was nothing really helpful to specific sections of the bill. They were all basically just trying to stall at every juncture. They were trying to change every point the government was trying to accomplish in the bill.

The opposition parties had their opportunity to go forward with their political high tax, high debt agenda. They offered their plan to Canadians in April 2011, and in May Canadians voted our Conservative government to a strong majority position in the House. Canadians wanted us to get the job done.

Some of the opposition members are suggesting we have gone too far. I chair a committee, and I sat through the last Parliament. Although I think most committees are working fairly well, and I will give the NDP and Liberals credit where it is due, in the last Parliament we would do a study and we would sit through the whole time and at the last possible moment they would come in and completely change the report, not to what we said, but they pushed their agenda through.

This here is not the type that tries to push something through. This was debated more than any other budget implementation bill in the past.

We were elected to govern and we intend to govern. We intend to govern in the best interests of all Canadians. It is a tough task. How are we going to satisfy everyone? The bill is not going to be stalled only for the sake of stalling.

A lot of governments are gridlocked right now. This government does not want to be gridlocked, but we do want strong, wholesome debate. We have had it; now let us move on with the vote.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:40 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Speaker, I listened to my Conservative colleague talk about people in rural areas and the environment. He said he has heard from people in municipalities, councillors and so on, who told him to get rid of all the red tape. They did not want a guy from Calgary coming down to sign a piece of paper and go back. I hope the person from Calgary was not just coming in to sign a piece of paper. I hope he was doing his job and looking at whether the part about the environment was right or not. Is the member not worried about that?

People will feel free to do anything. Some will want to start a business, never mind the environment, never mind the red tape, never mind listening to the experts. They will just go ahead and do it.

The population will not accept that. People will not accept an environmental assessment not being done, and that is what the bill would do. Bill C-38 proposes to bypass any environmental assessment, which is not good for our planet and is not acceptable.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Kevin Sorenson Conservative Crowfoot, AB

Mr. Speaker, let me assure my friend from the New Democratic Party that is not the government's intent. We would not support it if it meant there would be no environmental review, if it meant people could do whatever they wanted, as he has just suggested. I dare say the member would not find anyone on this side of the House who would accept that. That is not what this legislation proposes to do.

Bill C-38 would ensure that no conflicting departments would be doing separate reviews. When there is a project, there would be an environmental review, there would be an environmental assessment. Many of these deal with small culverts, small projects that in the past have been handcuffed. The red tape did not stall a lot of the projects, but it added a huge cost for our municipalities.

We want to see that environmental assessments are done but not one environmental assessment and then another environmental assessment and then another department with an environmental assessment. We want to see one project, one assessment, and then we can proceed. That is how jobs are created, that is how an economy is kept strong, and that is how we encourage our municipalities to better the communities in which Canadians reside.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:45 p.m.

Liberal

Lise St-Denis Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

Mr. Speaker, it is true that environmental assessments were conducted at two levels, both provincially and federally, and that a number of departments were involved in the process. However, the federal departments had already been grouped under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

In cases where there are problems that fall exclusively under federal jurisdiction, for example with respect to the protection of fish species, will the provincial government, which wants to immediately launch a very specific project, be able to respect the environmental assessments that used to be conducted by the federal government?

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Kevin Sorenson Conservative Crowfoot, AB

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be part of a government that is encouraged and proud of the significant steps it has taken to enhance responsible resource development.

Augustana, a small satellite university of the University of Alberta, is in Camrose in my riding. During the last election campaign many of the environmental students there stopped by my constituency office with questions for me. Some of them ended up being good supporters of mine. When I asked them where they would be working when they finished, most of them said they wanted to work for oil companies or resource companies so they could be certain that the proper environmental assessments and standards are adhered to. Most young environmental students do not end up working with some environmental group that protests every project to ever come along, regardless. Most of them want to work for resource companies so they can see that the wise environmental practices are carried out in those companies.

I want to assure the hon. member across the way that we are proud of what we want to do.

The member talked about the fishery. We want to see the fishery grow, but we do not necessarily want to see the department in downtown Calgary grow.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, it is my great pleasure to rise in the House today to speak in favour of Bill C-38, the jobs, growth and long-term prosperity act. The budget we introduced on March 29 is a moderate budget that keeps us on a strong fiscal track to balance the budget by the 2015-16 fiscal year.

On the weekend I was reading a story, Chicken Little, to my young daughter. In the story, a leaf falls from a tree and lands on the little chicken's head, and the chicken thinks the sky is falling. My daughter was very intrigued by this story, and we started to talk a little about it. I was curious about the origins of the story.

We went on to Google, looked and did a little research. We found that there is such a thing as a Chicken Little syndrome. I have to say that the first thing I thought about when I read about Chicken Little syndrome was the NDP. I dug out a definition. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Chicken LIttle syndrome is “one who warns of or predicts calamity especially without justification”.

That pretty much describes what the NDP is all about. It seems to be frozen in perturbation. What I mean by that is if we go back in the NDP history, back to J. S. Woodsworth, to Coldwell, to Douglas, to these great giants who were leaders, they—even Hazen Argue, the only NDPer ever appointed to the Senate, although he did switch to be a Liberal upon appointment—worked with the governments of the day. They were not destructive entities within the House. They did not oppose for the sake of opposing.

I had a number of calls from constituents over the end of last week and throughout the weekend. They said to me, “Mark, what is the opposition up to?”

When I was canvassing last year, on this side of the House we promised the people we would go to Ottawa and would sweat and bleed for them. We would work our hearts out for the people. We would not play games of process and procedure.

This is what the NDP does. The NDP and its Liberal partners stop us from doing the work of the people, the people who sent us here in a strong, stable, national Conservative majority government. The NDP members talk about how they did not have enough time to examine the budget. I sit on the finance committee, and we had 50 hours of debate on the budget. We had a subcommittee that looked into the budget for 20 hours.

If we combine the total hours of debate on the previous seven budgets, this budget has received twice as much debate. Absolutely, wow. The member for Burnaby—New Westminster consumed 13 hours reading Twitters from his mother, and he restricted 27 members—

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. In all fairness, I love fantasy and fiction as much as anybody, but the member needs to be careful about what the member for Burnaby—New Westminster was talking about. It was the failure of the budget. I want that on the record. This member is just making things up.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

That is not a point of order.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member across the way has just brought up this point of order, but in fact he constantly heckles, and I am having great difficulty hearing my own colleague. I would ask that he respect the parliamentary procedures of the House.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Mr. Speaker, I was listening to him. That is why I stood up to tell him he had to correct the record, because he was making big—

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

Order, please.

The hon. member for York Centre.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I will move on.

The budget is built on four pillars. One of them is trade. Since 2006, we on this side of the House have negotiated nine free trade agreements. We have a number of others in the hopper, free trade agreements that the NDP opposition opposes each and every time.

Free trade, as we all know, creates jobs, and Canadians want jobs. We have provided, since July 2009 and the end of the recession, 760,000 new jobs. We are the only country in the G8 that has recovered all of the jobs lost during the recession.

The second pillar is resource development. We are stripping away needless regulation, needless red tape, so that projects can get approved in a timely manner, because if they do not, the investment goes elsewhere.

The NDP does not care about that. They were down in Washington just a few months ago saying, “Forget about the oil sands. We think we should shut that down”.

The third is—

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

Order, please.

Before I go to the member for Timmins—James Bay, I would like to remind all hon. members that disagreeing with something that another member has said is not in itself a point of order. The last time the member rose on the facts that had been raised.

I am not prejudging this time. The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Mr. Speaker, the issue is about misrepresenting facts in Parliament.

That is what we are here to do. The Conservatives call us out all the time if they think we are off the line. I am asking him to speak truthfully, as opposed to misrepresenting facts in the House. That is something we all have to respect. We cannot just make things up and attribute them to people. That is an abuse of his position.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Barry Devolin

I would ask all hon. members to obey the rules of Parliament. That said, disagreement over the facts is considered debate.

I would ask the hon. member for York Centre to continue.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, the third pillar is major investments in research and development and the fourth is the immigration system. We are going to redesign the immigration system so that it meets the needs of the 21st century workforce here in Canada. It is going to meet labour needs.

There has been some talk about the OAS. The OAS is not an entitlement and it is not the CPP. It is a social program. We are sustaining the OAS for younger people so that when it comes to reap the benefits of OAS, it will be there for them.

I will read an extract that I found recently. I will attribute the source in a moment. It is called “Meeting Canada's Demographic Challenge”:

The Canadian population is growing older—first, because our birth rate for the past three decades has been below replacement rate. And second, because the post-war baby boom is about to hit retirement age. The implication of this is significant—fewer workers supporting more seniors. By 2015, Canada's domestic labour force will actually start to shrink.... This transformation entails everything from increased demands on health and other public services to potential skills shortages in key sectors across the country.

This is from the 2006 “Securing Canada's Success” Liberal Party platform.

The Liberal Party claims that we do not have a demographic challenge; well, the Liberals seemed to recognize one six years ago.

It is clear that when we on this side of the House see opportunity, for us it is equality of opportunity. On the other side of the House, they see opportunity of condition, opportunity of outcome. We want to create jobs for Canadians, investment for Canadians and a quality of life for Canadians that is second to none in this world.

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

5 p.m.

NDP

Sadia Groguhé NDP Saint-Lambert, QC

Mr. Speaker, we have pointed out that Bill C-38 is a real Trojan horse. I would like to remind the hon. members of what a Trojan horse originally was: it was a ruse to deceive an enemy. With Bill C-38, Canadians are being deceived.

This government claims that its budget focuses on job creation, but everything in the bill demonstrates the opposite. Last April, the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed that the Conservatives' austerity budget would result in the loss of 43,000 jobs and would slow Canada's economic recovery.

Can the hon. member tell us why he continues to talk a lot of nonsense about job creation when the outcome will clearly be a loss for our economy?

Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity ActGovernment Orders

5 p.m.

Conservative

Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the opposition member is missing here. The World Economic Forum, the OECD, Forbes magazine and every recognized major economic institution around the world has said that Canada is the best place to do business, has the strongest economy of the G8 and is the strongest in job creation. There have been 760,000 net new jobs that have been created since July 2009. I really do not know what the opposition is missing here.

We have a plan that is working. Our Prime Minister is down at the G20 in Mexico right now, and world leaders are asking him what Canada's secret is.

I was in business before I got here. I was in Hong Kong and I was in the business of getting people to come in and speak. Two years ago, in Hong Kong, they wanted to know what Canada's secret was and why we were doing so well. They said they needed to know.

It is practical, on-the-ground business experience that the NDP certainly lacks. I encourage them to get some.