Debates of March 4th, 2013

The Economy

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

Mr. Speaker, the answer to the economy certainly is not the Liberals, with a question, obviously, as misguided as that.

The fact is, the Canadian economy is doing very well. If you look, in fact, at the numbers that just came out, Canada is leading the G7 in job growth. Canada is leading the G7 in economic growth. Of course, we do wish the numbers were stronger than they are, but the fact is that Canada and our government has made the right decisions that are in the interests of everyday taxpayers.

What we see across the country, in every region of this country, is that Canadians are doing better than they were before. We are moving forward. We are continuing to lower taxes. We are continuing to create jobs, and we will see our next economic action plan when we table the budget very soon.

Employment Insurance

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Inspector Clouseau might as well be in charge of the Senate investigation. But Javert is the one in charge of dealing with the unemployed.

My question for the government is very simple: does it acknowledge the issues that were revealed last week? Does it accept that as a standard for Canadians and Canadian democracy?

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

Mr. Speaker, the way we are protecting our employment insurance system is nothing new. It was created in 1993. It is the old system that the Liberal Party put in place to protect our employment insurance system when it was in power.

In light of the current economic climate, we are protecting the integrity of the system and investing in our communities for the people who need this system and this assistance.

Public Safety

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, another clear example of the double standard is with respect to the lack of security clearances for people serving the population of Canada. We not only have the case of Dr. Porter, who said that he did not have an extensive security clearance. We also have the cases of Bruce Carson and the appointment of Senator Brazeau. This was not the case prior to 2006. I can speak personally about two top security clearances in 1998 and 2005.

Why did the government loosen the standard with respect to security clearance for some of the most important and significant jobs serving the Canadian public?

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

Mr. Speaker, it simply is not true. We have not loosened them. We have actually, in fact, strengthened the standards, because we understand that these positions are—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, order. The hon. Minister of Canadian Heritage has the floor now.

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

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the allegations are, of course, entirely false. With regard specifically to Mr. Porter, of course, the allegations against Mr. Porter have nothing to do with the time in which he was a federal government appointee, and he left that post some time ago.

Ethics

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

Mr. Speaker, now we have Senator Boisvenu, the latest senator to declare that gouging thousands of taxpayer dollars in a housing allowance is nobody's business. Just like Wallin or Duffy, we are supposed to just trust him. Really?

There is no institution in this world that pays out thousands of dollars based on your word without any documentation or receipts. Do they really think the honour systems cuts it when we are talking about the Senate? Are Patrick Brazeau or Pamela Wallin doing a pinkie swear as enough of a standard of accountability for this government?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is ironic that they choose that particular member to speak on their behalf on ethical issues, when it was just this month that he was singled out for gerrymandering the electoral redistribution process. He is one of only two MPs in all of Canada who the independent commission took the unprecedented step to single out for inappropriate conduct. Perhaps the first thing he could do before asking questions of ethics is to stand in the House and apologize to his constituents and to Parliament.

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

Mr. Speaker, I will give the hon. member a map of northern Ontario and invite him to come up and see what real constituents are like.

This is a government that promised Canadians—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

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

Mr. Speaker, I know the wounds are starting to hurt them from the lack of accountability and from the fact that the Prime Minister promised Canadians that he would clean up the Senate and he would end the cesspool in Ottawa. What did he give us? He hired jailbird Bruce Carson to his inner circle. He gave us the $7-million Patrick Brazeau. Now we have Arthur Porter on the run from the cops internationally, and people are asking, “How did he get to the top position of the Security Intelligence Review Committee?”

This is about the judgment of the Prime Minister. What happened to that zealot who promised that he was going to clean up this place?

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

Mr. Speaker, now we have a little window into the NDP member's thinking. He says that constituents in my community are not “real constituents”.

He would know a little better about the real people on the ground if he actually listened to the people to whom he made the promise that he would scrap the $1-billion long-gun registry, the real constituents he looked in the eye election after election, the hard-working hunters and farmers who have upheld the generations-long tradition of hunting and trapping that go back to our aboriginal people. Those are the real people of Canada to whom he should be listening.

Parliamentary Budget Officer

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, partisan appointments do nothing more than reward party cronies at Canadians' expense. In exchange, these cronies must be at the government's beck and call.

The Prime Minister is using his Senate to put a stop to the legal proceedings initiated by Kevin Page.

The Senate, which is not accountable to anyone, does not want Kevin Page to get the documents he needs to do his job.

Why are the Conservatives using the Senate to strong-arm Kevin Page?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, that particular individual's term is nearly up. What I can tell the hon. member is that there is a process in place that is designed to find a credible, non-partisan replacement for that particular individual. That process is taking place at this 100-plus-year-old institution called the Library of Parliament. We expect that process to continue, and we will respect that process.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, while Conservatives defend Senate entitlements, it is the NDP that is looking after Canadians taxpayers.

The deputy leader of the government in the Senate claims that Page is overstepping his mandate when he helps MPs with fiscal oversight. Kevin Page's legal case is all about ensuring fiscal accountability, but the Senate is threatening to shut the Parliamentary Budget Officer down.

What will the government do to stand up for taxpayers and stop this undemocratic charade, and will the government call off its senators?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker I am somewhat taken aback. The hon. member stands in her place, claiming to be for the taxpayers. The NDP voted just last week for a $5.5-billion hike in spending by the government, on top of $56 billion of promises last year, on top of a $21-billion carbon tax hike. The NDP cannot speak for the taxpayers ever.

Employment Insurance

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the senators are the ones who should be out of a job, not Kevin Page.

Last week, we received leaked documents that detailed the intrusive questions asked by inspectors during home visits.

It was like reading an interrogation manual. Employment insurance claimants are presumed guilty of fraud and have no way of proving their innocence.

Why does the Prime Minister not take the unemployed at their word, as he does senators? Why the double standard?

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

Mr. Speaker, Service Canada is responsible for protecting the system's integrity so that Canadians who pay their premiums can receive benefits when they need them.

The department successfully stopped half a billion dollars' worth of ineligible payments last year.

However, the employment insurance system still lost hundreds of millions of dollars to fraud.

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the minister is more interested in intimidating Canadians than she is in helping them get the services they need. The government's own documents show a $36 million cut to citizen-centred services, but its infamous pogey police are getting a whopping $35 million budget increase.

Just like her talking points, the minister's priorities are all wrong. If she is serious about weeding out ineligible claims, why will she not reinvest in the services that help Canadians and support the front-line workers who help Canadians fill out the forms correctly in the first place?

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

Mr. Speaker, Service Canada has a responsibility to find and to stop inappropriate claims so that Canadians who have paid into the EI system have the benefits available to them when they need them. The department has in fact stopped almost $500,000 in inadmissible claims over the last year. Despite that, hundreds of millions of dollars were still lost to fraud.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Mr. Speaker, let us be fair. I am sure the Conservatives would send inspectors to the doorsteps of senators, if they could find out where they live.

Under the Conservative watch, we have seen 27,000 jobs lost in Ontario's forestry sector, mill after mill shut down in northern Ontario, but instead of asking how can we help, Conservatives send out Service Canada employees with a clipboard and a quota.

It's a very simple question. Why have Conservatives abandoned our industries, abandoned our workers and abandoned our region?

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

Mr. Speaker, thanks to our economic action plan, 900,000 net new jobs have been created across this country since the depths of the recession. We have made changes so that we can better support workers who have lost their jobs, through no fault of their own, to get back into the labour market. We want to make sure that Canadians understand that when they need it, employment insurance will be there for them.