Debates of March 5th, 2013

Jack Layton

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the inspiring story of the late Jack Layton, the former leader of the federal NDP and my predecessor in Toronto—Danforth, is captured in a brand new movie, which is simply and appropriately titled Jack.

It is a moving film about a man's love for Canadians and Canada and his eternal optimism that by working together, we can build a better country.

As my friend Jack used to say, if we work together, we can create a fairer and more equitable Canada.

The movie will be airing this Sunday, March 10, at 8 p.m. across the country, and at 8:30 p.m. on the east coast.

I would like to salute the efforts of the producer of the movie, Laszlo Barna, his immensely talented crew and the CBC for making the movie possible. It is my sincere hope and belief that Jack's story and this movie will motivate us all to work together for a better and more caring society.

As Jack said, “Let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic and we will change the world.”

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

[John Carmichael, Conservative, Don Valley West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the occasion of Canada assuming the position of chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The IHRA is an inter-governmental body comprising government officials and experts from 31 countries to support Holocaust remembrance, research and education. Our Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism is attending the handover ceremony in Berlin today.

On the initiative of our Prime Minister, Canada became actively involved with the IHRA in 2007, and we became a full member in 2009. We can all be proud of Canada's leading role in Holocaust education, fighting anti-Semitism and sharing best practices with other countries.

We must never let our guard down against the pernicious evil of anti-Semitism. The Holocaust stands as history's greatest atrocity. Thus it remains essential that we ensure that such hatred and prejudice will never again rise to such an extreme.

Frontier College

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 100th anniversary of Frontier College in Nova Scotia.

Frontier College, a national volunteer-based literacy organization, was founded by Alfred Fitzpatrick, who felt passionate about bringing literacy skills to workers in logging camps, mines or railway lines.

The mission of helping new Canadians improve their language skills continues today. Volunteers still work with children, youth, adults and aboriginal communities to improve literacy skills. As its motto says, literacy is learning for life. I know the House will want to congratulate Frontier College as it marks 100 years of helping Nova Scotians learn to read and write.

New Democratic Party of Canada

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Keystone XL pipeline project passed a really important hurdle last week. Conservatives know that it will add to our economic prosperity by creating thousands of jobs on Canadian soil. No wonder thousands of workers are lining up behind the project, including Christopher Smillie, of the AFL-CIO's Canadian building trades, who testified at committee last week.

Calgarians certainly know. I have constituents waiting, sitting unemployed, for this project to be given the green light, so why does the NDP not get it? The NDP pretends to stand up for Canadian workers and families, but really, it is branding this entire sector a disease. They are risking thousands of jobs, and, unbelievably, fighting against this job-creating project. The NDP has turned its back on Canadians and their families.

To the Canadian workers who count on Canada's resource sector for their livelihoods, we say, workers unite behind the Conservative government to build Canada, create jobs and ensure long-term prosperity.

Employment Insurance

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we knew that the Conservatives were harassing unemployed workers with home visits and that they even question the delivery dates of new mothers. Now we have learned that they have spy classes to teach their employees how to shadow unemployed Canadians.

What is next? Hidden cameras in employment insurance paperwork? GPS bracelets to track the unemployed?

Instead of investing in job creation and training, the Conservatives have created their own mini CIA to keep track of unemployed workers.

Workers are sick and tired of being treated like criminals and fraudsters, while real criminals, like Arthur Porter, are being rewarded by the Conservatives.

Workers know that the NDP stands up for them. They are going to give the Conservatives their due at the next election.

To paraphrase Vigneault, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

Perhaps they do not even realize it—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for Scarborough Centre.

New Democratic Party of Canada

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last week the NDP was surprised by the fact that its housing plan would cost a whopping $5.5 billion. One would think by now that the official opposition would actually know how much a proposal would cost Canadian taxpayers before putting it forward, but unfortunately, this is not the first time. They have put forward other risky spending schemes, like the 45-day work year that would cost Canadians almost $4 billion.

NDP members just do not seem to do their homework when it comes to spending taxpayers' dollars, but they certainly do their homework when trying to take our dollars. In their last platform, written in black and white, they proposed a carbon tax that would generate revenues of over $20 billion. Canadians do not want a carbon tax that would raise the cost on everything they need to support their families, and they certainly do not want risky spending schemes at a time of economic uncertainty. That is why Conservatives will continue to oppose risky spending and the NDP's $20-billion carbon tax.

Employment Insurance

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, as if being interrogated by the Conservatives' secret police were not enough, now employment insurance claimants are being spied on as well.

Inspectors are being told to tail and observe honest job seekers. Inspectors hiding out in their cars say that, in general, there is no wrongdoing to report. The Conservatives are spending more on spying than they are recovering from fraud.

Can the Prime Minister tell us how many honest people have suffered this invasion of privacy?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we are committed to ensuring that employment insurance is available when workers lose their jobs and are not able to find other employment.

Public servants have long been called upon to ensure that the employment insurance fund is used for people who really need it. The methods designed to guarantee that the fund is used properly have been in place for a long time. They ensure that those who are really unemployed can use the funds when they need them.

Finance

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister announces changes to mortgage rules and then reverses them. The finance minister announces changes to skilled training programs and then reverses them, all without warning, all without consultation, all at great cost. It is no wonder that senior public servants from the finance minister's own office are now calling his actions “a disgrace and an insult to Parliament”.

If the finance minister cannot manage his own department, then how can the Prime Minister expect him to manage Canada's economy?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Canada is very lucky to have the most successful finance minister in the world. That has been recognized by experts in this field around the world and is backed by the performance of the Canadian economy. In spite of the tremendous difficulties that continue to exist, the global uncertainty, the Canadian economy has managed to created 900,000 net new jobs since the end of the recession, and that is due, in no small measure, to the good efforts of the Minister of Finance.

Ethics

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister lobbied the CRTC on behalf of a Conservative donor, a grave breach of ethics. Now officials from his own department are calling him gravely incompetent as well.

When a minister under Brian Mulroney phoned a judge, he was dropped from cabinet. When a minister under Jean Chrétien lobbied the CRTC, he was dropped from cabinet. When the Prime Minister's own aboriginal affairs minister recently wrote a letter to Tax Court, he was dropped from cabinet. Why is the Prime Minister blind to his finance minister's repeated and inexcusable failures, and why do the rules of Parliament not apply to him?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the real question is why the NDP and its leader are blind not just to the achievements of the Minister of Finance but to the superior performance of the Canadian economy. The Canadian economy is part of the global economy that continues to have significant challenges, but we are very fortunate to live in this country and very fortunate to have the firm and steady direction that has been given by the Minister of Finance over these years.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, one of the main reasons we are lucky to live in this country is we have stable institutions based on rules that apply to everyone.

The Prime Minister has just invented a new rule: if someone is competent, the old rules do not apply. Will he publish a list of ministers he continues to consider competent compared to his aboriginal affairs minister, whom he fired, so we will know which ones keep their jobs when they break the rules?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, let me use this opportunity to thank the former minister of aboriginal affairs for his strong work.

We have stable institutions in this country, which have been enhanced by this government, and also democratic institutions, and we are very proud to have received three mandates from the Canadian people.

Employment Insurance

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are playing fast and loose with the rules, and now they are playing fast and loose with training dollars.

This money comes out of the EI fund, out of the pockets of workers and employers. This is not the government's money. The government is removing training dollars, making substantial changes to the training program, all without proper consultation.

Since the government is spending millions sending investigators to the doorsteps of EI claimants, why does it not take the opportunity to start consulting them instead of interrogating them like criminals?

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, our government is consulting with Canadians from coast to coast to coast in preparation for economic action plan 2013, the budget, which will include positive initiatives to create jobs, growth and long-term prosperity.

I will not speculate on the contents of the budget other than that.

Intergovernmental Relations

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, two former officials of the Minister of Finance's department have criticized, deeply, the pattern of secrecy and the abuse of Parliament by the government.

The question is, now that the cat is out of the bag with respect to the $2 billion program which the government is intending to recapture and take away from the provinces, does the Prime Minister not agree that it is now time to consult, not broadly, simply saying it is consulting with all Canadians at all times, but to sit down with the provinces and talk about this program before the government suddenly announces it, springing it on the people of—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The Right Hon. Prime Minister.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Finance said, it would be premature to speculate on the contents of the budget. The government has obviously been consulting widely across the country.

In terms of the government's record on transparency of accounts, rather than cite the partisan report that the leader of the Liberal Party cites, let me cite the non-partisan C.D. Howe, which has looked at this and said that not only—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, order. The Right Hon. Prime Minister still has the floor.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Calgary Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, not only does the C.D. Howe recently have a very detailed report on how this government has more transparent public accounts than at any time in history, it is more transparent than any other senior government in the country.

Public Safety

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the political neutrality of the chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, a position Mr. Porter held, has been monitored very closely by both Ms. Gauthier and Mr. Filmon, who are both former chairs.

First of all, can the Prime Minister explain why Mr. Porter completely broke with this tradition? Can he explain once again how the security system and the security reviews have been changed by this government?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, security reviews for this organization have not been weakened by this government; on the contrary, these processes have been strengthened by this government.

Obviously, as the Liberal Party leader knows quite well, the allegations are not linked to the former federal responsibilities of this individual.