Debates of May 7th, 2013

Government Advertising

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, by offering a disappointing budget that raises taxes on the middle class and does nothing to help Canadians find work, the Conservatives have shown yet again that they are out of touch.

With a new round of wasteful government ads, they demonstrate once again their lack of competence in their spending.

Can the Prime Minister offer any examples of Canadians who have actually told him that they would like their tax dollars spent on more government budget ads?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, what Canadians clearly have told this party in three successive general elections is that, unlike the Liberal government, we want to see taxes lowered in this country. That is why they are now $3,000 lower for every Canadian family in this country.

We keep waiting to hear some positive and substantive ideas from the leader of the Liberal Party. In the absence of those, I would urge him to look at the important measures in the budget and, rather than defend special tax breaks for Chinese companies, actually stand on the side of Canadians here.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is becoming obvious that, rather than helping Canadians, the government would rather continue to spin Canadians.

Canadians have been inundated with these famous action plan ads for four years now.

When is the government going to stop wasting taxpayers' money on ads during Hockey Night in Canada?

When are Canadians going to get a real plan from this government, one that recognizes the challenges the middle class is facing and addresses their economic problems?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are very proud of Canada's economic performance during a very difficult period in the global economy.

Canadians want this government to continue to lower taxes and oppose the tax increases being proposed by the opposition parties, including the Liberal Party of Canada.

We have reduced taxes by $3,000 per family, and we will continue to do so.

Science and Technology

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in their war against science, the Conservatives have decided to cut funding for Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Statistics Canada and the Experimental Lakes Area.

They recently decided to change the mandate of the NRC, which is going to have to move away from basic research. Research will now serve the needs of industry. Considering the Conservatives' priorities when it comes to industry, we have cause for concern. Worse yet, this government that is muzzling scientists is also going to tell them what to do.

Why have the Conservatives decided to cut basic research?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Minister of State (Science and Technology) (Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario)]

Mr. Speaker, no such thing is happening. Actually, this is a very exciting day for Canadian innovation.

The NRC is refocusing to help Canadian businesses stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's most innovative and competitive companies. Refocusing one of our councils will help create high-quality jobs, economic growth, long-term prosperity and a better quality of life for all Canadians.

Our government has made all science a priority. We have increased funding in every single budget, and the opposition has voted against it every single time.

[Kennedy Stewart, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we will vote against their budgets every single time they cut basic science, and we will keep doing it.

I would like to remind the government that it is the National Research Council, not the commercial application council.

For the Conservatives, if research has no immediate commercial viability, they do not consider it worth doing, but the fact is that many revolutionary scientific advancements that benefit people today, such as the human genome project, started as basic scientific research.

How can the Conservatives be so short-sighted? How can they turn their backs on important research that will now go unfinished?

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Minister of State (Science and Technology) (Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario)]

Mr. Speaker, we are taking steps to ensure that the National Research Council remains a world-class organization that is responsive to industry and generates jobs and growth for Canadians.

Our government has a science and technology strategy. Independent studies have placed us fourth in the world because of that strategy. The NDP has no strategy. In fact when that member, the science critic, asked his party for its policy on science and technology, he was recently quoted as saying, “They showed me a big blank page”.

Science is not for amateurs.

Ethics

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

Mr. Speaker, Liberal Senator Mac Harb and Conservative-appointed Patrick Brazeau are being forced to pay back $130,000 they ripped off from taxpayers. Like Mike Duffy, their laughable excuse is that they could not understand how to fill out a simple housing form.

When an ordinary Canadian makes a false claim and gets money to which he or she is not entitled, the government calls it fraud.

Why is the government supporting the entitlements of their unelected, unaccountable and unethical senators? Why are there no penalties for ripping off the Canadian taxpayer?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, we are committed to ensuring that all expenses are appropriate and that any monies that were incorrectly claimed will be paid back.

The Senate committee will review the audit, and of course that will be released to the public shortly.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, $130,000 in fraudulent claims is shameful, and the Conservatives need to take this situation more seriously.

On Thursday morning, the senators will hold a little meeting to decide whether they should hand over the reports on this attempted fraud to the RCMP.

Fellow senators are responsible for deciding whether a senator—Liberal or Conservative—should be charged with fraud. That is absolutely ridiculous.

The worst is that the Conservatives are not doing anything to put a stop to this theft by their cronies.

Will they send a clear message to their party friends in the Senate and hand these cases of fraud over to the RCMP as soon as possible?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, our message is clear: we are committed to ensuring that all expenses are appropriate, and we expect all of the incorrectly claimed money to be reimbursed after the audit is complete.

Employment

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on another subject, the Conservatives were negligent with respect to abuses of the temporary foreign worker program.

Documents released by the media show that the minister was advised almost a year ago. A year. For a year, employers were bringing in temporary foreign workers to fill positions even when qualified unemployed Canadian workers were available.

Why did the government wait so long to reform the temporary foreign worker program? Why was the government so lax?

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

Mr. Speaker, the immigration minister and I have been talking about this problem for a year now.

That is exactly why we made changes to the employment insurance system and why we are making changes to the temporary foreign worker program.

In budget 2012, changes were made to better connect employers with unemployed workers so that employers could find the workers they need and unemployed workers could find jobs. Unfortunately, the NDP voted against all of those initiatives.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister will use any excuse. She will do anything she can so that she does not have to admit that she made a mistake and that the Conservatives' temporary foreign worker program was flawed.

The Minister of Human Resources received a memo on May 29, 2012, that said that hundreds of foreign workers were arriving in Alberta to work as food counter attendants, while hundreds of Albertans with similar work experience continued to be unemployed.

Why did the minister not do anything after receiving that memo?

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

Mr. Speaker, we introduced changes to the employment insurance system and we are introducing changes to the temporary foreign worker program precisely because of such situations, which still exist.

We want to prevent such situations, which is why we introduced changes.

Meanwhile, the NDP continues to write us letters asking for temporary foreign workers in their regions and ridings where the unemployment rate is often very high. That does not make any sense.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, not a single member of the NDP asked for a Canadian to lose his job; that is what the Conservatives are doing.

Last May, the memo to the minister stated, “...employers are hiring temporary foreign workers in the same occupation and location as Canadians who are collecting EI”. She ignored this memo, ignored the warnings and ignored unemployed Canadians.

Why does it always take a media scandal for Conservatives to fix the messes they create?

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

Mr. Speaker, in fact we recognized this problem a year ago before that. We have been talking about it publicly since. In fact, that is exactly why we introduced changes to the employment insurance and temporary foreign workers programs. It was so that employers are now aware of unemployed who are qualified for the jobs they are trying to fill and the unemployed are now aware of the jobs that people are trying to bring in temporary foreign workers for. We connect the two. That makes sense.

However, the NDP members opposed that. Not only that, but they continue to write us asking—demanding, in fact—more temporary foreign workers in their own ridings to fill jobs, even though the unemployment rate can be in the double digits.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is the unemployed Canadians who have paid the price for Conservative mismanagement. This memo came from the deputy minister and clearly stated that temporary foreign workers were taking away Canadian jobs. While the Minister of Immigration feigned outrage at the abuse of the program, it was in fact his own colleague's inaction on the warning she received that was the real problem.

Did the immigration minister ever bring his concerns to his colleagues, and why did his government fail to act to protect jobs for Canadians over a year ago?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Mr. Speaker, today's NDP is so far behind the curve it does not even know that we were citing exactly this memo and these data in speeches and interviews a year ago.

I talked about precisely this memo and precisely these data a year ago to underscore the absurdity of employers not finding local employees in regions of high unemployment but instead looking abroad for workers.

This is exactly why the government brought in the reforms to the EI system: to ensure that every effort is being made to hire unemployed Canadians before going abroad. Why did it take a year for the NDP to catch up with reality?

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Speaker, approximately two months ago, I went to see the immigration minister—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst has the floor.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Speaker, approximately two months ago, I went to see the immigration minister. I told him that people from the Acadian peninsula wanted to go work in Alberta, but that the problem was that companies there were hiring people who did not speak French or English.

The minister told me to go and see the Minister of Human Resources, and so I told her about the problem. What did she do? Absolutely nothing.

The people in my region are not slackers and they are not lazy. They want to go work but, instead, the Conservatives are bringing in temporary foreign workers to do the jobs that Canadians should be doing. It is not right.

When will the minister do her job and employ Canadians instead of foreign workers?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Mr. Speaker, the wise words of this member and his reputation for substance and wisdom—