Debates of Feb. 11th, 2014

Democratic Reform

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, a student card is an acceptable form of identification according to Elections Canada. However, one out of six voter information cards contains mistakes. That is too many.

An episode of the television program Infoman showed two people voting twice with these cards. The episode was called “Elections Canada's two for one”. We will not allow this kind of electoral fraud to continue. We will protect our electoral system.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it would be nice if the minister had his facts straight. A student can vote only if the student card shows an address. Not all student cards show an address. I know that for a fact.

There is another problem with the new bill. Limiting the authority of the Chief Electoral Officer to communicate information to the public ensures that any research and surveys conducted to shed light on voter behaviour will be useless. This information can no longer be released. However, scientific data plays a truly important role in understanding voter behaviour and changing strategies to promote participation.

Can the Conservatives explain why they are opposed to research and surveys that shed light on voter behaviour?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, the member's interpretation of the changes that would come to section 18 of the Canada Elections Act is in fact false. The purpose of those changes is to focus Elections Canada's purchased advertising on the basics of voting: where, when, and what ID to bring.

Why is that important? It is because one-quarter of young people, according to Elections Canada, fail to vote because they are not aware of how, where, or when to do so. Half of the young people are not even aware that they can vote before elections day. They need that information to exercise their democratic right. We will make sure they get it.

[Alexandrine Latendresse, NDP, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister can try to hoodwink us all he likes, but it was the Chief Electoral Officer himself who explained the problem. He said: “These reports will no longer be available. In fact, not only not available. I don't think it will be done at all”.

Why do the Conservatives believe that Elections Canada should not do scientific research and share its findings on the conduct of elections?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, according to sections 533, 534 and 535 of the Canada Elections Act, the Chief Electoral Officer will not only be authorized to continue to communicate with Canadians, he will be required to do so.

The changes we are making to section 18 would focus Elections Canada's ads on the facts that are important to Canadians: where to vote, how to vote, what ID to bring and what special tools are available to help Canadians with disabilities vote.

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

Mr. Speaker, the Neufeld report to Elections Canada outlined procedural problems that the Elections Act calls “irregularities”. These are due to staff making mistakes on election day, like a small mistake in filling out a form when a voter is being vouched for. However, Neufeld never even came close to saying these irregularities constituted, led to, or represented a serious risk of fraud.

Why is the minister constantly misrepresenting these statistics?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, this is what Neufeld actually said:

Serious errors, of a type courts consider “irregularities” that can contribute to an election being overturned, were found to occur in 12 percent of all Election Day cases involving voter registration, and 42 percent of cases involving identity vouching.

I have said before that in four ridings that were audited by the Neufeld commission, it found a 25% error rate, but when it audited the whole country, that rate actually rose to 42%, an astounding and very troubling number.

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

Mr. Speaker, as justices Rothstein and Moldaver of the Supreme Court said in the contested election decision on Etobicoke Centre, “The procedural safeguards in the Act are important; however, they should not be treated as ends in themselves”.

As I think the minister knows, the right to vote is protected by the Charter of Rights, the only limits being citizenship and where a voter lives. Given these facts, why does the minister think this legislation, particularly removing vouching, is actually constitutional?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, what Mr. Neufeld actually said in his report, when he defined irregularities, was that those irregularities were “serious errors”—his words, not mine. He said, “An 'irregularity' is a failure by an election officer to administer safeguards demonstrating that a voter is entitled to receive a ballot”.

These irregularities occurred in over 50,000 cases across the entire country. Furthermore, the report finds they cannot be solved by minor administrative changes. In fact, we need big changes and that is what I propose in the fair elections act.

The Economy

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today the average Canadian owes an all-time high of $1.64 for every dollar she or he earns. Middle-class Canadians are borrowing more because they are earning less. We have seen this story before. As in the United States before the financial crisis, ballooning personal debt is masking our economy's underlying weakness.

Why has the government built our economy on this unstable mountain of personal debt, and what is it doing to move us to a more sustainable footing?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we clearly do not want Canadians to be overextended. We have cautioned Canadians repeatedly that interest rates are at an all-time low and will inevitably increase. Our priority is ensuring that Canadians can make informed financial decisions, unlike the NDP and the Liberals, who have voted against every single piece of consumer protection legislation our government has introduced.

[Emmanuel Dubourg, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the dramatic increase in Canadian household debt is hiding the truth about the Canadian economy.

Under this government, the average rate of public debt has increased by $20,000 per family. Imagine: right now, for each dollar a Canadian worker makes, he or she owes $1.64. This cannot continue.

What does the government intend to do to address this issue?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we have taken concrete action to help Canadians better manage their money.

We introduced credit card reforms to ensure that Canadians have access to important information. We strengthened mortgage rules to protect Canadians buying a home. We cut taxes and created the tax free savings account, the most successful savings account in Canadian history. We created a financial literacy leader to oversee our progress.

Unlike the Liberals, who voted against every consumer protection law we introduced, we are standing up for consumers.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' economic programs offer false promises and false hope to Canadians. The people of New Brunswick are all too familiar with the Conservatives' lack of transparency and how hurtful it is. While they have been talking about infrastructure for eight long years, highway 11 still has just two lanes; the Richibucto arena has yet to be built; and Sackville is still waiting on funding to revitalize its downtown core. Why are the Conservatives bent on punishing New Brunswickers and their municipal officials?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, in less than two hours, Canada's Minister of Finance, the best Minister of Finance in the world, will present economic action plan 2014.

Our Conservative government is focused on what matters most to Canadians, helping create jobs and supporting economic growth. That is why economic action plan 2014 will help grow Canada's economy and create jobs, while keeping taxes low and returning to balanced budgets.

I encourage the member opposite to be patient. He will have all the answers he is looking for shortly, after not even one more sleep.

International Trade

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, under the government, Canada's export performance has been in long-term decline and it continues to suffer.

December figures reveal an even worse trade deficit than expected, now $1.7 billion, enough to knock a full point off our GDP in the fourth quarter, and we have just passed two years of monthly merchandise trade deficits.

Can the minister explain why his trade policies are failing to reverse these troubling numbers?

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. We are talking about cherry-picking statistics.

In fact, this past year, Canada's exports went up by 3.2%, almost $15 billion, and our trade deficit dropped by almost $3 billion. What is more, our government's low-tax pro-trade plan has created somewhere in the order of 1.1 million new jobs for Canadians.

That is a job creation record we are very proud of. We will not apologize for that.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister should apologize for a $62-billion current account deficit in this country.

According to the Bank of Canada, poor export performance is a major driver of our slow economic growth, and this means Conservative policies are costing us good, middle-class jobs.

Canadians want a trade policy that gets value-added exports moving again; so when will the minister admit what years of weak export growth have made obvious? His ideological trade strategy is simply not working.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty rich for the NDP to talk about trade.

This is the party that has opposed virtually every trade agreement this government has ever signed. Let me articulate what those are: Chile, Peru, Honduras, Colombia, Liechtenstein, the United States, Mexico.

New Democrats are fundamentally opposed to trade. They do not like trade. They do not understand trade. They have absolutely no credibility on trade.

Intergovernmental Relations

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

Mr. Speaker, on another matter, not only did the Conservatives create the labour market agreements fiasco, but they also decided to open a new front in their battle with the provinces, this time on job training. We heard this morning that the minister wants to review the labour market development agreements. Is the minister going to learn from his mistakes, and to consult and co-operate with the provinces, so that workers can receive training and boost our economy?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Minister of State (Social Development)]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect their government to address issues such as skills training and labour market development. That is why we look forward to having open and productive discussions with our counterparts at the end of February. That is also why we have invested in skills training, whether it be our youth employment strategy, whether it be investments in apprenticeship grants, or whether it be our opportunities fund to help persons with disabilities get into the workforce.

We are helping people get back to work, and we are working together with the provinces to get that done.

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

Mr. Speaker, the facts speak for themselves. The Canada job grant has provoked another useless quarrel between the federal government and the provinces that is still to be settled.

The negotiations to review labour market development agreements have at least been mentioned in an introductory letter. However, there is no guarantee that the Conservatives will co-operate in working out the final agreement.

Will the Conservatives finally learn from their mistakes in labour market agreements?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Minister of State (Social Development)]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that the opposition has no plans for skills development, except for raising taxes on everyday Canadians, and it has no idea what it will do, except spend billions of dollars on all kinds of programs and projects that result in nothing.

What we are doing with things like the Canada job grant is involving employers and involving the private sector so that we can train people for jobs that exist and create new jobs.

Consumer Protection

[Lawrence Toet, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, while Canadian athletes battle their opponents in Sochi, here at home our Conservative government is fighting to protect Canadian consumers. We are battling the leader of the NDP, who wants to raise the price of everything, from gas to groceries, with higher taxes.

The people of Elmwood—Transcona are fed up with the NDP tax hike agenda. They are also fed up with cross-border price discrimination. Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance update the House on how our government is putting consumers first?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Elmwood—Transcona for that excellent question.

Unlike the opposition, which voted against our consumer protection regulations, we are committed to putting consumers first. Our government has cut taxes over 160 times, saving a typical family of four nearly $3,400 in 2014 alone, but we did not stop there. We have helped to reduce wireless rates by almost 20% since 2008, and we better protected Canadians using prepaid credit cards.

Stay tuned. Today, when the world's best Minister of Finance tables economic action plan 2014, there will be more to come.