Debates of March 25th, 2014

Finance

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. Minister of Finance has the floor.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, he had to pay $40,000 to ask a question. Apparently, the new House leader was being paid $40,000 not to ask me a question.

Once again, the Prime Minister said that income splitting was a good policy for Canadian seniors and that it would be a good policy for Canadian families.

The Economy

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the cost of changing positions is $40,000. The cost of asking the finance minister questions is priceless.

I have got a report from the notoriously left-wing think tank, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “Canada's Labour Market Sputtered in 2013”, it says. The third bullet point down says, “95% of the net jobs created were in part-time positions”.

Is this the kind of economy Conservatives are so proud of? Is this what they expect Canadian families to live on?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, 85% of the positions created were full-time. That is the fact.

Our government is focused on what matters most to Canadians: jobs and economic growth. Over 1 million net new jobs have been created since July 2009. Over 85% of them are full-time. Over 80% are in the private sector. That is the best job creation in the G7 by far.

Finance

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

Mr. Speaker, we will start with a simple question for the new Minister of Finance. Can he tell us how much money from budget 2013 was not used and which departments did not use it?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the budget will be set out next year. Now is not the time to be discussing the details. As I also already said, the economic progress made by our government has been the best in the G7.

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

Mr. Speaker, my question was about funds allocated from budget 2013. Millions of dollars were not spent in 2013. When the minister makes promises for 2014, it should come as no surprise that no one trusts him.

Let us move on to another financial issue. On the Conservatives' watch, Canadian household debt has surpassed American household debt. The previous finance minister did nothing to address this. What is the new Minister of Finance's plan?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians understand the importance of living within their means, and they expect the government to do the same thing. That is why we reduced the debt by $38 billion before the recession, bringing it to its lowest level in 25 years. This gave Canada the flexibility needed to respond to the worst recession since the Great—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for Louis-Saint-Laurent.

Democratic Reform

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

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of State for Democratic Reform is trying to prevent Elections Canada from informing and educating young people and the general public. However, this morning, former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley pointed out that the changes in the Conservatives' electoral “deform” to part 18 of the Elections Act should be completely removed from Bill C-23. His remarks echo those made by the current Chief Electoral Officer, Marc Mayrand.

Does the minister promise to take the advice of experts and delete the proposed changes to part 18 from Bill C-23?

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

Mr. Speaker, the former chief electoral officer has previously made very positive comments about the fair elections act. Today, he repeated a number of those comments.

In terms of Elections Canada's advertising, two things motivate voters: first, information and, second, inspiration. The information about where, when and how to vote should come from Elections Canada. However, the inspiration should come from the candidates and political parties. That is how we will proceed with the fair elections act.

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

Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians trust what Mr. Kingsley and Mr. Mayrand are saying much more than any comments the Minister of State for Democratic Reform might make.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Kingsley also indicated that vouching is fundamental to our democracy. He urged us not to get rid of it. With vouching, 120,000 people were apparently able to vote in 2011.

Will the Minister of State for Democratic Reform follow the recommendations of the former chief electoral officer and leave the vouching system alone?

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

Mr. Speaker, there are obvious risks of fraud associated with allowing people to vote without presenting any form of physical identification. The safeguards in place to protect against those risks were violated 50,735 times in the last election, and these were not small violations.

According to the leader of the NDP, “If we can’t even guarantee that the people who are voting are entitled to vote, and that can throw off the results of the elections, all is being lost”. Those were the words of the leader of the NDP when this compliance review came forward. He could not have been more right.

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

Mr. Speaker, as Jean-Pierre Kingsley testified today, the unfair elections act only requires data about potential voter fraud to be retained for one year, one short year. This is made worse by the fact that without the power to compel testimony, witnesses can refuse to co-operate, just as we know that so many Conservatives have done during the 2011 robocall investigation.

Will the government now commit to change this part of Bill C-23?

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

Mr. Speaker, the fair elections act creates a new requirement that does not currently exist to retain the scripts of mass calling campaigns by political candidates during an election period. Also, it requires that any of those mass campaigns be registered not only by the campaign but also by the service provider.

The preservation of the script for one year, I think, is reasonable because it will mostly be volunteers who will be retaining that information and to expect longer periods of time might be unreasonable for a volunteer campaign worker who does not have financial resources and is not a sophisticated political consultant. Therefore, I think we have struck the right balance.

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

Mr. Speaker, voter contact companies are supposed to retain the data, not volunteers.

On vouching, Jean-Pierre Kingsley said it was “a fundamental ingredient in our system”. As well, the minister's constant misuse, I would say, of the Neufeld report has been contradicted by none other than Harry Neufeld himself. Moreover, the minister has consistently failed to provide any examples of fraud through vouching. Therefore, the minister's bill is unravelling before his eyes.

Will he now agree to remove this unjustifiable part of the unfair elections act?

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

Mr. Speaker, my characterization of the Neufeld report was very similar to the characterization offered by the leader of the NDP, who said, in commenting on the report:

It goes to a fundamental question of the defence of our democratic institutions.... If we can’t even guarantee that the people who are voting are entitled to vote, and that can throw off the results of the elections, all is being lost.

Those are similar to comments that I have made. Our reasoned position is that people should choose from among 39 different forms of identification to prove who they are and where they live.

Employment

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, before the recession, the unemployment rate for recently arrived immigrants was 12%. Today it is 16%. In the last two weeks, 80% of my meetings were with people unemployed and looking for work. These are Ph.D.s, lawyers, and one nurse who had graduated but could not afford the $500 for the exam, all looking for work, in need of help to feed their families.

When will the government start addressing the needs of new Canadians?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism]

Mr. Speaker, through my department and CIC, this government has invested over $50 million in efforts to accelerate and streamline the process of credential recognition for foreign trained professionals. We brought in tax deductibility for certification exams like those for immigrants who write exams for registration with licensing bodies; and I am very excited with the micro-loans program administered by my department that offers, through non-profits and with the financial institutions, loans of up to $10,000 at preferential interest rates to help foreign trained professionals pay for their schooling, if they need upgrading.

[Emmanuel Dubourg, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the new Minister of Finance on his appointment.

The minister is aware that 7 out of 10 provinces have seen job losses in the past year. In the riding of Bourassa, the unemployment rate is especially high among young people, newcomers and cultural communities. Where there are jobs, there is dignity.

What does the minister intend to do to help these people find work?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is right. The unemployment rate among newcomers and young people in Canada is unacceptable.

That is why we are making unprecedented investments to help immigrants, disabled individuals and young Canadians find work and to give them the labour market training they need.

Among other things, we have announced loans that will help newcomers pay for tuition and exams so that they can work in their professional field.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, there are 265,000 fewer jobs for young Canadians than before the downturn. Students looking for summer jobs are pressured into unpaid work just to get the work experience. This hurts students and it hurts their middle class parents who are struggling to pay the bills; but instead of tracking unpaid work, the Conservatives continue to ignore the problem. They cannot manage what they do not measure.

Will the new Minister of Finance and the government finally ask Statistics Canada to start tracking unpaid work, so we can actually make the investments to solve this problem for young Canadians and their families?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism]

Mr. Speaker, it is true that we do have inadequate labour market information, and we are working with Statistics Canada on ways to get more robust labour market information with more of a microeconomic perspective, working with provinces, for example, because many of their post-secondary education institutions have very good data on labour market outcomes for their graduates, which is not being captured by StatsCan.

I accept that more can and should be done, perhaps by Statistics Canada in this respect. However, we are making record investments in programs like apprenticeships and assisting young people to get paid apprenticeships. We need businesses to invest more in that area, for sure.

Health

[Dany Morin, NDP, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health would have us believe that the country is well prepared to deal with a serious crisis even though she is about to cut $32 million from the Public Health Agency of Canada's budget.

Last month, we learned that 500 employees will be laid off as a result of these cuts. Do the Conservatives understand that these cuts will have a serious impact on people's lives?

Health is a priority for Canadians. Why is it not a priority for the Conservative government?