Debates of March 7th, 2014

Foreign Affairs

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in February, the government announced that it was implementing personal sanctions against former President Yanukovych and his close associates. I am not referring to travel bans, but to the freezing of personal assets. These assets could be in the tens of billions of dollars.

We heard subsequently that this had not actually happened and was awaiting Ukrainian government concurrence. Can the government inform the House as to whether these sanctions are now actually in place?

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and for International Human Rights]

Mr. Speaker, Canada is working very closely with its allies, including the G7 and NATO members, on this matter. I point out that Canada has already frozen the assets and applied travel bans to members of the Yanukovych regime.

The Prime Minister has announced, at the request of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, that we have frozen the assets of members of the Yanukovych regime.

Infrastructure

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's labour market suffered another net loss in February. There are still 250,000 more Canadians without a job than before the recession. If the government increased its investments in infrastructure, that would create jobs in the construction, transportation and manufacturing sectors. Why is the government cutting the building Canada fund and making practically no effort to implement it in time for the spring construction season?

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

Mr. Speaker, our Conservative government is focused on what matters to Canadians: job creation and economic growth. We sympathize with those Canadians who lost their jobs in February.

While monthly employment numbers can be volatile, Canada's overall job growth since the depths of the global recession remains the best among all G7 countries, with over 1 million net new jobs created.

As we have always said, Canada is not immune to the global economic challenges beyond its borders. That is why our Conservative government is working hard to help create jobs and economic growth in economic action plan 2014.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we are three weeks from the new fiscal year and the report on plans and priorities tabled by the infrastructure minister just yesterday does not even include money for the new building Canada fund. We are told that negotiations are under way with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities about getting the program up and running by April 1.

The fund was announced 12 months ago, so why are municipalities not able to apply for funding right now?

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Communities]

Mr. Speaker, there the Liberals go again with their funny math. The fact of the matter is that we are making record investments in infrastructure. These investments are far more significant than the previous Liberal government made. We have invested over $53 billion in infrastructure for municipal, provincial, and territorial project priorities. That includes the gas tax fund, which, in and of itself, is $2 billion a year.

Democratic Reform

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Harry Neufeld, who literally wrote the report on the last election, has said that the minister's claims about voter fraud are wrong. He said that the minister has no evidence to support his wild claims. He said that the Supreme Court did not find any evidence of voter fraud.

We want to hear from Mr. Neufeld. Will the government allow Mr. Neufeld to come to committee, without any parliamentary tricks and without interference in the committee's work? Can we get an ironclad guarantee that Mr. Neufeld will be able to come to committee?

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

Mr. Speaker, I cannot imagine why he would not be called to committee. I have already said that three or four times.

We are going to keep quoting Mr. Neufeld's report, because it contains the facts that obviously support our position that people should have ID when they show up to vote. I disagree with his opinion, but I will continue to accurately cite his facts, like I will right now. Relating to errors on vouching, he said:

Errors that involve a failure to properly administer these procedures are serious. The courts refer to such serious errors as “irregularities” which can result in votes being declared invalid.

That is serious. Our ID laws should be, too.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, let me get this straight. The top priority of the government is about voter fraud that it does not know about and actually has no evidence of. This is quite astonishing.

Conservatives are clearly reluctant to accept Mr. Neufeld's evidence. Perhaps that is because the government's arguments are not actually based on fact. It is more about the minister's gut feeling and prejudice. The question is this: will the Conservative government actually listen to Mr. Neufeld's evidence and be guided not by this citing of “could”, “maybe”, or “should” but by actual evidence of voter fraud? Mr. Neufeld said there was not any, and the Supreme Court said there was not any. Are we actually to believe just the minister?

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

Mr. Speaker, I have not stopped quoting Mr. Neufeld. In fact, right here, on page 64, it says that there were 50,000 irregularities related to vouching in the last election alone.

Now, the NDP members are losing this debate, so they are playing partisan procedural tricks in committee. We know their next step will be to push out some phony poll to manipulate perceptions of public opinion. The reality is that Canadians believe there should be good voter identification rules to ensure that people vote only once and only in the ridings where they live.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Chief Electoral Officer told us in no uncertain terms that thousands of voters will lose their right to vote as a result of the Conservative electoral “deform”. He presented amendments in an attempt to prevent this ludicrous situation.

Did the minister hear Marc Mayrand's proposals and will he accept his recommendations concerning the voter identification card?

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

Yes, unfortunately, I did hear his comments.

I will cite it. He said the Supreme Court found that these irregularities could not even compromise an election. In fact, the Supreme Court said precisely the opposite of what Mr. Mayrand reported.

I will quote right out of Mr. Neufeld's report: “The courts refer to such serious errors as 'irregularities' which can result in votes being declared invalid”. The same report went on to say that the irregularities linked to vouching could ultimately overturn an election result.

Those are the facts, and I would advise Mr. Mayrand to read them.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it has taken them two years to bring forward this reform bill and they did not even bother to do it right.

Yesterday, the minister stated that Canada will be the only democracy in the world to limit the freedom of expression of election officials if his electoral “deform” bill is passed with no amendments.

Will the minister listen to Marc Mayrand and take out this measure from his bill?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Chief Electoral Officer will be able to continue speaking to the media after the fair elections act is passed. That is not an issue.

But the NDP wants to ignore the hard facts around the irregularities related to vouching. The reality is, regardless of what push poll they will send out in the next couple of days, Canadians believe there should be a form of identification so that we know who is voting and that they live in the riding in which they are casting a ballot. That is a bare minimum. It is common sense. That is the fair elections act.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Chief Electoral Officer indicated that the voter identification requirements set out in the unfair elections bill will make voting harder for certain groups, such as seniors. This will have a harmful effect in areas with a high concentration of seniors.

In Chaudière-Appalaches, the percentage of people aged 65 and over is nearly 3% higher than elsewhere in the country, and in Montmagny, it is 8% higher. Voters in Chaudière-Appalaches will be particularly affected by the unfair elections bill.

Why are the Conservative ministers from Chaudière-Appalaches refusing to allow us to consult with our constituents and stand up for their rights?

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

Mr. Speaker, seniors will have plenty of ways to identify themselves at the polling stations. There are 39 forms of identification allowed, including the health card.

There are the hospital bracelets worn by residents in long-term care facilities, Veterans Affairs health care cards, old age security cards, public transportation cards, library cards, and I could go on. There are 39. I do not have time to list them all.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Mr. Speaker, top election experts were crystal clear yesterday that the minister's bill is based on make-believe and fearmongering. His plan to unilaterally end all use of the voter information card is not based on any evidence of voter fraud whatsoever.

In 2011, 73% of the electors who voted in seniors residences and long-term care facilities cast their votes using their voter information cards. Now, that is as many as 800,000 seniors.

Why is the minister so hell-bent on disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of seniors?

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

Mr. Speaker, I just listed a whole host of different forms of identification that are specifically available to seniors. In addition to the ones I have already listed, there is also one of the following, issued by the responsible authority of a shelter, a soup kitchen, a student or seniors residence, a long-term care facility: an attestation of residence, a letter of stay, an admission form, a statement of benefits. That is in addition to the old age security cards they can use, the health cards they can use, or a hospital bracelet they can use. There are plenty of opportunities to identify oneself, and the fair elections act will make sure that people know about them.

Ethics

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

Mr. Speaker, it is rather amazing. This government continually surrounds itself with fraudsters and untrustworthy people, and then when, surprise, surprise, they break the law, they suddenly become private citizens.

I do not know whether the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister realizes, but the Prime Minister's senior advisor is not a private citizen. At what point did the Prime Minister find out that Bruce Carson was engaged in illegal lobbying?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I answered that question yesterday. These are allegations with respect to a private citizen who did not receive any government contracts. As soon as we heard about these allegations, we immediately informed the RCMP.

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

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP started investigating Bruce Carson back in 2012 about whether he was using his insider influence with the Conservatives to land lucrative deals with impoverished first nations who had dirty water.

Bruce Carson was the ultimate insider. The Conservatives even called the scheme the “secret sauce”, but it was the Prime Minister who approved the sauce when he hired this convicted fraud artist. What was the Prime Minister thinking when he allowed a convicted criminal to slip through the security checks and work in his inner office? What was he thinking?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, let me begin by congratulating the hon. member. I know he won an Ontario Speaker's Book Award last night for a book he wrote. I congratulate him on that.

At the same time, again, these are allegations with respect to a private citizen who did not receive any government contracts. As soon as the government found out, we immediately informed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. At the same time, any individual found in contravention of the very tough laws this government has put in place should face the full force of these laws.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his very kind and professional words.

I agree with him that these are very serious issues. Issues of influence pedaling are serious crimes, and yet the Prime Minister's chief of staff knew about this, the Clerk of the Privy Council knew about this, major Conservative cabinet ministers knew, even Senator Doug Black knew that they were applying the secret sauce. Yet we are supposed to believe that the Prime Minister is always conveniently out of the loop whenever something illegal is happening in his office. When are they going to get to the bottom of this?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, again, it was this government that brought in the accountability act. It was this government that brought in strong rules with respect to lobbying, the Ethics Commissioner, and the Commissioner of Lobbying. All of these measures help ensure the highest standard of ethics. At the same time, any individual found in contravention of the very tough laws we have brought in, I agree, should face the full impact of these laws.

Employment

[Emmanuel Dubourg, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the unemployment rate in my riding, Bourassa, is particularly high. Yesterday, the Standing Committee on Finance began its study on youth employment in Canada.

I asked senior officials what programs exist to help youth, newcomers, persons with disabilities and members of cultural groups find a job. I did not get a response. Instead of spending millions of dollars on partisan ads, what is the Conservative government doing to help those people find work?