Debates of April 1st, 2014

Taxation

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we recognize the vital role small business plays in the economy and job creation. That is why, since 2006, we have lowered the average small business tax by over $28,000. That is over 30%. That includes tax cuts like reducing the small business tax from 12% to 11% and increasing the amount of income eligible for a lower small business tax rate from $300,000 to $500,000. Ours is a pragmatic approach, not an ideological approach, which we hear from the other side.

Government Expenditures

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

Mr. Speaker, if their ideology and stubbornness will not allow them to help small businesses, will they at least promise to stop wasting taxpayer money due to Conservative management?

The Procurement Ombudsman blew the whistle about inflated costs for court documents after learning that taxpayers were getting ripped off. The Conservative response was to reward the very same company with another contract.

Why add insult to injury?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, this particular organization, this Courts Administration Service, is an arm's length organization. In fact, it is done that way so it will ensure greater judicial independence.

What has happened here is that the government, in respecting taxpayer dollars, has had an open, fair, transparent bidding process. What we see now is a situation where it is before a tribunal. It is being adjudicated, and we are not going to talk about something that is before the courts.

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

Mr. Speaker, have members ever noticed that when the Conservatives get caught wasting money, it is always before the courts or it is an arm's length organization? It is never their responsibility for wasting the money in the first place.

How about another example of Conservative mismanagement?

They spent $3 million to create apps that Canadians do not know about and cannot use. Does a Conservative staffer need a taxi? They made an app for that.

Do members want to know how make a hedgehog-shaped cake? The Conservatives spent $60,000 on an app for that.

On a more serious note, helping our veterans, they cut the very services veterans need and, instead, put an app in its place. It is shameful.

How can the Conservative minister justify such outrageous spending, while cutting the services Canadians need?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, I am shocked and dismayed the hon. member is taking that attitude.

We have food recall apps. We have an app for product recalls. We have an app that lowers the amount of time people are waiting in lines at the border. We have these apps to help serve Canadians.

I am very pleased to say the federal government had the first appathon last Friday. We had coders from all over the country, private citizens, who competed for the chance to do more government apps, because we care about Canadians and we care about their getting the right information at the right time.

Taxation

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

Mr. Speaker, there are currently 300,000 more unemployed Canadians than there were before the recession. Far from promoting job creation, the budget bill indicates that the Conservatives wants to axe the tax credit encouraging SMEs to hire more workers.

I do not want the Minister of Finance to tell me what the government did in 2006, in 2008 or in 2009. I want to know why, in an economy that continues to be uncertain, the government has decided to do away with this tax credit encouraging SMEs to hire more workers, thereby undermining the main driver of job creation in Canada.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, our government is focused on what matters to Canadians: jobs and economic growth. Even though the global economy remains fragile, especially in the United States and Europe, our economic policies have helped protect Canadians and have created one million net new jobs since July 2009: over 85% full time, over 80% in the private sector—the best creation of jobs in the G7 by far. Both the IMF and the OECD forecast Canada will be among the fastest growing economies in the G7.

Pensions

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

Mr. Speaker, as if attacking SMEs was not enough for the Conservatives, they are also trying to make financial security in retirement more difficult to achieve.

As many experts have said, it is imperative that public pension plans be improved gradually in order to deal with the crisis that is taking shape. It is the best way to guarantee our seniors a dignified retirement. Even the Department of Finance recognizes that improving the Canada pension plan and the Quebec pension plan would be good for both retirees and the economy.

Why does the minister refuse to take action?

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Minister of State (Finance)]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP, again, is trying to defend hiking payroll taxes for every Canadian employee and every Canadian employer. What the NDP will not tell us is that the same document he referenced said that, while the department estimates impact of doubling the replacement rate could reach up to 70,000 jobs, some organizations arrive at even larger numbers.

We want to protect jobs for Canadians. We want to create jobs for Canadians. The NDP works against that end.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister just does not get it. Not being able to afford a decent quality of life in retirement is what hurts Canadian families. Even the minister's own department contradicts his bizarre claim. Government research has shown that gradually expanding the Canada pension plan would be affordable and would be good for Canada's economy. However, the Conservatives prefer to implement ideologically driven policy rather than factually based evidence.

Why will the minister not do the right thing, the sensible thing, and work with provinces to strengthen retirement for Canadians in their retirement?

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Minister of State (Finance)]

Mr. Speaker, let me refer to that very same document one more time. The document also says that a study of the impact of doubling the replacement rate prepared by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and based on analysis by the University of Toronto's policy and economic analysis program, assumed that an increase in contribution rates would be phased in over seven years, yet found a higher annual impact on employment.

We will continue to protect jobs for hard-working Canadians.

Employment and Social Development

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

Mr. Speaker, even though government data contradicts the Conservatives regarding the skills shortage, the Conservatives continue to support hiring temporary foreign workers.

We now know that this is because the foreign companies that want to develop natural gas in British Columbia do not want to have to pay their workers high wages.

Why are the Conservatives opening this sector to even more temporary foreign workers when the figures show that Canadians have the training needed for these jobs?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is ridiculous to see how hypocritical NDP members are on this issue. I receive more files from NDP members with applications to facilitate the entry of temporary foreign workers than on any other subject.

Yesterday I made it clear to the energy industry in British Columbia that Canadians must have first shot at available jobs; more needs to be invested in skills training, especially for aboriginal people; and the temporary foreign worker program is only available on a limited basis as a last resort.

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

Mr. Speaker, New Democratic Party MPs want the program fixed and they want it used properly, while the Conservatives are making up data and using it to go after workers' wages. Canadian workers deserve a government that is on their side; so projects like B.C.'s natural gas development means a generation of quality, decent-paying jobs for British Columbians. Why are Conservatives making it easier to bring in even more temporary foreign workers when there are plenty of Canadians who could do the job?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is amazing here. The New Democrats do not even talk to employers, because if they did, employers would tell them how this government has made it more difficult to bring in temporary foreign workers. The member knows that, because she is lobbying me to facilitate bringing temporary foreign workers in to help constituents in her constituency. I was absolutely clear yesterday with the B.C. liquefied natural gas industry that it must employ and train Canadians first, particularly young Canadians and aboriginal Canadians, and only look to the TFW program as a last and very limited resort.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the minister is proposing new penalties but no oversight and no enforcement. Just ask the workers on the ground in the oil sands. Sixty-five iron workers on the Imperial Oil Kearl site were unceremoniously laid off and ordered to leave, including first nations workers. They were replaced by less-skilled temporary foreign workers. Only after the union intervened were only one-third of the Canadians rehired for less-skilled work.

Stiffer penalties will not work without proper oversight. Will the government now pull permits for violating companies?

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

Mr. Speaker, as usual on this matter, the New Democrats are living in fantasyland. The reality is that, according to the president of the ironworkers' union, every single one of those individuals got immediately employed in the energy sector in northern Alberta.

Let us be clear. We are going to throw the book, with tough mandatory financial penalties, at non-compliant employers who do not respect the rules of the temporary foreign worker program, thanks to the powers in the budget implementation act, and we fully expect the NDP to vote for that act, so we have the power to impose those fines.

Infrastructure

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today is the day the massive Conservative cuts to infrastructure kick in, a staggering reduction of almost 90% in available funding, and that is no April Fool's Day joke either.

In Trinity—Spadina, for example, almost 30,000 workers, 35% of the residents, use public transit each and every day. Can the government explain to the constituents of that riding and to all Canadians, for that matter, why it will not improve their public transit, give rise to new technologies, create jobs, and help our middle-class families?

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Minister of Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, once again the second opposition party is misleading the House. Canadian municipalities have access to 71% of all the programs. This program is $70 billion for 10 years. They only want to take a part of that. We have to consider the whole plan, and that statement is untrue.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is this minister who is telling the untruths. It is the government that is misleading Canadians. A cut is a cut. The government promised—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Winnipeg North has the floor. He has a few seconds left. I urge him to use his language very cautiously. I heard something that was very close to being unparliamentary. Saying that something is untrue has been acceptable, and I know he is not trying to impugn motive on this.

The hon. member for Winnipeg North has the floor.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the truth hurts, but so do the cuts.

The government promised that cities would be able to apply for the building Canada fund. Members can check out the website. It has not even established the criteria. How can cities apply if they do not know what the criteria are? Imagine being in Fort McMurray or Wood Buffalo. Without the criteria, they cannot apply. The government has failed.

The question is, why has the Prime Minister—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. Minister of Infrastructure.

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Minister of Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, the member knows well that he is talking about one of the four components of the building Canada plan. He knows that very well. He does not talk about the gas tax fund and the GST rebate, which represent $32 billion that are available for municipalities. He does not talk about those things. He does not talk about the national infrastructure component. That is the biggest plan ever for this country.