Debates of May 14th, 2014

Employment

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

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives talk about all these jobs. They do not mention that one-third of them went to temporary foreign workers and these guys are celebrating. How about a Canada jobs plan that actually worked for Canada for a change? Nearly 1,000 jobs were lost last month. Almost the same number of Canadians stopped looking for work at all, having lost hope to find work in this weakened economy.

The Bank of Canada and every major economist from every major bank have expressed concern over the trend in the Canadian economy. When are Conservatives going to drop their Kijiji economics and start to help out Canadian families for a change?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is rich for the NDP to be criticizing our government's record on job creation. New Democrats voted against every job creation measure our government has put forward including: freezing EI rates; providing certainty and flexibility to workers and employers; tax cuts for manufacturers to purchase new equipment and expand their operations; $70 billion in stable and predictable job-creating infrastructure over the next 10 years; and more. The NDP would introduce crippling new taxes Canadian businesses simply cannot afford that would kill thousands of jobs.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, two years ago, the minister's own officials warned him that admissions of young temporary foreign workers had soared while youth unemployment remained at 14%. That same year, the minister went to Ireland to seek out more such workers to come to Canada. It is not just a few Aussies working in Whistler, we are talking 60,000 LMO-free young foreign workers.

Why did the minister ignore his own department's concerns about high youth unemployment? Why did he go to Ireland to recruit the Irish?

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

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Immigration, I went to over two dozen countries to promote Canada as a wonderful place to live and we welcome the talented people from all around the world. I do not know what the member's obsession is with Ireland. I guess for the Liberals the Irish need not apply yet again.

What else happened two years ago? The Liberal leader wrote us a letter asking us to overturn a decision not to allow a foreign worker into one of his favourite restaurants. Last week, the Liberals voted to expand the moratorium on all low-skilled workers, but yesterday, the leader of the Liberal Party asked us to lift the moratorium for Quebec. The Liberal leader is just not ready for prime time.

Housing

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Windward Co-op on Little Norway Crescent in Trinity—Spadina is home to more than 100 families. Despite this, the Conservatives are sitting back as operating agreements expire, leaving capital repairs and upgrades unfunded and units crumbling. When these agreements expire, the federal help that ensures low-income families can afford their rent comes to a crashing halt.

Will the Conservatives reverse the course and commit to helping families like those in Windward, or are they intent on evicting low-income families in the GTA?

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

Mr. Speaker, the member should know, because it was the Liberals who ended agreements on social housing. These agreements are coming to an end over the next 30 years. Mortgages are paid off, and Canadians know that when the mortgage is paid off they do not keep paying the bank.

I was before the housing committee for an hour with the president of CMHC. There was not one question on housing; so they do not care about affordable housing.

Committees of the House

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the chair of the procedure and House affairs committee. Tomorrow's agenda deals with the NDP's inappropriate use of parliamentary resources. In order to prepare for tomorrow's agenda, the committee requested that the NDP provide the lease agreement for the Montreal satellite office. To date, I have not received this important document. Can the committee chair tell me if tomorrow's committee agenda will include a review of this lease agreement?

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Mr. Speaker, well, that is two days in a row; my life is complete.

The agenda for the committee tomorrow is set from 11:00 until 1:00. We will be having the Leader of the Opposition before procedure and House affairs to explain the use of House funds for partisan purposes. Certain documents have been asked for from the House administration and from the NDP for this study. Some of the documents from the NDP are quite thin. The leader has suggested that he follows the rules. Let us hope that by 11:00 tomorrow morning, the New Democrats have followed the rules on the submission of the full lease.

Housing

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

Mr. Speaker, fighting poverty begins with ensuring everyone has a roof over his or her head. Unfortunately, Conservatives, like the Liberals before them, cut funding to affordable housing and ended social housing programs. Over the last four years, 26,000 more social housing units saw their funding cut when long-term social housing agreements expired. By 2016, this number could soar to 100,000. When will the federal government agree to renew long-term investments in affordable housing?

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

Mr. Speaker, if that member had cared to ask me a question when I was before her committee for an hour, I would have told her about our renewal of investment in affordable housing. It seems as if this is a bit of a diversion, because the New Democrats have been trying to get affordable offices possibly. I am trying to suggest—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Hochelaga.

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

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the numbers, but let us not forget that there are real people behind those numbers.

The end of the rent supplements is causing upheaval in the lives of many tenants in housing co-operatives and low-income housing. One such tenant is Carole Parent, who lives in the Odyssée co-operative in Hochelaga. Soon she will have to pay an extra $200 a month for her apartment. Some 44% of her budget will go to her rent. That does not leave a lot of room for paying bills or buying groceries.

When will the government realize that access to housing is a right and renew the funding provided for in the social housing agreements?

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

Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased to be in British Columbia recently where we renewed our investment in affordable housing, where they are using it for rent subsidies.

Let us talk about subsidies for rent at the expense of the taxpayer to subsidize offices. With our investments, we have been clear on this side of the House about the money we are spending to help Canadians on housing. They need to be clear on what they are doing in trying to subsidize their offices.

[Mike Sullivan, NDP, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, across Canada, municipalities are struggling to meet demand for affordable housing. Canadians are still suffering from—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. This is getting quite tiresome. The hon. member for York South—Weston has the floor. I have asked members to come to order. The Chair would like to hear the question.

The hon. member for York South—Weston.

[Mike Sullivan, NDP, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are still suffering from the Liberals' devastating cuts to federal housing supports in the 1990s, and people are tired of paying for government inaction.

Just yesterday, the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities endorsed my motion to renew social housing funding.

Will the minister do the same, support my motion, and do what the Liberals failed to do: finally put an end to this housing crisis?

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

Mr. Speaker, we have been acting since we came into office. In fact, our investments have helped almost a million families and individuals with their needs for social housing.

The opposition voted against every one of our initiatives, including being against our Housing First initiative, which helps those who are most vulnerable and homeless.

Again, this would appear to be a bit of a red herring when we are talking about affordability, whether it is regarding offices or houses.

[Matthew Kellway, NDP, Beaches—East York, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are turning their backs on hundreds of thousands of Canadians who cannot afford the homes they live in. In Toronto, while the affordable housing wait list sits at over 90,000 households, and growing, only 650 units are under construction. That is the legacy of the Liberals. They killed the national housing program, and the Conservatives have been burying it deeper and deeper ever since.

Why will the minister not finally listen to Canadians, support our motion, and commit to a national housing strategy?

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

Mr. Speaker, I would be pleased to talk for an hour about what we have been doing on housing, but unfortunately, I was asked no questions. Neither was the president of CMHC.

I have a question for that member. Was he part of the scheme? Did he contribute money to the scheme to have offices paid for at the taxpayers' expense? Was he part of that scheme?

Public Safety

[David Wilks, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, today, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Mohamed Harkat and upheld our Conservative government's security certificate system.

This individual is linked to al Qaeda and allegedly assisted the terrorists who killed thousands of innocent people in the horrific attacks on September 11.

The court also ruled that the security certificate against this individual was reasonable.

Would the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness update this House on our government's position on this decision?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, our government is pleased with the decision of the Supreme Court since it recognized that Mr. Harkat benefited from a fair process and that the security certificates are constitutional.

Our government is pleased with the Supreme Court's decision. It ruled that the process in Mr. Harkat's case was fair and that the security certificates are constitutional. We will continue to defend and protect Canadians.

Aboriginal Affairs

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Justice stood here and told this House that the root cause of violence against women is violence against women, as if that settles it, as if that means we do not need a national inquiry.

What we do not need is pathetic answers from Conservative ministers.

What we do need is what victims need, what families need, and what shattered communities need: answers and justice.

There are 1,200 missing and murdered indigenous women. Is the minister telling us that nothing more can be done?

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

Mr. Speaker, what we do not need is haughty, condescending questions from the opposition. What we need is more actual, concrete, substantive, practical action, which is exactly what this government has been doing: 30 justice and public safety initiatives.

We do not need more of the 40 inquiries. What we need is more criminal justice legislation, more programs designed specifically to help women in crisis on and off reserve. We need more efforts to work collaboratively, to continue to work directly with first nations to address these problems. That is exactly what this government is doing.