Debates of May 29th, 2014

Infrastructure

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, as Canada's municipalities meet this weekend, there is more dissatisfaction with the building Canada infrastructure funding. It is two months late. The construction season is slipping away. Most local communities still cannot even apply. Some of their priorities, like local roads, have been thrown out. They do not like the feds' arbitrary P3 screen. They are forced to compete for funds against universities. For the next two years, those funds have been chopped by 87%. All of this hurts municipalities, stymies growth, costs jobs, and drains productivity. Why?

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Minister of Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, these accusations are false. Our government has introduced the longest and the largest infrastructure plan in Canada's history. Our plan is already open for business. In fact, we have already committed funding to a key public transit project in Edmonton. That is already done, and some other municipalities have developed their projects.

The provinces and municipalities can submit their funding applications. For sure I know the member is upset by that, because we are doing things.

Employment

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

Mr. Speaker, in order to reassure its shareholders and Canadians, McDonald's has decided to pay for its own independent audit of its use of the temporary foreign worker program, but the minister refuses to take any responsibility for the mess he has made of this program. While the “hamburglar” acts, Conservative bunglers are putting Canadians out of work and temporary foreign workers at risk.

Will the minister do the right thing and agree to launch an investigation that is independent?

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment and Social Development]

Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the temporary foreign worker program is to provide employers with employees when no Canadian is available for the job. We know that there is no general labour shortage across Canada, but what we do have in some sectors and some regions are shortages, so we are going to put measures in place and make changes to the program to make sure that all employers offer Canadians the jobs before they are offered to any temporary foreign worker.

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

Mr. Speaker, one of the problems with the temporary foreign worker program is that the government is relying on vulnerable workers to report abuses.

Saskatchewan's minister responsible said that he gets very few complaints. However, things are very different when the approach is proactive. In 2012, surprise inspections showed rates of non-compliance to be 80% and 95% in some industries.

Why is the government refusing to admit that the program needs a major overhaul to protect both Canadian and foreign workers?

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment and Social Development]

Mr. Speaker, we have made changes to this program to ensure that employers get the workers they need when no Canadian is available. We have also made changes to ensure that employers follow the rules and make sure they offer Canadians the jobs first, but every time we put those changes forward, that member and that party voted against them.

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

Mr. Speaker, unlike the Conservatives, McDonald's did a little soul-searching. It hired an external firm to examine its operations and make recommendations in relation to abuses of the temporary foreign worker program.

When will the Conservatives face the fact that a comprehensive, independent reform is needed to fix the problem they created?

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment and Social Development]

As I have said, Mr. Speaker, we have reviewed this program. We have made several changes, which those members across the way voted against. We are making sure that Canadians always get the jobs offered to them first, before we bring in temporary foreign workers.

Why does that member and that party not do an independent audit of the taxpayers' money they are spending staffing their campaign offices across the country using funds that are supposed to be spent here in Ottawa?

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

The fact is, Mr. Speaker, for 14 months we have been complaining that temporary foreign workers are building the women's hospital in Winnipeg, even though dozens of Canadian carpenters and labourers have applied for those jobs and have been turned away. I provided the minister with a list of 35 of those names, but now, to add insult to injury, the three Canadian carpenters who did get hired have been laid off, while the temporary foreign workers remain, as we speak, building that project.

There should not be a single temporary foreign worker on that job if there is a single qualified Canadian available. This guy says there is change being made in the program. I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, no change has been made in Winnipeg.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Employment and Social Development]

Mr. Speaker, the requirements of this program are laid out. The employers know what they are. They must apply for a labour market opinion before they bring a temporary foreign worker in from another country, and any employer who violates the labour market opinion and the commitment they make to offer the job to Canadians first is held accountable.

One of the measures was to create a blacklist, and anyone who avoided following the rules of the program would have their name added. That member and that party voted against strict regulations like that.

Ethics

[Ève Péclet, NDP, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in the past, when we asked the Conservatives to provide us with detailed information on the use of the Challenger jets, they gave us a list of ministers who used the planes and the passenger manifest.

However, in response to our most recent question about the use of the Challengers, the Conservatives failed to provide the passenger manifest. They spent $4 million in five years and they are refusing to tell us which bagmen and party friends travelled with the Prime Minister or the ministers.

Why are the Conservatives choosing to hide that information?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday, we have reduced the use of the Challenger jet by some 80% since coming to office in 2006. In fact, the last year the Liberals were in power, they used the jet for 1,114.7 hours, but the hardest-working cabinet in Canadian history used it last year for only 266 flight hours. We respect taxpayers. That is why we are using the Challengers less and less. In fact, we were able to sell some of the Challengers, because we reduced the use so much.

[Ève Péclet, NDP, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Mr. Speaker, while the Conservatives can point fingers at the Liberals, they are responsible for their abuse.

The Conservatives are acting as though, all of a sudden, the list of passengers who travelled on government planes is a state secret.

If they have not done anything wrong and they have nothing to hide, then they need to make the list public. Like the NDP, Canadians suspect that the Conservatives are hiding the passenger manifest because they were doing favours for party friends.

When will they make the passenger manifest public?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I said we have reduced the use of the Challengers by 80%. We are very proud of that because we have the greatest respect for Canadian taxpayers.

The only people who are hiding party cronies are the members of the NDP. They are hiding the fact that they have party cronies working in offices in Montreal, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. They say that they actually work here, in Ottawa, but we know they are actually working in these riding offices that they use taxpayer money illegally to fund. They should stand up, do the right thing, and return the money they have used illegally to fund partisan political offices.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, and that is why we hid the Toronto office in the Toronto Star building.

Let us get back to the latest Conservative scandal. In the good old days—that is, six months ago—the government routinely released the names of those who flew with the Prime Minister. However, after being discovered using the Challenger to fly Conservative friends around, this information is now hidden from Canadians.

Would the Minister of National Defence confirm that flight manifests for the Prime Minister's planes are now considered state secrets?

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

Mr. Speaker, I love actually repeating this answer over and over again, because it really highlights the fact that this government—how seriously we take taxpayers' money.

We on this side of the House have brought in significant measures to reduce taxes for all Canadians, to reduce the cost of government. That is why we have reduced the use of the Challenger by 80%.

I was very happy to see the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirm the fact that our tax reductions have put thousands of dollars back into the pockets of the lowest-income Canadians.

The only consistent thing is that the NDP consistently votes against all of those measures.

We will stand up for low-income Canadians, we will stand up for middle-income Canadians, and we will continue to create jobs and opportunity for all Canadians.

Government Appointments

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

There they go again, Mr. Speaker, making things up to distract from their own growing pathetic record of scandal and mismanagement, just like their irresponsible patronage appointments.

The way the justice minister's friends and former staff got their plum positions at ECBC was wrong.

Conservatives killed the public appointments commission. Conservatives broke their promise to end patronage. Conservatives are acting just like the Liberals. It is David Dingwall all over again: entitled to their entitlements.

Clearly, these appointments should never have happened.

Would the justice minister and his friend John Lynn come to committee and explain this egregious example of pork patronage?

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Minister of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, Mr. Lynn's appointment as CEO of Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation was terminated as of a couple of days ago.

Our expectations for crown corporations, for agencies, and for departments has been and continues to be that they conduct their business with integrity, accountability, and respect for taxpayer dollars.

On the other hand, when will the NDP pay back the taxpayer dollars that it has been abusing all over the country for its own partisan purposes?

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Speaker, when the current Minister of Justice was responsible for Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, he appointed one of his friends as the CEO. His henchman wasted no time in offering great jobs, without a competition, to four Conservatives, two of whom are members of the current justice minister's entourage.

The Minister of Justice owes Canadians an explanation. Will he appear before the committee to explain how so many of his friends ended up working for a crown corporation for which he was responsible?

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Minister of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member had an opportunity just now to stand up and explain to Canadians when they are going to pay back the taxpayer dollars that they have been abusing throughout the country. They are supposed to be used to serve Canadians. They are being used to serve their own partisan purposes.

When are they going to pay the money back?

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order. I think some members are confused with the sequence of events. Supplementals are put after the question has been answered, not during the answer. Answers are to be made after the question has been posed, not during the question. If members could try to keep that in mind, it would certainly help the Chair out.

Employment

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

Mr. Speaker, I have the government's two blacklists in front of me.

One has zero employers blacklisted, and the other has four. Not one of these is blacklisted for employee abuse.

The minister was clearly wrong yesterday in claiming that companies had been blacklisted for abusing their employees. That is not true.

Does this not make it obvious that the government simply does not care about employee abuse and human trafficking?

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, our government is taking action against employers who abuse the temporary foreign worker program.

Employment and Social Development Canada has publicly listed several employers suspended from using the program in recent weeks, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada's website clearly states that entire groups of employers—strip clubs, escort services, and massage parlours—are all banned from the temporary foreign worker program.

Unlike the Liberals, our government has taken real action against abuse. In fact, when the Liberals were in power, they helped facilitate the importation of potential victims of human trafficking.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is such a waste of time to argue about facts, especially when I am totally right and he is absolutely wrong.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!