Debates of June 5th, 2014

Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1

[Glenn Thibeault, NDP, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member did bring up a lot of valid points in relation to the concerns that opposition parties have with this budget.

One of the first things is that this is the fifth time the government has brought forward an omnibus budget bill. As we just heard in the last debate between my hon. colleague and a member from the government, every once in a while the Conservatives put something good in a budget, but the problem is there are so many bad things in there that it is hard to vote in favour of it.

In looking at some of the things that the government could have done right, it could have easily put those in other pieces of legislation. We could have easily voted on them, got them to committee and then moved on. Then we could actually have a debate about creating good laws.

The Conservatives talk a lot about being tough on crime, but it has been two years since they promised to get tough on employers who broke the rules of the temporary foreign worker program.

I would like to hear my hon. colleague's comments and thoughts on the government's inaction on that file.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member has explained that there are some good things in the bill that all of us would have liked to support, but there are so many other things that we disagree with and that should have been open to a thorough debate.

We want to see our companies doing well, because when the companies are doing well, they are paying taxes, hiring people, and growing and expanding. Those are the kinds of things we want to see happening.

Unfortunately, the temporary foreign worker program has doubled the amount that used to be allowed, number one. Number two is that the program is not being managed properly. Programs can be good, but if they are not well-managed, they can get out of control, which has happened with the temporary foreign worker program.

There are far too many people coming in and getting into positions with LMOs that are not thoroughly analyzed and vetted the way they should be.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss Bill C-31 at report stage. The bill proposes to implement certain measures from economic action plan 2014.

Today's bill focuses on the drivers of growth and job creation, which are innovation, education, skills and communities. They are underpinned by our ongoing commitment to keep taxes low and returning to a balanced budget by 2015.

In an uncertain global economy, our government's top priority is creating jobs and economic growth by building on our economic action plan, a plan that has worked and served Canadians well.

Evidence of that success is all around us. Since we introduced the economic action plan to respond to the global recession, Canada has recovered more than all of the output in all of the jobs lost during the recession.

The Canadian economy has posted one of the strongest job creation records in the G7 over the recovery. With more than one million jobs created since July, 2009, most have been full-time jobs.

Canada's GDP is now 7.6% above our pre-recession peak. Not only that, but the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirms that our government has put $30 billion in tax relief back into Canadian pockets, benefiting low-middle income families the most.

The middle class has particularly benefited from a reduction in the GST, which we cut from 7% to 6% to 5%. Under our Conservative government, the average family of four will save nearly $3,400 in taxes this year.

It is clear that Canadian families are benefiting from our low-tax plan, with their net worth up over 44%. Even The New York Times says that Canada has the most affluent middle class in the world.

This economic resilience reflects the actions that our government took before the global crisis by lowering taxes, paying down debt, reducing red tape and promoting free trade and innovation. However, this is still an uncertain global economic environment, and it is crucial that we strengthen Canada's economic action plan. That is exactly what we would do with today's legislation.

First, Bill C-31 proposes to increase existing tax support for Canadians who take on the responsibility of adopting a child. As a parent, I believe there is no higher calling than raising a child, and no reward is equal. Canadians who have children deserve the government's full support, particularly when it comes to recognizing some of the additional costs borne by adoptive parents.

While all parents incur costs in raising children, there are additional expenses that adoptive parents face, including travel, adoption agency fees and legal fees. These charges can be significant, especially in the case of children who are adopted from outside of Canada. As a result, adopting a child can be a long and costly process.

While an adoption expense tax credit has existed for a while, some new and future parents were telling us that it did not cover enough of the expenses. We heard their concern. That is why our government, through economic action plan 2014, acted by proposing to enhance the tax credit to support these parents even more.

To provide further tax recognition of adoption-related expenses, Bill C-31 proposes to increase the maximum amount of the adoption expense tax credit from $11,774 to $15,000 in expenses per child for 2014. This amount will continue to be indexed for inflation for subsequent years.

My colleague from Essex did a lot of hard work on this initiative in our budget. He has adopted two children himself. As a grandfather of two boys who my oldest daughter adopted from Haiti, I wish this had been in place when she adopted our two 11-year-old grandsons. It would have been a great benefit to them, because it is a costly process.

Our Conservative government is listening to Canadians who want to have children but, unfortunately, are unable to. We are accommodating them and making it easier for them.

At the same time, our government is committed to ensuring that the tax system reflects the evolving nature of the health care system and the health care needs of Canadians. We all use the health care system, and we want it to remain strong and sustainable so that it is there for Canadians when they need it.

In fact, under our government, health care transfers are at an all-time high of over $20 billion from when we formed government, and over $32 billion this year and growing. Unlike the old Liberal government, we have not cut funding to provinces for health care. Under our funding formula, health care transfers will grow, but in a sensible and sustainable way. We will keep growing health care funding to ensure Canadian families can depend on our health care system today and in the future.

Moreover, we recognize that there are external costs, like out-of-pocket health care costs that Canadians have been paying for, such as for service animals. That is why in Bill C-31 we have proposed to expand the list of eligible expenses under the medical expense tax credit. The expanded list would include costs associated with service animals specially trained to assist individuals with severe diabetes, such as diabetes alert dogs.

Not only that, today's legislation also focuses on connecting Canadians with available jobs by helping them to acquire the skills that will get them hired or help to get them better jobs. By ensuring that federal funding responds to the hiring needs of employers and by giving them the opportunity to participate meaningfully as partners in skills training, the Canada job grant would transform skills and training in Canada. The greatest resource in any country is its people, and we recognize that. We are continuing to help people be all that they can be and to contribute to the economy of this country.

The Canadian job grant could provide up to $15,000 per person for training costs, including tuition and training materials, which includes up to $10,000 in federal contributions with employers contributing, on average, one-third of the total cost of training. After consulting extensively with employers and provinces on the design of the grant, Canadians would be able to take advantage of it by July 1 of this year. It would offer them real support toward improved employment and earning prospects.

As important as this milestone is, economic action plan went one step further by creating the Canada apprentice loan to help registered apprentices with the cost of their training. It would do so by expanding the Canada student loans program to provide apprentices registered in Red Seal trades with access to over $100 million in interest-free loans each year.

Economic action plan 2014 also introduces the flexibility and innovation in the apprenticeship technical training pilot project to expand the use of innovative approaches to apprentice technical training. With this initiative, we are continuing to work with provinces and territories to harmonize apprenticeship systems and to reduce barriers to certification in the skilled trades so that apprentices can more easily work and train where the jobs are.

In conclusion, I trust that my comments have convinced hon. members that these measures from economic action plan contained in this bill meet the government's goal of not only improving the quality of life for Canadians, but also creating jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity for all Canadians.

It also proves, in some of the measures that I have mentioned, that this bill has a heart to help those families in Canada to have children and to be all that they can be in the future. I trust that all members in this House will quickly pass this bill.

[Glenn Thibeault, NDP, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his presentation. While I was close to being converted, I do not think I am there yet and unfortunately I still think that I and many of my colleagues on this side of the House will be opposing the bill. A lot of it relates to many of the things that we do not see in the bill.

On this side of the House we are seeing the elimination of the small business hiring tax credit. That helped 560,000 businesses across the country just last year and that no longer exists. We are also not seeing enough to create jobs. We have also seen this being rammed through the House. Unfortunately, as we admitted, there are some good things in the 350 pages of the bill. If we had been able to have an opportunity to pull some of those out or at least debate some of those in a little more detail, there would have been an opportunity for us to get some of those passed quickly.

Why is it that we continue to see omnibus budget bills from the government? Why do we have to see for the fifth time an omnibus budget bill with over 500 changes to clauses and legislation? Really what we could be doing is looking at a budget bill and passing a budget bill and voting on a budget bill rather than on so many other things.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think the member needs to repent and come on board, but I would have to talk a little longer. The reason there is so much in the budget is because we have budget consultations right across Canada. We listen to Canadians and we hear what they say and they say a lot. We try to incorporate as much as we can of what their priorities are in the budget.

When we talk about the employer tax credit, the fact is that the number one priority we heard from employers is that we need people trained and we need to have skills training to happen in the country. We cannot do everything. This is a budget and we have only a certain amount of money because we do want to balance the budget. We looked at the priorities we felt the money should be spent on at this time in accordance with the priorities of businesses, to have people trained. That is why there is such a huge investment in our Canada job grant.

Obviously, there could be more in the budget, but the member complained about the size of the budget. It is the size that it is because we responded to so many of the priorities that Canadians put forward to our government.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, I know that the hon. member is a key member of the B.C. Conservative caucus. One of the things that we pushed for as a group and as individuals was the search and rescue tax credit. In Chilliwack and Hope, those people provide a huge service to my community.

I wanted to get the member's views on the search and rescue volunteers in his riding of Okanagan—Shuswap. What value do they bring to his communities and what feedback has he had from them on the search and rescue tax credit?

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I live in the north Okanagan and it is right next door to the beautiful recreation facilities in Revelstoke. Of course there is a lot of snow machining going on there, but there is a risk of avalanche. There are people working in search and rescue who do a great job volunteering to look for people who may have been lost in the back woods. This tax credit says that we value the efforts that they make as volunteers for the community and the good of their fellow man. I think that is a good thing for government.

It is just another way of our government proving that we have a heart, to appreciate those who give of themselves to help their fellow man. It is a privilege. We did it first with the volunteer firefighters, for example. They really did appreciate it and that is what makes communities operate. They do not operate on government, they operate on community spirit. We are glad to be there to help them out with that.

[Sylvain Chicoine, NDP, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Bill C-31, even in a context of limited debate, unfortunately. Obviously, the Conservatives have not changed their ways. As usual, they have introduced a massive bill, an omnibus budget implementation bill designed to make us adopt hundreds of changes before they can even be studied properly.

This bill is over 350 pages long, has nearly 500 clauses, amends 60 laws and includes measures that were never mentioned in the budget speech. To ensure that this bill is passed as quickly as possible, the government is limiting debate in the House and not giving enough time for the committees to thoroughly review it. That way, many clauses are adopted quickly. The Conservatives are doing everything in their power to avoid being accountable to the House for their budgetary measures.

True to form, the government prefers to undermine the democratic process. That is beneath the dignity of a government of a democratic country like ours. We have the facts to prove it. For example, the hon. member for North Vancouver moved a motion whereby at 11 p.m. on May 29, 2014, all clauses that had not yet been voted on would be deemed adopted and all amendments not yet voted upon would be deemed rejected.

This does not live up to Canadians' expectations. They deserve better than this government that has no respect for democratic, parliamentary institutions. It is incredible that the government is pushing the passage of bills that have not been properly studied by Parliament and the Standing Committee on Finance, as is the case here.

No one will be surprised to learn that we will not support this budget, because it places Canadians in a position where their privacy could be violated. The bill contains nothing to support SMEs. Even worse, there is nothing in this bill to help the additional 300,000 Canadians who have become unemployed since the recession to find work, or to replace the 400,000 manufacturing jobs lost under the current Prime Minister.

Small and medium-sized businesses have been hit hard by this government. Many owners of SMEs have pointed out that the bill does not renew the hiring credit that the NDP was the first to propose in 2011 and that has now disappeared, unfortunately. However, changes were proposed to the labour-sponsored venture capital corporations tax credit.

Canadians deserve better. They deserve investments, economic development and high-quality jobs for the middle class.

We would have liked to have seen measures to help Canadian businesses grow, create jobs and increase their exports in this budget implementation bill. The government should have devised a comprehensive strategy for tackling youth unemployment and underemployment. One solution would have been to create a credit to encourage businesses to hire and train young people. By cracking down on unpaid internships, we would have ensured that young people were paid for their work.

If this government really wanted to work with the provinces to create jobs, it could have established a long-term strategy to address the shortages of skilled labour in order to support workers who want to move to another part of the country to take a long- or short-term job.

It is asking far too much of this government to bring together the provinces, employers, unions and educational institutions in order to improve the existing labour market development agreements. The government obviously prefers to establish policies behind closed doors, without any consultation.

Canada is a federation and the government, in many respects, seems to have forgotten the principle of co-operative federalism.

This bill is also a slap in the face to our veterans. Instead of compensating disabled veterans for the unjust deductions from their pensions since 2006, the government plans only to offer retroactive compensation for deductions that were made after the Federal Court ruling against the government in May 2012.

That is six years of deductions that the Conservatives do not have the decency to reimburse to these cheated veterans. It is beyond comprehension.

The government managed to find $36 million to challenge the veterans' case before the courts before being set straight. It found $28 million to fund celebrations of the War of 1812. Recently, it found $103,000 to promote tweets by Veterans Affairs Canada. It also found $4 million more this year for advertising so that the government and the minister could inform veterans. Inform them about what? Just a phone number is provided and very often no one even answers. The government prefers to pat itself on the back rather than compensate our veterans properly.

Veterans obviously deserve to be compensated adequately for their sacrifices, a principle this government seems to have forgotten yet again, given the lack of measures in this budget to help veterans.

I would like to quote something that retired captain Sean Bruyea said about this bill:

The omnibus budget bill does not meet Canada's democratic standard. It allows many changes to Canada's laws to enter the back door of government policy without full participatory and democratic due process. Ramming through legislation without proper scrutiny is an insult to the dignity of all that the military has sacrificed in Canada's name and at Parliament's order.

I could not summarize the situation better than Captain Bruyea does in that quotation.

For all Montrealers, and for the people in my riding listening to us, the bill also includes provisions about the Champlain Bridge. Bill C-31 exempts the Champlain Bridge from some of the key consumer protection and safety requirements in the User Fees Act and the Bridges Act, and gives the minister in charge the power to exempt this project from all federal laws.

We might mention, for example, the requirement to consult the public, to justify setting tolls, to establish an independent body to examine complaints, to reduce fees deemed to be excessive, and to ask the Department of Public Works and Government Services to verify the completeness and the safety of the project.

This government has therefore reiterated its desire to impose tolls on the new Champlain Bridge with no consultation, dismissing out of hand the interests of Montrealers and everyone in my riding, who will have to pay for the replacement of existing infrastructure. The effect of that will be to clog other bridges; it makes no sense. This government keeps working behind closed doors to impose the tolls. More than 1,000 people have written to tell me that they are absolutely opposed to such a provision. This infrastructure is essential for the economy of the Montreal area and also for the economy of Canada as a whole. The Conservatives consider the bridge to be a piece of local infrastructure. It does not span a little stream; it spans one of the biggest and most important shipping routes in Canada. It is the busiest bridge in the country.

We in the NDP listen to our constituents. This is why we proposed four amendments in committee to prevent tolls from being imposed. Of course, those amendments were dismissed outright by the Conservative members on the committee. We will continue to fight, come what may, to stop the government from imposing tolls on the new Champlain Bridge.

Canadians deserve a budget bill that supports our businesses, which are the engine of job creation. Canadians therefore expected measures that would make their lives more affordable and that would help them save for their retirement. They expected funding for veterans' programs that reflected the sacrifices these people made for their country. Instead, the Conservatives decided to cut programs and tax credits so that they could balance the budget and hand out goodies to their target demographic just before next year's election.

Canadians deserve better than that, and we obviously do not support this bill.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his passionate speech and commend him for the work he does for our veterans.

What I do not understand is the disdain that this government has for veterans. Just as much as I do not understand racism, I do not understand why the government is incapable, here in the House, of recognizing the contribution veterans have made, the sacrifices they have made for our country, often at the cost of their health or their lives.

I would like my colleague to elaborate on the comments he made about veterans in his speech. We know that members on the other side of the House rely heavily on rhetoric when it comes to veterans' issues. The NDP has proposed meaningful initiatives in that regard. I would like him to talk a little about that.

[Sylvain Chicoine, NDP, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his observations and for his excellent question about veterans. He is absolutely right: the government likes to take advantage of veterans.

The numbers vary when the government talks about veterans. I sometimes hear government members talk about an extra $5 billion since 2006, whereas others say $6 billion and some say $4 billion.

The reality is that there have been substantial amounts in the budget, an extra $5 billion or so since 2006, but there has also been about $1 billion in the budget that has not been spent to support our veterans, at a time when they have trouble obtaining the services they are entitled to. Our veterans are disadvantaged and do not receive the compensation they deserve.

This week, we made 14 recommendations on the review of the new veterans charter. In fact, I urge the minister to stop spending millions of dollars on useless ads and to use the money to properly compensate and support our veterans.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Madam Speaker, one of the important measures in Bill C-31, of course, is for the Minister of Transport to be able to issue recalls on safety. I wonder if the member would comment on whether he supports that measure.

[Sylvain Chicoine, NDP, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I think this is a somewhat controversial measure.

I cannot comment on the measure my colleague is talking about because I think I am getting it mixed up with another measure that is very controversial, the one that could jeopardize Canadians' privacy.

I cannot answer my colleague's question on transportation because this is an extremely controversial bill. I did not spend a lot of time looking at transportation issues. I do not know whether I would support that measure.

[Pierre Jacob, NDP, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague on his speech and the hard work he does for veterans and in his riding.

I would like to remind him that 71 veterans with post-traumatic stress syndrome have committed suicide since 2008.

Last week, the Minister of Veterans Affairs showed no interest in listening to Ms. Migneault, who lives in my riding, Brome—Missisquoi. In fact, he ran away from her.

I would like to ask him why Bill C-31 does not include measures to help the men and women who have to live with the after-effects of being in combat.

[Sylvain Chicoine, NDP, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Madam Speaker, I have a quick answer for my colleague.

Since 2006, the government has been balancing the budget at veterans' expense.

[Glenn Thibeault, NDP, Sudbury, ON]

Madam Speaker, I am truly honoured to once again be able to rise in this House to speak and of course debate, while representing the great folks of my riding of Sudbury, representing their voice and the voice of the New Democratic Party here in the House of Commons.

We are debating Bill C-31, an act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014, and other measures. I believe that this is act 1 of many acts to follow.

What we have is a budget bill that is over 350 pages long. It is not a play. We are not debating a play. This is not act 1 and act 2. What I can really say is that there will not be a happy ending for many Canadians when this budget bill passes.

I would first like to talk a little about the hiring credit for small businesses. Just last year, 560,000 small businesses in this country used that hiring credit. Now, when we think about the 2.4 million small businesses in this country, that is a significant amount of small businesses that are using that.

Let us not forget that in this country, the real job creators are small and medium-sized enterprises, the economic engine of our country. It is not Bay Street but Main Street that is actually creating the jobs.

If we are actually cutting the hiring credit for small businesses, when we know there are 2.4 million businesses in this country and 1 million of those businesses offer employment to more than 1 employee, we really should have thought about this before the government actually removed this credit from the budget.

The cost of this program was approximately $235 million. That is a significant amount of change. Let us not diminish that. However, when we look at the corporate tax cuts that the government has made over the last few years, from 22% down to 15%, that cost is approximately $1.3 billion.

We heard from the former finance minister—bless his soul, a very good man—that this became money that the corporations are sitting on, and they are not creating the jobs that we want and that we need in this country. On one hand, we have small businesses that are creating the jobs, creating one-third the growth of the GDP in this country, and then on the other hand we have the corporations that are sitting on the money that they are saving in the corporate tax rates, not creating jobs.

We keep giving the large corporations the breaks, and we are doing nothing to help the small business and medium-sized enterprise in this country. That is shameful.

The government has an opportunity to actually put that small business hiring tax credit back in place. Let us make sure that more than 560,000 of these small businesses in this country utilize that hiring tax credit, because right now not only are they losing that hiring tax credit, but they are getting hit and hit hard by the government's inaction on merchant fees. It is $4.2 billion per year that our small and medium-sized enterprises have to spend just to accept credit card payments in this country.

What we are not saying is that the credit card companies and the banks cannot recoup their costs and make a profit. However, do they have to do it so much so that small businesses are now saying that one more increase will break their backs, or that they are shutting their doors, or that they are not hiring people, or that they cannot expand their business?

I have the 2013 state of industry report from the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, which was just released. This is what it is saying in its statistics: last year, all of the convenience stores across this country lost $254 million. They lost money, but they also had to spend $832 million just to accept credit card payments. That means they cannot hire more employees.

A total of 61% of all convenience stores across the country say that they cannot hire more employees. They cannot pay down debt as quickly. That is 51% of all of these businesses. They cannot invest in equipment and expansion, which also has a ripple effect in our communities.

They cannot increase the employees' wages and benefits. They cannot increase donations to charity. As a former executive director of the United Way in Sudbury, I can attest that the small and medium enterprises in my community, and I am sure right across the country, are the businesses that invest in our charities. They invest in our communities. If we can keep more money in their pockets by addressing this merchant fee, they would continue to address and invest in their own communities.

They have to increase prices. Small and medium-sized business owners from coast to coast to coast, whether they are the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, the Retail Council of Canada, or independent business owners, will say that if we do not do something now in relation to merchant fees, we are going to be in trouble, because they are going to stop investing. They are going to stop hiring people, and we need them to hire people. We need to continue to grow our economy by supporting our small and medium-sized enterprises.

So far what we have seen from the government is the elimination of a hiring tax credit and doing nothing on the merchant fees. It created a voluntary code that is still full of loopholes.

The CFIB and others continue to push the government to act. Even the Competition Bureau asked the Competition Tribunal to investigate some of the anti-competitive practices that are in place in this country when it comes to Visa and Mastercard. The Competition Tribunal investigated. We were expecting a decision in December 2012. It came out in July 2013, and what did it do? It punted that decision back to Parliament. The Competition Tribunal is saying that this is a decision Parliament needs to act on. Instead, we have not heard an iota of any type of change on these requests from the tribunal to make sure that we can support our small and medium-sized enterprises.

Surely when we are looking at this 350-page budget document that would change everything from veterans to FATCA to all the other things that are in there, could we not have put one small regulation in place to prevent the anti-competitive practices being used by Visa and Mastercard and some of the banks and help our small businesses continue to grow? That could have been a simple change, but it did not happen.

One of the other things we were hoping to see in this budget implementation act was on OBSI. OBSI, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, provides a great service to all Canadians, both consumers and businesses alike. What we have seen are the slowly diminishing powers of OBSI. Again, one quick regulation could have shut the door and stopped some of the banks from leaving. Instead, the Conservative have left it open. By leaving it open, we are going against the recommendation of the crazy, left-wing IMF and the World Bank that a single dispute mechanism for all consumers, small businesses, and all businesses in this country is the way to go. Instead, what we have seen is the Conservative government allowing banks to leave and choose their own law firms to be their ombudsmen for their consumers.

While OBSI is at an arm's length from the financial institutions, we are now allowing the banks to hire their own law firms to act on behalf of consumers who are having a problem with the banks. Again, that is like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. That cannot happen, but it does.

Unfortunately, we have seen the Conservative government choose not to put that regulation into an omnibus budget bill. It has 350 pages and it has really closed the door on ensuring that small businesses get the support they need to continue to grow our economy.

As I said at the beginning of my speech, this is act no. 1. Act no. 2 is coming, and there really is no happy ending for this.

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, I listened attentively to that rant from across the way. I have to compliment the member on the timbre of his voice. He has a perfect face for radio, as they say.

He mentioned in his speech that the government has not done anything for small business. I speak to owners of small businesses all the time in my riding and across the country, and they really admire the things we have done since 2006, in the past three budgets in particular.

We eliminated the corporate surtax in 2008, which is a big deal to small businesses. It was a big part of what they were paying. It reduced the small business tax rate. However, the really important thing for them is succession. Small businesses have been built up with sweat and tears, and raising the lifetime capital gains is a really important measure for them. They have built up capital. That is their future, and they want to hand it off to future generations. Raising the limit to $800,000 is something they are very thankful for.

The comments about government not doing anything for small business I really do not agree with. Owners of small businesses do not agree with it either. Maybe the member would comment on that, please.

[Glenn Thibeault, NDP, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I agree that elevating capital gains was important for owners of small and medium-sized businesses. It was something that this side of the House supported. However, the problem is that if we are cutting out a hiring tax credit, if we are making sure that they have to pay more on merchant fees, if we are putting forward a bill that is really not going to reduce any of the red tape, there is not going to be anything to be a successor of.

Really, what the government needs to do is listen to the CFIB, the Retail Council of Canada, the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, and Restaurants Canada. All of them are saying on the merchant fee file that these guys are not doing anything. It is costing them $4.2 billion per year, and rather than act on that, the government wants to put it down on paper and never act. Unfortunately, it will actually cost them more than it is right now and what it should be.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech and for being such a fine champion of small business in this country.

My riding of Beaches—East York is in Toronto. Often we conflate Toronto with Bay Street when we think about business, but of course, Toronto is a big place. I think a confederation of neighbourhoods is what Jane Jacobs once called it. In all of those neighbourhoods, there are small businesses, and the success of small business is, in fact, the success of the neighbourhoods of the communities we live in. We notice in our neighbourhoods when a small business does not succeed. There are empty storefronts and so on and so forth.

Another spinoff, obviously, of the success of small business is the issue of youth employment. Toronto is facing about 18% youth unemployment, and small business is an obvious employment opportunity for young people. It is a great place to get started in the labour market. I was wondering if my colleague could comment on the connection between youth unemployment and the success of small business in Canada.

[Glenn Thibeault, NDP, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, recently I was at the chamber in Victoria, British Columbia talking about a lot of the things we want to hear about from small businesses. One thing I took from that, besides many of the recommendations, was their congratulations to the NDP for having an urban affairs critic. I wanted to make sure that I passed that along to my hon. colleague.

In relation to the question about youth unemployment and small business, part of the proposal we are putting forward is a hiring tax credit for youth that would give small businesses $4,000, especially in those areas that have higher youth unemployment, like my riding of Sudbury, unfortunately. I was shocked to learn when I was recently in Victoria with the member for Victoria that there is a 14% unemployment rate for youth between 18 and 25. Across the country, that is happening in too many cities.

New Democrats have a proposal. If the government wants to take it, we would be more than happy, but I do not think it will do that, because we have not seen it act on anything substantive to help small business in a very long time. This is something that would be a win-win: we will help employ our youth, and we will make sure that the small businesses get the employees they need so urgently.

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot say I am happy to speak about another omnibus bill.

Bill C-31, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures, is once again an omnibus bill that contains a number of measures in other bills.

As Canadians are well aware, these omnibus bills include provisions that have absolutely nothing to do with financial or budgetary measures. These mammoth bills make huge changes in our society by means of provisions that are hidden in bills so that the government can impose its ideological views by leaving Canadians in the dark.

The opposition, which may reject some initiatives but approve of others, is deliberately placed in such a position that it must oppose all of the initiatives, even the ones it approves of. Then the Conservatives accuse us of voting against a particular provision.

However, Canadians are not buying it. They know that the Conservative government forces mammoth bills through in order to hide its mistakes and incompetence and bring in measures that are solely in its own interest and not in the interest of Canadians.

In addition to the problem of a catch-all bill, this kind of process makes it impossible to consider the bill in depth. What democracy. We in the NDP are opposed to this bill for these reasons, but especially because of its content.

Serious questions were raised in committee about the implementation of this legislation. We sincerely hoped that the Conservatives would set aside partisanship and carefully examine the amendments put forward by the NDP. Since this bill has more than 350 clauses, I can only mention some of them.

The bill would enable the government to amend and repeal a wide range of regulations on rail safety without informing the public. The regulations in question deal with technical standards, worker training, hours of work, maintenance and performance, for example. These amendments would not be open to public debate. They could be made secretly by cabinet and have an impact on the transportation of dangerous goods.

I would like to point out that there are railways that pass through my riding, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert. My constituents are very concerned about the transportation of dangerous goods. The government should pay attention to those who are involved and take their concerns into consideration. It is extremely worrisome to think that amendments that could threaten the safety of a community could be adopted without the residents being informed.

I would also like to talk about the Champlain Bridge. Over the past few weeks, we have received hundreds of petitions against bringing in toll charges on the Champlain Bridge.

On the one hand, the Conservative government does not want to listen to the public; it does not understand that nobody wants the new toll, not even the municipalities involved. On the other hand, this shows once again that the only thing the Conservatives have done since they came to power has been to tax households; there is no relief for families. Bringing in a toll proves once again that the government is incapable of listening to Canadians and incapable of giving them a break.

That is why the NDP and the members on the south shore, including myself, will not just stand idly by.

My constituents, as well as all those who are affected by the new toll, are worried. We live in a democratic country where the government was elected by the people. The people do not want this legislation and they do not want the toll. The government must hear what they are saying and listen to reason.

Lastly, this bill has serious consequences for small and medium-sized businesses, which are the lifeblood of our economy. The Conservatives often attack us and say that the NDP never supports the economic measures they propose. This is why: we cannot support a bill that fails to renew the hiring credit for small and medium-sized businesses. Bad laws hurt Canadians’ ability to grow their business, create jobs and build a better future for themselves.

I will finish by reading a quote:

When the bill was rammed through the House with closure, it really did not present a lot of opportunity for meaningful public debate. We had begun to hear…from provincial and territorial governments, from many academics and experts and from many individual Canadians…

The electoral process…affect[s] all Canadians. The interests of all Canadians must be served, not the interests of politicians, not partisan interests or political self-interest.

The person who said these words and who was railing against the Liberals' schemes with omnibus bills is now our Prime Minister. Omnibus bills have become his Trojan horse, which stops us from doing our work as parliamentarians.

I rise in the House this evening to oppose this bill and the process that gave rise to it. It is shameful for our democracy. Canadians deserve better. They deserve investment, innovation, economic development, and quality employment for the middle class. They deserve realistic support and community infrastructure. They deserve help in saving and investing for their retirement. They deserve to have their lives made a little more affordable with measures to reduce household debt, and they deserve to be provided with the services they need.

This budget unfortunately does none of that. That is why New Democrats will not support it.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my hon. friend how she can explain her hypocrisy.

First of all, she talked about supporting the hiring credit for small business. In 2011, when she had the opportunity to support that hiring credit for small business, she chose to vote against it. In 2012, the hiring credit for small business was in the economic action plan. Now she claims to be for it, but then she voted against it. Now she is claiming she is for it again.

I mean, this is kind of like a John Kerry scenario. She voted against it before she voted in favour of it.

Can the member explain her hypocrisy to the House and I am sure her interested fellow NDP colleagues?

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I sincerely thank my distinguished colleague for his question. It allows me to expand on this once more by saying that this government is presenting us with mammoth bills in which it stuffs everything, even bills to amend the Criminal Code.

How can we vote in good conscience on things that we have not even had the time to debate or to suggest amendments for? This is what they like to do and what I was denouncing at the start of my speech. We are being forced to vote against measures that could be good for Canadians, but unfortunately, everything is in the same bag, in the form of an omnibus bill. Then afterwards, they like to accuse us of being hypocrites. We are not hypocrites, we are responsible and we are showing our leadership.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the budget implementation bill is one aspect of the overall budget wherein we saw significant cuts to the CBC. A good number of jobs will be lost, but more importantly, concern has been raised with respect to the overall impact the cuts will have on the CBC's future. I for one believe in CBC TV and radio and the value they bring to our society as a whole.

The question I have for the member is this. With respect to the CBC and the budget implementation bill, what we see in the bill is to the detriment of the CBC. Canadians want us to come to the table and advocate on this issue, yet the government has invoked time allocation. On an important bill such as this, there are rarely serious time constraints. I have had the opportunity to speak to the bill myself, but there will be many members who will not be afforded the opportunity to speak to it because of time allocation.

This is a budget bill and budgets are all about priorities, but through the imposition of time allocation, the government is preventing members of Parliament from contributing to the debate on setting priorities for Canadians.

[Djaouida Sellah, NDP, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my Liberal colleague for his pertinent question.

Like all Canadians, we have gotten used to how the Conservatives operate. The more secretive they are on that side, the more we are transparent and tell the truth, on ours. Every time we asked about the CBC, the Minister of Heritage told us that it was all in the CBC's hands, not the government's. We were there, it is on the record. Once again, we are seeing a lack of leadership from this government when the time comes to take a stance in support of Canadians, no matter what the issue.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have only four minutes left to speak during this debate, and that is because of the time allocation motion that the Conservatives moved and voted for today.

That leaves very little time for people like me, who live in the far north and come from a remote area, to discuss the measures included in this proposed budget, as well as the ones that were not included. Clearly, I am very puzzled by the fact that I cannot talk about the things that directly impact the people of my riding, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou.

I will use the four minutes I have left to debunk some of the Conservative myths surrounding jobs and the economy.

When the Conservatives came to power in 2006, and I just happened to choose this example, there was a $26-billion trade surplus in terms of international trade. Now, listen to this. The Conservatives turned that surplus into a $62-billion trade deficit.

The Conservatives are saying that they are very good negotiators. They are signing all these free trade agreements with countries around the globe. However, in actual fact, they are proving that they are not as good at negotiating as they would have us believe.

I would also like to address the matter of the budget deficit. It is important to think about that because, on the other side of the House, the Conservatives are bragging that they are good managers and that they know how to manage the economy. Nevertheless, the public debt has increased by over $100 billion over the past six years. We must remind the Canadians who are watching this evening of that. The Conservatives are responsible for the largest budget deficit in Canadian history.

It is important to keep that in mind because, on this side of the House at least, we are tired of hearing the Conservatives talk about this subject. I know that they do not like facts. However, the facts certainly contradict what they are saying.

Our youth is another example that I could give in the House tonight. The youth unemployment rate is double the national rate at almost 14%.

How can the Conservatives brag about doing such a great job of managing the economy and the country when they cannot even find jobs for our young people, the future of this country? The Conservatives cannot do it.

Let us talk about this economic recovery they are still bragging about today. An additional 300,00 Canadians have become unemployed since the recession and 400,000 jobs have been lost in the manufacturing industry since this Prime Minister took office. They call that an economic recovery?

I think that we need to speak out about the fact that the Conservatives are not capable of doing the work. This Conservative government is tired and corrupt. It is no longer capable of defending its record. It is important to point that out.

I will end by saying—