Debates of Jan. 29th, 2015

Intergovernmental Affairs

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

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has held over 300 meetings with his provincial and territorial counterparts. The members of this cabinet continuously meet, and so do the members of Parliament. We meet with our provincial and municipal counterparts.

Let us look at the results. We brought in the largest economic stimulus and infrastructure program in Canadian history by working with our provincial partners. The opposition members said we could not do it. We did it. We reformed our immigration system to better respect Canada and the provinces. They said we could not do it. We did it. We increased funding to our provincial partners with respect to health and education. They said that we could not do it. We did it while balancing the budget and cutting taxes. We act; they talk.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, when the Governor of the Bank of Canada says the collapsing energy sector is unambiguously negative, when investment, exports, jobs, and growth are all slumping, when the Conference Board projects the risk of a recession in Alberta, and the Parliamentary Budget Officer says federal revenue will drop by $8 billion this year, why is the Prime Minister not working with the premiers this week on a truly national effort to cope with issues seemingly so serious that they caused his budget to be delayed into the next fiscal year? Why is he snubbing the premiers?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we have held over 300 meetings with our provincial partners.

Again, let us look at some of the results. When we said that we wanted to bring in a new national job grant that would help Canadians seeking employment across the country and that we wanted to do it while working with our provincial partners, the opposition members said we could not do it. We did it. That is the record on this side of the House.

When it comes to building a bigger, better, stronger, more prosperous Canada, we get the job done. They talk.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, snubbing the premiers only underscores the dysfunctional relationship. The critical thing they should be doing together is accelerating infrastructure, but this government missed most of last summer's construction season. It punched a $1.5 billion hole into the building Canada fund, and 75% of new funding is punted beyond 2019, but it is not too late. Cancel income splitting for the wealthy, put that $10 billion into infrastructure, call the premiers over to dinner tonight, and get infrastructure going before spring.

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

Mr. Speaker, in actual fact, this Conservative government is making unprecedented investments in infrastructure. This high level of investment will continue for the next decade. These infrastructure investments are creating jobs and prosperity. They are enhancing our growth and prosperity.

Contrast that with the Liberals' approach, who hope that through hocus-pocus, the budget will balance itself. Instead, we know that they will hike taxes, run a deficit, and leave a burden of debt to our kids and our grandchildren.

The Economy

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

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are in no position to talk about federal-provincial collaboration because they offloaded their deficit onto the provinces and destabilized the country's health care systems.

The Conservatives can rhyme off their list of actions, but the fact is, their plan is not working. Despite their piecemeal approach and their upbeat press releases, the manufacturing sector has lost half a million jobs in the past 10 years. Their so-called action plan is not working.

Would it be too much to ask the Prime Minister to show a little humility and sit down with the provinces in the interest of boosting the economy and employment in this country?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, we are most certainly working with the provinces.

Take infrastructure, for example. We have agreements with all of the provinces to invest in infrastructure across the country. I am working with Jacques Daoust on Canada's domestic free trade system to create jobs in Canada and around the world.

I am working with my Ontario counterpart, Brad Duguid, to improve Ontario's manufacturing sector. We are constantly working with the provinces to improve things for families and the economy.

International Trade

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Mr. Speaker, free trade is fine, but reciprocal trade is even better.

The Conservatives are not vigilant enough when it comes to protecting our manufacturing sector. The steel industry, for instance, provides 17,000 jobs in Quebec, but because of an increasing number of protectionist provisions introduced by the Americans, including the buy American act, our exports have dropped 18%.

When will the government finally do something to ensure that trade with our partners is based on a win-win relationship?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, we will certainly protect the interests of our manufacturers and job creation through our free trade approach.

As a Conservative government, we of course will take no lessons from New Democrats when it comes to expanding free trade and ensuring that we are creating Canadian jobs through world sales and free trade. We are the only country in the world that has tariff-free access to the two largest economies in the world: the United States and Europe.

We have gone from having free trade agreements with five countries to now 43 countries around the world. We are expanding free trade opportunities, creating Canadian jobs through world sales, and of course, with all of these free trade deals, we have New Democrats dragging their feet, saying no, and opposing free trade. We will continue to lead.

Employment

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

Mr. Speaker, here is another example of the Conservatives' incompetence: we have learned that the government knew for 18 months that the temporary foreign workers program was adversely affecting youth employment.

It took this government 18 months to do something. For 18 months, the Minister of Employment ignored his departmental officials' warnings. He did nothing.

Why did the minister bury his head in the sand while his program was throwing our youth into the unemployment line?

Why did the media and the official opposition have to get involved before he finally decided to act?

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

Mr. Speaker, this is precisely why we began reforming the temporary foreign worker program in 2012. In fact, the Minister of Employment and Social Development cited specifically youth unemployment as a reason to make these reforms.

One of the new requirements, which, by the way, the NDP did not support, is that workers would have to show that they have aggressively pursued hiring people who are under-represented, like youth, like people with disabilities, like aboriginal Canadians.

The changes are delivering results. We want to ensure that Canadians—young Canadians, aboriginal Canadians, Canadians with disabilities, all Canadians—are first when it comes to jobs in Canada.

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

Mr. Speaker, youth unemployment is at 14%, and Conservatives are making it worse. The minister was warned 18 months ago that the temporary foreign worker program was making it harder for young people to find jobs. He was warned that the industries that are the top employers of young workers were filling those jobs with temporary foreign workers. He did nothing until CBC shone the light.

The minister sat on this information for over a year, while our young people were denied jobs. Why?

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

Mr. Speaker, the fact is we have made major reforms that started in 2012-13 and just recently.

When we are talking about youth unemployment, certainly we want the temporary foreign worker program to not exclude any Canadian, but there are a lot of other things we are doing to help young people get jobs, things like the apprenticeship grant, the apprenticeship job creation tax credit, and the tradesperson tools deduction tax credit. There is a list of things we are doing to ensure that young people get trained for the jobs available, things like the Canada job grant. New Democrats voted against every one of those initiatives. Instead, they want to create big bureaucracies, raise taxes, and kill jobs.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, except that none of this is working because we still have persistently high unemployment in the country.

The Conservatives have watched while over 400,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared and middle-class families in southwestern Ontario are paying the price: 800 at John Deere in Welland; 2,000 at GM in Oshawa; 2,500 at Ford and Sterling in St. Thomas.

The tax writedown on new manufacturing equipment is expected to expire at the end of this year. How can manufacturers invest and create middle-class jobs when the finance minister is delaying the budget and leaving them in limbo?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, first, this 400,000 job number that the NDP keeps wheeling out has been disproved in Maclean's magazine. She should pick up and understand that. The NDP math on this is a joke. So, too, is the joke of the NDP pretending that it is in favour of tax cuts for small business.

We put forward the accelerated capital cost allowance. The NDP voted against it. We have expanded free trade that is creating jobs in southwest Ontario. The NDP has voted against it. She talks about the auto sector. We put in place the auto innovation fund that is creating 1,200 new jobs in Oakville. She voted against it.

When it comes to the unemployment rate, it has gone from 7.2% to 6.5%. We are—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley.

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

Mr. Speaker, we get our statistics from Statistics Canada. The Conservatives get theirs from Maclean's and Kijiji, and they call themselves competent.

Job growth is at its lowest level in 5 years, labour participation is at its lowest level in 15 years, and the Prime Minister's spokesperson just said that the economy was doing spectacularly.

The Conservatives have delayed their budget and are arrogantly refusing to meet with Canada's premiers. The provinces are here to talk about solutions to our anaemic job growth, our growing infrastructure needs and our weakening energy sector. The premiers are meeting just down the street, for heaven's sake. All the Prime Minister has to do is roll out of bed, get into the limo and show them a little respect.

With tens of thousands of Canadians losing their jobs, when is the Prime Minister going to do his?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I just said, the Prime Minister has met with his counterparts over 300 times.

When we look at Canada's economy in comparison with our partners around the world, we are, and will continue to be, the envy of the world.

We will always reject the Liberal and NDP priorities of raising taxes on Canadian families, killing jobs and running high debt. That is not our priority on this side of the House.

Our priority is continuing to grow on the close to 1.2 million jobs that we have created, helping our manufacturers, not transitioning out of manufacturing like the Liberals and the NDP would do. On every matter that counts to Canadians, lower taxes, lower debt, they can count on us.

National Defence

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, our soldiers have been in Iraq for months now, and we still do not know the exact nature of the mission. The Chief of the Defence Staff said today in committee that, for now, there are very few Canadian Forces members on the ground.

Does that mean that the government plans to send more combat troops to Iraq?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the member says that she does not know the object of the mission. It is to fight ISIL terrorists. That is what it is all about. That is exactly what we are doing with our special operations forces and the attacks by our fighters out of Kuwait. We are doing the right thing. We are standing up to these terrorists, at home and abroad.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, today, before the joint committee meeting on the mission in Iraq, the Chief of the Defence Staff said that he gave the order that special forces could call in air strikes at the front lines as part of the advise and assist mission. He described this as an evolution and agreed the situation had changed.

Canada is now an outlier in its operations compared with our allies.

Was the Minister of National Defence aware of this expansion of the mission and did he give his approval?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the mission of our special forces is to advise and assist. Yes, there is progress being made.

As for the committee this morning, it was pointed out that the Iraqis were making progress and retaking their territory and solidifying the areas they already controlled.

I appreciate the hon. member and his party want nothing to do with this in the sense that they cannot support it, but I think most Canadians support this fight against ISIL and terrorism.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, there is an issue requiring the minister's immediate attention, and that is the continuing tragedy of suicide by Canadian Armed Forces members.

Sadly, there were 19 suicides in 2014, one of the highest levels in the last decade. In fact, suicide has now claimed the lives of more Canadian soldiers than combat in Afghanistan.

DND has rightly pointed out that this is related to the “significant” increase in post-traumatic stress disorder in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Could the Minister of National Defence tell us if there will be new measures in the forthcoming budget to deal with this serious crisis?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, our thoughts and prayers go out to all military families that have lost loved ones.

We have significantly increased investments in mental health services over the years. We now have over 400 full-time mental health care workers. This is one of the highest ratios in NATO, and it is appropriately so. We have to give them the help they need. This is a priority with the government.

Infrastructure

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I asked the Minister of Finance to announce his municipal infrastructure budget for Canada's cities and to do it now. He ducked the question. He is not just hiding his budget, he is hiding under his desk.

In town halls across Canada, mayors are asking for a partner in Ottawa. Here is part of what one city, Regina, is looking for: $30 million for a new transit facility; $38 million for highway overpasses; $67 million for the railroad revitalization project.

Does the minister not want a strong Regina? Does he not want people working in Regina? Why will the Minister of Finance not release the budget for municipalities and get the money flowing now?