Debates of Dec. 8th, 2015

Holodomor

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today marks the 82nd anniversary of the Holodomor, the famine genocide of 1932-33, when Stalin put in place an evil master plan for Ukrainians.

Behind barbed wire, Ukraine became a Hell on earth. Her lush countryside denuded of leaves and grasses as people ate anything that grew. It became a land where no fields rustled and no birds sang, where the deathly silence in villages was only broken by the sounds of wagons picking up the dead. One by one, thousand after thousand, million after million laid their skin and bone bodies down onto Ukraine's fertile black soil and became one with their land.

Today, hybrid military invasions and annexation has been visited upon these same lands. Thousands have died standing against this new Kremlin evil. We say for them, Slava Ukraini.

To the millions of victims of the Holodomor, let us make a pledge of two simple words, Bil'sh nikoly, never again.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

My dear colleagues, before we begin question period, I want to thank members for their good conduct yesterday. I know we all want to show respect to one another and listen when someone else is speaking as we would in dealing with our constituents, for example. Our constituents will appreciate the good behaviour on display.

Oral questions, the Leader of the Opposition.

Taxation

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Liberal Party put tax-free savings accounts on the chopping block. Over 11 million Canadians have invested their savings in this excellent program. Eighty per cent of them are low and middle income Canadians, including seniors.

We know the Prime Minister is in a mad scramble for cash, but why did he decide to take such a huge bite out of the savings of seniors?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party made campaign commitments to help seniors, particularly our vulnerable seniors. That is is why we committed to increasing the GIS for low income single seniors to help them with almost $1,000 more a year.

We have also recognized that time and time again the previous government took on initiatives that helped the wealthiest and not those who needed the help. We have committed to turning that around and giving help to the people who need the help instead of helping the people who have $10,000 to set aside at the end of every year.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are imposing new limits on TFSAs because they believe that the wealthy are the only ones who use them, and they need that money to finance their massive expenditures.

What will they do next—eliminate TFSAs altogether?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the Conservative Party is simply trying to scare our seniors. As we learned from Hazel McCallion, it will not work.

The Liberal Party is committed to protecting and maintaining the TFSA contribution limit at $5,000 and to helping those who need it, the most vulnerable seniors, who will see an increase in the guaranteed income supplement.

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, it took barely a month for the Liberals to take an axe to the limits for tax-free savings accounts, but let us hear from an important voice when those limits were increased. “I think it's really quite a positive move for retirement security in general.” Who said that? Morneau Shepell, the Minister of Finance's own company.

On this side of the House, we could not agree with them more. Why does the Prime Minister not agree?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Once again, Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party demonstrates that it has not been listening to ordinary Canadians, that it is out of touch with the real concerns.

If Conservatives think that average Canadians have $10,000 to set aside at the end of every year, they are sorely mistaken about the impact of 10 years of your government.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I remind the hon. Prime Minister that it was not my government.

The hon. member for Lac-Saint-Jean.

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, of course our Conservative government was proud to introduce the tax free savings account to help people save and plan for the future. There is a lot of talk these days about the future and commitments.

Why is the new government reducing the annual contribution limit? This tool allows people to save, and a large percentage of them earn $60,000 or less.

Why are they attacking this public service?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, ordinary Canadians and vulnerable Canadians do not have $10,000 to set aside at the end of the year. Only the wealthy can do that.

The reality is that this government still plans to help those less fortunate, rather than those who do not really need help. That is why we were elected: to help those who really need it.

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, even though government operations had a surplus during the election campaign, this Prime Minister announced that he would incur a modest deficit of $10 billion.

Not too long ago, the Minister of Finance announced that the deficit would exceed $10 billion.

This government talks a lot about transparency. Can the Prime Minister therefore tell us the exact amount of the deficit? It seems as though it could be much more than $10 billion.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that we have always been open and transparent on this topic and we will continue to be.

In the fiscal update presented a few weeks ago, we set the levels for real growth, and in our budget we will update all of our expectations, since our reality has gotten considerably worse since the Conservative Party's last budget.

Aboriginal Affairs

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP commends the process to examine the serious national problem of murdered or missing indigenous women, a problem that was ignored by the previous government for far too long.

Canadians are indeed heartened to see that the new government is moving ahead on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. However, the question is this. Given the urgency of this national crisis, can the Prime Minister provide Canadians with a timeline for real action? Can we expect a report by the end of 2016?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the ongoing tragedy of missing and murdered indigenous women has continued for decades now in this country, and it is time, absolutely, that we engage in a national public inquiry that is properly informed in collaboration with experts, groups, and indigenous communities themselves.

I know that in order to get healing for the families and justice for the victims, and to put an end to this tragedy, it needs to be done right. That is exactly what we are committed to doing.

Finance

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in a previous response, the Prime Minister just said that the former government had a tendency to “help the wealthiest”. The Prime Minister now claims that he is helping the middle class, but perhaps he can help us with his definition.

Here we go.

A family with two children, earning $45,000 a year, would receive precisely nothing from the middle class tax cut. One of the Prime Minister's 35 parliamentary secretaries earning $184,000 would get the full benefit. How does he define “middle class”?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I find it curious that the hon. member would talk about families with two children because they absolutely would benefit from our new Canada child benefit, which would be more generous. Both the Conservative Party and the NDP defended the idea that the wealthiest families should be receiving thousands of dollars in child benefit cheques, when indeed what we would do is ensure that people who need it would receive it. That is what the Canada child benefit would do when we present our next budget.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about what we are doing in Parliament this week.

The Prime Minister is talking about a tax cut for the middle class. Then why will a family with two children, earning $45,000 a year, receive precisely nothing from this tax cut while any of his 35 parliamentary secretaries earning $184,000 a year will get the full benefit?

Where is the fairness for the middle class when the rich receive the full amount and everything else is just empty promises for the spring, maybe?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we find ourselves in a situation where the Conservative Party is criticizing us for excessive tax increases for the rich and the NDP is criticizing us for insufficient tax cuts for the middle class.

The Liberal Party was elected on the strength of a balanced approach, which recognizes that we must help those in need and we can ask a little more of those who are successful. We are going to create growth that will benefit people at all income levels.

Canada Post

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister promised during the election campaign to restore home mail delivery, there were no ifs, ands, or buts. I would like to give the Prime Minister another chance because yesterday we could not get a straight answer. The Prime Minister has made a solemn promise to Canadians to restore home mail delivery. Will the Liberal government be restoring home mail delivery? Yes or no.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I actually would suggest that the hon. members opposite consult the Liberal electoral platform, which is still online, which clearly states that we would ensure a moratorium on the installation of community mailboxes, and work with Canada Post and citizens and groups to ensure that we are giving the kind of service that Canadians need. That is the commitment we made in the election and that is the commitment we are keeping.

Public Safety

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is hard to believe that the only meaningful security screening for the 25,000 Syrian refugees is a 45-minute interview conducted by an immigration official through a translator. The government is treating this as “business as usual”, despite the fact that this is a massive influx of people from a region ravaged by terrorism and strife.

Why is the government cutting corners on security, just to keep its arbitrary timelines?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, the short answer is we are not doing that. We have a system in place that provides for robust layers of security screening that will all be done overseas before the refugees board their planes. When they board their planes, they will have that complete security screening done up to the standards that we would expect in Canada in the normal course.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. minister just said that the process would be robust, but a few weeks he said that the screening process would not be 100% foolproof.

Can the minister inform the House of the percentage he thinks is acceptable?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that the standards that are being applied with respect to the refugees are the same high standards that Canada always applies. We have made sure in the system that we have put in place that there is no compromise on safety and security. That is important in ensuring that this process can be successful.

Canadians, at the end of the day, can be very proud of what we have accomplished together.