Debates of April 30th, 2015

Seniors

[Isabelle Morin, NDP, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Conservative techniques are not working at all. The HSBC report is clear: half of all Canadians expect to continue working after they retire because they will need income. By raising the eligibility age for the guaranteed income supplement and OAS to 67, the Conservatives have made the situation even more difficult.

Why is the government not implementing measures to help Canadians retire with dignity?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, here is a quote:

A Tax-Free Savings Account...can help you while you work towards your short- and long-term financial goals. A TFSA is a flexible registered savings account; investment income, including capital gains, earned within the account is not taxed, and withdrawals are tax-free.

That is the member for Ottawa Centre championing our TFSAs as a good way for our seniors to save for the future. We agree.

Food Safety

[Laurin Liu, NDP, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, TFSAs are giveaways for the rich, but there is nothing to help seniors.

Now let us talk about food safety. After the XL Foods plant closed in 2012 for E. coli contamination, new cases were identified. Last year, American inspectors found the bacteria in beef exported by that company, and reports have shown that testing for E. coli is not done consistently.

Will the Conservatives finally recognize the consequences of their cuts to food safety?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, there have been absolutely no cuts to food safety. It is quite the opposite. There are nearly 40 Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspection staff on the ground in this facility alone every day.

Corrective action was taken to deal with some of the issues that happened in 2014 and before. Inspectors have resolved all the issues and there are none outstanding. In fact, we have even created a team of inspectors to inspect the inspectors to ensure they are doing their jobs. I am going to send them in to ensure everything is okay.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is reassuring. We have inspectors, but now we do not trust the inspectors so we will get inspectors to inspect the inspectors, just in case.

However, it did not work because we know that Brooks continued to ship from that plant. After 2012, there were still problems. We know that tainted meat went to the United States four times last year.

As much as the minister protests that there are no cuts, she should check her own budget document to see that, courtesy of the Minister of Finance, the Conservatives have cut the budget to the CFIA. That is black and white.

There is no mention in this budget about doing anything. Why is the Conservative government abandoning families to the prospect of being ill because of tainted meat?

[Rona Ambrose, Conservative, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, let me read what Dr. Keith Warriner, from the University of Guelph, said. He is a food safety expert in Canada. He said that the suggestion that meat sold in Canada was unsafe was “scare-mongering”. I would ask the member to stop doing exactly that.

In this plant alone we have 40 CFIA inspection staff on the ground every day. They have a rigorous system. The Conference Board of Canada rates our food safety system number one against all OECD countries, including the United States. They are doing an excellent job.

Foreign Affairs

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to see the 10 men accused of attacking Malala Yousafzai, back in 2012, were recently arrested in Pakistan for their barbaric acts.

Could the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration please update the House on the situation and Canada's response.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hard-working member for Mississauga South for her work on legislation to protect women in Canada and around the world.

I am sure all members will be pleased with the news that the perpetrators of these brutal acts against Malala Yousafzai have been arrested. We hope they will face the full force of Pakistan's law and that justice will be done.

It is precisely because Malala Yousafzai was not silenced by these terrorists that she has become an inspiration to all Canadians. She has become an advocate for girls' education. She has been an advocate for human rights and for freedom.

On this side of the House, we are particularly proud to be bestowing upon her honorary Canadian citizenship. We hope this process will bring the terrorists to justice.

Tourism

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of State for Tourism shocked francophone communities outside Quebec when he said that they want unlimited amounts of money to meet their needs.

Instead of scorning francophones outside Quebec, he should listen to them. He would learn that his government's cuts are preventing them from providing adequate services. There is no mention whatsoever of francophones in the budget.

Will the minister ever understand that francophone communities need support, not scorn?

[Ed Holder, Conservative, Minister of State (Science and Technology)]

Mr. Speaker, our government is proud of the concrete actions it has taken to support Canada's tourism industry. I might mention that the tourism industry in Canada and in Quebec is booming, and 2014 was a record year for destinations across Canada, including Quebec. In 2015, we are very confident that will continue to grow.

Aboriginal Affairs

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

Mr. Speaker, many aboriginal communities, including Akwesasne in my riding, are worried about the impact Bill C-51 will have, and with good reason.

As we already know, although aboriginal people make up only 4.3% of Canada's population, they make up 23% of federal inmates. Bill C-51, which is overly broad, will only increase this disproportionate representation in our prisons. Furthermore, public safety infrastructure on reserves is underfunded.

Why is the minister so determined to ram Bill C-51 through when it threatens the rights of aboriginal peoples?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is quite the contrary. This is a bill that is very focused. It brings forward practical, pragmatic measures that many of our law enforcement community, and, in fact, many Canadians and communities have been calling for to protect them.

This is a very serious issue. This is not some hypothetical scenario happening around the world or happening in Canada. These are measures designed specifically to protect Canadians in their communities and give law enforcement and our investigative services the ability to protect Canadians in practical ways.

It is clearly stated in the bill that this is not intended to target lawful advocacy protest, dissent or artistic expression. This is a bill that goes after terrorists, and Canadians support it.

Copyright

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in their budget, the Conservatives want to amend the Copyright Act to finally conform to international standards by extending the term of protection of sound recordings and performances from 50 to 70 years.

Is this too good to be true? Yes, because songwriters will not be included in this measure. Our artists and songwriters are the very source of our music, culture and heritage.

Will the minister stand up and protect our composers and songwriters in the changes to the Copyright Act?

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, we are very proud of what we have done for artists in our 2015 budget.

We have had all sorts of feedback, and with the indulgence of the House, I would like to quote some of it.

To start with, Graham Henderson from Music Canada said the following:

By proposing to extend the term of copyright in recorded music, [the] Prime Minister...and the Government of Canada have demonstrated a real understanding of music’s importance to the Canadian economy.

Randy Bachman said that the Prime Minister was “taking care of business”. We will take no advice from the NDP—

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Beaches—East York.

Canada Post

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

Mr. Speaker, mayors and councillors across this country are furious with the government's imposition of community mailboxes in the neighbourhoods they represent. Hamilton is taking Canada Post to court over the unilateral seizure of municipal property. In cities like Ottawa and Toronto, councillors are demanding to know how Canada Post can possibly fit superboxes into dense urban neighbourhoods without destroying green space, without causing traffic problems, without making the streets less safe for kids.

Why are the Conservatives forging ahead with a plan that is going to fail our cities?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that, in 68% of Canadian households, there will be no change through moving to community mailboxes. Secondly, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities recognized this, too, when it overwhelmingly defeated a motion that called on us to reverse Canada Post's direction in moving to community mailboxes.

Canada Post has an obligation to be self-sufficient. This is its plan, it is implementing it, and we expect it to do it in a sensitive way, taking into consideration communities' needs.

Ethics

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, in December 2008, the Prime Minister named 18 people to the Senate. Mike Duffy was appointed from P.E.I. despite the fact that he had lived in Ontario for more than 40 years. The Prime Minister could have appointed Duffy from Ontario, the province where he resided, but instead, appointed none other than Conservative bagman and now apparently PMO coverup artist Irving Gerstein to represent Ontario.

Why do the partisan interests of the Conservative Party trump the Canadian Constitution, and why does the Prime Minister think he is above the law?

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

Mr. Speaker, I have already answered that question with respect to constitutional practice.

Having said that, of course, this is a party that fought tooth and nail when we were trying to bring accountability to the Senate. The Liberal Party tried to make victims out of these senators. We are doing just the opposite. Of course, it was the Liberal Party that appointed someone like disgraced senator Mac Harb, who owes the Canadian taxpayers $250,000. It was prime minister Trudeau who I believe appointed the senator from Puerto Vallarta who never sat in the Senate but was happy to collect his things. I do not recall him doing anything about that. Of course, there was Senator Lavigne.

We are bringing accountability to it—

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Malpeque.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Mr. Speaker, the government knows absolutely nothing about accountability.

Is the parliamentary secretary just afraid to answer the question? Even Nigel Wright told the Prime Minister's lawyer that he “will not communicate the [Prime Minister]’s view that ownership of property equates to residence...”. Was Wright hiding this information for good reason: because it goes against the Constitution? Is it not true that the Prime Minister wanted Duffy as a senator because he was the golden goose of Conservative fundraising?

Why did the Prime Minister violate the Constitution for a Conservative fundraiser, and doing so wrongly?

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

Again, Mr. Speaker, the constitutional practice on this has been clear for almost 150 years, but it is awkward when that member asks a question about ethics when, of course, he was one of the members who was identified as having to return living expenses. I am not sure why they would have him ask this question. There are other people in the caucus who could ask it.

The member for Vancouver Centre—but she has campaign debts outstanding, so she could not ask it. Maybe the leader could have asked it, but of course, he accepted speaking fees when he was a member of Parliament, so he could not ask that question. When we go down that—

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

The hon. member for Surrey North.

Public Safety

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, gang violence in Surrey has reached crisis levels. My community needs urgent action now from the government, but instead, yesterday Conservatives stood in the House and patted themselves on the back for a job well done. Last night, the minister was backpedalling, doing damage control, but he has still refused to make any concrete commitments. It is unacceptable to me. Surrey needs more resources, including youth gang prevention programs.

Will the government start immediately approving the 100 RCMP officers the city of Surrey has requested?

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to gang violence, I think the member was here yesterday when I brought forward the good news that the government had invested $2.8 million in crime prevention in Surrey alone.

Having said that, I am very proud of our government's actions in tackling crime. We have actually passed more than 30 tough-on-crime policies. It is only this government that stands for the protection of all Canadians.

I would like to ask that member how many of those policies that we passed he actually voted for.