Debates of June 18th, 2015

The Economy

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Minister of State (Finance)]

Mr. Speaker, clearly we do not want Canadians to be overextended. We are reducing taxes on the middle class and providing benefits directly to families so they can use them for their priorities, such as balancing their budgets or paying off debt. A typical two-earner family of four will save up to $6,600 because of the measures of this government.

However, the Liberal Party wants to raise taxes on the middle class and take away those benefits. The Liberal policy is a $1,000 tax increase that Canadians simply are saying “no” to.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, there are 200,000 more unemployed Canadians than before the recession. The numbers from the government are not getting any better. Even worse, the economy actually shrank through the first quarter of this year.

Growth for all of 2015 is projected at 1.5%. That is no better than Europe. At least 24 major economies are set to grow faster this year than will Canada's. That is the hard reality of 10 years under that broken government.

Why is its promise to Canadians just more of the same: more brokenness, more failure?

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Minister of State (Finance)]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows that the strong leadership of our Conservative government has steered Canada out of the global recession and has helped created over 1.2 million net new jobs.

Budget 2015 continues to build upon that. It is a low-tax plan that helps create jobs by a number of measures, including reducing the small business tax rate to 9%, providing manufacturers with the accelerated capital cost allowance so they can invest back into their own businesses.

The Liberal Party's only plan is to raise taxes.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Speaker, when there are more unemployed Canadians than there were four years ago, when the cost of living is forcing people to go into more debt than four years ago, when it is harder to access employment insurance than it was four years ago, when roads, bridges and municipal infrastructure are in worse condition than they were four years ago, how can the minister claim that everything is fine?

Have the Conservatives gotten so out of touch with reality that they do not know the real problems Canadians are facing?

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

Mr. Speaker, here is what Canadians know. Canadians know that this government keeps its promises in putting more money in their pockets, in Canadian jobs, in giving seniors income splitting, in making this economy grow.

Canadians will have a choice in the next election. They will choose this party, this government, because we will continue to fulfill our promises such as balancing the budget. We know the opposition thinks that budgets balance themselves. We know budgets do not balance themselves. That is why when we made the promise to Canadians that we would balance it, we did it, while reducing taxes. Promises made by this government, promises kept.

Justice

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, ignorance is bliss.

For years, the Conservative government has been telling us that its bills pass the constitutional test at the Department of Justice. The minister does not appear to be doing his job, since the government has spent about $7 million of taxpayers' money on defending the constitutionality of 16 of its laws. Believe it or not, it has lost every single case.

How many millions of dollars do the Conservatives plan on spending to defend unconstitutional laws?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.

The reality is that in fact a full 70% of the cases that are litigated in the country involving the federal government are won by the federal government, and 85% of those cases originate outside of the federal government.

With respect to their constitutionality, we have very talented people at the Department of Justice. I have full confidence in their assessments. We never bring bills before the House that do not meet that constitutional charter test.

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

It would be so easy. I hate to say I told him so, Mr. Speaker, but everyone warned the minister that these bills were unconstitutional. However, instead of focusing on keeping Canadians safe, the Conservatives ram through bad bill after bad bill, ignoring experts and refusing to work with the opposition to fix them. What do Canadians get in return? A bill for around $7 million in legal challenges.

Why did the Conservatives ignore the facts and left Canadians to pay the price?

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

Mr. Speaker, my question for the hon. lady is this. What does she have against facts and what does she have against keeping Canadians safe?

We have passed some 30 justice bills in the life of this Parliament and since we have taken office designed specifically to keep Canadians safe and to ensure that Canadians can have confidence in their justice system and security forces. Every step of the way, my hon. friend and her colleagues have chosen to oppose those efforts.

Correctional Service Canada

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

Mr. Speaker, Veronica Park died in April while serving a three-year sentence at the Nova Institution for Women a few days after complaining of respiratory problems. Instead of helping her family understand how she died, Correctional Service officials deliberately ignored media questions in an effort to suppress coverage, and even told her family they had to file an access to information request to find out the cause of death.

This callous behaviour is shameful and totally disrespectful to her family. Will the minister apologize?

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

Mr. Speaker, our government has continued to take concrete steps on the issue of mental health in prisons. Both access to treatment services for inmates and training for staff have improved as a result of the strong leadership of this Conservative government.

I would like to reiterate that the opposition party has not supported a single measure that we have done to improve health in prisons.

[Rosane Doré Lefebvre, NDP, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we know that the Conservative government is not too fond of the media, but it is a whole other story when Correctional Service Canada directs its employees to take the weekend off to avoid answering questions from journalists investigating the death of inmate Veronica Park.

This kind of attitude and these kinds of comments are completely unacceptable. Journalists and the family have a right to know what happened in our public institutions.

Will the minister denounce this situation?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I just said, our government is continuing to take concrete steps on the issue of mental health in prisons and the treatment of all persons in our institutions.

The member opposite has not supported a single measure that we have implemented to improve prisons through CBSA or through the federal correctional system itself. I find it very shameful that the opposition would bring this type of a question up in the House and try to play politics with this situation.

Ethics

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last night the magnitude of the scandal in the Senate tripled. The RCMP will now be investigating all 30 senators who have spending irregularities. The police just are not buying into the so-called appeal scheme the Prime Minister's hand-picked speaker devised to get him and his friends off the hook. It is taking its own look at the evidence.

Could the Prime Minister explain why it is the police, and not him, that has been left to clean up the Senate mess?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that these cases are not under investigation. However, I would like to read something for the members from a House administration report. It states:

Can you confirm where these employees will be working? The employment forms indicate that they all live in the Montreal area but they will be working in the Ottawa office?

The response from the leadership of the NDP was that they would be working in Ottawa. The problem with that statement is that it was false and made liars out of 68 members of the NDP caucus.

I have to believe that there are some members in the NDP caucus who do not want to go into the summer break owing their constituents thousands of dollars, and I hope—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. member for London—Fanshawe.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is just not acceptable for that member to be making things up. He should hang his head in shame.

As well, here is a government that ran on a triple E Senate. Remember that? The only thing that has tripled under the Conservatives' watch is the number of senators under police investigation. Canadians are tired of the daily barrage of waste and scandal from the other chamber. They want answers.

Why did the Prime Minister allow senators to hide from accountability by devising their own get out jail free card?

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

I did not hear anything in that question that brought it back to the administration of government. I see the hon. parliamentary secretary rising. He can answer it if he likes, but I did not hear anything that tied it back to government.

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

Again, Mr. Speaker, the facts are in black and white from the office of the Leader of the Opposition. The NDP said that these people would be working in Ottawa. They actually worked in an illegal, partisan office in Montreal.

Now I have to believe that not all 68 members of the NDP want to go into the summer break owing $2.7 million to their constituents. I hope there are a few of them who will at least do the right thing and pay back the money they owe constituents, immediately.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, bring it on, anytime.

The Prime Minister's Office is embroiled and involved in the scandals surrounding Senator Mike Duffy. Yesterday, an RCMP expert explained how the PMO arranged to repay Senator Duffy's $90,000 in expenses. It was a scheme, a scam, a ploy to try to cover up an affair that the government was determined to hide from Canadians, and taxpayers are disgusted with it.

The Prime Minister appointed Duffy, Brazeau, Wallin and 56 other senators. How can they think that all of these shenanigans could go on under his nose without his knowledge? Is that the rule—

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

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

Mr. Speaker, bring it on? Bring on the fact that the party across the aisle owes taxpayers $2.7 million. As of July 1, the taxpayer will be bringing it on by garnishing their wages and ensuring we get the money back. What the NDP members could have done is the right thing and paid it back on their own.

I will tell the members what $2.7 million means. It means a church in my riding, the Lemonville United Church, could have gotten an elevator for seniors. It means thousands of disadvantaged kids could have gone to summer camp. It means thousands of hours of English as a second language.

Instead, those members used it for partisan purposes against the rules. The should pay it back.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am quite confident that the taxpayer will trust an honest government, an NDP government. That is real change, and it is coming.

Ten years ago, the Prime Minister told everyone that he would clean House in Ottawa after the Liberal scandal, but now he is even worse than the Liberals. He said he would reform the Senate—he talked about a triple-E Senate. The only thing that has tripled in the last 10 years is the number of senators being investigated by the RCMP.

Why did the Prime Minister appoint corrupt individuals? Why is he defending the status quo? Why is he defending this waste of public funds? He has some explaining to do.

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

Mr. Speaker, that member owes the taxpayer $122,000, and refuses to pay it back. Now it is probably because he does not have enough cheques in his chequebook, because has been writing cheques to Québec solidaire. However, he has a problem. Now that there is another Québec separatist party, the Bloc Québécois, he does not know to whom he will write his cheques. Will it be Québec solidaire or the Bloc Québécois?

What the member can do is write one cheque to the Receiver General of Canada for $122,000, and do the right thing.

Public Safety

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, not only is the Senate plagued with major ethical problems, it has delayed and derailed legislation that was passed twice by the democratically elected House. Bill C-279 would have guaranteed equal rights and protections for transgender and gender variant Canadians.

Given that the Senate is still blocking equality for transgender Canadians, will the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness respect the will of the House, and act now to protect the safety of transgender people? Will he immediately issue guidelines to guarantee equal and respectful treatment for transgender people at our borders and in our corrections system?