Debates of Feb. 22nd, 2016

Employment Insurance

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Yes, Mr. Speaker. We have been listening. We made a commitment during the election campaign to strengthen the EI system. That is exactly what we are going to do.

In fact, during the election campaign, we made a commitment to invest in communities, to help Canadians, to put more money in the pockets of middle-class Canadians.

The member opposite made a campaign promise, as we all know, to balance the budget, which means right now he would be cutting billions of dollars from the Canadian economy instead of making the investments we need. Therefore, I am happy to talk about campaign promises.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, only 36% of workers who lose their jobs will have access to employment insurance.

The Liberal government is abandoning thousands of workers and their families. One thing is certain, those families will not be able to pay their rent, or their bills, or buy groceries with the Prime Minister's empty rhetoric.

Will the Liberals create a universal 360-hour eligibility threshold for employment insurance, or not?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are committed to improving the employment insurance system to ensure that Canadians across the country who need it have access to it. That is exactly what we are going to do and we will invest in the economy.

The opposition member unfortunately promised to make cuts to the economy instead of investing in it. We are going to make the necessary investments to help families in need across the country.

The Economy

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance announced yet another outside consultant today to be appointed to head up a committee, this time to report in 2017 on the economy.

So far, there has been a consultant to set an economic agenda, a consultant to help let them understand how to deliver on an agenda, and a consultant to figure out how to pick infrastructure projects. Is that not what the department of finance does?

My question to the Minister of Finance is this. How long do Canadians have to wait for an actual plan, while these very expensive and high-priced men sit down to try to figure out the fate of the Canadian economy?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, it will be March 22; that is how long.

In the last election, Canadians made a choice. They made a choice between a party that said it wanted to make a plan to invest in growth, and another couple of parties that said they wanted to cut at all costs for a balanced budget. Canadians made the right choice.

I would like us to consider the alternative right now. If one of the other parties were in power, we would have deep, massive cuts of tens of billions of dollars leading to higher unemployment while Canadians are troubled, and most likely in a recession.

Canadians made the right choice.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, House Leader of the Official Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the alternative would be that this country would still be in a surplus, as we left it.

Even today, Canadians still do not know how much the Minister of Finance is borrowing from them to cover his Liberal government's deficit. What Canadians and his own officials do know is that the Conservatives left him a surplus.

He laughingly rejects his own officials' conclusions, but is that not because he desperately needs to shift the blame away from his own mismanagement?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat to this House what I said before. One month or two months do not make a year.

What we can see is that the revenues of the government go down in the last couple of months of the year, and the expenses go up. It is clear to us that the Conservatives, through their actions and inactions, left us with a deficit.

That is our starting point, the Conservatives' deficit, and the $150 billion additional debt they left for Canadians.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, House Leader of the Official Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, changes came about when they started spending more of Canadians' tax dollars. It must be embarrassing for the minister to visit his own department, because everybody there disagrees with him.

The Prime Minister just accused us of picking and choosing numbers. Well, we did; we picked and chose his own finance department's numbers.

For the second month in a row, the finance department's own report shows that Conservatives left the Liberals with a surplus. Does the minister accept this latest report. If not, who is he going to fire?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat to this House that, this morning, we put out an economic update for Canadians to see. Our goal is to be open and transparent, so Canadians understand where we are at today and where we are going.

What we have told Canadians is that the Conservatives left us with a deficit. Unfortunately, they are picking and choosing, month by month. At the end of the year, that is what we are left with.

We are going to work to make the right investments, so we can grow this economy for the first time in a long time.

Taxation

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, to create an awesome company, it takes treasure and talent, but young companies often do not have the treasure to pay for the talent, so they use stock options. In fact, thousands of companies have grown through use of stock options right across this country, many of them entrepreneurs right here in Ottawa.

They are now speaking out against the Liberal plan to double taxes on stock options, which they say would drive thousands of jobs and opportunities abroad.

Will the Liberals announce they are reversing their plan to raise taxes on these job creators, so that we can keep these excellent opportunities right here at home?

[Bill Morneau, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we made important commitments to Canadians during the course of our campaign.

We said we were going to invest in the middle class. We have already started on that. We told Canadians we want to add a Canada child benefit for the most vulnerable. We also said we were going to invest in infrastructure and an innovative economy.

We will be putting forth, in our 2016 budget, in just four short weeks, a program and a plan that will show Canadians how we are going to have a more innovative economy going forward.

Employment

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, instead of providing work to Canadians, the Liberals would like to have the Royal Canadian Navy's ships built abroad. Canadian shipyards have the skills, expertise, and capacity for building those ships here, and the workers need those jobs.

Jobs abroad and nothing for Canadians, is that the Liberal approach? Are the Liberals going to go back on their promises and abandon Canadian families like they are abandoning Albertan families?

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, this government is as committed as ever to the national shipbuilding strategy.

No decision has been made with respect to the naval ships, the tugboats, yet. It is still in its infancy in terms of planning, but once decisions have been made, whatever we do will be in the best interest of Canadians and the Canadian industry.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Royal Canadian Navy requires tugboats to serve its fleet, presenting an exciting opportunity for Canadian shipyards.

Thousands of jobs in this country depend on a healthy shipbuilding sector, but the government is leaving people with uncertainty. Just this Friday, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement said, “The vessels will be built in Canada”, but her officials now say that new vessels do not have to be built in Canada.

Who is telling the truth here, and will the government stand and unequivocally state that those jobs will be staying in Canada and not exported?

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are still in the early stages of planning for the replacement of the tugboats for the navy.

As we go down the path looking at what is required, that is when we will ensure that the best interests of Canadians are followed here in making sure that benefits go to Canadians and that the Canadian industry benefits from whatever we do with respect to the tugboats and any ships that are bought being made in Canada.

National Defence

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last year the Liberals criticized the previous government and its rather loose definition of a combat mission.

At the time, the Prime Minister's current advisor on foreign affairs said that the mission in Iraq was a combat mission. He called on the Conservatives to be more honest with Canadians. Now we have a new Prime Minister and the mission has been expanded, but we still do not have a clear answer.

Will the minister stop denying the facts and admit that our soldiers are engaged in a combat mission?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, this is a non-combat mission. However, we are in a conflict zone. Our troops will be at risk. That is the reason why we have mitigated this with many aspects of bringing in certain capabilities.

I also remind the member that our troops are very highly trained. I also point out that they are not the principal combatants. However, they have the inherent right to self-defence, and we have robust rules of engagement.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Mr. Speaker, let us go through this one more time. Last year the Liberals complained about the former prime minister's tinkering with the definition of combat missions.

Back then, the man who is now the Prime Minister's senior foreign policy adviser said that the Iraq mission was combat and that the government should be honest with Canadians about such a serious matter.

The Prime Minister may have changed, but the mission has only expanded, and Canadians are still not getting a straight answer.

Will the minister finally admit that, despite Liberal campaign promises, Canada's troops are still engaged in a combat mission in Iraq?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, we took a very thorough analysis on making sure that we supported our allies in the fight against ISIL.

We are committed to defeating ISIL, and tripling the training mission and doubling the intelligence will help the coalition in this manner.

I think the member would agree that ISIL is a horrible atrocity that has to be defeated, and Canadians, alongside their coalition partners, will do so.

Natural Resources

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, with oil prices at an all-time low, people in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick are desperate and out of work. They are looking for a glimmer of hope.

A job-killing carbon tax is the absolute last thing they need, a tax that would put a nail in the coffin of those people who work in the oil patch.

Will the Minister of Natural Resources stand up to his cabinet colleagues? Would he stand up for jobs in Canada? Would he say no to a carbon tax and yes to Canadian jobs for the sake of the natural resources sector?

[Jonathan Wilkinson, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, climate change is one of the major challenges of our generation. It is something we must address to ensure the sustainability of our environment for our children and our grandchildren. It also presents an enormous economic opportunity.

Our government is providing leadership, working with the provinces and territories to bring about a pan-Canadian framework with respect to climate change.

The Prime Minister will be meeting with his colleagues in Vancouver in a couple of weeks, and we will be working through a range of mechanisms, including addressing a price on carbon, as part of a broad-based strategy to address climate change.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, how tone deaf can the government be? A carbon tax puts Canada at a huge competitive disadvantage. Investors are leaving Canada in droves because of the Liberals' confusing regulatory system. If job creators see a carbon tax, they are going to see that as Canada is closed for business.

Is there a leader in the government who will be like the premier of Saskatchewan who wants Canada competitive and wants to see Canada open for business? Or under the Liberals, is Canada closed for business?

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I know the member for Kenora is enthused about this. I know he is a long way down and I would encourage him to restrain himself.

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment.

[Jonathan Wilkinson, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change]

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, this government is serious about addressing climate change. We understand the economic opportunity that is inherent in actually effectively addressing climate change. I would mention to the hon. member that 80% of Canadians already live in jurisdictions where the provincial governments have taken the lead in standing up and meeting our international obligations with respect to addressing climate change and carbon pricing.