Debates of April 3rd, 2017

Financial Statement of Minister of Finance

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, one of the features of the budget that has raised a lot of concern in my province of British Columbia, and I am sure across this country, has to do with the budget's removal of the public transit tax credit, which many Canadians who rely on public transit every month have been able to take advantage of.

Many people are telling me that this is a tax credit that benefits a lot of low-income people, benefits a lot of seniors, benefits a lot of working people who rely on public transit, and is good for the environment because it encourages people to get out of their cars and take public transit.

The budget leaves intact the stock option credit tax loophole, which gives a preference to CEOs and other very wealthy executives to transfer money to themselves in the form of stock options.

I wonder if the member has any opinion on whether it was a wise policy choice to keep the CEO stock option tax credit but remove the public transit user tax credit, which benefits many Canadians. What is her opinion on that?

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I will not comment on the last part because I honestly have very little to say on that. I do not know enough about it.

However, with respect to the non-refundable tax credit for transit passes, it has been proven that it was not helping in any way to encourage more Canadians to take transit, and people in lower-income brackets were not benefiting from it at all because they do not pay tax anyway. One has to actually pay tax to benefit from it.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, just to follow up on the last question, the very least they could have done was make it a non-refundable tax credit so that it would actually help those who need to use public transit.

My greater concern is found on page 251 of the budget, where we see an incredible rise in the total debt that the government is incurring. This year $24.7 billion will be paid in interest, and in 2021 $33.3 billion will be paid in interest.

I wonder if my colleague shares my concern that we are borrowing money on the backs of future generations and simply pushing this cost onto our children and grandchildren.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, no, I am not concerned, in the sense that I believe we are right now paying interest on debt that the previous government left us. We have not even started paying interest on the debt that we are incurring ourselves.

However, Liberal governments have, through history, proven that they are very fiscally responsible, and I am very confident that our government will be as fiscally responsible as those before us.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the rhetoric and the language in the budget are so encouraging. There are wonderful commitments on child care and there is language on climate change. The concern I have is that roughly nine-tenths of the spending is to be done after the next election. With respect to public transit, about $1 billion of the $20 million will be spent before 2019. Funding for child care spaces will not begin until 2018.

When it comes to fiscal responsibility, I do not know why we cannot have a budget for a year that clearly states what the government is going to spend in that particular year. I do not know why it cannot be stated clearly so that people can understand it.

I find that much of the good spending that is being promised is for after the next election. Climate change is an urgent matter, and we need to be doing the work now.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we did start last year in the 2016 budget.

As politicians, we are often accused of only thinking of the electoral cycle that we are in and not caring about a vision for the future. Right now our government is proving exactly the contrary. As a government, we want to see how we can provide leadership for the next 10 and 20 years with respect to where we need to go in climate change and the changes in our economy, and the innovation we need to bring to all sectors of the economy to face the challenges of the next 10 and 20 years.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke.

It is my pleasure to rise to speak to the Liberal government's second budget.

One of the primary lessons we are taught in life starting at a very young age is that we are to learn from our past mistakes. This lesson is clearly lost on the Liberals. It seems that instead of learning from their mistakes, they have decided to double down on them and hedge all bets on their plan that is already clearly failing. As the voice for taxpayers from the great riding of Kitchener—Conestoga, I cannot let the Liberal government continue on with its reckless spending and failed economic plan for Canada without pointing out some of the major pitfalls and dangers ahead.

This budget, like the Liberals' first budget, has completely forgotten middle-class Canadians and those working hard to join them. They will need to work even harder now. With these past two budgets, the Liberal government has made life more expensive for Canadians while simultaneously shrinking their take-home pay. This has to stop.

The good people of Kitchener—Conestoga needed a break, and that is what they were hoping for in this last budget, but they certainly did not get one. Canadians are not looking for bigger, shinier promises that will cost millions but never produce jobs or economic growth. They are looking for common-sense solutions to our most pressing problems.

They want their paycheques to increase, which means lower payroll taxes. They want their children to grow up with good job prospects, and that means growing the economy and lowering taxes on small business. They want Canada to remain a safe country, and that means investing in our military. They want their commutes to work to be shorter so they can spend more time with their families. That means getting shovels in the ground and infrastructure projects built, not just announced over and over again.

Unfortunately, budget 2016 and budget 2017 did none of those things. This budget is proof that the Prime Minister is out of touch with the needs of working people.

Despite the Prime Minister's promise to return the budget to balance, he admitted on budget day that he has no intention whatsoever of returning our books to balance. Not only did the Prime Minister break his campaign promise to spend only $10 billion in deficit financing, but the upcoming deficit for the year ahead is $29 billion. The government, in four years, will add a whopping $100 billion to Canada's federal debt. The interest charges alone just for this year will be $24.3 billion, and that number increases every year for the foreseeable future under the Liberal government. By 2021, our interest costs alone will be $33.3 billion each and every year. Let us think about what good that $33 billion could be doing: increases to health care transfers, investments in palliative care, hospices, and home care, more money invested in infrastructure, or how about simply reducing our tax burden.

As I have already noted, this budget fails in many areas, but I will focus on three of them: Canada's infrastructure, our troops, and our farmers. The Liberal government often pats itself on the back for what it says is historic infrastructure funding. The truth is the only part of this funding that is historic is how far after the next election cycle this money is budgeted for. Very little of the funding that was promised has gone to roads and highways. We need shovels in the ground. We want people working. We want roads, bridges, and water treatment facilities built.

Ninety-four per cent of the announced infrastructure projects have not even started. This means that jobs are not being created and the economy is not being stimulated. Instead of coming up with a new plan that actually builds infrastructure and creates jobs, budget 2017 doubles down on the existing infrastructure plan and contains no new infrastructure spending beyond what was already announced in the 2016 fall economic update.

By allocating public transit funding based on ridership, the Liberal government is disadvantaging Canada's growing communities in favour of already developed large urban centres. I am thinking of the Waterloo region. Too often our medium-sized communities are left to fend for themselves. Of course, a bridge in Wellesley township will never have the traffic volume crossing it that an inner-city bridge does, but that does not mean it is not important to the growth and health of our local economy.

Municipalities need good and safe infrastructure, but they also need programs that are easy to access without miles and miles of red tape, programs that provide predictable funding and do not leave small and rural communities behind. Even if the government is bent on favouring the large urban centres and funding major public transit projects, why in the world would it take measures to decrease ridership on public transit? This makes no sense. We should be increasing the tax credit, not eliminating it.

An adult monthly pass holder in my riding would be losing out on about $150 per year, or the equivalent of almost two months' worth of bus passes. Talk about encouraging people to take transit. Getting 12 months of public transit for the cost of 10 is a fantastic incentive. I have not heard even one of my colleagues on the other side of the House defend this policy decision, but I think I know why. It is totally indefensible.

There is all this while the Liberal government has introduced its plan for a carbon tax. Let me get this straight. The Liberals are raising the price of gasoline and raising the cost of taking the bus. Do the Liberals think that all Canadians can just work from home? This makes absolutely no sense. The Conservatives will continue to hold the Liberals to account and push for open, transparent, and accountable infrastructure funding for our communities, and plans to increase ridership on public transit, not decrease it.

The budget turns its back on our men and women in uniform who stand up to defend our values and our democratic freedoms. For the second year in a row, the budget contained nothing for our men and women in uniform. Instead, the Liberals cut $8.48 billion that had been earmarked for military equipment purchases. Coupled with last year's cuts, the Department of National Defence now faces a $12-billion shortfall. National defence is clearly not a priority for the Liberal government.

In an era of reckless Liberal spending, it is appalling that the largest cuts are consistently at the expense of our Canadian Armed Forces. Recent examples include the Liberals' decision to pull our CF-18s out of the fight against ISIS, their preference for fourth generation fighter jets, their lack of increased support for our Ukrainian allies, and their failure to advance important procurement projects. All of these suggest that the current Prime Minister does not have our national defence as a high priority and expects other countries to do the heavy lifting.

While Canada's allies have committed to modernizing their military capabilities and spending 2% of their GDP on defence, the Prime Minister is being dangerously naive. Despite the clear need for investments in Canada's national defence, the finance minister stated recently that the government believes the military is “appropriately provisioned”. I will continue to stand up and point out that we need to provide the resources that our Canadian Armed Forces deserve. We want them to be able to carry out the tasks that we give them, and more importantly, to return home safe to their families.

I would be remiss if I did not talk about our farmers. As a farmer myself and an MP for a riding that has a strong farming community, these hard-working Canadians are always a priority for me. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be much of a priority for the Liberal government. Budget 2017 does nothing to support this hard-working Canadian farmer class. So much for standing up for the middle class.

In fact, farmers and fishermen may face higher insurance premiums resulting from the Liberals' decision to scrap the income tax exemption for insurers of farming and fishing property. In addition, the Liberals have indicated they plan to eliminate the income tax deferral for grain producers. By failing to provide any details regarding the next agricultural policy framework, the Liberals have left Canadian farmers in the dark. What support programs will they have in the future, if any? New money for science and innovation is focused on climate change and soil and water conservation, but fails to provide support for new business risk management approaches for farmers.

The Liberals are promising to launch a full review of rail service in western Canada, but farmers are getting tired of waiting. They need dependable rail service to get their crops to market.

It is clear the government has turned its back on the middle class in favour of its rich friends. We saw this in the beginning with its so-called middle-class tax cut that benefited people making over $160,000 but did absolutely nothing for Canadians who make the average income in Canada of $50,000. Now we are seeing the middle class left behind again by increasing payroll taxes and eliminating the public transit tax credit. I am afraid to even think about what they have in mind for the middle class next year. Canadians should hold on to their wallets.

For the sake of my constituents in Kitchener—Conestoga and with their best interests in mind, I will be voting against this budget. It is heading in the wrong direction and is pushing our debt on to our children and grandchildren. We owe it to them to do better.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the member opposite, who said that this budget did nothing for the Kitchener-Waterloo region. Let me quote what Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic called it. He called this budget transformational. He said, “This budget is transformational because it empowers local governments to deliver outcomes for Canadians: shorter commutes, more affordable housing and a better quality of life”, and, in particular, it will focus on talent development, attraction, and retention to make Canada a global leader in the world of infrastructure and technology, critical issues for Kitchener-Waterloo.

The member opposite said that he had heard no criticism from this side of the House on the tax changes around monthly charges for transit passes. Is he aware that the tax that the Harper government brought in did not change one travel pattern, according to the data? In fact, the non-refundable tax credit meant that the 40% lowest-income group of transit riders did not qualify for the tax credit. Only affluent riders did. Further to that, those with the lowest of the lowest income, the poorest of the poor who paid with cash or single tickets because they cannot afford a multi-pass could not even qualify for the tax credit. That is why we removed it. We do not believe in taxing the poor to pay for the rich. We believe in investing in services. The $22 billion for transit is exactly why Kitchener-Waterloo would benefit. Above and beyond that, the GO Transit investment is even higher and will create all-day service to Kitchener-Waterloo in a way that it has never been there before.

Is that not good news for his region and why will he not support the budget because of it?

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague that it was the Conservative government that invested over $250 million in the light rapid transit system in the Waterloo region. We saw the advantage of that and there are many facets to why we did. First, it would help to intensify the development in the downtown area rather than having continual urban sprawl which eats up more and more agricultural land. The other thing that the government champions is trying to protect our environment. By adding people to the roads and highways of our communities, we are not protecting our environment. It is very important that we encourage more public transit riders and the way to do that is to incentivize it through tax credits. If it is not working for the lowest of the low, why not make it non-refundable rather than cancel it, when we are investing all this money in public transit? It makes no sense.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to pick up on that last comment about the Liberal government's cancelling the public transit tax credit. There is a lot of rhetoric being thrown around here that does not make any sense whatsoever. The Liberals are claiming that this did not help low-income users. The only tax-exempt limit in this country is about $12,000. People who make under $12,000 of income, they do not pay any taxes, but people who make above $12,000 have to pay taxes. It is those people, the people who make $14,000, $16,000, $20,000, or $24,000—and I do not know if the Liberals view those people as low income, but I certainly do—are the ones who use that public transit non-refundable tax credit to reduce their incomes that get taxed. That is how the tax system works.

I would ask my hon. colleague if he shares that analysis of the tax system. I have had people in Vancouver tell me that the public transit tax credit is the only tax credit that they could actually utilize, and these are people making $18,000 a year, low-income Canadians. What does he think about the Liberals cancelling that?

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague is right on regarding the people who use this public transit tax credit. Very shortly after the budget was delivered, I heard from someone who uses this tax credit and it saves him up to around $150 a month. In my riding of Kitchener—Conestoga, the average person would save up to $150 a month, but in Toronto and some of the more urban areas where the cost of a transit pass is much higher, a rider would save up to $260 a month. Families would be looking at saving $500.

Again, my Liberal colleagues might not think that $500 is very much, but for the middle-class people whom I represent, $500 is a huge amount. It is a big incentive to help them with their taxes. More importantly, it increases ridership for the investment in infrastructure that we are borrowing money to build, which will be less than half full. Why would we not try to get more people using public transit?

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the reviews are in, and the critics have spoken. Full of bafflegab and devoid of substance, budget 2017 is a bust, which comes as no surprise. This is a buzzword budget from a buzzfeed Prime Minister that is all sizzle and no substance. Unfortunately, no list of the Prime Minister's 17 best selfies will get Canadians to take the government seriously.

If the government was serious about national security, it would not be cutting the defence budget. If the government was serious about lifting up our economy, it would not be weighing it down with carbon taxes. If the government was serious about passing legislation, it would not need to change the rules of Parliament.

The Liberals are not serious, not competent, and obviously not up to the job. Sadly, Canadians have no recourse until the next election. Our only chance to correct the disastrous course the Liberals have taken is to convince them in words they understand, so let us buzzfeed this budget.

Let us start with an easy one. Here are five ways Liberal budgets are helping the rich or hurting the poor.

First, wealthy developers can now claim the eco-gift tax-credit loophole for up to 10 years.

Second, while developers get their credits doubled, hard-working Canadians lose their transit pass credits.

Third, excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco hit the poor hardest, and the regressive Liberal government has raised them.

Fourth, the government's upper-class tax cut shifted the tax burden to the poor. If we cut taxes on the top 50% more than we raise them on the top 1%, the burden of taxes falls on the Canadians the government thinks are not middle class enough to deserve a tax cut.

Fifth, as we learned last week from the example of Bombardier's executives, the people who benefit from the government's corporate welfare are well-connected Liberal insiders.

Speaking of corporate welfare, I asked constituents to tell me what three things in the budget are most likely to lead to another sponsorship scandal. The result was a tie for second place between the eco-gift tax credit and the Liberal infrastructure bank. Many found doubling the eco-gift tax credit suspicious, and others had concerns about the blending of public and private interests in the infrastructure bank.

However, the number one item in the budget my constituents think is most likely to lead to the next Liberal sponsorship scandal is the super-cluster fund. The budget promises to spend nearly $1 billion on super-clusters, but it does not say how the money will be spent. That is because no government can spend a cluster into existence. That is why the government failed to establish the cluster program in last year's budget. Clearly the government was not stopped by its failure. Instead, it has doubled down with a super-cluster fund. There is no metric to measure success, which I am sure the Auditor General will have some questions about. It is no wonder so many people think these Liberal cluster funders will leave us with another sponsorship scandal.

According to the usual fake news are promises of more innovation, more infrastructure, and more tax fairness. As noted in newspaper headlines, these are empty buzzwords, like the number of times the Prime Minister invokes the words “middle class” and spinners repeat the words, on the theory that repetition somehow makes them come true.

Higher and higher spending debt will move Canada backwards and land the spending bill on our children.

Here is what the government has promised for 2019, the election year, when Canadians can finally pass judgment on its policies. The economy will grow more slowly and will be smaller by some $47 billion. Massive cuts to Canada's defence budget will have this country relying on the U.S.A. to defend our borders like never before. Unemployment will be higher, losing almost 60,000 anticipated jobs. The Canadian dollar will be down almost four cents, lowering every Canadian's net worth. Tax revenues will be lower and program spending will be higher, reflecting a weaker fiscal position. Finally, there will be $102 billion in new debt from huge annual deficits, leaving a mess to be paid for by our children and grandchildren. This budget is truly outrageous.

Canadians who were shocked by the actual size of the federal deficit last year are numb from these latest figures in the budget. The excuse for piling up huge deficits in last year's budget was that manufacturers needed to kick-start an already growing economy. Thanks to the prudent financial measures practised by the previous Conservative government, the economy was growing, and real full-time employment was being enjoyed by Canadians. Canada had a balanced budget.

The finance minister brought in his huge deficit budget anyway, with a fake promise of the need to massively tax and borrow to spend on infrastructure. In fact, infrastructure spending was held out as the excuse by the government for the huge rise in the deficit. Today the parliamentary budget officer is asking where the infrastructure spending is.

The municipalities in my riding are asking the same question. On page 89 of budget 2016, municipalities were promised $837 million, which was left over from the Conservative infrastructure program. Those were funds that were available and would have seen shovels in the ground almost immediately. The construction season in 2016 was missed, and it looks like the 2017 construction season will be missed also.

More importantly, the budget promised to distribute the borrowed funds through the gas-tax method of distribution. This is an important distinction in my riding, because federal gas-tax funds are distributed in a fair, transparent manner by a third party on a per capita base. By distributing funds on a per capita basis, all municipalities can count on receiving some funding. Municipalities do not have to rely on the application-based Wheel of Fortune method of receiving funding favoured by the Toronto Liberal Party.

In my riding, the county of Renfrew has felt it necessary to spend tax dollars to hire a lobbyist in Ottawa to get an infrastructure project funded. We know, to paraphrase the media, that it is raining lobbyists in Ottawa. People have to pay to play in Gerald Butts' Ottawa. These are taxpayer dollars that would be better used on an actual project, rather than being spent on government lobbyists.

If infrastructure dollars are not being spent on infrastructure, where is the money going? It has been suggested that an elaborate shell game is going on, with certain Liberal-friendly provinces redirecting infrastructure funds into general funds as slush accounts to help them get re-elected.

That same shell game applies to other announcements in budget 2017. The decision to reallocate, which is Liberal-speak for cut, $8.5 billion in the defence budget marks the beginning of a double decade of darkness for Canada's women and men in the Armed Forces. The only way to cut short decades of darkness for Canada's military would be a change of government in 2019.

Canada's veterans are being spun that there might be something for them in this budget. However, proof is in the actual results. All veterans have seen so far is money from their budget being spent on empty offices in government ridings and more bureaucrats to sit in those offices.

The question veterans need to ask is whether they are seeing any material, financial improvement in recognition of their sacrifices. Veterans, such as Warrant Officer Roger Perreault, have told me that it is not the lack of programs; it is the arcane process of qualifying for the programs, where multiple appeals are common. Gerald Butts needs to instruct the Prime Minister to implement a policy of getting the decision right the first time when it comes to the health and well-being of our veterans. If the government is looking for a way to streamline the process for soldiers who are transitioning out of the military, it should focus on making the decision before the soldier is released from the military, without the need for costly appeals that tie up departmental resources in the courts. It is a false economy to plan on denying veterans benefits with the expectation that the veterans will eventually give up on receiving what they are entitled to.

Soldiers who were expecting the clawback of their danger pay to not only stop but be reversed are deeply disappointed, with no mention of this bafflegab in the budget. The pay clawback shows what the current government really thinks about our women and men in uniform.

Owners of family-owned campgrounds expecting some tax fairness in this budget were shocked by the decision to double the budget for hiring tax collectors to put them out of business. Not every Canadian can afford to own a villa in the south of France, like the finance minister, or has a wealthy buddy who just happens to own an island in the Caribbean, like the Prime Minister, or gets a trip to a private-island getaway subsidized by Canadian taxpayers, at $127,000 for the latest trip, that we know of. This is from a Prime Minister who wants to force changes to the rules of Parliament so that he only has to show up one day a week. If he wants to reduce his salary to pay for one day a week, then maybe Canadians will consider his outrageous request.

The government is out of touch with middle-class working Canadians. Their dream to own a home has been shattered.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, it is always a treat listening to the member across the way. She talked about veterans and that sacred trust. It is important to recognize that we have a Minister of Veterans Affairs who has actually done much more for Canada's vets than what the previous administration did for years. In fact, this particular minister rectified a wrong.

The member across the way will recall when the Stephen Harper government closed down veterans offices across this country. The vets were done a great disservice. This government, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Veterans Affairs recognized that, and we re-established those offices, because we believe in our veterans.

Does the member believe that Stephen Harper was wrong in closing those veterans offices in the first place?

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, all these offices that were re-opened are great for the landlords but terrible for the veterans, because there is nobody in there to begin with. There are more bureaucrats, more salaries. What we should be focusing on is the people. The savings were going back into new programs so that veterans would have better care.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her remarks and also for her great representation of a rural community.

This budget does very little for rural communities. If we look at page 111, the Liberals champion a lot of the investments they are making in agriculture, but in reality, most of the investments that are promised in this budget are funded well beyond the next election cycle.

Just to give an example, there is advancing agricultural science and innovation for a total of $60 million. It sounds great until we look at the fact that only $4 million of that is budgeted for next year and $9 million is budgeted for the following year. The rest of it is all beyond the next election cycle.

I wonder if my colleague has concerns about these promises that go well beyond the election cycle but really do almost nothing for the current farmers and small businesses in our ridings.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the dream of every Canadian is to own a home, but that dream has been shattered. Canadians do not want to live in social housing, but Liberal policy is making home ownership beyond the reach of ordinary Canadians, and they will never own their own homes. This budget, by pouring billions of dollars into social housing, is an admission of failure.

As my colleague says, there is nothing in the budget for seniors. Liberal carbon taxes on energy are forcing seniors to sell their own homes, which they have worked a lifetime to enjoy. With the price of electricity already out of control, this budget does nothing to address the electricity rate crisis in Ontario.

Being forced to move into social housing because they cannot afford their own homes is not the retirement most seniors had in mind.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a step back and talk about veterans.

As the previous member stated, the previous government did not just close those offices; it really did absolutely nothing for veterans in its time.

We have been in power for 18 months, and in this budget alone we are adding $725 million in funding. In fact, the veterans ombudsman was pleased about three specific aspects of what we are doing in this budget. They are eliminating time limits for spouses and survivors to access vocational rehabilitation; expanding access to the military family resource centres; and providing a benefit for caregivers, including spouses and family members.

We are also adding a centre of excellence for PTSD, and a pension decision will be made public by the end of this year.

Does the member not feel that these actions will benefit our veterans?

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, when the Conservatives were in power, we opened 650 access points for veterans so they would be more able to enjoy and have benefits.

As far as the military ombudsman goes, the government has to stop bullying him while he is trying to do his job. He is trying to get the streamlining of benefits for people who have been medically released from the military, and all the Liberals are doing is trying to strangle his financial budget to get the job done.

Global Week of Action to End Tax Havens

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Mr. Speaker, during this Global Week of Action to End Tax Havens, the Bloc Québécois is joining with citizens, unions, and civil society groups protesting outside the Prime Minister's constituency office in Montreal and all around the world.

The Bloc Québécois has always been at the forefront of the fight against tax havens running the gamut from Paul Martin's ships and the Irving shell game to tax regulations that favour Barbados and authorize the use of other tax havens. For the Bloc Québécois, the Global Week of Action to End Tax Havens lasts all year.

As usual, in Ottawa, this will be the week to support tax havens, and the government is doing a great job of that. Three Canadian banks represent 80% of the banking assets in Barbados, Grenada, and the Bahamas. On one hand the government is announcing millions of dollars in funding to combat fraud, while on the other it is legalizing all these schemes.

Ordinary Canadians are the ones who are paying the price. It is completely unfair, as demonstrated by austerity measures. Canada's leniency toward tax havens has gone on for far too long.

Harvey Smith

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Mr. Speaker, on March 10, long-time Winnipeg city councillor Harvey Smith passed away.

I had the distinct honour to work with Harvey for 14 years while we were both city councillors. Harvey was outspoken and was larger than life, but most of all he was a tireless advocate for social justice, for the ward of Daniel McIntyre, and for the City of Winnipeg.

Harvey fought for those less fortunate. One could never doubt his love and his commitment for his community and our city.

From his steadfast support to save Sherbrook Pool to his creative advocacy to improve back lanes to the rehabilitation of Central Park, Harvey was a true community champion, as was proven by the tributes that poured in from the people and organizations he touched.

Rest in peace, Harvey. Thank you so much for leaving such a lasting legacy for Winnipeg.

Supervised Injection Sites

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Mr. Speaker, last week I hosted a standing-room-only town hall meeting. The town hall was about four supervised injection sites proposed for north central Edmonton.

One of those will be in my riding of Edmonton Griesbach. I would like to thank the expert panellists who were there. Thanks go to Shelley Williams, deputy police chief Brian Simpson, Heather Stanchfield, Cris Basualdo, Ratan Lawrence, and Dr. Oluseyi Oladele.

Everyone wants a healthy and safe community, and we all want to help people struggling with addictions. At the meeting, though, opinions differed on these controversial facilities. However, one thing is clear: the people whose houses are a stone's throw away are not too pleased, and they do not feel that they were sufficiently consulted about the locations.

The Liberal government promised thorough consultations about these injection sites nationwide. People living near these sites deserve more say.

Port-Royal

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to represent a region with such enormous historical significance for Canada.

In 1605, Samuel de Champlain, among others, was welcomed by Membertou at Port-Royal, extending an enduring hand of peace and friendship between the Mi'kmaq and Acadian peoples.

Port-Royal was the first permanent European settlement in Canada. Unfortunately, in the CBC miniseries Canada: The Story of Us, which purports to tell the story of our nation, Port-Royal was not even mentioned, nor was the history of the Acadians, their settlement, their deportation, or their development into a people who have added so much to the rich culture of Atlantic Canada.

I urge the CBC to review these serious omissions and correct the historical record. The story of western Nova Scotia is an important part of Canada's story.

I invite all Canadians to visit our beautiful area this year on Canada's 150th anniversary and learn about the region's essential contribution to the foundation of our country.

Global Teacher Prize

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on March 19, a teacher in my riding, Maggie MacDonnell, was awarded the Global Teacher Prize.

As children, we are fortunate if we have a strong network of support, encouragement, and inspiration. Sometimes in northern remote communities teachers come and then leave after only a few months, shocked by the isolation, limited resources, and different culture.

Maggie MacDonnell came to Salluit six years ago and, in her words, has built programs that cultivate resilience and hope and build self-belief in the youth of that community. Students have gained confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth.

Her students say that she is more than a teacher: for the whole community, she is a coach, a refuge, an advocate, a role model, and family.

With the prize, Maggie plans to start an organization promoting environmental stewardship with Inuit youth. Maggie is a Northern Light who illuminates possibilities and hope into the lives of her students.

Maggie, Meegwetch. Nakurmiik.

Wilton Cheese Factory

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, 150 years gives one plenty of time to mature, to ripen, to age to perfection. After 150 years, a celebration is definitely in order. I am, of course, speaking about the 150th anniversary of the Wilton Cheese Factory in historic Loyalist Township.

Founded as a farmers' co-operative in the same year as the birth of our great country, the Wilton Cheese Factory continues to serve our community under the family-run ownership of the Jensens, beginning with a handshake deal with master cheese maker Arne Jensen, who came to Canada as an immigrant in 1925. Through hard work and rural entrepreneurial spirit, he, his son, his grandson, and everyone who has worked at Wilton has made important contributions to the fabric of our community.

Eastern Ontario has a long, proud history of cheese production, and Wilton still operates today in the best of this tradition.

Please join with me in extending congratulations to everyone at the Wilton Cheese Factory for aging so well.

Go Out & Play Challenge

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, today I recognize five communities in my riding of Yorkton—Melville. Wadena, Kelvington, Churchbridge, Langenburg, and the village of Buchanan competed against 21 other Saskatchewan communities in the Go Out & Play Challenge powered by Saskatchewan Blue Cross, a fun way to inspire parents and children to live healthier lifestyles through outdoor active play every day by logging in their activity minutes, with the goal to win $10,000 for their community.

Buchanan would upgrade its community playground; Churchbridge eyed phase two of its sports park; Kelvington sought to upgrade its outdoor pool; Wadena wanted to create a walking path; Langenburg would kick-start funding for an outdoor pool. These are great communities and great projects.

Congratulations to Churchbridge, community runner-up prizewinner of $5,000, for clocking 370,056 minutes, and congratulations to Langenburg, community grand prize winner of $10,000, with 506,204 minutes of family physical activity.