Alex Atamanenko

[Petitions, November 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from residents of New Denver, British Columbia, with regard to the error that Statistics Canada made in its calculation of the consumer price index. The petitioners say that it has resulted in an error Canada's inflation numbers for whose benefits are tied into this, including recipients of the Canada pension plan, old age security and the guaranteed income supplement.

The petitioners ask the Parliament of Canada to take full responsibility for this error and take the required steps to repay every Canadian who was shortchanged by a government program because of the miscalculation of the CPI.

[Post-Secondary Education, October 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, let us ask the students of Selkirk College in my riding what they are seeing in front them. Let us ask that of the students in the rest of Canada.

We have $14 billion in unexpected surpluses and not one concrete penny has gone to our kids to afford the schooling they need.

Before coming to Ottawa, I was a teacher and I tried to instill in my students the value of lifelong learning.

It is not fair that a rich country such as ours places such a low value on our students and is not willing to invest in their future. Other prosperous countries have free tuition. What is wrong with us?

The NDP has a plan to help students. Will the government work with us to implement our proposals and invest--

[Post-Secondary Education, October 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this week, representatives of the Canadian Federation of Students came to meet with us in Ottawa. They are here to tell us that tuition fees are too high, sometimes more than $5,000 a year. It has become the norm today to graduate from university with a $40,000 to $50,000 student debt. Yet the only place in the Speech from the Throne where there is any mention of young people is in the section dealing with crime.

When will this government finally help our students and invest in their future and the future of our country?

[Business of Supply, October 25th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by congratulating my hon. colleague on his 14th anniversary as a member of Parliament. I hope that he will continue to sit in this House for another 14 years.

These days, there is a lot of talk about reducing taxes. Certain realities have to be taken into account, however: the widening gap between rich and poor Canadians; layoffs in the manufacturing sector; higher tuition fees, which leave students $20,000 to $40,000 in debt on graduation; the lack of a real national daycare system; increased poverty and waiting lists in our hospitals.

Can we really justify reducing taxes under these circumstances? How can we improve the lives of Canadians without bearing in mind the realities I have just mentioned?

[Business of Supply, October 25th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his comments because that means that at least he realizes we are a force in Canada. Often, when people are not being criticized, they are ignored. I thank him for at least acknowledging our presence.

Is the hon. member aware of the studies done showing that of all the political parties in Canada, the NDP has the best fiscal record and the least amount of deficit budgets?

Would the hon. member comment on the fact that when Tommy Douglas took power in Saskatchewan, he ran 17 successful balanced budgets and brought the province up from a have not province to a prosperous province?

The third question I would like to ask the member is whether he is aware that today the province of Saskatchewan was brought into prosperity because of the current NDP government.

[Petitions, October 25th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, my second petition is from those people who say that we have something like 27,000 nuclear weapons still in existence today, 3,000 of those weapons are on a 15 minute launch warning status and threatening to destroy the world, and 50 of today's modern nuclear weapons could kill more than 200 million people. They petition our Parliament to establish a department of peace that would reinvigorate Canada's role as a global peace builder and that would have the abolition of nuclear weapons as a top priority.

[Petitions, October 25th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present two petitions here this morning.

The first petition deals with climate change.

A number of citizens, as a result of viewing Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, request that the Government of Canada legislate programs consistent with meteorological reality and act immediately to reduce the climate change crisis by diminishing fossil fuel dependency while sponsoring initiatives and incentives to promote less harmful technologies.

[Iraq, October 17th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, over the past year I have had the pleasure of meeting some young Americans who have come to Canada because of their opposition to the illegal war in Iraq.

They are here because they want no part of this immoral, disastrous war. Some of them lived through the horror of the invasion.

Some Canadians have criticized these young men and women for having the courage to speak out against this war. Let us look at this in context.

Young U.S. citizens, many of whom are part of the 47 million without health care, are attracted to the slick ads that promote the glamour of military life. They are promised a job, a uniform, a college education along with free medical and dental care. However, once reality sets in they see the horror of this war and some choose to come to Canada.

I call on our government to welcome these young Americans to Canada so that they can become loyal, productive members of our society.

Let Canada once again be known as a refuge from militarism.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, June 19th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard this spin over and over again as the scenario plays out. This is the last straw. The minister has been manipulating the outcome of the barley plebiscite from the beginning.

I want to know if the minister will finally do the right thing for farmers and put an immediate hold on the order in council until the courts can determine once and for all whether the government's actions are legal.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, June 19th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, class actions and judicial reviews are under way by farmers and Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board. They want to know if the agriculture minister overstepped his bounds in his zeal to remove barley from the Canadian Wheat Board.

I would like to know whether the minister received an opinion from the Department of Justice on whether he could or could not use regulations to remove the single desk on barley. In other words, I would like to know where exactly the minister received his opinion that he could remove barley from the Wheat Board by order in council.