Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question coming from the member opposite. There have been some areas where this has not moved along quickly enough and we have given very clear direction that we want this to proceed as quickly as possible.
House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2019, with 27% of the vote.
Child and Spousal Support October 21st, 2010
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question coming from the member opposite. There have been some areas where this has not moved along quickly enough and we have given very clear direction that we want this to proceed as quickly as possible.
North Shore Youth Safe House October 19th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to highlight the inspiring story of the North Shore Youth Safe House, which is in my riding of North Vancouver.
The safe house provides emergency bed and supportive housing spaces for vulnerable youth who are at risk of becoming homeless. Services available include the development of life skills, personal counselling, addiction counselling and employment coaching.
What makes this service particularly special is that it is the creation of a caring community. I was involved in this project from early on, even before being elected, and saw for myself how it was built with the hands of volunteer tradespeople, with the support of community service clubs, and with the backing of a generous and anonymous donor.
I am proud to say that all levels of government have also done their bit to ensure its continued operation, including our own government, which contributed $800,000 last year through the homelessness partnering strategy.
I applaud my community and I congratulate the Hollyburn Family Services Society for the continued success of the safe house.
Small Business Week October 18th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, Small Business Week runs from October 17 to October 23. Owners of small businesses are entrepreneurial men and women who have put their dreams into action.
Through their hard work, dedication and vision, owners of small businesses are generating the jobs and economic growth that made Canada a competitive and modern economy. They are helping to ensure that our economy emerges from the global economic recession stronger than ever.
Small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy, accounting for 98% of all businesses and nearly half of all jobs in Canada. Our government has made it a priority to provide small businesses with the tools they need to succeed. This includes reducing taxes and regulations that inhibit growth and stifle initiative, helping to ensure they have ready access to financing and investors and expanding trade so they have the broadest possible access to international markets.
This government will continue to ensure small businesses have the opportunity to succeed and grow.
Liberal Party of Canada October 6th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, our number one priority is the economy, and that is why we continue to implement Canada's economic action plan, which has helped Canada weather the global recession better than nearly every other industrialized country.
What are the Liberals' priorities? Just last week they voted for the job killing, tax hiking 45-day work period proposed by their coalition partner, the Bloc Québécois. Other Liberal priorities include making it easier to possess and use illegal drugs.
Only a party with priorities completely offside with Canadians would release a policy that talks about health care on page six and promotes smoking on page four.
Yes, the Liberal Party might be able to photoshop a cigarette out of its health care brochure, but no computer program can erase the fact that the Liberal leader and his priorities are out of touch with the priorities of Canadian families.
Mr. Speaker, the member brought up freedom of information. This government's record speaks for itself. We fought for Canadians' right to know how their government operates and our record is clear.
We made 70 new crown corporations and institutions accountable to Canadians, something the Liberals refused to do. We increased the Information Commissioner's budget by 26%. This government has worked hard to improve transparency since the Liberal years.
Our rules with respect to access requests are clear. Political staff should not attempt to make access to information decisions. The record shows that transgressions in this regard have severe consequences.
The Minister of Natural Resources, like our Prime Minister, acted appropriately with the highest ethical standards by having the issue referred to the Information Commissioner and accepting the former staff member's resignation.
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in this House to address the questions of the hon. member opposite. It is a pleasure, but truth be told, today it is also a surprise. Why?
For weeks this past spring the hon. member from Malpeque stood in this House and demanded not just the resignation but the tarring and feathering of the former minister of state for the status of women. No defence was considered reasonable; no need for a hearing was considered warranted. Indeed, the member demanded her resignation on March 5, twice on March 10, on March 11, which is my birthday, on March 12, March 16, March 22, March 30, March 31, and twice on April 1. On April 19, after the former minister of state's resignation, he demanded to know why she had not resigned two years earlier. That is 12 times he demanded her resignation.
I mention this history only to explain my bewilderment at having to stand here today to explain to the member why the former minister of state is no longer a member of the ministry or of the Conservative caucus. After his repeated calls for her pound of flesh, I am puzzled to be here today to explain the ethical principles behind the actions of our Prime Minister.
The Liberals just cannot be consistent on this or on any other issue for that matter. For weeks they demanded the minister's resignation, yet today they demand to know why the minister resigned. We really are getting a full display of the Liberal's hypocrisy tonight. In fact, their blinding hypocrisy could light this chamber.
In contrast, our Prime Minister's record on dealing with matters of ethics is consistent and unblemished. Immediately upon taking office, our Prime Minister brought in the Federal Accountability Act, the toughest anti-corruption legislation in Canadian history. He has ended the revolving door between lobbying and government. He has banned big money from politics. He has expanded lobbyist transparency rules to include parliamentary secretaries, members of Parliament and staff in the official opposition leader's office. He has brought a significant increase in ethical standards to Parliament and this past spring, the Prime Minister again did the right thing in his dealings with the former minister of state.
The record shows that in every circumstance when presented with credible allegations of ethical impropriety, the Prime Minister has acted immediately and appropriately.
In the case of the former minister of state, serious allegations were brought to the Prime Minister's attention. Rather than sweep the issue under the rug, he did the right thing. He referred the matter to an independent third party. That is the high ethical standard our Prime Minister promised and that is the high ethical standard he has lived up to. The Prime Minister has set a high ethical standard for the conduct of his ministers and caucus.
The Liberal Party does not understand the concept of ethical standards for membership in its caucus. One Liberal member is pocketing tens of thousands of dollars for her taxpayer subsidized home. Another one is being charged for refusing to take a breathalyzer test. Now, to talk about ethics, how about the member for Malpeque promising his constituents that he would vote against the gun registry and then he flip-flopped and broke his word. How is that for ethics?
On this side of the House we take ethics seriously. Why can the Liberals not do the same?
Canada's Economic Action Plan September 28th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, yesterday our Conservative government updated Canadians on the progress of its economic action plan. The detailed report showed the plan is working. It showed that the plan is injecting $22 billion in major stimulus into Canada's economy this fiscal year.
It showed that close to 23,000 economic action plan projects across Canada have funding committed. It showed that close to 97% of those projects are under way or already completed, and it showed that Canada is creating jobs, 430,000 net new jobs since July 2009.
In my riding of North Vancouver, work is well under way on a number of projects, including a new state-of-the-art film centre for Capilano University and a new track and field and indoor soccer facility at Windsor Secondary School.
Clearly, Canada's economic action plan is delivering real benefits for everyday Canadians. In the words of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, it has been effective and has created a lot of jobs.
Jobs and the economy, that is what our Conservative government is focused on.
Leader of the Liberal Party June 16th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, in another example of the Liberal leader blaming Canada, this week the Liberal leader compared our free and democratic Canada to a communist dictatorship in Cuba, but he was not finished there. Yesterday, the Liberal leader called on China to criticize Canada's human rights record. It is clear. Given the chance, the Liberal leader's strategy is to blame Canada.
While the world faced the global economic recession, he talked down Canada's efforts. While his members called our soldiers war criminals, he sat silently. He has even said he is embarrassed Canada is hosting—
Mr. Speaker, what a turn of events, coming from a member of a party that opposed expanding access to information when it was in power, opposing even its own members' bills.
In 2005, the Liberals voted against a Conservative Party motion to extend access to information laws to crown corporations. We had to get rid of a system used by the Liberals to control and centralize access to information.
Our government passed historic changes to the Access to Information Act, making 70 new crown corporations and institutions accountable to Canadians, something the Liberals refused to do. We increased the Information Commissioner's budget by 26%.
This government has worked hard to improve transparency since the Liberal years, and our record is clear. We will continue working to improve transparency for Canadians, and that party should do the same.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that actually I represent the riding of North Vancouver, not West Vancouver. It is just across the river.
I would like to thank the member for Vancouver Quadra for raising the important issue of access to information. The member seems to be preoccupied with this issue and has asked a number of questions about how our system works. Allow me to take this opportunity to explain how requests for information are decided by the government and released to the public.
First, as has been explained many times by our government, requests for information are never handled by ministers or their political staff, not today, not yesterday, not ever. In fact, they are handled and responded to by dedicated and professional public service employees who have the delegated authority under the Access to Information Act to do that work.
In addition, each federal institution is responsible for ensuring that it complies with all relevant laws, guidelines and directives. This includes laws such as the Access to Information Act, which gives Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or any person or corporation present in Canada a right to access information that is contained in government records.
This is how our system of government works and I know that there has been a lot of confusion about this.
Many believe or think that everything should be run by a single organization. Some would like to see one big central governing body put in charge of all federal organizations and institutions. This central body would tell institutions what to do, how to do it and when to do it. It would also be able to answer every conceivable question about what is happening in every single institution in the federal government, right down to the number of paper clips in stock.
Such an organization simply does not exist in our system. I can understand that it would make our lives as parliamentarians a lot easier. Whenever we want to get to the bottom of something, we would simply summon officials from this central body and bombard them with questions. Fortunately, that is not how things work. If we ran the government in this way, it would be hugely impractical. After all, we are talking about the largest enterprise in Canada by far. There are over 250 organizations in the federal public sector working in organizations such as departments, separate agencies, crown corporations and agents of Parliament, and I would add that the vast majority of these organizations are now covered by the Access to Information Act, thanks to this government.
When our government took power in 2006, we made a commitment to improve transparency and accountability, and we delivered with the Federal Accountability Act. The act contained the most extensive amendments to the Access to Information Act since it came into force in 1983. Most importantly, it broadened the reach of the act to more public institutions, including agents of Parliament such as the Information Officer and the Auditor General, and crown corporations such as the CBC, Canada Post and VIA Rail. All told, the Federal Accountability Act added 70 additional public institutions to the list of those covered by the legislation.
As a result, there are now some 255 public organizations subject to the access to information law, and let me repeat my earlier point that each one of these organizations is responsible for complying with the Access to Information Act. This is not to say that they do not have any support or that they are allowed to do whatever they want. The Treasury Board Secretariat provides the policies, directives, best practices and training needed to support the access to information community, and each department must report to Parliament on its activities. These detailed reports include statistics on the number of requests received, completed, processed and released, as well as the compliance rates.
Our government also continues to work with the Information Commissioner to ensure that Canadians have access to information about their government. We welcome the member's suggestions to Parliament on how and where we can improve the management of access to information.