Brian Jean

[Fort McMurray Airport, June 8th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, northern Alberta is a major contributor to Canada's economy. The Fort McMurray Airport is the fastest growing airport in North America. In the last five years it has grown from 200,000 to 700,000 passengers annually.

Approximately 350 flights leave the northern Alberta oil sands every week for destinations all around Canada. Most of the passengers are oil sands workers who take home over $100,000 a year and these paycheques are not spent in northern Alberta. The money goes to their families in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and all over Canada.

Northern Alberta is the economic engine of Canada. Our region provides 6% of Canada's GDP and creates over 250,000 direct jobs throughout the country. What we hear through the grapevine is not always the truth. People do not understand the good, responsible environmental work that the oil sand companies are doing there.

Canada needs northern Alberta, just like northern Alberta needs Canada. Instead of criticizing, I invite everyone to come and see for themselves the truth of what is happening in the oil sands.

[Oil and Gas Industry, June 4th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. This government has no plans to reopen the exclusion zone on tankers travelling between Alaska and Washington state. Under this long-standing agreement, U.S. tanker ships are not allowed within 25 miles, at the minimum, of the B.C. coast. In 22 years we have had no issues of non-compliance.

[Firearms Registry, June 4th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in a shocking display of political gamesmanship, the NDP joined forces with the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois to pass a motion to keep the long gun registry as is.

In November 2009, 12 NDP and eight Liberal MPs listened to their constituents and voted in favour of Bill C-391 to scrap the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry. Now they are trying whatever they can do to derail it.

The Liberal member for Malpeque voted to scrap the long gun registry in November. Will he now vote to keep it? Will he allow his vote to be whipped by the Liberal leader, or will he listen to the voices of his constituents instead?

Those 20 opposition MPs who did the right thing at second reading and voted to scrap the long gun registry will have to explain to their constituents why they allowed their party bosses to whip their vote and silence their voices.

When it comes to the long gun registry, MPs can either vote to keep it or vote to scrap it. It is that simple.

[June 3rd, 2010]

I can tell the member where I am, Madam Speaker. I am on my feet voting for food safety in this country when that member is sitting down. When it comes time for food safety to be voted on, I am on my feet with the other Conservative members.

Let us look at an opinion by an outsider. The OECD just ranked the food safety systems in the world. Where does Canada sit? Under the performance of this Prime Minister, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and this government, the OECD states that Canada is one of the best-performing countries in the 2010 Food Safety Performance World Ranking study. Its overall grade was superior. It further states that Canada is ahead of its nearest federal state neighbour, the United States, in providing national food safety programs. Again, because the CFIA provides above-average food recall services and is clear about its requirements and procedures, Canada earned a progressive grade in 2010.

I want to see the member on his feet next time it comes to voting for food safety.

[June 3rd, 2010]

Madam Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss this very important issue to Canadians.

Before I get into the substance of the question, I would like to remind the hon. member across the way that if he wants more inspectors hired, he has to change his methodology. He stands in the House and asks why more inspectors are not hired. One cannot hire inspectors without money and one cannot receive money from the Government of Canada without the House agreeing to spend money.

The member and his party, the NDP, continually vote against all of this government's initiatives for food safety. He voted against our food safety agenda outlined in the Speech from the Throne. He voted against budget 2010 which provided $13 million to hire 100 new inspectors. He wants new inspectors, yet he voted against the money authorizing this government to hire them. He voted against supplementary estimates (C) which provided the first $8 million out of the $75 million for the CFIA related to the Weatherill recommendations. Despite all those votes against hiring more inspectors, he is here today saying to hire more inspectors.

The good news is that this government has hired more inspectors. The government is continuing to improve Canada's food safety system. In fact, since 2006, the CFIA's inspection staff has increased by a net total of 538. That is right, CFIA's inspection staff has increased by a net total of 538 since 2006.

Additionally, our Conservative government committed to implementing all 57 recommendations of the Weatherill report. Many of the commitments required from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have already been met by this government.

Actions taken to date have focused on prevention, on surveillance, on detection and better responses including: strengthening the CFIA's directives regarding the control of listeria in federally registered ready-to-eat meat processing plants; equipping CFIA inspectors with better tools, better technology such as laptops, cell phones and even faster network connectivity so they can get their job done better and more effectively and efficiently to keep Canada's food supply safe; updating federal-provincial-territorial protocols for managing food-borne illness outbreaks; and enhancing laboratory capacity and research into the development of rapid test methods.

The CFIA and Health Canada have also developed a brand new screening method for listeria in meat which allows for a more rapid response during food safety investigations.

Furthermore, we have launched a food safety portal on the web. This government has invested a great deal into bringing Internet connectivity, bringing the web across this country. In this case, it provides Canadians with comprehensive food safety and food-borne illness information immediately. This is good news.

Our government's record on food safety speaks for itself. The question I have for the member opposite and all of the NDP members is will they vote against the $22 million in the estimate votes we having coming up in the House? Will he this time support food safety in Canada?

[Proactive Enforcement and Defect Accountability Legislation (PEDAL) Act, June 3rd, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I would first like to congratulate the previous speaker, the member for Eglinton—Lawrence, on the birth of another grandchild. I know he is very much a family man. He has indicated that many times in committee. Not only is he a very hard-working MP, but I know that he holds his family very close in his mind all the time when he is here. My congratulations to him.

My congratulations in relation to his proposal on this particular act. The Motor Vehicle Safety Act first came into effect some time ago, in 1971. It established comprehensive minimum safety standards for the design and performance of motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment manufactured or imported for use in Canada.

It also invoked a regime of self-governance on the part of vehicle and equipment manufacturers that was very similar to the motor vehicle safety act in the United States. Obviously our borders are connected, our manufacturers are connected, and many citizens of both countries intermingle. As a result of that, this regime works well.

The regime itself is commonly called “self-certification” and was harmonized from the beginning with the United States in recognition especially of our close trading relationship and of the many manufacturing jobs we have producing motor vehicles in this country, especially in the province of Ontario.

This actually reduces the cost, ultimately, to Canadian consumers as a result of this intermingling and the need not to retool or to rejig particular items on vehicles, and we can make sure that the safety remains consistent because the roadways, quite frankly, connect.

Notwithstanding this self-certification regime, the act also requires an oversight audit and enforcement function provided by a government body, which was delegated by Parliament to Transport Canada.

Transport Canada has been effective in ensuring that companies remedy safety-related defects or non-compliances with safety standards under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act through well-established audit and enforcement protocols. This is important because it shows that Transport Canada's obligation is to follow up on these things and to make sure that an audit is being done regarding the issues.

The safety enforcement regime established under the act actually consists of investigation of defects and collisions, compliance audits and testing, enforcement, and oversight on notification of defects. So it is quite inclusive.

To date, the biggest recall in Canada was actually not the recent recall, but the recall on the ignition switch on Ford models, years 1988 to 1993. This recall actually involved 834,368 vehicles. This recall was necessary because a short circuit could have developed in the ignition switch, and as a result, could have led to overheating and ultimately a fire, and actually a fire right in the steering column itself. So it was a very important recall.

The second biggest recall is again not this one, but involved a seat belt manufactured by Takata. If we add up all of the vehicles that use that particular seat belt, over 770,000 units were involved in that recall.

The ABS plastic front seat belt button actually could have broken, allowing pieces to fall within the assembly. Then, as we can imagine, when someone tried to get out of the assembly, if those plastic pieces were in there, they would actually jam the mechanism and would not allow the person out, or indeed would not allow it to click in place, in the first place.

There were some real serious problems with that, because it could have led to personal injury or even death in the case of water being involved or fire. That was the second biggest recall.

The third biggest recall involved almost 500,000 Ford vehicles affected by a speed control deactivation switch potential failure, very similar to the case at hand here, at least in terms of the speed and the inability, we have discovered, in relation to some cases where the accelerator will actually stick. The switch could have overheated, smoked or burned, potentially resulting in an under-hood fire in that particular case.

Those are the top three that have happened in Canada.

It is also important to note that Transport Canada in these particular cases was the leader in North America. As a result of these investigations and ensuing conversations, Transport Canada actually pressed the manufacturers to launch recall campaigns and those recalls were later extended to our American friends to the south where millions of vehicles were involved. Transport Canada has been the lead on many of these recalls in North America and has been quite effective in keeping Canadians safe.

The overwhelming majority of Transport Canada's defect investigations, it should be noted, are based on consumer complaints. In times past, as mentioned by the previous speaker, if a manufacturer detected a safety-related defect, it had a legal obligation under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act to notify Transport Canada and consumers of the defect. That is right, not just the regulator but the people who own or bought the car. Manufacturers have the obligation to notify them.

Transport Canada receives complaints concerning all makes and models of vehicles, Toyota and all others, and reviews the complaints for potential safety issues that may affect various vehicle systems. Likewise, we have records of acceleration problems for a very large number of makes, brands and models of vehicles, and the frequency of incidents relating to Toyota specifically, which is, of course, what brings us here today with this bill, is very typical of that industry as a whole.

It is interesting to recognize that Toyota's safety recalls and the complaints of sudden acceleration are no different proportionally than for other car manufacturers that currently do business in Canada. In 2009, Transport Canada received 1,300 complaints on all issues.

Transport Canada also communicates regularly with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to determine if it is studying issues similar to those we might be investigating. We work well with our neighbours to make sure that we do not duplicate efforts and actually work together to get to the bottom of the issue, which is to keep road users and vehicle users in North America safe. Ours, of course, is to keep Canadians safe.

Transport Canada, as I said, has received a number of consumer complaints regarding acceleration issues and was already investigating the floor mat issue when the floor mat recall was announced by Toyota. It already was in the middle of investigating that to determine exactly what was taking place.

Transport Canada first heard about the sticking accelerator pedal issue from Toyota on January 21, 2010. That is right, January 21, 2010, was the first time that Transport Canada was advised by Toyota that it would be recalling certain models to correct the defect, which it indicated at that time to Transport Canada there was.

In the past four years, one acceleration-related Toyota case was brought to Transport Canada's attention by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In fact, Transport Canada officials continue to gather information on this particular case on a priority basis to assess whether Toyota Canada's actions with respect to the sticking gas pedal recall are compliant with Motor Vehicle Safety Act requirements.

Failure by Toyota to issue the notice would mean the company did not meet its obligations under the act. This could expose the company to the penalties contained within the act. Whether the delay was unreasonable in Toyota notifying the regulator, of course, would be up to a court.

[Jobs and Economic Growth Act, May 31st, 2010]

That was the Liberals.

[Jobs and Economic Growth Act, May 31st, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am wondering the relevance of the member's speech. She may be lost in American jargon and American legislation, but we are in Canada. We are not responsible for what happened in the gulf. We have a different legislative system here. We have a different environmental process here. This government is taking care of that issue. What does that have to do with the budget bill? It has nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Let us talk about Canadian legislation. Let us talk about what Canada is doing. We are doing the job here and the member should pay attention to that.

[Jobs and Economic Growth Act, May 31st, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity, in between some of the comments made by the hon. member, to hear him say something about privatization of Canada Post. I can tell members, as the parliamentary secretary to the minister responsible for this for over four years now, there has been no discussion of privatization of Canada Post. Quite frankly, it is ludicrous.

However, what does trouble me is that he spoke of one particular aspect in the bill, which is called remailers. There are at least 10,000 jobs across this country, in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, that rely on something that has been happening for 20 years; that is, remailers, small mom and pop organizations, print shops, across this country that have been operating for 20 to 30 years doing remailers. We have heard evidence about that remailing business going to other countries because Canada Post does not compete. So, it is going to other countries.

What does the member have against the small mom and pop shops and 10,000 employees in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and Vancouver, who rely on these jobs now? Does he want to close down those small businesses that have been operating for 30 years under this particular aspect?

I want to hear from that member about those small mom and pop businesses that rely on this type of business.

[Jobs and Economic Growth Act, May 27th, 2010]

Hear, hear!