Bruce Hyer

[Petitions, April 1st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, petitions continue to pour in from Canadians across the country who are urging the government to save the Experimental Lakes Area. The government revoked funding for the ELA in 2012, but it has been negotiating to save the research facility after public outcry.

It gives me great pleasure to remind my fellow parliamentarians that the Experimental Lakes Area is not yet dead and hopefully we can still save it.

[Petitions, March 31st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from people across Canada who are concerned about voter suppression and the deliberate misleading of voters in the May, 2011 election. They are asking for a complete and independent well-resourced investigation to determine the responsible persons or organizations. They are further asking that any financial awards for that election be cancelled and returned to Elections Canada.

[The Environment, March 31st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, back in 2012, the Conservatives tried to kill the experimental lakes area. Later, after a huge public outcry, the minister promised to find a way to transfer the ELA.

Last September, Ontario and the International Institute for Sustainable Development signed an interim agreement with the government to keep the ELA open.

That agreement expires today. Time has run out. Are the Conservatives again delaying a deal on this important science at the ELA?

[Veterans Affairs, March 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if we get a late show on top of a late show if the minister or the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs do not show up.

The response from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans on this makes the government's position abundantly clear: it has no plan to reverse its damaging changes to veterans benefits and no plan to support injured veterans. Rather than ensuring that these men and women have the services they need, they are offering a 1-800 number and claiming that the government never promised them support in the first place.

The current Conservative government is adding insult to the injuries that these veterans have sustained in defence of our nation.

Enough is enough. I urge the minister, wherever he may be, to reverse the closure of Veterans Affairs facilities and to begin making up for this neglect of our veterans.

[Veterans Affairs, March 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, today I speak in the interest of veterans in Thunder Bay—Superior North and across Canada. The welfare of Canada's servicemen and women is an issue that cannot be ignored. Our veterans have put their lives on the line to protect our country. All too often, they come home wounded, disabled, and in need of care, but the Conservatives' treatment of our veterans has been shameful.

In February, the government closed eight Veterans Affairs offices across Canada, including ours in Thunder Bay. Ten staff members lost their jobs at our office, as did hundreds more across the country. In my community, we held a town hall meeting to protest those closures at a memorial service for the office on the final day. I know that countless veterans and their supporters spoke out at similar events from coast to coast.

Veterans travelled to meet the minister, but he brushed them aside. The Conservatives plowed ahead with the closures without a second thought.

The Veterans Affairs office in Thunder Bay served over 2,000 former service members. Our veterans came to the office for assistance with paperwork, much-needed physical and mental health support, employment and training services, and much more.

The current government is dismissing our men and women once again, telling them to access these services online or be put on hold on the phone. Perhaps the member opposite could explain to me how one staff member with only general training and no knowledge of Veterans Affairs is supposed to do the work of six and serve 2,000 people. How will the government provide assistance for aging veterans who are less familiar with computers? How exactly will the 1-800 operator respond to immediate mental health concerns?

The Conservatives simply will not face the facts about their mistreatment of veterans. In the fall, Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent called for the government to address “urgent shortcomings” with the changes to the Veterans Charter. The new Conservative system of lump-sum payments leaves soldiers who have serious injuries at risk of poverty.

For the Conservatives, simply ignoring an ombudsman is something of an improvement, however. When the former ombudsman, Pat Stogran, criticized the government's “insurance company mentality” in their service of veterans, Conservatives gave him the boot. They would rather silence or even fire veterans advocates than admit their own failures. Things have gotten so bad that wounded veterans have been forced to sue the government just to get the support they need.

Instead of standing up for our veterans, the Conservatives have argued that they have no responsibility for looking after injured veterans. Their refusal to acknowledge their obligation to our men and women who have served is not only disappointing, it is very disturbing. Pat Stogran called the argument ludicrous and contrary to Canadian values. It is truly a sad state of affairs when veterans who have fought overseas have to fight their own government back home for the compensation they need and deserve. Two thousand veterans were injured during their service in Afghanistan. The current government has seen their sacrifice, only to snub them when they return home. It is shameful.

I ask this again. Will this minister reverse these disgraceful cuts to Veterans Affairs and show our former service members the respect they deserve and provide the services they need?

[Democratic Reform, March 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' fair elections act is anything but fair. Bill C-23 would turn voters away from the polls. Too few voters is our problem, not too many.

Bill C-23 would do nothing to fix our undemocratic system. It would grant 100% of the power to a party with less than 40% of the vote.

Will the minister fix the real electoral problem and make our electoral system more proportional?

[The Economy, March 24th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, please, that is enough blarney from the Conservatives.

Canadians need action. We need services we can rely on and real job creation so we can be financially stable, individually and collectively.

In budget 2014, Thunder Bay—Superior North and I were looking for support for our seniors and pension reform, but nothing was offered. We were looking for a fee and dividend system that would put a price on carbon and put money back into the pockets of taxpayers, but the government did not even mention climate change in the budget. We sought incentives for small business owners, but instead the government got rid of the $1,000 hiring tax credit and refuses to reduce the job-killing EI premiums and a huge EI fund surplus, which is really a tax.

The government's fiscal plan does not work for my constituents. The Conservatives claim to be putting the economy first, but all I can see is that they are putting Canadians last.

[The Economy, March 24th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives boast that they are the party of fiscal responsibility, but let us look at some facts. The facts show otherwise. The government gets a failing grade on practically every aspect of economic management, or should I say mismanagement, and the most recent budget does nothing to clean up the mess the Conservatives have made of our economy.

Unemployment has increased 9% under the government. The youth unemployment rate is double the national rate. Canadians are struggling to support themselves and their families. Canada is 20th in the OECD for job creation. Meanwhile, the government refuses to roll back its job-killing payroll tax hikes. The current freeze on EI premiums means little when the Conservatives have inflated the rates for so long. They are balancing the budget on the backs of hard-working Canadians and small businesses.

Budget 2014 did not just fall flat on job creation. It failed to invest in the services that are the most important to Canadians. With the aging population in Thunder Bay—Superior North and across Canada, our health care needs are increasing. Yet somehow we see no investment in health care in the budget.

The Thunder Bay Regional Health Science Centre recently broke the record for overcapacity and was in gridlock for five straight weeks. We are headed for a crisis as the Conservatives sit on their hands. They are burying their heads in the sand with their refusal to adequately fund health care, and it is compromising Canadians' right to universal health care.

It is not just health care that is in danger. The Conservatives have also neglected the retirement security of our seniors. They have balked at much-needed pension reform and even blocked consensus on the matter. We see no plan to protect Canada's seniors, who have worked hard for so many years only to be abandoned by their government in their old age. Why is the government leaving our retirees financially insecure?

In my riding, it seems that the Conservatives have made it an obsession to shut as many vital services as possible. They have slashed local Veterans Affairs, Citizenship and Immigration, Canada Revenue Agency, and Marine Communications and Traffic Services offices, and they have cut jobs across the board in Thunder Bay and all regions. Northwestern Ontarians pay taxes just like the rest of Canadians, but they are forced to bear a greater burden of taxes, as large multinationals pay less than half the U.S.A. rate.

Declining services are not the only problem. The Conservatives may go on and on about reducing the national debt, but they are the ones who have added $123 billion to the debt since they took office. That is a 25% increase. Is this what debt reduction looks like? It is clear that the Conservative government is misrepresenting the facts.

What is even more important is the Conservatives' ignorance of the needs of ordinary Canadians, whose personal debt has gone up 26%. Canadians simply cannot afford it. The average cost of a house has risen 52%. It costs an average Canadian homeowner over $400,000 to buy a small house. How are Canadians supposed to put roofs over their heads?

Canadians need more than empty promises from Conservatives. They need real fiscal responsibility that puts Canadians first. The Conservatives talk a lot about their so-called economic record, but all we can see are deep service cuts that hurt hard-working Canadians and increased debt.

[Supplementary Estimates (C), 2013-2014, March 24th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Green Party is voting no.

[Rail Transportation, March 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am just repeating what those people told me. They are angry at what they call self-serving MPs who say pretty things in their ridings but refuse to actually represent them here in Ottawa. They asked why a Green MP from Thunder Bay is supporting them while Conservative and Liberal MPs are missing in action. They made it clear that if the government continues to marginalize the Maritimes, the maritime voters will be seeking a new government.