Bruce Hyer

[Rail Transportation, March 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is, funding to VIA Rail has been cut 62% in the last two years.

Just last weekend, I rode VIA Rail from Halifax to Sainte Foy. Recently cut from six to three times per week, that train may soon be gone. Over 500 people came out to protest and to talk with me; 130 in Halifax, over 200 in Moncton, and over 150 in Campbellton at 10 o'clock at night. There were seniors who can't drive in the winter, students who travel to university, and cancer patients who travel to hospital.

They are angry that they voted for Conservative MPs who now refuse to fight for them and their train. They are angry at spineless or self-serving MPs who say pretty things in their ridings but refuse to actually represent them in Ottawa. They asked—

[Rail Transportation, March 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's national transportation system is deteriorating, and that is hurting our economy. Passenger rail is in jeopardy, and three successive Conservative transportation ministers have neglected to enforce the Canada Transportation Act and the Railway Safety Act.

When rail infrastructure deteriorates, federal rail and transport agencies are not even empowered to fix anything. They can only tell trains to slow down or get off the track altogether. Too many of our railways have slow or stop orders, holding up grain shipments and VIA Rail passengers.

The Minister of Transport is the only person with the power to order that the federal railways be maintained or upgraded. Rail companies only invest the minimum amount to maintain the railways for the services that help their bottom line. New businesses cannot invest, and existing companies cannot adapt quickly.

The Conservative government, like the Liberal government before it, has brushed off private sector innovation to revitalize Canada's railways. With business development at a standstill, more crucial railway lines are being cut permanently.

We no longer have the capacity to handle additional service when needed on short notice, so our grain shipments are held up. More available routes would give us this ability. Instead, we are losing those options. Sir. John A. Macdonald must be shaking his head to see his visionary investment now in jeopardy under today's Conservatives.

Rail safety is in a needlessly tragic state in Canada. Many lives have been lost in recent months to derailments and disasters. The government has allowed rail carriers to self-regulate and has granted them exemptions from carrying adequate brakes or even testing the brakes. Self-regulation is not working.

Last year, the Auditor General reported that Transport Canada has too few safety auditors and that its inspectors are poorly trained. He said that Canadians do not even have a “minimum level of assurance” that the railways are complying with safety rules. What is more, passenger rail has never been in a worse state. We are on the brink of losing coast to coast service altogether. Canada remains the only G20 nation with no national rail strategy.

I did a whistle-stop tour through the Maritimes this past weekend, through Bathurst, Miramichi, Campbellton, Amherst, Truro, and smaller towns in-between that need that Ocean train. However, passenger service connecting the rest of Canada and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is now in jeopardy because CN Rail is abandoning 71 kilometres of track between Miramichi and Bathurst.

In addition, the Minister of Transport says that she is not willing to spend the $10 million to take over this stretch of track. Why not? Far more federal money was spent in buying sections of track in southern Ontario to preserve VIA Rail service there. The minister just says that private industry can do what it wants.

Why are the Maritimes being marginalized? Enough of this mismanagement and lack of common sense. Will the Minister of Transport provide the House with information on all of the railways that have been discontinued since the Conservatives took power in 2006, and take control of any abandoned section of rail line that VIA Rail needs to operate a coast to coast service? At long last, will the minister table a national rail strategy in the House?

[Taxation, February 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, to reiterate, budget 2014 is a failure for the average Canadian. There are no medals here, no silver and no gold.

There is no renewal of the popular ecoEnergy home retrofit program, which can reduce home energy bills. There is no new funding for desperately needed housing. There is virtually nothing for veterans. There is no pension reform. There is no rollback of the government's past years of job-killing payroll-tax hikes.

There is no investment in health care, including pharmacare, home care, or community health care. Back in my riding, our Regional Health Sciences Centre has people stacked up to the rafters without beds.

There is no investment in rail, including infrastructure, passenger rail, or rail safety. Canada remains the only country in the G20 without any national rail strategy.

There is no mention of climate change at all in the budget.

This budget is a failure. Large corporations remain grossly undertaxed, while small businesses and families are overtaxed.

[Taxation, February 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, a while back I asked the Minister of Finance a question about the budget. The Conservative government has staked its reputation on claims of creating jobs, fostering economic growth, and keeping taxes low. Indeed, since 2009, the Conservatives have spent $113 million of our taxpayer money bragging to Canadians about their so-called economic action plan. Unfortunately for all of us, they have failed miserably on all counts.

The government has managed to create a long-term structural deficit, a multi-billion dollar hole that it is trying to dig itself out of with cuts and by shifting taxes, which in turn is holding back growth and will continue to hold back growth. Despite its claims that it has not raised taxes, we know that the government has shifted taxes from large corporations onto the backs of the Canadian middle class in each of the last four budgets.

For the first time in Canadian history, more than half of federal revenue will come from personal income taxes, the hard-earned dollars of our middle-class families. Meanwhile, personal debt for the average Canadian as well as our national debt have both increased by over 25% under the current government.

Since 2011, the government has collected an additional $3.6 billion in increased employment insurance premiums while placing even more restrictions on EI claimants. It has now instituted a freeze, but it refuses to roll back these job-killing payroll tax hikes to pre-2011 levels. This is not an insurance plan; it is a huge tax grab on small businesses and Canadian workers.

The Conservatives have been increasing the financial burden on Canadian families in other ways. Canada has one of the lowest large corporate tax rates in the world. Our rate on large corporations is less than half that of the United States. The OECD has warned that a tax rate on large corporations substantially below the top personal income tax rate, like we see in Canada today, “can jeopardize the integrity of the tax system as high-income individuals will attempt to shelter their savings within corporations.”

There are unnecessary tax breaks for hugely profitable large corporations, plus an incredible $1.3 billion tax subsidy provided by the government to oil and gas companies despite the fact that the Conservatives have broken their promise to end this subsidy again and again.

The Conservatives have also refused to crack down on tax evasion. Estimates suggest that upwards of $5 billion is lost every year to offshore tax havens.

What is more, their claims about Canadian economic growth are pure fiction. Let us look at the facts. Unemployment has increased by 9% and youth unemployment is double the national rate; Canada is 20th in the OECD for job creation; real economic growth per capita is the lowest in, wait for it, 78 years; the number of consecutive Conservative deficits is six; housing costs have increased by 52%; the personal debt of the average Canadian and our national debt have increased more than 25%.

The Conservatives have presided over a dismal lost decade in our Canadian economy. Their failed trickle down economic approach does little to help the average Canadian have a bright future.

[Petitions, February 14th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from Canadians all the way from Galiano Island to Thunder Bay, encouraging the House to pass the bill from hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, Bill C-442, having to do with Lyme disease.

The petitioners feel that we need this bill because the science and medicine are running behind climate change. Lyme disease is an emerging problem, and we need to get on it.

[Pensions, February 14th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our Canada pension plan is the most secure retirement plan we have. Ninety-three per cent of Canadians depend on the CPP, but living off the current benefits would put retirees into poverty.

In December, the Conservatives blocked a national consensus on pension reform, and there is nothing useful in the budget to improve pensions.

Will the minister take the advice of pension experts and strengthen our CPP to save our seniors from poverty?

[Petitions, February 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of many Canadians, including those from Thunder Bay—Superior North, who support Bill C-442, an act respecting a national Lyme disease strategy, introduced by the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands.

Lyme disease is serious. A growing number of Canadians will soon be living in areas at risk of Lyme disease due to climate change and global warming. This bill would lead to a national strategy.

[The Economy, February 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at some facts of life under the Minister of Finance: unemployment is up 9%, youth unemployment is even worse, real economic growth per capita is the lowest since the Great Depression, and personal and national debt are both up by over 25%.

Will the Minister of Finance who wrecked Ontario's economy resign before he totally destroys Canada's economy?

[The Economy, February 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives like to talk about job creation and economic prosperity, but let us look at the facts under Conservative rule. Unemployment has increased by 9%, and youth unemployment is double the national rate. Canada was 20th in the OECD for job creation from 2007 to 2012, and real economic growth per capita is the lowest in—wait for it—78 years. The number of consecutive Conservative deficits is six, and the number of deficit targets hit by the finance minister is zero. Personal debt for the average Canadian has increased 26%, and the increase in the national debt, over $123 billion, is a 25% increase.

It is budget time and the finance minister will be saying the words “jobs” and “the economy” a lot. Yeah, right.

[Grain Transport, February 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the member has done a great job of talking about our farmers who are doing a great job in producing bumper crops.

Over a month ago, prairie farmer groups, including agriculture groups in Alberta, asked the Minister of Transport to look into the problem of constraints, and she has not even bothered to get back to them yet.

We are the only country in the G20 that has no national rail strategy at all. We have doubled the number of oil transports in the last five years in unsafe DOT-111 cars.

I would like to ask my colleague, when is the government going to invest in rail safety, rail quality, and rail efficiency? That starts with a national rail strategy.