Candice Bergen

[Persons with Disabilities, December 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Brant for the great work he is doing on behalf of Canadians with disabilities.

No government has done more to support Canadians of all abilities than our government through the great programs I have already mentioned. Through the labour market agreements for persons with disabilities, we have helped over 289,000 Canadians with disabilities find jobs. We have also fulfilled our promise to reform the opportunities fund. I just launched the new national call for proposals this past Monday.

Canadians can be proud of our actions to ensure that all Canadians of all abilities can participate and contribute to our communities and economy.

[Persons with Disabilities, December 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, here is what we are doing. This government is meeting with Canadians with disabilities who want to be in the workplace, who want community places to be accessible. We are listening to them and we have responded, whether it is with our enabling accessibility program, our opportunities fund, or our renewed labour market agreements.

Canadians who have disabilities but also a number of amazing abilities know that this government recognizes that and wants them to be included in all aspects of Canadian life.

[Persons with Disabilities, December 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians with disabilities know that there is no other government that has been as supportive of them, not only in terms of assisting them but also including them in and helping them access the workplace and other community places.

We have renewed the labour market agreements for persons with disabilities. This has helped over 289,000 Canadians with disabilities to find employment. We have increased funding for the opportunities fund and for the enabling accessibility fund. We have introduced the historic registered disability savings plan.

Every one of these initiatives that we have introduced and promoted for people with disabilities, the New Democrats have voted against, unfortunately.

[Housing, December 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the absolute fact is all of the funding under the HPS program is available for Quebec.

As proposals come in, and as I explained to the member, there is a joint committee made up of Quebec officials and federal officials who make those decisions. Due diligence is taken to ensure that those programs and projects fit within the parameters. I would be happy to meet with her again to look at that specific project.

Again, the evidence is in that Housing First works. We have recommitted our investment and we will keep focusing on getting real results, not putting money into activists, like the NDP would like us to do.

[Housing, December 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as I tried to explain to the member, who was not at the meeting but sent her staff instead, these project proposals come in and are reviewed in Quebec by a joint committee of federal and Quebec civil servants.

What this is about is the NDP not supporting the evidence-based approach called Housing First. Housing First actually helps end homelessness. It is an approach that we have adopted with HPS.

The opposition does not approve of it. It does not support it, nor does it come to meetings to learn more about it.

[Housing, December 1st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, all of that money is there. I told the member that I would explain the way this process worked to her. She did not bother coming to my office. She is not interested in real explanations, because she does not want to know the answer.

The funding is there for the homelessness partnering strategy. It is all there. We are funding it throughout the country. We are expecting great results through our Housing First initiative.

I would be very happy to meet with you.

[Housing, December 1st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that member is absolutely wrong. We have renewed and increased our investment in homelessness with our homelessness partnering strategy and our focus on Housing First. I am sorry that the NDP do not agree with Housing First. It is an evidenced-based model for addressing homelessness.

If the member would like to have specific information about a specific project, question period is not the time to ask about it. Come to me. We can talk about it when we have more than 35 seconds to answer a question.

[Poverty, December 1st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, here are the facts.

Under our Conservative government, we have seen a major reduction in child poverty from a high of 18% under the Liberals to 8.5% in 2011. In fact, nearly 1.4 million fewer Canadians are living in poverty under this government.

One of the reasons for that is the universal child care benefit. It is putting money directly in the hands of Canadian families.

David Morley said:

...“[This] kept money in circulation ... money goes to poorer families, and that tends to be spent on children and then it kept money circulating in the economy as well.

That kind of investment in children is so important.”

We agree with that.

[Intergouvernmental Affairs, December 1st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, here is what we are doing. We have signed our investment in affordable housing with the provinces. We trust the provinces and their ability to address their housing needs.

Here is who we do not trust: the member for Trinity—Spadina. When he was a councillor in Toronto, there was a shelter that was supposed to cost $5 million. Under his watch, it ballooned to $12 million. Is that a very good use of taxpayer dollars in building shelters? Absolutely not. That is why we are not going to count on the Liberals.

[Poverty, November 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we have introduced a number of measures, including tax savings, so that parents and families are paying about $3,500 less in taxes every year.

We have introduced a family tax cut, which will mean that over two million families will benefit, as well as our universal child care benefit. Every family in Canada with children under 18 years of age will benefit from this package.

It gives money directly to families, so that they can make decisions regarding career, as well as child care choices.