Cathy McLeod

[Business of Supply, September 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the minister very articulately spoke to the provinces being in the best position to set the minimum wage guidelines. Today we are debating a motion that seems somewhat arbitrary. It seems as though the NDP has picked a number and moved forward with it.

I wonder if she could talk a bit more about the provinces and the fact that they have an ongoing process, which she alluded to in her remarks. It is important to understand why the provinces are ideally suited to actually determine minimum wage.

[Business of Supply, September 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, today I hope to have the opportunity to correct some of the misinformation out there in terms of the living wage.

We heard about 1996, when we moved away from aligning with the provincial standard, and I understand the NDP supported that at that time. Those members seem to have had a significant shift in terms of their philosophy.

Many experts in this area are saying the provinces are in the best position. Obviously, it is much more expensive to live in Vancouver, British Columbia, than it is in some other communities. Some experts are saying we should have more microcosms in terms of minimum wage and that the provinces should be looking within themselves with respect to smaller numbers.

I find it a little strange that the NDP would look at the federal government minimum wage and suggest that everyone should go in that direction, when really it was agreed to be moved to the provincial level. A lot of experts recognize the different issues in communities throughout the country and we need to be sensitive to those issues.

[Business of Supply, September 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, there are certainly a number of concerns and flaws in the argument put forward by my hon. colleague.

He talks about how many families this would impact. To be quite frank, the federally regulated workforce is what it will impact, and by most recent estimates, 0.05% of it or 416 people earn minimum wage. Compared to 35 million people in the country of Canada, this would not have nearly the impact that he is putting forward. I would challenge him in terms of how much impact this would actually have.

[Rouge National Urban Park Act, June 19th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest. I know that the New Democratic Party is anti- pipelines going anywhere. I do not know if the member is aware, but the Kinder Morgan pipeline goes through our beautiful Jasper National Park, and has for many years. I do not think there is anyone in the House who would say that Jasper National Park is not a phenomenal treasure. The Kinder Morgan pipeline supplies 90% of the gas to the Lower Mainland. It has gone through my riding for many years.

I would ask the member this. Is she saying that Jasper National Park is less of a park because it has a pipeline that has gone through it safely for over 60 years and that pipelines and protected and treasured areas cannot coexist?

[Labour, June 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to safe and fair labour practices. Of course, if anyone has any concerns in terms of practice, they do have the ability to make reference to the Industrial Relations Board. We have no intention of making any changes to our regulations at this time.

[Veterans Affairs, June 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government works very hard to ensure that Canada's veterans have access to the benefits they deserve and need.

I would like to share a recent example that a member of the Canadian Air Force shared with us. He had been receiving veteran's benefits for over 13 years. He used the toll-free number to access the benefits and services. While he did that, he received instant approval for counselling, no questions asked. He then went on and was provided with a list of counsellors. This particular veteran was very impressed and satisfied with the ease with which he was able to access these services in this particular request.

I am very proud of the services our government is delivering for veterans. I also want to congratulate the veterans affairs committee on a recent unanimous report with recommendations to help us move forward to continue to do the work we must do for our veterans.

[Service Canada Mandate Expansion Act, June 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have to say at the outset that I appreciate all the thought and effort the hon. member for Guelph has put into the drafting of this particular bill, and those who went before him in terms of starting the thinking around this initiative.

What he is proposing to do in the bill is expand the mandate of Service Canada to include the responsibility of informing all interested government departments and programs about the death of an individual once Service Canada itself has been informed of that death. I think we all understand that the hon. member is trying to do the right thing: finding a way to make things easier for family members when they lose a loved one.

I think it is very important that we know what the existing systems are. I think the House might find it interesting, because as we look at different bills, I think it is important to put them in context in terms of what we currently are doing.

When Service Canada is made aware of a death, it has a process in place to notify the most relevant departments, such as Canada Revenue Agency and Veterans Affairs, and programs such as the CPP and old age security, employment insurance, and Canada student loans. I would like to explain how the existing system works.

To ensure integrity and respect for privacy, Service Canada relies primarily on those who have the constitutional jurisdiction to collect this information in this particular area. That is mainly the vital statistics agencies of the provinces. The registration of births and deaths occurring in Canada is a provincial responsibility. It is these provincial agencies that issue death certificates and therefore are the most authoritative sources.

The way it works now is that every day, each vital statistics agency sends Service Canada an electronic list of the people who have died in that province. Service Canada then sends that information along to the interested departments, as I indicated before, especially the Canada Revenue Agency and Veterans Affairs, and programs such as the CPP, old age security, EI, and Canada student loans. It is estimated that about 96% of the deaths occurring in Canada are currently covered by these information-sharing agreements.

This system has been in place for several years. It is reliable, it is secure, and it was designed in a way that protects privacy. Of course, any system can be improved to make it faster and more efficient. The government is always looking at ways to make programs serve Canadians better.

Under the current process, a family member or a person acting for the estate of the deceased does not have to physically visit a Service Canada Centre to report a death. They also do not have to remember to bring along the proper documentation, including the original death certificate, at a time when we understand that they are under significant and considerable stress.

Again, I want to remind my fellow members that Service Canada already gets this information directly from the authoritative provincial sources.

To protect the privacy and the security of Canadians, the government monitors the use of social insurance numbers very carefully and severely limits the federal departments and programs that are authorized to know them.

Before we take steps that would increase this kind of personal information, we need to do a careful analysis of the potential impact of the bill. As we heard, the hon. member from the NDP raised that issue of privacy and security in her questions for the member.

I look forward to hearing the debate on this issue and to working with the member for Guelph on ways we can continue to improve the lives of Canadians.

[Service Canada Mandate Expansion Act, June 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the thought that the hon. member has put behind this bill. I have one question for him.

Having worked in the health care field, when we had a death in any of the facilities that I worked in, we always had to complete a provincial form. To what degree would this connect with the provincial responsibility in terms of vital statistics and death certificates? Has he given any thought to that sort of interplay between the federal government and the provincial governments?

[Business of Supply, June 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have some trouble with what the member said, because he said that 14% of people in this country do not matter.

How many benefited from the working income tax benefit? It was a percentage. How many seniors benefited from the income splitting? It was a percentage of the population.

He is suggesting that families with young children who have working parents with a disparity in their incomes should not also have some of the benefits of tax policies that Canadians put forward. I would like to ask him if the seniors in his riding who benefited from the income splitting that they enjoy support his party's retracting on that one.

[Business of Supply, June 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, what I clearly showed is a number of measures. I was on the finance committee, and we listened to many witnesses who indicated many significant measures, including a move from 15% to under 9% for families that are under the low income cut-off level. That is a huge improvement. It represents the ability for mobility in terms of how Canadians can move from low income through to having opportunities with a higher income.

What I showed and demonstrated in the early part of my speech is that income inequality is an important issue that we need to pay attention to, but it is certainly not dramatically increasing, as this motion says. We are very proud of our record on this in terms of the reduction.