Charlie Angus

[Gasoline Prices, February 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, here is a lesson in classic Canadian economics. Have members ever noticed that when the price of a barrel of crude jumps on the international market, the price at the pumps goes up within seconds? Why is that? They say it is the input price of the commodity being reflected to the consumer.

When the price of a barrel drops, say 70%, what happens at the pumps? For people living in northern Ontario, the price remains high. Why is that? The answers get a little more vague. It is a lack of refining. It is the low value of the loonie. It is yada yada yada. Meanwhile, people in Timmins are paying about 20% more than in Toronto and about 35% more than in Regina.

It is hard-working families in the north who are subsidizing the refineries every time they have to go to work, and it is northern Ontario businesses that are taking the hit. I am pleased that the City of Timmins has stood up on this issue of gas fairness. I am inviting all northern municipalities to do the same, because we need to stand up for our residents who are being hosed at the pumps by big oil and gouged in their pocketbooks. In this time of economic downturn, how about a bit of fairness for hard-working Canadians?

[Income Tax Act, January 29th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I find it fascinating how the Conservatives always speak on behalf of their grandchildren. It is about the debt we are going to leave to our grandchildren, how we have to stand up and fight for our grandchildren.

That was a government that ridiculed the Canada pension plan day after day in the House. Even today they are telling us that the TFSAs are better than the Canada pension plan. They are telling their grandchildren that if they make a lot of money they do not need to worry, but hard-working Canadians without defined pension plans are on their own.

This has been the operating culture, to undermine and attack pension systems in our country while we have an ongoing pension crisis. I do not know what world my colleague lives in, but wherever I go I am meeting people in their fifties who are telling me that they do not have enough money to retire, that the Canada pension plan is not sufficient, and that they do not have the company pension plan that existed before. They are asking how they are going to get by.

The member is hiding behind his grandchildren. When was the last time the Tories ever looked to anything for the future?

[Income Tax Act, January 29th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, this will interest my hon. colleague, who I have known for many years. He is a very likable fellow and a decent guy. I feel bad for him that he is having to do this job, which is the Liberal attempt to treat Canadians like they are rubes at a country fair.

When the Prime Minister talks about the middle class, who is he talking about? He is not talking about the 18 million people who pay taxes.

My hon. colleague says the Liberals are worried about people who are facing tougher times, and I am looking at who will benefit from this and who will not. If people are in the top 30%, they will make out like bandits. If people are in the top 10%, they are going to love these guys.

However, if people are getting by as office workers, there will be zero dollars for them. A hairstylist earning $27,000 a year will get nothing. A social worker earning $43,000 a year will get nothing. A fish plant worker in Newfoundland will get zero dollars. A cashier will get zero dollars. Are these people not working hard?

However, if someone is a parliamentary secretary, thumbs up. If someone is a member of Parliament, thumbs up. If someone is a bank manager, thumbs up.

The question for the Liberals is to be honest. When they are using this shield of the middle class, they should at least have the decency to say that it is for the people who are doing quite well, thanks very much, and the rest of the hard-working Canadians who pay their taxes and do their jobs are the ones being left behind by the government.

[Business of Supply, January 28th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, those who represent resource-based regions have certainly seen the huge downturn in the commodity cycle. We are seeing layoffs and mine closures. There are people who travel to work in the gas fields and we want to make sure that we have an economy that makes sense, that is balanced the issues of the environment. The previous government's support to maintain that balance was certainly out of whack.

I want to ask my hon. colleague about the following. One of the concerns I am hearing from the people I work with in the mineral sector is that they want good, clear environmental policies so that they can build trust in first nation communities and develop, but they also want to know if the government will maintain the mineral exploration tax credit, which is so important for maintaining prospecting and finding the next generation of mines, because aging mines are closing now.

Can we get a balance between good, clear environmental direction, but also maintain the support that we need for the resource economy in our regions?

[Business of Supply, January 28th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I listened with some shock and surprise to my colleague. I come from a resource-based economy. My family worked in the mines. We understand. I never met anyone in Timmins who said let us build our economy by dumping the dirt into the river systems. They want a clean economy. I hear the hon. member want to jerry-rig a review system of the pipelines and then attack the Prime Minister. I have no love for the present Prime Minister, but he went to Paris. Why was he in Paris? It was to deal with the international environmental climate conference. This is something the Conservatives' prime minister refused to do. It made Canada an outlier because they believe to talk about greenhouse gas and about the environment is somehow anti-jobs.

I want to tell the member it was that attitude for 10 straight years that put them in this pickle now that the rest of the country said no more until we have a credible, coherent, clean, and transparent system to prove that it will be environmentally safe. The Conservatives failed and they continue to fail. Until they start talking about the issue of climate change with any credibility, they are going to remain a marginal party.

[Indigenous Affairs, January 28th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, on the very day that the Human Rights Tribunal ruled on the systemic discrimination against indigenous children, officials in Health Canada told a little indigenous girl named Kendall that they would not pay for badly needed orthodontic surgery. Now Kendall also has an ocular tumour and needs special drops to save her vision. The response from the officials was “absolutely not”. I ask myself, as a parent, how that is possible.

For the health minister, what steps has she taken to issue directives to her ministers to make it right for Kendall and all the other children who are still being denied basic rights every single day?

[Government Appointments, January 27th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, as Cindy Blackstock says, indigenous children have waited too long for justice in the country and they want action now.

Unfortunately, the pattern of systemic discrimination continues to be the operating culture within various government departments today. For example, Cindy Blackstock has identified Michael Wernick as a key player in fighting her human rights case. He was also lambasted by a parliamentary committee for dragging his feet on the child welfare crisis.

For reconciliation to be real, action must be louder than words. What kind of message is the Prime Minister sending to indigenous families by appointing Mr. Wernick to oversee the entire civil service?

[Indigenous Affairs, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the eyes of the children are on Parliament as they look to us to see how we are going to end the policies that have led to too many indigenous families broken up, too many children denied access to everything from emergency dental care to proper wheelchairs. For indigenous children in this country, this is how the system works. The government is balancing the books on children who are considered not worthy of protecting.

My question is for the President of the Treasury Board. This is a legally binding rule. What is his plan to weed out the systemic negligence that runs through all the key departments of the federal government? What is his plan for action?

[Health, January 25th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I know I speak for members of all parties when I express grief for the tragedy in La Loche. However, condolences are not enough. Parliament must take action, because all too often the young people feel left alone, whether it is a suicide and violence in La Loche, or the 600 young people who gave up hope in a Mushkegowuk territory and tried to kill themselves since 2009.

My question is for the health minister. Her department routinely rejects requests for counselling services for mental health for indigenous youth. What steps will she take to guarantee that practice will end and will not continue, not just in the days and weeks ahead but in the years to come?

[Indigenous Affairs, December 10th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the sentiment, but reconciliation cannot just be words. Therefore, I will ask my question to the Minister of Justice.

Last week, her lawyers were lambasted in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland for their unconscionable behaviour in resisting the rights of survivors of the Newfoundland and Labrador residential schools, just as they obstructed the rights of the survivors of St. Anne's Residential School. Will the minister personally intervene? Will she tell her lawyers to stand down and end this culture of obstruction that has denied the rights of survivors of these brutal institutions? Do the right thing.