Charlie Angus

[Ethics, April 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to know why the Conservatives promised reform and gave us Patrick Brazeau.

The Conservatives promised to clean up the Senate. Instead they are defending their entitlements in the worst political spending scandal in memory. They refuse to tell us how many are being investigated. They refuse to tell us how much money is being paid back and why the senators are allowed to police themselves when they pay out their expenses based on a pinkie swear. That is not accountability.

Will the government demand that its Conservative-dominated Senate hand over the audits and come clean with Canadians so we know how much taxpayers are being ripped off? That is accountability.

[Ethics, April 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is now 1 month and 27 days since Mike Duffy offered to pay back the taxpayer.

However, last night we saw Prince Edward Island's most famous summer tourist once again ducking and weaving from accountability. He gets asked a simple question by a reporter, “Have you paid back the money?” and he runs away.

How long will the government allow this ripoff of the taxpayer? What will it do to get our money back? Will it at least send a collection agency to the red chamber down the hall? What about it?

[Business of Supply, April 16th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, what is really clear to Canadians is that there are major problems with this temporary foreign worker program. There are also major problems for the people who are being brought over to Canada.

I have helped small businesses that have utilized the program. People were brought in from other countries who were trained and ended up taking managerial positions. They were in fast food positions because with the mining boom they could not find local people, yet once they were trained the government deported them. Industry asked me why we are creating a disposable class of workers.

The Conservative government seems to think it is okay to have disposable people, but we need immigration in parts of our country that are growing. We want to bring in families, we want them to invest here, buy houses here, and go to school here. We do not want to treat them as though they are disposable and discard them.

At the same time this program is being used to undermine wages. It is being used so that companies do not need to invest in training. They do not need apprentices when 300,000 people can be brought in and spread around the country. This is a rip and ship attitude to our economy.

My hon. colleague has been watching the Conservatives all day. They have been acting like rubes at a country fair. They seem to be surprised that there are problems. This has been known. Why has the government done nothing to address the growing abuse of the system?

[Business of Supply, April 16th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with fascination to my colleague. I am not sure that he is even aware of the fundamental issue here, which is that the foreign worker program was used by RBC such that Canadians were having to train temporary foreign workers, and then RBC was going to outsource them.

The government should have seen the writing on the wall. There are 300,000 positions being used across Canada. When we have high unemployment right across the country, the program is not being used temporarily.

We have a situation with HD Mining, where over 300 Canadians applied for work, and every one of them was turned down, because they did not speak Mandarin. It was going to bring in Chinese miners to mine in British Columbia. I come from a mining region. Canadian miners have a reputation as the best experts in the world. They travel all over the world.

If there is a shortage, there should be job training and apprenticeships. This is completely lacking from the Conservative government.

I would ask the member why the government has completely dropped the ball on HD Mining. Why did it not see this coming? Why are the Conservatives giving us such pitiful excuses now?

[Business of Supply, April 16th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, what is really disturbing to Canadians is the fact that the government has known how the temporary foreign worker program was being abused and used to drive down wages and make it simple for companies to not have to invest in training and apprenticeships. They could just bring in wholesale workers.

We saw this example with respect to bringing in workers from China to run a mine in B.C. The Conservatives knew it, but they ignored it, because they are supporting the outsourcing. They are supporting the downgrading of jobs in Canada to fit their rip-and-ship agenda of trying to get at resources as quickly as possible.

I would ask my hon. colleague how he thinks it is even possible to talk about a job plan for the economy when the government is undermining basic job training and apprenticeships.

[Ethics, April 15th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, where to begin on the last two weeks of incompetence, corruption and scandal under this Conservative government?

We have the temporary foreign workers program out of control. We have ministers denying climate change. We have criminal charges now against Conservative campaign operatives. The Conservatives even imposed an iPod tax.

Then there is Peter Penashue, who took over $40,000 in illegal donations in unclaimed flights and got the thumbs-up from the Prime Minister.

What happened to the government that promised ethical accountability to Canadians? Where did it go? Where is that promise?

[Ethics, March 27th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, that is the problem. The Conservatives are following their own rules. They are not following the rules that belong to all Canadians. Being Conservatives really does mean that they never have to accept accountability.

This is another blow to the credibility of the Minister of Industry, who is already neck deep in ethical scandals. He has two ethics violations and has two other investigations under way.

Why is the Prime Minister not setting an ethical standard for the members of cabinet?

[Ethics, March 27th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is the Prime Minister who has hit Canadians with higher taxes and his caucus is in revolt.

Speaking of rogue Conservatives, we now have yet another Conservative ethics scandal. We have the ministers of trade, aboriginal affairs and industry who all accepted calls from a former colleague. They received insider information about the joint venture between Progress Energy and the Chinese state-owned Petronas.

There are rules around this kind of behaviour. Why did these ministers not immediately convey this information about these calls to the Ethics Commissioner?

[Regional Development, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I will give the Conservatives a map to show them where northern Ontario is because they obviously need some help. They abandoned the experimental lakes. They walked on the James Bay Port Authority. They have left the NAN police without the support they need.

What is with the Conservative backbenchers from northern Ontario? Why have they been missing in action? Do they need a map as well?

[Regional Development, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it looks like, in these austere times, the New Democrats will have to pitch in and buy the Conservatives a map of northern Ontario because the only allusion to our region in the budget is in a section called “Helping Southern Ontario Prosper”.

The Conservatives closed the experimental lakes. They abandoned their promise—