Charlie Angus

[Helping Families in Need Act, September 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague. This is not a partisan issue. All parliamentarians have been pushing for many years to provide benefits for families who have critically ill children. In terms of jurisdiction, there are very few areas where the federal government does anything directly for children, except first nations.

Yesterday the United Nations issued a scathing report on the government's attitude toward children in crisis and children in care. A lot of what was contained in that report came from first nations children themselves. Before Shannen Koostachin died, she told the government she was going to go to the United Nations and challenge it on its failure to read the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. After Shannen's death, first nations youth rose up and went to Geneva last February and explained to the world the abusive, negligent conditions in which first nation children live day after day in terms of substandard education and the failure in child welfare. Yet we see the government continue to spy on the people who are speaking out, like Cindy Blackstock, and continue to try to deny court cases.

I would like to ask my hon. colleague why it is that in 2012 we are still having to fight for basic fair rights for first nation children so they are not treated as second or third class citizens in this country.

[Helping Families in Need Act, September 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the one thing that probably unites everyone in the House is that we have all met the mother who has told us about her child who is suffering from cancer treatments and that her EI will not cover her expenses. We have all had to deal with the bureaucracy. We have all had to deal with the fact that mothers like this have been falling through a black hole. I am glad that all members of the House recognize the need to provide that bridging.

The original promise had been to take the money out of general revenues. I am not opposing the principle but with the pressure on EI right now, with over 1.3 million unemployed, should we be looking at another way to augment this so that the EI fund that is already in deficit is not put in a worse position?

[Government Accountability, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, then why is the Parliamentary Budget Officer taking the hon. member to court for basic information for parliamentarians?

The Conservatives ran on a promise of accountability and they broke that promise. There is no greater example than the hon. member himself, who ran a $50 million slush fund through his office and buried the documents. I am sorry, but his talk about open government has all the credibility of a flim-flam salesman at some country carnival.

The Conservatives ran on a promise of making government more accountable. Why did they break that promise?

[Government Accountability, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, a fundamental principle of democratic accountability is protecting the privacy of the individual while ensuring the transparency of the state. Unfortunately, the Conservatives have flipped that principle upside down.

Since signing the Federal Accountability Act, Canada has fallen to 51st in the world when it comes to access to information. Citizens in Niger and Angola have better rights for access to information.

Here is a simple question. What is the government afraid of? Why did it sign the Federal Accountability Act? Why did it turn its back on the rights of Canadians to transparent government?

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it has been fascinating listening to my hon. colleague, although I do admit that when it comes to reality it is a bit like looking in a funhouse mirror and, with those guys over in the corner, it is like falling down the rabbit hole. I do not want to go there at all.

On February 27, 2011, my colleague and every member of this House stood and voted to close the funding gap for first nation children under the Shannen's Dream principle. Our first nation children are the greatest resource that we have but the lack of education opportunities has been abysmal. Closing that funding gap is essential for developing this new economy.

My hon. colleague is talking about transfers to the provinces but the federal government has the responsibility for the welfare of and the schools for first nations children. What steps are the Conservatives taking to actually close the funding gap to have comparable levels to that of every provincial system in this country?

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I have listened to the debate this morning and it seems there is somewhat of a disconnect. Discussion before us is on the growing income gap and inequality in the country. If we look at the expert numbers that come in, the income disparity is greater now than at any time since before the Great Depression. That is a shocking fact, regardless of what one's political beliefs are. The fact that the top 1% in our country are bringing home one-third of the wealth is shocking in a country that sees itself as solidly middle class.

Does the hon. member think that is a problem? If he thinks that is a problem, then we can begin to look at solutions. If he thinks it is perfectly okay that there is a growing income gap, that people at the bottom are starting to fall through the cracks and that young students are paying higher levels of debt without being offered a chance to make their way in the economy, then that is a different discussion. For balance in a good growing economy, a growing income gap is either a problem or not.

I would like to hear whether my hon. colleague thinks this is an issue that should be dealt with.

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, points out that there are $580 billion of what he calls “dead money” sitting in the bank accounts of corporate Canada because there is no incentive for it to move it back into the economy. The government has failed to set up clear drivers to ensure investment and job training.

Given the fact that the government has made tax cuts across the board year after year with no planned investment of how that would be redirected into the economy, how does the member feel about the $580 billion of dead money sitting in bank accounts which could actually kickstart the economy at this time?

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his great speech, not because he is a Liberal but because he is from Cape Breton. I have to give him some credit for having some smart family members.

The issue of inequality has to be looked at in a much larger perspective than the fact we are in a period of global economic crisis. However, within the crisis we see the Conservative Party using it to its advantage to go after its enemies. My colleague talked about Conservatives seeing only the haves and the have-mores, but it is really about their buddies and their enemies. Those people they see as not being their buddies, they have been systematically undermining, including for example unions and public sector workers, the backbone of the 20th century middle class. There has been a relentless attack on them. They have been called lazy and overpaid, and the government has talked about union bosses, and has been undermining their right to a pension. This was the infrastructure that created the middle class that allowed our grandparents' generation to move up and to get an education.

The Liberals say they are not into this class war, but it is clear that a war is being declared on working people and on the rights of people. What does my hon. colleague think we need to do about it in the House?

[Petitions, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition signed by citizens who are concerned about the lack of a national public transit strategy. I raise this on the eve of Thanksgiving, the biggest weekend in northern Ontario for students coming home, when the McGuinty Liberals will kill public transit in the north and leave all our students high and dry.

The contempt for northerners is pretty clear but it is part of a larger problem which is that we have governments, federally and provincially, that do not seem to care about the issue of public transit, particularly for northern and rural communities.

[Conservative Party of Canada, September 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, surveys say that more and more Canadians are turning away from the Prime Minister and his party. People have united across the country in opposition to his leadership and wrong direction. It is not hard to figure out why. Let us look at last week's misleading Conservative carbon farce.

It was the Prime Minister himself who led the spin game, just like the Conservatives' attack on the environment, just like their attack on senior citizens, just like their attack on the integrity of the Canadian electoral system. This is a government that believes the voters are fools. Just because Canadians are reasonable does not mean they are pushovers. They remember the corruption of the old Mulroney Conservatives, but when they look at this gang, they see it is much worse. It is like the ugly spawn of Richard Nixon. No wonder Canadians are fed up. No wonder they want a party of integrity. That is why they support the New Democratic Party of Canada.