Charlie Angus

[Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, May 5th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague's analysis of this bill and the plan by the Conservative government to try to actually deal with not-for-profit corporations.

Just over a year ago the government cancelled the program that was in place across Canada to support volunteers and the important work they do in our communities. There was very little funding to support the volunteer networks that existed. Yet the government clearly decided that it was not a priority. I do not know what my hon. colleague found in his communities, but in mine the voluntary sector suffered a great deal because of that loss.

While looking at a bill to help the non-profit sector in this country, we in the NDP were certainly hoping that we would see some leadership and a plan that would actually ensure that we have strong, stable and vigorous non-profit sectors, because they do so much of the grassroots work.

It seems this is a bill that tinkers with the regulatory framework. There are 170 pages of complex regulations. It might work if we were protecting corporate assets, but certainly the people who are supposed protect corporate assets never did that job no matter how many pages of regulations there were.

When we are looking at 170 pages of regulations for the non-profit sector, it seems to me we are excluding many people, average lay people who might want to help a local organization and want something simple, like the Robert's Rules of Order, a simple set of rules. Yet the regulatory framework that the government is imposing on the non-profit sector will certainly make it much more difficult to encourage people to participate in the non-profit sector and volunteer work in our communities, because of the onerous levels of regulations that are being imposed.

I would like to ask my hon. colleague what he thinks about this level of regulation on the volunteer sector by a government that is notorious for saying it thinks regulation on the financial sector and every other sector should be lessened.

[Petitions, May 5th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to rise in the House with a petition from residents of the wonderful communities of Englehart, Matachewan, Kirkland Lake and the central Timiskaming region of Ontario, who are concerned about the lack of walk-in passport service in the northeast of Ontario.

I think it is the only rural region in Canada that does not have walk-in passport service. It means that residents who are in the mining industry and other areas who have to get emergency passports end up having to go to Toronto to get service. They are looking to establish a fully operational passport office in the city of Timmins to serve the people of all of northeastern Ontario and to alleviate the current workloads and delays.

[Canadian Flag Pins, May 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the real issue here is the fact that we have a minister who cannot give an honest answer in the House of Commons.

We have asked about the contracts and the outsourcing and he continues to make it up. Meanwhile, the CBC has been undermined, international art tours are being cancelled and there is the China flags pact.

I would ask him to be at least prudent this time because his political proboscis is such now that he is poking the poor members of the Bloc in the chest.

[Canadian Flag Pins, May 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the role of a minister of the Crown is to take responsibility for the contracts and the decisions of his department. However, for a week, we have had this minister running through the spectacle of dodging a simple question as to why a Canadian company was frozen out of a contract and the maple leaf was then outsourced to China.

First he blamed the gift shop. Then he blamed the WTO and he blamed the Speaker. It is like he is running through Tory Rolodex of excuses.

Here is the question: If he is not willing to take responsibility for his department, why does he not step aside and let someone else do it?

[Canadian Flag Pins, April 29th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the crackers in the cheap seats might find that spectacle funny but yesterday the entire workforce of Bursan Pins, a Canadian company, were laid off. Not only were they frozen out of the contract, but they were not even given a chance to bid.

What baffles me is why the minister cannot give a straight answer for such blatant anti-Canadian practices. Why will he not admit that his government is on the wrong track for outsourcing the maple leaf pin to China?

[Canadian Flag Pins, April 29th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the heritage minister is showing almost a pathological aversion for taking responsibility for the fact that his government has outsourced the parliamentary flag pin to China.

Yesterday, he tried to hide behind a bogus WTO claim.

I would like to read from Hansard, which states, why is the minister:

...hiding behind WTO trade agreements as his excuse for selling off the Canadian flag. Is it because he is too lazy to read the agreement? Maybe it is too complicated or maybe it has too many words.

Does the House know who said that? The former Conservative, Rahim Jaffer. Why the hypocrisy?

[Canada Day, April 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I have looked at the contract and it is with his department. The WTO provisions do not count the House of Parliament.

Let us see how he is now fudging the facts. On the celebrate Canada fund, he is now saying that the money that is being shipped to Quebec is somehow not happening. B.C. received $50,000, Ontario received $100,000 and Quebec received $3.2 million. We all want to celebrate Canada but what we do not want is a minister who refuses to take responsibility for what is happening under his watch.

[Canadian Flag Pins, April 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Canadian Heritage seems incapable of taking responsibility for the fact that his department has outsourced a parliamentary flag pin to China. Rather than being accountable to the House, he subjected us to a whole series of bizarre obfuscations.

Let us try this again. Is he aware that his department is shipping out thousands of maple leaf pins emblazoned with “Made in China” and will he take any steps to send a message to our manufacturing sector that the Parliament of Canada does not outsource the maple leaf to China? What will he do about it?

[Canadian Flag Pins, April 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Minister of Canadian Heritage tried to duck responsibility for the fact that his office, during the largest manufacturing meltdown in Canadian history, outsourced the production of Canadian flag pins to China. Rather than taking responsibility for that action, he tried to shift blame to the parliamentary boutique.

I called the parliamentary gift shop and it assured me that, unlike the Department of Canadian Heritage, all its pins are made in Canada.

How can we count on the minister to stand up for Canadian jobs when he cannot even stand up and give a straightforward answer?

[Canadian Flag Pins, April 23rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the change came under his watch.

The Canadian flag pin was a Canadian invention made by Canadian companies, and those jobs have now been shipped overseas. That is the ideology of those Cadillac Conservatives. Now they have the nerve to peddle these made in China pins to the tens of thousands of workers who have lost their jobs.

If the minister wants to lead the race to the bottom, he can have my pins because I will not--