Chris Charlton

[Helping Families in Need Act, September 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the minister for keeping a straight face when she said that she thought we should debate this bill without partisan games and began her speech by launching into a fully partisan game.

Leaving that aside for the moment, I am happy to say that we will be supporting this bill on this side of the House. There are some significant measures that will help parents of critically ill children and children who were murdered or have gone missing, and we are proud to do that on this side of the House.

I have a question for the minister, though. I wonder if she could tell us why, in the Conservatives' 2011 election platform, they made a commitment that the support for parents of critically ill children would come out of the general revenue fund and not the EI fund, which is where they are now drawing the money from. It is an important distinction. Canadians deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent and what the integrity of the EI fund will look like in the future. I would like the minister to respond.

[Employment Insurance, September 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the minister simply is not listening. What all of these examples show is that the Conservatives are not being honest with Canadians. Their own numbers contradict them.

The government originally budgeted $130 million for one year under the old working while on claim pilot project. Now it is budgeting $74 million over two years for the next version. Less money over a longer time means that fewer people will benefit.

Will the minister now stand up and explain why the government is punishing unemployed, part-time and low-wage Canadians?

[Employment Insurance, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the parliamentary secretary falsely stated “those who work more will be able to keep more”. She knows that is not true. Grocery store clerks working a few hours a week have 50¢ of every dollar clawed back from their EI. Everyone making less than $300 will be worse off under this new scheme.

The minister needs to come clean. Is she deliberately misleading Canadians, or is she simply not on top of her file?

[Employment Insurance, September 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary knows full well that it is failed Conservative economic policies that are keeping so many Canadians unemployed. The fact is that there are 300,000 more people unemployed today than during the recession.

How do the Conservatives deal with the growing number of unemployed Canadians? They further restrict access to EI and punish people on EI for working. They make changes with no public consultation. Will they start listening to Canadians now and immediately rescind these callous policies?

[Petitions, September 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition today signed by people from all over the Golden Horseshoe in Ontario calling on the government to strengthen animal transportation regulations.

Animals can be legally transported for up to 52 hours and many have no access to water, food or rest. These are among the longest transport times in the industrialized world. Animals that become injured or diseased during transport threaten the quality, health and safety of Canadian food products.

For that reason, the petitioners call upon the government on an urgent basis to strengthen the animal transportation regulations under Canada's Health of Animals Act.

[Hamilton Airport, September 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, my hometown of Hamilton has asked for and must get help from the Conservative government to deal with pollution at our airport. The issue is straightforward if we believe in the principle of polluter pay.

When the federal government owned the Hamilton airport lands prior to 1987, it operated a firefighting training pad there. At the time, the firefighting foam that was being used contained perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, which has since shown up both at the airport and at points downstream. Links have been made between PFOS and compromised immune systems as well as certain types of cancer.

In 1986, the airport was transferred to the municipality and now the federal government is washing its hands of any responsibility, essentially just saying “buyer beware”. However, the fact remains that the pollution occurred while the federal government owned and operated the airport lands. Therefore, the federal government must take responsibility for what took place on its watch and must act now to assist and contribute to the city's remediation efforts. Anything else is a gross abdication of its responsibility to protect both human health and the environment.

[Poverty, September 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, food banks across Canada are busier than ever. In Ottawa alone the use of food banks is up between 6% and 8% just over last year. Food prices are on the rise, household debt is at an all-time high, and low- and middle-income families have to work more hours just to get by.

When will the government realize that Canadians are struggling and finally take concrete steps to help them make ends meet?

[Petitions, September 19th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to introduce a petition today signed by thousands of people from across the country in support of Bill C-305, which was introduced by my colleague, the member for Trinity—Spadina.

The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to implement a public transit strategy so that we have a permanent plan to provide sustainable, predictable, long-term and adequate funding in order to increase access to public transit.

[Increasing Offenders' Accountability for Victims Act, September 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the comments by the member for Charlottetown. I could not agree more that the government's record on poverty reduction has truly been a national disgrace.

I can tell by the way he framed his comments that he is quite sincere about wanting to join in the fight against poverty in a passionate and serious way. I will not hold it against him, since he is new to the House, that the Liberal government itself did not have a particularly good record over its 13 years in office in dealing with the very issues he outlines as now being the problem.

There was no national child care policy. There was the gutting of the national housing strategy and the theft of the now up to $54 billion out of the EI fund. There was no living wage policy, and in essence the Liberal government at the time laid its deficit on the backs of the most vulnerable. I would suggest that maybe for purposes of debate this afternoon, we actually stick to the bill that is before us, which is Bill C-37.

Yes, there is indeed a link between crime and poverty, but by removing the discretionary power of the judge to increase the surcharge, are we not in some cases making this measure excessively punitive? It speaks to what he was saying, because I think it is particularly true in cases for low income offenders or offenders who suffer from mental illnesses.

[Petitions, September 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am tabling more petitions signed by people in Hamilton Mountain who are incensed about the government's increase of the age of eligibility for old age security to age 67. The petitioners point out that only 31% of Canadians have been able to contribute to RRSPs and that only 40% of Canadians have workplace pensions and the future of many of those pension plans are increasingly tenuous.

Since over one-quarter of a million seniors are now living in poverty and public pensions provide at most $15,000 to the typical retiree, the petitioners call on the government to drop its ill-considered change to the OAS, maintain the current age of eligibility and make the requisite investments in the guaranteed income supplement to lift every senior out of poverty.