Claude Gravelle

[THE BUDGET, March 9th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I will respond to that silly question.

First, if we do not put in more money for the Alzheimer Society, we will be in a crisis. The little amount of money that the government has put into Alzheimer's research will just not do it. We need to stop the corporate tax cuts and use that money to invest in our women, children, seniors, health care and education.

[THE BUDGET, March 9th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Edmonton—Strathcona for sharing her time with me.

It is a sad irony that I rise today to speak to the budget just after International Women's Day because the budget offers nothing to women and children. In fact, it offers nothing in the area of job creation or in protecting seniors' pensions.

If the government cared about regions like Nickel Belt, we would have seen a completely different budget last week.

Here are some facts about my constituency: Statistics Canada indicates that Greater Sudbury is the worst recession-affected region in Ontario, relative to our population. While national unemployment figures are improving, our region’s are getting worse. As of December 2009, the unemployment rate in our area was 9.8%, compared to 8.5% nationally. A little over a year ago our unemployment rate was 4.9%.

Our communities are also feeling the impact of an 8-month strike by United Steel Workers of America Local 6500, at Vale Inco, the Brazilian-owned mining company in our community.

And yet, people face these challenges with steely determination and a true sense of community. I am so proud to represent the people of Nickel Belt.

They deserve so much and certainly deserve much more than what this budget offers them, and that is why I cannot support this budget as it is written.

The finance minister was quite proud of his corporate tax cuts, tax cuts that have taken hundreds of billions of dollars out of the revenues that pay for job creation, pension reform, health care, child care, education, infrastructure and fighting climate change. The government likes to spin a great fairy tale that these and other deep cuts have stimulated the economy.

The numbers tell the real story: corporate tax breaks have not stimulated investment, they have not stimulated innovation, nor have they increased productivity in Canada.

Despite a 36% drop in corporate taxes, both provincial and federal, in the last decade and record profits for much of this time, business spending on machinery and equipment has declined as a share of the GDP, and total business investment spending has declined as a percentage of corporate cashflow. The source of this data is none other than Statistics Canada and Finance Canada.

Further, Canada's business sector productivity in 2007 was 75% of that of the U.S., down from 90% in the early 1980s. This is despite cuts in the federal corporate income tax rates from nearly 40% to the current 18%.

In 1999, the year before former finance minister Paul Martin's tax cuts, Canada was fifth on the World Economic Forum's competitive list. Today we are in ninth place. That is well behind most Nordic countries that collect as much as 50% of their GDP in taxes each year.

The facts are clear about the ineffectiveness of tax cuts.

And yet, this government prefers to continue to spread falsehoods about corporate tax cuts, while planning to increase employment insurance premiums at the end of the year, when workers are just beginning to dig themselves out from a mountain of debt.

Where is the help for the real victims of the recession?

My office regularly receives calls from constituents who are having to depend on food banks to supplement their nutritional needs, some whose employment insurance benefits are running out and some who are on the verge of losing their cars and homes.

That is the real world in which we are living. Sure, we have turned a corner, but we need to take care of our people and we need to deliver help now.

Among OECD countries, Canada has already ranked last for its lack of investment in child care. The government failed to commit to funding the New Democrat's children's health and nutrition initiative, which would have provided a daily nutritious meal to all Canadian children.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation states that it is imperative to take immediate action to curb childhood obesity by promoting healthy eating if Canada is to reduce the $22.2 billion loss in health care costs and lost productivity from illnesses like heart disease.

Results in the groundbreaking study by the Alzheimer's Society called “Rising Tide: The Impact of Dementia on Canadian Society”, pointed to an urgent need for immediate action by all governments. It states:

The Rising Tide study tells us that if we do nothing, the number of Canadians with dementia in 2038 will be twice that of 2008. Over this 30-year period, the cumulative cost of dementia is projected to be $872 billion. It tells us that if we do nothing, dementia will have a crippling effect on Canadian families, our health care system and economy.

Maintaining the status quo is not an option. We must take action today.

Where is the plan in the budget to address this impending crisis?

I would like to tell the government that we have invested in foreign ownership in our region of Sudbury and Nickel Belt. The government wants to again reduce the rules concerning foreign investment in Canada. Has it not learned anything from what has happened in Sudbury with Inco being purchased by Vale Inco from Brazil? This company has had our employees on strike for eight months and it does not want to negotiate. The union tried to negotiate last week but the company said that it would not agree to anything. The union asked for binding arbitration but the company said no. The company wants to implement its third world mentality on the workers of Sudbury.

The other company, Xstrata, has closed some mines in the outlying areas and is concentrating on one mine only. What it is doing is high-grading. High-grading means that it is taking the very best at very little cost and leaving the rest behind. What will happen in the future is that we will have some mines in the outlying areas that we will not be able to afford and they will come to the government for handouts to help them mine those smaller mines.

New Democrats are doing their best to make this Parliament work. They want to create family-supporting jobs, help the seniors who built this country, provide adequate child care, address the looming healthcare crisis and protect this planet for the next generation by building a clean-energy future.

What we need is for this government to also make this Parliament work. It could start by reversing these cuts immediately and adopting the NDP amendment to the amendment.

[The Budget, March 8th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, in light of the fact that Liberal after Liberal have stood up today and spoken against the budget, yet they will sit on their hands when it comes time to vote or they will not show up, will the hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan vote for a budget that does nothing for Canadian women, children, seniors, and first nations?

[The Budget, March 8th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I would like to read the last line of page 96 in this budget:

Increasing foreign investment is an important way of strengthening market competition and attracting new capital and innovative ideas from abroad.

I would like to speak about just three companies: one is U.S. Steel, that the government is taking to court; the other one is Vale Inco, that is refusing to negotiate with employees in Sudbury and wants to implement its third world ideologies on these workers; and the third one is Xstrata, that is raping the natural resources by high-grading the ore under our feet.

With the conditions that these foreign companies bring to Canada and our workers, why would we want more foreign companies to invest in Canada?

[The Budget, March 8th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, Liberal after Liberal has spoken today against the budget.

Will the hon. member and her colleagues show up and vote against the budget or will they sit on their hands and vote against Canadian women, Canadian children and our Canadian seniors?

I want to assure the Conservatives on the other side that the Liberals are supporting the budget.

[THE BUDGET, March 8th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, I have a question for my colleague, but first, I would like to congratulate all women and wish them a happy International Women's Day.

Our colleague said that she would not support the NDP's subamendment. The tax breaks given to major banks and big businesses represent a lot of money. If the amendment to eliminate these tax breaks passed, we could use that money to help women, children and seniors.

Why will the Bloc vote against a subamendment that would help the women, children and seniors of Quebec?

[THE BUDGET, March 8th, 2010]

Madam Speaker, on pages 84 and 85, the budget refers to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. On page 85, it refers to Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions and Western Economic Diversification Canada. On pages 120 and 121, it lists $38 million for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, $29 million for the Quebec regions and $29 million for western Canada.

Given the fact that those regions were all given money and that FedNor has always been part of the budget, would the hon. member tell us what his government's plans are for FedNor?

[Petitions, March 5th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present petitions from dozens of people from Ontario requesting the House of Commons and the Government of Canada to support Motion No. 383 and vigorously participate in the international effort urging the Government of the People's Republic of China to ensure the safe passage of North Korean refugees to South Korea.

[Industry, March 5th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the government does not care about the needs of northern Ontario. There is no mention of FedNor in yesterday's federal budget. The community futures program drops from $21.8 million to $8.5 million, and the northern Ontario development program is down $1 million from last year.

Is this the government's definition of commitment toward the people of the north?

In order to better serve the needs of northern Ontario, FedNor needs to become a stand-alone agency. Is the industry minister heading to Sudbury today to deliver this good news, or is he going to tell the people that these decisions about the north will now be made in the south?

[Industry, March 5th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Finance presented a non-budget that followed a throne speech just as long and useless as the prorogation. What is worse is that we are uncertain about the future of FedNor and the possibility of creating jobs for the future that correspond to the needs of people back home. People from Toronto or Ottawa do not know about the needs of people in northern Ontario.

Why is the government creating uncertainty about FedNor and the kind of regional development that corresponds to the needs of the people of northern Ontario?