Corneliu Chisu

[Ukraine, February 26th, 2014]

Mr. Chair, I wish to add my voice to those who have expressed their deep concern about recent developments in Ukraine. I also wish to express my deep sorrow for the loss of lives and for the people who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and democracy in Ukraine.

My concern is compounded by the current economic situation in that country, a situation that was aggravated by former president Yanukovych's shunning of the European Union and the west and his disregard of the collective will of the country's citizens.

The government and the people of Canada are determined to assist to the greatest extent possible in the development of Ukraine's economy. This is for the betterment of Ukrainians' standard of living, the diversification of economic choice for its consumers, and the entrenchment of those freedoms that are derived from a rules-based economic system, absent the constraints of corruption and inadequate governance.

The current economic climate in Ukraine is very troubled. In its most recent report, the World Bank forecast 0% growth for Ukraine in 2013, citing a weak global environment and delays in domestic policy adjustments, which it notes has led to widening and unsustainable macroeconomic imbalances.

The bank cited high fiscal debt levels and the need to adopt a flexible exchange rate policy as much-needed reforms. It also cited the need to address structural adjustments, including the imbalance between what Ukraine pays and charges for its gas and heating.

The IMF has characterized Ukraine as off track. Ukraine faces worsening liquidity conditions, a structurally weak banking sector, and difficult access to long-term funding for business.

The Ukrainian government's privatization program has also generated concern, as many believe it will ultimately serve to benefit Ukraine's oligarchs. This outrage over the level of corruption and graft in Ukraine is part of the reason people are out on the streets.

An association agreement and deep and comprehensive free trade area with the EU could, in spite of the possibility of some short-term economic shocks, put Ukraine on the path to economic stability and prosperity. However, the Yanukovych government rejected that opportunity and fell back on old habits, choosing to rely instead on an outdated economic model backed by unreliable partners.

Canada has always striven for a positive and mutually beneficial trading relationship with Ukraine, with private sector organizations such as the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce playing a key role in expanding the business-to-business commercial relationship.

In 2013, bilateral trade increased by nearly 3%, reaching more than $322 million. Canada's merchandise exports totalled approximately $210 million, about 40% more than in 2012. Canada's imports from Ukraine totalled about $112 million in 2013, about 32% less than in 2012.

In view of political developments in Ukraine, the EDC has recently changed its country position from highly restricted to currently under review.

Despite Ukraine's challenging foreign investment climate, Canadian companies are seeking investments in the country's strategic sectors: agriculture, energy and mining, and niche opportunities in clean technology and renewable energy.

However, these companies need predictability and transparency to make effective business decisions, and that is why Canada is supportive of reforms in Ukraine that aim to reduce corruption and improve competitiveness and investor protection.

We are hopeful that the change in government in Ukraine will spur on much-needed economic reform and will represent a turning point that leads to a strengthened bilateral commercial relationship.

Now is the time for the Canadian public to redouble its determination to help the people of Ukraine reach their aspirations. Our efforts must work to leverage development programming to advance the mutual trade and economic interests of Ukraine and Canada and to help Ukraine build a transparent, rules-based, globally competitive economy.

[Afghan Veterans, February 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Afghan mission has been the most consequential conflict that Canada's military has faced since the Korean War. It has come at a price. One hundred and fifty-eight brave Canadians have made the ultimate sacrifice combatting the spread of terrorism. This evening, the House will vote on a motion put forth by my colleague, the hon. member for Palliser, calling for a national Afghan memorial.

I call on all members to stand with the government and seize this opportunity to proudly honour this commitment to recognize the strength and sacrifice of Canada's Afghan veterans and their families, ensuring that they will never be forgotten.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, in answer to my colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands, I would like to point out that this is a real budget. I understand the budget very well. I am a technical person, not a lawyer. Lawyers put spins on words and so on, but I am a practical person and I know that if we are spending $7.5 million on something, we are spending it for that purpose.

We have a lot of good things in this budget. If the hon. member would provide some advice on how to do better, I would accept it, but if she is saying that it is not a budget and it does not contain anything, I am sorry, but that is not the case.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it's the Toronto area, yes, of course, but the most important thing is that the budget is creating jobs and prosperity for our community, especially for youth. Members did not hear me talking about this because I cannot talk about everything in the entire budget in my speech. A lot of things are provided in this big book, which is economic action plan 2014.

To answer a couple of points that the hon. member raised, we are cutting red tape for small businesses and creating opportunities for small businesses to hire more people. That is very important. We are creating opportunities for training. Again, economic action plan 2014 is creating jobs and prosperity for Canadians. There are many issues outlined in this quite big book that can answer his questions.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member from Toronto for the question. I want to mention that my riding is half Toronto and half Durham region, so it is a specific riding.

[The Budget, February 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise today in this House to speak about economic action plan 2014.

I will be splitting my time with the member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia.

Among the many initiatives and announcements in our budget, I would like to focus specifically on the aspects affecting my riding of Pickering—Scarborough East and the people who live there.

Rouge Park contains unique and highly significant natural and cultural heritage resources. It also offers an extraordinary opportunity to expose a huge number of Canadians to their heritage, as 20% of the country's population resides in close proximity to the park.

Accordingly, the Government of Canada became an early advocate of the park in the Rouge Valley, beginning in 1988 when it pledged $10 million towards the creation of a heritage park.

A national urban park in the Rouge Valley is a unique concept in Canada. There are currently no comparable places, so this park requires a new and innovative conservation and management approach to respond to its unique urban context.

Aligned with the Parks Canada mandate, it will include conservation of the park's rich natural and cultural heritage resources, opportunities for outreach, and a range of visitor experience opportunities. The specific attributes of this urban context will also require consideration of mixed land uses, including the promotion of sustainable agriculture.

As indicated in budget 2012 and confirmed in budget 2014, the government will take action on the creation of Canada's first national urban park in the Rouge Valley in Ontario. It announced funding on May 25, 2012, of $143 million over 10 years for park development and interim operations and of $7.6 million per year thereafter for its continuing operations.

I cannot stress enough the benefits to both our community and the surrounding area that are provided by green spaces such as the Rouge River urban park.

That is why I was particularly excited to see our government's commitment in economic action plan 2014 to protect the health and well-being of Canadians by promoting a safe and clean environment. This is a fantastic government priority that all Canadians can get behind.

Since 2006, our government has taken significant action to protect our natural areas, including taking steps to add more than 160,000 square kilometres to the Canadian federal parks and marine conservation system, a more than 58% increase, and securing almost 4,000 square kilometres of ecologically sensitive private lands.

Economic action plan 2014 invests in measures to protect and preserve Canada's rich natural heritage by investing in Canada's national parks, conserving recreational fisheries, encouraging additional donations under Canada's ecological gifts program, expanding recreation trails, supporting family-oriented conservation, and expanding tax support for clean energy generation.

Our plan proposes investments of over $400 million in this area, including allocating $391.5 million over five years on a cash basis to the Parks Canada Agency to make improvements to highways, bridges, and dams located in our national parks and along our historic canals; allocating $15 million over two years to extend the recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program; encouraging additional donations of ecologically sensitive land by doubling for income tax purposes the carry-forward period for donations of such land; providing $10 million over two years to improve and expand snowmobile and recreational trails across the country; and providing $3 million over three years to support the Earth Rangers Foundation to expand its existing family-oriented conservation and biodiversity programming.

I am proud to see that our government is investing in protecting Canada's natural beauty and heritage. Hopefully many more Canadians will be able to experience first-hand the benefits that our natural space can provide.

While we are on the topic of natural beauty, Canada's north holds a very special place in my heart. During my time in the Canadian Armed Forces, I was fortunate enough to have visited the beautiful territory of Nunavut while on a military exercise. In fact, while there, I helped build the playground in Gjoa Haven, the hometown of the Minister of the Environment.

Building on the government's vision for a new north, economic action plan 2014 is taking action to ensure that the north realizes its full potential by exercising our northern sovereignty, promoting economic prosperity, and supporting the health of northerners.

Economic action plan 2014 proposes to provide $40 million over two years, starting in 2014-15, to renew strategic investments in the northern economic development program delivered by the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.

Canada's northern territories have enormous economic development potential. To help unlock this potential, the Government of Canada will work with territorial governments and local municipalities to develop transportation infrastructure in the north.

Economic action plan 2014 proposes to provide $70 million over three years for a new targeted and time-limited fund to increase health services in the three territories in priority health areas and to reduce the reliance on outside health care systems and medical travel.

As the House may know, I have the Pickering nuclear power plan in my riding. For that reason, issues concerning nuclear power and plants in general are important not only to me but to my constituents. I was particularly pleased to see that our government is committed to investing $117 million in AECL to maintain safe and reliable operations at the Chalk River Laboratories, ensuring a secure supply of medical isotopes.

In a past life, before I was elected to Parliament, I served as both a professional engineer and a military engineer. I would like to conclude today's speech by talking about what economic action plan 2014 promises for our science and research sectors, as well as for our veterans and persons with disabilities.

Our government has committed to investing $15 million in the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo to carry out leading-edge research in quantum technologies, such as cryptography and medical diagnostics. This is especially close to my heart, as I am an engineering physics graduate. We are also dedicated to increasing Canada's prestige on the international stage by creating the Canada first research excellence fund through investing $1.5 billion to position post-secondary institutions across Canada to compete internationally.

Other areas that our government would invest in include providing $46 million to the granting councils in support of advanced research and scientific discoveries of Canada's leading universities and colleges, providing $8 million to train more graduates and post-doctoral fellows in becoming the next generation of innovators and researchers, providing $10 million to support research in colleges and polytechnics focusing on education, and integration of vulnerable Canadians, and community development.

I am proud to be part of a government that would support the youngest and brightest minds across the country through these wonderful investments. I am also extremely proud of what we have done and what we intend to do for our veterans, to whom we owe the greatest gratitude for keeping Canada strong and free.

We would honour our veterans by providing over $100 million to expand the funeral and burial program to ensure that veterans of modest means have access to a dignified funeral and burial. We would increase access to veterans services by providing $2 million to enable veterans and their families access to engage the Department of Veterans Affairs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Finally, my constituents are particularly pleased with the attention our government dedicates to persons with disabilities. Budget 2014 specifically outlines plans to provide $222 million to create new labour market agreements for persons with disabilities to better help Canadians with disabilities get the skills they need to fill available jobs. It would also provide $15 million to the ready, willing, and able initiative and $11.4 million to CommunityWorks to help persons with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders to participate in the workforce.

This is why I very strongly support economic action plan 2014. I invite the opposition to do the same.

[The Budget, February 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, last year, our government doubled the financial benefit available to a veteran's family from $3,600 to $7,300, plus an average of $1,200 for burial costs. That is a total of $8,500 available to a veteran's family, making the Canadian Last Post Fund one of the most generous compared with our allies.

Would the Minister of Veterans Affairs please update the House on the important changes announced yesterday in economic action plan 2014?

[Corrections and Conditional Release Act, February 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to continue to speak in the House today in support of Bill C-483, the private member's bill that proposes to amend the current scheme for escorted temporary absences. Bill C-483 proposes to grant the Parole Board almost exclusive decision-making authority for escorted temporary absences.

Ultimately, the goal of Bill C-483 is to give the Parole Board greater authority over escorted temporary absences for murderers. Our Conservative government is pleased to support the efforts of the hon. member for Oxford.

Investing in crime prevention efforts, holding prisoners accountable, supporting and protecting victims of crime, and providing opportunities and programing that help prisoners move away from criminal behaviour and become productive, law-abiding citizens are the elements that help form a strong foundation on which we can build safer communities.

The message in the most recent Speech from the Throne was clear: Canadians expect safe and healthy communities in which their children can play safely and in which our most vulnerable citizens can feel safe when they walk down the street.

Canadians deserve no less than our full attention to these issues. That is why we continue to push ahead with a number of initiatives and measures that support victims.

We have recently announced the coming into force of the Increasing Offenders' Accountability for Victims Act, which holds prisoners more accountable to victims by doubling the victim surcharge that prisoners must pay.

We intend to introduce legislation to create a victims' bill of rights, which will enshrine victims' rights in law and give them a greater role in the criminal justice system. Bill C-483 will add to our efforts to address victims' concerns.

[Career Colleges, February 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the office of the Liberal leader attacked millions of middle-class Canadians, unfairly criticizing career colleges and those who attend them.

While the Liberal leader's office writes off career colleges, the facts are that it is because of the hundreds of extremely valuable career colleges that Canada remains one of the most educated nations in the world.

The average Canadian attending a career college is looking to make a better life. Many of the students have families. They are looking to get trained for the in-demand jobs of this economy.

Our Conservative government understands this. That is why we are working on initiatives such as the Canada jobs grant to ensure skills training actually leads to a guaranteed job and employers are putting more money into equipping Canadians for available jobs.

The out-of-touch elitists in the Liberal Party leader's office should be ashamed of themselves.

[Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fundraiser, February 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Harmony Martial Arts and Fitness Centre in my riding organized a relief fundraiser on November 24 last year in support of the victims of super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

The owners, Helen and Raymond Ata, along with Margarita and George Gonzales and other members of the club, worked diligently to plan this event. They encouraged families, friends, and members of the Philippine community to come and join them to help the victims of this natural disaster. They asked everyone to open their hearts and give generously. Throughout the day, people had time for socializing and enjoying the music, food, each other's company, and a live auction. All of the auction items were donated by generous members, friends, and their families.

The event was a great success. A total of $9,000 was raised, which was matched by the government dollar for dollar, for a total amount of $18,000, which will be donated through Ancop International Canada.

I take this opportunity to congratulate my constituents for their generous gesture and giving hearts.