Costas Menegakis

[Member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, November 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, recently NDP president Rebecca Blaikie admitted that the decision to create a New Democratic Party in Quebec is complicated by the fact that some Quebec New Democrats are supporters of left-wing sovereigntist parties at the provincial level.

We know the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie donated to Québec solidaire, the most left wing separatist party in Quebec. In fact, we know he donated 29 times to Québec solidaire, while donating only 14 times to his own party. We also know that he even made donations to Québec solidaire after he was elected as a member of this Parliament.

The member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie can put this controversy to bed today by embracing Canada in question period. Will he do so?

[National Philanthropy Day Act, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. member's presentation quite attentively. For a nation of 34 million people, we are a nation of givers. Our nation was built on the backs of volunteers. It might be interesting to note that there are over 13 million volunteers in this country.

I am standing in support of the member's bill. I applaud him for taking the time to put this together and bring it to the House. It highlights the importance of saying a big thank you to the many volunteers who make Canada, and its communities, the country it is.

[Jobs and Growth, 2012, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if I could ask the member to comment on a couple of statistical facts.

Canada has the lowest debt to GDP ratio in the G7 countries. I believe it is 34%, projected to go as low as 32%. In addition, the International Monetary Fund has predicted that Canada will be a leader in the global economy over the next two years. There have been 820,000 and some odd jobs created since the global recession ended in 2009.

Could the hon. member tell us what people in his riding have said about the jobs that have been created and about the fact that Canada has come out relatively well from the global economic recession in relation to other countries around the world?

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, October 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, in her speech the hon. member referred to the electronic travel authorization, a mechanism that is actually designed to facilitate travel to Canada for low risk travellers. It would help us identify those who are of higher risk before they come to Canada. We are living in a day and age when security is of primary concern.

My question to the hon. member is simply this: Does it not make sense to work with our partners around the world to ensure that programs like the ETA are in place so that we can better protect our communities, our children and families and the places they shop or go to school from high risk situations? We need to ensure as a government that people who come to this country are of no risk to Canadian citizens.

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, October 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, could the hon. member comment on a couple of very important statistics?

The first is that Canada has the lowest debt to GDP ratio in G7 countries. It is predicted by the IMF to be a leader in the world economy over the next two years. Second, perhaps the hon. member could tell us the importance to her riding of the 820,000-some-odd jobs that have been created since Canada came out of the global economy recession in relatively good shape?

[Citizenship and Immigration, October 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I have heard many heartbreaking stories from Canadians across the country who have been the victims of marriage fraud. They have told me that they clearly want us to put a stop to those who lie and cheat just to jump the immigration queue. This is not only emotional. The financial consequences faced by the victims can be very devastating.

Can the hard-working Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration please update the House on the actions our government is taking to put a stop to these scams?

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, October 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the hon. member that the budget was first introduced on March 29 of this year, roughly six months ago. We are already halfway through the year. There was plenty of time to read the budget. I have heard repeatedly from the member and others in the opposition, particularly the NDP party, about the length of the bill. There are many high school and university students across this country who have textbooks that are longer than this bill. Members in the House have had more than six months to study the bill.

My question is this. There is time allotted for each member to speak about the budget, and the opposition is continually referring to the fact that there is not enough time for debate. Let me remind the member that the leader of his party, just two day ago, spent 45 minutes in the House talking about the budget. In addition, and I will close with this, the hon. member for Burnaby—New Westminster spoke for 13 hours on this budget. Who are they kidding? Canadians from across the country have had enough of this nonsense. We need to get the work done.

[Job and Growth Act, 2012, October 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I listened quite attentively to the hon. member opposite make some rather derogatory remarks. For someone who said that he, his party and his leader did not want to politicize the process, he did nothing but that during his speech.

The hon. member spoke about jobs. Since the global economic crisis, Canada was one of the first countries to come out of that relatively well with over 820,000 net new jobs being created in this country.

What would the hon. member have to say to those 820,000 people who have availed themselves of these jobs and are now getting dollars for their families and their homes?

[International Programming Contest, October 16th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, during national science and technology week, I would like to highlight an outstanding achievement by a resident in my riding of Richmond Hill.

Twenty-year-old Tyson Andre is a gifted computer engineering student attending the University of Waterloo. Tyson, along with teammates, Benoit Maurin and Anton Raichuk, won a bronze medal at the 2012 Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest world finals in Warsaw, Poland.

This prestigious contest involves the cream of the crop of the world's top computer science and engineering students. An incredible 30,000 participants from 2,200 universities and 85 countries took part this year. To reach the finals, the Waterloo team had placed first in North America at the University of Chicago Invitational Programming Contest, defeating the likes of Harvard, Stanford and Princeton.

These are tremendous accomplishments and honours for Canada, and I invite all members to join me in congratulating Tyson, Benoit and Anton on a job very well done.

[World Sight Day, October 2nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, World Sight Day is October 11. This year's theme is “The state of our vision, at home and abroad”.

Ninety per cent of the 161 million people worldwide who have visual impairments live in developing countries and almost 65% are over 50 years of age.

Economically, the toll is staggering. In Canada, costs associated with vision loss are estimated at nearly $16 billion per year. Yet, it does not have to be this way. Three-quarters of these cases can be avoided through treatment and prevention.

In 2003, Canada voted in support of the right to sight resolution at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The resolution engages all governments to join the right against avoidable blindness by implementing VISION 2020 national plans.

I invite all parliamentarians to learn how we can help prevent blindness here and abroad by joining me and the chair of VISION 2020 Canada today from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Centre Block, Room 256 South.