Dan Harris

[International Trade, September 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the priority of seniors is not to get gouged by the government signing a deal that would send them out to lunch.

Life-saving prescription drugs are a necessity, not a luxury. We need to find ways to support the research and development of new drugs but not at the expense of Canadian seniors. Seniors deserve an answer from the government, not more glib remarks.

Will the Minister of International Trade promise the House not to sign a deal that will dramatically raise the price of prescription drugs for Canadian seniors?

[International Trade, September 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, look at them laugh about Canadians' concerns.

Canadians want to know if the agreement will increase the cost of prescription drugs by keeping generic drugs out of the market.

We have already asked the minister, but I will ask again: will the Minister of International Trade promise the House that he will not sign a trade agreement that will increase the cost of prescription drugs for seniors?

[International Trade, September 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP is very keen on a new European trade agreement, but Canadians are worried. They want to know if the agreement will—

[Petitions, September 19th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I also have a petition today calling upon the government to enact a national public transit strategy, which would be of particular benefit to my riding.

[Gasoline Prices, September 19th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives care more about making up a tax on the opposition than acting on the priorities of Canadians: our shaky economy, massive job losses and rising costs.

Let us talk about those rising gas prices. Under the Conservatives, the price of gas at the pump has skyrocketed a whopping 36%. Record prices of $1.53 per litre have been spotted, a fact ignored by the Conservatives.

After the last election, the President of the Treasury Board said, “Nobody can explain to me how they come about their prices”. He promised to get to the bottom of it, and it is another broken promise.

Many Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque and skyrocketing gas prices hit them hard. Canadians deserve better.

Perhaps the next Conservative speaker will throw away his anti-NDP rant and instead tell Canadians exactly what the government is planning to do about rising gas prices.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, June 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I apologize, but I believe the record needs to be clear. I am not sure what 495-page document the member is speaking of, but the budget implementation bill has 425 pages.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, June 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this was raised in the industry committee and was blocked by the Conservatives, like just about everything else.

RADARSAT is one of the crown jewels of Canada's innovation and science and technology companies. RADARSAT has a multi-mission that is very diverse. It will monitor icebergs on the east coast and oil pipelines. I would like to hear the government's answer about oil pipelines right now. It will monitor potential spills on the west coast, as well as Arctic sovereignty. The funding for this program is running out. I would absolutely love to hear what the delay is, what the timelines are and when the government is going to stop passing the buck and fund RADARSAT.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, June 12th, 2012]

I would absolutely love to, Mr. Speaker. The analogy of going back to a 19th century economy is apt.

In 1999, among all of Canada's exports, 60% were finished products. In just the last decade, we have gone from exporting 60% finished products to only exporting 33% finished products. The other 66% is now unfinished or partially processed products. We are hindering the value-added sectors of our economy with this unbalanced approach that the Conservative government is taking. It is absolutely the wrong way to go.

With respect to innovation, we are looking at the Jenkins report and nothing as of yet is being implemented. There now are massive changes to the Investment Canada Act, where three times the previous limit is now going to be subject to review. All of the incubator companies and industries, the real innovators and productive companies, are now going to get gobbled up by large foreign companies. We are going to lose the benefits from them.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, June 12th, 2012]

What I understand, Mr. Speaker, is that if the government had done the responsible thing and put the legislation where it belongs, where it can be studied in all of the appropriate committees, where changes to the Investment Canada Act would go to the industry committee and not the minister, where the environmental changes would go to the environment committee and not the finance committee, where changes to health care would go to the health committee where they belong, if the government had done the responsible thing, we would not be delaying the budget. This is an abomination and it deserves to be opposed.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, June 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, when reading quotes it is quite difficult to make that change on the fly. I apologize. I will continue the quote from Ms. Cleveland, “The Prime Minister and his majority status that allowed him to put on this ridiculous budget is from a false majority.”

From Ms. Hamilton in Scarborough, “The budget also ignores the needs of youth, especially for increased jobs, training opportunities and lower tuition fees. It disregarded the environment by imposing time limits on environmental studies and resource projects and providing zero leadership on environmental issues. It is dropping responsibility for providing leadership in health care, failing to address the fast-growing gap between rich and poor, and cutting funding to the arts by strategically attacking groups that take a critical perspective on the status quo; organizations like the CBC, NFB and Telefilm.”

From Mr. Murphy in Scarborough, “As a hard-working Canadian, I was dismayed when I found out that the current Tory regime was going to increase the age of retirement to 67. I work beside a man, and while I do not begrudge him anything because he is hard working, I do have a problem him being able to retire at 65 while I have to wait the extra two years. It's incredulous that because he was born six months before me that I have to remain in the workforce an extra two years. I'll have paid more taxes, more CPP, more EI premiums, but he will get more than I will. I think, however, what galls me even more is that the Prime Minister could retire tomorrow with a substantial pension. That's not right and something has to be done. It is no wonder why people are ambivalent about the democratic process.”

From a Ms. D. McLaren, “OAS cuts are a big mistake. It won't be long before there will be means testing and only the very poorest will get anything at all. One more nail in the coffin of universality. Although, I know that OAS does get clawed back at a high level of income, but that's different. We need a national housing program now. Our cities are now unaffordable for people coming up, i.e., younger people, immigrants and such.”

I would also like to point out that recently, new statistics were released that show that nearly one-quarter of all people who live in Toronto are living in poverty. It is shameful, but the Conservative government and its neglect would make the situation worse.