Dan Harris

[Health, June 1st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, if the minister would actually read the report, maybe he would have something to add to the discussion.

Let us be good sports and give him a mulligan. Does the minister think that three hours a week is enough?

[Health, June 1st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the minister knows his talking points quite well, and so does everyone else at this point.

The minister is unable to stand and answer the most basic questions about the report. Why is that? It is because the report contradicts his PMO-sponsored talking points. The minister could not even say if he thinks it is acceptable that half of Canadian children get less than three hours of physical activity a week—

[Health, June 1st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the minister seems to forget that the tax credit does absolutely nothing to help poor kids get active.

The minister keeps fouling out on this issue. Children's health is vital to a healthy future and a healthy Canada. The organization Active Healthy Kids Canada gave our kids an F and, just to be clear, that does not stand for fantastic.

In the active play category, something is wrong. The Minister of State for Sport keeps fumbling his portfolio when he cannot even be bothered to read the report. It is not exactly heavy lifting.

Could the minister quote one recommendation from the report?

[Aerospace Industry, June 1st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, 17 pages of the Conservatives' Trojan Horse budget bill were devoted to speaking about innovation. However, when it came to funding made-in-Canada satellite technology, the budget was silent. I will not be.

The RADARSAT Constellation mission is the leading edge of Canada's innovation in space. Once launched, it will be able to detect oil spills both at sea and from pipelines and it will monitor the Northwest Passage as well as ice floes and icebergs in the Atlantic. It can track forest fires and flooding to protect Canadians from natural and even man-made threats.

The government's refusal to extend funding is precipitating a brain drain of highly skilled engineers and scientists who are packing their bags and leaving Canada to go and work for the competition.

In Brampton, 100 jobs have already been lost, and 150 more are at risk in Richmond, Montreal and Brampton. These are the people who built the Canadarms.

The project is due to run out of funds by the end of August, and it is time for Conservatives to stop playing games and fund RADARSAT.

[Employment, May 16th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I just love it when the government gets up and touts the soundness of our financial and banking systems, because that was done in spite of that party when it was in opposition.

The first time I ran for office was in 2000. We were engaged in a massive fight during that time about deregulation of the banking industry, and the Conservatives were saying we had to go the same route as the Americans because otherwise our banks would fail. However, common sense and cooler heads prevailed. We were lucky that did not happen, because then we would have ended up being in the same mess.

When the recession first hit in 2008, we had non-believers. There were recession deniers on the government side. It took the government almost falling before it even acknowledged that there was a problem, and then the government was behind the ball.

There are some things that have happened, but the member spoke about youth unemployment, and the government has closed the youth employment centres. The member spoke about investment in her community; my community has not seen the same kind of investments. From the attitude that we have seen from the front bench--

[Employment, May 16th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, on February 17, I rose in the House and asked when the government would finally help Toronto families deal with rising inflation and higher gas prices and help them to make ends meet. I asked specifically about when the government would come up with a real jobs plan, a plan that would provide jobs to help support families instead of low-wage, part-time, precarious jobs that many families now depend on.

The government has not created jobs in Toronto. The people of my riding of Scarborough Southwest know and live that reality every single day of the week. There are fewer and fewer good jobs in Toronto and therefore more and more families struggling to make ends meet. When I asked my question to the government, I received a glib, meaningless, puerile response from the Minister of State (Finance).

The unemployment rate now stands at 1.4 million Canadians, and three-quarters of the new jobs created since May 2008, unlike what the government would say, have been part-time. With the cuts coming as a result of the recent federal budget, 102,000 more people may be added to the ranks of the unemployed. This is simply shameful.

However, what is even more shameful is the Minister of Finance's ignorant and haughty attitude toward those who are looking for employment, stating there is no bad job. The only bad job is not having a job, according to the minister. Maybe that is why the government is so reluctant to create a job plan that works, because to the Conservatives there are simply no bad jobs.

Part-time work. Good job. Job with no security. Good job. Little to no benefits? That is a good job, too. Unfair wages and terrible conditions? That must be a great job. The government has gone from bad to worse, from being out of touch with the needs of Canadians to outright insulting them.

As New Democrats, we have a practical affordable plan to create good full-time jobs, offering targeted tax credits for new hires, implementing investments to help businesses that create jobs, investing in job creation infrastructure and ensuring that foreign investment keeps good jobs in Canada.

The government has failed once again by making the wrong choices in this Trojan Horse budget bill. I will touch on some of the terrible things we are missing from the budget, one of which includes financing for the RADARSAT Constellation program, which is an excellent program that would help Canada maintain its leading industries in satellites.

The RADARSAT Constellation program would put three satellites in space that would help to monitor the Arctic for sovereignty and safety. It would help to monitor our shorelines, and it would help to monitor icebergs coming down from the caps. There are all kinds of wonderful applications for the RADARSAT Constellation program put on by MDA.

In fact, on top of some of these things the RADARSAT-2 satellite, which is in space right now, has also been contracted out to other countries when they have encountered natural disasters. The U.S. government contracted it to provide monitoring for Hurricane Katrina. MDA was also hired to take pictures to monitor the BP oil spill in the gulf.

The applications for this kind of Canadian technology are absolutely endless. However, the government is dithering and refusing to sign a contract. MDA can actually build the satellites. This is costing us good solid jobs in engineering and construction.

It is absolutely an affront to what is supposed to be an innovation budget. We on this side of the House want to see our leading industries supported by the government, industries like MDA, Bombardier and countless ones that I cannot get into tonight.

This is the third time I have risen in adjournment proceedings to ask questions in this regard, and last week the responses from the parliamentary secretary left more than—

[Telecommunications, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Trojan Horse budget bill conceals changes that would expose Canadians to new threats.

Conservatives are proposing changes that would allow full foreign ownership of Canadian telecom companies, even though, in contradiction to what the minister just said, public safety officials warn this would:

....pose a considerable risk to public safety and national security and would hinder the security and intelligence community's ability to fulfill their mandate...

Is the minister so eager to sell off our telecom sector that he is willing to ignore the safety and security of Canadians?

[Science and Technology, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, we all know that the Conservatives do not like facts, especially when they come from scientists. The fact is, their cuts are undermining major research projects and driving talented innovation out of Canada. The letter from 47 leading scientists warns the Conservatives are cutting “programs so foundational to research in Canada that one would think that eliminating them was inconceivable”. Apparently not so.

Why are they cutting innovation and gutting our ability to compete in a modern, knowledge-based economy?

[Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, May 11th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I would like to hear the member's take on the fact that so many changes are being put into this bill that really have no business being in a budget bill.

The Prime Minister, when he was in opposition, said that MPs would have to go against their principles to vote for such a bill. Would the member tell me where his principles went?

[Events in Scarborough Southwest, May 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, one year later, the honour and privilege of representing the people of Scarborough Southwest, this vibrant and diverse community that my family has called home for over 80 years, is even greater than it was.

Last weekend I attended the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 13's 90th anniversary in the community and thanked them again for their continued service to our veterans. It was a treat also to go to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee tea, put on by the local osteoporosis society.

Over the coming months I look forward to the many wonderful local events. I look forward to the 100th anniversary of Courcelette Public School later this month. That is 100 years of teaching our kids. This summer, many weddings will take place at Rosetta McClain Gardens and many family events in Bluffers Park. There is Art in the Park, Birchmount baseball, many festivals and fairs by local schools and BIAs, and farmers' markets too.

I am very proud to be the MP for Scarborough Southwest and humbled by the continued trust of my constituents.