Dan McTeague

[Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, June 10th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Oshawa, the parliamentary secretary, is an individual whom I have learned to work very diligently with in the past. I know his deep commitment to this legislation. If he brings to the health committee his same ability to make the industry committee work as he did last year, I have no doubt there will be further results for that good member.

It is in that spirit that I want to ask the hon. member something he probably will not find all too different from my line of questioning on committee last week.

It seems to be that the intentions of the bill are certainly there, and many people support this. However, I question whether there is a need for a new bill at all. Could we have simply amended the Hazardous Products Act, which has helped Canadians for the past 40 years? It has certainly been responsible for the kind of changes that were necessary from time to time, particularly as we saw products from around the world that were dangerous in nature and that brought forth concerns about things like product safety, toys, food and so on.

What is in the bill that could not have been done by simply amending the Hazardous Products Act and cause, in effect, a year and half delay, while the government was doing a bit of its own window dressing to make it and package it under something that it could have been originally?

[Petitions, June 10th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot tell you how much I thank the fact that I am the member for Pickering—Scarborough East and I beat out the member for Scarborough—Guildwood.

I have the honour to present a petition in the House that is written and signed by well over 140 residents of the Toronto-Mississauga-Markham regions of Toronto, of our region in the GTA.

As residents they want to underscore the serious lack of competition and transparency in the energy industry, which has hampered the free market to the detriment of all Canadians. They believe that high fuel prices inflate the price of everything that is purchased, and during a period of economic uncertainty, the devastating impact this is having on the bottom line in our economy as a whole.

They wish to draw to the attention of the government and the House of Commons that many countries around the world have an energy market monitoring agency, and that an energy superpower like Canada needs such an agency.

They, therefore, call upon Parliament to finally acknowledge the high price of fuel and its impact on the economy, reinstate the office of petroleum price information, which was abolished by the government in 2006, as an energy market information service which, like the U.S. energy information agency would produce weekly reports, including all Canadian energy supply-demand inventory and storage information.

They would also finally ask that we begin hearings in the House into the energy sector to determine how the government can foster better competition and provide transparency to the energy market and to eliminate the monopolistic efficiency as a defence clause of the Competition Act, supported by my good colleague from Scarborough—Guildwood.

[Questions on the Order paper, June 4th, 2009]

With regard to projects funded in whole or in part by Treasury Board Vote 35 in the Main Estimates 2009-2010: (a) what appropriations have been created or supplemented with funds from Vote 35; (b) what is the name of each project which has received funding from Vote 35; (c) what is the amount of total federal funding, including funds other than money from Vote 35, for each project; (d) how much of the federal funding was provided directly by Vote 35 for each project; (e) which federal department and program is the funding being provided to; and (f) what was the rationale for using Vote 35 to fund this project as opposed to other funds available to the government under other authorities?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, June 3rd, 2009]

With regard to two government contracts or retainers awarded to Mike McCurry and Ari Fleischer: (a) what criteria did the government use in awarding these contracts or retainers; (b) what are the terms of each contract or retainer; (c) what is the value of each contract or retainer; (d) where will Mr. McCurry and Mr. Fleischer be travelling to; (e) what are the travel expenses and per diem rates for Mr. McCurry and Mr. Fleischer; and (f) was any document or record provided to a minister or MP regarding these two contracts and, if so, what are the details?

[Questions on the Order Paper, June 3rd, 2009]

With regard to departmental programming: (a) what was the total funding allocated to each program in each department in the 2008-2009 fiscal year; (b) what was the total funding spent in each program in each department during the 2008-2009 fiscal year; and (c) where were the funds spent under each program in each department, allocated by (i) town or city, (ii) project name, if applicable, (iii) dollar value?

[Children's Wish Foundation of Canada, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, tragically, thousands of Canadian children between the ages of 3 and 17 are diagnosed every year with a life-threatening illness.

The Children's Wish Foundation, which was founded 25 years ago in 1984, is celebrating an important milestone this year. Incredibly, it will be granting its 15,000th wish this spring.

Each wish is as unique as the child who makes it. The magic of a wish provides children and their families with an opportunity to share the joy of a special experience and escape from the day-to-day challenges of a serious illness.

I want to remind hon. members that as we sit here in this place today, the Children's Wish Foundation is hard at work granting every child their wish.

I am very proud to note that the foundation is headquartered in my riding of Pickering--Scarborough East.

On the Hill today is wish child Justin Ernst. Justin is here with his family and members of the foundation here in Ottawa.

I would like to congratulate the Children's Wish Foundation for reaching out and making this incredible milestone a reality for all Canadians.

[Petitions, May 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by 250 Canadians. These petitioners call upon the Canadian government to recognize once and for all the importance and primacy of human life and that life is from the time of conception until natural death.

These petitioners call upon Parliament to pass legislation for the protection of human life from the time of conception until natural death.

[Petitions, May 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition, in both official languages. The petitioners, numbering well over 200, are from Etobicoke, Scarborough, Richmond Hill, Aurora, Mississauga, Brampton, Pickering, Ajax, Cambridge, Waterloo, Guelph, Windsor, Amherstburg, and Leamington, Ontario; Red Deer, Alberta; and Marysville and Kimberley, B.C.

They draw to the attention of the Canadian government that many countries around the world have energy market monitoring agencies, and that an energy superpower like Canada needs such an agency.

They call upon the Canadian government to recognize the serious impact that high energy prices, including gasoline and fuel prices, are having on the economy. They are citing a lack of competition and transparency in the energy industry. They believe this to be to the detriment of all Canadians.

They wish the Canadian government would acknowledge this and reinstate the office of petroleum price information. They also wish that hearings be conducted. They want to ensure that this serious matter is brought to the attention of Parliament. They also request that the monopolistic efficiency defence abuses provision of the Competition Act be eliminated.

[May 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend and colleague, the member for Macleod.

I just wanted to absolutely ensure that the hon. member--I was going to say minister, but perhaps someday down the road--will make an undertaking to take the time required to make the changes necessary for future regulations to protect consumers to a greater extent than simply providing a greater modicum of communication as it relates to debit cards, the entry by Visa and MasterCard and the concern about interchange fees which are having a devastating impact on retailers as we speak. We hope that these issues in fact will be considered by the member and his party.

I know the great synergies in the House on this issue. I know there can be the opportunity for consensus. I am a consensus builder in terms of my record and my reputation, but I can say that this is one of the most fundamental economic issues that we need to deal with.

I encourage the hon. member to make a commitment here and now as to when we are going to see these regulations further enforced.

[May 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, in March, I asked the Minister of Finance a question. I said at the time that the interest and fees that the major credit companies charged consumers, big businesses and small and medium-sized businesses had a devastating impact on consumers.

I posed a question to the Minister of Finance some time ago with respect to concerns that Canadians were increasingly bringing to bear on Parliament and parliamentarians, and certainly on our party, about rising credit card fees and rates, not just for consumers but also for merchants and for small businesses.

As the hon. minister knew at the time, he had undertaken to suggest that if we passed Bill C-10 there would be action. I took the minister at his word. It was 70 days before we received any type of response from the government. The response that we had was a first step. I am not sure if we could consider it a half-hearted step, but what is extremely important to all of us as members of Parliament is to ensure that we have a timely resolution to what is a growing concern for Canadians.

That growing concern can best be expressed by a simple fact that the interchange fee, that is the fee that is charged to the merchant for receiving a credit transaction, has been increasing sometimes to the tune of more than double.

The House will know that my work with small business, with small enterprise, particularly retail gasoline marketers, was really the beginning of the concern that was raised with me last year.

Both Visa and MasterCard constitute nearly 95% of all the transactions in this country, so the semblance of competition is certainly not there.

While there is evidence that parliamentarians are getting this, we have a joint committee of industry and the committee of finance together working on the issue of interchange fees and the complexities that it creates. The fact is that in the other place Liberals have been working very hard. The committee work is almost finished there.

This member of Parliament and my party have been very interested in ensuring that the government acts purposely and deliberately.

I know my good colleague and friend, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, will have obviously some comments in terms of defending, but I think we both have to recognize that more can and should be done.

We hope that it will note take more than nine or ten months to finally get the second tranche of action, particularly as it relates to areas where consumers are most affected, things such as dual cycle billing and opportunities for consumers so they can opt out when they find that their interest rates have been increased often without notice.

While it is important to increase the font size of the regulation that would provide larger and better information to consumers and the idea that, for instance, there is more competition, it is very difficult to compare apples with oranges.

I ask the hon. parliamentary secretary, when can he deliver to the House concrete action? Can we expect the next steps to take place as soon as possible and does the minister and his parliamentary secretary consider the issue of credit cards, its bearing on consumers and on merchants, unfinished business?