Dave MacKenzie

[Canada's Young Entrepreneur Award Winner, June 18th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to congratulate Shep Ysselstein, owner of Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese, who won the grand prize of $100,000 through the 2014 Business Development Bank of Canada's Young Entrepreneur Award.

Shep opened Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese in August 2011 and never dreamed his business would take off so quickly. In 2013, one of his cheeses was named best firm cheese at the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix, and this recognition ignited interest all across Canada. Since then Shep has not been able to keep up with the demand from consumers and grocery chains.

Winning the $100,000 will allow him to boost production by adding a new 2,000-square-foot, climate-controlled curing and aging space in the existing facility, doubling his workforce, and creating a new line of premium aged cheese.

Once again congratulations, Shep, on winning this award and making Oxford proud.

[Public Safety, June 11th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday Canadians laid three heroes to rest. Thousands of police officers, members of the Canadian Armed Forces, and everyday Canadians joined together in Moncton to remember the lives lost last week at the hands of an evil individual bent on revenge. Our hearts were touched by the eulogies of families and friends who knew the three RCMP officers.

Can the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, who attended the regimental funeral, please update the House on this matter?

[Points of Order, May 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the matter has been discussed, but our party does not discuss what goes on in the House leaders' meetings. Obviously the issue has been brought to the House.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, I believe the bill had four hours of debate this week. The NDP continued to put up speaker after speaker to delay it. What the member is doing now is again delaying the process.

I would suggest that we move forward and, if the members like, we could perhaps pass it right now.

[Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act, May 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask that you seek consent of the House to see the clock at 1:30 p.m.

[Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act, May 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, coming from Oxford, which is one of the five counties where tobacco is grown in southwestern Ontario, we know we have a problem.

The legitimate industry is looking for serious help from all levels of government to try to work with this issue. Being a former parliamentary secretary to the minister of public safety and dealing with the aboriginal community, I know many of them are concerned about the guns, drugs, and gangs that are involved in this.

As the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice knows, they use the young people in the aboriginal communities as a shield.

This legislation will be welcome. I am wondering if the parliamentary secretary could elaborate a little on where the penalties will go. We see illicit growing of tobacco. Recently there have been large seizures of leaf. Certainly that is the beginning of the process.

I am wondering whether the parliamentary secretary has some information for us.

[Public Safety, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, last night the House passed my Bill C-483. The bill would ensure that the Parole Board of Canada would make decisions related to the release of prisoners on escorted temporary absences. It would stop the process of allowing unaccountable bureaucrats the authority to make decisions about who could leave prison.

The bill came about as the result of an absurd decision to let a convicted cop killer out of prison after he had already been denied parole. The widow of the police officer, Kim Hancox, was fully supportive of my legislation.

Could the Minister of Public Safety please update the House on the bill?

[Corrections and Conditional Release Act, May 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the support from across the House.

The member for Malpeque has brought forward an argument he has used several times with respect to the amendments to the bill. He brought a motion before the House that has already been dealt with by the Speaker. The amendments are appropriate and do not change the intent of the legislation. However, I want to move past that part.

For anyone serving a minimum life sentence, it is as a result of a very serious crime. In most cases, it is likely the result of the death of an individual.

A particular case I am fully aware of is the death of Detective Constable William Hancox of the metro Toronto police. He was brutally murdered by two individuals. His widow, Kim Hancox, has been very supportive of changes in the legislation so that the victim's families have the opportunity to know what is happening with respect to releases. She is very upset that in many cases, the Parole Board of Canada turned down release applications only to have them granted later by the prison authorities.

There is no complaint about the prison authorities. The problem has been the legislation. This bill attempts to change that legislation to put the real authority back in the hands of the Parole Board of Canada, which it would do. To that end, we are very happy.

I will be so pleased to see this bill clear the House on Wednesday of this week, when I believe there will be a vote. We can move forward then.

[Corrections and Conditional Release Act, May 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the parliamentary secretary for the support of this bill.

In response to her question, the issue was not one of the prison wardens. That was not the issue, ever. It was the legislation that was in place that created this particular issue.

I am very satisfied with the response we have received from a number of family members of victims that this was exactly what they were looking for, something that gives them an opportunity to have a voice in the system on releases.

We have taken a government approach and a private members' approach that victims are the people who are important, not the prisoners. We understand that the prisoners have their rights and they are enshrined in many places, but in the past the victims have been the misplaced people. We are just trying to put them back into the equation.

[Corrections and Conditional Release Act, May 26th, 2014]

Actually, Mr. Speaker, I am very satisfied that the bill meets the requirements that were originally set out in the bill. It is about victims and their rights. Victims retain those rights in this bill in the same manner, but the bill has been amended so that prisoners will not receive any escorted temporary absences unless the national Parole Board has granted them.

In the past, the national Parole Board would turn down an application and then the individual could go to the warden and receive an escorted temporary absence pass. That is the whole problem with what was in the previous legislation. When the member for Malpeque was the solicitor general, I wish he had fixed that problem in his time, and then we would not be dealing with it here today.

[Corrections and Conditional Release Act, May 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the issue of which he speaks was brought up by the union that represents members of Correctional Service Canada. Most of the incidents date back a few years, when there were very serious incidents. The whole issue about the manning and so on rests with Correctional Service Canada. I believe that if the member wishes to pursue that, he should pursue it through Correctional Service Canada on its staffing issues with respect to absences and other issues that deal with prisoners leaving institutions.