Denis Lebel

[Questions on the Order Paper, September 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, in response to (a) and (c), the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec does not gather data by electoral district for most of its programs. The agency’s financial systems do, however, generate data by city, by municipality or by regional county municipalities, RCMs.

A total of $10,371,273 has been allocated to disclosed projects in the cities or municipalities of every RCM included, in total or in part, within the limits of the electoral district of Pontiac for the period of April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2012. Note that the amounts are generally allocated to projects that go on for more than a year.

A total of 337 businesses benefited from this funding. This total includes businesses that benefited indirectly from this funding through the services provided by the project’s recipients.

In response to (b) and (d), information on the projects financed by the agency can be found on its website at http://www.dec-ced.gc.ca/eng/disclosure/grant-contribution-awards/quarters.html.

[Infrastructure, June 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to tour Quebec on regular basis to announce economic development projects supported by this government throughout the province.

Of course, the NDP does not understand what jurisdiction means because they never act within it. The City of Sherbrooke is the owner and developer in this case. The NDP once again wants us to take the place of people in the community and make decisions for them.

Instead, we will support the people of the community. The Prime Minister has said that this is an important file for us and that we are going to monitor it, but since we are not the developers, we are going to wait until we are called upon.

[Financial Institutions, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, people are not at all at the mercy of large banks. Rather, Canada has the soundest banking system in the world. Our country is doing better than any of the industrialized countries because our financial system is very sound. Of course we will respect the provinces. We respect the ruling given by the Supreme Court in this regard. In our opinion, what is important here is the entire country's economy. We would not have been able to create 750,000 jobs since July 2009 if we were not making good decisions. Of course we are going to continue to work well and co-operate with the Government of Quebec.

[Financial Institutions, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to remind the hon. member that, in the past year, our government settled a matter with the Government of Quebec that has been dragging on for over 15 years: the harmonization of the GST and QST. That is a great success.

We announced a new bridge over the St. Lawrence only 140 days after taking office, something that all the other parties had disregarded for years. We are going to continue to work. Not a week goes by that I do not speak with two or three ministers from the Quebec government to advance their causes. We can talk about an isolated case, but our government is a good partner to the Quebec government and we are going to continue to be.

[Air Canada, June 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as we have been saying from the start, this matter involves a private company. Air Canada has 2,500 maintenance workers—but they will never say so. Air Canada has its own maintenance team. Of course, it has some heavier maintenance contracts with other companies. We will continue to ensure compliance with the law and ensure that our workers continue to have jobs. We are talking about a private company. I hope Aveos will find a buyer today and that its former employees can go back to work.

[Air Transportation, June 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, that is unbelievable.

The town met with the developers seven times. The developer received a plan with seven possible sites from the town. It was the town that provided the plan. The town signed a memorandum of understanding with the developers. If that is not being consulted, I wonder what is. There were seven meetings, and the developer decided to use a parcel of land proposed by the town. That is no longer consultation, that is an agreement. Just because the mayor wants to rip up a memorandum of understanding, that does not mean that it is not valid.

We will continue to do what must be done. In future, we will analyze the scenario and all possible options, but this matter is closed.

[The Budget, June 5th, 2012]

It is interesting to hear laughter from the people whose party voted against that.

Our government has done more for the municipalities than any other government in Canadian history. And we have good news: we will continue to do the same, since we are building a new infrastructure plan.

[The Budget, June 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, of course we are always happy to listen to the municipalities. I had the pleasure of meeting with the board of directors last week and giving a speech to the 1,600 representatives. A number of mayors came to see me afterwards to tell me how much they appreciate the support our government has provided in the past to the municipalities in replacing aging infrastructure.

[The Budget, June 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I was at the convention of FCM last weekend in Saskatoon.

What I heard is that they are so proud of what we have done together. They have supported what we delivered about infrastructure. We are the government that invested the most in Canadian history to help them to replace infrastructure and support them. That is what I heard.

[Questions on the Order Paper, June 4th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker,Transport Canada did not perform any cruise ship emissions monitoring in the vicinity of Victoria and Ogden Port from 2006 to 2011.