Dick Harris

[Israel, November 20th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I will begin by quoting the former ambassador of Israel to Canada, Alan Baker: “We're seeing the leaders of opposition parties marching in Montreal under Hezbollah flags—Hezbollah, which is an organization, a terrorist organization, that's been outlawed by Canadian law”. Baker was referring, of course, to the Liberal member for Bourassa.

The Conservative record, by contrast, is one of consistent support for Israel in her fight against her enemies and, therefore, ours. We cut off funding for the anti-Semitic Canadian Arab Federation, even though the Liberals criticized us. We also led the world in boycotting the Durban II conference. Our government stands alone in voting no on the UN Human Rights Council motion singling out Israel for special criticism.

Only the Conservative Party can be counted on to stand up consistently, without hesitation or reservation, for Israel in its fight against the forces of terror and nihilism.

[Petitions, November 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, like my colleague from Delta, I also have a petition from people in the Ladner Delta area in the great Fraser Valley of British Columbia who are concerned about the sediment levels in the Fraser River.

They are supportive of the Ladner Sediment Group who are calling for more attention to be paid to the dredging of the Fraser River in a number of places to enable safe shipping through that area and also to make the area safe for houseboats and access to them.

There are a number of supporters and they call on the Minister of Finance to recognize the needs of the Ladner Sediment Group.

[Petitions, October 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition from many people in the great Fraser Valley area of British Columbia who have concerns about the dredging for the Fraser River channels.

The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada, and specifically the Minister of Finance, to make available to the Ladner Sediment Group sufficient funds to deepen these channels to safe navigational levels and then employ river management techniques to ensure the channels remain open and safe for travel.

This is an important issue for those people living along the Fraser River and Fraser Valley from a navigational and also from a flood prevention point of view.

I am pleased to present this petition today.

[Retribution on Behalf of Victims of White Collar Crime Act, October 23rd, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I listened intently to the member from the Bloc, and I thought for a moment I was seeing the Bloc recognize that we do have crime in this country and that we have to bring in changes in legislation to address that. However, at the end of his presentation, I found that I was sadly mistaken.

The member talked about Mr. Lacroix who received a 13-year sentence, which the member of the Bloc said was appropriate. He then went on to say he would only serve one-sixth of his sentence and he would be out in two years and two months, and that is not appropriate.

I need to impress on the Bloc member that this is the very reason we are trying to bring in mandatory sentences, so that people who are convicted of white-collar crimes get a sentence that is a set sentence and so that they are going to serve that time, and it will be appropriate for the crime they have committed. It is going to do away with the escape clause that allows them to serve only one-sixth of their sentence, as was the case in the example that the member just gave. The Bloc member seems to be confused about what this is all about. We want to get these criminals to do their time.

[Retribution on Behalf of Victims of White Collar Crime Act, October 23rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am certainly glad I got over my recent illness in time to come back and listen to the speech of the member for Winnipeg Centre this morning.

While I would like to congratulate him and his colleagues for supporting this bill, in his presentation he is being a little unfair to the vast numbers of people who are accountants, lawyers, financial advisers and people who work in banks. The aspersion that he is casting in his presentation is that they are all crooks. That is most unfair. In any sector, we will find a small percentage of people who in fact like to work outside the law, which is a nice way of putting it, but we cannot paint everybody with the same brush, so I think he was unfair there.

I have a huge question though. The member for Winnipeg Centre and his colleagues have stood in this House and opposed mandatory sentences for crimes such as child molestation, murder and other heinous crimes such as those. They have opposed mandatory sentences when we have brought them forward, and they have filibustered bills that we have had in committee to get tough and impose mandatory sentences on those who commit crimes such as these, yet they stand today and appear to unanimously support mandatory sentences for white-collar crimes.

While we thank them for their support in this bill, there is a strange contrast between them supporting mandatory sentences for white-collar crimes but resisting and opposing so strongly mandatory sentences for people in our society who molest children, who commit sexual assaults against women, who murder people, who rape people, or who injure people severely through aggravated assault.

I wonder if the member could just stand and tell us why he would support mandatory sentences for white-collars crimes but not for these other heinous crimes that I have just mentioned. His party has opposed mandatory sentences at every single turn.

[Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, October 9th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I am simply responding to what the Bloc member was saying when he talked about the big oil sands developers that were taking government money and still polluting. He does not get it. The reason the tax credits went to these firms was to help them get technology to clean up the environment. He will not admit that.

What is wrong with Canadian companies going abroad and teaching those companies about environmental rights, about workers' rights, and helping those countries, which may be lacking in those areas, to develop the standards that Canada has? I ask the member that.

[Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, October 9th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, it is very difficult to listen to this member and all the nonsense he has been spewing out for the last 10 minutes. Members of the Bloc have been here for 16 years and they have never deviated from the thought: big private company, bad; small company, good. They do not get it that big companies create jobs for hundreds of thousands of people in this country.

Let us talk about the oil sands in Alberta. Under the Liberal government no money went to the oil sands companies to help them develop new technology for cleaning up the environment, not one cent--

[Employment Insurance, October 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, our Conservative government is committed to helping those hardest hit by the global recession. This is why we introduced legislation that provided from five to twenty extra weeks of EI for unemployed long-term tenured workers. These Canadians have worked hard, paid premiums for several years and now they need help while they search for new employment.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development tell the House what he is hearing from witnesses who are before the committee that is discussing this right now?

[Canada Post Corporation Act, October 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Mississauga—Streetsville said that she had been well briefed, had studied the bill and had a thorough understanding of it. What is strange is how she has missed a very important recommendation of the advisory panel, which says that the advisory panel recommends neither a general deregulation of the postal market, nor a reduction of the existing level of Canada Post's exclusive privilege, save for one segment, which is the remailing sector.

This has nothing to do with reduced postal service to rural Canada or to the rest of Canada. This is only to correct a part of the legislation that, if not corrected, will put many remailing companies out of business and hundreds and thousands of people out of work.

The member is starting to sound like NDP members, who sit up all night trying to dream up bad news scenarios to talk about in the House. It is not factual. The member should get her facts straight.

[Economic Recovery Act (Stimulus), October 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the member from the Bloc. I am a little confused about his lack of understanding of what we have been trying to do in the economic stimulus package. Surely he must know that this is the most massive stimulus package in political history. We need it to get through these very difficult challenges coming to us from a global point of view.

As the member for Markham—Unionville pointed out earlier, Canada was the last one into the recession. It is because of the way this government has been run by our current Prime Minister and the ministers. They have been watching the financial companies. The banks have been in good shape. Canada is going to be the first one out of this economic challenge because of they way we have handled it.

We have made some significant changes to the EI program. We have made five week extensions for workers who are collecting EI. We have had a one year extension to the work plan. We are now introducing extensions, again based on the tenure people have had with their employer, which will benefit employees all across the country. It will mean that tens of thousands of people will get assistance they would not have received before.

These are all new measures that are being introduced by this Conservative government that were never dreamed of by the previous Liberals. We would appreciate if the members opposite would recognize that.

As far as the stimulus package, one has to understand that this government does not give out money in brown paper bags and cash like the Liberals did. There is a lot of due diligence by the federal and provincial governments and the municipalities' regional districts that goes into distributing these funds . That all has to be done. It is being done, and the money is flowing in amounts that will look after the challenges of the current global economic problems we have.