Gary Anandasangaree

[Resumption of debate on Address in Reply, January 27th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my friend on his election, and also on his new granddaughter.

As I listened to the speech of the member, it occurred to me that infrastructure played a very important role in the city, as it does across the country.

I would like to get a sense from him as to how the $60 billion infrastructure fund that our government has proposed will assist his riding, and the important infrastructure needs that he talked about, particularly the arena. How will this fund assist him in applying and developing very needed infrastructure, not just in Saskatoon but elsewhere?

[James Loader, January 25th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with some sadness to recognize the life of a Scarborough icon. James Loader was a staple in our community. He was a fixture at Morningside Cinemas and other theatres in the area for over 55 years. For generations, James greeted moviegoers with his friendly smile. James was a constant when everything around us seemed to constantly change. He was an ambassador of goodwill to the community.

Throughout James' career with the public health department of the City of Toronto and after his retirement, until just days before his death at the age of 83, James moonlighted as a ticket taker. He worked his last shift on New Year's Day of this year. His hard work and long hours paid off and provided a better childhood for his children, who were the centre of his life. James Loader leaves behind four children, Kevin, Russell, Patricia, and Terrence, and his two grandchildren, Nicole and Alex. He will be greatly missed.

I wish to extend my deepest condolences to James' family, friends, co-workers, and his many fans.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 25th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my friend on his victory in October.

My friend spoke about a business plan. The Canadian public has given us a mandate to put together a business plan, and the throne speech delivered by our government last month speaks to that. It speaks to the volume of work that needs to be done in order to get the country back on track. For the last 10 years the Conservative government absolutely failed to control our debt. In the last 10 years under the Conservative government, $160 billion has been added to our national debt. That is the business plan we are competing with, and we will do a lot better than that.

Our government is proposing to invest $60 billion into infrastructure over the next 10 years. In total, that would be over $100 billion over the next 10 years. Could the member for Markham—Unionville tell me what type of benefit that would pose to his riding? What kind of requests would that kind of money fulfill to improve the lives of the people of Markham—Unionville and the lives of all Ontarians and Canadians?

[Human Rights Day, December 10th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker. today is international Human Rights Day, a day to celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration outlines the basic rights of each and every citizen of this world. We have collectively agreed that certain rights need to be protected, yet we have failed to give life to these rights. Around the world there is not a moment that passes without human rights being routinely violated.

As Canadians, we can celebrate our achievements in advancing human rights and dignity, especially on the day where we welcome 164 Syrian refugees, but we need to be mindful that much work lies ahead, particularly with our indigenous people.

I want to recognize the indelible work of human rights defenders who are often threatened or, worse, killed for their work. I am proud to welcome to Canada and to Parliament Hill Mr. Hossein Raeesi, an Iranian lawyer, protected this year by the scholars at risk program between Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. Mr. Raeesi has defended the civil, political, and human rights of Iranians.

Let us celebrate these unspoken heroes and commit to achieving human rights for all.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 8th, 2015]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my friend for his submissions and congratulate him on his re-election.

Investment in infrastructure is a critical component for Canadians. As we know, our roads are broken, our transit system is in dire need of a boost, and the economy is in tatters. We need to spend money on critical infrastructure so that we can create jobs. Small businesses have demanded that we invest in our infrastructure. They need people to be able to move in order for them to have a market in which to do business.

The Conservative government has added $150 billion to the national debt in the last nine years. By my calculation, that works out to about $16.66 billion for every year that the Conservative Party was in government.

My question is, how do we reconcile the record of the Conservative government for the last nine years with the Conservatives' assertion that we need to have a balanced budget immediately?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 8th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my friend on his election.

The middle-class tax cut, as announced by the Minister of Finance yesterday, is a very important part of our platform. I am very confident that this will give direct benefit to thousands of families in the riding of Scarborough—Rouge Park and across the country. These are funds that people can use toward education, extracurricular activities, and a whole host of things that families feel are important to their children.

I am very proud of the initiative undertaken by our government and hope we will be able to get this through in time so people can start enjoying the benefits of our proposed tax-free benefit of this middle-class tax cut.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 8th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the cost of resettling the refugees and bringing them here has already been spelled out by our Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. I am quite confident that the entire program has been costed out and we are doing it in a very responsible way.

What is important is that refugees are given the opportunity to succeed here because any cost that we may incur today will be repaid to our country over their lifetime.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 8th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my friend on his election.

The issue of refugees is very important to Canadians. Our government has taken very responsible steps to ensure that those with the highest risk of vulnerability are permitted to come into Canada.

I am very confident of the work of the United Nations Human Rights for Refugees and I am confident that the people who are coming here are those with the highest level of vulnerability, as defined by the UN.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, December 8th, 2015]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for South Shore—St. Margaret's.

I am extremely humbled and honoured to stand here as the first member for Scarborough—Rouge Park. I want to thank my constituents for entrusting me to represent them. I want to congratulate all of my colleagues for their election or re-election, and I wish to congratulate you, Madam Speaker, on your appointment as Assistant Deputy Speaker. I am committed to working collaboratively with all members in this room for the betterment of the country. I am proud to speak in support of the Speech from the Throne.

Scarborough—Rouge Park is one six ridings in the former city of Scarborough, now part of the city of Toronto. We have one of the most diverse communities in all of Canada.

Permit me to take hon. members through some of the priorities of my riding and the region. We are blessed with the best that nature has to offer, with the Rouge River, a new national park, the Toronto Zoo, Highland Creek, and the Scarborough waterfront, all offering some of the most beautiful landscapes in the GTA.

The Rouge Park is at the heart of my riding. It is a life's work for many individuals and groups. Our government is committed to bringing the full potential of the park to life. I am excited that the Prime Minister has, in his mandate letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, asked my colleague to work with the Ontario government to enhance the country's first urban national park, including improved legislation to protect the important ecosystem and to guide how the park will be managed.

I am very confident that we can all come together to build a national park in our region that will reflect the needs and aspirations of the community and leave a legacy for future generations.

Scarborough, like many suburban regions in our country, needs infrastructure. Starting next year, the co-op agreement for the 12 co-ops that exist in our riding will be expiring. We have over 900 families living in co-ops. We need to ensure that we work for the co-ops to have stable, predictable funding.

The previous government ignored the much-needed infrastructure of our community. We could not find a better time to invest in infrastructure. We have historically low interest rates. We need proper infrastructure to create much-needed jobs and to attract employers, and we have inherited an economy in need of a boost. This is why our government will invest to build much-needed infrastructure.

In Scarborough—Rouge Park, we need to upgrade our housing for veterans, and transportation to allow families to spend more time with each other than on the road, and community centres for youth and seniors, and co-op housing for our seniors.

Youth are an integral part of the riding. I am proud to represent an area with a large youth population. The Malvern and Danzig communities are great, vibrant places where youth thrive when given the right opportunities. Our youth need the right support. They need to stay in school and have increased employment opportunities and feel like they are part of the community. Our youth employment strategy will be essential to ensure that youth are able to develop the right skills at the right age to prepare them for the jobs of the future.

We need to create jobs and opportunities in Scarborough—Rouge Park. To this end, I am excited that the Rotary Club of Scarborough has undertaken a new Scarborough revitalization project. As part of the project, the Scarborough Business Association was inaugurated earlier this year. It is my hope that this association will be the centre of business and industry development in Scarborough and will lead to much-needed job creation. I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance the issues in my riding.

I am deeply disturbed by the continuous stigmatization of refugees, both in the House and outside. We have, in recent times, defined refugees as terrorists, burdens, and undesirables. We demonize them. We fail to understand and empathize with human suffering and humanitarian crisis.

Today, as we gather in the House, refugees from Syria are preparing to come to Canada and call this their new home. The hopes and aspirations of these Canadians are no different from the generations of refugees that came before and, I suspect, will be similar to those who will come after.

Canada welcomes our newest refugees with open arms, the same way we welcomed the Afghanis, the Kosovars, the Somalis, the Tamils, the Vietnamese, the Ismailis, and so on.

Some of us in the House were refugees ourselves at one point, and like all those who came before, are proud to give back to this country. Our Minister of Democratic Institutions, our Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, and a good friend representing the riding of York South—Weston are just such examples of this contribution.

I want to share with the House my story. I am a proud Tamil Canadian who came here as a refugee from Sri Lanka. The Tamil people are a persecuted nation. Over 100,000 Tamils have died in a bloody war. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has found that war crimes and crimes against humanity took place in Sri Lanka in the last phase of the war. Tamils are seeking justice, an international independent criminal investigation into war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Although the war ended in 2009, peace has evaded the island. There are reported cases of sexual violence; the military occupies land traditionally owned by Tamils; and Tamil political prisoners are lingering in jails, in some cases for decades. It is in this context that people fled, seeking a safe, secure place to raise their family.

In 2010, I had the opportunity to meet some of the Tamil refugees who came on the MV Sun Sea. I met countless men, women, and children. I will never forget the story of one of those women. In the last days of the war, she was hiding in a bunker with her husband and three children. She went to get water for her family. As she left the bunker, a shell hit and destroyed her life. Her three young children and her husband vanished in seconds. This mother had the courage to get on a ship with strangers, risking her life so that she could put her life back together. This is one refugee experience.

Canadians are doing the right thing to protect and give new life to 25,000 Syrians. We are focusing on getting the most vulnerable from the millions of prospective refugees currently in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. I wish to note on the record the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, for working diligently to process and assist the millions of refugees. Canada's commitment to give an additional $100 million to UNHCR is welcome as the agency deals with one of the largest migrations in recent history. We will need to do more.

Finally, Canada is a shining example to the world of tolerance, equality, justice, and human rights. We are leading by example by bringing in and integrating refugees from Syria. In fact, over the course of our history many different peoples have called Canada home. We have built a just society that in many ways is the envy of the world.

Yet, in this just society there is great injustice. We have collectively failed our indigenous, Inuit, and Métis peoples. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report has many stories of survivors. I encourage members to look at some of those stories. Our government has accepted the recommendations of the TRC by Justice Murray Sinclair. The recommendations, if fully implemented, would set a new way forward.

One of the recommendations in the report calls for an inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginal women and girls. Imagine a major Canadian metropolis, be it Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal or Halifax. Now imagine if 1,200 people went missing from any one of those cities within a span of 40 years. Then imagine 1,200 cases were unresolved. Can members imagine the outrage in those cities? How do we as Canadians accept 1,200 murdered and missing aboriginal women and girls in 40 years? Where do we even start addressing this issue?

I am proud that our government has committed to beginning this process of obtaining justice for the families. Our Prime Minister has demonstrated much-needed leadership on this issue. I am proud that our government will outline the mandate for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls. The healing needs to start, but it cannot truly begin without a full understanding of the different parts that have led to this tragedy. This House, this Parliament, this time, we can reset the direction of our first peoples.

I wish to conclude by acknowledging that we are on the traditional lands of the Algonquin people and today, collectively in this House, we stand at the foot of history as we direct a new course, nation to nation, between Canada and its indigenous, Inuit, and Métis people.