Gary Goodyear

[Business of Supply, April 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, in his great speech, the member went into the taxation issue. I do know that in the mid-1990s the Liberals cut $442 million from science and technology. I have not done the math for 2009 dollars, but in 2007 dollars that alone was almost $1 billion cut from science and technology. At the same time, they also raised taxes on Canadians.

Now we are hearing this promise by the Liberals to raise taxes on Canadians. I am concerned that they will also gut science and technology. Hopefully, that will never happen because Canadians will not vote for raising taxes.

Would the member be kind enough to share with us some of his thoughts on how raising taxes would affect Canadians and, in particular, Canadians in Quebec?

[Business of Supply, April 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, on that point, obviously the motion deals with harmonization of taxes. The motion cites the 1990s. The Liberals themselves raised the issue of examples in the 1990s. I asked the question and I was quite happy with the answer.

The only thing is that I did not quite understand which taxes would be raised on Quebeckers. I guess that is hypothetical. But I asked the question and I was quite happy with the answer.

[Business of Supply, April 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, before I ask my question I would like to premise it that the motion itself concerns harmonization of various taxes. It does in fact mention the 1990s, and the hon. members opposite did make examples of some things in the 1990s.

In the 1990s, the Liberals cut science and technology by $442 million, which in today's dollars is about $1 billion of cuts to science and technology. They also raised taxes on Canadians. The Leader of the Opposition has been cited as saying that they definitely will have to raise taxes on Canadians. I suspect that they will in fact cut and gut science and technology once again.

However, I would like to ask my hon. friend what he thinks the impact would be on Quebec of the Liberal Party's proposal to raise taxes, across the board is my guess, and whether the member has any insight as to which taxes he thinks the Liberals intend to raise on our good friends in Quebec.

[Electronic Commerce Protection Act, April 24th, 2009]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-27, An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Science and Technology, April 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. In the last three budgets, this government has increased funding to the granting councils by $205 million.

In the 1990s, when we hit our last recession, the Liberal approach was to gut, cut and gouge the scientific community. They cut $442 million from our scientists and universities. Our approach is different. During this economic downturn, we have increased funding to the scientific community by $5.1 billion.

[Consumer Affairs, April 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member. He is absolutely correct.

I want to let the House know that we intend to table legislation today to combat these online threats. Our proposed Electronic Commerce Protection Act aims to boost the confidence in online commerce by protecting privacy and personal information and addressing the security concerns of consumers here in Canada. It will deter the most dangerous forms of spam, and that is our intention.

This kind of positive legislation is exactly what we need right now to help our economy. What we do not need are increased taxes planned by the Liberals, which would kill jobs.

[Employment, April 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we are very concerned about the recent actions of this company. The government knows that the company made conditions when it hired these people and when they came into the country. We fully expect the company to live up to its agreements, and if it chooses not to do that, we will take action to make sure it does.

[Business of Supply, March 31st, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I find this a very interesting conversation. I can say that CKCO-TV in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge region is having some difficulties as a result of the times. DAVE-FM, a radio station in my riding of Cambridge, is having difficulties.

What I am hearing this morning is probably the epitome of hypocrisy from across the floor. The Bloc just voted against funding for Radio-Canada. The NDP voted against this recent budget that increased. We just heard the litany of broken promises by the Liberals who gutted the CBC. They say they will not and then they do. That is typical pre-election promises.

However, the key question for the member, who just gave a great lucid speech that was well researched, deals with the fact that the management at CBC has stated that bridge funding will not help it.

Why is it that the Liberals have chosen to use this as a way to again say things that they have no intention of doing? Did the management at CBC say that this bridge funding would or would not help?

[Energy Efficiency Act, March 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I listened the entire time while he did his very best to mislead Canadians, if I may say that, or attempt to, by forgetting some of the key issues that this government has brought forward. I do not have time to mention them all. The member asked for just one.

I would like to remind the member that we brought back the eco-energy program because the one under the Liberals the vast majority of the money was going to administration. This Conservative government prefers to spend money on action.

We did tell the Liberals before that the $12 billion in their plan to purchase clean air credits from foreign countries was not actually a plan that would help green up the Canadian environment.

I have already mentioned to the member before about the first tidal turbine put in the water off the coast of B.C. by the Conservative government. I guess the Liberals in 13 years could not get that done.

He asked for one example, so I will give him just one example of the hundreds of millions of dollars this government has given out to researchers in this country. It gave $9.1 million, and the member is not listening but I guess that is typical, to a green chemistry commercialization and research program whereby chemists can actually begin the process of removing solvents, for instance, in our pharmaceutical industry, which will decrease the waste coming out of that industry tremendously. The plan of this government is to support basic research, which is, of course, ignored by the Liberals who are more interested in talk.

I wonder if the member would simply acknowledge at least that one project that he asked for.

[Science and Technology, March 24th, 2009]

The fact is, Mr. Speaker, the government has recently surpassed the $10 billion a year number for our science and tech communities. We put 5.1 billion new dollars into science and technology. We have recently announced a $2 billion knowledge infrastructure program, so those scientists have the best facilities with the best equipment.

The member fails to mention the number of scientists who are coming to Canada because of our policies.