Geoff Regan

[The Budget, March 21st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, this is the government that put Canada in deficit before the recession began, as this minister obviously knows, in April and May 2008. He can check the record.

Now youth unemployment in Canada is 5% higher. We have 200,000 more Canadians looking for work than at the beginning of the recession. The Conservatives' so-called job creation plan has zero new money. We will have to wait years for it to start. Money will only be available to cash-strapped provinces if they can afford to match it. Otherwise they will be out of luck.

The question is this: why is the minister saying to young Canadians, especially to those in provinces like mine, Nova Scotia, that they will have to wait?

[Frontier College, March 5th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 100th anniversary of Frontier College in Nova Scotia.

Frontier College, a national volunteer-based literacy organization, was founded by Alfred Fitzpatrick, who felt passionate about bringing literacy skills to workers in logging camps, mines or railway lines.

The mission of helping new Canadians improve their language skills continues today. Volunteers still work with children, youth, adults and aboriginal communities to improve literacy skills. As its motto says, literacy is learning for life. I know the House will want to congratulate Frontier College as it marks 100 years of helping Nova Scotians learn to read and write.

[Foreign Investment, February 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. friend for his comments and his welcome to the file, although I am sure he recognizes that the file of CNOOC-Nexen was not handled by the Minister of International Trade but was in the hands of the Minister of Industry.

I presume that this evening, as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of International Trade, he is here because his colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, is perhaps not available, and that happens sometimes. I have had that experience myself, as a matter of fact.

I am not surprised that he had quite a bit to say about trade, and that is fine, but I notice he did not really respond to the concerns about the net benefit test, for example, and the government's commitment in repeatedly promising to reform or change the Investment Canada Act, its commitment to revise and clarify it to provide greater transparency to all this.

He talked about a different approach from the one the Liberal government took. Maybe he could tell me in the minute he has to respond to my comments which of the deals that were approved during the time of the Liberal government with Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Martin had half the public interest or comment as the potash deal or the CNOOC deal, and which of them the Conservative Party or the Reform Party opposed.

[Foreign Investment, February 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have a chance tonight to follow up on a question I asked before Christmas concerning the takeover of Nexen by the Chinese company, CNOOC. That has actually happened. CNOOC officially took over Nexen on Monday. As we know, it was a $15.1 billion deal, and it was very controversial in Canada. There was a lot of interest in that deal, and it was finally completed on Monday. It is China's largest foreign acquisition ever.

We know the deal generated a great deal of discussion and debate over how much foreign state-owned control there ought to be of industries in Canada, for example, in the oil and gas sector, which is what Nexen is in, and particularly how much foreign state-owned control of our resources in Canada is acceptable. A lot of people felt very strongly about that issue, and they still do.

Although the deal is done now, it does not mean the debate is over. The debate certainly continues. Many Canadians are still concerned about the lack of clarity from the government in terms of how it is going to decide in the future on proposals to take over Canadian companies.

There really is a need for greater clarity on investment issues like this, which impact billions of dollars in investments. They affect our economy, and they affect thousands of Canadian jobs, as we have seen in the Nexen case and others.

The Conservative government's “make it up as it goes approach” is really not acceptable to most Canadians. While Canada must remain open for business, we should not be for sale. Canadians want to have clarity about our foreign investment policy. They do not want a minister who makes decisions late on a Friday night after having some sort of seance or using a Ouija board, or whatever it is. The decision on Petronas came at almost midnight. Canadians do not want decisions made by a Prime Minister who decides on a whim.

The Conservatives have promised for years to bring greater clarity and transparency to this process of reviewing foreign investments, but like so many other issues they have failed to deliver. I think Canadians are disappointed by their performance on issues like this.

That is why the Liberal Party continues to call for more clarity on what constitutes the net benefit test, which is the test that any proposed transition has to meet under the Investment Canada Act. It also calls for greater transparency regarding the issues that are being discussed between the companies and the government. The government could at least tell us a little about that. There should be disclosure of any conditions that are attached to proposed deals. We do not have any idea because the government has not told us what conditions they imposed on CNOOC. What kind of transparency is that from a government that has been promising it for years? It does not make much sense.

We need stronger enforcement mechanisms to make sure the conditions that are imposed are lived up to. We need a clear role for affected provincial governments. We need specific ways in which the public can actually have a chance to express their views. We do not have those things.

I think this shows how confused the Conservatives are when it comes to this foreign investment file. Today the Minister of Industry was in Spain speaking on foreign investment, asking for people to come and invest in our wireless sector. He is basically admitting what a mess he has made of that sector, and what a mess he has made with the spectrum auction rules. We have seen no interest from any small companies in becoming the kind of big companies that could compete and create a better, more competitive system in Canada for wireless.

[Miss Ally, February 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, all members of the House are aware of the terrible tragedy that happened on Sunday, February 17 when the fishing boat the Miss Ally went down off Nova Scotia with the loss of five lives.

All of us, including my hon. colleague for South Shore—St. Margaret's, in whose riding the community of Woods Harbour is, and all those members across the country who have either through direct experience living near fishing communities or having visited the coast of the country and other parts of the country where there are fishing communities, recognize what a dangerous lifestyle it is to go out on the sea and fish, particularly in a month like February.

All my colleagues, like my hon. colleague from South Shore—St. Margaret's, join me and the Liberal Party in expressing our condolences, our heartfelt sympathies to the people of Woods Harbour, especially the families affected by this terrible tragedy.

[Consumer Protection, February 1st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, this week I heard from a constituent who called his wireless provider in early December to cancel a cellphone contract that was set to expire in January. A few days ago, he received a notice saying he would continue to be charged until February, an extra month.

Consumers are fed up with this kind of treatment. They are sick of getting bullied into sticking with unfair and unfavourable contracts with threats of huge cancellation fees.

When will the government start defending consumers and put a stop to outrageous fees for cell phone contract cancellations?

[Daurene Lewis, February 1st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, on this the first day of Black History Month, I stand in the House to honour Canada's first black female mayor.

Daurene Lewis was many things: a role model, mentor, community leader, businesswoman and educator. She was also an inspiration for many Nova Scotians and a resident a Halifax West whom I deeply respect and admired.

Sadly, Ms. Lewis died Saturday, at the age of 69.

As the Halifax Chronicle Herald correctly stated:

...she was the champion of a fine world where all of us are respected as persons and judged on our merits. And where leadership is about being creative, stretching your abilities and doing a good job as the representative of everyone, of the whole community.

I would ask all my colleagues to join me in extending condolences to her family and in saying a fond farewell to Daurene Lewis, a truly inspiring woman.

[BlackBerry, January 30th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, this is an exciting day for the hundreds of BlackBerry employees who work in my riding of Halifax West. Today the company launched the new BlackBerry 10. Just as a mere decade ago the first BlackBerrys changed how people on the go communicate, today's launch ushers in a new era of mobile computing.

Employees at the BlackBerry facility in Bedford already assist 79 million customers across the globe, and they will play a critical role in support of BlackBerry 10, which represents a redesigned, re-engineered and reinvented BlackBerry. I know that members of the House, so many of whom use BlackBerrys, will join me in congratulating this great, innovative Canadian company on the launch of BlackBerry 10 and in extending our best wishes for continued success.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 28th, 2013]

With respect to the Department of National Defence: (a) how many complaints of racial discrimination were filed each year between 2000 and 2011; (b) how many complaints originated in each province or territory; (c) what was the location where the alleged racial discrimination took place; (d) how many complaints involved (i) military personnel, (ii) civilian personnel; (e) how many complaints were (i) investigated, (ii) found to be valid, (iii) resulted in discipline; and (f) what is the file number and date of each complaint?

[Increasing Offenders' Accountability for Victims Act, December 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I want to refer to the comment by the previous Conservative speaker, who had a question for my hon. colleague from the NDP, because I do not think he understands how our legislative process works. When a new law is passed it overwrites or supercedes previous laws, unless we are talking about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the Constitution. We cannot change those without a much more elaborate process. However, when we have a new law with new provisions, in this case creating real doubt about what happens when a person cannot pay his or her debt, we do have a new problem.

He perhaps does not understand that the Criminal Code is simply previous legislation, and it can be changed by any bill that comes into the House and is passed.