Geoff Regan

[Census, February 9th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this government paid $30 million extra for a census that has almost no scientific value. The Conservatives are wasting money in this manner at the very time that they are proposing cutting Canadians' pensions.

Does the minister understand that the government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on data that are practically useless?

[Business of Supply, February 9th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague is right. We do know that the Conservatives have succeeded extremely well at PR, and particularly in increasing the number of PR staff the Prime Minister has, both in the Prime Minister's Office and in his department, the Privy Council Office. They have 1,500 people in total. This is incredible. This is message control, writ large. It is a whole new level of message control. At a time when we are talking about cutting jobs and saving money, it certainly is not the way to do it.

[Business of Supply, February 9th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, it really is the same question I heard from the previous speaker from the Conservative side. It seems kind of odd that we would have identical questions and identical approaches in this case from the Conservatives and the NDP.

I appreciate my hon. colleague's kind comments about me personally but for him to say that this is a serious subject and then to pose a question that is founded in partisanship, that is not an indication of taking this debate in a serious way. It is not an indication of approaching this in the kind of non-partisan way that the NDP has wanted to portray itself in the last year or so.

Yes, there were investments in Canada during the time the Liberal government was in office, and before and since. With the improvements in our economy under the Liberal government and the fact that Statistics Canada found that over that period there was a tremendous decrease in poverty because of the steps that were taken, they helped to lead to the economy improving, to jobs being created and to people benefiting in a range of ways. When the government was able to do so, it started to make lots of investments, increasing the important measures that were helping Canadians across the country, as my hon. colleague should know.

[Business of Supply, February 9th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I have set out what we are proposing should be the policy. My hon. colleague and the Conservatives generally do not want to accept the fact but, now that they have been in government for six years and even though they talk about this majority stable government, they do not want to accept responsibility for the fact that they are in the government now and that it is time for them to answer for their record and their lack of action.

When there were purchases under the Liberal government, conditions were imposed. What we do not see from the Conservative government is holding companies to account for the kinds of conditions that were imposed.

However, it is time to look forward to say whatever the rules have been, whatever the law has said. Is that not always what this Parliament has a responsibility to do? Is it not the responsibility of any Parliament to not only look ahead and to examine the past, because it is educational for all of us, but also to look at how we use what we have learned from this and go forward and make improvements?

[Business of Supply, February 9th, 2012]

Interesting priorities indeed.

Many Canadians are wondering why the Prime Minister and his government did nothing to strengthen the Investment Canada Act after the attempted foreign takeover of PotashCorp or the TMX Group merger. Afterwards, they promised to hold a meeting, but we are still waiting.

Today's motion calls on the government to table, within 90 days, draft amendments to the Investment Canada Act to ensure that foreign buyers are held to public and enforceable commitments on the net benefit to Canada and on the protection of Canadian jobs. The Liberal Party will vote in favour of the underlying principle of this motion, that is, that the Investment Canada Act must be reviewed in order to provide greater transparency and accountability to Canadians.

The Investment Canada Act as it currently stands does not give Canadians confidence that their best interests will be served. Under the Investment Canada Act, there are no requirements for the federal government to disclose the rationale on the approval or disapproval of the sale, nor are there requirements for public disclosure of the commitments made by companies, such as jobs and investment.

The Liberal Party supports amending the Investment Canada Act to mandate public disclosure of commitments and to strengthen enforcement measures to ensure commitments are adhered to. Loan guarantees, like the previous Liberal government provided to forestry companies, could have helped companies avoid bankruptcy.

The Liberal Party believes that foreign investment is a good thing for Canada's economy. Rather than being a passive observer, the federal government should use its powers in an engaged, confidant and strategic manner, not to put up walls as my colleagues in the NDP always seem to want to do, but to maximize our advantages in the rapidly changing competitive global economy. That is what I talked about earlier. Let us look at what is happening in places like the BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and how jobs are being created there. Jobs are moving around the world. It is a globally competitive economy, and we cannot ignore that fact.

The Investment Canada Act states in its purpose:

Recognizing that increased capital and technology benefits Canada, and recognizing the importance of protecting national security, the purposes of this act are to provide for the review of significant investments in Canada by non-Canadians in a manner that encourages investment, economic growth and employment opportunities in Canada and to provide for the review of investments in Canada by non-Canadians that could be injurious to national security.

I see that my time for debate is at an end. I encourage colleagues to vote in favour of this motion.

[Business of Supply, February 9th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate our leader, the member for Toronto Centre, for his excellent speech. I would be anxious to hear perhaps after my speech when there is time for questions and comments, if members of the NDP can think of a foreign investment that has occurred in Canada that they would have approved. I do not get the sense that there has been a time when they have ever approved of any foreign investment. I wonder if they think that foreign investment in Canada has any value.

In most countries governments and people do want to see foreign investment and the creation of jobs that results from that. That capital flow into a country is important. I would be curious to hear what the NDP would do to encourage that kind of capital flow and investment in Canada, rather than just trying to scare off companies.

Having said that, I do commend the member for London—Fanshawe for bringing this issue before the House today.

I know the members of the Liberal caucus are convinced that our party must be committed to fighting for prosperity for everyone. This is a clear case of why we can never take our prosperity for granted.

Of course our hearts go out, as I am sure those of members on all sides do, to the workers who have lost their jobs, and their families, who have been left wondering about their future. What comes now for those who have worked for Electro-Motive Diesel in London, or for Papiers White Birch in Quebec City? This debate will clearly show that the Conservative government's priority is neither to create jobs, nor to protect the jobs of these hard-working Canadians.

Let us put this in the context of the overall economic management of the Conservative government. It is a government that came into power with a surplus of $13 billion and by April and May of 2008, before the recession began later that fall, it had already put Canada into a deficit. What horrendous fiscal mismanagement.

It is important to keep that in mind when we think about what the government has done in terms of economic management, and when we think about jobs and investment in Canada.

Instead of moving to amendments to strengthen the Investment Canada Act, what is the government doing? It is attacking seniors' pensions. That seems to be a good response. What are the priorities of its caucus members? They are raising issues like abortion and the death penalty. The ministers are sitting on their hands while significant job losses occur right under their noses. This gives an indication of the priorities of the Conservative Party. As we see in such a range of ways, they are ideological priorities. We look at the choices it makes, such as saying that the OAS and the GIS are not that important, that we do not have to worry about people in the future who are getting older. That is nonsense.

We know the residents of London, Ontario are deeply upset about the loss of 465 jobs after Caterpillar Inc. announced it intends to close EMD, Electro-Motive Diesel. The media have also pointed out that this plant closure is also very troubling for what it says about Ontario's ability to compete for manufacturing jobs. We have all watched in recent years as our dollar has climbed to parity and sometimes above parity with the U.S. dollar, and what that has meant in Ontario and Quebec for manufacturing jobs. It is a very difficult and troubling time. I heard it said years ago that with our dollar below 90¢ and certainly below 85¢, we can be extremely competitive and it is easy for us to sell our goods elsewhere, especially into the U.S., but when it is above 90¢, it gets a heck of a lot tougher.

Naturally, we know there are benefits to having the dollar at par. Having a high dollar allows Canadians to have cheaper access to goods that come from outside the country. It allows Canadian companies to buy equipment that can help them become more productive and competitive. There are benefits as well, but the impact we have seen from a variety of things, not only the dollar, but the developments globally in places like China and India and the movement around the world of manufacturing are things that we and the government have to come to grips with.

With respect to Caterpillar, an article in the National Post recently stated:

Caterpillar seems to have been a particularly unscrupulous employer, intent on closing down the plant, even while it dragged its employees through the charade of wage negotiations that were never going to bear fruit.

What happened in Quebec is also disturbing. People are very upset about the closure of White Birch Paper, which meant the loss of 600 jobs. The Prime Minister and members of his cabinet keep saying that the economy and jobs are their top priority, but Canadians now know that those promises are nothing more than empty rhetoric.

Earlier this week when the Minister of Industry was asked what measures he took to protect those jobs at Electro-Motive, he threw up his hands in defeat, acknowledging his utter failure. Here is exactly what he said:

[T]his issue falls entirely within the powers of the Ontario government and there was no ability for the federal government to intervene.

What a defeatist, unconfident approach. The workers at Electro-Motive deserve better from the government and the minister. He should have demanded a meeting, for starters, with Caterpillar instead of trying to pass the buck and avoiding any accountability. When there was a photo op in 2008, the Prime Minister was front and centre at Electro-Motive Diesel smiling for the cameras. When there was an opportunity to help the workers at EMD, the Conservative government left them to fend for themselves, which is generally the Conservatives' attitude toward most Canadians.

What does it say to the folks lined up for a double-double at the local Tim's when they see the priority of the Conservative government is to create jobs for an additional 30 MPs by adding 30 more seats to this House instead of protecting the jobs of those workers at the Electro-Motive or Papiers White Birch plants?

[Business of Supply, February 9th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I commend the member for London—Fanshawe for bringing this issue before the House today. The motion is a good one. The principle behind it is well founded.

The Liberal Party is concerned about what has happened at Electro-Motive Diesel. This, as well as what has happened at Papier White Birch in Quebec City, has certainly been mentioned in question period in recent weeks.

When we think about the rules we should have in place on foreign ownership, it is incumbent upon us to think about what we might see in response from other countries as well as the value and importance of investment by Canadian companies overseas.

As the government wants to change the pension system in very negative ways, it seems that more and more it expects Canadians to rely on investments in private markets for their retirement income. In view of that, and of the fact that many Canadians do have investments, whether it be bonds or stocks in Canadian companies that invest elsewhere, how does the member see the importance of that kind of foreign investment from Canada?

[Copyright Modernization Act, February 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I found it interesting to hear the Minister of Industry say that many people are pressuring him to pass this bill. The Minister of Canadian Heritage said he received a few emails in favour of this bill. But they did not mention the 50,000 emails they both received. I know, because those messages were also sent to me.

I was copied on those 50,000 messages. They do not mention those 50,000 messages from people who are opposed to Bill C-11 and who have put pressure on the government to say no.

When we consider that this is the 16th time in less than 6 months in this Parliament that the government has used time allocation, which is a new record for sure, and when we consider the fact that in this debate there have actually only been three speakers from the Conservative side, two of whom are ministers, it makes one wonder if the Prime Minister's Office and those ministers are not allowing their backbenchers to say something, to speak on this. I hope their muzzles are not chafing them. It makes me wonder if they want to speak out on behalf of the people who are so strongly opposed to this, but they are not willing to.

For instance, I have a message from a person from Halifax who said:

Please do not endorse or push through any legislation that gives more powers to corporations and takes away the rights of the individuals. As you've seen in the U.S. in the last month with the debacle surrounding SOPA, corporations are pushing for the support of laws that take away the rights of citizens to fairly use that which has been paid for, which is what these guys are trying to do too.

[Census, February 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Statistics Canada published the bare basics population count today. However, the real story is the fact that the Conservatives' 2010 decision to kill the long form census will render the newest census data unreliable. The minister gloats about a 69% response rate that is far lower than the 94% response rate in the census.

Why are the Conservatives doing such a disservice to the poor, immigrants, seniors, people with disabilities and all of those who are now the invisible one-third?

[Purple Day Act, February 3rd, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I regret the fact the mover of the bill gets the last five minutes and ends up taking time from the last speaker. I certainly appreciate the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine's comments, and I will say a little more about them later.

I want to talk about some of the other comments we heard today. I am really grateful for the support of all members, as I am sure Cassidy Megan is as well, the young lady from my riding of Halifax West, who was spoken of so often today.

I enjoyed all of the speeches today. My colleague from Kingston and the Islands spoke of a young woman from his riding who came to him to talk about this issue. For her it was an issue of overcoming the stigma of having seizures and people's reactions to, and lack of understanding of, them. He, like all of us, I think, has learned more about epilepsy from hearing about it and speaking on this topic.

My colleague from Oshawa, the parliamentary secretary for health, spoke very touchingly about his personal experience with epilepsy, because he has petit mal epilepsy. He also spoke of a person he talked to who had lost friends because of their seizures when he was a kid and who talked of the impact of that. Imagine what that would be like, how awful that would be for a young person.

I also appreciated the comments made by the hon. member for Chambly—Borduas, who spoke about the importance of making people aware of epilepsy and how it works.

I also thought that my colleague from Vegreville—Wainwright spoke very touchingly and powerfully. He said that greater awareness, we hope, will lead to greater action, greater government action, greater action from all of us. That is very much the idea of this bill. He also talked about the personal experience of his own child and the isolation that she has sometimes felt because of a hearing impairment. I appreciate that, as looking forward to his motion on MS, which I congratulate him for moving.

The member for Pontiac spoke about the difficult situation that people with epilepsy are in and of the lack of resources and support. He also spoke about the discrimination and stigmatization that they face.

The member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine said let us not turn our backs on the 300,000 Canadians living with epilepsy. It is valuable for us to be reminded of how many Canadians actually are affected by this and what it can mean for all of them.

I want to close, though, with my thoughts and my appreciation of all members, but particularly to Cassidy Megan, the young girl who started all this, of whom I am so proud. This means a great deal to all of us and I look forward to this bill succeeding and I appreciate the support of members.