Gerald Keddy

[Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, May 31st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have spoken on several occasions about the apparent spread of amnesia through the Liberal caucus. I have since talked to several experts in the field. They have concluded that it is not amnesia. It is hypocrisy.

This is made clear with the hon. member for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour serving as the Liberal critic for ACOA. That member likes to give the impression that he is a defender of ACOA. However, in the race for Stornoway, and members did hear me say Stornoway, he is supporting the member for Kings—Hants, yet that very member wants to scrap ACOA.

Do members see a pattern? Is this Liberal policy? Is this a trend to abandon regional development and an important organization like ACOA? Or is it just more blatant political partisanship on the road to Stornoway?

[Committees of the House, May 17th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. The committee has adopted as a report in this session the fourth report of the first session of the 38th Parliament, entitled “Northern Cod: A Failure of Canadian Fisheries Management”, which is appended.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109 the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

[The Budget, May 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talks about $42 billion in deficit in 1992. The reality was $38 billion of that belonged to the previous Liberal government. In 1993 the government was elected on two things: getting rid of free trade and abolishing the GST. Those were the two promises to Canadians. The government kept neither one.

As far as paying down the deficit, the Liberal government plundered the civil service pension plan for $32 billion. It never put a penny back and did not ask for it. There was no vote on it. It did it behind the scenes. It took the money from the pockets of superannuates, ex-Mounties, ex-service people and ex-civil servants.

First, I would like a reply on what you did with the money and second, how you ever intended to put it back, because you never intended to put it back.

[Atlantic Accord, May 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, just last week I stood in the House and spoke of how a Liberal MP was suffering from amnesia. It looks like it is contagious. All the Liberal members are infected.

The hon. member for Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor is now trying to claim that the Conservative government is somehow a threat to the Atlantic accord. Imagine that, threatening the Atlantic accord which we created, developed and forced the Liberals to implement.

It is the same member who felt his own Liberal Party was a threat to the Atlantic accord. He voted in favour of a Conservative motion to condemn the Liberals for their failure to implement it.

The Conservative Party created and supported the Atlantic accord, and all the amnesia in the world will not make that go away.

[The Budget, May 8th, 2006]

I would be quite happy to do it, Mr. Speaker. I have a lot of respect for the member opposite, but we have to talk about reality. I am using the numbers of the Liberals from the YWCA, which state it would cost at least a minimum of $15,000 to open up a child care space. That is not to maintain it; that is to open it up. If we roll that through to 2.1 million children, that is $30 billion. The member can do the math however he wants to, but it is still $30 billion per annum forever and ever.

First, I do not think the government has that kind of money. Second, if we want to look at the Liberals deathbed promise to open up child care spaces, they had 13 years to bring in universal child care. You did not do it because you knew it was not affordable. You deliberately misled Canadians by trying to say there was some type of universal program out there that did not exist and never did exist.

[The Budget, May 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the member. Early childhood intervention and childhood development are extremely important. When children get into the school system, it gives them an advantage when they have had a better job done in their early nurturing years.

The issue is quite simple. this is not a family allowance. This is in recognition of the fact that all families face the increasing cost of child care. Government simply cannot afford a universal child care system. It is not out there. By the YWCA's numbers, it would cost $30 billion a year, and we would go into deficit. We can afford to give $1,200 per child per family up until the age of six. That helps parents who are facing increasing pressures to find day care spaces.

Most of us raised our children without any assistance of any kind for day care. This does not mean that we should not find assistance. It does not mean that there are not special needs for low income groups. However, it does mean is that a universal system is not doable at this time and under this budget.

We have said, and I will say it again, we recognize the challenges families face. We are going to help families and we are going do that significant dollars. This will be a major assistance in helping them raise their children to the best of their ability.

[The Budget, May 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it has been with some interest that I have listened to the debate in the chamber today. I had an opportunity earlier to ask a couple of questions and I found it quite shocking that the Liberals could find nothing in this budget to support.

The Liberals break everything down to its lowest common denominator. They cannot find anything positive. This is coming from a former government that was defeated at the polls. Canadians soundly gave the Liberals the message that they were not satisfied with the job they were doing and that they wanted, deserved and expected more from their government. They expected accountability, integrity and honesty.

I would like to take a moment to congratulate the member for Louis--Hébert who did a great job on his maiden speech in the House. He certainly understood the issues. Even our Bloc colleagues are supportive of his speech, I am sure.

The Liberals continually say that there are only five priorities in the budget. Those five priorities, however, have been delivered upon and they have been delivered in spades. The difference is that the Liberals' last budget had 56 priorities and none of them were delivered.

I would break it down even further. I would take this budget and say that there is only one priority and that priority is to help Canadians have better lives, and this budget delivers on that promise.

I would like to take a small portion of my time to thank my constituents in South Shore--St. Margaret's for sending me back to the Parliament of Canada. It is an honour to be a member of Parliament and to speak in this chamber and to represent the good folks of South Shore--St. Margaret's.

The riding I represent has a number of challenges. We have the largest fishery in Canada and over 2,000 fishing boats. We have the forest industry, an agriculture community and a significant manufacturing sector. Although the riding is extremely rural, it is versatile and it is a well spread out riding. It is long and narrow. It goes all the way down the southwest coast of Nova Scotia and includes part of Halifax county, all of Lunenburg county, all of Queens county and all of Shelburne county.

The point I am making is that my riding has a variety of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and a variety of different types of work.

In the manufacturing sector, we do everything from value added to our traditional industries, fishery, forestry and agriculture, to making space age components that are sold around the world. One firm in Lunenburg, Composites Atlantic, makes all the fuselages for the 737s. It makes the cooling system on the space shuttle. We have a very widespread working sector in South Shore--St. Margaret's.

I can honestly tell all members of the House that there is something in this budget for everyone in South Shore--St. Margaret's. I would like to speak for a second to the child care component. I know there has been a lot of criticism of our child care position, especially from the NDP and from the former government, and I would like to put a little good, fresh, bright sunlight on child care.

We could break the day care allowance down as being only a coffee a day. We could do a million things but the reality is that parents in Canada are faced with a huge obstacle in raising their children. As a government we recognize that we have some responsibility to help. We want more working parents in the workforce and, quite frankly, we need them in the workforce. We also want to give Canadians choice. If a mother or father decides to stay at home they have that option. We will give them $1,200 a year but at the same time we recognize that the money will not solve their child care problems. We know child care is more expensive than this but it will help. This is the first time any government has stepped up to the plate to help in a serious and effective way.

I will get to the capital gains deferral for fishermen, which the Liberals promised, in a minute.

What the Liberals promised for child care was a death bed conversion. At the 11th hour they said that they would do something. The reality is there was no child care plan in Canada. It does not exist and it never did. We will give $1,200 directly to parents to help them meet their child care requirements.

Let us take this a step further. Let us look at the Liberal commissioned YWCA report. The report states that child care spaces financed by the government cost $15,000 per space. If the Liberals are going to tout that, they should quote it. With 2.1 million children in Canada that works out to $30 billion a year for some type of universal child care, not affordable by any government without going into deficit. It cannot be done.

In recognition of that and in recognition of the difficulty parents face in raising children, we will give $1,200 per child per year until the age of six to help families raise their children. This is significant, responsible and Canadians can afford it.

I want to speak about the capital gains deferral for fishermen. I had two private member's bills on this issue but I could not get any support from my Liberal colleagues. When I brought these private member's bills forward, there were numerous cabinet ministers from Atlantic Canada. Over the 13 year period there were at least seven or eight ministers from Atlantic Canada. None of those individuals were interested in moving forward with a capital gains deferral for fishermen. I brought one bill forward in 2002 and received no support. I brought it back again in 2004 and again received no support. Thanks to our Conservative caucus, support came immediately. Anyone involved in the agriculture sector looked at this bill and said that farmers needed it and foresters needed it. We need it in the fishery to maintain the integrity of our coastal communities and keep fishing families fishing.

When our Minister of Finance brought in the capital gains deferral he went even further than my capital gains private member's bill. Not only did he give $500,000 for intergenerational transfer, he also gave $500,000 in the same way that a small business has a one time only accessible $500,000 rollover. That is the difference. We have a Minister of Finance who looked at the issue and said that we needed to act on it. It was part of the policy that came out of our Montreal convention and part of our election platform. It was a promise made and a promise delivered. This is the difference with this budget.

I ask hon. members and the viewing public to read the budget. The budget has good stuff in it. It contains things that we have needed for a long time, such as the apprenticeship program, help for students and help for fishermen. It contains immediate dollars and continuing aid for agriculture. It helps the forestry sector and the manufacturing sector. It contains a lower tax rate for low income earners. We are going to take 600,000 people off the tax rolls as of July 1. This is a great budget.

[The Budget, May 8th, 2006]

Then don't take the deduction.

[The Budget, May 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the statements of my hon. colleague opposite with some shock and some surprise actually.

I am very familiar with sitting in the opposition benches. This is my fourth term here. I sat over there for three terms. I can remember standing during budget speeches and speaking about the good parts of the Liberals' budget plans. I recognized the positive points and I also recognized the negative points. I voted for some budgets and I voted against some budgets, but there is no reciprocity here. Apparently there is nothing in the budget that the hon. member can support. I know it is difficult for the hon. member but I am going to ask him to be specific.

On the budget plan for students, we are eliminating the federal income tax on all income for students from scholarships, bursaries and fellowships. That is a very simple project. The Liberals had 13 years to do it and they could not do it. For a student with a significant bursary, that is $4,000, $5,000 or $6,000 more money per year in their pockets. That is real money for education. That is a help for students.

We are going to give a textbook credit. I know the hon. member said that did not count, that it was not important, but if a student can write off $500 for textbooks, that is significant.

Why would the member not support those two parts of the budget?

[Fisheries and Oceans, May 4th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it has become apparent that the member for Halifax West is suffering from amnesia. He now thinks that he actually did something about the capital gains exemption for fishers.

My question is for the real Minister of Fisheries. Did any of the former Liberal ministers, besides crowing like roosters on a dung pile, have anything in place to help the fishery with this important capital gains exemption?