Gerry Byrne

[Fisheries and Oceans, March 9th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives are engaging in blatantly phoney mock consultations on the future of the east coast fishery with a single purpose in mind: to end the long-standing Liberal policy, the LeBlanc legacy of fleet separation and the owner/operator principle.

Just as Conservatives have no electoral mandate to pursue their schemes to gut public pensions, the government has no licence to destroy the long-standing guarantee of a harvesting sector comprised of independent inshore fishing enterprises headed exclusively by professional fish harvesters.

With that established, will the government suspend its east coast treachery?

[Marble Cup, March 9th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Marble Cup is the premier alpine ski race attracting elite athletes from all over Atlantic Canada. This year, over 70 young competitors descended on Marble Mountain in western Newfoundland to compete in the super G, the slalom and the combined slalom and downhill races.

Congratulations go out to the Marble race team for repatriating the Marble cup back to the home hill. We are all very proud of all of our racers in Atlantic Canada, but I have to admit that no one could be prouder of one particular first-time racer, 9-year-old Gerry Byrne, on achieving a personal best.

My son Gerry was part of bringing the Marble cup back home, and Gerry's own teammates, his coaches, and the race officials were very much amazed at the young rookie's performance. For this, his coaches said he was among the best of the best.

I am so happy to have him and my wife joining me here in Ottawa this weekend. My congratulations to Gerry. He has made mom and dad very proud.

[Ocean Ranger, February 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, thirty years ago tonight a tragedy began to unfold. Thirty years ago a winter's gale spawned itself on the North Atlantic sending sea states to 70 foot waves, pushed up by winds of over 100 knots.

As evening rolled into night, the semi-submersible drill rig, the Ocean Ranger, capsized in the North Atlantic 267 kilometres east of Cape Spear, Newfoundland. Eighty-four souls were lost, taken forever. None were spared.

To remind us of our responsibility to the lost, we still wear the scar of that tragedy even though it was inflicted a generation ago. It was a tragedy that could have been prevented, or so found a royal commission on the sinking.

So, today, as we in this Parliament assemble to discuss what is reasonable, what is responsible and what is needed to live up to the promise we made to those 84 souls, expediency can never be allowed to trump safety; no man, woman or child can ever be lost to a cold calculation of financial efficiency; and, if we fail, we prove that we can be more brutal than the sea could ever prove to be.

[Goverment Appointments, February 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, a failed candidate, Cecil Clarke, is getting $135,000 a year guaranteed. It is like a mini-Senate seat, is it not?

Cecil Clarke, Kevin MacAdam and a dozen or more others get “freedom 45” as ACOA and ECBC show the door to dozens of their own employees. All of these employees won competitions on merit and contributed to the professionalism of those organizations and they are getting the pink slips.

Would the government acknowledge that the budget cuts, the patronage scandal and the internal morale issues are hurting these--

[Goverment Appointments, February 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, morale within the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation is not good. A minimum of 44 pink slips are about to be handed out, with more on the way.

Professionals, hired on merit and who contributed so much to the agencies' performance, are being shown the door, all while failed Conservative hacks, like Cecil Clarke, walk into guaranteed jobs worth $135,000 a year.

Would the government acknowledge that morale at ACOA and ECBC is being hurt by the patronage scandal that it created?

[Government Appointments, February 7th, 2012]

Oh, no, Mr. Speaker, they are not just investigating these circumstances. They are investigating a lot of circumstances at ACOA.

On the eve of thousands of federal public servants losing their jobs, a group of failed Tory candidates and cronies is flaunting the rules and is immune to the pain of any job cuts.

Yes, the Public Service Commission is investigating inappropriate hiring decisions at the regional offices of ACOA and ECBC. What is the common thread here in all the appointments? A cosy relationship with the Minister of National Defence.

With the lives of thousands of public servants about to be thrown into turmoil, will Peter-nage--

[Government Appointments, February 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Kevin MacAdam is a failed Conservative candidate and hand-picked insider of the Minister of National Defence.

More recently, however, he landed as director general of ACOA's P.E.I. operations, a public service position that required French language proficiency and working in, you guessed it, P.E.I. for the job.

Here is the glitch: Mr. MacAdam does not speak a word of French and he has been living in Ottawa since being appointed. He will not even study French in P.E.I. at one of the three institutes there for the purpose. This is all a product of Peter-nage.

Will the government concede that those pushed to the front of the line for government jobs go to the front of the line when the pink slips are handed out very soon?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, February 3rd, 2012]

Since January 1, 2010, for each Minister, Minister of State and Parliamentary Secretary, how many times did he or she travel by government-owned or leased aircraft inside or outside of Canada, and for each trip: (a) what was the departure point and date; (b) what was the arrival point and date; (c) what type of aircraft was used; (d) who owned each aircraft; (d) who accompanied the Minister; (e) what was the purpose of the trip; (f) what is the source of funds and budget that was used to pay for each trip; (g) what was the total cost; and (h) what was the menu for in-flight meals made available to the Minister or other travelers?

[Business of Supply, February 2nd, 2012]

Madam Speaker, the words of the minister and the Prime Minister are now written in stone. We need to find out if their actions are written in stone.

I want to ask the minister a very direct question. Is there any intention to either create a change in policy or in legislation to the Old Age Security Act, as it applies to the guaranteed income supplement, to limit the use of optioning when it comes to the withdrawal of registered retirement income funds?

The minister has said that no current beneficiary of the OAS, which, by implication, includes the GIS, will have any benefit or any opportunity of a benefit reduced or cut in any way.

We know there is a requirement of the government to make a technical amendment to the Old Age Security Act for the allowance of optioning as it applies to RRIFs to be a legal initiative. It is, however, the policy of the government to allow that. Will that be retained? Will there be a technical amendment to the OAS Act in the upcoming--

[Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act, February 1st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on a question that I presented this afternoon during question period. I did not get an answer from the minister, so I will ask it of that member.

I had raised the question of whether there would be any changes in policy or legislation that were being contemplated by the government regarding the Old Age Security Act. I raised it from the premise that previous changes had been made to the policy, which affected current beneficiaries of the old age security benefits under the guaranteed income supplement in 2010.

The government has said that there will be no changes that affect current pensioners. I could not get an answer from the minister though when I asked if the government was contemplating any changes in either policy or legislation to the OAS Act. Is the answer yes or no?