House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2015, with 38% of the vote.
National Defence May 15th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the mismanagement of this file is truly worrisome. On the one hand, the Auditor General claims that the Department of National Defence knew the total cost of the F-35 jets. On the other hand, the Deputy Minister of National Defence is saying that he does not know where the estimated total cost came from.
Could the minister of self-defence help out his deputy minister, or will the minister continue to make excuses for keeping the information from Canadians?
Citizenship and Immigration May 14th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the minister has already had to backtrack on certain parts of his bill—a bill that looks like it was written on a cocktail napkin. Now it appears as though history is going to repeat itself.
As things now stand, potential immigrants have a better chance of settling in Canada if they have a job offer, and the Conservatives would like put even more emphasis on this approach. However, doing things this way could lead to cases of abuse. An internal evaluation of Citizenship and Immigration Canada found that there may be trafficking in job offers. When things are done in haste, mistakes are made.
Are the Conservatives going to redo their homework rather than encourage fraud?
Petitions May 11th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the second petition deals with a subject of interest to millions of Canadians, old age security.
The petitioners are asking the government to maintain funding for old age security, and to make the necessary investments to enhance guaranteed income supplement benefits and end poverty for all seniors.
Petitions May 11th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I would like to present two petitions today.
The first reminds us that the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has proposed a summit on nuclear disarmament and that in 2010 the Senate and the House unanimously passed a motion encouraging the Government of Canada to deploy a major worldwide Canadian diplomatic initiative in support of preventing nuclear proliferation
In short, the petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to invite all countries to join Canada in undertaking discussions about imposing a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons.
Aerospace Industry May 11th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister loves to go to the far north for his annual photo shoot. However, Canadians want concrete action.
With every passing day, the RADARSAT Arctic surveillance project is falling behind. While the minister dithers, MDA Corporation will have to lay off its scientists.
Why not honour these funding commitments? Why encourage the brain drain?
Foreign Affairs May 3rd, 2012
Mr. Speaker, problems are resurfacing at SNC-Lavalin. Questions were raised when the company built a prison for Gadhafi. Now we have learned that the problem could be much bigger. There is talk of millions of dollars in bribes to senior managers in North Africa. In addition, Swiss authorities were the first to take action.
My question is simple: were the Conservatives asleep at the switch, or did they have their heads buried in the sand?
Questions Passed as Orders for Returns April 23rd, 2012
With respect to financial assistance issued by Export Development Canada (EDC): (a) for the fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, what is the total value of general corporate purpose loans; (b) what is the due diligence procedure regarding general corporate purposes loans; (c) what standards are used to assess the potential adverse environmental, social and human rights impacts associated with corporate activities that are funded through general corporate purpose loans; (d) what sources of information are used in order to assess the compliance standards referenced in subquestion (c); (e) what is EDC’s process for monitoring ongoing compliance by its clients with the standards referenced in subquestion (c), and what steps are taken in the event of non-compliance; (f) for all debt relief initiatives designed to reduce sovereign debt for each of the fiscal years from 1999-2000 to 2010-2011, (i) how many payments were received from the Government of Canada, (ii) what is the amount of payment, (iii) what countries received debt relief; (g) what is the total value of loans, lines of credit, guarantees and insurance provided by EDC to companies incorporated in tax havens as defined by the OECD in 2009, 2010 and 2011; (h) for all loans, lines of credit, guarantees and insurance to companies for exploration, extraction, transportation and processing of oil, gas and coal, for the fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, (i) what is the name of the client for each transaction, (ii) what is the value of each transaction, (iii) what is the country of operation for each transaction; and (i) for all credit facilities and loans to Talisman Energy Inc. since 2006, (i) what is the dollar amount of each transaction, (ii) what is the description of each transaction, (iii) what is the country of investment for each transaction, (iv) are any applications currently being assessed?
Canadian Human Rights Act April 5th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his presentation and the bill he introduced in the House. If I may, I would like to thank him personally as well as on behalf of a significant proportion of my Laurier—Sainte-Marie constituents.
If this bill is passed, a number of people in my riding will benefit. These are people who make an extraordinary contribution to the cultural, social and economic life of Laurier—Sainte-Marie.
Does my colleague believe that his bill will help not only the people targeted, but also society as a whole?
Questions on the Order Paper April 5th, 2012
With respect to Export Development Canada’s (EDC) 2010 Corporate Social Responsibility Report and other commitments to social responsibility: (a) what methodology does EDC employ in its human rights assessments; (b) what criteria are employed by EDC to determine whether a human rights assessment will be undertaken for Category A and B projects; (c) to date, on the basis of what policy has EDC not publicly disclosed its human rights assessment methodology; (d) to date, on the basis of what policy has EDC not publicly disclosed the precise amounts of its loans, guarantees and insurance policies; (e) what is the definition of “benchmark” used by the Environmental and Social Review Directive; (f) what is the process for benchmarking projects by the Environmental and Social Review Directive; and (g) before issuing a $1 billion line of credit to Vale Ltd. in 2010, did EDC conduct an evaluation process concerning Vale’s environmental and human rights practices in its overseas operations, and what overseas operations were reviewed?
Rights & Democracy April 4th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Conservatives announced that they were going to shut down Rights & Democracy, citing the organizations's many problems as the reason.
The problem is that the Conservatives inherited an organization that is respected around the world and when they started appointing their little friends to the organization and gave it a partisan direction, the ship started sinking.
Canada is losing its position and reputation when it comes to promoting democracy. This is another black eye for Canada.
Why do the Conservatives insist on undermining our credibility on the international stage?