James Moore

[Intergovernmental Relations, March 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister said and as some members mentioned in their budget speeches, the budget indicates that we will be working with the provinces to ensure that the program creates jobs for Canadians. My colleague should know that we have created 950,000 new jobs in Canada, which is the best job statistic of all G7 countries. We will continue to go in that direction and to create jobs in every region of the country by working with the provinces.

[Intergovernmental Relations, March 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, that is simply not true. As the Prime Minister said in the leaders' round in question period, our project is about working with provinces to ensure that Canadian jobs are available for Canadians, for those businesses as well, by the way, where we are seeing a growing gap between jobs that are available and Canadians' unwillingness to fill them, frankly, because they do not have the skills. We want to match the skills with the jobs, and this project is about that.

We will negotiate with the provinces, we will move forward and we will continue to invest in jobs and fight for Canadian jobs in a way that the NDP, frankly, simply does not understand.

[Canadian Heritage, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in the member's question he said that now Canada Day celebrations will be under the auspices of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The Department of Canadian Heritage has managed Canada Day celebrations for over 50 years. There is nothing new about that. I am surprised the member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre does not know anything about the largest public event in his own riding that happens every year on Canada Day. There is nothing new here.

Perhaps the member for Ottawa Centre could learn a little more about Ottawa Centre and then he could actually ask some accurate questions in the House.

[Official Languages, March 20th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, those accusations are completely false.

Marie-France Kenny, president of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, said, and I quote: We salute the commitments and efforts of this government for the results that they've received in protecting Canada's official languages.

She said the commitments and efforts of this government for the results that we have received in protecting Canada's official languages should be saluted.

[Official Languages, March 20th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in a word: yes.

That is why we held round tables and discussions across the country last year. We held 22 round tables, in every region of the country, and we held discussions with francophone minority communities—and with anglophone minority communities in Quebec—to ensure that our government will always protect the interests of both official languages in Canada.

[Official Languages, March 19th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, that is not the case. As the hon. member well knows, we take our obligations under the Official Languages Act very seriously. Incidentally, that is why we set up our five-year plan regarding the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality. That is also why we held unprecedented consultations for the next Roadmap that we are going to present very shortly.

I hope the hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst will like what we are doing to protect English and French in every region of the country.

[Library and Archives Canada, March 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as I have already said twice, and for the third time now, if the hon. member has questions about decisions made by Library and Archives Canada, he should invite Daniel Caron to appear before the committee to answer them.

I will just repeat it again in English, perhaps for the fourth time. Maybe I will have some luck with connecting on this one.

Library and Archives Canada operates at arm's length from the government. It does not consult us on its code of conduct. Internally, it has made this decision. If my colleagues have questions about that, they should invite Library and Archives Canada before the parliamentary committee and ask their reasonable questions.

[Library and Archives Canada, March 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, yes, we are very frightened of librarians. No, what the member is referring to is a code of conduct that was put in place by Daniel Caron, who is the head of Library and Archives Canada. The member should know, as well, that Library and Archives Canada operates at arm's length. We were not consulted on the code of conduct.

If there are controversies about the code of conduct, and I gather there are because the member for Vancouver Quadra asked this question earlier, I invite my colleague and the heritage critic for the NDP to invite Daniel Caron to come before committee to explain the code of conduct and to dispel any myths that the NDP seems to be spreading.

[Library andArchives Canada, March 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, that is simply not the case. For example, there is the issue of Library and Archives Canada, for which I am responsible as minister. She should have her critic invite Daniel Caron to come before the parliamentary committee to talk about this. Library and Archives Canada put forward a directive to its own staff, independent of the government. I was not briefed on it. It was its own decision. Library and Archives Canada has a code of conduct with its employees. It does not bar them from being involved or expressing views publicly. They can do so.

If my hon. colleague or the critic on heritage wants to have a more thorough conversation on this outside of 35 seconds, she should feel free to invite Daniel Caron to the committee, who will explain that her question is bunk.

[Ethics, March 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, since I am being asked the same question, I will give the same answer.

Mr. Penashue has taken responsibility for mistakes that were made on his campaign. When a byelection is called, I am certain that Mr. Penashue will have the opportunity to talk to his former and future constituents about the results that he has delivered to date and what he plans to do in the future.