Jean-Pierre Blackburn

[Securities, March 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, it is also our responsibility to protect Canadians when they make investments. As former Minister of National Revenue, I saw some situations where people had gotten hurt, where they had been robbed and swindled out of their earnings.

It is time to clean things up. It is time to have a national securities commission, and I repeat, Quebec will not be required to join the commission if it chooses not to.

[Securities, March 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the member knows that this is not the first time this subject has come up. We talked about it during the last session of Parliament, and once again, our desire to have a single securities commission in Canada was in the throne speech.

That said, the Bloc must note that the provinces are not required to participate. If they do not want to, they will not be required. I think that we also have the right to manage this country and to offer protection to taxpayers for their securities.

[Taxation, March 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, as we know, with equalization, poorer provinces receive money from the federal government.

Quebec is one of the provinces that receives the most money. This year, Quebec's transfer payments were not cut, they were increased.

As for Quebec's demands concerning the harmonization of the GST, talks are ongoing. The parties should be allowed to conclude these discussions.

[Taxation, March 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, when preparing the budget, we consider the needs of all the provinces and what is best for the country as a whole. I would like to remind this member and his political party, the Bloc, that Statistics Canada just announced that, in February, 21,000 jobs were created in Canada and the unemployment rate dropped from 8.3% to 8.2%.

This government is responsible and has put in place measures that are working.

[Taxation, March 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, once again, when the Minister of Finance prepares his budget, he meets with the private sector experts known as economists.

The member complains about the banks. Yet yesterday he said that they were making hefty profits. Surely, these people are in a good position to advise the Minister of Finance.

I want to say again that the government bases its projections on average private sector forecasts. This is nothing new. We have been doing this since 1994. These forecasts are credible and based on expert advice.

[Taxation, March 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the budget is prepared in consultation with private sector stakeholders. The economic forecasts in the budget are based on an overall average provided by private business.

Moreover, economists largely agree that this is a reasonable basis for planning our budget. I encourage Kevin Page to meet with these economists, who say that we are even being prudent in our budget estimates.

[Employment Insurance, March 11th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, we introduced transitional measures on September 5, 2008, for a period of 18 months. These measures allow the communities of the Lower St. Lawrence and North Shore area to work fewer weeks to qualify for EI and to receive additional weeks of benefits.

These are transitional measures and we have not yet decided if we are going to renew them. However, we have done a great deal to improve employment insurance.

[Veterans Affairs, March 10th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

First of all, I would like to point out the excellent work done by the previous Minister of Veterans Affairs, which was much appreciated by our Canadian veterans.

Having said that, I would like to remind my colleagues that we have two types of assistance for our veterans who unfortunately are injured: first, they receive up to $276,000 in a lump sum payment; then, they are entitled to a rehabilitation program that provides them with up to 75% of their salary until they find a new job.

[Employment Insurance, March 9th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, once again, I would like to remind the Bloc members that, over the past few months, we have implemented no fewer than six new measures to help workers who have lost their jobs. We have also made a huge investment of $4 billion to support the economy and ensure that work on projects across Canada begins in the next few weeks and months.

Every time we have implemented measures to help workers, the Bloc has voted against us.

[Employment Insurance, March 8th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member forgot to take this fact into account: the package of measures we introduced last year with respect to employment insurance is still in effect and represents additional costs of approximately $6 billion.

We have taken reality into account. We have frozen the EI premium rate at $1.73 per $100 of insurable earnings. Those two measures are intended strictly to help those who are struggling through difficult economic times. What do they have against us doing that?

I repeat, we have put an additional $6 billion toward employment insurance.