Jean-Pierre Blackburn

[Employment Insurance, May 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, once again, we consulted Canadians when we brought in our economic action plan. We implemented measures to support the economy and help those who were having a hard time finding jobs. We are providing an extra five weeks of employment insurance benefits. The Bloc Québécois would have provided just two. Anyone who is entitled to 30 weeks of employment insurance would get nothing more under the Bloc's proposal, while our initiative will provide five extra weeks. That is why our plan is better.

[Employment Insurance, May 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the Bloc Québécois has made a series of proposals. It knows perfectly well that it will never be held accountable because it will never be in charge of a budget in this House. We, on the other hand, have to make decisions based on the needs of the people. We are going through hard economic times right now. We think that it is important to give people more opportunities and to enable them to collect employment insurance for a longer period of time. Instead of just two weeks, as they have proposed, we are offering five.

[Employment Insurance, May 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, before we tabled our economic action plan, we consulted all Canadians. People wanted more flexibility during tough economic times. We looked at different options, and instead of adding two weeks, as the member is proposing, we are adding five weeks when people need it most, because it takes time to find a job.

[Employment Insurance, May 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, of course, during tough economic times such as these, we need to have compassion for people who are losing their jobs and are in difficulty. Our employment insurance system is based on the unemployment rate in a given region. The higher the unemployment rate, the fewer hours people have to work to qualify for employment insurance. As well, our economic action plan added five weeks to the benefit period so that people can receive employment insurance longer when they are going through a difficult time.

[Agri-food Industry, April 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I would again point out that it is important for consumers to have something to go on. Consumers themselves want that. As well, we have consulted the industry and the stakeholders. They agreed that we should go ahead with this legislation. That does not mean that we do not hear comments from time to time. We are listening. In fact, I had an opportunity again, recently, to meet with some of them. We want a clear focus and we want consumers to have something to go on. We are working to achieve this.

[Agri-food Industry, April 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we believe it is important for consumers to have something to go on when buying products at the grocery store. For that purpose, we have adopted the 98% standard for products of Canada. Companies that do not meet that standard can put on their product that it was processed in Canada, using blueberries from Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean for example, or some other words to that effect.

[Employment Insurance, April 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, once again, at the time we implemented our economic action plan, we consulted Canadians and the people in the regions in order to learn what we could do to help them out. People prefer five extra weeks of employment insurance benefits at the end to two weeks at the start.

It is far more useful, at a time when we are coping with economic difficulties, to have five weeks more at the end, at a time when people may take longer to find new jobs.

[Employment Insurance, April 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, in difficult economic times, it is important to act on a number of fronts to help people keep their jobs as well as to stimulate economic activity.

That is what we did in our action plan, for instance, the planned infrastructure investments of $33 billion, including $1,350 in tax credits to encourage people to renovate their homes and thereby help out the forestry and manufacturing sectors. We also added five weeks to employment insurance to provide people with more available funds.

[Organic Products, April 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we are discussing organic products. It is important that we help consumers discern what kind of products they are buying. Naturally, we want to have labelling that indicates the contents of the product they are purchasing. In addition, it is important to have standards that are aligned with the international system. We must have consistent standards in our respective countries. The ISO 17011 standard will be implemented to ensure that everyone knows where we are headed in this matter.

[Business of Supply, April 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the speech by my colleague.

When harmonizing the federal and provincial taxes, you generally try to tax the same products. However, it was striking for me to hear the member talk about books. We know that this category of products is taxed at the federal level, but is not taxed by Quebec. The member of the Bloc Québécois has quite an approach. In his view, the whole of Canada must adjust to the desires of the Bloc Québécois. He does not have the national vision which would require the tax to be the same everywhere.

Moreover, he spoke of recession and economic hardship. I am the minister of National Revenue. Does my colleague know how much Quebec taxpayers are paying for the federal government to administer the GST, the QST and income taxes while Quebec does the same? The Government of Quebec spends $445 million a year to administer this tax by itself, while the federal government already has the structure to do it. I am not saying that Quebec must let us administer it, but people need to know exactly how much it costs.