House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2011, with 35% of the vote.
Forestry Industry April 20th, 2009
Mr. Speaker, we have a softwood lumber agreement with the United States. The agreement stipulates that we cannot give any benefits to Canadian companies unless similar benefits are offered in the American market. That being said, on Friday in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, socio-economic stakeholders and elected representatives met and agreed that they wanted access to credit and financing, but within the bounds of the softwood lumber agreement.
Contraband Tobacco Products April 2nd, 2009
Mr. Speaker, when someone applies for a tobacco producer's licence, a very stringent process is initiated. First we check with the RCMP for any criminal record. If they have one, it is certain that no licence will be issued. A licence is issued after the process is finished and the person has been found to be on the up and up. But if that person's status changes along the way and some criminal aspect comes into it, the licence will be revoked. Each time a licence is issued, we ask the RCMP to do a check.
Employment Insurance April 2nd, 2009
Mr. Speaker, do you know how long that two week waiting period has been in existence?
It has been around since 1971, some 38 years ago. When people take out insurance on their car or anything else they have a deductible, a waiting period.
They do not want to give anything more; they just want benefits to start two weeks earlier and end two weeks earlier. Not us. We want to give five extra weeks to those who lose their jobs. It is important when people lose their jobs to have the possibility of drawing five more weeks of benefits, and people agree with us on that.
Employment Insurance April 2nd, 2009
Mr. Speaker, once again, the hon. member would deprive those who lose their jobs, because they will be out of work longer in these times of economic difficulty. She wants to deprive them of five additional weeks of benefits. That is what they are proposing. They are proposing to start two weeks earlier and end two weeks earlier.
Not us. We are giving five extra weeks and it is important to do that at this point in time. That is the difference between their philosophy and ours. We do not want to impoverish people who lose their jobs, we want to help them longer.
Employment Insurance April 2nd, 2009
Mr. Speaker, the opposition member, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, does not understand that when we are in a difficult financial situation, it will take people longer to find a job or to return to the job they had before.
As an example, consider the layoffs announced today by Bombardier. What the Bloc is proposing is that people's benefits start two weeks earlier and end two weeks earlier. That is not what we want. We want to ensure that those who lose their jobs will receive EI benefits for a longer period. Instead of two weeks, we are giving five. Five weeks more means about $2,000.
The Economy April 2nd, 2009
Mr. Speaker, Canada is going through tough economic times, and we have introduced measures to help people who are losing their jobs. One of those measures extends the employment insurance benefit period by five weeks. Unlike the parties that want benefits to start and end two weeks earlier, we are proposing to add five weeks at the end. This is important, because people who lose their jobs may take longer to find new jobs. Our decision means that someone who is receiving $400 a week in employment insurance will get an additional $2,000.
Employment Insurance April 1st, 2009
Mr. Speaker, I will say once again that in view of the fact that a lot more people have applied for employment insurance, we have instituted special measures to accelerate the processing of applications: we have invested $60 million, hired more resources, among other things, and made changes so that people who have to fill out a form can do so electronically to speed up the process.
It is the same for people who benefit from work sharing and who, instead of having to fill out a form every two weeks, will only have to do so if there is a change.
We are definitely acting.
Taxation April 1st, 2009
Mr. Speaker, tax havens are indeed a very serious problem.
We tell Canadians that, of course, no matter where they earn their income, they must declare it and pay their fair share of income tax. That said, we are working with an international committee to try to move forward on this issue. We are even trying to organize a meeting with several countries in the near future to see how we can work together to resolve this issue or make some progress in order to protect our tax base.
Employment Insurance April 1st, 2009
Mr. Speaker, I will repeat that we conducted extensive consultations before presenting our action plan. People asked for additional help in terms of employment insurance.
We decided to provide five additional weeks to workers who lose their jobs at a time when our country is in a difficult economic situation because we believe that it is clearly more beneficial for them. Our proposal will help 400,000 individuals who have lost their jobs or are at risk of doing so over the next few months.
Employment Insurance April 1st, 2009
Mr. Speaker, once again, the Bloc Québécois has been asking the same question about the waiting period for 18 years. It does not look at the whole picture.
Take, for example, a worker who has 30 weeks of employment insurance. If we eliminate the waiting period, the only thing that happens is that benefits start two weeks earlier and stop two weeks earlier.
However, on top of these 30 weeks we are adding five more. If the individual receives $400 in employment insurance, that results in $2,000 more in his pockets compared to nothing for the other scenario.