Jim Flaherty

[Securities, November 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite says that transfers have been reduced. Nothing could be further from the truth. Transfers, in all respects, in equalization, in the Canada health transfer, in the Canada social transfer, have grown to a record level in Canada from this government to the provinces.

If the member opposite does not want to look it up, I can help with the number. Federal support has reached the level of $60.9 billion annually and will continue to grow each and every year. As we have made clear, we will not—

[Securities, November 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I wish the member opposite had listened to my answer to the last question. I do not want to repeat all that about what the Supreme Court of Canada decided. I invite the members opposite, including the member who asked the question, to read the decision of the court.

It is very plain that there is dual constitutional competence here. What does that mean? The opposition says that we should work together with the provinces. We are and the provinces are working together with us. The minister of finance for Ontario was here yesterday having a discussion with me about this subject and some other subjects.

The members want us to be working together, we are working together and we intend to achieve the goal together.

[Securities, November 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is out of step with what is happening in these discussions in Canada, where a number of provinces, with substantial capital markets, have engaged in very substantive discussions with the Government of Canada on this subject. I have also had a discussion with the minister of finance in Quebec.

The reality is, what the Supreme Court of Canada has said is that the provinces have some legislative competence in this area, constitutionally, and so does the Government of Canada, particularly with respect to systemic risk, which means we must work together if we are to accomplish the goal of greater security for Canadians, an appropriate place internationally for—

[Securities, November 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, we will respect the provinces' jurisdiction here.

The Supreme Court of Canada decided that the provincial governments and the Government of Canada had jurisdiction over this issue. We need to work on this some more and talk together, which we are currently doing.

[Intergovernmental Affairs, November 21st, 2012]

Of course we take the premiers seriously, Mr. Speaker, and we take the finance ministers seriously.

Jobs, the economy and prosperity are the number one priority of this government. The record shows that over the years we have been able to demonstrate the kind of competence, at least the best fiscal performance in the G7 here, in co-operation, I might add, with the provinces.

This is unlike the leader of the NDP, who has a different attitude toward the premiers. He said that there was no reason to talk to premiers because they were just the Prime Minister's messengers.

[Intergovernmental Affairs, November 21st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister meets regularly with the premiers and has done so since 2006. He has had more than 250 meetings and phone calls with the heads of other governments in Canada since 2006. I meet regularly with my provincial colleagues. We will be getting together next month. The other ministers do as well.

We certainly worked well with the provinces at the time of the fiscal crisis several years ago during the recession with the stimulus plan. We worked very well together and it helped Canada recover faster than any other country during that difficult time.

Of course the New Democrats voted against that stimulus plan and now—

[Intergovernmental Affairs, November 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, now we know where the opposition sets the bar for its fiscal performance. It is to try to catch up with Greece. We aim higher on this side of the House.

We are a leading economy in the G7, as acknowledged throughout industrialized societies. We are looking forward to the economic growth that we have in Canada and in the United States, being aware always of the turbulence that is out there in the U.S. and in Europe.

[Intergovernmental Affairs, November 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister, of course, meets regularly with the premiers. There have been over 250 meetings and phone calls since 2006. I, of course, meet with the finance ministers regularly. We will have our federal-provincial-territorial finance ministers' meeting later in December, as we usually do. I just finished a lengthy meeting with the minister of finance from Ontario.

[Public-private Partnerships, November 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, PPP Canada Inc. has been remarkably successful and is announcing more and more partnerships, not only with certain municipalities but with aboriginal groups and first nations in Canada, with projects from coast to coast to coast. This is a crown corporation that operates in an objective arm's length manner. It reviews applications on the basis of merit. We do not comment, of course, on applications under review.

I appreciate the interest of the member opposite in PPP Canada Inc. It does provide greater value to taxpayers and helps meet Canada's infrastructure needs.

[Budget Implementation, November 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, us guys are worried about jobs in Canada. Them guys are not so worried. It matters.

What government can do is control our spending. We are controlling our spending. We can stimulate job creation. We did it in 2009-10. We are doing it again. If the official opposition, the NDP, actually cared about job creation in our country, then it should expedite passing the hiring credit for small business. We know it works. It will affect more than 500,000 businesses in Canada.