House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2011, with 58% of the vote.
The Budget June 6th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative members for Saskatchewan have certainly stood up for Saskatchewan, for a budget that delivers $878 million in new money for the province of Saskatchewan. This is the largest per capita gain of any province in Canada.
Why the Liberals would be against that, I do not know. It is good for Saskatchewan. It is way more than the member for Wascana ever did for the province of Saskatchewan when he had the chance to do it.
Atlantic Accord June 6th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, it goes without saying that we have the greatest respect for Mr. Crosbie, who was a Progressive Conservative minister of finance in this place. I had the opportunity to speak with him about these issues during the course of the past several months and we value and respect his views.
However, in terms of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, which have accord agreements, the plain fact is that those accord agreements are the status quo agreements which they can choose to continue with or they can go with the modified O'Brien formula. However, no province will be worse off in Canada as a result of the new equalization scheme.
The Budget June 6th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, the Province of Nova Scotia has the option of electing the new system, the modified O'Brien system, this year or continuing with the Atlantic accords. The province has chosen, for this year at least, to elect the new modified O'Brien system.
What that means for the province in terms of transfers in budget 2007 is $256 million more than in the previous fiscal year. That is good for--
The Budget June 6th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, personal attacks like that always say more about the person saying them than about the person receiving them. It is unattractive, I must say, to have those kinds of personal attacks here.
However, on equalization--
The Budget June 6th, 2007
I know the member for Wascana wishes that his leader had not said that but he did say that. He said that the fiscal imbalance was a myth.
We are fixing the fiscal imbalance--
The Budget June 6th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, that question comes from a member of a party, the leader of which says that fiscal imbalance is a myth. Therefore, whatever that party has to say about equalization does not really matter because the leader of the party himself says that there is no fiscal imbalance.
Budget Implementation Act, 2007 June 5th, 2007
moved that Bill C-52, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 19, 2007, as amended, be concurred in at report stage with further amendments.
Corporate Takeovers June 5th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, the member opposite obviously did not notice that in the month of May we had the highest new automobile sales in the history of Canada.
But let us go back to the member for Markham—Unionville's statement in Paris. He is from the party that said it would scrap the GST. Then last year he became the president of the save the GST club. Now, in Paris, not Paris, Ontario but Paris, France, he said he wanted to raise the GST. So, now he is the president of the raise the GST club over on that side of the House.
Corporate Takeovers June 5th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, I am proud of the fact that since our government was elected there are more than 450,000 new jobs in Canada, that we have the lowest unemployment rate in 33 years, that we have the highest rate of labour participation in the history of Canada, and that we have reduced the public debt in this country in only 16 months at a record level.
That is what we have accomplished so far, unlike the member opposite who is not sure whether he wants to raise the GST again or not.
The Budget June 5th, 2007
Mr. Speaker, I swear I heard that question earlier.
The measures in the budget bill that the Liberals opposite propose to vote against include: $1.5 billion for environmental measures through the ecotrust; $600 million to support provinces and territories to put in place the wait times guarantee for health care; $570 million to Ontario for post-secondary education; $54 million for the Northwest Territories to cover payments relating to the previous formula arrangements; and environmentally, $30 million to the Great Bear Rainforest and the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. All of these fine measures we need to have—