Jim Maloway

[Economic Recovery Act (stimulus), October 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, unlike the member for Burlington, I enjoyed the speech from the member for Mississauga South.

I have noticed that he does not necessarily follow the Liberal line and the Liberal caucus on a number of bills. I know on Bill C-23, the Canada-Colombia trade act, he has some independent thought on it as he has on some other bills. I admire him for stepping out of the box a little and not blindly following his caucus. As well, he was the only Liberal member not to say how he would vote on the bill. He spent some time talking about the issue of relevance.

I appreciate the fact that there is some latitude given here, but the members have to deal with Bill C-51 at some point during their speeches. That is what we are dealing with at this point.

I suspect he is like the person looking through the department store window. He really wants to be on this side on this issue, but he has to stand up to his caucus and say so.

[Economic Recovery Act (stimulus), October 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it took the member for Huron—Bruce a while to get to Bill C-51 as well in his speech, but when he did he dealt with some of the statistics that I am looking for on the home renovation tax credit program and the first time homebuyers program.

I would like to ask the member how many first time homebuyers have taken part in the program? I realize that at the end of the day we will not know until the year is up as to whether or not this program has been of benefit. The question is whether or not the program is the motivating factor for first time homebuyers in the first place, or it may be just because house prices have dropped and first time homebuyers are jumping into the market.

On the issue of the home renovation tax credit, my colleague mentioned that 4.6 million Canadians will be taking advantage of it. I wonder if that is a projected figure or whether he knows that to be the case.

I wanted to ask him too whether he would intervene with the parliamentary secretary and the minister to make certain that the government announces an extension of this popular program?

[Economic Recovery Act (stimulus), October 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the member's speech was great, unfortunately, it was on the wrong bill. I thought he was supposed to be talking about Bill C-51. In that vein, I would like to ask him a question about something that does apply to the bill, which is the home renovation tax credit.

I understand his party supports the home renovation tax credit and has said that if the Liberals become the government, they would certainly honour the program. However, has he not noticed that the Conservatives have only made this a temporary program? The first-time homebuyers' tax credit was brought in as a continuous program, but the renovation tax credit is only a one-year event. In fact, they have spent as much money advertising the program as they are probably going to give out in tax credits.

Does he think the government should make a commitment to extend this program beyond one year?

[Economic Recovery Act (stimulus), October 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-51 implements the first-time home buyers' tax credit, and that is an ongoing government program.

However, the home renovation tax credit, which is much vaunted and touted by the government and much advertised, is only planned to be a one year effort. How many people were projected to take advantage of this program? Why is it not an ongoing program if it is so popular? Given the big advertising budget the government has allocated to this program, I am just wondering whether it will spend more on advertising than on tax credits.

On that basis, I would like to encourage the government to make an announcement very shortly that it will extend this program on an ongoing basis.

[Economic Recovery Act (stimulus), October 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to say at the outset that while we in the NDP support Bill C-51, I have a question for the parliamentary secretary regarding the CPP amendments.

One of the benefits is a reduced incentive to retire early and an increased incentive to stay in the workforce longer. I would like to know from the parliamentary secretary what the government's models show as to the projected number of people who will be affected by this. In other words, how many people will take a pass on early retirement and elect to stay in the workforce longer, based on the formula it proposed, and what sort of basis did it present for these numbers?

[October 5th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, that is really part of the problem. People buy the sunscreens and they do not read the information about them. As a matter of fact, most people cannot pronounce the chemicals that are in the sunscreens in the first place.

Therefore, I would suggest that the government, rather than spending a million dollars on its advocacy advertising campaign to get re-elected, it should take some of that money out and perhaps do an advertising campaign on the health risks associated with sunscreens.

For example, there is some suggestion that there are harmful chemicals lurking in sunscreens that are doing more harm than good. In fact, some international studies have found that the greatest rise in melanoma occurred in countries where chemical sunscreens were heavily promoted.

I would be willing to provide for the member some of the additional chemicals that are of concern and perhaps he could look into them further.

The environmental working group, in a June 2007 study, said that 785 sunscreens were analyzed and 84% of them provided inadequate protection from the sun's harmful rays or contained ingredients with safety concerns.

I have more information for the member if he would like to talk to me about it.

[October 5th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to address this issue tonight.

On May 8, I asked a question about sunscreens that use harsh chemicals such as oxybenzone and Benzophenone-3, which dermatologists and researchers say can cause severe skin reactions in adults and children. This actually happened to two of my constituents who filed a complaint with me in this regard.

I asked the Minister of Health to assure Canadians that their sunscreen will protect them from the sun and that it is safe to use. The minister's answer was that the government was promoting the health and safety of Canadians through the chemicals management plan, that it would be monitoring the chemicals on a regular basis and that it does act appropriately when complaints occur. However, that was the end of his answer. It did not really give my constituents the satisfaction that they sought.

I would like to follow up on that by asking the minister whether the government issues warnings or cautions, medical or otherwise, and, if it does not, why it does not. I also would like to know whether any tests have been done on this particular type of sunscreen or a variety of sunscreens that have these particular chemicals in them, and more I might add.

I also would like to ask if there have been any other complaints about this particular brand or any other brand containing these chemicals and whether there are any safe alternatives. In reading the literature out there, I understand there are some safe alternatives but, once again, companies have products to sell and I do not know whether there is proof of what they are saying.

I would like to know if there are any other complaints and whether there have been any settlements made.

In doing some of our research on this matter, my office looked up data that indicated that despite increased education in this particular area, the Skin Cancer Foundation said that more than 600,000 new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year and that the figure was rising. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States and is responsible for 8,500 deaths annually.

The member will be aware that one of the members of this House died of skin cancer a number of years ago and that one member, who just recently retired from this House, was diagnosed with skin cancer.

This is a very big area that we should be looking at here because all of us, at some point, are exposing ourselves to the sunscreens. I could read a list of the types of chemicals that are involved, in addition to the ones I have listed. I would just like a deeper response than what I got that day to my question as to how on top of this issue the government is, where it is now and where it is planning to be on this in a year or two.

[Petitions, October 5th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to introduce a petition calling for a stop to wage rollbacks and a restoration of pay equity to public service workers.

The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to support Motion No. 384 and rescind the provisions of Bill C-10 that violate workers' rights to collective bargaining, including arbitrary awards and equal pay for work of equal value.

[Committees of the House, October 5th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the member covered the subject rather well in his speech.

It is really hard to have confidence in the government when the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs basically said that there is no war going on over there. Clearly, he is a bit confused. Maybe he should let the troops in on that piece of information from the government.

Canadians deserve to be consulted on this whole question. From listening to the media reports lately I think that the fix may be in on this and the government, supported by the Liberals, may move at some point to extend the mission. Canadians should be consulted on this subject either through a referendum or an election before Canada signs on for a never ending commitment.

I liked the member's statement about the rotation of troops within Afghanistan. It seems to me that we are in the worst position within the country and we should move our troops around.

I did have some things to say about the poppy trade, because it seems to me the member asked for a market for the poppies. I have read articles about the fact that Africa could use the drugs as painkillers to help millions of people who are without painkillers. There is a market for the poppy crop in Africa.

I would ask if the member would like to elaborate on any of these points.

[Committees of the House, October 5th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, when we first went into Afghanistan, it was under a Liberal government, as I recall. At that time people in the public generally felt that we were there in a peacekeeping role. That was the role of our armed forces. Many people were surprised to find out that our role had changed to active fighting in the most dangerous area of the country.

Just today I heard a military source on the radio claiming that leaving in 2011 would be viewed as abandoning Afghanistan. We can see the campaign has already started to prolong our involvement in this war without end. We should not forget that this war has been going on for many, many years. The Russians were in there for a number of years and other countries have had deep involvement and it has never concluded.

I want to applaud the member for his excellent presentation and ask him whether he could review these options that he has talked about and explain them in a little more detail.