Mr. Speaker, I made the decision on Tuesday to reject the proposed transaction. In my opinion, this transaction would not be of net benefit to Canada. I also noted that this letter was sent under subsection 23(1). It was a preliminary notice.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2008, with 57% of the vote.
Science and Technology April 10th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I made the decision on Tuesday to reject the proposed transaction. In my opinion, this transaction would not be of net benefit to Canada. I also noted that this letter was sent under subsection 23(1). It was a preliminary notice.
Aerospace Industry April 10th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I do not think there is a Canadian in any doubt today about who is standing up for Canadian interests in space. For sure, it is not the Liberal Party when its members stand in the House and disparage what we have accomplished, whether it is with Canadarm, with Dextre, with RADARSAT-2 or with the accomplishments of our astronauts in space who will go up on the next space shuttle.
Aerospace Industry April 10th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely remarkable that my friend is worried. We have only been dealing with this issue for some 30 days.
The essential preoccupation, as the Prime Minister pointed out, should be the fact that the member is associated with a party that in the course of 13 years in government never once stood up for Canadian interests and turned down close to 1,500 foreign investment applications over the duration of the Investment Canada Act. That should be his worry.
Aerospace Industry April 10th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, this lost confidence in part of the country is in the Liberals. It has nothing to do with the Canadian Space Agency.
Remarkable things are going on with Canadians in space: Canadarm1 and Canadarm2; Dextre, which was just launched on the space shuttle; RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2; the James Webb telescope; and a weather station on Mars will have Canadian lidar technology. All of this is going on, along with remarkable Canadians like Julie Payette and Bob Thirsk.
I would ask my hon. friend to get behind the Canadian Space Agency and support what we are doing in this country.
Automotive Industry April 9th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the hypocrisy is astounding. If it had been up to that member, there would not be a fund at all to fund anything. She should leave Ford to me. She should be in the House to vote on other matters that are before the House.
As for the record that she has left, she is going to have to be accountable to her constituents. She has left the faintest footprints with respect to industry in Canada.
Automotive Industry April 9th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, let us make sure that the record is clear.
That hon. member has sat on her hands for 13 years in relation to the issue of competitiveness. She sat on her hands for the 2008 budget that contained the automotive innovation fund. In 2007 she voted against the best manufacturing budget we have seen in a generation.
Her efforts could only be described successful in the way that Churchill described Liberals: lurching from failure to failure with enthusiasm.
Aerospace Industry April 9th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I would point out to the hon. member that the transaction is a proposed transaction. She will be aware from my previous statements in the House that any decisions which I have made or will make in the future with respect to this matter are governed by the Investment Canada Act. I will abide strictly by the requirements that are imposed in law under that statute.
Aerospace Industry April 9th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, this is not the case. The question is premature. I am studying the matter and examining the sale of MDA under the Investment Canada Act. In accordance with the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act. Canada will continue to use the RADARSAT-2 satellite.
Automotive Industry April 8th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, if I can assist the hon. member in bridging from bridges to jobs, the truth of the matter is that this bridge is central to our automotive industry and to the competitiveness of our industry.
The former government did not appreciate that. That is why the bridge is jammed up. That is why there are 8,000 tractor trailer units a day using the bridge, sometimes taking up to eight hours. We cannot be competitive if we allow that to persist. The former government did not do anything about it. It relates to jobs. We are dealing with it.
Automotive Industry April 8th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I welcome my friend to the House. To carry on dealing with things that were not dealt with, this government is taking care of infrastructure. My friend of course was not in the House, but at the time that there was a Liberal government in this country, we allowed a situation to develop. The Detroit-Windsor bridge crossing is a single bridge built before the Great Depression and carries more trade than the entire United States-Japanese trading relationship.
Yet, this bridge is beyond capacity. The former government did nothing about it. This government is addressing it. It is at the top of our priorities and we will fix that bridge situation.