Joan Crockatt

[Women's Empowerment, June 11th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I know it is almost Father's Day, but it gives me great pleasure to stand today to honour one of my heroes, my mother, Marjorie Nattress, who is with us.

She is a true-blue Albertan, the kind of person who helped build Canada. Her mother had a political bent and held a “Pink Tea” for Nellie McClung, when the Famous Five were fighting to achieve some of the great “firsts” for women in Canada.

My mother was the first in her family to graduate from university. As a young public health nurse, she and my dad ran a tiny hospital in the coal mining town of Luscar.

Moving to Lloydminster, she started the first CPR course and the first candy stripers to train young girls in nursing. After seeing some women on the streets fleeing abuse, she co-founded Interval Home, one of the first women's shelters in Alberta. She has been an outspoken advocate against violence against women and girls, which is also passion of our government.

When they retired, she and my dad served as medical missionaries in Lesotho.

She is a pillar of her church and the strength of our family. I thank mom for being a trailblazer.

[The Environment, June 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, countries around the world are addressing climate change while keeping their economies in mind.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama brought in new carbon regulations for power plants, and we welcome those. This week, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott reiterated that countries should be addressing climate change but we should not clobber the economy.

In Canada, we believe that energy and the environment work together. Would the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment please tell the House what actions we are taking to reduce GHGs while keeping our economy strong?

[Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1, June 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the government consistently hears from the opposition how X, Y, and Z are not being done to protect the environment, when it is actually this government that is doing the most to protect Canada's environment that we have seen.

We are reducing greenhouse gas levels. That is something that went up 30% under the Liberals. We are making sure that our parkland is protected, and this budget implementation bill would go further to help us do that in the budget, which is supported by the implementation bill. We would see an increase in money going to our national parks, and we would be supporting conservation and encouraging donations to ecologically sensitive land by providing tax relief for people who give donations. We have seen a large amount of ecologically sensitive land that has been donated because of these kinds of tax measures. Those are real things that are happening to improve Canada's environment.

[Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1, June 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I love the hyperbole coming from the other side.

The member opposite is well aware that the world went through the worst recession since the 1930s in 2008, and this country emerged with the strongest economy of the G7. That was an incredible accomplishment. We did it without cutting transfer payments to the provinces, like the Liberals did, without cutting transfer payments to Alberta, like the Liberals did, and we have restored those injustices and have increased transfer payments while moving to a balanced budget next year, which the residents of Calgary Centre heartily applaud.

[Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1, June 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this, and I thank the hon. member opposite, because the hon. member knows that the Minister of Transport has been working very hard to improve rail safety. A number of measures have already been announced, which I am sure she is well aware of.

There is another thing the NDP could be doing. New Democrats know that the safest way to transport many of the goods that are going by rail now is through pipelines. Yet the party opposite continues to oppose pipelines and even goes so far as to undermine efforts by Canadians to build pipelines in other countries by going down to the States and working against our industry. If they want us to use the absolute safest method to transport things like oil and gas, for example, they should get on the pipeline bandwagon.

[Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1, June 4th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud and pleased to be able to speak on behalf of the residents of Calgary Centre tonight on this budget implementation bill. I can assure the members opposite that these words are mine and mine alone, so any errors or omissions are attributable to me.

Before coming to speak to the House tonight, I looked up the word “responsible” in the dictionary. This is what I found: “Based on or characterized by good judgment and sound thinking”. Nothing could describe this budget better than those words.

With the leadership of the Prime Minister, Canadians can be assured that this budget, and their tax dollars, are being managed with sound thinking and good judgment. Of course, this is completely in contrast to what the New Democrats have shown us they are capable of.

I do not mean to sound like I am giving an English course here, but I also went and looked up the word “irresponsible”. Here is what I found: “Lacking a sense of responsibility; unreliable or untrustworthy”.

An example of that would be someone who thinks, for example, that budgets just balance themselves. It is clear that the Liberal leader has no idea what it actually takes to balance a budget. That is missing a pretty essential attribute for someone who would like to be the prime minister.

Can members imagine, just for a moment, what would happen if they ran a small business and did not take the operating budget seriously and if they did not take into account revenue versus expenditures and the cost of running the business and just spent whenever, whatever? I guess if people grew up with everything handed to them on a silver platter, they might think that way. They might think budgets just balance themselves, but I can assure the House that it is not the case for the rest of us. Average Canadians, like the amazingly resourceful people in my riding of Calgary Centre, remind me of this every day. They know that balancing the budget takes a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of tough choices, and yes, it does take leadership, but the rewards are many.

When I go door knocking in Calgary Centre, people tell me the same thing every time. Their number one priority is seeing a balanced budget, and they are exceptionally happy to know that economic action plan 2014, along with this implementation bill, would return us to a balanced budget in 2015. That is a promise delivered.

An interesting thing happens when we balance a budget. Suddenly we have more money, money that would have gone to the banks to pay interest. We have that money to put toward program spending and also to pay down our debt so that we are not leaving that debt for our children. We do not believe, on this side of the House, that we should be spending our kids' money.

As I said already, this did not happen by accident. For example, since budget 2010, we have done very broad based reviews in every single department that have focused on achieving savings without compromising service to Canadians. In fact, direct program spending has declined for three consecutive years. That is a trend Canada has not seen in decades.

Canadians have told us what is important to them. It is things like old age security and major transfers to other levels of government for health care and social programs. Therefore, health and social programs would continue to grow through transfers through 2018-19.

We have heard from some of the other members this evening about how important those transfers are to the rest of Canada. Our Conservative government knows that, and it continues to increase them. It is amazing that we have done all this while reducing spending on federal programs for three consecutive years while increasing the federal transfer payments to the provinces.

This has been important, too, for my province of Alberta, because we have rectified an old wrong that was perpetrated by the Liberals that previously gave Alberta less money per capita for health care than all other provinces. This budget, this year, would rectify that with $1 billion owed to Alberta coming back to it.

There is much more in this budget that deserves highlighting. For instance, last year Calgary was hit with a devastating flood. I have talked about that in the House before. It was one of the worst natural disasters in Canadian history, and I saw first-hand how people's lives were turned completely upside down.

Hundreds of my constituents asked for a national disaster mitigation program. This budget would deliver that. Once passed, it would provide $200 million over five years to establish a national disaster mitigation program.

We will work with provinces like Alberta and the territories and municipalities to build safer communities and to minimize the risk of repeating what happened last year in Calgary.

Economic action plan 2014 would also initiate a very important element, which is consultations with the insurance industry to explore a new approach to residential flood insurance.

I was amazed when I heard that Canada is the only G8 country that does not have residential flood insurance coverage. People can get flood insurance for their businesses, but not for their residences, generally. This leaves a lot of homeowners without adequate protection in the event of loss from overland flooding. We want to start that dialogue and will have it with insurance companies, along with the provinces and territories, to solve this problem.

We are not paying lip service here. These are concrete moves that are helping my constituents of Calgary Centre and all Canadians.

Even in the toughest economic times, our government has worked hard to reduce taxes for Canadian families and businesses, and these again are things from which we all benefit, even the members of the opposition. The federal tax burden is now the lowest it has been in 50 years. That is quite incredible.

Since taking office, our Conservative government has cut taxes 160 times. We have lowered the GST from 7% to 5%. We have introduced pension splitting for seniors, which leaves more money in their pockets. Did members know that now a single senior can earn $20,054 without paying any tax? A senior couple can have income of $40,108 and pay no income tax. Three hundred and eighty thousand seniors have been removed from the income tax rolls. That is real progress.

We have created the working income tax benefit to help ensure that low-income workers are now better off by taking a job than by not working.

Now an average family of four pays $3,400 a year less in tax. That is money in their pockets they can use or spend as they see fit.

However, we all know that taxes also help fund programs and services that Canadians rely on, so we are doing things like helping the sandwich generation. That is all of us who are looking after our moms and dads and our kids at the same time and are feeling stressed because we have jobs as well. The Canadian employers for caregivers action plan would work with employers to help people stay in the workforce while they are looking after that very important loved one.

We are going to keep closing tax loopholes so that all Canadians pay their fair share.

Quality of life is also important to us, so I want to spend a minute talking about quality of life initiatives for all Canadians.

Did members know that arts and culture contribute $8 billion every year to Canada's economy? That is not to mention the thousands of amazing rock performances and piano concertos and everything we love to go see. In my riding alone, this budget would help fund non-profit arts and culture events like Expo Latino, GlobalFest, the International Children's Festival and the Calgary Stampede. I look forward, as do my constituents of Calgary Centre, to attending a lot of those this summer.

Last, I want to talk about my second favourite colour, next to blue, and that is green, and that is because our government is making Canada greener every day. This Conservative government has added an area the size of Greece to our national parkland, and that is a legacy for us to enjoy now and for our kids to enjoy in the future. It is a real game-changer. The former U.S. energy secretary, Steven Chu, says that it is one of our country's most amazing accomplishments, and he does not know why we are not touting it elsewhere. I want Canadians to know that we are protecting our parkland.

This budget would also invest $391.5 million over the next five years for Parks Canada to make improvements to highways, bridges, and dams that are located in our national parks and along historic canals. This would build on our commitment to preserve Canada's natural heritage. We have continually allocated money to do this in iconic places like Sable Island, the Nahanni, and Waterton National Park. These are for future generations to share.

I am proud of this budget. This budget is a rock-solid example of balance, good judgment, and sound thinking.

I would be remiss if I did not add my thanks and those of my constituents to the late Jim Flaherty, on whose foundation our current finance minister is building.

This is a responsible budget that will continue to build on the Flaherty record and will continue to build on the Conservative strength of job growth and long-term prosperity.

Finally, I am also proud of what is not in this budget. There is no reckless spending, no NDP carbon tax, and no pie in the sky Liberal thinking.

[Energy Safety and Security Act, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, of course they will, and we heard some very interesting testimony at the natural resources committee recently about how energy development in Canada has actually extended our life spans. It has resulted in the reforestation of much of this country, because we used to take all of our fuel straight off the surface of the earth and cut down all the trees. Now, because of advancements in oil and gas and nuclear, we actually are living in a much greener country and on a greener planet than we used to.

Of course, we cannot go without mentioning our aboriginal Canadian citizens, because we are specifically targeting to work with them. We have been consulting with them and have heard that in resource development, they are often a community that can really benefit from this kind of activity.

[Energy Safety and Security Act, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am sorry. I apologize.

Greenhouse gases do not go down by themselves. The member opposite should know that the government's record is reducing greenhouse gases. We are more than halfway on our way to meeting our emissions targets, while the greenhouse gas levels went up 30% under the Liberals opposite.

The safety record in the Canadian offshore is absolutely phenomenal. We have a phenomenal track record. We have basically never had a consequential spill on our west coast. On our east coast, I went through the two spills: one was of 1,000 barrels and the other was of 38 barrels.

Believe me when I say that $1 billion is plenty, and it meets the criteria that are being used in other countries around the world, and exceeds them in many instances.

[Energy Safety and Security Act, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I think the member opposite, unfortunately, is using the Justin Trudeau model of “budgets balance themselves”. This is the party that—

[Energy Safety and Security Act, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am very surprised to hear the NDP worried about the taxpayer, but I am delighted to answer the question.

I have a particular interest in the nuclear industry, because I covered it as a natural resources reporter. I can tell members that this $1 billion is the right balance between providing adequate compensation for citizens if there is a nuclear incident and also holding companies to account.

We are moving to the polluter pays model. This limit is well above the liability limits that are being imposed on nuclear operators in many countries.

The NDP is never happy until it can actually shut down all of our industry in Canada.