Joe Oliver

[Business of Supply, May 14th, 2014]

Mr. Chair, that information is not currently available.

[Business of Supply, May 14th, 2014]

Mr. Chair, first let me thank the hon. member opposite for inviting me. This is the second time in a row. Apparently I am more popular with the NDP caucus than I realized.

In the Finance budget, the main estimates are $120 million; $115 million are operating. About 5% of the budget was reduced.

[Employment, May 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we know that the hon. member has problems with numbers and problems listening. The fact is that over one million new jobs were created. The member is picking and choosing among different studies. There are different ways to analyze, but the fact is that Canada is doing better than most other G7 countries. We are very confident that we are going to continue the growth and reach a budgetary surplus next year.

[Employment, May 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government is focusing on what is important to Canadians: jobs and economic growth. Although the global economy remains fragile, our economic policies have helped protect Canada. More than one million net new jobs have been created since July 2009, almost 90% of which are full time and more than 80% of which are in the private sector.

[Employment, May 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, individual monthly numbers can be volatile, so we sympathize with those Canadians who lost their jobs in April, but as we have said repeatedly, Canada is not immune to the fragility of the international economy.

However, our job growth record has been very strong since the depths of the global recession. We are among the best in the G7 and have created over one million net new jobs, nearly 85% in the private sector and nearly 90% full time.

[Pensions, May 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is fairly obvious that the Ontario government, the Ontario Liberals, are attacking the federal government to divert attention from their economic record.

Here is what our government has done: lowered taxes, provided opportunities for savings, created over one million jobs, and generated economic growth. In contrast, the Ontario government is going heavily into debt and raising taxes. Its misguided provincial pension plan would cost employees and employers $3.5 billion a year.

[Employment, May 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government is focused on what matters most: jobs and economic growth. It is rather rich for the Liberals to be criticizing our government's record on job creation. They voted against every job creation measure our government has put forward, including freezing EI rates, which would provide certainty and flexibility for workers and employers; tax cuts for manufacturers; and $70 billion in predictable and stable job-creating infrastructure.

The Liberal Party does not even have a plan for the economy and job growth.

[Taxation, May 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our Conservative government is focused on what matters to Canadians, namely jobs and economic growth. The employment rate might be unstable from one month to the next, and we sympathize with the Canadians who lost their jobs in April. Nevertheless, overall, Canada has one of the best records in the G7 for creating jobs, namely one million net jobs since the height of the recession. Some 90% of those jobs are full time and over 80% are in the private sector.

[The Economy, May 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is very clear that unemployment is getting better in Canada. Nevertheless, there are sectoral problems, particularly in the natural resources area, where there are hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be needed over the next decades. There are regions in the country where there are skilled labour forces that companies need to fill. Therefore, it is critically important that we bridge the gap between the labour needs and the unemployment. We are doing that through our job creation program.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, May 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, without an agreement in place, our financial institutions would still have to comply with FATCA. This would have required banks to report information directly to the IRS, and deny basic banking services to clients. Furthermore, both banks and their clients would have been subject to a 30% withholding tax. With an agreement in place, this will not happen.