Joe Volpe

[Conservative Party Flyer, November 23rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, there has been widespread condemnation of the Conservatives' abuse of public funds to transform ten percenters into partisan propaganda pieces. Imagine my disgust when I received a flyer at home from the Conservatives, trying to brand the Liberals, my party, as anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist and anti-Israel.

This is a new low for Conservatives. To print and to force taxpayers to pick up the tab for this pernicious, malicious and defamatory attack flyer is a disgrace. It dishonours all who serve in this place. Having served the Jewish community and others for over two decades, I know with great assurance that honesty is a paramount Jewish value and a quality dreadfully lacking in this government.

Will the Conservative Party now apologize to the Jewish community and to all Canadians for associating them with this offensive and dishonest flyer?

[Privilege, November 19th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is a question of privilege and I note that we have been addressing the privileges of specific members but also of members, generally, under the rubric of a particular party. I am one of those members who is most affected by the allegations, suggestions and insinuations, not of fact but of a fabrication of conclusions that are sheer slander. They are seen that way by anybody who is a reasonable individual.

No amount of separated fact from context is going to make the government's position any more legitimate. The fact of the matter is that there have been two perpetrations of injustice with this publicly funded piece of propaganda: first, against all adherence to the Liberal Party, which stands by the achievements of that party in government in order to move along a Canadian agenda; and second, against a community, a valued and valuable member of the Canadian community, by separating it off with a wedge issue from the rest of our Canadian society.

Mr. Speaker, as a member of Parliament who came here when you came here 21 years ago, there has not been a moment that I have not been a defender of the interests of that constituency and, in fact, all other constituencies. For the House leader and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister to stand here before the House and winnow out a couple of sentences à la Cardinal Richelieu, who said, “Give me five written words of a man, and I shall find matter in them to have him hanged”, and take it completely out of context, and to pass that as fact is to do great damage to the relationship that the political system in Canada has built with the Jewish community and the international relationship with the Middle East and Israel, in particular.

I could go on and talk about some of the individuals, such as the member for Thornhill, for example, and what he said at a rally. However, I am not going to stoop that low. I think that this is an egregious example of partisan, petty politics that have been funded by the public purse. The Prime Minister should be embarrassed. He should apologize.

Mr. Speaker, I think you should note that any of those statements that have been attributed to our current leader and our former leader were all immediately addressed by those leaders and publicly put in their appropriate context. I think you need to rule on this question of privilege because the Conservatives cannot be allowed to continue to abuse the public privilege and defame Canadians and members of Parliament the way that they have been doing.

[Air Transportation, November 19th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, last year, the House unanimously approved a Liberal motion on the passenger safety and services provided by the airlines.

The Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and his predecessor supported that motion. Now, the minister is going back on that decision and is abandoning the passengers, an action some are calling duplicitous.

Why must he perpetuate this culture of duplicity? Why is he refusing to protect passenger rights?

[Committees of the House, November 19th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I thought that we had 10 minutes.

As I was saying, under these circumstances, the only thing that the government is focused on is what kind of people will actually make representations before its officials. The officials want to be sure that they are talking to someone who understands the rules and regulations that pertain to immigration, whatever its variety.

However, the government has not put one penny toward the enforcement of any rule that says that those who abuse the people that they pretend to serve must face serious consequences. We cannot go after them because the government has not put any money toward an enforcement process of unscrupulous consultants and representatives, and it does not have a mechanism for consequences once they are caught.

Madam Speaker, I know you want to make an intervention. I will stop here for a moment while you make your intervention.

[Committees of the House, November 19th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I typically would have tried to avoid this particular type of debate except for two things.

First, on the weekend, I spent some time with a group of live-in caregivers who wanted to recount all of the experiences that they have been having in the country and experiences with which I have been professionally associated, in part, as a former minister of immigration. There have been two others between me and the current minister.

Second, I was a little dismayed by the presentation offered by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, which I can only identify as an excuse. Instead of addressing an issue prompted by this report, the issue was really that a former government, two Parliaments ago, after having been in government for x number of years, still had some difficulties associated with the program.

No House, people or group should accept those kinds of excuses for inaction. After four years, the government had an opportunity to address an issue that it had identified as a priority issue, both in terms of procedures on how to get people into this country and the circumstances in which they entered, and the substance of whether a demographic policy would fit in the long-term interests of a Canadian economic policy.

The Conservative government has done neither. Worse, as can be pointed out through this report, it has left temporary workers, especially live-in caregivers, in a position of fragile uncertainty: first, because it has not made a sincere effort to come to grips with the conditions into which the Minister of Immigration allows people to come and serve the larger interests of Canadian society; and second, because it prevents such individuals from enhancing their own condition in Canada and thereby making a greater contribution to the collective good of the country.

One might ask, how? There is no reason why live-in caregivers cannot pursue academic betterment. There is no reason why they cannot pursue, like all other Canadians, an opportunity to enhance their own qualifications for entry into a different category once their, if I can use this word improperly, trial period in Canada is satisfied. Finally, there is no reason why a live-in caregiver must be subjected to conditions of labour and conditions of social improvement that we would not accept as Canadians.

There is no reason, then, for the government to think in terms of unscrupulous consultants, et cetera. It is just another red herring because the consultants and lawyers who represent immigrants, potential immigrants, and those who are here on a temporary basis, whether it be in the live-in caregiver program or as migrant workers, temporary workers of any variety—

[VIA Rail, November 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, 19.5 million Canadian tax dollars were allocated in September to renovate a dozen VIA Rail cars and to create 51 jobs in the process. Companies in Quebec and New Brunswick can do the work, but the contract went to Avalon Rail in Wisconsin, U.S.A. No Canadian economic stimulus, no Canadian jobs.

Will the Minister of Transport be hammering one of his billboards in front of the factory in Milwaukee and delivering the cheque himself, or does the Conservatives' giant cheque printer not make cheques in American dollars?

[Electronic Commerce Protection Act, November 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to associate myself with the sentiments expressed by the member for Berthier—Maskinongé because I found that his speech made a great deal of sense. He presented facts which give us pause to consider the principles of this bill.

I, too, believe that we must defend legitimate commercial activities of businesses while protecting ourselves from spam and those who abuse a technology that has a great deal of benefits.

I would like to know if the member has already come up with some ideas and amendments that he will attempt to present during study in committee.

[Employment Insurance Act, November 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question. I also note that it is once again an opposition member who cares about the future of his constituents, the future of Canadians.

I think the answer is simple. The bill introduced by the government contains no plan. When talking about a plan, it is not a question of selecting certain individuals; we are talking about a plan that applies to anyone. The plan should be for everyone, the entire community. The plan should help individuals, and groups of individuals; it should help industries and help the community get through tough times, and it should always focus on a plan for the future. This bill contains no plan for the future. It merely suggests that the government could perhaps help people. What people? What families? Where are those people and those families?

Perhaps the members are a little restless, but it is a serious question. The member who asked the question knows very well. This is not a matter of democratically choosing one person and rejecting another. We are elected to this House to create programs that apply to everyone. Where is everyone in this bill? The member understands that the bill contains no plan and does not benefit everyone.

[Employment Insurance Act, November 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I must enter into the debate, especially since we have deprived my hon. colleague an opportunity to extend the debate by 10 minutes. Again, this is an indication, and this is for the public, of the government trying to control the message and shutting down debate. It has a very poor understanding of parliamentary purpose. I say this especially for the new members who already sit in cabinet. Parliamentary purpose suggests that ideas and plans are put forward. The government proposes and Parliament disposes.

The unfortunate fact is the government has proposed nothing from an economic point of view. Everyone who is watching this debate ought to ask one very simple question.

We have Bill C-50. This is supposed to be such a great bill. It saved the hide of Conservative members, but how many jobs? Some members actually get the point. How many jobs would Bill C-50 create? How many people can go back to work? How many industries are now in a position where they can begin or recommence a business enterprise that will engage people and draw upon the human resources potential of our country? I mean the country, not Conservative ridings. I mean every man and woman who wants to get a job in whatever industry, be they seasonal, be they ongoing, be they in the area of skills development, research, manufacturing or agriculture.

We want to know, we should know and the Canadian public should be advised by government members about the number of industries that now will be more fluid and will be in a position to put up a “help wanted” signs to engage Canadians who want to contribute and who want to earn money so their families can continue both with their future and with the opportunity to build the country.

I have gone through every line of the bill, and I keep asking myself this. Where are the jobs? Where are the industries? I would like to hear the name of one. There is not a single one. This was prompted in part to see if the government could assuage the desires of some members of all caucuses who are in towns that have one industry only, particularly in the lumber industry in northern Quebec, northern Ontario, the interior of British Columbia, parts of Alberta and even parts of Saskatchewan.

I have not referred to the Atlantic provinces just yet, but there are some 350 communities in the country that are dependent on the lumber industry alone, pulp and paper and the like.

Members can look through the bill and I challenge them to once find the word “lumber”, to find the words for “pulp and paper”, to find the words “developing new markets for Canadian products”.

Those of us who believe in building the country, and I hesitate to say Liberal because it would mean we are arrogant because we want to build the country, have always bristled at the accusation that we are hewers of wood and drawers of water. However, in today's economic environment, brought about by a Conservative government, would that we could hew some wood so we could supply the appropriate marketplaces in emerging economies elsewhere around the globe.

There is nothing like this in Bill C-50. There is nothing for those 350 communities on which families depend on the lumber industry. There is nothing for those families that are unemployed, because of the mismanagement perpetrated by the government, in a time of crisis for them to draw on the EI system. Why? Because they have already drawn on it.

The conditions built into Bill C-50 by the minister and her cabinet tell us that those 350 communities around the country and others that have other businesses as well are fresh out of luck because that is the mantra by which the government operates, “If you're not on our side, too bad”.

Do we want to have management of an economy? The Minister of Foreign Affairs says that it is a synchronized global recession. Please. What happens? Everybody in the world says that at 10 o'clock sharp we all will go into a recession and Canadians can then use that as an excuse for not doing anything. I have never heard so much junk in my life. When the government is doing well, what does it say is happening in the rest of the world? Nothing. Only in Canada do things go well. That is nonsense too.

The fact is the Conservatives were elected to govern and they decided not to do that. What is the first thing that Canadians want from a government? They want it to manage the economy and to provide for their future. That is the only rationale.

The one job that we have in the House is to approve expenditures to achieve that objective. That expenditure is often attached to getting the rest of the collective to make contributions.

We would be delighted to support a bill that could illustrate that such a plan were in place. Bill C-50 does not have such a plan. It does not help those people who need it most because of the government's mismanagement. It does not help those industries that want to get off the ground.

Things have been going not too badly in Saskatchewan, but there was a time when things were not going that well at all. In a province of one million Canadians, people in Saskatchewan have to think about what they need. They need contributions and management of an agricultural system and an agri-produce system access to markets both to the south and east-west and then beyond. Saskatchewan needs a gateway strategy that would give it an opportunity to access emerging markets and emerging demand elsewhere. That is what is needed in Saskatchewan. As well, Saskatchewan needs the opportunity to develop the petrochemical industries and the big petroleum potash industries that have developed over the course of the last several years.

Is there anything for those industries and those enterprises in Bill C-50? I challenge not only everybody in the House, but anybody watching the debate, to find something for those industries in the bill. They are not going to find a thing.

Why should we support a bill that has nothing for the grand economic scheme of the country? Why should we support a bill that leaves Canadians hanging out to dry? We should not because there is nothing there.

A big fraud is being perpetrated under the bill that suggests the government will actually do something for the unemployed. There are seven conditions and they are associated with period of time, with engagement. All of them really say that anyone who is unemployed can access the employment insurance fund.

The fact is none of the 500,000 unemployed will be able to access the fund. None of those industries, especially the ones in the Golden Horseshoe in southern Ontario, will be able to access the fund. None of the employees of those manufacturing enterprises are going to be able to access greater funds, greater time under Bill C-50.

Members of the government stand up almost boldfaced and say that the bill is the next best thing since sliced bread. I ask them to tell us how many slices there are in this loaf. I ask them to tell us how many jobs will be created. I ask them to tell us the amount of money that will come out. I note there are no dollar values associated with the bill. There is nothing whatsoever.

What they are doing is asking all of the opposition members just to accept that the government is right when it says that it knows what is best for the country. But what is that, exactly? What is the plan? Where are the numbers? Where are the dollar amounts? Where are the employment, job creation, economic stimulus and new market development strategies? There are none. There is just a question: will we support the government? What a question.

We were elected to the House of Commons to help ordinary Canadians achieve their ambitions, to give them a voice. That voice says that we have dreams for our families, that we demand plans, education, training, human resources development, export development, and community development. None of that is in this bill.

How can anyone support a bill that has nothing to offer in terms of ideas, plans, numbers or dollar amounts? Clearly, people need more than that. People deserve more. Real Canadians want, demand and have the right to more from their government. All they have right now is a fraud. Bill C-50 is nothing but a fraud. It contains neither substance nor ideas. It is nothing but subterfuge.

Parliament is not built on subterfuge. Parliament is built on the ambitions of real live Canadians to affect the future for their friends, their community, and members of family to ensure that a society that we perpetuate, that we promote, is seen as a beacon worldwide, and such used to be the case. It used to be that Canada regularly ranked number one in the human rights index all over the world.

Everywhere it was said Canada was the best place to live, the best place for people to effect the possibility of realizing their personal and community ambitions. They would do that because governments were engaged with people. They would do it because there were not media lines to offer as a substitute for answers to questions on substance. The lines, if they were provided, would have said under Bill C-50 these are the number of jobs that will be created and these are the number of industries that are going to be able to function.

Perhaps without introducing a moment of levity, even though we had a great and attentive audience the moment that Conservative members spoke up, they said that is it, we do not want to have an interruption. So it is unfortunate that the public reacts the way that I do. They vote with their feet. They get up and leave at the first expression of life by a member of the government side.

Unfortunately, that first expression of life was one that expressed surprise at being alive. Now if we can take them to the next step, we can say now that we have their awakened attention, perhaps we can repeat some of those questions because it is only by repetition that people will recall their function. The function as members of Parliament is to represent their people and to represent their ambition, not their own. It is their function to deal with them in a fashion that will allow them to use their own talents, their own expertise to realize an activity, an entrepreneurialism that gives them satisfaction, and, yes indeed, a reward that they can share with those that they hold most dear.

However, Bill C-50 does nothing of that sort. In fact, Bill C-50 is such a crass and void of substance bill that it really insults Canadians. It says, “Please accept the principle that we are the best thing that could happen to the Parliament of Canada and do not ask any questions”. That is what the Conservatives asked. Note that members on this side are the only ones who have been asking questions in debate, aside from some snarky comments, and who actually offer a position, one that does not come from the lines that have been dictated by the Prime Minister's Office.

I imagine it would be rather humbling, rather than say humiliating, for members who sit on the cabinet benches or even in the backbenches of the government side to be greeted at the door and given a little pamphlet because it appears now we have gone into government by pamphlets. Pamphleteers have become the government of the day. Here is the pamphlet from which members shall read and read nothing else.

I know you are an avid historian, Mr. Speaker, but it is a little bit like Mao's little red book which was the doctrine of the day. Imagine an entire country in excess of one billion people having to read a little red book.

The Conservatives have reduced that. The Prime Minister's Office has said, “No, our people cannot read that much, they are given a little pamphlet which is a fold-over. That is the sum total of the lines and if you cannot read those lines you cannot offer an opinion”.

So here we are in a situation now where the government by pamphleteers is faced with a situation where it cannot explain to the Canadian public why Bill C-50 should be supported. I wonder if the pamphleteers would send out pamphlets saying, “The 500,000 people who had a job before the last election and are no longer employed have the government to thank”.

I wonder if those pamphleteers would say those 500,000 families, which now must rely on the munificence of government programs, can no longer do so, because the government of pamphleteers says, “We do not really believe in government engagement in the personal lives of individuals. Let them fend for themselves”. I wonder if the government of pamphleteers might dare to send out messages saying, “Your industry has gone under, thanks to the government's action or inaction on a global scale or even on a local scale”.

I will resist the temptation to delve in detail, but it will serve the purpose to simply say, “If we cannot put a cheque in front of your enterprise, we are not going to be interested in whether it survives or not”. Such is the government of pamphleteers that would have this House accept Bill C-50 as an effective agenda for developing this country.

It is an embarrassing issue to ask members of Parliament to support a bill devoid of numbers, dollar amounts, job training facilities, job opportunities, employment strategy, developing of industries that have gone under and not likely to recover soon. Then to say that it is all as a result of the international devil called synchronized recession. And if it cannot cope, it would be embarrassing for any government to say it cannot cope. That is what the government is asking the House of Commons to approve. That is the principle that Conservatives are asking opposition members to say yes to when they ask us to support Bill C-50.

I do not think there are members on this side of the House who have intervened in debate who want to give the government approval for that principle.

[Employment Insurance Act, November 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious government members feel too embarrassed to defend legislation that is so faulty and so blatantly partisan in its politics.

Therefore, on behalf of the public, I have to ask the member for Mississauga South to explain to all Canadians, including the members on the government side, as dogmatic as they might be on the bill, why the legislation will do absolutely nothing to rectify the underlying problem that generated the bill.

To wit, there have been in excess of 500,000 jobs lost in the course of the last 10 months under the stewardship of the Conservatives. Those are 500,000 jobs that are no longer contributing to the gross domestic product of this nation. Those 500,000 jobs represent 500,000 families that now have to go begging because their stewardship has seen the demise of industries in lumber, auto, manufacturing and other industries.

There are 500,000 families now looking for a solution to a problem that the Conservatives created when they took the government, not when other people were in government. Where have the 500,000 jobs gone? The government has introduced a $60 billion deficit. What has it got to show for it besides 500,000 families that can no longer expect to work? The industries that they had have eroded to near zero and have no hope of coming back, especially under Bill C-50, which does nothing from an economic perspective.

It does not alleviate temporary loss. Nor does it build toward the future. What did the $60 billion of deficit do? Perhaps the member for Mississauga South, using his experience and expertise, can do the job of the members of Parliament from the government side and explain the unexplainable, that $60 billion of deficit and 500,000 jobs lost do not translate into any benefits for the 500,000 families that look to Parliament and the Conservative government for any solution or hope for the future.

I hope people in the gallery recognize that when it comes to stewardship, management of the economy and care for the public, they should not look in the direction of the Conservatives. Maybe the member for Mississauga South will enlighten them as to why the government has been derelict in its duty.