John Baird

[Taxation, March 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. It looks like the coalition that was going to see the Liberal leader be prime minister now has a new face. It is the face of the leader of the New Democratic Party, who now seems to be the puppeteer for the Liberal Party.

Let us be very clear. Let me quote another good senior economist:

I am very sympathetic to a lower corporate tax rate. I think it would get a big bang for the buck, in terms of stimulating growth and productivity and all of those good things.

If only the Liberal leader would have let the member for Markham—Unionville speak at his thinking, spending, taxing conference, maybe there would have been better policy.

[Taxation, March 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal plan is to raise taxes on job creators, on Canadian business, on Canadian consumers, with the GST. It is very clear the Liberal Party wants to raise taxes on everything.

We strongly support competitive tax rates. We want Canada to be a bright light when it comes to new investment, so that there are more jobs, so that there is more opportunity. That is why this government's economic plan is working.

We have a fragile recovery setting in, and the worst thing that we could do would be to raise taxes, as the leader of the Liberal Party has argued.

[Taxation, March 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, my friend the leader of the New Democratic Party has made quite the conversion. It was not 15 months ago that he signed a coalition agreement to support each and every one of these tax cuts. He was prepared to serve in a government that saw jobs, hope and opportunity as the primary goals, and to do everything we can to ensure more investment in Canada, that we have a Canadian advantage that will allow jobs to come back to this great country. We believe that taxing investment, we believe that excessively taxing those who create jobs hurts the economy and leads to a lower standard of living. That is why we are moving forward with an aggressive job creation agenda.

[Taxation, March 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear, between the Liberal vision and the Conservative vision our vision is for more jobs, more hope and more opportunity. It is for more investment in the Canadian economy.

Let me go further. Maybe the Liberal leader should have allowed his caucus to speak at the convention this weekend because if he had the member for Markham—Unionville would have likely said that the new Canadian advantage in the Liberal vision is to tell investors that if they invest in Canada, they will pay a whole lot less in corporate taxes. That is from the official spokesman for the Liberal Party of Canada. Let him speak.

[Taxation, March 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to answer that question very directly.

Our leader has stressed, in particular, the importance of deeper corporate tax cuts as a primary means of achieving the investment, the rising living standards and the jobs, jobs, jobs that we all want for ourselves and our children.

Do you know who said that, Mr. Speaker? It was the official spokesman on tax matters for the Liberal Party, the member for Markham—Unionville.

[Taxation, March 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party certainly had a taxing weekend. The Liberal Party has been very clear right from the get-go and it was very clear this weekend.

The Liberals want to raise taxes on everything. They want to raise the GST. They want to raise payroll taxes with their 45-day work year. Now they have come out and want to raise taxes on job creators and raise taxes on investment. That will not help job creation in Canada.

[Transportation, March 26th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I must tell my friend from the Bloc Québécois that the government will continue in Quebec and across Canada with this program to support municipal airports.

I appreciate the good work the Bloc critic is doing.

[Transportation, March 26th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, we follow all of the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization. It also makes supplementary recommendations. We are working hard with representatives of industry, representatives of the pilots themselves, and officials at Transport Canada, to look at what we can do to further expand the anti-fatigue measurement.

[Economic Action Plan, March 25th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, what a great question from the member for Sarnia—Lambton.

Let us look at what the mayor of Sarnia said. He stated:

We had more capitol spending last year than we've ever had. It's renewing the community and creating jobs for people. The [Conservative] government did the right thing by trying to stimulate the economy.

The fact is one of the roles of the federal government is to give hope to the people....

That is exactly the type of hope that the economic action plan, authored by the best finance minister in the world, is accomplishing for the people of Sarnia.

[Official Languages, March 25th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. Official languages are one of this government's top priorities. It is also a matter of great importance to my Bloc colleague. We will take a closer look at this situation and see what we can do.