John Baird

[Aviation Safety, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we are tremendously concerned with civil aviation safety. At my department, that is one of our most important responsibilities. I do not support outsourcing safety testing or safety monitoring to the private sector. I think it is an important core responsibility of government and my department.

We are doing a lot of listening to our employees and to others who have come forward with some reasonable suggestions. I did hear one comment from Daniel Slunder, the head of the Canadian Federal Pilots Association, who said:

Transport Canada is to be commended for recognizing there are serious problems with its aviation SMS program. This postponement is absolutely the right thing to do.

We are committed to working with stakeholders to ensure the public is safe.

[Infrastructure, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased to be in the great riding of Toronto Centre this morning with the Minister of Finance to make a historic investment of $20 million to help revitalize Maple Leaf Gardens, a building that has been left derelict for many years.

This government was pleased to partner with Ryerson University and Galen Weston of Loblaw Companies Limited. That $20 million investment will see more than $40 million from students and from the private sector to make things happen. That is great news.

We had to leave the announcement early because the construction workers were standing by to start construction work and to create jobs right away.

[Infrastructure, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the information the member opposite discusses is some three or four months old. However, I would encourage him to travel around the city of Toronto and around the province of Ontario and see the great work the federal government is doing with Dalton McGuinty's provincial government.

We have gone out of our way to put signs up, just for the member opposite, so he can see the amount of construction going on in every part of the country. There are signs of hope, signs of opportunity, signs that jobs are being created and that we are coming out of this economic recession stronger than ever.

[Infrastructure, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we are working in partnership with the provinces and municipalities in every corner of the country, from coast to coast to coast. One of our main partners is the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The report it did for its prebudget submission said that for every billion dollars that all three levels of government invested in infrastructure, we would see about 11,000 jobs created. That is tremendously important. There is also the great number of spinoff jobs which help keep our economy strong.

The economic action plan is working. We are continuing to make announcements. We are seeing construction begin in every corner of the country.

[Afghanistan, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, when this government gets credible, substantiated evidence with respect to this issue, we have acted. We have acted in the past.

What we have done is to have sought a prisoner transfer agreement. We have had enhanced monitoring. We have seen a significant effort on behalf of Canadian public servants and on behalf of the men and women in uniform to accept their responsibilities and to do their jobs. There has been no specific allegation from anyone that they have not done that.

[Afghanistan, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the committee has had the opportunity to hear from public servants, from senior public servants. It has had the opportunity to hear from three Canadian heroes, three generals who have worked in this regard on behalf of our men and women in uniform, on behalf of their country. What we have seen at the committee is that there has never been a confirmed case of the torture of a transferred Taliban captive.

Those are the facts and it is important that those not be left out in this regard.

[Afghanistan, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, absolutely not. What we will hear is that this government will continue, as it has in the past, to provide all information, all documents that are legally available to be provided. There has been a long-standing practice not just with this government but with previous governments in this regard, and even mandatory legal requirements that are imposed on the public service and those of us in government.

It is a responsibility we take incredibly seriously. Our number one priority is to protect the operational security of our men and women in uniform and that will continue to be our priority.

[The Environment, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we are committed to doing our part to fight global warming, to fight climate change. We are committed to taking real action on an international level. We are working in concert with our friends in the Obama administration to have a real and meaningful plan to take a bite out of the carbon emissions in Canada. We are going to continue to do that at Copenhagen and to work constructively with our international partners to get every major emitter on board.

[Afghanistan, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Liberal Party says one thing but the facts suggest something else.

His defence critic said that this general, this Canadian war hero, was weak and flimsy. And look at what else he said. When he was outside the House of Commons yesterday after question period, when asked if he had characterized the general's remarks that way, what did he say? “Absolutely”.

Shame on him. Shame on the Liberal Party.

[Afghanistan, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the leader of the Liberal Party stands in his place and characterizes remarks made by General Gauthier.

It was his own defence critic, the member for Vancouver South, who called General Gauthier's comments before the committee morally weak and legally flimsy.

The general is a Canadian hero. He is a Canadian hero who spent 36 years in uniform, and that is the kind of respect he gets from the Liberal Party and the official spokesman for the Leader of the Opposition. It is shameful.