John Baird

[The Environment, January 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I have learned a lot about the inaction of the Liberal government thanks to the member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore.

During the Liberal leadership campaign, he was very clear that the leader of the Liberal Party, the man sitting next to him, did absolutely nothing to reduce greenhouse gases.

The former government did not do the right thing, so the current government will.

[Court Challenges Program, December 13th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government will continue to support and is a strong supporter of the vitality of our linguistic communities in all regions of Canada. We are strong supporters of the Official Languages Act. It is of great importance to all members of this caucus.

[Court Challenges Program, December 13th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it is very important to emphasize the support of this party and of this government for the Official Languages Act. We respect its regulations and it is very important to provide services in each province. It is very important and we will continue to support the official languages.

[Personal Information, December 13th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I agree completely with my colleague from Quebec.

Personal information is very important to the Canadian population. The responsibility of the Government of Canada is to do everything possible to protect this information.

[Status of Women, December 13th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, if there could be no better example, so many members of this cabinet wanted to stand up for women and speak about it in the House today.

The reductions that the member opposite talks about are very clearly and very specifically decisions to sunset the program tabled by the former Liberal government. Women in remote and rural Canada deserve better and, on January 23, they elected better.

[Federal Accountability Act, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I know all members, particularly Conservative members, will be thrilled this afternoon when at 5:30 p.m. the toughest anti-corruption bill to ever go through the House becomes the law of the land. We will put an end to the billion dollar boondoggles that characterized the Liberal Party's time in power. We will clean up government. We will do what we said we would do to restore honesty and integrity to the federal government.

[Status of Women, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is certainly entitled to her own opinion, but the member opposite is not entitled to her own facts. I say to the member opposite very directly, where did she find this alleged briefing note? On the grassy knoll?

[Emergency Management Act, December 11th, 2006]

The Liberals weren't responsible for anything bad.

[Committees of the House, December 11th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the speech by the member for Ottawa Centre. I want to echo it, in that the immigration from Vietnam to the region of Ottawa-Carleton, as it was then, has been a great benefit to this country. It is something that has affected the face of this country.

What made the Vietnamese immigration so positive was the great community effort, whether it was church groups, businesses or service clubs that would take in families. One member of the club or the church would help the kids get settled in school. Another would help get the families set up in an apartment. Another would help get the parents enrolled in English as a second language training. It took that great community support to come together. The member's mother, then the mayor of Ottawa, Marion Dewar, had a lot to do with that.

What we have to do with our immigration settlement is try to provide seed money in support so we can have more of that. One of the things in which Ontario has been disadvantaged is that we have not had our fair share of immigration settlement dollars. I was very pleased to see that in the budget this year a government has finally, instead of talking about it, begun to establish some fairness. Hopefully we will see much better settlement of immigrants in the province of Ontario, immigrants who can enjoy what immigrants in other provinces have.

That was a good speech by the member for Ottawa Centre.

[Federal Accountability Act, December 11th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, on January 1 Canadians from coast to coast are going to wake up to a new accountability regime in this country, but when they wake up, they are going to have a hangover, the ethical hangover of the Liberal Party.

Let me tell the House about Gerard Kennedy. He owes $200,000. Let us talk about Bob Rae. He owes $845,000. Maybe the Leader of the Opposition will use today to tell us how he is going to pay back the nearly half a million dollars his own campaign ended up in hock.