John Baird

[Government Accountability, March 11th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we respect your ruling and are right now working to do everything we can do comply with your ruling. We look forward to the committee hearings next week.

[Government Accountability, March 11th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we have a great deal of respect for the Speaker, for the House of Commons, and for democracy. That is why we created the Federal Accountability Act. It is also why we are focusing on the priorities of Canadians. We are working very hard on the economy, economic growth and job creation. These are our highest priorities and we will continue working on them.

[Government Accountability, March 11th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I must be very clear. We have a great deal of respect for the Speaker of the House and his decisions. We are working hard and doing our best to provide the information that the Speaker has asked of the government. However, our absolute priority is economic growth and job creation. We are very proud of the Canadian economy, which created 15,000 new jobs last month. That is good new for Canadians and Quebeckers.

[Government Accountability, March 11th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party is once again trying to distract Canadians from the real issues.

I find it regrettable that the Liberal Party is now in a position where it wants our men and women in uniform to be flying 40-, 50- and 60-year-old airplanes in the future. They are not war planes. It is equipment that our men and women in uniform need to do the job that we have asked them to do.

These men and women in uniform are prepared to pay the ultimate price to keep Canadians safe, to keep Canada sovereign, and the least they can expect is that the government provide them with the tools they need to do their jobs.

[Government Accountability, March 11th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, it will not come as any surprise to the House or to the hon. member opposite that I completely reject the premise of his question.

Let me tell the House what will be happening next week. This government will be working hard and will remain focused on the economy and creating jobs.

We were very pleased with the 15,000 net new jobs that were created last month. While those members of the Liberal Party in opposition were scandal-mongering, were seeking to try to provoke an early election to get new jobs for themselves, this government was hard at work trying to create jobs for Canadians.

[Business of the House, March 10th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to your ruling yesterday, we are working right now as we speak to comply on that issue and we will be responding in short order.

We will continue debate today on the Bloc opposition motion that began this morning.

Tomorrow, we will call for third reading of Bill C-55, the new veterans charter bill. I appreciate that there has been support for the passage of that bill. It is important for Canada's veterans and I am pleased that we have been able to come together on that.

Following Bill C-55, if time permits, we would debate Bill C-54, protecting children from sexual predators; Bill S-7, the justice for victims of terrorism; Bill C-8, the Canada-Jordan free trade agreement; Bill C-12, the democratic representation bill, which is an important bill for my premier in Ontario and particularly for the people in both Alberta and British Columbia; Bill C-46, the Canada-Panama free trade agreement; Bill C-57, improving trade within Canada; Bill C-43, RCMP modernization; Bill C-52, investigating and preventing criminal electronic communications; and Bill C-50, improving access to investigative tools for serious crime.

With respect to the business for next week, I will be, among other places, working hard in my constituency for the people of Ottawa West--Nepean.

[Access to Information, March 10th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am quite surprised to see the member for Malpeque giving the member for Simcoe—Grey a standing ovation. I thought I had seen everything.

Let me say to the hon. member for Simcoe—Grey that I will certainly take her question to the appropriate authorities, and we will do everything we can to ensure that all of the access to information laws are followed. I can only tell the member for Simcoe—Grey that at least she does not have to make an access request to the CBC because then she would never get anything.

[Government Accountability, March 10th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we have said that we will be working very hard to comply with your ruling.

We remain focused on the priorities of Canadians, jobs and the economy. In every part of my riding and every part of the country, these remain the priorities of Canadians.

We will be bringing down a budget in a few short weeks. The single priority in that budget is the creation of jobs, the creation of hope, the creation of opportunity. That is the priority of Canadians. They do not want an unnecessary election. They want us focused on creating jobs for them and not trying to get new jobs for ourselves.

[Government Accountability, March 10th, 2011]

We respect your ruling, Mr. Speaker, and we will be working to comply with it in the days ahead. The Liberal member for Kings—Hants has presented a motion to the House about having a committee look into it and report back. We will be working very hard to comply with that measure.

We will not be pushed away from the fundamental priority of Canadians, which is jobs and the economy. We are working tremendously hard on the budget to provide more hope and more opportunity. We have seen the creation of some 460,000 net new jobs over the past 18 months because of solid economic leadership.

[Government Accountability, March 10th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, let me at the outset, on behalf of all members of the House, welcome back the leader of the New Democratic Party. We may spar on issues from time to time, but I have great respect for him and his values.

We also respect the Speaker's decision of yesterday. We have stated that we believed we had provided the information requested. We appreciate the ruling and we will be working very hard to comply with it in the days ahead.