Judy Foote

[Political Loans Accountability Act, October 2nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals agree and will vote in favour.

[Petitions, October 2nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition on behalf of constituents of mine in Random--Burin--St. George's who are objecting to the government's decision to raise the eligibility age for OAS from 65 to 67. They point out that, whether it is today, tomorrow or 10 years from now, this will impose a hardship on seniors and make it difficult for them to make ends meet.

The petitioners call upon the government to reverse this decision. They believe there is time to do it and the time is now.

[Employment Insurance, October 1st, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, last week the minister responsible for employment insurance was non-committal regarding the future of the employment insurance program for fishers.

Given the frightening experience that people are having with the government's working while on a claim program, fishers are justifiably concerned that the government will gut the employment insurance program to which they are having access.

Will the minister confirm that the Conservative government has no plans to change any part of the employment insurance program that the fishers now access, today or in the future?

[Helping Families in Need Act, September 27th, 2012]

It was done under the advice of the Auditor General. You should get the facts straight.

[Petitions, September 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of the constituents of Random—Burin—St. George's. They are calling on the government to reverse a decision to raise the age for receipt of OAS from 65 to 67 years. I hear repeatedly everywhere I go in my riding and throughout the province that this is not acceptable. It is going to impose a hardship on our seniors. Those who have given so much to all of us are asking that the government consider that and reverse this decision.

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague can certainly relate to what is going on in his province just as I can relate to what is going on in mine.

We hear over and over from employers who operate seasonal businesses that the rules that have changed under the Conservative government are having a detrimental impact. If people are being forced to move away to work, that means seasonal businesses will not be able to find employees. That is a serious issue because the economic base for a lot of small communities is seasonal industries. People are going to be forced to move to Alberta where they can get full-time employment instead of being able to do what needs to be done from a seasonal industry perspective and then find other jobs to supplement that. Everyone wants to work. No one wants to be on employment insurance, and that is what we need to recognize.

We need to bear in mind that trying to accommodate people from all walks of life, who work in all types of industries, is what the government should be doing, instead of looking at it as either black or white.

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad my hon. colleague was able to make it to Random—Burin—St. George's, which, in my opinion, happens to be the best riding in the country.

Having said that, I share her concern with respect to jobs. While the government talks about the thousands of jobs it has created, unfortunately, we are seeing high-paying jobs being cut, like scientists, for example. We hear the outcry from scientists all the time that there are no longer jobs available for them because the government does not want to hear facts. The government will hire people without regard to whether they are low- or middle-income earners and that is the problem this country is having.

The Minister of Finance talked about the job cuts he was having to make and that the majority of them would be in the centre. Guess what? That is not the case. PSAC is saying that has not happened and, in fact, the majority of these jobs are being cut throughout the country. Once again, the rural areas of Canada are suffering while the centre continues to prosper.

[Business of Supply, September 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of the Liberal motion introduced by the leader of the Liberal Party. I will share my time with the member for Malpeque.

Just to refresh the memory of those who will be listening or those here in the House today, I will speak to the motion, which says:

That the House call on the government to take several simple and immediate actions to reduce the growing income inequality in Canada including: (a) a roll back of its recent Employment Insurance Premium hikes which inflict a higher relative burden on low to modest income workers; (b) ending the punitive new claw back of Employment Insurance benefits that are discouraging many Canadians from working while on claim; (c) making tax credits, such as the Family Caregiver Tax Credit, refundable so that low income Canadians are not excluded; (d) making the Registered Disability Savings Plan available to sufferers of chronic diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis; and (e) removing interest charges from the federal component of student loans.

Anyone listening to our concerns and those we have spelled out in our opposition day motion can clearly see that this is meant to address the income inequality in our country. We have been hearing from Canadians from coast to coast to coast who have been impacted by the changes that the Conservative government has implemented since it was elected. The irony in all of this is that when the government came to power there was a $14 billion surplus and that surplus was squandered in the first year that the Conservatives were in power. Now all of a sudden, we see they are coming up with all these initiatives that are harmful to low- and middle-income Canadians.

It is a government that increased the deficit in its first couple of years. Even before there was a recession or it would admit to a recession, it increased the deficit by $56 billion. What have the Conservatives done? In the six years they have been in power, they have increased the country's debt by $100 billion. This does not make sense. Then we turn around and watch as the government gives large corporations tax breaks to the tune of a savings of $6 billion annually, all at the same time as we see low- and middle-income people suffering at the hands of the government and the decisions it has taken.

I can cite examples where the new rules concerning the working while on claim project are having a detrimental impact on Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

It is not just in Atlantic Canada. As members know, my riding is in Newfoundland and Labrador but this impacts not only Atlantic Canadians. This impacts those who have to avail themselves of EI while on maternity leave or while giving compassionate care to sick relatives. This is not just about people who work in seasonal industries, although they are impacted too. This whole change to the employment insurance program, which came about without any consultation, is a serious issue.

In fact, people tell us they got their cheque and it was less than what they were expecting and they had no knowledge of why that was the case. I have had people tell me that if the government is going to take 50¢ from the very first dollar they earn and they get half of what their paycheque should be, then they take into account all the expenses associated with going to work, whether child care, transportation costs or whatever those expenses may be, they wonder where the incentive is for them to take part-time work or to look for full-time work because the government is going to penalize them for doing so. It is not right. Unless meaningful action is taken, the gap between the rich and the poor in our country will continue to increase.

According to the Conference Board of Canada, an independent economic research organization, income inequality has increased over the last 20 years. We do not need the government making it even worse for low- and middle-income earners.

It is not just the issues that I spelled out as topics of our opposition day motion, but there are also the issues of fleet separation and owner-operated policies that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, although it would not say so, was contemplating getting rid of. Independent fishermen, who are not wealthy, really need these policies in place to continue to fish as independent fishermen and sell their product to whomever they can. However, if the government had done away with those policies, it would have meant that large corporations would have been able to fish the same product, and there is no way that the independent fishermen could compete with these large corporations.

This is what we see with the Conservative government. We see the focus continually on helping the wealthy get wealthier while we see low-income and middle earners being penalized.

People are getting discouraged. They do not know whether they should even complain about it because no one seems to be listening. This is why, as the Liberal opposition here in the House of Commons, we felt it was absolutely essential that we come forward with this motion today to try and impress upon the government how important it is to reconsider some of the policies that it has implemented.

We have asked the Minister of Human Resources to review some of these polices. However, it would appear from her responses to questions raised with respect to the working while on claim project that the government either does not understand the implications or refuses to acknowledge that this is happening. Maybe this is what they intended to do from the very beginning.

We say, “Where there is a will there is a way”. We have said this time and time again in the House of Commons and Canadians have been writing to us to, please, get the message across. If the Conservatives are listening at all, not just to us but to Canadians who are being negatively impacted by this, and they are now aware of the negative impact this new policy is having on Canadians then they can change it. There is no harm in admitting that a mistake was made, especially if it would be to the benefit of Canadians.

There are so many measures that the government is taking that are totally unnecessary. One is increasing the number of MPs in the House of Commons. When I think of an additional 30 members of Parliament with all the costs associated with that and then I hear from people in my riding who are having difficulty making ends meet, it just does not make sense.

We have to question the priorities of a government that cannot seem to relate to Canadians who are having difficulty with the pressures that are put on them on a daily basis with the increased cost of living, post-secondary education, raising a young family and mortgage rates. If the government cannot relate, and that would appear to be the situation with the present government, then we see the wealthy getting wealthier and the low- and middle-income earners making less.

My riding is predominantly a rural riding where people try to make ends meet. In a lot of cases, they are able to get seasonal work and they work very hard. They want to work full time, year in and year out, but if the work is not available they will do the seasonal work, which is also important because there are employers who have seasonal industries. If the people are not available to work in those industries then that becomes an issue. The industry suffers as do the individuals who cannot avail themselves of the jobs.

We have to change our focus. The Conservative government has to starting thinking about those who really need support in our country and be there for them.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, September 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am curious as to how the CFIA will ensure that drivers have access to facilities to wash their vehicles. At this point in time, it is not clear how that will happen. To suggest that it is a waste of taxpayer money to wash these vehicles and to refer to it as simply a car wash is hardly being upfront. We realize there is a serious issue here. We are talking about a multi-million dollar potato industry in P.E.I. and New Brunswick alone. To refer to saving money on what he is calling simply a car wash is hardly being upfront and honest with respect to what this entails.

We all recognize the need to balance budgets. That is not what this is about. This is about the need to recognize the damage that can be done and the loss of jobs that accompany this. We are talking about 14 people who received letters, indicating that jobs would possibly be lost. Apart from that, the seriousness of this situation and how drivers are going to wash their vehicles leaves us wondering what the government knows that we do not.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, September 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to an issue that I raised in question period about the cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at the terminals for Marine Atlantic in Port aux Basques and Argentia.

As a result of that, we are putting in danger potato crops in P.E.I. and New Brunswick. The soil is infested with what is called potato wart and once that soil is transported from Newfoundland and Labrador to other parts of the country, there is a risk that it will infect crops.

Doing away with the jobs that are charged with the responsibility of washing down all of the vehicles before they leave Newfoundland and Labrador is putting at risk those crops because if they are not washed, then that danger is very real.

The government has said that even though it is cutting those jobs, the vehicles still are going to have to be washed. The problem is that no one knows who is going to do that, where it is going to take place, and it is a serious issue. We raise this issue again to point out how serious it is and to see whether we can get the government to reconsider the position it has taken.

I am told there was absolutely no consultation whatsoever on this. Those of us who are familiar with where the ferry is in Port aux Basques, in particular, know it is in a very secure area. Once vehicles go into Marine Atlantic's ferry terminal, they cannot come back out because they are in a secure area in order to board Marine Atlantic's vessel.

The problem is that at least right now when the vehicles go into the terminal area where they are washed down, then we know they are on site and will not go anywhere else where there would be contaminated soil. If, as suggested, this can take place outside of the terminal area, that poses a real problem. Again, if the vehicles are washed off the ferry terminal premises, there is a chance that they will pick up contaminated soil from where they have been washed to where they have to go to the ferry terminal. It is a serious issue and we do not think enough thought has gone into this.

These jobs are supposed to be gone as of April 1. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is supposed to stop providing cleaning of the vehicles April 1, 2014. Once that happens, there has to be something in place. The government has said that this could be turned over to the private sector, that there is an opportunity for it. However, no one has stepped up to the plate at this point and we are seriously concerned that if no one does, then the government is not acknowledging the consequences of this. While it says that the vehicles will still have to be washed, it has not said how that will happen.

That is a serious problem for us. We are trying to find some way of ensuring that the vehicles continue to be washed, but at this point in time no one has stepped up to the plate. The vehicles need to be washed. How will that happen if the government does not continue to do it?