Justin Trudeau

[Government Appointments, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for his comments and for contributing to the Supreme Court appointment process. As he mentioned, it is a very good one.

However, I want to correct him in that we did, for example, on the Commissioner of Lobbying and the Commissioner of Official Languages, reach out to the opposition parties back in June to talk about the stakeholders they wanted, the communities they thought we would involve, how they felt the appointment process should go. We were happy to consult them then.

We are happy to be open, transparent, and engaging throughout the process.

[Government Appointments, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, six months ago, early this summer, we consulted the opposition members. We asked them exactly what kind of concerns they had, whom we should talk to, and which communities should be involved in choosing who the next officers of Parliament should be.

This was a commitment we made regarding a process we were developing specifically to ensure greater transparency and openness. We are proud to have done so much consultation with the opposition members, and we will continue to do so.

[Veterans Affairs, December 13th, 2017]

Over the past two years, Mr. Speaker, we have invested in hundreds of millions of dollars for veterans. We have improved the benefits they receive. We have reopened veteran service offices that were closed.

We are ensuring that we live up to the sacred obligation we owe to our veterans and to their families. This is work we take very seriously and it is work we are delivering on.

[Public Services and Procurement, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I know you are trying to invoke Santa Claus to help them out, but let us not forget that the Conservatives like coal.

We take very seriously the responsibility we have to ensure that the men and women of our armed forces actually have the opportunity to do their jobs safely and with the right equipment. We take that extremely seriously after the Conservatives botched the process for 10 years.

[Public Services and Procurement, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the men and women of our military deserve the equipment they need to fulfill their responsibilities and deliver on their commitments.

For 10 years, the previous Conservative government was unable to give the men and women of our forces the equipment they needed. It completely botched the process. That is why we were proud to launch a full, open competition yesterday to replace our fleet of aging fighter jets, not with 65 jets like the Conservatives spoke about but 88 jets, to ensure our military can fulfill the roles we expect it to.

[Public Services and Procurement, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite actually just laid it out. The problem was that they fired 700 people in order to book the savings they were counting on so they could magically balance the budget just in time for the election, to try to save their skins from their terrible economic performance over the past 10 years.

We did not create the Phoenix problem, but we are going to fix it.

[Taxation, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, in order to chase their goal of balancing the budget at all costs, they created the Phoenix fiasco, they nickel and dimed our veterans, and they continued to cut services for Canadians across the board.

We made a different decision than they did. We told Canadians that we would run deficits, so we could grow the economy and put more money in the pockets of Canadians who needed it. That is exactly what we have done, and that is working for Canadians.

[Taxation, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, once again, Conservatives are demonstrating that they do not understand how to help Canadians. The statistics he is referring to do not take into account the Canada child benefit. This benefit gives more money to nine out of 10 families. It has lifted hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and is helping Canadian families immensely. It is one of the elements that led to the economic growth we are seeing now.

The Conservatives would have preferred to keep their own benefit, which gave money to millionaires every month. We are giving money to families who actually need it.

[Ethics, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, as we come to the end of this year, one cannot help but feel bad for the members of the opposition, because of the results we have gotten as a government. The job creation numbers, 441,000 new jobs, the best in 18 years; the growing economy; the help for the middle class; and the positive outcomes leave the opposition with nothing to do but to fling accusations and throw mud. That is not what Canadians want. That is not what Canadians deserve. I hope they will be getting better than that in the coming year.

[Government Appointments, December 13th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I understand that everything is always about partisanship for the members of the opposition. However, we expect any conflict of interest and ethics commissioner and any officer of Parliament to fulfill their duties with care and integrity. We have immense respect for the approach of relying on evidence and examining all the facts before making a decision.