Lisa Raitt

[Finance, December 7th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we will hold the minister to his promise to Canadians of balancing the budget by 2019. One way of balancing that budget is by increasing taxes, and indeed the government has already said it will increase taxes. However, it will not pay for what is happening on the other end of the balance. There is no revenue neutrality here.

Therefore, my question for the minister is this. As he supposedly will admit later on today that this will not work, will he now admit that increased payroll taxes, increased taxes on retirement savings, and the complex re-engineering of how children receive their support will not work either and is also flawed?

[Finance, December 7th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by welcoming the hon. Minister of Finance to the House. I am sure we will have a lot of fun in the coming weeks.

The Prime Minister made two fundamental commitments to Canadians: one, that the deficit would not go above $10 billion per year; and, two, that any tax increases would be revenue neutral. Unfortunately, neither of those are true and it seems as if we are leaving those commitments in the dust. Therefore, my question for the Minister of Finance is this. How much will these broken promises cost Canadians?

[Port Infrastructure, June 17th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we have in place a ports asset transfer program which just entered the sales phase on Monday of this week.

I can assure the hon. member that the divestiture program exists for this reason. The discussions with the municipalities will continue.

However, the province has a role as well, and I expect that the municipality and the province will work with Transport Canada officials to make sure that we can transfer this into the hands of the local municipalities.

[Canada Post, June 17th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I think the opposition should admit that it is flawed in anything to do with economics because what it does not realize is this. There is no profit at Canada Post. It had a $1.4 billion pension payment that had to be made in 2014. That was forgiven, because we are trying to get Canada Post back on its right footing.

The members of the opposition should stop talking to the members of CUPW and they should start speaking on behalf of Canadians who want to make sure their tax dollars are well looked after.

[Canada Post, June 17th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, let us get to the facts of the matter. Canada Post is losing a significant amount of money. As a result, it is converting to community mailboxes, which are $178 per address cheaper. This is the way it is going to be self-sufficient in the future.

Let us contrast that with what the opposition wants to do, which is to reinstate some, all, part—I do not know—of door-to-door service, which will cost upwards of half a billion dollars.

This is not the way to manage finances. Canadians know exactly who can manage the finances in this place, and it is this government.

[The Environment, June 16th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I heard the question from the hon. member. I will find out from the Port of Quebec, which is an arm's-length entity from the Canadian government, whether or not it has some information from its tenant.

[Rail Transportation, June 15th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, our government has done an awful lot when it comes to ensuring the safe transport of our natural resources here in Canada. One of the things we have done is that we are working with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities on sharing information needed for first responders. The federation has, of course, been very grateful for the information we do provide.

With respect to these risk assessments, they are considered proprietary information. They will be utilized in good faith by Transport Canada officials to ensure that we are doing everything we can to ensure that the regulation of this oil by rail is done as properly and as safely as possible.

[Questions on the Order Paper, June 12th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), this year’s 2015-16 total operating budget is $237.4 million.

With regard to (b), the federal subsidy for the 2015-16 fiscal year is $374.3 million.

With regard to (c), less than 2% of the federal subsidy that has been set aside for Marine Atlantic over the past five years has not been spent, approximately $17 million.

[The Environment, June 11th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we are embarking upon Canada's most ambitious trade agenda, and in doing so we want to ensure that we are able to get our goods to market and are able to receive goods from other markets as well.

That is the importance of the St. Lawrence River to us. It is to make sure that we can flow goods as far into the continent as possible. I am very proud of all the federal ports along the river, from Sept-Îles all the way to the Port of Montreal. They do great service for Canadians and are an important part of our chain.

[Air Transportation, June 11th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from the hon. member and will confer with the Minister of Labour on the matter with respect to airlines and regulation labour situations.