Lois Brown

[Infrastructure, April 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, our government has worked and will continue to work closely with provinces and territories on helping meet the transportation and other public infrastructure needs of all our communities, including those in the north.

We are committed to working productively with all our counterparts in all provinces, territories and municipalities across Canada. We understand that it is important to have a positive working relationship with our counterparts and we are committed to maintaining that.

We have continued this relationship through the development of the building Canada plan. We consulted with all levels of government about how this could help address their infrastructure concerns, and the result was the $33 billion building Canada plan.

We understand that no single level of government is sufficient to address the diverse infrastructure needs of this country. That is why we are committed to working with all levels of government in order to develop infrastructure that will meet the needs of all Canadians.

Our infrastructure programs, like the building Canada plan, are all about multi-level partnerships and co-operation. We continue to work very closely with the provincial and territorial governments to ensure that essential infrastructure needs are being addressed and that any critical gaps are readily identified and dealt with. This collaboration is essential not only to fulfill long-term and short-term infrastructure goals and build world-class infrastructure, but to stimulate our economy and improve the quality of life of Canadians.

We have clearly demonstrated our commitment to support provincial, territorial and municipal infrastructure. While we are sensitive to the federal government's role in this, we also know that when it comes to infrastructure needs and priorities, one size does not fit all. Every region of this country is different, and some require special attention.

Northern communities face unique and challenging infrastructure issues that require unique solutions to address the harsh northern climate and the large geographical area. The harsh climate and short construction season not only affect the delivery of goods and services but increase the cost of construction and reduce the lifespan of the infrastructure.

Through various investments such as the building Canada plan, this government has ensured the necessary flexibility to support its northern partners. For example, under building Canada, funding flows to the three territories through the provincial-territorial base fund, which will see over $182 million flow to each of the territories. This is about 10 times what they would have received under a per capita allocation. Canada's economic action plan accelerates these remaining payments to provinces and territories to be made over the next two years. This provides predictable funding to help provinces and territories meet their infrastructure needs.

Through this program, this government has ensured that the investment we have made in the north can be expanded to include infrastructure considerations unique to northern needs. We understand that living in the north poses some challenges different from the remainder of the country, such as higher construction costs. Because of this, our government has ensured that it will provide more funding to its projects by covering up to 75% of the costs, as opposed to the traditional 50%.

The three territories will also receive, combined, $88.5 million under the gas tax fund to support their infrastructure. This is money directly to the bank accounts of the municipalities.

In recognition of their unique needs and smaller populations, the territories are allocated a set amount of gas tax funding, instead of the per capita gas tax funding formula operating in the provinces. In addition to funds under building Canada, municipalities will receive hundreds of millions of dollars per year from the Government of Canada through the GST rebate.

Last year, a record $1 billion in gas tax funding was sent out to Canadian municipalities. Recently we announced that the gas tax fund will double to a record-breaking $2 billion. The first payments have been moved up from June 1 to April 1, in order for more projects to get under way this year. This $2 billion annual investment will continue as a permanent measure to supplement municipalities with an additional significant and predictable source of infrastructure funding.

Our commitment to northern infrastructure is further emphasized by the government's continued co-operation in the Yukon to pursue the development of the Shakwak project and improve sections of the Alaska Highway in the territory. As 85% of Yukon's population lives in communities along the highway, this project also contributes to the economic and social well-being of the Yukon.

Since Canada's economic action plan, the government has continued to meet with provincial, territorial and municipal governments to discuss infrastructure priorities and identify shovel-ready projects. We have taken action to assist our partners to cope with the current economic downturn. We have implemented measures to stimulate the economy, create jobs, and support Canadian families.

Over the past few months, we have taken serious action by approving nearly 500 projects in small communities across the country, worth over $1.5 billion in combined funding. By expanding and accelerating our infrastructure investment, we will provide almost $12 billion additional stimulus for our economy, above and beyond our $33 billion building Canada plan--

[Taxation, April 23rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the list of destructive Liberal policies is getting longer and longer every day. We will soon be able to write a book about these and the chapter on terrible economic policies would be a very long one.

The Liberal leader announced just last week, “We will have to raise taxes”. We thank the Liberal leader for his honesty. Now we know the Liberals want to impose a tax hike on Canadian families during a global recession. We know that they want to increase the GST. We know that they want to impose a job-killing carbon tax. We also know that they want to take away the universal child care benefit.

The Liberals and their leader seem to like taking money out of Canadians' pockets. Would the Liberal leader stand up in the House today and finally come clean with Canadians? Which taxes would the Liberals raise? By how much would they raise them? Who would be forced to pay these higher taxes?

[Automotive Industry, March 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, with the government's announcement today that we are putting further pressure on GM and Chrysler to effectively restructure while providing conditional interim loans and working effectively with our provincial and American counterparts, it is clearer than ever that we are getting the job done for Canada's manufacturing sector.

On January 24 the Guelph Mercury reported that according to the Liberal leader, his party cut the auto critic position because “the goal of the auto critic position had essentially been completed with [the] industry minister's announcement of loans to automakers”.

The Liberals fired their auto critic because we are getting the job done. The only remaining question is, how long will it take the Liberal leader to fire his justice, finance, trade, industry, foreign affairs and environment critics?

The Liberal leader is realizing what Canadians know, that strong leadership and decisive vision mean that we are better off with this Prime Minister. Even the Liberal leader cannot deny that we are getting the job done.

[Liberal Party of Canada, March 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, Tamil Tiger flags were being waved on the lawn of Parliament yesterday. The Liberal member for Bramalea—Gore—Malton called their terrible actions “a great cause”. The Sri Lankan conflict is a great tragedy, not something that should be exploited to draw votes to the Liberal Party.

Just as bad as fanning the flames on conflict abroad, Senator Baker, the Newfoundland Liberal, is calling for a Newfoundland and Labrador separatist party. The Globe and Mail has called for his expulsion, while the Liberal leader says expelling him from a federalist party is ridiculous.

The behaviour of the Liberal Party is ridiculous.

More tolerance for intolerant views in the Liberal Party is not the way to form government. Acting like this, the Liberals are as likely to form government as their coalition allies, the separatist Bloc, sitting next to them.

[Aurorasaurus, March 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, paleontologists need only travel as far as Aurora, Ontario to find dinosaurs rising out of the earth.

For its second year, the Aurorasaurus community event took place last weekend on Bigwin Drive. Steve Taylor, the unsung hero behind this colossal endeavour, arranges to have 80 tonnes of snow delivered to his front yard in mid-February. Out of this, with days of his time invested, Steve created a 50 foot long, 20 foot high dinosaur complete with a mouth full of teeth. It is a sight to behold.

Steve, together with a very special group of neighbours and friends, invites Aurora to attend the event and to make a contribution to the Children's Wish Foundation.

This year Steve and his volunteers and helpers raised more than $3,000 in cold cash for the Children's Wish Foundation.

Our community and the many children who will benefit from his efforts thank Steve, his family and the Bigwin neighbourhood for their generosity. Aurora is a better place because they live there.

[Criminal Code, February 27th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak today in support of Private Members' Bill C-268, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum sentence for offences involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years). I, too, am a mother of two wonderful daughters and I am appalled that any mother in Canada might have to deal with the horror of having her child taken and used in human trafficking.

Trafficking in persons is sometimes described as the new global slave trade. No country has been left untouched by this terrible scourge. It is a serious issue that warrants attention from all levels of government.

The private members' bill introduced by the member for Kildonan—St. Paul would amend the Criminal Code to impose a mandatory minimum penalty of five years imprisonment for the offence of trafficking a person under the age of 18 years and for which the maximum penalty is currently fourteen years imprisonment.

Bill C-268 would create a new, separate offence of trafficking a person under the age of 18 years, which would mirror the existing offence of trafficking in persons found in section 279.01 of the Criminal Code and which protects all victims, adult and child. The current section 279.01, trafficking in persons offence, was added to the Criminal Code in 2005. It prohibits anyone from engaging in specified acts such as recruiting, transporting, harbouring or controlling the movements of another person for the purpose of exploiting or facilitating the exploitation of that person. This offence is punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment where it involves the kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault or death of the victim and 14 years in all other cases.

In effect, Bill C-268 is saying that this penalty is not enough, at least with respect to the child victims of human trafficking. I am sure we can all agree that all countries, including Canada, must remain vigilant to ensure that our criminal law responses to human trafficking remain effective and treat it as the serious issue it is.

A report released on February 12, 2009 by the United Nations' Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking reported that over 24,000 victims of trafficking were identified by 111 countries in the year 2006. According to the report, the most common form of human trafficking is trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The second most common form of human trafficking is for the purpose of forced labour, although the real number may be higher as forced labour is less frequently detected and reported than trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Although anyone can be a victim of trafficking, victims are predominantly women and children. Worldwide, almost 20% of all trafficking victims are children. However, in some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority: up to 100% in parts of West Africa. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked around the world each year.

We know that trafficking in persons also occurs within Canada. As in other countries, it is difficult to estimate the full extent of human trafficking within Canada due, in large part, to the clandestine nature of the activity. It can also be difficult to track offenders through reported cases, as they may be charged under any number of offences that may not always easily identify the case as a trafficking cases.

The experience of Canadian law enforcement reflects the international experience insomuch as the majority of known victims are women and children. These victims are often forced into situations of horrible exploitation, their rights abused and their freedom taken away. Trafficking in persons often involves organized criminal networks that profit from this abuse. The 2006 Canada-U.S. Binational Threat Assessment on Human Trafficking reported that from spring 2004 to February 2006, there were at least 25 convictions under various Criminal Code provisions for trafficking activity. A recent United Nations report identified that between March 2004 and February 2007 there were 30 trafficking-related convictions in Canada under various Criminal Code offences.

We also know that the 2005 Criminal Code trafficking offences are now being used by our police. These numbers reflect the minimum number of cases, as many decisions go unreported. To date, there have been three reported convictions in Canada under the 2005 specific offence of trafficking in persons, which Bill C-268 proposes to amend.

When the specific trafficking in persons offences were enacted in 2005, they were meant to give police and crown prosecutors another tool to combat trafficking. These offences supplemented existing offences such as kidnapping, forcible confinement, assault and the prostitution-related provisions.

The police and Crown now have the ability to charge the offence or offences that best meet the circumstances of a given case, and this is what we are seeing in these early cases under the recent trafficking offences.

For example, Canada's first conviction under section 279.01 involved two victims under the age of 18. In that case, the defendant pleaded guilty to trafficking in persons and living off the avails of prostitution of a minor, and received a sentence of five years imprisonment, three years for trafficking and the mandatory minimum of two years for living off the avails of child prostitution, to be served consecutively.

The remaining two convictions under the trafficking-specific offences involved both adult and child victims, and in both cases the accused pleaded guilty to trafficking in persons and prostitution-related offences. The sentences imposed ranged from two to three years imprisonment.

This government's commitment to combating human trafficking is reflected in its response to the 2007 report by the House of Commons standing committee, “Turning Outrage Into Action to Address Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Canada”.

The government's response reiterated the importance of a multidisciplinary response to trafficking in persons and outlined our approach. This approach also clearly reflects the framework established by the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its supplemental protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, by focusing on the four Ps: prevention of trafficking, protection of its victims, prosecution of offenders, and the building of partnerships both domestically and internationally.

Canadians are rightfully concerned about this horrible crime. The issue of human trafficking has received significant attention in this House and in the other place. I think we all understand and appreciate the seriousness of the issue being addressed by Bill C-268. Its proposed reform really raises a key question: Are our existing penalties for the trafficking of children adequate, and if not, would Bill C-268 provide the needed enhancement?

If this bill is referred to committee for study, I hope that the committee will consider the bill by looking as well at how the existing Criminal Code penalties addressing child victims are working.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2009, February 27th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I thought it was the responsibility in the House for members of Parliament to uphold the institutions of our great country with some reverence.

Could the member opposite advise the House how his cutting remarks about the Prime Minister will instill in the children of Canada respect for the office that the man holds.

[Warren Kinsella, February 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, another day, another embarrassment for the opposition leader at the hands of his own dirty tricks specialist, Warren Kinsella.

According to sources, Kinsella was fired yesterday from a committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress because of his misconduct. This comes just a week after Kinsella tried to bully TVOntario into cancelling a guest from a talk show, an outrageous attempt to interfere with the independence of a public broadcaster, and that is hard on the heels of catscam, Kinsella's anti-Chinese bigotry that grew into a diplomatic incident.

If Warren Kinsella were just another lobbyist, his poor judgment would be his own problem, but Kinsella is a senior adviser to the Leader of the Opposition, hand-picked to run his war room.

Kinsella's thuggish antics have been approved and condoned by the Liberal Party. Given that the adscam inquiry called Kinsella's conduct “highly inappropriate”, he never should have been hired by the Liberals at all.

Now that even the Canadian Jewish Congress cannot stomach Kinsella, will the Liberals fire him too?

[Agriculture, February 5th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I read today that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is moving forward with implementing a new policy for poultry inspection.

I know that the government considers the safety of Canadians' food a matter of great importance.

Could the minister inform the House about the state of this program?

[The Budget, February 3rd, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for that very good question. It is one of the very reasons why this government has taken the initiative to have foreign credentials assessed before people come back into Canada. We recognize that the responsibility for accreditation is held provincially. Currently, across Canada, there are 447 credentialing agencies.

I spent three years as vice president of one of the Ontario regulated health colleges. We did have to assess credentials coming from other countries, be they clinical practice or a recognition of Canadian pharmaceuticals. I would encourage our provinces. We need to work with our provinces to see those credentials recognized and our government is working with them to make that happen.