Maria Minna

[Court Challenges Program, June 17th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, for years the court challenges program, established by previous Liberal governments, has helped all minority groups to have access to the courts to protect their rights. For example, the program has been very useful for the advancement of women's rights. Given the limited scope of the government's new court challenges pretend program, women's organizations would still be shut out.

Will the government commit to re-establishing a court challenges program to which all minorities would have access?

[Agriculture, June 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, even Robert Mugabe is there. Why is the Canadian minister not there?

[Agriculture, June 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the UN has called an emergency summit to look at the food crisis and to find solutions to the growing problem but Canada's agriculture minister is not there.

Sending food aid and working with the WTO to reduce trade barriers is not enough. This crisis worsens every day.

Solutions need to be found beyond what is already in place and Canada needs to be a leader on this important issue, but the minister is not there. Why not?

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, I am not looking for fifty-fifty, but I am glad to hear the minister admit that despite the propaganda that this is supposed to help low income Canadians, it does not, especially women. It is good to get that on the record.

The other thing that has also hurt women is the $1,200, which is supposed to be a universal child care program. In fact, it does nothing for the average woman, especially single parents. It does absolutely nothing for low income women to get back to work. Again, it hurts. The lower the income, the less money they get, so this is very detrimental.

Has the minister received a proper gender based analysis on this and what did he do about it?

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, the only thing I can deduce from what the minister has just said is he received an analysis. If it were true analysis, it would have shown a detrimental impact on women. The minister then chose not to use that information and went ahead in any case.

I will give one example. The $5,500 savings plan, in fact, does absolutely nothing for women because 40.4% of women do not even pay any taxes. The average income of women in general is about $37,000 a year. Most of them do not have the ability to put aside any money. This only helps high income and mostly males in our country.

Could the minister tell me that he then chose not to listen to the analysis when he made his decision?

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, the Conservative government in both of its last two budgets in particular has been extremely detrimental to women in our country. It has actually been hurtful and damaging.

When the gender based analysis was done by the finance department, it came forward with an analysis that showed it was gender neutral and no problem. However, when we had our own experts at the standing committee do the analysis, it showed the complete opposite. It showed that there was major damage to women in all of the items, which I will list later.

Could the minister tell me whether he in fact got a true gender based analysis before his budgets were tabled?

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, the government has--

[Charles Caccia, May 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise today to acknowledge the passing of a dear friend and former Liberal member of Parliament, the Hon. Charles Caccia.

Mr. Caccia was first elected to the House of Commons in 1968 to represent the riding of Davenport and was subsequently re-elected nine times, where he served as minister of labour, minister of the environment and Liberal opposition critic on environmental issues.

After leaving Parliament, he went on to serve as Senior Fellow at the Institute of the Environment at the University of Ottawa.

Mr. Caccia was more than a respected member of Parliament. He co-founded COSTI, Canada's largest immigrant service agency and was cherished and respected by his community. He was a great Liberal who dedicated his life to building a better Canada. His many accomplishments and his longstanding commitment to the people he served as an MP will not be forgotten. His passion for environmental and social justice issues was a great inspiration to all.

On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our caucus, I wish to extend my sincerest sympathies to Mr. Caccia's family and friends. He will be missed.

[Business of Supply, April 29th, 2008]

No, we have not.

[Point of Order, April 29th, 2008]

Do I get to speak?

Not only did the government establish a national child care program with an agreement with every province in this country, with $5 million, $1 million was already flowing, but that government cut the program and this--