Mark Adler

[Business of Supply, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I understand where the member is going with this, and I completely agree with him. This was an example of the marketplace acting as it should. The NDP members talk about having this kind of other world where markets do not work and where there is direct demand from the government, where the government dictates how people can spend their money and what they can spend it on. They engage in social engineering. This is the NDP way.

We have seen it in Ontario. We saw the disaster that it led to between 1990 and 1995. Even the Liberal government could not clean that up. In Ontario we are still facing devastation because of that five-year period. The member is right. The marketplace works as it should when left to its ability to do so. Here we saw two companies, two corporations competing for the same product, and one simply outbid the other.

Nothing will get a business in shape more than to subject it to competition. Monopoly does not lead to a more efficient economic model. It leads to a more inefficient model. Anyone who has studied elementary economics will absolutely know that.

[Business of Supply, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have run a small business myself. My wife and I have two small children, 10-year-old twins, and we understand the difference between an investment and a cost.

As a business person and someone who was sent here by the people of York Centre to watch their dollars closely, I know it is really important that we keep a close eye on how dollars are spent in this country. That was the mandate given to us by the people of Canada. It is interesting to note that the NDP talked about tax increases and now it is trying to change its phraseology, saying tax increases are an investment. I am presuming its $21 billion carbon tax that it is proposing is a $21 billion investment.

[Business of Supply, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that is a very insightful question. Yes, I have been asked those questions in my own riding of York Centre, and I tell my constituents exactly what they understand, because most of them run their own businesses and have to balance their own budgets too, unlike the Liberal Party that believes budgets simply balance themselves. When people are in business and supporting families, resources are scarce and they have to allocate resources to what they think is the most important. They have to make choices and consider priorities. That is exactly what the CBC must do.

There is no endless amount of money that comes from the taxpayers of Canada. We believe that taxpayers' money belongs more in taxpayers' pockets than in the hands of government. Therefore, we have been pursuing a low-tax plan to achieve balanced budgets, and we will do so by 2015-16, which is exactly what the Canadian people have sent us here to do.

[Business of Supply, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that is typical of the NDP members when they talk about government money. They think that somehow there is this machine in the basement of Parliament that actually just churns out money, that there is a big wheel that just turns money out, dollar after dollar. The money is the taxpayers' money. We have committed to Canadians to focus on what matters most to Canadians: jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity. We are achieving balanced budgets by keeping taxes low. That is our commitment to Canadians.

All households in this country needs to balance their budgets. They sit around the kitchen table every single night and talk about what sacrifices they are going to have to make. Businesses do the same thing. Small businesses do the same thing.

The CBC is going through that very exercise. It is making those choices. It is up to CBC to make those choices, not the Government of Canada.

[Business of Supply, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, our government recognizes the contribution that the CBC, as the national public broadcaster, plays in Canadian society. Some remote, aboriginal, and official language minority communities are served by the CBC for radio and television coverage. As members know, the CBC reaches Canadians across distances and backgrounds from across our great country and reflects that diversity to each other.

Specifically, the CBC is mandated to inform, enlighten, and entertain Canadian audiences and offer distinctively Canadian programming that contributes to an exchange and flow of cultural expression. That programming is expected to reflect Canada and all its regions to national and regional audiences while serving the needs of all the regions.

The CBC must strive to produce that programming of equal quality in both English and French as well as reflect the different needs of each official language community and English and French linguistic minorities. Moreover, the CBC/Radio-Canada is mandated to reflect the multicultural and multinational nature of Canada while contributing to a shared consciousness and identity.

Our national public broadcaster indeed has a broad mandate to fulfill. The CBC must, each and every day, reach Canadians using 30 television, radio, and digital services in both official languages, in eight aboriginal languages and in five languages on its international service.

The Broadcasting Act guarantees the CBC a degree of independence and freedom as an arm's-length crown corporation. This guarantee is based on the significance and importance of journalistic freedom in our democracy.

This freedom and independence of the CBC is stated multiple times in the Broadcasting Act, “...The Corporation shall, in the pursuit of its objects and in the exercise of its powers, enjoy freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence”. Our government continues to work with the CBC in a manner that respects these independence principles and allows it to fulfill its national cultural mandate. Members may ask why this freedom and independence is so important. In the context of the recent announcements made by the CBC President and CEO about program and staff reductions at the corporation, it is important to understand by whom, why, and how those decisions were made.

Our opposition colleagues have been alluding to reduced parliamentary funding as the source of the CBC's current financial difficulties. I would like to put that to rest once and for all. The business decisions announced by the CBC reflect the realities of its business decisions. This brings me to how these concepts of freedom and independence translate for the CBC, particularly given its current situation. Now this is important, and I implore the opposition to pay close attention to what I am going to say.

When Parliament created the CBC, in order to ensure that its freedom and independence would remain paramount to government managerial oversight, it was designed as a crown corporation. A key feature of a crown corporation is that while they are public policy instruments, they also operate at arm's length from government. As an arm's-length corporation, the CBC is responsible for its own operational decisions. It is governed by a board of directors whose decisions regarding the strategic governance and stewardship of the CBC's resources are made at arm's length from government.

The CBC receives substantial funding to meet its mandate under the Broadcasting Act. It is up to the CBC to provide programming in French and English that Canadians want. The choices in programs and services are made independently from government involvement.

The implementation of the board's choices and decisions are managed by the president and chief executive officer of the CBC who is responsible for directing and supervising staff, as well as CBC's day-to-day operations. The board is accountable to Parliament and to Canadians through the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages for the good governance and management of its resources.

Each year, Parliament provides financial support to the CBC totalling more than $1 billion for the corporation to deliver on its mandate and its core services. It is an incredibly significant amount of federal funding. In fact, it is the most funding that we provide to any federal cultural or heritage crown corporation and, as the CBC has stated, it is enough money for the corporation to fulfill its mandate.

I would also like to remind the House that the CBC also has access to other funding sources. Our government contributes over $130 million to the Canada media fund to join the contributions of the private broadcasting industry in order to support Canadian television programming and associated digital media content. Given its dedication to Canadian content, the CBC also benefits from allocations of about $90 million from the Canada media fund for investments in Canadian content programming. Its allocations represent over one-third of the total funding this program provides to broadcasters.

The amount the CBC or any other broadcaster is allocated depends on the performance of the programs and their digital innovations. This is to ensure that Canadians receive value for the investments we make on their behalf.

Another reason for establishing the CBC as a crown corporation is that while being owned by the crown and pursuing cultural objectives, it has a certain flexibility, similar to that of a private business, to operate in a commercial environment. For instance, the CBC can generate revenue through its assets and services and retain and reinvest that revenue in its activities and programming. Revenues are key in the funding model Parliament designed for the CBC. Federal funding represents almost 65% of the CBC's total budget, while revenues account for the remaining 35%. Of that amount of revenues, about half comes from television advertising revenues, another 10% from subscription revenues to its specialty services, and the rest from other revenue sources.

Given its mandate to reach all Canadians, and with revenues making up a significant amount of available funds, it is imperative that the CBC deliver programming that Canadians want to watch. This is an important point, because the current financial difficulties that the CBC is facing are due to a number of business factors that have reduced revenues. According to its president, the CBC's declining viewership in key demographics and ad revenues are causing these challenges.

Since the economic downturn of 2008-09, the television advertising market has rebounded, but it never fully recovered to previous levels. This is amplified by the CBC television program schedule's difficulty in attracting the 25- to 54-year-old age group for advertisers, making it harder for the corporation to attain revenue targets.

The industry has also seen a major shift, with advertisers spending much more on online ads than on radio. The combination of those revenue losses is the main contributor behind the $130 million shortfall for the CBC, according to Monsieur Lacroix, the president and CEO. To address this shortfall, the CBC decided to implement a number of program and staff reductions so that its spending in 2014-15 and beyond will match its revenues.

Our government is committed to balanced budgets across federal institutions, and the CBC must do its part like everyone else. Budgets do not balance themselves.

The individual program, service, and staff reduction decisions have been taken and are being implemented by the CBC separately from our government. We cannot direct the CBC to retain a certain number of journalists for investigative programs nor can we tell the CBC to open new stations if the CBC does not believe it is the best use of its own resources, nor would my opposition colleagues want us to have this ability.

The CBC's mandate includes a number of key elements that its programming should reflect, such as regions, our English and French bilingualism, aboriginal peoples, and multiculturalism. However, the way in which the CBC delivers programs and services in response to its mandate is with a great degree of independence from government.

We have heard that the board approved budget reductions that are being carried out strategically to move away from business that it can no longer afford, to focus on regional services by letting go of some local programs, to consolidate its advertising strategy across media lines and platforms, and other measures. On May 1, 2014, at the Standing Committee on Official Languages, Mr. Lacroix reiterated that tough choices had to be made in order to balance its 2014-15 budget while maintaining priority investments in Canadian content, regions, and digital.

The reality is that the CBC/Radio-Canada is facing the same challenges as every other broadcaster: fragmentation of audiences, new content consumption methods, increased competition, and so on. All broadcasters are striving to adapt to this constantly changing new reality. Large groups are being formed, new strategies tested, and broadcasters are looking for new ways to keep audiences. CBC/Radio-Canada is no exception, and must produce programming that Canadians actually want to watch. Our government provides CBC with over $1 billion each year to ensure that the CBC fulfills its obligations as Canada's national broadcaster and fulfills its mandate.

Further, when the CBC/Radio-Canada's licences were renewed last year, the CRTC granted the corporation greater flexibility and allowed it to broadcast advertising on Radio 2 and Espace Musique as way of increasing its revenues.

Our government expects that the CBC will offer Canadians programming that interests them, programming that they want to see and hear, the kind of viewing that we are seeing today as we watch the Leader of the Opposition trying his best to explain why he used taxpayers' money for partisan political purposes.

I would like to summarize my address by stating that our government respects the CBC's decision-making autonomy with regard to its journalistic, programming, and service choices to operate within its budget. The CBC continues to receive over $1 billion in taxpayer funds.

[Business of Supply, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, our government recognizes the contribution of the CBC in Canadian society. In some remote aboriginal and official language minority communities—

[Business of Supply, May 14th, 2014]

Mr. Chair, it is a great honour to be here this evening to discuss how our government has lowered taxes for seniors and has strengthened Canada's retirement income system.

Since 2006, our government has delivered approximately $2.8 billion in annual targeted tax relief for seniors and pensioners. The opposition has fought tooth and nail against every initiative that we have attempted to bring in to lower taxes for Canadians and for seniors. I hope the opposition understands that the way to help seniors is not to raise taxes, beginning with a $21-billion carbon tax.

I hope that what I am about to say, and unfortunately I do not have the full ten minutes to say it, will be a learning experience for the NDP and the Liberals. I encourage them to listen very closely.

Why did we place such importance on tax relief for seniors? Canadians know that our government focuses on what matters most to them. We heard from seniors across Canada who said that they wanted to keep more of their hard-earned dollars in their wallets, where it belongs. That is why we cut the GST from 7% to 6% to 5%. We introduced pension income splitting. We increased the age credit amount by $2,000. We doubled the pension income credit to $2,000 and created the tax-free savings account.

The tax-free savings account is the most innovative and popular savings vehicle since the RRSP. Initially allowing Canadians to save up to $5,000 a year, the tax-free savings account was expanded by our government due to popular demand. We now allow Canadians to save up to $5,500 a year. Members may be wondering how many Canadians have taken advantage of the TFSA that our government created. I am pleased to tell the House that more than nine million Canadians have taken out a tax-free savings account. The NDP and the Liberals voted against it.

This has been particularly beneficial for seniors. Neither income earned in a TFSA nor withdrawals from a TFSA affect a senior's federal support, such as the guaranteed income supplement.

We have also increased the amount that GIS recipients can earn through employment without any reduction in their benefits. We have increased the amount that recipients can earn from $500 to $3,500. For instance, a single pensioner earning at least $3,500 will now be able to keep up to an additional $1,500 in annual GIS benefits. This is important. We even introduced the largest GIS increase in 25 years. This is helping more than 680,000 seniors across Canada.

Our government's low-tax plan has even helped remove 380,000 seniors from the tax rolls altogether. In 2014, a single senior can earn $20,000 and a senior couple can earn $40,000 before paying any federal income tax.

Under the strong leadership of our Prime Minister, not only have we lowered taxes for seniors, we have also succeeded in ensuring that Canada's retirement income system remains strong. Today, Canada's low-income rate for seniors is one of the lowest in the industrialized world.

Our government understands the importance of a secure and dignified retirement for Canadians who worked hard to build this great country. We want to ensure that Canadians have a secure retirement today and for future generations. Canada's retirement income system is renowned globally for preventing poverty among seniors and ensuring high levels of replacement income to retirees. Such high regard is based in no small part on the effectiveness of our government's actions. These actions have been effective because they are based on guiding principles of fiscal responsibility, sustainability, and innovation. We have applied these principles to strengthen the various pillars of Canada's retirement system with its balanced mix of private and public supports.

[Multiculturalism, May 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday parliamentarians will join with Holocaust survivors and their families in Ottawa for the annual National Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies presented by the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem.

On this occasion, we remember, of course, and commemorate the horrors of the Holocaust, the six million Jews who were so brutally murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. In 2009, the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity proposed an act to establish a national Holocaust monument, which passed unanimously in the House.

Would the Minister of State for Multiculturalism please provide the House with an update on the progress of a national Holocaust monument?

[Sanofi Pasteur Canada, May 8th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, vaccines have revolutionized our world. Millions of lives have been saved and extended through the dedicated efforts of vaccine researchers and manufacturers.

Sanofi Pasteur Canada, formerly Connaught Laboratories, has been a leader in the Canadian and global vaccine field over the past century, and today plays a key role in improving the health of people around the world through the production of life-saving medicines.

This world-class company, located in York Centre, is currently celebrating its 100th anniversary in Canada.

Sanofi Pasteur Canada owes its foundation to the pioneering vision of Dr. John FitzGerald, a graduate of the University of Toronto medical school. FitzGerald's goal was to provide life-saving public health products in Canada at a price that was affordable to all.

From working with Banting and Best to produce the first supply of insulin and penicillin, to playing a key role in the introduction of the Salk polio vaccine, to the eradication of small pox, to developing the first five-component pertussis vaccine, this world-class company now employs over 1,000 people at its complex at Dufferin and Steeles in the heart of York Centre. It is one of the largest suppliers of vaccines in the world.

On behalf of all residents of York Centre, and all Canadians, I wish Sanofi Pasteur Canada congratulations and the greatest of success as it enters its second century.

[Yom Ha'atzmaut, May 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, today Israel is celebrating Yom Ha'atzmaut, the 66th year of the state's independence.

The story of Israel is a great example to the world. It is a story of a people who have overcome great suffering, from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 to the Khmelnytsky massacres of 1648-1650 to the countless number of pogroms, all culminating just 70 years ago in the Shoah, when six million Jewish men, women, and children, including my father's entire family, were brutally murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.

Born out of the ashes of the ghettos and concentration camps, Israel serves as a beacon of hope, and our government stands with Israel.

Just this past January, our Prime Minister stood in the Israeli Knesset and said, “Our view that Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and non-negotiable”.

The current relationship between Canada and Israel is based on the shared values of democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law.

To all celebrating this historic day, I wish a Yom Ha'atzmaut Sameach.