Martha Hall Findlay

[April 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I stand tonight to follow up on a question with regard to the public transit tax credit and information that was released in the report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, which was released at the same time under the Auditor General's report.

The report stated that the government's public transit tax credit plan in 2007 was to reduce emissions by 220,000 tonnes each year over the course of 2008 to 2012. Interestingly enough, by the time we had passed a year, the 2008 projections had been dropped from 220,000 tonnes to 35,000 tonnes, a dramatic reduction and, I think, clear evidence of a recognition that the program was failing.

The cost for the first two years, so this is money already gone now according to the report, was $635 million. The report states that t he public transit tax credit “will have a negligible impact on Canada's greenhouse gas emissions”.

We support action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but we on this side of the House certainly favour not misleading Canadians and not wasting taxpayer money.

When I first asked the question, the minister's answer, or rather non-answer, was:

Mr. Speaker, we continue to work on this. We continue to focus on emissions. We continue to ensure that we achieve the environmental objectives that we have spoken about in the House.

In effect, a complete non-answer. Now the minister may not have heard the question or one might suspect that the answer was completely a non-answer because the minister did not actually have an answer.

I will now give the parliamentary secretary the opportunity to address that.

However, more specifically, despite this clear failure of the program, the program is still in effect. Therefore, I would add additional questions to the original question. Given that the government has decided to continue a program that is so completely a failure in terms of reduction of emissions, as well as costing the taxpayers a great deal of money, could he also inform us of what the projections are now in terms of greenhouse gas emission reductions and at what particular cost for this coming year?

[Automotive Industry, April 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, 15 months have passed and a much wanted announcement of a fund from budget 2008 has not been touched. Not one penny of the $250 million automotive innovation fund has actually been invested and worse, during 15 months of a drastically deteriorating auto sector.

Could the Minister of Industry help us understand why his government has for 15 critical months ignored even its own offer to help the auto sector?

[Alison Youngman, March 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, Alison Youngman died peacefully at home on the morning of International Women's Day after a short but brutal battle with cancer.

Ms. Youngman was an award-winning senior partner at national law firm Stikeman Elliott, a strong advocate for Canadian women, and a champion of women's leadership.

A tireless contributor to her community, Alison served as chair of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, was an active volunteer at Out of the Cold, and was Canadian president of the International Women's Forum.

Alison was also a trailblazer and a champion of women in Canada's corporate community. She headed her firm's internationally recognized technology law group and spearheaded one of Bay Street's first maternity policies.

Sandra Martin of the The Globe and Mail described Alison as follows:

Adopted as a baby and raised as an only child, Alison Youngman created a family out of friends and colleagues. Known as the maestro of multitasking, she was a high-profile lawyer, an indefatigable volunteer for breast cancer research, a director of the International Women's Foundation, a mentor for other women and a devoted mother. In naming her a woman of distinction in 2004, the YWCA of Toronto lauded her for breaking “new ground for women in the legal profession” and for being “an influential and inspiring role model”.

Ms. Youngman is survived by her two sons, Chris and Phil, two brothers, a sister, and many, many friends.

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, March 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the problem is that this problem just did not arise. The government could have extended help to the CBC sooner than this. We know too well the animosity that the government feels toward the CBC. Maybe it feels it has scores to settle. This behaviour suggests an ideological vendetta against the CBC.

Why on earth does the CBC now have to choose between selling assets and selling out its people; worse, having to sell out both? In a recession, when we need stimulus to keep jobs, the government is refusing the funding to keep both at the CBC.

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, March 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, not only will the government not take the easy steps to prevent the loss of jobs at the CBC, but it also appears intent on selling CBC assets; the CBC, a prized national institution so important to Canadians.

Will the minister please confirm or deny that CBC assets will soon be on the block?

[Infrastructure, March 9th, 2009]

It is bad enough, Mr. Speaker, that the Conservatives are contradicting themselves, but the minister is contradicting himself.

If indeed that money is still available to bring forward, then I have to ask the minister, if he has all that money that has been approved with full accountability, ready to continue into the months ahead, why does he need a blank cheque with no accountability?

[Infrastructure, March 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, last week the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities said that billions of dollars of infrastructure money allocated and fully approved under Parliament's accountability process but not yet invested after 11 months would be carried forward. He said that it is available to invest now and into the coming year. The next day another Conservative MP said that those very same unspent funds would be left behind, unused, gone.

I ask the minister to confirm which is it: is all that unspent money still there to invest going forward, or at a time when Canadians need it most is he leaving it behind?

[Infrastructure, March 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, that begs the question about why the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure seems incapable of providing a list of those projects, which he wants to spend on in three weeks.

My gosh, is this minister not good at making announcements? Towns like Kenora, Sudbury, Hamilton, and towns and municipalities all across this country have had money promised, but they have seen virtually none of it. An announcement is not the same as a delivery.

We all understand the need for speed and the government knows full well that there is a proven method to get money out to the municipalities right away to invest in what they need. It has been told and shown many times. Why does the government continue to refuse this method, one that it knows will work?

[Infrastructure, March 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the economy is clearly getting worse. We have more bad news today. Yet, almost $4 billion of approved and allocated infrastructure money has been ready to go all this year. It still is.

Why has the government held almost $4 billion back in approved spending when Canadians needed help? Was it simply to avoid, for purely political reasons, the word deficit?

[Business of Supply, February 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, needless to say, I thank my colleague for her question because it is, in part, a response to an earlier statement that suggested that municipalities were in a position to take advantage of a credit arrangement being purported by the current government as an answer to these problems.

It is not the answer because most municipalities cannot take advantage of the credit opportunity simply because of the process and the requirement that is being placed upon the municipalities to do it all upfront.

We are in a time of significant economic challenge. That is not lost on anyone, except perhaps for those who have structured this infrastructure process to deny the opportunity to so many municipalities to spend the money on infrastructure as quickly as possible.