Marwan Tabbara

[Petitions, March 1st, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present two related petitions. Petition e-1264, signed by 531 Canadians, reminds the House that approximately 25% of Canada's population are non-believers, and calls upon the House to request that the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Canadian Heritage, together with the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, investigate systemic discrimination against non-believers in Canada's laws and regulations.

Mr. Speaker, petition e-763, signed by 1,536 Canadians, calls upon the House of Commons to repeal the religious exemption regarding hate propaganda found in paragraph 319(3)(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada. This paragraph permits the incitement of hatred against identifiable groups if the incitement is an expression of “opinion based on a belief in a religious text”.

[Clearpath Robotics, February 2nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, Waterloo region is one of the best places in the world to build a technology company. With over 1,000 technology companies, Waterloo region's start-up density is second only to that of Silicon Valley.

I recently visited an innovative and award-winning company in my riding of Kitchener South—Hespeler. One of Canada's top 100 employers, Clearpath Robotics is a global leader in self-driving technology serving customers in over 40 countries. Established only nine years ago, Clearpath was profitable within only 18 months, and now has sold over 2,000 robots.

Clearpath was founded by graduates of the University of Waterloo mechatronics engineering program, and now employs nearly 200 Canadians full time. We are proud of the entrepreneurship and innovation displayed by partners Matthew Rendall, Ryan Gariepy, and Bryan Webb, and their team at Clearpath Robotics.

[Workers in Manufacturing, December 4th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I stand today to express my sincere appreciation to all the men and women working day, afternoon, night shifts, 12-hour continental shifts, and weekends. I have a great respect for all the workers in manufacturing facilities because I, too, have worked in all shifts during my 13 years of experience in manufacturing.

I want to thank all the workers in my riding in Waterloo region at places like ATS Automation, Boehmer Box, Cober, Colt, Erwin Hymer, Grand River Foods, Ontario Glove and Safety, Frito-Lay, and Toyota, among many others.

I want to take a moment to ask members to join me in thanking all the workers in manufacturing facilities across this country to support their families and themselves, and to provide Canadians with all the manufactured products we take for granted every day in our lives.

[Indian Act, November 30th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague quoted Senator Christmas, who said that the government will need to pay close attention to indigenous communities. I wanted to ask the hon. member about the importance of consulting, how that process needs to be done efficiently and effectively, and how we can make great efforts after the consultations to ensure that we have proper policies put forward.

[Children, November 20th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, last week, I participated in UNICEF's “Bring Your MP to School Day”. The students at Monsignor Haller, St. Aloysius, Cardinal Leger, Hespeler, and Groh public schools asked some great questions.

Today is the anniversary of the General Assembly's adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Many nations, including Canada, dedicate today to the welfare of all children. The Minister of Public Safety's recent direction recognized that the primary consideration in all state actions concerning children is the best interests of the child, and that detention of a minor is a measure of last resort.

Canada should work to persuade nations whom we have strong ties with to end practices such as blindfolding, denial of access to parental and legal advice, administrative detention, and segregation of minors. Those are no ways to treat a child.

[The Economy, November 6th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, people in my riding of Kitchener South—Hespeler in the Waterloo region are proud of our government's commitment to grow the economy, create jobs, and strengthen the middle class. They know that the smart investments our government is making will help more Canadians find and keep good, well-paying jobs.

Can the minister update this House on what our government is doing to grow the economy and ensure every Canadian has a fair shot at success?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 6th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member mentioned that in his riding of Surrey Centre, there is a population of 500,000, and 35,000 new jobs have been created. It is similar to my region of Kitchener and Waterloo. I want to ask how the investments have helped in his region and how job growth has increased because of those investments.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 2nd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I have friends on BBM, where we have a group chat. In our case, the topic was to alert all parents out there that the Canada child benefit would be increasing again in 2019. They were very happy to hear that because they know that the cost of raising their children is increasing and that this will go directly to their families to help them with that and to ensure that they spend more. That spending will go directly to our economy and will continue to boost it.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 2nd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I want to express support for this bill and address the question of the hon. member. As a result of the bill, the Canada Labour Code would allow for greater flexibility in terms of vacation days, holidays, and bereavement days. This is something that we wanted to do to ensure that the labour code is particular to the times we live in. We want to continue to work with all of our colleagues to look at ways we can help all Canadians with work-life balance. I want to work closely with my colleague and all members of the House going forward.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 2nd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, that gives me an opportunity to talk about this further and to address the member's question on financial literacy. One thing I want to say is that the way we grow our economy is by making investments in our middle class and in business. We have lowered the tax rate on small business from 11% down to 10.5%, and will be lowering it even further to 9%. We are lowering taxes on businesses, increasing investment, and increasing infrastructure. The latter include the highest numbers we have seen, with billions of dollars being put into infrastructure. I have seen in my riding how that will help our region. Investments are the way to grow the economy.