Mr. Speaker, I have no problem to apply the vote and will be voting in favour.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2011, with 42% of the vote.
Economic Action Plan 2015 Act, No. 1 June 10th, 2015
Mr. Speaker, I have no problem to apply the vote and will be voting in favour.
Economic Action Plan 2015 Act, No. 1 June 10th, 2015
Mr. Speaker, I agree to proceed in this fashion and I am voting yes.
Economic Action Plan 2015 Act, No. 1 June 10th, 2015
Mr. Speaker, I have no problem applying the vote and I will be voting in favour.
Economic Action Plan 2015 Act, No. 1 June 10th, 2015
Mr. Speaker, I have no problem with proceeding in this manner and I vote yes.
The Environment June 9th, 2015
Mr. Speaker, the scientific evidence is confirmed. That is why on March 24 the House voted unanimously for the government to take immediate measures to address the environmental menace of microbeads. Since then, no measures have been taken. That is hardly immediate.
The good news is that my private member bill, Bill C-684, has the solution, which is to simply ban the manufacture or importation into Canada of any personal care product containing microbeads.
Would the Minister of Environment do the right thing and ban microbeads, as my bill prescribes, before the end of this parliamentary session?
Canadian Environmental Protection Act June 2nd, 2015
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-684, An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (microplastics).
Mr. Speaker, this bill would amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, to prohibit the importation into Canada and the manufacture for use or sale in Canada of personal care products that contain pieces of plastic of up to five millimetres in size.
The bill had been ready to be tabled since the beginning of last fall, but due to some distractions, I decided it best to wait and table this bill today so that the focus could be on taking action in response to numerous recent studies that highlight the damage microbeads inflict on our marine ecosystem.
As a Montrealer, I am personally troubled that my city's main waterway, the St. Lawrence River, contains high levels of microbead contamination.
Even though this House unanimously passed the motion in March to deal with this problem, the government has yet to take action.
Seeing how little time is remaining in this session, and the fact that this bill is non-controversial, and that the House has already pronounced itself in favour of this matter, I was wondering if I can request unanimous consent to send this bill directly to the environment committee for study.
Taxation May 29th, 2015
Mr. Speaker, perhaps I should address my question to the the Minister of Finance. No tariff reductions were announced in budget 2015. However, former finance minister Jim Flaherty was intent on closing the price gap between Canada and the United States with measures such as tariff reductions. While previous tariff reductions made prices considerably lower for consumers, there are still tariff lines of up to 18%.
The testing was conclusive, so why did the Minister of Finance not introduce new tariff reductions in budget 2015?
Taxation May 29th, 2015
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of State for Small Business has good reason to be pleased because the tariff reductions on imports of baby clothing and sports equipment established in 2013 have been good for SMEs and consumers.
The price has dropped on almost all of the merchandise in these sectors. However, despite many promises, no new initiatives have been introduced.
Can the Minister of State for Small Business assure us that prices will continue to drop? When will SMEs and Canadians benefit from new tariff reductions?
Pensions May 12th, 2015
Mr. Speaker, Canadians plan for their retirement based on what they are promised through their pension plans. Any changes after the fact to pension benefits can cause retirees financial hardship through no fault of their own, as we have seen in many cases, including Nortel pensioners.
Since the government is transitioning away from defined benefit pensions for federally regulated workers, federal private sectors workers and crown corporation employees, will the government commit to exempting current employees from such a change?
International Trade May 1st, 2015
Mr. Speaker, we are hearing less and less about negotiations on the trans-Pacific partnership, the TPP, but surprise: the 2015 budget would extend protection under the Copyright Act by 20 years. Strangely, there had been no discussions about it, and the stakeholders did not ask for this. Moreover, many studies oppose it. The fact is that this is not something Canadians are particularly concerned about.
Can the Minister of International Trade tell us if this amendment is a strategic gift to American lobbyists to finalize the TPP negotiations?