Matthew Kellway

[The Budget, April 23rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciate my colleague's distinction between this budget being an economic budget versus a political budget.

As the infrastructure critic for our caucus, I looked very closely for new infrastructure money, and there is none but for the curious Canada 150 community infrastructure program. The program is not spelled out in the budget itself. It states that the government will announce further details about the program over the coming months. I would note that over the coming months we are heading into an election. That community infrastructure program looks far more like a political action plan than an economic action plan.

I would ask the member how responsible he feels it is to put something like that in a budget when cities and communities across the country are crying out for federal support to deal with infrastructure deficits that amount to tens of billions of dollars.

[Petitions, April 23rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a building that housed 5,000 garment workers. I am pleased today to present a petition that acknowledges the deaths of over 1,100 workers and injury to 2,500 more in that, the world's second-largest industrial accident.

The petitioners are reminding this House that it is the fundamental right of all people, wherever they live in the world, to be able to go to work without fear for their safety, health or indeed lives. They are calling upon the Government of Canada to endorse the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, and they encourage Canadian companies that manufacture in Bangladesh to become signatories to that accord.

[Petitions, April 22nd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition in support of labelling of genetically modified foods. The signatories to the petition wish to point the attention of the House to the right of all Canadians to make informed choices when purchasing products.

They call upon the Government of Canada to introduce mandatory labelling of products containing ingredients that have been genetically modified, and to undertake a balanced approach to the use of genetically modified organisms that considers the health and sustainability of our environment and communities, the protection of biodiversity and of course the economic interests of farmers.

[The Budget, April 22nd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative budget shows that the government still does not understand that a strong Canada requires strong cities. Under this budget, desperately needed public transit funding is still years away, and even then, it is a slow ramp-up to meaningful dollars, all of it complicated by red tape and many strings attached.

Why do multi-billion dollar income splitting handouts to the wealthier few start immediately while the vast majority of Canadians are left waiting for the bus?

[Petitions, April 21st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to present a petition to the House today with respect to violence against women.

The signatories to this petition want to draw to the attention of the Government of Canada that women are 11 times more likely than men to be victims of sexual offences, that indigenous women in Canada are seven times more likely to be murdered than non-indigenous women, that nearly 1,200 indigenous women have gone missing or have been murdered in Canada, and that Canada has clear domestic and international obligations to address violence against women, including the United Nations call for all countries to have a national action plan to end violence against women.

The signatories are calling upon the Government of Canada to create a coordinated, comprehensive and national action plan to address violence against women, and launch an independent national inquiry into the deaths and disappearance of first nations, Métis and Inuit women.

[Petitions, April 2nd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition today in support of a national urban agenda. The signatories to the petition note that it is through our cities that we connect to and participate in the global economy; yet our cities are places of increasing income inequality. They further note that 80% of Canadians live in urban communities and that we cannot have the Canada we want if we do not have the cities we want. Therefore, they call upon the Government of Canada to do its part to build into our cities the infrastructure necessary to ensure that Canada's cities are prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable.

[Rail Transportation, April 2nd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Toronto mayor John Tory and 17 Toronto city councillors whose constituents border the CP Rail line have written to the Minister of Transport expressing their concerns about the transportation of dangerous goods through their neighbourhoods. With about one million barrels of oil going through Canadian towns and cities daily, with derailments across this country continually in the news, with Lac-Mégantic never far from our minds, is the minister going to listen to the concerns of Torontonians, implement the recommendations in this letter, and prevent another catastrophe?

[Petitions, April 1st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to present a petition with respect to the federal lands in Durham Region.

The signatories to this petition note that these federal lands encompass class 1 farmland and the vital watersheds of the Oak Ridges Moraine. They further note that it has been the expressed intention of successive Liberal and Conservative governments to pave over these lands and build an airport.

The petitioners call upon the House to rescind all plans for an airport and non-agricultural uses of these federal lands, and to act instead to preserve the watersheds and the agricultural land of this irreplaceable natural resource for the long-term benefit of all Canadians.

[Safe and Accountable Rail Act, March 31st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the government is too easily satisfied with its very small steps. What the derailments and the government's lack of action on the issue raise for us is a system of rail safety that has been broken since the Liberals brought in the Rail Safety Act in 1999 where direct federal oversight over public safety with respect to railways was given over to a safety management system allowing the opportunity for railway companies to self-audit and self-manage the safety of Canadians. That is an abdication of the most fundamental responsibility that a government has, which is to protect the safety of Canadians.

The issue of safety has been raised now for years. In 2007 the Canada Safety Council sounded the alarm in a report about the deregulation of Canada's rail system. Here we are now in 2015 and the government chooses to take a very small step in the right direction on the issue.

The purpose of this debate in the House is to raise for the government and for all Canadians the broader issues about a rail safety system that is fundamentally broken and about the government's fundamental abdication of its most important responsibility, which is the safety of Canadians. There is a lot at risk here as we have seen from the frequency of derailments and in particular the Lac-Mégantic disaster.

The New Democratic Party will continue to talk about these issues in the House until the government changes its views on the deregulation of rail safety in the country, or until we replace the government in the House later this year.

[Safe and Accountable Rail Act, March 31st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague raises an excellent point, that laws and regulations are but paper in the absence of their implementation.

We have seen from the government no sense of urgency in responding to derailments across this country. The minister talks in the House about working diligently to deal with these issues and yet we have waited two years beyond the disaster at Lac-Mégantic for this bill, which is only a very partial step in a response to what we are seeing across the country. The most important step is the step that puts rail safety inspectors on the job, implementing the laws of this country, ensuring that the Canadian public is safe, and preventing further disasters and derailments across this country.