Megan Leslie

[Status of Women, March 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans said that the following remarks were taken out of context: “Grace, you're a great cook. You're going to make a wonderful wife for somebody.”

In what context are those remarks acceptable?

[The Budget, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, there are definitely a lot of these kinds of tricks in the budget.

The Conservatives are patting themselves on the back about this budget. However, it lacks solutions, vision and meaningful provisions that would improve our vision of Canada.

[The Budget, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is my Edmonton day.

It is hard to answer that question as a yes or no, even though I know that is what the member would like me to do. It is hard because I would have to unpack what is in there. For example, with SDTC, first of all, there is a big announcement about funding but it is only $1 million for next year and then it is all going to mythically appear spontaneously after that. However, if we look at SDTC funding in the past, we have had projects that have received $6 million in funding in one shot. Therefore, I do not understand how in 2013 SDTC getting $1 million is actually something to celebrate.

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors. This is a bit of a shell game and if the member can prove to me that these sustainable development technology organizations are actually going to get this money, that is another question entirely. I do not think he can do that.

[The Budget, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Edmonton—Strathcona knows the Maritimes quite well, having worked for a stint at Dalhousie's law school. I welcome her question and I will tell another story about an interview I did.

I did an interview about the environmental measures in the budget and I said that I was quite pleased that the Conservatives had not gutted something such as the Species at Risk Act. I figured that was the only piece of legislation left and those pesky caribou keep getting in the way of those pipelines, so I expressed relief and a sort of vague pleasure about that. Then the interviewer said there was no mention of climate change in the budget, and I realized I have Stockholm syndrome because I am actually celebrating the fact that this budget is not gutting our environmental regulations.

The member for Edmonton—Strathcona is exactly right. Where is the energy efficiency? It creates jobs. It reduces our carbon footprint. It is such a win. There is nothing in there for climate. There is one little line that says those oil and gas emissions regulations are coming, just wait. We have been waiting since 2010 when they were promised, so she hit the nail on the head.

[The Budget, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, like my colleague, I have a lot to say in very little time. I am really pleased to rise right after my colleague from Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, who is doing an excellent job representing his constituents. I am really impressed with the way he is continually checking in with his constituents. It was great to hear their feedback today in the House.

When I had a look at the budget, I looked first with an eye to Halifax and Atlantic Canada. I wanted to see what the government's vision was for our region. To put it quite simply, the Conservative budget fails Atlantic Canada. The Conservatives have proven once again that economic development is not a priority for them in Atlantic Canada.

What kind of economic development would I like to see? In Halifax, we have a thriving arts community, from music to theatre, to film and television, to the visual and digital arts. It is an incredible hub of talent and productivity that forms a thriving creative community in the Maritimes and a thriving creative economy. However, that economy is shut out of the budget.

In budget 2013, the Conservatives refused to change the course away from the deep cuts to the arts and culture sector that they are so proud of, thereby threatening Canadian jobs and really hurting an important economic driver. On top of last year's cuts, they are slashing $42 million more from CBC, if we can even imagine that to be possible, $24 million from Canadian Heritage and $3 million from Telefilm Canada. This is a blatant attack on culture.

All told, arts and culture programs will lose almost $80 million this year alone. That brings the total cuts over the past two years to over $130 million, with additional reductions to come next year. Investment in the arts and culture sector has a significant potential to bolster the Canadian economy. While other sectors have been in decline, the cultural sector has grown rapidly in the past years. There are twice as many people working in the culture sector as in forestry and more than two times as many people as working in banks.

Our cultural sector adds approximately $84 billion to the Canadian economy every year. That is incredibly impressive. As my colleague from Davenport pointed out, the Conservatives love their rhetoric on the economy, but reckless moves like this prove that they just do not get that the cultural sector is an economic driver.

It really is an economic driver in Halifax. We have incredible festivals, like SuperNova, East Coast Music Awards, Fringe, JazzFest, In the Dead of Winter, Nocturne, Queer Acts, ViewFinders and the Atlantic Film Festival. These are all festivals that showcase our theatre, music and visual arts and our artists. They also create a tourist destination. They bring people in, primarily from across Canada and the eastern seaboard of the U.S., and they help drive our downtown economy, supporting the hotel and restaurant industries as well. However, our growing cultural sector is not a part of Conservative Canada.

Looking at the money for infrastructure as well, the Conservatives say their plan commits $70 billion over the next 10 years, but they did not adjust for inflation. What is happening is that the amount of infrastructure funding is going down. It will be $4.7 billion lower than it was last year, and that will continue. That hurts all communities across Canada, but it has a disproportionate impact on us in Atlantic Canada as small provinces. It means we are not going to be able to address our infrastructure gap, or that we will, but these costs will be downloaded onto the provinces.

The Prime Minister did promise that he would not cut transfers to the provinces, but he is downloading the costs onto the provinces, which is essentially cutting transfers if they are not actually going to raise the transfers to meet the download cost.

The budget pushes ahead with reckless cuts to health care to the tune of $36 billion, cuts to pensions, raising the age for OAS from 65 to 67, and with EI, making workers take a 30% pay cut, despite overwhelming opposition from Canadians. These are all areas where our provinces are going to have to make up the shortfall.

I am quite proud of the Nova Scotia NDP government and its work on health care. The New Democrats have been finding efficiencies while at the same time reducing wait times. For example, their collaborative care centres have been a huge success and are being exported to other provinces, like Saskatchewan. However, it seems that Nova Scotia is being punished for our innovation in health care, because we are going to be hit extremely hard by the change in the funding formula when it comes to health care.

Speaking of EI, there is nothing in this budget to reverse the EI changes that have been hitting our region so hard, and there is nothing there for seasonal workers. The government insists that seasonal workers need to find stable employment outside of seasonal industries, but how, when this budget does not even mention ACOA? How are we supposed to foster the development of these emerging industries, or these mythical, fictional industries toward which the Conservatives keep saying we need to shift our workforce? There is no mention of ACOA and not one more dollar to support emerging businesses and innovation in Atlantic Canada.

However, the Conservative government continues to subsidize the already profitable oil and gas industry. If members can imagine, millions of dollars would go to companies like Shell, Syncrude and Enbridge. These are companies that have pretty healthy bottom lines. However, there is not one more dollar to support our companies at home in Halifax or across Atlantic Canada.

In my first-ever budget speech in the House after my election in 2008, I talked about the amazing impacts of building affordable housing in our communities. To put it quite simply, the solution to homelessness is to build affordable housing. However, investing in affordable housing does not just house people and address homelessness; it also creates jobs in the construction industry. If we make sure that the housing we build is energy efficient, we can reduce our carbon footprint at the same time. This is win-win-win, especially in times when our economy is suffering.

As members know, that speech was a few years ago. Clearly the Conservatives were not listening, because not only are they not introducing a housing strategy, but homelessness funding is being reduced by $15 million a year starting in 2014. Can members imagine that is actually being reduced?

Organizations in Halifax like Metro Non-Profit Housing, Adsum for Women, St. Leonard's Society and Habitat for Humanity are doing incredible work in our community, but now there is even less support for them from the federal government. As it is, they are working with practically non-existent budgets.

The Out of the Cold shelter in Halifax is a perfect example of what is wrong with housing in Canada. It is serving an important role in our community as a seasonal last-resort shelter. The thing is, it is run entirely on donations and by volunteers. I am really proud of the work Out of the Cold is doing for people living in poverty in Halifax, but I am ashamed that it needs to exist. Those volunteers do their work with a critical eye. They know that they need to be there to address the gap, but they do their work knowing that the solution is to build housing. However, that solution will be even less likely to be realized after this budget from the Conservative government.

I did a number of media interviews about this budget on Thursday and Friday, especially in the Maritimes. I was doing an interview with a radio show and the host said to me: “Well, we're actually looking for the story here. What is the story of the budget? It doesn't seem like there's much of a story because the budget isn't actually doing very much”.

The Prime Minister promised to focus on jobs, but instead he is pushing ahead with job-killing austerity cuts and is introducing no new measures to create jobs. He is basically playing a shell game with skills training money. I think that is the story.

Should we not expect more from our government, such as a job creation plan, an economic development plan, a plan for a transition to the green energy economy? Should we not expect our government to have a vision to plan for the future and ensure a green and prosperous country for all, not just the well connected?

That is what I had hoped for, but with the Conservatives at the helm, I guess I should get used to disappointment.

[Petitions, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from some folks who realize that the water levels of Lake Huron have dropped tremendously over the past decade, causing serious economic and safety concerns to communities in that area. They depend on tourism, cottaging and boating, so the petitioners are asking that Natural Resources, Environment, Fisheries and Transport increase their efforts to significantly halt and reverse the ongoing loss of water from the Great Lakes Basin.

[Petitions, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I am here to present two petitions today.

On the first, some folks came to my office and they are concerned about the phasing out of personal and designated production licences for medical marijuana. They ask that Health Canada leave the current provision as is, in addition to the creation of licensed production facilities and patient-led co-ops.

[Status of Women, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, leave it to the Conservatives to encourage young women to get married as part of their economic action plan.

When the member said, “Grace, you're a great cook; you're going to make a wonderful wife for somebody”, his comments were disrespectful. In other words, “there, there, stop planning for your future”.

Is this the kind of response women can expect from the Conservatives with their economic action plan?

[Status of Women, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, last Friday, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans said: “Grace, you're a great cook; you're going to make a wonderful wife for somebody.”

Can the minister confirm the comments he made while promoting the budget?

[Ethics, March 21st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives once honoured whistleblowers and now they are subjecting them to witch hunts, but their war on accountability gets even worse.

The Prime Minister is now defending a cheater and a rule breaker, Peter Penashue. This is a man who broke election laws. He made spending announcements after he realized he broke the law and he launched his re-election advertising campaign before he resigned.

When will the Conservatives stop using the Prime Minister's Office to promote their disgraced candidate?