Michael Savage

[Canadian Council on Learning, March 30th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the facts are that the CCL is recognized for its excellent work on serious issues: the need for serious early learning and child care, the need for a real strategy on post-secondary education, the lack of government action to address literacy levels, and the need for more robust workforce training. The government can stand for corporate tax cuts. Canadians want to stand for education. We will stand with Canadians.

The CCL is an evidence-based organization that would be a key resource to any government that was serious about education. Why did the Conservatives attack the CCL? Is it that when it comes to education, they cannot handle the truth?

[Canadian Council on Learning, March 30th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Council on Learning is an organization that has lost all of its federal funding. That is a national embarrassment. Don Drummond has said that the CCL is a valuable service, and an official at the University of Alberta said that this is a terrible, short-sighted action. Even the Secretary-General of the OECD pledged his personal support for the CCL.

The CCL provides research on learning. It is independent, factual and evidence-based: all the things the government hates. Why is it reducing corporate taxes, which we cannot afford, and gutting the funding to the CCL, which we cannot afford to do without?

[Employment, March 24th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, today's students face an unemployment rate more than double the national average. There were over 128,000 fewer jobs for students last year. The minister's plan creates 3,500 extra jobs. What about the other 97% of students?

Over $100 million was wasted this year alone on government advertising. Let us look at it: $100 million for propaganda, and $10 million to help summer students. What do summer students need to do to get real assistance? Do they wear Conservative billboards on campus?

[Employment, March 24th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, now that it is spring, hundreds of thousands of students will be on the hunt for a summer job. For far too many of these students, not getting a job means they cannot go back to school.

StatsCan tells us that almost 70% of all full-time students rely on summer employment to continue their studies, yet the minister has added a measly $10 million to Canada Summer Jobs. That is $10 per student. It does not even make a dent in the problem.

Why will the government not get serious about the crisis in student unemployment?

[Human Resources and Skills Development, March 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the government has played partisan games with this fund from the very beginning. It was announced three years ago, and yet some of that money has not even flowed. Canadians with disabilities deserve better than that.

Given the political games that the government has played by allocating 66% of all the funding to just two projects in Conservative ridings and making the application criteria so strict that many of us could not even apply for the rest of the funding, what possible reason would Canadians have to believe that the sequel would be any better than the original?

Why will the Conservatives not put aside partisan games and help all Canadians with disabilities?

[Human Resources and Skills Development, March 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, troubling questions have been raised about enabling accessibility fund. Three years ago it was announced, but it took a full year to release the application details, and it came with a suspicious one month deadline.

Many advocates suggested it was specifically designed for a project in the finance minister 's riding. Two days before the last election was called, the government announced that very project. In fact, of the $45 million made available, $30 million of it went into just two projects, both in Conservative ridings. Last week at committee, officials indicated that funding for those projects had been deferred.

Could the minister confirm that, and how much of the original $45 million will actually lapse?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, March 22nd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, for a man who has been elected since 1993 for good reason, he has the passion, vigour and voom that this place needs on important issues such as those we are discussing today.

I will ask him a couple of questions. We know there are a number of new taxes in this budget. In fact, this is one of the more tax-laden budgets we have seen in Canada. There are taxes on jobs and the EI tax. There are taxes on health and certain surgeries. There are taxes on safety through the airport tax. There are taxes on students, in terms of no more exemptions for scholarships for post-doctoral students on top of the income trusts.

We know the government specializes in attack ads. We also know the government specializes in taxes. Did I miss any taxes in the budget?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, March 22nd, 2010]

It's a flip-flop.

[Criminal Code, March 22nd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the member from Avalon, who is still a relatively new member of the House. It is not very often, and I think he pointed this out, that one can come into this place as a member, find an issue that resonates for specific people and take it upon oneself to produce a private member's bill that I think and hope will have all-party support.

I think the way the member has gone about this process has been illuminating for many people. It shows that the House of Commons serves a very useful purpose, that there are times when we can work across party lines when an issue is so important to people across the country, across jurisdictions and across parties and that members can get something done.

My question for the member is this. As well as commending him on the fabulous work he has done on this bill, I ask him if there are lessons on how to work in Parliament on behalf of our constituents.

[Post-Secondary Education, March 19th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, budget 2010 is a tax budget. We have new taxes on jobs, on health, on safety and on savings, and we have this tax on education and innovation.

It does not take a post-doctoral fellowship to figure out that if one did not pay tax last year but one has to pay tax this year, that is a punishing tax increase.

Why is the government increasing taxes on education?