Mike Allen

[Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, April 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, during the last election the Prime Minister recognized the important work undertaken by ACOA and committed to maintaining the budget.

Since 2006, ACOA has invested almost $500 million in more than 700 economic development projects in Atlantic Canadian communities.

Recent media stories speculate about ACOA's budget cut in the coming years. Given the importance of this agency to Atlantic Canada, can the minister assure the House the ACOA budget will be maintained as promised?

[Government Appointments, March 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, earlier this week the member from Beauséjour publicly accused the government of failing to appoint bilingual judges to New Brunswick benches.

As a member from New Brunswick, I am proud of our heritage and of the fact that ours is the only bilingual province. I would like these remarks clarified.

Could the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice correct this erroneous statement and in the process set the member opposite straight?

[The Budget, March 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciated the comments from the hon. friend across the way and I will ask her a couple of questions.

The fact that she said it was our second budget, it was our third, so I am a little bit worried about the financial acumen on that side of the House. However, she said that we turned a blind eye to the manufacturing industry.

First, what I find interesting about that comment is back in 1997-98, when the Liberals started running these huge surpluses, why did they not get out in front and be proactive for those industries by reducing taxes and giving them breaks like the accelerated capital cost allowance so they would be in a better position today than they are? They could have been out in front of that.

Second, how can the member say that a surplus represents that people are overtaxed? How can she say that giving money back to people is blowing the surplus?

[The Budget, March 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I rise again to ask a couple of questions arising from the member's speech. He talked a lot about seniors. I had a hard time imagining him talking about the government not doing anything for seniors when we have talked about pension splitting, reducing the rates and increasing the age credit.

I was talking with a tax preparer on the weekend. I was told of the tremendous number of benefits that seniors are getting this year in taxes back because of the policies that this government has undertaken.

Not only that but the GIS is going up. In my rural riding where there are many seniors who still want to work in the harvest industry, they can still work for that six week period and not have their GIS clawed back.

The Minister of Human Resources has expanded the new horizons program, not only operational but capital amounts now as part of this next round of funding.

We have the Secretary of State for Seniors who has set up the national seniors committee and who was in my riding a week ago. We shared a tremendous round table.

I must say to this member that I am not sure where he has been for the last two years. I do not think there has been any government that has done anything more for seniors in the past number of years than this government.

[The Budget, March 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed most of the speech by my colleague from Atlantic Canada, but I think we should correct the record on a few things.

I have to be brief as I have only a few minutes to correct just a few things the member said in respect to P.E.I. It has been given $25 million in per capita funding for infrastructure. ACOA invested in the beef plant in P.E.I. so we can go ahead and innovate new products in beef. In aquaculture, there was $22 million. As the parliamentary secretary pointed out, there were investments in agriculture so we can keep our beef sector growing and vibrant. We are also investing an amount of money in our universities and research. As the member well knows, we have a very dynamic university community in Atlantic Canada.

What about the $300 million for nuclear? New Brunswick Power in that province is one of the organizations that is looking very thoroughly at the ATR reactor.

The member clearly has his facts wrong on this one. I would like to have him clarify this, please.

[The Budget, February 28th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I had a feeling the member for Malpeque was going to get up and that is why I held back a little on agriculture. I knew he would give me an opportunity and I knew he would wade right in. It is interesting because the government has given $4.5 billion in additional money.

I was at a meeting today with some pork and beef producers who said that the program in Bill C-44 is exactly what they wanted.

It is interesting that this member can get up on his hind legs and talk about this. Many years ago this member was a minister and a parliament secretary. He actually dealt with the PVYn initiative and said he was going to solve it. Guess what? We did not get this way in agriculture and forestry overnight. We got this way because of a lack of action from members like that.

[The Budget, February 28th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Sarnia—Lambton.

I first want to thank and acknowledge the Minister of Finance and my colleagues for creating such a prudent and responsible budget during these unsettled times. This budget is mature and forward-thinking and it reflects our desire to not only promote saving for the future at home but also a more countrywide view. Never before did “a penny saved is a penny earned” mean so much to the people of this great country.

I am proud to be part of a government that keeps its promises, that takes sensible, proactive initiatives for Canadians, and that makes responsible use of taxpayers' money. During this period of economic uncertainty, taxpayers are trusting in us to keep our country successful.

In the short time I have, I will focus my comments on the impact that budget 2008 will have on the day-to-day lives of the people of Tobique—Mactaquac and New Brunswick.

We are supporting families and seniors with the tax cuts we made last fall. I know we are on the right track, because people have told me so.

As a lifelong New Brunswicker, I know how important forestry, agriculture, transportation and international trade are to our province. Industries are important to our continued prosperity. Our way of life depends more on just the top down, heavy tax methods of the past. Our very livelihood needs solutions to questions before they become problems.

As a result of innovations like the permanent gas tax transfer and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to stimulate R and D and innovation, I am pleased to support our government's third budget as it addresses the issues close to us.

From Woodstock to Keswick, Douglas to Grand Falls, Plaster Rock to Napadogan, everywhere in between the riding, this new investment in forestry is very welcome. It is one of the biggest employers in the province of New Brunswick, representing over $1.3 billion to the GDP of the province. Forestry needs to remain competitive so as to ensure our working families can afford the things they need.

By investing $127.5 million in the forest industry, a long term competitiveness initiative, the government is working toward ensuring that New Brunswick will be prosperous and visible in the forestry sector, ensuring job stability for many years to come. We are facing many challenges in the forest industry right now and these types of investments innovate our way out of these issues.

Yet another $10 million will go to marketing forestry outside of the country. I am confident that when foreign buyers see the quality and product diversity that New Brunswick has to offer, we will enjoy all the positive aspects that come with new markets.

Some time ago I had an opportunity to talk to one of the mill owners in my riding. He echoed the problem with softwood lumber and the challenges in the U.S. market. He said that six months ago he would never have imagined exploring a market in Europe.

As he spoke to me, he talked about how Europe was now a new market and how six months previous to that, he would not have thought that would even have been possible.

In addition, the extension to the accelerated capital cost allowance for three additional years is a very important investment for the forest industry to get caught up from the past number of years.

In a recent appearance at the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, stated that Canada can compete, but that “we actually have to do it”.

After budget 2008 was released, FPAC issued a release stating that the accelerated capital cost allowance was a step in the right direction and that a bright spot in the budget was the millions in support for marketing Canadian forestry abroad.

I believe that these Conservative budget commitments will perfectly complement the tax cuts that Canada has enjoyed since we formed government in early 2006. The Conservative government is also adding an impressive $25 million to assist forest-based communities make the best decisions on how they can use their land to the greatest potential. This is on top of the previously announced $1 billion for the community development trust that will help single-industry Canadian communities turn around their fortunes.

There are a number of those in my riding who are actually undertaking these, and from this money that is being advanced to the province of New Brunswick under the trust, I am very hopeful that some of these small communities like Juniper will benefit from the province taking active action in their communities.

This is how a strong government provides support for Canada, by offering funding and programs instead of merely throwing dollars to the wind and hoping that problems will solve themselves. We are rebuilding the very foundation on which the industry stands. As I said, we cannot continue being a commodity business. We have to innovate. We must innovate to survive.

This morning, in one of the commentaries that came out of the natural resources committee by Ian de la Roche, the president and CEO of FPInnovations, he made a number of statements about the forest sector, very much along the lines of Mr. Lazar's comments. He said, “There has been limited sector investment. They have minimal receptor capacity to undertake new innovations and they need to foster innovation. It is time for that industry to take hold of things and get going forward on the innovation”.

Currently in 2008, as we face our challenges from an environment standpoint, nuclear energy will become necessary and a standard for an environmentally focused world.

I am happy we are providing $300 million in funding to advance and develop safe maintenance in nuclear technology such as the ACR reactor. Nuclear power holds tremendous potential for the province of New Brunswick and I am excited to see the potential for this new Canadian homegrown technology come to life in my province.

We all understand going forward that New Brunswick is a major power provider to the New England states and the northeastern U.S. through its strong link and interconnection capability, as it is situated in a strategic location between Quebec, P.E.I. and Nova Scotia.

There are many advantages going forward to see how the development of this could possibly play in the future. I am looking forward to seeing New Brunswick Power go forward, as it does its capability assessment, along with the province of New Brunswick and realize tremendous economic opportunities.

New Brunswick is a province that desires to grow and prosper. My riding of Tobique—Mactaquac borders the United States and this frequently means travel and commerce between the two countries. Our budget provides $14 million to expand upon the NEXUS program which allows low-risk frequent travellers across the border quickly and efficiently.

We are also looking at investing in a new 10 year passport. We run six or seven passport clinics in my riding and one of the common questions that came back from people was why we could not get this secure, why we could not get to a 10 year passport like other countries? It was really comforting to see that in this budget. We are actually going to be investing to go forward with those kinds of initiatives.

My constituency also happens to depend on immigration to grow its workforce, and I speak of agriculture and the temporary foreign worker program, which is very important. I also speak of trucking, which is a major industry in my riding. In fact, Carleton County probably has one of the highest per capita trucking industries in Canada.

These companies are growing and with the absence of rail, whether it be agriculture, forestry or any other product produced in my riding, if it goes anywhere, it goes by truck. These companies are hard pressed to find the workers they need.

The investment that we are taking to streamline the immigration process will help that and I am hopeful the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration will move forward on some other initiatives to streamline this in the future, but also to look at how families can be integrated into communities.

There is a major organic farm in my riding by the name of Jolly Farmer Products. It has actually used a lot of temporary foreign workers and that is a key element of its success factor. Our initiative to help embassies in other countries to streamline the immigration process will also help that.

A couple of years ago I had an opportunity to talk to a potato producer in my riding. Agriculture is very important. There are some 300 potato producers in my riding. It is a struggle this year, there is no question about it. I was speaking to one a couple of years ago with regard to the harvest. I had an opportunity to spend a few days there during the harvest on some of the machinery. What was really interesting was the number of temporary foreign workers because of the shortage of labour but also the number of seniors that were actually working on the farm. This is by necessity.

Generations pass their farms down to their sons and daughters and now these seniors want to return to work. The challenge with this is that farmers are really impressed with the quality of work done by the seniors. They move pallets in potato sheds. They say they are not the kind of people operating machinery that will drop the pallet from five and six feet and damage the produce. The challenge is that seniors do not want to work on the farm because for every dollar they are making, they have their GIS clawed back.

The initiative in this budget that talks about the increase in the exemption for the guaranteed income supplement is going to be key because it provides an extra $3,000, which will basically help seniors earn money through the harvest season and not have to worry about a clawback. That is a very positive development. In the fall it was very evident by watching the harvesters and the number of people who were actually working.

Tobique—Mactaquac is a riding rich with tradition and resources. It consists of modest people with humble backgrounds, who just want a chance to raise a family in a province they love. Therefore, I am proud that we are providing money for the targeted initiative for older workers to allow them this transition, an opportunity, and we hope to keep many of them at home.

On the other end of the spectrum, we are also looking at students and the contribution to post-secondary education. We allocated $350 million for the new consolidated student grant program.

After this session of Parliament ends and the history books are written, I know our government is going to be viewed by children today as one that addressed the challenges, continued our convictions and represented our values.

[Municipalities, February 28th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, our government understands that maintaining our infrastructure in good condition is essential to maintaining the vitality of our communities.

Unfortunately, the previous Liberal government did not get it. Ignoring the concerns of municipalities, the Liberals slashed transfers to the provinces, which resulted in negative effects on our cities, towns and villages across the country.

Could the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities tell the House the government's plans to help communities across the country become strong and competitive through the gas tax?

[Department of National Revenue, February 26th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, there are nearly 25 million taxpayers in Canada and our government believes in accountability and fairness when it comes to the taxes they pay.

In May 2007 the government announced the creation of the taxpayer bill of rights. In addition to this bill of rights, could the Minister of National Revenue say if the government is taking other measures to ensure taxpayers will be treated fairly and with respect?

[Afghanistan, February 25th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the minister, my colleague from New Brunswick. It very much pertains to veterans. New veterans are coming back from Afghanistan now and we all recognize the challenges as they come back to our shores. A number of comments made by the NDP today were more or less bashing the government for not doing enough.

Just last year I was involved in an announcement with the minister at the Chalmers hospital in connection with a stress clinic. Could the minister tell us what action the government is taking to look after our veterans and make sure they are well cared for when they return to our shores?