Mike Sullivan

[Petitions, April 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as well I have the pleasure of tabling petitions in support of the iCANdonate campaign to permit blood, bone marrow, and organ donations from any healthy Canadian, no matter his or her race, religion, or sexual preference.

[Petitions, April 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the residents in my riding have signed, and continue to sign, a number of petitions protesting the loss of home mail delivery by Canada Post. They call upon the Government of Canada to reject Canada Post's plan for reduced services and to explore other options to update Canada Post's business plan.

[Rail Transportation, April 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, last year's rail tragedy at Lac-Mégantic has prompted an examination by Parliament of the transport of dangerous goods. We learned that for 25 years, experts had been saying DOT-111 railcars were unsafe to carry dangerous goods, yet we still see hundreds rolling past homes, schools and daycares in my riding every day. The minister's announcement last week, ten months after the disaster, that these dangerous cars would continue to roll for three more years is not good enough.

At a recent town hall meeting on rail safety, residents in my riding asked why these trains were not being redirected onto safer routes, away from dense population centres. If the Transportation Safety Board says that these railcars can rupture at 20 miles per hour, why are these trains not being slowed down in populated areas? Why can the public not know what is being transported a few feet from their bedrooms? Why is the minister allowing the railroads to decide whether these routes and speeds are safe or not?

My residents, and residents elsewhere living near railway tracks, deserve better.

[Petitions, April 9th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, people from my riding have signed and continue to sign a number of petitions protesting the loss of home mail delivery by Canada Post. The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to reject Canada Post's plan for reduced services and to explore other options to update Canada Post's business plan.

[Petitions, April 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, in addition, I am presenting petitions on behalf of people in Canada who call upon the government to contribute to the funding necessary for the repair and maintenance of the track between Bathurst and Miramichi, and to obtain a guarantee that Canadian National will keep the line open between Bathurst and Miramichi in order to maintain the VIA Rail service in eastern New Brunswick and Quebec.

[Petitions, April 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure today to present petitions from many residents of my riding who are protesting the loss of home mail delivery by Canada Post. They call upon the Government of Canada to reject Canada Post's plan to reduce services and to explore other options to update Canada Post's business plan.

[Rail Transportation, April 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives like to brag that railways are getting safer, but companies are not reporting all of their accidents and derailments. Last year, the CAPC found that CN rail had not reported more than 1,800 incidents between 2000 and 2007. Canada's Transportation Safety Board has just learned that over 100 were unreported last year alone. These trains travel through hundreds of communities. Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have loosened regulations. When will the Conservatives punish these railway companies?

[Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1, April 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for Nickel Belt for his wonderful speech.

I want to come back a bit to the comments by the member for Calgary Centre. She talked about the billions of dollars that the government has afforded to Alberta for its storm relief, yet Toronto was told there would be no help for its storm of the century.

The government is playing favourites in terms of who it will help. Thousands of residents of my riding had hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage as a result of two significant weather events, both of which we believe are as a result of the climate changes taking place. The government is not paying attention to the climate change issues of this century.

Could the member please comment?

[Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1, April 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the parliamentary secretary's comments. However, this piece of this budget implementation bill is actually 52 pages or more of fairly detailed, fairly complex material that, generally speaking, according to the parliamentary secretary, is good for Canada and good for Canadians and good for people who have trademarks. However, it is buried in a 350-page bill, which renders it almost impossible to have the kind of scrutiny and analysis that would be possible if this were introduced as its own bill.

We are now facing time allocation on this bill. We have another one and a half days of debate available to us, including debate on what may well be a very interesting piece of legislation were it to stand on its own. Unfortunately, the Conservatives have chosen to introduce it as part of something else, so it will not get the scrutiny it needs.

[Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1, April 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, on the issue of FATCA, there are probably hundreds of thousands of accidental American citizens who will also be found in this great schism of sending their data to the U.S.

Those are the children who were born in Canada, who have never lived in the United States, who have never been a United States citizen, who the U.S. is now declaring are United States citizens as a result of their parents having been American. Those children would now be subject to having their banking information sent to the U.S.

It would create a divide. Two children born on the same day in the same hospital in Canada, one with American parents and one with Canadian parents, would be treated differently. Maybe the member would like to comment.