Mike Sullivan

[Citizen Voting Act, May 1st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, my friend opposite refers to the notion that people will somehow have an ability to change the electoral district from which they came. I have two questions.

One, does he have any evidence that this is actually happening anywhere in the world? Two, he stated in his speech that the Chief Electoral Officer would have the discretion to determine what pieces of identification would be necessary, and yet the bill does the exact opposite; it limits the type of information that the Chief Electoral Officer can use to determine someone's identity. How is it that he can say on the one hand that we are giving him discretion, but on the other hand the bill does something completely opposite?

[Unemployment Rate, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome debate on true job creation in this country because there has been a lot of rhetoric from across the aisle for a long time, but I see every day in my riding of York South—Weston that job creation just is not happening.

The city of Toronto's unemployment rate currently sits around 9% and for youth it is around 15.4%. That is an enormous increase over what it has been and it is something that the government has not managed to do anything about. In fact, it has gotten worse over the period of time since the Conservatives were elected in 2006.

Let me provide an example of an individual who, until recently, was employed at the airport. He is a trained lawyer who came to Canada as a refugee and could not practise law here because he did not have the language and got himself trained as an accountant. He worked for a while as an accountant, but the manufacturing company he was working for went belly up. Then, just to do anything, he was a valet at the airport making $14.35 an hour, which he thought was enough. Guess what? The airport authority contracted out his job to another company, which fired all of the workers and hired people back at $11 an hour.

Those are the kinds of jobs that the government has managed to create over the past nine years that it has been in charge. In the words of a McMaster University study, nearly one-half of all the jobs in the GTA are precarious jobs. Those are jobs that are low wage, part time, temporary and contract. They do not have security and do not have the amount of money required to raise a family in this country.

Manufacturing jobs, the kinds of jobs that small and medium-sized enterprises might be able to create, have been disappearing at a rate that is perhaps even faster than the rate that the ethics have disappeared in the other place. Over 450,000 jobs have disappeared in the past few years and even the low dollar and low oil prices have not kick-started a resurgence. The government has managed to give away tax money to large enterprises that have not done the job of creating work.

The Bank of Canada suggests we are 270,000 jobs below full employment. That is not 100%; that is full employment. Those 270,000 jobs are a lot of jobs in this country that Canadians could use, as well as better quality jobs. A recent CIBC study suggests that we are now at an all-time low in the quality of employment in this country. Most, if not all, of the job creation has been in low-wage, precarious work.

[The Budget, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of my friend opposite, but one of the things that his finance minister said, and I am quite alarmed by it, is that in fact it will be our grandchildren who would have to suffer the consequences of this very short-sighted budget. In fact, they will be able to fix the problems, I guess is what he said.

The question for the member opposite is, given that this budget would in fact short-change the federal treasury by some $17 billion in the next 20-25 years, how does he propose to recoup that money given that, in addition to short-changing the budget by $17 billion, it would also continue the Conservative and Liberal trend away from taxes on capital gains and on corporations and over to taxes on working people, on ordinary, middle-class people? That is how the current government sees the tax system increasing. If we need another $17 billion, where is it going to come from?

[Railway Safety, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, people in my riding of York South—Weston are still concerned about rail safety. Since the tragedy at Lac-Mégantic in 2013, little has changed, while the volume of explosive crude oil transported through Weston, Mount Dennis and the Junction neighbourhoods has continued to grow.

The Auditor General and the Transportation Safety Board have both scolded Transport Canada for its lack of attention to rail safety, while the government cut its budget.

This winter's oil train wrecks in northern Ontario add to the growing list of wrecks all over North America. The resulting fireballs are from the newer, supposedly safer 1232 tankers. They were travelling at speeds much lower than the minister's new limit and they still burst into flames.

The attitude of the government, that we should just pray that train wrecks do not happen in a populated area, is not calming the fears of the residents of York South—Weston or anywhere.

A Toronto group of hard working volunteers called, Safe Rail Communities, has taken up the cause, and will be testifying before the Transportation Committee this afternoon. Let us hope the government is listening.

[Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015, April 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for Scarborough—Rouge River for her excellent speech.

The member pointed out that actions taken by Canadians of Tamil origin have in fact been successful in changing Canadian attitudes towards a certain government that was perhaps not as kind to its citizens as it ought to have been. Those Canadian attitudes having been changed has changed world attitudes, and it started, in part, with a protest that blocked part of a major artery through the city of Toronto. However, the current government would make that kind of protest illegal and thereby prevent such an amazing display by an amazing bunch of young and determined individuals in the city of Toronto.

I wonder if the member would like to comment further.

[Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015, April 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I rise again on this bill to ask the member the same question before to which I did not get an answer.

The bill would allow information sharing between agencies, government departments, et cetera, and we have no objections to the sharing of some information. However, there is something called the Privacy Act, which is there to protect the privacy of Canadians. This information sharing under the bill would not be subject to the Privacy Act.

Miss Ellen Richardson, a constituent of mine, discovered not too long ago that her personal medical information was shared with the U.S. government through security agencies. Security agencies share everything, with everybody. She was denied a trip and ended up losing $6,000 or $7,000 as a result of this shared information with the U.S. government that prevented her from arriving in the U.S. on her way on a trip.

Would the member like to please advise why the Privacy Act is not being used to protect the privacy of Canadians in the sharing of information?

[Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015, April 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to be able to add two cents on Bill C-51, which the Conservatives appear to be ramming through this Parliament without regard for some of Canada's well-fought-for human rights and rights and privileges. Among them is information sharing among agencies. Multiple government departments will now be allowed to share information without being subject to the Privacy Act. The Privacy Act is one of the acts Canadians depend on to keep their personal and private information from prying eyes.

There is no better example of that than Ms. Ellen Richardson, in my riding, who tried to cross the border into the United States, only to discover that her medical information had been shared with the U.S. government in such a way that the U.S. government refused to allow her access. She is a disabled individual. She was going on a March of Dimes cruise, and that cruise was lost to her, and all the money she had spent on it was lost to her because of the information that had been shared by the government with the Government of the United States.

This bill makes that so much worse. I wonder if the member would comment.

[Housing, April 22nd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, in addition to ignoring women, the budget also ignores Canada's affordable housing crisis. According to estimates by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, almost 200,000 social housing units will lose funding over the next five years, and hundreds of thousands of Canadians are waiting for new social housing units, including 100,000 families in Toronto alone. However, yesterday's budget did not announce any money to renew lost funding or build new units.

Why will the government not commit to being a predictable, long-term housing partner?

[Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act, April 1st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I noted with interest the suggestion of the member opposite that this had been before the House for a long time. It has actually not been before the House for a lot of time. It was stalled by the government for a considerable period of time and then, surprise, it wants it back and it wants it back in a hurry, without proper debate. That is the problem.

In light of that, the member talks about public safety. In my riding of York South—Weston, public safety is not going to be affected by anything that the government has done because the public safety that needs to be addressed is stopping handguns at the border. Even in the grade 10 classes that I go to, half of the kids there either have a handgun or know someone who has one. That is an astounding number of people.

What does the government intend to do to stop the flow of handguns at the border? So far, it has not managed to protect the people of my riding.

[Housing, March 31st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives are also letting down Toronto. Yesterday, the mayor made an urgent appeal to the federal government for housing funding. After years of federal downloading by Conservative and Liberal governments, repairs to social housing have reached a crisis point. Investing in social housing in Toronto is not only good for low-income families, but it would create 220,000 person years of employment.

When will Conservatives finally stop turning their backs on Toronto and start investing in Toronto's social housing?