Mike Wallace

[Rail Transportation, February 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of a tragic train derailment in Burlington, Ontario. Our thoughts remain with the families of the victims of that accident.

Our government continues to take strong action to ensure that the travelling public is safe and that Canada has one of the safest transportation systems in the world. In fact, since 2007 train accidents have decreased by 23%.

Can the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities update the House on the actions taken following this accident?

[Business of Supply, February 7th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the member opposite. I do not agree with most of what he said.

A colleague from the Liberal Party who spoke earlier did say that governments do, from time to time, make mistakes. That individual acknowledged that, which was great.

My question to the member opposite is: Was it a mistake of the previous Liberal government not to have put in place a Parliamentary Budget Officer? Was that a mistake by the Liberal Party, yes or no?

[Business of Supply, February 7th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue, for her work in this area.

I appreciate the review of the budget process, but people need to understand that the budget is a policy document. In actual fact, to look at the budgets that we have produced, and not just our government but all governments, there are a lot of numbers in there. It is the policy of what we will do from a financial perspective as a government. Out of that comes implementation bills, which put money to those projects.

Does the member feel that it is the role of the Parliamentary Budget Officer to comment on the policy aspects and policy direction of the current government, or any government, now or in the future?

[Justice, February 7th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, restoring the confidence of Canadians in our criminal justice system has been, and continues to be, an ongoing priority for this government.

Since being first elected in 2006, we have passed over 30 measures aimed at keeping our streets and our communities safe. These include ending early parole for murderers, tougher penalties on impaired driving, raising the age of consent and eliminating the use of house arrest for serious crimes such as sexual assault and kidnapping.

Could the Minister of Justice please update the House on what is next for our government on our justice agenda?

[Business of Supply, February 7th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, there is one thing I would like the member to comment on while we are talking about accountability. During the 2006 election the Conservative Party under the leadership of the current Prime Minister committed to bringing in an accountability act, to bringing in the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Why is it important that a party, which says it will do something during an election, actually puts that in place after it gets elected?

[Business of Supply, February 7th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his speech on today's opposition motion.

Just a reminder, we both got elected in 2006. The Accountability Act was one of our first pieces of legislation, and rightfully so, as illustrated by the member. It was in reaction to 13 years of Liberal mismanagement of the public finances at the government level. We did that under a minority government.

Why was it important for us to follow through on the promise we made to the people in the 2006 election?

[Business of Supply, February 7th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up the parliamentary secretary's point that it was the Conservative Party of Canada that committed to having a Parliamentary Budget Officer and our government that created the position.

Would he care to explain why the Liberal Party of Canada or the New Democratic Party of Canada never brought forward the concept of implementing a budgetary officer to review the finances of the Government of Canada when the former was in power?

[Justice, February 4th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians remain concerned about crime. Ever since we were first elected, our government has made restoring the confidence of Canadians in our justice system a priority. This government has introduced and passed over 30 measures aimed at keeping our streets and communities safe. While significant progress has been made, there is still much work to be done.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice please provide an update to the House on the government's justice agenda for 2013?

[PETITIONS, December 12th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition to present today signed by constituents in my riding of Burlington. The petitioners ask the House of Commons not to condone the discrimination against girls through sex-selection abortion.

[Business of Supply, December 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answers from the parliamentary secretary and her presentation today was excellent.

I know she talked a lot about the energy piece, but looking at the bigger picture, I think it is surprising to most Canadians, and these statistics from Statistics Canada, that Canada has an incoming foreign investment of almost $608 billion, yet Canadians invest abroad at a rate of $684 billion.

Could the parliamentary secretary tell the House why foreign investment by Canadians is important to the development of all sectors of our economy?