Pat Martin

[Canadian Wheat Board, June 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Wheat Board is the largest and most successful grain marketing company in the world. It is a great Canadian institution wholly owned and operated by Canadian farmers. Now the Conservative government wants to legislate it out of existence without even allowing the farmer producers to vote on it.

If there is such great merit in the government's position on the Wheat Board, why does it not follow the legislation and allow Prairie producers to have a democratic vote on it?

The Conservatives' majority does not mean they can run roughshod over democracy.

[Petitions, June 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition that has been signed by literally thousands of Canadians from all over Canada drawing the attention of the House of Commons that asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known.

In fact, more Canadians die from asbestos than from all other industrial causes combined. Yet, the petitioners point out that Canada remains one of the largest producers and exporters of asbestos in the world, spending millions and millions of dollars subsidizing the asbestos industry, and blocking international efforts to curb its use.

Therefore, the petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to ban asbestos in all of its forms, institute a just transition program for any worker who may be affected by such a ban, end all government subsidies to asbestos both in Canada and abroad, and stop blocking international health and safety conventions designed to protect workers from asbestos, such as the Rotterdam Convention.

[Petitions, June 6th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition from literally thousands of Canadians from right across the country who call upon the House of Commons to recognize that asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known and yet Canada remains one of the largest producers and exporters of asbestos in the world. They also point out that Canada spends millions of dollars subsidizing the asbestos industry and also blocking international efforts to curb its use.

Therefore, these thousands of petitioners from all across the country call upon the Government of Canada to ban asbestos in all its forms and institute a just transition program for asbestos workers; to end all government subsidies of asbestos, both in Canada and abroad; and to stop blocking international health and safety conventions designed to protect workers from asbestos, such as the Rotterdam Convention.

[Petitions, March 25th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I have a petition signed by thousands of Canadians.

The petitioners call upon Parliament to take note that asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known, that more Canadians die from asbestos than all other industrial causes combined. Yet they point out that Canada remains one of the largest producers and exporters of asbestos in the world.

Therefore, they call upon the Government Canada to ban asbestos in all of its forms, institute a just transition program for all asbestos workers who may be affected, end all government subsidies of asbestos both in Canada and abroad and stop blocking international conventions designed to protect workers from asbestos.

[Health, March 25th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, if we thought sabotaging the drugs for Africa bill was the last contemptuous act of a government in contempt of Parliament, we would be wrong, because now those same toadies in the patronage parlour are going to be on full salary while running the Conservative election campaign.

The most enduring metaphor for the ethical standards of the government is the image of a convicted fraudster and his twinkie in a teddy.

Is that not why the Conservatives are really provoking this election? Are they provoking an election before more Canadians wake up to what really goes on behind closed doors under the veil of secrecy by that government?

[Ethics, March 24th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, any pretense of reform under the Federal Accountability Act has given way to the old, unbridled patronage and rum bottle politics of the Mulroney years, complete with a brand new parcel of rogues lining their own pockets by peddling their influence.

I know they think that the boys have to make a living, but trying to profiteer from the third world conditions of first nations goes beyond unethical. It is loathsome and reprehensible.

In the death rattle of this Conservative government, I want it to tell us one thing. What role did Bruce Carson play in writing the Federal Accountability Act?

[The Budget, March 24th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I rise to say that my hon. colleague from Edmonton is far too good an MP to really believe the speaking points he was sent in here to read today.

There is only one glaring choice made in that budget that for me summarizes justification for the fact that every other party in the House rejects the government's 2011 budget. The Calgary Stampede is getting $5 million to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The Grey Cup is getting $5 million to celebrate its 100th anniversary. That is $10 million, but the total amount for youth crime prevention and gang prevention is $7 million a year. How can we support—

[Committees of the House, March 11th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates in relation to its study on the freeze of departmental budget envelopes and government operations.

[Government Accountability, March 11th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want their government to fix health care, not elections. We know that they bought the 2006 campaign by cheating on their spending limits, and now they are scamming again by appointing their senior campaign team, the architects and masterminds of the biggest election fraud in Canadian history, to the Senate. One Liberal senator is in court today and he has been kicked out of caucus.

Why are these disgraced senators still at the public trough and still running the Conservative Party election campaign on the taxpayers' dime?

[Natural Resources, March 10th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known and Canada's policy on asbestos is morally and ethically reprehensible. Asbestos is banned in most countries, and yet Canada exports, dumps I should say, 200,000 tonnes per year in under-developed and third world countries.

Today Quebec's largest labour group joined the international efforts to ban asbestos. Yet the Minister of Natural Resources and the Bloc Québécois still defend the asbestos cartel.

Will the minister stand up for the safety and health of the industrial workers of the world or will he side with the corporate serial killers that are exporting this made in Canada epidemic?