Paul Calandra

[Arts and Culture, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, no government in history has actually done more for culture than this government. During the economic downturn, we are the only government that not only maintained funding for arts and culture but increased funding for arts and culture.

We understand how important it is, not only to the large cities, to urban areas, but to all of our rural areas. That is why in communities across this country festivals are being supported, the arts are being supported, and we are very proud of our record.

[New Democratic Party of Canada, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, the Toronto Sun had it right this morning with its headline “NDP sails in different directions on ship contracts”.

The NDP's placeholder leader was calling for political interference in this process, despite the fact that the member for Sackville—Eastern Shore had it right when he said that the selection process was fair, praising the announcement as “a great day for Canada, no question. Yes, sir”.

This again proves that the NDP is disunited and weak when it is faced with such tests in the House. It is contradicting itself on such critical issues, and Canadians are wondering who really speaks for the NDP.

Our government continues to be focused on what matters to Canadians: job creation and economic growth. Meanwhile, the NDP caucus is not able to stay united when times get tough.

NDP spokesmen are taking different positions on different issues and Canadians are wondering if they can be trusted to actually do their job. They know that on this side of the House we will continue to remain focused on jobs and the economy because that is what Canadians have asked for.

[Copyright Modernization Act, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, at the very least we can say that, unlike the third party, this party is actually prepared to read the bill and work with us to get it to committee and hear what even more Canadians have to say. We spent a lot of time in the previous Parliament on this bill and heard from a number of witnesses. I spent a lot of time over the summer doing the exact same thing.

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of disagreement among members of the NDP over a number of different issues within their party but there always seems to be unanimity on one issue; that is, when there is talk about increasing taxes on Canadians. It seems to me that this speaker and also the speaker before, the member for Western Arctic, continuously talk about bringing back taxes on Canadians, whether it is an iPad tax or any other form of tax.

I wonder if the member could just clarify for me if the overriding dilemma or problem that the members opposite have with this bill is that it does not tax Canadians enough. Is that the problem they are having? Are they truly going to continue to advocate for a tax on iPads? Where will it go? Will we be taxing people who make PVR recordings of their favourite TV shows? I just wonder how far along the tax road we are going to go with this.

[Copyright Modernization Act, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows that the bill seeks to modernize the Copyright Act, something that has been before Parliament for a number of years. One of the things we have been grappling with is the ability to protect the people who create. In my area of the country, some of the most important creators are those who create video games. One thing that truly impacts that sector of the economy are the pirates who try to break the locks and copy the games. They have the ability to put the creators out of business.

I wonder if the hon. member would agree with me that this bill strikes the appropriate balance in helping to protect very vulnerable industries and the creators so they know the valuable works they are creating will be protected and they will actually see the benefit of all of their hard work.

[Eldred King, October 20th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, this was a sad week for residents of York Region. Over the weekend, Eldred King, former mayor and York Region chair, lost his battle with illness and passed away at the age of 84.

Mr. King lived a full life as a leader, mentor, husband and father. He was an extraordinary individual who dedicated much of his life to our community. He guided us through a period of tremendous change and was a towering figure in helping to make our community the extraordinary place it is today.

Wednesday was a difficult day as we officially said goodbye to Mr. King. He was a prominent man in many people's lives. For me, he was the first to support my decision to seek public office. His advice was instrumental. He helped me truly understand the importance of maintaining rural heritage in the face of dramatic growth.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. King for his work in helping shape Markham, Stouffville and York Region.

On behalf of my family and my entire team, I pass on my sincere condolences to his wife, Beulah, and sons Jeff, Rod and Jan.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, October 7th, 2011]

Liberals just do not listen.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, October 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, what a load of garbage coming from the member. Whenever we have brought a proposal forward, whether it was to support our military, to support our veterans or to help unemployed people, the member and his party have voted against it every single time. He gets up in front of the cameras and feigns indignation as if he actually cares about the people that we on this side of the House are trying to help. However, when the member gets the opportunity what does he do? He stands in his place and votes against those very same Canadians that the government has been helping since we were elected. He does so on every single issue.

To make matters worse, when the NDP had an opportunity to stop a Liberal government from slashing funding for health care, for social programs and education what did it do? It cut a deal with that same Liberal government to keep it in office as opposed to throwing it out.

The member has to answer to his constituents and to Canadians why it is that every time he had the opportunity to vote for Canadians with the government he stood in his place and voted against them.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, October 6th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I congratulate the member on an excellent speech. In the short time he has been here he has helped restore the riding of Brampton—Springdale to a place that has an MP it can really count on. He has also been a successful business person.

Would the member comment on the proposals we are hearing from both opposition parties with respect to: massively increasing taxes on businesses; running massive deficits; their confusion with respect to our economic agenda going forward and whether they like tax cuts or actually want to put more money in the pockets of Canadians?

Previous Liberal governments always felt it was better for the government to spend money rather than for Canadians to spend money on their families and their businesses.

Would the member comment specifically on how the disastrous proposals of the opposition would affect small business people and job creation?

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, October 6th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, it was a very difficult speech to try to sit through because there were so many things that were actually wrong in that speech.

This is a member of a party that talks about targeting tax cuts, but when we bring them in, its members actually vote against them. They talk about infrastructure, but when we brought infrastructure in, they did not actually like it, so they voted against it. Sometimes they are difficult. They do not want to see deficits, but they want us to spend more money. They are all over the place.

They have absolutely no plan, no understanding of how we can get Canadians back to work. They are upset with the fact that some 600,000 Canadians are working who were not working before. They are upset with the fact that this government has one of the best economic records in the entire world, but what they want to do is continue to talk down the successes of the Canadian economy, the successes of this government.

The reality is that what they are, in essence, is a bunch of ideological lightweights when it comes to the economy who have absolutely no plan, no understanding of what it is that puts Canadians back to work.

I wonder if the hon. member would just simply admit that they absolutely have no plan, no ideas, no understanding how the economy works, and just simply pass this budget because it is the right thing to do for Canadians. It is the right thing to do for the Canadian economy and we cannot delay it any longer.

[World Sight Day, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand in the House to highlight the launch of World Sight Day 2011 and notably visitors in Ottawa participating in this great occasion, including members of VISION 2020 Canada and Mark DeMontis, a blind hockey player currently en route in-line skating from Halifax to Toronto.

October 13 is World Sight Day, an international day of awareness to focus attention on the right to sight, recognizing the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment, in anticipation of eliminating avoidable causes by the year 2020.

Worldwide, an estimated 39 million people are blind and each year more than 45,000 Canadians lose their vision at a cost of $15.8 billion to Canadian taxpayers, and yet 80% of blindness is avoidable. Positive progress is being made and infectious causes of blindness have greatly reduced over the past 20 years.

I am proud to say the launch of World Sight Day 2011 has members and senators from all parties supporting VISION 2020's goal. I hope both sides can continue this co-operation for Canadians.