Paul Dewar

[Petitions, June 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I present a petition on behalf of Canadians.

The petitioners say that the federal government is allowing Canada Post to close post offices in spite of a moratorium on closures in rural areas and small towns. They also say that public post offices connect communities throughout this vast land, helping us to overcome differences and distances.

The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to instruct Canada Post to maintain, expand and improve its networks of public post offices.

[Public Works and Government Services, June 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted about the interest from the government. It continues to tell us there is no deal. However, there seems to be enough of a deal that lobbyists are involved and enough of a deal that journalists can report on details leaking from the back rooms.

Will the Prime Minister agree to live up to his lofty rhetoric on transparency and table before the House all documents pertaining to this increasingly shady deal?

[Public Works and Government Services, June 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the government continues to tell the House that--

[Public Works and Government Services, June 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, just like the Liberals, the Conservatives are putting their friends ahead of working families. They promised to be different from Liberals and end the backroom deals brokered by lobbyists who have close ties to government.

This morning we learned that the Minister of Public Works has been lobbied by the former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney to grease the wheels for the bad office deal with Minto Developments. Canadians are already outraged by a deal that will cost them 20 times more than it should.

Will the minister explain how having lobbyists pushing for bad deals with phantom ministers is being accountable to Canadian taxpayers?

[Federal Accountability Act, June 2nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it was on May 5 that I asked the Treasury Board president if he was prepared to give his assurances that the government will drop all court cases against past whistleblowers and compensate those who are proven to be correct.

I would like to ask for a timeframe that Ms. Gualtieri can expect so she can get her life back. This is not so much to ask from someone who simply acted ethically and did the right thing in disclosing the waste of millions of dollars at taxpayers' expense.

[Federal Accountability Act, June 2nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of debating the federal accountability act, part of which deals with measures to protect whistleblowers.

Joanna Gualtieri is one of those public servants who, through her disclosure of gross mismanagement of funds, has saved taxpayers millions of dollars, yet she continues to be harassed through the courts, causing her serious financial hardship and emotional distress.

I would like to ask the President of the Treasury Board again to give his assurance that the government's court action against Joanna will be dropped immediately.

[Workplace Health and Safety, June 2nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the health of most citizens in this country is protected by health and safety rights in the workplace. Sadly, this is not the case for those who work right here on Parliament Hill.

Instead, their basic rights are denied and they are essentially treated as second class citizens. Since there are no health and safety laws, workers cannot actively participate in the prevention of workplace accidents. No law means that workers cannot exercise their right to refuse dangerous work.

Over 20 years ago the government finally legislated a labour law known as the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act to protect its own employees. However, no government since has been willing to enact the law.

It is time to protect workers here who work to serve Parliament. They deserve the same protections that are afforded workers in all other sectors.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2006, May 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, one of the areas my colleague talked about was his home town and how the men and women who work in the industrial sector have been affected. I would like his comments about the missed opportunities in this budget.

As we in our party have said, we should not just oppose but propose. I would like his ideas on what was missed in the budget but also what we can do to help the men and women in the manufacturing sector who are having a hard time, particularly those in his riding.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2006, May 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, when I left off in my comments about the budget I was referring to the concerns this party has and many Canadians have about the missed opportunity in child care.

I will now speak to the issues around education, particularly around those who are presently in post-secondary education and those who are looking for the promise of opportunity of post-secondary education.

In my first year of university my tuition level was $900 and the most I ever paid was $1,200. Today, sadly, students are incurring debt at an average of $25,000 to $30,000 and we hear stories of people walking out of university with student debts of $60,000 and more.

I am certainly not the oldest member of the House of Commons but neither am I the youngest, but I hesitate to believe that the intention of the government was to create more barriers for students and young people in the future.

I also want to underscore the fact that most members of Parliament who went to university or community college did not incur the kind of debt that young people are incurring now and the student debt that we will be placing on young people in the future. If we look at the student debt being incurred by young people today it is absolutely abysmal. All we have seen from the government is to give a couple of crumbs in the way of support for textbooks. Clearly, that is not enough.

This is not an ideological discussion. This is a pocketbook issue. It is an issue of parents wanting their sons or daughters to have opportunities and discovering that the opportunities for post-secondary education are not there. The opportunity is for more debt and this budget continues that legacy. It does not open up opportunities for young people.

In last spring's budget, we made some headway in making changes to provide relief for young people. The Conservative government took the money that was bookmarked for helping young people with their tuition and it put it into the capital investment for universities. I am sure everyone would agree that is an important priority because universities do need money and support for capital costs and for research and development, but when a government takes the money that was to go to young people and students and puts it into the capital investments of universities, it is on the wrong track.

In my time remaining I want to underline the fact that this was yet again a missed opportunity for the poor. I have not heard the issues of the poor and those who are most vulnerable talked about at all. In fact, what we see is that the opportunities and the supports that are being provided for in this budget will create more of a chasm between those who have and those who have not. This will be a legacy that we all have to answer for. I would hope that the government acknowledges that there will be further erosion of opportunity for those people who are the most vulnerable in our society.

[National Capital Act, May 19th, 2006]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-311, An Act to amend the National Capital Act (Gatineau Park).

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to introduce my first private member's bill. It is an act to amend the National Capital Act. This is actually an issue that my predecessor, the member for Ottawa Centre, Mr. Broadbent, had put forward in the House. I wish to follow up on his good work.

The bill would seek to establish boundaries around Gatineau Park and provide a mechanism for changes to the boundaries around Gatineau Park. It is to recognize that one of the purposes of the National Capital Commission is to acquire privately owned land, so that real properties or provincial properties situated in Gatineau Park remain in the public context.

I am delighted to have the support of my colleague from Hamilton East—Stoney Creek.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)