Peter Stoffer

[Business of Supply, March 22nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, let us go through a short history of the Conservative Party for my hon. colleague.

Yesterday in Porters Lake, Nova Scotia, there was a class action suit against the Government of Canada regarding SISIP, a program that was part of the veterans first motion moved by the NDP and passed by the Parliament of Canada. When the Prime Minister was in opposition, he said that when motions are passed by the House, the government should honour them. We saw nothing for that veterans first motion in this budget, so now we have put forth a $290 million fix that would correct the problem of over 4,000 injured soldiers in this country.

Yesterday we saw the lowest of the low, with the Prime Minister accusing a party and its members of supporting an enemy over our own soldiers. That was disgraceful. He should apologize to all members in the House for that.

I say to the Government of Canada that it is one thing to say it stands up for the troops, and that is a good thing to do, but it has to support them when they take off their uniforms. When it comes to SISIP disabilities, these 4,000 members and their families are undergoing great financial suffering. For less than 2% of the budget surplus, the government could have fixed that problem once and for all, but now these people have to take the government to court. I would like my hon. friend from Cape Breton to comment on that, please.

[Business of Supply, March 22nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I have some brief advice for the hon. member for Avalon if he wishes to take it. If he wishes to have a long term career in politics at the federal level, he should start representing his constituents. If he wishes to have a short term career in politics, then he should keep standing behind the Prime Minister, because I can guarantee him that his career will be over come the next election.

I do not necessarily want to wish that for him. The member for Avalon is a decent, kind and hard-working individual, but this is politics. He is supposed to represent his constituents. He is supposed to represent his province. If he is unwilling to do that, he will face the consequences at the ballot box.

[Business of Supply, March 22nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague and good friend from the great area of Cape Breton--Canso has said it absolutely right. I have the letter, we have the letter and the House has the letter written to Joyce Carter of St. Peter's, Cape Breton.

What kind of individual, what kind of human being, has a letter written on his behalf to a widow of a World War II veteran and promises that once his party forms the government the VIP extension will done immediately for all widows of all veterans regardless of application and income? If the Prime Minister of the country is willing to break his promise, to break his word, to the widow of a veteran, Danny Williams and Rodney MacDonald are easy pickings.

Let us try to imagine that. I do not know how the Prime Minister actually looks the Canadian people in the eye, looks veterans in the eye or looks soldiers in the eye and tells them that, by the way, as for their spouses, they had better not believe anything he says because he will break his word over and over again.

My hon. colleague has been representing Joyce Carter for many years. He is as frustrated as I am at that this promise to a widow of a veteran has been broken. It is no wonder and no surprise that the Prime Minister would also break a promise to his two political colleagues, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador and the premier of Nova Scotia.

More importantly, he broke his word to the good people of those provinces. For that, we will make sure he wears it come the next election.

[Business of Supply, March 22nd, 2007]

There is no question about it, Mr. Speaker. Ontario is a very great province of this country. Many of my colleagues and friends come from that beautiful province and many of my friends live in the beautiful province of Ontario.

However, we go back to the old thing. A promise made should be a promise kept. When the Prime Minister of the country and his cabinet break that promise to the good people of Ontario, then the good people of Ontario will have their say in the next election.

I can assure the House that I look forward to the day when we elect hundreds and hundreds of New Democrats, not just in the province of Ontario but right across the country. It will be a great and a glorious day.

[Business of Supply, March 22nd, 2007]

His riding is Avalon. I thank the member.

He is not here to represent the concerns of the Prime Minister. The people of that province said they wanted a voice from Avalon to Ottawa, not from Ottawa to Avalon.

I encourage the Prime Minister and the government to reverse these things, to get down to Nova Scotia, meet with Danny Williams and Rodney MacDonald, discuss this issue and straighten this out for once and for all. Maintain those Atlantic accords and do not blackmail the people of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. That is not how we do federalism in this country.

I can assure members that on the campaign trail my team and I work extremely hard, as do most of us. I can guarantee that this will give me an extra spring in my step to work that much harder. Any time I get an opportunity to debate whoever my Conservative counterpart will be in the election, I will welcome that individual to the debate. I will welcome that individual not just on this, but on veterans, seniors, the environment, health and education, all of these things that matter to the people of Nova Scotia and to people across this country. I welcome that debate.

In fact, I hope that person makes himself or herself public very soon because I would love to have a cup of coffee with that individual. I would love to knock on the doors opposite to that individual to see exactly how much standing up for the area that individual will do. The four previous Conservative candidates I ran against all said they wanted to be a strong voice for Sackville—Eastern Shore in Ottawa. We now find out that when Conservatives come to Ottawa, they become a strong voice for the Prime Minister's Office, not for the constituents they are elected to represent. That is a disgrace.

[Business of Supply, March 22nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, on the great island of Cape Breton we have a Gaelic college. I want to recite a Gaelic proverb to the House. This proverb is a very worthy one and needs to be said over and over again: “There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept”.

Since the Conservatives have formed the government under the present Prime Minister, we have witnessed the reversal of the VIP promise. We have witnessed the reversal of the marine service fees promise. We have witnessed the reversal of veterans first and veterans care motions and the assistive devices deductions promise. We have witnessed broken promise after broken promise.

This is the same Prime Minister who, when he was in opposition, rightly criticized the then Liberal government for its broken promises. The Prime Minister was absolutely correct when he was in opposition when he said that the Liberals broke their promises on various issues.

Now he is the Prime Minister of our country and is breaking a very solemn promise that was made by the Government of Canada, with his support, to the people of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and, for that matter, Atlantic Canada.

If the people of Canada cannot trust their Prime Minister, we are in serious trouble. Politicians in general are held in low esteem when it comes to the Canadian public and the reality is that the actions of the Prime Minister will put us even lower.

It is interesting to note that a very important fellow from Nova Scotia, Mr. Brian Lee Crowley, formerly the head of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, AIMS, is now working in the finance department as a visiting chair. A couple of years ago, he warned the governments of the day that there was no such thing as a fiscal imbalance. What he said was that there may be a social and a development imbalance, but there is no fiscal imbalance.

We saw the other day the crass opportunity taken by the premier of Quebec. He took a $700 million transfer payment and, instead of putting it toward the concerns that he yelled about for years, such as health and education, the environment, seniors, single moms, infrastructure, training, et cetera, what did he do? He very crassly tried to tell the people that if they voted for him they would get tax cuts. If he can give out that amount of tax cuts, then how can Quebec argue about a fiscal imbalance?

The fiscal imbalance is a myth. We have a social and development imbalance in this country.

What an outrage for Atlantic Canadians. The premier of Nova Scotia and the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, both Conservatives, not New Democrats or Liberals or Greens or whatever, are firmly outraged at what the government has done to their people.

But we know why it has been done. It is based on crass politics. The Conservatives did the numbers. They know very well that they can afford to lose a few seats in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, no worries, and if they can pick them up in Ontario and Quebec, all the better for them, they think.

It is unbelievable. The Prime Minister is supposed to represent every Canadian from coast to coast to coast, not certain Canadians within central and, possibly, western Canada. I cannot describe the outrage at the budget of that great province of Saskatchewan and my former home province of B.C.

It is unbelievable. The government has a surplus of $14.2 billion, which is more than it anticipated, and those members are the same people who yelled at the Liberals for discounting the amount of the surpluses year in and year out, but they have turned around and are doing things in the exact same way themselves. It is unbelievable.

Personally I wish we would have an election so we could go to the polls and tell Canadians what the true colours of this Conservative Party are. The first four letters of that party's name spell “cons” and we know what that means. Those members have done that to the people of Atlantic Canada and they have done it very well.

The people of Nova Scotia, the province I represent, are very firm and very clear on what they want to see in a budget. They want to see development assistance. They want to see the accords maintained. They do not want an either-or. This budget is almost like blackmail: if we take this, we will not get that, it is our choice. That is not how we do federalism in this country. It is unbelievable that the Conservatives get away with this.

I can assure members that we will be telling Nova Scotians loud and clear, and telling not just Atlantic Canadians but Canadians right across the country, what the government has been up to. This is the crassest form of politics I have seen in the almost 10 years I have been here.

We in Nova Scotia are very proud and hard-working people. In fact, many of our young people are across this country working in central or western Canada, helping out those provinces by working hard. Our people are willing to go where the jobs are, but we have asked repeatedly for various things to assist our own provinces. One of them was the Atlantic accord.

Our former premier was Mr. John Hamm. Although he was a Conservative, I found him to be very respectful and dignified and a decent gentleman. With Danny Williams, he fought very hard to get the Atlantic accords to benefit the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia and, in many ways, to benefit all of Atlantic Canada. He did that on the basis of the solemn promise that those accords would remain intact.

Let us imagine this if former Premier Hamm were still here, understanding full well that those accords are now either-or: maybe we will keep it and maybe we will not. That is not how we are supposed to treat our friends. I can understand them treating Saskatchewan and its NDP government that way. I can appreciate the politics of that. But doing that to their own Conservative people in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia is incredible.

I challenge my Conservative colleagues in this House, especially the members for South Shore—St. Margaret's, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, and Central Nova, to stand in this House and defend the interests of Nova Scotia. That is what the old Reform Party used to do. It put constituents first, regions second and party third, but that has changed now. Many of those people do not even speak about their regions any more.

In fact, the member from Bonavista-Trinity, up in Newfoundland and Labrador, said today that if he votes against the budget he is out of the party. I remind that hon. member, whom I respect greatly, that he is there to represent those constituents of his province.

[Military Medals, March 21st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this is absolute nonsense. My parents were liberated by the valour of Canadian soldiers, airmen and sailors.

The medals they wear are not currency on their chests. They represent valour, honour, duty and remembrance to those who died and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Nobody should profit from the valour of other people.

I say to the government one more time, if it will not stand up and stop the sale of these medals, then it should stop these medals from leaving this country once and for all.

[Military Medals, March 21st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, in Canada right now we are about to lose some cultural and historical artifacts.

Mr. Conn Smythe, the founder of the Maple Leafs in the NHL and a World War I prisoner of war and a World War II veteran, as well as F.W. Curzon, one of Canada's first war artists during the Northwest Rebellion, have something in common. Both of their medals are up for sale on the auction block on the Internet by profiteers who want to steal the valour of others.

I ask the cultural affairs minister, the heritage minister, to stand up in this House and tell Canadians that these very important Canadian historical artifacts will not leave our country.

[Questions on the Order Paper, March 19th, 2007]

As of January 1, 2007, how much money have Canadian organizations, individuals, or officials received under the Northern Boundary and Transboundary Rivers Restoration and Enhancement Fund (Northern Fund) and the Southern Boundary Restoration and Enhancement Fund (Southern Fund)?

[Fisheries Act, 2007, February 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member's colleague, the member for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, for the great work he did on the new ombudsman bill for veterans in Canada.

I have a question for my hon. colleague, for whom I have great respect and who represents a fantastic area of the country. The motion put forward by our colleague from the Liberal Party basically asks that people in his constituency, the people he just spoke about, have the opportunity to give their input prior to second reading. We have asked the minister too. We need more time so that these people across the country and in the member's riding can have that input.

I thank him very much for saying that he will carefully look at the amendment and consider it in due time.