Pierre Lemieux

[Veterans Affairs, February 2nd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, MPs from all parties on the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs worked together cohesively and they made a number of constructive recommendations. One of these recommendations was that the government update the committee on January 30, and that is exactly what the minister did.

He released a six-page letter in which he outlined the progress the government was making on recommendations. I am running out of time, but I will list one of them. One of the recommendations was to extend psychological counselling to the families of veterans.

On December 1, 2014, we extended the number of psychological counselling sessions available to family members of veterans.

[Veterans Affairs, January 30th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, this is my first time addressing the House as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, and it is an honour to serve in this capacity.

I joined the Canadian Armed Forces at the age of 17 and served for 20 years. As a member of the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, I had the pleasure of serving with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, with 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group and with 1 Service Battalion.

With respect to office closures, this government is opening new offices to better serve our veterans. These are eight new front-line operational stress injury clinics, and they are focused on delivering mental health services to our veterans.

[Assistance to Businesses, January 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, last week, I was proud to announce more than $120,000 in federal funding for two businesses in Rockland, Ontario: RONA J. Lalonde & Fils and A. Potvin Construction.

Our federal government fully supports these types of businesses and is committed to doing so, not just by providing grants, but also through many initiatives that yield positive results.

For example, under our leadership, we have reduced corporate income taxes from 22% to 15%.

These significant tax reductions strengthen our businesses; they keep more of their hard earned money to reinvest in their employees and create new jobs. This is a winning recipe for economic growth and job creation.

I am delighted that our government provides ongoing support for our businesses, which promotes the growth of the Canadian economy and all our local economies.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, December 8th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the safety and security of Canada's food supply continues to be the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's top priority. Testing has confirmed H5N2 avian influenza. The CFIA is working closely with the province, industry, and producers to immediately place the farms under quarantine and to follow the proper international protocol to control avian influenza. The CFIA will continue to keep the public informed of developments.

[Canadian Wheat Board, December 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP want the public to know what is going on except when it comes to their NDP offices, which were run illegally.

However, back to the CWB, the NDP's first alarmist concern regarding the CWB was that ending the CWB monopoly would somehow cause the destruction of wheat farming in Canada, which is obviously not true. The NDP's second alarmist concern was that a voluntary wheat board would not be viable, which is obviously not true as well.

As I just mentioned, the CWB will assess all serious bidders and then submit a plan for commercialization to the government, as stated in legislation passed in December 2011.

[Canadian Wheat Board, December 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the motivation behind this question is that the member and his party are ideologically opposed to offering western Canadian grain farmers the marketing freedom they deserve.

We promised western Canadian grain farmers marketing freedom. We delivered on that promise, and with great success. There is renewed optimism in grain farming, and farmers are prospering.

The CWB will assess all serious bidders and then submit a plan for commercialization to the government in accordance with the legislation passed in December 2011.

[Taxation, December 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, 100% of families with children in Glengarry—Prescott—Russell and across Canada will be better off thanks to our new family tax cut.

As Conservatives, we are expanding and increasing the enhanced universal child care benefit so that every family in Canada, like families in my riding, will receive over $1,900 per year for each child under the age of six. Over six years, this will amount to more than $11,000 per child. A family that decides to have three children could benefit by more than $30,000. This new money will make a real difference for parents by allowing them to invest in their children's future.

However, the NDP has never met a tax it did not like, and the Liberals have never seen a tax that they would not hike. Both the Liberals and the NDP would reverse our tax cuts and force every Canadian to pay more. Only our Conservative government can be trusted to put more money back into the pockets of Canadians.

[Justice for Animals in Service Act (Quanto's Law), November 28th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I apologize for interrupting the debate, but I would ask for the unanimous consent of the House to revert to presentation of reports from committees, as I do have a report from the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, November 28th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's dairy and poultry and egg producers know that they can continue to count on our government to stand up for their interests. We are ensuring that the three pillars of supply management remain intact in all trade agreements that our government implements, including the agreements with Europe and Korea.

Our government is taking practical measures to stop products such as pizza topping kits from being imported into Canada. Our government has always stood up for Canada's supply management system and will continue to do so.

[Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act, November 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to make an observation: criminals who commit gun-related crimes do not follow the law. What the Liberals did in their era was try to curtail crime by shackling and burdening law-abiding gun owners—gun owners who follow the law, like myself—with unnecessary, complicated, restrictive laws.

The minister has brought about a bill to ease that, because they are are law-abiding gun owners. Unfortunately, the NDP has bought into the misguided Liberal logic that somehow criminals follow the law. They do not.

I am wondering if the member could just agree that criminals do not follow the law and that the intent of this bill is actually to respect law-abiding Canadians and the fact that they are allowed to own guns and should not be shackled and overburdened with unnecessary rules, regulations, and laws. There has to be a minimum amount of legislation in place, but not unduly so, as was presented by the Liberal Party in their day.