House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 50% of the vote.
Carbon Pricing June 6th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister uses the word “stringent”. There is no doubt that it will have a stringent effect on household budgets. There is also no doubt the Prime Minister supports high gas prices. He said so when he was in Vancouver, celebrating $1.60-a-litre gas prices. There is also no doubt that his carbon tax will raise the price of consumer goods upon which middle-class Canadians rely.
It is his bill, so how much will his carbon tax cost the average Canadian family?
Carbon Pricing June 6th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, if the provinces were already doing it, the Prime Minister would not have to introduce a budget bill forcing them to do it. Clearly this is a federally imposed tax. Clearly he would have read the briefing notes that his departments have given him about the cost of that tax. He knows the cost.
Again, how much will this Liberal carbon tax imposed by the Prime Minister cost the average Canadian family?
Carbon Pricing June 6th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has a budget bill before the House of Commons right now that Finance Canada admits will raise the price of gas, home heating, and most other consumer goods that Canadians buy.
How much will the Prime Minister's carbon tax cost the average Canadian family?
Taxation June 5th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, the finance minister is imposing higher payroll taxes on employers and workers. He is imposing a carbon tax on Canadian factories, a tax that companies will not have to pay in competitor jurisdictions south of the border. Of course, we know he has raised taxes on 80% of middle-class Canadians, and that is coming right at a time when we are facing new attacks on our workers from south of the border.
My question once again is this: Will he cancel all planned Liberal tax increases on Canadian workers affected by this trade war?
Taxation June 5th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, Trump tariffs will hurt Canadian workers, and so will Liberal tax increases. Those tax increases will apply to companies that employ people here, but if those companies move south of the border, we will lose those jobs and they will not have to pay the taxes over there.
With this trade war now waging, will the government announce a full and complete moratorium on Liberal tax increases on workers affected by American protectionism?
Workers with Disabilities June 5th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, let me quote the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
Unfortunately, so often when persons with disabilities get a job, receive a raise or work extra hours, taxes and clawbacks of income-tested benefits leave them poorer.
This is why the CNIB supports the opportunity for workers with disabilities act:
It would require Finance Canada to calculate how much workers with disabilities lose for every $1,000 they earn. If they lose more than they gain, the Finance Minister would be required to consider changes to federal tax and benefits to fix the problem. Also, the bill would require provinces do the same, as a condition of receiving billions in federal transfers.
Federal conditions for federal money are nothing new. To get federal health transfers, provinces must honour the five principles of the Canada Health Act. To get the Canada Social Transfer, provinces are banned from imposing minimum residency requirements on social assistance.
The CNIB further notes that infrastructure transfers even come with the requirement that provinces put up federal government signage at project sites, and concludes by asking that members vote in favour of this legislation in order to enhance work opportunities “for people with all abilities”.
Taxation June 4th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are saying they are trying to put a price on something. What they are doing is putting a price on hiring Canadian workers. Those same workers will bring with them higher payroll taxes, and now higher carbon taxes, taxes that those companies will not have to pay south of the border. While the Government of Canada is now sending $4.5 billion to a Texas company to build pipelines in a jurisdiction that competes with Canada, it is raising taxes here at home to drive jobs outside of our country.
How much will this carbon tax cost the average Canadian worker?
Taxation June 4th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, everybody knows that Donald Trump wants to take our money and our jobs. What we cannot understand is why the Government of Canada is helping him.
Higher taxes here at home make it very difficult for Canadian businesses to compete south of the border. In fact, Canadian investment in the United States is up two-thirds since the current Prime Minister took office, and American investment in Canada is down by half. Money is going that way, and jobs will soon follow.
How much will this carbon tax cost the average Canadian worker?
Taxation June 4th, 2018
Mr. Speaker, Canadian workers are under attack, with Trump tariffs from abroad and Liberal taxes here at home, higher taxes on middle-class Canadians and higher taxes on the businesses that employ them. Ironically, the same companies south of the border that are pushing for this protectionism will also benefit from the carbon tax here in Canada, which would drive money, jobs, and income into that country.
How much will the carbon tax cost the average Canadian steel and aluminum worker?
Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities Act May 31st, 2018
Madam Speaker, when Tim Hortons franchise owner Mark Wafer hired a young man with Down's syndrome named Clint, he probably did not realize that it would turn out to be one of the best business decisions of his life.
Clint did all the same tasks as his co-workers and made the same money with no government wage subsidy or workplace tokenism. He arrived early, left late, and refused to take breaks all day long. Mark has since hired over 200 employees with disabilities just like Clint, who together made his six Tim Hortons locations among the most profitable in the legendary chain.
There are a million Canadians with disabilities who work, including 328,000 with severe disabilities. However, many people with disabilities do not have jobs. What is stopping them?
In many cases, the government is. Programs like income assistance, housing, drug benefits, and others are clawed back when people on disability get jobs. With these clawbacks plus taxes, often the harder people work, the poorer they become.
For example, a minimum wage-earning worker on disability in Saskatchewan who goes from part-time to full-time work actually sees his take-home pay drop. Stats Canada reports that 84,000 Canadians with disabilities who are able to work do not, because they fear they would lose income if they did.
Mark from Tim Hortons said one of his best workers had to quit because he would lose $10,000 in medication assistance if he kept working, so Mark asked an official with the Ontario disability support plan what the best way to get off of disability was. She said, “Die.”
Policies that cancel out people's wages signal that their work has no value. That is not true and it is not right, and we can fix it. The opportunity for workers with disabilities act would require government at all levels to allow people to earn more in wages than they lose in clawbacks and taxes.
The bill knocks down the welfare wall and makes work pay, because there is dignity in labour. Ask Walgreens vice-president, Randy Lewis, the father of an autistic son. He hired over 1,000 workers with disabilities at the company's ruthlessly competitive distribution centres. These workers profited the company, and the jobs freed people from poverty. To quote Lewis' book:
Also on the team was Derrill Perry, a forty-nine-year-old-year old man with a developmental disability, who had been employed in a workshop where he was paid less than a dollar an hour.... On the day he earned his first Walgreens paycheck, he handed it to his mother, and she began to cry. He used part of that paycheck to treat his parents to a dinner out—first time to pay the bill at a restaurant.
Lewis met Derrill's parents at the company's open house. He writes:
When I reached out to shake Derrill's dad's hand, he pulled me in for a hug and whispered in my ear, “Thank you. My family is finally safe. Now I can die knowing they'll be all right.”
Within a year, Derrill's father died. Derrill was the sole support for his mother—his salary more than either of his parents had ever earned.
By passing the opportunity for workers with disabilities act, we tell the Derrills, the Clints, the Marks, and the millions of others who work or want to work that we will never count them out again, that they matter, that they have worth, that there is treasure in each and every one of them. While for the longest time we understood that they needed us, we now know that we need them too.