Ralph Goodale

[Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, May 29th, 2009]

Being competent would be a start, Mr. Speaker.

Asking for some moral leadership on CPP Investment Board bonuses is not interference in the essential arm's length work of the board. The board has lost about $24 billion. The economy has been shrinking and 350,000 jobs have been lost. Tens of thousands of the most vulnerable Canadians cannot get access to EI. There is hurt across this country.

In this environment, the moral and competent thing to do is to invite the CPP Investment Board to review its policy--

[The Economy, May 29th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the issue is Conservative incompetence. The Conservatives destroyed the fiscal security of this country long before there was any recession.

Now the Conservatives are more than $50 billion further in the hole, with nothing to show for it. That is the point: no new jobs created, 350,000 jobs lost and EI that is failing vulnerable Canadians.

What do the Conservatives have to say to Premier McGuinty, Premier Stelmach and Premier Campbell, who all say that the government is wrong and incompetent on EI?

[The Economy, May 29th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, for the past six months, the Conservatives have not been right once when it comes to the economy. They were wrong in October, in November, in January, in April and again today. Some 350,000 jobs have been lost because of the Conservatives' recession. Access to employment insurance is discriminatory and infrastructure funding has been frozen.

How can the Conservatives explain such flagrant incompetence?

[Business of the House, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we are now into the final semester of this parliamentary session, the supply period leading to June 23. I wonder if the government House leader is in a position to lay out his business plan for that period, at least the first couple of weeks of that time, and I wonder if he could also be more specific about two things: when he plans to designate the remaining supply days, or opposition days, between now and June 23; and when the government proposes to file its budgetary probation report, which is due at least five days before the last of the supply days.

[Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is no wonder that people like David Dodge, the former governor of the Bank of Canada, say the government is totally unrealistic and dreaming in Technicolor.

Here is another structure issue, pensions. Canadians are worried about the security of their retirement plans, public and private. The CPP alone has lost some $20 billion.

As a gesture of moral leadership, will the minister invite the CPP Investment Board to review its multi-million dollar bonuses, in the context of a recession that is killing the jobs of 350,000 ordinary Canadians?

[The Economy, May 28th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives dismissed the recession and their $50 billion deficit as just “temporary”, just “cyclical”. Not to worry, they say, it is not “structural”, but Chrysler is in bankruptcy, and GM almost. The auto sector is down to a fraction of its former self. Manufacturing is chopped by 20%, and forestry has been devastated. This is big-time structural change.

Why did the Conservatives put Canada into a deficit before any recession and cripple the ability to help vulnerable Canadians now?

[The Economy, May 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, that is the man who created a deficit before the recession.

This morning the Minister of National Revenue, the Conservative tax collector, was asked specifically to rule out tax increases by the government. He would not do it. Asked to be unequivocal on taxes his confused answer was “we're not there”; in other words, not unequivocal.

Remember when Conservatives promised never to tax income trusts. That promise was broken. They stabbed two and a half million innocent Canadians in the back.

How can Conservatives be believed on the deficit or taxes, or anything else that involves trust?

[The Economy, May 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are not inspired by a Conservative government that is so consistently dead wrong; wrong about the recession, wrong about a fictitious surplus, wrong about no deficit in November, even more wrong about the deficit in January, wrong by 48% at least. Worst still, these Conservatives are wrong about the jobs they promised to Canadians, wrong by 540,000, and many victims cannot get employment insurance.

Therefore, we have $50 billion in red ink, no new jobs and no better access to EI. Why?

[The Economy, May 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker,--

[Oral Questions, May 26th, 2009]

Wait for it, wait for it.

--is, every two or three months, come up with another economic policy, another budget, until we need to raise taxes”.

The words very clearly speak for themselves. The Conservatives will not produce another budget until they need to raise taxes. The rules of this Parliament require another budget by next spring. In other words, they will be raising taxes next spring or before.