Ralph Goodale

[The Economy, April 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, within the last 24 hours both the Bank of Canada and the IMF have been deeply pessimistic about the Canadian economy. The recession is intensifying. The economy is shrinking three times faster than projected. Joblessness is headed toward double-digit levels. Canada will not get back to where it was in 2007 until 2011.

As reported yesterday, is the government preparing a new budgetary update for September, or better still for June, before it has to make its second probationary report to Parliament on its failing record?

[The Economy, April 23rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians will remember this Prime Minister's egregious record. First, these Conservatives increased personal income taxes by nearly a billion dollars. Then they slapped a 31.5% Conservative tax on retirement savings and income trusts. Then they sunk the nation into deficit during boom times, so that there was nothing left when the recession hit and killed 300,000 full time jobs.

Could the Conservatives at least agree to fix the EI system to be a little more generous to its victims or would that make the system too lucrative?

[The Economy, April 23rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, this morning the Bank of Canada confirmed its pessimism concerning the Canadian economy. Some 380,000 jobs have been lost. The economy will contract three times faster than originally predicted. The central bank is revising its monetary policy and, for the first time, is including a contingency plan.

Will the Prime Minister do likewise and revise his budget, which is already outdated?

[Foreign Affairs, April 23rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, this was not a good morning for a Conservative government in abject denial. A Federal Court judge has just ruled that the Prime Minister is legally obliged to immediately press the United States to return Omar Khadr to Canada. We have been telling the Conservatives to do so for years. The American process was deeply flawed. Now the courts have said so too.

Will the Prime Minister confirm that he will comply with today's ruling of the Federal Court?

[Business of the House, March 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, simply a point of clarification to the government. With respect to the special debate that has been scheduled this evening having to do with a motion to concur in the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development with respect to the situation of the Baha'i in Iran, the motion that was adopted on Friday afternoon says that there will be no quorum calls, dilatory motions and request for unanimous consent during the course of that debate, which we all agree with, but for the sake of clarity, I take it that the motion would not preclude any member participating in the discussion in splitting their time with another member as long as they stay within the same overall time allotment.

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, March 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, one of the victims of Conservative vindictiveness is the CBC and its services to regions and minorities. In my province, northern programming designed specifically to include aboriginal people is being cancelled. The CBC's 30-year-old bureau in La Ronge is being closed. The noon show, Blue Sky, is being chopped in half. Living Saskatchewan is being cancelled. The award winning Little Mosque on the Prairie is being cut back. The axe has yet to fall on the news department.

Just exactly how will slashing the CBC help to stimulate the economy, fight the recession and save jobs?

[Employment Insurance, March 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives cannot build hope on fiction and fantasy. It is not just the Parliamentary Budget Officer. His warnings are consistent with the IMF, the OECD, Global Insight, Merrill Lynch, BMO Nesbitt Burns, the TD Bank, former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge, and every other credible forecaster.

With their budget projections swamped by worsening events and massive job losses, will the Conservatives at least make employment insurance available now to those who need it now? Fix eligibility.

[The Economy, March 27th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the economy is shrinking at twice the rate originally forecast by the Bank of Canada. Over 200,000 jobs have been lost so far this year and nearly 400,000 will vanish by June. The tax base is plunging. The deficit is soaring. The economy is not performing as the government pretended it was in its probation report.

That is the assessment provided by the Conservatives' very own Parliamentary Budget Officer, the officer they selected to be their watchdog. How can they just dismiss him now as some kind of hysterical rogue alarmist?

[Point of Order, March 26th, 2009]

That was six years ago.

[Business of the House, March 26th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the House was pleased earlier today to deal very efficiently with Bill C-14, and by the end of government orders today, that bill will be deemed carried at second reading and referred to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, a very good illustration of how the opposition is tangibly moving forward an agenda with respect to public safety.

I wonder if the government House leader in his remarks about the agenda for the rest of this week and next week would indicate what timing he has in mind for that other piece of legislation, Bill C-15, dealing with other portions of the government's justice plan.

I wonder if he could also tell us when we will see the details of the legislation on remand. That was expected either today or yesterday, but I do not believe it has yet been tabled or introduced, and it would be important to know when that bill will be coming forward.

One final matter. According to an opposition resolution duly adopted by the House, the government should table, by April 3, next week, a list of departments and programs, not projects, I hasten to add, which are likely to require access to Treasury Board vote 35 in the main estimates.

The government has a draft list of the programs and departments. The Auditor General says that this request from the House of Commons is perfectly reasonable, and I wonder when the government would be prepared to table that list in response to the motion which was adopted by the House of Commons.