Ralph Goodale

[National Defence, October 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, these are life and death issues. Canadians are going to war. It is not good enough for the government to say “Just get on board.” Consensus requires clear, honest, complete, and factual—

[National Defence, October 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, Canada's initial 30-day non-combat mission in Iraq in the struggle against the evil of ISIL will end.

Tomorrow the Prime Minister will announce that he is sending Canadians into combat. The lives of CF-18 fighter pilots will be on the line. They, their families, and all Canadians need to understand the government's calculation.

To start with, what were the Prime Minister's objectives in that first 30-day non-combat mission? Were those objectives accomplished, and how?

[Employment, September 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, my, they are a titch sensitive.

For young Canadians, the job market is dismal. Their unemployment is stuck at over 13%. There are 240,000 fewer jobs for young Canadians today than before the recession. Families worry about not affording post-secondary education. In 40% of empty-nester families, their adult kids have moved back home because they cannot afford to make a go of it on their own, and the Conference Board of Canada has now said that this younger generation may not do as well as their parents.

Does the government even get it that there is a problem?

[Employment, September 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's story on jobs got demolished yesterday by The Wall Street Journal. In fact, only 99,000 new Canadian jobs were created in all of 2013, just 5% of them full time, and through the last 12 months only 15,000 new full-time jobs were created in this whole country.

According to the OECD, Canada is not first on jobs but 16th, behind the U.S., the U.K., and 13 others, so why not try to help by eliminating EI taxes on new Canadian jobs? Why not—

[Points of Order, September 24th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, if Mr. Gordon holds those views, I am happy to accommodate him, but I would also point out that his views are also contradicting Jack Layton's platform from 2011.

[Mining Industry, September 24th, 2014]

What a joke.

[Employment Insurance, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the CFIB and economists like Mintz, Moffatt, and Gordon all support the jobs approach of my colleague, the member for Papineau.

At a time when there are 230,000 more unemployed Canadians than before the recession, and 240,000 fewer jobs for young people, the country needs a relentless focus on new and incremental jobs. The government's plan does not do that. It caps employment, and it even incents layoffs, but for that exact same money, such failings can be fixed. So why not?

[Infrastructure, September 22nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, at the G20, Canada praises infrastructure, but here at home the Building Canada fund is slashed by 90%. In this entire construction season, the whole thing, the government has made fewer than 10 new infrastructure commitments. The provinces, municipalities, chambers of commerce, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, C.D. Howe, the Canada West Foundation, the engineers, the Canadian Construction Association, urban transit, the Insurance Bureau of Canada, Statistics Canada, David Dodge, and now the G20 all say Canada should do much better.

Why is the government so excruciatingly mediocre?

[Infrastructure, September 22nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, at the G20 meetings, Canada's finance minister has done a turnaround. He is now arguing for economic growth ahead of austerity, at least in other countries, but here at home his EI tax credit perversely puts a cap on jobs, punishes ambition, and creates an incentive to fire people just when Canada has lost 112,000 private sector jobs.

Will the government fix this defective scheme, as every serious economist has recommended, and will it restore federal infrastructure investments at least at last year's level?

[Employment, September 19th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the government is said to be investigating Alliance Energy Ltd. in Saskatchewan for possible violations of the temporary foreign workers program. During a slowdown, the company apparently laid off 58 Canadian employees while retaining all of its TFWs on the job. The company says the layoffs were based on merit.

Specifically, is this permissible under the rules? Did those rules change this spring? Is a federal investigation actually under way? Is the provincial government involved, and when will the results be made public?