Raymond Côté

[Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2, October 24th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Kootenay—Columbia for his speech on what this omnibus bill means for the coal blocks. I had the pleasure of working with him on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, and I hold him in pretty high esteem.

However, I would like to talk to him about the omnibus nature of the bill and the fact that the Standing Committee on Finance, of which I am a member, will be left to do all the work. The committee will have to examine this part of the omnibus bill and many others.

Since this is such an important and delicate issue, I would like to know if my colleague believes that it would have been better to separate this part of the bill and allow members of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources to examine it directly.

[Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2, October 24th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Mississauga—Erindale for his speech. Unfortunately, however, he still believes in magical thinking.

The member is contradicted by the senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada. In a recent speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, Tiff Macklem clearly stated that Canada's exports have fallen dramatically. In fact, they remain $35 billion below their pre-recession peak and more than $130 billion below where they would be in an average export recovery.

In fact, the observation that the senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada made was that many Canadian exporters have gone bankrupt or have turned to the domestic market.

I would like to know how my government colleague can deliberately turn a blind eye to such a dire situation.

[Health, October 24th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, while nickel dust was adversely affecting the people in my riding and compromising their health, the Conservatives were lining their pockets.

The directors of Arrimage Québec got out their cheque books to give thousands of dollars to the Conservatives, as did the members of the board of directors of the Port of Québec. In total, more than $20,000 ended up in Conservative coffers.

Is the close contact between the Port of Québec directors and the Conservatives what is stopping the government from protecting the health of the people of Limoilou?

[Health, October 23rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, one year has already passed since the first red dust cloud descended on Vieux-Limoilou.

It was also one year ago that the former Minister of Transport, the current Quebec lieutenant, refused to acknowledge his responsibility in the Port of Quebec file. He ignores the risks to public safety, including during the unloading of nickel.

Unlike her colleague, the new Minister of Transport must accept her responsibilities and take action in order to protect public health.

Will she do so?

[Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, October 22nd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Terrebonne—Blainville for her speech and especially for the bill she has introduced.

I trained as an archivist and part of my training dealt, of course, with the protection of personal information. This field has expanded quite a bit over the years. It was an important consideration for more traditional mediums such as paper documents and electronic documents before the Internet era. What is really frightening is the proliferation of means of exchanging this information with total impunity.

Could my colleague give us an idea of how complex this can be, of just how many opportunities for sharing, stealing or distributing personal information there can be?

[Business of Supply, October 22nd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure to be back in the House. I am pleased to be able to ask a question.

To answer the hon. member for Winnipeg North, New Democrats are not followers, they are innovators. That is why we want no part of the Liberal Party's marketing campaign. Instead, they are welcome to our ideas.

That said, I have a comment for the hon. member for Compton—Stanstead. We want the Senate abolished because it is fundamentally flawed and has been since birth. One hundred and fifty years ago, one of the criteria for being appointed a senator was to hold property worth $4,000. At the time, that was a huge sum. It made for a very elite institution.

Would the hon. member like to talk about that aspect of elitism and about the birth defect that is impossible to correct without killing the baby?

[Health, June 17th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, another cloud of toxic dust engulfed people in the Quebec City area this weekend.

The province is concerned, Quebec City is concerned and hundreds of worried citizens have already signed the NDP's petition. Arrimage du St-Laurent, a stevedoring company, has proposed an action plan that has been addressed by all levels of government, except of course the one responsible for the port.

What does the Minister of Transport, or his Environment colleague, think of Arrimage du St-Laurent's plan?

[Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act, June 13th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Churchill for her very accurate, though unfortunately disappointing, account of the reality on the ground.

How ironic that we are in the middle of National Public Service Week. Look at how poorly the government treats our public service and our public servants. There is a complete disconnect between the government's intentions and what actually goes on on the ground.

I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about how the government does not value its human resources and even has contempt for them.

[Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act, June 13th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Marc-Aurèle-Fortin for his heartfelt speech, which echoes the words of our colleague from Compton—Stanstead. This member spoke about the border services' lack of resources to combat contraband tobacco.

To answer my colleague, quite frankly, I really do not see how this bill would enable us to touch those famous Mafia bosses.

The other thing that bothers me is that the government is vastly undermining our capabilities. For example, I spend a lot of time on the road travelling to the Hill. The trip takes me 4 hours and 30 minutes. The best way to combat speeding on our roads is not to enact tougher laws, but rather to station patrol cars on the side of the road. This is when everyone starts hitting the brakes.

In short, it is obvious that the problems are not primarily related to legislation. Legislation can result in significant progress in regard to the bosses and large-scale organized crime. However, the much bigger problem lies with the resources allocated to carry out investigations in order to enforce the law as it is.

[Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act, June 13th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from LaSalle—Émard for her question.

Starting up a business is always a challenge. However, competition is very tough for small businesses in this type of traditional sector. There are also a large number of factors that can cut into profitability. My colleague from Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup can attest to that. He is currently working on the issue of fees associated with credit card reward programs.

The huge fees prevent these small businesses from predicting costs and profits. Their sales figures can be undermined by lower revenues from the sale of tobacco products, which still has a good profit margin. There are two very different types of risks here, which makes things extremely complicated for small business owners.