Robert Sopuck

[Committees of the House, March 4th, 2014]

You guys enabled Communists for decades.

[Recreational Fishery, February 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that our government announced the renewal of the recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program for $15 million over the next two years in economic action plan 2014. That is a 50% increase in funding.

In only the first round of this highly successful program, we were able to form nearly 100 partnerships with hard-working local conservation and angling groups in order to restore, conserve, and rehabilitate fisheries habitats right across Canada.

I am not the only one who is happy about this. Angelo Lombardo, the executive director of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, highlights that:

Recreational fishing in Canada generates over $8 billion in annual economic activity, and the expansion of this program will allow for dozens of new projects across the country to become a reality.

These conservation groups have established expertise in fisheries and are well positioned to deliver habitat restoration projects through collaborative approaches right across Canada. These projects will benefit recreational fisheries, our natural environment, and many local communities.

[Winter Olympic Games, February 24th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, for the past two weeks the Canadian Olympic team proudly represented our country in Sochi, Russia. Our Canadian athletes succeeded in spectacular fashion, earning ten gold, ten silver, and five bronze medals; a truly remarkable performance.

The country will not soon forget the inspiring performance of our athletes such as sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, standing on the podium together with gold and silver in the women's freestyle skiing moguls events. I especially want to congratulate Jennifer Jones and our women's curling team from the St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba, my hometown, for going undefeated at the games. I would also like to pay special tribute to the Olympic team coaches and support staff, as well as supportive family members, who were all an essential part of this year's success.

Congratulations to all of our 221 athletes who made up our Canadian Olympic team. As has been said before, go, Canada, go!

[The Budget, February 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the member's comments about the rail situation. He is actually right, from the standpoint that it needs to be fixed. We have a bottleneck now. The biggest problem is that last year the farmers basically harvested a crop and a half, and the system simply could not stand it. However, the best Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in the world, our minister, is on this case and is working extremely hard.

Let us talk about defending rural Canada. Rural Canada hated the Liberals' long gun registry. Just recently, the Liberal Party put on its website, for its upcoming convention, a proposal to reduce firearms ownership in this country along Australian lines. That would get rid of 90% of the hunting firearms in Canada.

Yes, the Liberals really defend rural Canada, do they not?

[The Budget, February 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. friend for that question, because it gives me an opportunity to illustrate what I said earlier about the NDP's lack of knowledge about the environment itself.

We have instituted the national areas conservation plan, through which 800,000 acres have been conserved. We have 1,400 habitat projects under the habitat stewardship program. Canada has been a participant since 1986 in the North American waterfowl management plan, which is a wetland conservation program. These measures are important for climate change mitigation.

The member opposite should realize something about the protection and restoration of natural areas, wetlands in particular. They are carbon sinks, and when we create wetlands and restore wetlands we do more than just one thing. Sure, we sequester carbon, but we also protect biodiversity, we improve flood control, and we recharge aquifers.

This government implements concrete programs that actually do things for the environment. They have multiple benefits and, yes, they will mitigate climate change.

[The Budget, February 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I will gladly do that. In the spirit of non-partisanship, I will gladly bring colleagues beer.

I guess that is in Hansard now, forever. They can quote me. That is okay.

Let us talk about the laughable economic policies of the NDP for a minute. I have a list.

The facts of life are Conservative: free markets work, deficit reduction works, merit-based societies work, private property works, economic freedom works, free trade works, and wealth creation is critical to fund social programs.

What is the NDP's toxic ideology? Its members do not support free markets, they are suspicious of private property, and their cure for everything is more spending. They think we can spend ourselves rich. They are suspicious of business people and entrepreneurs and they thrive on a culture of envy. A dirty little secret about the New Democrats is that they want people to become dependent on government because they think it is in their own political interest.

With that, I will sit down and take questions.

[The Budget, February 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is indeed an honour to follow such an illustrious colleague as the member for Mississauga South. To pick up on her excellent comments, I would like to talk first on the issue of returning to a balanced budget.

Let us go back a few years. Prior to the recession, when the Conservative government took office, we paid down $37 billion of debt. That was a remarkable achievement. It allowed Canada to be very well prepared when the recession of 2008 hit. It allowed us to launch one of the largest infrastructure programs in Canadian history.

We deliberately went into a deficit of $55.6 billion at that point. However, we have a Prime Minister and a Minister of Finance who know what they are doing and who had a game plan to stimulate the Canadian economy at that time and then return to a balanced budget over time. That is exactly what has happened. It is exactly as predicted. The deficit this year will be in the range of $2.9 billion, and next year the surplus is expected to hit $6.4 billion.

I would like to give a little lesson to my NDP friends across the way on why eliminating the deficit is important. Why is a balanced budget important? It means that less taxpayer money is needed to pay interest on the debt. It helps keep interest rates low for Canadian families. Taxes are kept low. It signals stability to the rest of the world. It attracts investment to Canada, leading to a higher standard of living. It gives the government more flexibility to invest in and support job creation programs.

A balanced budget avoids the instability and draconian cuts seen in other parts of the world, such as Greece. As a grandparent myself, I see it avoids burdening our children and grandchildren with our debts. That is very important.

Our fiscal situation is the envy of the entire world. Canada's net debt is expected to remain the lowest by far of any G7 country. Japan's debt is incredible. Its net debt is 150% of its GDP, whereas Canada's is in the neighbourhood of about 35% to 40%. We have the lowest by far. That means Canada is in a very good position to weather any economic storms that might occur.

That is the big picture of what the budget would do for the entire country. Being a rural MP representing a large, remote, rural constituency, I tend to look at things through a rural lens. When I look at the measures for rural Canada in this budget, it is very clear to me that rural Canadians would be very well taken of by the government.

We have strong rural representation right across this caucus and right across the country. Approximately 65% of Canada's rural seats are held by Conservatives. Rural Canadians place their trust in us.

Let us talk about some of the measures. In western Canada, we now have livestock price insurance to mitigate risk for livestock producers. There is rural broadband expansion, with $305 million allocated. This has been wildly popular in my constituency, as I hear through phone calls and emails, and right across the country.

Let us talk about what the farm leadership is saying about our expansion of fast, reliable Internet across rural and remote areas of Canada. This is a quote from Mark Wales, an Elgin farmer and president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. He says that is a huge boon for farmers and small-town entrepreneurs, who will finally be able to do business in a way other Canadians take for granted. It is something they have been calling for, for a long time: full Internet service, much improved.

That is a promise made and a promise kept; end of story.

The growing forward program is continuing along. It has been a very successful program for agriculture right across the country.

Living next to a national park, as I do, almost right next to a national park, I was delighted to see the $390 million allocated to improving and protecting national park infrastructure. I would like to say to the constituents who are listening that I have already made my request known for what I would like to see happen.

I want to talk about a program that the member for Mississauga South referred to, the recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program. It has been increased. It started off as a $10 million program. It is now $15 million. It has been wildly successful. Last year, that program funded almost 100 fisheries conservation projects right across this country in partnership with dedicated angling conservation groups. That is true environmentalism. We do not just talk about the environment or about process; we actually get out there and do things on the ground to fix the problems that people see.

I would gladly debate that with anyone on the other side who talks about the environment. All they talk about is process, but we get things done. The Sydney tar ponds are being fixed up. Others include the Lake Simcoe watershed and Hamilton Harbour. It goes on and on. Problems are being dealt with. I defy any members opposite to name any environmental indicator in this country that has become worse on our watch. They are all getting better on our watch.

Let us talk about the interest-free loans for apprenticeships.

There is a labour shortage in my constituency. We have a booming oil industry, a burgeoning oil industry. We have a forestry industry. We need workers in the skilled trades. Our interest-free loan program for apprentices would fill that gap.

We have a major tourism industry in my constituency and across the country, and there is now $10 million allocated for recreational trails.

There is a $90 million investment for the forest industry. It is called the forest industry transformation program.

There is a national disaster mitigation program. We all know about the disastrous 2011 floods that Manitoba experienced, as well as the floods that occurred a couple of years ago in Alberta.

There is a Canada First Research Excellence Fund. As a person who represents an agricultural constituency, I take a keen interest in biotechnology and agricultural research. It is because of our government's funding of high-class research and of scientists that Canada's agriculture is and will continue to be world class.

Here is a nice little program that I think all members will agree with, our little program to remove red tape from the beer industry. There is a small microbrewery in my constituency that is starting to emerge. Members may have seen it on Dragon's Den a few weeks ago. The beer is called Farmery beer. There are two young lads who started this brand of beer. They were on Dragon's Den. They are neighbours and constituents of mine. I am so very proud of Chris and Lawrence Warwaruk and their Farmery beer.

That is a free commercial for those guys, and it is worth it. I am looking for great things to happen for them. I urge all members to try this beer if they have a chance. They should.

[The Budget, February 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. friend across the way continues the NDP's attack on oil sands workers and their families.

A recent study, entitled “Oilsands the giant of Canada's economy”, says that oil sands production supports more than 478,000 direct and indirect jobs. Why the member opposite is attacking these families is beyond me. The study also expects that government revenues from the total effect of oil sands investment in Canada will jump from $28 billion to $61 billion in 2025.

My question relates to a recent poll that said there is remarkable consensus about deficit reduction that crosses regional and party lines. Almost 60% of Canadians believe that the deficit should be eliminated before any increased spending occurs.

This is very surprising. The Harris/Decima poll also found that even among self-identified New Democrats, the split was 48 to 44 in favour of retiring any deficit before increasing spending.

Could the member opposite inform the House why he and his party are so offside with public opinion?

[Situation in Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, obviously the member's points were bogus. The point is that his party and the other party over there, over the decades, enabled Communist and left-wing regimes to thrive and prosper. Actually, they have a lot to atone for with what is happening today. The sooner they understand what they have done and what their parties have done and the sooner they realize what they need to do to atone for the crimes that they have enabled, the sooner we will be better off.

[Situation in Ukraine, January 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, when I look at the Ukrainian people in Canada and reflect upon their accomplishments, I see that what they have done is remarkable. In my particular constituency, Ukrainian people are some of the best farmers in the area and some of the best business people. They are very hard-working and have a fierce attachment to property rights. The Ukrainian people have contributed mightily to what makes Canada survive.