Rodger Cuzner

[Employment, May 10th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as summer students are out there looking for work, we know that this is going to be the toughest summer ever, and it is because of the government's twisted list of priorities.

As we watch the hockey game tonight, know that every time one of those mind-numbing action plan ads comes on, it is $95,000 of taxpayer dollars being wasted. That equates to 32 summer jobs.

Why does the government not stop with the snow job and create a summer job?

[Points of Order, May 9th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the House leader assured me the last time that he would bring the letter forward. That is what took place last time and I would appreciate it if he would bring the letter forward because there is no sign of it. Maybe he cannot find it either. Maybe it is in the file cabinet with the $3.1 billion. Maybe he could check that cabinet and bring the letter forward. It is very simple.

[Points of Order, May 9th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, about a month and a half ago, the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development had referred to a letter of support written by me on behalf of a company with regard to supporting an application for temporary foreign workers. I asked the minister to table the letter. In absence of her tabling the letter, I brought it forward to the House leader. This will be the third occasion that I have brought it to the House leader. He assured me that he would bring forward the letter, so hopefully, third time is the charm. Is he able to table the letter now?

[Employment, May 9th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, half as many summer student jobs now than when they took power is shameful.

Let us put it in perspective. Conservatives spent $3,300—three thousand three hundred taxpayers' dollars—every day just to monitor what their backbench MPs have to say, because they have to toe the party line. They have to make sure they regurgitate the PMO talking points.

It is shameful what they are doing over there. Every day, that is a summer student job that they are gassing. Why do they not back off on what they are doing with the monitoring and give summer students a job rather than looking after the parents at the PMO?

[Government Advertising, May 8th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the cost of the Conservative action plan TV ad during the first round of the NHL playoffs, $95,000. A Conservative action plan ad during the NHL finals, $140,000. Conservative action plan ads during the Oscars, $200,000. A summer job for a Canadian student, priceless.

While Canadian students are drowning in debt, the Conservatives are trying to advertise, telling them that it is a great day for a swim. Why have they cut 40,000 summer student positions each year since they have come to power?

[Employment Insurance, May 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, with some poetic licence and an apology to Sir Winston Churchill, never in history has so much damage been done to so many by one crew.

Half the provincial premiers in the country have voiced their unqualified opposition to the EI changes. Provincial houses of assembly are unanimous in their disapproval. These changes hurt seasonal workers. They hurt business. They hurt families, and they are devastating communities. When will the Conservatives stop hammering people because of these EI changes?

[Taxation, May 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government has taken on the role of tax ninjas, sneaking tariffs in here, adding user fees in there, all the time chopping services to middle-class Canadians, but it is the $600 million a year in new payroll taxes that is the real kick in the teeth to Canadians—$600 million a year.

These hidden additional taxes will have a negative impact on job creation and workers' paycheques. When will the minister stop putting the boots to hard-working Canadians?

[Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, May 2nd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, next week it will be six months since the breach occurred. I heard nothing in the parliamentary secretary's answer that even alluded to how many people had been notified.

We are trying to get some kind of comfort for the 600,000 people who were involved in this issue. Could he share with the House whether there any criminal intent behind the loss of this information?

[Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, May 2nd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to continue to try to shed some light on an issue that has impacted a great number of Canadians.

It has been six months since we saw one of the single largest data breaches in the history of this country. Approximately 600,000 Canadians had their private information exposed by the government's mishandling of their data. Certainly we have seen enough cases of people having their identities stolen. Their identities have gotten into the hands of people who are not good people at all. Lives have been ruined once this data has been in the wrong hands.

With that kind of information about 600,000 Canadians out there, mainly through the student loan program, there has been a great deal of concern. My office has handled many enquiries as to just where this issue stands. I stand today to try to get some kind of clarification.

It was two months before the minister came clean with Canadians and let them know that this data had been breached. She said at the time, and every time we asked her in the House, that she took the matter very seriously and that she was very concerned. I am sure it will be reiterated in the parliamentary secretary's comments today. However, the minister also said at that time that they were working with external partners to ensure that Canadians were made aware of the data loss.

I would ask the current parliamentary secretary if he could share with me who those external partners are and how many of the 600,000 have been notified. Those are two simple questions. The government should have those answers now. Does the parliamentary secretary believe that the government is being successful in contacting the people affected?

How many people have signed up for the security alerts through Equifax? I know that both TransUnion and Equifax provide security alert measures. The government only went with Equifax because there was no charge with the Equifax deal.

Could the member enlighten us on those particular issues?

[Persons with Disabilities, May 2nd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to speak on the motion before us today.

I want to recognize my colleague from Montcalm for her contribution to the human resources and skills development committee.

I also want to recognize and commend my colleague from Brant for bringing this motion forward. As he indicated, we did a study on this particular area, and I think there will be some good things that will arise from the study. However, he has been a long-time advocate for persons with disabilities, and I want to recognize his contribution to the committee as well as the equity he holds in his opinion on these matters.

My younger brother had cerebral palsy, and my mom was the advocate in my household. The challenges we have now are certainly different from the ones she would have experienced and come up against in trying to raise into adulthood a young handicapped son in the 1960s. As well, my two sisters both work at an adult workshop, CAPE Society, in Glace Bay. One sister is a director, and she has been there a number of years, and as well my sister Darlene has probably been with CAPE for 20 years, so the issue of physical and intellectual disabilities has been part of our kitchen table talk for a lot of years.

I think if this motion could be deemed as one thing, it would certainly be a step in the right direction. The Liberal Party will be supporting this motion.

Ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities are protected from discrimination or respected to be given an equal opportunity to provide for themselves or their families is something that the Liberals have always fought for. I am proud to be a member of the party that gave Canada the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that guaranteed “equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination...”. This was given to individuals in Canada with mental and physical disabilities.

I am proud that our party was also responsible for the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Employment Equity Act. These important pieces of legislation created rights for persons with disabilities, but we need to do more to ensure Canadians with disabilities have equal opportunities to employment to provide for themselves and their families.

Part of the solution is having a rounded approach to the issues that most affect persons with disabilities, such as poverty, transportation, housing and a long-term employment plan. As I indicated, we are in the throes of concluding a study on employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. Several witnesses spoke to the points of poverty, transportation and housing, and they said that enhancing opportunities of employment for persons with disabilities cannot be discussed in isolation of other policies or barriers that act as disincentives to work.

Dr. David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, said:

Don't think about employment in isolation. We've got to tackle the barriers across the board. Transit, education, and employment must all be tackled together. The same barriers hurt in all contexts.

Laurie Beachell, the national coordinator for the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, spoke about a long-term employment plan. She said:

We would call on the Government of Canada, and on [the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development] specifically, to develop a five-year strategic plan to address employment needs of people with disabilities. One-off single-issue one-community measures will simply not get us where we hope to be.

The problem has never been that we do not know enough about an issue to do anything. More so, it is about political will.

The panel's report brought to light startling myths about employing a disabled person. In 57% of cases there is no cost to accommodate disabled persons. Sometimes we hear employers saying that the costs around accommodation are too great. In 37% of the cases, the average cost of accommodation is below $500.

We find from the report that just below 800,000 working-age Canadians with disabilities who are able to work do not work. We also know almost half have post-secondary education.

We are failing as a society, and there is a cost to us all, economically and socially.

The panel's report challenges employers to lead. We have received great testimony. It has been indicated that Tim Hortons has really seized this challenge of growing its workforce with persons with challenges. We recognize that Tim Hortons has taken on big issues before, such as with smoking. The Liberal government at the time stepped up and did so much to ensure that laws were in place and advertising around smoking in public places. However, Tim Hortons stepped up as well, ahead of most other restaurants, to try to accommodate some smokers. It had the smoking rooms first and then just banned it outright.

We know that real substantive and effective change has to come from the federal government as well. We heard some real ideas to help persons with disabilities. One area that was brought up a number of times was EI.

Carmela Hutchison, the president of the DisAbled Women's Network Canada, said:

People with episodic and chronic illnesses often do not have enough time to qualify for benefits. There's a lack of flexible supports for chronic illnesses not deemed severe enough. Very often we see people who are struggling to maintain employment while undergoing cancer treatment, or they have MS and again they're struggling. If they take a lighter schedule, then their funding for their disability is cut to that lighter schedule. Other people have talked about being considered too disabled for one program or not disabled enough for another.

Laurie Beachell, from the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, said:

EI has a real problem with those people who have episodic disabilities, mental health concerns, MS, those people who are well at periods of time in their life and can work, and then cannot work at certain times.

One program that my colleague had talked about was the youth employment strategy and the skills link, in particular. Back before the government took power, that skills link program portion of the youth employment strategy had accommodated 32,000 Canadians with disabilities. Now it accommodates 12,000. It is one thing to have the programs, but at one time these programs served more and they should going forward.

I want to share with the House and the member for Brant that the Liberal Party will support his motion. We hope the government sees this as a call to action and moves on these recommendations.