Ron Cannan

[Petitions, September 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House. This morning I would like to table a petition on behalf of numerous constituents. They are requesting that the House condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex selection pregnancy termination.

[Petitions, September 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition calls on the House to condemn discrimination against females through sex-selected pregnancy termination.

[Petitions, September 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise to table two petitions on behalf of constituents.

One petition is calling on Parliament to refrain from making any changes to the Seeds Act or the Plant Breeders' Rights Act through Bill C-18.

[Public Safety, June 11th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday there was another senseless shooting, this time in Vancouver. Shots rang out in a midday gun battle in busy Yaletown, steps from the False Creek seawall. I am pleased to see that the victim, an innocent bystander and pillar of the community, is now in stable condition, and that the police officer who was injured while defending the people of Vancouver has been released from the hospital.

Our government is committed to keeping our streets and communities safe, by ensuring that those people who engage in evil and depraved actions will be put behind bars where they belong, and where they cannot harm innocent Canadians who are going about their daily lives. I look forward to the individual responsible for this crime facing the full force of the justice system.

[Business of Supply, June 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned she was opposed to income splitting. With regard to families, I have a question with regard to policies this government implemented for income splitting for seniors. Does she believe that is a good policy and if she does not, would the Liberals actually reverse that policy if they formed government?

[Business of Supply, June 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is the home of some of the international award-winning wine, so I appreciate the opportunity to ask a question of my hon. colleague from British Columbia, from North Vancouver, another beautiful part of our province and our country.

I thank him for the great work he has been doing. I know he had worked closely with our former colleague, Minister Flaherty, who had a memorial service in the other House yesterday. I think about the great foundation he laid to help our seniors, low-income people, middle-income people, and persons with disabilities, as well as his passion for his registered disability savings plan.

I have been working on another issue for eight and a half years. I have been working on the trade committee, and we have this historic 21st century trade agreement that we signed with the European Union in the fall.

I wonder if my hon. colleague could share with the House some of the positive effects for low- and medium-income families and individual Canadians, as well as the economic opportunities for average Canadian families that this comprehensive economic trade agreement with the European Union will provide.

[Petitions, June 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the two other petitions have to do with the leniency of Canada's impaired driving laws; and in the interests of public safety, the petitioners are asking that the government seek tougher laws and the implementation of new mandatory minimum sentencing for those persons convicted of impaired driving causing death.

[Petitions, June 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to table a couple of petitions. The first one is from constituents asking the government to refrain from making changes to the Seeds Act and the Plant Breeders' Rights Act through Bill C-18, an act to amend certain acts relating to agriculture and agri-food.

[Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, June 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have had a chance to speak in the House already on the importance of the Canada-Honduras free trade agreement for Canadians and also for Honduras. I have been on the trade committee for about eight and a half years and have had the opportunity to travel recently to South America. I was in Peru. I met with our Canadians officials on the ground and the corporate social responsible leadership of Canadian companies and talked about the integration of Honduras.

We have had several witnesses at the committee. One of the witnesses, a gentleman by the name of Vincent Taddeo, who is the vice-president international from Cavendish Farms, said:

Whenever...you create jobs, people tend to move away from the negatives, from the drug trade, from the stealing, from whatever is negative in that society. Whenever we do this, we see an improvement in the lives of the people on the ground.

I know the hon. colleague would like to live in a perfect world, in Utopia, and have a trade agreement that would be perfect. The reality is we live in an imperfect world. One of the aspects from our Conservative government, we believe, in this engaging country is to give them hope and opportunity. I was in Colombia in 2008, and we see the improvement in the middle class in Colombia now that jobs and hope and opportunities are created.

My question, through you, Mr. Speaker, for the hon. colleague is this: why would he not engage and provide hope and opportunity for individuals in Honduras, or would he rather just leave them on the sidelines and allow this murderous society continue?

[Intergovernmental Affairs, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Canadian consumers, employers, businessmen, and tradespeople are all part of a national economy and a united country, but for certain sectors, it can be easier to move products or labour overseas than from province to province. For instance, it is well documented that it is easier for Ontario consumers to directly purchase wine from California than from British Columbia.

Internal trade barriers are inefficient. They hurt Canadian federalism and prevent companies from growing. Can the hard-working Minister of Industry please inform the House of what our government is doing to address these costly, inefficient trade barriers?