Ruby Sahota

[The Budget, April 4th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, this budget has provided flexibility for families. We have continued the Canada child benefit, and it will continue throughout our mandate. This provides families with the opportunity to use that money as they see fit. There have been investments in child care spaces as well. This combination provides families with flexibility in all types of situations. The child care benefit also no longer goes to the wealthiest Canadians and millionaires. It is given proportionately to those in need. Families with young children are receiving up to $2,500 more a year under our plan. It is providing relief for families in Canada.

[The Budget, April 4th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the answer, quite simply, is that our government's top priority is to strengthen the middle class and grow our economy, and we are doing exactly that. That is what the residents of Brampton talk about as they open their newspapers daily to see reports showing them that we have the best fiscal position among the G7 countries currently. We are also seeing positive signs of the government's plan working for Canadians. In the last seven months, the Canadian economy has created a quarter of a million new jobs. Since December 2015, Canada's unemployment rate has dropped from 7.1% to 6.6%. This is what the residents of Brampton are proud of.

[The Budget, April 4th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour and gives me pleasure to talk about budget 2017, as this is our government's next ambitious step toward investments that will create jobs, grow our economy, and provide more opportunities for the middle class and those working hard to join it.

Budget 2017 is focused on fairness for families, workers, and taxpayers. It is critical that we continue to invest in affordable housing, infrastructure, high-skilled job training, and the economy as a whole. Particularly, budget 2017 brings a lot of good news for my riding of Brampton North and the city of Brampton itself.

I have received numerous messages from many of my friends who are about my age, who have young families or families on the way, who were really excited to hear about the maternity leave plan. They were excited to learn that they can claim up to 12 weeks now before their due date, and that is up from the current eight weeks. This provides a lot of flexibility for a lot of women who may work in dangerous jobs, may have different health conditions, and need to take time off before their due date.

Budget 2017 also provides an extended leave beyond the 12-month parental leave. This provides a lot of families with flexibility. Now one can claim up to 18 months, with job security. I know that the overall amount is not different, but that is because we need to factor in many things. We need to factor in how this affects small to medium businesses, and we also need to provide families with the capability of staying at home with a loved one. In budget 2017, we were able to reach a good, comfortable position where families can take advantage of the extra time when child care costs are very high, before 18 months. After 18 months, they can have that job security, go back to work, and go back to growing our economy.

Also, as co-chair for the entrepreneur caucus, I have been hearing from a lot of business people who were worried at first, but are now relieved that they will be able to provide their workers with leave, be able to secure good workers, and allow them to have leave without it costing them a whole lot more. I commend budget 2017 for taking those steps, because it really is helping parents who are in the workforce and also have families. We do not have to sacrifice family for work.

There are many other changes that came in budget 2017, and tax fairness is one of them. Our government has continued to improve tax fairness for Canadian families by closing loopholes, eliminating measures that disproportionately favour the wealthy, and cracking down on tax evasion so that every Canadian has a real and fair chance at success.

The government's plan in budget 2017 is to close tax loopholes that result in unfair tax advantages at the expense of others. It has also invested $524 million to support the CRA in its continued efforts to crack down on tax cheats. It has taken steps toward eliminating tax measures that disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

Many taxi drivers in my riding have come to my office and shown their appreciation for the tax on the ride-sharing program. I know that it may be unpopular, but tax fairness is what we are talking about. If taxi drivers have to pay HST to the government, so should Uber drivers. It is only fair that those who provide equal services pay their fair share. I am very pleased to say that a big group of taxi drivers will be coming tomorrow for the budget vote, a group of 40 to 50 people who want to show the government their support because finally someone has listened to them, looked at our tax regulations, and figured out that there were those who were evading taxes, who should not have been. I applaud budget 2017 for doing that.

The EI caregiver benefit is another wonderful thing budget 2017 would give Canadians. It would provide up to 15 weeks for individuals to provide care for adult family members who require significant support as they recover from critical illnesses or injuries. Previously, one had to have a medical note from a doctor stating that a family member was at the near-death stage. In many cultural communities and in many places, it is very difficult for people to declare that family members are near death, even if they are. There are a lot of superstitions around doing so. Budget 2017 has struck the right chord again by providing flexibility.

Mr. Speaker, I forgot to mention at the beginning of my speech that I will be splitting my time with the member for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel.

As I was saying, there is more flexibility for families. Parents of critically ill children would continue to have access to up to 35 weeks of benefits, with added flexibility for other family members as well. This is fantastic news, because after all, this is what our government is about. It is about supporting families while growing our economy.

I am very excited about budget 2017, because Brampton will soon have a university, and this will help our city greatly. Seven hundred and forty-one million dollars is proposed for investments to accelerate infrastructure projects for universities and colleges through the post-secondary institutions strategic investment fund. This is a key tool for my city of Brampton, as we are looking to expand Ryerson to our city. We have a very young, vibrant community. The average age is 34.5. We have a very smart workforce in Brampton, and this university is going to allow us to develop our innovation. There are going to be a lot more businesses brought into our city because of this. The funding would also help the university progress.

Budget 2017 would also provide health care relief that is long overdue in my riding of Brampton North. I cannot tell members the number of conversations I have had with people who are seeking mental health support. Mental health is a serious issue in Canada today. Mental health has been underfunded for years. I know that our provinces understand the need for mental illness funding, but they have not always had the means to fund that area. More than $6 billion over 10 years would be provided for home care, and more than $5 billion over 10 years would be provided specifically for mental health.

We have been underserved in Brampton for a long time. We have a population of 600,000, but we have very few support workers in this area. Budget 2017 would give us the relief we need.

Also, I am very excited to say that budget 2017 has announcements about AI, artificial intelligence. We had the Prime Minister in Brampton just recently making AI announcements. These are jobs of the future, and they are jobs of today. We are allowing current companies and manufacturers to advance their skills and technologies and to be leaders in the world. They can provide the types of jobs our youth are craving.

I am also very happy to announce that today the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour are in Brampton to announce that there will be a lot of help provided through budget 2017 to help internationally trained newcomers to Canada, who often face challenges in getting their credentials recognized so they can find work.

People come to my office all the time who are working in labour jobs, and we are losing those skills. We are losing the skills we can use and benefit from in Canada.

I am thankful for the opportunity to highlight some of the key issues for my city and how budget 2017 is going to improve the lives of Canadians and Bramptonians.

[Committees of the House, April 3rd, 2017]

Madam Speaker, we have been having some wonderful discussions here. I like the ideas that are coming from the opposition and from the government benches. This is exactly the discussion that we want to have at the procedure and House affairs committee. This is why the discussion paper was put forward by the government House leader.

As was mentioned by one of the NDP members on the committee, the previous government House leader also once came to this committee and asked us to discuss how we could be a more effective, more modernized Parliament. The motion that we started this debate on today was from the interim report that the procedure and House affairs committee had put out at that time.

There are some disingenuous remarks being made in this chamber about how we as a committee had decided to proceed at that time. At that time, we had decided that we would talk about the low-hanging fruit, some of the difficult issues, some of the easier issues, and what we thought needed to be changed. At the end of it, we decided that for the sake of efficiency we would put out an interim report on the things that we could agree on at that moment, and then come back at a later date to revisit some of those hard-to-debate issues.

In that interim report, we had, I believe, four recommendations. Those recommendations were things that we were already doing in this House. I respect the work that I and my colleagues do in committee, but when we look at that report and read that interim report, one of the things that was recommended was to move the votes, if possible, up to after question period, which was an idea that the government had already been implementing with the help of the opposition.

Everyone realized what a difference that made. We did not have to run back to our offices, come back to the chamber, and waste a whole bunch of hours in the day, when we could be having effective debate in this chamber. We could be holding stakeholder meetings in our office. We could be in our committee meetings. We thought that was a great idea. Those are the things that we want to carry on with and continue discussing.

What happened at that time, though, was that there were a lot of difficult things that we wanted to discuss but could not agree on and could not get to. Those are some of the things mentioned in this discussion paper. I thank the hon. government House leader for bringing this discussion paper back to our committee and raising this debate again.

I really urge the opposition members to engage in this debate within the committee process and to examine these things with witnesses present so that we can get the scientific evidence that we need to make the decisions to move forward.

I agreed with my colleague when she was talking about campaigning door to door. Something people do not like about Parliament is that things take a very long time. Now, I understand the need to debate things. I understand the balance that we need to strike, that we need to probe and make sure that the laws we pass in this chamber are laws that will be good for all Canadians and I understand that we need to strike that balance, but let us have a conversation. There are so many ways we could more efficient with our time.

Once again, I need to reiterate that the misinformation that the opposition is trying to put out there about the accountability of our Prime Minister is just wrong. The discussion paper does not say that the Prime Minister would only come once a week. It is in addition to all the other days that the Prime Minister does come.

Quite frankly, the opposition is correct: there is nothing that stops the Prime Minister from not coming every day right now. There is nothing that stops the Prime Minister from not coming at all. This is actually putting into effect something concrete that requires the Prime Minister to show up, and requires him, in addition to the regular days, to come for another 45 minutes.

What is wrong with the backbench MPs being able to ask questions as well? This would be an effective way of modernizing our Parliament and making some changes.

No one is talking about taking Fridays off. Let us make it a full day, or let us apportion those hours to other days. A lot of companies have been doing this. Canadians understand that we can increase productivity by making some of these simple changes in the House.

Not allowing this discussion to even occur is blocking the very thing we are sent here to do. We are sent here to work in committees. We are sent here to produce reports and to study issues that are not just easy, but are also hard. We are sent here to have the hard and difficult conversations. That is what we want to have. Those are the conversations we want to have at the procedure and House affairs committee. Let us get on with it. Let us have those discussions. Let us bring in witnesses. Nothing stops any member from asking the questions that they desire of those witnesses.

I know we had many witnesses before us before we put this interim report out and, quite frankly, some of those witnesses were disappointed that the recommended changes in this interim report were not as they would have liked to see. I urge the members of the House to allow us to now get back to that study and not just make it an interim report but to finalize it. Let us bring in some of those witnesses again, let us bring in others, and let us finally change some things.

Just last week, we saw a very inefficient use of time. We had a vote called to see if we should adjourn the House for the day. What happened? The opposition had called that vote, we came in and then it voted against its very own motion. These are the types of tactics that are used day in and day out in the House to slow things down, to ensure we do not pass the legislation we are sent here to pass and—

[Committees of the House, April 3rd, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I hear the NDP and the Conservatives talk about the need to only change the Standing Orders through unanimity. This has not always happened in the past. It has not happened in the case of the member for Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston. He is a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. In a previous Parliament, he used a private member's motion to force a vote in the House of Commons to amend the Standing Orders with respect to how we elect our Speaker. Was there consensus? No, there was no consensus. Actually, over 42% of the members voted against that motion. Is this the threshold for consensus?

Let us also look to the NDP. The member for Burnaby South used his time allocation business motion in private members' business to change the Standing Orders to implement an e-petition scheme. Was there consensus to that change? No. Actually, over 49% of the members in this House voted against that proposal. How can this member, knowing that members of this House have passed changes to our current and past Standing Orders without unanimity, square this with a demand for unanimity this time around?

[World Autism Awareness Day, April 3rd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, April 2 marked World Autism Awareness Day.

Autism continues to be a major health crisis in Canada and across the world. Through the raising of awareness, more resources have been dedicated towards research, treatment, and diagnoses.

However, even with the added awareness and resources toward autism, I have met many families that are struggling to access resources and help for their children with autism.

Nina Jain, a mother of an autistic child, faced this same challenge and took it upon herself to create an online resource, which can be found at able2learn.com. It has over 30,000 pages of material and over 900 products that provide free inclusive educational material, with a special focus on autism and learning disabilities for anyone.

I would like to commend her hard work and dedication on this important day.

[Heroism, March 8th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, on February 14, tragedy struck my riding of Brampton North. Jyoti Kapadia and Iftekhar Niazi lost their lives, alongside their oldest daughter, Amina, after a fire engulfed their home while they slept. If not for the heroic act of one young man, another life could have been lost that day. Sheldon Teague, the 19-year-old basement tenant, heard the screams of the youngest daughter, Zoya, and rushed in to save her.

We know that Sheldon fought hard to save all of them and that he wishes he had, but his bravery saved Zoya, and for that he will forever be known as a true hero.

To avoid tragedies like this, I encourage all Canadians to check their smoke detectors regularly so that no lives are lost by fire.

I ask members to join me in thanking Sheldon for his heroic act that day and for inspiring us all.

[Business of Supply, March 7th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, we made a promise to Canadians in this past election. Our government promised to treat the middle class as it deserves, to treat Canadians as they deserve, and those who want to join the middle class, to give them that chance to put their foot forward. We have been committed to that promise. We have lowered taxes on the middle class. We have increased taxes on the top one per cent. We have given back to Canadians through the Canada child benefit. We have taken many actions to improve the lives of Canadians and to put money back in the pockets of Canadians. The money invested in CRA is helping catch, as I have said before, those tax cheats and those tax avoiders, and that will benefit Canadians in the long run.

[Business of Supply, March 7th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, many middle-class Canadians have benefited from our government's tax cut this year. We have also raised a lot of money by increasing the tax on the top one per cent of earners in this country. In addition, the Canada child benefit has served nine out of 10 families in Canada; we have raised 300,000 children out of poverty. Many efforts are being made to catch tax avoiders and tax cheats. Increased information-gathering capabilities and tools have been given to the CRA to access more information than ever before. The CRA is now better positioned to identify high-net-worth individuals, businesses, and organizations engaged in tax evasion. We are catching the individuals who had been avoiding taxes for years, and the government and Canadians will benefit as a result.

[Business of Supply, March 7th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I would like to first address my hon. colleague's question by saying that the CRA's domestic and offshore audit activities have put the government in a place to raise assessments over $13 billion this year. That is $13 billion back in the pockets of Canadians and back to the government. That is a good way of making sure that fairness within our system is served. The money that is being put toward the CRA is improving its efforts to catch tax fraud and tax cheats. We are working hard on that and we can see the results in the money that we are attaining as a result.