Scott Andrews

[41st General Election, May 27th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the government should be outraged after last week's Federal Court ruling on the 2011 voter suppression scandal. The ruling showed three things: one, widespread election fraud occurred; two, the data that was used to make voter suppression phone calls came from the Conservative database; and three, an elaborate effort was made to conceal the identity of the people accessing the database.

Why does the government not come clean about which Conservatives committed this fraud using their own database?

[41st General Election, May 24th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, stop the bus from running over another Conservative. The parliamentary secretary defended the in-out scandal. Found guilty. He defended Conservative voter suppression election fraud. Written up by a judge. He defended Peter Penashue on overspending illegal contributions. Tossed out of government. He defended Nigel Wright and the PMO and Mike Duffy for the $90,000 cheque.

Why does the member stand and back up all the losers?

[41st General Election, May 24th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, another day, and even more Conservative corruption and stonewalling. Yesterday a Federal Court judge found that it was the Conservatives' database that was used to attack voters, in the biggest voter suppression fraud system this country has ever seen, yet the Conservatives are still withholding information from Elections Canada investigations. They are also stonewalling, and it is going right to the PMO.

Why has the government not provided all documentation to the RCMP about Nigel Wright's cheque?

[Ray Guy and Gordon Seabright, May 24th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Newfoundland and Labrador have lost two prominent citizens. Although very different in character and nature, these two individuals were very proud of their native province and made a significant contribution to our society.

Ray Guy, a native of Arnold's Cove, was a well-known journalist, humorist, writer and actor and a colourful critic of all governments. He studied journalism and then returned to Newfoundland to write for The Telegram.

His career saw him as a local commentator on CBC, director of a stage play and an actor alongside Gordon Pinsent and Mary Walsh. Mr. Guy received national awards for his writings, the Steven Leacock Award for Humour and an honorary degree from Memorial University.

Mr. Guy passed away at the age of 74. Condolences are extended to his wife Kathie Housser and daughters Rachel and Anne.

Also last week, former provincial court judge Gordon Seabright passed away at the age of 79. Mr. Seabright was called to the bar in 1961 and appointed magistrate in 1964.

Until his retirement in 1989, he was recognized for his demeanour, his sense of humour inside and outside the courtroom and his booming voice.

He will be forever remembered as a colourful and spirited public servant who made a huge contribution to the delivery of justice throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Seabright was also a tremendous volunteer who worked hard for his community of Mount Pearl and also volunteered with provincial organizations, including VOCM.

Our deepest condolences go to his wife Madge, their son Glenn and their family.

[Incorporation by Reference in Regulations Act, May 23rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I was very fascinated at the end of the member's speech, which he did not get a chance to finish, on international regulations and standards. I was wondering if he could finish his thoughts.

[Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, May 23rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member talking about supporting Bill C-12. The problem is that the bill has been sitting on the order paper now for almost a year and the government has done absolutely nothing in advancing it, so that we could get it to committee and have a debate on it. One thing that Bill C-475 does is move forward the debate on privacy and the access to and protection of people's private information.

We are encouraged by Bill C-475 and want to get it to committee so we can update the legislation that has been in place. Only today, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Commissioner Stoddart, said we are falling behind and we are at risk of not being up to date with others around the world.

PIPEDA has been in place since 2001 with no changes since that particular date. On that, Commissioner Stoddart said:

Back in 2001, when PIPEDA began coming into force, --and even when I became Privacy Commissioner in 2003--there was no Facebook, no Twitter and no Google Street View. Phones weren’t smart. “The cloud” was something that threatened picnic plans. And predictive analytics was largely the domain of tarot card readers.

Things have changed in the last 15 years and we need to get up to date. Bill C-475 is a good first start. We need to also look at the commissioner's white paper released today, because she did say we are at risk of falling behind.

The reforms that need to be made to PIPEDA include stronger enforcement powers, requiring organizations to report breaches of personal information, requiring organizations to publicly report the number of disclosures they make and modifying the accountability principle.

One of the things the commissioner even said today is that she has no power. The only power the commissioner has is to name companies who breach these laws, so we need strong legislation and enforcement powers, and we need to make sure she has power to fine. Some of that may be in Bill C-12, but we have not seen that and we have not seen it being moved forward in the legislature.

These things do need to be updated. We look forward to having some more debate and getting this bill to committee so that we can really dig into it to see how these changes are going to have an impact and what improvements may need to be made to the bill from the information commissioner. We look forward to doing that in committee.

[Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, May 23rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the bill. I have two questions for the member.

The member's bill would empower the Federal Court to impose fines of non-compliance with an enforcement order by the Privacy Commissioner. Why would we not have an opportunity for the Privacy Commissioner herself to impose fines rather than having to go through the Federal Court?

Recently the Privacy Commissioner released a white paper on a similar topic. How does the member's bill compare to the white paper that the commissioner released today?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 10th, 2013]

With regard to air, highway, rail, or marine transportation in Labrador, for each fiscal year since 2000-2001, what are the details of all (i) direct expenditures, (ii) contributions to third parties, (iii) transfers to other orders of government, (iv) cost-sharing agreements with the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador, specifying the amount, source, purpose, and recipient of each such expenditure, contribution, transfer or agreement?

[Government Advertising, May 10th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, we have all seen those awesome Newfoundland and Labrador tourism ads promoting our great province around the world and across Canada. They are paid for by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and it is money well spent.

Pathetically, the Conservative government spends $95,000 on 30-second economic action plan ads during the playoffs.

Why would the Conservative government rather spend money on advertising for self-promotion than for promoting Canada? Why do the Conservatives not stop this domestic propaganda campaign and start promoting Canada and Canadian tourism?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 9th, 2013]

With regard to the March 18, 2013, announcement by the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in Vancouver, British Columbia: (a) what flights took place in Atlantic Canada as part of the National Aerial Surveillance Program in 2011-2012 specifying (i) number of flights, (ii) date of each flight, (iii) geographic area covered, (iv) what, if any, pollution occurrences were detected; (b) how many flights are proposed for Atlantic Canada in 2013, 2014 and 2015; and (c) pertaining to Tanker Safety, and more specifically, public port designation, what is the plan for designating more ports in Newfoundland and Labrador and what are the names of these ports?