Scott Brison

[Business of Supply, May 14th, 2014]

Mr. Chair, can the minister tell us in which year the EI account is projected to reach a surplus?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 12th, 2014]

With regard to research centres in the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada: (a) for each fiscal year 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, (i) what was the government’s total expenditure on the research centres, (ii) what was the breakdown of funding to each research centre, (iii) what was the total number of full-time equivalents at the research centres, (iv) what was the breakdown of full-time equivalents at each research station; and (b) for each fiscal year 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017, (i) what is the government’s total projected expenditure on the research centres, (ii) what is the projected breakdown of funding to each research centre, (iii) what is the total projected number of full-time equivalents at the research centres, (iv) what is the projected breakdown of full-time equivalents at each research station?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 12th, 2014]

With regard to the disability tax credit: (a) for each fiscal year 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, (i) how many applications did the government receive, (ii) how many applications involved an authorized representative, either by use of a Form T1013, a signed letter authorizing the representative, or any other recognized means of authorizing a representative, (iii) how many applications did the government approve, (iv) how many of the approved applications involved an authorized representative, (v) what was the fiscal impact to the government of the approved claims, (vi) what was the fiscal impact to the government of the approved claims that involved an authorized representative, (vii) how many determinations were appealed, (viii) how many of the appeals involved an authorized representative, (ix) how many determinations were successfully appealed, (x) how many of the successful appeals involved an authorized representative, (xi) what was the fiscal impact to the government of the claims that were successfully appealed, (xii) what was the fiscal impact to the government of the claims that were successfully appealed and involved an authorized representative; and (b) for each fiscal year 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, (i) how many applications did the government receive, (ii) how many applications involved an authorized representative, (iii) how many applications did the government approve, (iv) how many of the approved applications involved an authorized representative, (v) what was the fiscal impact to the government of the approved claims, (vi) what was the fiscal impact to the government of the approved claims that involved an authorized representative, (vii) how many determinations were appealed, (viii) how many of the appeals involved an authorized representative, (ix) how many determinations were successfully appealed, and (x) how many of the successful appeals involved an authorized representative, (xi) what was the fiscal impact to the government of the claims that were successfully appealed, and (xii) what was the fiscal impact to the government of the claims that were successfully appealed and involved an authorized representative?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 12th, 2014]

With regard to the government’s projected expenditures: (a) what is the projected level of total expenditures for each department, agency, crown corporation, and other reporting entity for each fiscal year 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019, (i) under the accrual method used in the government’s consolidated financial statements, (ii) under the near-cash basis method used in the government’s estimates documents; and (b) what is the projected level of expenditures, under the accrual method used in the government’s consolidated financial statements, for each department, agency, crown corporation, and other reporting entity for each of the fiscal year 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017, (i) at the program level, (ii) at the sub-program level?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 12th, 2014]

With regard to the government’s statutory expenditures: (a) for fiscal year 2012-2013, (i) what is the total amount of statutory expenditures made by the government, (ii) what is the breakdown of all statutory expenditures between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000 and which department, agency, crown corporation, or other reporting entity funded each expenditure, (iii) what is the breakdown of all statutory expenditures between $10,000,000 and $100,000,000 and which department, agency, crown corporation, or other reporting entity funded each expenditure, (iv) what is the breakdown of all statutory expenditures that are $100,000,000 or greater, and which department, agency, crown corporation, or other reporting entity funded each expenditure; and (b) for each fiscal year 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019, (i) what is the projected total amount of statutory expenditures, (ii) what is the projected breakdown of all statutory expenditures between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000 and which department, agency, crown corporation, or other reporting entity is projected to fund each expenditure, (iii) what is the breakdown of all statutory expenditures between $10,000,000 and $100,000,000 and which department, agency, crown corporation, or other reporting entity is projected to fund each expenditure, (iv) what is the breakdown of all statutory expenditures that are $100,000,000 or greater and which department, agency, crown corporation, or other reporting entity is projected to fund each expenditure?

[Employment, May 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, to fix long-term unemployment, we need more jobs, not more temporary foreign workers.

In 2013, Canada's job growth stalled. To quote The Economist magazine, Canada's “post-crisis glow is fading” . The workforce participation rate in Canada has hit a 13-year low, and our growth rate has fallen behind that of the U.S., the U.K., and Australia.

How far must our economy slide before the Conservatives realize, before the finance minister realizes, that his status quo is not working for Canadians?

[Employment, May 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, there are 156,000 Canadians who have been out of work for a year or longer. That number has more than doubled since 2008, when the number was 65,000. To make matters worse, the Conservatives are now giving four-year work permits for temporary foreign workers. Four years is not temporary. Unemployment for those 156,000 Canadians is not temporary.

Why did the Conservatives ramp up the TFW program, when so many Canadians face long-term unemployment?

[Petitions, May 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition from Nova Scotian citizens concerning the reduction in Canada Post services. The petition says that the undersigned citizens draw to the attention of the House the following: that Canada Post and the Conservative government are taking an axe to long-treasured postal services, killing good jobs, eliminating door-to-door delivery, closing post offices, and drastically increasing postage rates. Six thousand to eight thousand workers will lose their jobs and five million households will lose their door-to-door delivery over the next five years.

These cuts hurt seniors and disabled Canadians in particular. Canada Post has failed to do necessary consultations and is effectively eliminating any opportunity for input from the people who will be most affected.

Canada Post offers a public service that needs to be protected. Therefore, the petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to reverse these cuts to services announced by Canada Post and to look instead at innovative approaches including, potentially, postal banking.

[Employment, May 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, to justify their expansion of the temporary foreign worker program, the Conservatives inflated the job vacancy rate. They received their data from job postings on Kijiji, which of course is full of errors and duplications. Now we learn that Canada's real job vacancy rate is only 1.5%, not the 4% that the Conservatives had claimed.

How could the Conservatives defend their decision to dramatically expand the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada when their decision was based on bad data?

[Hon. Jim Flaherty, April 11th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, just a few weeks ago, on March 18, when Jim Flaherty retired from politics, we all expressed our best wishes to Jim, Christine, and family for their next promising chapter of life together.

It seems unfair that, so soon afterwards, we now have to say goodbye to this great public servant, husband, and father.

To Christine, Quinn, Galen, and John, while Jim's time with you has been cut tragically short, his legacy, one of his enduring gifts to you, is the example Jim set with his life of public service.

Jim and I sparred in the House and at committee, but away from the spotlight we had a trusted and candid relationship. He used to call himself an old hockey player and he was disciplined enough to be in the MPs' gym just about every morning at 6:30 or before. Jim's locker was near mine in the men's changing area. We would often chat there, sometimes about policy and issues of the day, and we would enjoy a few laughs. Mind you, Jim's Irish sense of humour was tested by me from time to time. Later in the day if I met him when he was surrounded by caucus and cabinet colleagues, I would say, “Jim Flaherty's the first man I see naked every morning”.

Jim was even competitive when he congratulated me on the news of the impending birth of my twins. He winked at me and reminded me, “You know we have triplets”. Even then and to his credit, Jim's greatest pride was his family. Jim was a tough, resilient warrior. He ran in four provincial elections. He lost the first time in 1990, but came back to win in 1995, 1999, and 2003.

He won three federal elections in his riding and he ran in two leadership races. All told, that was about 700 days of campaigning, not including all of the times he campaigned for others. Jim suffered losses, but his defeats neither stopped him nor defined him. He bounced back and went on to bigger and better things.

His life sets a high bar and serves as a lesson to all of us and to his boys that there are no permanent victories or permanent defeats, just permanent battles. Jim never gave up, and all those campaigns, all those battles, prepared him for what was ultimately his biggest battle: Canada's response to the global financial crisis. It was not easy. He faced immense ideological pressure to take a different approach. Ultimately, Jim knew what he had to do; he knew what Canada had to do, and he showed great international leadership in getting the job done.

I met with Jim on January 28 in his office to discuss the upcoming budget and I had not realized until that meeting just how much he was suffering from his illness. Even so, he battled on. He kept working and kept serving the public. Jim believed profoundly in public life. In his own words he probably put it best, “Public service is good for you. It will give your life a greater impact on others and your country.”

The following words by Teddy Roosevelt make me think of Jim.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

On behalf of the leader of the Liberal Party and all of us, goodbye to an old hockey player and a happy warrior.

Thank you, Jim, for your commitment and for everything you did for Canada.

Thank you to Christine, Quinn, Galen, and John for sharing Jim with Canada.