Scott Simms

[Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, May 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, that was really good. How is that for a profound speech on an afternoon like this?

Members keep bugging me about doing the weather. For the record, I decided to leave the weather business. I got tired of lying for a living, so I got into politics. I am going to get angry emails from meteorologists; I appreciate that.

Nonetheless, we are talking about the budget. I get a lot of calls. I am inundated with calls on income security from seniors.

The pattern is very simple: it is that they are struggling to stay above the poverty line with a combination of old age security and GIS payments. A lot of them still live in larger homes that are difficult to heat. The extra money being put into the OAS program, of course, is not sufficient to cover the costs of things such as rising heat prices or gas for their cars in case they need them to get to the hospital or visit their families.

I would like my colleague to comment on two things. First, how is raising the age from 65 to 67 going to affect seniors? Second, how much of an extra burden is this change going to place on the provinces, which have to provide those social welfare services to help these people cope with extreme poverty?

[Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, May 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the comment about the Minister of Finance, he is the finance minister who actually put us into a deficit before the recession.

Perhaps the member would like to comment on that.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, May 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the member points out the badness of what is being considered. He mentioned 2¢ or 2.5¢ a litre on gas and the effect that would have on the average consumer.

In 2008, the government promised to reduce diesel by 2¢. What happened to that?

[Search and Rescue, May 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I want to return to the issue of search and rescue, based on what we have just heard in the House. This is a serious issue, especially for the Rideout family.

Mr. Speaker, picture yourself in the north Atlantic, 130 kilometres out, with no presence of the Government of Canada to help you out.

Here is an email that was discovered by the media. I would like to ask the minister to respond to this specifically. “Effective May 7, MCTS centres in Newfoundland and Labrador region shall use CIRM Roma for all radio medicals.” That is from the regional director of maritime services, Canadian Coast Guard.

What does the minister have to say to that? First of all, he should apologize to the Rideout family and second of all, reopen these centres in St. John's and Quebec City.

[Committees of the House, May 9th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask a question to the hon. member regarding the crab situation.

Over the past several years, we have had a drastic reduction in a vital area of the crab fishery known as 3K. In that area, science has given us what we feel is not a substantial amount of information, yet drastic decisions were taken based on very small amount of science in the 3K area I talked about, and in several other areas on the east coast of this country.

I was wondering if the hon. member could comment. The way we are heading in terms of science and research is that we are basing it over a longer period of time, and it is not only that: the money is just not available.

How can we focus and get the government to say that more importance needs to be given to this particular situation on the east coast, especially when it comes to the snow crab species?

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, May 8th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I have a question for my hon. colleague, as a former minister herself, regarding the environment.

With all the regulations throughout this legislation that would be amended, they take up basically one-third of a very large document in what the Conservatives are doing here. Obviously, the rhetoric is that they want to make it easier for business and economic growth. However, all of these regulations have been built up over decades, or even longer in the case of protecting habitats. I would like my hon. colleague to comment on that, please.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, May 8th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, I am not as convinced about the input stage. The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons came to my riding and did not have one public meeting. He had a couple of meetings with the councils. The one issue that was brought up predominantly got very little attention whatsoever after the debate. I will reserve that for now.

The member said in a question earlier that his government took precautions to weather the storm of the recession. Why is it that the Conservatives put this country in a deficit position before the recession came?

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 8th, 2012]

What is the date, time, location, and nature of all government business conducted by the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the Queen’s Privy Council from May 18, 2011 to March 15, 2012, not including any activity that would be considered a cabinet confidence?

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 8th, 2012]

With regard to the proposed Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve: (a) what portions or areas of the former Mealy Mountains National Park Feasibility Study Area are not included within the proposed Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve as described in Appendix 1 to the agreement signed by Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador on February 5, 2010; (b) what are the reasons for the exclusion from the proposed Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve of that portion of the former Study Area which lies generally to the west of the border of the proposed National Park Reserve, between the shoreline of Lake Melville at approximate longitude 59 degrees 30 minutes (59°30') west, south to a point near a tributary of the Kenemou River (said point located approximately at latitude 53 degrees 12 minutes (53°12') north and longitude 59 degrees 33 minutes (59°33') west), and which includes a portion of the Mealy Mountains plateau and the Kenemou River valley; and (c) what is the reason for the exclusion of all other portions or areas referred to in subquestion (a)?

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 7th, 2012]

With regard to the proposed Muskrat Falls hydro-electric development: (a) who conducted the economic analysis of the project for or on behalf of the government; (b) when was this analysis (i) started, (ii) completed, (iii) submitted to the government; (c) has the analysis been publicly released; (d) if the analysis has not been publicly released, (i) why not, (ii) when will it be publicly released; (e) if the analysis was conducted on behalf of the government by a third party, (i) who conducted it, (ii) on behalf of which department or agency was it conducted, (iii) what was the total cost of the analysis, (iv) was the contract for the analysis awarded on the basis of competitive bid or was it sole-sourced; and (f) what were the risks and uncertainties identified in the course of the analysis?