Sean Casey

[Points of Order, May 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I raised a question in question period and I am not sure there was an answer. If there was, it certainly was unintelligible here.

My question was whether the government had decided if it would appeal the ruling on veterans pensions. I did not hear—

[Veterans Affairs, May 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would hope that by now we could assume that the minister has finally completed his homework and is up to speed on the 31-page Federal Court decision on veterans pensions.

With only a few days before the Conservatives must decide whether to appeal this very clear ruling, is the government now in a position to tell the House and thousands of affected veterans what action it intends to take?

[Veterans Affairs, May 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, 13 days remain until the government must decide whether to appeal the decision of the Federal Court ordering it to cease clawing back veterans' pensions from people like Dennis Manuge.

It has been almost three weeks and we still have no indication of what the government will do. We are still not sure whether the Minister of National Defence has managed to read the 31-page court decision.

The Conservatives have two choices: appeal the Federal Court decision or do the honourable thing and accept it. Which is it?

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 14th, 2012]

With regard to Canadians discovered to have secret bank accounts in Liechtenstein: (a) since the government received the names of 106 Canadians with accounts in Liechtenstein, how many of the 106 have made an application under the Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP) and how many of these VDP disclosures have been accepted; (b) who authorized these disclosures after the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had already declared these Canadians ineligible for the VDP; (c) does the CRA accept disclosures that do not meet its guidelines for disclosures under the VDP; (d) how many times has the CRA allowed ineligible individuals to make disclosures under the VDP in the past (i) 6 months, (ii) year, (iii) 5 years; (e) what policy or procedures exist that govern whether or not an ordinarily ineligible disclosure will be accepted; (f) does the CRA make exceptions to the VDP for individuals who are suspected of domestic tax evasion; and (g) what percentage of individuals who disclose information to the CRA through the VDP are (i) fined, (ii) penalized, (iii) prosecuted, (iv) convicted of tax evasion, (v) placed under house arrest, (vi) sent to prison?

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 14th, 2012]

With regard to Canadian Forces aircraft procurement, will any pilot training for the proposed F-35 Joint Strike Fighters take place in Canada, and, if so, at which Canadian Forces base or other location will it occur?

[The Budget, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of national defensiveness is now in his third week of reading a 31 page federal court ruling on veterans' pensions. The Conservative House leader, by contrast, has allocated a mere seven sitting days for a 425 page budget bill, a bill which amends over 70 other bills. An appalling seven days for the House to consider clawing back OAS and gutting the environment, with all kinds of time for the minister to read a 31 page ruling on veterans' pension clawbacks. Why is the House leader acting like a parliamentary bully?

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 11th, 2012]

With regard to information supplied by the government of France to the government of Canada regarding secret bank accounts and possible tax evasion in Switzerland as of March 23, 2012: (a) since the government received the names of 1800 Canadians with bank accounts in Switzerland, have any other Canadians been identified as having undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland, and, in total, how many Canadians have now been identified as having undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland; (b) what actions have been taken by Canadian officials to recover unpaid taxes associated with Canadians' undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland; (c) how many identified Canadians have availed themselves of the Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP) with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA); (d) how many identified Canadian accounts have settled with the CRA; (e) how much money has the CRA assessed as a result of investigating these secret banks accounts in Switzerland in (i) unpaid taxes, (ii) interest, (iii) fines, (iv) penalties; (f) how much of the money in (e) has been collected; (g) how many of the cases are under appeal; (h) how many cases remain open; (i) how many more cases does the CRA anticipate will be opened; (j) how many cases have been closed (i.e., the full amount of taxes, interest, fines and penalties have been collected); (k) how much money in (j) has been collected in (i) unpaid taxes, (ii) interest, (iii) fines, (iv) penalties; (l) how many account holders in the cases have made a partial payment; (m) of the partial payments made, what was the (i) largest amount, (ii) smallest amount, (iii) average amount; (n) how much does the CRA have yet to collect in (i) taxes, (ii) interest, (iii) fines, (iv) penalties; (o) of the amounts of money contained in the Switzerland accounts declared or discovered by the CRA, what was the (i) largest amount, (ii) smallest amount, (iii) average amount; (p) on what date was the CRA first made aware of the names of Canadians with accounts in Switzerland; (q) on what date did the CRA begin its investigation; (r) on what date did the first audit of an individual account holder begin; (s) how many of the identified Canadians with bank accounts in Switzerland have (i) had their account or accounts audited, (ii) had their account or accounts reassessed, (iii) been the subject of a compliance action; (t) how many of the identified Canadians with bank accounts in Switzerland (i) have not had their account or accounts audited, (ii) have not had their account or accounts reassessed, (iii) have not been the subject of a compliance action; and (u) how many tax evasion charges have been laid?

[Veterans Affairs, May 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the House could get an update from the Minister of National Defence as to how he is getting along with reading the Federal Court judgment that ordered the Conservatives to stop clawing back veterans' pensions.

When I first asked the minister about that on May 1, he said it had been only a few hours since the court had issued the ruling and he needed time. Now it has been 10 days. Is the minister prepared to tell the House he will not appeal the ruling, or does he need more time to read the 31 pages?

[National Nursing Week, May 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this is National Nursing Week and this year's theme is “Nursing - The Health of Our Nation”. We have over 266,000 registered nurses in Canada, constituting the largest group of health care professionals in Canada.

Nurses work on the front line of our health care system and have a real influence on Canadians' lives. Nurses play an important role. They provide care when we are sick; they do their best to reduce wait times; and they work together with other health care professionals in order to provide the best care possible.

We have seen how nurses can play a leading role in reforming our health care system through the National Expert Commission, as well as through their role in multidisciplinary community health care teams.

I encourage all members to take a moment today and celebrate the valuable work that nurses do each and every day on behalf of Canadians.

[Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, May 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the three biggest industries in Prince Edward Island are tourism, agriculture and the fisheries. It has a population of 140,000 and gets one million visitors a year.

While civil service jobs are extremely important to our economy twelve months of the year, the engine that drives the seasonal economy is very much the tourism trade. As I indicated, basically our population goes almost ten-fold. The summer in Prince Edward Island is not really long and that is when we see the bulk of people. The cruise ship industry is one of the success stories in Prince Edward Island.

Anything in the budget that has a negative impact on tourism is yet another blow to a province that has been treated very unfairly in the budget.