Shelly Glover

[Pension, October 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we have worked hard to enhance retirement security for Canadians. We have reduced taxes for seniors and retirees by $2 billion, including by allowing pension income splitting. We have reformed the framework for pensions that are under federal jurisdiction in order to better protect retirees. Together with the provinces, we have reviewed the proposals for making other improvements, and we about to implement a new pooled registered pension plan, the PRPP. The PRPP will allow pension plans to be offered at little cost to millions of people who have never had a pension plan before.

[Employment, October 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report that Statistics Canada announced today that over 60,000 net new jobs were created in September. Our job growth shows that we are on the right track.

Indeed, approximately 650,000 net new jobs have been created since July 2009. That is over 90% full-time jobs and nearly 80% of them from the private sector.

However, too many Canadians are still looking for work and the global recovery remains very fragile. That is why we are looking forward to implementing the next phase of Canada's economic action plan and its job creating measures like the hiring credit for small businesses.

[The Budget, October 7th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for that question, because it gives me the opportunity to report just how our budgets, from past budgets to the budgets that are coming forward, are actually helping Canadians in a variety of ways, including the measures that were mentioned by my colleague.

In fact, thanks to our budget, I can report today that we have learned that over 60,000 jobs have been created, which brings the total number of jobs to approximately 650,000 since pre-crisis levels.

That is a fantastic budget from the past to the future. We will continue our progress.

[Sales Tax harmonization, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, as we have said many times in this place, provincial taxation is a provincial responsibility and changes to provincial taxation are exclusive decisions of the provincial government. Provinces have full independence to make decisions on sales tax matters and out of respect for the elected provincial legislatures or assemblies, and we are going to hear about those in the next couple of days, Parliament has agreed to facilitate such provincial decisions.

[Taxation, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for this very important question. We share this concern and raised this issue directly with the U.S. government. We have also been very clear: any penalties imposed by the IRS under FBAR will not be collected by Canada. As such, we have called, and will continue to call, on the U.S. government to look upon them with leniency.

We are also happy to report some progress as the IRS has released a statement that says:

The IRS recognizes that many Canadians face complex tax situations because of dual citizenship--

It goes on to say:

Recent publicity about the issue has spotlighted a number of areas that the IRS will consider in our continuing effort to strike the rig2ht balance in administering the U.S. tax laws.

[Employment, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am so glad to hear NDP members talk about a hiring credit, because in fact, that is coming in the next phase of Canada's economic action plan.

We recognize the vital role of small businesses, and that is important, because they play a very important role in the economy and job creation. That is why we have lowered their tax bill in many ways. We reduced the small business tax rate from 12% to 11%, but the NDP voted against it. We increased the amount of income eligible for the lower small business tax rate from $300,000 to $500,000, and the--

[Employment, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I will repeat one more time that 600,000 jobs have been created.

As far as we compare to the rest of the world, Canada's GDP and employment have both recovered to pre-crisis levels, outperforming all of the G7 countries. We are proud of that. We are proud of the measures we have put forward with our economic action plan, and wait for it, the next phase is about to come.

[The Economy, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, we have taken a number of steps to adjust corporate and personal taxes throughout the country. Canada has weathered the global economic upheaval better than other countries as a result of its plan to reduce the tax burden. Since forming the government in 2006, we have put an average of $3,000 in the pockets of Canadian families. We also leave more money in the hands of entrepreneurs and businesses so they can grow and employ more Canadians. Our plan is working.

[The Economy, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, this government has reduced taxes for small business in a number of ways. In fact, the CFIB's president has said repeatedly that this government has done many things to help small businesses to flourish.

When we talk about creating jobs, we have a plan to support job creation and to support the fact that small businesses need to flourish by having fewer taxes. They need to be able to hire the people who can help their businesses grow. Unfortunately, the NDP votes against those measures time and time again, like flowing $1 billion in federal funding to provinces and territories for infrastructure, like the accelerated capital cost--

[The Economy, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we agree that Canadians pay far too much in taxes. We must continue to move forward with our plan. It is working well and it is creating jobs. The government feels that taxes should remain low, but we also believe that all businesses and Canadians should be paying their fair share of taxes. That is why, since 2006, we have taken tough measures to close more than 40 tax loopholes. And how did the NDP vote on this issue? They voted against our measures. That is unfortunate.