Shelly Glover

[Taxation, April 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it appears that the Liberals are actually consistent on an issue. They want to raise taxes.

They like high taxes and their leader just last week said, and I want to repeat the quote that he made, “We will have to raise taxes”. I respect their honesty: raise the GST, impose a job-killing carbon tax, and take away the universal child care benefit. They have tried to deny all of these statements by trying to cover it up after they accidentally blurted out the truth.

There is a reason they are called tax and spend Liberals. That is what they do. They tax hard-working Canadians and then they spend, spend, spend.

Conservatives are taking action to help Canadian families with our economic action plan. Liberals are trying to help themselves to Canadians' hard-earned tax dollars.

How much would a Liberal government cost Canadians? We want to know. We need an answer. We need to know. What taxes will the Liberals hike, how much will they raise them, and who is going to pay for them?

[Arts and Culture, April 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to explain that there has been no decrease in funding for education. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada is adjusting these language exchange programs to maximize results. In the past five years, applications for Accent, the part-time language assistant program, have dropped by 35%. However, Odyssey, the full-time language assistant program, will be maintained.

Our government is firm. Our commitment to official languages is firm.

[Arts and Culture, April 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the opposition member.

I am surprised to hear that question from the Bloc Québécois. Look at the Bloc Québécois members. Their voting says it all. They voted against an 8% increase in arts and culture funding. They also recently voted against our 2009 budget, which contained a further 10% increase. Our government is standing up for artists, the arts and culture, and we will continue to do so at home and abroad.

[Arts and Culture, April 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised. The member can shout all he wants, but that will not change the facts. The facts are that our government has given more money to the CBC than the Liberals did.

In the March 27, 2009 issue of La Presse, journalist Nathalie Petrowski contrasted the funding we are providing with the savage Liberal cuts in the 1990s. She added that at that time, the office of the former prime minister had directed that nearly half a billion dollars in non-negotiated, draconian cuts be made, which amounted to a chainsaw massacre.

[Arts and Culture, April 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my opposition colleague. Our government is already spending $2.3 billion on the arts and culture this year, far more than any other government in Canadian history. Since our government came to power, it has increased spending—yes, increased spending—by 8% across the board. In the next two years, we will invest $540 million in the arts, culture and heritage. That includes $276 million in new funding. Our government is showing a firm commitment to the arts and culture.

[March 31st, 2009]

Madam Speaker, the member opposite can spin her misleading messages any which way she chooses, but the facts are consistent. This government is taking a leadership role to advance equality for women.

For example, personal tax relief will put money back in women's pockets. New tax measures and access to start-up funding will stimulate business for women-owned enterprises. Improvements to maternity, parental and E.I. benefits will ensure self-employed and non-standard workers and their families access to the supports and benefits they require.

Investments in social housing, totalling more than $2 billion, will particularly benefit aboriginal women, senior women, women with disabilities, lone parent women and women living in poverty. It is a Conservative government that will finally empower aboriginal women through the changes to the marital property issue on reserves.

We have taken action and we will continue to take action until we reach our goal.

[March 31st, 2009]

Madam Speaker, Canada remains a world leader in this fight to end gender discrimination and we take this leadership role very seriously, both within our borders and internationally.

Our commitment to women's equality at home and abroad was recently demonstrated when our Minister of State led Canada's delegation to the UN. There she met with her counterparts from around the world to share best practices and to continue Canada's leadership role.

Last week, the Minister of State also met with Valerie Jarrett, head of the newly formed inter-agency White House Council on Women and Girls. During the meeting, they discussed best practices on advancing women's equality within their own countries. This meeting is yet another example of Canada demonstrating leadership on the global stage.

The Government of Canada is taking leadership to bring about equality for women because we want nothing less than women's full and equal participation in the economic, social and democratic life of the country.

Our commitment to women's equality is demonstrated by the Prime Minister's recent appointment of the highest percentage of women to cabinet in Canada's history.

As well, we increased status of women funding by 42%, bringing it to its highest level ever. This funding increase means that more women are receiving the skills and services they need to participate fully in Canadian life.

We are witnessing significant progress in a number of areas, including women's employment and labour force participation rates, which are approaching record highs. Women are increasingly represented in a wide range of professional fields as well as in careers and fields of study traditionally dominated by men.

Violence against women also remains an issue of grave concern. Having worked in the male-dominated field of policing for almost 19 years, I understand intimately the needs in terms of this violence issue, and that is why I am a Conservative. It is because we recognize that more work needs to be done to address this problem, which affects all communities in Canada.

We believe that those who commit such crimes against girls and women must be held accountable. That is why we passed the Tackling Violent Crime Act and made significant investments in policing, youth crime prevention, the renewal of federal corrections, combatting gun crime, and supporting victims of crime. We also put an end to conditional sentences, including house arrest for serious offences such as violent or sexual crimes.

This government is currently implementing many of the recommendations put forward by CEDAW, including working to end violence against women, providing women with the skills they need to take on leadership roles and participate equally in the economy, and protecting the human rights of aboriginal women.

We are responding to the issue of missing aboriginal women by funding the Sisters in Spirit initiative. Addressing violence against aboriginal women is a serious concern for this government, which is why we endorsed the federal-provincial-territorial Iqaluit declaration, which recognizes that sustained and coordinated action is required to reduce sexualized violence against aboriginal women. We have also co-sponsored the National Aboriginal Women's Summits, which focused on violence and other quality of life issues.

Our government has also demonstrated leadership on the issue of human trafficking. Under our leadership, we changed the rules regarding visas to victims of trafficking, and immigration officers are now able to grant temporary resident permits for up to 180 days to trafficking victims.

This government has, time and time again, demonstrated its commitment to addressing women's equality. We have made important strides, and I can assure the House that we will continue to work to create the conditions for success for all Canadian women.

[Official Languages Act, March 31st, 2009]

Madam Speaker, hon. colleagues, it is a pleasure for me to take the floor today on Bill C-307 which, if passed, would make amendments to the Official Languages Act, the Canada Business Corporations Act and the Canada Labour Code, so as to harmonize them with the requirements of Quebec's Charter of the French Language.

As the Prime Minister has reminded us many times, Canada was born in French. Quebec and the French language are therefore at the heart of Canada, its history and its identity, and complement the history of the anglophone and allophone communities in Canada. Linguistic duality has been one of the foundations of Canadian society since the Canadian federation was created, and is an asset for the country and its citizens. Quebeckers are in support of this duality. Indeed, according to a 2006 Decima poll on behalf of Canadian Heritage, 84% of the francophones of Quebec consider linguistic duality to be a source of cultural enrichment.

Whether it be the commitment of $30 million in the 2007 budget, spread over two years to promote increased use by young people of the minority language in their daily lives, or the establishment of the language rights support program, announced last year, to support the language rights of Canadians, our government has taken concrete action to support this duality and the communities that exist at its heart.

Our government takes full account of Canada’s linguistic duality in its actions, a duality which it has committed to promote in Quebec as in the other provinces and territories. In a speech delivered in Quebec City last year, the Prime Minister himself referred to French as the first official language of our country. This is an incontestable truth which goes back to the arrival of the first French colonists in New France.

Our government is firmly committed to supporting the official languages and to the promotion of English and French, both in Quebec and in Canada as a whole. The Roadmap for Linguistic Duality in Canada 2008-2013: Acting for the Future is clear evidence of that commitment.

Announced in June 2008, this roadmap is the Government of Canada’s five-year plan for linguistic duality and official languages, and represents an unprecedented government-wide commitment with a budget of $1.1 billion. Thirteen federal departments and agencies have been its driving forces from the outset. Since then, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs has joined the group, to meet the needs of the francophone communities in the territories.

The roadmap is directed at strengthening the vitality of the official-language minority communities and offering all Canadians the benefits that French and English--the country's two official languages--give them . Hence it supports the development of French all over the country, while also providing for a new arts and culture component and new programs in the fields of justice and economic development, with additional investments in health and immigration.

One example of this increased investment is the $4 million in additional funding which our government provided last week to the Consortium national de formation en santé. This brings that organization’s funding to $20 million in 2008-09, so that more support can be given to francophone students wishing to continue their post-secondary education in the field of health. In this way more of the country’s francophones will benefit from increased access to health services in the language of their choice.

The roadmap includes a new culture component and new initiatives to make the benefits of linguistic duality more accessible to all Canadians. The government recently unveiled two of these programs.

The Cultural Development Fund announced this month, which will have a budget of $14 million over four years, will support and strengthen the arts, culture and heritage within anglophone and francophone minority communities.

It will help Canadians everywhere in Canada to become more familiar with the diversity and vitality of the cultural scene in these communities, from Whitehorse to Moncton and from my community of St. Boniface to Lennoxville.

Our government has also announced the details of the National Translation Program for Book Publishing, for which we are providing a budget of $5 million over four years. This program will help publishers in Canada translate Canadian-authored books into English and French. With this program, we want to give as many Canadians as possible access to the enormous wealth of our country’s culture and literature.

The new programs under the Roadmap, for culture and for linguistic duality, are concrete actions to help promote our two official languages within minority communities and across Canada. We are going to continue down this path. Our government will continue to support the development of francophone and anglophone minorities and to promote the full recognition and use of English and French in our society.

Going beyond the Roadmap, the Government of Canada is very active in implementing cultural measures that encourage the promotion of French. To mention but a few, there are the CBC, Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board, support for cultural industries and the Canada Council for the Arts. At the international level, our active participation in the institutions of international francophonie provides concrete support for the promotion of French and the francophone community of Canada.

The 400th anniversary of Quebec City last year gave us a wonderful opportunity for this, and the celebrations were a great success.

The actions taken by the Canadian and Quebec governments can complement and strengthen each other. In fact, considering that the challenge of preserving Canada’s French language and culture must be met increasingly in the broader context of North American integration and globalization, our government firmly believes that the governments of Quebec and Canada must work together to consolidate a true francophone critical mass within the Canadian, North American and global village.

That is why the Canadian government wants to work to promote the French language in the context of a unifying, inclusive and respectful vision of all the francophone realities of our country. Our approach aims to create a francophone space to connect francophones in Quebec and in minority communities and francophiles from every cultural origin. There are a number of ways to achieve that, but the cultural sector is definitely a preferred option in this respect.

Besides government action with respect to official languages, Canadian arts and culture policies generously support the cultural development of francophones in Quebec and across Canada. We are providing support for Canadian cultural products to promote, among other things, greater awareness of all francophone artistic and cultural production in all the regions of the country. This can help create closer ties between the francophones in Quebec and those in minority communities, as well as between French speakers and francophiles such as myself across the country. Increased visibility of the French language also help increase awareness of linguistic duality among all Canadians.

Linguistic duality is a vital part of our Canadian identity. According to a Decima Research poll, 77% of francophones in Quebec believe that having two official languages is important to their sense of what it means to be Canadian. Our government remains committed to promoting this duality and to supporting official languages across the country.

I would like to focus briefly on the demographics, which have been the subject of considerable discussion since the release of the 2006 census data. This data shows that, in terms of the language used in public, French is the language of the majority in Quebec. Overall, 94.5% of the population speaks French, whether or not they know another language. That is also the case on the island of Montreal.

Quebec's anglophones personify the linguistic duality of our country. Quebec is the province where French is best mastered by anglophones, with 69% being able to speak French and using the language regularly.

To conclude, with our roadmap for Canada's linguistic duality 2008-2013, our government wants to give Canadians living in—

[Business of Supply, March 31st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the opposition for his question. It is such a sad event for anyone to lose his or her job. We have a great deal of sympathy for those workers.

What should the government do about the cuts referred to by my colleague? I will quote what André Pratte said in La Presse on March 29. It is a good explanation of what our government has done.

If the CBC has hit a dead end today, it's not because the Conservatives were cheap, but because of a decline in advertising revenue as a result of the recession. In addition, the public broadcaster is facing the same structural problems that other general interest broadcasters are experiencing: costs are increasing, while revenue is being dispersed among a whole variety of new media.

Some say that the Government of Canada should simply give more money to the CBC. However, who believes there is tight management in that corporation? If the government has to support them, then there must also be assurance—

[Business of Supply, March 31st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the opposition member for his question. I want to assure everyone that I will work very hard for my constituents in Saint-Boniface, as I always do. I agree completely that the situation facing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is very important to Saint-Boniface.

But I am surprised that the member is asking questions about this when it was the Liberals who slashed funding for CBC/Radio-Canada. They are the ones who really axed that funding.

TV5 Monde is an international consortium that offers a choice of news and general interest television programs in French from Canada—