House of Commons photoLost her last election, in 2011, with 29% of the vote.
Business of Supply May 31st, 2010
Madam Chair, since I am sharing my time with my hon. colleague, I will turn it over to her after this question.
Mr. Patrick Glémaud, who was an NRCan employee, was seeking security clearance in August 2009, the same very month that his business partner, Rahim Jaffer, sent an email to the minister's director of parliamentary affairs, Mr. Togneri, regarding Mr. Jaffer's proposal to install solar panels atop government buildings.
Was the minister aware that this email was sent?
Business of Supply May 31st, 2010
Madam Chair, in that same email I referenced of August 13, 2009, Mr. Glémaud was seeking a security clearance at Public Works. Why was Patrick Glémaud, a Natural Resources employee, attempting to gain a security clearance at Public Works in the summer of 2009?
Business of Supply May 31st, 2010
Madam Chair, I would like to speak about the green energy fund, so I will refer back and help the minister along.
According to documents released by the government, Mr. Glémaud wrote an email on August 13, 2009 referring to himself as an employee at NRCan legal services. I would like to table the document that I just referred to.
I would also like to ask if Mr. Glémaud incorporated his company, Green Power Generation, in November of 2008 and, given that Mr. Glémaud was still an employee of the minister's department 10 months later, can the minister tell me if it is normal for an employee in his department to own and operate a private company that seeks government financing for clients?
Business of Supply May 31st, 2010
Madam Chair, this is about a $1 billion fund that is available through Natural Resources and I am concerned about that fund. I would like to ask the minister questions about it. This is about the estimates. These are the estimates. It is a $1 billion fund and it is very important for the discussion this evening. I do not know why the minister would not answer questions concerning this.
I will try the question again about Mr. Glémaud. Can the minister tell us what dates Mr. Glémaud was employed as a lawyer working at Natural Resources?
Business of Supply May 31st, 2010
Madam Chair, can the minister tell us the dates Mr. Glémaud was employed as a lawyer working at Natural Resources?
Business of Supply May 31st, 2010
Madam Chair, on May 6 the official for the minister's department stated that the information referred to a letter to the LRB and related only to Patrick Glémaud, as the minister has indicated, in his capacity as a former Justice Department lawyer. Now the production of papers motion refers to all documents about Mr. Glémaud. Why did the minister simply decide the information was not worthy to release?
Business of Supply May 31st, 2010
Madam Chair, in response to a Liberal access to information request, NRCan officials stated they do hold documents related to either Mr. Jaffer, Mr. Glémaud or Green Power Generation. Why, despite the order, has the minister not turned that information over to the committee? Can the minister tell us to what those documents pertain?
Business of Supply May 31st, 2010
Madam Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Brossard—La Prairie.
On May 4 the minister wrote a letter to the clerk of the government operations committee stating that he had provided records to the Commissioner of Lobbying as well as to the committee. In fact, no documents from Natural Resources have been turned over to the committee. Can the minister clarify that statement, please?
Yes, Mr. Speaker, tough choices had to be made in the 1990s.
I recall as a business leader sitting around boardroom tables talking about the fiscal crisis in our country. The fiscal crisis was so bad that the International Monetary Fund was about to enter Canada. Can members believe our debt-to-GDP ratio was somewhere in the seventies? We are talking about a serious problem and the legacy of the former Conservative government. When we took over power in the early 1990s, we were $42 billion in deficit, $500 billion or more in debt.
It is unbelievable that the member who spoke did not credit the Liberals for having the solid banking system that Canada enjoys today, for ensuring that we have the room within our fiscal framework to ensure that we could make the investments. I am sure the member opposite would also agree that we made the investments during the 2000s. It is truly unfortunate that since the Conservative government has taken power, we have slipped back into deficit after 10 years of surplus where we could actually start making investments in our country.
I am sure that when we are given the opportunity again, should we ever be given the opportunity again, we will make sure that Canada once again is strong.
Mr. Speaker, in early April, I asked the Minister of Finance to explain to Canadians why his party was choosing to pursue unnecessary corporate tax cuts rather than focusing on important priorities for Canadians.
I will put this in perspective. Before entering public life, I was a business leader. I remember during the 1990s us petitioning to try to bring down corporate taxes. I will share with the House some of KPMG's tax figures. I recall back in 2000 when the federal tax, including a surtax, was 29.1%. It went down in 2004 to 22.1%. In 2007, it was 22.1% again. In 2010, it is down to 18%.
I also recall in mid-2000 the business community saying that if it could only get to 17% it would be a good corporate tax rate. It is at 18% now and there have been a lot of changes to our economy and a lot of requirements that are needed for investments in our country to ensure we have the kind of country that we want to have going forward.
What the Liberal Party is advocating is that rather than continuing to decrease tax rates from 18%, possibly getting down to 15%, we press the pause button.
I asked the Minister of Finance a question about whether it would not be better to take some leadership as a country and make strategic investments in our country.
We know there is a perfect storm coming. We know, for example, that we have aging demographics, a pension crisis, a skilled labour shortage and our health care costs are sky-rocketing. In the future, 50% to 70% of provincial revenues may be used toward health care costs. We need to find some solutions to those issues.
We also have a change in our economy. We are moving from an industrial economy to a knowledge based economy. We need to make big investments to ensure we have the workers for the jobs of tomorrow and to ensure we take care of some of the concerns that we have as Canadians.
Instead of pushing the pause button on decreasing corporate taxes, the Conservatives are actually increasing payroll taxes by some 35% over the next five years. They speak out of both sides of their mouths. They say in one sense that they will decrease corporate taxes and bring them down even below what the corporate community was calling for but on the other hand they will increase payroll taxes by some 35% over the next five years.
We need to make investments in innovations, in science and technology and in the jobs of tomorrow. We need to make investments in the care of Canadians, in learning, in early childhood education, in ensuring that everyone has access to post-secondary education and in ensuring that people have the right kinds of skills needed in our country.
We had a conference a couple of months ago where we engaged Canadians on the type of Canada they wanted to have by the time we reach our 150th anniversary. We talked about some of the changes that are occurring in Canadian society. Some of the knowledgeable speakers who came to see us spoke about the rising level of unemployment in our country. Another million people will be joining the unemployment ranks over the next number of years. By the time we reach 2017, over another million Canadians will be unemployed but at the same time there will be over 1.7 million job vacancies. That is because of the skill shortage in our country.
Why would the minister not consider making some very important leadership choices and decide to press the pause button on corporate taxes and make some very big investments in our communities?