Stephen Harper

[Aboriginal Affairs, December 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this government was very proud to deliver that long awaited apology for the tragedy of the residential schools. The fact is that the Government of Canada has already disclosed nearly one million documents to the commission. The commission is now seeking some documents, which the government believes are outside of its mandate, such as, for example, personal records of survivors given in confidence to the government. The government is certainly willing to let the courts decide what is appropriate in this matter.

[The Economy, December 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the budgetary and economic forecasts are determined through a survey of economic professionals. The government does not come up with these figures. These figures come from the experts. The government carefully monitors the state of our economy from month to month. We are always prepared to take action.

[Justice, December 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, of course, this is a very serious issue the Leader of the Opposition has asked about. We are anxious to undertake any steps that will be effective in dealing with drunk driving. There are far too many deaths from this across the country. The government has brought in measures to deal with it.

The government is always interested in doing whatever it can to deal with serious crime in this country.

[Food Safety, November 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, CFIA has confirmed the meat sold in Canada is just as safe as meat exported to other countries. There are strict food safety standards in the country. That is the law and we ensure the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has the resources to enforce those standards. Indeed, we have, as rated internationally, one of the safest food systems in the world.

[Food Safety, November 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, in reality, the CFIA confirmed that the meat sold in Canada is just as safe as that exported to other markets, including Japan. In fact, that is the law in Canada.

[Health, November 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it was previous Liberal governments that imposed certain health care requirements on the provinces, then turned around and cut the funding and refused to fund those very requirements.

The leader of the Liberal Party suggests that he wants to go down that path. This government is not going down there. We work co-operatively with the provinces and we have honoured our commitments on transfers.

[Health, November 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, once again, on this side of the House, we recognize the jurisdiction of the provinces over much of the health care system. We are transferring a record amount of money to the provinces to help them fulfill their responsibilities. In fact, we have been transferring money for health care to the provinces much faster than their own budgets are growing. We will continue to support the provinces in this way.

[Health, November 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said repeatedly, the federal government recognizes the jurisdiction of the provinces over much of the health care system. At the same time, we do continue to transfer money to the provinces for that health care system. In fact, in recent years we have been transferring money for health care to provinces much faster than their own budgets are growing. We will continue to uphold our responsibilities in this area.

[The Economy, November 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has been recognized as probably the best in his job in the entire developed world. His record speaks for itself. Besides agreeing on all of the big issues, one of the things we most strongly agree on is that the country does not need the kind of tax increases advocated by the NDP. We do not need to raise taxes on employers at a time when we are trying to create jobs. We do not need to raise sales taxes on consumers. We are opposed to a carbon tax on everything.

[The Economy, November 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, who has done a tremendous job and we know will do a tremendous job in a country with much greater difficulties than Canada, has told me he will take up that job in July of next year. That sort of stretches the definition of abruptly just a little. We are honoured and we wish him well in his new functions.

The record of this government is that there are 800,000 net new jobs created in the country, more people working now in Canada than before the recession. While there is a ways to go, this is better than the vast majority of developed countries at this time.