Stephen Harper

[National Defence, March 10th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, as members know, this was not combat. This was a friendly fire incident when in fact Sergeant Doiron and his colleagues did not expect to come under fire. These are obviously tragic circumstances. The details are being investigated. I received a call yesterday from Prime Minister al-Abadi of Iraq to give his condolences and apologies to the Canadian people. I also had an opportunity to speak to Sergeant Doiron's family and express our gratitude for his service and our deep regret at his loss.

[Employment, February 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is this. The vast majority of jobs created under this government are full time, high paying and they are in the private sector. The statistics on this are absolutely clear. It is why Canada has one of the few middle classes in the world whose incomes have been going up.

That is the difference between economic policy now and back then when he was doing it and budgets were followed by police investigations.

[Employment, February 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth, and Canadians know this. Canadians know we are not living in another decade. We are living right now in one of the most troubled world economic environments. In spite of that, this government has overseen the creation of 1.2 million net new jobs.

We have done that by pursuing sound economic policies, reducing taxes, focused investment, balancing our budget, all of the things the Liberal Party opposes, all of the things the Liberal Party would reverse to give us the kind of result we have in Greece. We will never have that here.

[Employment, February 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, since the end of the recession, the Canadian economy has created more than 1.2 million jobs. That is one of the best job creation records in the developed world. That is the record; those are the facts.

We have not increased taxes as called for by the Liberal Party. We are not open to the idea of increasing the deficit and Canadians' debt. We are taking action that produces results.

[Aboriginal Affairs, February 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the government has been acting on a multi-pronged action plan to deal with this problem, beginning first and foremost with cracking down on violent crime. We are also funding shelters and family violence preventions to protect women and children, supporting dedicated RCMP project teams and the development of community safety plans, supporting a national centre for missing persons, providing additional investigative tools for the police, and providing additional rights for Canadian women who live on reserve in the form of matrimonial property rights and human rights. Now is the time for action, not for more NDP study.

[Public Safety, February 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we have broad and effective oversight agencies that exist today. They have been recognized as such. On top of that, we have put additional oversight measures through the courts into the legislation.

Canadians are not going to trust oversight with a party that has opposed every single piece of security and anti-terror legislation ever proposed. Now is not the time for the NDP agenda of attacking the police and the security agencies. We have serious problems in this country. Now it is time to take on the terrorists, and that is what we are doing.

[Public Safety, February 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we have strong, independent oversight committees and agencies that do very good work. Now is not the time to attack our police and security agencies. Now is the time to take on the terrorists. That is what this bill does.

[Assisted Suicide, February 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the government has always respected the Supreme Court's decisions. We are going to take a look at this decision and consult with Canadians before deciding how to respond.

[Assisted Suicide, February 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, this is a non-partisan matter about which Canadians have a range of opinions.

As the member pointed out, the Supreme Court gave Parliament a year to respond. We are reviewing the decision and consulting with Canadians. We will consult comprehensively before deciding how to respond.

[Assisted Suicide, February 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the government does not consider this a partisan matter. This is a very delicate subject on which Canadians have a range of strongly held views.

There is a committee of the House of Commons, the justice committee, that has a mandate to study this, should it so choose. We will leave that decision to it.

In the meantime, the government intends to consult widely with Canadians to review the decision, and we will consult very comprehensively before deciding how to respond.