Ted Hsu

[Military Contribution Against ISIL, October 7th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, given that the Conservative government has decided to limit debate on the current motion, does the government have plans to provide briefings to opposition members of Parliament, which may include non-public information that may be required for opposition members to carry out their duties of holding the government to account?

[The Environment, October 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I just want to address one of the points that my hon. colleague made, which is a common argument that one hears: that Canada's emissions are only 2% of the world's emissions, so it is not that critical that Canada deal with its emissions.

On this anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, Canadians should be reminded that Canada only contributed about 2% of the combatants to the allied effort in the First World War, and that was not insignificant.

This summer, I gave a medallion to a Canadian D-Day veteran. We cannot tell that veteran that because he was only one person landing on the beach on D-Day that his effort was insignificant.

It is shameful when the government uses that argument, when it says that Canada's emissions are only 2% of the world's emissions. If Canada wants to be a leader—and I believe that Canada has a duty to be a leader in this world—we cannot make that argument.

The government has no sense of the importance of climate change, and it deserves to be kicked out of office next year.

[The Environment, October 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have a duty to be a good father and to protect my daughters. That is why I have to care about climate change. I must say that I condemn the Conservative government for its intentional negligence on climate change.

My question in question period was about the urgency with which the current government treats climate change. We know that the oil and gas sector in Canada accounts for about one-quarter of the emissions of greenhouse gases in Canada. It is the fastest-growing sector of our greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, and the Conservatives have promised some sort of regulation on that sector since 2008, six years ago. However, at this time our minister still refuses to give a timeline for the regulation of the oil and gas sector, and we learned a couple of weeks ago from science reporter Mike De Souza that Environment Canada appears to have even stopped meeting with oil and gas companies.

The Conservatives like to talk about Canada shutting down coal plants and achieving progress in reducing emissions from the electrical power generation sector. Today we heard a piece of good news, that the Boundary Dam coal-fired power plant in Canada is now going to be built in about a year, and that this carbon capture facility will be operational and will attempt to sequester about 90% of the greenhouse gas emissions coming out of one of the units of the Boundary Dam generation facility. I do sincerely hope that this attempt turns out to be the breakthrough in feasibility for carbon capture and sequestration. It is a very difficult technology, and the past projects have been abandoned because the feasibility could not be demonstrated. It was too expensive. However, we have to keep trying and I do sincerely hope that this Canadian project will succeed in feasibility. If anybody can do it, I know that Canada can do it.

However, the big decrease in the amount of emissions from coal plants cannot be accredited to the current government. It is the government of the Province of Ontario that deserves that credit. Earlier this year, the very last kilowatt hour of electricity generated from coal was put out, and now Ontario electricity is free from coal; free from the greenhouse gas emissions of coal-fired generation, free from the mercury emissions and all the other emissions that come from burning coal and the impurities that we find in coal. It is the first North American jurisdiction to phase out coal-fired power.

The current government, in the transportation sector, pretty much has followed the lead of California. It has taken credit in the electrical power generation sector for the hard work that the Ontario government has done, and in the oil and gas sector it has simply delayed. There is no leadership from the current government. There is no urgency. The current government is not protecting our children.

[Canada-Korea Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, September 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask my hon. colleague from the Green Party about her party's very strong opposition to investor state dispute resolution provisions.

I talked to some experts in my own riding of Kingston and the Islands from Queen's University, lawyers who specialize in dealing with some of these disputes and in writing treaties, to try to understand this issue. They seemed to uniformly emphasize that Canadian businesses need that protection in other countries, and that on the whole, Canada probably gains from these agreements.

The other thing they emphasized is that if we look at all the damages Canada has had to pay so far, if we take out the AbitibiBowater settlement, which reflects the value of assets that were seized, expropriated, by the Newfoundland and Labrador government, and add them up, it comes to only about $20 million so far. We have to put that in the context of $600 billion worth of foreign investment in Canada. It is one thirty-thousandth. If we put that in context, what I have gotten from the experts I talked to in Kingston is that it is very small compared to the amount of investment in Canada.

I want to ask my hon. colleague if she could comment on that and explain her party's opposition.

[Petitions, September 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from people in the eastern Ontario area. They are calling upon Parliament to enshrine in legislation the rights of Canadians to save, reuse, select, exchange and sell seeds, and to not infringe upon those rights through Bill C-18.

[Petitions, September 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions today. The first is from residents of Kingston, Ontario. They are asking that the Canadian government work with other countries who have ratified the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to demand that signatories comply with the disarmament conditions in the treaty.

[Business of Supply, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I want to see if I understand exactly the contrast between the Liberal plan and the Conservative plan.

If a small business is just below the $15,000 threshold and it wants to keep its doors open for a couple of more hours, would there not be a disincentive to keep its employees working for a couple of more hours and go over the $15,000 limit?

[Business of Supply, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question about the first thing my hon. colleague mentioned, which essentially was that the incentive in the Liberal plan would not make small businesses behave differently. If one makes a graph of the number of small businesses as a function of their taxable income reported to the government when they file their tax returns, one can see historically that there has been a spike in the number of businesses just under the small business tax deduction income limit. Then, when that limit has been moved in the past by governments, miraculously the spike in the number of businesses just below the limit has also moved.

It is a good thing that businesses are trying to manage their taxes and trying to be tax efficient, but that shows that incentives do matter and that the incentive being proposed in the Liberal plan will matter. It makes a difference at the margins, and, as we know, people make economic decisions at the margins.

[Statistics Act, September 22nd, 2014]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-626, An Act to amend the Statistics Act (appointment of Chief Statistician and long-form census).

Mr. Speaker, in the game of chess it is said that if one sees a good move, look for an even better one.

After feedback from experts and stakeholders, I am pleased to present a refinement of my Bill C-562, an act to amend the Statistics Act. This amended bill explicitly acknowledges that new sources of data or data collection practices would be available in the future and would not simply reinstate the long form census in its recent form. It would require what was really important, the continuity of data series and the maintenance for improvement of data quality.

The proposed bill will also clarify that not all ministerial orders to the Chief Statistician or to Statistics Canada shall be published in the new Canada Gazette, but only if they fall within the scope of technical or methodological guidelines and ethical standards, which the Chief Statistician is required to post, maintain and archive on the Statistics Canada website.

The amended bill will expand the duties of its Chief Statistician to include keeping the public informed about the importance of gathering accurate statistical information and consulting with stakeholders on matters pertaining to the census.

I hope all members will see fit to support the bill to safeguard the quality of the information used for managing this country.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Coastal Fisheries Protection Act, September 18th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I do not live on the coast. I live in Ontario. The freshwater fishery in Ontario is a very important part of our economy. There is always a need for resources for surveillance, to make sure there is not overfishing or illegal fishing.

I also believe that this legislation is important. However, I would like to ask my colleague to expound a bit on the importance of having resources, and this means dollars, to do the surveillance so that the billions of dollars in value that are being lost can be protected