Ted Hsu

[Business of Supply, April 27th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, my question starts with a comment about the government's spending plans that occurred back in November 2014. One of the topics in the video advertisement was about income splitting and changes to benefits that still have not been legislated in this House.

My concern in particular is that at the end of this advertisement there has to be a thing that says “measures subject to parliamentary approval”. The problem is that these advertisements appeared as a kind of gateway to reading online newspaper articles. If an individual reads it on an ordinary computer screen, or even more so on a mobile screen, there is no way one could read the tiny font that appears for a couple of seconds saying “measures subject to parliamentary approval”.

I am wondering if my colleague has seen these ads and she could comment on the appropriateness of concealing the idea that these measures have not yet gone through Parliament.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, April 20th, 2015]

With regard to the Canada Border Services Agency: (a) what have been the total expenditures to maintain the customs building on Cornwall Island since 2008, broken down by fiscal year; (b) what is the estimated current market value of the customs building on Cornwall Island; (c) does the Agency have plans for future operation, use, disposition, or disposal of the customs terminal on Cornwall Island; (d) if the answer to (c) is affirmative, what are the particulars of those plans; (e) what have been the total expenditures to maintain and operate the temporary customs terminal on Three Nation Bridge, or adjacent to the recently-constructed low-level bridge, broken down by fiscal year; and (f) what are the details of the plans, projected costs, and anticipated timeline for the construction of a permanent customs terminal at the Cornwall–Akwesasne–New York State border crossing?

[Petitions, April 20th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, on Wolfe Island, if empty but unpurged propane trucks return to the mainland by themselves on empty ferries in the middle of the summer, tourist season, there is a long lineup for the rest of the day. That is why Wolfe Island had a short-run ferry exemption from the Cargo, Tackle and Fumigation Regulations.

The distance between the two ferry docks is 5.03 kilometres, only half a boat length over the 5 kilometre limit for short ferry runs. Recently, however, the exemption was denied because a different short-run ferry definition of three kilometres from the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations was used.

My constituents on Wolfe Island ask the government to harmonize the definition of short-run ferries at 5 kilometres, and to renew the short-run ferry exemption based on a previous exemption and on the fact that the Wolf Island ferry is never more than 1.15 kilometres from land.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, April 2nd, 2015]

With regard to Employment and Social Development Canada's January 2015 advertisement entitled “Canada's Apprentice Loans,” available on the Employment and Social Development Canada's Youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_3dpdC_Rr4: (a) what labour market data, reports, studies, economic analyses or statistical analyses support the assertion in the advertisement that the Canadian economy will need “one million skilled tradesmen and women” over the next decade, broken down by (i) title, (ii) source, (iii) author, (iv) date; and (b) what was the total cost of this advertisement to (i) produce, (ii) place on the air?

[Safe and Accountable Rail Act, March 31st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, after years of federal government cuts, Transport Canada has lost experienced staff and some of its institutional memory.

This is the question I would like to ask. How can we restore the institutional memory and the experienced staff after years of cuts?

[Safe and Accountable Rail Act, March 31st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, my question is in two parts. My colleague spoke about safety management systems. What is important for the safety management systems is we want to set up something where we are not relying on the Transport Canada inspectors to find problems and tell the rail companies. We want to push the rail companies to set up a culture, procedures and systems so that safety is taken care of without the inspector having to intervene, or at least minimizing the times when inspectors have to intervene.

Many freight lines pass in and out of Canada along the border with the United States. What can the federal government do to encourage a safety culture in those cases where rail lines pass across the border?

[Safe and Accountable Rail Act, March 31st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, when I questioned the fire and rescue unit in Kingston, I found out that they have a list of the 25 top dangerous materials that could be passing through Kingston on freight trains and they practise dealing with those 25 types of dangerous cargo. What they do not have and what they wish they had is a faster way to access the dangerous cargo information on a particular train in case there is an incident.

I am wondering if my colleague could comment on that.

[Safe and Accountable Rail Act, March 31st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, it is also my understanding that a lot of freight lines go back and forth across the border between Canada and the United States. Therefore, there is a need to harmonize regulations, for example, having two engineers instead of one.

I was wondering if my colleague could comment on this additional fact, which makes the relationship between Canada and the United States important.

[Safe and Accountable Rail Act, March 31st, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the main line of CN Rail also runs through my riding of Kingston and the Islands. I held a town hall meeting, and one of the things that we learned is that because of the underfunding in Transport Canada, the dangerous goods division has lost senior management and institutional memory. These sorts of things are very hard to replace simply by restoring funding and hiring new people.

It is also the case that there has been a revolving door of ministers in Transport Canada under the Conservative government. I was wondering if my colleague could comment on that.

[Petitions, March 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, violent conflict claims innocent victims. Whatever our view on responsibility and blame, we can all feel compassion for the innocent victims.

Hundreds of my constituents have signed a petition calling on the Government of Canada to issue visas necessary for 100 severely injured Palestinian children and their parents or guardians to receive expert medical treatment in Canada. They note that the Ontario government of Kathleen Wynne, doctors, nurses, and hospitals, including the Kingston General Hospital in my riding, have all committed to help, including waiving fees.

The only thing left is to issue visas and to bring these severely injured, innocent Palestinian children here to Canada for treatment.