Ted Menzies

[The Economy, November 24th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said on many occasions, we took pre-emptive moves that put money back into Canadians' pockets.

We also established a $1 billion community development trust fund that was specifically set up for communities that were impacted by layoffs, many of them in Quebec and many in northern Ontario. That is money that communities have had to invest in their infrastructure.

We put in place a $33 billion infrastructure fund that will be spread out across this country. That is stimulus.

[The Economy, November 24th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I might remind the hon. member that I just referred to today's announcement by the United Kingdom of $38 billion in tax cuts, a reduction of 1.5% in its value-added tax.

We took those pre-emptive moves in our fall economic update a year ago. That was $37 billion back in Canadians' pockets so they could prepare themselves for this downturn in the economy.

[The Economy, November 24th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard a number of accusations.

I would like to remind the House that we have heard about this fictional contingency fund. We have heard about the fictional Kelowna accord and the fictional child care plan.

What is not fictional is the fact that the Liberals denied that there was fiscal imbalance with the provinces. We fixed that. We fixed that because it needed to be fixed. We needed to inject money into the provinces so they could continue to offer the services to Canadians that they need.

[The Economy, November 24th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, it is ironic that the hon. member would once again raise the contingency fund, the fictional contingency fund. That actually was never legislated in the House.

The Liberals, if they did not just pass on all of the costs to the provinces through reduced transfer payments, would build up a slush fund for their March madness, of which we are all too tired. That is why Canadians elected a Conservative government, for prudent and frugal budgeting.

[The Economy, November 24th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, thank you for allowing the member to finish his question.

When we have been talking on this side of the House of what stimulates the economy, Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said today, “To prevent the recession deepening, we also need to take action to put money into the economy immediately....the best and fairest approach is a measure which will help everyone.... A much needed injection of spending”--by reducing the value added tax--“will make goods and services cheaper and, by encouraging spending, will help stimulate growth”.

That is exactly what the Conservative government did a year ago.

[The Economy, November 24th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, those are pretty harsh words coming from someone on the Liberal side, which actually lost the last election because the Liberals ran an election on a carbon tax that would have cost Canadians billions of dollars.

The leadership of our Prime Minister will take us through what we all know will be some difficult times.

We are looking forward to our finance minister giving us an update on Thursday as to where we are going.

[The Economy, November 24th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would hate to think where we would be if we had actually elected a Liberal government, because we would have an increased tax on Canadians at a time when they can least afford it. The Liberals were going to raise the GST. They were also going to add a carbon tax.

We need to continue cutting taxes where possible, and we need to face the reality that we are in difficult economic times worldwide.

[Seniors, November 21st, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank our new member from London West for that great question.

Yesterday, the finance minister personally wrote to every federally regulated financial institution raising this concern that seniors have brought forward. Seniors should be allowed in-kind asset transfers, which means that their investments are transferred from their accounts with no cost to seniors.

There was a demand for a response to the minister from those institutions by November 28.

[Seniors, November 21st, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, there are so many people wanting to answer this question that we have to decide who will stand up first.

Let me remind the hon. member and the House that it was this Conservative government that established a minister responsible for seniors issues. That was never done before in the 13 years under the Liberal government. Talk about a lack of respect for seniors.

We put a minister in place to look after seniors issues. We have allowed them pension income splitting.

[Seniors, November 21st, 2008]

In fact, Mr. Speaker, we are very proactive on this file. We have raised the issue with the banks, although the banks are their own governors. They decide how credit card fees are set.

We can encourage that. The finance minister was very successful in his interventions with the banking sector, but we do not regulate fees charged by financial sectors, nor should we.