Ted Menzies

[May 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I might remind the House that the previous Liberal government denied that a fiscal imbalance even existed. This Conservative government is different, however.

Under our fiscal balance plan, we have committed to respecting roles and responsibilities among governments. Budget 2007 clarified and strengthened fiscal arrangements with provinces and territories. In the spirit of open federalism, our 2007 Speech from the Throne committed to formally limiting the federal spending power through legislation.

As the hon. member knows, this takes time, but I can assure the hon. member that we are moving forward to meet this commitment.

[May 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this opportunity to respond to the question put by the hon. member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup on the federal spending power.

I would first like to remind the hon. member that on November 22, 2006, the Prime Minister affirmed that the Québécois form a nation within Canada. Certainly, that was an unprecedented and historic step on the part of a Canadian Prime Minister. It was also consistent with the government's unprecedented efforts to restoring fiscal balance.

Our government committed to working together with our provincial and territorial partners to build a better future for our country, and that is exactly what we are doing. For Quebeckers this means unprecedented support from the federal government of over $16.7 billion in 2008-09, an increase of $1.6 billion from last year and over $4.5 billion since 2005-06.

Quebec will see $8 billion in 2008-09 in equalization, an increase of over 67% from 2005-06. Payments to Quebec under equalization have increased by almost $870 million or 12.1% from 2007-08. Quebec will also receive $5.5 billion through the Canada health transfer and $2.5 billion through the Canada social transfer.

After more than a decade of uncertainty caused by the previous Liberal government, this Conservative government answered the call from the provinces and territories, and has provided long term predictable funding. In fact, budget 2007, which dealt with the fiscal balance, was very well received in the province of Quebec.

Former Quebec finance minister Yves Séguin called it prudent, realistic and “a big step forward”. He said that it significantly redressed a long time sore spot, the fiscal imbalance.

More recently, budget 2008 ended the millennium scholarships and replaced them by a bigger student grant program and streamlined the loan system. This gets Ottawa out of a provincial jurisdiction. Quebec will be able to opt out of the grant system with full compensation and it should be more useful to more students. A Montreal Gazette editorial stated:

Quebec will welcome this. It's no wonder [the Liberal leader] quickly said he would not vote against this budget.

Similarly, a new crown corporation to set employment insurance rates on a break even basis meets another longstanding demand of Quebec. Clearly, this government is fulfilling its long standing commitment to respect jurisdiction.

However, the Bloc Québécois voted against budget 2008 and Quebeckers have taken notice that the Bloc's rhetoric does not match its actions. In the spirit of open federalism, budget 2008 and the Speech from the Throne committed to formerly limiting the federal spending power through legislation.

[Official Development Assistance Accountability Act, May 9th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. friend from Scarborough—Guildwood, first of all for his tenacity and for putting up with the hours that we spent together dealing with Bill C-293. I am not ashamed to say that there were concerns that I held with the original form of this piece of legislation, and I will refer to those later, but I do congratulate the hon. member for putting up with my arguments and my encouragement for him to accept amendments that I personally and some of my colleagues on this side of the House thought would make it a more effective bill.

I am encouraged to see that we are addressing this matter of very serious concern to all Canadians and to many people living in poor countries around the world. I am sure the thoughts of all members are with those in Burma specifically today, in light of the tragedy that is unfolding there.

Private member's Bill C-293, an act respecting the provision of official development assistance abroad, was introduced in the House of Commons on May 17, 2006. The intent of the bill is and always was consistent with the priorities of this government, especially the priorities of poverty reduction and the promotion of human rights.

The proposed amendments to Bill C-293 address most of the government's stated concerns regarding clarity of mandate, strengthened accountability and greater aid effectiveness. The proposed amendments address our main concerns and make the bill even better. They also provide consistency with the government's three point plan for aid effectiveness.

The result of these amendments will be legislation that strengthens the aid program and adds a useful tool to Canada's efforts to reduce poverty, as well as improve living standards for families and communities in the harshest regions of the world.

This government has made it clear that poverty reduction is the overarching purpose of our international development assistance in poor countries, places where Canada can and is able to make a difference in the lives of people who just need a helping hand. There should be no doubt that poverty reduction is central to all of our international development assistance efforts, and while Canadians are eager to help the poorest of the poor, they want reassurances that their tax dollars are making a real difference in the lives of the people that they are intended to help.

Canadians have told us that they want their government to lead by example in the area of international assistance by delivering on its promises, ensuring aid is effective, and implementing innovative approaches to development cooperation. In response, this government has been working to improve aid effectiveness through greater focus, efficiency, accountability and results.

The government has demonstrated this through a concrete three point plan for aid effectiveness, which is helping to transform how Canada delivers aid around the world and which represents a commitment to greater results and accountability.

Budgets 2007 and 2008 laid out details of this plan to meet Canadians' expectations by establishing a clear direction for Canada's international assistance. The plan concentrates on three important areas: strengthening focus, so that our development assistance to other countries is consistent with our foreign policy objectives; improving the efficiency of Canadian aid, to reduce administrative costs and improve overseas field presence to areas where we can get better mileage for our aid dollars; and most important, building in greater accountability.

For Canadian taxpayers to understand and support Canada's effective role in international development assistance, they need to be reassured that we are committed to using tools such as independent evaluations and objective assessments that help achieve results and communicate these results to Canadians.

In this way the government has begun to transform the way we deliver aid around the world. In doing so, the government has increased engagement in the Americas. It is doubling assistance to the Caribbean. It has increased presence and resources in fragile states like Afghanistan and Haiti.

In the last two years the government has made significant progress in reforming Canada's international assistance and shaping it to meet new priorities. We have undertaken long term commitments to Afghanistan and Haiti.

As our Prime Minister has announced previously, we are re-engaging Canada in the Americas and doubling our assistance to the Caribbean. In addition, we are ensuring that Canada is meeting its G-8 commitment to Africa.

The government's commitment to the most vulnerable was most recently demonstrated by our response to the current food crisis. We allocated substantial new funding for food aid to help those most in need. Canada has maximized the effectiveness of this contribution by untying restrictions on food aid procurement.

I want to pause for a moment to emphasize what an important step this is. From consultations with members across the aisle, and with the industry leaders in the agricultural community, this was a non-political, non-partisan measure. It will result in saved lives and it is the right thing to do. It is an example of this government making Parliament work and I am proud of it.

This has provided the World Food Programme and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank with the flexibility to procure food commodities from all countries, especially from developing countries. By removing these restrictions, Canada is promoting the growth of local and regional markets in developing countries. This will contribute to longer term solutions to the problem of world hunger.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that removing the restrictions is just one way whereby the Government of Canada is demonstrating that we are serious about working efficiently and effectively, while taking into account the needs and the perspectives of the poor.

After working a great deal on this file with colleagues, and especially with my friend from Scarborough—Guildwood, I recognize our discussions were not always as pleasant as one would like, and could have even been extremely frustrating if we had not moved forward with this process. However, I thank my friend for his hard work on this file and congratulate the Minister of International Cooperation, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of International Trade for their willingness to show leadership on this very important file.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 9th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all remaining questions be allowed to stand.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, May 9th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, if Question No. 169 supplementary and Question No. 223 could be made orders for returns, these returns would be tabled immediately.

[Government Response to Petitions, May 9th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to one petition.

[The Economy, May 9th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, despite global economic turbulence, Canada's employment picture remains strong. In April, for example, nearly 20,000 new jobs were created. That is 832,000 new jobs since this government came into power. The unemployment rates are at 33 year lows. Opposition MPs seem to be the only ones who are unhappy, but thankfully, most Canadians are not noticing that because they are at work.

[May 8th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals may say that they disagree with our economic agenda but when it comes time to act they continue to support the Conservative government time and time again.

If the member is going to be critical of anyone, it should be his leader. The current tax-and-spend Liberal leader has threatened all of the Conservative government's hard work by introducing a massive gasoline tax. Taxes on gas is exactly what Canadians do not want to see, nor do they want to see taxes on their heating fuels. He is threatening to raise the GST, take back the universal child care benefit and more. The Liberals want to take money out of the wallets of hard-working Canadians and send it back to Ottawa. We strongly disagree and we will not let that happen.

[May 8th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. friend across the way for giving me the opportunity to continue to answer the question that I tried so diligently a few weeks ago to answer.

This gives me the opportunity to speak to the Conservative government's strong economic record, a timely debate considering today's NDP opposition motion, which the Liberal Party will not support, which again expresses the Liberals' resounding support for the government's economic agenda. It is no surprise, though, as the Conservative government has taken decisive action over the last two years to ensure Canada has strong economic fundamentals.

For example, this year alone the government plans to reduce the debt by $10 billion. Combined with the debt paid down over the last two years, this amounts to over $37 billion in debt reduction since 2005-06.

At the same time, we have been able to implement a variety of measures, both broad based and targeted, geared toward rewarding work, encouraging productivity and creating the conditions for our businesses to invest, compete and succeed in order to strengthen the economy for years ahead.

The October 2007 economic statement took decisive and timely action to boost confidence and investment through $60 billion tax reductions for individuals, families and business. When combined with the previous tax relief introduced by this government, total tax relief approaches $200 billion.

Tax reductions improve business competitiveness and increase investment. We are giving Canada the lowest statutory corporate rate in the G-7 by the year 2012 and will achieve the lowest overall tax rate in new business investment in the G-7 by 2011.

Even the Liberal leader, who does not get much in terms of economic policy, recognizes the importance of efforts like what we have done to lower corporate taxes. He said:

I am convinced that a further reduction in the corporate tax rate cut is the right thing to do.

...a lower corporate tax rate is a powerful weapon...to generate more investment, higher living standards and better jobs.

There is more good news. In budget 2008, we announced a landmark tax-free savings account that will provide Canadians a way to save that is both easy to understand and that places no restrictions on what they can save for.

Those and the many other economic policies this government has put in place have resulted in Canada being one of the strongest G-7 economies. The numbers speak for themselves. The unemployment rate is near the lowest rate in over three decades. Over three-quarters of a million net new jobs have been created since we took office in 2006. Employment is up in every region, mostly in high paying sectors. In fact, 80% of the new jobs created are full time.

Despite the rhetoric, the Liberals know that it is the Conservative government's economic agenda that is best for Canada. I thank the member for Scarborough—Guildwood and the entire Liberal Party for continuing to express their support in this government's economic plan.

[Business of Supply, May 8th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I enjoy sitting on the finance committee with the hon. member. He provides some very strong input and does a great job of bringing the concerns of his constituents forward, and often raises the issue of lost jobs. It is his job to do that.

We in the government share his concerns for what happened with the EI fund. I will not try to defend what the Liberals did or did not do with that fund, but we recognize how it failed the unemployed. That is why we put forward suggested changes in the budget for an independent fund that could not be tampered with by any government. It would be completely at arm's length from government, which will protect the money paid by both the employees and employers for employees who get into a situation of job loss.