Ted Menzies

[Budget Implementation Legislation, June 15th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, that question reminds us that there are 680,000 Canadians who are now waiting for the July 1 deadline or they will not get this top-up for their GIS. We need quick movement through the House for this legislation. These seniors worked hard throughout their lives to support our economy. The least we can do, as members of Parliament, is to move this through quickly so that we meet the deadline we set of July 1.

[Pensions, June 14th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, we are all concerned about the labour disputes that seem to be centred over pensions. Let me assure the hon. member and the House that this government is doing the best it can to make sure that we are protecting those Canadians who actually do not have a pension, and that is many Canadians.

We are putting in place a plan in conjunction with our provincial partners, a pooled registered pension plan that would cover all of those Canadians and provide an opportunity for all of those Canadians who do not have a pension as of this day.

[Supporting Vulnerable Seniors and Strengthening Canada's Economy Act, June 14th, 2011]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-3, An Act to implement certain provisions of the 2011 budget as updated on June 6, 2011.

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

[The Budget, June 13th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to welcome a new member to the House and we appreciate her comments.

I would warn the hon. member that we keep records of everything that is said in here, so I would suggest that she be very careful what she says in her speech. I do not see an awful lot of Liberals here today, which I should not reflect on, but in actuality in 1997 the Liberal government, under then Prime Minister Martin, had a debt in today's dollars of $729 billion. Just to be clear, it was neither her party nor mine that ran up that kind of a debt.

When I reflect on what previous budgets have put forward, we have taken one million low-income Canadians right off the tax roll. We continue to do that by reducing taxes. That is important to my constituents and I am sure it is important to the member's constituents.

The fact is that we are providing forgiveness to doctors and nurses to go to rural communities. I would encourage the hon. member to answer the following question. Is that not a good thing for rural communities?

[The Budget, June 13th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, once again we heard good numbers from Stats Canada: 22,000 more jobs in May. That brings us to a total of 560,000 jobs, as I have said, since July 2009.

However, if there is one Canadian still looking for a job, that is too many. We need to move forward with this budget because there are provisions in it that will help Canadians get back to work. It is important. It is urgent.

[Employment, June 13th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, when talking about real job creation, May saw 22,000 more Canadians working. I am not too sure why the opposition thinks that may be a negative. We have 560,000 more Canadians working today than we did in July of 2009.

However, that is no reason to stop. That is no reason to hold back this budget. We need to pass the budget quickly so we can continue to create jobs for Canadians.

[Taxation, June 6th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the new member for New Brunswick Southwest in this hallowed House.

The member, of course, understands quite a bit about taxes. That is why we are actually celebrating today the fact that tax freedom day is 20 days sooner than in 2005. I think we all know why that is. It is because we have reduced over 120 different taxes. We have reduced the GST from 7% to 6% to 5%. I could go on and on about the reasons—

[Sales Tax Harmonization, March 25th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, transfer payments have never been higher to the people of Quebec, no thanks to the Bloc. We would like to continue our discussions with the Government of Quebec but. unfortunately. the Bloc has chosen, along with its coalition partners the Liberals and the NDP, to tell us that we cannot continue that. It wants to force an election.

We would like to continue governing and we would like to continue those negotiations.

[Sales Tax Harmonization, March 25th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, the demands that we listen to are the demands that come from Canadians, demands that come from Quebeckers who want help for their seniors and who want to be able to stay home and be caregivers to their elderly relatives. That is what is in the budget.

We refuse to negotiate with the Bloc on anything. It has been here for 20 years. I do not know why we would even waste our time with it. However, we continue to negotiate with the Government of Quebec.

[Electricity, March 11th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, discussions are indeed continuing between officials from the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada.

I agree with the hon. member that this is a very important project for Atlantic Canada. We encourage those discussions to continue.