Ted Menzies

[The Economy, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as we have said, we heard from an expert panel on this issue and it made several recommendations. We are planning on following through on those recommendations.

That was part of the recommendations. We have improved tax information exchanges in agreements with other countries. We have implemented that.

We are providing more resources to Revenue Canada to ensure that taxes are paid appropriately in all jurisdictions.

[The Economy, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, there is a bit of a conflicting message from the other side of the House. Let me quote the member for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, who said that he did not want the Quebec or Canadian economies to be disadvantaged in international competition, that tax fairness was important. On which side of this challenging debate are those members?

[The Economy, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is refreshing to hear the leader of the Bloc talking about what is good for Canada.

Let me get back to the tax haven issue. This is so important for Canadian industries to be able to compete internationally. We have heard from an expert panel. I know they do not think that wise businesspersons in the country should be part of the consultation process, but we do, and we take their advice. We should be conforming to the rest of the world's standards, and that is allowing our Canadian companies to compete on a level playing field with other countries.

[The Economy, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of experts in here calling themselves economists. Many of them have projected high and many have projected low. We will avoid using the hon. member for Markham—Unionville when we talk about that.

Let me quote Dale Orr, a very respected economist from Global Insight:

The budget overall was a pretty reasonable compromise. The best thing to do is pass it and get on with it and get things moving as quickly as possible.

That--

[The Economy, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member who represents the town of Mackenzie has raised that issue many times. In fact, I have been to Mackenzie myself and I have met with some of those people.

We should not be playing politics with their lives. We are all concerned when people lose their jobs. We have an economic action plan that will help stem the tide of job losses and retrain individuals so that they can be employed in another community or industry. Let us get on with passing this economic plan.

[The Economy, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should rewrite his question, because I just explained that there is no contradiction.

The only contradiction in this House of Commons is the fact that we have two parties, the Bloc and the NDP, that are refusing to work with the majority representation of Canadians, who want to get people back to work and stem the job loss. The Bloc and the NDP, before they even read the budget, said they did not care about Canadians losing their jobs. That is the most important thing we can do for Canadians.

[The Economy, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is a very plain and simple message that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance delivered. It is as simple as the fact that the finance minister has said that if the economy continues to decline, this government will not abandon Canadians. The Prime Minister was referring to the fact that he will not accept any amendments to this budget.

It is incredibly important to Canadians that we get on with passing this budget so that we can actually help Canadians.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2009, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague sits on the finance committee with me and we are certainly hoping that he will delay it much less when we actually get the bill to committee than he is trying to here today.

It is obvious that by many of the inaccurate statements he made in his speech that he has either not read the budget or does not understand it. I would encourage him to come to the briefing this evening, where we will be briefed on all of the details in the budget implementation act. He will then be able to debate with some knowledge what these changes do.

I would refer to his comments wherein he said that this is an extreme budget that no progressive politician would support. I would ask him to listen to his NDP colleague, the finance minister from Manitoba, Greg Selinger, who said:

--this budget clearly has a number of initiatives in there that we had supported from the get-go...there's no question that this budget has put resources on the table that will help stimulate the economy across the country.

Why then is the NDP voting against all of those measures?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2009, February 9th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from the Bloc, who sits on the finance committee with me, for his comments.

I would be much happier if we could have some support from the Bloc in moving this forward. We can have some discussion here about whether we are doing enough or whether it is exactly right, but that does not ring very solidly among those who have lost their jobs in terms of the importance of getting this budget implementation bill through.

The hon. member said that what we are doing goes against well-managed businesses. I would like to remind the hon. member that we have in fact reduced taxes for businesses as well as individuals. We have cut red tape for businesses. We have offered a common securities regulator, which will allow businesses to attract foreign investment, because there would be one securities regulator across the country.

Is the hon. member ready to go back to his constituents and suggest that he voted against $200 million for low-income seniors housing, $25 million for housing for the disabled and $100 million for renovations of social housing? I would like his answer on that.

[Taxation, February 6th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, that is an incredible accusation for any member of the House to make.

These were respected experts in their field, businessmen, and he calls them fake. I am sure they are all duly offended by that reprehensible comment. I would suggest that the member retract that statement. We respect Canadians. We respect their advice. Most of all, we respect people who stand up when they have an opportunity to speak, instead of howling in the background after the decisions are taken.