House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2011, with 78% of the vote.
The Economy November 27th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, we have not been waiting for anything.
If the hon. member had been paying attention, in last fall's economic statement we introduced an economic stimulus that is actually increasing jobs in this country. In fact, we have a net job increase in Canada of over 200,000 this year alone.
This government has reduced taxes by $31 billion this year. That equates to 2% of our gross domestic product. That is far and away ahead of some of the other G-7 countries.
The Economy November 27th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, there was not much talk about jobs in that question. I am not sure if it was an economic question or not.
I rose in this House the other day and I thanked the hon. members from the Bloc Québécois for their suggestions. The finance minister, again the next day, thanked those members as well. We would encourage other members in this House to do the same thing.
The finance minister advised the Bloc that he would take those suggestions under advisement and will be dealing with that when it comes time for our 2009 budget.
The Economy November 26th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I would remind hon. members that all of the things I spoke about, all of the stimuli that this government has put forward, the NDP voted against. If we could have a little help in this House, we might actually instill some enthusiasm in Canadians that the end is not near. We have some positive outlooks. We have job layoffs and we realize that, but this year alone, we have 200,000 net new jobs. The NDP voted against the stimulus that assisted that.
The Economy November 26th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, speaking about leading by example, the example was set by the finance minister a year ago by reducing taxes for Canadians, $21 billion in tax relief in this year alone. That sort of leadership provided 2% of the GDP. That leadership, I would suggest, led to what the United Kingdom did just this week, and that is almost exactly the same thing.
I wish the hon. member would watch what this government is doing, and that is leadership on the economic front.
The Economy November 26th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the answer would be none of the above. In fact, the Prime Minister cares dearly.
The Prime Minister is doing everything possible to ensure that Canadians will not feel the impact of the economic crisis that other countries are. That is why the Prime Minister is consulting on a regular basis with other leaders around the world, which are facing worse economic times than we are here. It is why our finance minister is consulting with ministers across the provinces to ensure that whatever we do is well coordinated.
The Economy November 26th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, it is great to be cheered on by the Liberals, the Liberals who in the last election were going increase taxes to Canadians. Now the Liberals are back in the House saying that the Conservatives are spending too much money, that the Conservatives are not worried about Canadians.
Thank goodness the Conservatives won the election so they did not have to face the higher taxes that the Liberals wanted to force on them.
Finance November 24th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, if the concerns are valid, the Competition Bureau will be looking at this. However, I remind the hon. member that it is not a federally regulated jurisdiction.
Finance November 24th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, might I remind hon. members that we as a government do not regulate the fees charged in the financial sector on exchange rates. It is a competitive system. No one is forcing Canadians to use those cards. If the card charges are too high, I would suggest to Canadians that they may lodge that complaint with their financial institutions or actually stop using them.
Securities Industry November 24th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, it is interesting how in retracting his statement, he was able to say it one more time.
I would remind the hon. member, however, that I did say industrialized countries. This is to strengthen our regulatory system and that is very important. We have said many times in the House that we will respect provincial jurisdiction. We cannot force it on provinces. We encourage them and we will welcome all willing participants into this common securities regulator.
Securities Industry November 24th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I might remind members of the House that we are the only industrialized country that does not have a common securities regulator. It should be our shame because we are stopping investments from coming in from outside. They look at our country and we have 13 separate regulators. That is not the sort of investment environment we need to be showing to the outside world.
We talk about protecting seniors' investments. A disjointed system of securities regulators spread across this country does not protect investments.