Thomas Mulcair

[Ethics, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Dean del Mastro, real court; Conservatives and Liberals, kangaroo court.

The government wastes $100 million of taxpayers' money every single year to pay senators' salaries and expenses; $100 million. Canadians do not know how much of that is being plundered by the likes of Mike Duffy and Mac Harb, and the government is doing everything it can to make sure we never find out.

Conservatives are setting up yet another kangaroo court, this time to protect senators who charge fraudulent expenses. If they have nothing to hide, why are they covering it up?

[Ethics, April 29th, 2015]

Actually, Mr. Speaker, he just did comment on the evidence before the court, because he just told us that the government is helping in the Mike Duffy trial with evidence before the court, but why is the government not helping to put evidence before the court in the case of Carolyn Stewart-Olsen? Oh, I know, because she was never brought before the court, because she is still very close to the Conservatives. It is only when someone falls out that the person gets into trouble.

Here is the government's response. It actually put out a memo saying that anyone who owned property in a province could say that he or she was a resident of that province, even if he or she did not actually live there. That is the government. Why did it tell senators they could lie about where they live?

[Ethics, April 29th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the Constitution of Canada is clear, straightforward and precise when it comes to Senate appointments. A senator “shall be resident in the Province for which he is appointed”.

What did the Prime Minister do when Mike Duffy told him that he was a resident of Ontario and not Prince Edward Island?

[The Environment, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, they closed the Kitsilano Coast Guard station. What is the minister talking about when she tells us that they made investments?

They say that we have a world-class oil spill response system. They forgot to give us the year, 1970. Let us try to get something that corresponds to 2015.

[Ethics, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Liberal and Conservative senators are trying to block the internal audit report regarding their places of residence.

Senators do not want Canadians to know what they found out about their own colleagues. They are protecting each other, and the Prime Minister is playing along. There is a Conservative majority in the Senate.

Where is the internal audit report?

Will the Prime Minister stand up and demand that his Conservative senators, who are his caucus colleagues, make this report public?

[Ethics, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Mike who? It is Mike Duffy. Mike Duffy is not the only longtime Ottawa resident that the Prime Minister appointed to represent Atlantic Canada. Carolyn Stewart Olsen not only lived in Ottawa; she worked side-by-side with the Prime Minister day in and day out as his press secretary. She was his communications director and, frankly, his closest political confidant. Therefore how is it possible that the Prime Minister thought Carolyn Stewart Olsen actually lived in New Brunswick, when she was showing up to work for him here in Ottawa every single day?

[Ethics, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, he is right. Paul Martin would put up the same program as he. The only problem is that, after 150 years of Conservative and Liberal incompetence, Canadians deserve real change.

The last time we were in the House, the Prime Minister claimed that, before he appointed Mike Duffy to the Senate, Duffy signed a declaration swearing that he was a resident of P.E.I. The only problem is that there is nothing in that declaration about that. So here is the problem: The Prime Minister says Duffy signed it before being named; it is not true. Can the Prime Minister please tell Canadians which declaration he was referring us to, and when exactly did Mike Duffy sign it?

[The Budget, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the problem is that 85% of Canadians do not benefit from it. He is taking from the poor to give to the rich.

The Auditor General just slammed the Conservatives for failing to be transparent with Canadians about billions of dollars in tax giveaways. Conservatives have introduced dozens of loopholes and boutique tax credits that help the wealthiest few, but they refuse to give even basic information about precisely who benefits and how much the giveaways cost.

Does the Prime Minister really think he can hide the cost of his gifts to the wealthy few? Who does he think he is, Paul Martin?

[The Budget, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, today, the Auditor General confirmed that the Conservatives are really bad managers. In fact, the Minister of Finance does not even evaluate the tax measures he puts in place. Those measures are just electoral goodies for the Conservative voter base, period. The Conservatives have no idea how much these measures will cost and they do not analyze the results. The finance minister said again this week that he does not even know whether the measures will create jobs.

Why is the Prime Minister insisting on giving gifts to the wealthiest Canadians when the Auditor General has once again proven that the Conservatives do not even know what they are doing?

[The Budget, April 23rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, here is an irrefutable fact: 85% of the population will not benefit from the tax cuts the Conservatives are proposing. That is a fact.

Leading up to the budget, a senior government minister told Canadians that there was no way the Conservatives would touch the contingency fund. Then the finance minister took $2 billion out of, wait for it, the contingency fund. Then yesterday, we had a rather confused Conservative MP ambling along, claiming that the Conservatives were not touching the contingency fund at all. In this total Conservative confusion, where is the finance minister?