Todd Russell

[The Budget, March 20th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the Tories foolishly call their budget “Aspire”. It sounds like a cheap perfume and it smells even worse.

What did my constituents get out of it? On the lower Churchill, goose egg; on 5 Wing Goose Bay, goose egg; Trans-Labrador Highway, goose egg; aboriginal policy, goose egg; economic development, goose egg; Marine Atlantic, goose egg; and of course equalization, the biggest Tory goose egg of all.

Can the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans explain his political impotence and his utter inability to stand up for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador?

[Fisheries, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery is in crisis. Sealers are being targeted. Small boat fishers are being hung out to dry. The inshore fleet is depleting before our eyes.

Now banks are taking over people's licences and the minister is missing in action.

Even the minister's predecessor, John Crosbie, who was a Progressive Conservative, had the guts to stand up and fight for the fishery.

When will the minister stand on his own two feet at the cabinet table and provide assistance to the many fishers who need his help and stop the banks from taking their licences?

[Trans-Labrador Highway, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, during the last election campaign, the Prime Minister promised to cost share the completion of the Trans-Labrador Highway.

The provincial transport minister, John Hickey, said last fall that a cost sharing agreement must be signed by the end of October or the first of November. One does presume he meant October or November in 2006. At one point he even said that the deal was signed and sitting on his desk. And there it is was, gone.

It is now March 1. Would the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities tell the House what the hold up is, what he is waiting for and where the deal is?

[Gasoline Prices, February 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I hope it makes sense to the Conservatives. It certainly did not make sense to me.

The price of fuel is going up and up. In the past year and a half, Canadians have seen gas prices bounce back and forth, at times reaching $2 a litre in places like Labrador, my riding.

The government has billions and billions in surpluses. It is awash in cash. It is up to its eyes in money. What is the government doing to help people deal with the gas crisis?

[Gasoline Prices, February 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians woke up today to sky high gas prices and fuel shortages. The previous Liberal government established a petroleum price monitoring agency to help Canadians better understand gas prices at the pump and to enhance transparency. People want to understand what is going on in the industry.

It is no surprise that the Conservative government, which has been anything but transparent, slashed the budget of the agency. In this time of high gas prices, what is the Conservative government doing to help Canadians with this problem?

[Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, February 19th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, back home we would say that the bottom is gone right out of her.

The same minister blew another $800 on limousine service to a Confederation Club luncheon on April 20. Last March she wasted $1,300 on airfare and, yes, another limo ride to promote the student summer job program. Some promo, this is the same program her government slashed by $55 million, eliminating 25,000 student jobs.

Why do Conservatives value limo rides more than they value Canadian students and Canadian parents?

[Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, February 19th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, here is another example of how Conservatives waste taxpayer dollars.

This past July the former human resources minister went to Winnipeg to present a fake $100 child benefit cheque. Her flight alone cost 20 times the monthly child care benefit. Now we learn that she exceeds the Juno joyriding heritage minister for her love of limousine travel.

While on a junket, she spent $750 on limousine rides, almost eight times the worth of her so-called child care benefit. The cheque was fake; her expenses were not. How can she justify them to Canadian parents who she has shortchanged?

[National Defence, February 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence knows a lot about hypocrisy and I say to him that if my question is not for him, then stand down, general. My question is for the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

If he cannot remember what he promised the people of 5 Wing Goose Bay, I can send him a DVD. He promised a UAV squadron and a rapid reaction battalion for Goose Bay, perhaps the same battalion of rapid reaction he wanted to send to five other places across Canada.

I ask the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development who is now in charge of defending the north, will he honour the Goose Bay commitments made by his absent-minded colleague in the Department of National Defence?

[National Defence, February 14th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, last week a senior DND official gave testimony at the defence committee that nothing had been done to implement the Conservative promises to 5 Wing Goose Bay. That is right, nothing, zilch, nada or, as we say in our part of the country, not a darned thing. He also said that Indian Affairs, not National Defence, is the lead department on northern and Arctic sovereignty.

Since the Minister of National Defence has washed his hands of the file, I ask the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development this. What are his plans for his base at 5 Wing Goose Bay?

[Equalization, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, many Canadians have noticed the twinkle in the Prime Minister's eye whenever he is introduced as an economist. In fact, he should be embarrassed.

He seems to have forgotten everything he learned in economist school. He promised all the premiers, in writing, that no province would lose out by his changes to the equalization formula. As any good economist could tell us, this is not mathematically possible.

Has the Prime Minister finally realized this inconvenient truth? Who will deliver the bad news to the premiers who get Scrooged this Christmas?