House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2015, with 43% of the vote.
Pensions September 26th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, the question is about bringing public sector pensions in line with the private sector, to ensure that the plans in the public sector are sustainable in the long term. That is our goal and now the NDP and the big union bosses do not like that. They like to complain about that. However, the fact of the matter is this is the standard in the private sector. We think it is being fair and reasonable to public sector employees while being accountable to the taxpayers of Canada.
Government Accountability September 26th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, as I have said, we will continue to report to Parliament in the usual ways, including the estimates, quarterly financial reports and the review of public accounts. We are keeping our promise to be accountable to the House.
We continue to have that kind of accountability. It is the normal course to report on these things and we will continue to do so.
We are spending money to benefit the people of Canada and we will continue to do so.
Government Accountability September 26th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I am not quite sure what the hon. member is referring to. I am chairing a new cabinet committee which was announced in a news release by the Prime Minister's Office. That is not exactly the way to be secretive, I would assure the hon. member.
We believe that the budget officer should concentrate his time and his energy examining how Parliament and the Government of Canada spends its money, not fretting about money we have not spent. That is the fundamental difference.
We will be accountable to Parliament on all of those expenditures.
Government Accountability September 25th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the hon. member is actually talking about.
I can say that when it comes to open data, there are over 272,000 data sets online right now at data.gc.ca, where all citizens can access that data, can use it to create new apps for mobile phones, can use it to help their business or their personal lives.
That is what we do. We give data to the people of Canada because it is their data.
Government Accountability September 25th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I have some good statistics for the hon. member and for the House.
The Government of Canada, in 2010-11, for that year measured, received 41,641 new access to information requests. That is over 15% more than the previous year. The volume has increased by almost 50% since 2005. More than 90% of the requests are processed within the government's 120-day standard.
Government Accountability September 24th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, we will continue to report to Parliament through the normal means, which are the estimates, quarterly financial reports and the consideration of the public accounts. The reports are presented to the House.
We will continue to report as required by Parliament. We are proud to do so because what we are doing is in the best interests of this country to create more jobs and opportunities across this great land.
Government Accountability September 24th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, we believe that rather than spending his time and energy tracking money that was not spent, the budget officer would do well to spend his time ensuring that money that will be spent is spent correctly.
As clearly shown in Canada's economic action plan, our budget 2012, we have a fair, a moderate, a balanced approach to make sure that we reduce expenditures on behalf of Canadians and at the same time deliver excellent services to Canadians. We will continue to do so because it helps create jobs and opportunities across our land.
Pensions September 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I can inform the hon. member that we will not have a separate stand-alone bill when it comes to MP pensions or salaries. We will have a budget implementation bill that is focused on jobs, the economy and economic growth in this country, as we indicated previously. I am not surprised that the Liberals and the NDP on the other side have already voiced their opposition to this bill without even seeing it. That is how they operate. However, we are focused on jobs and economic growth for this country and we will continue to be so.
Ethics September 20th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, we have made it clear, as indeed did the NDP members of the committee, that the act is working well. We of course introduced this at the start of our term in government. There were some changes that were proposed. We have adopted many of those positions as our own. We are doing further research on the others.
We are acting in good faith. We want the Lobbying Act to be accountable. We want lobbyists to be accountable. We want there to be transparency.
I wonder why the hon. member is so ruffled, because we on this side of the House believe in Canada. On that side of the House there are people who have supported parties that do not believe in Canada. We just asked a simple question—
Pensions September 19th, 2012
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his exuberance. He must be ready for takeoff on some project of his own.
Insofar as the business of the House is concerned, of course, we have previously indicated that we think it is fair for parliamentarians to move up to a 50-50 cost share when it comes to their pension plan. Certainly the House will be seized of this issue in due course.