Wayne Marston

[Employment Insurance, March 17th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the government has refused to further extend EI benefits to those workers still suffering in this jobless recovery. Over 800,000 workers are on the verge of exhausting their benefits.

On Sunday, I attended a rally at U.S. Steel's Lake Erie Works for 800 steelworkers locked-out for close to a year. These workers do not even qualify for EI. I also attended a rally in front of the Siemens gas turbine plant in Hamilton where 550 workers have been informed that their plant will close July 2011.

What lies ahead for many Canadian families is a gradual evaporation of their savings and a hard landing on provincial welfare rolls.

Ontarians with $572 in liquid assets are not eligible for welfare. To qualify for welfare, they must sell their vehicle and even their tools. When the economy does improve they will still be out of work.

What financial institution will lend people money to replace these items when they are on welfare? Losing a job in Canada should not mean losing everything.

Canadians are demanding serious EI reform now.

[Prevention of Torture Act, March 15th, 2010]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-498, An Act prohibiting the commission, abetting or exploitation of torture by Canadian officials and ensuring freedom from torture for all Canadians at home and abroad and making consequential amendments to other Acts.

Mr. Speaker, we refer to this bill that I am introducing today as an act to prevent torture. Clearly, this is a timely bill, not only in light of the situations in recent years of Canadians having undergone torture abroad, from Maher Arar to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, but also in considering the questions the NDP has raised in this House for years regarding the transfer of Afghan detainees.

This bill is intended to ensure that going forward, the Canadian government would be fully accountable under similar circumstances. In placing this bill before this Parliament, the NDP is recognizing in a very clear way that Canadians do not support nor condone torture in any manner.

As a result of issues surrounding the transfer of detainees, Canada has faced very serious questions regarding allegations of violations of international law. This bill would enshrine the established obligations of international law into Canadian law and thus reinforce the deterrent factor.

Once this bill became the law of the land, it would become part of the training of all Canadian officials. A great deal of clarity as to responsibility and accountability would be introduced into the issue of torture. Protocols would need to be established to set out a clear duty to report to the proper authorities any known instances of torture. The bill would make it a criminal offence to use information known to be derived from torture and it would prohibit Canadian officials from handing over prisoners to be tortured at home or abroad. It would establish clear diplomatic protocols for the immediate repatriation of any Canadian citizen at the risk of torture abroad, yet it would not undermine in the least the ability of our authorities to investigate or prosecute these citizens in Canada. Last, it would call for the creation of a government watch list of countries known to engage in torture.

I believe that had this bill been the law of the land and these deterrents had been in place, Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki and others would never have been subjected to their horrific ordeals.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I recommend that the member visit www.blockthehst.ca, look at the calculator, see what will happen when he puts in his normal expenditures and then try to relate that to seniors. It is a value-added tax and value-added taxes penalize the poor.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I do not have a calculator with me and I will not try to do those figures in my head. This summer, when I went through Ontario and British Columbia, I talked to hundreds of seniors and listened to them. Not a single senior said that he or she wanted an HST. None said that they wanted to have the corporate taxes lowered in their province so they could pay more.

Beyond that and worse than that, seniors are fearful. They are frightened. People need to pause in this place. Tens of thousands of people across the country are terrified of this HST.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I have not seen that document personally. However, we in the province of Ontario have not had the opportunity to see the document either. As a representative from Hamilton in the province of Ontario, I am very concerned that we have to make a decision in this place without having the pertinent information before us.

That is why we called for an extended debate. That is why we proposed an amendment to take this to committee and allow people to understand clearly and fully what they have been asked to accept.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Thunder Bay—Superior North who has been championing the fight against the HST in this place. I am really honoured to have the opportunity to share some time with that good gentleman.

I am going to start with some history. It is kind of appropriate. We all know that Prime Minister Mulroney was the father of the GST. I guess we would have to say that Mr. Chrétien was the handmaiden who delivered the GST ultimately. I was in the 1993 election when we fought against the GST. I recall very clearly the Liberal Party of the day taking the position that it would oppose the GST. Then what did we have? We had the GST.

Later on we can recall that Sheila Copps was the member for Hamilton East at the time. She was a fighter who kept her word in this place. She had given her word that if the GST went forward, she would resign her seat. Ms. Copps did that. She resigned her seat in 1996. I was the person who came second to her in that fight. I will say one thing about the good people of Hamilton East. When they returned Sheila Copps to this place, they did not return her because they were endorsing the GST. They returned her because of her sense of honour and the fact that she had kept her word and resigned. The people respected that.

I want to bring us to the current Conservative government. It is following the tradition. There are two Liberal governments, one in Ontario and one in B.C., pushing ahead with the HST. The government will go down in history as another relative of value added taxes.

Think of it this way. We hear the people on the government side in particular saying that it is not our jurisdiction. If it is not our jurisdiction, if the bill were to be defeated and it did not go ahead, there would not be an HST in B.C. or Ontario. Therefore, it is our responsibility in this place.

I have heard members of the NDP in this place calling across the chamber to people on the government side and the Liberals asking them to join with us in this fight.

In 2005 and 2006 when I ran in the election, one of the things that I said to the good folks in my riding, and I have repeated it here many times because I am proud of it, was that I was going to represent the people to the government instead of representing the government to the people. I say to the members here today, if they are honest about the needs and wants of their constituents, they will know that a high percentage of their constituents do not want the HST.

There is no way to pass this off or hand it to someone else. This is a reality. The government of the day is putting forward $2 billion for B.C. and I understand about $6 billion for Ontario to facilitate this HST move.

We know from information that was given to us earlier today that they were talking about the HST a year ago, prior to both the B.C. and Ontario elections. It is ironic that the Liberal governments that were elected in both of those provinces decided not to share with the people voting for them that they were going to implement the HST.

Why in the world would they not want to share that during an election campaign? The reason might be that they would lose if they had told people that.

If we look at the polls in the province of B.C. today, and if that election were held today, the Liberals in that province who decided to withhold that information from people would be turfed.

I want to get to a more current time. In the summer I was crossing the country talking to seniors, listening to their problems. I recall one place in Hubbards, Nova Scotia where there was a gathering of probably 150 seniors who were out for a good time. There was music playing. People were playing bingo and having a wonderful time at Hubbards barn. We started chatting with them about the problems they were having. Of course taxation was one of their big concerns.

Then I went to B.C. The whole dialogue started to change. There people were completely focused on the HST and the damage it would cause.

In this place, because my critic area is seniors and pensions, I have talked at length about those seniors in Canada who live in poverty. A little under 300,000 people cannot make it through the month now. A majority of them live in B.C. and Ontario. They live in the metropolitan areas and that is where there is the biggest problem.

When I was in Elliot Lake, a woman told me about her hydro bill. It is one of the prime examples I use. This woman was sitting quietly in the gathering and she put up her hand timidly and said, “My hydro bill is $2,100 a year. What am I going to do? Where am I going to get the $160 it will take?” To people in many places who are fully employed, $160 is not a huge amount, but for people who are on fixed incomes, whether it is a pension or long-term disability, they are going to have severe problems because of this change.

In my community of Hamilton East—Stoney Creek a lot of small businesses are very concerned. The Hamilton area has lost tens of thousands of jobs in manufacturing over the last 20 years. Many of those displaced workers are people who are willing to work. They went out and started small businesses in the hope that they could regain the future they felt they lost when they lost their employment. Now they are facing the fear that the small margin their businesses have is going to be eroded by this very unwanted tax.

Prior to coming to this place, I was on the Hamilton Tourism Board. We were in a panic about what impact the changes to the passport legislation in the United States would have particularly in the province of Ontario. A member talked about the tourist industry and hunters who would come to northern Ontario close to the Manitoba border. A person in Ontario might entice people to come to Canada but the neighbouring province of Manitoba does not have the HST. The person in Ontario who is trying to get by all of a sudden has an 8% liability which the people in Manitoba, where there is a good NDP government, do not have to face.

I am very concerned about this. I have been hearing from people in my hometown and other places.

Bob and Nancy live in Hamilton and have a very simple message. They said to please add their names to the list of people objecting to the proposed HST. They said that as seniors, the added tax on heat and hydro alone will be enough to push them over the edge of poverty. I received that message today at 12:58 p.m.

I received one from a young lady named Chantal at 2:22 p.m. today. People are just starting to understand what can happen to them. She said that she and many others do not agree with the 8% increase on taxes. She is a single mother to a beautiful five-year old daughter. Every week she gets paid she only has $20 extra for the week. In referring to this place, she said, “You are making it very difficult to survive in this world. Please, please do not increase the taxes. I don't know what will happen if you do”.

I am sure members from every other party, if they checked with their staff, are receiving emails, letters and telephone calls on this situation and how terribly negative it will be for people. I plead with members to take the time to look at this issue properly and give it consideration for those people on fixed incomes who will not only be damaged, but they will be seriously hurt by the HST.

I call on all members here to do as I mentioned at the outset, to represent their constituents to the government instead of representing the government to their constituents.

[Disposition of an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act, December 7th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the minister will know that members of his own party in the legislature of Ontario have been holding up the legislature. They vehemently oppose this. Also, in the two elections that took place in B.C. and Ontario, neither of those governments raised the point of an increase in taxation to people.

I was on a tour this summer and I went to about 17 communities in B.C. and Ontario. I never found one senior who spoke in favour of an HST. In fact, in Elliot Lake, one woman told me her hydro bill was $2,100 a year and she wondered where she would to get the extra 160-odd dollars. She had no place to turn.

The minister says that it will not affect the federal revenues, and I take him at his word. However, spending $6 billion is going to affect the bottom line, $6 billion as an incentive for people to sign on to this. I think it is repugnant.

[Committees of the House, December 3rd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the member for bringing this motion forward today. It is a crucially important issue for the Canadian people. Canadians will tell us absolutely that torture in any form, or any support thereof, is repugnant to them.

What is really and truly amazing is that Canada has still not signed on to the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, even though Canada took a lead role in getting it into place. I think most Canadians would be amazed to hear that, because their assumption is that Canada would stand against torture in all forms.

We have the situation that the member has indicated and Mr. Iacobucci and Mr. O'Connor's reports are very clear on that.

Is the member aware of any process or institution within government whose role it is to ensure that reports like Mr. Iacobucci's or Mr. O'Connor's come into effect?

I want to add that in the case of Hussein Celil, it was the members of the opposition who did more on that case than the government ever did. In fact, this member was in Beijing, along with members from the other side, trying to arrange for the release of Mr. Celil.

[Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, December 3rd, 2009]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-487, An Act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and another Act in consequence (health-related benefit plans).

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Winnipeg North for her dedication to people with disabilities and for her support here today.

As the title of the bill says, this bill proposes to amend the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, so that in the event a company goes into restructuring proceedings or bankruptcy, long-term disability plans as well as other health-related insurance plans go to the head of the line of preferred creditors to be paid out of an employer's assets.

In the debacle that has been Nortel, we have seen that company with assets in the billions of dollars take the decision not to fund the LTD. This is a disgraceful place that we find ourselves in Canada.

The NDP has done the footwork on this bill and we have tabled this bill in the House today to show the way for the government. We call upon the government and all opposition members to stand with us on this bill, do the right thing, move it forward, and pass it as soon as possible.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Petitions, November 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I present a petition which states that the Conservative Party in 2006 promised to establish an independent judicial inquiry to determine the cause of the collapse of the sockeye salmon fishery.

There are literally hundreds of people who have signed this petition. As we have heard today, many petitions on this subject are being presented by our party.