Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise here today to speak to budget 2013. I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou.
I know the government wants us to vote with it and wants everyone in the House of Commons to agree with it. That is the kind of Conservative government we have right now. It believes it is right about everything, and everyone else is wrong and their ideas are all bad.
Before I begin my speech, I would like to talk about something that worries me. The government wants to offer tax cuts to people who make charitable donations for the first time. It wants to transfer all the work, all the responsibilities of the government, onto people who will do it on a volunteer basis, people who make donations. It is no longer the government that will provide assistance, but rather Canadians, and this will come from a tax cut.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives refuse to recognize that the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, for instance—an $8.8 billion fund that, since its creation 30 years ago, has injected $10 billion into Quebec's economy—has created and safeguarded 500,000 jobs since 1990.
With this fund, governments get their money back in three years. Sixty per cent of the capital is invested in businesses in Quebec and the rest of Canada. There are 2,239 partner businesses. Approximately 200,000 Quebeckers invested in an RRSP for the first time by investing in the fund. We have to consider that.
The 12-month return is 4.7% and the average 10-year return is 10%. The goal of this fund is to assist workers. We should not forget that one of its objectives is to help workers save money for their retirement while creating and saving jobs. It is the best plan Canada has ever had, and the Conservatives are getting rid of it. That is unbelievable.
I wonder what workers or the unions have done to this government for it to hate them so much. There are just two questions, and that is where the problem lies.
I would like to come back to what is happening in my area. Earlier, the member spoke about the Conservatives' tour of the regions. Could she tell me who on the Conservative team went to northeastern New Brunswick to see what is happening to seasonal workers? The fishing industry has collapsed and in the forestry industry, pulp and paper plants in Miramichi, Bathurst and Dalhousie have closed. The Brunswick mine will be closing at the end of the month, with the loss of 800 good jobs.
The government is supposed to be helping people across the country. Instead of helping Canadian workers and those in my region, the Conservatives are eliminating the worker training program. I believe that the parliamentary secretary, or one of the members opposite, let something slip this morning. She said that they had to train people out west. That is why the Conservatives took that money. I am not supposed to use the word “steal”, but the truth is that they took money from the 2013 budget to provide training out west. That is what they want to do.
Who will use that program? One can only imagine. The government will invest up to $5,000 for every worker and the province will have to match $5,000 for that same worker. The employer will also have to put in $5,000. I do not see how small businesses back home will be able to contribute $5,000 an employee. They did not have to do so before, because New Brunswick—much like Quebec and other Canadian provinces—was responsible for training workers in the province.
The government is now saying that it wants to have this money to train workers and send them out west. We can see how open the government is towards Canadian workers.
I will read a job posting from the Service Canada site.
Title: Scaffold erector
Terms of Employment: Temporary, Full Time, Shift, Overtime, Weekend, Day, Night, Evening
Salary: $41.20
That is good money.
Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible
Location: Fort McKay, Alberta (100 vacancies)
Skill Requirements: Education: Not required
Credentials (certificates, licences, memberships, courses, etc.): Not required
Experience: 5 years or more
Languages: Speak English
Further down the job posting:
Other Languages: Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish
No French.
Other Information:This job does not require to speak English. Remote Camp Location--2 hours North of Ft. McMurray.
They say they want to allocate money to train Canadians who will go work in Fort McMurray, but they are not even able to include francophones in the job postings on the Service Canada site.
I remember asking a member, who is here in the House but who I will not name, why francophones who do not speak English are not hired in Fort McMurray.
I remember what he said, “If you want to come to work at Fort McMurray, you better learn how to speak English”.
The member is sitting here today.
If we want to create jobs, we need to invest in infrastructure, for example. Shutting down the VIA Rail line between Moncton and Bathurst will not help create jobs. We need to invest in a much needed airport in northern New Brunswick. That is what the Conservatives should be investing in. They need to provide training.
If we want to do something good for the workers and tradespeople, then agreements need to be established between the provinces. That way, a tradesperson who has completed a course in one province but has not managed to find a job in that province could work in another province, and the class hours could be recognized as hours of work, which is currently not the case.
This type of agreement needs to be negotiated and established between the provinces. Then, when jobs are created in our regions, our people will be trained and can come back home.
Let us come back to the job posting. I can understand why it says that education is not required and that the only requirement is five years of experience. Since people from my region who go there to work as scaffolders are not being offered training, that means that no one is being trained. Even if they did have the training, they would not have five years of experience. So what is the result? Temporary foreign workers are hired to come and work here. That is the excuse Canadian businesses are using to bring foreign workers here and pay them 15% less than Canadian workers. It is cheap labour. That is what that means.
The Conservatives have crucified people in my region by making cuts to employment insurance, seasonal work, the fisheries and the forestry industry. They have not done anything to help New Brunswick's economy. This budget is cutting $4.6 billion in infrastructure over the next four years. Yet the Conservatives are boasting that they are investing in infrastructure. There is a reason why Maurice Martin, a man from the southeastern part of the province, has been on a hunger strike against this government for 17 days.
It is shameful. They never even phoned him. They will never do anything to try to help the people in my region, despite everything that is happening there. I will never vote in favour of their budget, unless they change their way of drafting budget bills. They have nothing to brag about.
The Conservatives are even going to tax people who park in hospital parking lots and students who park at universities. Yet they say that they will not tax people. What planet are they are living on? It is certainly not the same one as the rest of us.
I can guarantee that the Conservatives will never get our vote, because they have caused nothing but misery for the people in my region. There can be a better vision for our country, our workers, and our companies and businesses.
I thank my colleagues for their attention.
