Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to take this opportunity to correct my colleague on the other side of the House, the Minister of State for Science and Technology. He mentioned that his riding had received good financial assistance from the federal government to help the automoti

Resumption and Continuation of Postal Services Legislation  Madam Speaker, the bill seems to be completely focused on the employer. A number of my colleagues have mentioned the fact that the wage increases imposed in the bill were lower than what the employer was offering. If the government wanted to legislate employees back to work, it c

Resumption and Continuation of Postal Services Legislation  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his question. I do not know whether he really heard what I said today. I already mentioned that the union itself was prepared to deliver emergency services. Throughout the bargaining process, the union has shown itself to be t

Resumption and Continuation of Postal Services Legislation  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Dartmouth—Cole Harbour for his quite pertinent question. I completely agree with his suggestion. In negotiations between two parties, there must be good faith for the parties to come to an agreement. When one party already knows that, in th

Resumption and Continuation of Postal Services Legislation  Mr. Speaker, the issue of orphan clauses is surfacing more and more in the context of negotiations and labour relations. Obviously, employers want payroll expenses to decrease. That is difficult to achieve with the existing rights of current employees. Therefore, they are trying

Resumption and Continuation of Postal Services Legislation  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his question. In fact, I think this is a key issue because this argument comes up often. I have a lot of respect for the argument brought up by your constituent. However, I think that it misses the point. A divergence of vi

Resumption and Continuation of Postal Services Legislation  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I am not here to answer hypothetical questions. We have a bill that the government is trying to ram down our throats. That is what we are currently discussing and what must be discussed. We could have talked about a bill intro

Resumption and Continuation of Postal Services Legislation  Mr. Speaker, I have been here since this morning, listening to both sides of the debate. It has become very clear to me at this time that some people, particularly on the other side of the House, probably need to take a course on labour relations. What I am hearing right now is t

Employment  Mr. Speaker, this government obviously does not understand the extent of the problem of the lack of jobs for the youth of this country. With an unemployment rate of 15% for youth between the ages of 20 and 25, all those who need summer jobs to pay for their education are worried.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question. I have worked in health care and health care public policy. Funding through cash transfers is allowed and has been the federal government's policy. This allows accountability regarding federal spending. Tax points are anot

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague from Gatineau. It is indeed a very relevant question. We do not necessarily need to limit our discussion to this budget; we could talk about all of the budgets presented by this government since it was first elected in 2006.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, first, I am pleased to announce that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Beauharnois—Salaberry. I want to take this first opportunity I have to thank the people of Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques for the confidence they have shown in me. It

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General explained today in her report that the state of the first nations reserves is at a point of no return. If a reserve has a serious mould problem threatening the health of the community, what does the government do? It sends a pamphlet. Such absur

Regional Development  Mr. Speaker, as members know, the Conservatives' slogan throughout the election campaign was “Our region in power”. Like many constituents in my region, I am very disappointed. When we look at the government's plan, we see that the regions of Quebec are not a real priority for t