Taxation  Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign, the Liberal Party promised to “...immediately reinstate the tax credit [for labour-sponsored funds] in full.” Unfortunately, that is not mentioned anywhere in the Minister of Finance's plan. If nothing is done by January 1, yet another cut will have a devastating effect on these funds, which create thousands of jobs in Quebec.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his first speech in the House. I would just like him to say a few words about the Liberal government's tax plan. The Liberals made some big promises, but unfortunately we have learned that 70% of Canadians will not benefit from the tax cuts promised by the Liberals.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech and thank him for it. Throne speeches are always an interesting read because of all the things they include. They are also interesting because of the things they leave out. The new Liberal government's throne speech left a few things out, including three words, two concepts: “social housing” and “poverty”.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my Conservative colleague on his first speech in the House of Commons. Congratulations. It was an excellent speech. I also want to take a moment to thank the people of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie for putting their trust in me a second time. It is a great honour.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I see that the hon. member for Louis-Saint-Laurent has brought to the House of Commons the same legendary passion and energy he had the National Assembly. I would like to talk to him about something important to me that was missing from the Speech from the Throne, and that is the fight against poverty in Quebec and Canada.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, bring it on, anytime. The Prime Minister's Office is embroiled and involved in the scandals surrounding Senator Mike Duffy. Yesterday, an RCMP expert explained how the PMO arranged to repay Senator Duffy's $90,000 in expenses. It was a scheme, a scam, a ploy to try to cover up an affair that the government was determined to hide from Canadians, and taxpayers are disgusted with it.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, I am quite confident that the taxpayer will trust an honest government, an NDP government. That is real change, and it is coming. Ten years ago, the Prime Minister told everyone that he would clean House in Ottawa after the Liberal scandal, but now he is even worse than the Liberals.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, breaking election laws has become basically an automatic reflex for the Conservatives. The in and out scandal, the misleading robocalls, Dean Del Mastro and Peter Penashue, come to mind, just to name a few. They had to add another layer to their electoral “deform”, which will make it even harder to vote.

Justice  Mr. Speaker, there are just a few days left in this session, but the Conservatives are rushing to introduce a slew of bills that will never be passed or debated. This is nothing but a charade. They know full well that these bills will not pass, but that matters little to them.

The Senate  Mr. Speaker, the Senate is expensive enough as it is without adding temporary offices that are going to cost taxpayers $13.5 million, or maybe $24.5 million; it is not clear. Even $1 would be too much to spend so that corrupt senators do not have to walk an extra block to get to work.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, it is such a delight when the best attack one's adversary can dish out is nothing but a dud. The Senate is just another broken and empty Conservative promise. The Senate is fraught with scandal, and the Conservatives' solution is to allow senators to self-inspect.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, when he was a member of the opposition, the Prime Minister stated loud and clear that he would reform the Senate and clean house. Once he came to power, he did exactly what the Liberals did. He appointed his cronies, who, according to the Auditor General, could not care less about wasting taxpayers' money: business class travel, fishing trips, golf games, hockey tickets, the list goes on.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, welcome to Absurdistan. The Conservatives would have us believe that the Prime Minister personally appointed Senator Housakos to the speakership of the Senate without ever asking him a single question about his expenses or how he planned to handle the breaking scandal.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, the people deserve the truth, and they deserve answers from their government. The Auditor General's report made it clear that the Senate is corrupt. It is clearly too far gone for us to help. We need changes right away for sure, but we also need an independent oversight body.

Workers and the Middle Class  Mr. Speaker, while thousands of good jobs are disappearing and people have record levels of debt, the NDP will always be on the side of workers and middle-class families. We have solutions: make life more affordable and create good green jobs in an economy focused on renewable energy.