Canada Post  Mr. Speaker, you are quite right; this is called question period and not answer period, unfortunately. Along with the NDP, there are now 87 municipalities that have passed resolutions opposing the end of home mail delivery in Canada. Now we have heard that Canada Post will need to rent commercial space in large cities for its mailboxes.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, we now know the date of former senator Mike Duffy's trial. We hope that the trial, which will start in April, will finally shed some light for us on the role of the Prime Minister's Office in this scandal. Rather curiously, at the heart of this fraud and corruption trial one man alone stands accused of receiving a cheque for $90,000.

Resumption of Parliament  Mr. Speaker, as this first week back to Parliament draws to a close, we already have a strong record. The NDP worked for Canadians with proposals on minimum wage, health, pensions and public day care. We cannot say the same about the Liberals. Let us just say that with them, it seemed more like back to school than back to Parliament.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, we will introduce a federal minimum wage, because next year we will form the government. The inequalities have not stopped growing since the Liberals and Conservatives misappropriated the employment insurance fund to balance their budgets on the backs of workers. What this means is that a growing number of people have to use food banks.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is pathetic that the government is giving tax credits to people who do not earn enough to pay taxes. It does not change a thing in their lives. I have two questions. First, is the number of women in Canada who are working full time, yet living under the poverty line, acceptable to the Conservative government?

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I accept my colleague's question. It is a legitimate one. I simply want to remind the member that 94% of the income inequality among Canadians over the last 35 years occurred when Liberal governments were in power. The member should be careful about making implications.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with my colleague. This is a very important point. People cannot make a living or have a family living in Canada on $10 an hour. It is completely irresponsible. An increased minimum wage will help those workers, especially young workers, women, and immigrants in our country.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, let me see if I understand my colleague correctly. She is saying that if there are no consequences for millions of people, then the government does not care and it is not worth the effort. Let those people remain in poverty. Let them earn a minimum wage that does not allow them to pay the rent, go on vacation or buy clothes for their children.

Business of Supply  Yes, Mr. Speaker, that is a fact and it is alarming. We also have a government that just does not care. There is something called the Gini coefficient. I am going to seem smart, but I only learned abut it two years ago. It is a number between 0 and 1. If everyone in Canada has the same income, the Gini coefficient is 0.

Business of Supply  moved: That, in the opinion of the House, the government should reinstate the federal minimum wage and increase it incrementally to $15 per hour over five years. Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by saying that I will have the genuine honour of sharing my time with my colleague from Hamilton East—Stoney Creek.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, I can assure you that I have never given a cheque to a senator. The Conservatives say that they are tough on crime, but not when their friends are involved. I should point out that they just let Mike Tyson into the country, even though he is a convicted rapist. But I digress.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, this infamous $90,000 cheque issued by the Prime Minister's former chief of staff is at the heart of Mike Duffy's trial for fraud and corruption, which gets under way tomorrow. The question on everyone's mind is quite simple. How is it that the guy who received the cheque gets charged, but the one who signed it gets away with it?

Employment  Mr. Speaker, the government is promising us for the 136th time that it is going to solve the problem. The temporary foreign worker program was irresponsibly managed by the Liberals and the Conservatives. The Conservatives have no idea what the local needs are because they gutted Statistics Canada.

Combating Counterfeit Products Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the hon. member for Saint-Jean for his speech. I would also like to point out one part of his speech that may have gone unnoticed. He reminded the House of a famous quote from an animated film: “No stones, no construction. No construction, no palace.

Combating Counterfeit Products Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot for her fine speech and for so kindly agreeing to share her time with me. I would like to come back to my concern about the resources that are not made available to the government to enable it to concretely apply the measures set out in Bill C-8.