Housing  Speaker, maybe the parliamentary secretary should read his own government estimates because the bottom line is that the Conservatives are not helping middle-class Canadians. In Vancouver the average price of a two-storey home is a million bucks. That is 10% higher than last year. Prices have also jumped close to 10% in Regina, Halifax and St. John's.

Business of Supply  Those appear to be the main items, certainly the biggest spending items, on its agenda. The Liberal Party suggests that as we come out of recession, as a lot of middle-class Canadian families are struggling with the highest level ever of household debt, that it is time to give those middle-income families the priority, the attention and the break. After all, the large corporate sector in the country has already had a 35% tax cut.

Taxation  When will the Prime Minister listen to Canadians, reverse those corporate tax cuts, and give middle-class Canadians a break instead?

Business of Supply  But our immediate economic priorities start and end with reducing the tax burden on middle-class Canadian families because they are facing ever-growing demands in terms of caring for family members, pensions, post-secondary education and sustained employability. After five years under the Conservatives, the situation of Canadian families has not improved in any way, and $21 billion for the untendered purchase of stealth fighter planes, megaprisons and tax cuts for big corporations will certainly not bring them any relief.

Pensions  Why will the Prime Minister not drop his long-standing opposition to the CPP and help middle-class Canadian families?

Pensions  Why does this government line up behind banks and insurance companies and never behind ordinary middle class Canadian families?

Pensions  When will the Prime Minister stop lining up behind banks and insurance companies and start lining up behind middle-class Canadian families who need security in retirement?

Post-Secondary Education  Speaker, nearly 80% of Canadian families say that they are not sure whether they will be able to afford post-secondary education for their kids. The government has done nothing to help those middle-class Canadian families. Instead, it borrowed $6 billion on top of a $56 billion deficit to lower taxes for the most profitable corporations in the country. Will the Prime Minister explain why he is borrowing from our kids instead of investing in their education?

Sustaining Canada's Economic Recovery Act  Corporate CEOs are laughing all the way to the bank. Again, that comes at the expense of the community economy. That is why middle class Canadians are earning less under the Conservatives, even less than they were 20 years ago. It is because we have a misdirection of what should be the economic priorities of this country.

Business of Supply  If the taxpayers could save $3.2 billion on this procurement, that would go a long way to helping hard-pressed middle class Canadian families to cope with making ends meet. Liberals argue very strongly that a competitive process is good. Furthermore, the government has not even specified the requirements.

Sustaining Canada's Economic Recovery Act  That is why a couple of weeks ago the Liberal Party presented an economic plan that will reduce the economic pressures facing middle-class Canadian families. Canadians have a choice between our economic track record of fiscal responsibility and a plan to make strategic investments and lasting economic legacies, or the Conservatives who spent Canada into deficit before the recession and want to waste billions more on prisons, untendered stealth fighters and tax breaks for the largest corporations.

International Trade committee  Whether you're talking about Israel, Chile, Costa Rica, we've done it time and time again. So obviously something is not working with our trade strategy. Most middle-class Canadians are earning less, and our exports, the markets we signed these bilaterals with, go down. So I'm wondering, in terms of the people you represent, whether you've seen an increase in exports for bilateral markets, at least in your industry.

House debate  It is a borrow-and-spend government. I think it is time the government did something for middle class Canadians, for Canadians who want to care for their aging parents, something along the lines that the Liberal leader has asked for.

Sustaining Canada's Economic Recovery Act  In my view, the budget that the government has brought forward does not do enough to help people who need help the most. Middle-class Canadians and low-income Canadians who, in most cases, through no fault of their own, need the help of a government. They need a government that will be on their side, that will be in their corner and that will provide assistance to them when they need it.

Serious Time for the Most Serious Crime Act  In the case of the Conservative Party, which is the government and has been the government now for four years and nine months, it has decided that its priorities do not lie with average Canadians, middle class Canadians, poor Canadians, low income earners and aboriginal communities. If those were the government's priorities, it would not now be ready to borrow $6 billion in order to provide tax breaks to the most profitable large corporations, rather than invest in our families that are struggling today to make ends meet, struggling to deal with an aging population or struggling to deal with family members who are either terminally ill or ill with a chronic disease.