Government Spending  Today's action is another example of our efforts to eliminate waste, to ensure the government lives within its means and to keep taxes low for hard-working Canadian families.

Pensions  Once that occurs, it would seem that employee pension plans are inadequately protected under Canadian law. The real life result is that thousands of hard-working Canadians, like the 17,000 former employees of Nortel, are being cast to the wolves and the government seems content to watch the carnage. In fact, last week one witness at the industry committee suggested that Nortel employees can expect to take a “haircut at the neck” when it comes to their pensions.

Retirement Income Bill of Rights  As I say, although we might not all agree on the exact specific solutions, I would think that we are all working for the same goal, which is helping to ensure a secure and dignified retirement for hard-working Canadians. Through numerous cross-country consultations I have talked to many Canadians and heard too many challenging personal stories not to realize that this is an issue too important to get wrong.

Taxation  Speaker, the Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition continues to make reckless and uncosted spending promises, reckless spending promises like a 45-day work year. Who would pay for reckless Liberal spending? Hard-working Canadian taxpayers, that is who. Canadian families would be forced to send more and more of their money to fund Liberal schemes and bloated government. It is no wonder the Liberal leader calls himself a tax and spend Liberal and publicly demands that federal taxes must go up.

Finance  He has had no problem finding new money for his pet projects: $16 billion in untendered fighter jet contracts; $13 billion to build prisons for unreported crimes; and $6 billion for additional corporate tax cuts. However, for hard-working Canadians and cash-strapped municipalities, the finance minister says that there is nothing left. That is simply not good enough. The innocent victims of this recession who have lost their jobs, lost their EI and lost their retirement savings cannot tighten their belts any further.

Tax Conventions Implementation Act, 2010  Without a doubt, parliamentarians and Canadians are strongly opposed to tax evasion. We all know that tax evasion by some only punishes honest, hard-working Canadians and job-creating businesses. This is simply not fair. To detect and deter tax evasion, we need to work with and share information with our international partners. That is why Canada participates in international tax information exchange agreements and encourages countries to do so, as demonstrated in Bill S-3 here today.

Finance committee  However, you can make one positive step in the right direction today. You can protect the hard-working Canadians that build the companies and wealth in this country by amending the CCAA and BIA, and by taking steps to ensure that the Canadian estate is protected from international insolvencies.

Industry committee  I fully believe the federal government is legally able to make the CCAA and BIA amendments retroactive to all proceedings commenced prior to the implementation of an amendment in order to protect unpaid severance and unfunded pension owed for hard-working Canadians. Unpaid severance and underfunding of my pension denies me the ability to save for my own retirement. Loss of severance means reduced retirement savings, reduced immediate savings, and a significant loss to the overall economy due to gaps and lack of process to protect employees in the existing BIA and CCAA legislation.

Free Public Transit for Seniors Act  Eventually someone is going to have to pay for those freewheeling Liberal spending plans. Make no mistake that someone is going to have to and that would be hard-working Canadian taxpayers. Already the Liberals happily admit that Canadian job creators would have to foot the bill for the first wave of their endless laundry list. What will the Liberal attack on job creators mean for Canada's economy and the everyday Canadian?

Employment Insurance  Not only would it reward criminals, it would also increase EI premiums paid by law-abiding citizens, hard-working Canadians, and their employers to pay for the care of youth criminals. This is unjust, and it is offensive to real victims and their families. We will only support bills that support the victims of crime, not the criminals who terrorize those victims.

Bill C-343  Unlike the coalition, our government will continue to stand up for victims and for hard-working Canadian families.

Industry committee  I ask all members of this committee who have thus far worked so cooperatively with me on this bill to continue to do so and to exercise our unique powers to ensure that such an injustice is never faced by a hard-working Canadian again. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  The government is legally able to make the CCAA and BIA amendments retroactive to all proceedings that began prior to the implementation of the amendment. It is paramount to protect hard-working Canadians. Bill C-501 needs to be implemented to apply to all current CCAA and BIA proceedings, including any settlement agreement that is put into force before the final plans have been sanctioned.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Unfortunately, I will not have the opportunity today to go into detail again about what a profoundly negative impact it will have on seniors and hard-working Canadians. Let me just reiterate some of the key points, though, that I raised last month. Budgets are always about choices. The Conservative government chose to help its wealthy friends.

Sustaining Canada's Economic Recovery Act  The Conservatives imminent $13 billion unemployment insurance tax hike will cost another 200,000 jobs and hard-working Canadian families hundreds of dollars. The $156 billion of new debt that the Conservatives plan to borrow between 2009 and 2014 will cost taxpayers $10 billion in interest payments each and every year for decades to come.