Civil Marriage Act  A fair number work in manufacturing. I am confident that the people I represent are honest, good, hard-working Canadians who believe in family and in their community. As a candidate prior to being elected to the 37th Parliament in November 2000, I made the commitment to my constituents that before voting on any change to the traditional definition of marriage I would consult with the community and I would allow their opinion to weigh heavily on my position.

Budget Implementation Act, 2005  Tax freedom day for Canadians does not happen until sometime in July. It is unacceptable to think that every single hard-working Canadian working today is working for the government. Right now, for anybody off laying highway in rural Saskatchewan, about to get ready to start seeding or working any number of jobs, their paycheque is going to the government.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  What kind of registry did we get? Rifles and shotguns. This is a perfect example of going after law-abiding, hard-working Canadians and making sure they are doing their job. In 2004 we still do not have a national registry of these offenders who affect the security and the safety of our children. This is another dismal failure.

Supply  We know that organized crime is increasingly profitable and increasingly costly for hard-working Canadians who face higher taxes and insurance premiums as a result of these activities. As someone who has been a registered insurance broker for the past 25 years, I know well the impact of claims on Canadians, on individuals, business people, and indeed, even on not for profit community organizations.

The Budget  We have to move away from rewarding wealth and back to rewarding work in the country. It is time to reward hard-working Canadians for the years of sacrifice they have made. Instead the government delivered a budget of which the Conservatives are proud. The Liberals delivered $4.9 billion in corporate tax cuts.

Canadian Livestock Industry  We are rising in the House this evening to yet again examine the failure of the government to protect the interests of hard-working Canadians. It is truly unfortunate that we need to be in this position. I am sure that each and every hon. member would like nothing better than the prosperity of the cattle and dairy industry, but the border with the United States remains shut tight as a drum.

The Budget  As a newly elected member of Parliament, this is the first budget process I have witnessed and it is impressive to see the balance the finance minister has struck between tax cuts for hard-working Canadians, the creation of opportunities for small and medium sized businesses and investments in visionary social programs. Allow me to address several budgetary items that I am certain will be of specific interest and relevance to my constituents in Etobicoke Centre.

Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act  We have to ensure, as she quite rightly said, that we improve the accountability of the system to ensure that we get the best value for the taxpayers' dollars. I remind her that there is only one payer: the hard-working Canadians who pay taxes. How do we accomplish that? What the government has tried to do and is doing is to come out with the bill, an element of which is how we will work with the provinces to put in that accountability so that we do get the best dollar value for Canadians.

Trade  Speaker, I find it absolutely shocking that the trade minister yesterday said he would not weep for Canadian jobs lost to cheap labour markets in China and India. Essentially what the minister has said is that he does not care about the hard-working Canadian men and women who might lose their jobs because the government has not shown enough leadership to ensure that the jobs stay here in the first place. What is the minister going to do to keep jobs here in Canada and create new jobs here in Canada?

Budget Implementation Act, 2004, No. 2  It talks about tax reduction and makes some tax reductions on the one hand, but on the other hand it increases taxes and the take increases every year. Every year the tax take of the government from hard-working Canadian families increases. It has to end. It has to be slowed down and reversed. We can start with a tax reduction to low and middle income families. We are in the House today looking at the budget implementation bill for the 2004 budget.

Equalization  The Liberal government's tax and spend policies and the gross waste and mismanagement of the last decade have contributed to the cash shortage, and it is particularly hard on low and middle income families who are paying the price. It is time to put money back into the hands of the hard-working Canadians who earned it.

Finance  The Conservative Party remains open to supporting budget 2005 if it contains an immediate pay hike for hard-working Canadians through a program of lower taxes, a longer term standard of living strategy to ensure that social programs are adequately funded during the upcoming demographic crunch and the funding necessary to bring Canada's military to a more effective level.

Finance  Specifically the throne speech amendments, which government MPs voted to support, called for tax cuts for hard-working Canadians. If the government intends to honour this three month old pledge, we should expect to see substantive tax cuts in the upcoming budget. In Mackenzie, B.C. for example, a small community in my riding, a remote northern town where the cost of living is considerably higher than most other communities, residents might expect to see at long last the reinstatement of their northern residents tax deduction.

Budget Implementation Act, 2004, No. 2  If they put the money back in the pockets of low and middle income Canadians, if they gave hard-working Canadians a little more disposable income, gave them some freedom and choices as to how to spend that money, the economy would rise, Canadians would be better off, there would be jobs for people.

Main Estimates, 2004-05  When the Governor General took 59 of her friends and colleagues from the arts community to circumnavigate the globe, a trip which was exorbitant by any standard, costing over $5 million to the Canadian taxpayer, there was a price to pay for that. That price to pay is coming from the pockets of hard-working Canadian taxpayers. To that end a very strong message is being sent, a strong message that addresses concerns that the Prime Minister used to hold over the democratic deficit, concerns that Canadians should have over the way in which the government and the Governor General have spent their money.