Employment  Mr. Speaker, let us talk about economic growth. Let us look at the figures from the OECD and its economic growth projections for 2012 for industrialized countries. Canada ranks 14th. It gets worse. When we look at the IMF data, economic growth projections for 2012 for all countr

Employment  Mr. Speaker, we cannot protect future generations by taking away their retirement security. There is no leadership here. Even in London, Ontario, labour, businesses and citizens are showing leadership where the government has failed. Mark's Work Wearhouse is giving Caterpillar t

Employment  Mr. Speaker, in the long term Canadian families are going to be a lot worse off under the government. Conservatives gave Caterpillar $5 million. Now the Prime Minister was willing to use the workers as an election prop for his photo op. Now that those same workers are out on the

Pensions  Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development tried to justify spending $30 billion on jet fighter planes by saying that they were needed against foreign invasions. No foreign powers will invade us to scoop our pension system because there will not

Pensions  Mr. Speaker, this year the Conservatives handed out $3 billion in tax gifts to profitable large corporations. What could we do with $3 billion? We could pay old age security benefits for 462,000 Canadians. That is a lot of people. There is enough money for tax gifts for large co

Pensions  Mr. Speaker, Canadians are not mistaken. They know that if they are 40, 50 or 60, this government wants to attack their pensions. At the same time, the Conservatives are providing the oil and gas industries with $2 billion in subsidies a year. That is equivalent to old age securi

Pensions  Mr. Speaker, Canadian are paying their taxes, living by the rules, banking on old age security when they retire and Conservatives are plotting to change the rules. In 2032, the percentage of GDP devoted to OAS will actually be declining, and yet Conservatives are trying to manufa

Pensions  Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are attacking the $540 that seniors are able to receive each month through old age security. This is a bad decision. The Prime Minister appointed 47 senators to the upper house, each of whom will receive a generous retirement pension. That money rep

Pensions  Mr. Speaker, the future is by forcing seniors to work to age 67 and that will take $30,000 away from low-income seniors. The government has a choice. A single F-35 costs $450 million. That would pay OAS benefits for 70,000 Canadian seniors. Its prison plan costs $19 billion. Th

Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act  Mr. Speaker, this is a sad day in the House of Commons, because it is the 14th time that the government has invoked closure. Fourteen times. As a result, the voices of ordinary people from across Canada are not being heard in the House of Commons. As we know, the government even

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of hundreds of residents of British Columbia including throughout the Lower Mainland, and residents of the Edmonton and Calgary areas of Alberta. The petitioners ask the government to look at waiving visa requirements fo

Leif Erikson Day Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-387, An Act to establish Leif Erikson Day. Mr. Speaker, as is well known, Canada has been greatly enriched by the contributions of Canadians who have come from Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. They h

Government Programs  Mr. Speaker, if this continues, it will be Goodbye, Charlie Brown, that is for sure, because this government cares more about CEOs than it does about seniors and families. It has given the gift of additional generous tax cuts to large corporations, which are already raking in hug

Government Programs  Mr. Speaker, the minister is saying that they will do to pensions what they did to Service Canada. The government is choosing to spend billions on a misguided prison agenda and tax giveaways to profitable corporations while planning to cut billions from old age security and the

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Finance said in this House that he is not a magic money fairy. I think the facts disagree. He has Conservative magic money for untendered and expensive F-35 fighter jets that have tripled in cost since the beginning and will now cost about