Health  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the member would like the minister to interfere, but I am not sure what part of “arms-length organization” he does not understand. The Port of Quebec is an arms-length organization responsible for its own operational decisions and the consequences of that related to the environment.

Health  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Beauport—Limoilou for his question. First of all, I would like to remind the member of the efforts of Transport Canada in monitoring the file related to dust emissions in the Limoilou area. I believe it is important to mention that Transport Canada is working in close co-operation with the Quebec Port Authority, which is responsible for administering, managing and operating on a stand-alone basis the infrastructure under its responsibility.

Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to speak today to Bill C-23, the fair elections act, introduced by the Minister of State for Democratic Reform. Let me start by saying that the fair elections act would ensure everyday citizens are in charge of democracy, by putting special interests on the sidelines and rule-breakers out of business.

Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I am not sure that members opposite understand the current system right now. The commissioner of elections does not lay a charge; it is the Director of Public Prosecutions who lays charges under the Canada Elections Act currently. I would point to a case in 2013, where a Liberal candidate did not file an election return.

Rail Transportation  Mr. Speaker, the member will know that Transport Canada, in 2012, did more than 30,000 inspections on rail safety. Our government has invested over $100 million in our rail safety system. We continue to hire more inspectors as we speak, increase fines for companies found to break our regulations, and create a whistleblower protection that requires each railway to have an executive legally responsible for safety.

Rail Transportation  Mr. Speaker, I have the numbers on rail safety inspections. There are some 30,000—a historic level, I would add—on our rail safety system. There are major investments in our rail safety. Since Lac-Mégantic, as the member referenced that particular tragedy, there have been ongoing actions by the minister, such as new sharing of information with municipality directives, proper classification and better classification of what is travelling by rail, new recommendations to the minister on emergency response action plans for flammable goods, and the list goes on and on.

Rail Transportation  Mr. Speaker, the member will know that this was a business decision made by a private company, CN. There is a regulatory process in place, which the company is currently following. While the discontinuance process is under way, CN is responsible for maintaining its track infrastructure.

Rail Transportation  Mr. Speaker, apparently the member opposite does not know that Halifax is on the coast and the Ocean line continues to run from Halifax to Montreal and to points well beyond that. When it comes to VIA Rail and support for VIA Rail, we have invested $1 billion since 2007 in capital investments and $275 million across the network in 2013.

Rail Transportation  Mr. Speaker, there is so much misinformation and so little time to correct it. Suffice it to say, contrary to what the member said, the government does not cut any track. He should ask VIA who will assess it and make its independent decisions on this matter. While we are at it, the government has invested heavily in passenger rail in recent years, including providing $275 million in 2012-13 for VIA Rail to operate its network, and nearly $1 billion in capital funding since 2007.

Rail Transportation  Mr. Speaker, our government makes significant investments in VIA Rail from Atlantic Canada, right across to western Canada, and the member consistently votes against them. The Government of Canada provides VIA Rail, a crown corporation that operates independent of the government, with significant funding to provide passenger rail services to Canadians.

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, the member, of course, neglected to say that in that same example, the person still gets his EI benefit as well. Again, not one single person in Prince Edward Island has had to move out of the province to qualify for employment insurance. Claimants are only expected to look for work within their own communities.

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, I am happy to speak today to correct the misinformation the member for Malpeque has been speaking about regarding the employment insurance program. In fact, I think if he checks the blues from just a few minutes ago, the member said that it was not about qualifying for EI then turned around and said that it was about qualifying for EI.

Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for zeroing in particularly on the issue of political loans. I hope the current member for Westmount—Ville-Marie is not only listening but will also be supporting the bill precisely because it will address this particular issue. To the question of enforcement that came up earlier, we do not let Parliament act as the enforcement mechanism for law.

Fair Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I think the time for debating the closure motion was earlier. He might want to actually debate the bill in front of us.

Canada Post  Mr. Speaker, in the first nine months of 2013, mail volumes declined by 184 million pieces compared to the same period in 2012. This trend has been ongoing since 2006 when Canada Post delivered one billion more letters than it did in 2012. This, I repeat, is placing a huge strain on the corporation's finances, which ultimately will become the financial burden for hard-working Canadian taxpayers unless action is taken.