Ethics  Mr. Speaker, as I said a few days ago, the member immediately realized that his comments were unacceptable and apologized for them.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, as I said, the member immediately recognized that his comments were unacceptable and he has apologized.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, internal and external assessments determined that the organization in question was not eligible for the requested subsidy, regardless of the lobbying done by Patrick Brazeau. We respect the taxpayers' money. We control spending so we can keep taxes low, reduce them and balance the budget.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, an external and internal assessment showed that the Centre Jean Bosco did not merit a grant of this nature. The NDP, of course, would fund anything even if there are objective assessments that demonstrate that the recipient was not meriting the dollars in question.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, that is not true. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has said that our tax cuts have helped all Canadians, particularly middle-class Canadians and Canadians living below the poverty line. Even proportionately, middle-class families and people living in poverty are the ones who have benefited from our tax cuts.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is good to see the member in the House in good form. The reality is that Canada, under this government, has by far the lowest debt as a share of our economy of any country in the G7. In fact, our debt to our GDP is about 33%. The second place country is Germany, which is around 50%.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hard-working parliamentary secretary for his excellent work on behalf of Canadians. Our tax code was fundamentally unfair until we fixed it. While farmers, small businesses, seniors and even divorced couples have been allowed to split their incomes for decades, salaried couples with a single income have not been allowed to do that until now.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the best way to improve families' income and quality of life is to reduce the taxes they are paying. That will give them more income. However, the New Democrats and the Liberals want to raise taxes. That will lower the income of middle-class families and families living below the poverty line.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I will tell the member how it is going to help. A family with a single income of $60,000 will save $1,600 from our family tax cut, which is income splitting and an increased universal child care benefit. That is how it is going to help. It is going to put $1,600 back in that family's pockets.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address this House on the aspirations of working-class families and building an economy where people who are struggling move into the middle class, and the middle class gets ahead. Members of the high-tax parties believe that governments must run the lives and spend the money of struggling families, that they can reduce poverty by taking money from working families and spending it for them.

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, the allocation of staff is being timed to coincide with the peak seasons around summer and winter. I can say now that we have increased efficiency in processing EI claims by 42% over the last 10 years. Two-thirds of claims are now wholly or partially automated, and the majority of claimants are now paid within 28 days of being approved for the claim.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, the member has apologized.

Citizenship and Immigration  Mr. Speaker, the member immediately recognized that the comments were unacceptable. He apologized. We speak about the broader job market. The reality is we have a good-news story that there are 1.2 million net new jobs: 85% full-time, 80% in the private sector, two-thirds in high-wage industries.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, the facts show the opposite. The median net income of Canadian families has increased by 44% from 2005 values, when the Liberals were in power. Disposable income after tax and inflation has risen by 10% across all income levels since 2006, most of all among the poorest families.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, low taxes and more jobs are our priority and it is working. We have 1.2 million net new jobs since the bottom of the recession: 85% of those jobs are full-time; 80% are in the private sector; almost two-thirds are in high-wage industries. At the same time, incomes have gone up.