Gatineau Seniors' Centre  Mr. Speaker, last Monday I was at the Centre des aînés de Gatineau to kick off the programming for its 40th anniversary. This is good news. For the past 40 years, the centre has been meeting the needs of people 50 and over in the areas of engagement, education, support, and socialization.

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, I see we are getting nowhere with respect to resolving our disagreement but, again, I thank the member for his intervention. At the end of the day, this is about getting the right equipment, at the right time, with the right capability, for our men and women, those men and women who protect us in doing their jobs every day.

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his advocacy, which I share, for our men and women in uniform. I appreciate his often thoughtful interventions on the issues of the day. That said, as the great Dave Mason once said, “There ain't no good guys. There ain't no bad guys. There's only you and me and we just disagree.”

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, the Treasury Board Secretariat, TBS, prescribes how performance pay is administered through the directive on the performance management program for executives. The majority of executives are eligible for performance pay, including at-risk pay, in-range increase, and potentially a bonus.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we have very good news for our men and women in uniform, including naval officers. Our government is committed to equipping the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard with the ships they need to serve Canadians. The strategy is a long-term commitment and will bring economic benefits to both coasts of our country, and indeed, to suppliers across this country.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party is putting forward a document today that would have us essentially rewrite the fiscal and economic framework of the government. We know that elections have consequences. What the Liberal Party proposed to Canadians was relief for the middle class, looking after our most vulnerable in the form of the guaranteed income supplement, and looking after our manufacturing and innovative sectors with job training and an ability to grow our businesses in Canada.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the member is suggesting that we are a bit full of ourselves. The fact is that after 10 years of Conservative reign during which we observed the decline of the middle class, after nine deficit years in a row, after disasters like the Phoenix fiasco, and after years and years with no major military acquisitions, Canadians needed real change, and that is precisely what we are delivering.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I tried earlier with my colleague and her party, and I will try again. We saw in the last election that the Conservative Party and the NDP were pretty lined up on fiscal matters. I know that the hon. member would have campaigned very hard on that platform. I would like to give her the opportunity to perhaps stand in her place and explain whether they have done some thinking about their commitment, like the Conservatives, to at all costs balance the federal budget, whatever the costs for middle-class Canadians.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. We are debating a Conservative motion that wants to set out the broad terms of the government's budgetary policy. I am really not very surprised that the NDP seems to agree once more with the Conservative Party's budgetary policy.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, for the first time in 10 years, our soldiers can expect to put out to sea on new vessels and to fly into the skies in new planes. We are very proud to be supplying the Canadian Armed Forces with new equipment. We have begun discussions with our partners in the United States and we will rise to the challenge for our Canadian Armed Forces.

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, I will take what the member suggests under advisement. The IT transformation project, Phoenix, is a complex one. I stress it was compounded by the fact that we inherited a situation where all the compensation advisers, 700 of them, had been let go by the previous government.

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, I thank my honourable colleague. As the member from the National Capital Region representing the riding of Gatineau, I do not have much to add to what my colleague just said. I can only say that we have experienced the same type of situation and the same frustrations over the past year as a result of the implementation of the Phoenix pay system.

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, of course, in Saskatchewan, as elsewhere, resolving the problems that we inherited from the other side in terms of the public service pay problems is our priority. We are obviously working tirelessly with—

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, we are obviously working tirelessly with public servants, their representatives and unions, and other government departments to find and implement solutions to problems as they arise. We are taking measures, such as implementing emergency pay advances, opening temporary satellite offices, and recruiting more than 200 additional compensation advisers, many, of course, who were let go prematurely by the former government.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague opposite for his questions. First, the government clearly stated its intention to move forward with amendments to the Election Act in order to provide better oversight and to better manage a system that works very well and is ethically sound—the benchmark for political party financing in Canada, and indeed the entire western world.