Taxpayer Bill of Rights  Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the question allowing me to continue in somewhat the same vein as in response to the previous question. Yes, we have asked the committee to study and report back on this issue and find ways to address the objectives. One of the objectives is to ensure that the office of the ombudsman has sufficient powers to help protect Canadian taxpayers.

Taxpayer Bill of Rights  Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Yukon for what sounded like support for the intent of this motion, which really ought to appeal to all of us as parliamentarians. To answer his questions, certainly one would think that, if a court ruling is made, that should be the end of it and there would be no further direction required.

Taxpayer Bill of Rights  moved: That the Standing Committee on Finance be instructed to undertake a study to prepare and bring in a bill, and to report to the House on: (a) the steps necessary to establish an enforceable duty of care between the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and individual taxpayers; (b) the steps necessary to make the provisions of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights legally enforceable, such as by amending the Canada Revenue Agency Act to establish a duty of care owed by the employees of CRA to the taxpayer when performing duties and functions under all revenue related law, with the standard of care being defined as the rights contained in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights; (c) the steps necessary to amend the Taxpayer Bill of Rights with the following changes, (i) in Right 4, add the requirement that CRA take reasonable and necessary steps to avoid frivolous, vexatious, malicious, and/or grossly negligent actions toward taxpayers, (ii) in Right 8, add the requirement that information provided by CRA via any means, including but not limited to correspondence, telephone calls, and its website, be accurate, reliable, and in compliance with all applicable revenue law, and add the requirement that information provided by CRA to taxpayers by telephone be followed, within a reasonable time, by the same advice in writing, (iii) in Right 9, add the requirement that complaints about CRA’s service be addressed in a timely manner, add investigation and enforcement powers to the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman, including the power to dispense remedies to make a taxpayer whole in relation to the standard of care set out in the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, (iv) or, if the changes mentioned in (i), (ii), and (iii) are not possible, to add the additional rights mentioned in subsections (i), (ii), and (iii), as new rights; (d) the steps necessary to empower the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman to direct compliance with Tax Court rulings or formal decisions on specific cases; and (e) the steps necessary to impose reasonable limits on the rights forming the standard of care and duty of care created by the sections above; and, that the Committee report to the House no later than December 15, 2017, provided that in its report, the Committee shall recommend the principles, scope and general provisions of the said bill and may include recommendations regarding legislative wording; and, that the tabling of a report pursuant to this order shall be an order to bring in a bill based thereon; and when the Member for Calgary Rocky Ridge, in proposing a motion for first reading of a bill, states that the bill is in response to the recommendations contained in a report pursuant to this order, the second reading and subsequent stages of the bill shall be considered under Private Members' Business and the bill shall be placed immediately at the bottom of the Order of Precedence of Private Members' Business as a votable item in the name of the Member for Calgary Rocky Ridge.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I do not think the budget is likely to be unanimously approved. In fact, I know that it will not be, or I think it is very unlikely that it will be unanimously supported in this House, in part because it breaks a number of commitments that were made by the Liberal Party during the last election campaign.

The Budget  Madam Speaker, the member raises an important point. It is true that when our government was in office, we announced and approved projects that were unable to be completed. Yet, I am not sure what more our previous government could have done in some cases. When a municipality requests funding for a project and that funding is approved and when the project is not built, I am not certain how to be accountable for some of the management or issues at the local level that has prevented a project from being completed.

The Budget  Madam Speaker, I would reiterate that the budget in total represents, for the most part, a litany of broken promises from the campaign. The hon. member across no doubt campaigned on the Liberal platform, which included a promise of a maximum deficit of $10 billion. I do not doubt the member, in door-to-door conversations, defended this promise and assured the voters of her constituency that the Liberals would not exceed a $10 billion deficit.

The Budget  Madam Speaker, the new Liberal government promised greater transparency, economic responsibility, and growth for the middle class. While these are laudable goals that those on the Conservative benches certainly share, budget 2016 falls far short of these aspirations. Despite aiming to boost GDP growth, budget 2016 introduces measures which are either unrelated to growth or actually hinder growth.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Calgary Shepard for his presentation. I very much enjoyed the allegory and the way he colourfully expressed the shortcomings of budget 2016. It was an excellent presentation. At the very end of his presentation, he mentioned the difficulties around the challenges when we get into structural deficit.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government needs to have more respect for Canadians and more respect for democracy. Recent polling shows us that two-thirds of Canadians expect a referendum to be held if the government wants to change the way MPs are elected. Canadians want a referendum, and they deserve one.

Canada Labour Code  Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for helping me understand this more clearly, because I found the debate around this issue very confusing. We repeatedly hear from the other side that, for some reason, there is something sinister or wrong with democratically elected members passing a bill and that somehow it is wrong or unfair to workers to leave them alone with their conscience when they make a decision.

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, on December 11, the Minister of Finance announced changes to the rules on insured mortgages to address what he has since called pockets of concern in the housing market, by which we presume he is referring to Toronto and especially Vancouver. However, the CIBC chief economist has pointed out that these changes will have almost no effect on Canada's hottest markets.

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, the member has obviously spent quite a bit of time thinking about this issue. I am hoping that she might be able to help me understand this debate a bit better. I have found much of the debate in the House on this issue to be very confusing, because I keep hearing from the other parties that somehow a secret ballot is an unfair way for workers to decide if they want to join a union or not be part of one.

Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, today is Groundhog Day, and while some Canadians look for shadows, many others feel like Bill Murray in the movie of the same name. Last night, the Liberals voted against energy east, an infrastructure project which would grow our energy sector and create jobs across Canada.

Finance  Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, the Minister of Finance started fiddling with the mortgage rules because he was concerned that too many Canadians would be tempted to borrow money now while interest rates were low. Could the minister explain why he thinks low interest rates make it a dangerous time for Canadians to buy homes for their families, but a great time for Liberals to borrow all they want to fund their out-of-control spending?

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I am concerned that the new Prime Minister has already done additional damage to our reputation by making one of his first acts as our Prime Minister the announcement of the withdrawal of our armed forces from the conflict with ISIS. He is cutting against the grain of the rest of our alliance.