Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise at this austere hour and speak on an issue that I think is of profound importance, not only to the people of this chamber, not only to the women and men who are affected by this legislation at Canada Post, but also to all Canadians who believe in fairness, who believe in human rights, and who want a country where we have a thriving middle class as the backbone of this economy.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  It is not just in Wisconsin, but Ohio, Indiana and Idaho are all attacking workers, using the excuse of austerity. Their real goal is to maximize profits by mistreating workers. The Canada Post Corporation Act does exactly the same thing: a profitable company is saying that it cannot afford to pay new hires.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Guebert, this meeting was supposed to be about austerity and attacking international debt. If the government had put its austerity hat on and its priority was reducing costs, looking at other experiences with other jurisdictions and the possibility of hosting both summits in one location instead of spreading it to two, in your opinion would it have been possible to do this for a lot less money?

Sustaining Canada's Economic Recovery Act  We hear that Portugal, Spain and other countries in the European Union are next in line. They are going through these austerity programs. They are doing today what we did responsibly. Therefore, when the government of today stands and says that we slashed and burned, I want to remind it that the Conservative Harris government of the day and Ralph Klein were doing the same thing.

Government Operations committee  During the deployment for humanitarian relief into Haiti we used Jamaica to put large aircraft, like the C-17, in place, with supplies, water, food aid, medicine, and with individuals, and then we flew a smaller but large transport plane, the C-130 Hercules, into Haiti on austere runways. It is giving us that ability to maximize proximity to a theatre of operations. It was not accurate to report that we were in any way envisioning setting up large, permanent bases in locations throughout the world.

Government Operations committee  We are sharing, in some cases, the projects with Natural Resources Canada on the research and development side. We're looking at recovering some of the austere runways that exist in the north and making them serviceable in the future. So as the environment changes, we'll be there to meet those challenges.

The Economy  But then he plunged Canada into a deficit even before the recession began. All this led us to a historic $100 billion deficit. He talks about austerity in spending, meanwhile his wastefulness and poor fiscal management has driven up government spending by 18%. He therefore made his government the biggest spending government in history.

Industry committee  On that $125,000 that's being transferred from Industry Canada to what seems to be your office, I see part of it going to what I would imagine is IRAP. These are times of austerity, and yet I see $60,000 being transferred to your office. It's actually $65,000 going over. Can you explain why that money is being transferred? Is it no longer needed elsewhere?

National Defence committee  If you do it later, that relates to certification, and it might increase the cost. We also advocated for short gravel runway operation capability; operations using austere airfields; flight into known icing conditions, ground de-icing, anti-icing clearance; a 30-year estimated life expectancy for fixed-wing SAR aircraft based on an average yearly flying rate; ergonomic design of the seating and workspace at the spotters' windows; as well as compliance with relevant civil operating rules, such as access to airspace requiring performance-based navigation, reduced vertical separation minima capability, installation of traffic collision and avoidance, and terrain awareness and warning systems, as well as having a ramp.

National Defence committee  Examples of this include a ramp that can be deployed while airborne to airdrop search and rescue technicians or equipment and the capability for the aircraft to use short gravel runways and to conduct operations from austere airfields and to operate in icy weather conditions. The sixth recommendation is that DND avoid using the term “off the shelf” in the statement of operational requirement, unless the department anticipates that aircraft can be procured in the form in which they are currently produced with no design changes.

Health committee  I know there were lots of tennis courts and rinks and gymnasiums built around the country through it. I guess the question we have, given that we're now in an atmosphere of fiscal austerity in which we're trying to be careful with spending as we leave the recession, is what type of investment you believe is necessary in infrastructure targeted towards recreation. Do you have any idea on the scope of that?

Government Operations committee  You are referring to a government plan on austerity measures?

Government Operations committee  In the 150-page Seventh Report to Canadians on Canada's Economic Action Plan, there is a strategy for Budget 2009, which sets out the distribution of funds for the various programs, provides good analyses examining the economic impact, as well as the impact on jobs. We need to see the same degree of transparency for austerity programs as well, not just for stimulus programs.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the member raises an excellent point. Given that the meetings were about austerity and fiscal restraint and about bringing together the world to talk about how to spend less, what a great opportunity to have them in a location, be it a military base or somewhere else, that would be no-frills, easy to secure, at an extremely low cost.

Business of Supply  It is unbelievable. If the government wants to show austerity and show the world how to spend less money, a good place to start would be to not spend $1 billion on 72 hours of meetings. Canada is running its largest deficit in its history, more than $50 billion.