The Budget  We are faced now, it seems to me, with an increasingly clear alternative: a Conservative government that offers us and Canadians nothing but years of austerity, years of repentance for its own errors. Who got the country into this mess? We have seen this movie before. The previous so-called Progressive Conservatives dropped us into a $42 billion deficit.

The Budget  They are the choices between a party that has had the responsibility of government, two other parties on the other side that have had no responsibility of government at the federal level and a Conservative Party that offers us a dark and endless downward spiral into austerity cuts, freezes and gimmicks.

The Budget  The alternative the Conservatives offer the country is now very clear: year after year of austerity, cuts and freezes. The message they are sending Canadians is equally clear, “You are on your own, Canadians. Your government will not help you”. Our vision in the Liberal Party is clear: using a positive, fiscally responsible vision of government to make Canada the best educated, the healthiest, the greenest and the most international society on earth.

National Defence committee  The problem is, when you land there, where do you go? That's the real issue. It is such an austere area...I would be interested. How many on the committee have seen the north? So then you know what I'm talking about when I say it's austere. The colours of grey and white are all you see for a vast part of the year.

National Defence committee  You do because the men and women of the Canadian Forces have rotated through one of the most difficult and austere environments in the world, into an area where the culture in some cases is very primitive, where your men and women have proven to be among the best trained in the world. Part of it happens even before someone puts on a uniform, because of our Canadian culture.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that is also a reflection of the extent to which aboriginal women are overrepresented in maximum security and in segregation. The most austere and restrictive forms of custody we have for women in this country seem to somehow attract aboriginal women. I'll ask Dr. Zinger to elaborate on the management protocol if you want more detail on how it works.

Transport committee  Bill C-310 was written envisaging the infrastructure that exists in large airports. Unfortunately, in Canada, circumstances in remote, small, and northern airports are more austere, and communications may be unreliable at best. Some small airports don't even have a terminal building. If an airline flying to and from such a location takes a look at the financial risk that Bill C-310 engenders against a smaller return to flying the route, it is possible that the air carrier will not service these locations, or, alternatively, will provide service on a reduced basis.

National Defence committee  This is very important to understand. We support many agencies because of the fact that it is an austere environment that we're working in and they need our assistance, and we often have the capabilities they don't have to work in that environment. From a resources perspective, we have Joint Task Force North, which is located in Yellowknife.

Business of Supply  It leaves us with a government that failed to see a recession was on the way, a government that ignored all of the warnings, a government that squandered Canada's fiscal security before there was a recession, a government that was wilfully blind, still denying the recession even after it arrived, and a government that first tabled a wrong-headed austerity program, not a stimulus plan. It was going in exactly the wrong direction. When it finally and belatedly admitted that a recession was here and that a stimulus plan was necessary, it was slow and clumsy in bringing it forward.

Finance committee  We're an alliance of 24 student associations representing 400,000 university and college students across Canada. Today we want to highlight why education spending in a time of austerity is a crucial investment. To begin, I'd like to provide some context by discussing the OECD's annual education report, which was issued last week. Canadian university attainment has grown for 25- to 34-year-olds, but much more slowly than our peers.

Public Safety committee  The problem with segregation is that it's a 23-hour lock-up in conditions of deprivation, which are the most austere conditions the Correctional Service has. If people are at significant risk of self-harm, you may also put them on suicide watch. You may put them under direct observation. You may increase the frequency of security rounds for the cell they're in.

National Defence committee  But our operations have reached the stage where the deployment of the Canadian Forces in any numbers over strategic distances into an immensely austere environment is an operation. But once we're there, the capacity for us to provide the bedrock, the catalyst, upon which whole-of-government exercises can occur is the whole basis of the thrust in what we're doing.

National Defence committee  While there is no international legal obligation to require the Russian Federation to provide this information, we believe it is in all of our nations' interests to contribute to flight safety, particularly when operating in an environment as austere and difficult as the Arctic region. As commercial traffic increases in the area, all three countries, along with the other Arctic nations, share responsibility for search and rescue activities, as well as a moral obligation to do all we can to protect this fragile environment.

National Defence committee  It will have a jetty and fuel stocks, and then it will develop over time. But right now we're putting in the infrastructure to support that austere environment I talked about earlier. By about 2015 we should see it operational. It will be operational during the periods when it's ice free. So we're not going to have a station commander there—I certainly hope it won't be me—for a 12-month period, but there will be activity during the periods when the port is open.

Budget Implementation Act, 2009  This measure could serve to invalidate the recently agreed collective agreements that secured wage increases above the austerity measures announced in budget 2009. This section also rolls back the RCMP's pay--