Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to present a petition against the closure of the post office located at 4895 Sherbrooke Street, in Westmount. This post office is an important part of the community; many residents of my riding have been using it for decades and would like for it to stay open.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, after creating the largest deficit in Canada's history and running up six consecutive deficits, the government is now going to raise taxes on Canadian families in order to pay for its incompetence. With their 2013 budget, the Conservatives are increasing taxes on almost 1,300 goods that Canadians use on a daily basis.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my hon. colleague what she is telling people in her riding about the fact that by 2015, after seven or possibly eight deficits in a row, there will be over $150 billion of debt added to the national debt. What does she tell her constituents with respect to the national debt?

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague speaks a lot about reducing taxes in certain areas, and everybody is in favour of reducing taxes, particularly when the economy is in a good state and we are in a surplus. However, when we reduce taxes in a deficit situation, there is a downside to doing that.

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, I have a very simple math question for the Minister of the Environment. He keeps falsely claiming that the government is halfway to its 2020 targets on greenhouse gases. Let us do the math. The 2005 level was 731 megatonnes. His target is 607 megatonnes. Halfway to that is 669 megatonnes.

Language Skills Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak about this bill. It seems that everyone supports it, even though the government unfortunately made some amendments to it. It is quite obvious that officers of Parliament must be bilingual. In an ideal world, we would not need a law for this. However, it seems that the Conservatives need such a law because they recently appointed a unilingual Auditor General.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, I agree with what my colleague from Parkdale—High Park said about this government's fiscal incompetence. Unless it manages to balance the budget, in 2015 we will have our eighth consecutive deficit with this government. The Conservatives only balanced the budget in 2006 and 2007 because they inherited a big surplus that we, the Liberals, left them.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, I tried to take the speech seriously, but I had to laugh many times with the government talking about sound fiscal management. How does one equate sound fiscal management with, let us say, in 2015, about $150 billion added to the national debt, with the fact that we have 1.4 million Canadians unemployed, with the fact that 10 of the last 12 trade balances have been deficits in our country?

Canadian Space Program  Mr. Speaker, today, the Bank of Canada unveiled its new $5 and $10 bills. The $5 bill celebrates Canadian space robotics technology. The bill depicts Canada's contribution to the International Space Station: the Canadarm2 robotic arm and Dextre, the two-armed robot. Canadians are proud of the space technology we pioneered both at the National Research Council and in our space industry.

Strengthening Military Justice in the Defence of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the member for Ottawa South said, but I will say that we brought up time and time again at committee the changes and the concerns we expressed today.

Strengthening Military Justice in the Defence of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, what actually happened was a four-hour filibuster. There were 57 changes that were proposed, and no attention was paid to them whatsoever. To pretend in any way that there was a proper debate during this committee, over a period of four hours, is to not recognize the fact that it was one giant filibuster by the government.

Strengthening Military Justice in the Defence of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her comment, and I agree with a lot of what she has expressed. Let me remind everybody of what is particularly troubling about allowing the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff to intervene in an investigation. We all remember what happened with Somalia, and we all remember the fact that, if it had not been for media investigation, there would have been the very serious possibility of a cover-up.

Strengthening Military Justice in the Defence of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to speak to the bill, I guess, in part, because I spent my first career in the military. I always took particular interest in the justice system within the military, realizing it was somewhat different. I am glad to say that I did not have too many encounters with that justice system during my time in the navy.

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, since 2010, the government has increased EI premiums by 8.7% on Canadians. That is equivalent to about $1.8 billion in new taxes on Canadians. With 1.4 million Canadians unemployed, an EI premium is a payroll tax that will discourage job creation and will take more money out of the pockets of hard-working Canadians.

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer told us today that the next seven hikes in EI premiums will result in approximately $4.5 billion in new taxes. What is more, without these new taxes, the government will be unable to balance its budget in 2015. This would be the Conservative government's eighth consecutive deficit.