The Economy  That plan includes a historic investment in infrastructure and helping to reduce the burden for middle-class Canadians. We will grow the economy and create jobs.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  On a personal level, although my background is associated with academic life and institutions, there is an area of my life that is grounded in the reality of middle-class Canadians. I do not know if I can tell you much more about this. I do not think the rest would interest you. Hobbies do not seem to be relevant to carrying out my duties in this board.

Manufacturing Industry  We are going to be making investments not only in manufacturing but in infrastructure, helping those who want to join the middle class and helping reduce the burden on middle-class Canadians. We are going to put forward a growth agenda, an innovation agenda, that will help all sectors in the economy, including manufacturing.

The Economy  Speaker, in last October's election campaign, we highlighted that we saw clearly that what Canada needed was investment and growth and that, for 10 years, the previous government was unable to create the kinds of opportunities and growth that middle-class Canadians and those working hard to join the middle class truly needed. That is why we put forward a plan to invest in our communities, to support the middle class and those working hard to join it, and to create the kind of growth that Canada has too long lacked.

Finance committee  In preparing for coming into office, we recognized that we needed to work not only with those middle-class Canadians who, in our estimation, need to have a better opportunity to share the gains of growth, but also with people in our society who are the most vulnerable. An important part of our platform was dealing with how we can improve the lot of those people who perhaps don't have the appropriate housing and who might be in a difficult situation in terms of having enough to live a dignified life.

Finance committee  After 10 years of weak growth, Canadians chose a new path to economic growth. They chose investment. They chose a government committed to helping the middle class. Canadians told us that they want inclusive growth, meaning that no one is left behind. I'm pleased to be here today to talk more about that commitment and to share with you what we've heard from Canadians during our pre-budget consultations.

Employment Insurance  In fact, during the election campaign, we made a commitment to invest in communities, to help Canadians, to put more money in the pockets of middle-class Canadians. The member opposite made a campaign promise, as we all know, to balance the budget, which means right now he would be cutting billions of dollars from the Canadian economy instead of making the investments we need.

Finance committee  To help credit unions grow their retained earnings and ensure competitive balance in the tax system, we recommend that the federal government implement a new capital growth tax credit for credit unions. This tax measure would help credit unions lend to middle-class Canadians and create local jobs in rural and urban areas, while meeting increased regulatory capital requirements. Our estimate on this measure would result in $34 million in forgone tax revenue, but that would generate an additional $418 million in lending to small business, farmers, and families.

Intergovernmental Relations  Speaker, I would again like to say that we are working hard to improve our economy for all Canadians. We are working hard to improve the economy for middle-class Canadians who are challenged. We are working especially hard to work with those provinces that have been particularly hard hit through the change in commodity prices. That will be a continuing endeavour of this government.

Finance  Speaker, Canadians expect us to take actions to make their lives better. We recognize that middle-class Canadians have not had a fair increase in income for many years. The most vulnerable really need to be helped in our society. We have put forward ideas that we know we can put into our budget in 2016 that will make a real difference for Canadians.

Finance  We made it very clear what we were going to do. We said that we were going to reduce taxes for middle-class Canadians, who needed tax reduction. We have already moved forward on that. We said that we are going to move forward with a Canada child benefit that would help nine out of ten families and hundreds of thousands of children.

Finance  It is a plan that will be laid out in more detail during the course of our upcoming budget. What we have told Canadians, especially those middle-class Canadians who want to do better, is that we have a plan that will make a real difference in growth. We will do it by being fiscally prudent along the way. We will do it by making sure that our level of debt to GDP over time reduces.

Finance  We were elected on a plan to grow the economy in order to help those Canadians who are struggling, who are most vulnerable, and those middle-class Canadians to do better. We have already moved forward on a tax cut for nine million Canadians. We will be moving forward not only with the Canada child benefit, but also with significant investments in infrastructure to improve the state of our economy.

Canada Labour Code  Madam Speaker, my colleague makes the very point that these workers are middle-class Canadian citizens and they work hard every day. Why should they not have the democratic right to a secret ballot to be in a union? I do not know what they are afraid of when 40% is all we were asking for in that bill to have a union.

Taxation  Mr. Speaker, middle-class Canadians need Liberal governments to get out of the way and not raise their taxes. That is simple. If it keeps raising taxes, there will be less revenue and fewer jobs. When will the finance minister realize that taxing Canadians is not a solution for prosperity in this country?