Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, what is good economics is reducing taxes by $200 billion. All of those reductions have been opposed by the NDP. The member thinks that Canadians would drive across the border to get away from paying an additional $25 airport security fee. I do not know where he got that information from.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his excellent speech and also for his teamwork. As Canada moves forward to face this economic challenge, we have been working together with other levels of government. We have been working together with people in the private sector. I know the member has a lot of experience in his own community of working together.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, my colleague highlights the fact we are at a very opportune time in Canada. We finally have a coherent foreign policy that takes a place on issues on the world stage. More than that, we are now financially and economically well positioned to lead the world in many ways.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, one of the aspects of this budget bill that we really have a lot of trouble with is the change in the environmental assessment process. By moving environmental assessment of oil projects and gas projects over to the National Energy Board, it takes away the right of individual groups to apply for intervenor funding.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, the premise of the member's question is that everything that happens in the U.S. happens here. I would disagree with that premise. We are a sovereign country. We have taken unilateral action, different action to ensure that we have a strong economy. We are built very differently.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, the member probably knows that whatever happens in the United States eventually spills over to Canada within six months to a year. The member is also probably aware that there are people in the United States who are concerned about a double-dip recession. There is $1.3 trillion in commercial loans coming due fairly soon.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the member for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission on his intervention on this very important bill, Bill C-9, which allows Canada to move forward with its economic action plan. One of the things we had promised as a government was that we were going to do our level best not to repeat the Liberal performance from about 10 years ago when the Liberals cut transfer payments to the provinces.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely right. Sometimes I say to my constituents that as a government anybody can balance a budget; when there is almost unlimited access to money, just by raising taxes or cutting the way money is spent, almost anybody could balance the budget. If people had that kind of access in their household budgets, for example, I think they could do that.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-9, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 4, 2010 and other measures, be read the third time and passed.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  We must pass Bill C-9, the jobs and economic growth act, to help build our financial sector for the future and, in turn, create the jobs and economic growth that Canadians need and deserve.

Bill C-9  By hiding his reforms in such a huge, indigestible bill, the Prime Minister is muzzling the public, which is struggling to sort everything out, and the hon. members, who cannot study these reforms with the attention and the diligence they deserve. As Le Devoir's Manon Cornellier points out, by creating this omnibus bill, the Prime Minister is bypassing debates and once again undermining the role and the authority of the people's representatives, . This is yet another illustration of the Conservatives' lack of transparency and their contempt for parliamentary democracy.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my hon. colleague on his very clear speech on taxation, which could be much greener. I would also like to ask him what he thinks of the initiatives the government has taken, which, I believe, have come up short and will not necessarily deliver what the government was hoping.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, I will begin with the first question. We have learned from the Environment Canada report released last Friday that the measures introduced by the federal government in recent years have not actually led to any greenhouse gas reductions. That is the Canadian tragedy.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, on this World Oceans Day, I imagine that the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie's opinion on Bill C-9 is surely motivated by the increasing concern for the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the estuary, with respect to oil and gas development. I would like to hear what he has to say about this because Bill C-9 opens the door to a laissez-faire approach that, in my opinion, is very dangerous.

Jobs and Economic Growth Act  Mr. Speaker, I will use my two remaining minutes. There is a risk with Bill C-9. What does it do in terms of oil and gas drilling projects, especially in offshore areas? It transfers responsibility from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to the National Energy Board. It means that an economic department is going to conduct environmental assessments.