The Budget  Mr. Speaker, it give me great pleasure to rise in the House today and ask my first question. I enjoyed the speech, but what does the budget specifically do for youth? There does not seem to be any mention at all about the skyrocketing youth unemployment rates in my constituency

Regional Development  Mr. Speaker, yesterday's budget confirmed the government has no plan for getting people back to work. It gave billions of tax breaks to its Bay Street buddies, but plans on cutting the western economic diversification fund. Communities in western Canada need help recovering jobs

Employment  Mr. Speaker, young Canadians are facing a tough summer. The unemployment rate for young Canadians stands at 15%, and it has been getting worse. That is double the general rate. This means that university students will be forced to take out more loans and new grads will not find

Supporting Vulnerable Seniors and Strengthening Canada's Economy Act  Madam Speaker, I have been reading through the budget and paying careful attention, but I have some questions about the base statistics on which your work is done. Most specifically, I am interested in what is commonly reported in the U.S. as the natural rate of unemployment. Th

Disaster Assistance  Mr. Speaker, I am very sad to say that floods and forest fires continue to devastate large segments of western Canada. Millions of acres of farmland have been flooded or have gone unseeded. Cattle producers may have to reduce their herds because of pasture damage and entire commu

Disaster Assistance  Mr. Speaker, what the provinces are saying is that they are looking for leadership and the government is not stepping up to the plate. Western premiers are calling for the federal government to have a national disaster mitigation plan and extra help for those whose livelihoods h

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Madam Speaker, I find this debate wholesome and informative, and I intend to stay here until the end of this debate. I also appreciated the speech and comments by my colleague. I do not have a labour union background. My family is not from labour unions. For a short time I was i

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, if you might indulge me for one moment, this is my first time rising to speak on a debate, so I would like to thank the good members of my riding of Burnaby—Douglas for electing me to this place. I would also like to thank my family, who supported me all the way thro

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In public policy we have essentially nine instruments that any government can use to solve any policy problem. Sometimes a combination of the instruments is used. I will just walk through these, because it is really what the government should be consideri

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for the question. There is another thing that has been puzzling me through the debate that is related to the question. Canada Post is a crown corporation. It is supposed to be at arm's length from the government, yet there is this kind of gre

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  I thank the hon. member for the question. I enjoy being with her in the House here. My point is that the government has gone to this too quickly. There is still time for negotiation, and it was indeed the crown corporation that locked out the workers. The government does owe it

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, the government side of the House keeps claiming that Bill C-6 is in response to a strike. This side of the House and in fact the entire national media say it is a lockout. Until we get this basic fact straightened out we are not going to move very far forward on this

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Madam Speaker, I find the decorum in the House at this moment is preferable to what it was earlier this evening, and I hope we can continue in this way for the rest of this debate. We owe it to Canadians to show one another respect and to show them we are serious about getting to

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, I suggest, when we look at these sources, the fact is irrefutable that we are facing a lockout, that the government is facing a lockout, and that is its public policy problem that it has to deal with. It is critical to recognize the policy problem, because until we

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Madam Speaker, as for how a government might end a lockout, I will repeat the six options I just mentioned. The first option would be to leave the parties alone to let them negotiate in good faith. The second option would be to select a panel that might be able to advise the go