The Budget  Mr. Speaker, as a fellow British Columbian, I am very interested to hear the comments of my colleague, the member for Vancouver Centre, on BC Ferries. It was noted in a news article last year that Atlantic Canada's ferries are subsidized to the rate of 350 times more than BC Fer

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, as to the why, I am not sure I can answer that question, but it is a real disappointment. We have heard far less than satisfactory answers in the House from the Minister of Agriculture . They have been short, almost one sentence answers that gave no detail. As the me

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, the member will find no argument from this particular section of the House on the need for infrastructure funding. As I alluded to in my remarks, we have been wandering through the desert for quite some time. I will agree that the Liberal budget does include some muc

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I want to let the House know that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou. We have all been waiting for this budget for some time now, and I am honoured to stand in the House today to speak to it. Listeni

Situation in Indigenous Communities  Mr. Speaker, earlier my colleague from Timmins—James Bay told the House that the greatest resource in Canada is not oil. It is not our metals, our forestry, our fish, or our agriculture. It is our children, and our children's greatest resource is hope. It is that wholehearted opt

World Water Day  Mr. Speaker, New Democrats strongly believe that access to clean water is a human right. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of human rights. Today is an opportunity to recognize and l

Questions on the Order Paper  With respect to the RCMP for the year 2015, broken down by province and territory: (a) how many investigations led to charges under the Criminal Code for animal cruelty; (b) how many charges of animal cruelty led to convictions; (c) how many convictions of animal cruelty led to f

Citizenship Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my thanks to my colleague for his well-received speech in this House. I took some time to go through the Criminal Code of Canada, specifically section 83. It is a very lengthy part of the Criminal Code. For those who are not aware, that is th

Citizenship Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, the member for Newmarket—Aurora, for his fine speech, and I would like to congratulate the Liberal government for bringing forward this bill. There are a lot of provisions that we, in the NDP, can support. However, there is one th

Navigation Protection Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-252, An Act to amend the Navigation Protection Act (Shawnigan Lake). Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise in the House to introduce this bill today. This bill adds Shawnigan Lake to the scheduled list of waters protected under the N

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, we have certainly heard a lot of questions from the Conservative side about Bill C-525 and how we are not supporting secret ballots and all that, but what I do not hear from that side of House is discussion of Bill C-377. In my mind that was the more onerous piece of

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, I listened to the response to the parliamentary secretary's question, but I did not hear an answer. Therefore, I will pose it again. Why did the previous bill not include chambers of commerce, religious organizations, and professional associations? Why did it only si

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot from the Conservatives in this House. They comment that some members are attacking the sanctity of private members' legislation. On the contrary, what we are attacking is when government legislation masquerades as a private member's bill. My hon.

Justice  Mr. Speaker, yesterday the member for Scarborough Southwest bizarrely accused opposition members of confusion around marijuana laws, before he stirred the pot, once again, by saying: “the only control that is in place is the current criminal sanction for the production and traffi

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from my colleague across the way. I believe I did make reference to that aspect of the program in my speech, when I said we supported a proposal that would allow workers to choose which system benefited them individually. What we have befo