ALS Awareness Month  Mr. Speaker, today is the start of ALS awareness month. ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, does not have a cure nor an effective treatment. In Canada, up to 3,000 people are living with ALS, and about one-third of them will succumb to the disease, this year. Last year, the ice bucke

Candidate Gender Equity Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the hon. member for Burnaby South on bringing forward Bill C-237, the candidate gender equity act, and initiating a very important conversation about how to achieve gender parity in politics in Canada. Having spent much of my professiona

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talked about spending, but Canadians know the difference between spending and investment. When we invest in Canadians, we create growth in the economy. In fact, just this week the Governor of the Bank of Canada said that our budget would have a positi

The Budget  Madam Speaker, since being elected, this is probably the number one issue I am getting calls about in my constituency office. There are heartbreaking stories of mothers leaving their children behind to come to Canada. They have to make terrible choices. That is a legacy of the cu

The Budget  Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague. It is true that there are a lot of investments in the national capital. They are not just in public transit, but those investments are very important, especially for Ottawa's LRT. There are also funds for SMEs. That is very impo

The Budget  Madam Speaker, in the case I was referring to was just the average of the families. My colleague might be referring to who we consider middle class Canadians. The middle-class tax cut applies to the tax bracket between $45,000 and $90,000. In terms of just simple math, those are

The Budget  Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Laurentides—Labelle. I am very pleased today to speak in support of budget 2016. This is a budget that invests in Canadians; it invests in people. The greatest assets in any democratic country are the combined k

Algonquin College  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to have Algonquin College in my riding. It is a leading global educational institution with over 20,000 full-time students. As just one among the many innovative programs, the Algonquin College Construction Research Centre is a hub of local applied researc

International Women's Day  Mr. Speaker, on this International Women's Day, I want to pay tribute to all of those courageous women around the world and in Canada who have inspired me: the women I knew in Congo, who were beaten by police and undressed in the street for peacefully demonstrating for their righ

Canadian Heritage  Mr. Speaker, last Tuesday, the Minister of Canadian Heritage attended the groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the renovation of the National Arts Centre. Can the minister explain how this investment will benefit Canada's arts and culture sector?

Canadian Heritage  Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign, residents of my riding often objected to the process used by the previous government to impose the location of the memorial to the victims of Communism. Can the Minister of Canadian Heritage provide this House with an update on the statu

Community Leadership  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate three of my constituents who were honoured for promoting equality and diversity in my riding of Ottawa West—Nepean. I would like to congratulate Sharmaarke Abdullahi, who received the Black History Month Community Builder Award for his w

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is true that in many areas Canada is a leader in the world on gender and equality. However, this particular area is one where Canada is falling behind. Out of 34 countries in the OECD, there are only 7 that are doing worse than us. We are number 29 in the OECD. T

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that we have unanimity in the House on this very important issue. I agree with the hon. member that we should not reinvent the wheel. There has been tremendous work done in this place on the issue of pay equity. There have been motions that have co

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, this is one of the things that I mentioned in my speech. It was very unfair that unions were not able to represent people under the 2009 law. I believe that if pay equity is a matter of an individual person having to come forward as a particular case, that does not