Employment Insurance Act  Mr. Speaker, let us look at this. Certainly we support initiatives that actually enhance employment insurance. The only thing is that the initiatives have to be very worthwhile. My understanding is that the five weeks the government has put in has been done as a stipulation. It h

Employment Insurance Act  Mr. Speaker, there is a double whammy on this that will actually benefit the workers. The 360 hours would be across the board. No matter where one lives in the country, all one would need is 360 hours to qualify for employment insurance. Reducing it and making sure that it is the

Employment Insurance Act  moved that Bill C-280, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (qualification for and entitlement to benefits), be read the second time and referred to a committee. Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to stand here today and deliver a piece of legislation in my name that will hav

Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act  Mr. Speaker, I have listened to my colleague. There are some good points about the bill, but then we still have some concerns about it. The whole idea of trying to encourage non-profit organizations to come on board, to be profitable at times and to assist the needy in our commu

Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act  Madam Speaker, my colleague has explained Bill C-4 but I want to mention that the organizations would have preferred to see changes to secure stable, long-term financing. They would also have liked to see some rules that would clarify and improve the charitable status process. We

Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act  Madam Speaker, I do have some concerns with regard to this bill. I just want my colleague to explain this a little bit more. This bill is not going to improve the way that voluntary sector organizations do their business. It may improve their accountability and transparency, wh

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, that is exactly right; Canadians do need jobs today. In northern Ontario, local roads boards tell us that they cannot meet the government's May 1 deadline for the building Canada fund. They say that they are volunteers and do not have engineering departments or sta

Employment  Mr. Speaker, the people of Espanola are worried. The Domtar pulp and paper plant has been in town for generations and is the biggest employer in the region. However, the U.S. government is about to provide a subsidy for a by-product of the pulp and paper industry called black li

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, as you know, my riding is home to a lot of farmers and hunters. The gun registry is certainly a controversial issue in my area. When the registry was put in place, had it been clear and simple, everyone would have been happy and we would not be facing the dilemma

Forestry Industry  Mr. Speaker, why enter into a piecemeal agreement with the Quebec government rather than adopting a national strategy? Forestry companies in Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia and Ontario have the same problems. They need access to credit to continue operating. Why not

Forestry Industry  Mr. Speaker, this government is failing the forestry industry. Yesterday, Tembec announced that it was laying off 500 workers at its Kapuskasing plant. This will have an immediate impact and will cut the heart out of the local economy. The forestry sector has one common request:

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, it is quite interesting that the Liberal members are putting forth a suggestion for accountability to the Conservatives, given the fact that they keep telling us they voted for the budget because it was good. Yet, they keep knocking it down. It is interesting to he

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, my colleague spoke at length about employment insurance. Just yesterday, Tembec announced that about 500 employees will be laid off. This is unacceptable. Would my colleague agree that, in order to really stimulate the economy, one of the first things that should be

Junior Citizen of the Year  Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I inform the House about the achievements of Eden Beaudin, a nine-year-old girl from the community of M'Chigeeng First Nation which is situated on beautiful Manitoulin Island in my riding. Eden Beaudin is the author, illustrator and pr

Canada-EFTA Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Madam Speaker, the member pushed the fact that we need to carve the shipbuilding industry out of the trade agreement. We know what it means to rush into a trade agreement. We only have to look at what happened with the softwood lumber agreement. In my riding of Algoma—Manitouli