Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I believe in listening to what the markets say and to what market experts are forecasting. Part of the reason I was so worried and concerned about the April trade numbers is that they were a surprise to market economists. They found them to be very disappointing and

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to start with the hon. member's point about Germany and how its apprenticeship system, which I think has a lot of admirable traits, may not be relevant to Canada. I would like to point out to the member that his own employment minister speaks often and

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by addressing the gender point. I salute all the women in the House. It is important to have more women here. It is always a pleasure for me to meet them and see the very strong female presence, particularly on this side of the House, and the so

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  I think you gentlemen are probably interested—

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I will do that, although I would ask you to help ensure more collegial behaviour on all sides of the House. I suspect that the members on the other side of the House will not doubt the credibility or the significance of a report from the Canadian Chamber of Commerc

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, tonight I will speak about why the Liberal Party is supportive of free trade as an important, essential part of Canada's economic strategy. I will talk about why we support this Honduran free trade deal. I will talk about some of the problems with this deal that we n

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister flew to Brussels amid great fanfare last October to sign an agreement in principle on the European trade deal, but that deal has now stalled, and when we requested the documents signed in public by the Prime Minister, the Privy Council Office repli

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With regard to full-time equivalent (FTE) federal civil service and Crown corporation positions eliminated since January 1, 2012: what is the number of positions eliminated, broken down by the location of the former position, namely (i) the National Capital Region, (ii) each prov

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, StatsCan reported today that in April, Canada posted a worrying $638 million trade deficit. This follows last week's anemic first quarter GDP figure of 1.2%, well below the budget's 2.3% forecast for 2014. To reverse this decline in exports and boost our stagnant ec

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, we strongly believe that it is important for economic considerations and trade to be a big part of Canada's relationship with the world, particularly now as the rules of the world economy are shifting. As I said earlier, though, it is very important for us to unders

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, indeed we are paying a lot of attention to the European trade deal, as are our colleagues in the NDP. We are very troubled that although this deal was announced with a lot of fanfare, we have seen very little detail and very little progress toward concluding it. We

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I absolutely agree with that point. It is very important for all of us to acknowledge and appreciate that these are going to be very hard issues and that we have to look at them case by case. There are going to be countries that cross the line in terms of how they tr

Canada-Honduras Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, we support free trade and we support this agreement. In thinking about free trade and what the Canadian trade agenda should be, it is important to understand how dependent Canada is on trade and the extent to which we really are a trading nation. Here are a few dat

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, the Minister of International Trade has the time to take potshots at opposition backbenchers, which is flattering, but he and the Prime Minister do not seem to have the time to close a CETA deal, an agreement the Liberal Party supports. Canadians were led to believe

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the OSCE currently does not intend to send parliamentary observers to Donetsk and Luhansk for the May 25 presidential election in Ukraine. We appreciate the security concerns that motivated this decision, but it is in these two regions where Ukraine sovereignty is at