Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, a number of speakers have talked about the very high interest rates and whether the credit card companies and their banking partners have too much power. I think there is every indication that they do. What is missing in this motion, from how I read it, is any con

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I received a phone call from a grocer in my community who sells organic products. The store is called Choices Markets, which is where I shop. The business owner said that the key business challenge and the key concern the store had right now was the power of the cr

House debate  Mr. Speaker, when I posed a question for the Minister of Finance some weeks ago, on February 10, he gave me what I felt was an unsatisfactory answer. Today I hope I will get a more detailed explanation of what the Conservatives are doing to address our economic crisis and to answ

House debate  Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to have a debate about who protects the taxpayer because it is obvious. It was the Liberal Party of Canada that cleaned up a record deficit left by the Conservative government once before. It was the Liberal Party that left the Conservatives with an

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Bloc Québécois member for her enlightening comments. Although the Liberal Party supports tax harmonization and good-faith negotiations between the provinces and the federal government, I would like to know why the Bloc Québécois feels that this m

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his consistency in this debate and being here for so many of the speakers, the questions that he has asked and his own sage commentary. Having not seen major points to be resolved, clearly benefits to businesses and consumers have be

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the government has a track record of leaving citizens high and dry when they are abroad. This time it is a family that has been without their father and husband for 13 months while Pavel Kulisek is left to rot in a Mexican prison cell based on spurious evidence. Wil

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, the environment minister appears content to be a lap dog of the Americans on climate change. The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy released a report called, “Achieving 2050: A Carbon Pricing Policy for Canada”. It calls on the Conservatives to

Earthquake in China  Mr. Speaker, today marks the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck the Sichuan province of China. This earthquake claimed more than 69,000 lives, injured over 370,000, and it left 18,000 people missing. This was an incredible human tragedy that touched

House debate  Mr. Speaker, I asked a question in the House and the answer really did not address the question at all. One of the key comments I made was that the Minister of Public Safety was strong on spin, but weak on crime. Now what I need to add is he and his government are tough on poli

House debate  Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to ask the hon. member opposite, who was laughing along with his colleagues while I was speaking, whether he was laughing about the idea of a police officer entering a home and not having information about whether there was a dangerous weapon, or

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, the Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency, PMRA, is years behind in its job of taking older, higher impact pesticides off the market and approving new, lower impact pesticides. Has the minister any work he can show or any funds invested to help the PMRA speed up its

Business of Supply  Mr.Chair, I take it the answer to my question was no. A recent report has raised serious concerns about groundwater quality in Canada. It described a major threat to groundwater as being intensification of agriculture. What is the minister's position on the role of intensified

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I also did not get an answer to that question of the role of intensified agricultural production on contamination of groundwater. As we know, groundwater contamination was responsible for seven deaths and 2,300 illnesses directly from agricultural sources like manure.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, the farmers I am referring to feel that they are being asked to compete with their hands tied behind their backs on a completely unlevel playing field. Products are allowed into Canada that have pesticides harmful to handlers. Funding for CFIA has been reduced so there