Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately that answer will not help Calgary families. If they were not going to receive funding, why were they not told three years ago? The City of Calgary was told the project only needed political approval. If recreation centres were not eligible for funding,

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague and my colleague from Halifax, for leading the charge in this debate. I think the government has completely dropped the ball on this and is disappointing Canadians. The government is choosing to speak for a small segment of t

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I find this debate very alarming, and not just today. I am very proud of the motion that we put forward, but I find the tone of the debate on the other side of the House very alarming. The Conservatives have no plan for the environment, they are trying their best to

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Helen Chang, a Burnaby—Douglas constituent, for providing me with a petition concerning hate crimes. The petition requests that the Attorney General of Canada enact a hate crimes statistics act and implement a standardized mandatory hate crime

Fair Representation Act  Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House we think this bill is essentially a battle between two old parties. It is an outdated idea and we think the House needs to move to proportional representation. We have never really had a proper debate in this country. In fact, the royal com

Fair Representation Act  Mr. Speaker, the NDP vision is of a two or perhaps three-nation concept, but what I fail to hear in this debate is any vision from either the government or the third party in the House. Would my colleague elaborate a little more on the NDP vision and where they have missed the bo

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, on February 28, 2005, Helen Sonja Francis, a nurse and resident of Burnaby—Douglas, was tragically struck and killed while cycling in northern British Columbia. Evidence suggests the driver of the car was impaired. Section 256 of the Criminal Code states that a warr

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, the government is gung-ho on building new pipelines and shipping value-added jobs right out of Canada. Yesterday's report from the environment commissioner revealed that the Conservatives could not even safely manage the pipelines we had now. When a company is caug

National Flag of Canada  Mr. Speaker, I am here today to speak to Bill C-288, An Act respecting the National Flag of Canada. I read this bill with interest over the weekend and noticed there are really three key clauses in it. The first is, of course, to prohibit or stop people from preventing other fol

Questions on the Order Paper  With regard to consultations with Canadians by the Minister of Natural Resources on the subject of energy since May 18, 2011: (a) who did the Minister consult with and when did these consultations occur; (b) what events did the Minister attend that involved consultations, and whe

Questions on the Order Paper  With regard to grants, contributions and contracts by Western Economic Diversification Canada since January 1, 2001: (a) what funding applications were approved by the Minister’s office, as identified by (i) project name, (ii) applicant name, (iii) number of times previously subm

Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act  Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my colleague's speech. I get to do so on regular occasions because we share standing committee duties together. My question is with regard to the gap between the rich and poor. We have heard countless times in the House, and Statist

Natural Resources  Madam Speaker, last year the NDP brought forward a motion to study refineries and oil pipelines to which the Conservatives agreed. So far the testimony has been deeply disturbing. According to government statistics, since 1980 the number of refineries operating in Canada has de

Oil and Gas Industry  Madam Speaker, in spite of the risks, the government blindly backs the northern gateway. It dismisses Canadians who raise real concerns about the effect on our fisheries, on our first nations and on our way of life. Yesterday, we learned that the pipeline would also raise oil pr

Oil and Gas Industry  Madam Speaker, the government's only energy strategy is to boost the profits of oil companies at the expense of the rest of us. The government has sold out Canadian jobs and our environment to back the Enbridge northern gateway pipeline. The government is so cozy with big oil