Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am familiar with the matter the Bloc member just raised. There is no doubt that the softwood lumber agreement negotiated by the Conservative Party contained serious flaws. There are international mechanisms regulating the market and international trade. It is clear

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank my Bloc colleague for his question. I will repeat what I said during my presentation. In 2005, the Liberal Party announced a major strategy for the forestry industry, worth roughly $1.5 billion over five years. A number of the components of that strategy that

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, first of all l would like to thank the hon. member for Halifax West for his insightful comments. I thank my Bloc colleague for his motion and want him to know right off that I share his opinion on the need to establish a plan to help the forest industry. My party t

Automotive Industry  Mr. Speaker, at a time when the auto sector is facing its greatest challenge and will have to literally reinvent itself, the Conservatives are not doing enough to spur innovation. It was the Liberals who contributed $200 million to GM Canada's Beacon project four years ago. We r

Automotive Industry  Mr. Speaker, it is the same old story. We all know that President Obama is investing massive amounts in research and development, we all know that we must balance our transportation needs against our pressing environmental commitments, and we recognize that the survival of the a

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his comments. Of course it is a good thing to have committees of well-known scientists to inform and advise the government. In fact, there were at least two during the time the Liberal party was in power. But the government mu

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to say point-blank that I believe the scientists and researchers of our country are a precious natural resource and that they have the entire planet to deal with in deciding where they are going to do their research during their lives. Canada has no ve

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to find that somebody from the NDP actually read that report, which I spent a great deal of time putting together back in 2006. There is a need for a coherent national science policy. It does not exist at this time. As the member has intimated, it wou

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, either the Conservatives do not understand or they are deliberately misrepresenting the actual situation. Let me explain it to the Conservatives. Genome Canada is engaged in long-term research. It does this by working with scientists who do the research, who also

Business of Supply  moved: That, given this government has continually failed to improve Canada’s research funding to build Canada into a competitive, progressive knowledge-based economy, and given that science, research and innovation are the foundations of a strong economy and the creators of th

House debate  Mr. Speaker, as a new member of Parliament I have to say that I was somewhat surprised by the amount of discussion generated by this private member's bill within my party and by the number of representations made to me in the last several weeks. Certainly Bill C-273 has generated

Research and Development  Mr. Speaker, this morning it was reported that screaming erupted in the office of the Minister of State for Science and Technology when he met with the Canadian Association of University Teachers. While President Obama is adding $10 billion to fund basic research, the Conservati

Research and Development  Mr. Speaker, it is painfully clear that the Conservatives do not understand science and have no vision for the future of science. First, they got rid of the Prime Minister's national science advisor, and now they have decided which scientific fields deserve to be funded at the ex

Automotive Industry  Mr. Speaker, Quebec has about 125 companies in the auto sector. Between them, they employ some 11,000 Quebeckers and do $3 billion worth of business a year. These companies export over 75% of what they produce to the United States and Ontario. What does this government intend to

Automotive Industry  Mr. Speaker, we have been trying to get the Conservatives to pay attention to the auto sector for nearly two years now. All across Canada, people are losing their jobs because the Conservatives do not know what to do. They have no vision for the future of the sector. Instead of