Canadian Heritage  Madam Speaker, in the Sudbury riding, we are proud of our cultural and artistic sector, which is a major contributor to the prosperity and economic diversity of our region. I was fortunate to take part in an announcement recently with the Minister of Canadian Heritage regarding

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, as you know, I own a small business and had a career in tax law. The discussion on tax reform created many concerns for small business owners throughout the country, including myself. Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance update the House on

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, what I said was that that is the system we have right now, and that is one of the things that can happen. What the member did not mention is that, right now, a child under the age of 18, who cannot even sign a contract, can receive tax-free capital gains of up to

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, with respect to passive income, and I mentioned this in my speech, right now it is a hypothetical situation, because it is a discussion paper. We have heard a lot of comments from tax lawyers and tax accountants from across the country about ensuring that we are lo

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I know that the Conservatives believe it is fair. I do not believe it is fair. As well, one of the things that has come up in the draft legislation is whether these rules would be retroactive. What happens after July 18? Are people going to be affected by these n

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to have this opportunity to rise to speak to this motion today. I would just like to say where I am from, what I do, and what I have done in the past. I am a small business owner, and I am also a tax lawyer. I used to teach tax at the Faculty of

Gaétan Gervais  Mr. Speaker, on this September 25, Franco-Ontarian Day, I want to honour a man to whom we Franco-Ontarians owe a big part of our identity: Sudbury's own Gaétan Gervais. Through his teaching and contributions, Gaétan passed on the Franco-Ontarian heritage to generations. He autho

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, my colleague has proven something beyond reasonable doubt: investing in official languages was far from a priority for the former Harper government. Our priority is to ensure the sustainability of Canada's official languages by making major investments. Is Canada a

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, clearly official languages are a priority for the government. I have full confidence in the Minister of Canadian Heritage when it comes to official languages, which are part of her mandate. She is responsible for ensuring continuity and making sure that everything ge

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, several recommendations have been adopted and several of them have already been implemented. First of all, a CEO has already been hired. A chief quality officer will now have to be hired, but that will be up to senior management, obviously. Furthermore, hiring 50 st

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, I partly agree. I agree with him that the Portage software is a comprehension tool. It features a corpus of data. When it was created, it was intended to assist translators. When a government employee used Google Translate to translate a sentence or paragraph, it

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to discuss the Standing Committee on Official Languages’ report on the Translation Bureau. Before I get into the substance of my speech, I would like to remind the House why this report was needed. Although I am very pleased to hear my Con

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, at this time the process is very clear. Concerning what has occurred in the case of Madame Meilleur, I was on the official languages committee that actually interviewed Madame Meilleur, and everybody was unanimous about her qualifications. She qualified. However, pa

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before, we have come from a process where it was 100% decided by the Prime Minister. He just picked whomever he wanted, and from there he or she was named. We wanted to make it a more transparent, inclusive process and to attract the most highly-quali

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is important to look at how far we have come. We used to have a process whereby the Prime Minister alone selected the appointees. The Liberal Party decided to bring in an open and transparent process that anyone can participate in. A third party then conducts an