Canada-Columbia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak in the House today to the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement. This is an important agreement for Canada, Canadian workers and our farmers and producers alike. Farmers need trade to survive. Now more than ever, we need to be

Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada  Mr. Speaker, this coming weekend, Liberals will gather in Montreal for their spenders' conference, and make no mistake, they are planning big expensive programs that will come with high taxes and a big price tags for Canadian families. However, I could not help but notice that ou

Fire Chief of the Year  Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to congratulate, on behalf of all members of the House, an honoured servant of the people of Prince Albert. On September 23 of this year, Prince Albert Fire Chief Les Karpluk was chosen Fire Chief of the Year by the Canadian Association of

Employment Insurance Act  Mr. Speaker, it is a good question. However, the reality is these benefits are available to all Canadians. If someone has been working, let us say, in an auto plant or another industry for a number of years and for no reason of his or her own the plant shuts down, the amendment

Employment Insurance Act  Mr. Speaker, those are two good questions. One thing about being in government is that one wants to be responsible. When I speak to people in my riding, they want to ensure we treat unemployed people responsibly. They actually like the idea that if people have been paying EI pre

Employment Insurance Act  Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to the House about a technical amendment we would like to make to Bill C-50. We are seeking to establish a fixed date of January 4, 2009 for eligibility. This is our government's proposed legislation to temporarily extend employment insurance regula

Canada Grain Act  Mr. Speaker, again, members can address those questions in committee. I would be happy to work with them in committee on some of the issues they have brought up. I have to represent my constituents. I represent western Canadian farmers. They need changes to the act. They cannot

Canada Grain Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to educate my colleague about some of the changes that have happened in the grain industry in the last 20 years that make the act no longer relevant. The member talked about the lowering of standards. There is nothing in this bill or the changes that wo

Canada Grain Act  Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the grain trade and not the beef trade or something else. We are looking at ways to pull costs out of the system for farmers and still provide the safe product shipped around the world. Everything that is proposed in this bill has been worked o

Canada Grain Act  Mr. Speaker, that is one thing that puzzles me. It seemed as though we had such a good working relationship in committee, and now it seems to have been poisoned through the actions of certain members. This is something the committee worked on jointly. We sat down and we came out

Canada Grain Act  Mr. Speaker, one thing about the bonding system that we presently have is it creates the false sense of security that farmers who deliver their grain will get paid no matter what. It has been shown in some of the previous failures of certain companies that that did not happen. Fa

Canada Grain Act  Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise in support of Bill C-13, an act to amend the Canada Grain Act. However, I am upset that the opposition has moved to hoist this amendment. It is hijacking this bill which is essential to the grain farmers in western Canada, and I can

Employment Insurance Act  Madam Speaker, as I said, it is hard to come from Saskatchewan and talk about employment insurance, because our province is doing so well. Maybe we should be looking at the differences between Saskatchewan and Quebec and his region. Look at my region, for example. We had a pulp

Employment Insurance Act  Madam Speaker, I am happy to start the wind-down to the second-reading debate today on Bill C-50. This is part and parcel of our government's efforts to help hard-working Canadians through these difficult economic times. Our government is focused on what matters to Canadians: fin

Petitions  Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to present 25 petitions signed by over 1,300 people residing within and around the constituency of Prince Albert. The signatories believe that the long gun registry is not working because it targets hunters and farmers and t