2016-02-22

Mr. Speaker, Canadians were horrified by the unspeakable murders committed by serial killer Robert Pickton. Despite the fact that he is now in prison, families of his victims were shocked to hear that he has recently published a book.What will the government do to ensure that serial killer Robert Pickton in no way benefits financially or through the distribution of his depraved writings?

Mr. Speaker, 2,600 Aveos workers feel betrayed. When the Prime Minister was in opposition in 2012, he was by their side armed with a megaphone and chanting “So-so-so-solidarity!” He said: It is such a shame that we have to demonstrate to ask the government...to obey the law. He even lamented the broken promises. Now that he is in power, he wants to take away those same workers' rights vis-à-vis Air Canada. What changed for the Prime Minister?

Mr. Speaker, our government has committed to legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana. We will be proceeding on that matter in an orderly fashion and will take the time necessary in order to do it right.Until Parliament has enacted new legislation to ensure that marijuana is carefully regulated, current laws remain in force and should be obeyed.I will be working with my parliamentary secretary, the Minister of Health, and the Minister of Public Safety to ensure that we put in place a process that keeps marijuana out of the hands of children and the proceeds out of the hands of criminals.

Mr. Speaker, changes came about when they started spending more of Canadians' tax dollars. It must be embarrassing for the minister to visit his own department, because everybody there disagrees with him.The Prime Minister just accused us of picking and choosing numbers. Well, we did; we picked and chose his own finance department's numbers.For the second month in a row, the finance department's own report shows that Conservatives left the Liberals with a surplus. Does the minister accept this latest report. If not, who is he going to fire?

Mr. Speaker, with oil prices at an all-time low, people in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick are desperate and out of work. They are looking for a glimmer of hope.A job-killing carbon tax is the absolute last thing they need, a tax that would put a nail in the coffin of those people who work in the oil patch.Will the Minister of Natural Resources stand up to his cabinet colleagues? Would he stand up for jobs in Canada? Would he say no to a carbon tax and yes to Canadian jobs for the sake of the natural resources sector?

Mr. Speaker, as the aunt of a 15-year-old nephew, I am concerned about how easy it is for youth his age to obtain marijuana. What measures is the government taking to ensure that by legalizing marijuana we are making it more difficult for children and youth to access this substance? Can the Minister of Justice offer an update on our party's commitment to regulate and legalize marijuana?

Mr. Speaker, how tone deaf can the government be? A carbon tax puts Canada at a huge competitive disadvantage. Investors are leaving Canada in droves because of the Liberals' confusing regulatory system. If job creators see a carbon tax, they are going to see that as Canada is closed for business.Is there a leader in the government who will be like the premier of Saskatchewan who wants Canada competitive and wants to see Canada open for business? Or under the Liberals, is Canada closed for business?

Mr. Speaker, not long after the sanctions against Iran were lifted, Russia tried to sell fighter jets and missile systems to the regime in Tehran.Our allies have clearly said that this sale violates a UN arms embargo, but the Liberal government is naively cozying up to Iran and Vladimir Putin. Will the government condemn this massive arms sale, which threatens peace and our friend, Israel?

Mr. Speaker, instead of providing work to Canadians, the Liberals would like to have the Royal Canadian Navy's ships built abroad. Canadian shipyards have the skills, expertise, and capacity for building those ships here, and the workers need those jobs.Jobs abroad and nothing for Canadians, is that the Liberal approach? Are the Liberals going to go back on their promises and abandon Canadian families like they are abandoning Albertan families?

Mr. Speaker, I would like the Prime Minister to trust the civil servants who work for his own finance department. They say that the Conservatives left a $1-billion surplus.However, we should not be surprised by such a poor track record, since barely a year ago, the Prime Minister said that budgets balance themselves. Now, the Prime Minister's dream world has just fallen like a house of cards in front of him. The reality is that the Liberals are already running an $18.4-billion deficit. When will the Prime Minister regain control over government spending?

Mr. Speaker, government documents submitted to the Human Rights Tribunal show that Health Canada routinely denies everything from motorized wheelchairs to specialized prescription drugs for indigenous children. I refer the minister to evidence tab 420 from the hearings, which relates to a four-year-old child who suffered severe anoxic brain injury and required a specialized medical bed so she could go home to her family. Health Canada wrote in response “absolutely not” and refused to pay.What directives has the minister given to her staff to end this malignant culture, so the culture of “absolutely no” for children finally becomes one of “absolutely yes”?

Mr. Speaker, the impact of this book by Pickton is painfully traumatic for the victims. All Canadians share in that grief. Canadians also expect Amazon to respond quickly and sympathetically to this outrage, which I understand it has done this afternoon. The Correctional Service is investigating the source of the manuscript. We will be examining all those who have assisted in any way in this odious enterprise.

Mr. Speaker, the alternative would be that this country would still be in a surplus, as we left it.Even today, Canadians still do not know how much the Minister of Finance is borrowing from them to cover his Liberal government's deficit. What Canadians and his own officials do know is that the Conservatives left him a surplus.He laughingly rejects his own officials' conclusions, but is that not because he desperately needs to shift the blame away from his own mismanagement?

Mr. Speaker, it is being reported that 40 state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new bounty for the death of author Salman Rushdie. The renewed call for his death comes on the anniversary of the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Make no mistake. This regime in Tehran is putting on a false front. It continues to be a serious threat to peace and stability. Why is the government rushing to embrace Iran when it clearly cannot be trusted?

Mr. Speaker, the boycott, divest, and sanctions campaigners claim it to be a human rights movement. In fact, it is nothing more than a thinly disguised multi-dimensional hate campaign. It targets the economy and the citizens of the only democracy in the Middle East. Last week during the debate, the Liberals were all over the place on this issue. Can the minister assure the House that when our motion passes, his government will take it seriously?

Mr. Speaker, the member now refers to beginning the discussion on a pan-Canadian climate change framework. Let me quote the minister on CBC, “We were setting the stage for a first ministers meeting that's going to take place at the beginning of March. Then that's when we're going to have this pan-Canadian framework”. Now it appears that the Liberals are just beginning those discussions in March. No climate change plan, only billions of dollars of spending on foreign vanity projects and a punishing new carbon tax on Canadians. Will the minister now admit that she is in way over her head?

Mr. Speaker, we took a very thorough analysis on making sure that we supported our allies in the fight against ISIL.We are committed to defeating ISIL, and tripling the training mission and doubling the intelligence will help the coalition in this manner.I think the member would agree that ISIL is a horrible atrocity that has to be defeated, and Canadians, alongside their coalition partners, will do so.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals squandered a surplus in less than 100 days, and now today we learned that they want to borrow $18 billion for expenses already incurred. We also learned that they will borrow at least another $10 billion. Instead of taking responsibility, they are trying to blame everyone else for their poor economic management.Can the Prime Minister tell us who will pay for all of this?

Mr. Speaker, the bar the Prime Minister set was about the perception of a conflict of interest. Does the Prime Minister not see this as a problem?The Minister of Justice sits on six cabinet committees, including one responsible for examining initiatives designed to strengthen the relationship with indigenous Canadians. This is exactly the issue that her husband will now lobby the government about. The justice minister will now deal with legal matters involving first nations. Her husband's lobbying work is in direct conflict with this. How can the Prime Minister justify this obvious conflict of interest?

Mr. Speaker, these are just more broken promises. At the Paris climate change conference, the Minister of Environment promised a nationwide climate change plan within 90 days. Now it is clear that the minister will not deliver on that plan. At the same time as the economy flounders, she is scheming to impose a carbon tax grab that will increase the price of everything, including gas, groceries, and heating.What is the minister hiding and when will Canadians finally see her climate change plan?

Mr. Speaker, what the previous government never understood and what the Conservatives clearly still do not understand is that economic growth creates jobs and prosperity. The fact that the Conservatives were unable to create economic growth for 10 years landed us in the situation we are in now.The Conservatives refuse to accept that and are even proposing that we continue to make cuts instead of investing in the Canadian economy. That is completely absurd. That is exactly what they are proposing and that is why they are sitting on the opposition benches today.

Mr. Speaker, piece by piece, the Liberal government is dismantling democracy in Canada. The first piece of legislation brought forward by the jobs minister is a bill to gut accountability and transparency for unions. The Liberal MPs have been arguing in the House that a secret ballot is somehow undemocratic and burdensome red tape. I would like the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour to please explain to the House why she believes a secret ballot is undemocratic.

Mr. Speaker, Bell Helicopter is losing jobs, CAE is losing jobs, Bombardier is losing jobs, and Aveos has lost jobs.The existing law on Air Canada is the best guarantee of keeping airplane maintenance in Canada now and in the future. However, this law was violated and the government has never intervened.Since when has the minister been able to flout laws or change them to please the offenders?When will the government demand that the Attorney General intervene on behalf of unionized Aveos workers to force Air Canada to comply with the law and its obligations to Canadians—

Mr. Speaker, what Canadians got for the last 10 years was an actual plan, a plan that created 1.3 million net new jobs, a plan that lowered taxes to the lowest level in 50 years, a plan that balanced the budget and created a surplus. What did that mean? It meant that Canada became the best place in the world to invest in and create jobs in. What did those guys do in 100 days? They blew that record. Does the Prime Minister understand that Canadians actually want a plan, not just more Liberal spending?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government, time after time, has already faced questions about its ethical behaviour, and here we go again.The justice minister is in partnership with her husband in a private company. He has not been a registered lobbyist for years, but as soon as his wife was appointed to a Liberal cabinet, he dusted off the old laptop, put new ink in the printer, and signed up as a lobbyist. Is this the ethical standard that the Prime Minister approved when he said his ministers must avoid not only the conflict of interest but even the appearance of a conflict of interest?

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate what the member opposite is trying to say. However, he obviously was not keeping a very close eye on what his colleagues were doing over the past 10 years. The Conservatives were fudging the figures and now they are once again trying to claim that they left a magical surplus.The reality is that they left us a deficit. We were elected on a promise to invest in our communities. The Conservatives are proposing even more cuts. That is not what this country needs.

Mr. Speaker, 1,800 jobs have been lost at Aveos alone, because the federal government did not enforce its own law.Does the Minister of Transport want to modernize the Air Canada act to make it legal for the company to send aerospace jobs abroad?Does the minister realize that by not enforcing the law, the federal government was complicit in outsourcing Air Canada airplane maintenance to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tel Aviv, and Minnesota?

On the contrary, Mr. Speaker, Israel is not only a key ally but equally a steadfast friend. The Jewish community has deep roots here in Canada and contributes greatly to Canadian society. A boycott would not bring us closer to any viable or constructive solution, so we will not support that. However, the motion would not bring us any closer to working constructively together. It seeks to divide.We firmly believe that negotiations constitute the only way to arrive at lasting, durable peace.

Mr. Speaker, it is nice to know that if I were a Liberal member of Parliament I would have no voice, because, apparently, a private member's bill is illegitimate with the current government.Only a few months ago, each and every one of us in the House was elected by secret ballot, a hallmark of a Canadian democracy. However, the first piece of legislation brought forward by the jobs minister is robbing union members of their democratic right to a secret ballot. Ninety per cent of union members polled support a secret ballot.Why is the secret ballot good enough to elect members of Parliament, but not good enough—

Mr. Speaker, last October, millions of Canadians voted to revive the CBC after the Conservatives bled it dry.However, there is still nothing but bad news under the Liberals. There is now a “For Sale” sign in front of Maison de Radio Canada in Montreal. This decision is harmful to our heritage since the sale of the building would represent the loss of a symbol of Quebec's Quiet Revolution. It is all well and good that the minister announced consultations, but the building could be sold tomorrow morning.Will the minister at least impose a moratorium to allow time to explore better options than an irreversible sale?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Veterans Affairs is misleading Canadians. Contrary to what he said, it was the Conservative government that introduced important measures to fight veterans' homelessness.We launched projects in Toronto, Calgary, Victoria, and London, which helped keep veterans off the street. Furthermore, it was our party that gave the department the specific mandate of helping homeless veterans. Will the minister pledge today to renew this mandate?

Mr. Speaker, I was surprised to hear the member opposite try to say that “now is not the time to spend based on slow economic growth”. Not only do we disagree with the member opposite, we ran a campaign on exactly our disagreement on that. It looks like Canadians agreed with us. We will invest in infrastructure. We will put money in the pockets of the middle class and those working hard to join it. We will invest in innovation with the kind of future and growth that the economy needs. That is exactly what we committed to doing. That is exactly what we are doing.

Mr. Speaker, the Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the government has discriminated against first nations children. Documents from Health Canada confirm what first nations people already knew. Rejecting orthodontic appeals for first nations children is standard. Almost 100% of claims are denied.These documents actually state that the government will provide these services if the parents agree to give up their children to foster care. This is unacceptable. What steps has the Minister of Health taken to end this discrimination?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat to this House what I said before. One month or two months do not make a year.What we can see is that the revenues of the government go down in the last couple of months of the year, and the expenses go up. It is clear to us that the Conservatives, through their actions and inactions, left us with a deficit. That is our starting point, the Conservatives' deficit, and the $150 billion additional debt they left for Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister committed to building a new nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples. He even cited the Supreme Court as proof.Now his government is refusing to listen to first nations communities that oppose the Site C dam project in British Columbia.When is the Prime Minister going to walk the talk? Will this be just one more broken promise made to indigenous peoples, continuing in the tradition of the past 150 years under successive Conservative and Liberal governments?

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the minister's problem is that he does not realize Site C is not in Manitoba, it is in British Columbia. Tragically, first nations have heard this story over and over again. Parties in campaigns promise that next time things will be different, but when it comes to the Site C dam, we realize that it is just more of the same from the current government. Even after the review panel found that the mega-dam would have irreversible and negative impacts on the rights of Treaty 8 people, the Minister of Fisheries is still signing permits. Consultations have been inadequate. Letters have been ignored. When is the Liberal government going to actually commit to its sacred policy to respect first nations—

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives left the house clean and orderly.According to the finance department's fiscal monitor, the Conservatives left a $1-billion surplus. Today, the Liberals are running an $18.4-billion deficit. That does not make any sense.Obviously, the Liberals were not ready to govern. The Prime Minister needs to get his act together. I appeal to his sense of responsibility.Will he finally get government spending under control so that all Canadians can live comfortably?

Mr. Speaker, for 10 years, Canadians put up with a previous government that twisted the numbers, that picked and chose what it wanted to say, and refused to accept that it ran us into deficit in 2015-16. We inherited a need to invest in our economy, to fix the wrongs that the previous government was unable to fix, to create the growth, the support, the investments that would lead to a better future for all Canadians. That is what we got elected to do, and that is what we will deliver.

Mr. Speaker, today is a troubling day for Canadian taxpayers and Canadians who have lost their jobs. We have found out today that the Liberals have no plan to create jobs. They have no plan to control their spending. The only plan they have is to borrow more money. What the Liberals do not seem to realize is that it does not matter how much they borrow or why they borrow it, someone has to pay it back at the end of the day.Does the Prime Minister now realize that budgets do not balance themselves?

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, this government is serious about addressing climate change. We understand the economic opportunity that is inherent in actually effectively addressing climate change. I would mention to the hon. member that 80% of Canadians already live in jurisdictions where the provincial governments have taken the lead in standing up and meeting our international obligations with respect to addressing climate change and carbon pricing.

Mr. Speaker, to create an awesome company, it takes treasure and talent, but young companies often do not have the treasure to pay for the talent, so they use stock options. In fact, thousands of companies have grown through use of stock options right across this country, many of them entrepreneurs right here in Ottawa.They are now speaking out against the Liberal plan to double taxes on stock options, which they say would drive thousands of jobs and opportunities abroad.Will the Liberals announce they are reversing their plan to raise taxes on these job creators, so that we can keep these excellent opportunities right here at home?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians have long been paying for the Conservatives' 10 years of dismal economic performance. The Conservatives were unable to create the necessary growth and did not invest in a strong future and in the manufacturing industry.Our country has been in need of growth for 10 years. That is exactly why we were elected: to invest in the economy, grow the middle class, and give everyone a better future.

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister, today, announced growing deficits but refused to say whether struggling Canadians will get the help they were promised.Families in Alberta and Saskatchewan are being hit hard by rising job losses; but while unemployment is going up, the number of Canadians receiving unemployment insurance is actually going down. This is a broken system, and families are paying the price.Alberta is asking the federal government to act quickly by lowering the threshold for eligibility and by extending benefits.Will the Prime Minister listen and act, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, what is undemocratic are bills that are brought in through the back door without proper consultation—

Mr. Speaker, let us go through this one more time. Last year the Liberals complained about the former prime minister's tinkering with the definition of combat missions.Back then, the man who is now the Prime Minister's senior foreign policy adviser said that the Iraq mission was combat and that the government should be honest with Canadians about such a serious matter.The Prime Minister may have changed, but the mission has only expanded, and Canadians are still not getting a straight answer.Will the minister finally admit that, despite Liberal campaign promises, Canada's troops are still engaged in a combat mission in Iraq?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance announced yet another outside consultant today to be appointed to head up a committee, this time to report in 2017 on the economy.So far, there has been a consultant to set an economic agenda, a consultant to help let them understand how to deliver on an agenda, and a consultant to figure out how to pick infrastructure projects. Is that not what the department of finance does?My question to the Minister of Finance is this. How long do Canadians have to wait for an actual plan, while these very expensive and high-priced men sit down to try to figure out the fate of the Canadian economy?

Mr. Speaker, it will be March 22; that is how long.In the last election, Canadians made a choice. They made a choice between a party that said it wanted to make a plan to invest in growth, and another couple of parties that said they wanted to cut at all costs for a balanced budget. Canadians made the right choice. I would like us to consider the alternative right now. If one of the other parties were in power, we would have deep, massive cuts of tens of billions of dollars leading to higher unemployment while Canadians are troubled, and most likely in a recession.Canadians made the right choice.

Mr. Speaker, we are very pleased that our government is going to accede to the Arms Trade Treaty, something that the previous government failed to do. That is a priority for this government, because we know we have a more constructive role to play.

Mr. Speaker, last year the Liberals criticized the previous government and its rather loose definition of a combat mission. At the time, the Prime Minister's current advisor on foreign affairs said that the mission in Iraq was a combat mission. He called on the Conservatives to be more honest with Canadians. Now we have a new Prime Minister and the mission has been expanded, but we still do not have a clear answer.Will the minister stop denying the facts and admit that our soldiers are engaged in a combat mission?

Mr. Speaker, there has been no change in the rules regarding agricultural workers. We understand that there is an administrative backlog in Quebec and our staff are working hard to get rid of that backlog. Otherwise, there has been no change.

Mr. Speaker, we have been pretty clear and pretty transparent. There is the first ministers meeting in Vancouver at the beginning of March where the Prime Minister will meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts to begin to map out a pan-Canadian approach to addressing climate change. This is an issue that this government takes seriously. Unlike the previous government, which talked for 10 years about climate change and did nothing, we intend to actually make progress.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat to this House that, this morning, we put out an economic update for Canadians to see. Our goal is to be open and transparent, so Canadians understand where we are at today and where we are going. What we have told Canadians is that the Conservatives left us with a deficit. Unfortunately, they are picking and choosing, month by month. At the end of the year, that is what we are left with.We are going to work to make the right investments, so we can grow this economy for the first time in a long time.

Mr. Speaker, so much for his principles. We are talking about 2,600 good jobs at Aveos. They had to go to court twice to protect those jobs, and they won both times.The Air Canada Public Participation Act, the law, is crystal clear. Maintenance jobs have to stay in Montreal, Mississauga, and Winnipeg.In 2012, the Liberal leader agreed. He stood by the workers, even rallied with them here on Parliament Hill. However, today he wants to take away their rights.Does the Prime Minister only support workers when the Conservatives are in power?

Mr. Speaker, this government is as committed as ever to the national shipbuilding strategy. No decision has been made with respect to the naval ships, the tugboats, yet. It is still in its infancy in terms of planning, but once decisions have been made, whatever we do will be in the best interest of Canadians and the Canadian industry.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. We have been listening. We made a commitment during the election campaign to strengthen the EI system. That is exactly what we are going to do.In fact, during the election campaign, we made a commitment to invest in communities, to help Canadians, to put more money in the pockets of middle-class Canadians.The member opposite made a campaign promise, as we all know, to balance the budget, which means right now he would be cutting billions of dollars from the Canadian economy instead of making the investments we need. Therefore, I am happy to talk about campaign promises.

They are laughing, Mr. Speaker, because they have a lot of things to try to hide.Canadians saw through that, and on October 19, they chose a government that would raise the ethics rules, proactively meet with the ethics commissioner, and follow her advice. That is what the Minister of Justice has done, and that is what she will always continue to do.

Mr. Speaker, there was a chief in northern Manitoba who told me that she had not had a single conversation with the previous Conservative government in 10 years.This government has undergone a serious set of meaningful consultations with indigenous communities from coast to coast to coast. Without that consultation, no energy projects will be approved. We do not repeat failed ways; we look for better ones.

Mr. Speaker, we made important commitments to Canadians during the course of our campaign.We said we were going to invest in the middle class. We have already started on that. We told Canadians we want to add a Canada child benefit for the most vulnerable. We also said we were going to invest in infrastructure and an innovative economy.We will be putting forth, in our 2016 budget, in just four short weeks, a program and a plan that will show Canadians how we are going to have a more innovative economy going forward.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.We are all pleased that the Government of Quebec decided to drop its lawsuit against Air Canada. In return, Air Canada will build a centre of excellence for C series aircraft maintenance for the next 20 years.That is good news. This will create jobs for the future of our country. When that happens, we will be prepared to examine the Air Canada Public Participation Act to clarify it and ensure that there will not be any litigation in the future.

Mr. Speaker, only 36% of workers who lose their jobs will have access to employment insurance.The Liberal government is abandoning thousands of workers and their families. One thing is certain, those families will not be able to pay their rent, or their bills, or buy groceries with the Prime Minister's empty rhetoric.Will the Liberals create a universal 360-hour eligibility threshold for employment insurance, or not?

I see that there is some scattered applause from Manitobans on the other side.Mr. Speaker, the member knows that this government has done whatever it can to send the signals to indigenous communities across the country that this will be a new era on meaningful nation-to-nation consultations with indigenous peoples. It has been more than a decade since that has happened. The time has come for a new era in that relationship. That time is now.

Mr. Speaker, of course we are very concerned about Bombardier workers across the country losing their jobs. That is why we need to invest in the manufacturing industry and high-end manufacturing. We are also very proud of the agreement with Air Canada that will keep maintenance services for the new C Series planes in Quebec for 20 years. That is good news for workers in the industry, and we will continue to encourage investment in the aerospace industry here in Canada and in Quebec.

Mr. Speaker, we have very little to take from the opposition with respect to how to engage in federal-provincial relations in a constructive manner. This government intends to work in collaboration with the provinces and territories to define a pan-Canadian approach that will be effective in a manner that the previous government was unable to do.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are still in the early stages of planning for the replacement of the tugboats for the navy.As we go down the path looking at what is required, that is when we will ensure that the best interests of Canadians are followed here in making sure that benefits go to Canadians and that the Canadian industry benefits from whatever we do with respect to the tugboats and any ships that are bought being made in Canada.

Mr. Speaker, this is a non-combat mission. However, we are in a conflict zone. Our troops will be at risk. That is the reason why we have mitigated this with many aspects of bringing in certain capabilities. I also remind the member that our troops are very highly trained. I also point out that they are not the principal combatants. However, they have the inherent right to self-defence, and we have robust rules of engagement.

Mr. Speaker, the Royal Canadian Navy requires tugboats to serve its fleet, presenting an exciting opportunity for Canadian shipyards. Thousands of jobs in this country depend on a healthy shipbuilding sector, but the government is leaving people with uncertainty. Just this Friday, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement said, “The vessels will be built in Canada”, but her officials now say that new vessels do not have to be built in Canada.Who is telling the truth here, and will the government stand and unequivocally state that those jobs will be staying in Canada and not exported?

Mr. Speaker, the government made changes to the temporary foreign worker program to solve a problem in western Canada. However, Quebec farmers are paying the price, since they can no longer hire experienced workers. The government is aware of the problem but is not doing anything about it.Will the Minister of Employment exempt our farm workers from the four-year rule and will she ensure that workers' files remain open so that they do not have to start over every year?

Mr. Speaker, I realize that not all good things are in Manitoba, just many good things.

Mr. Speaker, one of the first things I did was to consult with many veterans and veterans organizations. What they confirmed to me was that the former government fumbled the ball 47 ways to Sunday on dealing with their issues. We are taking a new approach to this. We are working on getting veterans the benefits as well as the help they need when they need it, and that includes fighting issues around homelessness.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a member of Parliament, and I am also proud to be the Minister of Justice. I have been an advocate for good governance my entire life. I take my ethical responsibilities incredibly seriously, and I am doing everything to ensure that I am not found in a conflict. That is why my husband and I have met with the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and are following and abiding by the measures that are required to ensure that we are in compliance. We will be in compliance with respect to what the conflict commissioner has said.

Mr. Speaker, I have had the opportunity to engage the renewable energy sector in British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Quebec. Canada boasts one of the cleanest electricity systems in the G7 and the world. Our government is committed to investing an additional $100 million each year in clean technology producers and $200 million each year to support innovation and the use of clean technologies in the natural resources sector. That is real progress.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are committed to improving the employment insurance system to ensure that Canadians across the country who need it have access to it. That is exactly what we are going to do and we will invest in the economy. The opposition member unfortunately promised to make cuts to the economy instead of investing in it. We are going to make the necessary investments to help families in need across the country.

Mr. Speaker, members on the other side are having an enormous amount of difficulty with a very basic principle. When we came to office, we raised the bar on accountability and transparency.

Mr. Speaker, as I just said, and my colleague should know this, the Government of Quebec filed a lawsuit and was in litigation against Air Canada.The Government of Quebec has decided to drop this lawsuit because Air Canada is putting a lot on the table. Not only is it buying 45 to 75 airplanes, but it has also promised to build a centre of excellent for C series airplane maintenance for the next 20 years. That is good news. This will create important jobs for Quebec.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his question.First of all, I would like to remind him that the CBC operates at arm's length from the government. Of course I asked the CBC to hold consultations in order to find out what the employees, the unions, and the political stakeholders in Montreal think about the situation.I would also like to remind my colleague of how important it is for the CBC to provide its employees with facilities that meet the highest standards, particularly in this digital age.

Mr. Speaker, faced with a very difficult economic situation, my riding and the Gaspé were able to develop recognized expertise in generating electricity from wind power.In fact, our region has some 20 wind farms, which produce almost 1,000 megawatts of electricity from wind energy and create many jobs. Could the Minister of Natural Resources share with the House the commitments made by our government to support producers of clean renewable energy and create jobs for Canadian workers?

Mr. Speaker, the point of the legislation is to reset the framework so that we have fairness and balance. In fact, the bill that the previous government presented included a framework that made unionization and decertification more difficult in a package that disrupted the fairness and balance of labour and industry relationships.

Mr. Speaker, our government and I are fully committed to ensuring that first nations families have access to the health services that they need when they need them. I have been working with Health Canada, with the first nations and Inuit health branch to address the serious health outcomes gaps that first nations and Inuit communities are experiencing. My colleague has spoken to me about this. We will continue to address these issues. We will continue to invest $2.5 billion per year and make sure that the system works for all Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, Canada needs to engage on the international stage much more than before, even with regimes with whom we have difficulty. Engagement does not mean that we agree with Iran's policy, but it does establish a pathway toward dialogue, regional security, and economic opportunity. Turning one's back does not help either in providing accountability for a country such as Iran.

Mr. Speaker, this is very important to our government, and the NDP supports our hard work, as we can see.These new development agencies are making strategic investments that support small and medium-sized enterprises. This funding in SMEs really helps these companies innovate, and become more productive and export-oriented. I am pleased to announce that we have approved $37 million in ACOA funding. This generates opportunities for local developments and I want to assure the House that ACOA will be key for economic development in that region.

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is fully aware that my officials in Health Canada and the first nations and Inuit health branch have been speaking to him on a regular basis to address specific cases of concern on this matter. We will continue to work on these issues. I have talked to my officials in the first nations and Inuit health branch. We agree with the member that, absolutely, indigenous peoples must have access to the health care services that they need when they need them. Where there are gaps in the system, I will work with my department to make sure that we address those concerns.

Mr. Speaker, on the contrary. We are happy to work with the industry and with workers, to make sure we are getting good-quality jobs here in Canada. That is why we salute the Air Canada deal to buy 45 C-series Bombardier planes, where maintenance will be done specifically in Quebec for the next 20 years. This means good jobs. This is the kind of good work we are doing here. That is exactly what we are going to continue to do, to ensure that we have a strong and growing economy for everyone in this country.

Mr. Speaker, climate change is one of the major challenges of our generation. It is something we must address to ensure the sustainability of our environment for our children and our grandchildren. It also presents an enormous economic opportunity.Our government is providing leadership, working with the provinces and territories to bring about a pan-Canadian framework with respect to climate change. The Prime Minister will be meeting with his colleagues in Vancouver in a couple of weeks, and we will be working through a range of mechanisms, including addressing a price on carbon, as part of a broad-based strategy to address climate change.

As I was saying, Mr. Speaker, the point is that there is a process that involves consultation and dialogue between trade unions and business, which has proven to be effective, efficient, and fair. The previous government chose to circumvent the process and make the system unbalanced. We are changing it.

Mr. Speaker, my riding of Tobique—Mactaquac, a rural New Brunswick riding, is home to thriving natural resource, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors, all of which utilize ACOA to help invest in new technology, innovate, and grow their businesses. Can the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development please give us an update on his department's progress in ensuring that Canada's regional development agencies are helping Canadian companies and their businesses, and ensuring that entrepreneurs have access to the capital they require to create jobs and grow the economy in Atlantic Canada?

Mr. Speaker, the impact of this book by Pickton is painfully traumatic for the victims. All Canadians share in that grief. Canadians also expect Amazon to respond quickly and sympathetically to this outrage, which I understand it has done this afternoon. The Correctional Service is investigating the source of the manuscript. We will be examining all those who have assisted in any way in this odious enterprise.

Mr. Speaker, there has been no change in the rules regarding agricultural workers. We understand that there is an administrative backlog in Quebec and our staff are working hard to get rid of that backlog. Otherwise, there has been no change.

Mr. Speaker, Canadians were horrified by the unspeakable murders committed by serial killer Robert Pickton. Despite the fact that he is now in prison, families of his victims were shocked to hear that he has recently published a book.What will the government do to ensure that serial killer Robert Pickton in no way benefits financially or through the distribution of his depraved writings?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals squandered a surplus in less than 100 days, and now today we learned that they want to borrow $18 billion for expenses already incurred. We also learned that they will borrow at least another $10 billion. Instead of taking responsibility, they are trying to blame everyone else for their poor economic management.Can the Prime Minister tell us who will pay for all of this?

Mr. Speaker, for 10 years, Canadians put up with a previous government that twisted the numbers, that picked and chose what it wanted to say, and refused to accept that it ran us into deficit in 2015-16. We inherited a need to invest in our economy, to fix the wrongs that the previous government was unable to fix, to create the growth, the support, the investments that would lead to a better future for all Canadians. That is what we got elected to do, and that is what we will deliver.

Mr. Speaker, piece by piece, the Liberal government is dismantling democracy in Canada. The first piece of legislation brought forward by the jobs minister is a bill to gut accountability and transparency for unions. The Liberal MPs have been arguing in the House that a secret ballot is somehow undemocratic and burdensome red tape. I would like the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour to please explain to the House why she believes a secret ballot is undemocratic.

Mr. Speaker, the boycott, divest, and sanctions campaigners claim it to be a human rights movement. In fact, it is nothing more than a thinly disguised multi-dimensional hate campaign. It targets the economy and the citizens of the only democracy in the Middle East. Last week during the debate, the Liberals were all over the place on this issue. Can the minister assure the House that when our motion passes, his government will take it seriously?

Mr. Speaker, it is being reported that 40 state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new bounty for the death of author Salman Rushdie. The renewed call for his death comes on the anniversary of the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Make no mistake. This regime in Tehran is putting on a false front. It continues to be a serious threat to peace and stability. Why is the government rushing to embrace Iran when it clearly cannot be trusted?

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister, today, announced growing deficits but refused to say whether struggling Canadians will get the help they were promised.Families in Alberta and Saskatchewan are being hit hard by rising job losses; but while unemployment is going up, the number of Canadians receiving unemployment insurance is actually going down. This is a broken system, and families are paying the price.Alberta is asking the federal government to act quickly by lowering the threshold for eligibility and by extending benefits.Will the Prime Minister listen and act, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, we took a very thorough analysis on making sure that we supported our allies in the fight against ISIL.We are committed to defeating ISIL, and tripling the training mission and doubling the intelligence will help the coalition in this manner.I think the member would agree that ISIL is a horrible atrocity that has to be defeated, and Canadians, alongside their coalition partners, will do so.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are committed to improving the employment insurance system to ensure that Canadians across the country who need it have access to it. That is exactly what we are going to do and we will invest in the economy. The opposition member unfortunately promised to make cuts to the economy instead of investing in it. We are going to make the necessary investments to help families in need across the country.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance announced yet another outside consultant today to be appointed to head up a committee, this time to report in 2017 on the economy.So far, there has been a consultant to set an economic agenda, a consultant to help let them understand how to deliver on an agenda, and a consultant to figure out how to pick infrastructure projects. Is that not what the department of finance does?My question to the Minister of Finance is this. How long do Canadians have to wait for an actual plan, while these very expensive and high-priced men sit down to try to figure out the fate of the Canadian economy?

Mr. Speaker, we have very little to take from the opposition with respect to how to engage in federal-provincial relations in a constructive manner. This government intends to work in collaboration with the provinces and territories to define a pan-Canadian approach that will be effective in a manner that the previous government was unable to do.

Mr. Speaker, what the previous government never understood and what the Conservatives clearly still do not understand is that economic growth creates jobs and prosperity. The fact that the Conservatives were unable to create economic growth for 10 years landed us in the situation we are in now.The Conservatives refuse to accept that and are even proposing that we continue to make cuts instead of investing in the Canadian economy. That is completely absurd. That is exactly what they are proposing and that is why they are sitting on the opposition benches today.

Mr. Speaker, the point of the legislation is to reset the framework so that we have fairness and balance. In fact, the bill that the previous government presented included a framework that made unionization and decertification more difficult in a package that disrupted the fairness and balance of labour and industry relationships.

Mr. Speaker, 2,600 Aveos workers feel betrayed. When the Prime Minister was in opposition in 2012, he was by their side armed with a megaphone and chanting “So-so-so-solidarity!” He said: It is such a shame that we have to demonstrate to ask the government...to obey the law. He even lamented the broken promises. Now that he is in power, he wants to take away those same workers' rights vis-à-vis Air Canada. What changed for the Prime Minister?

Mr. Speaker, not long after the sanctions against Iran were lifted, Russia tried to sell fighter jets and missile systems to the regime in Tehran.Our allies have clearly said that this sale violates a UN arms embargo, but the Liberal government is naively cozying up to Iran and Vladimir Putin. Will the government condemn this massive arms sale, which threatens peace and our friend, Israel?

Mr. Speaker, members on the other side are having an enormous amount of difficulty with a very basic principle. When we came to office, we raised the bar on accountability and transparency.

Mr. Speaker, there was a chief in northern Manitoba who told me that she had not had a single conversation with the previous Conservative government in 10 years.This government has undergone a serious set of meaningful consultations with indigenous communities from coast to coast to coast. Without that consultation, no energy projects will be approved. We do not repeat failed ways; we look for better ones.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat to this House what I said before. One month or two months do not make a year.What we can see is that the revenues of the government go down in the last couple of months of the year, and the expenses go up. It is clear to us that the Conservatives, through their actions and inactions, left us with a deficit. That is our starting point, the Conservatives' deficit, and the $150 billion additional debt they left for Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, with oil prices at an all-time low, people in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick are desperate and out of work. They are looking for a glimmer of hope.A job-killing carbon tax is the absolute last thing they need, a tax that would put a nail in the coffin of those people who work in the oil patch.Will the Minister of Natural Resources stand up to his cabinet colleagues? Would he stand up for jobs in Canada? Would he say no to a carbon tax and yes to Canadian jobs for the sake of the natural resources sector?

Mr. Speaker, instead of providing work to Canadians, the Liberals would like to have the Royal Canadian Navy's ships built abroad. Canadian shipyards have the skills, expertise, and capacity for building those ships here, and the workers need those jobs.Jobs abroad and nothing for Canadians, is that the Liberal approach? Are the Liberals going to go back on their promises and abandon Canadian families like they are abandoning Albertan families?

Mr. Speaker, government documents submitted to the Human Rights Tribunal show that Health Canada routinely denies everything from motorized wheelchairs to specialized prescription drugs for indigenous children. I refer the minister to evidence tab 420 from the hearings, which relates to a four-year-old child who suffered severe anoxic brain injury and required a specialized medical bed so she could go home to her family. Health Canada wrote in response “absolutely not” and refused to pay.What directives has the minister given to her staff to end this malignant culture, so the culture of “absolutely no” for children finally becomes one of “absolutely yes”?

Mr. Speaker, what is undemocratic are bills that are brought in through the back door without proper consultation—

They are laughing, Mr. Speaker, because they have a lot of things to try to hide.Canadians saw through that, and on October 19, they chose a government that would raise the ethics rules, proactively meet with the ethics commissioner, and follow her advice. That is what the Minister of Justice has done, and that is what she will always continue to do.

Mr. Speaker, our government has committed to legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana. We will be proceeding on that matter in an orderly fashion and will take the time necessary in order to do it right.Until Parliament has enacted new legislation to ensure that marijuana is carefully regulated, current laws remain in force and should be obeyed.I will be working with my parliamentary secretary, the Minister of Health, and the Minister of Public Safety to ensure that we put in place a process that keeps marijuana out of the hands of children and the proceeds out of the hands of criminals.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat to this House that, this morning, we put out an economic update for Canadians to see. Our goal is to be open and transparent, so Canadians understand where we are at today and where we are going. What we have told Canadians is that the Conservatives left us with a deficit. Unfortunately, they are picking and choosing, month by month. At the end of the year, that is what we are left with.We are going to work to make the right investments, so we can grow this economy for the first time in a long time.

Mr. Speaker, last October, millions of Canadians voted to revive the CBC after the Conservatives bled it dry.However, there is still nothing but bad news under the Liberals. There is now a “For Sale” sign in front of Maison de Radio Canada in Montreal. This decision is harmful to our heritage since the sale of the building would represent the loss of a symbol of Quebec's Quiet Revolution. It is all well and good that the minister announced consultations, but the building could be sold tomorrow morning.Will the minister at least impose a moratorium to allow time to explore better options than an irreversible sale?

Mr. Speaker, it is nice to know that if I were a Liberal member of Parliament I would have no voice, because, apparently, a private member's bill is illegitimate with the current government.Only a few months ago, each and every one of us in the House was elected by secret ballot, a hallmark of a Canadian democracy. However, the first piece of legislation brought forward by the jobs minister is robbing union members of their democratic right to a secret ballot. Ninety per cent of union members polled support a secret ballot.Why is the secret ballot good enough to elect members of Parliament, but not good enough—

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister committed to building a new nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples. He even cited the Supreme Court as proof.Now his government is refusing to listen to first nations communities that oppose the Site C dam project in British Columbia.When is the Prime Minister going to walk the talk? Will this be just one more broken promise made to indigenous peoples, continuing in the tradition of the past 150 years under successive Conservative and Liberal governments?

Mr. Speaker, these are just more broken promises. At the Paris climate change conference, the Minister of Environment promised a nationwide climate change plan within 90 days. Now it is clear that the minister will not deliver on that plan. At the same time as the economy flounders, she is scheming to impose a carbon tax grab that will increase the price of everything, including gas, groceries, and heating.What is the minister hiding and when will Canadians finally see her climate change plan?

Mr. Speaker, how tone deaf can the government be? A carbon tax puts Canada at a huge competitive disadvantage. Investors are leaving Canada in droves because of the Liberals' confusing regulatory system. If job creators see a carbon tax, they are going to see that as Canada is closed for business.Is there a leader in the government who will be like the premier of Saskatchewan who wants Canada competitive and wants to see Canada open for business? Or under the Liberals, is Canada closed for business?

Mr. Speaker, let us go through this one more time. Last year the Liberals complained about the former prime minister's tinkering with the definition of combat missions.Back then, the man who is now the Prime Minister's senior foreign policy adviser said that the Iraq mission was combat and that the government should be honest with Canadians about such a serious matter.The Prime Minister may have changed, but the mission has only expanded, and Canadians are still not getting a straight answer.Will the minister finally admit that, despite Liberal campaign promises, Canada's troops are still engaged in a combat mission in Iraq?

Mr. Speaker, we have been pretty clear and pretty transparent. There is the first ministers meeting in Vancouver at the beginning of March where the Prime Minister will meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts to begin to map out a pan-Canadian approach to addressing climate change. This is an issue that this government takes seriously. Unlike the previous government, which talked for 10 years about climate change and did nothing, we intend to actually make progress.

Mr. Speaker, I would like the Prime Minister to trust the civil servants who work for his own finance department. They say that the Conservatives left a $1-billion surplus.However, we should not be surprised by such a poor track record, since barely a year ago, the Prime Minister said that budgets balance themselves. Now, the Prime Minister's dream world has just fallen like a house of cards in front of him. The reality is that the Liberals are already running an $18.4-billion deficit. When will the Prime Minister regain control over government spending?

Mr. Speaker, the member now refers to beginning the discussion on a pan-Canadian climate change framework. Let me quote the minister on CBC, “We were setting the stage for a first ministers meeting that's going to take place at the beginning of March. Then that's when we're going to have this pan-Canadian framework”. Now it appears that the Liberals are just beginning those discussions in March. No climate change plan, only billions of dollars of spending on foreign vanity projects and a punishing new carbon tax on Canadians. Will the minister now admit that she is in way over her head?

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the minister's problem is that he does not realize Site C is not in Manitoba, it is in British Columbia. Tragically, first nations have heard this story over and over again. Parties in campaigns promise that next time things will be different, but when it comes to the Site C dam, we realize that it is just more of the same from the current government. Even after the review panel found that the mega-dam would have irreversible and negative impacts on the rights of Treaty 8 people, the Minister of Fisheries is still signing permits. Consultations have been inadequate. Letters have been ignored. When is the Liberal government going to actually commit to its sacred policy to respect first nations—

Mr. Speaker, I was surprised to hear the member opposite try to say that “now is not the time to spend based on slow economic growth”. Not only do we disagree with the member opposite, we ran a campaign on exactly our disagreement on that. It looks like Canadians agreed with us. We will invest in infrastructure. We will put money in the pockets of the middle class and those working hard to join it. We will invest in innovation with the kind of future and growth that the economy needs. That is exactly what we committed to doing. That is exactly what we are doing.

Mr. Speaker, Canadians have long been paying for the Conservatives' 10 years of dismal economic performance. The Conservatives were unable to create the necessary growth and did not invest in a strong future and in the manufacturing industry.Our country has been in need of growth for 10 years. That is exactly why we were elected: to invest in the economy, grow the middle class, and give everyone a better future.

Mr. Speaker, climate change is one of the major challenges of our generation. It is something we must address to ensure the sustainability of our environment for our children and our grandchildren. It also presents an enormous economic opportunity.Our government is providing leadership, working with the provinces and territories to bring about a pan-Canadian framework with respect to climate change. The Prime Minister will be meeting with his colleagues in Vancouver in a couple of weeks, and we will be working through a range of mechanisms, including addressing a price on carbon, as part of a broad-based strategy to address climate change.

Mr. Speaker, it will be March 22; that is how long.In the last election, Canadians made a choice. They made a choice between a party that said it wanted to make a plan to invest in growth, and another couple of parties that said they wanted to cut at all costs for a balanced budget. Canadians made the right choice. I would like us to consider the alternative right now. If one of the other parties were in power, we would have deep, massive cuts of tens of billions of dollars leading to higher unemployment while Canadians are troubled, and most likely in a recession.Canadians made the right choice.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government, time after time, has already faced questions about its ethical behaviour, and here we go again.The justice minister is in partnership with her husband in a private company. He has not been a registered lobbyist for years, but as soon as his wife was appointed to a Liberal cabinet, he dusted off the old laptop, put new ink in the printer, and signed up as a lobbyist. Is this the ethical standard that the Prime Minister approved when he said his ministers must avoid not only the conflict of interest but even the appearance of a conflict of interest?

Mr. Speaker, last year the Liberals criticized the previous government and its rather loose definition of a combat mission. At the time, the Prime Minister's current advisor on foreign affairs said that the mission in Iraq was a combat mission. He called on the Conservatives to be more honest with Canadians. Now we have a new Prime Minister and the mission has been expanded, but we still do not have a clear answer.Will the minister stop denying the facts and admit that our soldiers are engaged in a combat mission?

On the contrary, Mr. Speaker, Israel is not only a key ally but equally a steadfast friend. The Jewish community has deep roots here in Canada and contributes greatly to Canadian society. A boycott would not bring us closer to any viable or constructive solution, so we will not support that. However, the motion would not bring us any closer to working constructively together. It seeks to divide.We firmly believe that negotiations constitute the only way to arrive at lasting, durable peace.

Mr. Speaker, my riding of Tobique—Mactaquac, a rural New Brunswick riding, is home to thriving natural resource, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors, all of which utilize ACOA to help invest in new technology, innovate, and grow their businesses. Can the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development please give us an update on his department's progress in ensuring that Canada's regional development agencies are helping Canadian companies and their businesses, and ensuring that entrepreneurs have access to the capital they require to create jobs and grow the economy in Atlantic Canada?

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives left the house clean and orderly.According to the finance department's fiscal monitor, the Conservatives left a $1-billion surplus. Today, the Liberals are running an $18.4-billion deficit. That does not make any sense.Obviously, the Liberals were not ready to govern. The Prime Minister needs to get his act together. I appeal to his sense of responsibility.Will he finally get government spending under control so that all Canadians can live comfortably?

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate what the member opposite is trying to say. However, he obviously was not keeping a very close eye on what his colleagues were doing over the past 10 years. The Conservatives were fudging the figures and now they are once again trying to claim that they left a magical surplus.The reality is that they left us a deficit. We were elected on a promise to invest in our communities. The Conservatives are proposing even more cuts. That is not what this country needs.

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, this government is serious about addressing climate change. We understand the economic opportunity that is inherent in actually effectively addressing climate change. I would mention to the hon. member that 80% of Canadians already live in jurisdictions where the provincial governments have taken the lead in standing up and meeting our international obligations with respect to addressing climate change and carbon pricing.

Mr. Speaker, we are very pleased that our government is going to accede to the Arms Trade Treaty, something that the previous government failed to do. That is a priority for this government, because we know we have a more constructive role to play.

Mr. Speaker, only 36% of workers who lose their jobs will have access to employment insurance.The Liberal government is abandoning thousands of workers and their families. One thing is certain, those families will not be able to pay their rent, or their bills, or buy groceries with the Prime Minister's empty rhetoric.Will the Liberals create a universal 360-hour eligibility threshold for employment insurance, or not?

Mr. Speaker, the Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the government has discriminated against first nations children. Documents from Health Canada confirm what first nations people already knew. Rejecting orthodontic appeals for first nations children is standard. Almost 100% of claims are denied.These documents actually state that the government will provide these services if the parents agree to give up their children to foster care. This is unacceptable. What steps has the Minister of Health taken to end this discrimination?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his question.First of all, I would like to remind him that the CBC operates at arm's length from the government. Of course I asked the CBC to hold consultations in order to find out what the employees, the unions, and the political stakeholders in Montreal think about the situation.I would also like to remind my colleague of how important it is for the CBC to provide its employees with facilities that meet the highest standards, particularly in this digital age.

Mr. Speaker, Canada needs to engage on the international stage much more than before, even with regimes with whom we have difficulty. Engagement does not mean that we agree with Iran's policy, but it does establish a pathway toward dialogue, regional security, and economic opportunity. Turning one's back does not help either in providing accountability for a country such as Iran.

Mr. Speaker, as the aunt of a 15-year-old nephew, I am concerned about how easy it is for youth his age to obtain marijuana. What measures is the government taking to ensure that by legalizing marijuana we are making it more difficult for children and youth to access this substance? Can the Minister of Justice offer an update on our party's commitment to regulate and legalize marijuana?

Mr. Speaker, this is very important to our government, and the NDP supports our hard work, as we can see.These new development agencies are making strategic investments that support small and medium-sized enterprises. This funding in SMEs really helps these companies innovate, and become more productive and export-oriented. I am pleased to announce that we have approved $37 million in ACOA funding. This generates opportunities for local developments and I want to assure the House that ACOA will be key for economic development in that region.

Mr. Speaker, what Canadians got for the last 10 years was an actual plan, a plan that created 1.3 million net new jobs, a plan that lowered taxes to the lowest level in 50 years, a plan that balanced the budget and created a surplus. What did that mean? It meant that Canada became the best place in the world to invest in and create jobs in. What did those guys do in 100 days? They blew that record. Does the Prime Minister understand that Canadians actually want a plan, not just more Liberal spending?

Mr. Speaker, the bar the Prime Minister set was about the perception of a conflict of interest. Does the Prime Minister not see this as a problem?The Minister of Justice sits on six cabinet committees, including one responsible for examining initiatives designed to strengthen the relationship with indigenous Canadians. This is exactly the issue that her husband will now lobby the government about. The justice minister will now deal with legal matters involving first nations. Her husband's lobbying work is in direct conflict with this. How can the Prime Minister justify this obvious conflict of interest?

Mr. Speaker, faced with a very difficult economic situation, my riding and the Gaspé were able to develop recognized expertise in generating electricity from wind power.In fact, our region has some 20 wind farms, which produce almost 1,000 megawatts of electricity from wind energy and create many jobs. Could the Minister of Natural Resources share with the House the commitments made by our government to support producers of clean renewable energy and create jobs for Canadian workers?

Mr. Speaker, today is a troubling day for Canadian taxpayers and Canadians who have lost their jobs. We have found out today that the Liberals have no plan to create jobs. They have no plan to control their spending. The only plan they have is to borrow more money. What the Liberals do not seem to realize is that it does not matter how much they borrow or why they borrow it, someone has to pay it back at the end of the day.Does the Prime Minister now realize that budgets do not balance themselves?

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is fully aware that my officials in Health Canada and the first nations and Inuit health branch have been speaking to him on a regular basis to address specific cases of concern on this matter. We will continue to work on these issues. I have talked to my officials in the first nations and Inuit health branch. We agree with the member that, absolutely, indigenous peoples must have access to the health care services that they need when they need them. Where there are gaps in the system, I will work with my department to make sure that we address those concerns.

Mr. Speaker, our government and I are fully committed to ensuring that first nations families have access to the health services that they need when they need them. I have been working with Health Canada, with the first nations and Inuit health branch to address the serious health outcomes gaps that first nations and Inuit communities are experiencing. My colleague has spoken to me about this. We will continue to address these issues. We will continue to invest $2.5 billion per year and make sure that the system works for all Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, the government made changes to the temporary foreign worker program to solve a problem in western Canada. However, Quebec farmers are paying the price, since they can no longer hire experienced workers. The government is aware of the problem but is not doing anything about it.Will the Minister of Employment exempt our farm workers from the four-year rule and will she ensure that workers' files remain open so that they do not have to start over every year?

Mr. Speaker, I have had the opportunity to engage the renewable energy sector in British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Quebec. Canada boasts one of the cleanest electricity systems in the G7 and the world. Our government is committed to investing an additional $100 million each year in clean technology producers and $200 million each year to support innovation and the use of clean technologies in the natural resources sector. That is real progress.

Mr. Speaker, so much for his principles. We are talking about 2,600 good jobs at Aveos. They had to go to court twice to protect those jobs, and they won both times.The Air Canada Public Participation Act, the law, is crystal clear. Maintenance jobs have to stay in Montreal, Mississauga, and Winnipeg.In 2012, the Liberal leader agreed. He stood by the workers, even rallied with them here on Parliament Hill. However, today he wants to take away their rights.Does the Prime Minister only support workers when the Conservatives are in power?

Mr. Speaker, the alternative would be that this country would still be in a surplus, as we left it.Even today, Canadians still do not know how much the Minister of Finance is borrowing from them to cover his Liberal government's deficit. What Canadians and his own officials do know is that the Conservatives left him a surplus.He laughingly rejects his own officials' conclusions, but is that not because he desperately needs to shift the blame away from his own mismanagement?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Veterans Affairs is misleading Canadians. Contrary to what he said, it was the Conservative government that introduced important measures to fight veterans' homelessness.We launched projects in Toronto, Calgary, Victoria, and London, which helped keep veterans off the street. Furthermore, it was our party that gave the department the specific mandate of helping homeless veterans. Will the minister pledge today to renew this mandate?

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.We are all pleased that the Government of Quebec decided to drop its lawsuit against Air Canada. In return, Air Canada will build a centre of excellence for C series aircraft maintenance for the next 20 years.That is good news. This will create jobs for the future of our country. When that happens, we will be prepared to examine the Air Canada Public Participation Act to clarify it and ensure that there will not be any litigation in the future.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. We have been listening. We made a commitment during the election campaign to strengthen the EI system. That is exactly what we are going to do.In fact, during the election campaign, we made a commitment to invest in communities, to help Canadians, to put more money in the pockets of middle-class Canadians.The member opposite made a campaign promise, as we all know, to balance the budget, which means right now he would be cutting billions of dollars from the Canadian economy instead of making the investments we need. Therefore, I am happy to talk about campaign promises.

I see that there is some scattered applause from Manitobans on the other side.Mr. Speaker, the member knows that this government has done whatever it can to send the signals to indigenous communities across the country that this will be a new era on meaningful nation-to-nation consultations with indigenous peoples. It has been more than a decade since that has happened. The time has come for a new era in that relationship. That time is now.

Mr. Speaker, the Royal Canadian Navy requires tugboats to serve its fleet, presenting an exciting opportunity for Canadian shipyards. Thousands of jobs in this country depend on a healthy shipbuilding sector, but the government is leaving people with uncertainty. Just this Friday, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement said, “The vessels will be built in Canada”, but her officials now say that new vessels do not have to be built in Canada.Who is telling the truth here, and will the government stand and unequivocally state that those jobs will be staying in Canada and not exported?

Mr. Speaker, we made important commitments to Canadians during the course of our campaign.We said we were going to invest in the middle class. We have already started on that. We told Canadians we want to add a Canada child benefit for the most vulnerable. We also said we were going to invest in infrastructure and an innovative economy.We will be putting forth, in our 2016 budget, in just four short weeks, a program and a plan that will show Canadians how we are going to have a more innovative economy going forward.

Mr. Speaker, one of the first things I did was to consult with many veterans and veterans organizations. What they confirmed to me was that the former government fumbled the ball 47 ways to Sunday on dealing with their issues. We are taking a new approach to this. We are working on getting veterans the benefits as well as the help they need when they need it, and that includes fighting issues around homelessness.

Mr. Speaker, this is a non-combat mission. However, we are in a conflict zone. Our troops will be at risk. That is the reason why we have mitigated this with many aspects of bringing in certain capabilities. I also remind the member that our troops are very highly trained. I also point out that they are not the principal combatants. However, they have the inherent right to self-defence, and we have robust rules of engagement.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a member of Parliament, and I am also proud to be the Minister of Justice. I have been an advocate for good governance my entire life. I take my ethical responsibilities incredibly seriously, and I am doing everything to ensure that I am not found in a conflict. That is why my husband and I have met with the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and are following and abiding by the measures that are required to ensure that we are in compliance. We will be in compliance with respect to what the conflict commissioner has said.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are still in the early stages of planning for the replacement of the tugboats for the navy.As we go down the path looking at what is required, that is when we will ensure that the best interests of Canadians are followed here in making sure that benefits go to Canadians and that the Canadian industry benefits from whatever we do with respect to the tugboats and any ships that are bought being made in Canada.

As I was saying, Mr. Speaker, the point is that there is a process that involves consultation and dialogue between trade unions and business, which has proven to be effective, efficient, and fair. The previous government chose to circumvent the process and make the system unbalanced. We are changing it.

Mr. Speaker, Bell Helicopter is losing jobs, CAE is losing jobs, Bombardier is losing jobs, and Aveos has lost jobs.The existing law on Air Canada is the best guarantee of keeping airplane maintenance in Canada now and in the future. However, this law was violated and the government has never intervened.Since when has the minister been able to flout laws or change them to please the offenders?When will the government demand that the Attorney General intervene on behalf of unionized Aveos workers to force Air Canada to comply with the law and its obligations to Canadians—

Mr. Speaker, changes came about when they started spending more of Canadians' tax dollars. It must be embarrassing for the minister to visit his own department, because everybody there disagrees with him.The Prime Minister just accused us of picking and choosing numbers. Well, we did; we picked and chose his own finance department's numbers.For the second month in a row, the finance department's own report shows that Conservatives left the Liberals with a surplus. Does the minister accept this latest report. If not, who is he going to fire?

Mr. Speaker, 1,800 jobs have been lost at Aveos alone, because the federal government did not enforce its own law.Does the Minister of Transport want to modernize the Air Canada act to make it legal for the company to send aerospace jobs abroad?Does the minister realize that by not enforcing the law, the federal government was complicit in outsourcing Air Canada airplane maintenance to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tel Aviv, and Minnesota?

Mr. Speaker, as I just said, and my colleague should know this, the Government of Quebec filed a lawsuit and was in litigation against Air Canada.The Government of Quebec has decided to drop this lawsuit because Air Canada is putting a lot on the table. Not only is it buying 45 to 75 airplanes, but it has also promised to build a centre of excellent for C series airplane maintenance for the next 20 years. That is good news. This will create important jobs for Quebec.

Mr. Speaker, to create an awesome company, it takes treasure and talent, but young companies often do not have the treasure to pay for the talent, so they use stock options. In fact, thousands of companies have grown through use of stock options right across this country, many of them entrepreneurs right here in Ottawa.They are now speaking out against the Liberal plan to double taxes on stock options, which they say would drive thousands of jobs and opportunities abroad.Will the Liberals announce they are reversing their plan to raise taxes on these job creators, so that we can keep these excellent opportunities right here at home?

Mr. Speaker, on the contrary. We are happy to work with the industry and with workers, to make sure we are getting good-quality jobs here in Canada. That is why we salute the Air Canada deal to buy 45 C-series Bombardier planes, where maintenance will be done specifically in Quebec for the next 20 years. This means good jobs. This is the kind of good work we are doing here. That is exactly what we are going to continue to do, to ensure that we have a strong and growing economy for everyone in this country.

Mr. Speaker, of course we are very concerned about Bombardier workers across the country losing their jobs. That is why we need to invest in the manufacturing industry and high-end manufacturing. We are also very proud of the agreement with Air Canada that will keep maintenance services for the new C Series planes in Quebec for 20 years. That is good news for workers in the industry, and we will continue to encourage investment in the aerospace industry here in Canada and in Quebec.

Mr. Speaker, I realize that not all good things are in Manitoba, just many good things.

Mr. Speaker, this government is as committed as ever to the national shipbuilding strategy. No decision has been made with respect to the naval ships, the tugboats, yet. It is still in its infancy in terms of planning, but once decisions have been made, whatever we do will be in the best interest of Canadians and the Canadian industry.

Mr. Speaker, this government is as committed as ever to the national shipbuilding strategy. No decision has been made with respect to the naval ships, the tugboats, yet. It is still in its infancy in terms of planning, but once decisions have been made, whatever we do will be in the best interest of Canadians and the Canadian industry.

Mr. Speaker, I realize that not all good things are in Manitoba, just many good things.

Mr. Speaker, of course we are very concerned about Bombardier workers across the country losing their jobs. That is why we need to invest in the manufacturing industry and high-end manufacturing. We are also very proud of the agreement with Air Canada that will keep maintenance services for the new C Series planes in Quebec for 20 years. That is good news for workers in the industry, and we will continue to encourage investment in the aerospace industry here in Canada and in Quebec.

Mr. Speaker, on the contrary. We are happy to work with the industry and with workers, to make sure we are getting good-quality jobs here in Canada. That is why we salute the Air Canada deal to buy 45 C-series Bombardier planes, where maintenance will be done specifically in Quebec for the next 20 years. This means good jobs. This is the kind of good work we are doing here. That is exactly what we are going to continue to do, to ensure that we have a strong and growing economy for everyone in this country.

Mr. Speaker, to create an awesome company, it takes treasure and talent, but young companies often do not have the treasure to pay for the talent, so they use stock options. In fact, thousands of companies have grown through use of stock options right across this country, many of them entrepreneurs right here in Ottawa.They are now speaking out against the Liberal plan to double taxes on stock options, which they say would drive thousands of jobs and opportunities abroad.Will the Liberals announce they are reversing their plan to raise taxes on these job creators, so that we can keep these excellent opportunities right here at home?

Mr. Speaker, as I just said, and my colleague should know this, the Government of Quebec filed a lawsuit and was in litigation against Air Canada.The Government of Quebec has decided to drop this lawsuit because Air Canada is putting a lot on the table. Not only is it buying 45 to 75 airplanes, but it has also promised to build a centre of excellent for C series airplane maintenance for the next 20 years. That is good news. This will create important jobs for Quebec.

Mr. Speaker, changes came about when they started spending more of Canadians' tax dollars. It must be embarrassing for the minister to visit his own department, because everybody there disagrees with him.The Prime Minister just accused us of picking and choosing numbers. Well, we did; we picked and chose his own finance department's numbers.For the second month in a row, the finance department's own report shows that Conservatives left the Liberals with a surplus. Does the minister accept this latest report. If not, who is he going to fire?

Mr. Speaker, 1,800 jobs have been lost at Aveos alone, because the federal government did not enforce its own law.Does the Minister of Transport want to modernize the Air Canada act to make it legal for the company to send aerospace jobs abroad?Does the minister realize that by not enforcing the law, the federal government was complicit in outsourcing Air Canada airplane maintenance to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tel Aviv, and Minnesota?

Mr. Speaker, Bell Helicopter is losing jobs, CAE is losing jobs, Bombardier is losing jobs, and Aveos has lost jobs.The existing law on Air Canada is the best guarantee of keeping airplane maintenance in Canada now and in the future. However, this law was violated and the government has never intervened.Since when has the minister been able to flout laws or change them to please the offenders?When will the government demand that the Attorney General intervene on behalf of unionized Aveos workers to force Air Canada to comply with the law and its obligations to Canadians—

As I was saying, Mr. Speaker, the point is that there is a process that involves consultation and dialogue between trade unions and business, which has proven to be effective, efficient, and fair. The previous government chose to circumvent the process and make the system unbalanced. We are changing it.

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are still in the early stages of planning for the replacement of the tugboats for the navy.As we go down the path looking at what is required, that is when we will ensure that the best interests of Canadians are followed here in making sure that benefits go to Canadians and that the Canadian industry benefits from whatever we do with respect to the tugboats and any ships that are bought being made in Canada.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a member of Parliament, and I am also proud to be the Minister of Justice. I have been an advocate for good governance my entire life. I take my ethical responsibilities incredibly seriously, and I am doing everything to ensure that I am not found in a conflict. That is why my husband and I have met with the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and are following and abiding by the measures that are required to ensure that we are in compliance. We will be in compliance with respect to what the conflict commissioner has said.

Mr. Speaker, this is a non-combat mission. However, we are in a conflict zone. Our troops will be at risk. That is the reason why we have mitigated this with many aspects of bringing in certain capabilities. I also remind the member that our troops are very highly trained. I also point out that they are not the principal combatants. However, they have the inherent right to self-defence, and we have robust rules of engagement.

Mr. Speaker, one of the first things I did was to consult with many veterans and veterans organizations. What they confirmed to me was that the former government fumbled the ball 47 ways to Sunday on dealing with their issues. We are taking a new approach to this. We are working on getting veterans the benefits as well as the help they need when they need it, and that includes fighting issues around homelessness.

Mr. Speaker, we made important commitments to Canadians during the course of our campaign.We said we were going to invest in the middle class. We have already started on that. We told Canadians we want to add a Canada child benefit for the most vulnerable. We also said we were going to invest in infrastructure and an innovative economy.We will be putting forth, in our 2016 budget, in just four short weeks, a program and a plan that will show Canadians how we are going to have a more innovative economy going forward.

Mr. Speaker, the Royal Canadian Navy requires tugboats to serve its fleet, presenting an exciting opportunity for Canadian shipyards. Thousands of jobs in this country depend on a healthy shipbuilding sector, but the government is leaving people with uncertainty. Just this Friday, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement said, “The vessels will be built in Canada”, but her officials now say that new vessels do not have to be built in Canada.Who is telling the truth here, and will the government stand and unequivocally state that those jobs will be staying in Canada and not exported?

I see that there is some scattered applause from Manitobans on the other side.Mr. Speaker, the member knows that this government has done whatever it can to send the signals to indigenous communities across the country that this will be a new era on meaningful nation-to-nation consultations with indigenous peoples. It has been more than a decade since that has happened. The time has come for a new era in that relationship. That time is now.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. We have been listening. We made a commitment during the election campaign to strengthen the EI system. That is exactly what we are going to do.In fact, during the election campaign, we made a commitment to invest in communities, to help Canadians, to put more money in the pockets of middle-class Canadians.The member opposite made a campaign promise, as we all know, to balance the budget, which means right now he would be cutting billions of dollars from the Canadian economy instead of making the investments we need. Therefore, I am happy to talk about campaign promises.

Mr. Speaker, so much for his principles. We are talking about 2,600 good jobs at Aveos. They had to go to court twice to protect those jobs, and they won both times.The Air Canada Public Participation Act, the law, is crystal clear. Maintenance jobs have to stay in Montreal, Mississauga, and Winnipeg.In 2012, the Liberal leader agreed. He stood by the workers, even rallied with them here on Parliament Hill. However, today he wants to take away their rights.Does the Prime Minister only support workers when the Conservatives are in power?

Mr. Speaker, the alternative would be that this country would still be in a surplus, as we left it.Even today, Canadians still do not know how much the Minister of Finance is borrowing from them to cover his Liberal government's deficit. What Canadians and his own officials do know is that the Conservatives left him a surplus.He laughingly rejects his own officials' conclusions, but is that not because he desperately needs to shift the blame away from his own mismanagement?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Veterans Affairs is misleading Canadians. Contrary to what he said, it was the Conservative government that introduced important measures to fight veterans' homelessness.We launched projects in Toronto, Calgary, Victoria, and London, which helped keep veterans off the street. Furthermore, it was our party that gave the department the specific mandate of helping homeless veterans. Will the minister pledge today to renew this mandate?

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.We are all pleased that the Government of Quebec decided to drop its lawsuit against Air Canada. In return, Air Canada will build a centre of excellence for C series aircraft maintenance for the next 20 years.That is good news. This will create jobs for the future of our country. When that happens, we will be prepared to examine the Air Canada Public Participation Act to clarify it and ensure that there will not be any litigation in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I have had the opportunity to engage the renewable energy sector in British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Quebec. Canada boasts one of the cleanest electricity systems in the G7 and the world. Our government is committed to investing an additional $100 million each year in clean technology producers and $200 million each year to support innovation and the use of clean technologies in the natural resources sector. That is real progress.

Mr. Speaker, the government made changes to the temporary foreign worker program to solve a problem in western Canada. However, Quebec farmers are paying the price, since they can no longer hire experienced workers. The government is aware of the problem but is not doing anything about it.Will the Minister of Employment exempt our farm workers from the four-year rule and will she ensure that workers' files remain open so that they do not have to start over every year?

Mr. Speaker, our government and I are fully committed to ensuring that first nations families have access to the health services that they need when they need them. I have been working with Health Canada, with the first nations and Inuit health branch to address the serious health outcomes gaps that first nations and Inuit communities are experiencing. My colleague has spoken to me about this. We will continue to address these issues. We will continue to invest $2.5 billion per year and make sure that the system works for all Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is fully aware that my officials in Health Canada and the first nations and Inuit health branch have been speaking to him on a regular basis to address specific cases of concern on this matter. We will continue to work on these issues. I have talked to my officials in the first nations and Inuit health branch. We agree with the member that, absolutely, indigenous peoples must have access to the health care services that they need when they need them. Where there are gaps in the system, I will work with my department to make sure that we address those concerns.

Mr. Speaker, today is a troubling day for Canadian taxpayers and Canadians who have lost their jobs. We have found out today that the Liberals have no plan to create jobs. They have no plan to control their spending. The only plan they have is to borrow more money. What the Liberals do not seem to realize is that it does not matter how much they borrow or why they borrow it, someone has to pay it back at the end of the day.Does the Prime Minister now realize that budgets do not balance themselves?

Mr. Speaker, faced with a very difficult economic situation, my riding and the Gaspé were able to develop recognized expertise in generating electricity from wind power.In fact, our region has some 20 wind farms, which produce almost 1,000 megawatts of electricity from wind energy and create many jobs. Could the Minister of Natural Resources share with the House the commitments made by our government to support producers of clean renewable energy and create jobs for Canadian workers?

Mr. Speaker, the bar the Prime Minister set was about the perception of a conflict of interest. Does the Prime Minister not see this as a problem?The Minister of Justice sits on six cabinet committees, including one responsible for examining initiatives designed to strengthen the relationship with indigenous Canadians. This is exactly the issue that her husband will now lobby the government about. The justice minister will now deal with legal matters involving first nations. Her husband's lobbying work is in direct conflict with this. How can the Prime Minister justify this obvious conflict of interest?

Mr. Speaker, what Canadians got for the last 10 years was an actual plan, a plan that created 1.3 million net new jobs, a plan that lowered taxes to the lowest level in 50 years, a plan that balanced the budget and created a surplus. What did that mean? It meant that Canada became the best place in the world to invest in and create jobs in. What did those guys do in 100 days? They blew that record. Does the Prime Minister understand that Canadians actually want a plan, not just more Liberal spending?

Mr. Speaker, this is very important to our government, and the NDP supports our hard work, as we can see.These new development agencies are making strategic investments that support small and medium-sized enterprises. This funding in SMEs really helps these companies innovate, and become more productive and export-oriented. I am pleased to announce that we have approved $37 million in ACOA funding. This generates opportunities for local developments and I want to assure the House that ACOA will be key for economic development in that region.

Mr. Speaker, as the aunt of a 15-year-old nephew, I am concerned about how easy it is for youth his age to obtain marijuana. What measures is the government taking to ensure that by legalizing marijuana we are making it more difficult for children and youth to access this substance? Can the Minister of Justice offer an update on our party's commitment to regulate and legalize marijuana?

Mr. Speaker, Canada needs to engage on the international stage much more than before, even with regimes with whom we have difficulty. Engagement does not mean that we agree with Iran's policy, but it does establish a pathway toward dialogue, regional security, and economic opportunity. Turning one's back does not help either in providing accountability for a country such as Iran.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his question.First of all, I would like to remind him that the CBC operates at arm's length from the government. Of course I asked the CBC to hold consultations in order to find out what the employees, the unions, and the political stakeholders in Montreal think about the situation.I would also like to remind my colleague of how important it is for the CBC to provide its employees with facilities that meet the highest standards, particularly in this digital age.

Mr. Speaker, the Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the government has discriminated against first nations children. Documents from Health Canada confirm what first nations people already knew. Rejecting orthodontic appeals for first nations children is standard. Almost 100% of claims are denied.These documents actually state that the government will provide these services if the parents agree to give up their children to foster care. This is unacceptable. What steps has the Minister of Health taken to end this discrimination?

Mr. Speaker, only 36% of workers who lose their jobs will have access to employment insurance.The Liberal government is abandoning thousands of workers and their families. One thing is certain, those families will not be able to pay their rent, or their bills, or buy groceries with the Prime Minister's empty rhetoric.Will the Liberals create a universal 360-hour eligibility threshold for employment insurance, or not?

Mr. Speaker, we are very pleased that our government is going to accede to the Arms Trade Treaty, something that the previous government failed to do. That is a priority for this government, because we know we have a more constructive role to play.

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, this government is serious about addressing climate change. We understand the economic opportunity that is inherent in actually effectively addressing climate change. I would mention to the hon. member that 80% of Canadians already live in jurisdictions where the provincial governments have taken the lead in standing up and meeting our international obligations with respect to addressing climate change and carbon pricing.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate what the member opposite is trying to say. However, he obviously was not keeping a very close eye on what his colleagues were doing over the past 10 years. The Conservatives were fudging the figures and now they are once again trying to claim that they left a magical surplus.The reality is that they left us a deficit. We were elected on a promise to invest in our communities. The Conservatives are proposing even more cuts. That is not what this country needs.

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives left the house clean and orderly.According to the finance department's fiscal monitor, the Conservatives left a $1-billion surplus. Today, the Liberals are running an $18.4-billion deficit. That does not make any sense.Obviously, the Liberals were not ready to govern. The Prime Minister needs to get his act together. I appeal to his sense of responsibility.Will he finally get government spending under control so that all Canadians can live comfortably?

Mr. Speaker, my riding of Tobique—Mactaquac, a rural New Brunswick riding, is home to thriving natural resource, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors, all of which utilize ACOA to help invest in new technology, innovate, and grow their businesses. Can the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development please give us an update on his department's progress in ensuring that Canada's regional development agencies are helping Canadian companies and their businesses, and ensuring that entrepreneurs have access to the capital they require to create jobs and grow the economy in Atlantic Canada?

On the contrary, Mr. Speaker, Israel is not only a key ally but equally a steadfast friend. The Jewish community has deep roots here in Canada and contributes greatly to Canadian society. A boycott would not bring us closer to any viable or constructive solution, so we will not support that. However, the motion would not bring us any closer to working constructively together. It seeks to divide.We firmly believe that negotiations constitute the only way to arrive at lasting, durable peace.

Mr. Speaker, last year the Liberals criticized the previous government and its rather loose definition of a combat mission. At the time, the Prime Minister's current advisor on foreign affairs said that the mission in Iraq was a combat mission. He called on the Conservatives to be more honest with Canadians. Now we have a new Prime Minister and the mission has been expanded, but we still do not have a clear answer.Will the minister stop denying the facts and admit that our soldiers are engaged in a combat mission?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government, time after time, has already faced questions about its ethical behaviour, and here we go again.The justice minister is in partnership with her husband in a private company. He has not been a registered lobbyist for years, but as soon as his wife was appointed to a Liberal cabinet, he dusted off the old laptop, put new ink in the printer, and signed up as a lobbyist. Is this the ethical standard that the Prime Minister approved when he said his ministers must avoid not only the conflict of interest but even the appearance of a conflict of interest?

Mr. Speaker, it will be March 22; that is how long.In the last election, Canadians made a choice. They made a choice between a party that said it wanted to make a plan to invest in growth, and another couple of parties that said they wanted to cut at all costs for a balanced budget. Canadians made the right choice. I would like us to consider the alternative right now. If one of the other parties were in power, we would have deep, massive cuts of tens of billions of dollars leading to higher unemployment while Canadians are troubled, and most likely in a recession.Canadians made the right choice.

Mr. Speaker, climate change is one of the major challenges of our generation. It is something we must address to ensure the sustainability of our environment for our children and our grandchildren. It also presents an enormous economic opportunity.Our government is providing leadership, working with the provinces and territories to bring about a pan-Canadian framework with respect to climate change. The Prime Minister will be meeting with his colleagues in Vancouver in a couple of weeks, and we will be working through a range of mechanisms, including addressing a price on carbon, as part of a broad-based strategy to address climate change.

Mr. Speaker, Canadians have long been paying for the Conservatives' 10 years of dismal economic performance. The Conservatives were unable to create the necessary growth and did not invest in a strong future and in the manufacturing industry.Our country has been in need of growth for 10 years. That is exactly why we were elected: to invest in the economy, grow the middle class, and give everyone a better future.

Mr. Speaker, I was surprised to hear the member opposite try to say that “now is not the time to spend based on slow economic growth”. Not only do we disagree with the member opposite, we ran a campaign on exactly our disagreement on that. It looks like Canadians agreed with us. We will invest in infrastructure. We will put money in the pockets of the middle class and those working hard to join it. We will invest in innovation with the kind of future and growth that the economy needs. That is exactly what we committed to doing. That is exactly what we are doing.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the minister's problem is that he does not realize Site C is not in Manitoba, it is in British Columbia. Tragically, first nations have heard this story over and over again. Parties in campaigns promise that next time things will be different, but when it comes to the Site C dam, we realize that it is just more of the same from the current government. Even after the review panel found that the mega-dam would have irreversible and negative impacts on the rights of Treaty 8 people, the Minister of Fisheries is still signing permits. Consultations have been inadequate. Letters have been ignored. When is the Liberal government going to actually commit to its sacred policy to respect first nations—

Mr. Speaker, the member now refers to beginning the discussion on a pan-Canadian climate change framework. Let me quote the minister on CBC, “We were setting the stage for a first ministers meeting that's going to take place at the beginning of March. Then that's when we're going to have this pan-Canadian framework”. Now it appears that the Liberals are just beginning those discussions in March. No climate change plan, only billions of dollars of spending on foreign vanity projects and a punishing new carbon tax on Canadians. Will the minister now admit that she is in way over her head?

Mr. Speaker, I would like the Prime Minister to trust the civil servants who work for his own finance department. They say that the Conservatives left a $1-billion surplus.However, we should not be surprised by such a poor track record, since barely a year ago, the Prime Minister said that budgets balance themselves. Now, the Prime Minister's dream world has just fallen like a house of cards in front of him. The reality is that the Liberals are already running an $18.4-billion deficit. When will the Prime Minister regain control over government spending?

Mr. Speaker, we have been pretty clear and pretty transparent. There is the first ministers meeting in Vancouver at the beginning of March where the Prime Minister will meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts to begin to map out a pan-Canadian approach to addressing climate change. This is an issue that this government takes seriously. Unlike the previous government, which talked for 10 years about climate change and did nothing, we intend to actually make progress.

Mr. Speaker, let us go through this one more time. Last year the Liberals complained about the former prime minister's tinkering with the definition of combat missions.Back then, the man who is now the Prime Minister's senior foreign policy adviser said that the Iraq mission was combat and that the government should be honest with Canadians about such a serious matter.The Prime Minister may have changed, but the mission has only expanded, and Canadians are still not getting a straight answer.Will the minister finally admit that, despite Liberal campaign promises, Canada's troops are still engaged in a combat mission in Iraq?

Mr. Speaker, how tone deaf can the government be? A carbon tax puts Canada at a huge competitive disadvantage. Investors are leaving Canada in droves because of the Liberals' confusing regulatory system. If job creators see a carbon tax, they are going to see that as Canada is closed for business.Is there a leader in the government who will be like the premier of Saskatchewan who wants Canada competitive and wants to see Canada open for business? Or under the Liberals, is Canada closed for business?

Mr. Speaker, these are just more broken promises. At the Paris climate change conference, the Minister of Environment promised a nationwide climate change plan within 90 days. Now it is clear that the minister will not deliver on that plan. At the same time as the economy flounders, she is scheming to impose a carbon tax grab that will increase the price of everything, including gas, groceries, and heating.What is the minister hiding and when will Canadians finally see her climate change plan?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister committed to building a new nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples. He even cited the Supreme Court as proof.Now his government is refusing to listen to first nations communities that oppose the Site C dam project in British Columbia.When is the Prime Minister going to walk the talk? Will this be just one more broken promise made to indigenous peoples, continuing in the tradition of the past 150 years under successive Conservative and Liberal governments?

Mr. Speaker, it is nice to know that if I were a Liberal member of Parliament I would have no voice, because, apparently, a private member's bill is illegitimate with the current government.Only a few months ago, each and every one of us in the House was elected by secret ballot, a hallmark of a Canadian democracy. However, the first piece of legislation brought forward by the jobs minister is robbing union members of their democratic right to a secret ballot. Ninety per cent of union members polled support a secret ballot.Why is the secret ballot good enough to elect members of Parliament, but not good enough—

Mr. Speaker, last October, millions of Canadians voted to revive the CBC after the Conservatives bled it dry.However, there is still nothing but bad news under the Liberals. There is now a “For Sale” sign in front of Maison de Radio Canada in Montreal. This decision is harmful to our heritage since the sale of the building would represent the loss of a symbol of Quebec's Quiet Revolution. It is all well and good that the minister announced consultations, but the building could be sold tomorrow morning.Will the minister at least impose a moratorium to allow time to explore better options than an irreversible sale?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat to this House that, this morning, we put out an economic update for Canadians to see. Our goal is to be open and transparent, so Canadians understand where we are at today and where we are going. What we have told Canadians is that the Conservatives left us with a deficit. Unfortunately, they are picking and choosing, month by month. At the end of the year, that is what we are left with.We are going to work to make the right investments, so we can grow this economy for the first time in a long time.

Mr. Speaker, our government has committed to legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana. We will be proceeding on that matter in an orderly fashion and will take the time necessary in order to do it right.Until Parliament has enacted new legislation to ensure that marijuana is carefully regulated, current laws remain in force and should be obeyed.I will be working with my parliamentary secretary, the Minister of Health, and the Minister of Public Safety to ensure that we put in place a process that keeps marijuana out of the hands of children and the proceeds out of the hands of criminals.

Mr. Speaker, instead of providing work to Canadians, the Liberals would like to have the Royal Canadian Navy's ships built abroad. Canadian shipyards have the skills, expertise, and capacity for building those ships here, and the workers need those jobs.Jobs abroad and nothing for Canadians, is that the Liberal approach? Are the Liberals going to go back on their promises and abandon Canadian families like they are abandoning Albertan families?

Mr. Speaker, government documents submitted to the Human Rights Tribunal show that Health Canada routinely denies everything from motorized wheelchairs to specialized prescription drugs for indigenous children. I refer the minister to evidence tab 420 from the hearings, which relates to a four-year-old child who suffered severe anoxic brain injury and required a specialized medical bed so she could go home to her family. Health Canada wrote in response “absolutely not” and refused to pay.What directives has the minister given to her staff to end this malignant culture, so the culture of “absolutely no” for children finally becomes one of “absolutely yes”?

Mr. Speaker, what is undemocratic are bills that are brought in through the back door without proper consultation—

They are laughing, Mr. Speaker, because they have a lot of things to try to hide.Canadians saw through that, and on October 19, they chose a government that would raise the ethics rules, proactively meet with the ethics commissioner, and follow her advice. That is what the Minister of Justice has done, and that is what she will always continue to do.

Mr. Speaker, with oil prices at an all-time low, people in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick are desperate and out of work. They are looking for a glimmer of hope.A job-killing carbon tax is the absolute last thing they need, a tax that would put a nail in the coffin of those people who work in the oil patch.Will the Minister of Natural Resources stand up to his cabinet colleagues? Would he stand up for jobs in Canada? Would he say no to a carbon tax and yes to Canadian jobs for the sake of the natural resources sector?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to repeat to this House what I said before. One month or two months do not make a year.What we can see is that the revenues of the government go down in the last couple of months of the year, and the expenses go up. It is clear to us that the Conservatives, through their actions and inactions, left us with a deficit. That is our starting point, the Conservatives' deficit, and the $150 billion additional debt they left for Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, there was a chief in northern Manitoba who told me that she had not had a single conversation with the previous Conservative government in 10 years.This government has undergone a serious set of meaningful consultations with indigenous communities from coast to coast to coast. Without that consultation, no energy projects will be approved. We do not repeat failed ways; we look for better ones.

Mr. Speaker, members on the other side are having an enormous amount of difficulty with a very basic principle. When we came to office, we raised the bar on accountability and transparency.

Mr. Speaker, not long after the sanctions against Iran were lifted, Russia tried to sell fighter jets and missile systems to the regime in Tehran.Our allies have clearly said that this sale violates a UN arms embargo, but the Liberal government is naively cozying up to Iran and Vladimir Putin. Will the government condemn this massive arms sale, which threatens peace and our friend, Israel?

Mr. Speaker, 2,600 Aveos workers feel betrayed. When the Prime Minister was in opposition in 2012, he was by their side armed with a megaphone and chanting “So-so-so-solidarity!” He said: It is such a shame that we have to demonstrate to ask the government...to obey the law. He even lamented the broken promises. Now that he is in power, he wants to take away those same workers' rights vis-à-vis Air Canada. What changed for the Prime Minister?

Mr. Speaker, the point of the legislation is to reset the framework so that we have fairness and balance. In fact, the bill that the previous government presented included a framework that made unionization and decertification more difficult in a package that disrupted the fairness and balance of labour and industry relationships.

Mr. Speaker, what the previous government never understood and what the Conservatives clearly still do not understand is that economic growth creates jobs and prosperity. The fact that the Conservatives were unable to create economic growth for 10 years landed us in the situation we are in now.The Conservatives refuse to accept that and are even proposing that we continue to make cuts instead of investing in the Canadian economy. That is completely absurd. That is exactly what they are proposing and that is why they are sitting on the opposition benches today.

Mr. Speaker, we have very little to take from the opposition with respect to how to engage in federal-provincial relations in a constructive manner. This government intends to work in collaboration with the provinces and territories to define a pan-Canadian approach that will be effective in a manner that the previous government was unable to do.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance announced yet another outside consultant today to be appointed to head up a committee, this time to report in 2017 on the economy.So far, there has been a consultant to set an economic agenda, a consultant to help let them understand how to deliver on an agenda, and a consultant to figure out how to pick infrastructure projects. Is that not what the department of finance does?My question to the Minister of Finance is this. How long do Canadians have to wait for an actual plan, while these very expensive and high-priced men sit down to try to figure out the fate of the Canadian economy?

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are committed to improving the employment insurance system to ensure that Canadians across the country who need it have access to it. That is exactly what we are going to do and we will invest in the economy. The opposition member unfortunately promised to make cuts to the economy instead of investing in it. We are going to make the necessary investments to help families in need across the country.

Mr. Speaker, we took a very thorough analysis on making sure that we supported our allies in the fight against ISIL.We are committed to defeating ISIL, and tripling the training mission and doubling the intelligence will help the coalition in this manner.I think the member would agree that ISIL is a horrible atrocity that has to be defeated, and Canadians, alongside their coalition partners, will do so.

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister, today, announced growing deficits but refused to say whether struggling Canadians will get the help they were promised.Families in Alberta and Saskatchewan are being hit hard by rising job losses; but while unemployment is going up, the number of Canadians receiving unemployment insurance is actually going down. This is a broken system, and families are paying the price.Alberta is asking the federal government to act quickly by lowering the threshold for eligibility and by extending benefits.Will the Prime Minister listen and act, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, it is being reported that 40 state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new bounty for the death of author Salman Rushdie. The renewed call for his death comes on the anniversary of the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Make no mistake. This regime in Tehran is putting on a false front. It continues to be a serious threat to peace and stability. Why is the government rushing to embrace Iran when it clearly cannot be trusted?

Mr. Speaker, the boycott, divest, and sanctions campaigners claim it to be a human rights movement. In fact, it is nothing more than a thinly disguised multi-dimensional hate campaign. It targets the economy and the citizens of the only democracy in the Middle East. Last week during the debate, the Liberals were all over the place on this issue. Can the minister assure the House that when our motion passes, his government will take it seriously?

Mr. Speaker, piece by piece, the Liberal government is dismantling democracy in Canada. The first piece of legislation brought forward by the jobs minister is a bill to gut accountability and transparency for unions. The Liberal MPs have been arguing in the House that a secret ballot is somehow undemocratic and burdensome red tape. I would like the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour to please explain to the House why she believes a secret ballot is undemocratic.

Mr. Speaker, for 10 years, Canadians put up with a previous government that twisted the numbers, that picked and chose what it wanted to say, and refused to accept that it ran us into deficit in 2015-16. We inherited a need to invest in our economy, to fix the wrongs that the previous government was unable to fix, to create the growth, the support, the investments that would lead to a better future for all Canadians. That is what we got elected to do, and that is what we will deliver.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals squandered a surplus in less than 100 days, and now today we learned that they want to borrow $18 billion for expenses already incurred. We also learned that they will borrow at least another $10 billion. Instead of taking responsibility, they are trying to blame everyone else for their poor economic management.Can the Prime Minister tell us who will pay for all of this?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians were horrified by the unspeakable murders committed by serial killer Robert Pickton. Despite the fact that he is now in prison, families of his victims were shocked to hear that he has recently published a book.What will the government do to ensure that serial killer Robert Pickton in no way benefits financially or through the distribution of his depraved writings?

Mr. Speaker, there has been no change in the rules regarding agricultural workers. We understand that there is an administrative backlog in Quebec and our staff are working hard to get rid of that backlog. Otherwise, there has been no change.

Mr. Speaker, the impact of this book by Pickton is painfully traumatic for the victims. All Canadians share in that grief. Canadians also expect Amazon to respond quickly and sympathetically to this outrage, which I understand it has done this afternoon. The Correctional Service is investigating the source of the manuscript. We will be examining all those who have assisted in any way in this odious enterprise.