House of Commons Debates VOLUME 146 Ï NUMBER 029 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 41st PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Friday, October 7, 2011 Speaker: The Honourable Andrew Scheer CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) 1993 HOUSE OF COMMONS Friday, October 7, 2011 The House met at 10 a.m. We must also build the jobs of the future. This means we must shift to a green economy to stimulate growth, create new jobs, eradicate poverty and limit humanity's ecological footprint. It is no longer a choice between saving our economy and saving the Prayers environment. It is a choice between being a producer and a consumer in the old economy and being a leader in a new economy. It is a choice between decline and prosperity. GOVERNMENT ORDERS Ï (1005) [English] The government should work in partnership with provinces, KEEPING CANADA'S ECONOMY AND JOBS GROWING territories, municipalities, labour organizations, industry sectors, first ACT nations and others to develop a national sustainable energy and The House resumed from October 6 consideration of the motion economic growth strategy to position Canada to succeed in the that Bill C-13, An Act to implement certain provisions of the 2011 global economy. It should develop a clean energy employment budget as updated on June 6, 2011 and other measures, be read the transition for Canada with goals for 2015, 2020, 2025 and 2030. second time and referred to a committee. This strategy should include skills development, training programs and certification courses. Ms. Kirsty Duncan (Etobicoke North, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-13. On behalf of my riding of Etobicoke North, the beautiful community where I was born and raised, I must first fight for jobs. It is an absolute priority for me, my office and our community. It is heartening to see some modest employment growth I will now address environmental, economic and human costs. in today's statistics but it does not bring us back to where we were Climate change is our most pressing environmental issue, perhaps before the recession. the defining issue of our generation, and it requires both moral responsibility and intergenerational responsibility. Yet the govern- I want members to know that we have helped many residents with ment failed to mention the issue in the throne speech. resumés. I personally spend hours correcting each line of cover letters and resumés. We help with job-finding skills. We send people to career agencies and we help find them jobs. I am particularly proud that we have secured a new jobs program to help more people in our community find work. However, it is not This week we learned that the government has reduced climate enough. The reality is that more Canadians face economic insecurity change reductions by a shocking 90% since 2007. More stringent compared to a few short years ago. This threatens Canada's action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions cannot be postponed economic growth and fiscal balance. We need concrete proposals much longer. Otherwise the opportunity to keep the average global to stimulate job creation right away. temperature rise below 2°C, relative to the pre-industrial level, is in danger. Serious impacts are associated with approaching or Twenty per cent of my riding is engaged in manufacturing, the exceeding this limit, including the increased frequency and severity second-highest percentage for the country's entire 308 ridings. What of extreme weather events, shifts in growing seasons and sea level new support can the government offer young Canadians? This past rise. summer, it was heartbreaking to meet with so many young graduates who were distraught because they were unable to find work. Many of these graduates were the first person in their family to go to college and university. The only thing harder than meeting with the graduates was meeting with their grandparents who begged for help The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy to find their grandchildren a job. We must reduce the worst youth predicts that climate change could cost Canadians between $21 unemployment rate in a generation. billion and $43 billion per year by 2050. 1994 COMMONS DEBATES October 7, 2011 Government Orders Our capacity for managing the impacts to come is adaptation. Instead of tracking patients who have had the CCSVI procedure While it is not cost-free it is a cost-effective way to alleviate some of and developing the most appropriate scales to measure any health those impacts. I must then ask why the government is cutting climate impacts following treatment, MS patients were left with no follow up impacts and adaptation research at Environment Canada. The group and important data was lost post procedure at one, three, six, twelve was started 17 years ago. It performs groundbreaking research by and twenty-four months. examining how climate change affects agriculture, human health and water quality in Canada. Some of its scientists shared part of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on climate change. Since when do scientists fail to collect data or, worse, choose not to gather evidence? My concern is that the government wants as little as possible to do with climate change and wants to pass the buck to the provinces and The CIHR is currently recommending phase I or phase II clinical the municipalities. The reality is that we need research governance trials for CCSVI. arrangements on adaptation at all scales. I will now turn to human costs and what failure to take preventive I would argue that there is no need for a phase I trial, which is action would mean. usually undertaken to assess safety. Angioplasty is an accepted Governments worldwide are concerned with the rising tide of standard of care practice in Canada. dementia. Some 500,000 Canadians have Alzheimer's disease or related dementia. Some 71,000 are under the age of 65 years and I would, therefore, suggest that we need an adaptive phase II or 72% are women. Today in Canada one person is diagnosed with phase III trial, for example, clinical trials for the CCSVI procedure in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias every five minutes. The multiple centres across Canada. human cost is huge. The economic cost is $15 billion. In 30 years it will be one person every two minutes and a cost of $153 billion. I will finish by thanking the people in my riding, as well as the It is my absolute hope that the health committee will reconstitute stakeholders in the environment, health and particularly neurological the Subcommittee of Neurological Disease which I founded in the disease. last Parliament and will bring back the report which the subcommittee passed. Finally, I would like all of the people who are living with MS to Moreover, will the government commit to a national brain know that they inspire me every day. strategy? Will it commit to a national brain health awareness month and a national year of the brain to raise awareness of brain health in (1010) Canada? Will it commit to a national Alzheimer's office within the Ï Public Health Agency of Canada to reduce the rising tide of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and provide a national [Translation] plan with specific goals and an annual report to Parliament? Will it take necessary measures to accelerate the discovery and develop- Mr. John Weston (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to ment of treatments that would prevent, halt or reverse the course of Sky Country, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I have no doubt that my dementia? Will it encourage greater investment in all areas of colleague is sincere and dedicated to her riding. At the beginning of research? her speech she said that we are not back to where we were before the recession. We know that we lost 490,000 jobs during the recession. If we could merely slow the onset of dementia by two years for each affected Canadian we would see a return on investment of 15,000% over a 30 year research effort. Ï (1015) I will finish by tackling another devastating neurological disease, [English] that being multiple sclerosis. It affects 55,000 to 75,000 Canadians, of whom 400 die each year from the disease, and many take their own life. The suicide rate in MS patients is seven times that of the We have created 600,000 new jobs with the economic action plan. national population. These concrete results are due to lower taxes and the specific steps we have taken which have been acknowledged around the world. As In May 2010, my colleague from St. Paul's and I brought the fight well, our Minister of Finance has been acknowledged around the for clinical trials and a registry for chronic cerebrospinal venous world. insufficiency, CCSVI, to Parliament. Almost a year later, in March 2011, the government announced a Would my colleague from Etobicoke North comment on the registry, although it will not actually start until July 2012. number of jobs that have been created through the economic action plan? Will she be supporting its next phase? In June 2011, at last the government announced clinical trials. I want to be clear. All we have right now is announcements. What Ms. Kirsty Duncan: Mr. Speaker, the reality is that in my riding we need is action. Canadians with MS cannot afford to wait. jobs are a priority. October 7, 2011 COMMONS DEBATES 1995 Government Orders I went to a graduation and heard in the speech given by a am truly humbled by this amazing opportunity to make a difference valedictorian a poem by Dylan Thomas paraphrased, “Rage, rage if in the lives of those whom I serve.