CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 144 Ï NUMBER 084 Ï 2nd SESSION Ï 40th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Friday, September 18, 2009 Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) 5181 HOUSE OF COMMONS Friday, September 18, 2009 The House met at 10 a.m. Calandra Calkins Cannan (Kelowna—Lake Country) Cannon (Pontiac) Cardin Carrie Casson Charlton Chong Chow Prayers Christopherson Clarke Clement Comartin Crowder Cullen Cummins Davidson Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) Davies (Vancouver East) Day DeBellefeuille GOVERNMENT ORDERS Dechert Del Mastro Demers Deschamps Ï (1005) Desnoyers Devolin Dewar Dorion [Translation] Dreeshen Duceppe Dufour Duncan (Vancouver Island North) WAYS AND MEANS Duncan (Edmonton—Strathcona) Dykstra Faille Fast MOTION NO. 9 Finley Flaherty Fletcher Freeman Hon. Jim Flaherty (Minister of Finance, CPC) moved that a Gagnon Galipeau ways and means motion to implement certain provisions of the Gallant Gaudet Glover Godin budget, tabled in Parliament on January 27, 2009, and to implement Goldring Goodyear other measures, be concurred in. Gourde Gravelle Grewal Guay Guergis Guimond (Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques) The Speaker: Pursuant to order made on Wednesday, September Guimond (Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord) 16, the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred Harper recorded division on motion No. 9 under Ways and Means. Harris (St. John's East) Harris (Cariboo—Prince George) Hawn Hiebert Hill Hoback Call in the members. Hoeppner Holder Ï (1030) Hughes Hyer Jean Julian Kamp (Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission) Keddy (South Shore—St. Margaret's) (The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the Kenney (Calgary Southeast) Kent following division:) Kerr Komarnicki Kramp (Prince Edward—Hastings) Laforest (Division No. 104) Laframboise Lake Lalonde Lauzon YEAS Lavallée Layton Lebel Lemay Members Lemieux Leslie Lessard Lévesque Abbott Ablonczy Lobb Lukiwski Aglukkaq Albrecht Lunn Lunney Allen (Welland) Allen (Tobique—Mactaquac) MacKay (Central Nova) MacKenzie Allison Ambrose Malo Maloway Anders Anderson Mark Marston André Angus Martin (Winnipeg Centre) Martin (Sault Ste. Marie) Ashfield Ashton Masse Mathyssen Asselin Atamanenko Mayes McColeman Bachand Baird McLeod Ménard Beaudin Bellavance Menzies Merrifield Benoit Bernier Miller Moore (Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam) Bevington Bezan Moore (Fundy Royal) Mourani Bigras Blackburn Mulcair Nadeau Blais Blaney Nicholson Norlock Block Bonsant O'Connor O'Neill-Gordon Bouchard Boucher Obhrai Oda Boughen Bourgeois Ouellet Paillé Braid Breitkreuz Paquette Paradis Brown (Leeds—Grenville) Brown (Newmarket—Aurora) Payne Petit Brown (Barrie) Bruinooge Plamondon Poilievre Brunelle Cadman Pomerleau Prentice 5182 COMMONS DEBATES September 18, 2009 Government Orders Preston Rafferty Raitt Rajotte GOVERNMENT ORDERS Rathgeber Reid Richards Richardson [English] Rickford Ritz Roy Savoie EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT Saxton Scheer Schellenberger Shea The House resumed from September 17 consideration of the Shipley Shory motion that Bill C-50, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Siksay Smith Act and to increase benefits, be read the second time and referred to Sorenson St-Cyr Stanton Stoffer a committee. Storseth Strahl The Speaker: When the bill was last before the House, the hon. Sweet Thi Lac Thompson Tilson member for Selkirk—Interlake had the floor and he has 17 minutes Toews Trost remaining in the time allotted for his remarks. Tweed Uppal Van Kesteren Van Loan Mr. James Bezan (Selkirk—Interlake, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I am Vellacott Verner pleased to continue to speak today in support of Bill C-50, which Vincent Wallace would provide temporary and additional EI regular benefits to Warawa Warkentin Wasylycia-Leis Watson unemployed long-tenured workers. Weston (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country) Weston (Saint John) Canada did not create the financial storms that have hit the global Wong Woodworth economy. Canada is better placed than other countries to recover. Yelich Young–— 224 That is small consolation to the many workers who have dedicated NAYS their careers to an industry and who now find that this particular industry can no longer sustain their jobs. Members Andrews Bagnell Unfortunately, there are many examples of such industries across Bains Bélanger Canada. Bennett Bevilacqua Brison Byrne The forestry sector has been hit very hard. Forestry has provided Coady Coderre Cotler Crombie the economic backbone of hundreds of communities across Canada. Cuzner D'Amours When a paper mill or a sawmill shuts down, workers who have spent Dhaliwal Dhalla decades in that sector now find that they really have few options for Dion Dosanjh employment in that community. Dryden Duncan (Etobicoke North) Easter Eyking Folco Foote The challenges are particularly tough for long-tenured workers, Fry Garneau many of whom have become highly skilled in this industry. They Goodale Guarnieri need more time to find other work. Hall Findlay Holland Ignatieff Jennings Kania Karygiannis The manufacturing sector has also been hit very hard during this Kennedy LeBlanc recession. Perhaps the most obvious examples come from the Lee MacAulay automotive sector, but many other manufacturing industries are also Malhi McCallum facing tough times, including the steel industry in my riding of McGuinty McKay (Scarborough—Guildwood) McTeague Mendes Selkirk—Interlake. Minna Murphy (Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe) Murphy (Charlottetown) Murray Like forestry, manufacturing has sustained the wealth, prosperity Neville Oliphant and quality of life of Canadians for generations. It contributes close Pacetti Patry to 14% of Canada's GDP and employs close to 1.9 million workers Pearson Proulx Rae Ratansi across Canada, mostly in full-time jobs. Like forestry, our Regan Rodriguez manufacturing industries have a tremendous spill-over impact, Rota Russell providing jobs for suppliers and service industries and integrating Savage Scarpaleggia them into global supply chains. Sgro Silva Simms Simson Szabo Tonks In the 1990s Canada's manufacturing sector grew rapidly as Trudeau Valeriote manufacturers took advantage of recent trade agreements and a low Volpe Wilfert valued dollar. Over the past decade manufacturers have faced both Wrzesnewskyj Zarac–— 74 structural and cyclical pressures. In the past few years manufacturers PAIRED have been hit by a series of challenges. Nil Manufacturers compete with lower cost producers in other The Speaker: I declare the motion carried. countries. They contend with dramatic fluctuations in energy and commodity prices, making it difficult to plan for the long term. September 18, 2009 COMMONS DEBATES 5183 Government Orders The value of the Canadian dollar has risen and fallen, making our bankrupt and cannot pay, the program provides eligible workers with exports harder to price. In the wake of American concerns over guaranteed and timely payments of the remaining wages, severance, security, delays at the Canada-U.S. border have hurt the ability of termination and vacation pay. manufacturers to deliver on time to U.S. customers. Now we have a recession that has hit the global economy very We extended the targeted initiative for older workers with an hard. Across the Canadian manufacturing sector the story is the additional $60 million over three years to support older workers and same: consumers are buying less; investors have less capital to their families, and to expand the program to include workers in small invest; credit is tightening; buyers take longer to pay; and inventories cities. are rising. The government has taken steps to address the challenges faced by the manufacturing and forestry sectors, and it has taken special care The House will also be aware that we have introduced many to address the needs of the workers caught in this economic storm, changes to employment insurance as part of Canada's economic those workers who have put in a long time in their industry. action plan. Those changes are helping workers and their families get through difficult times. They are helping in the communities where Let me remind the House that this government was addressing the these workers live. challenges faced by the forestry and manufacturing industry even before this recession hit. We moved on many fronts: from tax relief to accelerated write-offs for machinery and equipment; from support Many programs and initiatives work together to make this happen. to the financial system to increasing the flow of trade at the Canada- For example, we increased funding for training delivered through EI. U.S. border; and from cutting red tape to helping develop a skilled We are providing five additional weeks of EI regular benefits for all labour force. unemployed Canadians and in areas of high unemployment, we increased the maximum duration of EI benefits from 45 to 50 weeks. As far back as 2007 Canada was one of the first countries to inject major fiscal stimulus into its economy to offset a downturn when we introduced $65 billion in tax reductions. These tax reductions have Yesterday I talked about the extension in duration of the work taken effect just when they are needed most. That is just one example sharing agreements by 14 weeks to a maximum of 52 weeks. This of the prudent planning and strong economic leadership shown by has worked so well in my riding of Selkirk—Interlake in the steel this Conservative government. industry. We also introduced the career transition program initiative that I talked