The Speaker

Order. I can hear the member for St. Paul's almost as well as I could hear the member for Winnipeg North a few moments ago, but she does not have the floor. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration does, and I would like to hear the answer.

Hon. Chris Alexander

It is quite telling, Mr. Speaker, that the members of that party would be heckling as loudly as they are when they claim to be interested in hearing about caregivers and the misfortune and family separation that the Liberal Party occasioned on generations of these hard-working Canadians, newcomers, and citizens. We are the first government in the history of this country to have taken action to end those backlogs, to enhance career prospects for caregivers. Caregivers are coming to Canada now faster than ever before because of our temporary foreign worker program. The statistics they cite are completely wrong.

Hon. Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa—Vanier, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, Burundi is in crisis. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds injured, imprisoned or tortured during increasingly violent demonstrations. Over 100,000 people have fled the country. Canada is recommending that Canadian citizens leave Burundi immediately.

Why has our government not taken steps to speed up processing of family reunification and immigration applications as it did previously under similar circumstances? Also, why has the government not stopped deporting people to Burundi?

Hon. Chris Alexander (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, we are very aware of the difficult situation in Burundi right now, and that is why we are working to enhance our refugee repatriation programs and monitoring the situation closely.

Some 30,000 new immigrants will benefit from our humanitarian programs this year. We are still focusing on the continent of Africa. We are concentrating on the Great Lakes, Rwanda, Burundi and other countries in that region.

Mr. Nathan Cullen (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative finance minister has stepped in it again, and yet again, the Prime Minister refuses to hold his accident-prone minister to account.

The Conservatives just do not seem to get it. Strong labour standards lead to a strong economy. Making it easier to fire workers is not an answer in Europe and it is certainly not an answer in Canada.

Will the Prime Minister now apologize for his finance minister's insulting and misguided comments?

Hon. Kevin Sorenson (Minister of State (Finance), CPC)

Mr. Speaker, again, the finance minister was referring to the situation in Greece. Obviously, our government has a strong record of job creation, with 1.2 million net new jobs created. We have a balanced budget. We have a low-tax plan to create more jobs and growth. However, it is the NDP members who would kill jobs and take Canada down the path of Greece with their high-debt, high-tax plan.

Mr. Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, once again, the Prime Minister is refusing to correct his Minister of Finance's absurd statements. In Germany today, the Conservative Finance Minister said, and I quote: “relaxing labour laws to make it easier to lay off workers would help spur economic growth”.

That is the true face of the Conservatives. They do not understand anything. A strong economy requires a strong middle class, good jobs and good salaries. Giving people the boot is not a solution in Greece, Europe or Canada.

Will the Prime Minister apologize for the inappropriate remarks made by his Minister of Finance?

Hon. Kevin Sorenson (Minister of State (Finance), CPC)

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance is in the EU and in Germany commenting on the situation in Greece. Again, our government has taken a different road than many other countries around the world. That is why we lead the G7 in job creation with over 1.2 million net new jobs created.

We have a balanced budget. We have a low-tax plan to create more jobs and to help build economic prosperity. It is the New Democrats who would mislead Canadians and the New Democrats who would take us down the path of Greece.

Mr. Mark Adler (York Centre, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Employment and Social Development.

Middle-class families across the country are talking about the very important work our government is doing to ensure all Canadian families are able to save as much as they can to spend on their own priorities. Can the minister update this House on his work to ensure that every family with kids takes advantage of these benefits?

Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, I thank that member for his very hard work on behalf of taxpayers across Canada.

We disagree with the statement of the Liberal leader yesterday, who said that he supports “...a mandatory expansion of the CPP of the type that...Kathleen Wynne put forward in Ontario”. That plan would raise taxes by $1,000 on every worker earning $60,000 a year. We reject that.

Our approach is a low-tax plan for a secure retirement. That is why we brought in the tax-free savings accounts for 11 million hard-working Canadians.

Mr. Emmanuel Dubourg (Bourassa, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I asked the minister to delay or extend the moratorium on deportations of Haitians and Zimbabweans, which will expire on Sunday. This affects more than 3,000 people, and community organizations that are helping them are truly overwhelmed.

Today, I am asking the minister whether he has held discussions with his Quebec government counterpart and whether he has consulted his department about considering the request by the Liberal Party and the Government of Quebec concerning these deportations.

Hon. Chris Alexander (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, this moratorium has been in effect for 10 years. We all agreed in December to lift it in June. Many Haitians have applied for permanent residency, and the door is still open. Why do the members opposite say one thing in private and another in public? I do not understand that.

One thing is certain: no immigrant in Canada will support the Liberal Leader, who wants a mandatory expansion of the Canada pension plan, similar to what Kathleen Wynne of Ontario is proposing. That will not attract immigrants.

Mr. Fin Donnelly (New Westminster—Coquitlam, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, last week, a marine communications blackout in B.C. left ship traffic dangerously adrift. Thankfully, nothing disastrous happened, this time.

Imagine an airport without an air traffic controller. Vancouver is one of the busiest ports in Canada, but the current government continues to close marine communications centres and cut Coast Guard emergency response services, putting lives and our environment at risk.

When will the government reverse its reckless cuts to Coast Guard and marine safety?

Mr. Randy Kamp (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, with respect to marine communications and traffic service centres, this member seems to think that the highly qualified Coast Guard employees are looking out a window. However, it does not work that way and has never worked that way. They use technology and, in fact, we are investing in state-of-the-art modern technology and using strategically located centres to connect that with a network of telephone towers. None of that is changing, and we are confident that we are going to be able to provide even better service to mariners with this new program.

Mr. Ted Falk (Provencher, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, last week I had the privilege, together with the President of the Treasury Board, of announcing funding in my riding through the connecting Canadians program. This will, for the very first time, bring affordable, high-speed Internet to over 4,500 homes in the riding of Provencher.

Can the Minister of Industry please update this House on what our government is doing, and our plans to continue to bring affordable, high-speed Internet to rural and remote communities?

Hon. James Moore (Minister of Industry, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Provencher understands very well that what none of us should ever forget is the size of this country and the importance of making sure that we are all connected and have full access to the opportunities of the Internet, from e-commerce to educational opportunities and health services, that are bound together with access to the Internet.

We made a commitment as a government to connect 280,000 Canadian households to the Internet, and we have exceeded that by 76,000. We have done that. We are 40% under budget in connecting Canadian families.

The long-standing hope of this country for a few decades now has been that all Canadians have access to high-speed Internet. Because of this government and this Prime Minister, we have achieved that goal.

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Mr. Speaker, I would like, through you, to ask the Prime Minister this question. If he could cast his mind back to when he was an opposition leader, imagine a prime minister, maybe a Liberal with a majority, who decided to practice legislative alchemy to magic away a law that was already under investigation as an offence to retroactively eliminate the law and, thus, eliminate the offence, and to do so through an omnibus budget bill.

What would that leader have said to this abuse of power?

Ms. Roxanne James (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, obviously, we reject any claim that the RCMP did anything wrong by following the express will of Parliament to destroy the data from the long-gun registry. Let me be very clear. Our Conservative government fulfilled its commitment to end the wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry for all, and we will make no apologies in the House for ensuring that the will of Parliament is followed.

Mr. André Bellavance (Richmond—Arthabaska, Ind.)

Mr. Speaker, any day now, Enbridge could get permission to send 300,000 barrels of oil a day through line 9B, which is 40 years old and passes through many municipalities, close to homes, schools and day care centres. Given the contradictory information the National Energy Board has been providing, we still do not know whether it will require that hydrostatic testing be conducted. Nevertheless, that is the most reliable type of test for determining the condition of the pipeline.

If the National Energy Board does not want to do its job, will the Minister of Natural Resources do his and require that these tests be conducted, as called for by the municipalities and the Quebec Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries, Energy and Natural Resources?

Mrs. Kelly Block (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, we are ensuring that Canadians benefit from world-class environmental protection and safety standards for all energy infrastructure projects. The independent national board is responsible for ensuring that a project is safe for Canadians and safe for the environment before it can be approved to operate.

This project will only move forward once the proponent satisfies the NEB's conditions and demonstrates that the pipeline can be operated safely.