Hansard
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 1 - 100 of 217
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-06-18 14:26 [p.15291]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, when there are more unemployed Canadians than there were four years ago, when the cost of living is forcing people to go into more debt than four years ago, when it is harder to access employment insurance than it was four years ago, when roads, bridges and municipal infrastructure are in worse condition than they were four years ago, how can the minister claim that everything is fine?
Have the Conservatives gotten so out of touch with reality that they do not know the real problems Canadians are facing?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-06-18 15:44 [p.15304]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, first I want to join in the words of my colleague House leaders, the government House leader and the member for Burnaby—New Westminster, in expressing to you, Mr. Speaker, our thanks for your firm and fair hand in guiding our debates. I thank you for your good humour both in the chair and in a number of more private meetings where we have had the privilege to work with you. I know I can speak on behalf of my colleagues in the Liberal caucus, Mr. Speaker, in saying that it has been a pleasure to work with you in this Parliament, and we wish you and your family health and happiness over the summer months.
I would also like to say a few words to my fellow House leaders, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and my colleague and friend from British Columbia, the member for Burnaby—New Westminster.
Although at times we disagreed about bills and political issues, I believe that we managed to work together in a spirit of friendship. I have some extremely fond memories of my exchanges with my fellow House leaders, and I also wish them much health and happiness this summer. It is rather odd, but I want to say that I look forward to seeing them next fall.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to join my colleagues in expressing our thanks and our respect to your colleague chair occupants who have indicated that they will not be seeking re-election in the next Parliament. All of you, you and your colleagues, who occupy that important function in our Parliament have done so with honour, fairness, and good humour. I know that my colleagues in the Liberal caucus have appreciated all of our colleagues who have served in this Parliament in that important chair.
My colleagues also mentioned the procedural clerks at the table, who provide invaluable advice to all parliamentarians in a fair, non-partisan, and professional way. I think we should also have a special moment of thought for Ms. Audrey O'Brien, who has faced a difficult health challenge. We wish her health and a full recovery this summer and we hope to see her back.
The person who replaced her during this time, Mr. Bosc, the acting clerk, has also, with his colleagues, done an extraordinary job. We thank him and all of his colleagues for their work in this House.
I will not repeat the list. My colleagues have correctly noted the staff in the Library of Parliament and the people who work on standing committees. As always, they have provided a very high quality of professional, competent, and efficient advice. I know my colleagues in the Liberal caucus have appreciated every exchange and every opportunity to work with this remarkably talented group of women and men.
We would like to especially acknowledge our friends the pages. Every year they arrive in the fall, and in this Parliament we have had four groups of pages. They are remarkable young Canadians who come from all over the country. They were leaders in their secondary schools, and they were carefully chosen to serve and help us carry out our parliamentary duties.
I hope the pages have had a successful and positive academic experience in their first year of university here in Ottawa. We hope that in the coming years we will have the privilege of seeing them in other capacities on Parliament Hill. I know that at some point many of them will seek elected office and join us in Parliament as elected parliamentarians. We wish all of them success and happiness in the coming years and thank them for their important service.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues rightly pointed out that the Parliament, House of Commons and Senate security officers, under the leadership of Mr. Vickers and now Mr. McDonell, did a remarkable job a few months ago during events that we could not have imagined. I am obviously referring to the tragic events of October 22. However, before and after these difficult events, the security staff acted professionally and with competence every single day.
They assure our security and the security of the Canadians who work here. They assure the security of the thousands of Canadians who visit Parliament as well. They also deserve our thanks and our respect.
As I mentioned earlier, the list is long. There are those who work in food services, the interpreters, the messengers, the maintenance people and the technical help.
All of these people support the work we do in Parliament in a professional and thoughtful way, and we are very grateful.
I come finally to our colleagues in this Parliament, our fellow members. The government House leader and the member for Burnaby—New Westminster were talking about the camaraderie that we develop and the privilege we have to serve Canadians in this House of Commons. We saw that with the recent vote when those colleagues who announced that they will not be returning for the upcoming election were applauded by all sides for their service as they cast what will probably be their last vote in this Parliament.
I was also reminded that in the last four years, a number of our colleagues on all sides of the House have gone through difficult health challenges. I do not think it is widely known or understood by others who do not have the privilege of working in this place that there is a bond shared by people who are fortunate enough and privileged enough to have a seat in this Parliament. When a colleague on any side of the House has faced a difficult health challenge, as a number of our colleagues have and are still, I have been touched by the compassion and generosity that so many of us showed toward those people, who really deserve our support, our affection, and our respect. It reminds us of what we share, even though we come from different political parties.
In the end, we want the same things for our country, our constituents and our ridings. These moments reminded me of the personal friendships that we have developed with our elected colleagues. I wanted to mention that.
On behalf of the Liberal caucus, we wish all of our colleagues much health and happiness during the summer months. To those who have decided not to re-offer we wish good health and continued success in their personal and professional lives. To those who are re-offering, we wish you success this summer—
Mr. Rodger Cuzner: On division.
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Mr. Speaker, my colleague for Cape Breton—Canso says “on division”, but regardless of who comes back to this Parliament after October, we look forward to seeing one another on other occasions and being reminded of the happy four years when we had the privilege of serving in this House.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-06-09 14:03 [p.14805]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, last weekend, New Brunswick lost one of its most respected citizens. Robert Kenny passed away at age 72, having fought a courageous battle against ALS for the past six years. Bob Kenny was a distinguished lawyer and community leader who leaves behind a legacy of generosity and service. In Fredericton, Bob was president of the YMCA, led a committee to build Fredericton's indoor pool and was a devoted baseball coach and player. Always a Red Sox fan, the dugout at Royals Field in Marysville is named in his honour.
Atlantic salmon conservation was another of Bob's passions. Last month, supported by his long-time friend Frank McKenna, the Nature Conservancy named a salmon pool after Bob on the Southwest Miramichi.
I ask colleagues to join me in expressing our sympathies to Bob's wife, Joan, and his daughters Brigette, Natalie and Mary Ellen.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-06-09 14:23 [p.14808]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of State for Finance said that strengthening the Canada pension plan is like using a bazooka; the Minister of Employment said that the CPP is at odds with job creation; the Prime Minister wanted Alberta to withdraw from the CPP; and the former foreign affairs minister described it as white collar crime.
Instead of insulting this program, which has helped so many Canadians, why will the Conservatives not work with the provinces to develop a real, credible plan to strengthen and expand the CPP, which is incredibly important to all Canadians?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-06-03 14:30 [p.14528]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada shows how much work we need to do to repair the harm suffered by first nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
This government appointed Justice Sinclair, who made 94 recommendations to really close this sad chapter in our history, which has been described as cultural genocide.
The Liberal Party immediately accepted those 94 recommendations. Will this government do the same?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-05-26 14:23 [p.14174]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' decision to raise the eligibility age for old age security and the guaranteed income supplement to 67 is unfair. This decision will cost our most vulnerable seniors $32,000.
At the same time, the Conservatives are helping people who can afford to set aside $10,000 every year by raising the TFSA limit.
Why are the Conservatives helping those who need it the least on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-05-11 15:10 [p.13721]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition circulated in my riding by a group called Development and Peace. This group has done a tremendous amount of good, not just in New Brunswick, but around the world. It has collected the signatures of people living primarily in Kent County and the Sainte-Marie, Saint-Antoine and Shediac areas.
The petition calls on the government to take into consideration small farmers in its international aid and development policies. Many people are concerned that the policies of the federal government and other countries are detrimental to small-scale farmers in developing countries. They are calling on the government to correct this situation.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that we need to put in place measures to help families and the middle class, which continue to go into debt under this Conservative government. We can cut their taxes and provide larger, simpler, fairer benefits than those offered by this Conservative government.
Why are the Conservatives helping people with $10,000 to put aside instead of helping families that are tired of steadily going into debt under the Conservative government?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-05-04 14:24 [p.13381]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, middle-class families are tired of being ignored by this government. They are asking for help, and today the leader of the Liberal Party promised Canadian families tax-free benefits that will primarily help the middle class. That is in sharp contrast to the Conservatives' plan.
Their TFSA increase and income splitting benefit the wealthy. Why do the Conservatives insist on giving the most help to those who need it the least?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-04-29 14:28 [p.13184]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Mike Duffy himself was so concerned about not complying with the constitutional requirements for being a senator for Prince Edward Island that he asked the Prime Minister to appoint him as a senator for Ontario. That makes sense, since Mr. Duffy had been living in Ottawa for 40 years.
Is the Prime Minister so out of touch with reality that he thought he could ignore the Constitution and appoint Mike Duffy as a senator for Prince Edward Island and then claim to be surprised that Senator Duffy had been living in Ottawa for 40 years?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-04-29 14:30 [p.13184]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, even Mike Duffy himself was so concerned about not meeting the constitutional residency requirements to be a senator from Prince Edward Island that he asked the Prime Minister to appoint him from Ontario. It makes sense since Mr. Duffy has lived in Ottawa for over 40 years.
Is the Prime Minister so out of touch that he thought he could bypass the Constitution, appoint Mike Duffy from Prince Edward Island, just for the chance to get up and feign indignation that he recently discovered that Mike Duffy has lived in Ottawa for 40 years?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-04-22 14:07 [p.12856]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Patricia Lafford for having received the Governor General's Caring Canadian Award last week.
Patsy has long been an important part of the Sackville and Tantramar, New Brunswick communities. She has given her time to help those around her who are in need. She helped found, for example, the Sackville Food Bank in 1988 and was a very active member of the Catholic Women's League. She even brings communion to residents of a local nursing home who are unable to travel to regular church services, all the while finding time to care for her 10 beloved grandchildren.
I have known Patsy for many years and have constantly been impressed by her love of community. Patricia Lafford is exactly the kind of person this award was created to recognize.
Once again, my sincere congratulations to Patricia Lafford and her family and to Sackville and Tantramar for being home to such a terrific woman.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-04-20 15:14 [p.12758]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to present a petition.
A number of people in my riding from across southeastern New Brunswick and organizations such as Development and Peace have collected the signatures of many people who are calling on the government to adopt international aid policies that support small farmers, especially women. Furthermore, they want the government to ensure that programs established by Canada truly support the development of an agricultural sector that will benefit the vast majority of people around the world. This is a challenge that I encourage my colleagues to consider.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-04-01 14:49 [p.12653]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, job creation and the economy are in free fall.
Last year, 191,000 fewer jobs were created than just three years ago. To make matters worse, the economy shrank during three out of the past six months. Instead of doing something about it, the Conservatives keep singing the praises of the Minister of Finance, who keeps failing to show up for work.
At a time when job creation is declining and the economy is moving backward, why is the Conservatives' solution to do nothing?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-03-23 14:58 [p.12169]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Conservative cuts at Correctional Services Canada endanger the safety and security of the women and men who work inside the walls of our penitentiaries.
The recent announcement about closing the Shepody Healing Centre in Dorchester, New Brunswick, a fully accredited psychiatric hospital, continues this trend and puts Canadians at greater risk. The hospital gave the staff the tools they needed to manage some of Canada's most difficult and dangerous psychiatric cases.
Why is the minister being irresponsible and closing this important psychiatric facility, which is important to the safety of Canadians?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-03-09 14:12 [p.11844]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I learned this weekend of the death of Sergeant Andrew Doiron, originally from Moncton. He was a pleasant, passionate and proud man. The memories of Sergeant Doiron's friends and colleagues are a testament to the character of this man whom we have tragically lost.
The fact that he rose to the level of sergeant in our Special Forces shows that Andrew was part of the best that Canada had to offer.
Many people in my riding knew him when he was a student at École Mathieu-Martin in Dieppe, and I know that the entire Greater Moncton community is proud to have known him and sad to have lost him so prematurely.
I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to his colleagues in the Canadian Forces. We also pray for those who were injured with Sergeant Doiron.
Above all, I would like to extend my condolences to his parents and his entire family. Know that our thoughts and prayers are with you in these difficult times.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-02-25 14:17 [p.11664]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, yesterday Acadia lost a giant in the arts and culture with the death of Marc Chouinard, who left us far too early at the age of 62. Over the decades, his engagement in the arts and culture, often as a volunteer, was crucial to the development and promotion of our Acadian culture.
More recently, as the manager of Moncton's Capitol Theatre, Marc made a tremendous contribution to the cultural and economic vitality of his province and helped open doors for many young artists.
Though passionate for the arts, Marc also believed in the importance of social and economic development, which he often discussed, sometimes late into the night, with Premier Gallant as well as my colleague from Papineau. I am lucky to have spent so much time with Marc and to consider him a friend.
I would like to extend my condolences to his mother, his sister Carole, who took such wonderful care of him, and to the other members of his family.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-02-23 14:24 [p.11523]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, since the Conservatives were elected to power, job creation has been half of what it used to be, and economic growth has been anaemic.
In response to that, the Conservatives are eliminating programs that help veterans and cutting funding to security agencies and the RCMP. Why? They are doing that in order to provide tax cuts to which 86% of Canadians are not entitled.
Why are the Conservatives refusing to come up with a real plan for job creation and economic growth, one that will help all Canadians, not just the richest ones?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-02-19 14:02 [p.11408]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, the town of Memramcook will honour four distinguished individuals for their contributions to professional and amateur sport by adding their names to the town's sports wall of fame.
Henri Cormier was a minor baseball and hockey president, and for a long time he set up a skating rink outside his home for the people of Memramcook.
Georges Gaudet made a number of contributions: he was involved in the golf world and the Jeux de l'Acadie, and he helped to create the wall of fame.
Roméo LeBlanc, who reached the American Hockey League as a referee, unfortunately passed away two days ago. I offer my condolences to his loved ones, and I am pleased that we can celebrate his accomplishments.
Lastly, Eugène “Gene” Gaudet was the chief physical therapist for the Montreal Canadiens and the national team, in addition to his career as a hockey player.
These four sports greats are examples of the strength of character found in the Memramcook valley, and I extend my warmest congratulations to them.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-02-19 14:23 [p.11412]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, if we want a strong economy, we need economic certainty and stability.
The GDP shows that our national economy is on the decline, the quality of jobs is going down, and our country lost $28 billion in capital investments in December alone, so why do the Conservatives continue to create uncertainty and instability?
Why do they refuse to immediately table a budget, so we can get the economic certainty we so desperately need?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-02-02 14:25 [p.10910]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government refuses to introduce a robust system of parliamentary oversight to make sure that our security agencies are working properly. In fact, it even described this oversight as useless red tape, and yet all of our closest allies have such a system in place.
Can the government explain why it considers this oversight to be wasteful, when our allies see it as an essential part of keeping people safe?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-02-02 15:10 [p.10918]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition signed by hundreds of New Brunswickers, primarily from southeastern New Brunswick, which includes the City of Dieppe and the Moncton area.
They condemn the government's cuts to Canada Post. Many of them live in rural and remote regions and are seniors. They are concerned that service cuts mean that mail will no longer be delivered to their homes. They are asking the government to reverse its bad decision about the postal service.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-01-29 15:40 [p.10819]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, at the outset, let me say that I will be sharing my time with a very distinguished member of this House, the member for Markham—Unionville. I know members will want to be here not only to listen to my remarks but to stay for the incisive remarks that will follow my presentation.
Of course I am very pleased to rise to support the motion moved by my colleague from Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, who has set an important example to all Canadians across our country of how to manage a federation that works.
Throughout the years when my colleague was the minister responsible for intergovernmental affairs, there was a constructive and positive relationship between the federal government and its partners in the Canadian federation.
For instance, many important agreements were signed between the two levels of government. There was co-operation and mutual respect not only regarding their respective areas of jurisdiction, but also regarding the difficulties shared by all those who represent Canadians and are seeking significant solutions to the economic, social and environmental problems facing our country.
The motion today I think sets out a very simple premise. The simple premise is that the Prime Minister of Canada has a responsibility, as head of the executive of the national government, to work constructively with other orders of government and with his partners in the federation: other first ministers.
This Prime Minister has resisted so vehemently sitting down in a structured first ministers' conference, where all premiers would have an opportunity to express their shared concerns about economic issues facing their populations and their citizens and what the national government can do in partnership with them to better serve the citizens that all of us have been elected to this place to serve.
I wanted to give some concrete examples from the regions, especially my province, New Brunswick, where a constructive and respectful commitment on the part of the Prime Minister towards his provincial counterparts would give them the opportunity to come up with regulations, a solution or some way to move forward on difficult and complicated files, while respecting jurisdictions and the spirit of partnership and constructive engagement.
It is no secret: my province, New Brunswick, is in a very difficult economic situation. In many respects, that province has performed the worst when it comes to job creation and economic growth. We have suffered significant job losses. Industries that have traditionally been very important to New Brunswick are struggling, and this has led to job losses in other sectors.
The situation is serious. This is a critical time, and that is not a partisan statement. These circumstances have meant that the former Progressive Conservative government, the Liberal government that preceded them and the current Liberal government have all faced issues that do not fall solely under provincial responsibility; they also require an engaged federal partner.
Take, for example, the question of employment insurance. The current government decided to make changes to employment insurance benefits, particularly for those who work in seasonal industries across many regions of this country. In New Brunswick, those changes obviously have a disproportionate impact, because a certain percentage of our economy will necessarily be seasonal. However, right across the country, in Quebec, northern Ontario, and the Prairies, the decisions the Conservative government made around employment insurance benefits had a negative consequence.
The Atlantic premiers decided to commission an independent study to look at the direct impact these changes would have on the revenues of families in their provinces at times of the year when there is no employment. In my province of New Brunswick alone, hundreds of millions of dollars, over $400 million, was taken out annually from the pockets of New Brunswick families who depended on employment insurance benefits. As I said a minute ago, at a time when the unemployment rate increases, if the corresponding employment insurance benefits are reduced and limited, it has a devastating impact. It also has a devastating impact on the provincial treasury, as many of these people land on income assistance and social development measures, the instruments that the province has to look after income security.
Was the Prime Minister willing to sit down and talk about employment insurance with the Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward for the last four years? Of course not. Was he willing to engage with the newly elected Liberal government of Brian Gallant on the important issue of employment insurance? Of course not.
This is an example of a problem that is shared by other premiers. It is an example where the national government has a program that has a punitive effect in many regions and provinces of our country and where the premiers asked the Government of Canada and the Prime Minister to sit down with them to look at solutions, to understand the impacts, and perhaps constructively and collaboratively find a solution.
The current Prime Minister was not interested. Think of the changes to provincial health transfers. The former finance minister, the late Mr. Flaherty, went to a premiers' meeting and announced that a certain amount was available. There was no negotiation, no discussion, no acknowledgement of the demographic realities of each province.
The province of New Brunswick has an aging population, and many people live in rural and remote regions. Its proportion of people who live in regional centres and rural areas is one of the highest in Canada. We have two official languages, and I am extremely proud of that. However, that means New Brunswick's provincial government has to spend more money to provide adequate services in both official languages.
Instead of engaging in constructive collaboration with the provincial premiers on this important issue—providing high-quality health care in all provinces of Canada for the long term—the current Prime Minister is unavailable.
We talk a lot about infrastructure in the Liberal caucus, because we hear from premiers, mayors, community leaders and citizens about the negative effects right across the country of the recent reductions and cuts to infrastructure spending. The premiers are in Ottawa today and tomorrow. They would have given anything for an opportunity to be invited by the Prime Minister to sit down and talk about a positive and comprehensive infrastructure investment that would not only create the much needed immediate jobs right across the country that, but also prepare our economy to be a sustainable green economy, a growing economy, and a productive and competitive economy.
Route 11 in New Brunswick is one of the important north-south highways from one end of our province to the northern part. The provincial government of Premier Alward, who was defeated this fall, had asked for the Government of Canada to be a partner, twinning with them in making this highway a four-lane highway. We have seen tragic accidents, with people losing their lives on an overcrowded, dangerous two-lane highway, often through difficult winter conditions, but the government refused to sit down with its provincial partners to find a way to make this important economic project a reality.
Even federal infrastructure, such as wharves, ports and smaller infrastructure, lacks funding. For example, the town of Richibucto in New Brunswick needs money for infrastructure repairs. The mayor of Richibucto asked for money. Provincial elected representatives have once again realized that they do not have a federal partner.
For years, the restoration of Moncton's Petitcodiac River has been a provincial government priority. It is the right thing to do for the environment and the Moncton region. The government refused to get involved in any constructive way.
Projects like the energy east pipeline and other energy projects that are vital to the economic future of my province are stalled because we have a Prime Minister who will not engage with his provincial counterparts. We think the Prime Minister has a responsibility to hold annual first ministers' conferences and to discuss issues like this that are important to citizens right across the country.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-01-29 15:52 [p.10820]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Ottawa—Orléans for his question. I did not entirely understand the references to Mr. Trudeau. We have never suggested that the Prime Minister of Canada should behave in the way that my colleague from Ottawa—Orléans described in his comments, which were uncalled for.
We asked the government to hold group meetings where the provincial premiers could share their joint concerns with the Prime Minister of Canada. Often, the problems facing my province are not so different from the ones Quebec or the other provinces have to deal with.
The hon. member for Ottawa—Orléans talked about a stop that the Prime Minister made on his way home from the Sommet de la Francophonie. That is news to me. I do not recall the Prime Minister of Canada being in New Brunswick in the past few months. I know that at the last minute he offered the Premier of New Brunswick the opportunity to travel with him by air to Senegal. The Premier of New Brunswick accepted that generous offer. However, the thought that an in-flight conversation constitutes a first ministers' conference is disingenuous and is akin to claiming that there were 300 meetings on flights and on the tarmac, and maybe even at a cocktail party. These are brief conversations. Frankly, claiming that there was a meeting with the Premier is just ridiculous.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-01-29 15:55 [p.10821]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing chose what I think are a few somewhat exaggerated examples. She wanted to talk about first ministers' meetings that were productive and that led to important changes in health care. Let us use the example of the 2004-05 meetings, the three meetings in two years that the previous Martin Liberal government had with all of its provincial counterparts. What happened? We saw the creation of a 10-year accord, which saw very important investments made in our health care system, something the current government pretends it invented.
When Conservatives stand and talk about health care, they talk about the investments they have been making since 2006. What they fail to say is that these investments were decided at a first ministers' meeting under the previous Liberal government, which Liberals think was an example of collaborative and constructive federalism.
I would also point out that at the time the previous Liberal government left office in 2006, almost all of the provinces right across the country were in budgetary surplus. That is something the current government cannot say.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2015-01-26 15:15 [p.10586]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege to present in the House today a petition signed by hundreds of residents of southeastern New Brunswick. They are very concerned about the government's cuts to Canada Post and what the layoff of so many employees of Canada Post and the potential closure of so many small rural post offices will mean for seniors, for persons living with disabilities, and for small communities. They are asking the government to reverse this ill-conceived plan from Canada Post.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-12-08 14:24 [p.10295]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives claim they are fulfilling the obligation our country has to our veterans through legislation and in the House.
However, before the courts, the Conservatives are saying that we have no such obligation and that it violates a fundamental principle of democracy—all so that they can give injured veterans as little as possible.
What democratic principle is violated when we give veterans the ongoing financial support they need?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-12-01 15:17 [p.9995]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise today to present a petition signed by over a hundred New Brunswickers. They are very concerned about the government's cuts to Canada Post and the fact that the government has allowed Canada Post to abandon door-to-door delivery. Many rural post offices are threatened. Many employees of Canada Post have also lost their jobs.
The petitioners are asking the government to make changes to the wrong decisions it imposed on Canada Post, preserve rural postal service, ensure that good jobs in those communities remain, and ensure that disabled and vulnerable persons can receive door-to-door mail delivery.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-11-19 14:58 [p.9541]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Richibucto harbour, on Principale Street, is in serious need of repairs and a long-term plan.
At the request of the mayor, Roger Doiron, who is in Ottawa today, I have often asked the minister for funding and a long-term plan. I recently met with Cyril Polchies, a Mi'kmaq fisherman with the harbour authority, who also reiterated how important this harbour is to the community.
When will the minister finally take action to help the people of Richibucto and repair the harbour on Main Street?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-11-18 14:53 [p.9468]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, 200 people gathered at the Radio-Canada Acadie office in Moncton to tell the government that enough is enough.
During the tragic events in Moncton in June, we all saw the consequences of the Conservatives' cuts when RDI and Radio-Canada did not have enough resources to support their excellent journalists in Moncton. This fall, nine more positions were cut at Radio-Canada Acadie, and that will just make matters worse.
When will the government understand that enough is enough?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-11-17 14:25 [p.9386]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the government's figures indicate that Canada's economic growth is going to decline every year until 2019. Investing in our roads, bridges and public transit would be good for economic growth, but the Conservatives have cut infrastructure funding by 90%.
Instead, their income splitting will not create any jobs and will help only the wealthiest 15% of households.
How does cutting infrastructure to help the wealthiest 15% of Canadians boost our economy today?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-11-06 14:24 [p.9292]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' income splitting plan does nothing for parents who have similar incomes.
In the Atlantic provinces, income splitting will not apply to a family in which one parent works in the tourism industry and the other in the fishing industry. In Quebec, income splitting will not apply to a family in which one parent works in the arts and the other in the non-profit sector. In Ontario, income splitting will not apply to a family in which both parents are teachers.
Why adopt such a costly measure that will do absolutely nothing for these people?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-31 11:14 [p.9049]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I am rising to pay tribute to Alphonse Vautour, originally from Petit-Cap, who joined the Canadian Armed Forces before turning 19 and fought in France on D-Day.
To honour his courage and contribution to the liberation of France, Mr. Vautour was made a member of the National Order of the Legion of Honour on October 23.
Mr. Vautour is 95 and was accompanied by a large number of his children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren, who watched as a member of their family was thanked by the Republic of France. As the consul for France said, France will never forget his efforts on its behalf.
Canada will also not forget Mr. Vautour's sacrifices. That is why I am congratulating him and asking the other MPs of this House to congratulate Mr. Vautour for this well-deserved honour.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-28 14:26 [p.8879]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, our thoughts and prayers are with Corporal Nathan Cirillo and his family on this difficult day.
As parliamentarians, we must respond to this tragedy by ensuring that our security forces have the resources required to protect our national security. The RCMP says that it has to reassign 300 members working on financial and organized crime.
Will the government increase funding for these national security agencies so they can carry out their mandate?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-27 14:22 [p.8801]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Parliament is at its best on issues of national security when partisanship is set aside and the government and opposition parties work together. We saw that last week.
In this spirit of non-partisanship, will the government commit to working with opposition parties on any new security legislation, and will it commit to holding detailed technical briefings for members of Parliament once any new legislation is introduced?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-27 14:23 [p.8802]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Parliament works best on these issues when members of all parties can actively participate in the debate on legislation but also in productive and meaningful committee deliberations.
Can the government provide a timeline with respect to the new national security legislation, and will the government commit to working with opposition members, both during the debate in the House and in committee, to see if we can all make amendments, which will improve and strengthen our national security legislation.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-27 14:24 [p.8802]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Parliament is at its best on issues of national security when partisanship is set aside and all members work together to engage in real debate and a meaningful process at legislative committees.
Can the government give us an idea of its timeline and how quickly it intends to adopt the measures proposed this afternoon? Will it commit to working with opposition members to see if we could make amendments that would strengthen national security measures in forthcoming bills?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-23 14:16 [p.8718]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I am rising to pay tribute to the brave members of Parliament's security services, the RCMP, the Ottawa Police Service and all of the police and military services that reacted to yesterday's events with courage, discipline and strength.
Our first responders have always protected us, but yesterday many of us witnessed remarkable women and men doing their jobs bravely in the face of uncertainty and danger.
Our Sergeant-at-Arms, Kevin Vickers, inspired all Canadians with his leadership and courage. I would like to tell my friend Kevin how grateful we are.
Our Sergeant-at-Arms, Kevin Vickers, has a long and distinguished career in public safety and public service. Yesterday my fellow New Brunswicker inspired Canadians by his courage and his discipline, and we are all forever grateful to him and the women and men who work with him for our safety in this place.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-23 15:00 [p.8725]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness recently made reference to the 90 individuals who pose a potential threat to Canada's security.
Taking that into consideration, have preventative detention measures—as permitted under the Anti-terrorism Act and renewed by the House in Bill S-7—been taken in recent weeks?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-21 14:05 [p.8650]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, earlier today, the Governor General awarded the Medal of Bravery to Joey Leblanc, a young student from MacDougall Settlement, New Brunswick, who attends the Clément-Cormier high school in Bouctouche.
On February 2, 2013, Joey risked his own life to help a woman trapped in a burning car. The car was surrounded by flames and the smoke was thick, but when it came to saving someone else's life, this young man did not hesitate at all. His bravery allows this 37-year-old woman to be alive today.
Joey's heroism also shows the community spirit that exists in New Brunswick. We are lucky to have among us so many brave people like Joey, whose actions inspire us all to be better neighbours and to help people in need.
On behalf of this House, I want to congratulate Joey Leblanc. Our country is stronger because of brave young men like him.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-09 14:27 [p.8477]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the government wants to wait until 2017 to change the Copyright Act to better protect the intellectual property of artists.
However, when the Conservative Party wants to change the legislation to steal the content of news agencies and artists for negative ads, the government obeys without hesitation.
Why do the Conservatives want to steal the property of shows like Tout le monde en parle and Larocque Lapierre for negative ads?
What kind of dishonesty does it have in store?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-02 14:25 [p.7646]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, rather than speaking directly to Canadians about Iraq, the Prime Minister instead chose to make speeches in New York and speak to the American media.
Rather than openly making his case, the Prime Minister is dealing with this issue the same way he has dealt with every issue in what will soon be nine years, namely in a partisan and secretive way.
What criteria did the government use to determine that a series of air strikes was the best contribution that Canada could make to this conflict?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-01 15:13 [p.8103]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition signed by numerous residents from cities like Dieppe and all over southeastern New Brunswick. They are very concerned about the government's cuts to Canada Post, which have affected service to people in smaller, rural communities. Thousands of employees have been laid off, as members know. Millions of households will go without door-to-door mail service. This is a concern for seniors and persons with disabilities. All over New Brunswick, people are worried about these cuts.
The petitioners call on the government to reverse the cuts and work with Canada Post to restore the service and save these jobs.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-10-01 15:31 [p.8107]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, we share the minister's view and the government's view and I think the view of all Canadians that cyberbullying and cyber-intimidation is a horrible crime. We have seen in the minister's own province the tragic results that it can inflict on families. There are other examples, unfortunately, in other parts of the country. All of us recognize the need to modernize the Criminal Code to give law enforcement authorities the appropriate balanced tools to ensure that people who participate in this kind of heinous crime are prosecuted to the full extent of the law and that the law is modernized, as he said, to recognize that this kind of offence is something that we all abhor.
We also share the concern of many Canadians around privacy rights, around the importance of protecting private information, about not allowing police authorities or other governmental agencies to have access to private information, to Internet information, of Canadians who are law-abiding persons. I know in a previous version of the bill there was some concern around warrantless searches where authorities may perhaps have been allowed to go beyond what had been a traditional standard required of police authorities.
I am wondering if the minister could reassure us that warrantless searches and the appropriate balance between the privacy rights of Canadians is respected while at the same time allowing the full prosecution of these horrible offences to take place.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-09-29 14:22 [p.7950]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, we have learned through media leaks that cabinet will be discussing plans to involve Canadian planes in the air strikes against ISIS forces. Can the government tell the House when that meeting will take place and what plans cabinet will be considering?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-09-29 14:23 [p.7950]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the government chose to leak information about the possible deployment in Iraq rather than bring the debate to the House of Commons where it belongs. I do not need to remind the minister that in this House the government has to be open and truthful to Canadians about what precise planning is going on.
Perhaps the minister could tell Canadians what the parameters are that the government is considering for a possible deployment of Canadian Forces to Iraq.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-09-24 14:17 [p.7770]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the team of Liberal candidates elected on Monday evening and the new Premier-designate of New Brunswick, Brian Gallant.
Mr. Gallant ran a good campaign with an emphasis on job creation and fiscal responsibility.
The New Brunswick Liberals, under Brian Gallant's leadership, won a majority government on Monday night by discussing real issues that matter to New Brunswickers: jobs, affordability, and health care.
The Conservatives' record of job losses and financial mismanagement turned voters away from them, and even the visit of the Leader of the Opposition last Friday could not prevent the NDP from being shut out of the New Brunswick legislature.
New Brunswick needs strong leadership at a tough time, and Brian Gallant is up to the task.
I am sure that my colleagues join me in congratulating all the members of all the parties elected in Fredericton on Monday evening.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-06-11 14:18 [p.6632]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, yesterday thousands of residents of southeastern New Brunswick, and police officers from across the country honoured the ultimate sacrifice made by RCMP Constables Fabrice Gevaudan, Dave Ross, and Douglas Larche in the line of duty. We also prayed for the recovery of the two other brave officers, Constables Darlene Goguen and Eric Dubois, injured in the same horrendous act of violence.
The Greater Moncton community, normally peaceful and always full of compassion, has been through some painful times. The pain that residents are feeling represents just a fraction of the grief and sadness felt by the families, including the young children, of our three heroes.
Tragic moments often reveal the hidden strength of a community. We were blessed by the strong leadership of Moncton's Mayor George LeBlanc and RCMP Superintendent Marlene Snowman. Their words inspired all of us to endure in the face of terrible evil and to begin the road to healing.
I know that all members join me in expressing our sympathies to the families of these brave RCMP officers. May they rest in peace.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-05-28 14:08 [p.5734]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the constant cuts to postal services in New Brunswick's rural areas are unacceptable.
The Saint-Paul post office and, as councillor Gilles Cormier tells me, the one in Haute-Aboujagane will have reduced hours. The Conservatives keep attacking the rural areas and treating the people who live there like second-class citizens.
By reducing these services, the government is not only hurting local businesses but also limiting access to an essential service for many Canadians.
Cuts in places such as the Cape Tormentine post office are not only detrimental to the communities, which depend on postal service, but also to local employees who have seen their hours cut or, worse, eliminated.
I call upon the Conservative government to not only reverse these cuts but to find other and better ways to modernize Canada Post.
The government must stop punishing people who live in rural areas across Canada.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-05-07 15:06 [p.5052]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Memramcook Institute, formerly the Collège Saint-Joseph, is a historic institution in Acadia and an important economic driver for the Memramcook region.
Residents have good reason to be concerned following the bankruptcy and hasty sale of this historic institution.
Considering the fact that the provincial Conservatives chose to abandon the institute, is the minister of ACOA ready to support of the people of Memramcook and try to save this historic institution, which is important to Acadia as a whole?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-03-24 15:31 [p.3758]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, we need to recognize that this is the first time we have heard these allegations and that we have had this type of discussion. Clearly, we feel very strongly about any issue involving compliance with the Canada Elections Act. This is also a very important issue for my colleague from Westmount—Ville-Marie.
At this time, he is unable to explain the context of this allegation, which we believe is completely unfounded. However, I would ask you, Mr. Speaker, to give my colleague from Westmount—Ville-Marie the opportunity to explain and reflect on the member's comments before you provide a definitive ruling on the issue. If necessary, we will explain exactly why our NDP colleagues' accusations are unfounded.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-03-05 14:28 [p.3537]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, we welcome the Prime Minister's comments with respect to asset freezes for the former Ukrainian regime and the importance of human rights observers. As the Prime Minister will know, there are democratic elections coming up in May to elect a new democratic government in Ukraine.
We are wondering if the Prime Minister could report to the House on how Canada will play a significant role in ensuring that there are electoral observers in place, well before the election in May, to assure Canadians and the world community that they are in fact free, fair, and honest elections to choose a new democratic government for the people of Ukraine.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-03-05 14:29 [p.3537]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Canada's economic growth is stagnating. Our economic growth since 2006 is the worst it has been since the tough times of R. B. Bennett. Furthermore, according to the OECD, 138 countries will have better growth this year, including Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and the United States.
The Minister of Finance thinks that the best solution is to invest in community infrastructure. Why, then, does the Prime Minister plan on cutting the building Canada fund by 87% next month?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-03-05 14:30 [p.3538]
Expand
Let us be clear. For the current fiscal year, the building Canada fund is budgeted at $1.6 billion, but next year, beginning next month, that amount drops to $210 million. That is $1.6 billion now, and $210 million next year. Do the math. That is a reduction by 87%. In fact, building Canada will not make a full recovery until 2019. So why does the government seek to rival R.B. Bennett in terms of economic growth?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-03-03 14:25 [p.3418]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, in just 29 days, cities and communities will see the building Canada fund cut by 90%. Mayors are saying that key projects are at short-term risk. What is worse, next year will be no better, and neither will the year after that. In fact, funding will not return to this year's levels until 2019.
Why do the Conservatives think that Canadians can afford to wait until 2019 for assistance with their municipal infrastructure?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-02-28 11:12 [p.3358]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that Acadia and all of Canada learned of the passing of Angèle Arsenault on Wednesday, February 26.
An ambassador for Acadia and music outside Acadia, Angèle Arsenault never forgot her roots, which inspired her to write fabulous songs such as Grand Pré and Y'a une étoile pour vous.
Originally from Prince Edward Island, Angèle Arsenault also played a major role in the life and cultural development of the Acadian community on the island.
There are very few people who have had such a great and profound impact in Acadia as Angèle Arsenault. She helped francophone Canada discover and come to know Acadian music and culture.
I join my colleagues in the House in offering our condolences to her family and saying one last goodbye to the great artist, Angèle Arsenault. We will always remember her.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-02-28 11:25 [p.3360]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, groups that help people learn to read, write, and get their GEDs are being punished by the Conservative government. The Dartmouth Learning Network, the Adult Learning Association of Cape Breton, MetroWorks Halifax, Skills Up!, and other groups that help disadvantaged people are facing massive cuts.
The Minister of Employment and Social Development is telling provinces to find the money elsewhere, which the Minister of Finance says they can find by raising taxes.
Will the government tell Terry Wilson, Fred Spencer, or Pam Leary why the Conservatives are asking them to fend for themselves?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-02-27 14:27 [p.3299]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' lack of honesty is such that they are announcing more infrastructure money for municipalities, but will reduce these funds by 90% on the first of April.
We have to make investments in order to grow our economy so that the middle class can benefit. Instead of investing, the government is making cuts and pretending to invest. How can the Conservatives believe that cutting infrastructure spending will help the economy?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-02-27 14:29 [p.3300]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, it is predictable all right; it is down 90%.
When a government is responsible for the weakest economic growth since R.B. Bennett, maybe the member will agree that the Conservatives clearly are doing something wrong. The only solution they can think of is to cut infrastructure spending by 90%. That is not what they promised Canadians.
Instead of planning to help our economy grow so that all Canadians, especially the middle class, can benefit, the Conservatives hide their cut as a future broken promise for money they will never actually spend.
Why is the government more interested in creative accounting than investing in infrastructure to support the Canadian economy?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-02-27 14:30 [p.3300]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' 10-year infrastructure plan is nothing more than a five-year cut, followed by a wishy-washy five-year guarantee for money they know very well may never get spent.
So when household debt is at an all-time high and our economic growth is decreasing year over year, the Conservatives are only promising to increase infrastructure spending in 2019. It does not matter what calculator one punches that into, it is too far down the road.
Why is the government cutting funding for infrastructure, for highways, roads, bridges, and sewer systems, which the municipalities need today?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-02-12 15:27 [p.2903]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition signed by a number of residents from New Brunswick who are very concerned about the cuts to rail service in northern New Brunswick.
Mr. Speaker, as you well know, northern New Brunswick service at VIA Rail is being reduced or eliminated and threatened by the closure of certain rail lines, and the residents of northern New Brunswick, understandably, worry about their economic future and access to passenger rail transportation. I am pleased to present this petition on their behalf.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-02-11 14:39 [p.2870]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' economic programs offer false promises and false hope to Canadians. The people of New Brunswick are all too familiar with the Conservatives' lack of transparency and how hurtful it is. While they have been talking about infrastructure for eight long years, highway 11 still has just two lanes; the Richibucto arena has yet to be built; and Sackville is still waiting on funding to revitalize its downtown core. Why are the Conservatives bent on punishing New Brunswickers and their municipal officials?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-01-31 11:23 [p.2418]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, as if closing service centres were not enough, now we find out that the government has just closed centres for treating veterans with PTSD. One of those centres was in Chicoutimi. Hundreds of people there with PTSD will now have to cross Saguenay park in the middle of winter to get services in Quebec.
How can the government ignore the suffering of our veterans in such a cavalier way?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-01-31 11:24 [p.2418]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, they will continue, hundreds of kilometres away.
Today, the Conservatives are closing Veterans Affairs offices while opening and expanding palatial regional offices for themselves and their bloated staff.
Even worse, the Conservative MP for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke is now blaming the veterans themselves, saying that the problem is just a stigma in their own heads.
Why are the Conservatives showing such contempt for our brave veterans?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2014-01-30 14:40 [p.2366]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, this government's military procurement process is completely broken.
We are now at the point where the Department of National Defence is being overseen by the Treasury Board. As a result, there are more delays, higher prices, more waste and job losses under the Conservatives.
How did we get to the point where this government, which claims to be a good financial manager and to want to equip our soldiers, is incapable of either?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-10 14:38 [p.2016]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, let us look at other questions that the Prime Minister has refused to answer in the past eight months.
Did the Prime Minister know about Irving Gerstein's decision to pay Mike Duffy $32,000?
Did he know that Irving Gerstein secretly contacted one of his Conservative friends at Deloitte?
Did he order his ministers to hire his former employees who were involved in this affair?
Will this government give Canadians a Christmas present today and answer at least one of these questions?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-10 18:01 [p.2045]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the government House leader, for having proposed a motion, which you will seek consent for in a few minutes.
For my colleague from Skeena—Bulkley Valley, I wanted to simply add on behalf of our colleagues in the Liberal Party and the Liberal caucus words of thanks and good wishes for the holiday season.
The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons acknowledged the importance of thanking the young men and women who work here as pages in the House of Commons. I share his sentiment.
I was surprised that the government House leader would reveal his wife's age by saying that she was a page here in 1987. He could have said in the early nineties. There may not be as toasty a reception when the government House leader calls home tonight to say, “Good news, honey. We adjourned tonight, but unfortunately I announced your age to everybody”. I thought the government House leader's wife was a page in 1997, so I am shocked.
However, I want to join our colleagues in thanking the pages. They will soon be or are in the middle of their first year of university exams. We wish them all well on the exams. They will get the results soon. Because they are an outstanding group of young women and men, I know they will succeed. We are lucky to have them with us.
My colleagues acknowledged the important work of the clerks of the House.
We are lucky to have professional women and men who serve as clerks of the table, interpreters and who work in the Library of Parliament. They make the parliamentary experience for those of us who are privileged enough to serve here as members a wonderful and valuable experience. That is largely thanks to their professionalism and advice.
My colleagues underline the security staff and the people who work in building maintenance, the bus drivers, the people who serve Canadians who visit this magnificent place and those who are lucky enough to work here as well. We certainly wish all of them a very happy holiday season and a merry Christmas.
Finally, to you, Mr. Speaker, your good humour, your even hand, your way of reminding us sometimes that we get close to rules in the House, which are sacred for the effective functioning of Parliament, is something that I admire. I very much appreciate your service here, sir. I wish you and your family a merry Christmas.
We look forward to seeing colleagues on all sides of the House and the people who work here back safely and in good health in 2014.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-06 11:53 [p.1875]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, I met with Melissa O’Rourke from Mount Allison University and Luke Robertson from St. Thomas. Both are impressive student leaders who know the difficulties post-secondary students face. They described the benefits of the Canada student grants program, and previously, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. However, the grants program has not been increased since its creation, while tuition and university costs have skyrocketed.
Could the minister tell us what plans he has to finally make up the difference and increase the Canada grants program for students so that the high cost of post-secondary education is not a factor that discourages people from going to university and college?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-05 14:33 [p.1823]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, now the government is trying to lay all the blame on Benjamin Perrin for the disappearance of those emails. However, we know that the government had those emails in its possession for at least six months. The Prime Minister is also blaming his own department.
Is the Privy Council so out of touch with reality that it did not notice this Conservative scandal in the news? Did it not know that the RCMP was looking for Mr. Perrin's emails? Is the Prime Minister accusing the secretary to the cabinet of committing reprehensible acts or simply of being incompetent?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-05 14:34 [p.1823]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the government had copies of Benjamin Perrin's emails in its possession for six months, and only turned them over to the RCMP when they were asked for them, not once, not twice, but three times. The Prime Minister now tries to blame his department, the PCO. This is ridiculous.
Did the secretary to the cabinet not notice this Conservative scandal? Did his boss, the Prime Minister, not mention a problem when his chief of staff suddenly disappeared? Is the Prime Minister's latest excuse really that the Privy Council did not know what a court order to produce emails looks like?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-05 14:36 [p.1823]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, last night Conservative senators protected Senator Gerstein's unethical conduct in attempting to kill an audit into Mike Duffy. This is not the first time the Conservative Party has mopped up Gerstein.
When charged under the Canada Elections Act, he only plea-bargained out when the Conservative Party pled guilty for him. Nigel Wright resigned or was fired—which, we are not sure anymore—for offering money to Mike Duffy. We know that Gerstein also offered money to Mike Duffy.
How can the Prime Minister still have full confidence in this now-disgraced Conservative senator, Irving Gerstein?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-03 14:14 [p.1687]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, as we speak, hundreds of people from Cap-Pelé and the region are gathered at Sainte-Thérèse d'Avila Church to pay tribute to four young men who died tragically in a car accident on Friday night.
Justin Léger, Sébastien Léger and Justin Brown were all 18 years old and were graduates of Louis-J. Robichaud High School in Shediac. Luc Arsenault was 17 years old and was in grade 12.
The village of Cap-Pelé is in mourning today and is saying a sad goodbye to its four sons. Their families are in our thoughts and prayers.
On behalf of this House, I offer my condolences to the families, communities and friends who have been deeply affected by this tragedy.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-03 14:24 [p.1689]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, it is hard to believe that the Prime Minister knew nothing about the repayment to Mike Duffy. It is hard to believe that a dozen of his confidantes were aware of it but told him nothing. The hardest thing to believe is that he had access to Benjamin Perrin's emails for six months, but that the officials were the ones who did not realize how important those emails were.
If that is the case, who had the emails, and how was it possible not to know of their existence when the RCMP requested the information?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-02 14:25 [p.1606]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, for months, the Prime Minister told us that the emails from his own lawyer, Benjamin Perrin, had been deleted. We now know that was not true.
We already know his staff had no ethical difficulty in attempting to pay off a senator or whitewash a Senate report, so considering the lack of trust that Canadians have in the Prime Minister and his office, can the Prime Minister assure Canadians that no member of his staff had access to these emails from Mr. Perrin and were able to delete, doctor, alter, or whitewash Mr. Perrin's emails as well?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-02 14:26 [p.1606]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told us that he did not have Benjamin Perrin's emails, when the opposite was true. He waited six months to finally tell the truth.
Benjamin Perrin was involved in the Mike Duffy deal, and the PMO tried to cover up the illegal repayments.
Can the Prime Minister confirm that no one in his office had access to those emails and that no one was able to doctor them or remove them from the Privy Council Office?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-12-02 14:27 [p.1606]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, a Prime Minister in this situation who cares about ethics would have investigated all of the actions of his office and made public all of the relevant documents. That would have been behaviour respectful of Canadians. Instead, the Prime Minister denies until the RCMP digs deep enough and he has no other choice but to confess the truth. It looks a bit like the Rob Ford crisis management strategy.
Is the Prime Minister waiting to be called as a witness in a criminal trial to finally make public all of the relevant documents so that Canadians can see the extent of this cover-up?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-26 10:11 [p.1352]
Expand
moved:
That, given the recent sworn statements by RCMP Corporal Greg Horton, which revealed that: (i) on February 21, 2013, the Prime Minister’s Office had agreed that, with regard to Mike Duffy’s controversial expenses, the Conservative Party of Canada would “keep him whole on the repayment”; (ii) on February 22, 2013, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff wanted to “speak to the PM before everything is considered final”; (iii) later on February 22, 2013, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff confirmed “We are good to go from the PM once Ben has his confirmation from Payne”; (iv) an agreement was reached between Benjamin Perrin and Janice Payne, counsels for the Prime Minister and Mike Duffy; (v) the amount to keep Mike Duffy whole was calculated to be higher than first determined, requiring a changed source of funds from Conservative Party funds to Nigel Wright’s personal funds, after which the arrangement proceeded and Duffy’s expenses were re-paid; and (vi) subsequently, the Prime Minister's Office engaged in the obstruction of a Deloitte audit and a whitewash of a Senate report; the House condemn the deeply disappointing actions of the Prime Minister's Office in devising, organizing and participating in an arrangement that the RCMP believes violated sections 119, 121 and 122 of the Criminal Code of Canada, and remind the Prime Minister of his own Guide for Ministers and Ministers of State, which states on page 28 that “Ministers and Ministers of State are personally responsible for the conduct and operation of their offices and the exempt staff in their employ,” and the House call upon the Prime Minister to explain in detail to Canadians, under oath, what Nigel Wright or any other member of his staff or any other Conservative told him at any time about any aspect of any possible arrangement pertaining to Mike Duffy, what he did about it, and when.
He said: Mr. Speaker, at the outset, I want to thank my colleague from Cardigan for seconding this important motion.
Today there are basically two issues we hope Canadians will reflect on in this House and pronounce on later this evening.
The first is the role of the Prime Minister's Office, the senior advisers to the Prime Minister, in a potentially criminal cover-up and a series of events, which the RCMP believes, in fact, have violated three sections of the Criminal Code.
The second issue is the role of senior Conservative operatives and senior Conservative senators in participating in a whitewash of a Senate report in attempting to influence an independent audit being conducted by a national auditing firm.
We think Canadians, increasingly, do not believe the Prime Minister and do not believe his constantly changing version of these events. That is why we think it is important to have this discussion in the House of Commons today. I hope that colleagues will agree with us tonight, in a vote, that the only solution is for the Prime Minister to, in fact, come clean, under oath, and explain to Canadians the exact extent to which he was informed of many of these details.
The real problem here, apart from the fact that the RCMP believes that criminal activity took place in the Prime Minister's Office, is that not only are there multiple versions of the facts in terms of the degree of the Prime Minister's involvement, but the versions put forward by the RCMP and by this government demonstrate that the Prime Minister and his staff acted inappropriately.
It has become clear that Canadians no longer believe the Prime Minister when he tells his changing version of this sordid affair. In fact, the person who is undermining the Prime Minister's credibility the most is the Prime Minister himself, because he has given us so many different versions. His story keeps changing. Every time, new details are made public. We are at the point where people are doubting what the Prime Minister of Canada is saying.
On the one side, we have email correspondence from Nigel Wright, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, highlighted in a sworn affidavit from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and presented to a judge. Let us look at the first email.
On February 22, Nigel Wright states that Mike Duffy would be made whole through the use of Conservative Party money, but at the end, Nigel Wright wanted to “speak to the PM before everything is considered final. Less than an hour later, according to an RCMP sworn affidavit, Nigel Wright sent a further email saying, “We are good to go from the PM”.
The inference here is very clear: Nigel Wright confirmed the details of the agreement to pay back Mike Duffy with the Prime Minister.
I would very much like to give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt when he claims that Nigel Wright did not tell him the details of the agreement. However, Nigel Wright has been very clear. At that time, the agreement was in fact to use Conservative Party funds to pay back Mike Duffy's inappropriate expense claims.
It is ridiculous to suggest that Mr. Wright needed the Prime Minister's approval to ask Mike Duffy to pay back his fraudulent expense claims with his own money. Quire frankly, this story borders on the ridiculous.
The determining factor in an illegal act such as the ones the RCMP believes took place in the Prime Minister's Office is not only who gave the corrupt money and when but that such a transfer ultimately took place. The Prime Minister's problem here is that all indications, all the circumstantial evidence, point to his knowing and approving of at least a $32,000 payment to Senator Duffy, plus his legal fees. These funds were originally going to come from the Conservative Party through the hands of Senator Irving Gerstein, who was a senior Conservative member of the caucus and chairman of the Conservative fund.
It does not matter, in the end, that the source of funds changed and that the amount increased. The Prime Minister appears to have approved a plan to corrupt a sitting legislator, and that is the essential element of how this whole sordid affair began. That allegation has met with no credible defence from the government spokespersons, and the RCMP, in its sworn affidavit, tells a very compelling story to Canadians.
Indeed, the RCMP affidavit paints a clear and compelling story of a widespread and directed cover-up at the senior levels of the Prime Minister's Office, including senior members of the Conservative caucus in the Senate and a woman who, at the time, was a senior Conservative cabinet minister. The RCMP believes that in the totality of the evidence, these actions and the subsequent attempt to cover up these actions constituted a violation of at least three sections of Canada's Criminal Code.
Even if we believe the Prime Minister when he says that Nigel Wright told him nothing and that he was never informed of the Mike Duffy repayment scheme; of the whitewashing of the Senate report, which was ordered by his own office; or of the involvement of four senators in his inner circle—even if we decide to believe all of the excuses, each more ridiculous than the last—there is still a serious problem. This government chose to protect the individuals who were involved in this possibly criminal scheme instead of adequately disciplining them.
I want to share a few of the most blatant examples. Some of these people are still Conservative senators and others were directly employed by the Prime Minister of Canada before being promoted to the highest echelons of Conservative ministerial offices.
Let us start with the Conservative senators. Four of them, senators LeBreton, Carolyn Stewart Olsen, David Tkachuk and Irving Gerstein, were interviewed by the RCMP in regard to their role in the Conservative scheme to whitewash a Senate report that was supposed to be, originally, critical of Senator Duffy's behaviour.
Indeed the RCMP have found, in sworn affidavits, that these Conservative senators were less than truthful when they were interviewed by Canada's national police force. Senator Marjory LeBreton was a senior member of the Conservative cabinet in the current Prime Minister's government. She was a key architect in the government plan to whitewash the Senate audit and participated actively and directly in an effort to sweep the whole mess under the carpet.
She presided over an effort in the Senate to potentially hide criminal acts, and for that she has been rewarded by remaining on the internal economy committee of the Senate.
Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen really did the heavy lifting in the effort to whitewash the Senate report. She in fact moved to strip sections out of the draft report that were critical of Senator Duffy's spending. She was an architect of the deal to go easy on Senator Duffy, as was negotiated between the Prime Minister's lawyer, Mr. Perrin, and Mr. Duffy's counsel, Ms. Payne. She was found, herself, to have been less than truthful in her discussions, in her interview with the RCMP.
For a government that pretends over and over again that it is co-operating fully with the RCMP in this investigation, maybe it should start by suggesting to the senior members of its caucus, as well as Senator Stewart Olsen, the Prime Minister's former press secretary, that they in fact be truthful when they are interviewed by the RCMP.
Some will remember Senator David Tkachuk as having been involved in the scandal concerning spending in the Saskatchewan legislature. Senator Tkachuk played another critical role. He was chair of the internal economy committee. He subsequently resigned. Canadians will remember that Senator Tkachuk was briefed by Deloitte in a verbal presentation on the progress of its audit.
It was a private meeting. Three senators were present. The auditors came to give a preliminary report on their findings. Deloitte had found that Senator Duffy was claiming per diem allocations from taxpayers in Ottawa at a time when his cellphone records indicated he was in Florida, and what did Senator Tkachuk do? He picked up the phone and called Senator Duffy and told him he had better come up with some explanation as to why he was claiming per diems in Ottawa when in fact he was in Florida.
Ever compliant, their favourite senator, Senator Duffy then sent a phony letter to Senator Tkachuk referring to a conversation they had two evenings previously and saying he had reviewed his records and in fact there was a clerical error in his office as to why taxpayers were paying per diems for his work in Ottawa when he was in Florida.
Senator Tkachuk had an obligation to taxpayers to protect taxpayers' hard-earned dollars, not to call a colleague who is under investigation in a forensic audit and tip him off. That would be like a judge who meets with the police before granting a search warrant, and the minute the police leave his or her office, the judge picks up the phone and says to the target of the search warrant: “Look you'd better get rid of the evidence, because the police are on their way over”. That makes no sense at all. That was what Senator Tkachuk did, and he too has been rewarded for his good work by continuing to serve on the internal economy committee of the senate.
Canadians will know Senator Irving Gerstein as a senior Conservative fundraiser, the chair of the Conservative fund. Surprisingly, he felt it appropriate to pick up the phone, on instructions from the Prime Minister's Office as we have learned from the RCMP affidavit, and call Deloitte, a reputable national auditing firm, to try to put pressure on it to say that if Mike Duffy reimbursed the money they could just sort of call it kiff and forget about Senator Duffy and the audit. He asked how that might work.
Senator Gerstein is not a member of that committee. He was not involved in the audit function in the Senate at all, but presumably he has a relationship with senior officials at the accounting firm. It might be because it has done $50 million worth of work for the Government of Canada in recent years; that could be. I see my colleague, the NDP House leader, may agree with me that it might in fact be one of the reasons Senator Gerstein felt it was appropriate to just pick up the phone and say, “Look, can we just forget about this?”
That constitutes a huge breach of professional ethics on the part of Senator Gerstein. It is inexplicable why the Prime Minister's Office would instruct people to contact an independent audit firm. I am very pleased that the Senate internal economy committee, inspired by an intervention from the Liberal Party, will in fact be calling Deloitte before the Senate committee later this week to explain exactly how and by whom they were contacted, when senior Conservative operators called attempting to whitewash an audit.
Senator Gerstein was also willing to pay $32,000 to reimburse Mike Duffy for his potentially fraudulent expenses. As we know from the RCMP audit, Senator Gerstein certainly did not worry about the propriety of potentially trying to corrupt and bribe a sitting legislator. His concern was with the quantum. His concern was with the amount of money involved, and he was willing to take $32,000 of contributions that Canadians made of their personal money to the Conservative Party and flush it to Mike Duffy to try to make a problem go away for the Prime Minister and for Mr. Wright, but at the end he decided that the amount was too much; and then Nigel Wright entered with a bag of money.
Now let us take a look at the steps taken by the Prime Minister's employees, those who played some sort of role in this sordid affair and who still work for the Conservative Party and the Canadian government, namely Chris Woodcock, David van Hemmen, Patrick Rogers and Ray Novak. I want to look at what they knew, when they knew it, and what the Prime Minister did for his own employees who were responsible for this scheme.
I will start with Mr. Woodcock. He was director of issues management in the PMO. In other words, if there was a fire, it was up to Chris Woodcock to put it out. RCMP documents show that he participated in whitewashing the Senate report and, what is worse, Nigel Wright sent him an email on March 8 to inform him that Mike Duffy would be receiving a $90,000 cheque from Nigel Wright's personal bank account.
Rather than informing the police or perhaps even calling a lawyer, what did he do? Clearly, he could not call the Prime Minister's lawyer in the Prime Minister's Office, because we are well aware that Mr. Perrin was also involved. Instead, Mr. Woodcock helped to do more to cover up the scandal. In the private sector, he would have been fired and the police would have been called. As a member of the Conservative Party, he became the chief of staff to the Minister of Natural Resources.
David van Hemmen was Mr. Wright's executive assistant in the Prime Minister's Office. Not only was he aware of the illegal plan to pay back Mr. Duffy, but he also helped to transfer the funds. He took the cheque to the bank of Mr. Duffy's lawyer. He was aware enough of what was going on to be in possession of that cheque, which the RCMP described as key evidence of corruption. Once again, what was his punishment? He was promoted to the position of policy adviser to the Minister of State for Finance.
Patrick Rogers was the director of parliamentary affairs in the PMO. According to the RCMP, he and Senator Gerstein were involved in trying to put an end to the Deloitte audit in order to protect Mike Duffy. Mr. Rogers also had dealings with Senator Tkachuk and Senator Stewart Olsen, who whitewashed the Senate report about Mike Duffy by removing any criticisms of his behaviour. What happened to Mr. Rogers as a result of this unacceptable behaviour? He is now the director of policy for the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
Finally, let us talk about Ray Novak, who was the Prime Minister's deputy chief of staff. We know two things about Ray Novak. He knew enough about this sordid affair to call Mike Duffy a serial liar, and he worked on the Senate file with Senator LeBreton. If we are thinking about accepting that the Prime Minister knew nothing about what was happening—and that is a big if—then clearly Ray Novak knew much more and he never shared that information with the Prime Minister. What was his sentence? Ray Novak replaced Nigel Wright as the Prime Minister's chief of staff.
Canadians have the right to wonder how the Prime Minister can trust Ray Novak to be his chief of staff. Why replace a chief of staff who, according to the Prime Minister himself, misled his boss with another person who allegedly did the same thing?
The concept is very simple. At the end of the day, in the private sector, if any chief executive officer presided over such chaotic behaviour from his or her senior staff, or if any board of directors was faced with a chief executive officer who the RCMP, in sworn affidavits, knew presided over an operation that may have violated three very serious sections of Canada's Criminal Code, that chief executive officer would have been shown the door. That chief executive officer would not have then promoted all the incompetent and deceitful staff who participated under his watch in what may in fact be a criminal conspiracy to subvert three important sections of the Criminal Code.
In his own guide for ministers and ministers of state, the Prime Minister outlined what ministerial responsibility allegedly should be. If one hires all the players, then one is responsible ultimately for their behaviour. The current Prime Minister is not living up to his own standard of responsibility, and Canadians are increasingly distrustful and disbelieving of the words of the Prime Minister.
The government's stories and answers make no sense at all: Mr. Wright was a great Canadian; then, all of a sudden, he accepted full responsibility and resigned; then, suddenly, we find out that he was fired.
The idea that he took sole responsibility for a criminal act has no basis at all in law. If a group of people conspire to violate the Criminal Code, it really is not acceptable at the end of the day if one of them says, “You know what, let me take the blame on this one and then you guys will owe me something down the line”.
That basis has absolutely no credibility, and Canadians are increasingly distrustful of a government that has lost its moral compass and simply is unable to tell the truth in the face of this very serious scandal.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-26 10:34 [p.1355]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and NDP counterpart, the House leader of the official opposition, for his question.
I agree with my colleague that the Conservatives are remaining silent. That is probably because the incessant talking points that are cranked out in the Prime Minister's Office really have nothing to say in the face of RCMP sworn affidavits given to a criminal court judge.
It is increasingly difficult, even for the great talent in the Prime Minister's Office, to fabricate talking points that Conservative members can get up and repeat in the House. I would suspect as the debate unfolds today that there will be very few Conservatives who will want to participate in the debate and very few who will be able to defend the actions of their own leader, as we have seen in media reports.
I agree with my colleague that the characters in this cover-up, whom we have called the “fraud squad” and the “dirty dozen”, the different people who were intimately involved both in the potentially criminal acts and the three Criminal Code violations identified so far by the RCMP, were intimately tied to the Prime Minister. He selected those people. He appointed some of them to the Senate. He has continued to give them immense responsibility in his office. However, when the heat came on, obviously he was unable to fire all of them, maybe because they knew too much, so they were sort of shifted laterally and then up a bit. They probably received pay raises by assuming senior positions in the offices of Conservative cabinet ministers.
I would also agree with my colleague that there needs to be full accountability in the Senate. Ultimately, we may disagree on the disposition of the upper chamber, but I think there is no disagreement whatsoever on the idea that the senators need to be fully accountable and that those who behaved in a way that the RCMP said was less than truthful in interviews with the police should also face consequences. I think that when the police finally get access to those emails and correspondence the list of people potentially charged in this criminal conspiracy will grow and we may very well see Conservative senators facing criminal charges as well.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-26 10:37 [p.1355]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Guelph, who as colleagues will know is a senior lawyer and had a distinguished law practice in that great city for a number of years. Obviously, when we are talking about complicated legal matters and the Criminal Code, the opinion from my colleague from Guelph carries great experience and great weight.
I would agree with him when he correctly focused on section 465(1)(c) of the Criminal Code. You, yourself, Mr. Speaker, were a senior lawyer in the great city of Windsor. I am sure you have reviewed the Criminal Code many times in your law practice. Clients would colloquially refer to that as the aiding and abetting section.
Everyone understands that if two or three people get together to rob a bank and a couple of guys go in with face masks and weapons while the other guy is waiting outside in the car, the guy in the car is as guilty of participating in the criminal act of robbing the bank as the two people who showed up in the bank with the weapons and balaclavas.
In this case, the people wearing the balaclavas were a senior group of operatives in the Prime Minister's Office. They were the ones who were part of what we believe, and the RCMP may ultimately believe, a crown prosecutor may ultimately conclude and a criminal court may ultimately find, to have been a criminal conspiracy.
Under the section correctly identified by the member for Guelph, I think that this dirty dozen, these senior advisers to the Prime Minister and these senior Conservative senators, are very much at risk of finding themselves subject to a criminal prosecution, depending on the evidence that the police uncover in their very thorough and comprehensive review of the evidence they are getting and have asked to be produced by the information to obtain order that was made public.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-26 10:41 [p.1356]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I would agree with one aspect of what the parliamentary secretary said and disagree with perhaps another aspect.
He said he is not sure that this is a priority of the Canadian people. I think that the very ethics at the centre of the Government of Canada and the truthfulness of the Prime Minister of Canada when facing tough questions about ethical scandals under his watch are very much a priority of the Canadian people.
I would draw to the attention of the parliamentary secretary the results of last night's by-elections and the rather massive decline in the Conservative popular vote. If he does not think that Canadians are concerned about this, I think he read the by-election results last night differently than I did.
We agree that the behaviour of these four senators was clearly inappropriate. In fact, the RCMP believe, and may conclude, that it warrants criminal charges. There has to be and should always be a very robust accountability for persons who are spending taxpayers' dollars. Certainly one of the Conservative senators involved did not think he had to reimburse expenses himself because someone in the Prime Minister's Office would make him whole with a large cheque. Taxpayers may have been reimbursed, but it was certainly not by the offending senator. He was reimbursed by the Prime Minister's senior adviser. We think that, too, was wrong.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-26 14:03 [p.1382]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, on June 25, New Brunswick lost one of its most illustrious sons.
The hon. Andy Scott served in this House from 1993 to 2008 and will long be remembered by the people of Fredericton as an outstanding representative. Canada's first peoples also remember Andy as a compassionate and dedicated minister of Aboriginal and Northern affairs.
Andy bravely battled cancer for many months, but this terrible illness took him at far too young an age. His funeral was moving and his friends spoke lovingly of the man so many of us admired deeply.
Our friend Andy Scott will be greatly missed.
Today our condolences go to Andy's wife Denise, their son Noah, and Andy's two sons, Nathan and Nicholas.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-26 14:34 [p.1388]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives must be kidding when they say they are co-operating with the RCMP. The RCMP itself has said that Senator Stewart Olsen, the Prime Minister's former press secretary, refused to tell the truth when she was questioned by the RCMP. We cannot forget Senator Tkachuk, who seemed to suddenly forget some very important details when he was questioned by the RCMP.
If the government wants to co-operate with the RCMP, why are these senators, who are impeding a police investigation, still Conservative senators?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-25 15:15 [p.1321]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table two petitions from a group of volunteers in my riding. This group works with Development and Peace, an organization that carries out important projects and initiatives throughout the world.
The two petitions prepared by people working with Development and Peace, many of whom are from the Memramcook area, object to the government's merger of the Canadian International Development Agency with Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. These volunteers hope that international development officers will remember that reducing poverty in the world is of primary importance, as set out in the act.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-25 15:16 [p.1322]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the second petition I received a few days ago from the group of volunteers in my riding pertains to implementing the legal mechanism of an ombudsman to examine Canadian companies' activities abroad, particularly in the mining sector and other resource sectors. These citizens are calling on the government to bring in an ombudsman as quickly as possible in order to increase corporate social responsibility.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-20 14:37 [p.1105]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, according to RCMP affidavits, Senator Irving Gerstein, the Conservative Party money man, planned to use donors' money, illegally, to pay off Mike Duffy. He even picked up the phone to call Deloitte's to have it back off on audit, and he was not even a member of the audit committee.
Therefore, why is Senator Irving Gerstein a member of the Conservative caucus? In fact, why is he even a senator at all?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-20 14:38 [p.1105]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, under oath, a member of the RCMP told a judge that several crimes were committed in the office of the Prime Minister of Canada.
The RCMP also confirmed that Nigel Wright engaged in corruption in his official capacity as chief of staff and that Mr. Wright waited for the Prime Minister's approval before carrying out his plan.
Is the Prime Minister waiting for the RCMP to break down the front door of 24 Sussex before he tells Canadians the truth?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-20 14:40 [p.1105]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Canadians realize the seriousness of this situation. An RCMP officer swore an affidavit before a judge stating that three crimes took place in the Prime Minister's Office. The RCMP swears that Nigel Wright acted corruptly in his official duties as the Prime Minister's chief of staff, but only after explicitly getting the Prime Minister's go-ahead.
Therefore, what is the Prime Minister waiting for? For the RCMP to kick down the door at 24 Sussex Drive before telling Canadians the truth?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-18 14:37 [p.982]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives require only those who support their story to testify about the government's scandals. When someone tries to find out the whole truth, Conservative Party employees, such as Jenni Byrne, order the Andrew Prescotts of the world to block Elections Canada's investigation. People can testify if it will help the Conservatives. If not, they must refuse to do so.
Why is the government forcing only employees who support its story to testify and preventing others from telling the truth?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-18 14:38 [p.983]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, Conservatives are hoping that Michael Sona takes sole responsibility for this scandal, instead of admitting that he was a mule in the larger Conservative electoral fraud. They get witnesses to testify when they support their bogus story, but they tell others to stonewall Elections Canada when they will not. No wonder they will not introduce tough electoral fraud legislation; it might get in the way of yet another Conservative cover-up.
Why does the Minister of State for Democratic Reform not stand up and tell us why he does not have the courage to introduce tough election fraud legislation before the House?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-07 14:23 [p.880]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the government falsely told the House on several occasions that there were no documents linking the Prime Minister's Office to Mike Duffy's payoff. We now know that that is not true and that the RCMP is investigating potentially criminal conduct by some PMO staffers.
In the documents handed over to the RCMP, was there a document from Chris Woodcock, former senior adviser to the Prime Minister, suggesting that Mike Duffy lie?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-07 15:03 [p.887]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, during question period, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, in response a question from my colleague from Vancouver Quadra, began his answer with a personal attack, using language which in the past you have ruled unparliamentary.
I would ask if the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister might wish to withdraw those first words of his answer. If he does not, Mr. Speaker, maybe you could review the record and come back to the House with some clarification as to what an appropriate answer would be.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-11-05 10:33 [p.735]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my hon. colleague from Wascana on his speech and on all his efforts throughout this scandal to clarify this situation and get some answers from the government and the Prime Minister. It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister often does not want to answer questions. However, I congratulate my colleague on his excellent work on this issue.
My question is rather simple. For the past few days, we have seen some of the questions that have arisen from the statements or affidavits the RCMP has filed in court regarding the involvement of the Prime Minister's Office—probably Mr. Woodcock, who is now the chief of staff for the Minister of Natural Resources—in inventing a scenario or scheme to cover up money in the PMO, specifically the money that Mr. Wright gave to Senator Duffy, and inventing stories involving a line of credit for Mr. Duffy's house and claims that he borrowed the money from the Royal Bank.
Clearly, the police documents reveal that that was not true, and furthermore, that the Prime Minister's Office had advised a parliamentarian to lie. It is really disturbing that senior officials in the office of the Prime Minister of Canada would take the time to send emails instructing a parliamentarian to go on television and lie to the Canadian public about an issue as complex and important as the integrity of the Prime Minister's Office and the Prime Minister himself.
I wonder if my colleague has any thoughts he could share on that.
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-10-31 11:42 [p.642]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has in his possession a document that Canadians have yet to see that would help answer many questions.
Arthur Hamilton's invoice should itemize all of the work he did for the Prime Minister's Office. We know that he helped the PMO cover up this scandal.
Will the Prime Minister release that invoice so that we can see the details of the agreement with his office?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-10-31 11:43 [p.642]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has stated for months that no documents existed outlining the cover-up taking place in his own office. We now know that was not true, because Senator Duffy has made public documents and emails directly contradicting the Prime Minister. It is a sad day when Canadians have to learn more from Mike Duffy in eight days than from the Prime Minister in eight months. No wonder nobody believes the Prime Minister anymore.
Will the government make public the remaining documents, or will it wait for Senator Duffy to do so?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-10-28 14:21 [p.468]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, on February 13, the Prime Minister told this House that he had checked Pamela Wallin's expenses himself and that they were in order. Today he is saying the opposite.
When Mike Duffy was accused of inappropriate spending in December, the Prime Minister's Office told him that his expenses were in order. Today, the Prime Minister is saying otherwise.
If the Prime Minister has nothing to hide, why does he keep changing his story?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-10-28 14:22 [p.468]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, on May 16, after Nigel Wright told the Prime Minister about the $90,000 hush money, the Prime Minister said Nigel Wright had his full support. On May 19, the Prime Minister stated, “It is with great regret that I have accepted the resignation of Nigel Wright...”. Now the Prime Minister says Nigel Wright was fired. His story keeps changing every time, and nobody believes the Prime Minister.
When will the Prime Minister come clean and tell Canadians once and for all what he knows about this Conservative cover-up?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-10-28 14:23 [p.468]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, on June 5 in the House the Prime Minister indicated, incredulously, that Nigel Wright had acted alone, yet on October 24 he was forced to tell us a that a few people in the Prime Minister's Office knew about this scandal and its cover-up. These are numerous examples of a Prime Minister's story changing all the time.
Canadians no longer trust the Prime Minister to tell the truth. The only solution would be for him to finally testify under oath. If he has nothing to hide, nothing to cover up, why is he afraid of testifying under oath?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-10-24 14:23 [p.354]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, when Ray Novak was the Prime Minister's principal secretary, he was directly involved in covering up the Conservatives' scandal and helped hide the Prime Minister's involvement. The Prime Minister rewarded him for his potentially criminal involvement in this scandal by appointing him chief of staff.
Why does the Prime Minister think it is acceptable to reward potentially criminal behaviour?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-10-24 14:25 [p.354]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister should call Senator Segal.
This has to do with how the Prime Minister encourages and promotes corrupt behaviour in his own office. Ray Novak participated in what appears to be extortion and covering up the Conservative bribe, trying to sweep the whole scandal under the rug. What prime minister would punish the chief of staff by promoting him?
We had Bruce Carson, Nigel Wright, and now Ray Novak. Why does the Prime Minister choose to surround himself with people with such appalling ethical standards?
Collapse
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2013-10-24 14:26 [p.354]
Expand
Mr. Speaker, here is another name for the list: Chris Woodcock. Mr. Woodcock was the Prime Minister's go-to guy when he needed problems mopped up, sort of like a cleaner. He was sent the details outlining the deal and the bribe to silence Mike Duffy, but instead of going to the police he prepared a plan to cover it up. What was his punishment? He received a promotion to the job of chief of staff for the Minister of Natural Resources.
Was this promotion a reward for his role in this cover-up, or was it to distance him from the Prime Minister's own ethical lapses?
Collapse
Results: 1 - 100 of 217 | Page: 1 of 3

1
2
3
>
>|
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data