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Results: 76 - 90 of 114
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-31 11:11 [p.8613]
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Madam Speaker, I certainly would not want to cut off my colleague for Cape Breton—Canso, but I am sure he will be up later this afternoon for an important intervention.
I was hoping to ask the parliamentary secretary about this notion of commuting one hour to find a job that, in some parts of the country, would not exist one hour away. However, let us say that there is this magical year-round job that is well-paying and is one hour away.
For a person living in rural New Brunswick, there is no public transit. As I have said before, the closest subway to my riding is in Boston. The idea is that somehow a person could commute 100 kilometres, which would be a one-hour commute in New Brunswick, might not have a car or a second car, to accept a job that pays 70% of what their previous job paid. If they worked for $11 or $12 an hour in New Brunswick, they would commute effectively for a minimum wage job. How does she think that is fair to a single parent in my riding who, economically, would not be able to make that work?
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-31 11:14 [p.8614]
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Madam Speaker, I would like to start by saying that I plan on sharing my time with my colleague, the member for Random—Burin—St. George's.
First, I would like to thank our NDP colleagues and particularly the member for Hamilton Mountain for bringing this discussion before the House. I would also like to say that we plan on enthusiastically supporting the NDP motion because we think that this issue affects a large number of people and has raised a lot of concerns, particularly among people who work in seasonal industries.
My colleague from Cape Breton—Canso, in a question to the minister, said something important. One element of the budget, which we thought was positive, was the idea that the pilot projects that were established in 2005 to calculate weekly earnings based on the best 14 weeks, if that is what the divisor is in the economic region where one resides, was an important improvement. Previously, it had been calculated on the most recent weeks and not best weeks, so there was an unintended consequence of actually discouraging people from taking available work if it were for a day, two days or three days because it had a perverse effect the year after of diminishing the employment insurance benefits people may need at a time of year when they have no work. That was an important step. I am glad that was renewed and that it will be rolled out nationally. That will help Canadians seeking work across the country.
The other important element is the working-while-on-claim provision. It will only be a two year pilot project. I hope that becomes a permanent part of the Employment Insurance Act, especially for people who run a bed and breakfast in rural New Brunswick or an auberge. After the tourist season is over, they often cannot remain open beyond certain months in the fall. They may want to stay open on weekends in November and December, have Christmas parties or host families coming together at that time of year but they cannot find employees. If they do show up for work when work is available, they would be punished at some future time in their employment insurance benefits. I am glad those changes were recognized as having been positive.
A group of workers and employers in my riding, specifically in the Cap-Pelé and Bouctouche areas, worked together to bring these changes before Parliament and before the Liberal government at the time. Rodrigue Landry, co-chair of this committee, and an employee of a fish processing plant in the Cap-Pelé area in my riding, were part of it. There was also an employee from Westmorland Fisheries, who worked with Ronald LeBlanc, and other employers. Aline Landry was also involved. I am pleased to see that this is continuing.
However, I must say that there is an enormous amount of concern across Canada regarding the employment insurance reforms that this government is proposing.
This is a national concern. It is not a concern in rural New Brunswick only. It is not only a concern in eastern Quebec or northern Ontario. These regions will be among the hardest hit by the changes the Conservatives are proposing.
Right here on Parliament Hill there are workers who are in seasonal employment. The people who work in the food service sector, in the cafeterias and the restaurant in this very building, find themselves facing layoffs at times of the year when the food service operation scales down. The government has inadvertently, I hope, ended up punishing people who work very hard on Parliament Hill every day that we are here and have done so, in numerous cases, for many years. These employees will be hurt by these changes.
So, too, will be a lot of very vulnerable persons, often single parents or women, who work in various seasonal sectors of the economy. It is important to remind ourselves that it is not the workers who are seasonal, it is the jobs in sectors of the economy. Up to 25% of Canada's GDP comes from seasonal industries, and it is not only fish processing in my riding, tourism operations or agricultural operations. I am talking about people who work for municipal governments, school boards and sectors of the economy from coast to coast to coast. In every community, there are people who will be hurt by these proposed changes.
There is no doubt: the people who will be hit the hardest by the cuts are the people who work in seasonal industries.
I received an email from a woman named Patricia Fraser who operates a mid-sized landscaping company on the outskirts of Moncton in a community called Indian Mountain. She hires 8 to 12 people every year. The company has been in business for almost 30 years. She does not see, with these proposed changes, how she will be able to keep these very hard-working women and men who year after year do a great job for her company and her clients. She will lose these workers. Her business is threatened. These very changes, Patricia Fraser tells me, will have a direct impact on a very important employer in an area of my riding where there, frankly, are not great employment opportunities.
As I mentioned in a question for the parliamentary secretary, it is a ridiculous idea that people can commute one hour to go to a job and one hour to return home from a place in rural New Brunswick.
Basically, we are going to tell someone living in Richibouctou or in Saint-Louis-de-Kent, an hour from Moncton, that he will have to travel 105 km twice a day, on roads that are exceedingly dangerous in the winter, in order to take a job at a very modest wage, at minimum wage.
Many of the workers in my riding are making $10, $11 or $12 an hour right now. They are not very well paid. If people do not to take a job at 70% of their wages or a job one hour away in Moncton, they will be punished and cut off employment insurance. For them, economically, they would be better off on provincial income assistance programs.
The government is effectively telling people that they will not have access to employment insurance because it will send them an email a couple of times a day about jobs. However, as my colleague from the NDP correctly noted, 20% to 30% of residents in rural Canada do not have access to the Internet or email capacity in their homes. The government is also cutting the community access centres where many people have been able to have access to the Internet. The failure of people to respond to an email about a job in a retail sector an hour away from where they live would lead to their employment insurance benefits being cut off. The consequences of that will be to empty communities in rural Canada.
One of my good friends, Dr. Donald Savoie, an expert in regional development and a professor with a Canada research chair at the Université de Moncton, clearly said that several rural and remote communities will die as a result of these changes.
Maybe the real objective of the government is to make life more difficult and complicated for the people in rural Nova Scotia, or on the outskirts of Newfoundland and Labrador or in rural New Brunswick, in my riding. Maybe it wants to complicate people's lives and the lives of their employers, the people who pay their wages, build businesses and hire people in very tentative and difficult economic circumstances. Maybe the government is telling these people that it is not worth it any more so they should pack up and leave.
The social consequences of those changes will be far-reaching and devastating.
In the small communities that I represent, most of the people who work as volunteer firefighters tend to be younger people, often with families, many of whom work in seasonal industries.These people will be forced to get an apartment in Halifax or move to other parts of the country. The government will say that it is not forcing people to move, but in employment law there is a notion of constructive dismissal. An employer does not actually need to tell an employee that he or she is fired. Rather, the employer can change the person's working circumstances, conditions of work or workplace climate to make it so toxic and so unacceptable that the person must leave his or her job. In law, that is the same as calling the employee in and firing him or her. It is called constructive dismissal.
What the government is doing is constructive relocation. It will say that it is not forcing people to leave, but if people cannot find employment that allows them to pay their bills and look after their family, or if the small business they work for cannot get access to a qualified labour pool and, therefore, shuts down, the economic reality is that constructive relocation will take place and those people will leave those communities. We will not have volunteer firefighters who do fantastic work, not only fighting fires but in performing rescues in these communities.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-31 11:26 [p.8615]
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Madam Speaker, yes, I have visited a place where there is an hour commute. I went to the University of Toronto, which is a great example of where people are forced into commutes that often exceed an hour.
Since the member says that he represents a rural riding, I am surprised he did not also include this in his question. An hour-long commute in Toronto may be 8 kilometres or 10 kilometres. It may also be on a public transit service that needs improvement but that still offers people an alternative.
In my riding, there is no public transit. Therefore, a one-hour commute is a 100-kilometre commute, with gas prices already at a level that represent a huge economic hardship, and on highways that are already very dangerous.
Maybe the member was not here when I said this, but the closest subway to my riding is in Boston. I have also been to Boston, in case the member is wondering.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-31 11:28 [p.8616]
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Madam Speaker, our colleague from Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing makes a very good point. The government, on the one hand, says that it wants to connect people with available jobs. Well, the instruments that may be used to do that would obviously be access to the Internet. The government has cut the funding for the community access program, which certainly, in many parts of rural Canada, was the only Internet access that people had. It has fired workers at Service Canada. It has cut some of the smaller rural offices, including those in my riding, where the front line staff at Service Canada were doing a great job in trying to help people. They were overworked and understaffed. Those people have in fact been laid off and removed from their jobs as well.
On top of that, in New Brunswick, the Minister of ACOA made an absolutely appalling announcement last week. All of the local economic development agencies, the Enterprise Network, are also being cut and abolished.
The government is cutting access to economic development, Internet and Service Canada offices. Basically, it is telling people to fend for themselves.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-31 11:29 [p.8616]
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Madam Speaker, our colleague again identifies one of the perverse consequences of these proposed changes. That is exactly what will happen. If people are unable, because of their skill level or their experience, to do a job that they are forced to take because they fear that their benefits will be cut off if they do not take it, and then they lose that job, through no fault of their own, the fact that they were terminated will mean that they will not have access to employment insurance benefits, and those people who had worked previously at a seasonal job may not be able to get that job back. It is a very unfortunate and complicated circumstance.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-31 11:58 [p.8620]
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Madam Speaker, I thank my fellow New Brunswicker for his remarks. He has described the employment, economic and social conditions in his riding, which are much the same as those in several communities that I represent in this House.
I would like to ask the hon. member two very specific questions. At the start of his speech, he referred to the totally unacceptable comments made by the Minister of State for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. The minister tells us that New Brunswick workers are lazy and that they prefer to stay on employment insurance and not work so that they have time for recreational activities during the winter. I find that to be complete nonsense. I ask the hon. member to expand on that.
In the same vein, this same minister, laughing in the face of his constituents, also cancelled the funding for the Enterprise agencies that form the local economic development network in New Brunswick, in his constituency and mine. In my opinion, this will make it harder to create jobs. Can the hon. member comment on that too?
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-30 15:27 [p.8572]
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-424, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act (contestation of election and punishment).
He said: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce what I think is important legislation to strengthen our electoral system to deter those who may be considering committing electoral fraud.
We are seeking to do two things with this legislation. The first is to add the Chief Electoral Officer as somebody under the Canada Elections Act who has the authority to go before a competent court and contest the result in a particular riding. The current legislation only allows an elector or a candidate in that riding. As we know, it can be cost prohibitive for many people in the case of a widespread, large scale fraud that may have been perpetrated. In our view, with new technologies, it is appropriate for the Chief Electoral Officer to have the ability to appear before the court to contest a particular result.
The second element of this bill would be to increase the penalties. We are not suggesting a mandatory minimum in any way. We are seeking to increase the fines that a court of competent jurisdiction could impose on somebody convicted of an offence under the act. The current fines for summary conviction offences are $2,000. We are suggesting that the House increase that to $20,000. For an indictable offence, the $5,000 should properly be $50,000.
We hope this legislation will attract broad support in the House.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-30 15:39 [p.8574]
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition on behalf of a group of lobster fishers who work in this resource sector on the Atlantic coast.
I had the privilege of being at a large community meeting in the great community of Stratford, Prince Edward Island where hundreds of inshore fishermen joined us to express a real concern with the government's proposal to remove the fleet separation and the owner-operator principle as a cornerstone of the management of inshore and midshore fisheries. Thirty thousand jobs in Atlantic Canada depend to a great extent on these policies.
These inshore fishermen, including those in my riding, are concerned that the government is heading in a direction that will be very harmful, and they are asking the government to reconsider.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
Mr. Speaker, in the recent budget, another sentence pertaining to employment insurance has many workers worried. These words suggest that the minister would take into account an individual’s past history with the EI program.
This will punish seasonal workers, parents who have already been on parental leave and anyone who has needed employment insurance in the past.
Why do the Conservatives want to cut or completely eliminate their benefits? Is “three strikes and you're out” the new program or will there be a two-tiered employment insurance program?
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel on her speech.
I totally agree with what she said in the House about the importance of a balance between users and creators. I think she will agree with me that this balance cannot be found in this bill. This is why we are against it.
I am hoping that my colleague might be able to share with us her views as to whether she believes that this lack of balance in this copyright legislation is similar to what I think is a general disregard that the Conservatives and their government have had for supporting arts and culture in Canada. If the government were interested in supporting creativity and cultural industries, some of the cuts we have seen, for example to Radio–Canada, to CBC, to the arts council and to Telefilm Canada, would not have taken place.
Does my colleague agree with me that it is part of a larger framework of a disinterest in the arts? I represent a region of the country where there is a vibrant artistic community and it is suffering under the current government.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-10 12:20 [p.7860]
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague on her speech. I think she raised a number of interesting points that I agree with.
I am very concerned about the fact that the government is using its budget and its omnibus bill to attack environmental institutions. For example, it has significantly weakened protection provided by the Fisheries Act, including fish habitat protection. I think that is a mistake. In the long term, industries will suffer because of this government's obsession with abolishing all possible restrictions preventing companies from doing things like building pipelines across rivers. In the long term, that will cause tremendous economic harm to people who depend on natural resources such as fisheries.
Is my colleague as concerned as I am about the way this omnibus bill attacks environmental institutions and laws?
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-10 12:37 [p.7862]
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague for Saint John spoke about his service in the New Brunswick legislature, where he served in the cabinet of a friend of mine, Bernard Lord.
In light of his service in the provincial government, he would undoubtedly be aware of a very important institution in Kent County, the Hervé Michaud agricultural research station. It is an experimental farm operated by the Government of Canada that has, unfortunately, been slated to close.
World-class scientists, people like Dr. Jean-Pierre Privé, have come to New Brunswick and have done world-class research, particularly with respect to small fruits such as strawberries and berries. They have developed a working relationship with local producers; as an example, my colleague representing Saint John will know La Récolte de Chez Nous, which brings together local producers. Very small local producers have developed a partnership with this experimental farm. They are very concerned that the loss of that farm and that research will have very negative effects on their ability to compete as a local agricultural industry.
I wonder if my colleague for Saint John would cast his mind a little east of Saint John and think of these poor farmers in Kent County that his government appears to be abandoning.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-05-08 11:36 [p.7705]
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Madam Speaker, the hon. parliamentary secretary and I worked together on foreign affairs issues, and he has a long experience in these matters. In fact, I had the privilege to travel to Tanzania years ago with my hon. friend, and we went to the high school in Arusha from which he had graduated not so long ago. He is still a young man. That is why I want to ask him a question that is very important to my constituents and the people who live in rural communities across Atlantic Canada.
The issue of seasonal work is a huge problem in my constituency. People work in fish plants, forestry and agriculture, and they depend on an employment insurance system to give them some income support at times of the year when there is no work. I am very worried about some of the proposed changes in this budget around defining what, for example, the compliance elements would be for somebody receiving employment insurance and perhaps having an obligation to travel a great distance to accept employment in some other part of the country or some other part of the same region.
I suspect this is a very insidious thing that the Conservative government may be doing, and I am wondering if my colleague, who comes from Alberta, may be able to reassure the seasonal workers in New Brunswick that they will not be attacked by his government.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-04-26 15:29 [p.7228]
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I would like to congratulate my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot on her speech. I share many of her concerns about the government’s policies. I would like to ask my colleague two simple questions.
Does she agree with me that the fiscal and financial reasons put forward by this government to justify this ideological increase do not stand up? Does she agree with me that the government must not create a false financial crisis to justify an ideological decision?
I definitely share my colleague’s concerns about these measures and the implications they will have for people who do physical labour, like the people who work in the fish plants in my region, in Acadia, for example, or others who do physical work. I think the idea of just staying in the labour market for two more years is completely unreasonable.
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View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
Lib. (NB)
View Dominic LeBlanc Profile
2012-04-03 14:03 [p.6845]
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the town of Sackville, New Brunswick as it celebrates its 250th anniversary.
Sackville is known across Canada as the home of Mount Allison University, a Canadian cultural capital and a progressive, welcoming town focused on sustainable development, economic innovation and inclusion. Close to the Nova Scotia border, along the famous Tantramar Marshes, Sackville's natural beauty and ecological importance are well known across Canada. The residents of this community are justified to celebrate this wonderful milestone for Sackville and to look forward to the future with optimism and pride.
I also want to pay a special tribute to my friend, Mayor Pat Estabrooks, who will retire from municipal politics this May. Pat has led Sackville with honour and hard work and leaves an impressive record of achievement.
We congratulate the Town of Sackville on its 250th anniversary and we wish it all the best for the future.
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