Government chooses media monitoring over student jobs

Posted on May 9, 2013 | No Comments

In the House of Commons today, MP Murray confronted the Conservative government on its decision to spend $2.4 million—more than $3,300 every single day—to monitor the activities of its own backbench MPs.

At a time of record youth unemployment, MP Murray noted that a single day of media monitoring could fund a summer student job for the entire summer. In 2006, the federal government supported 47,000 student summer jobs across the country. According to the government’s own estimates, this year the program will only help up to 36,000 students.

The text of MP Murray’s exchange is below.

Ms. Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, despite their self-congratulations, the Conservatives are supporting only half of the student summer jobs they used to. Meanwhile, they are finding $3,300 a day for media monitoring of their own MPs. Each single day of monitoring would fund a student job for the entire summer. So a day spent peering over MPs’ shoulders is deemed more important than a student’s job.

Will Big Brother please stop wasting taxpayers’ money on monitoring its own members and hire a summer student to help the Conservatives figure out how to do free Google alerts?

Hon. Diane Finley (Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, CPC): Mr. Speaker, on top of the 36,000 jobs being created this summer through the Canada Summer Jobs program, there is more to helping young people to get a job, like apprenticeships. In fact, through our apprenticeship incentive and completion grants, there are almost 400,000 of those that have gone out to young Canadians to help them prepare for the skills and jobs that are in high demand, challenging jobs for these young people. That is really helping them.

The Liberals should have supported those initiatives.

MP Murray ask government : which small businesses has the government consulted?

Posted on May 9, 2013 | No Comments

Vancouver Quadra MP Joyce Murray ask the government which small businesses it consulted before it implemented hidden tax hike on dividends. Due to measures contained in Budget 2013, entrepreneurs of smaller businesses will pay $2.3 billion more in taxes over the next five years.

Text of the exchange between MP Joyce Murray and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment can be found below.

Ms. Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.): “Mr. Speaker, I listened to the remarks of the parliamentary secretary, who mentioned “as we grow our economy” several times, but in fact the Canadian economy is virtually stalled. There is a great deal of concern right across the spectrum over how poorly our economy is doing right now.

One of the ways it is being stalled is by the hits on small businesses, which, as we know, are the job creators of Canada. My colleague from Thunder Bay—Superior North mentioned the attack on tourism and the downturn in the tourism industry. Small businesses are hurting under the Conservative government.

I would like to ask the parliamentary secretary which small businesses that the government consulted advised that there should be an extra tax on dividends, which will cost small businesses $2.3 billion over the next five years?”

Ms. Michelle Rempel (Calgary Centre-North, Cons.): “Mr. Speaker, I disagree with the premise of my colleague’s question, in that Canada actually has a strong record of economic growth in the global context. The fact that we have created over 900,000 net new jobs in our economy since the economic downturn was deemed to have slowed down is something that our country should be quite proud of. We should be touting that.

We are attracting workers and investment to this country at greater rates than some of the developed countries are, and this is through our government’s focus on ensuring that our products have access to other markets, that we have increased trade relations and that we have a proper regulatory structure that allows for investments in major infrastructure projects.

All of these things are at the core of budget 2013. They build on our government’s track record, and yes, absolutely, we are seeing economic growth.”

Mme Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.): « Monsieur le Président, j’ai écouté les observations de la secrétaire parlementaire, qui a parlé a plusieurs reprises de faire croître l’économie, mais en réalité, l’économie canadienne est pratiquement paralysée. Partout, les gens s’inquiètent du piètre rendement économique qu’on observe aujourd’hui. L’économie est paralysée notamment par les coups portés aux petites entreprises qui, nous le savons, sont les créateurs d’emplois au Canada. Mon collègue de Thunder Bay—Superior-Nord a parlé de l’attaque contre le tourisme et du ralentissement dans l’industrie touristique. Les petites entreprises souffrent sous le gouvernement conservateur. J’aimerais que la secrétaire parlementaire me dise quelles sont, parmi les petites entreprises que le gouvernement a consultées, celles qui lui ont recommandé d’imposer une taxe supplémentaire sur les dividendes, ce qui coûtera aux petites entreprises 2,3 milliards de dollars au cours des cinq prochaines années. »

Mme Michelle Rempel: « Monsieur le Président, je rejette la prémisse de la question posée par ma collègue, car en réalité, le Canada affiche une forte croissance économique par rapport au reste du monde. Le pays devrait être très fier que nous ayons contribué à la création nette de 900 000 emplois dans notre économie depuis la reprise observée à la suite du ralentissement économique. Nous devrions en être fiers. Le pays attire plus de travailleurs et d’investissements que certains autres pays développés, et c’est grâce au gouvernement, qui veille à ce que les produits canadiens puissent atteindre d’autres marchés, qui a renforcé les relations commerciales, et qui a mis en place une structure de réglementation qui favorise les investissements dans des projets d’infrastructure majeurs. Tout cela est au coeur du budget de 2013 et découle des mesures prises par le gouvernement. Effectivement, la croissance économique est on ne peut plus évidente. »

Joyce Murray Stands Up for Small Businesses

Posted on May 9, 2013 | No Comments

On May 6th, Joyce Murray questioned the government about hidden tax hikes on small and medium-sized businesses contained in the 2013 Budget. How can the Conservatives claim to be pro-business when the 2013 budget is planning to squeeze $2.3 billion more in taxes out of smaller businesses?

A copy of the exchange follows.

[English] Ms. Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I listened to my colleague’s speech with great interest. I would acknowledge that, yes, there are some positives in the budget, but I do need to ask a question considering his emphasis on small business, his background in small business and his claim that this budget is about making small businesses stronger.

Could he please explain how taking $2.3 billion out of the pockets of small business owners over five years through changes to the dividend tax credit is actually going to make those businesses stronger?

Clearly, the facts would suggest that there is $2.3 billion less that those owners can utilize to invest in technology and growth for their enterprises.”

Mr. Dave Van Kesteren: “Mr. Speaker, again I would emphasize that the best thing we can do for small businesses is lower their taxes. We have done that. We have repeated that process.

The other thing that is so important, as we often forget, is that as important as lowering taxes is, we need markets for our businesses. This government is actively engaged in opening new markets. We have a great standing relationship with the United States and Mexico. We have expanded that and we are looking at other countries in the western hemisphere, but now the most exciting thing that has happened since the North American Free Trade Agreement will be the European free trade agreement. We are very close to doing that. Just think of the possibilities that our businesses and small businesses will have when they are able to reap the benefits of a trade deal that has expanded to a huge market like that.

That is where the answer lies for success for our small businesses.”

[Français] Mme Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.): « Monsieur le Président, j’ai écouté très attentivement l’intervention de mon collègue. Je reconnais qu’il y a des éléments positifs dans le budget, mais je suis obligée de poser une question au député vu qu’il a insisté sur les petites entreprises, qu’il a de l’expérience en tant qu’entrepreneur et qu’il a avancé que le budget vise à renforcer les petites entreprises.

Le député pourrait-il m’expliquer comment les modifications apportées au crédit d’impôt pour dividendes, qui enlèveront 2,3 milliards de dollars aux propriétaires de petites entreprises sur une période de cinq ans, renforceront ces entreprises?

Les faits semblent clairs, ces propriétaires ne pourront pas investir ces 2,3 milliards de dollars dans la technologie et la croissance de leur entreprise. »

M. Dave Van Kesteren: « Monsieur le Président, je souligne encore que nous ne saurions mieux aider les petites entreprises qu’en réduisant leurs impôts. C’est ce que nous avons fait. Nous le faisons de nouveau. Par ailleurs, nous oublions souvent qu’en plus des allègements fiscaux, nos entreprises ont besoin de débouchés. Le gouvernement s’emploie activement à leur ouvrir l’accès à de nouveaux marchés. Nous entretenons en permanence d’excellentes relations commerciales avec les États-Unis et le Mexique. Nous avons ajouté à cela de nouveaux accords commerciaux et nous en négocions encore d’autres avec des pays d’Amérique, mais l’accord de libre-échange avec l’Europe est sans doute la perspective la plus enthousiasmante actuellement depuis l’ALENA. Nous sommes très près de le conclure. Songez aux possibilités qu’auront nos entreprises, grandes et petites, lorsqu’elles pourront récolter les bénéfices d’un accord commercial leur donnant accès à un marché énorme comme celui-là. Voilà où se trouve la clé du succès pour nos petites entreprises. »