Lloyd Longfield

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I would like to expand on that. I thank the hon. member for his commitment to this, as well as the file on innovation.

The Conservatives want us to sign it right away and not discuss it, and New Democrats want us not to sign it because we do not need to discuss it. I would ask the hon. member to expand further on the value of discussion and conversation with Canadians on this file.

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell for his speech today and also for the work he does on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food on which we both serve together.

In the previous question, the member for Berthier—Maskinongé indicated it was shameful that this committee was not studying the TPP. Maybe the hon. member could explain why that is so.

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member across the way for his work in the House and on behalf of the Canada-India Parliamentary Friendship Group, which started up again last night.

This motion would not recognize the work of the committees, which he was defending as an important part of Parliament, where discussions are ongoing right now. We have not heard back from the trade committee, yet, on these talks.

Would the hon. member comment on not only the value of listening to Canadians, but taking their opinions into consideration when we are making decisions in the House?

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I enjoy working with my colleague on the agriculture committee. The interactions have always been positive in looking at what we can do to improve business in Canada. Also, the industry committee has similar concerns around improving business in Canada.

For me, the result that we are looking for is improving our balance of trade. Could the hon. member comment on where he sees balance of trade as an important part of the mix going forward and how we could possibly help those young business people in rural communities to develop opportunities to increase our exports, business to business and country to country?

[Business of Supply, May 12th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I find it ironic that with the number of trade deals the hon. member has mentioned, our trade balance went from a $54 billion surplus under the Liberals to a $13 billion deficit under the trade deals that have been signed. Perhaps the hon. member could comment on the importance of international relationships between countries and businesses to actually promote trade versus having photo ops to sign trade deals.

[Public Service Labour Relations Act, May 11th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if we could have a comment from the hon. member on the relationship between Parliament as it exists now with the Supreme Court, compared to what it was in the 41st Parliament, and how we are trying to improve things.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 1, May 5th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it is fascinating to hear the hon. member's party refer to 9-, 10-, or 11-month results as if they are year-end results. I have never seen that in business. It is curious that those results are being used as measurements in this House.

The Conservative government also added $154 billion to our national debt. Therefore, I would ask the hon. member this. Would she admit that it is really the year-end results that matter when looking at financials?

[Criminal Code, May 3rd, 2016]

Madam Speaker, we have had many comments in the House that the government has not gone far enough with Bill C-14 in being prescriptive about how it would be applied to the different types of medical institutes that are provincially regulated. They are similar to comments about how we would apply climate change legislation provincially, when provincial governments have already started the work on this.

In light of what Quebec has done already in terms of applying this, could we have a comment on the role between the federal and provincial governments in applying this legislation?

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has an excellent approach to the subject. It is definitely something very personal for each of us. I know myself, with my mother's passing, we had some very difficult conversations at that time.

This goes beyond what we do in the House here. However, one of our responsibilities is to provide guidelines for the conversations.

Let us look at the role the provinces play in this conversation. I was personally struggling with recommendation 11 from the committee, as a member of a Catholic community within my riding and having a lot of Catholics reporting to me that they were very concerned about Catholic institutions being mandated to perform services against their conscience.

The current legislation is leaving some very important details up to regulations with the provinces and those who are reporting to the provinces. We have a tight timeline. We have to provide some guidelines that may be seen by some as not restrictive enough and by others as too restrictive.

Could the hon. member comment on the need to have some flexibility in terms of getting this to the provinces for further discussion?

[Peter Adams, April 21st, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Hon. Peter Adams, member of Parliament from 1993 to 2006 representing the riding of Peterborough, who turned 80 years old on April 17.

Peter represented his constituents well, keeping in touch with residents by regularly jogging through downtown Peterborough, and he continues to serve in various capacities today.

Peter has had a distinguished career as an academic, author, school trustee, and MPP. In 2012 he was awarded the Order of Ontario.

One of Mr. Adams's most significant contributions in this place was to found the post-secondary education caucus, through which he showed how backbench MPs can be change agents and to which he continues to provide sage advice.

I am pleased to count Peter as a new friend and mentor.

I wish a happy birthday to Peter and I thank Jill for sharing him with us.