Today, the Honourable Stockwell Day, President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the Pacific Gateway, and Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu announced that our Conservative Government is looking to expand the scope of the Lobbying Act to include all MPs, Senators and exempt staff in the Offices of the Leaders of the Opposition in the House and Senate.
Our Government believes the activities of those who represent Canadians should be as open and transparent as possible. In keeping with a vote in the House of Commons earlier this spring, we are moving forward to increase the transparency of Parliament by proposing to expand the definition of designated public office holders that are covered under the Lobbying Act.
Under the new changes, the definition would be expanded to include Members of Parliament, Senators and the exempt staff from the Offices of the Leader of the Opposition in the House and the Senate.
The proposed changes demonstrate our Conservative Government is committed to making Parliament as open and accountable to Canadians as possible, not to special interest groups.
Today, the Honourable Rob Nicholson, Minister of Justice, and Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, joined representatives from the Ontario Provincial Police and L'Association des policières et policiers provinciaux du Québec (APPQ) to announce tough new regulations targeting organized crime.
Many criminal gangs in Canada rely on the revenue generated through illegal gambling, prostitution, and drug-related crimes to fund their dangerous and violent criminal networks. Our Conservative Government is serious about protecting Canadians from the threat of organized crime.
Our new actions - supported by all the provincial and territorial justice ministers- would target these crimes and make them “serious offences” under the Criminal Code, helping to put more dangerous criminals behind bars.
Today’s announcement once again demonstrates our Government’s seriousness about getting tough on crime. No other party has demonstrated such leadership on criminal justice issues.
Our Conservative Government is taking action to crack down on crime every day.
Today, Stockwell Day, the President of the Treasury Board, and Denis Lebel, Minister of State for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, brought attention to our Conservative Government’s continued focus on creating jobs and economic growth for Canadians.
From coast to coast to coast, Canadians can see positive signs of recovery. With economic growth in ten of the last twelve months and 400,000 jobs created across Canada since July 2009, Canada is living up to its description by the Economist magazine as an “economic star.”
However, Canada is not an island and we are not immune to the economic instability of other countries.
That’s why our Conservative Government will continue to focus on creating and protecting jobs while helping communities and workers that were most affected by the global economic recession. We are keeping taxes low to encourage new businesses to invest in Canada and are helping to open new markets for Canadian businesses. We will continue to keep a lid on government spending while respecting provincial transfer payments ensuring funding for important services for Canadians like pensions, health and education. And our Government will work toward returning to balanced budgets by winding down stimulus spending as planned.
Compare that to the Liberals in the 1990s who slashed and burned funding to the provinces or Michael Ignatieff’s tax hike plan which experts say will cost Canada 400,000 jobs and stop Canada’s economic recovery in its tracks. Canada cannot afford such a plan.
While Ignatieff and the Liberals plan ways to raise your taxes, our Conservative Government is keeping its focus on jobs and growth to benefit all Canadians.
Today, Canada’s Minister of Industry, Tony Clement, expressed our government’s fair and reasonable approach to replacing the mandatory census with a voluntary national survey.
Our Conservative Government believes Canadians shouldn’t be compelled to give up extensive private and personal information under the threat of fines or even jail time.
The Liberals and their Coalition partners, however, think Canadians should be branded as criminals and sent to jail for not divulging how many bedrooms we have in our homes or the time we leave for work in the morning.
Instead, Canadians deserve a choice. The new National Household Survey will ask the same questions and collect the same data that would have been provided through mandatory long-form census. The difference is that the new National Household Survey is voluntary and provides Canadians with the freedom to share personal information or not.
Our Conservative Government’s fair and reasonable approach finds a better balance between collecting necessary data and protecting the privacy of Canadians.
Today, Canada’s Minister of Industry, Tony Clement, expressed our government’s fair and reasonable approach to replacing the mandatory census with a voluntary national survey.
Our Conservative Government believes Canadians shouldn’t be compelled to give up extensive private and personal information under the threat of fines or even jail time.
The Liberals and their Coalition partners, however, think Canadians should be branded as criminals and sent to jail for not divulging how many bedrooms we have in our homes or the time we leave for work in the morning.
Instead, Canadians deserve a choice. The new National Household Survey will ask the same questions and collect the same data that would have been provided through mandatory long-form census. The difference is that the new National Household Survey is voluntary and provides Canadians with the freedom to share personal information or not.
Our Conservative Government’s fair and reasonable approach finds a better balance between collecting necessary data and protecting the privacy of Canadians.
