2010-12 (December)
Blaine Calkins MP Report
Session Wrap-Up
As 2010 draws to a close, it is a good time to look back on what we’ve accomplished over the last year. By far, the number one story over the last year has been the economy.
As we have said all along, the global recovery remains fragile. That is why jobs and the economy are our government's number-one priority. Canada's Economic Action Plan is keeping our recovery on track. Canada's economy has grown for the past five straight quarters and since July of last year, nearly 430,000 net new jobs have been created. Recently, the Wall Street Journal praised Canada, saying “the country has pulled through the downturn in better shape than most of its peers, with the healthiest banking system and strongest economic recovery in the Group of Seven.”
While the recovery remains fragile, it is no surprise that groups such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce are warning that Michael Ignatieff's plan to raise taxes is a “disastrous idea” that will “put the brakes on job growth" and is "the wrong thing to do if you want to create jobs and growth in the economy.” While our Government is focused on continuing to implement our job-creating, low-tax plan, the Ignatieff-NDP-Bloc Québécois Coalition want to dramatically hike taxes – halting our recovery in its tracks and killing almost 400,000 jobs.
In June, our Conservative Government passed legislation to fix Canada’s broken refugee system. Our balanced reforms will help provide real refugees with faster protection here in Canada. They will help us to better identify and quickly remove those who falsely claim refugee status. And with a quicker and more efficient system, we will help save Canadian tax dollars.
Building on our refugee reform, our Conservative Government is working to fight human smuggling. Human smuggling is a global problem, and here in Canada, we are taking action to fix it. We have introduced the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act to crack down on human smuggling. Our proposed new measures would help ensure that law enforcement have the tools needed to crack down on those who abuse the system. They would also hold ship owners and operators accountable for use of their ships in human smuggling operations. These measures would also help deter illegal migrants from using human smugglers to come to Canada. The Coalition led by Michael Ignatieff has already announced they intend to oppose this legislation.
On September 22, 2010, a Bill to scrap the long-gun registry, proposed by Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, was barely defeated in the House of Commons – by a mere 2 votes. This outcome was made possible because of the duplicitous acts of 14 MPs – MPs who, at the expense of the honest citizen, succumbed to pressures of the leaders of the Ignatieff/NDP/Bloc Québécois Coalition. Mr. Ignatieff whipped his MPs into voting against Ms. Hoeppner’s Bill. This resulted in eight Members, who had previously supported scrapping the registry, voting against the wishes of their constituents and other Canadians across the country. The NDP also urged its MPs to vote against the Bill – with the ultimate result of six New Democrats reversing their decisions.
Our Conservative Government does not believe in treating law-abiding hunters, farmers, and rural Canadians as criminals. We don’t believe in singling out and putting under suspicion honest, hard-working Canadians, and we don’t believe in shamelessly wasting hard-earned taxpayer dollars on an ineffective tool that does little to nothing at stopping real crime in Canada.
As we count our blessings with friends and family this Christmas, take a moment and give your thoughts and prayers to the brave men and women serving Canada abroad who can’t be at home this season.
Please contact my Constituency office if you have any questions or concerns on any federally related matters, postage free, at: Bay #6A, 4612 - 50th Street, Ponoka, T4J 1S7; tel: 403-783-5530; toll free: 1-800-665-0865 or visit my web site: www.blainecalkinsmp.ca or on twitter at www.twitter.com/blainecalkinsmp
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!