Mr. Greg Rickford (Kenora, CPC):  
   
Madam Speaker, congratulations on your appointment. I will be sharing my time today with the hon. member for Wild Rose, my seatmate.
  
It is a privilege of the highest order to be in this chamber today and to participate in the debate on our government's Speech from the Throne. It is with great humility I express how thankful and honoured I am to serve the constituents of the great Kenora riding as their member of Parliament.
   
I thank the hundreds of volunteers from across the riding, many friends, old classmates, hockey teammates and other volunteers who came from other parts of the country to help elect a Conservative member of Parliament from the Kenora district for the first time in more than 90 years.
   
I also make honourable mention of Leo Bernier, the last great Conservative to serve the Kenora riding as a member of the legislative assembly in Ontario. He has become a friend and mentor and provides counsel for me to be an effective representative in Kenora.
   
As the oldest of eight children, I want to thank my loving family for their unconditional support, especially my parents, David and Dorothy Rickford, who taught me about the importance of serving one's community. In addition to raising a big family, participating in various church and civic activities, my parents opened our home to hundreds of foster children over the span of 30 years. I thank mom and dad for inspiring me. They are extraordinary example of dedication and sacrifice. I am proud to be here on their behalf today, as well.
   
I thank my great-grandfather, William Rickford, a World War I veteran, now deceased, my grandfather, Reverand Stanley Hugh Kenyon, and my uncle, Ron Rickford, both of whom are veterans of World War II and are alive and well today. In fact, I wish to thank all the brave men and women who have served, or who are serving, our country in the Canadian armed forces.
   
My grandfather was a Saskatchewan farm boy who turned 20 in 1939. He volunteered to serve in the army and spent the next four and a half years fighting overseas. After the war, he pastored churches throughout Canada and in other parts of the world.
   
Recently I had the distinct pleasure to be in this honourable chamber with my family to present him a letter from the Prime Minister recognizing his lifetime of dedication to his family, outstanding service to his community and the sacrifice he made for his country in time of war. Listening to him as he read this letter aloud to us, adorned in medals he had earned, was one of the proudest moments I have ever experienced as a Canadian.
   
Like so many others before and after him, our brave soldiers serve unselfishly in the interests of peace, security and freedom from our great country and represent, in my respectful view, the single biggest reason why I and my esteemed colleagues stand in this chamber today.
   
With respect to the Speech from the Throne, there has been a lot of thoughtful discussion to this point. In short order, I would prefer to emphasize a number of its key components, which I believe will dramatically improve the lives of my constituents.
   
It bears mentioning that until the past two and a half years, the constituents of my riding, in fact, most of northwestern Ontario, have felt that they have been taken for granted. The results of the last federal election fairly reflect this. The Liberals were pushed out of just about every electoral district in northwestern Ontario.
   
For starters, putting money into the pockets of lawyers rather than forestry workers by engaging in a protracted softwood lumber dispute with the United States, played a significant role in setting the forestry sector back more than a decade and translated into the closure of mills, big mills like Abitibi-Consolidated in Kenora and other mills in Ignis and Hudson. The protracted softwood lumber dispute and anti-American rhetoric used by the Liberals and the NDP in the past for political gains added nothing to fostering positive relationships, which we must have with the United States, our friends, our largest trading partner and one of the greatest sources of tourism, of particular importance for Kenora.
   
Moving forward, I cannot understate the importance of developing infrastructure in my riding to help forestry, mining, tourism, small business and the overall sustainability of our communities. Programs like FedNor and specific support for traditional industries like forestry, mining, workers in transition, support for new housing, education and maintaining important transfer payments for health and social spending by the provinces are but a few of the myriad examples that the Speech from the Throne addresses for the benefit of my riding.
   
It is refreshing and progressive to see forestry mentioned within the rubric of the environment, industry and manufacturing, something I am not sure the other parties completely understand, since their comments to this point about forestry reflect a backward and incomplete understanding of the exciting future for the sector. For example, the use of forestry residuals such as sawdust, bark, trim and shavings and secondary biomass could be one way of producing alternative fuel sources that are renewable. Our government is committed to further research of cleaner energy sources.
   
The Speech from the Throne deals extensively with the need to invest in research, innovation and marketing for things like Canadian pulp and wood products to markets beyond North America to ensure the long-term viability of a dynamic, value-added forestry sector. Fortunately the government has taken a comprehensive view of how to deal effectively with regions in Canada, like my riding, that are in transition and depend upon key sectors such as forestry and mining as their economic drivers.
   
The Speech from the Throne demonstrates that this government gets it. It understands the pressures on the communities in my riding, especially during this time of global economic uncertainty.
   
The community development trust supports a wide variety of initiatives such as job training and skills development, community transition plans that foster real community-based economic development, encouraging skilled trades and apprenticeships to ensure throughout my riding that people are competitive in a modern economy, supporting first nations in these regards as well as ensuring that they too have access to skills, training and apprenticeships in order to assist them to participate in economic development initiatives such as the new value-added forestry initiatives on the horizon in which first nations communities in my riding will have an equity stake.
   
The building Canada plan marks the beginning of unprecedented commitments to much needed infrastructure in the communities in my riding, the kind of infrastructure that focuses on development, that creates jobs and stimulates our riding's capacity to economically diversify. Within the traditional industries, it is relied upon and gives hope that we will be open for business in other areas of manufacturing.
    
I can assure the constituents of my riding that I will be fighting for key priorities in the building Canada plan, such as the twinning of the highway from Kenora to the Manitoba border, the completion of the waste water treatment plan in Dryden and substantial improvements to the Red Lake Airport, one of the busiest airports in our country.
   
The Speech from the Throne serves to further reduce the cost pressures on Canadian business and encourages companies to invest in new machinery and equipment. This is particularly important to us in northwestern Ontario. We appreciate the tax relief provided by the government through broad-based tax reductions for business, a temporary accelerated writeoff for investments in machinery and equipment, such as the heavy machinery that is relied upon by the mining and forestry sectors in my riding, and improving the flexibility of and strengthening access to capital through Export Development Canada and Business Development Bank of Canada to help manufacturers in my riding meet the challenge of being globally competitive.
   
This government will set an objective that aims for 90% of Canada's electricity to be provided by non-emitting sources like Hydro by the year 2020. Folks in Ear Falls, Lac Seul First Nation, Pickle Lake and Mishkeegogamang will no doubt benefit from this sort of commitment in the future. As I previously mentioned, the government's commitment to supporting the development of cleaner energy sources may also include raw biomass for forestry residuals.
   
The Speech from the Throne ensures that provinces receive generous transfer payments for health care and social programs upon which folks in ridings such as mine depend.
   
There are a number of other examples, but I want to close by saying, while fortunately the Kenora riding is not as affected by higher levels of major crime, we appreciate that the government recognizes the need to be assured that we are safe in our homes and communities. The government will take action against crime, including stiffer penalties for gun crimes. At the same time, not criminalizing law-abiding firearm owners is a key issue for the constituents of my riding and we want to see the long gun registry dismantled. Many constituents in my riding, in fact, throughout northwestern Ontario, safely and lawfully, for sport, hunting and sustenance, want to protect their long-standing traditional ways of—

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Denise Savoie):
   
Questions and comments, the hon. member for Mississauga South.

Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.):  
   
Madam Speaker, I congratulate the member on his maiden speech. I knew his predecessor, Mr. Roger Valley, very well and I know he worked very hard on behalf of the people of the north, a very excellent member of Parliament.
   
The member is a new member and it is important that he spend the time to talk about hope for all Canadians, including those in his own riding. However, the reality is we are faced with a severe economic crisis, the full impact of which has not been felt yet. We need to give hope to Canadians.
   
I thought the member would like to comment on what he saw in terms of a plan on whether we should invest now in areas where maybe we have the best opportunity to create jobs and to provide the lead. Will he make a commitment to the House that he will continue to support the necessary social and income supports for Canadians who are unable to help themselves?

Mr. Greg Rickford:
   
Madam Speaker, I congratulate the hon. member on his re-election.
   
“Advantage Canada”, building Canada and the community development trust reassure us all that the government is committed to supporting communities, particularly communities in my riding. I am confident, moving forward, we will continue to support programs that are responsible and responsive to communities throughout my riding. Over two dozen communities in my riding are isolated and not accessible by road. The government is committed to supporting those programs and moving forward. I have every bit of confidence that we will be there for them.

[Translation]
Mr. Luc Desnoyers (Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, BQ):
   
Madam Speaker, in none of the speeches I heard this morning from the Conservatives was there any indication of urgency, nor was there mention of a contingency plan to face the major crisis we are experiencing.
   
Since 2002, 400,000 jobs have been lost, including 150,000 in Quebec. Workers are losing their jobs and their homes, and are then faced with insecurity when it comes to their pension plans.

They no longer know what they will have at the end of this crisis, and the government is showing no sense of urgency.
   
The throne speech implicitly mentions the crisis, but will the government do something to protect retirees and those who will eventually be retiring? Will it protect pension plans as other countries have done?

Mr. Greg Rickford:
   
Madam Speaker, I am confident in assuring the House that our government is well prepared to address all the problems and challenges that people are facing across Canada.
   
I have plenty of confidence in the Speech from the Throne that it has addressed substantively for the benefit of Canadians living in large metropolitan cities and remote communities and isolated in all regards.

Mr. Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Lib.):  
   
Madam Speaker, I welcome the member as a new member just like myself.
   
My question for him is about his moving tribute to the veterans who were in his families, his father and his grandfather. I found that noble and moving.
    
However, I recognize that in the Speech from the Throne there is no mention of veterans or the care of veterans, either veterans from the first or second world war or new veterans coming home from Afghanistan. It is of great concern to me that the Speech from the Throne simply fails to mention the service which is ongoing and the care which is needed, both in veterans' facilities and for their families upon their return home.
   
Is that a concern for the member as well?

Mr. Greg Rickford:
   
Madam Speaker, actually it was my grandfather and my great-grandfather, but nonetheless I can assure the member that veterans, including my grandfather, know our government is there for them and will be here for them. We continue to make an investment in veterans from all wars in the rich past of Canada's military history.