SoVote

Mr. Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, NDP)

Dec/7/21 10:12:00 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition on behalf of our important volunteer firefighters and search and rescue personnel. The petitioners, in their preamble, recognize that volunteer firefighters account for 83% of Canada's total firefighting essential first responders. In addition, there are approximately 8,000 essential search and rescue volunteers, who respond to thousands of incidents every year right across this great country of ours. The tax code of Canada currently allows volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers to claim a $3,000 tax credit if 200 hours of volunteer services were completed in a calendar year, but that works out to a mere $450. Therefore, the petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to support legislation that would increase the tax exemption from $3,000 to $10,000 and help our essential volunteer firefighters and volunteer search and rescue people across the country with the important services they provide.

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Context: House Hansard - 12 - Dec/7/21

Mr. Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, NDP)

Dec/7/21 11:47:14 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, a unique part of this motion to create a special committee is that it would be accompanied by a special order of the House, which is informed by experiences of standing committees in the previous Parliament that ran against obstructive measures from members of the government and had to request the House's help to solicit documents and actually have them put before the committee. I wonder if my colleague has any comments on the fact that we are probably saving some time by putting a special standing order of the House in the motion so the committee is equipped with that before and would not have to make use of it at a later stage.

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Context: House Hansard - 12 - Dec/7/21

Mr. Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, NDP)

Dec/7/21 12:18:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the member about a specific part of this motion, paragraph (m), where the committee's work will be supported by an order of the House. In my view, this section of the motion is probably informed by the troubles that standing committees had in the previous Parliament and this may, in fact, be saving this special committee time, because it will be backed up by a full-force order from the House. Does the member have any comments on that part in relation to the troubles we experienced in the previous Parliament?

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Context: House Hansard - 12 - Dec/7/21

Mr. Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, NDP)

Dec/7/21 1:30:47 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I understand the member for Winnipeg North's concerns. I think there is a desire from all members of the House to really look at this issue in depth. We may quibble over what the best format of that is, but the Conservatives have put together a motion, and that is for us to consider. I wanted to ask about the specific section of the motion that makes reference to a House order, and I would invite the member to consider that this part of the motion is probably informed by the experiences the opposition had in the previous Parliament. I have heard other Liberal members make reference to the fact that time is our most precious resource. In my mind, having this part of the motion in place would save this committee time because, if there were to be any kind of obstruction or delays in this committee's attempt to gain information, at least it would have an order of the House accompanying it. Would the member not agree that this has been informed by previous experiences, and that this would really be giving us the tools to do our job and hold the government to account?

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