Archive for September, 2006

MPs undertake a wide variety of tasks, all part of doing their job to represent the men and women who elected them. We deal with problems regarding unemployment, agriculture programs, immigration—just to name a few. We research topics that come before Parliament, debate new legislation and speak in the House of Commons on important issues of the day.

An MP’s duties also involve international relations. For example, I serve as Vice-Chair on the Canada-USA Interparliamentary Association. This is a committee of Canadian MPs and Senators that lobbies U.S. politicians. Two issues which have been of primary concern to the Canada-USA Interparliamentary Association recently are: The ban of certain beef exports to the United States, and the requirement that Canadians possess a passport or some form of secure document to enter the U.S. by car or ferry.

In fact, as I write this column, the House of Representatives is debating an amendment to their border crossing legislation—an amendment that is specifically the result of our efforts. The Americans are deciding whether or not to delay the implementation of a requirement that Canadians produce passports in order to enter the USA.

Considering that neither Canada nor the United States is ready to implement these new requirements, the economies of both countries will take a major hit if passport requirements are imposed prematurely. If we had not personally lobbied U.S. congressmen and senators, the new passport requirement would definitely have taken effect in the upcoming year.

The Conservatives, the Liberals, and the NDP all worked as a team on this issue. It may not look like it on TV, but MPs can really work together to accomplish something good for Canada.

I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament, and I welcome your feedback. Write or call my offices.

Every so often I have little things that cross my desk in Ottawa or in the constituency, but they don’t always amount to a full column. There is also government legislation I think people might like to hear about, so I am combining both this week in an odds and ends column.

How much does it cost to buy a new couch? How much does it cost to have two chairs with a couch? Well, in an MP’s office on Parliament Hill, it costs $3,500 to reupholster a cloth couch and a couple of chairs. (Some furniture sets are 20-30 years old.) More than one MP has pointed out that it would be cheaper to buy a new set, but for some bureaucratic reason, this is not allowed.

The New Conservative government is announcing an expenditure review, an initiative that will save $1 Billion. The reason this needs to be done is to clean up some of the waste in government. Once the money is saved, expect to see tax cuts come spring. Also expect to hear the usual whining from various groups that will have their access to government money cut off.

A Bill to set fixed election dates every four years is working its way through Parliament. The Bill establishes Monday, October 19, 2009 as the date of the next general election. Once the general election is held, the following election would be set for the third Monday in October, four calendar years in the future. There would still be the odd occasion when an election would be held at other times of the year, because a government was defeated.

A new program to help Canadians save on energy costs has been announced by the federal government. The old EnerGuide program was cancelled because Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn determined that only 50 per cent of the funding was going to homeowners for renovations. The remainder was spent on audits by inspectors and administration costs.

I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament, and I welcome your feedback. Write or call my offices.

Over the summer, I’ve been meeting with as many town and RM councils as possible to get local feedback on issues affecting these municipalities. I received some positive feedback, and I thought I would share what I heard around the riding. This is what I learned:

Regarding grants from the senior levels of government—the forms and bureaucracy that municipalities need to go through to get federal and provincial government grants can be extremely burdensome. One example I heard: In order to receive a grant of a maximum of $25,000, a village would have to spend $10,000 in unnecessary administrative expenditures.

I received a few questions about firearms legislation. We are proceeding with legislation to repeal the registry for long guns, but the vote in the House of Commons will be extremely close. The opposition parties may defeat us on this matter.

Policing issues came up in a couple of the towns. The consensus was that we need more RCMP, and if any of the 600 new RCMP officers the government is hiring could come to our region, so much the better.

Others topics councilors mentioned: Short line railways, energy efficiency, farm support programs and labor shortages. All in all–a bit of everything.

With the feedback I received from the mayors and councilors, I’ll be able to inform Cabinet Ministers of some of the necessary changes that need to be made to government policy. In conclusion, I would like to say a big Thank You to everyone who turned out at these meetings.

I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament, and I welcome your feedback. Write or call my offices.