Nobleton Clear

The conservatives are using the budget to be sneak and push forward their Conservative agenda. The Liberal party is complicit in the action. Women will no longer be able to appeal to the Human rights Commission to get equal pay for equal work. they will have to go through the bargaining process which failed before which is why the pay equity changes were originally put in place. Why shouldn't women get equal pay for equal work? We know women earn about 30% less than men performing the same work making it much more likely that single mothers and their children will live in poverty. This means the children will not perform as well in school, and if we do not have a well educated population we will have less ability to get out of this recession in an expedient manner.
The pledge by Ignatieff to support the budget makes this a Liberal-Conservative Budget, which means the current Liberal leadership is divesting itself of true Liberal principles. The Liberal party was once the party that looked after all in society with a commitment to raise the welfare of all Canadians not to deliberately push some down. Why are we not seeing Liberal amendments to this legislation?

In Yesteryear a the Liberal party was the party of economic sovereignty. In the recent conservative budget there are clauses to weaken the review of foreign take overs by raising the amount from $295 million to $1 billion and raising the foreign ownership of domestic airlines fro 25 to 49 per cent. If we loose control of our resource companies and innovative companies we loose our ability to focus future economic growth.
I hope to see the Liberals oppose these measures in the committee stage of the budget process and put forward amendments to protect our Canadian ownership.

The Current Conservative Government is using the budget now before Parliament to undermine our environmental protection. The Budget will amend the Navigable Waters Protection Act to let cabinet exempt certain rivers and lakes from regulations that limit dumping and damming. Can't you just see what the oil industry will do to the Athabasca River when they get it exempted. The whole MacKenzie River system will be destroyed.

At the same time Transport Minister John Baird is considering cutting back the breadth and scope of environmental assessment laws in the name of removing red tape.

It will be open season on our fresh water rivers!

I ask how can the Liberals be supporting this budget with out amendments??

President Obama will visit this week so it is a time for a new hope for some transparency. The secret integration of Canada's regulations with the US regulations, through the Security and Prosperity Partnership dilutes our sovereignty. The regulatory agreements reached during this process are made in secret and are not ratified or debated in parliament. It is time to have an end to the behind closed doors changes.

At the same time why not put some other outstanding issues on the table, such as, access to pubic owned fresh water being a right of citizenship, to ban bulk water exports and ensure public services like medicare and education remain in the pubic sector and out of the hands of foreign companies.

Woodland Caribou, song birds, Spotted Owls and boreal forests have no votes which is why our Government has a moral responsibility to protect our environment. The Conservatives will excuse their inaction toward global warming, protection of clean water, protection of natural spaces and in action under the Species at Risk Act as an economic necessity.This dancing around environmental issues puts our children's health at risk.

As US raises the protectionist flag it is time to revisit NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) agreements. These two have cost Canada too much sovereignty. As the rules are changing we should scrap Chapter 11 and put a hold on any more deep integration of our regulations through SPP with the US. We need a full public debate on Canadian economic sovereignty.
On the Green agenda we need to ensure fresh water becomes a Fundamental Right of all Canadians and not allow bulk exports of this crucial resource. We need to protect our health care from privatization. We need to become petroleum self sufficient so we do not have to import oil to the east coast. Finally lets go green starting with a ban on bottled water, installing modern sewage plants in all municipals areas ie, so Victoria doesn't put raw sewage in the ocean, and clean up the dirty oil production of the tar sands.