Discussion · Government Orders
Garnett Genuis Conservative
“Voting against the budget does not mean I oppose every program in it. We can reject the government's overall plan while still supporting parts like health care or the military. We support youth jobs, but we want the programs to work better. The government should have let us debate our committee report on this today.”
“Mr. Speaker, respectfully, this is the same general silliness as when a member tries to suggest that by voting against the budget, because someone does not agree with the government’s budgetary policy, they are somehow necessarily opposed to every single part of the budget. Obviously, that is not the case. In any Parliament, opposition members typically will oppose the budget if they do not agree with the general direction of it, but they still are glad that parts of the budget exist. I would not presume, for instance, that if a member voted against the budget, they are opposed to the existence of a military or a health care system simply because those things are funded through the budget. That is unreasonable and cheap and silly. We have called for improvements to the Canada summer jobs program to address some of the failures in terms of government action. We have called for various improvements to these youth unemployment programs, some of which could be better targeted and more effective. I am proud of that work. That work is clearly on the record. Again, if the member and his colleagues had allowed debate on the 10th report of the human resources committee this morning, I think we would have been able to elucidate some of these important solutions.”
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Mr. Speaker, respectfully, this is the same general silliness as when a member tries to suggest that by voting against the budget, because someone does not agree with the government’s budgetary policy, they are somehow necessarily opposed to every single part of the budget. Obviously, that is not the case. In any Parliament, opposition members typically will oppose the budget if they do not agree with the general direction of it, but they still are glad that parts of the budget exist. I would not presume, for instance, that if a member voted against the budget, they are opposed to the existence of a military or a health care system simply because those things are funded through the budget. That is unreasonable and cheap and silly. We have called for improvements to the Canada summer jobs program to address some of the failures in terms of government action. We have called for various improvements to these youth unemployment programs, some of which could be better targeted and more effective. I am proud of that work. That work is clearly on the record. Again, if the member and his colleagues had allowed debate on the 10th report of the human resources committee this morning, I think we would have been able to elucidate some of these important solutions.