KEEPING IN TOUCH Spring 2 0 1 2

Contact us!

7750 Birchmount Road

Unit 21-22

Markham, ON L3R 0B4

Phone: 905-479-8100

Fax: 905-479-3440

John@JohnMcCallum.ca

www.JohnMcCallum.ca

John McCallum, MP 2

In this Issue

Cover: John at Unionville’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

Diamond Jubilee Medal John’s Message/Budget 2012 Bills C-11 and C-30 - Copyright and Internet

Privacy Taxpayers Ombudsperson Budget 2012 Survey

Connect with me online!

@JohnMcCallumMP

facebook.com/McCallumJ1

johnmccallum.liberal.ca/email

3 Markham—Unionville

Diamond Jubilee Medal

This year is the 60th anniversary of the ascension of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to the Throne. In recognition of this, Governor-General David Johnston has created a new commemorative medal – the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal is a tangible way for Canada to honour Her Majesty for her service to this country. At the same time, it serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians. Over the course of this year, 60,000 medals will be awarded to Canadians from coast to coast to coast. As part of the nomination process I have been given an allotment of 30 nominations for residents from Markham-Unionville who have shown a great dedication to our community and our country. I would like to open up the nominations to you – the residents of Markham-Unionville. My office will be accepting nominations until July 31, 2012. You can submit your nomination online at www.johnmccallum.liberal.ca/jubileemedal. If you do not have access to the internet, please contact my office at 905-479-8100 for information on submitting a paper application.

John McCallum, MP 4

If you have already sent in a nomination to my office, don’t worry, your nomination will be added to the list for consideration. After nominations close, a committee comprised of myself, the Mayor of Markham and the Deputy Mayor of Markham will consider all the nominations and make the final selection. The criteria for nominations are:

Be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada, residing in Markham-Unionville;

Have made a significant contribution to our community, or an achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada; and

Be alive on February 6th, 2012, the 60th anniversary of Her

Majesty’s accession to the Throne. The medal can be awarded

posthumously, as long as the recipient was alive on that date.

Nominations My office will be accepting nominations until July 31, 2012. You can submit your nomination online at www.johnmccallum.liberal.ca/jubileemedal. If you do not have access to the internet, please contact my office at 905-479-8100 for information on submitting a paper application. If you have already sent in a nomination to my

office, don’t worry, your nomination will be added

to the list for consideration.

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John’s Message

Dear Constituent, You may notice that this letter is longer than usual, and that is because I want to discuss this year’s budget under four headings: Old Age Security, spending cuts, transparency and accountability, and democracy. Old Age Security Perhaps the worst part of the budget was the government’s plan to raise the age at which Canadians become eligible for Old Age Security (OAS) from 65 to 67. This move was undemocratic, unnecessary, and unfair. It was undemocratic because in the course of the last federal election campaign there was not a peep out of Stephen Harper’s mouth on this major policy change. In fact, he repeatedly said he would not cut seniors’ benefits. Only after he had secured his majority did he tell Canadians that this was his plan. It’s also unnecessary because, contrary to the government’s claims, the OAS is totally sustainable. Canada’s own Chief Actuary, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, and the OECD are all on record with the statement that OAS is sustainable. Yes, with our aging population, the cost of OAS will rise between now and 2031, but after that year, the cost of OAS will begin decreasing. Moreover, the total increase in the cost of the OAS to 2031 amounts to 0.8% of GDP, which is certainly manageable. While it’s true, as the government likes to emphasize, that other countries have increased their retirement age to 67, it’s also true that Canada’s OAS is much less generous than comparable programs in other countries. So while it may be true that government pension programs have become unsustainable in other countries, this is certainly not the case for Canada.

“The analysis suggests that Canada does not face major

challenges of financial sustainability with its public

pension schemes.”

-OECD, emphasis added.

John McCallum, MP 6

Perhaps most important, the government’s plan is unfair because it hits the most vulnerable Canadians. People like me, with desk jobs, might be able to work until we’re 80+ years old (the electorate permitting!). However, for people doing hard physical work, oftentimes their bodies will be worn out by the time they’re 65, and they won’t be able to continue working. Such people will have no choice but to put themselves on provincial welfare when they reach the age of 65. What only makes this worse is that the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), which supports Canada’s lowest income seniors, can only be accessed once the individual is receiving OAS. This means that GIS will also be out of reach for Canadians until they reach the age of 67. As a consequence, the lowest income, most vulnerable seniors will lose up to $30,000 as a result of this move by the Harper government. For all of these reasons, the Liberal Party will fight this OAS move tooth and nail. Because it won’t be implemented for some years, you can be sure that OAS will be an issue in the next election! Cuts in Government Spending The Liberal Party of Canada has never been opposed in principle to cuts in government spending. Indeed, after inheriting a $43 billion deficit in 1993 in an atmosphere of fiscal crisis, the Chretien government balanced the books a few years later, and then paid down debt for nearly a decade. More recently, in 2004-5, I chaired the Expenditure Review Committee, which found $11 billion in cuts over five years. So it’s not the principle of cuts to balance the budget that I oppose, but it’s the nature of those cuts – both the programs the Conservatives cut and the expenditures they did not cut. Let me begin with some of the cuts I didn’t like:

Fully 50% of the employees of Statistics Canada received letters saying that they may be laid off. This is symptomatic of the Harper government’s attack on evidence-based policy in favour of ideology-based policy, beginning with its tragic abandonment of the compulsory long form census (which will result in a radical reduction

7 Markham—Unionville

in our understanding of the true nature of Canada), and moving on to substantial cuts of scientists and environmental programs in Environment Canada.

Public safety is always Job 1 for government, and I am concerned that cuts to food inspectors at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency could bring on another Walkerton.

Despite the fact that Canada is in the midst of an electoral fraud investigation by Elections Canada, that agency was subject to a virtually unprecedented up-front budget cut of $7.5 million.

The budget gives the government unprecedented powers to revoke the charitable status of charities that engage “excessively” in political activity. While it is right to limit charities’ freedom of action in this area, I think the budget goes too far.

Here are some areas where I think the government could have cut more or spent less:

Billions of dollars in new jails, partly at provincial expense, to support the government’s tough-on-crime legislation when even the likes of Newt Gingrich acknowledge that the US policy of lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-keys has been a failure

The government’s failure to launch a competitive bidding process for the replacement of our fighter jets has cost Canadians further billions of dollars, not to mention the government’s failure to come clean with Canadians on the cost of these planes (Note: an outstanding former public servant, Allan Williams, who worked for me when I was Defence Minister, has very recently published a book entitled Canada, Democracy and the F-35. I recommend it to all who would like to get to the bottom of the F35 fighter jet issue.)

A 230% increase in government advertising from 2006 to 2010, much of which is clearly partisan.

So, to repeat, we Liberals are not opposed to expenditure cuts when needed, but we are clearly opposed to the areas in which the Conservatives have cut and to the areas in which they have not cut or have let federal spending skyrocket.

John McCallum, MP 8

Transparency and Accountability As one who has handled expenditure cuts in the past, I can tell you that the current round of cuts is totally lacking in transparency and accountability. For a government that rode into office on the white horse of accountability, this is certainly a problem. When Liberals did cuts in 2004-5, we itemized every cut, for every program and every department, in Budget 2005. When Conservatives do cuts in 2012, they don’t tell Canadians anything substantive about where those cuts will fall and which Canadians will suffer as a consequence of program reductions. It’s left to leaks to the media to find out what’s going on, as the Treasury Board President tells us that he won’t give us the numbers until 2013. This is unacceptable! Technology hasn’t regressed since 2005. There’s only one reason the Harper government didn’t come clean with Canadians – they know we wouldn’t like what we are told! Democracy I think that this year’s Budget Bill is fundamentally undemocratic. In this Act, the government is amending 70 laws without allowing significant debate or discussion, even though the vast majority of the actions in this Act have nothing to do with the budget. They are taking actions to gut environmental review, to radically change our fisheries legislation, and to propose dramatic changes in immigration policy. And they’re doing all that without allowing debate to proceed in the relevant parliamentary committees. Not only are they disallowing debate in any committee other than Finance, but they’re also pushing for debates in committees to be in secret, or in camera. You will notice a change in this update. Instead of my usual comment card I have included a survey based on the recently tabled budget. Please take the time to fill out the survey and return it to my office. As is the case with all mail to an MP, postage is free. There is also an expanded version of this survey on my website at: www.johnmccallum.liberal.ca/budget2012survey.

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Finally, in an effort to improve communications with all my constituents, I encourage you to connect with me online. You can follow me on twitter (@JohnMcCallumMP), Facebook (facebook.com.McCallumJ1) or join my email list at www.johnmccallum.liberal.ca/email.

Sincerely,

Hon. John McCallum, P.C., M.P.

John McCallum, MP 10

Bill C-11 and C-30

I’ve received a fair bit of correspondence on bills C-30 and C-11 the government’s legislation to reform the Copyright Act and to provide the police with new tools to monitor online communications. Both these bills have been highly publicized and highly controversial so I would like to take a moment to go over my position on these two pieces of legislation. C-11 would make a large number of amendments to the Copyright Act. Copyright is a very tough issue to legislate as a very delicate balance must be struck between the rights of content producers and consumers. However, it is my belief that this bill does not provide consumers with enough power to use the media they legally

11 Markham—Unionville

purchase as they want. At every step the Liberals caucus has expressed its concern with the anti-Digital Rights Management circumvention provisions of the bill. Personally, as a former educator, I have concerns about the elements of the bill that deal with digital course material. C-30 is the government’s attempt to give police greater power to monitor online communications. This is an important debate that we need to have. Police have made it clear that they need updated tools to deal with online crime. However, we can’t ignore our Charter rights when discussing this matter. Unfortunately, the government seems unwilling to even engage in a proper debate of these legislative measures – let alone consider possible amendments. Instead, Mr. Harper will mostly likely use his majority to impose time allocation on this bill and then ram it through the Commons. In their current form, both these bills are unsupportable.

At the Canadian Tamil Chamber of Commerce’s 14th annual awards gala

John McCallum, MP 12

In the Community

Congratulating the

Pacific Mall on 16th anniversary

With Markham

students at the Forum for Young

Canadians MP’s dinner

Speaking at the ceremony

for the Day to End Racial Discrimination

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Serving pancakes at

Markville Mall’s annual holiday pancake

fundraiser

With Minister

Chan and Markham

Firefighters at their annual

food drive

With

Scarborough—Agincourt MP Jim

Karygiannis and Khalid Usman at

the Pakistan

Community Fundraiser for the

Markham-Stouffville Hospital

John McCallum, MP 14

Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsman is committed to upholding taxpayer service rights and promoting professional service and fair treatment of taxpayers by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Making a difference for taxpayers The Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman reviews complaints from people who believe they have been treated unfairly or unprofessionally by the CRA. Our interventions into taxpayer complaints as well as our examination of systemic issues have led to significant improvements on how the CRA provides service to Canadians. All of the Ombudsman’s recommendations to date have been accepted by the Minister of National Revenue. Know your rights as a taxpayer Become familiar with the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. The more you know about your rights, the more you will benefit from them. To learn about your rights or how to file a service-related complaint, visit our Web site at www.oto-boc.gc.ca or call us – the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman is here to assist you. Stay in touch Subscribe to our Electronic Mailing List to receive automatic updates from our Office. To subscribe, visit our Web site at www.oto-boc.gc.ca. Telephone: 1-866-586-3839 Facsimile: 1-866-586-3855 Website: www.oto-boc.gc.ca Address: 50 O’Connor Street, Suite 724

Ottawa ON K1P 6L2

15 Markham—Unionville

Budget 2012 Survey

The Conservative Government introduced their 2012 Budget on March 29. I want your feedback on a number of the government’s initiatives.

YES! Please sign me up for John’s e-mailing list (email required):

Name: ______________________________________________________

Address: ____________________________________________________

Phone: ______________________________________________________

Email: ______________________________________________________

Who do you trust to balance the budget while protecting the services

your rely on?

Conservatives Liberals Greens NDP

You can also fill out the survey online at: www.johnmccallum.liberal.ca/budget2012survey

YES

NO YES

NO

YES NO

YES NO

Do you support the Government

decision to cut OAS benefits by

raising the retirement age?

Should the government come

clean and reveal all the details of

their cuts to jobs and services?

Should the government use the

budget to arbitrarily clear the

applicant queue for skilled labour

applications?

Should the government use its

budget legislation to make drastic

changes to our environmental

assessment legislation?

John McCallum, MP 16

Fold along line and tape or staple shut NO

POSTAGE

REQUIRED

Hon. John McCallum, P.C., M.P. 209 Justice Building House of Commons

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6