Action That’s Working for You

June 26, 2009

By Cheryl Gallant, MP

Although Parliament has risen for the summer recess, your Conservative government is continuing to work for Canadians. We are responding to the needs of families and businesses that are facing the challenges of the global recession. We are taking action to keep our streets, our children and our public places safer.

In this past sitting of Parliament, we have been working to deliver real results for you. Canada, like all countries around the world, is going through a global slowdown. However, unlike other countries, with strong economic leadership, Canada was one of the last to enter into the downturn and will be among the first to come out of it. This is due in large part to the actions taken by our Conservative Government before the recession hit. 

Eighty per cent of the Economic Action Plan is already being implemented.

In January, we introduced Canada’s Economic Action Plan, a plan that was built in consultation with businesses, provincial and municipal leaders, opposition parties and ordinary Canadians. The Plan is already making a difference with job creation, lower taxes and investment in roads, bridges and other infrastructure in communities like Pembroke, Renfrew, Arnprior, Eganville, Barry’s Bay and all points between. Only a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Harper gave Canadians an update on how our Plan is progressing. I am happy to report to you now, that 80% of our Plan is already being implemented. It has been my pleasure to deliver federal funding to every municipality in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke.

This federal funding to local communities is part of our massive program to create jobs by building roads, bridges, water treatment systems, community arenas and other kinds of infrastructure, with more than three thousand projects already underway across Canada. 

Building on our previous tax relief, our government has delivered more permanent tax cuts for Canadian families and businesses. This action puts more money in Canadians’ pockets, and in turn, into local economies.

To help protect families that have seen job losses, we are investing an additional $5.5 billion to make EI work better for vulnerable workers. For example, now laid-off workers are eligible to qualify for up to fifty weeks of EI benefits, an increase of five more weeks than before. At the same time, we are expanding the use of work-sharing agreements, to help keep more Canadians on the job. Roughly one hundred thousand jobs will be protected as a result of this expansion. To help businesses create more jobs, we’ve frozen EI premiums – the single biggest barrier to job creation – at their lowest level in more than twenty-five years.

While local jobs are my first priority, criminals will not stop because of the global economic recession, and neither will our Conservative government. In this past session of Parliament, we have introduced new legislation to help protect children from sex offenders. We are cracking down on drug dealers and pushers who target children. We are working to ensure that criminals serve their sentences from jail, and not from the comfort of their living rooms. We are strengthening the National Sex Offender Registry so police can work to stop crimes before they occur. There is more to do and it was with great relief that the opposition did not inflict a needless, 300 million dollar summer election on Canadians. For those Canadians who work hard, pay taxes and play by the rules, our government will keep working to deliver safer streets and lower taxes.

As your Federal Member of Parliament, I am pleased to represent you on a variety of issues. Whether that issue is eliminating the long gun registry, promoting agriculture, international trade, AECL, the military or jobs in the working forest, I am here to serve you!

As always, if you have any concerns of a federal nature, or just want to share your views with me, please do not hesitate to contact my office.

Office contact Information: Constituency Office of Cheryl Gallant, MP, 84 Isabella St., Pembroke On. K8A 5S5 or call 732-4404. If you are long distance you may call the office toll-free at 1-866-295-7165. There is no postage required when you write your Federal Member of Parliament.