House of Commons Hansard #22 of the 37th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was pornography.

Topics

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Hinton)

The question is on the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

No.

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Hinton)

All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Yea.

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Hinton)

All those opposed will please say nay.

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Nay.

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Hinton)

In my opinion the nays have it.

And more than five members having risen:

The AcadiansPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Hinton)

Pursuant to order made on Monday, March 8, the division stands deferred until Wednesday, March 10 immediately after Notices of Motions for the Production of Papers.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

6:55 p.m.

Canadian Alliance

Cheryl Gallant Canadian Alliance Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON

Madam Speaker, I rise in this adjournment debate as a consequence of the response given to me by the Minister of Agriculture.

I had posed a question to the President of the Treasury Board concerning the government's practice of providing lucrative untendered contracts to friends of the party. I can appreciate why the minister was too embarrassed to provide a factual answer.

In the minister's response, he stated that he personally had a chance to look at the particular instance of an untendered contract and went on to state that in fact there was no videographer, that in fact there was no video and that in fact there was no cost, when in fact he was wrong on all three accounts.

The honourable thing for the minister would have been to stand in his place and correct the record. Instead, in the abuse of parliamentary rules, the deputy House leader was dispatched to the House later on Friday afternoon after question period to give the response to the question that the Minister of Agriculture was too embarrassed to give. What better time to give the answer in hopes that nobody was listening to that grudging apology.

Parliament still has not been informed as to the cost of that untendered contract, and I look forward to hearing the government disclose the cost today.

As it was subsequently pointed out by the member for Acadie—Bathurst, the question period is for the opposition to ask questions and for the government to provide answers. This is our constitutional role. If anything speaks to the democratic deficit, it has to be when ministers of the crown are less than forthcoming in their answers to the members of the official opposition.

Canadian taxpayers are absolutely outraged at the waste of their hard-earned dollars when it comes to things like the Liberal ad scam. Nothing encourages a culture of corruption like untendered contracts. They do not pass a smell test and the Minister of Agriculture knows it.

Liberal members are quick to scream that it is character assassination against the individuals who receive these contracts when the official opposition challenges untendered contracts. These contracts are wrong and the government knows it.

Untendered contracts contribute to the culture of Liberal corruption that is inherent in the Chrétien legacy. It lives on in the finance minister from those years, now the Prime Minister, who claims he knew nothing about it.

The real tragedy, when the Liberal Party squanders taxpayer dollars, is who is hurt by this waste. If anything demonstrated the dream world in which the millionaire Prime Minister lives, it was the surprise on his face during his recent visit to eastern Ontario about the plight of our children.

Liberal government policies are impoverishing the people of rural Canada and nowhere is that more evident than on the faces of our children. Every dollar that is skimmed off into the dirty hands of some Liberal ad man is one less dollar available to fight child poverty.

Child poverty has increased on the new Prime Minister's watch, and for this he should be ashamed instead of trying to pass the buck. Every dollar that is spent because a contract went untendered is one less dollar available to provide health services to our children, our seniors, our sick and the disadvantaged. It is the most vulnerable of our society who end up paying for the Liberal scandals.

As long as there is government waste there is a need for tax cuts. It is better to leave the money in the pockets of the taxpayers than put it in the pocket of some Liberal lobbyist.

I recently had the opportunity to bring some Renfrew county farmers to Ottawa to meet with the Minister of Agriculture to let him know firsthand just how desperate things are getting on the farm. The next several weeks are crucial to our farmers. They need the money to put in this year's crop. People are pleading with the government to do something.

If the government spent less time trying to dream up ways not to answer questions from the official opposition and more time doing its job, Canada would be a far better place.

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7 p.m.

Chicoutimi—Le Fjord Québec

Liberal

André Harvey LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources

Madam Speaker, what contributes to spread this negative culture are incorrect statements. I would like to provide some basic information on this issue.

The Minister of Finance, when he was the natural resources minister of Canada, led a mission to promote trade and investment in China, South Korea and Japan from January 22 to February 3, 2000. I will briefly report the facts. Then, we will talk about the money that was supposedly wasted, and you will see that I will be clear.

The purpose of this mission was to promote Canada's leadership and innovation, particularly in the natural resources sector. This mission helped to achieve many goals relating to this sector, which affects the live of all Canadians.

The mission responds particularly to the interests of the Canadian policy, especially with regard to market access, trade, regulatory reforms, sustainable development and climate changes.

This mission offered a great opportunity to expand the natural resources sector, which was already thriving. It opened doors to natural resources businesses so that they could enter the China market and expand into it, and it had many positive and sustainable results.

Since then, China has adopted new building codes to make them compatible with the construction of wood frame houses. This resulted in the opening of new markets for Canadian wood products.

Currently, Canadian geomatics and geoscience companies are active in China and provide useful data for the development of that country's natural resources.

In fact, the Chinese recognize Canada as a competitive and world-class provider of minerals and mining expertise.

I can never emphasize enough the fact that the current Minister of Finance did not hire a videographer to record this trade mission to China and that he was not accompanied by someone to produce this film during the mission.

In order to meet the objectives of this mission, the department prepared a video before the mission. That video did explain to Chinese audiences the purpose of the mission and the diversity and skills of Canada's natural resources sector.

The video, which was produced in three languages, that is Mandarin, English and French, was very well received. It proved very useful to overcome the language barrier, particularly since simultaneous translation was not always available.

The video's research and production work was done on a contract basis by an agency selected through a well-defined competitive bidding process. The video cost $115,000 to produce.

This was a worthwhile investment, as I am sure you will agree, since its goal was to promote Canada's natural resources sector in one of the fastest growing economic regions of the world and to contribute to the positive impact I just mentioned.

The video prepared for the mission was produced by the firm Allard et associés, through a strategic partnership with Columbia Group.

The world economy of the 21st century is characterized by tough competition for markets and investments. Canada needs to have access to foreign markets, foreign investments and new technologies to promote innovation and productivity, to create wealth and to meet the goals our nation has set for itself in terms of quality of life.

These types of missions lay the foundations that position our natural resources sector and related industries as key players in the new knowledge and innovation based economy, and ensure Canada a place of honour and influence among the great nations of the world.

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7 p.m.

Canadian Alliance

Cheryl Gallant Canadian Alliance Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON

Madam Speaker, I am so disappointed. We still did not get the cost for that video. That is why we are having the adjournment debate today.

We want to know how much it cost. What exactly was this video used for? Has it ever been played other than to respond to questions and verify that it existed? Initially, during question period, it was denied that it even existed. How much did it cost? How is this video, paid for by Canadians, going to benefit Canadians? The member opposite said that it was well received. Well received by whom? Helpful for what?

I go back to the phrase that we keep hearing repeated: established tendering process. This established tendering process, be it rigged or even truly tendered in the open market, is exactly why the Liberals are mired in the scandal today. In fact an economics professor from Ottawa University told me that never in his life had he seen any corruption in Canada--

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7:05 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Hinton)

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources.

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7:05 p.m.

Liberal

André Harvey Liberal Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague. I think she was too concerned with preparing her response to listen to the comments I made for four minutes. The video has cost some $100,000 to produce, following a tendering process conducted in accordance with Treasury Board standards.

We say that an image is worth a thousand words, but an image is worth several trips. It is a working tool. If we want to compete with other nations everywhere in the world, we must be very well equipped.

I would like to repeat to my colleague that the video was produced following a tendering process conducted in accordance with Treasury Board standards and that we see it as an absolutely essential tool for the kind of promotion that the mission wanted to achieve.

I want to commend the minister on his very productive trip to three countries: South Korea, Japan and China. I think that a background video is a most logical choice to showcase all our resources and our most competitive elements.

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7:05 p.m.

Liberal

Marlene Catterall Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Madam Speaker, on February 11, I asked the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration what measures were being taken to speed up citizenship approvals.

In my 15 years as a member of Parliament, I have very seldom dealt with any complaints from constituents about the citizenship process. Recently, many constituents have been approaching my office because approvals are taking more than a year. The standard in this region is approximately 15 months.

For people who have made great personal sacrifices to come here and contribute their skills, or who face danger to escape persecution in their own country, the delay in becoming a citizen now creates further barriers to becoming fully integrated, contributing Canadians.

Many jobs require Canadian citizenship. The delays in approving citizenship mean that many are employed well below the level of skill that would allow them to contribute more fully to the Canadian economy. With increased security at the Canada-U.S. border, many are concerned about travelling on business without their Canadian citizenship.

Many did not apply for a permanent resident card in the last year because their citizenship application was already in. They quite rightly assumed they would have it long before they would need the permanent resident card to travel outside the country.

The result was, of course, a problem for members of our own staff, when people suddenly found that their citizenship was not coming through and they would have to apply on an urgent basis for the permanent resident card.

Delays in the citizenship process are causing an additional workload for CIC employees.

Often security clearances lapse before the application process is completed and may have to be redone. Often security clearances once they are done then sit in the CIC office for a number of months causing further delays and again perhaps having to repeat the process.

In Ottawa approximately 500 applications are received a week. The capacity is to process 150 to 200 a week. We seem to be working toward building up a backlog.

For many this has been a long wait. In my constituency there are many Somalis who came here at a time of terrible crisis in their own country. They were not able to even become landed immigrants for eight to ten years because acquiring the proper papers to prove who they were was impossible. Here they sit 10, 12, 13 years after their arrival in Canada unable to achieve citizenship.

Finally, new Canadians are looking forward to exercising that most precious right of citizenship, the right to vote. It is normal in the period leading up to a major federal or provincial election to take measures to speed up the approval of citizenship so that they can enjoy that right.

I ask the minister to clarify what is being done to improve the citizenship approval process, to avoid building a huge backlog and to let new Canadians become full members of Canadian society.

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

Vancouver Centre B.C.

Liberal

Hedy Fry LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration

Madam Speaker, the hon. member has posed some important questions. Canadian citizenship is valued around the world and every year more and more people ask to join the Canadian family. They want to contribute more fully to our growth as a nation and benefit from the rights and responsibilities that go along with being citizens.

Every year we grant citizenship to nearly 160,000 applicants, after they meet the statutory requirements. Average processing times can vary from one city to the next, but across the country, the majority of applications are completed in 12 months or less.

In Q-3 of this fiscal year, for example, 76% of all applications were completed in a 12 month period or less, while 3% took 15 months or less. Just last month, 636 newcomers from the Ottawa area took an oath of citizenship and are now full Canadians. Through 2003, we granted 5,644 awards of citizenship in the Ottawa area, with 985 awarded in September alone.

That having been said, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration is working on ways to expedite the processing of the increasing number of citizenship applications received every year, particularly by changing its procedures.

This year, the department also obtained additional funds from Treasury Board to respond to the unprecedented increase in the number of applications.

Compared to the same period one year earlier, citizenship applications increased by nearly 40% from October 1, 2002 to September 30, 2003. This bodes well for our future as a country.

However, that kind of increase also creates a strain on existing resources and could further increase processing times unless we take action. We have taken action in the past, we are taking action today, and we will continue to take action to respond to these needs regardless of the timing of an election.

The hon. member from Ottawa West—Nepean said that some individuals did not apply for permanent resident cards on the assumption that their citizenship application would be completed before they were required to travel. I would like to report that as of March 2004 the Department of Citizenship and Immigration produced 996,000 permanent resident cards in just over 20 months and is now issuing approximately 65,000 a month.

We want to provide proper service to newcomers to Canada, while at the same time ensuring that all citizenship applicants meet the requirements set out in the law.

We therefore need to ensure that applicants have no criminal records and represent no security risks, and this we continue to do even as we take steps to maintain processing times. As a result, while providing appropriate service, we are still fulfilling our responsibilities to protect the integrity of Canadian citizenship.

I am pleased to report that the additional funds from Treasury Board are being used to help us in our efforts to maintain the current average processing times of 10 to 12 months in spite of increased applications, while ensuring that each application meets the normal security residency and language requirements for citizenship.

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

Liberal

Marlene Catterall Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the parliamentary secretary. I just want to emphasize again that this is a new problem. It is surfacing in my constituency office and in constituency offices elsewhere.

I am pleased that there are some efforts to address this situation. I encourage the minister to continue being aware that this is a new problem. It does need to be addressed or we will end up with a backlog that will be a much bigger problem.

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

Liberal

Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC

Madam Speaker, I empathize with the hon. member because I have the same problem in my own riding. I think everyone sees these problems, especially since numbers are increasing very rapidly in terms of individuals seeking immigrant status.

The minister is committed to doing what she can to speed up the process and that steps are taken to ensure that people become citizens as soon as they wish.

The AcadiansAdjournment Proceedings

7:15 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Hinton)

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 2 p.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:15 p.m.)