House of Commons Hansard #58 of the 38th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was human.

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Alzheimer's DiseaseAdjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

Conservative

John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC

Madam Speaker, I did not learn anything from that response that I was not aware of.

Here is what the question really is. We know that the advisory committee recommended to the ministers that this indeed should be taken over by the federal government and that there should be a continued human presence on the island. I am trying to get there; I am trying to get the government there. I am trying to get the government to recognize that we need more than an announcement and a press release.

What we need is some legislation that would change the government mandate and mission and put it into some kind of permanent form for Sable Island. We also must have more than the next couple of years' worth of funding guaranteed in order to meet that mission. That is what I have not heard and that is what I am asking for.

Alzheimer's DiseaseAdjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

Liberal

Shawn Murphy Liberal Charlottetown, PE

Madam Speaker, if the hon. member did not learn anything, there is probably nothing I can do about that, but I just want to repeat a few things that I did mention.

A senior level committee, comprised of assistant deputy ministers from a number of federal government departments, met in November to review options. This committee has made recommendations to the ministers involved.

The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has assured the stakeholders that a decision will be made shortly. He has indicated that the department, and Environment Canada, I should add, will be supporting the operation of the weather station for the near future while continuing to work toward a long term solution. I do not believe the hon. member appreciates what the Government of Canada has done over the past number of years and the commitment that it has said it will follow going forward.

Also, if I may continue, the minister has indicated on many occasions his commitment to working with all interests to maintain an effective human presence on this island to ensure protection of the many species that call this island home. The question of how this presence is managed and how this presence is funded is at the heart of the recommendations now being considered.

Alzheimer's DiseaseAdjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

Conservative

Bradley Trost Conservative Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK

Madam Speaker, to put into context my question for both the viewing audience and for the record, the adjournment proceedings tonight that I am participating in were sparked by a question I put to the government last year.

I said to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food that about all we had from the government on the live cattle ban was excuses on why the U.S. border would not open. I said that President Bush had come and gone and still the border remained closed. I then asked when the border would be opened.

I asked the question for a couple of reasons. I wanted to understand what the government's strategy or plan was on its foreign policy and agricultural policy, and particularly how the two were related. The debate on the BSE has gone on continuously. It has been roughly two years since the border closed. It seemed to me that the government had no plan and I wanted to try to understand, to grasp where it was coming from.

This is very important because the agriculture community of Canada is one of the vital, underlying, underpinning elements of our economy and, in particular, the cattle and beef industry ranges all across the country. It is important to almost every province, from British Columbia in the west, to the prairies and in my home province of Saskatchewan, to Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and even to the Atlantic provinces.

I put the question to the government to understand what proactive plan it had for the future, thinking ahead. This is interesting and important because we had seen the mad cow crisis as it had struck Europe and the lack of forethought the Europeans had. It was much greater than what we had. Brazil and various other countries had it but the government had no overlying foreign or agriculture policy proactively thought out ahead to see what and when we could do it as soon as it came.

We can see that the government had no effective plan because we see the results of it, literally two years to get the borders open on one case. It has now come to two or three different cases on the BSE, something so minor, so trivial that our borders should not have been shut down but it is something that we should have thought about.

I was curious and wanted to understand what the government was thinking on the agriculture policy but it also demonstrates our overall lack of a foreign policy. Agriculture, as with all trade departments, is involved in that too.

I was trying to grasp and understand what the Prime Minister and agriculture minister discussed with President Bush and to find out how we could use Canada's influence in the world. Unfortunately, we found out very clearly that Canada, with this government, has no influence in the world. Canada has no influence on agriculture policy in the United States unless we learn some of these lessons. The government apparently has not learned.

I will repeat my question to the government in more broad terms because the border is opening up. What is the proactive plan of the government on foreign policy, particularly as it relates to agriculture? What steps is it going to take to actually protect farmers from future disasters? We do not want just words. We want real actions.

Alzheimer's DiseaseAdjournment Proceedings

7:30 p.m.

Malpeque P.E.I.

Liberal

Wayne Easter LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food (Rural Development)

Madam Speaker, I certainly am pleased to respond on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

The member's question was when the border would open, but regarding the member's remarks in terms of strategy and plans, the member knows full well that we have had a strategy and a plan in place for a long time. We have worked aggressively in terms of getting the U.S. border open. In fact we are the only country, the first country which had BSE that moved back into a market. That is a first in the world. It shows the forward planning of the Government of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in terms of our traceability, our identification system, and our good system of record keeping so that when we get into the science and making science based decisions, we have the evidence and we can move ahead.

In terms of strategy, the member knew when he previously asked the question that the minister made an announcement on September 10 which looked at six basic points. One of the key ones was that we needed to work with the industry to increase our slaughter capacity within this country. We are seeing some movement in that direction now.

The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of the U.S. market to Canadian producers. In fact the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food along with a number of his provincial counterparts and the industry went down to the U.S. capital last week. They made representations again not only on behalf of the cattle and beef sectors but also on behalf of all exporters of animal and meat affected by the border closure, including sheep, goat, bison, elk and the other ruminant industries. It is important to mention that.

I want to emphasize that Canada became the first country affected by BSE to regain access to the United States market. As a result of forward planning and forward looking by the Government of Canada, that partial reopening of the border meant that Canada exported over 300,000 tonnes of beef to the United States in 2004.

As the member knows full well, the Prime Minister got a commitment from President Bush on several occasions to reopen the border as soon as possible. That is extremely important with the process we are involved in now. That commitment bore fruit when the United States department of agriculture published the U.S. BSE minimal risk rule in the Federal Register on January 4. The hon. member must be aware that this rule is scheduled to take effect on March 7 this year.

When implemented the final rule will provide access to the United States for a range of live animals in beef and ruminant products. In particular the rule will once again allow for the importation into the United States of live cattle under 30 months of age for slaughter. That represents significant progress.

The Government of Canada will continue to work closely with the United States to see that the border is opened fully.

Alzheimer's DiseaseAdjournment Proceedings

7:35 p.m.

Conservative

Bradley Trost Conservative Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the parliamentary secretary's remarks, but somehow I find this a little hard to believe.

I realize there are exceptions and the border will not be fully opened by March, but its being closed for basically two years is somehow considered to be a success by the government. The packing industry in the United States was lobbying on our side. The mainstream beef-producing organizations were lobbying on our side. We had powerful allies down there who in many ways did considerably more than the Liberal government did to lobby on behalf of Canadian cattle. It is a disgrace that the government was not as effective as they were.

I cannot understand how the government considers a two year border closure as some sort of major success. If we had had a proper relationship and open channels instead of members on that side antagonizing the American political establishment, we would have had this issue solved much earlier.

Again I ask the minister how he considers this long period of border closure to be a success.

Alzheimer's DiseaseAdjournment Proceedings

7:35 p.m.

Liberal

Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE

Madam Speaker, I can only shake my head. The member knows full well that when it comes to BSE, when we look at some of the other countries around the world that had BSE, they never moved into markets nearly as fast as Canada has moved into markets. It is as a result of the hard work of the minister, the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, backbenchers on this side of the House and indeed some members on the other side of the House who worked strenuously to get that border open.

This is what I cannot understand about members on that side. Instead of talking about what the reality is in terms of what we are doing and trying to keep the focus on getting the border open, they continue to get into this rhetoric of trying to make the situation look worse than it is. The fact is we do have a timeline in place now for the reopening of the border. That underscores the reasons we have undertaken the kind of cooperative approach that we have as the Government of Canada, including the Prime Minister's relationship with President Bush.

We are making progress. On this side of the House we are proud of that process and we will continue to keep the pressure on.

Alzheimer's DiseaseAdjournment Proceedings

7:35 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Hon. Jean Augustine)

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:38 p.m.)