House of Commons Hansard #155 of the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was chair.

Topics

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

Gary Merasty Liberal Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK

Mr. Chair, can the minister admit that she negligently cut $160 million for aboriginal languages?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, as I indicated, $160 million were put forward to create a centre and there was not unanimous agreement that that should be how moneys should be spent to support aboriginal languages.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

Gary Merasty Liberal Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK

Mr. Chair, maybe I will let her expand on that. Why did the minister cut this funding or did she even have a say in it?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, that is typical of the previous government. The Liberals did nothing with the money that was there. They extended the program. They did not move forward on the centre because they knew the aboriginal communities were not in agreement.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

Gary Merasty Liberal Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK

Mr. Chair, did the minister redirect this funding to Conservative ridings for cultural events? Was this the botched plan that they were attempting to do with her memo?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, let me assure the member that this government does not act like the previous government by redirecting money to serve its own party purposes.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

May 16th, 2007 / 9:45 p.m.

Liberal

Gary Merasty Liberal Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK

Mr. Chair, it is clear that the government is prepared to skewer minority languages. We only need to look at the cancelling of the court challenges program, the disrespectful treatment of the francophone language initiatives and the mockery the government has made of the official languages committee.

I guess I should not be surprised at all that the government has done nothing for aboriginal people or to protect aboriginal languages.

I will say this much slower so that the minister has a little more time to answer the question. What is the minister's action plan a year and a half later for protecting aboriginal languages, if she even has one, or does she particularly care?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, when I met with the leadership of the aboriginal communities I asked them to come forward with their plan. The plan has been submitted and we will be reviewing the plan and meeting with them again.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB

Mr. Chair, since the minister mentioned, a little earlier, that her government respects culture and the arts, could she explain why she is not in a position to help an organization in the Restigouche area, such as Campbellton's Galerie Restigouche, by providing it with some financial assistance?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, we have many programs with clear guidelines and a review process. This is not a government that arbitrarily responds to the requests of individual members of Parliament. The organizations apply to the program. In fact, we deal with 7,000 grant and contribution applications.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB

Mr. Chair, the request does not come from a member of Parliament but, rather, from the Galerie Restigouche people.

If the minister really believes in arts and culture, when will she agree to provide financial assistance to these people, so that they can continue their work?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, I indicated that there are programs with guidelines. Once we receive the application it is reviewed and analyzed by the department and the analysis will come to a conclusion.

I certainly commend the member for his organization submitting an application which will be reviewed as all other proposals are.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB

Mr. Chair, if there are criteria in place, can the minister explain to the officials of Kedgwick's Sommet de la chanson why volunteers must spend days and days filling in forms, in the hope of getting amounts that barely total $5,000 or $10,000? And then they get a call from the department telling them that even if they fill out the forms, they are not going to get funding.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, unlike the previous government, we do have guidelines. We have application forms. We do not respond in days. When one does respond in days, that is how one gets misdirected funds directly to parties to support riding associations. With due diligence, it does require time. We do not respond in five days.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB

Mr. Chair, I am not convinced that the minister listened to my question. In the end, it is the volunteers who have to fill out the forms. However, department officials call the volunteers to tell them that even if they fill out the forms, they are not going to get funding.

Can the minister explain that?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, once again I must point out that we have a proper process. When we took over government we had programs that had no guidelines, had no due process and favoured a political party. We owe it to the Canadian taxpayers to ensure their money is being used responsibly and it is going to the organizations--

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP Bill Blaikie

The hon. member for Madawaska—Restigouche.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB

Mr. Chair, from what I understand, the minister is saying that the money that could be invested in Kedgwick's Sommet de la chanson would not be properly spent. That is unacceptable.

Moreover, we know that Edmundston's jazz and blues festival is a bilingual and francophone event that will take place in June, in the Madawaska region. The department says that this event does not really meet the program's objectives. It was just cut as a program for student employment. According to the department, there is not a clearly established need.

Why does the minister not provide adequate funding to this organization?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, it may have been the experience of the member opposite that he could talk to a minister and get a commitment for funding immediately but that is not how this government works. As I said, we have programs, clear guidelines and an application process.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB

Mr. Chair, at least when there was a different government, we were in a position to help organizations and volunteers.

Why does the minister not want to help an organization when it is suffering from cuts to student programs and it needs financial help?

Why does this government not want to help organizations and communities? Is it because they are in a francophone region?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, as I said, we do have community organizations. The Status of Women program goes directly to community organizations and our volunteer approach is to support organizations that have volunteers who are doing good work in the community.

I do not understand how the member can talk about not helping organizations when the one organization--

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP Bill Blaikie

Order, please. The hon. member for Madawaska—Restigouche for one final question.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB

Mr. Chair, I can appreciate that the minister understands nothing. But the only thing I am trying to make her understand is that it is an organization that was refused funding for student programs and that was told by the Heritage Minister that it did not need this funding. It needs help.

If the minister does not understand, perhaps I should slow down to make translation easier? Is it because it is a francophone region that the minister does not want to give funding to the Edmunston Jazz and Blues Festival?

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Oda Conservative Durham, ON

Mr. Chair, with my colleague, the Minister for la Francophonie and Official Languages, we have indicated that we have programs that are helping organizations in the community, students in the community and community centres in the community.

All I can say is that one must look at the work government wide. We are doing it in many departments. Our support for communities is there.

Canadian Heritage--Main Estimates, 2007-08Business of SupplyGovernment Orders

9:50 p.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP Bill Blaikie

We will now begin a 15 minute government round with the hon. member for Kildonan--St. Paul.