Debates of June 16th, 2008

The Speaker Peter Milliken

Is that agreed?

Bill Casey Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS

With regard to the pension claw backs alleged to be affecting both Canadian Forces (CF) veterans and retired members of the RCMP: (a) did the government ever make promises to CF personnel in 1965, 1968 or in 1971 that no person would receive less after the amalgamation of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Superannuation at age 65 and prior to superannuation reduction; (b) can the government confirm that public service members, who contributed to superannuation, prior to January 1, 1966 enjoy specific protections within the Superannuation Act with regard to their pensions; (c) is the same protection for public service members as discussed in (b), extended to CF veterans and retired members of the RCMP, or have these groups been excluded from this protection; (d) in the years following 1966, were superannuates awarded full and indexed CPP benefits despite having contributed for a very short time; (e) if it can be confirmed that there is not the same protection for CF Members and retired RCMP members that public service members currently enjoy within the Superannuation Act, is the government prepared to make the corrections required to make the law more equal for all three groups; (f) if the government is not prepared to make the corrections, why not; (g) how has the government acted to alleviate the concerns of retired CF Veterans and RCMP members who believe that their pensions have been clawed back because of the integration of the CPP with their pensions in 1966; (h) what steps has the government taken to explain or clarify their pension policies to specifically address the claw back concerns of CF veterans and retired RCMP members; (i) with regards to (f) what groups or veterans associations has the government communicated with in regards to the pension claw back issues, with the goal of addressing the concerns of these groups, from 2000 to the present day; (j) in 1966, when the CF and RCMP Superannuation plans were reportedly coordinated with the CPP, how were members of the CF and RCMP members notified or briefed on the effects or benefits of such a policy change on individual pensions; (k) what recommendations has the government considered, since 2000, to change the CPP-related reduction calculation contained in the three primary federal public sector pension plans, including the CF Superannuation Act and the RCMP Superannuation Act, to address the concerns of CF veterans and retired RCMP members that they are losing an amount of pension income because of current policy; (l) does the government intend to meet with national organizations representing veterans and retired RCMP members in 2008 to work on ways to reduce or alleviate their concerns about the alleged pension claw backs and, if so, when are meetings planned, and for what cities in Canada; and (m) how many messages have been received by the Minister of National Defence from veterans, requesting that he personally become involved in terminating the benefit reduction formula being allegedly applied to the pension annuities of the CF veterans and retired RCMP members?

Lynne Yelich Blackstrap, SK

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all remaining questions be allowed to stand.

The Speaker Peter Milliken

Is that agreed?

Catherine Bell Vancouver Island North, BC

Mr. Speaker, as you know, I requested an emergency debate and was denied. My hon. House leader also requested a take note debate, but the government is denying all take note debates. Therefore, because this is such an urgent issue in British Columbia, I am once again requesting an emergency debate to highlight the issue of the disappearing Pacific salmon.

Overall, abundance is down. On the Skeena River, diverse salmon stocks are in such dire straits that harvest would have to be cut by 50% just to save them. On the Fraser River, 94 first nations bands, totalling 50% of all first nations people in British Columbia, have been told to ration their catch. On the west coast of Vancouver Island, fishermen will see their harvest cut by 30% this year, and I just learned that yesterday the Fraser chinook will be closed for this summer.

Chinook in the Fraser and Thompson and coho in the Upper Fraser are low. The Cowichan River had returns in the hundreds instead of in the usual thousands, and there are many more rivers and streams that have virtually no returns.

Conservation measures are kicking in under the wild salmon policy, but they do not address why the salmon are in peril. In question period last week, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans agreed with me that this is a crisis, a serious situation, and that I was not exaggerating the significance of this issue.

I truly want to strongly emphasize the importance of this issue for the people of British Columbia, for our coastal communities, for first nations people, for all fishermen, for habitat restoration groups, but especially for the salmon.

The Speaker Peter Milliken

I must say the Chair appreciates the fact that the hon. member put arguments on this matter before us last week and I have now had an opportunity in effect to review the arguments and hear further submissions on the point.

I do not deny that there is a problem in the salmon fishery on the west coast. There is no question about that. The difficulty is whether it constitutes an emergency for the purposes of an emergency debate since it is, in my view, a longstanding problem, one we have had for some time now that is perhaps getting worse but has been there for awhile.

Based on what I have heard today, again, I feel I must say that I do not believe that a request meets the exigencies of the Standing Order at this time, and accordingly I am inclined to decline the request at this time.

The Speaker Peter Milliken

Before question period, the hon. member for Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord had the floor for questions and comments following his speech.

Questions and comments. The hon. member for Yukon.

Larry Bagnell Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, I cannot remember if the member referred to it in his speech, but I would ask him to repeat the rationale for how to deal with the problem of a person running for office who incurs debts that people do not know about, with those debts then becoming the responsibility of the local or national party. If a new candidate for the Bloc Québécois were to incur a lot of debt that the party does not know about and the party has to pay for it, is there any precedent for that elsewhere in life?

My other question is related to the financing and to allowing only chartered financial institutions to provide the financing. Does that then give them a more favoured position in that they are the only ones that can provide the loan financing?

Michel Guimond Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC

Mr. Speaker, it is a shame that there are only three or four minutes left in the debate. I almost wish I could seek unanimous consent to talk about this for another 20 minutes, but I will be reasonable.

I will explain to my colleague that the problem stems from the fact that a local candidate could incur expenses to get nominated or elected, expenses that the party could be completely unaware of, expenses that could be considerable. The individual could declare bankruptcy, and the party would be liable for the debt.

My colleague is a member of the Liberal Party. There will be 308 candidates in the next election. Some of them might end up spending excessive sums of money to get their nominations.

Why should the party be responsible for expenses that it did not even know about? That is the problem.

I see that my colleague, the member for Hull—Aylmer, is here. I managed to get an amendment in the committee to raise this absurd possibility. Unfortunately, we have to go back to the original starting point as it was set out in Bill C-29 at first reading.