Reg Alcock

[Information Commissioner, June 20th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the hon. member that we pay attention to the House orders. I am looking carefully at it and we will come forward with an OIC when necessary.

[Public Service, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I think I can speak on behalf of all members of the House on this particular issue. The Government of Canada is the largest organizational entity in this country. Our direct spending drives a third of this economy. We have the largest labour force in this country. We have the most complex organization. A large organization like B.C. might have 11 lines of business. We have 463.

Our programs are the foundation upon which the quality of life of Canadians is built and they are delivered by the public service of Canada.

[Softwood Lumber, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am in fact four ministers today, but given the nature of that last question, if I may on behalf of the minister of trade, I would give the same answer.

[Softwood Lumber, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, there have been few ministers of agriculture in the history of this country who have done as much for producers at a difficult time as this minister has. I do not need to go through the list of all of the investments he has made. He takes this very seriously. He is seized of it. He is working, not with an opposition that will not work with him, but with producers, to reach solutions.

[Agriculture, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, there are simply none so blind as those who will not see. The reality is that the minister has made some commitments. He has committed that research capacity in the province will be maintained. He has provincial stakeholders involved in it. They are looking at this. They are working to get to the best possible solution they can on behalf of farmers.

That is what the minister is committed to. That is what he has always been committed to. That is what the government and the Prime Minister are committed to.

[Agriculture, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, exactly the same process is going on in my province.

The minister in this particular case has made a commitment that there will be no diminishment of the research capacity in the province. What there is is a sincere attempt by a group of stakeholders to reorganize the research infrastructure to get the best possible value out of it. That is what is going on. It is an attempt to improve things, not make them worse. Unfortunately, the opposition never takes enough time to try to understand that.

[Agriculture, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am not going to comment on issues that happen within committee. The member can ask that in committee of the other members who are dealing with these issues.

I rather suspect it is exactly the same as what is going on in a number of committees where the official opposition, unlike the other two opposition parties, are not the least bit interested in engaging in making good legislation. The official opposition is simply interested in winning a political point, which unfortunately may work in this forum, but does not create good legislation.

[Agriculture, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, any time a person gets into the kind of trouble that was described by the member it is a tragedy. It is difficult. Farming is very risky. A great deal of problems can occur. It could be the weather or people's ability to get their crops to market. However, I will say that the minister has done more than anybody in recent history to ensure that the business risk system is as flexible and as progressive as it possibly can be.

Rather than trying to respond to a specific case, the member should concentrate on supporting the minister in putting in place the best business risk management program that a country can have.

[Canadian Food Inspection Agency, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the minister who is deeply engaged in these issues would say the same thing that I said to committee yesterday on a different bill. We do a great disservice to the citizens of Canada when we try to legislate by responding to question period questions. It is not about winning a point. It is about building legislation that is in the best interests of this country.

[Canadian Food Inspection Agency, June 17th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, accountability and good public management are issues that the government is very much seized of. That particular minister has a very strong voice on it. I know he is looking at these issues as we look at the broader question of how we hold public sector institutions to account.