Bob Speller

[Committees Of The House, December 13th, 1994]

Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

This interim report on agri-food priorities is intended to provide assistance to the Minister of Finance as well as the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food prior to the 1995 budget. It is based on input and views from many representatives of the agri-food sector who took the time to come to Ottawa to appear before the committee between August and December of this year.

The witnesses represented all sectors. We heard from academics, agri-food organization executives and specialists at both producer and processor levels. Each came with an individual point of view but from among them emerged some common threads.

[World Trade Organization Agreement Implementation Act, November 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on this motion as a past chair of the steel caucus. This is a caucus of all members of the House who have joined together to support the Canadian steel industry. My colleague from Oakville is the present chair, having taken over yesterday. She will guide steel issues through the House with the co-operation of all members.

The hon. member for Verchères, who put this motion forward, is a very active member of that committee and has taken almost word for word a proposal that was put forward by other members of the committee that represent steel industries.

Let me speak briefly about the intent of the motion. The steel industry felt it was important for it to send a strong message to the Americans that the present situation in which anti-dumping and trade actions are brought against Canadian steel industries is not acceptable. If we are going to have fair, open and free trade, if we are going to belong to an organization like the GATT, the World Trade Organization, the WTO, then we need to follow similar rules. The steel industry in North America is so integrated that we need to have similar rules on both sides of the border.

The intent of this motion is to make sure that there are similar rules on both sides of the border.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to speak with the Minister for International Trade. I want to thank the minister for coming to the committee. We discussed this very issue. Unfortunately he only saw this after he walked into the meeting and did not have the opportunity to look at it. It was his view that the intent of the motion could actually be handled by regulation.

Unfortunately I did not have an opportunity to listen to the parliamentary secretary but I am sure that is what he meant when he responded to the hon. member. The minister gave us his commitment yesterday that he would look at this issue very seriously, make sure someone in his department would respond to our concerns and would work with the steel caucus so the intent of this motion is carried through. When Canadian steel companies or for that matter other industries want to do battle in trade disputes with companies in the United States they should have the same arsenal to work with.

I agree with the hon. member that the arsenal is not balanced now. Not only steel producers but other producers will tell you that it takes a heck of a lot longer to deal with a dispute in the United States than it does one in Canada. When they go to the United States they have to take a truckload of documents with them. But when Americans come here to deal with a dispute they just have to carry a briefcase full of documents.

If the values and the intent of the World Trade Organization is to bring down these sorts of barriers, then certainly industries, particularly the steel companies who employ thousands of workers in members' ridings across the country should have an opportunity to have fair trade.

I know that is the intent of the motion by the member for Verchères. I support the intent of his motion. We will work with the minister and members of the steel caucus to make sure that that intent is put forward as strongly as we can, and to work to make sure that through regulation the intent is carried on.

[Petitions, November 23rd, 1994]

In the last petition, Mr. Speaker, the constituents of Haldimand-Norfolk ask the government to extend protection to the unborn child by amending the Criminal Code to extend the same protection enjoyed by born human beings to unborn human beings.

[Petitions, November 23rd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I also have the pleasure to present to the House a petition from constituents from Haldimand-Norfolk regarding the whole question of same sex relationships.

[Petitions, November 23rd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present quite a few petitions under Standing Order 36 dealing with the whole question of euthanasia.

Constituents from all parts of Haldimand-Norfolk pray that Parliament make no changes in the law which would sanction or allow aiding or abetting of suicide or active or passive euthanasia.

[Committees Of The House, November 23rd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food which deals with Bill C-51, an act to amend the Canada Grain Act. It is reported with no amendments.

[40Th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, November 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, to the House a report concerning the 40th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference which was held in Banff, Alberta, October 4 to 18, 1994.

[Excise Tax Act, June 22nd, 1994]

Yes I do really believe my question. Does the member really believe that there are different levels of laws in this country for Canadians? If he does, how does he propose to solve some of the problems that he has outlined here?

[Excise Tax Act, June 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I was quite interested in the hon. member's statement. The sense I get from across the way is that one person wrote the same speech for everybody. Much of the same misinformation seems to be passed along from one member of the Reform Party to the next.

The hon. member stated that this was an eastern Canadian problem. I am wondering where he gets that information. The hon. member knows this was a major problem in Alberta. There have been a number of complaints by people from all over the country. Smuggling was a problem in every single province.

Other hon. members on the other side suggested that we failed in this matter. The hon. member said yesterday that smoking had gone up because of this. I found that quite interesting so I called Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada reported that Canadians smoked approximately 3.6 billion cigarettes in the year ending April 1994 compared to approximately 4.3 billion smoked in the year ending April 1993. That seems to suggest that smoking has gone down dramatically. A lot of it has had to do with the policies brought in by this government, especially the hard work done by the Minister of Health in this area.

These hon. members seem to always suggest that this is just a native problem, that somehow we have two systems of laws in this country, one for native Canadians and one for other Canadians. From people who obviously have not spent a lot of time with natives in this country, I find it quite distressing hon. members would even suggest that. There is no two tier system of laws in Canada. We have one set of laws for all Canadians.

There was a problem before we became the government. The RCMP was having problems dealing with specific situations on certain reserves. I wish hon. members on the other side would visit some of these places. It is not so easy to send in a whole bunch of RCMP officers and expect them to solve a situation. These people are good people. They are Canadians and the majority of them on these reserves respect the laws. The people on the reserves want all Canadians to know they are law-abiding citizens. Yes there are certain problems on the reserves. Certain individuals on the reserves do not follow the law.

We as a government made a commitment when we brought in this bill to make sure the RCMP went into these areas and dealt with the problems. To suggest, like the other side is suggesting, that we somehow militarize these places, send in the forces, knock them all around and that somehow we will stop the smuggling is all wrong.

What that would do is create animosity, create mistrust and it would not be a good way to set a good standard for all Canadians to live by.

I want to ask the hon. member if he really believes there are different levels of laws in this country for certain Canadians or is it just the rhetoric of the Reform Party that he is being pressed into saying this. Does he really believe that there are Canadians-

[Excise Tax Act, June 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, a short intervention because I was not quite clear on something. The hon. member came forward with some figures in terms of sales of cigarettes. I think he suggested that smoking was up in the past four months and I am wondering if that was based on sales. It is hard to determine, especially in the smuggling area, actually how many cigarettes people are smoking because they were buying them illegally. We can determine what was being sold either through the retail sector or we can just take a survey and say: "Are you smoking, did you smoke today, did you smoke yesterday, did you smoke a year ago?". That is important because government figures show that production is down and for the companies producing cigarettes the number of products they are producing since this bill came into effect is down. Government figures also suggest that it is down. People are not buying as many cigarettes. The numbers are down.

I wonder how that juxtaposes with what the hon. member said about his figures saying more people are smoking. The figures just do not show that.