House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2004, with 40% of the vote.
Petitions June 8th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I wish to present a petition.
The petitioners call on Parliament to pursue initiatives to eliminate tax discrimination against families who decide to provide care in the home for preschool children as well as for the disabled, the chronically ill and the aged.
National Access Awareness Week June 1st, 1995
Mr. Speaker, this week all Canadians join together in celebrating National Access Awareness Week, the goal being to ensure the full participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life.
National Access Awareness Week works to remove physical barriers to community access for Canadians with disabilities. The week has evolved from awareness raising to a vehicle promoting concrete action to remove barriers to accessibility. Throughout Canada more than 1,000 communities participate in this important opportunity for celebration and commitment.
Through the partnerships of National Access Awareness Week, voluntary organizations, governments at all levels, local businesses and thousands of volunteers have been able to undertake innovative projects in communities all across the country. The results of these projects are dramatic. Barriers for people with disabilities are coming down.
The House of Commons, its members and staff are also celebrating this important week. Activities on Parliament Hill include promotional displays, leadership activities and workshops.
Missing Children May 17th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, each May, Child Find Canada holds its Green Ribbon of Hope campaign. The aim is to increase public awareness about Missing Children's Day on May 25.
Community members are asked to show their support of the missing children's issue by prominently wearing a green ribbon. Proceeds generated by the green ribbon campaign will enable Child Find Canada to continue its mandate of assisting in the search process for Canada's thousands of missing children and the education of children and adults about abduction.
The concept of the green ribbon of hope was originated by the students of Holy Cross Secondary School in Ontario following the abduction and subsequent murder of one of its students, Kristen French. In memory of this tragedy, the students and faculty have generously directed that their idea for the green ribbon be used exclusively by Child Find Canada.
Child Find Canada receives no government funding, depending entirely on the corporate community and the Green Ribbon of Hope campaign. For the sake of our children, I ask all members to support this very worthwhile program.
Canadian Dairy Commission Act May 16th, 1995
Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question.
We certainly have top priority with our dairy people. I feel the government has moved in a fashion that will protect the whole dairy industry.
I realize that six provinces have signed on and other provinces agree with portions of Bill C-86. The bill is in the best interest of Canada and its export markets and pertains to the reduction and changeovers that will be happening in August of this year.
Canadian Dairy Commission Act May 16th, 1995
Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question.
In his statement he said that the dairy farmers do not wish to produce more milk. Bill C-86 is not about producing more milk. It is about providing a proper environment for the new export rules that will be implemented in August of this year. Bill C-86 will open those avenues to the dairy farmers so they can adjust.
Dairy farmers are well aware of the adjustments they have had to make since the Uruguay round of discussions. It is not something that was thrust on them at the last minute.
Canadian Dairy Commission Act May 16th, 1995
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Vaudreuil.
I am pleased to contribute to the debate on Bill C-86, an act to amend the Canadian Dairy Commission Act. It offers a new, more competitive marketing approach for the Canadian dairy industry, which is required to allow Canada to honour its international trade commitment while preserving the fairness and equity for Canadian milk producers of the present system.
While market opportunities will flow from both the North American free trade agreement and the World Trade Organization agreement, certain changes to our domestic structure must be made. Effective August 1, 1995, under NAFTA Canada will not be permitted to export dairy products to the United States where the price of the product has been supported by a producer funded levy. This relatively immediate export restraint will be accompanied by a more gradually implemented WTO restriction on our ability to use levies to finance dairy product exports to other market destinations.
The importance of maintaining current export and domestic markets for dairy products and for products containing dairy ingredients in a manner that still allows all dairy producers to share the cost of supplying milk to these markets cannot be overstated.
Over 300 dairy plants in Canada employ almost 25,000 Canadians to process milk used as table cream and milk or in products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. Thousands of other jobs are provided in the further processing sector for items containing dairy ingredients such as cookies, pizza, and chocolate, as well as in areas of dairy product transportation, packaging, storage, and marketing.
Under the rebate program for further processors in dairy product export assistance programs, initiatives currently funded by the producer levies and administered by the Canadian Dairy Commission, export assistance was provided to facilitate the export of over 10 million kilograms of cheese in 1993-94 and to support processor purchases of dairy ingredients used in the production of over 2,000 finished food products.
In 1993-94 dairy exports to the United States involved about 0.7 million hectolitres of milk, about 1.7 per cent of the entire Canadian milk quota set for that period.
Canada's dairy processing industry is largely centred in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The 1992 census data indicated that 105 plants processing fluid and or industrial milk were located in Ontario, while the 83 plants situated in Quebec had the highest value of shipments, at $3 billion. Alberta follows with 31 processing establishments. B.C. has 25, Manitoba 18, Nova Scotia 14, Saskatchewan 12, P.E.I. 9, New Brunswick 6, and Newfoundland has 5 such processing facilities.
Without price discrimination and pooling of returns, dairy and further processors would not be able to access milk at price levels that would enable them to compete on the U.S. market and be competitive against imports on the domestic market. Furthermore, the current level playing field provided to producers by the current levy system would be eliminated.
The largest volumes of the lower priced milk needed by processors and further processors for certain export and domestic products are produced in the more industrial provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Some smaller provinces are also greatly affected in terms of the proportion of their total milk marketing that is sold at reduced prices.
Without a workable alternative to the current levy system such as that offered by price discrimination, the loss of the U.S. market for Canadian dairy products and products containing dairy ingredients would lead to reduced competitiveness and would place in jeopardy the domestic further processing sector for such products.
Without pooling of the market returns, there would be an inequitable sharing among producers of the cost of maintaining exports to the United States and for domestic competitive markets. This could lead to their abandonment. Should these markets not be maintained, the domestic further processing industry would be less viable due to the diminished economies of scale. Pressure on further processors to relocate their operations to the United States would result. The job loss ramifications of such relocations would be significant.
There is a potential additional reduction in the industry side of almost two per cent resulting from the growing restrictions agreed to under the WTO agreement of the allowable quantity of subsidized exports and the export subsidy paid annually for each product class up to the year 2000-2001. A price discrimination system with pooling of market returns as facilitated by Bill C-86 would address this issue.
Everyone in the Canadian dairy sector is becoming clearly aware of the need to adapt to the new North American and global trade conditions in competition. To illustrate Canadian dairy producers' awareness of this need to adapt, I quote from a May 4 letter written to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and copied to me by my constituent, Mr. John Core, chairman of the Ontario milk marketing board.
Mr. Core writes:
It is extremely important that Bill C-86 be passed by the House. We have negotiated long and hard to arrive at a system to replace levies effective August 1. The changes to the CDC Act are critical to special class pricing and the required pooling that follows from that new pricing method. Your directive to not use levies for exports to the U.S. cannot be adhered to without the necessary amendments.
We met the challenge given to us by the federal and provincial agricultural ministers to find the solution. We require the legislative changes now to implement the necessary changes.
Mr. Core, I am proud to say, is one of my constituents.
The dairy industry leaders who have developed and negotiated the approach facilitated by these amendments fully understand that while tariff protection is in place between now and the year 2001, the only way to reduce uncertainty and concern about what happens after this period is to meet the new trade challenges head on. Bill C-86 will allow the industry to do so.
I urge my fellow members to support these amendments.
Health Care May 9th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I have learned that Ontario NDP Premier Bob Rae is campaigning today in my riding of Lambton-Middlesex. I imagine Mr. Rae is also continuing with his dialogue of misinformation with respect to federal funding for health and how this is supposedly resulting in hospital cutbacks in long term care and so on.
Let me set the record straight. The federal commitment to medicare in Canada and in Ontario is as strong as ever. Contrary to what Mr. Rae has been spreading, federal EPF health transfers to Ontario have been rising over the term of this government. At the same time the Ontario government has been cutting the amount it spends on health care.
By rolling all transfers into one, the Canada health and social transfer, the federal government is strengthening its ability to enforce the Canada Health Act.
Liberals do not need to take any lessons from Mr. Rae on medicare. After all, Liberals introduced the Canada Health Act in 1984. We have always defended strong and reliable funding of medicare and we always will.
National Nursing Week May 3rd, 1995
Mr. Speaker, May 8 to 14 is National Nursing Week in Canada. As a former registered nursing assistant, I am delighted to have this
opportunity to salute my former colleagues in Lambton-Middlesex and throughout Canada.
For this year's National Nursing Week, Canada's 253,000 registered nurses will be planning activities to increase knowledge and understanding of nursing contributions to the health of Canadians under the theme: "Your Family's Health: Nurses make a Difference".
No matter where nurses work, be it in the hospital or in the community itself, their focus has always been the family. Nurses provide families with information to prevent them from becoming ill, to help families through challenging times and to make meaningful choices.
Nurses are also interpreters. They take the vast amount of health care knowledge flooding clients and interpret what it means for their health and that of their families.
Because they have the right combination of knowledge and skills for promoting, maintaining and supporting health, nurses are ideally positioned to make a real difference to the health of Canadians and to ensure the healthy future of Canada's medicare system.
Petitions April 26th, 1995
Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to present this petition signed by 25 petitioners. They are calling upon Parliament to pursue initiatives to eliminate tax discrimination against families who decide to provide care in the home for preschool children as well as for the disabled, the chronically ill and the aged.
Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood Community Centre April 25th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I would like to relate a success story in my riding of Lambton-Middlesex based not on government handouts but on true community spirit and the refusal to let a dream die.
On March 11 pledges from a variety of local service clubs for about $125,000 were announced toward the construction of additional facilities at the Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood Community Centre complex.
After no government grant money was available, organizers decided that the project would not go ahead if it meant an increase in tax dollars for local ratepayers. Instead, based solely on the generous contribution of thousands of dollars from a variety of service clubs in the riding, plus the donation of material, products and volunteer assistance, ground breaking will begin this spring.
This project exemplifies the rural community spirit that is alive and well in the riding of Lambton-Middlesex.
My congratulations to all participants in this very worthwhile community project, and a special mention to Doug Redick, chairman of the building committee, and Ian Lehrbass, the arena manager.