Val Meredith

[Corrections And Conditional Release Act, April 22nd, 1994]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-240, an act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and the Criminal Code.

Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this bill is to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act as well as the Criminal Code to provide for the detention of high risk violent offenders after the expiration of their sentences and to provide for the detention of sex offenders convicted of offences against children.

This bill will give the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Parole Board the power to refer the offender to the appropriate Attorney General for a dangerous offender hearing. Upon making a dangerous offender finding, a court could then make the following orders for the protection of society: First, custody for an indefinite period of time; second, custody for a definite period of time; and third, supervised release in the community for a period of 10 years.

The second aspect of this bill would eliminate the need to prove the serious harm criteria when dealing with high risk offenders who victimize children. The current requirement to prove serious harm is difficult in cases involving children as the actual harm to the child may not be evident for several years. A child's difficulty in clearly communicating the effect of a sexual crime makes serious harm very difficult to detect.

It is my pleasure to introduce this bill. I hope it is given great consideration as it is very important for the protection of society.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)

[Citizenship Week, April 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, it is of great importance to me as a Reformer and a proud Canadian that as we celebrate Citizenship Week we begin the process of elevating the concept and value of citizenship within our country.

As Canadians we need to restore the value and pride that our citizenship deserves. As legislators we need to question policies that stand in the way of that restoration.

Do present policies of bilingualism and multiculturalism build bridges or walls to our diversities? Do record immigration levels added to our crippled economy and stressed social structures promote tolerance or misunderstanding in our land? Do government policies that weaken families and negate justice bring hope or despair to our people?

Whether we are Canadians by birth or by choice our citizenship must be elevated by the decisions to be made in this House as a privileged opportunity to proudly participate together in the making of a great future of a great country.

[Public Safety, April 18th, 1994]

I have a supplementary question, Mr. Speaker.

One of the reasons for this backlog in deportations is the shortage of deportation officers. I understand there are about 24,000 deportation orders across the country that are unable to be acted upon.

Can the Prime Minister or the parliamentary secretary for immigration explain why the immigration minister is not reducing government red tape but instead is laying off a third of the front line deportation officers in Toronto?

[Public Safety, April 18th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister in his concern for public safety must be aware that there are approximately 1,000 criminals facing deportation currently free on the streets of Toronto. Not only that but there are another 400 prisoners about to be released who have deportation warrants pending against them.

People in Toronto and across the country are upset and concerned about safety in their streets. What is the Prime Minister going to do to ensure that these criminals are deported immediately upon their release from prison?

[Gun Control, April 13th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see there will be co-operation with the government side in making some changes to the gun control legislation. Unfortunately, I have every reason to believe it is in the wrong direction and it is against legitimate gun users.

We are asking for changes in the law. We want to know if the government is prepared to make changes in the law to prohibit plea bargaining away existing gun control on the illegal use of guns.

[Gun Control, April 13th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice or the parliamentary secretary for justice.

The government continues to talk about gun control for legitimate gun users.

In August 1993 Frederick Stephen Dieno was arrested in a shootout with the RCMP in Surrey, B.C., while fleeing after robbing a pharmacy with a gun. Mr. Dieno was originally charged with 40 offences, including eight armed robberies and accompanying use of a firearm during an indictable offence. However, in a plea bargain arraignment last week Mr. Dieno pleaded guilty to two charges of robbery. All charges of using a firearm were dropped.

How can the minister ensure that Canadians can feel safe from the improper use of firearms when charges of using a firearm during the commission of an offence are routinely plea bargained away?

[Auditor General Act, March 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to stand in this House today and support the private member's bill of my hon. colleague for Ottawa-Vanier.

Our party, as members know, is very supportive of increasing the reporting opportunities of the Auditor General to this House. We sponsored a supply motion in the early stages of this Parliament that tried to set up a procedure for the Auditor General to be able to make reports more often on a regular basis to this House rather than just once a year giving his annual report.

This bill, as mentioned by the hon. member for Ottawa-Vanier, has been introduced at various times or something like it has been introduced various times in this House, in 1985 and 1988 just to mention a couple of occasions. It is the feeling that this is a step in the right direction but not necessarily the only step that should be taken. However, it would start to solve some of the concern that with a yearly report is more than often after the fact.

It has been brought to the attention of the House that the public accounts committee holds hearings on chapters of the Auditor General's report which deal with government waste and mismanagement. It seeks to ensure that Canadians receive value for their tax dollars.

Due to the fact that the Auditor General's report is only tabled once a year, the committee is often dealing with problems that are more than a year old and any remedial action that should be taken is unnecessarily delayed.

We feel that this private members' bill C-207, that is sponsored by a former chairman of the public accounts committee, would allow the public accounts committee to deal with reported cases of fiscal mismanagement in a more timely manner than currently exists.

That certainly is a very positive step. We feel that it would allow the committee to report to the House what remedial action could be taken more expeditiously since it would be able to hold hearings more expeditiously. We feel that is a very good step in the right direction. We feel it would contribute to an improved process to correct government mismanagement.

We like to think that if the government is truly concerned about using taxpayers' dollars wisely that it will endorse this completion date reporting as suggested in Bill C-207.

We feel that taxpayers are entitled to receive value for their money and when they do not, such as when the Auditor General reports cases of mismanagement, taxpayers are entitled to have the problem rectified as quickly as possible, not once a year or after the fact.

In conclusion, this idea has been supported by former NDP and PC members in this House and endorsed by public accounts committees and the office of the Auditor General. The Reform caucus now has the pleasure to endorse it.

We feel that the member for Ottawa-Vanier, a Liberal MP and former chair of the public accounts committee, should be supported in this private member's bill.

I urge all members of this House to give their support so that this can be referred to the public accounts committee after second reading.

[Budget Implementation Act, 1994, March 25th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on the point my hon. colleague raised. Our party has very little problem with freezing salaries. However when we start talking about freezing increments it goes a little bit further.

With the RCMP constables the government is cutting into what was considered training advancement through an incremental process.

British Columbia has the largest number of RCMP. It is the largest division in the country. There are over 700 constables in the E division. A large part of the cost the member is talking about controlling is municipal. It is through the municipal taxpayers.

In the Surrey detachment 90 per cent is picked up by the municipality. Provincially, 70 per cent is picked up by the province. When the hon. member starts talking about saving real dollars for the federal government he is talking about minimal savings on the backs of low paid constables who are in training.

The Reform Party certainly supports the concept of freezing salaries. However it does not support freezing increments which are based on training that are part of an ongoing contract with these individuals and should not have been put into a collective package.

I do not think the government can make those kinds of decisions without looking at individual circumstances in different programs that fall outside the normal salary range. I would like the minister to give this further consideration.

Morale in the RCMP is at an all time low. There was a meeting of 800 members of the RCMP in my constituency last night. The deputy commissioner made the statement: "It would be futile for me to say that there is not a morale problem in terms of this incremental freeze". Would the hon. member please respond to this.

[Justice, March 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice.

Last week the media in British Columbia reported two instances of a disturbing trend in the drug trade. In Nanaimo, an undercover RCMP officer went to a residence to make a drug buy. While the suspect was not home, the transaction was completed by her eight-year old daughter. Likewise in another undercover buy in Vancouver, the drug dealer used his six-year old son to carry the drugs.

What steps is the minister prepared to take to protect children from this criminal exploitation?

[Business Of Supply, March 17th, 1994]

Madam Speaker, I listened with some interest to the first part of the hon. member's comments. I was a little surprised to hear her criticizing the motion that is before the House. It talks about changing that which has been part of the Canadian system over centuries.

Why is it that when my party talks about changing something because we feel it is not serving its purposes that we are criticized and yet the party that she represents is questioning the whole make-up of the country because it does not believe that it is justified? How can she criticize us for wanting to change the justice system when she wants to change the whole fabric of our country?