Sergio Marchi

[Candu Reactors, June 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the only contradiction is in the member's mind.

Earlier this week the allegation made by the NDP was that there was no financial due diligence done by the department. I responded by saying that was false because the financial specific due diligence was done on the contract by AECL and on the financing by EDC. At no time did I ever mention that the Government of Canada ultimately did not make the decision.

After that process by those two crown corporations, and based on their recommendations, of course the Government of Canada ultimately made the decision.

[Foreign Affairs, June 8th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, it was the Government of Canada that gave those wide parameter views and directives. What the officials also said and tabled to the court is that the financial review specifically has always been conducted by both AECL and EDC. They have worked in concert with the Government of Canada.

With respect to the specific financial due diligence, it is not the task of the departments of finance, trade or foreign affairs. It is that of the exporting arm which is the Export Development Corporation.

[Foreign Affairs, June 8th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, in the earlier question the implication was left that there was no financial due diligence. What I said to the member and to the House was that there was precisely that, a financial due diligence and it was carried out by the exporting arm of the Export Development Corporation.

Months before the contract the Government of Canada through cabinet gave the wide parameters of directions to both EDC and AECL. This was followed in the Candu sales to China and the previous Candu sales as well.

Also it should be noted that in China since 1979 there have been over 250 transactions worth $5 billion and there have been no liabilities thus far.

[Foreign Affairs, June 8th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, to say that there was not any financial review is simply inaccurate.

The Government of Canada through cabinet obviously gave broad mandate to the negotiations, but when it comes to specifically looking at the financing proposal that is handled by the Export Development Corporation, a crown corporation. When the specifics of the contract are looked at that is also done by AECL.

The Government of Canada gave broad directions and guidelines. The specifics both on financing and contracting have been handled by the two crown corporations, which is how they were acted upon from the start of the AECL program.

[Asbestos, June 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I regret to inform the member that he and his party are actually late, because my colleague, the Minister of Natural Resources, has already implemented the safe principle plan.

[Spirit Of Columbus Platform, June 1st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I met with ministers from Quebec on this issue. I also directed EDC to work with its counterpart in Quebec, la Société de développement du Québec. Both came up with a single plan. The last time I checked the file both those societies were working with Davie and the other stakeholders to come to grips with the situation.

[Asbestos Industry, May 28th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank my hon. colleague for his question. Since the French government announced its ban on asbestos, the federal government has been working very hard at finding an effective solution.

The French report was supposed to be released in April, then in May. Now, we are days away from June. I will call a meeting with the mayor and reeve to announce that, today, our government has formally referred the asbestos issue to the World Trade Organization.

[Asbestos Industry, May 5th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the asbestos file the government has always had the possibility and option of a WTO file on the table. We also said, which has been concurred by many stakeholders from the province of Quebec, that we wanted to pursue the matter with elements of the French government.

We had the visit last month of Professor Got who will be submitting a report hopefully based on science. Yesterday and today we had the minister of state for health, Professor Kouchner who is meeting with our Prime Minister and our ministers.

We are doing everything we can in order to facilitate—

[International Trade, April 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, we had a meeting and a conference call with the Canadian industry across the country because we have said that clearly we have an agreement that largely works. We will make no move in response to that customs agreement until we have been able to establish a sense of consensus within the industry.

The industry has also asked us for an additional period of a week, at which time we will be coming together again in Ottawa with representatives of the entire industry. If we can I think it would be very important to try to establish a consensus within the industry so we can march in the face of this decision in unity.

[Multilateral Agreement On Investment, April 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 109 it gives me great honour to table in the House of Commons, in both official languages, the government's official response to the report on the multilateral investment agreement, pursuant to the subcommittee on trade, wherein Canada's government agrees with all of the 17 recommendations.