Andrew Scheer

[Financial Administration Act, February 14th, 2005]

He did not ask about drugs. Answer the question. It is about hepatitis C.

[Airports, February 14th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, in November the Minister of Transport told the transport committee that he would seek to scrap the plans to raise airport rents. Crown rent on airports cost the Canadian economy over $286 million in 2004 and that figure will balloon to over $368 million in 2006.

Under the government's plan, regional airports will have to start paying huge rental fees. The Regina International Airport alone will be asked to come up with over half a million dollars. The Regina Airport Authority fears that such a massive rental fee could result in higher ticket costs and reduction of service.

What happened to the minister's promise to stop gouging air travellers?

[Supply, February 3rd, 2005]

Madam Speaker, I found it interesting that the minister talked about Canada's obligation on trade issues.

When he was in Yorkton last month he opened up his speech with an anecdote about how his first assignment as minister was to travel to the WTO negotiations taking place in Europe. The gist of his story was that he had only been minister for three days and he had been asked to read the entire file on the seven hour flight. He did not get too many laughs because he did not know that the speaker a few time slots before him had outlined how Canada had failed to adequately negotiate these international agreements and how Canada had basically traded away the farm, so to speak. I wanted to mention that point.

I have a few specific questions for the minister.

According to the 2003 statistics for CAIS, of the 34,432 applications received, payments had been made on only some 13,000 and change. Those numbers were provided by the parliamentary secretary on his tour throughout Saskatchewan. Does the minister view that as a success? One in three applications has received payment. Those are the government's own numbers. Does he view that as a success?

We are talking about a very specific matter today. The minister's speech decried the rhetoric from the opposition side and he not once addressed the motion.

Will the government commit to actually dropping the cash on deposit requirements? He said it is a matter of federal-provincial agreements. Will he start those negotiations? Will he visit the premiers, secure the certainty that they will drop them? Will he start that today?

[Petitions, February 2nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour today to present a petition with 146 names of people in my riding who call upon the government to preserve the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.

[Finance, January 31st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I want to point out that this case has nothing to do with legitimate immigrants. This has nothing to do with Canada's tradition of welcoming new people to become citizens of our country. This has to do with the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration fast tracking strippers after the minister's staff had visited those strip clubs and all the many allegations that were thrown out.

The hon. member has instructed us as to what the policies of the department are in regard to keeping records. I am sure as we speak we can know that those applications either have an address in Canada or have someone who has approached the member who had an address in Canada which would of course have a postal code and which would of course be very simple to break down by riding.

I doubt that this would have anything to do with personal information. It would just be a statistical number without revealing any pertinent facts about the applicants themselves but would let us know how many in each riding.

[Finance, January 31st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, of the many scandals that have plagued the Liberal government since it came to power in 1993, one of the most disgusting was the stripper scandal that took place in November and December last year. The minister of immigration has since resigned, not out of any respect for ministerial responsibility, but to try to save her own political career.

There have been many contradictions from the then minister of immigration as well as from many government officials. We have seen the disgusting habits of ministerial staff doing business in strip clubs to get those permits issued for erotic dancers.

Canadians need to have confidence in their government in every department. The government has allowed legitimate immigrants to wait for unacceptable lengths of time while erotic dancers are fast tracked into this country.

In November the former immigration minister said in the House, “I was going to bring a book with me, which is thick, full of all the requests I get from all members of the House” for intervention in immigration cases.

In December I asked the former minister to please table the book and a list of all ministerial interventions broken down by riding or postal code. This has not yet been done. Just because the former minister was forced to resign in disgrace does not mean that the House should not see this alleged book or a list of ministerial permits granted.

I would like to know if the new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration is in possession of the book, or has it mysteriously disappeared? Canadians have a right to know how many ministerial permits were issued, especially during the election campaign, and in which ridings they were granted. Is there a disproportionate number of permits granted to immigrants in ridings held by Liberal MPs? That has been raised, I think. The confidence of Canadians has been shattered because of the scandal. It would not be out of the realm of the possible for that to go on in the government.

I would like the new minister to respond to that. Let the House know, will such a report of ministerial permits granted, broken down by riding, be tabled so that all Canadians can know what went on in the immigration department?

[Citizenship and Immigration, December 10th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, we learned yesterday that security officials have confirmed that one of the minister's former staff is being probed for allegations relating to national security. This is really simple. We are not asking her to make comments on the investigation, just to confirm if there is in fact any police investigation, RCMP or otherwise. She knows she is allowed to say yes or no to that.

[Citizenship and Immigration, December 3rd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, this is really simple. Every immigration application has an address on it. Sort the database by postal code and we will know which riding they are in. Even the minister herself could figure that out. We know she is having a bit of trouble staffing her office, but I am sure somebody there knows how to hit “print”.

Will the minister either table her big book of requests or give the House a breakdown riding by riding?

[Department of Social Development Act, November 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have a quick question for the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre.

He spoke a lot about the damage done to his riding when social development programs are not applied equally. However I think the tone of his party in particular is very discouraging. He referred to it as an industry in his riding.

Would the member not agree that the best way to address poverty line issues and child poverty would be to create jobs in the areas that need them, and that instead of having an industry of public programs and social assistance, to pursue economic policies that would actually result in the creation of new jobs?

In my riding in Saskatchewan, which, unfortunately, is under a regime of socialism and communism, the jobs are not there because the policies of the NDP, which we have seen federally and provincially, discourage the creation of jobs and drive business out of those areas and then we see a further cycle of dependence on public programs and social assistance.

[Citizenship and Immigration, November 26th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, how can they keep saying that this matter is before the Ethics Commissioner when these are brand new reports? The lines must really be humming between the minister's office and the ethics office.

Today's reports indicate that the minister's staff read the member for Winnipeg Centre a list of applications from his riding and implied they would be denied if he attacked her in the House for her role in fast tracking visas for strippers.

These new tactics further undermine the credibility of the minister. Does the Deputy Prime Minister support and condone these actions?