Debates of March 15th, 1994

Publishing Industry

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the situation is as described by the Secretary of State for International Financial Institutions. There was an agreement with the previous Conservative government, and it is our tradition and obligation as a government to respect agreements of this nature signed by our predecessors. At this time, there is nothing we can do.

If a similar document was submitted to us today, without the obligations we inherited from the other government, we might make a different decision. However, this is a private contract and because the previous government changed its mind, the American company took advantage of the situation, as provided by the contract, and as the government, we had to respect our obligations.

[English]

Unemployment Insurance

[Carolyn Parrish, Liberal, Mississauga West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is becoming a common practice for school boards with up to 15 per cent of their employees voluntarily working 10 months per year to issue severance letters on June 30 and to rehire the same employees in September. They counsel those employees to use school breaks as qualifying time for UIC.

My question for the Minister of Human Resources Development is: Can the UIC rules be altered to make such abuse of the overburdened UIC system impossible by those who are gainfully and securely employed?

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member may know during difficult fiscal times and changing economies we have witnessed an increased use of contracting in many industries. This is creating some pressure on the UI system.

However I do want to make it perfectly clear in cases such as this one where people are using the UI system, the member can rest assured that in most cases they are the victims rather than the abusers.

We have already initiated measures in the federal budget to rectify this problem. For example it has been suggested that to foreshadow the treatment of repeat users we may want to consider means of more effectively regulating on and off workers.

Of course this is a complex issue and I look to members of Parliament to give us their input.

Ministerial Regional Offices

[Ted White, Reform, North Vancouver, BC]

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

This government is in the process of opening three new lavishly furnished regional ministers offices. One of them is in Quebec City, even though there are no ministers from that area and there is an office already in Montreal.

Will the Deputy Prime Minister please tell this House why the government is not closing regional ministers offices instead of wasting another $1.5 million on their proliferation?

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, there has been a review and as a result there had been offices closed.

The office in Quebec City was opened. That is the capital of the province. It is an important part of relations with provincial ministers in terms of dialogue with our own ministers when they are in that city.

However the entire group of ministerial regional offices is constantly under review both in terms of cutting costs and also determining if there are any offices we could do without. We have conducted a review. We will continue to conduct a review because we are concerned about the efficiency and effectiveness of the use of taxpayers' dollars.

[Ted White, Reform, North Vancouver, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear these offices are currently under review.

I am a little bit surprised at the answer because in this House on April 25, 1986 the Deputy Prime Minister asked in a question to the PC government why it was turning its back on pensioned workers and opening six ministerial regional offices. This government is now doing the same thing.

The people of Canada would like to know. Does this mean the Deputy Prime Minister has become a PC in Liberal clothing? Is this government following a PC agenda?

[David Dingwall, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. Simply put, the response is no.

Before the hon. member makes interventions on the floor of the House of Commons he should check his facts. Over nine ministerial regional offices have been closed by this government since it has taken power.

As the minister responsible for Treasury Board has indicated a constant review is being taken with regard to ministerial regional offices as well as all expenditures ministers make with regard to their exempt staff and offices across the country.

The Environment

[Jean-Guy Chrétien, Bloc, Frontenac, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last Saturday, we learned that only 56 per cent of the amount approved for phase 1 of the St. Lawrence action plan had actually been spent.

Moreover, only 11 of the 23 projects accepted were directly related to the St. Lawrence River. Of the $20 million initially budgeted, less than $5 million was used to clean up the St. Lawrence.

How can the Minister of the Environment justify that so little of the money was actually invested in cleaning up the St. Lawrence River?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, it is very simple. Under the former government, when the Minister of the Environment was his colleague, the Leader of the Opposition, the Conservatives signed an agreement that did not respect the standards for cleaning up the St. Lawrence River.

I can assure the hon. member that Mr. Paradis, my counterpart in the province of Quebec, and I are about to sign an agreement on the second phase of the St. Lawrence Action Plan, which will ensure that all the funds are spent on cleaning up the St. Lawrence River, unlike what was done by my colleague, the former Minister of the Environment.

[Jean-Guy Chrétien, Bloc, Frontenac, QC]

Mr. Speaker, is the Minister of the Environment prepared today, in this House, to make a formal commitment that 100 per cent of the funds will be spent on the St. Lawrence River?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely and unequivocally give that 100 per cent guarantee.

I am happy the government is prepared to make a stronger commitment to cleaning up the environment than the current Leader of the Opposition when he was Minister of Environment.

Immigration

[Art Hanger, Reform, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Recent polls indicate that the vast majority of Canadians are compassionate to immigrants but retain the belief that immigration levels must be reduced.

The minister has repeatedly defended his immigration quotas with references to the red book and the outdated Economic Council of Canada report. In this case it is clear that the red book is not consistent with the wishes of the Canadian people.

Could the minister explain why he continues to pursue this policy when it is clear Canadians do not support it?

[Sergio Marchi, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the hon. member back from his educational journey through metropolitan Toronto. I find his statement today at variance with something he told residents of metropolitan Toronto. The Toronto Star quoted the hon. critic as saying: ``I don't see our immigration policy as out of line with the opinions that I have heard in the last few days''.

I caution the member to take one snapshot of a public opinion survey and therefore deduce that we ought to make policy on the fly. If he were to look at how Gallup has tracked unemployment and Canadians' feelings on immigration in the last 25 years, he would find that in 1982 almost the same kinds of levels were reported by Ekos Research. At the same time in 1988 and 1990 there was a record 65 to 70 per cent support for more immigration.

We cannot ask people about immigration like we ask them about their favourite flavour of ice cream. It is more complex than that.

[Art Hanger, Reform, Calgary Northeast, AB]

There is no question, Mr. Speaker, that there is an education process involved here.

The Reform Party is not opposed to immigration. What we oppose is the idea of increasing immigration levels at this time. It would appear that a majority of Canadians support our position and would like to see the minister's policy reversed.

In light of these facts, would the minister care to retract the statement he made to the press that anyone who disagrees with his policy is ignorant and uninformed?

[Sergio Marchi, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I will not retract because that is exactly what I did not say. If any member ought to go around retracting statements it ought to be that member for the things he said in metropolitan Toronto.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

[Sergio Marchi, Liberal, York West, ON]

Although the member did say that education ought to continue, in another quote from the Toronto Star the hon. critic concluded: ``Immigrants seem to be just like anybody else''.

That is what he ought to do. Rather than take one snapshot of one poll at one time in the history of our country, let us engage fellow Canadians; let us go beyond the superficiality of simply one poll and understand the forces at play.

Government Expenditures

[Stan Dromisky, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Atikokan, ON]

Mr. Speaker, March is the final month of the government's fiscal year. This usually means that last minute purchasing decisions are being made in most departments before the final date. Often the spending frenzy is not based on need. It is commonly felt that if there is money in the budget let us spend it.

What are the ministries doing to prevent unnecessary spending during this month?

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, as is usually said, I thank the hon. member for his question.

The Auditor General looked at this matter a number of years ago and found that there were some poor cash management practices. He was not saying that managers were wasteful in their spending at year end but that because the moneys were lapsing at year end, the end of March, if they did not spend them, they had a tendency to spend them perhaps prematurely, make purchases prematurely or spend money too quickly when it really was not due on the invoice.

To help prevent that, Treasury Board in the last fiscal year did an experiment that involved carrying forward some 2 per cent of departmental budgets into the following year so there would not be this year end frenzy as the member pointed out. That only involved a few departments.

This year we expanded it to all departments and have allowed them to carry over 5 per cent, which I think will help end that year end frenzy.

Overfishing On The High Seas

[Yvan Bernier, Bloc, Gaspé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans called upon the members of the United Nations to adopt by this coming fall very stringent rules in order to put an end to overfishing on the high seas. The minister said that failing such a move, concrete measures would be considered. He indicated that he would not sign another statement of principle since, in his opinion, the Law of the Sea Convention was no longer working.

My question is for the Prime Minister. Can he indicate to us what kind of concrete measures his minister had in mind to end foreign overfishing if an international agreement is not signed by the fall?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, I can assure the hon. member that the Canadian government is very pleased with the outcome of the minister's visit. Moreover, it is prepared to work closely with its NAFO colleagues to ensure that an international strategy is in place to address this problem which affects not only the fishery, but conservation and the environment as well.

The ministers involved are working very closely to ensure that the good work of the United Nations is not being undermined by foreign vessels who fish illegally and who disregard their environmental responsibilities.

[Yvan Bernier, Bloc, Gaspé, QC]

Mr. Speaker, judging from the response of the Deputy Prime Minister and the reference to concrete measures and NAFO, I see that we are right back where we started from.

Why is the government unable at the present time to convince its trading partners of the need to strengthen the provisions in the Law of the Sea Convention respecting fishing? Why is it unable to do so, since it must, in any case, bring this matter up again?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization comprises 14 members, not all of whom were present in Brussels when our minister of fisheries had a most unusual triumphant success in getting agreement. Not all were there and in fact three abstained.

The problem that we now face in particular with the nose and tail of the Grand Banks is with ships flying flags of convenience, ships that are not members and do not come from NAFO ports. It is therefore particularly important for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to make perfectly clear in New York that we are not interested any more in papering over the differences, in having statements of principle.

We are interested at this time in the type of concrete success in writing down clear prohibitions against fishing that the minister of fisheries, I have to admit, was enormously successful with in Brussels a few weeks ago. I can only hope, as I am sure the hon. member agrees, that the minister's success in Brussels will be matched by an equal success at the United Nations.

Agriculture

[Jim Hart, Reform, Okanagan—Similkameen—Merritt, BC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister of agriculture.

Tariff protection for Canadian apple producers was dropped on February 7. Since then American producers have been dumping apples into Canada. This has devastated growers in Okanagan-Similkameen-Merritt and across Canada. The growers have made a submission to the government requesting that it ensure fair trade and enforce Canadian trade law.

When will the government take action to curtail this American dumping of apples?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question and for the courtesy of some notice of the question.

As I am sure he will appreciate, since the decision of the CITT is in effect a decision of a quasi-judicial body, it would be inappropriate for me to comment in any way on the merits or demerits of the decision.

However I can confirm that I had the opportunity to meet with representatives of Canadian Apple Growers on Monday, March 7, when they were in Ottawa, in conjunction with the National Convention of the Canadian Horticulture Council. We discussed a variety of options in terms of how the decision of the CITT might be reacted to, including the various forms of appeal or other potential reactions.

I am now considering the input I received from apple growers about a week and a half ago. In due course we will see what an appropriate further response might be.