House of Commons Hansard #88 of the 35th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was lobbying.
Leon Benoit Reform Vegreville, AB
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Secretary of State for Finance. I hope he will finally answer. Will the Secretary of State acknowledge that the current tax system discriminates against families who care for their children at home?
Doug Peters LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)
Mr. Speaker, it is not only Friday but I think there is a full moon.
The third answer is this. Our tax system is based on, as members all know, individual tax returns. We do not have family tax returns. There are certain things in individual tax returns that affect the family. Yes, there are certain distinctions in the Income Tax Act for a variety of things. It does not discriminate against them. It simply recognizes that there are certain items that affect the incomes of families.
Leon Benoit Reform Vegreville, AB
Mr. Speaker, let me clearly say that the Reform Party is in no way opposed to families who send their children to day care. We are opposed to a system that penalizes parents who choose to care for their children at home.
Will the government ensure a fair tax system by removing the penalties for parents who care for their pre-school children at home?
Doug Peters LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)
Mr. Speaker, there is nothing in the Income Tax Act that implies that there is a tax applied to parents who keep their children at home.
Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the President of the Treasury Board.
As part of Public Service Week, it is necessary to recall the importance of equal pay for men and women whose functions are recognized as equivalent. In answer to a question raised by the Official Opposition on March 8, the President of the Treasury Board said that this issue was a priority for this government.
Can the President of the Treasury Board tell us if his bargaining agents are about to reach an agreement with his employees on the back pay required to bring certain classifications up to date?
Art Eggleton LiberalPresident of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure
Mr. Speaker, Treasury Board is in exploratory discussions with the employee representatives, the unions.
We have held three or four meetings with the Professional Institute. We have held at least one or two meetings with the Public Service Alliance. We are continuing to explore working toward a solution to this matter. We are a pay equity employer. We want to resolve this matter as quickly as we can so that we can curtail this very long tribunal process that the previous government put in place.
We want to treat our employees with fairness and equity.
Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC
Mr. Speaker, since the government is an employer that cares about pay equity, as he said on March 8, can the President of the Treasury Board promise to respect his own law which forbids any discrimination in this regard?
Art Eggleton LiberalPresident of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure
Mr. Speaker, of course. We intend to try to get this matter settled and intend to be an equity employer. The previous government put money into pay equity and that is a very high priority intention of this government.
Paul Forseth Reform New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice.
On May 9, 1994, in response to a question from my colleague, the member for Surrey-White Rock-South Langley, the minister told this House that he had urged the provincial attorneys general to more aggressively pursue the prosecution of section 85 of the Criminal Code, the extra penalty for the use of a firearm during a crime.
I wrote two letters to the minister requesting an explanation of what was said to the provinces as well as any responses received regarding section 85 but have yet to receive a reply. Will the minister advise this House in general terms about the communications he had with the provinces over section 85?
Allan Rock LiberalMinister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, the communications I have had with the provinces are those I have described. I have written to my provincial and territorial counterparts and have drawn their attention to the fact that section 85(1) is there to deal with a problem of broad concern, which is the use of firearms in the commission of offences.
I have encouraged them to see that that section is used when the facts permit and that plea arrangements are not entered into which result in such charges being dropped in appropriate cases.
Paul Forseth Reform New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice stated in this House that he is contemplating further laws on guns. The emphasis seems to be government intervention with law-abiding gun owners rather than action with gun-toting criminals.
In view of the problems with section 85 of the Criminal Code can the minister indicate what he will do to make it a priority to fight criminals who have guns before he pursues a policy that interferes with law abiding gun owners?
Allan Rock LiberalMinister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, the government has under consideration a wide variety of options which have been developed through caucus to be brought forward in the form of specific proposals. These will be intended and will be fashioned to deal with the criminal use of firearms. They will involve regulation of firearms that will respect the legitimate use of rifles by hunters and by farmers.
John Loney Liberal Edmonton North, AB
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
On June 7 I raised the question of the plight of Alexandre Makar of Edmonton, Alberta. Can the minister inform the House of the status of Mr. Makar's case?
Sergio Marchi LiberalMinister of Citizenship and Immigration
Mr. Speaker, some two weeks ago the member and other colleagues of ours from Edmonton brought to the attention of this House the question of the Ukrainian individual who had certainly made a case for a compassionate review in terms of his landing and his medical inadmissibility.
As a result of that we opened up a line of communication with the province of Alberta as well as the province of Saskatchewan. I am happy to report that as of this morning through that the province of Alberta has accepted the case.
It shows that when provincial and federal governments do work together and involve the community that first raised the question of compassion, we can make decisions that both favour the individual circumstances and at the same time uphold the rule of the law.
Philippe Paré Bloc Louis-Hébert, QC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport. There are two areas in Quebec, namely the North Shore and the Magdalen Islands, where airport control services in French are only available after an 8 to 15 minute delay, because they come under the jurisdiction of the Moncton control unit, which provides regular services in English only. Both these areas could be adequately served by the Quebec City radar control unit which the government is going to close down.
My question is this: How can the minister, who claims to be concerned with air safety, justify his statement to the effect that bilingual services can be provided from a bilingual province such as New Brunswick just as well as from anywhere else in Quebec, when the regular service provided from Moncton is only in English?
Douglas Young LiberalMinister of Transport
Mr. Speaker, in any air navigation system, there are always areas where communication in one official language or the other, or both, is difficult. What we are saying, and I want to reassure my hon. colleague, is that anybody who uses air navigation services in Canada knows that they are exceptional and that they compare well with any other system in the world. If, as my hon. colleague is claiming, there are gaps here or there, we will try to see to them. But I do not like the fact that he is trying to create a red
herring. New Brunswick, including Moncton, is bilingual. We are very proud of it. We recognize our obligations to those who use the air navigation services and we will try to take all the necessary steps to ensure their safety.
Philippe Paré Bloc Louis-Hébert, QC
Mr. Speaker, how does the minister justify that two areas in Quebec are not adequately served in French from the control unit in Quebec City, which could provide this service in French?
Douglas Young LiberalMinister of Transport
Mr. Speaker, we will keep on doing our utmost to provide adequate services to ensure the safety of the people who use the air navigation system in Quebec and in the rest of Canada.
Lee Morrison Reform Swift Current—Maple Creek—Assiniboia, SK
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice.
A few weeks ago I attended a briefing by a group of gun control activists. They freely acknowledged that "additional controls would have little or no effect on violent crime". To justify their position they pointed to the 31 per cent of suicides that are committed with guns and which they claimed might be partly preventable.
Since 27 per cent of suicides are committed-
Gun ControlOral Question Period
The Speaker
Order, please. Once again I am loathe to intervene in the question and answer period, but I would ask the hon. member to please put his question.
Lee Morrison Reform Swift Current—Maple Creek—Assiniboia, SK
Mr. Speaker, I was into my question. I am sorry.
Will the minister show some responsibility and protect us from ourselves by instituting a rope control program, with rope acquisition certificates and a mandatory registration of all ropes more than a metre long?
Gun ControlOral Question Period
The Speaker
The Chair is a little confused. I am not quite sure if that is a hypothetical question or not, but I will permit the hon. minister to answer it, if he likes.
Allan Rock LiberalMinister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, I would be delighted. I should first observe that the hon. member has demonstrated that if we give him enough rope he will hang himself.
Lee Morrison Reform Swift Current—Maple Creek—Assiniboia, SK
Mr. Speaker, I have a supplementary. On Wednesday my colleague from Prince George-Peace River pointed out that no hard data exists to demonstrate that further gun control legislation will reduce gun related crime. On several occasions the minister has stated that we must look for the root causes of crime rather than caving in to knee-jerk reactions.
Will the minister commit that he will introduce no further gun control legislation until there is hard statistical evidence that the current legislation is not working?
Allan Rock LiberalMinister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, the approach which we take for safe homes and safe streets will be comprehensive dealing with the causes of crime, dealing with strengthening the criminal justice system and dealing as well with crime prevention.
The facts show that after the introduction of gun control legislation in 1976, indeed the criminal misuse of weapons did diminish and that is the statistical fact.
We are going to devise, we are going to introduce, we are going to develop with the support of caucus proposals for further regulation of firearms that will make this society even safer. That is only part of the comprehensive agenda of this government with respect to crime and violence in Canada.