Debates of Sept. 20th, 1994

Government Appointments

[Ron Irwin, Liberal, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Robert was hired back in May. I find it passing strange the Reform did not realize it. Six months have passed. The Bloc asked a couple of questions at the time.

May 25, 26 and 27 was a very volatile time at Oka. Trees were being cut down, with a threat of the army going in. I had to act

quickly and I had to get competent people. Judge Réjean Paul was available as a mediator and Michel Robert.

As a result of questioning from the Bloc at that time I was able to put some of his background in Hansard . He was past president of the Canadian Bar Association, a fellow of the Ontario Bar, a former member of the military and an author. He has a tremendous, competent background. I was quite lucky to get him at the time.

The result is that Oka is calm. Things are being worked out. We do not have the military there. We are not spending hundreds of millions of dollars on enforcement. I do not apologize for hiring competent people, albeit some of them may be Liberal.

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Beaver River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I used Oka as just one example. That was just one of a very long list of patronage appointments. That was one example which I chose.

We want to get to the bottom of the tendering process. It was put in place to ensure that the best people could be chosen through the competitive process. It is a safeguard against patronage and ensures openness in the system. Since May there have been dozens of examples of competent people who only happen to be Liberals.

If Michel Robert was such a competent person as the Prime Minister and the minister maintains, why did he make a mockery of the tendering process itself, not that appointment? Why was he afraid to allow the contract to go through the competitive process to find the very best person for the job regardless of political stripe?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, when we hire professionals on a contract like this one on a short term we look for very competent people who can do the job. If we had to wait for the tendering process, asking tens of thousands of lawyers to apply and to pass an examination, we would never get results.

If the member had any guts she would try to prove that the person is not competent. Of course she will not. We are not afraid to get up in the House and say that this man was elected president of the Canadian Bar Association by lawyers in Canada. Yes, at one time in his career he had the good judgment of a Liberal. That is not a handicap.

Infrastructure Program

[Gérard Asselin, Bloc, Charlevoix, QC]

Mr. Speaker, just before the Quebec election, the Minister of Finance, who is responsible for the infrastructure program in Quebec, wrote to the Minister of Municipal Affairs to complain that several projects under that program had been announced by the Government of Quebec without federal authorization, in the middle of an election campaign.

Can the Minister of Finance promise to make public the list of projects announced by the Government of Quebec which he considers to be incompatible with the infrastructure program?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance and Minister responsible for the Federal Office of Regional Development-Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, I already explained publicly that there was an internal misunderstanding which was cleared up; not only am I prepared to publish the list of projects that have not been approved, I am also prepared to tell you right away that all the projects announced by the Liberal Government of Quebec comply with the regulations established by the President of the Treasury Board.

I must tell you that as a member of Parliament and minister, I had to co-operate with Mr. Ryan and Mr. Bourbeau and I am fully satisfied; I think that they should be praised for their co-operation and the work that they have done on this.

[Gérard Asselin, Bloc, Charlevoix, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when the Minister of Finance refers to a misunderstanding, of course he is referring to his letter. How can the minister explain that he signed a letter that by his own admission is completely incorrect and should not have been written? Are we to understand that the cat is finally out of the bag and that Quebec has no real control since the projects selected must be approved by Ottawa?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance and Minister responsible for the Federal Office of Regional Development -Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, there was an administrative error in my office which was discovered very quickly thereafter and the matter was cleared up.

Now that there has been a change of government in Quebec I would hope the new government would proceed with the same degree of dedication and hard work as the previous government in making the infrastructure program the tremendous success that it has been.

Grain Transportation

[Jake Hoeppner, Reform, Lisgar—Marquette, MB]

Mr. Speaker, as the Liberal government and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food well know, in May of this year the subcommittee on grain transportation recommended that a man be appointed immediately to take over the entire allocation process from the Grain Transportation Agency. This was again explicitly expressed as a concern to the minister in a June meeting with the standing committee.

Could the minister explain why he did not act on this recommendation?

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

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier in response to similar questions, the future form or structure of the GTA is certainly a topic the government has under review as we deal with a variety of very important agricultural transportation issues in the country.

I would point out though that during the course of the summer I have had a repeated series of meetings with not only the existing GTA but all major players in the Canadian western grain handling and transportation system to ensure that they are focused upon the huge challenge of moving a very large and very diversified crop this year through export positions into the most lucrative available export markets.

I am pleased to say that in comparison to this time last year we have achieved a 40 per cent increase in the number of hopper cars in the grain car fleet in the country. We anticipate in the month of October that we will see unloads at the port of Vancouver perhaps twice as high as last year and unloads at the port of Thunder Bay 50 per cent higher than last year.

[Jake Hoeppner, Reform, Lisgar—Marquette, MB]

Mr. Speaker, that is a very broad answer to a very definite question.

Farmers are again harvesting a crop under extreme weather conditions. They have a plugged railway system. Because the recommendation was not acted upon we now have a situation where a few large players are dictating the process of car allocation. Farmers, small grain elevators and shippers are again being discriminated against.

What action is the minister prepared to take to solve the problem?

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

Mr. Speaker, the group of industry executives I have been meeting with during the course of the summer have focused on a broad range of issues to try to deal with the challenge of throughput through all our export facilities.

We have dealt with, at least in part, the issue of grain car allocation but obviously that is nobody's first choice in the system. We want to expand the capacity of the system and the throughput of the system. We will be introducing legislation this fall in the House to address some of those issues. Other reforms are under way already in an administrative manner.

The good news in the system is that we have a huge volume of grain to move. We hope our system will have the capacity to handle it, but given the volume and the diversity of the particular crop there may be a requirement for some form of allocation as we go through the crop year.

I have undertaken to the industry to monitor the allocation process as it is implemented to be sure it is fair to all players in the system including those who have reservations about it, namely the smaller shippers. I want to make sure they are treated fairly.

National Revenue

[John Bryden, Liberal, Hamilton—Wentworth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of National Revenue.

Currently the annual financial information returns of charities are available to the public whereas those for non-profit organizations are not.

Since non-profit organizations like charities are indirectly supported by the taxpayer, would the minister consider making their annual financial information returns also available for public scrutiny?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, I understand the member's frustration in this regard because in fact the public information return filed by registered charities is available to the public in accordance with section 149.1(5) of the Income Tax Act. However we cannot divulge information on non-profit organizations in accordance with the confidentiality provisions contained in subsection 241(1) of the Income Tax Act.

One of the reasons for the differences between them is that they cannot issue tax receipts. They do not have to register provincially or federally to maintain their status. They have no requirement to disburse a certain percentage of their income.

I will take the hon. member's question as a representation that the law could in fact be changed.

1992 Referendum

[Jean Landry, Bloc, Lotbinière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Quebecers paid for the 1992 referendum twice. First, they along with all other Canadians paid for the referendum in the other provinces and, in addition, they alone paid for the referendum in their own province, Quebec. The outgoing government in Quebec sent the federal government a bill for $26 million to correct this injustice.

My question is for the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. Does the federal government intend to honour its debt to Quebec or not and will it pay the $26 million that it owes?

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada]

Mr. Speak-

er, the former government made no commitment to compensate Quebec-neither under Prime Minister Mulroney nor under Ms. Campbell. As far as we are concerned, we are not committed either to paying for a referendum which was held under a provincial law and therefore did not depend on us organizationally or financially.

Canadian Wheat Board Act

[Leon Benoit, Reform, Vegreville, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of agriculture has had a bad summer. As incredible as it might seem the minister ended the summer by equating farmers to criminals because they were shipping grain into the United States.

When will the minister stop attacking farmers and change the Canadian Wheat Board Act so that farmers have the access which is guaranteed them under the free trade agreement?

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

Mr. Speaker, unlike some hon. members across the way who spent the summer in name calling and personal vilification, I spent the summer consulting with farmers, farm organizations and a number of others about the issue the hon. member has mentioned.

I have received from those farmers and farm organizations a broad list of recommendations and ideas about how our grain marketing, handling and transportation system can be modernized to maximize its throughput capacity and to put farmers in the position of maximizing their marketing opportunities.

This fall I will be formalizing that process in a way to ensure that all farmers have all the necessary information, facts and figures they require so they may have further and final input into the government's decision-making processes about these issues.

Health Care

[Audrey McLaughlin, NDP, Yukon, YT]

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

The Prime Minister has stated that he will not accept a health care system that offers a higher quality of health care for the rich than for the poor. Yet the first step to a two-tiered health care system, one for the rich and one for the poor, is operating today as we speak in Alberta.

It is my understanding that the Prime Minister is meeting with the premier of Alberta later today. I would like to ask the Prime Minister if he is going to challenge the premier of Alberta on the private clinics which clearly contravene the Canada Health Act and say that his government will support the Canada Health Act.

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, there will be a meeting later this fall on this question of medicare. We are committed to maintaining the system that we have where medicare is free and portable for everybody.

We have said many times that we do not want medicare to be good for the rich and bad for the poor. The laws of Canada have to be respected. I hope that Mr. Klein will respect the laws of Canada.

Presence In The Gallery

[The Speaker]

My colleagues, I would like to draw to your attention the presence in the gallery of Mr. Michal Strak, the Minister-Chief of the Office of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

[The Speaker]

I would also like to draw to your attention the presence in the gallery of the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs of the Parliament of Norway led by Mrs. Kjellbojrg Lunde.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

Vacancy

[The Speaker]

As a vacancy has occurred in the House of Commons for the electoral riding of Brome-Missisquoi by reason of the death of Mr. Gaston Péloquin, it is my duty to inform this House that, pursuant to section 28(1) of the Parliament of Canada Act, I have addressed a warrant to the Chief Electoral Officer today for the issue of a writ for the election of a member to fill the vacancy.

The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-41, an act to amend the Criminal Code (sentencing) and other acts in consequence thereof be read the second time and referred to a committee.