House of Commons Hansard #99 of the 35th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was transport.
Land Engineering Test EstablishmentOral Question Period
Bonavista—Trinity—Conception Newfoundland & Labrador
Liberal
Fred Mifflin LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs
Mr. Speaker, the thrust of the hon. member's question is very good. He talks about the facts. I will give him the facts.
Fred Mifflin Liberal Bonavista—Trinity—Conception, NL
If he wants the answer he is going to have to listen. The fact is that the essential activities previously conducted by LETE are being carried out in house and through separate contracts. For contracted work, where feasible, Canadian companies will be considered as a matter of course.
I again assure the House the closure of LETE, if he wants the facts, is expected to save $11 million annually.
Pierre Brien Bloc Témiscamingue, QC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance. In spite of constant questioning on the part of the official opposition about what his plans really are regarding RRSP taxation, the Minister of Finance still refuses to rule out that possibility. His attitude gives more cause for worry to middle-class taxpayers who rely on RRSPs to prepare a decent retirement for themselves.
I give him yet another chance to put their worried minds to rest. Why does he refuse to undertake not to tax RRSPs, in order not to further increase the tax burden of the middle class?
Paul Martin LiberalMinister of Finance and Minister responsible for the Federal Office of Regional Development-Quebec
Mr. Speaker, one can wonder who is causing worry-I believe this is the third time this week that the hon. member has asked the same question. The Bloc Quebecois must have run out of questions to ask.
I was very clear on this issue. If there is to be a pre-budget consultation process, the Minister of Finance must not rule out any possibility or idea. We do not want to hinder the process. I made it very clear that if I answered this question, it would lead to another and another, eventually rendering the consultation process useless. So, I do not intend to comment on specific suggestions because I want to give the people of Canada the chance to tell us what they want.
Pierre Brien Bloc Témiscamingue, QC
Mr. Speaker, questions arise because there are no clear answers. Does the Minister of Finance not recognize that by taxing RRSPs, he would actually be creating inequity between those workers who have registered retirement savings plans subsidized in part by their employers and those who have none, such as self-employed workers, farmers and fishermen?
Paul Martin LiberalMinister of Finance and Minister responsible for the Federal Office of Regional Development -Quebec
Mr. Speaker, it is very important to preserve the integrity of the consultation process.
All of us in the House are involved in a unique experiment. We are opening up the whole process of budgetary consultation. We are getting rid of budget secrecy.
That really means the Minister of Finance should not comment on individual suggestions. If he does so, he will eventually make the process impossible because the budget will have been given well before its official date.
I do not intend to make specific comments on specific suggestions because I want the process to work, and that is what Canadians want.
John O'Reilly Liberal Victoria—Haliburton, ON
Mr. Speaker, my question is with regard to the Canadian military personnel that served in the Persian gulf war. It is reported that Canadian personnel were administered a drug to combat potential nerve gas attacks. Many are now complaining of severe side effects referred to as gulf war syndrome.
Can the minister please inform the House of the progress being made to help these deserving Canadians.
Canadian Armed ForcesOral Question Period
Bonavista—Trinity—Conception Newfoundland & Labrador
Liberal
Fred Mifflin LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs
Mr. Speaker, I welcome this question because it involves the long term health and welfare of the Canadian forces personnel.
In direct response to the question, we have had 12 people with symptoms similar to those voiced by the United States forces personnel. They have been seen by a Canadian forces doctor and are currently experiencing no difficulty whatsoever.
As the minister has previously stated in this House, we have not been able to determine a causal link between the chemical biological warfare agents used in the gulf and the symptoms experienced by the Canadian forces members. In fact we find evidence to the contrary.
I want to reassure the House that there is no scientific evidence that the drugs that were administered to the Canadian forces members had harmful effects. On the contrary. In fact, the body of evidence that exists would show that everything attests to their safety and their use.
Jim Gouk Reform Kootenay West—Revelstoke, BC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport.
Once again we are seeing the federal government playing politics with the economic well-being of Canada. The users of terminals one and two at Pearson airport are languishing in outdated and overcrowded facilities while the government's fatally flawed Bill C-22 is passed back and forth like a football between the Liberal dominated Commons and the Tory-run other place. This is economic planning at its shameful worst.
Can the minister advise this House what action he is taking to ensure the economic well-being of Pearson airport while this political football game continues.
Douglas Young LiberalMinister of Transport
Mr. Speaker, I and I am sure many members of the House and especially people who understand the importance of Pearson International Airport to the economy not only to that area of Ontario but to the entire country are looking forward to this afternoon and tomorrow because I understand that members in the other place have already indicated that they are looking very much to the position of my colleagues in the Reform Party.
I think if they support this bill we will be able to get it through the Senate and do what we have to do with Pearson which is get on with the business of running Pearson.
Jim Gouk Reform Kootenay West—Revelstoke, BC
Mr. Speaker, the hon. minister's response did not tell us what he has planned for Pearson.
Under the minister's national airport plan we will not see the commencement of construction on a new facility until at least 1998. This is not acceptable. I cannot believe the minister is prepared to tell Toronto it will have to wait until past the turn of the century for needed facilities.
What is the minister doing to shorten this unacceptable delay?
Douglas Young LiberalMinister of Transport
Mr. Speaker, I have spoken with the premier of Ontario with respect to this matter. As the hon. member will know, the new Canadian airport authority at Pearson will have representation from the Government of Canada, from the province of Ontario and from various municipalities in the metropolitan Toronto area.
We have done that now. We will have concluded the transitional requirements but we are faced, and I want to tell my hon. colleague this, with a very serious problem. We have identified the people. We have the structure all set to go but our friends in
the other place would like to stick Canadian taxpayers with a bill for $445 million and I want to see this afternoon if the Reform Party is going to put its votes where its mouth is.
Maurice Dumas Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development.
On March 9, the minister indicated in this House that he wanted to review old-age security programs. Following the general outcry caused by this announcement, the Prime Minister decided that the review would be limited to the Canada Pension Plan and RRSPs. This review was to be tabled last June but the government has clearly delayed it.
My question is this: Can the minister tell us why the government has delayed announcing its intentions by tabling the review promised for last June?
Lloyd Axworthy LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification
Mr. Speaker, we are presently speaking with a number of groups and organizations throughout Canada, particularly as they represent seniors, to get their point of view.
I want to use the opportunity to correct one very mistaken statement I know the member made inadvertently and that is that we said that we would be doing anything about old age pensions. We never said that. We said we would be preparing a paper to look at the long range income security issues facing Canada.
That was a commitment made in the budget and that is it, period.
Maurice Dumas Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Does the minister still intend to slash programs for seniors in order to finance other federal government programs? Will we have to wait until after the Quebec referendum to know the answer?
Lloyd Axworthy LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification
Mr. Speaker, it never was our intention, it will not be our intention, la réponse est non .
Bob Mills Reform Red Deer, AB
Mr. Speaker, last week the Prime Minister's government committed to send troops and RCMP to Haiti. Yesterday RCMP chief superintendent Mr. Pouliot stated that retraining the Haitian police force would take from seven to ten years.
Since the Prime Minister is asking Canadian soldiers and police to risk their lives in the chaos of Haiti and Canadian taxpayers to finance it, will he at least tell us his plan, the costs and how long we can expect to have Canadians in Haiti?
André Ouellet LiberalMinister of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the hon. member that Canadian commitments through the United Nations are well known and well supported by the overwhelming majority of Canadians.
Indeed it is clear that when Canada responds to a request by the United Nations we follow the longstanding practice to serve wherever we are asked and particularly to serve in an area close to our own country in our own hemisphere.
Bob Mills Reform Red Deer, AB
Mr. Speaker, there is not enough maple syrup in Canada to cover the waffling of this government.
Since we cannot get an answer on any kind of a plan for Canadians, we do not know what it is going to cost and we do not know how long they are going to be there, could we at least find out the commitments, who they have been made to, what we have committed and why those commitments cannot be explained to the Canadian people?
André Ouellet LiberalMinister of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the hon. member has all the numbers he wants. In fact they have been part of the estimates. There have been witnesses before a parliamentary committee who gave all the indications. For the benefit of the hon. member I will send him a letter giving all the numbers that he has already.
Yvan Bernier Bloc Gaspé, QC
Mr. Speaker, on several occasions, the Minister of Fisheries encouraged Gaspé fishermen in their plan to catch turbot; last March, at the Boston Seafood Show; in April, with his Quebec counterpart and in July, the minister himself admitted it in an interview with the Canadian press. However, on July 20, with only a few hours' notice, the minister denied the Gaspé fishermen access to the resource, even though they had just invested more than $700,000.
Does the minister admit that his about-face alone is responsible for this summer's turbot saga, which led to the arrest of the Gaspé fishermen, their being fined and losing investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Turbot FisheryOral Question Period
Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte Newfoundland & Labrador
Liberal
Brian Tobin LiberalMinister of Fisheries and Oceans
Mr. Speaker, the member continues to make an assertion that he knows to be absolutely false; that is the notion that the Government of Canada ever gave any consent or ever requested that people expend funds in anticipation of or with a guarantee of a licence to be subsequently let to fish turbot. The member knows that, not just because I have dealt with it publicly and in the House but because the member was privately briefed by me three times and on four occasions was briefed by my officials. On each occasion he expressed an understanding of the need for conservation.
Yvan Bernier Bloc Gaspé, QC
Mr. Speaker, clearly, the minister did not answer the question. Since the minister cannot deny having supported the plan, does he promise today to fully compensate the Gaspé fishermen who spent more than $700,000 and whose only mistake was to take a man at his word?
Turbot FisheryOral Question Period
Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte Newfoundland & Labrador
Liberal
Brian Tobin LiberalMinister of Fisheries and Oceans
Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday the whole planet recognizes the need for conservation. The whole planet acted on that need at a UN conference. All the members of NAFO acted on that need at a NAFO conference. All the people associated with the fishery in Canada, current stakeholders, people who are already in the turbot fishery, have taken anywhere from 60 per cent to 100 per cent cuts in that stock, yet this member continues to insist that one group of fishermen only in Atlantic Canada, and there are hundreds affected in many provinces, ought to be compensated.
The member knows that the proposition he has put is laced more with a concern out of political advantage than with a concern for conservation. The member ought to grow up and be responsible.