Debates of March 24th, 1995

The Environment

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

Mr. Speaker, the government's position is as follows: there must be an exchange of technology between developing countries and countries like Canada. For this reason, we are going to propose an analysis of credit transfers, which will not only stabilize the greenhouse effect, but reduce it. This is our position.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in view of the fact that Canada has not met its objectives for the reduction of greenhouse gases, how can the Minister of the Environment go to Berlin with a view to taking credit for

reductions in gases achieved by Canadian companies in developing countries?

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

Mr. Speaker, the federal government will be going to Berlin with a position which we believe is not only defensible but will enhance the capacity of the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

We will be proposing that we work together with countries like China and Brazil that are interested in Canadian technology to ensure technology transfer for credit. That will permit us to pursue our objective which is not only to stabilize greenhouse gases around the world but to reduce them.

I hope that the member would use her good offices to convince the Government of Quebec to come to the table so that we can have a Canadian position, where federal and provincial governments work together to establish not only stabilization but the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Foreign Affairs

[Marlene Catterall, Liberal, Ottawa West, ON]

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

I was appalled to read that the estranged wife and children of a Canadian diplomat are living in poverty in Australia. Why? It appears the official has avoided a payment to his family ordered by the Australian court by claiming diplomatic immunity.

I would like to ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the government is doing to investigate and to correct this apparent abuse of diplomatic immunity?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, with whom I spoke shortly before coming into question period, indicated his personal outrage and the outrage of the government at the conduct of anyone who would hide behind diplomatic immunity to avoid his or her obligations to family.

He has personally ordered that this individual not only make the payments as requested by the Australian court, but that the individual be immediately recalled to Canada.

The Budget

[Ray Speaker, Reform, Lethbridge]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance was very excited yesterday when he learned that the province of Newfoundland balanced its budget. He even recommended it to the province of Quebec. We were excited about it as well.

This is a remarkable accomplishment for that province when we look at the fact that there has been a collapse of the Atlantic fishery and unemployment is around 20 per cent. Newfoundland has balanced its budget through spending reductions and not an increase in taxes.

My question is for the Minister of Finance. If the province of Newfoundland can do this, why cannot the Government of Canada?

[Doug Peters, Liberal, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions)]

Mr. Speaker, I suggest the hon. member read the budget. Our budget plans are quite clear. We are reducing the deficit dramatically and we are on our way to a balanced budget.

[Ray Speaker, Reform, Lethbridge]

Mr. Speaker, we may be on the road to disaster as well, who knows. Nobody has put a plan together.

Newfoundland has a planned balanced budget. Alberta has a plan to balance its budget. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are doing the very same. They have a plan to balance their budgets.

When is the Government of Canada and the Minister of Finance going to join the club and have a plan to balance the federal budget? When can they do that?

[Doug Peters, Liberal, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions)]

Mr. Speaker, I note that Newfoundland has been successful in balancing its budget. It is the first time it has done so since 1949. It has taken a long time. The most recent government has taken several years to do so.

This government, however, is going to do it in rolling two-year targets. We are going to keep to our target and get the budget balanced much more quickly that way than by pursuing the wild dreams of the Reform Party in the budget that it put forward that had no content.

Bovine Somatotropin

[Michel Daviault, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Mr. Speaker, while the European Union has imposed a seven-year moratorium on the sale of somatotropin, a synthetic hormone which stimulates milk production, the federal government only agreed with the manufacturers to ban it for a one year period ending July 1.

Out of concern for the people who have serious reservations regarding the use of this hormone, will the Minister of Health release her department's new studies on this issue within the next few days?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, my people are still conducting research on this substance and have yet to recommend whether its sale and use should eventually be allowed in Canada.

[Michel Daviault, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Mr. Speaker, will the minister not extend the moratorium, since farmers, the health industry and consumers oppose the availability of this hormone on the market? I will remind the minister that a survey conducted by the magazine Protégez-vous found that 78 per cent of all consumers are against the use of this hormone.

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, BST has not been approved. It will be approved only when the scientists at Health Canada make the decision that the drug is effective and safe.

The moratorium was recommended by the agriculture committee. I believe it was voluntary on the part of the production people at Monsanto.

Indian Affairs

[John Duncan, Reform, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in response to a question from my colleague for Skeena the minister of Indian affairs indicated his $5 million policy paper on self-government was not secret.

If it is not secret, will the minister tell the House why parliamentarians and Canadians have to rely on the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations to shed light on this undertaking and make the process public?

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

Mr. Speaker, I will take the question under advisement and we will reply in due course.

[John Duncan, Reform, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to see that document tabled.

The minister has been consulting with select groups for 16 months. Can the minister assure the House he will soon conclude this process so this undertaking will not become another aboriginal royal commission which is now two years overdue and $40 million over budget?

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

Mr. Speaker, this process is a must which will allow us to consult the various groups concerned and to hear their suggestions before setting policy.

This process will enable us to set policies which are more sensitive to the people who will eventually have to implement them, and it is a process which we will finish as quickly as possible.

Fisheries

[Bonnie Hickey, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

On Monday, March 27 the United Nations conference on the straddling and highly migratory fish stocks reconvenes. The recent fishing of the Spanish fleet on the nose and tail of the Grand Bank clearly shows the urgency for a binding convention to end the threat of foreign overfishing.

Can the minister tell the House what Canada hopes to achieve in these crucial meetings next week?

[Brian Tobin, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for St. John's East for her question. Her interest in this matter is well known in the House and throughout the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

This conference has now been ongoing for two years. It has made very substantial progress to the point at which we now have more than 80 per cent of all of the countries participating in New York at the UN conference supporting the proposal endorsed and in some respects authored by Canada for a binding convention that would give us effective rules, transparent rules to govern the ways distant water fishing fleets behave on the high seas.

We hope for a success and a completed conference this year but even if a convention comes in 1995 it will take several years for it to gain ratification.

In the interim we must have effective means to protect those fragile and fast disappearing straddling stocks.

Immigration

[Simon de Jong, NDP, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, my question is addressed to the parliamentary secretary to minister of immigration. The minister of immigration has stated that the new $975 right of landing fee will not discriminate against poorer immigrants and refugees because loans will be made available to them. Now we learn there is a means test and that the ability to repay the loan will be assessed before a loan is granted.

Can the parliamentary secretary tell us what will happen to refugees? I remind the government that refugees do not choose to abandon their homes, they are forced to. Can the parliamentary secretary tell us what plans the government has to assist refugees who do not meet the loan criteria?

[Mary Clancy, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. I wish to reassure him that refugees will not be turned away because of an inability to pay.

This has been said by the minister many times. I am here to reiterate that repayable loans will be granted to refugees. As in the past, those loans will likely be paid back at a 95 per cent to a 97 per cent rate.

[Simon de Jong, NDP, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, many of the refugees come from the poorer third world countries and do not have the means to pay the $975 tax.

Would the government not consider removing the landing fee for refugees?

[Mary Clancy, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I know the hon. member speaks in the best of faith, but I sometimes find it a little difficult to understand why well meaning people feel refugees and immigrants cannot pay their own way. That is not the history in this country. They are proud people who want to contribute to Canada. They want to take their share of the burden and they will do so.

I remind the hon. member that on the loans that have been taking place in this country to refugees since 1950 the repayment rate is over 95 per cent. I know the hon. secretary of state for financial institutions would say it is a rate bankers would envy.

We can depend on refugees to handle their debts to Canada in a fair way, as Canada handles refugees in a fair way.

Low Level Flights

[André Caron, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of the Environment.

Recently a federal environmental review panel recommended that the number of low level flights authorized annually in northern Quebec and Labrador be increased to 15,000. The panel's findings are incomplete and the populations most affected by these flights have refused to participate at hearings.

Does the Minister of the Environment acknowledge the shortcomings in the panel's report and does she intend to reject its recommendation that the number of flights be increased substantially?

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

Mr. Speaker, I accept the fact that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has carried out its work in good faith. The report is now before Cabinet and a response is expected shortly.