Debates of April 25th, 1995

Francophones In Kingston

[Jean-Marc Jacob, Bloc, Charlesbourg, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. Last year, we learned with dismay about the setbacks experienced by francophone parents and students in Kingston, who were prevented from building a French language high school. Because he wanted to make Kingston the showcase of Canadian bilingualism, the Prime Minister personally promised in May 1994 that a high school would be built as soon as possible.

Given his promise to Kingston francophones, how can the Prime Minister explain that, one year later, nothing has been settled in this matter?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we said at the time that the situation in Kingston would get straightened out and that a high school would be built.

Decisions were made in this regard and, according to the information available to us, there is no problem at this time. A piece of land has been agreed on but the school must be built. It cannot be done in just one week, it will take some time. However, all the administrative problems have been solved thanks to the close co-operation among the federal, provincial and municipal governments.

[Jean-Marc Jacob, Bloc, Charlesbourg, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the reason there are no problems is that there is no school yet.

There was such close co-operation with Kingston that new problems surfaced again yesterday, in that children of French speaking members of the military would now be required to go outside the military base to attend a French language school.

Does the Prime Minister intend to come to the defence of the young people who would be required to go to a different school, thus preventing another act of discrimination against francophones in Kingston?

[David Collenette, Liberal, Minister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, education on Canadian military bases was the responsibility of the Department of National Defence until 1987 when agreement was reached to discontinue that. There have been accords with various provinces to phase out DND's role of being responsible for education.

It is the province of Ontario that is responsible for the school boards. It has made a decision which it considers to be practical. It is one which we do not agree with, in light of the discussions that have gone on in the House. To make the military college in Kingston a welcoming place for francophones is something I intend to take up with the educational authorities in the province of Ontario.

Trade

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade.

A United States congressman has proposed legislation which would impose sanctions against countries trading with Cuba. This could threaten approximately $.5 billion in Canadian exports to the United States.

What is the government doing to protect Canadian trade interests with both Cuba and the United States?

[Roy MacLaren, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, clearly Canadian interests would be adversely affected if the bill were to be implemented as it is currently drafted. For example, if enacted the provisions of the bill would violate the obligations on the United States in both the NAFTA and the new World Trade Organization. We have, therefore, protested most strongly to the United States.

As my colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has made abundantly clear, we have no intention of accepting the United States' attempts to impose on third countries its embargo on Cuba.

Finally, Canada, along with countries of the European Union and in the western hemisphere, have protested most strongly to the United States, to the state department, to the administration, and in my own case to the U.S. trade representative, to register our strong opposition to the present bill.

Atlantic Groundfish Strategy

[Jay Hill, Reform, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, 12 months ago the government introduced the $1.9 billion Atlantic groundfish strategy. First the government underestimated the groundfish stock and the number of people who would be thrown out of work. Next it underestimated the staff needed to process the claims and counsel the unemployed. Now

I understand that the government has underestimated the amount of money required for TAGS by some $385 million.

Could the Minister of Human Resources Development assure the House that this program will stay within its already hugely inflated budget?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, the question comes at a very appropriate time. It gives me the opportunity to point out to the hon. member and other members of the House that up to this point, with the program in place a little less than a year, we have already been able to process over 38,000 applications for assistance from the groundfishery.

Over 25,000 of those people have received direct counselling to look for alternative options. We have over 14,000 people placed in training programs, of which 4,000 are taking direct literacy programs. Several hundred have started their own businesses. Several hundred are now working on a number of green resource conservation projects. Several hundred have been able to get work in other areas.

In other words we are demonstrating that while we are facing a major tragedy, the collapse of the fishery, the federal government through the support of unions, business and certainly the people of the Atlantic provinces and Quebec is showing that Canada can respond by giving people some real hope when they face that kind of calamity.

[Jay Hill, Reform, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the question is whether or not it is going to stay within its budget.

Failure to identify a sustainable fishery has created great uncertainty for the same TAGS recipients. Everyone hopes they will be among the lucky few to get work if and when the fishery recovers, but it is cruel of the government to hold out false hope. At the same time as Atlantic fishermen struggle to feed their families we see the minister of fisheries spending over $200,000 on office furnishings.

I have a supplementary question. Everyone knows fish stocks will not have recovered within five years. What is the government's plan for the fishermen following the end of TAGS?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member had quite a mouthful to get out. I will try to answer very simply.

First, the program will stay within budget. Second, fishermen who are facing the end of the fishery are now successfully making a transition to new jobs, new opportunities, through the help of their federal government. Third, we are helping to create a new economy in the Atlantic provinces and eastern Quebec to demonstrate that while fish is a very important staple the country can go beyond that and add new products, new services and new opportunities for Atlantic Canadians.

National Defence

[Jean H. Leroux, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

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

We know that Quebec is being shortchanged by $650 million each year in the distribution of defence funds. In a recently televised report on this unfair distribution of military spending, which appeared on Radio-Canada's Enjeux , the minister indicated that total fairness was a luxury his government could not afford.

How can the minister be so ill-advised as to consider treating Quebec fairly to be a luxury?

[David Collenette, Liberal, Minister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs]

As often happens, the hon. member did not quote the full remarks I made on the television program, Mr. Speaker.

Obviously defence expenditures are not balanced equally across the country because of the staging areas that we used in the second world war and the fact that certain areas lent themselves to the building of infrastructure.

However I pointed out in the same program that the province of Quebec generally leads the country in its share of defence capital acquisition expenditures and probably will do so in the future when the new defence acquisitions are announced.

[Jean H. Leroux, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, you will agree with me that as long as Quebec remains part of Canada, it is entitled to its fair share.

Are we to understand that the minister is perfectly content with this custom of penalizing Quebec both in terms of representation at senior military levels and in terms of military spending and does he recognize that it would have been fairer to Quebec not to close the Royal Military College in Saint-Jean?

[David Collenette, Liberal, Minister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, what I have said, and I said it on that program, is that defence expenditures are not an instrument of equalization. There are other programs of the Government of Canada to attain those objectives.

I did say that in any capital program we do our best to ensure there are regional benefits, that all regions of the country benefit proportionately.

I underline for the hon. member that much of the defence industry is located in the province of Quebec. If he checks the records he will see that much of the capital spending that has been engaged in by ministers of defence in the past has been on industries located in his province.

I do not expect that to change.

Tobacco Exports

[Keith Martin, Reform, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we have learned that a trade mission to the Far East last year led by the Governor General and the agriculture and international trade ministers also included representatives from the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board and was designed in part to promote the sale of Canadian tobacco products in that market.

Will the minister of agriculture confirm that he believes the Canadian government has no problem promoting the export of tobacco?

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

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada has significant programs in place in conjunction with the provinces, most particularly the province of Ontario, to encourage agricultural production away from tobacco through our tobacco diversification program.

Since the implementation of the tobacco diversification program in 1987, the number of flue cured tobacco producers in Canada has decreased by some 44 per cent and the number of producers of burley, pipe and and cigar tobacco has decreased by about 80 per cent. It is obvious the program is working.

Nevertheless it must be noted that tobacco production is legal in Canada and tobacco producers must be treated fairly along with all other Canadian farmers. If the hon. gentleman holds a different point of view, I suggest he go to Delhi, Ontario, in the constituency represented by the chairman of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and explain to the farmers of Delhi his views with respect to tobacco production and what he would do to compensate the farmers for the kinds of losses he is proposing.

[Keith Martin, Reform, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, calling a spade a spade, tobacco companies go overseas to find other markets to sell tobacco, not something else.

The Minister of Health has said in the House that she would do anything to prevent even one person from taking up smoking. As the minister knows, representatives of tobacco companies freely distribute their products to nightclubs overseas in an attempt to get young people addicted.

Does the Minister of Health support the practice of the government in aiding tobacco companies to promote smoking overseas?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, we are doing everything in our power to help people overseas, as well as people in Canada, to sensitize them to the dangers of tobacco.

Next week I will be in Geneva at a World Health Organization conference where we have put on the agenda the problem of smoking in the world. It is very important for the member to realize the effort the country is making in sensitizing people around the world.

Child Support

[Judy Bethel, Liberal, Edmonton East, AB]

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

Last week a Conservative MLA in Alberta criticized the child support system for producing deadbeat dads and vindictive leech moms. Statistics show that single custodial mothers and their children are the most likely group of Canadians to live in poverty.

How will our government ensure parents properly support their children no matter where they live in Canada and no matter who is the custodial parent?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, within coming weeks the government will introduce measures that will deal with child support to improve the present system in three important ways.

The first will have to do with the method by which the amounts of child support are determined. At present that is left to the uncertain and expensive process of litigation. We will propose that such amounts be fixed by regulation on a statutory guideline or formula geared to income.

The second element has to do with the tax treatment of child support both in respect of the consequence for the payor and for the recipient. Since the budget of 1994, and indeed since the judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal in Thibaudeau a year ago, that has been a matter of both public consultation and careful consideration. We will be making the position of the government clear on the issue in the weeks ahead.

The third has to do with enforcement because the proper amount with the appropriate tax calculation is meaningless unless the order is actually paid.

I am working with my colleagues, the Minister of Human Resources Development, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of National Revenue and the Secretary of State for the Status of

Women. We will include in our proposals a national strategy for the enforcement of child support orders to ensure that those who are required to pay, support their children.

Immigration

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian embassy in Paris refused to deliver a visitor's visa to Hafsa Zinaï Koudil, an Algerian film producer who was scheduled to present her film, "Le démon au féminin", this week at the Festival Vues d'Afrique, in Montreal.

How can the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration justify rejecting the application of this Algerian filmmaker who already received a death sentence from fundamentalist groups because of her film, which precisely denounces the rise of religious fundamentalism in Algeria?

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

Mr. Speaker, we received one million applications from people all over the world who want to visit our country and we accepted 85 per cent of them.

It is nearly impossible for anyone to be responsible for all the applications. They number almost one million and 85 per cent of them get approved. Obviously one needs some degree of flexibility with respect to visa officers.

If there is something special or particular about the case I do not mind looking into it, but I do not want to make it a habit so that all visa applications are automatically reviewed by a minister.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I still do not understand why the application was rejected. I wonder how the minister can justify his officials' decision not to grant a visitor's visa to this filmmaker, considering that, last week, he himself deemed appropriate to deliver a minister's permit to Randall Terry, the leader of Human Life International, who just served a five-month jail sentence in the United States, which clearly makes him ineligible to enter Canada. Is there a double standard?

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

Mr. Speaker, in the case of the refused applicant in Algeria I asked the member if there was anything special or particular about the case that he wanted me to look into.

The person in question has not granted permission for people to look into her file. Therefore I am very mindful and respectful of the privacy she wishes applied to her case.

Environment

[Paul Forseth, Reform, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

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

Over the Easter recess a United States appeals court overturned its 18-year ban on the lead replacement MMT in automobile gasoline. It is understood that in the next short while the minister plans to do the exact opposite and ban the octane enhancer.

What impartial evidence does the minister have that clearly indicates MMT is harmful to the environment?