Debates of March 22nd, 1996

Canadian Armed Forces

[Jim Hart, Reform, Okanagan—Similkameen—Merritt, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the sad reality is that the minister only acts when these incidents are brought forward by the media.

Ninety-nine point nine per cent of the Canadian forces personnel are not participants in these activities nor do they condone these activities.

Today the base commander declared that he has no explanation on how to prevent these incidents.

This is beyond hazing. This is about the chain of command in the Canadian Armed Forces and it is failing under the leadership of this minister. What is this minister going to do about it? Canadians want to know.

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

Mr. Speaker, when incidents such as this happen in the armed forces, the minister obviously is fully informed and the investigative process takes place.

As my parliamentary secretary said yesterday, the very good procedures that have been put in place especially as a result of some problems we have had in recent years cannot always be seen to be working if certain people in the forces display errors in judgment. There is very little we, the chief of the defence staff and other senior officers can do about errors in judgment in the same way that I cannot do anything about the hon. member coming to the House of Commons and asking rhetorical and fatuous questions.

Aéroports De Montréal

[Maurice Dumas, Bloc, Argenteuil—Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport. ADM, the organization that manages Dorval and Mirabel airports for the federal government, recently decided to move international flights from Mirabel to Dorval, unfortunately without consulting the public.

Given the government's continued political and moral responsibility in this matter and the prime concern-to repair the past errors of this very government-will the minister ask ADM to hold real consultations with the public concerned before making any final decision?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, Dorval and Mirabel belong to the federal government, but their management and development have been the responsibility of Aéroports de Montréal or ADM since 1992 under the terms of a 60 year lease.

My job, as the federal minister, is to ensure that issues concerning security, individuals and aircraft are addressed. I would like to give the member more information, if I could do so. However, responsibility was transferred to ADM a few years ago.

[Maurice Dumas, Bloc, Argenteuil—Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on February 22, the minister agreed to study the possibility of compensating the operators of concessions that might be affected by ADM's decision.

Would the minister at least acknowledge that the government is still open to such compensation?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, up to now I have received no report on the concession operators at the two airports. Do not forget that Mirabel is not being closed. It will continue to be a major airport in Quebec and in Canada. All charter and cargo flights will leave from Mirabel.

A change is being made, but it is a change implemented by ADM and not the Department of Transport.

Newfoundland

[Bob Ringma, Reform, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, in the Newfoundland and Labrador government throne speech on Wednesday of this week, that government said it would change the name of that province from Newfoundland to Newfoundland and Labrador, and rightly so. The people of Labrador have felt left out for years.

Will the Deputy Prime Minister for the federal government accept the will of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and recognize Labrador by this name change?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure we will use the same open approach that we used with Nunavut.

[Bob Ringma, Reform, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that open approach sounds pretty vague and very typically Liberal. The Deputy Prime Minister should be aware that many Quebec provincial maps do not recognize the Quebec-Labrador border. All that is required to change the name of the province according to section 43 of the Constitution is simply a bilateral agreement between the federal government and the province.

I will ask the Deputy Prime Minister again, will she commit the federal government today to accepting this provincial initiative?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate the member for finding Labrador on the map for the first time in four years.

The member will know that not only have we had very strong Liberal interests in Labrador for many years, but we have had excellent representation in the person of the former member and current senator, Bill Rompkey. We fully expect that tradition will continue on Monday.

When I said earlier that we would respect the process as we did with Nunavut, there is a process in place. It does require resolutions by respective Parliaments. I am sure the member would not want us to get up 48 hours prior to a byelection simply so he could score some cheap political points.

Agriculture

[John O'Reilly, Liberal, Victoria—Haliburton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, given the necessity to eliminate large government subsidies including those that have existed in agriculture, can the minister of agriculture assure both the grain producers and the dairy producers that they are being treated in a fair and equitable manner?

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

Mr. Speaker, this is an extremely important question.

With respect to prairie grain producers, their former transportation subsidy under the WGTA was cancelled in one fell swoop on August 1 of last year. To help them adjust to a totally non-subsidized environment, we put certain WGTA adjustment measures into place. In the case of the dairy subsidy, it is not being terminated all at once. It is being phased out gradually over what is effectively a seven year period.

When we compare the federal money being provided for the so-called one time buyout of the WGTA versus the federal money being provided for the phase out of the dairy subsidy, the values are very much comparable, equitable and fair.

Radio Canada International

[Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, Bloc, Laval Centre, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Canadian Heritage.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage has just deferred the shutting down of Radio Canada International for one year, since the funding allocated is only for a year. This announcement does nothing at all to reassure the spokesperson for the Coalition to save Radio Canada International, and his concerns are justified, for this settles nothing.

Why is the minister not able to provide permanent funding for Radio Canada International?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I announced yesterday precisely what I had promised at the beginning of my mandate as Minister of Canadian Heritage, namely that we would start with one year of funding.

If I had the least bit of Bloc Quebecois support for the long term funding of Radio Canada International, it is absolutely certain that this matter could be settled for the long term.

[Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, Bloc, Laval Centre, QC]

Mr. Speaker, like the Conservatives, two years and a half after the election of this government and despite the commitments made in the red book, the Minister of Canadian Heritage is still leaving Radio Canada International, the CBC, the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada hanging.

Where does the difference lie between the Liberal and the Conservative approach to culture, despite its acknowledged importance?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I understand the importance of culture, and that is why I support the creation of a special fund for culture. What makes it difficult, every time we seek new avenues of funding, is the block we run into, the Bloc Quebecois.

Justice

[Dick Harris, Reform, Prince George—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, so now the supreme court has decided that killers need yet another loophole to escape justice, despite the fact that Parliament, which I thought was running the country, passed legislation that stopped killers from using drunkenness as a defence.

Will the Minister of Justice commit today to act to ensure that killers cannot use drunkenness as a way to escape the justice that is due to them? Will he do it?

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

Mr. Speaker, I think it is far better to take the supreme court judgments and read them rather than misread them. If that is done, one will know that the organizing principle of the criminal law in Canada is that those who do harm to others are held accountable for their misconduct.

I was very grateful to the hon. member last year when he stood with others to support the government's initiative to change the Criminal Code by Bill C-72, and ensure that those who intoxicate themselves are held accountable in the criminal law. That is the law of Canada today.

The judgments yesterday, if one goes beyond the headlines and looks at the substance of what was done, simply clarified the technical elements of charges to the jury, when juries, people from our communities, have to decide whether someone was able to form the specific intent to murder. If they were not, then they are culpable for manslaughter which is punishable by life imprisonment.

[Dick Harris, Reform, Prince George—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, stable waste has reached a new height in this Chamber. Canadians have lost all faith in the justice system and they are looking to Parliament to restore some of that faith.

I ask again, so that Canadians can be sure that the justice system is going to work to protect the victims of crime and protect Canadians from becoming victims, will the minister do something to ensure that killers will not escape justice by simply claiming they were drunk? Will he do it?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is my perception that Canadians have not lost confidence in the justice system. Canadians are losing confidence in politicians who engage in sloganeering and fearmongering for narrow partisan purposes.

The hon. member must allow himself to at least be distracted by some of the objective facts. I suggest that when he does that, when he takes his eyes from his slogan filled question sheet and looks at the judgments of the court and the reality of the law, he will see that those who commit the crime of taking another life in this country, intoxicated or not, are held accountable in the criminal law.

Income Security Program

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is addressed to the Minister of Human Resources Development.

As the minister must be aware, the moving of the some 50 jobs of the income security program from Regina to Winnipeg has become a major issue. The cost of the move could climb as high as $2.6 million and will certainly result in the deterioration of services to seniors and the disabled in Saskatchewan. Will the minister rescind this move of jobs from Regina to Winnipeg, a move that will squander scarce dollars?

[Douglas Young, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, I understand the concerns. The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food has expressed his views on this matter. The decision was made some time ago.

The number of jobs that are actually affected and that would be moved are less than half of the number attributed to this situation by the hon. member in his question.

Any job that is being rearranged is always the grounds for great concern. I want to assure the hon. member that the purpose of making changes throughout the delivery system of human resources development is to improve service and to manage those scarce dollars, to which the hon. member referred, in the best way possible.

The department will be doing some work in Regina that is new, that is innovative, that will support the people to whom the hon. member has referred and that will actually increase the number of jobs in that sector.

There will always be an ongoing exchange of responsibilities and jobs, but in the final analysis, money will be spent wisely and as fairly and equitably as it can be to workers in all of the provinces of Canada.

Automotive Safety

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Ontario, ON]

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

Can the minister inform the House if his department has undertaken an investigation of reports of failure in rear door latches on certain Chrysler minivans and if the Department of Transport has the authority to order automobile manufacturers to conduct an immediate recall of all automobiles found to have safety hazards?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his concern about safety which is the primary duty of Transport Canada and its main responsibility.

With respect to the question of all issues relating to automobile safety, investigations of accidents are carried out for all categories of motor vehicles so that a safer fleet can be created.

More stringent standards have been applied to minivans. In 1994 roof strength standards were introduced and next year a slide

protection standard is proposed for the 1997 model year. This spring the rear door latch regulation for the 1998 model year will be introduced.

As you can see, Mr. Speaker, there has been a continuous improvement through regulation for safety of minivans.

[The Speaker]

This brings question period to a close.