House of Commons Hansard #42 of the 35th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was family.

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Canadian Human Rights ActGovernment Orders

8:05 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

In my opinion the yeas have it.

And more than five members having risen:

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Canadian Human Rights ActGovernment Orders

8:15 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

I declare the motion carried.

(Motion agreed to.)

When shall the bill be read the third time? At the next sitting of the House?

Canadian Human Rights ActGovernment Orders

8:15 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Canadian Human Rights ActGovernment Orders

8:15 p.m.

Liberal

Douglas Young Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of all members of the House, I would like to thank the officers at the table and the Chair for a very professional and well done job.

Canadian Human Rights ActGovernment Orders

8:15 p.m.

Some hon. members

Hear, hear.

Canadian Human Rights ActGovernment Orders

8:15 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

There is no Private Members' Business today because of the delay. The motion will be postponed until a future sitting.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Canadian Human Rights ActAdjournment Proceedings

8:15 p.m.

NDP

Vic Althouse NDP Mackenzie, SK

Mr. Speaker, on May 1, I rose in the House to pose a question to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, asking him to extend the May 24 deadline and to commit to begin serious discussions with representatives of the affected communities who had already chosen the people to negotiate on their behalf and had sent a group to Ottawa.

This group had some difficulty in having complete meetings with the minister. He responded in a manner that left the May 24 deadline still in place. He did say, however, that he would be going to the west coast the next day to meet with groups there.

I was concerned, as were others, that the minister would avoid meeting the group that had been sent here by the communities at great expense. Instead of meeting with them, he opted to go to the west coast while they were still here in Ottawa seeking meetings with him.

The next day the minister did met with a few groups that told him he was doing a good job. At the strong insistence of the fishermen's union, which still had representatives on the west coast, he did meet with some of them. A day later he spent 45 minutes with the Pacific Salmon Alliance, which is the group that was in Ottawa and had gone back in an attempt to have a meeting with him. The community representatives that had been in Ottawa did get to meet with him for a mere 45 minutes.

I find it amazing that among Liberal ministers they can spend half a day flying halfway across the country to get away from a group of legitimate representatives, in this case representing fishing communities, commercial, aboriginal and sports fisher people, environmentalists like the Suzuki group, the Georgia Strait group, and the Save Our Wild Salmon group. Instead of having serious meetings with them here in Ottawa to negotiate a workable plan, the minister chose to go off to the west coast and grandstand there rather than actually getting down to business.

Since that time as well we know some licences have changed hands. The last report I have is that there are about 400 which have changed hands under the aegis of the new program. I am told that some owners have purchased up to 11 different licences. The cost of these would amount to many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This means we are leaning toward a new high investment type of fishery, probably an urban based and not a community based fishery. We have not really addressed with this policy the questions of commitment to the resource. An urban based fishery which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in licences alone is to care more about recovering its hundreds of thousands of dollars for an annual licence than it is to looking after future stocks.

A community based fishery based on families doing the fishing from communities will make certain the fishery has a much longer life.

If the minister is truly honest in his promise he made in the House when he responded to my first question to bridge some of the gaps, address uncertainties and fine tune the program, he would suspend the May 24 deadline, which I asked him to do, so true and meaningful discussions can take place with no guns held to the heads of the communities involved in the form of this deadline.

Tomorrow Peter Pearse and Don Cruikshank will be in Ottawa in front of the committee, experts the minister could well afford to heed. I hope he will would drop the deadline and work out a policy that will leave the west coast with communities as well as with salmon enhancement capabilities. People, after all, are a necessary and important part of the west coast environment as well.

Canadian Human Rights ActAdjournment Proceedings

8:20 p.m.

Vancouver Quadra B.C.

Liberal

Ted McWhinney LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Fisheries and Oceans

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. I should add in preface that the minister went to the west coast and had met with numbers of representatives of all segments of the fisheries industry before his departure and has been meeting since. He had several meetings today.

The parliamentary secretary for the past month has met with all three fisher groups, seiners, gill netters, trollers in Vancouver, members of the processing plant, the coastal communities and the union. The parliamentary secretary addressed the union at large

meeting and met with the executive and addressed the coastal communities. There has been an extensive contact with what are called the stakeholders in this very important national asset.

The government recognizes, and this is part of this extensive dialogue occurring and the reason for it, the Pacific salmon revitalization strategy is all about conserving the precious salmon resources and ensuring the sustainability and viability of the commercial salmon fishery in British Columbia.

The fishing capacity of the commercial fleet far exceeds what is required to harvest the available resource and this situation is putting the conservation of the stocks at risk. No one, including critics of the strategy, disputes the fleet is too large and needs to be reduced.

The revitalization plan is based on recommendations from a Pacific policy round table of some 70 salmon stakeholder representatives as well as the recommendations of the Fraser River Sockeye Public Review Board which identified various problems undermining salmon conservation efforts.

Overcapitalization of the commercial harvesting sector was one of the key problems identified by the review board. The round table strongly recommended the fleet be reduced and the action be taken before the 1996 fishing season.

The revitalization plan includes a federal government funded $80 million licence retirement program and licensing policy changes that are expected to contribute toward a 50 per cent reduction in the fleet over time.

The licence retirement program will expire at the end of June. It is a short term initiative to kick start the fleet reduction, but it is only a start. It is expected to remove no more than 20 per cent of the existing 4,400 licences. Other licensing measures are expected to remove a further 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the fleet over time.

Concerns have been expressed about the impact of the fleet reduction on coastal communities. It must be said that the future of those coastal communities that are highly dependent on the salmon fishery is not secure unless the salmon stocks are robust and the harvesting industry is viable, which has clearly not been the case in recent years. The revitalization strategy is necessary to give those communities a solid basis for future viability and prosperity.

In meetings last week in Vancouver and again this week in Ottawa with representatives of various stakeholder groups, the minister indicated that he was prepared to consider what he has phrased as fine tuning adjustments to the strategy, although the core elements of the strategy plan will remain intact. An announcement by the minister is expected shortly.

Canadian Human Rights ActAdjournment Proceedings

8:25 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Steckle Liberal Huron—Bruce, ON

Mr. Speaker, this evening I rise to expand upon a question I put to the Minister of National Revenue on April 25. At that time I raised the question of a ways and means bill which pertained to the issue of notional taxes, the GST on used cars.

The previous day the minister had presented a ways and means bill including 100 proposals for the improvement of our GST. The GST has been a tax which has caused so much difficulty for business.

For the most part Canadians never new that what is called a notional tax was even in existence. It was not in the vocabulary of most people. The fundamental change of the notional input tax credit was one of the major changes. I felt it was important for Canadians to realize that this important change was made in the bill.

The way the GST was collected on used goods was certainly one which was of great concern to many, many people. It was an instrument of the tax system that was clearly not understood by the majority of Canadians. When the issue was raised Canadians simply did not understand it.

In the case of the auto industry, prior to the change, a person buying a new vehicle paid GST on the full retail price. With the changes announced by the minister, the GST now only applies to the trade-in difference. This is a substantial saving of tax for those who apply the trade-in value to the purchase of their new vehicle.

One element that remains unaddressed is the issue of curbside trade which continues to flourish in this country. Many curbside shops are still operating. They buy used products from private individuals and resell them. Of course, these people are not subject to the GST. We must address this. The point of my concern is that these people do not collect GST on their business transactions. In so doing, they directly compete against many storefront operations. This is an unfair advantage.

As I conclude my remarks, I would like to say that the unfair practice will only end when the province of Ontario joins with all provinces in the harmonization of our provincial and federal taxes.

I would like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance if he would deal with this issue. What efforts are being made through the business community to ensure early harmonization by the province of this aforementioned tax?

Canadian Human Rights ActAdjournment Proceedings

8:25 p.m.

St. Paul's Ontario

Liberal

Barry Campbell LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Finance

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Huron-Bruce raises an important question.

On April 23 the Minister of Finance introduced over 100 measures to streamline the operation of the GST. One important simplification was the elimination of the notional input tax credits and the introduction of a change in approach for used goods.

The credit allowed dealers to claim 7/107ths of the price they paid for used goods. It was assumed that the full credit was passed on to consumers. However many consumers felt that this was not always the case.

The notional input tax credit system was criticized for being overly complex and susceptible to abuse. The tax will now be applied on the net difference in price when a consumer trades in a used good as partial payment for another good.

The new system for trade-ins is easier to understand and limits tax compounding. The new rules came into effect immediately so that consumers would not delay making decisions on the trade in and purchase of automobiles. Such a delay may have led to revenue losses during any transition period for businesses in this sector. Delaying implementation may have also led to further fraudulent activity.

In further response to the member's comments with respect to harmonization, he is absolutely right. A move toward harmonization in all provinces in this country will help to alleviate and eliminate the sort of problems he outlined.

Canadian Human Rights ActAdjournment Proceedings

8:25 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

Colleagues, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. Again, thank you to the pages and everyone who stayed so late tonight.

(The House adjourned at 8.32 p.m.)