Debates of June 18th, 1996

Aerospace Industry

[Raymond Lavigne, Liberal, Verdun—Saint-Paul, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Mirabel's Bell Hélicoptère Textron has just announced a project to invest over $400 million. Recognizing the value and the great potential of this project, the governments of Canada and of Quebec have promised to make a repayable contribution of $13.4 million, in addition to providing tax credits of close to $2.8 million.

Thanks to the development of this new product, Bell Hélicoptère was able to create 250 new high level jobs, in addition to ensuring the continuation of 260 existing jobs.

This major investment shows once again that greater Montreal is truly the aerospace hub of Canada.

Volunteers

[Maurice Bernier, Bloc, Mégantic—Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon, an exceptional citizen of Mégantic-Compton-Stanstead, Mrs. Jacqueline Myre, who is present in our gallery, received an honourary certificate from Voluntary Awards Canada.

Mrs. Myre started several original initiatives to help our senior citizens in the regional county municipality of Haut-Saint-François, in the Eastern Townships. In addition to helping create eight mutual aid networks and four natural helpers' groups, she

chairs the Senior Independence Committee and the Senior Citizen Abuse Awareness Project. She also developed a regional structure for the Active Living Program, which provides our senior citizens with fitness classes adapted to their needs.

Mrs. Myre, you have all our admiration. Please accept our most sincere congratulations for that well deserved honour.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

Corrections Canada

[Randy White, Reform, Fraser Valley West, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the political hacks at the parole board are a little burnt out these days. An internal investigation revealed yesterday that David Barlow got parole in 1993 because he was a burnt out killer. He was 54 years old. The parole board admitted it ignored important evidence on this career killer.

Never mind the history of violence, including murdering a police officer, killing a 70-year-old store owner in Fredericton and twice escaping from custody, he was probably burnt out so let us let him go.

He burnt out, all right. He burnt out of jail and within a year was charged with robbing a Zellers store at gunpoint and opening fire on the RCMP in a busy mall in B.C.

Never mind the victims, never mind the RCMP, never mind the terrorized clerk at Zellers who had a gun stuck in her face. Barlow is back in the hands of Corrections Canada where "the lowest sentence is the law".

Hamilton East

[Beth Phinney, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last night Hamiltonians showed that they will stand up for someone who stands up for them.

Sheila Copps kept her word to the voters of Hamilton East. She put her seat on the line and gave her constituents the opportunity to judge her performance for themselves. The voters made their democratic choice very clear.

What Sheila stood for was fairness, compassion, job creation, clear support of medicare and a strong voice for Hamilton in the government. The people of Hamilton East responded to the message and we all look forward to Sheila returning to Parliament and delivering that message.

I know that Sheila is proud that during the campaign she canvassed every street and every poll in Hamilton East. The people of Hamilton East clearly supported her and her message.

I extend the congratulations of the entire caucus to Sheila Copps. It will be a pleasure to have her back in Ottawa and to resume working with her.

Bill Parker

[John Murphy, Liberal, Annapolis Valley—Hants, NS]

Mr. Speaker, Acadia University in my riding of Annapolis Valley-Hants is truly losing one of its biggest assets. On July 1, Mr. Acadia, Bill Parker, is retiring from his position as vice-president of external relations after 33 years of service to that university.

Bill's relationship with Acadia was developed during his time as a student 40 years ago. Over the years, his commitment to the university has never wavered. Through Bill's leadership and participation, fundraising drives have brought the university over $50 million from the private sector since 1963.

As well as helping serve and bringing new buildings to the university and developing new programs and scholarships, Bill is quite simply known as Mr. Acadia.

I have had the honour of knowing him very well over these last number of years and can say honestly that his presence will be greatly missed and his legacy will not be forgotten.

First Ministers' Conference

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is getting ready to meet the premiers at a conference where he will probably announce the federal government's intention to withdraw from some areas of provincial jurisdiction in which it is now involved.

My question is for the Prime Minister or the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. Will the Prime Minister admit that the federal government's withdrawal from areas of provincial jurisdiction in which it is now involved can only be done by transferring at the same time the funds now spent by the federal government in these areas? Otherwise, this will be nothing but a dumping operation likely to place the provinces in a difficult financial situation.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the meeting is to enable the two orders of government to work together, even better than they do now, to provide Canadians with better services at a lower cost. And we will succeed.

In some areas, it is important to better clarify the respective roles played by the two levels of government, as in the case of mining and forestry. In other cases, the federal government will transfer substantial amounts to the provinces. For example, $2 billion will be transferred for active employment measures over the life of this program. The federal government will also transfer $1.9 billion to the provinces for the management of some 660,000 social housing units.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, in this regard, given the extremely high cost of renovating our social housing stock, the Prime Minister said he wanted to give this area back to the provinces.

Given, then, the substantial amount of renovation work needed, is the government committed-it is important to set the record straight on this-to withdrawing from this area, but only if it helps pay for the work needed to repair all these social housing units?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, we are committed to transferring the money we now spend on social housing.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, what I want to find out from the minister-It is important to set the record straight. The minister talks about the money now spent by the federal government, but we know that the government is not spending anything on repairs to our social housing stock, which has been deteriorating for several years.

My question to the minister is this: Is the federal government preparing to transfer to the provinces apartments in need of major renovation work, thus forcing them to pay exorbitant repair bills? Is this not an example of the kind of federal withdrawal that is tantamount to dumping on the provinces?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, our commitment is clear. The Leader of the Opposition, however, should make up his mind. Does he want us to withdraw from areas of provincial jurisdiction, yes or no? We said we would continue to contribute the same amounts as at present, to be administered by the provinces. Any savings will benefit the provinces, which will be able to do more with the same amount, as there will now be a single level of management.

The provinces should make up their minds. If they do not want us to withdraw, we will not.

[Michel Bellehumeur, Bloc, Berthier—Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister gave as an excuse for putting the securities issue on the agenda of the first ministers' conference the fact that it was requested by a number of provinces. Six provinces also asked the Prime Minister to put the GST on the agenda.

My question is for the Prime Minister, the Acting Prime Minister or the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. How does he explain his refusal to put the GST on the agenda of the first ministers' conference, as requested by six provinces representing 90 per cent of the Canadian population?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the GST issue will be discussed very soon at a finance ministers' conference.

[Michel Bellehumeur, Bloc, Berthier—Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when a number of provinces ask that the Canadian social policy be on the agenda, the Prime Minister puts it on the agenda. When other provinces ask that securities be on the agenda, the Prime Minister agrees to put this topic on the agenda. But when six Canadian provinces ask that the GST be on the agenda, the Prime Minister says: "No, we will not discuss the GST".

My question to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs is this: Why does the Prime Minister not want to talk about the GST, an issue of interest to the four western provinces as well as to Ontario and Quebec? Is he afraid?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, one of the comments made was that the agenda was quite heavy and that there might not be enough time to deal with everything on it. This is a very good point, but I think that, if we keep a tight schedule, we should be able to go through the whole agenda.

The opposition would like to add yet another item. A number of provinces would like to discuss several other issues. But we have had to make a selection to put the agenda together. If it is too heavy, it will require a great deal of discipline on the part of the ministers to deal with all the issues constructively.

Taxation

[Preston Manning, Reform, Calgary Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, in his-

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Calgary Southwest.

[Preston Manning, Reform, Calgary Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, in his luncheon speech today the Prime Minister outlined the subject matter of the first ministers conference that will be held later this week.

In particular he said job creation will be one of the main themes of the discussion. The key to job creation in this country, particularly private sector job creation, can be summed up in two words: tax relief. It is taxes, taxes taxes that kill jobs, jobs, jobs.

If job creation really is an objective of the first ministers conference, why is tax relief not front and centre on the agenda?

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

Mr. Speaker, the government's record on job creation is already excellent. There have been 600,000 new jobs already created since our mandate began, some 150,000 created in the last six months alone. The job creation record of the government is top notch.

[Preston Manning, Reform, Calgary Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, its record on job creation is 1.3 million unemployed, 2 million to 3 million under employed and 1 out of 4 Canadians worried about their jobs.

When the Prime Minister goes into that conference at the end of the week, of the ten premiers there, eight will have either balanced their budgets or run surpluses. All those premiers are in a position to actually deliver tax relief to their people, whereas the federal government will be taking $25 billion more out of the pockets of Canadians next year than in its first year in office.

Is it not true the federal government is at the back of the pack when it comes to tax relief and that is why it is unable to provide leadership on this subject at the first ministers conference?

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

Mr. Speaker, speaking of people who are at the back of the pack, despite being at the back of the pack, the Reform Party has suggested in its budget that it would not reduce taxes until the budget was balanced.

Do Reform members want us to reduce taxes before our budget is balanced? Is that what they are suggesting as they change their policy once again? They flip-flopped on the GST time and time again. Are they flip-flopping on their policy on deficit reduction or do they really mean it?

We put deficit reduction first. We have achieved our goals on deficit reduction and we have done a first rate job. We have the strength of the financial markets behind us now.

[Preston Manning, Reform, Calgary Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is supposed to be some sort of economist. He would know that under Reform's taxpayers budget the federal budget would have been balanced this year and tax relief would have been accomplished.

The Government of Ontario has responsibility for the biggest regional economy in the country. The federal job strategy has to be co-ordinated with the job strategy in that province for maximum effect. The Ontario government has taken the position that tax relief is the key to job creation in that economy and has acted on that position in the recent budget.

If the federal government truly believes in co-ordinated federal-provincial approaches to job creation, why does it not follow Ontario's lead and put tax relief squarely on the agenda of the first ministers conference?

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

Mr. Speaker, we have put harmonization first. We have put co-ordination first. Why does the hon. member not ask the premier of Ontario why he flip-flopped on the GST, where there are real savings in government, real savings in collection of taxes and real savings to the Canadian people?