Debates of Oct. 2nd, 1997

Supreme Court Of Canada

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated before, I am open to considering how we can ensure greater consultation as I go about making recommendations for appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada.

I encourage the hon. member and any other member in the House that if they have suggestions how I may hear from a greater number of Canadians, I would be happy to hear from them.

Rcmp Investigations

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when pressed just now, the solicitor general told us that he knew that people in cabinet, people around him, the RCMP, were aware of the serious allegations against a Liberal party organizer.

Will the solicitor general confirm that he indeed stated that he was aware that some of his colleagues knew?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I became aware that other people were involved in this today in the House. I was not aware of an investigation. I was not advised of an investigation. The investigation is ongoing independently by the RCMP as it should be.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister knew, the Minister of Human Resources Development knew, the Quebec ministers knew, the Prime Minister's lieutenant knew, the organizers knew, the RCMP knew. Everybody knew, just not their boss.

What is the solicitor general's problem? Either he is frighteningly incompetent, or he is trying to mislead this House.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I understand very well the need to protect the integrity of the position of the solicitor general. The RCMP is conducting an arm's length investigation, as it should.

Via Rail

[Bev Desjarlais, NDP, Churchill, MB]

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

On September 3 a VIA Rail train crashed near Biggar, Saskatchewan injuring 64 and killing one. Yesterday in releasing an interim report on the accident, the Transportation Safety Board noted that its recommendations are the same ones it made three years ago following a crash at Brighton, Ontario.

The recommendations do not address the cuts to VIA maintenance in the last three years which have led to the closure of maintenance centres in Halifax and Toronto, the originating point of the train at Biggar.

Will the minister request VIA Rail to cancel any further cuts and layoffs to VIA maintenance until the final report of the investigation is completed?

[David Collenette, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, first I would like to say how grateful we are that the Transportation Safety Board has given a preliminary report on the unfortunate crash at Biggar.

This is an incident that we are all concerned about. We are also concerned that some of the original recommendations for safety were not followed. Immediately the Department of Transport took regulatory action against VIA and VIA is complying.

We will do the best to ensure that all the recommendations made by the board will be adhered to very quickly.

[Bev Desjarlais, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, this passes as more than being an incident. It is an absolute tragedy that someone had to die before we saw recommendations from the Transportation Safety Board being put into place.

Why did the government not ensure that the minimum recommendations from that previous accident were enforced?

[David Collenette, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, to the contrary, the Department of Transport is very vigorous in applying safety standards. Safety is the number one priority for the government in whatever mode of transport.

It appears that VIA did not undertake to make certain changes throughout its system. It did on some services and we are trying to find out why. We have asked VIA to come back and let us know what other actions it is going to take to comply with the board's request.

Veterans

[Elsie Wayne, Progressive Conservative, Saint John, NB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Veterans Affairs.

The government has cut the last post fund for veterans from $26,000 to $12,060. This has made it very difficult for veterans.

Will the minister assure the House that he will have his department review the cuts it made to the last post fund and deal with the difficulties and injustices it has caused to the spouses of those families?

[Fred Mifflin, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for the question. I know that she has worked hard, like all of us in the House, in support of veterans.

I have been asked to assure the House that this situation will be reviewed. Veterans affairs are always reviewed to see what can be done for veterans. We recently overhauled the review board and that basically cuts the time in half. We continue to review items of interest.

The hon. member knows that a few years ago we introduced a bill that looked after merchant seamen. We will continue to do this on a regular basis.

[Elsie Wayne, Progressive Conservative, Saint John, NB]

Mr. Speaker, there has been $182 million cut from the Department of Veterans Affairs' budget. This has made it most difficult for the veterans and their families.

Cuts to the last post fund have made it more difficult than some of the other cuts because it costs a lot more today to bury a veteran than it did 10 years ago.

Once again I ask the minister to please take a look at the last post fund to see if there is not some way we can bring back dignity for the veterans.

[Fred Mifflin, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the hon. member that the dignity of veterans will be utmost and top priority for the government.

Customs

[Jason Kenney, Reform, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of National Revenue dismissed allegations made by a 25-year customs official, Dennis Coffey, allegations of fraud, nepotism and abuse rampant in the Department of National Revenue.

Today we have obtained a sworn affidavit from Mr. Coffey which I am prepared to table in the House confirming his allegations and contradicting the minister.

Given that Revenue Canada has not denied Mr. Coffey's allegations, is the minister prepared to investigate this matter and if not, why not?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, the member asked this question yesterday and I responded. I want to repeat that response so that it is clear to him.

I said yesterday that no preferential treatment is given to FedEx. Let me repeat it again. No preferential treatment is given to FedEx.

If the member has any evidence to the contrary other than allegations, he should table them in the House. We have not seen one iota of evidence from this member other than the unsubstantiated allegations that he has put forward.

[Jason Kenney, Reform, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I offered just a moment ago to table a sworn affidavit from a 25-year veteran of this minister's department.

That is evidence introduced before a quasi-judicial body of the government. One of the minister's top customs officers has threatened to muzzle and fire this officer of the minister's department for making these allegations.

Is that how the minister treats employees who try to expose fraud, waste and corruption in his department?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should be very careful of the words that he uses.

I know this hon. member wants to pretend he is a rat packer, but he is certainly no Brian Tobin.

Rcmp Investigations

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

Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general stated earlier with a totally straight face that he had discovered in this House that the Minister of Human Resources Development, other colleagues and the RCMP too all knew about this investigation.

Could he confirm, following all the questions he had in the House yesterday and the statements he made in the papers, that at no time and in no way did he discuss this matter since yesterday either with the RCMP, or—

[The Speaker]

I am sorry to interrupt, but the hon. minister has the floor.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I can confirm in answering the question from the hon. member that in fact I did not speak to the RCMP about this case.

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

Mr. Speaker, there are two parts to the question. He answered the part concerning the RCMP.

I ask him again: Did he, in the time between question period yesterday and today, discuss this matter with not some but many of his colleagues, since almost everyone in cabinet knew about it but him?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, no. As I said yesterday in response to the question, the first I was aware of this was yesterday when the question was put.

Interest Rates

[Nelson Riis, NDP, Kamloops, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Finance who, I guess like everyone else, was surprised yesterday to learn that interest rates are now on the way up again.

We have acknowledged that inflation, at 1.8 percent, is well within the parameters of the Bank of Canada's monetary policy. The minister says he has to take action because the inflation rate is at 1.8 percent.

How high do unemployment levels have to go before the minister also takes action on interest rates?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the hon. member knows that interest rates are at almost a 30-year low. Our interest rates are substantially lower than those in the United States.

We are not dealing with monetary tightening. The governor of the bank has simply eased off on the accelerator a little in order to maintain the tremendous economic recovery and the very strong job creation we are seeing.

Poverty

[Sarmite Bulte, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadian children represent our country's future. Canadians are looking to their governments to help low income families and children and give children a good start so that they can realize their full potential as adults.

Can the Secretary of State for Children and Youth tell us what the federal government is doing to combat child poverty?