House of Commons Hansard #146 of the 36th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was quebec.
Lawrence MacAulay LiberalMinister of Labour
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's question.
I have appointed a mediator to this dispute. Both parties are not meeting at this time. I have asked a senior official in my department to contact both parties and attempt to get them to sit down and come up with a collective agreement, which is important for both sides.
Hélène Alarie Bloc Louis-Hébert, QC
Mr. Speaker, the day before yesterday, in response to one of our questions, the agriculture minister hid behind legality to justify the unfair treatment given to Quebec sheep producers who are in dire straits.
How can the minister hide behind the legal aspect of the issue, while in western Canada the federal government used ad hoc programs to retroactively compensate grain producers?
Lyle Vanclief LiberalMinister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Mr. Speaker, I have told the hon. member and the industry over and over again that the money in farm safety nets to assist in the farm income situation, after we have played our full and complete role and even recently increased the compensation caps for sheep, is in the hands of the provincial Government of Quebec.
I have written to the minister of agriculture of the province of Quebec saying that I will sit down with him if he wishes to discuss some readjustment of those moneys to assist farmers who feel that they need more assistance in recovering from this situation. He has written back to me and said that he was not interested.
Hélène Alarie Bloc Louis-Hébert, QC
Mr. Speaker, the minister knows that the federal government is to blame. In the past, several billion dollars were retroactively given to western grain producers through ad hoc programs.
Why is it that something that was possible for western grain producers is not possible for Quebec sheep producers?
Lyle Vanclief LiberalMinister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Mr. Speaker, I will repeat again. The farm safety net money to support the income of Canadian farmers is distributed equitably for producers in the provinces across the country.
In other provinces the producers the hon. member is referring to could have drawn on NISA. In the province of Quebec the industry and the government decided to put it on price support. That was their decision. Unfortunately it was a decision made by their industry and by their provincial government that will not assist its producers in this situation.
Charlie Penson Reform Peace River, AB
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade.
TradeOral Question Period
The Deputy Speaker
Order, please. We cannot hear questions and answers. The hon. member for Peace River.
Charlie Penson Reform Peace River, AB
Mr. Speaker, I am afraid we have a month of this to put up with in the future.
Canada's agriculture producers should be very competitive in world markets because of our natural advantages. Yet our market share in world trade in agriculture has slipped from 4% to 3% in the last 10 years, mainly because of huge subsidies by the Europeans and the Americans.
How would the parliamentary secretary intend to increase Canada's share back to where it was without resorting to subsidies?
Bob Speller LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister for International Trade
Mr. Speaker, the Canadian government is presently in consultations with the provinces and all industry groups trying to put together a united stand to take into the new round of the WTO.
As the member knows, that round will be coming up in 1999. We will be working with the provinces and all the industries to make sure that we have a very strong position to put forward at that time.
Lee Morrison Reform Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Mr. Speaker, the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool is to close 235 elevators at 170 prairie delivery points.
The producer members who paid for these elevators will not be given the opportunity to buy them. As soon as the bins are empty, the bulldozers will move in and these elevators will be gone. As a bit of collateral damage, a lot of villages will lose a third of their tax base.
Will the government just once do something proactive for the benefit of farmers and put a moratorium on the destruction of these valuable facilities?
AgricultureOral Question Period
Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte Newfoundland & Labrador
Liberal
Gerry Byrne LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Natural Resources
Mr. Speaker, it must be Friday. Up until 30 seconds ago I thought there was no such a thing as a silly question, but now I think we have resolved that.
The government has been doing things very actively for the benefit of farmers. The Canadian Wheat Board, for example, has been consistently working at generating high value and high prices for farmers.
Despite the fact that world markets have been declining, Canadians have been enjoying world price increases basically due to the Canadian Wheat Board.
Ghislain Fournier Bloc Manicouagan, QC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
Fishers in Quebec and on the Lower North Shore are hurting because of the federal government's mismanagement of fish stocks. Will the minister travel to the Lower North Shore to meet with the fishers and try to work out some real solutions for the future?
Wayne Easter LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
Mr. Speaker, as the member very well knows, the minister of fisheries has said consistently that conservation is a priority in the fisheries.
He has held extensive discussions with the fishing industry. He has travelled from coast to coast to coast in the country to hear what fishermen and fisherwomen have to say. He is putting a conservation plan and a management plan in place which will ensure that there is a fisheries for the future whether it is for Quebec fishermen, Prince Edward Island fishermen or any other Canadian fisherman.
Lynn Myers Liberal Waterloo—Wellington, ON
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General.
A recent report indicated that smugglers are bringing many illegal immigrants into Canada as part of organized criminal activity. This is very costly to the Canadian taxpayers. What exactly is being proposed to crack down on this problem?
Jacques Saada LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Solicitor General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, the smuggling of people into Canada is part of the definition of organized crime and organized crime is indeed one of the top priorities of our department.
We have approximately 16,000 of them coming into Canada every year. We have adopted among the most severe penalties in the world in this regard. We are active on international forums to address it from an international perspective, which is the only valid one.
As we speak the solicitor general is discussing with his—
Gurmant Grewal Reform Surrey Central, BC
Mr. Speaker, apparently CIDA has suspended its foreign aid to Jamaica because $18 million of foreign aid is unaccounted for. Jamaican officials refuse to answer questions and turn over the files. In fact they shredded those files.
Why will the government not take the money previously earmarked for Jamaica and spend it in British Columbia on the RCMP which is fighting the drug trade and drug abuse? Why not use the money instead of wasting it?
Don Boudria LiberalLeader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I am very disappointed that an hon. member would want to reduce the level of Canada's foreign aid. I am certainly not part of the group that would want to advocate that and I am sorry to hear that is the attitude of the critic.
Second, on the issue of the funds spent in Jamaica, what he is referring to is a monetary program of some $18 million. That program was fully expended in Jamaica. The auditors referred to some difficulties in finding the proper documentation for 3% of the expenditures.
Philip Mayfield Reform Cariboo—Chilcotin, BC
Mr. Speaker, the government has said that it is on top of the 2000 computer bug problem and that it will be ready for the new millennium.
Recent Treasury Board surveys show that many federal departments will not be ready and that national defence is one of the very least prepared departments.
If the government is ready, why is the RCMP cancelling all leave between December 27, 1999 and March 15, 2000? Why is the government preparing to deploy tens of thousands of military troops in the new millennium?
Marcel Massé LiberalPresident of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure
Mr. Speaker, yes, the Canadian government has been spending a lot of money in an effort to get ready for the Y2K problem.
In the latest report published by Treasury Board, we indicated the percentage of achievement of work on government-wide critical systems. This shows that most of the departments, if not all, will be ready for 2000.
However, we are not taking any chances. We are ready for all contingencies and we have asked the various departments, particularly the emergency preparedness group in the Department of National Defence, to be ready.
Lorne Nystrom NDP Qu'Appelle, SK
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister of financial institutions.
There are now clear indications that the proposed mergers of the banks are on life support, they are dying. In fact, even the Liberal caucus now recognizes that the proposed mergers are not in the public interest.
The real question is how is the government going to make it up to its disappointed friends on Bay Street. Can the minister tell us whether there will be a trade-off? Will there be a trade-off if the government says no to the mega mergers but yes to the banks selling insurance or getting into the auto leasing business or both? Is that the trade-off?
Jim Peterson LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to respond to the member because we have set in place a process we are going to respect. It is a process whereby House of Commons and Senate committees will report on this.
We will not be able to look at the issue of bank mergers until we have heard from the office of the superintendent of financial institutions and from the Competition Bureau. After we have had that input and if we are then satisfied that we have sufficient information, we will be in a position to take decisions.
Lorne Nystrom NDP Qu'Appelle, SK
Mr. Speaker, there are some 60,000 independent insurance brokers in this country like Regina's Frank Buck. This morning I want to give the minister an opportunity to speak directly to Frank Buck and his fellow brokers.
Can he assure them that the government will not allow the banks to retail insurance out of their branches? Can he speak directly to that question and answer it now?
Jim Peterson LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)
Mr. Speaker, maybe the banks are trying to short circuit the process we put in place for coming to decisions on these very important issues for the future of Canada and its financial institutions and for the insurance industry as well.
The member may want to short circuit this process. We will not. We want to hear from Canadians and we want to hear from the committees.