Debates of Oct. 9th, 1998

Solicitor General Of Canada

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the questions that we have heard all week are based on the inaccurate notes of an eavesdropper. I responded to the allegations that were put. My response was supported by the person with whom I was having the conversation. As I said earlier, I do not think Canadians take kindly to these tactics. They are unfamiliar in Canada and unworthy of the hon. member.

Apec Summit

[Chuck Cadman, Reform, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, in Vancouver the government has a platoon of taxpayer funded lawyers to hide the Prime Minister's involvement in the APEC scandal. The commission has requested funding for the students' legal costs. The solicitor general has refused, leaving the public interest represented by one unpaid lawyer. The solicitor general is clearly in a conflict of interest here.

Will the solicitor general commit here and now to provide funding for the students as requested by the commission so it can get to the bottom of this scandal?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, we received a request earlier this week for additional funding for the students. That request is being considered at this time.

[Paul Forseth, Reform, New Westminster—Coquitlam—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to again ask a question of the solicitor general. How did the solicitor general get the confidential information about the ongoing investigation? He has made denials. We have heard admissions. We want to know the facts. How did he get that information?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, information that would be acquired through an operational exercise by the RCMP or any other agency under my responsibility is operational. I would not be privy to that. I would not be involved in that. That is the reason that I have denied the fact that I have received that information in that fashion.

Solicitor General Of Canada

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Solicitor General. In the past, a number of ministers have lost their positions through lack of judgment. Jean Charest, for example, lost his job after phoning a judge, and Alan Redway lost his after making a bad joke about guns while going through customs. There was also the Liberal "Rat Pack" who used to call for ministers' heads over peccadilloes.

Why are the Liberals today applauding what used to bring them roaring to their feet on their desks calling for the heads of Conservative ministers?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the allegations that have been put I have responded to. It has been supported. I am very confident in my position in this regard. I wish the hon. members would get on with the nation's business.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Solicitor General chatted about the matters under his responsibility on a plane. This week, he chatted in the gym with a Conservative colleague, to justify himself, it seems.

Why is the government not dismissing this dangerous serial chatterer?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, all week long I have been suggesting that the allegations that have been made were based on inaccurate information. I have said it many times in response to many questions and I say it again.

Agriculture

[Howard Hilstrom, Reform, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I would like you to convey to the solicitor general that after the Thanksgiving break we will be back on this question.

My question today is for the agriculture minister. There is a growing farm crisis in western Canada. In 1997 farm incomes have dropped by over an average of 50%. The net income stabilization account would help some farmers but it will not help most of the farmers.

Is the minister prepared today to admit that NISA does not meet the needs of real Canadian farmers?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I will remind the member again that we have the best safety net system of any farm population in the world.

We are reviewing with the industry, and that review has been ongoing having started a number of months ago, how we can better make the investment there, to the betterment of the industry. We will continue to do that.

Unfortunately there is a world commodity dip in prices for farmers all around the world. That is little consolation to our farmers, I understand. We are working with the industry in co-operation with them to strengthen the industry to the best of everybody's interest.

[Charlie Penson, Reform, Peace River, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade.

Canadian farmers are facing difficult times, as my colleague has just suggested. Commodity prices are reaching lows something like the ones 30 years ago. At the same time the European Union managed to find over $50 billion to subsidize its farmers this year alone.

What specific plan has the Minister for International Trade to defend our Canadian farmers against these unfair subsidies?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I wish the member had listened to the answer I gave a moment ago. We are working with the industry. We have a very solid safety net plan in the industry at the present time. We are working with the industry to improve that as time goes on. I look forward to that co-operation in the industry, which we have always had, as well as the co-operation of the hon. member.

Solicitor General Of Canada

[Jocelyne Girard-Bujold, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. Frankly, Liberal members have a nerve trying to persuade us that the person in the wrong is not the Solicitor General, who discusses government business on an airplane, but our NDP colleague, whose misfortune it was to be there and hear the minister's remarks.

Will the Prime Minister come back to reality, show some judgment and sack the Solicitor General immediately?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is because the Prime Minister has such good judgment that he has no intention whatsoever of calling for the Solicitor General's resignation.

Veterans Affairs

[Joe Jordan, Liberal, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as the House heads into Thanksgiving break, I think that independent of the complex issue, all Canadians share concern about the health of the merchant navy hunger strikers. Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs update us on what the government is doing to try to resolve this unfortunate situation?

[Bob Wood, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Veterans Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Leeds—Grenville for the question.

I am extremely happy to report to the House that as of this morning, the four merchant navy veterans have agreed to end their hunger strike.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

[Bob Wood, Liberal, Nipissing, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I cannot express how pleased I am that these men will be home with their families for Thanksgiving.

I would also like to thank members on both sides of this House, especially the Minister of Veterans Affairs and the hon. member for St. John.

I would also like to report that beginning next week a consultation process will begin with various veterans organizations, including the merchant navy which will expedite the tabling of an omnibus bill.

Agriculture

[Jake Hoeppner, Reform, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister of agriculture. With farm income having dropped between 40% and 80% and farmers even having problems putting food on their own tables, why has his government abandoned its red book one promise to reduce farmers' input costs and to introduce a whole farm income stabilization program? Where is it? When is it coming?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, I wish the hon. member would update himself on the realities of the day.

Canadian farmers are probably the only farmers in the world who have a net income stabilization account in which they can participate. I encourage those who have not already participated in it to do so. It is a management tool that is contributed to not only by the individual producer, but by the provincial and the federal governments in order to assist and to take out some of the difficulty in the unfortunate times we are in right now of low commodity prices.

[Lee Morrison, Reform, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, with the disastrous cost price squeeze that farmers are facing, it will be a very tough year for them.

In the face of near record low prices, this government continues to increase farmers' costs through agencies such as the Canadian Grain Commission and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

All Canadians benefit from the services of those agencies. Will the government make a tiny little start at addressing the farm income crisis by ending the extortionist cost recovery programs?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, here again if the hon. member cared to get briefed on these types of issues, we have frozen a good number of the cost recovery assessments that were made.

Concerning cost recovery, there is always a debate on what is private good and what is public good. But probably the average of the cost recovery is far less than 20% of the services provided to the agriculture and agri-food industry in Canada.

Apec Summit

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the public complaints commission is now completely compromised by the actions of the solicitor general and there is still no funding for legal representation for student complainants.

Surely the solicitor general must acknowledge the conflict of interest he has put himself in and the jeopardy he has created for the process he defended.

Funding must be provided and the solicitor general must do the right thing. Will he resign?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I feel very, very strongly about civilian oversight in the public complaints commission. I received the request for funding earlier this week and it is being considered right now.