Debates of Nov. 24th, 1998

Veterans Affairs

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

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member knows because it was set up through her office, she is assisting these veterans on their hunger strike, that I will be meeting with them tomorrow.

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

Mr. Speaker, if it was sent to my office, I did not receive it but I did hear about it through the merchant navy men.

I want to remind the Minister of Veterans Affairs that in the past five years the Department of Veterans Affairs has had a total of over $475 million in lapsed unused funds.

Once again, knowing the money is there, will the minister sit with these veterans tomorrow with an open mind and seriously discuss the issue of benefits and compensation?

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

Mr. Speaker, the member has been asking for a meeting. I will say to her again that I have met with these veterans on two occasions. I met with them this morning and I will meet with them again tomorrow.

Apec Inquiry

[John Reynolds, Reform, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister knows that the public complaints commission can only investigate the role of the police in the APEC affair. It cannot investigate the role the PMO played in APEC. It cannot investigate the role of the PMO pressure on the CBC to get rid of Terry Milewski.

Why will the Prime Minister not call an independent judicial inquiry to clear up the role of the PMO in the whole APEC affair?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I know the commission has already interviewed many people working in the public service concerning this matter. Every department, including PCO and the Department of Foreign Affairs, has collaborated with members of the commission and has given it all the information and documents it wanted.

It is not true that the commission cannot investigate it. We have offered to help it and we will keep offering all the help it needs.

[John Reynolds, Reform, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister stands in the House, as his former solicitor general did, day after day talking about the public complaints commission and what it can do.

If he read the act he would see that it can only investigate the police. If he went back to the speeches when that bill was brought to the House, he would see that the member sitting next to him spoke against the bill in the House for that reason.

Why will the Prime Minister not read the act and find out that the commission can only investigate the police? Everybody will co-operate if they know that nothing can be done to them, except for the police, under this commission.

Why will the Prime Minister not call an independent judicial inquiry?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the frame of reference is extremely wide. At this time the commission is interviewing everybody in every department who had anything to do with this meeting in Vancouver a year ago. Let the commission do its work.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the only reason the Prime Minister is defending the commission of inquiry on the peppergate scandal as vigorously as he did his former solicitor general is because it is the only thing left that can protect him from embarrassing accusations that could be made against him.

Will the Prime Minister admit that having a commission of inquiry on police ethics instead of a real judicial inquiry is a lot more convenient for him and for his office?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, no, because this commission exists under the laws of parliament. A complaint was made to the commission, and the commission itself, without receiving any instructions from anybody in government, decided to conduct an inquiry. That commission has the authority to question and to call before it any witnesses it wants concerning what happened in Vancouver a year ago.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, everybody knows the role of that commission is to investigate the actions of the police. It is a commission on police ethics. It does not have the mandate to go to the Prime Minister's office, and that is what we are interested in.

Will the Prime Minister not admit that he gave the commission a role and a mandate that it cannot fulfil because it does not have the authority to go to his office and to question him on his involvement in this matter?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the commission has the authority to call any witness it wishes to hear. It is its decision. The commission's lawyers started questioning people several weeks ago, and all the documentation they asked for has been handed over to them. They have absolutely no restrictions on their inquiry, and they can question anybody they want in the government.

Hepatitis C

[Grant Hill, Reform, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday Premier Harris kept his word. He promised to compensate all the poor victims of hepatitis C and he did that.

The position of the health minister across the way was to attack Premier Harris. Did Premier Harris, in this minister's view, do the wrong thing yesterday by looking after all the victims of hepatitis C?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the government has kept its word. It has acted out of principle. It has extended with other provinces an offer to dissolve litigation when we felt there was some argument as to fault and in relation to everybody else who contracted hepatitis C through the blood system.

We have offered assistance in making sure they get the care they need without paying money out of their pockets; research to help us find treatment and a cure for this disease, much needed research; trace back programs to find people at risk so they can get treatment; and $125 million over—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Macleod.

[Grant Hill, Reform, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, everyone knows that the minister has a personal dislike for Premier Harris. It looks to me like that vendetta is getting in the way of hepatitis C victims.

Why should the hepatitis C victims themselves suffer because of a personal vendetta of the minister against Premier Harris?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the government just takes a different position on this issue than the government of Premier Harris.

Let me give an example. The only known drug to help hepatitis C is Interferon. At the moment in Ontario it costs about $10,000 out of the pocket of the victim in some cases to get that drug, $10,000 for one course of treatment. The $10,000 cheque that the Harris government is mailing out is not going to do much good to the person who needs that drug.

What we propose is cost sharing with the provinces to get that drug into their hands without any out of pocket expense. Why will they not do what we propose and help those who are sick with treatment and not with payment?

Bill C-54

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, Mercier, QC]

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

Last Tuesday, the Minister of Industry said Bill C-54 “would not apply to Quebec at all”. On Wednesday, he changed his mind and said the opposite, when he stated that his bill would apply, in Quebec, to federally regulated businesses, such as banks and telecommunications, broadcasting and transport companies.

Does the minister admit that the act will also apply to Quebec businesses that transfer personal information to other provinces?

[John Manley, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I am convinced that Canadians in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada truly want personal information to be protected. In fact, according to an Angus Reid poll, 80% of Canadians feel that personal data should remain strictly confidential.

We will protect personal information. We are doing so in Bill C-54. I would appreciate it if the Bloc Quebecois supported this legislation.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-54 provides much less protection than the Quebec legislation does.

My question to the minister is: Does he think the only way to protect the rights of Canadians is to weaken those of Quebeckers, or is everyone not entitled to the best possible protection, namely the protection provided in Quebec?

[John Manley, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, I would simply like to quote privacy commissioner Bruce Phillips, who said, when the bill was introduced, and I quote “Today's tabling of private sector privacy legislation in the House of Commons is the most significant advance in protecting Canadians' personal information since the Privacy Act regulated federal government handling of personal information in 1983”.

It is simple. This is a good bill. It will protect individuals. It is a bill for—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona.

Health Care

[Rahim Jaffer, Reform, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, according to an Angus Reid poll released today, the public's greatest concern, even before unemployment, is the way the Liberals are attacking the health care system.

This is no surprise. Since 1993, the Liberals have slashed $7 billion from health care financing, and hospital waiting lists are longer than they have ever been.

Enough talk. When is the Minister of Health going to act?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely incredible to hear the hon. member from the Reform Party speak to us of health care when, year after year of their first mandate, their recommendations were to cut, to slash health expenditures. But we refused.

Moreover, the first thing we did when we saw the deficit had been eliminated was to restore in excess of $7 billion to health care, over a five-year period.

[Rahim Jaffer, Reform, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this is not about the official opposition. This is about the government's record. Seven billion dollars have been cut out of health care. Nearly 1,400 doctors have left Canada for the U.S. Hospital waiting lists are the longest in history; 188,000 people are waiting for care.

How many more polls will it take before the health minister gets the message and stops this Liberal sabotage?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, this year in terms of tax point transfers alone the provinces will be receiving over $13.5 billion. The equalization transfer this year is $8.5 billion, up from $8.1 billion when we took office. The child tax benefit is $1.8 million. That is money that is going into provincial coffers and into the hands of Canadians with children to enable them to protect their health.

Whether we put money into research and development or into the health transition fund, this party, the party that created the Canada Health Act, stands behind the health of Canadians.