Debates of Feb. 6th, 1998

Aboriginal Affairs

[Mike Scott, Reform, Skeena, BC]

Mr. Speaker, again I ask the Deputy Prime Minister for his commitment here and now to pay Mr. Starlight's legal fees. This is a direct breach of confidentiality, a breach of the Privacy Act. We have got the Privacy Commissioner looking into it now. I am asking the Deputy Prime Minister on behalf of Mr. Starlight and his family to guarantee to Mr. Starlight that the government is going to pay his legal fees. Will he answer that, yes or no?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I have undertaken to have this looked into. I think that is a reasonable response and I ask the hon. member to accept that I will make sure his suggestion is pursued.

Canadian Olympic Association

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

Ninety-five per cent of the ceremony to present the Canadian athletes to the media, which was sponsored by the Canadian Olympic Association, was apparently conducted in English. The French that was used for only 5% of the time was of poor quality, if not mediocre.

How can the heritage minister explain this situation, if not by saying that it reflects the inability of her department and her government to ensure that francophones in Quebec and Canada are respected?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, let me make it clear that the COA's decision does not reflect the Canadian reality.

Like the hon. member, I fully disagree with the manner in which the event was conducted, and I certainly hope to have the opportunity to discuss it with Bill Warren and to ensure that Myriam Bédard, Gaétan Boucher, Jean-Luc Brassard and all Canadian gold medallists are treated with respect in both official languages.

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her compassion toward the francophones of this country. However, I had several conversations with people in Nagano to check the facts, and my sources unanimously confirmed that, of all the Olympic events, this was the worst performance by the Canadian Olympic Association, which managed to project a “totally Canadian” image of our country.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage may take cover behind the COA, but will she admit that this incident is the direct consequence of her policy to use the Canadian flag as a symbol of Canadian unity, which has the effect of increasingly marginalizing the French language in this country?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, the answer is no.

Reference To Supreme Court

[Richard Marceau, Bloc, Charlesbourg, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this week we were treated to a series of contradictions by the federal government and its top guns on the topic of the Supreme Court reference.

It is clear that the government is becoming increasingly isolated in its attacks on Quebec's democratic institutions.

After this hard week, in which its main allies abandoned it, why is the intergovernmental affairs minister still stubbornly continuing with a reference which quite obviously will no longer have any credibility in the face of the broad consensus forming in Quebec?

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

Mr. Speaker, because Quebeckers are entitled not to lose Canada through confusion, trickery and unclear procedures. Nobody wants to force Quebeckers to stay in Canada against their will, should they ever clearly express their desire to leave, and Quebeckers are entitled to go on being Canadians as long as that is what they wish to do.

[Richard Marceau, Bloc, Charlesbourg, QC]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of confusion, we have just had a good example.

Yesterday, the minister said, and I quote: “Sometimes governments do things that are challenged in law by other governments, and that generally leads to difficulties. Things are obviously much easier when the people concerned are separated by an ocean”.

Can the minister tell us since when oceans have become a determining factor in international law, and will the Attorney General of Canada be using this argument before the Supreme Court?

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

Mr. Speaker, those who listened to Oral Question Period yesterday would have heard me say twice that the Government of Canada feels it has acted within the principles of international law in the so-called turbot war.

Now, if the Bloc Quebecois wants to go on identifying its plans for secession with the only event in which the Canadian army was forced to fire on another vessel in peace time, that is its own decision, but it does not bode well for its plans.

Youth Employment

[Lorne Nystrom, NDP, Qu'Appelle, SK]

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

Two years ago the minister's government announced a youth employment strategy. Despite that strategy, there are now 50,000 fewer young people working today than there were two years ago.

I would like to ask the minister why that strategy failed. Why are there 50,000 fewer people working today than were working two years ago despite that strategy which was announced at least three times, including in the budgets of 1996 and 1997?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, I want to tell the hon. member that I was very disappointed with the numbers we had this morning on youth unemployment, but we have made progress on most of the unemployment across the country. He is quite right that the last month has not been very good on the youth employment front.

We as a government were disappointed to see that this morning. This has been a one month recul but it has not been that bad. Over the last few months we have had substantial progress. We were able to lower the rate down to 15.8% with hard work and with the youth employment strategy which I think is working out quite well. However, one month is not a trend.

[Lorne Nystrom, NDP, Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the minister being forthright. I want to remind the House that the youth unemployment rate has gone from 15.7% two years ago to 16.5% today. In light of that figure, I think this is probably the most important negative crisis we have in Canada today in terms of the economy.

I want to ask the minister what new initiatives the government is going to take now to try to put young people back to work. Are we going to have new money coming into training, research and development and into education to counteract the cutbacks by the Minister of Finance a couple of years ago?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the NDP member for his very interesting question. I am glad to see that some people in this House are interested in youth unemployment. It has not been raised by the other parties. This is a very important situation and as a government we are very concerned about it.

The first reports I have on the youth employment strategy are quite good. Eighty-five per cent of youth who have participated in our youth employment strategy have obtained a full time job within a year after leaving our internship program and service Canada program. They are working and 85% have had good results. However we need to do more. As much as we can, we will be doing more because that is the most important element we have to face in the labour market now.

Saguenay Flood

[André Harvey, Progressive Conservative, Chicoutimi, QC]

Mr. Speaker, given the series of disasters that have recently occurred in our country, the emergency debate held this week provided an opportunity to pay tribute to those who worked very hard and to also reflect on the measures that should be taken to deal even more effectively with such events.

I want to ask the Prime Minister whether it is normal for a small municipality like Anse-Saint-Jean to still be waiting for a payment of $2.5 million, one and a half years after the flood?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this is a specific case. I will take note of the hon. member's question and refer it to the President of the Treasury Board.

[André Harvey, Progressive Conservative, Chicoutimi, QC]

Mr. Speaker, emergency measures are covered by a federal-provincial agreement. Let me illustrate the problem, so you can see how serious it is.

I wonder if the federal government could ask the provincial government to at least make interest refunds eligible. Small municipalities with a population of 1,000 to 1,500 must currently pay interest on huge loans. This means monthly payments of $10,000 to $15,000.

[Martin Cauchon, Liberal, Secretary of State (Federal Office of Regional Development—Quebec)]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Chicoutimi is very familiar with the disaster that struck his region.

The Canadian government initially took action under the Canada-Quebec agreement dealing with disasters and their victims. This agreement worked very well, and the issue raised by the hon. member is indeed a very specific one.

In order to deal with damages not covered by the agreement, we implemented a temporary economic reconstruction program that was very successful. I should point out to the Conservative member that there are still funds in that program, which includes seven components.

It is a program which we would like to duplicate in the case of disasters such as the one created by the ice storm.

Fisheries

[John Duncan, Reform, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the fisheries minister keeps insisting that a race based commercial fishery is legal. He has ignored advice from native and non-native commercial fishermen that racial tinkering leads to racial tension.

Last week a B.C. court ruled that the aboriginal commercial fishery has no validity.

Will the minister ask the crown to drop the charges against 22 B.C. commercial fishermen who protested his racial policy?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, there has been an important case on the west coast dealing with the enforcement of regulations in the fishery. There is a member of this House who has been convicted. I think it is appropriate that we wait until the sentencing is completed before we comment on the case.

[John Duncan, Reform, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the department admits that there are 20 secret legal opinions on the race based fishery locked away in its vaults. The minister knows they exist and I assume you have read past the executive summary—

[The Speaker]

I would remind all hon. members to please address the Chair in their questions.

[John Duncan, Reform, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Will the minister release the documents and put a stop to this racially divisive aboriginal commercial fishery?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has omitted to mention a series of cases which are going to the Supreme Court of Canada dealing with the issue of the aboriginal fishery and the right of aboriginal peoples with respect to other entitlements, be they land, game or other things.

It is important for him to remember the importance of restraining himself for a few more days, or even perhaps a day, as the case may be, until such time as the provincial court trial judge in the case of the Queen v Cummins renders sentencing.

Bill C-28

[Yvan Loubier, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Finance stated that his shipping companies, being Canadian, could not take advantage of the tax savings offered under Bill C-28.

On the other hand, the Vice-President of Canada Steamship Lines stated that his companies could not take advantage of the tax changes because they are foreign-operated, and the ethics adviser stated that he had been assured that Canada Steamship Lines does not intend to take advantage of the terms of the act, thus implying that it was entitled to do so.

My question is for the Minister of Finance. If it is as clear as can be, as the minister said it was yesterday, how can he explain these three different and contradictory interpretations?