Debates of March 11th, 1998

The Budget

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that $2.5 billion have been removed from taxpayers' pockets. The surplus belongs to them. They want tax relief.

The auditor general says that he will not sign off on the government's books because the finance minister's accounting cannot be trusted, $2.5 billion for the millennium scholarship fund.

Why will the finance minister not admit the real reason he has done this is that he is preparing for his leadership run and he needs this for a slush fund?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, finally the truth comes out. It is not the accounting that bothers members of the Reform Party; it is the millennium fund.

They are against 100,000 Canadian students getting $3,000 a year. That is what they are against. They are against recognizing that jobs come from education. That is what they are against. They are against us spending money on the future of young Canadians. That is what they are against.

If they are against young Canadians, why do they not admit it and not hide behind a bunch of accountants?

Option Canada

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

Mr. Speaker, on January 8, the auditor general asked for additional information from Heritage Canada on the $4.8 million funding for Option Canada.

The office of the auditor general wrote “We consider it vital to obtain specific information on what in fact was done, produced and obtained with the funding provided by Heritage Canada”.

Could the Minister of Canadian Heritage tell us whether she acted on this request and what exactly the funds given Option Canada were used for?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I have written the chairman of Option Canada, and I expect an answer soon.

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

Mr. Speaker, I imagine the minister has some responsibility in the administration of budgets, and I would like her to confirm that this money was in fact paid out according to the objectives of the Heritage Canada program and not according to the referendum objectives of the Liberal Party of Canada.

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, yes.

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

Mr. Speaker, according to two internal reports by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the first signed by Bill Coleman on March 31, 1997, and the second signed by Ann Scotton on August 22, 1997, the grant applications submitted in 1995 by Option Canada met only two of the 22 conditions necessary in the circumstances.

On November 5, the minister told us that everything had been done according to the rules. How, then, does she explain that Option Canada's application was approved, when it met only two of the 22 grant criteria?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, given that the letters mentioned by the member opposite were personally forwarded by me to the opposition, she should know that, when the analysis was done, our department's audit bureau made all the necessary changes in the current system.

Right now, the criteria are consistent with Treasury Board requirements. She should know, because it says so in her own documents.

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

Mr. Speaker, not only did the grant application not meet the criteria, but we have learned that $2 million of this grant went out to Option Canada 12 days before the application was submitted.

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, all the documents, including the date payments were made, were supplied to the opposition in January and they contain all this information. I have already explained to the member and her colleagues that, once we saw that the criteria had not been met, we did the necessary follow-up.

There is nothing else in the file, given that we were the ones who supplied them with the information they are now supposedly bringing to light here in the House.

Home Care

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are sick and tired of waiting for home care. Yet the health minister told home care delegates in Halifax that Canadians may have to wait up to two more years. That is not good enough, not for the sick, not for family caregivers and not for health care providers.

Will the health minister accelerate the introduction of comprehensive home care by establishing in partnership with the provinces a 90 day emergency task force to get on with home care once and for all?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the government has said that it will work with provincial partners toward the creation of a national approach to home and community care to fill the gaps that are now evident in the health care system, to meet unmet needs and to ensure Canadians wherever they may live in the country can rely on a standard of care at any point in their lives which is equivalent to the principles we hold dear.

Four hundred Canadians from across the country met in Halifax this week. The meeting just ended yesterday. From that meeting it became clear that in the months ahead we must work to prepare this plan so that we get it right.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, earlier this week the minister acknowledged that inadequate home care was causing health care crises across the country each and every day. He avoided mention of the $3.5 billion that his government hacked out of health care and the pain and suffering it is causing Canadians.

Will the minister sit down with the provinces and health care partners to work co-operatively? Will he accept the conference recommendation to begin significant funding and set standards for home care no later than 1999, no later than next year's budget?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the process of collaboration, of forming partnerships with provincial governments and others, has already begun. We have already begun to identify specific concrete steps that can be taken to move on the principles I have described.

The answer is not as the NDP would have us do, simply to throw dollars at the issue. The answer surely is to come to understand where the effort is needed most and to work with partners to prepare the proper response. That is exactly what the government is committed to do.

Hepatitis C

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

Mr. Speaker, thousands of Canadians are suffering from hepatitis C which they contracted through no fault of their own.

Yesterday victims who contracted the disease before 1986 and after 1990 filed a class action lawsuit. This issue is about people who have been suffering since the early 1980s and have waited long enough.

When will the Minister of Health start to show some compassion and treat all these victims equally? A lengthy and costly court case is not in any party's interest.

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the government has been saying since before the delivery of the Krever report that a lengthy litigation is not in the interest of anyone. We have been anxious to find a way to resolve these tragic errors of the past in a humane and fair way. We remain committed to just that process.

I should tell the hon. member that in my judgment it is in the best interest of the victims and the federal and provincial governments to take a co-ordinated approach in this regard. I have been working toward that result. I hope that within a very short while I will be able to announce with my provincial partners a resolution that will meet the—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Saint John.

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

Mr. Speaker, Justice Krever stated in his report “compensating some needy sufferers and not others cannot in my opinion be justified”. This is exactly what the victims are saying. These are people who are suffering through no fault of their own and people are dying.

The government appointed Justice Krever and now it does not want to listen to him? Where is the leadership on the other side? Will the minister treat all victims equally, in the same manner, the way Justice Krever suggests?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, as I have told the member and the House, the government intends to act. It is our hope that we can act in concert with the provinces in the interest of the victims.

However, one can search the record and one's memory and not find a trace of any action taken on behalf of these victims by the hon. member's party when it was in power over the period of 1993. It has been left to us to act and we will accept our responsibility.

National Defence

[Leon Benoit, Reform, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, picture this. A civilian employee, a maintenance worker of the defence department, gave testimony before the defence committee in Cold Lake in January.

Shortly after she received a letter from the office of the judge advocate general warning her that it would be in her best interest not to speak out against the department.

Will the minister advise the House whether this lady has been singled out for intimidation, or is this routine procedure in his department?

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know of the specific case the hon. member is referring to but I will say one thing. It is our policy to treat people fairly and humanely and to make sure that in any of these cases we get to the bottom of the truth and treat people in a fair fashion.

[Leon Benoit, Reform, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Ms. Simone Olafson who works at the base in Cold Lake received this letter from Major Barber, deputy judge advocate, after her appearance before the defence committee.

She is chastised for saying negative things about his department. The letter from the JAG's office concludes with the warning “govern yourself accordingly”.

Ms. Olafson has been betrayed. When will the minister apologize to these people for encouraging them to appear before the committee and then betraying them?

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to look at the facts of this situation, but from the way this member and other hon. members in the opposition have approached these subjects in the past, they certainly do not get their facts right. We need to get to the bottom of this, look at it properly, and not rely upon their kind of information.

Option Canada

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on the use of funds at Option Canada, the minister has just said that she provided all the necessary details.

I have to say that she and her department have always turned down our requests for information, and only through access to information legislation, two and a half years after the fact, did we get the answers we now have.

How can the Minister of Canadian Heritage say that the management of the funds was carefully monitored, when three internal memos from her own department and two internal reports say the very opposite?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, my reports here in this House were timely.

I would again point out that I personally provided all the documents the member opposite refers to. We have nothing to hide. We have monitored the matter and changed procedures to ensure that the situation will never recur.