Debates of March 19th, 1998

Option Canada

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I want to tell the House that all the information is in the public domain. I am quite prepared to provide all the information they want, but they are not interested. All they want to do is play politics, as they are doing this week with the Semaine nationale de la francophonie.

When francophones have the opportunity to celebrate together, we see people like Sylvain Simard who shamelessly play politics with French Canadians. The Bloc Quebecois and the Parti Quebecois should be ashamed.

The Budget

[John Williams, Reform, St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the auditor general is fighting back in response to the blistering letter he received from the government the other day. He has told the government to go take a hike because he will have no part in the minister's game of cooking the books.

My question is to the President of the Treasury Board. Why do taxpayers have to cough up two and a half billion dollars today when students will not see a penny of this for more than two years?

[Jim Peterson, Liberal, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions)]

Mr. Speaker, we have come through a very difficult time but finally we have balanced the books and we are now starting to pay down our debt. This is due in large measure to the fact that we have adopted a policy of pay as you go combined with total openness and transparency so Canadians can understand exactly where we are. This is why we will continue to hold ourselves to the most rigorous possible standard of openness and transparency. This is our policy.

[John Williams, Reform, St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this has nothing to do with pay as you go. The new policy of the government is take now and give it back later. If the taxpayer were to do his books that way he would be in jail because Revenue Canada would never stand for that.

When is the minister going to smarten up and realize this double standard is costing Canadian taxpayers a two and a half billion dollar tax break this year?

[Jim Peterson, Liberal, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions)]

Mr. Speaker, what we have done here is very simple. We have adopted the proposition and the principle that when you commit to paying money you no longer have that money available to spend on something else. Every household and every business knows this. This is the policy of this government. When we commit, we pay.

Millennium Scholarships

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.

The minister stated yesterday that he wanted all the money that will be put into the millennium scholarship fund to go to students, which the Quebec government is not committed to do.

How can the minister lead students to believe that he wants to give them more money when his colleague, the Minister of Human Resources Development, said that Quebec just had to subtract from loans and scholarships any amount received from the millennium fund?

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

Mr. Speaker, I hope the Quebec government does not intend to do that because the objective is for both governments to work together to help students.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs should speak to his colleague, the Minister of Human Resources Development.

Does the minister not agree that, if he really wants to give more money to students, he must not do so through the millennium scholarship fund but by giving back to Quebec the millions of dollars he cut in education?

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

Mr. Speaker, let us not forget that, from 1993-94 to this day, the Government of Canada has cut its own expenditures by nearly 11% and its transfers to the provinces by 7.4%.

Second, five of the ten provinces have surpluses and the others have deficits that are quite acceptable, except Ontario, which chose to reduce its taxes by $5 billion—we have nothing to do with this—and Quebec, which took a year to hold a referendum and another year to recover from it.

Employment

[Val Meredith, Reform, South Surrey—White Rock—Langley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last Friday the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources Development stated that February's unemployment numbers showed that “Atlantic Canada and every single province had a reduction in their unemployment rate this month”.

It is amazing that the parliamentary secretary would make this statement considering that in British Columbia the unemployment rate rose from 9.3% to 9.7%.

I ask the minister is this just another example of this government's distorting the facts to congratulate itself or is it that it no longer—

[The Speaker]

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Bob Nault, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, yes indeed we are very proud that last month some 82,000 new jobs were created in Canada.

I did say that in every province in Atlantic Canada the unemployment rate did go down. That is exactly what I said. I also said that the unemployment rate did go down in Canada and it is a continued trend since this government's policies started to kick in. We will not be satisfied until every single Canadian has a job.

British Columbia

[Werner Schmidt, Reform, Kelowna, BC]

Mr. Speaker, on Monday the Minister of Finance stated that B.C.'s woes were due to the NDP government, yet he takes credit for all the good things that are happening in the rest of Canada. The only commitment he made was that this government would not be coming to B.C.'s rescue.

Does this mean that this government will continue to suck billions of dollars out of British Columbia, recognizing it is the only province that is suffering an economic downturn at this time?

[Jim Peterson, Liberal, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions)]

Mr. Speaker, all of us are very concerned about the economic downturn in British Columbia. It is due in part to the fact that British Columbia is disproportionately suffering from the Asian crisis.

We are monitoring this situation very carefully. We have committed ourselves to helping B.C. deal with the Asian crisis and have made strong moves there. We will continue to monitor the situation in British Columbia, as we are very concerned about it.

The Environment

[Maurice Dumas, Bloc, Argenteuil—Papineau, QC]

Madam Speaker, the Kanesatake Mohawk Council, the people of Kanesatake and the people of Oka, through their mayor, have expressed concerns about the serious consequences they could suffer because of an unregulated landfill located in Mohawk territory.

Will the minister admit that the best way to solve the problem would be to intervene so that Quebec's environmental laws and regulations apply there as they do everywhere else?

[Jane Stewart, Liberal, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, we are all concerned about this issue of the Kanesatake First Nation.

The band council has held community meetings in this regard and we are working together with it to develop environmental auditing strategies.

I note that members from my colleague's department, the Minister of the Environment, have been on site and are taking samples. We are working in a participatory way to try to deal with this issue.

Donkin Mine

[Charles Hubbard, Liberal, Miramichi, NB]

Mr. Speaker, Atlantic Canadians and in particular the people of Cape Breton Island are very much concerned about the statements and allegations being made by the member for Bras D'Or.

Today I would like the Minister of Natural Resources to explain to this House and to the good people of Cape Breton Island the future of the Donkin mine, in particular their employment with Devco.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Bras D'Or is playing the most vicious form of politics with the lives of Cape Breton miners on the eve of an election for her own partisan purposes. She is anxious to stir up fear and heartache not to help the people of Cape Breton but to try to save the political skin of the NDP.

I come from Saskatchewan and I know how the NDP operates. Let me be very clear that its allegations about Devco are utterly false and its tactics in this matter are beneath contempt.

British Columbia Economy

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister.

A recent Informetrica report indicates that some 9,100 jobs will be lost in British Columbia by the year 2000 due to the increases in CPP contributions. A KPMG management consultant study suggests British Columbia has been shortchanged $1.3 billion by federal government procurement opportunities.

The Prime Minister always talks about the APEC conference helping British Columbia. What else do they have to offer British Columbians to offset these jobs that we are losing in British Columbia?

[Jim Peterson, Liberal, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions)]

Mr. Speaker, when we took office the tax for unemployment insurance was rising to $3.30. We have cut it back. The last cut was $1.4 billion.

Having said that, I am fully confident that the strong measures we have taken to put our fiscal house in order, to keep our inflation down, to make sure that we have a balanced approach to tax reduction, to investment in our future and to debt reduction are going to pay the dividends for all Canadians.

[Jim Abbott, Reform, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, B.C. really got hosed when the Liberals decided to make political hay from essential infrastructure funding. Communities throughout B.C. are still waiting. Cities like Cranbrook have bills to pay.

The minister blames B.C. but his excuses do not wash. What about the culture and heritage grants where volunteer labour and private donations go begging? Why does the government hold out money promises to B.C. then grabs it back when it applies for it?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I am amazed that the member would stand in the House and talk about culture applications because he also complains before the House about the kind of investment we have in organizations like Canadian heritage.

In fact Canadian heritage is one of the major cultural employers in British Columbia. The movie and film industry in British Columbia is one of the fastest growing industries and his party has done everything it can to cut off the cultural industries in British Columbia.

The Environment

[Angela Vautour, NDP, Beauséjour—Petitcodiac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans may ignore a panel of inquiry and impose unfair oil spill response fees to be collected by big oil companies at the expense of small competitors.

There are serious concerns that the minister's decision may be retroactive and could increase gasoline and heating oil prices across Canada. Atlantic Canadians are still suffering from the HST impact on home fuels.

Will the minister commit today to implement the Gold report recommendations and say no to the retroactive fees?

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

Mr. Speaker, I should point out to the hon. member that the previous government set up a response organization system involving the private sector. For this to be effective and for there to be proper protection of our environment, naturally those who transport oil over water must pay and must be part of the system.

It is no surprise that the hon. member prefers to have lower prices rather than environmental protection. Environmental protection is one of the weak suits of the NDP.

Employment

[Louise Hardy, NDP, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. Cominco, one of Canada's largest companies, has shut down the Anvil Range mine in Faro, Yukon leaving hundreds unemployed and stranded. The minister's EI rules are keeping families trapped in the remote north with no hope of work or moving to get to work.

In light of the minister's huge surplus and considering the remoteness of the location involved, will the minister help these families with the costs of moving to a new job?