Debates of March 23rd, 1998

Ken Koyama

[Jean Augustine, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate Mr. Ken Koyama, a constituent in my riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore, for his contributions to international development.

Mr. Koyama worked as a Canadian Executive Service Organization volunteer in Georgetown, Guyana where he was asked to conduct training seminars for senior management by a consultative association.

He shared his knowledge and expertise in the area of human resource management by presenting a five day intensive lecture/participant involvement workshop for senior management from 17 organizations in Guyana.

Mr. Koyama's work in Guyana speaks to the commitment and willingness of Canadians to stimulate social and economic growth in developing countries.

On behalf of my constituents of Etobicoke—Lakeshore I am proud to take this opportunity to congratulate Ken Koyama for his voluntary efforts. Congratulations to Ken.

Racial Discrimination

[Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, Bloc, Laval Centre, QC]

Mr. Speaker, March 21 was International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In this context, I am proud to recognize the role played by the Quebec department responsible for relations with the public, which identified a number ways to deal with racism: raising awareness of people's rights and freedoms through public events such as this international day; funding research to shed light on the root causes of racism; supporting community initiatives through the new program promoting public participation; and finally, promoting jobs for young members of visible minorities.

The tolerance and openness displayed by Quebec society are recognized by all. Yet, like elsewhere, racist and discriminatory acts do take place in our province. Thanks to these measures, we will be able to fight all forms of racism and build a more just society.

World Water Day

[Gar Knutson, Liberal, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in 1992 the general assembly of the United Nations designated March 22 as world water day, a special day set aside each year for the people of the world to reflect on the importance and the value of water in their daily lives.

This year's theme is groundwater, the invisible resource. It reflects the concern that our planets groundwater supplies are increasingly being threatened. In Canada more than 20% of our population depends on underground water sources for its drinking water. It is one of our most vital natural resources. Groundwater is essential for our continued health and economic well-being.

Water efficiency requires a full commitment of all people. WaterCan is an Ottawa based non-profit organization which, along with several partners, has demonstrated its commitment by organizing world water day activities and by raising public awareness on the wise use of our precious water resources.

A little more than a week ago, in celebration of world water day, more than 500 students from the Ottawa-Hull area took a pledge to conserve and protect Canada's water resources. Only by—

[The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)]

The hon. member for Waterloo—Wellington.

Jane Urquhart

[Lynn Myers, Liberal, Waterloo—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadian novelist Jane Urquhart, winner of the 1997 Governor General's Award for fiction, will received France's highest arts and literature award today.

Jane Urquhart, who lives in Wellesley, Ontario which is part of my riding of Waterloo—Wellington, will be honoured with the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres as a recognition of her literary achievement.

Jane Urquhart, who won the Governor General's Award for her book The Underpainter , won France's prestigious best foreign novel prize in 1992 with her novel The Whirlpool .

I ask all Canadians to join with me in congratulating Jane Urquhart for her many achievements. Canada is very proud of her.

Racism

[Keith Martin, Reform, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, if equality is the ultimate goal that a civil society aspires to, then racism is its implacable foe.

Canadians have struggled and fought hard against the vile enemy of social cohesion and although we have been enormously successful in integrating almost 200 different nationalities, we are far from perfect.

The ghettoization in large centres, the enormous difficulties aboriginal people face in integrating into Canadian society, the politically correct reverse discrimination that occurs still demonstrate that much needs to be done.

We must continue to enforce laws that penalize the purveyors of racism, ensure that racism labels are never falsely used, strengthen the level playing field where opportunities exist and the responsibility to take advantage of those opportunities rests with the individual, and that people are judged on their merit and not on the colour of their skin.

On this international day of elimination of racial discrimination I would like to thank Canada for the opportunity that Canada has given to me to be judged not on the colour of my skin but on my abilities.

Sulphur

[Charles Caccia, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Ontario gasoline has the highest sulphur content in Canada, over 500 parts per million. In California, by contrast, sulphur content in gasoline cannot exceed 40 parts per million.

Sulphur damages catalytic converters because of increased pollution by other polluting substances in gasoline.

Sulphur harms the respiratory system with resulting health care costs which are high.

In addition, sulphur in the air creates smog. Large numbers of premature deaths are attributed to smog.

In Canada gasoline registers the highest average sulphur levels of all developed countries. Canada should set strict standards for sulphur in gasoline, as was done in the European community, the United States and Japan, and ensure Ontario and every other province adopts them in the interests of public health and environmental quality.

Health Care

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last weekend during our biennial convention the Liberal grassroots demanded that the Canadian government do its utmost to protect Canada's health care system. As well, the resolutions on this issue prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are listening and that we are taking effective action by proposing appropriate measures for responding to the needs of Canadians.

The Prime Minister of Canada made a firm commitment to protecting and improving the Canadian health care system.

Our government has already announced a reduction in cuts to transfer payments to the provinces. The provinces also have a responsibility in this regard. They must make sure that the resources allocated by the federal government are in fact used to improve health care in Canada.

The Senate

[Bill Gilmour, Reform, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, our first vote on the budget, vote one of the estimates, establishes the operating budget for the Senate.

This year our unelected, unaccountable Senate has asked taxpayers for a 10% raise to increase its budget from $40 million to $44 million. Yet at the same time it refuses to account to Canadians on how it spends our money.

Last year when the House requested that the Senate account for its budget the Senate openly and defiantly refused to appear before this elected House to justify its budget.

Clearly the unelected Senate has demonstrated to Canadians once again that it has absolutely no accountability to the taxpaying public.

Accountability in the Senate can only be achieved in one way, by making our other house of Parliament democratically accountable to the people it is supposed to represent. This can only be done by electing, not appointing, our senators.

Liberal Party Of Canada Convention

[Pierre De Savoye, Bloc, Portneuf, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party of Canada's convention last weekend was an odd event.

I am not talking about the Prime Minister's Bill Clinton imitation with a rendition of “Love me Tender” on the trombone, but about the shadow of the Conservative Party's leader hovering over the proceedings all weekend.

We all know that the Conservative leader's best volleys have been against the Liberal Party of Canada. There is something not quite right about all these Liberal ministers unconditionally supporting the Conservative leader as the replacement for Daniel Johnson in Quebec City.

The member for Sherbrooke will undoubtedly make a good valet for the federal government in Quebec City. The Liberals should not be too hasty to break out the champagne however. The Conservative leader promised 40 seats in Quebec during the last federal election. He delivered five. And it is certainly not by becoming a Liberal that a Conservative—

[The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)]

The hon. member for Brossard—La Prairie now has the floor.

[Jacques Saada, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, members of the Liberal Party of Canada held their biennial convention in Ottawa last weekend.

What set this convention apart was the unanimous support of the 2,500 or so delegates present for the Calgary declaration, which was designed to promote national unity in a concrete manner.

Of particular interest among the resolutions passed were those seeking to consolidate the Canadian health system and social safety net, in a spirit of constructive co-operation with the provinces.

I would like to say how delighted I was to co-chair this truly fine convention. It was a convention that saw the election of a young woman from my riding of Brossard—La Prairie, Véronique de Passillé, to the position of president of the Liberal Party of Canada's youth wing.

It was an exciting and stimulating convention that ended on the very upbeat note that the Liberal Party of Canada has renewed support for its leader, in a confidence vote of over 90%.

It is impossible—

[The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)]

I am sorry to interrupt the hon. member. The hon. member for Sackville—Eastern Shore has the floor.

Canadian Film Industry

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, tonight Atom Egoyan's film The Sweet Hereafter will be considered for not one but two academy awards.

My New Democrat colleagues and I believe the Canadian film industry is essential to our unity as a country and to our sense of ourselves as Canadians.

We understand that without the support of public grants, many of these films could not be made.

Mr. Egoyan has thanked the Canadian public for supporting his work.

However, I believe we should not be surprised if this government is not included in his anticipated acceptance speech. It is this Liberal government that has systematically cut the support of Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board to the tune of $109 million.

On behalf of the New Democratic Party and citizens of Canada, best wishes tonight to Atom Egoyan and The Sweet Hereafter .

Children In War

[Rey D. Pagtakhan, Liberal, Winnipeg North—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, last week's issue of the Ottawa Citizen exposed the grim reality of children in war.

Today in Ottawa a roundtable on children soldiers is further probing this issue.

It is indeed appalling that children have been made direct participants in armed conflicts.

Whether they are kidnapped and indoctrinated to harm and kill or legally forced to go to war by their own government or pressured to volunteer because society has given them no better alternative, just the same it is a tragedy that pierces the heart of humanity.

Those who do not die return from war damaged psychologically.

Civilized nations have a duty to convince the world to stop making soldiers out of children.

Canada should campaign as a standard bearer to advance this objective using the fora of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, La Francophonie, APEC and all diplomatic engagements.

Let us put a stop to robbing children of their childhood.

Lennoxville

[David Price, Progressive Conservative, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak of pride, the pride of Lennoxville, a small municipality in the beautiful eastern townships of southern Quebec with 6,000 citizens, and the pride of Bishop's, a small but beautiful university in Lennoxville with 1,700 students from all across Canada.

You see, yesterday in Halifax one of Canada's smallest universities won the Canadian university national basketball championships for the first time, a dream come true.

Last year Chatelaine magazine listed Lennoxville as one of the top 10 cities in Canada for all around sports.

A couple of years earlier, Lennoxville was named one of the 10 best places to live in Canada.

Mayor Doug Macauly and university chancellor Alex Patterson and over 200 anglophone and francophone fans travelled to Halifax to cheer our Bishop's Gators to glory.

We are a community that supports our people and institutions. We are what Canada is all about, proud to be Canadian.

Leahy Family

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last night the musical group Leahy won a Juno award as instrumental artists of the year. The nine siblings of this talented troupe hail from Douro-Drummer Township, formerly Douro Township in Peterborough riding. While the population of Douro is small in number, it is large in musical history and tradition.

As the Celtic musical tide reaches an all time high, Canada's Leahy family is at its leading edge. The Leahy children, five girls and four boys, have been performing since they were old enough to walk. Today they are reaping the rewards of a lifetime of tight-knit stage work.

In years past the Leahy family would criss-cross Ontario to admiring fans. Today they perform their brand of Celtic music on stages around the world.

I ask my colleagues to stop fiddling around for a moment and join me in saluting Canada's famous Leahy family and the community of Douro which produced them.

Fisheries

[Preston Manning, Reform, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, for years fishermen, scientists and outside observers have been attributing much of the collapse of the east coast fishery to mismanagement by the department.

The Prime Minister and the minister always dismissed these charges, but now we have Liberal members of the Liberal dominated fisheries committee saying exactly the same thing.

Will the government finally acknowledge that departmental mismanagement is responsible for the loss of thousands of jobs in the Atlantic fishery?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member may well be referring to a report of a parliamentary committee. If he is, I respectfully suggest he is out of order because it has not yet been tabled in the House and we are not permitted to comment on it until it is.

[Preston Manning, Reform, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, members of the government caucus have been vocal on this subject in the corridors of the House and not simply in the committee. Theirs is not the only voice charging mismanagement.

Last year the auditor general did an exhaustive investigation of that department and came to exactly the same conclusion. They say that when a fish rots, it rots from the head down.

How many more scathing reports will it take before the government acknowledges that the fisheries department has become part of the problem, not part of the solution?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if I were unkind I could say now we know what is wrong with the Reform Party, but I do not want to be unkind because the hon. member has raised an important issue. We are concerned about the issue. We will have a lot more to say about the subject once the committee report is tabled.

Until that time both the hon. member and I are out of order to comment on the report which has not yet been tabled in the House.

[Preston Manning, Reform, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the government, the minister, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have been dismissing these charges for years. These excuses are simply not acceptable. Mismanagement of the east coast fishery has now spread to mismanagement of the west coast fishery and is causing many of the problems now in British Columbia.

What will the government do about mismanagement at the fisheries department?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, we will certainly not get into the finger pointing and witch-hunting members opposite want to get into.

We on this side of the House want to be proactive in moving forward and building a system of trust that we can build on for the future so that we have a fishery of the future that communities and people can depend on.

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

Mr. Speaker, when people lose confidence in the people who are the managers, they change the managers.

Canadian observers on foreign boats fishing within Canada's 200 mile limit have reported many violations of Canadian fishing regulations. DFO is not only aware of these infractions but has instructed its own people not to press charges against those foreign boats.

Who is accountable for this decision? Did the minister instruct his officials not to lay charges and enforce the law?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, certainly the minister did not instruct his officials not to lay charges. The member should be congratulating us on the in depth analysis of those observer reports which show some irregularities but not necessarily violations of our regulations.

DFO has investigated all those irregularities and if in places the law had been broken they would have been charged, but they did not find the law had been broken.