Debates of May 4th, 1998

Gun Control

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, gun registration will work. That is something this government is convinced of.

Let me just remind the hon. member and the official opposition that the latest Angus Reid poll of March 1998 indicated that 80% of Canadians support gun registration.

As opposed to continuing to criticize gun control and gun registration, maybe it is time the member and his party got in tune with the rest of Canada.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Richard Marceau, Bloc, Charlesbourg, QC]

Mr. Speaker, according to news reports, the RCMP 125th anniversary celebrations will cost $1.5 million for Quebec alone.

Can the Solicitor General tell us what the total bill for the RCMP celebrations will be? How much will be spent in Quebec and, in particular, where will that money come from?

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, as the commissioner of the RCMP already advised the member before the committee last week, the fact remains that the RCMP has an ongoing budget that involves the Musical Ride and other activities like that which are a part of Canadian heritage.

I am very proud of that activity. The reason there is no specific number attached to 125 is because the RCMP celebrates its good job in this country all the time.

Foreign Affairs

[Rick Laliberte, NDP, Churchill River, SK]

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

In 1993 the government promised to renegotiate the NAFTA to ensure that the deal worked for the benefit of Canadians. The latest development is that Canada's freshwater is up for sale and Ontario says it is legal to permit private sale and export of Canadian water to overseas markets.

Under the NAFTA there is very little the government can do to protect our natural water resources.

With the expressed concern on this issue, what will the minister do to protect Canada from bulk exports of our water?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, it may be of some interest to the hon. member that the proposed exports are to Asia, not to the United States, and therefore are not covered by the NAFTA at all.

What we are looking at, however, is the real question of the large scale export of freshwater which we certainly have always taken a strong stand against.

We are now examining various pieces of legislation, including the Boundary Waters Treaty and other matters to determine whether there is some form of prevention that can be applied.

It is a matter of real concern and we are looking at the options we have.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Peter MacKay, Progressive Conservative, Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, NS]

Mr. Speaker, as much as the minister would say the file is closed and the matter will go away, I want to point out that it is a fact that it was an employee of his who provided confidential information to Mr. Corbeil. It is a fact that Mr. Corbeil then, in turn, used this information to participate in an illegal kickback scheme to the Liberal Party.

It is a fact that the person involved in the office of the President of the Treasury Board could not have participated in this if the information had not been provided. It is a fact that the President of the Treasury Board, who denied the involvement of his office, is wrong.

In light of these facts, will the President of the Treasury Board clean up his office or resign?

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP was asked by a member of this government to make an inquiry. It knew all the facts involved in the investigation and it made one charge. It was judged. The person who was charged has pleaded guilty.

May I suggest that the hon. member is whipping a dead horse?

Empress Of Ireland

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Secretary of State for Parks.

In 1914 the Empress of Ireland sank near Rimouski and with it 1,014 people died. May their souls rest in peace.

Reports now suggest that salvage operators are contemplating using explosives to recover valuable nickel ingots from the site.

What is the government intending to do to prevent the desecration of this site?

[Andy Mitchell, Liberal, Secretary of State (Parks)]

Mr. Speaker, the government and I believe all Canadians want to see this site protected. That is why last week the federal government asked the attorney general of the province of Quebec to ensure that Criminal Code provisions with respect to desecration of grave sites will be enforced.

I was also pleased to see the minister in Quebec invoke the cultural properties act of that province to ensure that the site will be protected for a year.

Finally, I have written to my counterpart in Quebec to offer collaborative approaches to ensure the long term protection of this very important site.

Gun Control

[Jack Ramsay, Reform, Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the firearms bill has been receiving a very rocky ride. Four provinces and two territories are contesting it constitutionally in the courts.

Now we understand at least part of the reason. It is because the justice minister's own consulting group, the Firearms User Group, is telling the minister that this bill will greatly increase the black market trade in firearms of all types.

Can the minister explain how her firearms bill is going to increase crimes in terms of firearms smuggling and black marketing instead of decreasing it? How can she explain this?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure I understood the question, but let me reassure everybody in this House that our new gun control legislation will not increase black market transactions or smuggling in firearms.

Let me go back to my earlier point. Support for gun control and gun registration is growing in this country. The only people who seem to be opposed to it and stand in the face of 80% of Canadians are members of the official opposition.

Asbestos Industry

[Benoît Sauvageau, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of International Trade, or the parliamentary secretary, if he will deign to answer one of our questions for once.

The Council of Europe has just recommended a total ban on asbestos throughout its territory. This impacts seriously on this important sector of the Quebec economy.

Will the minister or the parliamentary secretary tell us whether this matter of an asbestos ban was raised when the minister met with France's minister of foreign trade last week in Paris?

[Julian Reed, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, the secretary of state for health for France is meeting this afternoon with the Prime Minister. I am not privy to the agenda that the Prime Minister has, but I do know that discussions have been ongoing and will continue.

The province of Quebec has played a prominent role in co-operation with the Government of Canada and we will continue to work until this is satisfactorily resolved.

The Atlantic Groundfish Strategy

[Peter Mancini, NDP, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Human Resources Development talks about post-TAGS and I am glad because the current TAGS program is an exercise in confused objectives, poor management and unrealized goals.

Four years after its implementation, what assurance can this minister give east coast fishermen, plant workers and their families that the successor program will not be starved of cash by the Minister of Finance? Can he also indicate when it might be announced?

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

Mr. Speaker, I think it is very unfair to talk about the program as being starved of cash. The program, consisting of $1.9 billion, was established to assist fishermen in very difficult circumstances during the crisis of 1993. I do not think that $1.9 billion was starving the people of cash.

Right now we are being very responsible. We are looking very carefully into the needs of the communities and the fishermen. We are consulting with the provinces involved to ensure that we meet the challenges of the post-TAGS environment as well as we can.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Peter MacKay, Progressive Conservative, Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I am back on the issue of dead horses, but I would like to know from the President of the Treasury Board what safety provisions he has put in place to ensure this type of information is not going to be used for an illegal purpose like we have seen in the past.

I would like to know when he knew, what he has done and what he intends to do about this leak of information from his office.

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, all of these questions have been answered.

The Senate

[Rob Anders, Reform, Calgary West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, when? October 19. Where? Alberta. Who? No appointee can be more accountable a representative than a senator chosen by the people of Alberta. The only question remaining is why?

Will the government respect the will of Albertans or will it stand the Deputy Prime Minister to absorb the shock waves for not appointing the duly chosen person on October 19?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is undermining his own credibility by asking a question like that. How can people be accountable to the population of Alberta if they are elected for life? It does not make any sense.

Privilege

[The Speaker]

I am ready to render a decision. Earlier today a question of privilege was raised by the hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough concerning the availability of documents relating to the justice committee study of Bill C-3, an act respecting DNA identification.

The hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough contended that the justice department had agreed to provide certain documents to members of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. He added that while some outside groups had apparently been supplied with the documents last Friday, he himself had not received the documents until this morning. This, he argued, constituted a breach of his privileges as a member of parliament.

I would like to thank all of the members who took part in the debates earlier today.

Exchanges on this matter have revealed that there was indeed a problem with the distribution of these documents. The House has been informed that the documents were offered by the minister to the committee as a matter of courtesy and not as a result of a formal request made by the committee. There seems to have been a bona fide effort made by the department to forward the information to committee members in a timely fashion but obviously some difficulty arose.

Although I sympathize with the hon. member's complaint, I cannot find that any privilege has been breached. While this may amount to a grievance concerning the timing of the distribution of documents, it does not in my opinion constitute a prima facie question of privilege.

Points Of Order

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

Mr. Speaker, I understand that I must have unanimous consent of the House in order to table the resolution from the Ontario Harris government with regard to the hepatitis C situation. I would like to have unanimous consent, Mr. Speaker, to table this resolution in the House today.

[The Speaker]

Does the hon. member have consent of the House to put the motion?

[An hon. member]

No.

Order In Council Appointments

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table in both official languages a number of order in council appointments which were made by the government. Pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order 110(1), these are deemed referred to the appropriate standing committees, a list of which is attached.

Government Response To Petitions

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to five petitions.