Debates of June 1st, 1998

Government Contracts

[Art Hanger, Reform, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this is the largest service contract ever issued in Canada.

With all the family connections to the Prime Minister, with the political donations to the Liberal Party and the fact that no competition was allowed, cabinet bent the rules.

Who made the decision to bend the rules? Was it the Prime Minister? Was it the public works minister, or was it both of them?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we reject categorically the insinuations of the hon. member that the rules were bent and that there was political influence.

The rules were followed as far as I am aware and the conditions and circumstances are proper on this occasion.

What shows the lack of credibility of the member is that he did not say one word about the sole source purchase of the submarines. What are the differences? Why is he complaining about that? Why is he against 5,000 jobs for western Canada, 90% of them, and thousands of jobs all across the country because of this project?

Employment Insurance

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Kamouraska—Rivière-Du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last week, economist Pierre Fortin harshly criticized the employment insurance plan.

Today, economist Marc Van Audenrode has added his voice to that of Pierre Fortin saying that Canada's plan used to be more generous than most of those of the OECD countries and is now less generous on average.

If the minister is trying to justify his cuts affecting young people by the need to keep them in school, how will he justify his cuts affecting workers of all ages?

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

Mr. Speaker, the government is undertaking a major reform of the plan the opposition member describes as generous, but which is totally ineffective within the context of the Canadian economy, as he knows full well. Studies around the world considered the Canadian system to be outdated and a disincentive to work.

I think we have done our job in modernizing the employment insurance system and in adapting it to the modern reality of the labour market.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Kamouraska—Rivière-Du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this same economist noted that our employment system had become less generous than the system in New England and was now comparable to Alabama's.

Does the minister really want Canada's employment insurance system to be comparable to the worst offered by our neighbours to the south?

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

Mr. Speaker, once again we note that the Bloc is interested only in the passive measures of the system that was compared with systems in certain states solely in terms of passive measures, whereas the design and philosophy of our employment insurance plan is not to have people on employment insurance but to help them return to the labour market.

That is why we increased budgets for active measures in order to help them return to the labour force. That is why we created the transitional job fund. This is much more interesting for Canadians than a cheque every two weeks.

Hepatitis C

[Maurice Vellacott, Reform, Wanuskewin, SK]

Mr. Speaker, today in Edmonton health ministers will be discussing compensation for hepatitis C victims.

Apparently one of the proposed options by this government is to do nothing, to offer no new federal money. Will the health minister rule out this option of doing nothing, of simply sticking with the status quo?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, it is not health ministers who are meeting. It is senior officials from all governments. A number of options are before those senior officials.

I should stress to the member and to the House that the federal government has not taken any final position in relation to any of them. We think it is important to do the homework first to find out whether there is a basis for a national consensus because that is in the interest of those with hepatitis C.

[Maurice Vellacott, Reform, Wanuskewin, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the minister seems to be suffering from amnesia because he along with his government on May 5 in the House voted unanimously that at today's meeting the topic would be “how to address the financial needs of all the victims”.

The topic was how to address the financial needs of those victims, not whether to address the financial needs. Why is the health minister and the government not honouring his commitment in that recorded vote? Why does he not rule out the status quo this very day?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, we believe it is important to let these officials do their work. They are together right now examining the options. They have representatives of the Hepatitis C Society there answering questions and responding to specific factual matters that we raised.

Let us let the working group do its job and then we will be in a position to assess where we go from there.

Employment Insurance

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. Only 41% of unemployed workers are still collecting employment insurance. Instead of correcting the situation, the minister prefers to target those who still qualify for benefits. This is the case for forestry workers, who are being deprived of benefits while being asked to pay significant arrears.

How can the minister reasonably justify a forestry worker being deprived of benefits because officials discovered that he was working with a horse instead of forestry equipment?

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

Mr. Speaker, we will take a close look at the situation. I do not think that using a horse instead of forestry equipment makes a big difference in terms of employment insurance benefits. I can assure you that we will give due consideration to this matter.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, how can the minister justify that, in addition to significantly reducing assistance to seasonal workers, his department is now issuing guidelines to target forestry workers and review their situation, for the purpose of cutting their benefits?

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

Mr. Speaker, we hear many biased views about the impact of the reform on seasonal workers, but there are also things the other side of the House never wants to talk about.

One of them is that seasonal workers, who sometimes work only a few weeks but as many as 42, 45 or 50 hours a week, now benefit from a protection not provided by the old system.

This is a more balanced approach, and this is the balance we are seeking.

Foreign Affairs

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Malcolm McKechnie, Canada's deputy ambassador to Italy, was the frontman for the government's recent whirlwind tour over there. McKechnie stayed at the posh Excelsior Hotel for three weeks when he was just getting things ready. The cost was $10,000.

I would like to ask the junior foreign affairs minister this question. Why was this approved by the Prime Minister's office and who was it in there that signed the authorization?

[Ted McWhinney, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, as parliamentary secretary and not in another title I must say that the figures quoted are slightly exaggerated, by one-third.

Now let us come to the substance of the issue. The gentleman concerned had been posted to Rome on his first posting. He did not yet have diplomatic quarters. His assignment was to prepare the diplomatic conference.

The decision was made by the embassy which was in charge, not by the PMO or by the foreign ministry, to have him work in the hotel where the delegation and conference would be and to work on a 24 hour a day basis—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Edmonton North.

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I know we all work tremendous hours, but I bet you a dollar there is a Holiday Inn over there that would be a whole lot cheaper than the Excelsior.

I look at the amount of money taxpayers that are on the hook for this. Whether it is $7,000, $8,000, $9,000 or $10,000, it is an exorbitant, horrifying amount of money that the Canadian taxpayer had to fork out. This is scandalous.

There is no way the parliamentary secretary is able to defend this. I will ask him one more time why this amount of money was wasted on Mr. McKechnie by the government when he could have had a free bed at our embassy.

[Ted McWhinney, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, as already explained, there were no diplomatic free bed premises available at the time he arrived.

It seems a not unreasonable administrative decision by the people in charge of the conference, the embassy, to put him in the hotel where he would be arranging it. He was in charge of the administrative arrangements. He was working 24 hours a day, around the clock.

Millennium Scholarships

[Pierre Brien, Bloc, Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development.

This morning, the students of Quebec vehemently denounced the millennium scholarship project. They announced a series of actions that will take place to block the project. When the very people who are to benefit from a government program are the ones to speak out against it, unanimously and unequivocally, it is because it is not appropriate.

Does the minister not find it paradoxical that he is determined to put a program in place that the people it is destined for do not want?

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

Mr. Speaker, our government wanted negotiation and we committed to it in good faith.

The decision to break off negotiations was made by the Government of Quebec two weeks ago. The Government of Quebec stuck obstinately to its doctrinaire position on the right to withdraw with full compensation.

The Quebec National Assembly passed a unanimous resolution, which the Government of Quebec supported but chose to ignore when it wrote to the Prime Minister, still referring to its dogmatic position instead of the resolution adopted by the National Assembly.

Child Labour

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

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

One of the scourges afflicting the children of this world is being forced to work at a very young age in conditions that are often hazardous and always unpropitious to their schooling and development.

I would like to know what Canada is doing about these nearly 250 million children whose childhood is being stolen from them in this way.

[Ted McWhinney, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. It is a top priority of this government to act on child labour. We will seek the co-operation of the opposition parties, as we did with the land mines convention. We would like to have it.

We have already established the child labour challenge fund. We have held consultations with other governments on child labour. We adopted legislation on sex tourism. We participated in the Oslo child labour conference. It is our agenda that was adopted.

HRDC has hosted a conference with NAFTA partners. CIDA has adopted a strategy for children. Health has undertaken a study on child labour here.

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Medicine Hat.

Employment Insurance

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians have been hearing about the EI surplus for some time now. I wonder if the Minister of Human Resources Development can tell us where this $15 billion in cash is sitting.

Is it in a bank account? Is it invested somewhere? Maybe it is under someone's mattress. Exactly where is our $15 billion EI surplus?