Debates of June 5th, 1998

Boating Safety

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

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member has very correctly pointed out, this is a serious question with respect to loss of life and also the injury of individuals, many of whom are children.

In addition to the measures with respect to flotation devices, measures with respect to speed restrictions and safety equipment, at the start of Safe Boating Week which begins tomorrow, I will be making further announcements to enhance boating safety in one of the most popular recreational activities that Canadians have.

Immigration

[Leon Benoit, Reform, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, what we are talking about here is a convicted drug dealer selling $10 million worth of drugs. What about our children?

Why will this government not just simply throw this drug dealer out of the country?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I think the Reform Party is looking for questions this morning. They do not know what to ask.

This is the fourth question on the same subject. We answered very clearly on that. We said that we have other tools in the legislation to deal with that case.

Yesterday we had a decision by the supreme court concerning an interpretation of the refugee convention of the United Nations. This is not a simple matter. It is an important one. We will look at it and will act on it if we have to do so. In the meantime we can act on that individual.

[Leon Benoit, Reform, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, in fact this is a very simple matter. I am shocked that this minister is laughing about an issue as important as this one.

We have a convicted drug dealer. Why will the minister and the government not just throw that drug dealer out of the country?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, we have to look at the impact of the decision that we received yesterday. It only says that individual should have a hearing in front of the refugee board.

We have other tools in the legislation to prevent individuals from going to the refugee board. This was in Bill C-44 voted on in the Chamber, but the Reform Party voted against it.

Canada Customs And Revenue Agency

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister of national revenue. Yesterday the government brought in legislation to create the Canada customs and revenue agency. If there ever were a bureaucratic blunder looking for self-justification, it is this proposal.

Is the minister of national revenue prepared to reconsider this matter, given the fact that the provinces have not agreed and that a lot of the initial justifications for this agency simply have not manifested themselves?

Why is the government proceeding at this time against all the advice to the contrary that it has received?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member. He is quite wrong. In fact with five provinces including British Columbia we have working groups to look at areas where we can work in co-operation.

It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that there is only one taxpayer. If we in the country can get to having a single tax administration we would all be better off. With one stop shopping, a single window administration, we will better off as Canadians.

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the origin of this agency had to do with the government's intention to harmonize the GST and to envision this supertax agency that would reach down and do all the taxing for all levels of government. A working group does not make a provincial agreement to participate in these agencies and the government is being premature in proceeding with this matter.

Instead of proceeding without the original justification, why does the minister not scrap the agency and the GST while he is at it and he will have no justification whatsoever for proceeding with this agency?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should know that we already do a lot of work for the provinces. In fact we collect 50% for certain provinces and up to 87% of their taxes. We have a very good established relationship.

The agency will create an opportunity to even advance that for provincial participation. Is the hon. member against provincial participation? The provinces have been asking for it.

This agency will include the provinces. That is good for Canada and that is good for the provinces. It will provide a better service and simplify tax administration. I know the hon. member will support it when he reads the document.

Hepatitis C

[Bill Casey, Progressive Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health.

I have a letter from the hon. Russell MacLellan, premier of the province of Nova Scotia, a former parliamentary secretary. In this letter he says “The provincial, territorial and federal ministers of health have met on hepatitis C and an agreement has now been reached for individuals who were infected between January 1984 and 1990”. Previously we were told that the window was only 1986 to 1990. Premier MacLellan is now saying 1984.

Will the minister confirm this expanded window and tell us when hepatitis C victims will be notified?

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the member is probably referring to some of the proposals that were put on the table at the earlier part of the week in Edmonton in the two day session when all submissions were being presented to the working group.

I suspect that the member upon close reading of that letter will find that some of these suggestions may have had greater weight than others. I am going to wait, as we will wait, for the working group to give us a definitive response.

[Bill Casey, Progressive Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, no matter how many times I read this letter it says the same thing. It says “An agreement has been reached for individuals with hepatitis C who were infected between January 1984 and 1990”. It says an agreement between the provincial, territorial and federal ministers.

Somebody is wrong here. Either the premier of the province of Nova Scotia or the hon. member. Will he tell us which one is wrong?

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I thought it was pretty clear. Even if he wants to reread that letter over and over again, I gave an indication that a series of options was presented.

Obviously there was agreement on some and less agreement on others. The working group will take all those things into consideration, evaluate them, weigh them, cost them and give the appropriate governments an indication of which ones should receive priority.

If the process is working, as the letter suggests it is, then he should wait until all that work is done and get a definitive response.

Gun Control

[Paddy Torsney, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today it is reported that the government will be confiscating firearms from law-abiding citizens and gun dealers without compensation.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice tell us whether the government will be confiscating firearms?

[Eleni Bakopanos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her question. The government unlike the Reform and the Conservative parties opposite is committed to gun control for public safety. We are committed to ensure that children do not shoot children.

We are also committed at the same time to the respect of law-abiding Canadian gun owners. Therefore the minister, after she met with a user group, put together a special amnesty to respond to the concerns of dealers raised by the executive director of the Canadian Police Association.

There will be an amnesty for law-abiding Canadian citizens.

Viclas

[Chuck Cadman, Reform, Surrey North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it has been a number of weeks since I first asked the solicitor general about the violent crime linkage analysis system or ViCLAS that the RCMP computer system used for tracking serial killers and sex offenders.

Senior police officials say that it is only a matter of time before a preventable rape or murder occurs because there are thousands of crimes missing from the computer databank.

Just what is the solicitor general doing to ensure that this valuable investigative tool gets all the resources required to keep it running?

[Nick Discepola, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad that the hon. member realizes and has admitted that ViCLAS is an instrumental tool in helping to solve crime.

As a matter of fact the real problem with ViCLAS is not the system itself but that the data which have to be entered is the responsibility of individual provinces.

To that end the solicitor general is reviewing, especially with the province of British Columbia, ways that we can co-operate with the various provinces. That is where the bottleneck seems to be.

I am led to believe also that the province of British Columbia has already hired four extra data entry clerks to catch up with the volume.

Employment Insurance

[Ghislain Fournier, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

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

In view of his reply to my earlier question, how can the minister explain that it is the postman travelling from village to village in the middle and lower North Shore who is the employment insurance expert? How can he explain that?

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

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration said earlier, Bloc members probably do not have many questions this morning, because they keep coming back to the same ones.

If the hon. member has a specific question regarding the very useful role of the postman and what an employee of Canada Post can do, I am very pleased to see that the postman is helpful to people.

However, if the hon. member has a more specific question on how my department is run, he can come to see me and we will do our very best to provide good services to North Shore residents.

Pay Equity

[Bev Desjarlais, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, recent court cases affecting women workers at Bell Canada have cast into doubt the likelihood that these women will have their rights recognized under the federal pay equity legislation which has been on the books for 20 years.

If the government is committed, if the President of the Treasury Board is as committed as he says he is to equality for women, will the minister stand up today for the principle of pay equity and intervene in the Bell Canada case to ensure that 20,000 Canadian women have their concerns addressed in the appropriate tribunal to reach a fair and just settlement?

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

Mr. Speaker, we have stood for the equality of equal pay for work of equal value for a long while. In particular the government passed a law in 1978 that talked about equality.

We have offered $1.3 billion to help women achieve equality. I ask the member to try to put some pressure on the unions so that in the end the unions will agree to give that money to women who fully deserve it.

Veterans Affairs

[Mark Muise, Progressive Conservative, West Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, Sue Riordon has been fighting to have her husband's pension benefits increased in light of the fact that doctors have said that he is 90% to 100% disabled. Her husband, Terry, suffers from gulf war syndrome.

It seems coincidental that since she testified at the SCONDVA hearings in Halifax that their claim has been denied. This is yet another example of how the government is ignoring its veterans.

Will the Minister of Veterans Affairs explain why he is ignoring the doctors' recommendations by refusing to provide Terry with a full military pension?

[Fred Mifflin, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member knows that the government, along with many other governments, in fact all governments, does not recognize that there is such an illness as gulf war syndrome.

I want to tell the hon. member that this country provides veterans of World War I, World War II, Korean war and retired members of the Canadian forces and the RCMP with the best possible benefits of any other country in the world. I am proud to stand by that.

Correctional Service Canada

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

Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general recently announced that Correctional Service Canada would hire 1,000 new correctional officers for penitentiaries across the country. He has also said he believes that we already incarcerate too many people in Canada.

How does the minister or his parliamentary secretary reconcile the desire to put fewer offenders in jail with their hiring of 1,000 new correctional officers?

[Nick Discepola, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the hiring of 1,000 new correctional officers is not at all inconsistent with the desire to reduce the prison population. On the contrary, it is good news for corrections. It is consistent with our goal to have effective corrections.

Correctional officers do not simply perform guard duty. They participate in programming, case management, risk assessment and provide proactive intervention measures.

In summary, they will reduce the individual caseloads of officers resulting in more effective corrections and will bring stability to some of the institutions.