Debates of Oct. 14th, 1999

Tabling Of Treaties Act

[Daniel Turp, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-215, an act for the tabling of treaties in the House of Commons.

Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure of introducing this act, which is aimed at creating solid legal foundations for the procedure whereby the government tables treaties before the House of Commons, so as to inform the hon. members of this House of the existence of the treaties concluded by Canada. Canada had given up this practice but reinstated it several months ago. It does, however, require solid legal bases.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Treaty Approval Act

[Daniel Turp, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-216, an act to provide for the approval of treaties by the House of Commons.

Mr. Speaker, the bill relating to the approval of treaties is aimed at allowing this House to approve treaties before they are ratified by the government, thus reinstating the past practice of having House of Commons support and approval for major treaties.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Treaty Publication Act

[Daniel Turp, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-217, an act to provide for the publication of treaties.

Mr. Speaker, this fourth bill, which also deals with treaties, seeks to require the government to publish treaties not only in the Canada Treaty Series , but also in the Canada Gazette and on the Web site of the Department of Foreign Affairs, so as to ensure wide circulation of treaties, which are becoming increasingly important documents for Canada and the international community.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Conclusion Of Treaties Act

[Daniel Turp, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-218, an act to provide for consultation with provincial governments when treaties are negotiated and concluded.

Mr. Speaker, the fifth and last bill that I am tabling today seeks to put into a single piece of legislation all the issues that I would like to see included in a bill on the conclusion, publication, ratification and circulation of treaties.

I am pleased to introduce this bill and I hope that it will be passed so the signing of treaties can be made a truly democratic process by involving parliamentarians.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Business Of The House

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

moved:

That, during the first thirty sitting days of the present Session of Parliament, whenever a Minister of the Crown, when proposing a motion for first reading of a public bill, states that the said bill is in the same form as a bill introduced by a Minister of the Crown in the previous session, if the Speaker is satisfied that the said bill is in the same form as at prorogation, notwithstanding Standing Order 71, the said bill shall be deemed in the current session to have been considered and approved at all stages completed at the time of prorogation of the previous session.

Mr. Speaker, I believe you would find unanimous consent that Motion No. 1 which you have just read under Routine Proceedings be put without debate, a division thereon deemed to have been requested and deferred until the ordinary time of adjournment this afternoon.

I would then later ask for two other motions to be put as well.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Does the House give its unanimous consent to proceed in the manner outlined by the government House leader?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Accordingly the question is deemed to have been put, a division deemed demanded and deferred until the conclusion of Government Orders later this day. The matter is therefore disposed of at this time.

I will proceed to put Motion No. 2 to the House.

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

moved:

That, during the first thirty sitting days of the present Session of Parliament, whenever a private Member submits a notice of motion that he or she submitted in the previous Session and that stood in the order of precedence pursuant to Standing Order 87 at the time of prorogation, if the Speaker is satisfied that the said motion is in the same form as at prorogation, it shall stand on the Order Paper pursuant to Standing Order 87 after those of the same class, with the same designation accorded to it pursuant to Standing Order 92(1) in the previous Session.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

(Motion agreed to)

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

moved:

That, notwithstanding the provisions of Standing Order 81(10)(b), there shall be seven days allotted to the business of supply pursuant to Standing Order 81 in the period ending December 10, 1999.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

(Motion agreed to)

[Sarkis Assadourian, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I was a few minutes late and I would ask for the unanimous consent of the House to present a private members' bill.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Is there unanimous consent to revert?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Some hon. members]

No.

Petitions

[Rose-Marie Ur, Liberal, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I wish to present a petition which has been certified correct as to form and content. The petitioners are from the Grand Bend and London areas.

The petition states that the use of the additive MMT in Canadian gasoline presents an environmental problem affecting every man, woman and child in Canada. The petitioners call upon parliament to set by the end of this calendar year national clean fuel standards for gasoline with zero MMT and low sulphur content.

[Randy White, Reform, Langley—Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a petition incited by the hon. member of the New Democratic Party as being a problem in this country.

The petitioners ask the House that parliament oppose any amendments to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or any other federal legislation which will provide for the exclusion of reference to the supremacy of God in our Constitution and laws.

The petitioners also mention that the majority of Canadians believe in the God who created heaven and earth and are not offended by the mention of his name in the preamble of the charter of rights and freedoms.

This is tabled for the attention of the House and for the attention of the hon. member of the NDP who created this mess in the first place.

[Rick Borotsik, Progressive Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to table that are of the same nature with respect to agriculture. There are 122 pages of signatures.

The petitions state that the federal minister of agriculture has introduced the agricultural income disaster assistance program fully knowing the shortfall as it relates to agriculture in western Canada and that he has failed to set forth a support program that fully reflects the true needs of agriculture.

We will debate agriculture a little later this morning in the reply to the throne speech. The petitioners are asking that the minister of agriculture be replaced by a member of the House who would be better able to recognize and understand the issues of agriculture.

Questions On The Order Paper

[Derek Lee, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[The Deputy Speaker]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Request For Emergency Debate

[Leon Benoit, Reform, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 52 I request leave to make a motion for adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter requiring urgent consideration.

Over the summer months it became evident that a crisis exists in our immigration and refugee determination system. Canada has become a primary target for illegal migration. This is causing a problem with queue jumping. People who are using the normal process are extremely concerned that their process is being held up as a result of poor handling of the refugee determination process by the government.

There are three recent events I would like to quickly refer to which demonstrate the need for an emergency debate.

First is the detaining of illegal migrants for months already and it will probably stretch into years in new camps or prisons that have been set up specifically for this reason. I do not think it is acceptable in a country like Canada to have a system that is working so poorly that people are being detained for months and years while they await the outcome of the determination process.

Second, Mayor Lastman, the mayor of Toronto, Canada's largest city, has publicly expressed concern about our immigration system, in particular our refugee determination system which is working so poorly that it is putting an extra cost burden on his city. He wants the government rather than the city to bear that burden if the government is not going to fix the system.

Third, yesterday, according to media reports the premier of Ontario has written a letter to the government and to the immigration minister saying he is fed up with the system working so poorly. He wants the government to fix the system because his province cannot bear the costs.

It is important that we debate this issue immediately to send a signal to people smugglers and those who would use their services that Canada will no longer be an easy mark. We must put in place legislation that will make this process happen within days and weeks rather than months and years as is currently the situation and which will quickly end the virtual slave trade that is building in our country. People smugglers are bringing people in illegally and putting them into slave-like conditions. That is something Canadians cannot accept.

For those reasons, it is important that we have an emergency debate today to change the law to fix these problems.