Debates of Oct. 27th, 1999

Agriculture

[Dick Proctor, NDP, Palliser, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food said that in the first six months of AIDA just over one-fifth of the total amount has been paid out. If we contrast that with the $8 billion in American farm aid assistance, not only is the amount of U.S. dollars impressive, but it is astonishing that cheques for the full amount are being placed in the hands of American farmers within a matter of weeks of the announcement as compared with AIDA's red tape program.

Can the minister explain to the House how the Americans can deliver their cheques so quickly, while our farm safety net programs are always a day late and a dollar short?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows that the industry itself did not want ad hoc payments being paid to everyone. They wanted the money that was made available to the producers to be targeted to producers, to be specific to the producers and to be based on the producers' needs according to a set of criteria.

That is the approach we take in Canada. That is the approach of the industry. That is the approach that the safety net advisory committee asked the government to take. We work along with it to the best of our ability and with the advice of the safety net advisory committee.

Homelessness

[Gilles Bernier, Progressive Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, when the throne speech virtually ignored the homeless, the minister responsible for homelessness said that she was dancing in the streets. The truth is she was dancing in the streets of Manzanillo, Mexico.

How can the minister afford to be dancing in the streets of Mexico when tens of thousands of homeless Canadians are facing another winter not dancing but freezing in the streets?

[Claudette Bradshaw, Liberal, Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Labour was in Mexico meeting her Mexican and American counterparts on labour issues. I must tell the member that we are in the forefront on that issue.

On the issue of me dancing in the streets for the throne speech, when the reporter called I said that I had worked with children for 31 years and that having listened to every budget and every throne speech, and having heard the Prime Minister in his throne speech mention children, I wanted to dance in the streets.

[Gilles Bernier, Progressive Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the minister responsible for the homeless said she was working seven days a week on a strategy for the homeless. Yet she found the time to spend a week in Mexico at the taxpayers' expense.

Will she have a plan to help Canadian homeless people before winter, or is she planning to invite them to spend the winter in Mexico with her instead?

[Claudette Bradshaw, Liberal, Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, I was supposed to be in Mexico Wednesday, but as members are aware, there was a vote in the House on the Thursday evening. I got to Mexico at midnight Thursday, and left after my Saturday evening meetings, or in other words on the Sunday morning. I took part in meetings Friday and Saturday.

I did not say I was the one working seven days a week, but the people who were given all of the recommendations on the homeless after the throne speech and my trip have been working seven days a week.

East Timor

[John O'Reilly, Liberal, Victoria—Haliburton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, can the Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific update the House on the present state of affairs in the troubled area of East Timor?

[Raymond Chan, Liberal, Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific)]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report to the House that Canada has been working very hard to help East Timor's transition to independence. The Indonesian National Assembly has ratified the results of the August 30 ballot in East Timor. At the same time, on Monday it passed over the authority of East Timor to the United Nations.

These things will help us to help this country to gain its independence.

Apec Inquiry

[Jim Abbott, Reform, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister says that he never interfered directly with the APEC security. It seems to me that he is probably taking more than just golf lessons from Bill Clinton with that answer.

Is the Prime Minister now saying that he never had security relations with that summit?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, when I hear the Reform Party asking that type of extremely bright question I am very impressed.

I invite the hon. member to listen to what the RCMP officer said so clearly yesterday. He said that he was there to do his job and that is all.

The Reform Party has not much to complain about if it is still arguing about this a year and a half later.

Plutonium Imports

[Jocelyne Girard-Bujold, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last Monday, there was a leak of radioactive material at Dorval airport when a barrel containing uranium was dropped. Last May, employees were contaminated while working on a plutonium extraction site closed since 1957. Several times in recent years, the safety of Ontario's nuclear facilities has been called into question.

My question is for the Minister of the Environment. How can the minister support the Prime Minister's proposal to import plutonium in order to burn it in an Ontario facility, when the Canadian nuclear industry is already experiencing serious safety problems?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is mixing and mingling a whole variety of unrelated things.

The incident at Dorval, for example, I am happy to confirm, involved a container that was in fact empty. There was no actual spill and there was no health hazard whatsoever.

All the issues the she has referred to are fully covered by Canada's stringent regulations under the Atomic Energy Control Act, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act. The Government of Canada will ensure that every aspect of those regulations are fully enforced.

Banking

[Lorne Nystrom, NDP, Qu'Appelle, SK]

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

The Bank of Montreal is about to close 100 branches throwing about 1,400 people out of work. This follows a year when the five men, who are the CEOs of the big banks, together made over $100 million last year, equivalent to the salary of about 4,000 mainly women bank tellers.

In light of this, can the minister tell us what he is going to do to stop these bank closures in communities that really matter? Or, is he just going to sit back and close his eyes and let the banks call all the shots?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that the bulk of those jobs will be lost through attrition. That does not in any way take away from the seriousness of the situation, as the hon. member knows full well. That is why in the new financial services legislation that we are bringing in we have followed the advice of numerous consumer and community groups across the country. We have put in notice provisions which were not there. We have put in consultation provisions. We have put in the kind of structure that would allow the government and the public to deal with this kind of situation in a fair and reasonable way.

Fisheries

[Charlie Power, Progressive Conservative, St. John's West, NL]

Mr. Speaker, last night four Newfoundlanders were arrested after a violent confrontation with Mi'kmaq natives from Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia natives intended to fish, without licences, the lucrative crab resources off the Newfoundland waters.

After the violent incident last night, will the solicitor general be instructing the RCMP to enforce the Fisheries Act and to arrest anyone who fishes without a proper licence, or is he going to leave the enforcement of that act to Newfoundland fishermen?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I, as solicitor general, do not direct the RCMP in how it does its job.

The Environment

[Joe Jordan, Liberal, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

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

As the federal minister responsible for leading Canada's domestic implementation of our commitments on climate change, how does the minister respond to the 100 groups in the Canadian action network who today put forward nine specific recommendations to mitigate global warming which they want addressed in the next federal budget?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, any specific reference to the federal budget would have to be left to the Minister of Finance.

We welcome the input from the climate action network just as we welcome all the hard work and advice of the 450 Canadians who have been involved in the 16 issue tables that we and the provinces have had up and running on this issue for the past 18 months.

The climate network is talking about transportation alternatives, energy conservation and efficiency, renewables and alternative fuels, new technologies, green procurement programs, building renovations, district heating systems and so forth. We are already investing in all of those fields. I fully expect that we will do more.

Fisheries

[Gary Lunn, Reform, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general has just told us that we are not getting any direction from the government on this issue. The Marshall decision is reaching all parts of Canada.

The Mi'kmaq yesterday started fishing for crab out of season off the coast of Newfoundland. They are so worried about their own security that they have gone to the RCMP for protection. The Mi'kmaq had property torched last night in Newfoundland.

What is it going to take? Does there have to be blood on the water? Does somebody have to die before the government is prepared to bring in a fisheries policy based on equality not race?

[Lawrence O'Brien, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, in response to the hon. member's question on the issue of violence off the south coast of Newfoundland, the government does not condone violence. We do agree that there should be open dialogue and co-operation. I can tell the hon. member that we are clearly taking this under advisement. It is a subscribed fishery on the south coast in the crab fishery. It is an allocated fishery. We will make sure that if enforcement is necessary, there will be enforcement.

Human Resources Development Canada

[René Laurin, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, employees of Human Resources Development Canada are so obsessed with making the quotas imposed on them by the department that they are depriving honest citizens without resources of their benefits for ridiculous and improbable reasons.

My question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. Does the minister think it is reasonable to cut someone's benefits because they do not have an easy means of transportation, in the view of a departmental official?

[Jane Stewart, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, the accusations made by the hon. member are false.

Indeed, what we have in human resources development are 20,000 employees who are providing excellent customer service to Canadians. That is the approach we take and will continue to take.

Presence In Gallery

[The Speaker]

I draw the attention of hon. members to the presence in our gallery of Senator the Honourable Margaret Reid, President of the Senate of Australia, and her delegation.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

[The Speaker]

I would also like to draw to the attention of hon. members the presence in our gallery of His Excellency Edmund Stoiber, the Premier of Bavaria.