House of Commons Hansard #23 of the 36th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was offenders.
Mark Muise Progressive Conservative West Nova, NS
Mr. Speaker, will the minister of Indian affairs tell the House whether he sought any legal advice pertaining to the Marshall decision before telling the Canadian public that the supreme court decision addressed native logging, mineral and offshore exploration rights?
Bob Nault LiberalMinister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Mr. Speaker, I found it very interesting yesterday. The Minister of Justice and of course the minister of natural resources for New Brunswick agreed with our position that we have to negotiate with the aboriginal people of Atlantic Canada, and that is exactly what we are going to do.
Mark Muise Progressive Conservative West Nova, NS
Mr. Speaker, on October 20 the minister of Indian affairs stated that the Marshall ruling included native logging, mineral and offshore exploration rights. Yesterday the supreme court decision clearly stated that this was not the case. Why did the minister artificially create a crisis in other natural resource sectors when he had no right to do so?
Bob Nault LiberalMinister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Mr. Speaker, I can only repeat that natural resources are a very important component of economic development for aboriginal people, and in creating aboriginal economies.
I have every intention of making sure that aboriginal people are part of our economy.
Derrek Konrad Reform Prince Albert, SK
Mr. Speaker, this week in B.C., the Indian affairs committee heard from Gitksan witnesses that the Nisga'a agreement allocates Gitksan land to the Nisga'a. The Nisga'a voted on it but the Gitksan did not, and they consider it an act of aggression.
Why is the Minister of Indian Affairs and North Development denying the Gitksan and all other British Columbians a vote on the Nisga'a treaty in a referendum? Why?
Bob Nault LiberalMinister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Mr. Speaker, we are presently in negotiations with the Gitksan.
Derrek Konrad Reform Prince Albert, SK
A vote would be a lot better than negotiations, Mr. Speaker.
The government has no intention of listening to Canadians affected by the Nisga'a treaty. In fact, Canadians were shut out of the committee hearings.
The Liberal member from Haliburton—Victoria—Brock laughingly called the committee hearings a song and dance show. Hearing that the Liberals feel the committee meetings are a joke, will the minister give the people of B.C. a real voice and grant them a referendum, yes or no?
Bob Nault LiberalMinister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Mr. Speaker, I again really urge the Reform Party members to get a briefing on the Nisga'a agreement.
Paragraph 33 of the general provisions of the final agreement states:
Nothing in this Agreement affects, recognizes, or provides any rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 for any aboriginal people other than the Nisga'a nation
Therefore, we are not implementing a treaty that will affect the rights of other first nations.
Stéphane Bergeron Bloc Verchères, QC
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, an RCMP official said that the ongoing police investigation into the use of dummies in the audiovisual industry only targeted one production company.
However, we learned some time ago that this was also the practice in another company: World Affairs.
My question is for the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Should the minister not ask the RCMP to investigate World Affairs as well as CINAR?
Sheila Copps LiberalMinister of Canadian Heritage
Mr. Speaker, I did not put any pressure on the RCMP regarding the investigation. The RCMP is free to investigate any issue.
Stéphane Bergeron Bloc Verchères, QC
Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. Some very serious allegations have been made regarding the CINAR production company, and comments made by Mr. Shapiro, its executive producer, also incriminate World Affairs.
If, as she claims, the minister really wants to shed light on the use of public funds under her responsibility, how can she be content with having called for an investigation that only targets one of these two production companies?
Sheila Copps LiberalMinister of Canadian Heritage
Mr. Speaker, I did not refer to any specific company, the hon. member did.
Jim Abbott Reform Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Mr. Speaker, the issue of information being out of control in the solicitor general's department is not new.
It goes back to Progressive Conservative Doug Lewis losing boxes of information from CSIS following the 1993 election. It also has to do with the minister's predecessor on the APEC affair talking too much, and then this minister ending up losing documents from the back seat of a car.
How can Canadians have any confidence in this minister or his ministry that their lives will be protected?
Lawrence MacAulay LiberalSolicitor General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, police and security agencies take these issues very seriously and so do I.
When breaches of security occur, and unfortunately they do occur, there is a process in place to investigate them and all the necessary measures are taken to address the issues.
Jim Abbott Reform Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Mr. Speaker, I must say that one of the most chilling aspects of the story this morning about the loss of the disk is the fact that the person who found the disk had a sense of responsibility and did not sell the disk or turn the disk over to the people who were named in the disk. This sense of responsibility is his, which is more than I can say for the solicitor general.
How can Canadians have any sense of comfort or any sense that the minister has a feeling of responsibility for the lives of those who turn over their lives to CSIS, or to the RCMP in these confidences?
Lawrence MacAulay LiberalSolicitor General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated previously, the director informed the solicitor general of this situation in 1996. I can assure my hon. colleague that the necessary procedure was followed.
In fact, as I indicated previously in the House, I just tabled the SIRC document that indicated that the matters were addressed.
Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC
Mr. Speaker, next week, it will be with sadness that we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the motion adopted unanimously by the House of Commons to reduce child poverty in Canada.
How does the Minister of Finance explain his government's failing so lamentably to eliminate child poverty?
Jane Stewart LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development
Mr. Speaker, there is no one in the House, and I do not think anyone in Canada, who does not appreciate that we have been through some very difficult times financially. We have our fiscal house in order. The finance minister has done an extraordinary job in bringing us all together.
Now that we have choices available to us again, these choices for this side of the House include children as our first priority.
Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC
Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that the Minister of Finance did not answer my question.
Whatever the minister's figures say, they are eloquent. There were one million poor children in Canada when the Liberals came to office, and this figure has considerably grown since them.
How does the minister explain the increase in poverty among children in Canada?
Jane Stewart LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development
Mr. Speaker, let me say again that on this side of the House the issue of children and child poverty is indeed a priority, and we are taking action in this very important area. Witness the Speech from the Throne. We are doubling parental leave. There will be a significant third investment in the national child benefit.
We will work with the provinces, including Quebec, to focus on the early child development years. We have a strategy in place and we will make change.
Diane Ablonczy Reform Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Mr. Speaker, there are disturbing discrepancies in the HRD minister's story about the TJF reserve.
She says that the half a million dollars that went to her riding from this TJF reserve helped create badly needed jobs in Brantford. But the Brant HRD regional office says that no applicants, hard-pressed or otherwise, ever came forward. So the money was never used to create jobs.
Who is telling the truth here, the minister or the HRD department?
Jane Stewart LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member will really have to get her facts straight.
My riding was designated as a transitional fund riding back in 1995 because the unemployment levels were very high. The average was 11.8% but spiked to over 14%. At that time there was money that was made available but the projects were not in place.
Subsequently, we have had very effective investment in my riding through the transitional jobs fund. We are now a successful community thanks to the partnership of the federal government with very focused community efforts.
Diane Ablonczy Reform Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Mr. Speaker, the minister keeps confusing the TJF and this minister's reserve. I wonder if that is deliberate?
Here is another credibility gap between the minister's story to the House and information from her department. Yesterday, she tried valiantly to justify her multimillion dollar slush fund of EI money by telling us that some went to the riding of the Reform member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast. But her department says that no such project was ever funded from this special ministers' so-called jobs creation reserve. Why the discrepancy?
Jane Stewart LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development
Mr. Speaker, there is no discrepancy.
When my riding was identified as a TJF riding, there were moneys that could be used at that point in time that may have been coming from the ministerial reserve. That is not inappropriate. There is nothing wrong with that. The moneys were not used at that point in time. It was through actual transitional jobs fund moneys that had been allocated for those projects.
I want to remind the House that back in 1997 the Toronto Star ran an article that talked about my community as having the worst downtown in Canada. Just a couple of months ago, it ran a repeat article that talked about the success in my community.
Maurice Dumas Bloc Argenteuil—Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, for the past six years, the federal government has invested nothing in the construction of social housing in Quebec, although the government of Quebec and social coalitions have been calling upon it to reinvest in this sector.
My question is for the Minister of Public Works. How can a government that claims it wants to fight poverty justify the fact that it is still refusing to invest any funds whatsoever into the construction of social housing?