Debates of Nov. 24th, 1999

Child Poverty

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

Mr. Speaker, as I have said, in the Speech from the Throne, we have identified a comprehensive approach to making sure that Canada's children in the 21st century have a good future ahead of them.

As the Prime Minister has said, even in very difficult financial times we were able to engage with the provinces in the largest cost sharing program since medicare, that is the national child benefit. We are committed to doing more.

Criminal Code

[John Reynolds, Reform, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, BC]

Mr. Speaker, on a day when we are here protecting children, I have a question for the Minister of Justice.

The minister has leaked that she will introduce criminal code amendments concerning cruelty to animals. She is compelled to do this because she received a petition with 6,500 signatures.

Can the minister tell Canadians why 300,000 signatures on a child pornography petition are not as compelling as 6,500 on a poodle-phile petition?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows full well that the issue of child pornography as it relates to the possession of child pornography is now before the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Attorney General of British Columbia will be defending the constitutionality of that law in January 2000. We will be there to argue just as strenuously that the law is constitutional and therefore available to protect children and others in the country.

[John Reynolds, Reform, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the question here is about priorities.

The minister knows that this legislation before the courts can be handled by the notwithstanding clause. It was put in the constitution by members of parliament for just this reason, to protect children. That is what we are here for, to protect children.

Where is the minister's priority? Is she more interested in protecting poodle-philes than pedophiles?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, here again we have the unfortunate misrepresentations made by the Reform Party.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. I prefer that the word “misrepresentation” not be used. Please withdraw.

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I withdraw the term “misrepresentation”.

However, let me remind the House and all Canadians that this is the party that suggests pedophilia is lawful in the country. This is the party that refuses to acknowledge that the criminal code prohibits pedophilia. It always has and it always will.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

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

You are disgusting, absolutely disgusting.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. We are a little excited today. These types of comments do not help in our question period or in our debates. I would ask hon. members not to use terms like “you are disgusting”. I want the hon. member for Langley—Abbotsford to please withdraw that forthwith.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. Would the hon. member please withdraw the words?

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

Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister of Justice should withdraw her words. Then perhaps I will.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. We will deal with this matter at the end of question period. The hon. member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques.

Canada Social Transfer

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

Mr. Speaker, the most harmful act committed by the federal government, and the one that has created the most poverty since 1993, is the cuts to the Canada Social Transfer, which will total $33 billion by March 2003.

Does the federal government not realize that this money, in our day-to-day reality, has been taken directly from the hospitals, from the schools and from welfare, three areas where the provinces have been deprived of any leeway to fight poverty? When is the Prime Minister going to remedy this situation and assume his responsibilities?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the first thing we did after eliminating the deficit was to restore $11.5 billion over five years for health.

At the same time, during our first mandate, we initiated the infrastructure program in conjunction with the provinces, and this was a help to them. We put in excess of $2 billion into the National Child Benefit.

The question that must be asked is this: Are the provinces now going to put back what has been cut from their municipalities?

International Trade

[Eleni Bakopanos, Liberal, Ahuntsic, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade.

Since yesterday, we have been hearing all sorts of stories and figures about Canada and the actions of the WTO to clarify the decision by Brazil.

Could the minister tell us about the latest developments in the Canada-Brazil matter?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, last week, my colleague for industry and I announced that Canada would comply with the WTO's decision. We released the specific details of our decision.

Canada is now trying to find out how Brazil will implement the decision. We therefore asked the WTO to advise us. Canada remains open to negotiation.

I would like to remind the House that we are not taking reprisals against Brazil at the moment.

Gun Registration

[Garry Breitkreuz, Reform, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the justice minister commissioned an auditing firm to review the entire gun registry system.

Through access to information, I find out that this secret report concludes that, after taking more than three years and $300 million to design, this system is inflexible, inefficient and inoperable and tinkering will not fix it.

How much more money are we going to throw at a system that her own study says is just plain not working?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member has read the report, he should know that is not what the independent consultant concluded. The consultant concluded that there had been some start up problems with the firearms registry system, and then concluded that these problems were not unusual for a program of this size, complexity or visibility.

We have implemented three-quarters of the proposed efficiency recommendations of the independent consultant. Let me remind hon. members that because of the firearms registration system, we have—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Yorkton—Melville.

[Garry Breitkreuz, Reform, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the minister continues to defend something that is indefensible. If the gun registry is working so well, why did the Minister of Justice receive a letter two weeks ago from the solicitor general of Ontario calling on her to scrap the gun registry system?

When will the minister follow this advice, cut her losses, save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and scrap the registry?