House of Commons Hansard #29 of the 36th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was industry.
Canadian Tourism Commission ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)
I am sure we can accommodate the hon. member for Prince George—Bulkley Valley. We will go then to questions and comments.
Dick Harris Reform Prince George—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Our party has 40 minutes at this time. I will speak for 20 minutes and my colleague will speak for 20 minutes.
Canadian Tourism Commission ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)
The way it works is there are 40 minute slots for the first round of debate if we are resuming debate for the first three speakers. We are in 20 minute slots, not 40 minute slots.
The member for Prince George—Bulkley Valley has kindly offered to share his time with the member for Kelowna. We have gone that far, so we are in questions and comments now, unless of course, he would like to ask for unanimous consent to revert to where we were.
Dick Harris Reform Prince George—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, I could just wrap up my 10 minutes and then my colleague would speak.
Canadian Tourism Commission ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)
No, you either get in or you get out, one or the other. Your option is to take five minutes in questions and comments right now, or ask for the consent of the House to continue, use up your full 20 minute allotment and then a 10 minute question and comment period. It is one or the other.
Dick Harris Reform Prince George—Bulkley Valley, BC
Just a point of clarification, Mr. Speaker. When will my colleague from the Okanagan be permitted to speak?
Canadian Tourism Commission ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)
We are not going to negotiate this. We are going into questions and comments.
Dick Harris Reform Prince George—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am under the impression that we are still discussing my options. I have my options figured out now and I would like to make a decision to continue my speech, if I may.
Canadian Tourism Commission ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)
We have unanimous consent for the hon. member for Prince George—Bulkley Valley to split his time. Do we have unanimous consent to rescind the previous decision?
Dick Harris Reform Prince George—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues. I know they were enjoying my presentation so much they shuddered to think that I was going to finish up quickly.
Since coming to Ottawa a little more than six years ago, the experiences we have had in dealing with crown corporations have not been exactly fruitful or satisfying. Whenever we try to get information about how taxpayers' money is being spent, we get a pretty big run around.
I learned very quickly after coming to Ottawa that crown corporations simply do not have to tell us anything about how they operate if they do not want to. We made a number of requests through access to information to get some information about certain crown corporations and we hit a brick wall, to put it fairly specifically.
The minister will say that this new entity is at arm's length and he is not responsible. The minister should be responsible to the House for how taxpayers' money is spent. He should not be permitted to duck this responsibility by turning the CTC into a crown corporation.
I am sure you will understand this, Mr. Speaker, because you have been a member of the House for some time.
The minute the crown corporation is formed it will immediately begin to plead that the confidentiality of its private or commercial stakeholders will be compromised if it starts talking about how it spends its money or how it operates its little business.
Canadian Tourism Commission ActGovernment Orders
The Deputy Speaker
I am sorry to interrupt the hon. member, but it is time that we moved to the next item of business which is called for at 11 o'clock. Accordingly the hon. member will have eight minutes remaining in the time allotted for his remarks following question period.
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Mr. Speaker, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo is a leader in crime prevention.
The Community Safety and Crime Prevention Council was established in the region in 1993. This community based organization committed to preventing crime was so successful that it was one of the models for the establishment of the federal government's $32 million per year national strategy on community safety and crime prevention of which the National Crime Prevention Centre is a part.
The recently announced partnership between the centre and the Insurance Council of Canada to reduce auto theft is welcome but not surprising. The insurance industry in my community has supported local crime prevention efforts for many years.
This joint initiative takes a particular interest in preventing children from being drawn into automobile theft. Currently 43% of convicted car thieves are between the ages of 12 and 17. With the rate of auto theft rising and the resulting $48 a year increase in insurance premiums for consumers, this initiative between government and property and casualty insurers in communities across the country is a logical and timely one. Well done.
Keith Martin Reform Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
Mr. Speaker, 599 people came from China by boat and landed on British Columbia shores this summer. Of those 599, only one has been determined to be a true refugee. Months later, 389 claims have yet to be dealt with. The minister's response? Bill C-16, which has said absolutely nothing about this issue. It does nothing about streamlining our immigration process. It gives a green light to the indentured slavery that this immigration scam represents. It does nothing to help true refugees. It does nothing to help our immigration process.
Today, Central American refugees are selling drugs on Vancouver streets and can still apply through our refugee process. Today, true refugees are mixed with false refugees and we have an immigration process that is in disarray.
Today, I am introducing a private member's bill, seconded by the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, that would streamline this process.
To the Minister of Immigration: Get with the program. Introduce changes that are fair to everyone, fair to refugees—
David Pratt Liberal Nepean—Carleton, ON
Mr. Speaker, tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in Canada, accounting for 45,000 deaths each year.
We know that 85% of all adults who smoke started the habit before the age of 18. Smoking rates for Canadian youth are increasing at an alarming rate. Twenty-nine per cent of 15 to 19 year olds now smoke, and in some groups, like the Inuit for instance, around 71% of youth are smoking.
I would like to welcome to Ottawa 17 young people from across Canada. They are all members of the newly established youth advisory committee on tobacco issues which will be advising the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for Children and Youth on smoking and tobacco issues from a young person's perspective.
These youths were selected on the basis of their work in their own communities and their interest and experience in discouraging tobacco use by their peers. We look forward to their input on this life and death issue.
John Maloney Liberal Erie—Lincoln, ON
Mr. Speaker, we have observed the 10th anniversary of a unanimous House of Commons resolution to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. Regrettably and sadly, this goal is beyond our grasp. Our noble expectations lie in failure.
Today, we observe poor families falling deeper into poverty and the gap widening between their incomes and those of well off families.
Children are our greatest assets, our greatest treasures. We must reaffirm our desire, indeed our necessity, to work much harder to include the unincluded in society.
The government has signalled its intention to act and the foundation has been put in place for a national children's agenda. Intentions must become reality and the reality must be now. Children are a priority of this government.
Yvon Charbonneau Liberal Anjou—Rivière-Des-Prairies, QC
Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Canadian government announced a $1 million science and engineering research prize in honour of the late Gerhard Herzberg, winner of Canada's first Nobel prize for research in chemistry.
The annual award is a millennium project of NSERC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and is intended to honour and support the best of Canada's researchers.
Such an initiative is particularly important as we rapidly approach the new millennium, since it will enable Canada to continue to play a lead role in the international scientific world.
We wish all the young Canadians who will have an opportunity to take advantage of this the best of luck.
Grant McNally Reform Dewdney—Alouette, BC
Mr. Speaker, last week the Liberal government fully endorsed an election for the rights of youth. Only 3.8% of all Canadian students participated in this exercise, yet access to information documents obtained by the Reform Party revealed that the human resources department intends to “after the election, publish and present to the PMO the children's youth mandate”. What a mandate, 3.8%.
This Liberal exercise cost taxpayers half a million dollars and was done without the approval of parents, school boards or provincial ministers of education.
Access documents revealed that the human resources department asks “Where can HRDC get the most mileage?”
Is this the Liberal government's new strategy, to use children for partisan purposes to support its own political agenda?
Judi Longfield Liberal Whitby—Ajax, ON
Mr. Speaker, so much for the Mike Harris tax cuts and sound financial management in the province of Ontario.
After the people of Ontario have finished shelling out thousands of extra dollars in new user fees, drug co-payments, higher municipal property taxes, paying for important services that used to be covered by OHIP and whopping tuition fees, they will not be any better off than they were five years ago.
The reform-a-tory government at Queen's Park will even charge a $125 fee to single parents with children to collect child support payments. Students now have to call a 1-900 number and pay if they want information about their student loans.
While most jurisdictions are increasing support for post-secondary education, Mike Harris, who already is the lowest per capita funder of post-secondary education in North America, will now cut an additional $800 million from our education system.
The Tories are demanding that municipalities, on whom they have already downloaded huge financial burdens, pay 30% of capital projects for hospitals.
The people of Ontario do not even get a balanced budget in return for the destruction of their social fabric.
Richard Marceau Bloc Charlesbourg, QC
Mr. Speaker, the tragic history of Chechnya, marked with 200 years of conflict with powerful Russia, is not over yet.
More than 50 years out of the 19th century were taken up with war between the two, and in the 20th century there were uprisings in 1921, 1924, 1928 and 1936. Stalin saw no way of putting an end to the conflict, so in 1944 he decided to empty Chechnya of its people. Under the pretext that the Chechens were German collaborators, he decided to deport them to Siberia.
Since then, they have come back. Now they are being accused of terrorism rather than collaboration, but their tragic history seems to be repeating itself.
This people will never be conquered by armed strength. Only a negotiated solution will be able to bring peace to a region that has already suffered far too much from war.
Mark Assad Liberal Gatineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, a few days ago, the Government of Canada took part in the inauguration of La Vérendrye boulevard west in the city of Gatineau.
This new section, between autoroute 50 and highway 307, was funded by the Quebec department of transport and the Canadian department of transport, which shared the total cost of $14 million jointly.
This achievement is tangible evidence of the possible, desirable and vital co-operation between the two levels of government to consolidate regional development here and in all regions of Quebec.
That is an example of co-operation which will be of benefit to everyone in our community.
Jay Hill Reform Prince George—Peace River, BC
Mr. Speaker, the member for Nepean—Carleton said in the House that the hockey game last night would “establish the bragging rights to parliamentary hockey supremacy in Canada once and for all”.
Well, it certainly did, but it is the United Opposition and not the government that now reigns supreme.
In a hotly contested battle, the true united alternative to the overconfident, boastful Liberals came out on top. With a team consisting of six Reform MPs, a single MP from the Bloc, the NDP and the Tories, a Reform staffer goalie and two opposition CTV members of the media, Team Opposition coasted to a six-four victory. What a treat for the sell-out crowd in the Corel Centre to witness the humbled, downcast Team Liberal and the overjoyed exuberance of the United Opposition.
Following the game, the opposition MPs enjoyed hot wings and beer while the members for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke and Mississauga West ate crow. In hockey, unlike federal elections, the Liberals cannot claim victory from tallying only 40% of the points.
Denis Paradis Liberal Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, 3.00 p.m. today marks the start of the convention of the Quebec section of the Liberal Party of Canada.
The members of our party will be looking at issues around four major themes: first, the economy and taxation; second, social development and social security; third, regional and rural development and, fourth, cultural identity.
This convention was preceded by 14 public meetings. Over 1,600 people and 420 organizations came forward to say clearly and openly what the Government of Canada could do to better meet their needs.
This convention is for the members of the Liberal Party of Canada. They will give their opinions on measures needed to help Quebec and Canada step resolutely into the next millennium.
Rick Laliberte NDP Churchill River, SK
Mr. Speaker, it has certainly been a very sad week for the people of Churchill River who have lost a good friend.
We found a friend way down in Texas named Doug Sahm. It was a tragedy to hear about the passing last week of such a young artist at 58 years old. He made contributions to the music industry and the sport industry and befriended Canadians, including the people of northern Canada.
On behalf of the people of Churchill River, I send our condolences to his compadres, Freddie Fender, Flaco Jimenez, Augie Meyers and Louis Ortega. We also send our condolences to Ernie Dawawa, Speedy Sparks, Rocky Morales, his two sons who have taken up careers in the music industry, and to his dear friends and family from Texas.
As a person who came from down south, he admired Canada.
At this time of thanksgiving, we would like to give thanks to Doug Sahm. We are truly proud of what he has done and we are truly soulful for what his music will do for us in the future.