Debates of Dec. 16th, 1999

Petitions

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

Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of presenting another petition containing 203 signatures of Canadians from coast to coast who wish to add parental rights, responsibilities and liberty to the charter of rights and freedoms.

These petitioners call on government to amend section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to recognize the fundamental right of individuals to pursue family life free from undue interference of the state. I will not go through this all, but—

[The Deputy Speaker]

I think we must move on to another member now.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Saint-Eustache—Sainte-Thérèse, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today I am presenting a petition signed by 83 of my constituents requesting that subsection 13(5) of the Canada Post Corporation Act be repealed.

My colleague, the member for Champlain, Post Office critic, and all other Bloc Quebecois members, myself included, strongly support the petitioners' request.

[Roy H. Bailey, Reform, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I have thousands of signatures here from across Canada all related to the disgust that parents have with the current state of pornography in Canada. I am pleased to present these from all provinces of Canada. There are thousands of signatures.

[Ghislain Lebel, Bloc, Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition signed by approximately 400 people asking that subsection 13(5) of the Canada Post Corporation Act be repealed.

These people support letter carriers in rural municipalities who are working under conditions much like those of the middle of the last century as described by Émile Zola in Germinal .

[The Deputy Speaker]

The time for presentation of petitions has expired even as extended.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Saint-Eustache—Sainte-Thérèse, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. In presenting my petition, I made an error, and spoke of the hon. member for Champlain, when it ought to have been the hon. member for Chambly.

[The Deputy Speaker]

We have more people rising on petitions. Is there consent to extend the time to allow the members now rising to finish this off?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition from many residents of my constituency and other citizens of Winnipeg. They are very concerned about the millennium round of World Trade Organization talks and the Liberal government's willingness to participate in a process giving foreign companies the right to deliver health care, education and transportation services.

The petitioners offer to the government recommendations for taking into account any future negotiations and talks. They include binding and enforceable rules to protect human rights, labour standards, cultural diversity and environment, a carve out of health care, education and culture, a more open and inclusive model for the WTO and an alternative model of globalization that ensures the ability of governments to act in the public interest.

[Maurice Vellacott, Reform, Wanuskewin, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I have the opportunity to present a petition today from citizens across Canada. They are noting a long history of recognizing the rights of freedom of religion and conscience rights in our country.

They draw attention to the fact that health care workers and those seeking training for a career in the health care system have had some of those rights stripped away from them in medical facilities and educational institutes. Examples are nurses and others who have been required to assist in abortion procedures against their deeply held religious and moral convictions. The petitioners ask that parliament enact legislation against such violations of conscience rights by administrators in medical facilities and educational facilities.

[Inky Mark, Reform, Dauphin—Swan River, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition on behalf of thousands of constituents. They are calling upon parliament to ensure that emergency compensation is immediately delivered to farmers who have not been served by AIDA and immediately launch an international campaign against foreign subsidies, to immediately provide tax relief, lower input costs, reduce user fees and address the inadequacies of the farm safety net program.

[John Duncan, Reform, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present two petitions today.

The first petition requests that parliament give Canadian taxpayers a break by instituting tax relief of at least 25% in federal taxes over the next three years.

[John Duncan, Reform, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition calls upon parliament to enact immediate changes to Canada's immigration laws governing refugees to allow for the deportation of obvious and blatant abuses of the system.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition on behalf of 35 of my constituents requesting that parliament give Canadian taxpayers tax relief in the next federal budget. I cannot go through all of the petition, but the petitioners see that the tax burden on the average Canadian family has skyrocketed 30% and that taxes have grown from $9.4 billion to $20.9 billion. They have expressed concern about that.

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

Mr. Speaker, the next three petitions are mainly from people in Ontario on what has been called the spanking law, section 43 of the criminal code.

The petitioners believe that Canadians have the fundamental right as individuals to pursue family life free from undue interference by the state. They request that parliament insist to maintain the time honoured rules of common law and the criminal code and uphold the rights of parents to discipline their children by use of physical force that does not exceed reasonable limits under the circumstances.

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

Mr. Speaker, the last group of petitions I have contains 203 signatures from Canadians from coast to coast. They want to add parental rights, responsibilities and liberties to the charter of rights and freedoms. They call on government to amend section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to recognize the fundamental right of individuals to pursue family life free from undue interference of the state. Again, I will not go through the whole petition because time does not permit me to do so.

Questions On The Order Paper

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

Mr. Speaker, the following questions will be answered today: Nos. 4, 18, 34, 38 and 42. .[Text]

Question No. 4—

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

What programs are currently available to provide assistance to fruit growers converting their old tree stock to new varieties?

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

The farm improvement and Marketing Cooperatives Loans Act, FIMCLA, can provide assistance to fruit growers with the purchase and planting of fruit trees for new varieties. Conditions of the loan are summarized as follows: the maximum term is ten years; the cost of loan is either prime rate plus 1% or at a fixed rate equal to the residential mortgage rate plus 1%; loans must not exceed 80% of the value of the asset being financed; the maximum loan is $250,000.

Fruit growers can plant now, pay later through an FCC loan.

Farm Credit Corporation, FCC, has expanded the plant now pay later loan to include all fruit and berry varieties grown for commercial production across Canada. This unique loan was originally introduced in 1996 to help vineyard expansion projects in Ontario and British Columbia. Fruit growers can use the loan to renovate or expand orchards, vineyards, berry farms or other types of production that take several years to yield a comercial crop. The loan allows clients to better manage their cash flow. It offers flexible terms and conditions to match production cycles and an amortization period that matches the life cycle of farms.

Repayment options include total payment deferral for up to three years or interest only payments for the first five years. With the deferral option, no payments are required in the first three growing seasons including the replant year. Interest that accrues during this period is capitalized at the end of the third growing season. in year four, an interest only payment is made and in year five blended payments begin with up to 20 years to repay. For example, a loan of $25,000 accrues approximately $5,000 of interest in three years. Thus at the end of three years, the loan becomes $30,000. Payments are then based on this loan amount and may be made annually. The loan covers all planting costs including the costs of drainage, land improvement, plants, planting costs, trellising, irrigation and maintenance in the first three years.

Those eligible for the loan include producers of grapes, apples and pears, tender fruit trees, including peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and plums, and all berries, including rasberries, blueberries, saskatoon berries and cranberries.

The plant now pay later loan was initiated through consultation with primary producers and agricultural groups to develop an innovative lending product that addresses specific financing needs.

Question No. 18—

[Eric C. Lowther, Reform, Calgary Centre, AB]

In each year since 1982: ( a ) how many federal laws had their validity challenged in the courts for alleged violation of the charter of rights and freedoms; ( b ) what were the names of each of these cases; ( c ) in how many such cases did the party challenging the law receive funding through the federal court challenges program, and which cases were they; ( d ) what was the outcome of each of these cases at all levels: trial, appeal and supreme court; ( e ) what was the remedy utilized by the court in cases where the federal government lost its defence of the law; and ( f ) in which of these cases did counsel representing Canada concede that there had been a breach of the charter?

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

I am informed as follows:

Justice Canada

Jurisprudence under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is extensive. Federal and provincial statutes, as well as the actions of governmental actors, have been challenged before all manner of administrative tribunal and before every level of court. All the information that has been requested is contained in publicly available documents. The Department of Justice does not keep specific statistics on the number of federal laws that have been challenged in the courts for alleged violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms since 1982. For example, to determine the federal position in each of these cases, it would be necessary to conduct a manual search of the Department of Justice files on each particular case, at each level of court.

Additional sources of information which may be of assistance are: the Canadian Charter of Rights Decisions Digest, a digest of important Charter cases, is available on line at the following Internet site: http://canada.justice.gc.ca/Publications/CCDL/deveng/charterdigest/cdtoc.htm. http://www.law.utoronto.ca/conlit/biblioq2.htm#A4.1 is another useful Internet site for research on the charter.

Quick law QL provides two relevent databases:

CRC—charter of rights cases. Summaries of court decisions on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms from 1982 to 1992.

CJ—Canadian Judgments. Global database. Contains full text of the Supreme Court of Canada, SCC, judgments since 1985, SCJ—supreme court judgements and full text of decisions of most provincial court cases since 1986.

Consultations may also be conducted at the University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4. The Law Library is located on the main floor, Professional Faculties Building B, telephone [phone]. Also noteworthy is the Law Society Library, Queen's Bench, located on the 7th floor, 611—4th Street S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2P 1T5 and can be reached at telephone [phone].

Academic consideration of the charter and its impact in Canada is substantial. The hon. member may find an article by Professors F.L. Morton et al. entitled “Judicial Nullification of Statutes Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982-88” (1990), 28 Alta L. Rev. 396 to be of particular interest. The article assesses the effect of the charter on federal and provincial legislation and analyses all reported federal and provincial appellate decisions between 1982-88 in which a statute was declared wholly or partially invalid due to a charter violation. The hon. member may also wish to consult David Schneiderman & Kate Sutherland, Charting the Consequences: The Impact of Charter Rights on Canadian Law and Politics (Toronto: 1997).

Canadian Heritage

(c) Since its inception in 1978, the scope and mandate of the court challenges program has evolved significantly. Originally established to fund test cases on constitutionally protected language rights, the program today covers charter equality based challenges of legislation, programs and policies of the federal government as well as federal and provincial legislation, policies and programs involving constitutionally protected language rights. The program has been administered at arm's length from government by five consecutive managing organizations. By negotiated agreement, the closed files were sealed and sent to Public Archives and cannot be accessed by government. As a consequence, except for illustrative individual cases incorporated in the court challenges program annual reports, it is impossible to identify court cases that received financial assistance from the program. Those annual reports are public and can be found in public libraries.

(d) Since it is not possible to identify individual cases having received financial assistance from the court challenges program, one can only speculate on the effective impact of such funding on the jurisprudence trend in the areas of linguistic and equality rights. The evaluation report of the program for the period 1994-97 presents the most comprehensive assessment of impact for the review period and very few court cases are identified in its pages. To obtain a copy of this report, write to the Department of Canadian Heritage at 15 Eddy Street, Hull, Quebec K1A 0M5 or call [phone].

Question No. 34—

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North Centre, MB]

Regarding the Health Canada food directorate's allocation of resources: ( a ) how much of the total $11.5 million HPB special allocation to strengthen food safety/nutritional deficiencies in 1999-2000 will go directly to the food directorate budget and of that amount how much has been spent to date; ( b ) how many full time permanent positions have been restored in the food directorate as a result of the additional budget allocation and what is the breakdown of those positions by job title; ( c ) how much of the total $65 million three year (1999-2000, 2000-01, 2001-02) HPB special allocation to strengthen food safety/nutritional deficiencies will go directly to the food directorate budget; and ( d ) how much of the 1999-2000 food directorate budget is allocated to permanent safety research activities dealing with topics related to genetically modified foods and what is the breakdown by activity?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

(a) The food directorate will recive $7.7 million in 1999-2000 including $1.2 million for accommodation, communications, employee benefits, and other overhead expenses. As of October 3, 1999, the directorate had spent $3.2 million.

(b) By the end of year three of the funding, the food directorate plans to have staffed 52 positions. We are unable at this time to give actual position titles. It is anticipated that 25 will be staffed in year one, 10 in year two, and 17 in year three.

(c) The food directorate is scheduled to receive $7.7 million in year one, $9.2 million in year two, and $12.1 million in year three.

(d) There is currently one ongoing research project on a topic related to genetically modified foods with a planned expenditure in 1999-2000 of $166,389.

Question No. 38—

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

With regards to the works of native art purchased by the department of Indian and northern affairs over the last 10 fiscal years: ( a ) what was the total amount spent on those purchases; ( b ) in what locations are those works of art displayed and ( c ) how many works of arts are displayed at each location?