Debates of Feb. 12th, 1999

Justice

[Jim Gouk, Reform, West Kootenay—Okanagan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice has indicated in this House that there is no federal urgency to overturn the B.C. child porn ruling because it only affects British Columbians, a sentiment now echoed by our justice committee chair colleague when he stated if they walk anywhere, it will only be in B.C.

I wonder what the justice minister's position is on child porn perverts in her province of Alberta. If this ruling affected her province would she still support allowing child pornographers to go free as she is now allowing in British Columbia?

[Eleni Bakopanos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the debate was not about perverts. I think that is a misuse of what took place in the courts. The law is the law of the land still in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada. I repeat that there is an appeal. It will take place April 26 and 27, and we are intervening. We respect the law. Unlike the opposition we do respect the due process of law.

Health Care

[Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, Bloc, Laval Centre, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this morning we learned that the federal government is apparently preparing to invest $750 million to beef up the federal bureaucracy for the specific purpose of policing the provinces in the health field.

My question is for the Minister of Health. Does the minister not realize that the people of Quebec and Canada do not want the federal government to spend millions of dollars on policing the provinces, and expect their money to be used first and foremost to improve direct patient care?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, we will have to wait for next Tuesday's budget.

Canada Mortgage And Housing Corporation

[Janko Peric, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. In the battle to eliminate the deficit and debt all federal departments and programs, including CMHC, had to do their share. What assurances can the minister give that the savings within CMHC will be reinvested to assist low income Canadians and the homeless?

[Alfonso Gagliano, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, in January 1998 the Canadian government announced $250 million in funds for RRAP. Furthermore, I announced in December an additional $50 million for this year ending March 31. The money will go toward programs for the homeless and persons with disabilities, the home ownership program, home adaptation for seniors, emergency repair programs and services for aboriginals.

Thanks to RRAP extended by the government, 7,500 Canadians have been helped with their homes. If the province of Ontario would have participated in RRAP we would have had more.

Taxation

[Mike Scott, Reform, Skeena, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have asked the Minister of National Revenue twice why organizations like the B.C. Spaces for Nature, the Sierra Club, the David Suzuki Foundation get a tax holiday as registered charities when they act as a front and accept huge contributions from wealthy American corporate and family interests to kill jobs and investments in Canada. The minister said he did not have the evidence and so I provided it to him yesterday. Now that the minister knows the truth will he commit now to act and remove this charitable status from these ecoterrorists?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, as I informed the hon. member yesterday, if he provides evidence of any charitable group that is not abiding by the law, we will look at it. If the member puts that forward, I will do it.

Judging by the questions today by the Reform Party members, it is no wonder they are desperately looking for an alternative because they need one.

Aboriginal Affairs

[Myron Thompson, Reform, Wild Rose, AB]

Mr. Speaker, in 1997 an audit revealed that the Saulteaux first nation was $71,000 in debt. At this point the community was asked to hire a financial manager to clean up this debt and it went to $1.5 million.

The name of the financial manager was Jesse Primeau. It was revealed in documents that he paid himself $8,000 a month plus expenses, except for March where he paid himself three times.

Can the minister tell me if she approved of the hiring of Jesse Primeau and what steps has she taken to correct this terrible error in judgment?

[David Iftody, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, I will not comment on whether the minister did or did not have any knowledge about the hiring of this particular individual.

However I can tell the member as he knows, in his own province of Alberta we have been working extensively over the past number of months with a number of bands to improve the financial management. They have agreed in many instances and are working currently with the Assembly of First Nations for example on accountability practices not only of these selected communities but generally across Canada.

We are working closely with the first nations to ensure proper management and expenditure of those dollars to go to those people in the communities.

[Bev Desjarlais, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

This is heritage week. Canada Post, CMHC and Heritage Canada pay tribute to Canada as home in a series of stamps. Native housing is depicted by longhouses 24 metres by 8 metres that held three to five families. That was native housing in the past. Today we have three to five families living in homes half that size. Indian affairs has for years built houses at barely acceptable standards, houses that could not withstand everyday living. Conditions are so bad that the United Nations has criticized Canada's treatment of aboriginals.

When is this government going to realize Canada is not home sweet home to all Canadians?

[David Iftody, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has replied recently to a former question with respect to housing increases in Canada, some $50 million, which would include for example off-reserve aboriginal people.

In our department this year we are spending $160 million, an additional $20 million, $43 million of which is going to Manitoba, the member's own province. We are working very closely with a number of bands, namely the Peguis Indian reserve and Dakota Tipi for innovative housing projects which would involve also the infusion of private capital.

[Bev Desjarlais, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are living in squalid conditions. Last evening CTV reported on just how bad things are in Pine Lake and Red Lake, Ontario. Surely the government was shamed by the conditions these people are forced to live in. It is the same in Moose Lake, South Indian Lake and throughout Canada.

Homelessness and poverty are a prescription for poor health. It is a prescription for death. Why is this government turning a blind eye to the poor and the homeless?

[David Iftody, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, we are very distressed about the videotape which was displayed last night on CTV. We are aware of the situation. I have had a briefing this morning with the member of parliament representing those particular communities.

I would also like to advise the House that the local police department is closely surveying those who are living in the bush in these temporary housing placements to ensure there is no loss of life.

I would encourage the hon. member to perhaps try to persuade the provincial government that most recently closed 70 beds in that community which has forced many of these unfortunate people out of the Red Lake and Pine Lake communities into the bush. We are going to continue to—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Saint John.

National Defence

[Elsie Wayne, Progressive Conservative, Saint John, NB]

Mr. Speaker, on February 3 the Minister of National Defence said that Canadian doctors tested fully the anthrax vaccine given to our troops. Then on February 4, the next day, he claimed he never said the drug was tested in Canada.

At a DND briefing this week which I attended, the military stated the vaccine was never tested in Canada for use for our troops. This vaccine was never approved by Health Canada and the military only obtained special permission to inject it.

How can the minister claim to have done this to protect the troops knowing full well that this drug was not licensed or tested in Canada?

[Robert Bertrand, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, this government has always worked in good faith and in the best interests of the men and women of the Canadian armed forces to provide them with the best protection possible in what we must remember was a potentially dangerous operation.

We have been open and transparent on this issue and have been as forthcoming as possible with members of parliament and the media in explaining the facts, while respecting the rights of individuals who are before the courts to a fair trial.

[Elsie Wayne, Progressive Conservative, Saint John, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of defence repeatedly claims that the Canadian doctors and the Canadian government were informed and well informed from the U.S. on the anthrax vaccine. If that is the case, how come Ian MacKay, a Health Canada official, said that no one in the military told him the U.S. FDA had repeatedly threatened to revoke MBPI's licence for producing the anthrax vaccine because of its serious regulatory violations.

Once again, who gave that order to inject our troops with this potentially dangerous and non-Canadian—

[The Speaker]

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Robert Bertrand, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, as the minister has said on a number of occasions in this House, the majority of the people who took the anthrax vaccine had no problems whatsoever. Only a very small percentage of people had any reactions to it at all.

Child Labour

[Larry McCormick, Liberal, Hastings—Frontenac—Lennox And Addington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, there is a horrendous problem of child labour around the world. What is Canada doing about this problem of child abuse?

[Brenda Chamberlain, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, the International Labour Organization is developing a new convention on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. Canada strongly supports the key objectives of this initiative and played an important role during the first discussion last June. Our goal is to ensure the ILO adoption of new instruments which are effective and can be universally ratified.

Agriculture

[Howard Hilstrom, Reform, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Speaker, farmers still reeling from the income crisis have now been hit with rotating strikes by the grain weighers. Grain shipments are off 200,000 tonnes costing farmers more money. The government has had since 1993 to negotiate a new union settlement.

Will the Treasury Board minister guarantee farmers that this dispute will not cost them another dollar?

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of negotiating with the union. It has taken a long time. It has taken a long time because the two parties have been trying to get the best possible conditions. We are offering to the table two blue collar workers the same amount of money that we have offered to the rest of the public service. Eighty percent of them have accepted it. I hope this will be settled very quickly and that the grain farmers will not suffer the consequences.

Social Housing

[Réal Ménard, Bloc, Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in Canada today, 1,600,000 households spend more than 30% of their annual revenue on rental accommodation.

Since 1994, the Government of Canada has cut more than $200 million from the budget of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Since by March the corporation will have achieved the downsizing objectives assigned it by the Minister of Finance, will the minister now give it a clear mandate to develop public housing in accordance with provincial jurisdictions as the mayors of Canada's major cities are requesting?