Debates of March 10th, 1999

Ottawa

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Secretary of State (Multiculturalism)(Status of Women)]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The note that I referred to was taken from a document which I have just been given.

The document that I would like to table is from the Ottawa Citizen .

[The Deputy Speaker]

I take it that we can revert to tabling of documents for the purpose of getting this done and consider the document tabled.

Petitions

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people in the riding of Laurier—Sainte-Marie, who sincerely believe in equality between men and women and in justice, I have the honour of tabling a petition demanding that the government withdraw its appeal against the public service pay equity decision and give effect to the court ruling requiring it to ensure pay equity for its employees.

This petition combines with those presented by my other Bloc Quebecois colleagues.

[Paul Bonwick, Liberal, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as a proactive Liberal, I rise today pursuant to Standing Order 36 to table a petition signed by constituents of the riding of Simcoe—Grey, as well as concerned Canadians from across our country.

The petitioners are all automotive technicians who are employed at car dealerships. As a condition of employment they are required to purchase and maintain several thousand dollars worth of automotive tools. At the present time their professional tool investment and expenditures are non-tax deductible and, unlike other professions which require similar expenditures, do not generate any tax credits.

Therefore the petitioners request that parliament readdress this taxation policy, amending the applicable legislation to allow current and future technicians to deduct their investment in automotive repair tools.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present today. The first deals with Canadian voters who express a concern that the concept of marriage should be a voluntary union of a single male and a single female.

They call upon parliament to amend the Marriage Act, Prohibitive Degrees, and the Interpretation Act so as to define in statute that a marriage can only be entered into between a single male and a single female.

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

Mr. Speaker, the second petition constitutes over 200 pages signed by Canadians in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec and deals with Bill C-68, the Firearms Act.

In brief, the petitioners state that Bill C-68 will provide a false sense of security by suggesting that it will provide safer streets while doing nothing to hamper criminal activities and that it spends hundreds of millions dollars on ineffective registration that would be better spent on disease prevention and cure, establishing DNA data banks for police and providing funds for post-secondary education to enable our young people to deal with the debt they are inheriting from two decades of former governments.

Therefore, your petitioners call upon parliament to repeal—

[The Deputy Speaker]

The hon. member is reading. He is to give a brief summary of the petition and not read it. I know he knows the rule and would want to comply in every respect.

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

Mr. Speaker, I was paraphrasing what is in the actual petition.

The petitioners call upon parliament to repeal an act respecting firearms and other weapons and replace it with legislation that deals with the criminal misuse of firearms and a more effective expenditure of taxpayers' bucks.

[Roger Gallaway, Liberal, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present two groups of petitions. The first is signed by about 5,000 concerned Canadians who call for the establishment of mandatory quality assurance and quality control standards for mammography in Canada.

In presenting these petitions I would like to thank the Breast Cancer Society of Canada for bringing this important issue to the attention of the House.

[Roger Gallaway, Liberal, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a second group of petitions signed by several thousand Canadians who call for amendments to the Divorce Act to ensure that parents do not lose touch with their children through the present application of the Divorce Act.

In presenting this group of petitions I would like to thank the National Shared Parenting Association of Saskatchewan.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured to present a petition on behalf of hundreds and hundreds of Canadians on the most critical issue facing this country today, that of the quality of our health care system.

The petitioners call upon the government to preserve medicare, to enforce the principles of the Canada Health Act and to ensure that those principles are applied broadly to all aspects of our health care system.

They urge the government to guarantee national standards of quality, publicly funded health care for every Canadian citizen as a right.

[Eleni Bakopanos, Liberal, Ahuntsic, QC]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I am pleased to bring forth a petition from a number of Edmonton and area residents.

The petition calls upon parliament to enact legislation to amend the Criminal Code to provide increased penalties for serious cases of animal abuse and to make illegal the practice of inhumane euthanasia of companion animals.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people in the riding of Drummond, who sincerely believe in equality between men and women and in justice, I have the honour of tabling a petition bearing 590 signatures demanding that the government withdraw its appeal against the public service pay equity decision and give effect to the court ruling requiring it to ensure pay equity for its employees.

This petition combines with those presented by my other Bloc Quebecois colleagues.

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition signed by thousands of grandparents from throughout southern Ontario.

The petitioners request that parliament amend the Divorce Act to include a provision, as supported by Bill C-340, regarding the right of spousal parents, grandparents, to have access to or custody of the child or children.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to present two petitions in the House of Commons.

The first petition is from a member in my constituency by the name of Donna Goler. She basically states that the petitioners call upon this parliament to enact legislation to provide protection for children from convicted sex offenders.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from the shellfishers organization of Prince Edward Island, which calls upon parliament to direct Revenue Canada, Human Resources Development Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to harmonize record-keeping requirements for shellfishers and to inform them properly of these requirements.

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan—King—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I have the pleasure to present a petition requesting that parliament amend the Divorce Act to include a provision, as supported by Bill C-340, regarding the right of spousal parents, grandparents, to have access to or custody of the child or children.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people in my riding of Québec, who believe sincerely in equality between men and women and in justice, I have the honour to table a petition signed by 840 people and demanding that the federal government withdraw its appeal against the public service pay equity decision and give effect to the court ruling that it ensure pay equity for its employees.

This is one of a series of petitions presented by my colleagues in the Bloc Quebecois.

I also have the honour, on behalf of my colleague, the hon. member for Bonaventure—Gaspé—Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Pabok, who is has been held up by bad weather, to table this other petition on pay equity.

These petitioners, from the riding of Bonaventure—Gaspé—Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Pabok, believe sincerely in equality between men and women and in justice and demand that the federal government withdraw its appeal against the public service pay equity decision and give effect to the court ruling that it ensure pay equity for its employees.

This is also one of a series of petitions presented by my other colleagues in the Bloc Quebecois.

[Mac Harb, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to introduce a petition signed by many of my constituents as well as others from across the country.

The petition calls on parliament to ask the government to include a provision, as supported by Bill C-340, regarding the right of spousal parents, that is, grandparents, to have access to or custody of their grandchildren.

[Angela Vautour, NDP, Beauséjour—Petitcodiac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions today.

The first petition, with 2,000 signatures, is from people in my riding of Beauséjour—Petitcodiac, as well as from Saint-Louis, Kouchibougouac, Saint-Charles and Pointe-Sapin, all of whom are greatly concerned by the cuts to employment insurance and earn no income for certain periods of the year. These 2,000 petitioners deplore the poverty this situation causes.

[Angela Vautour, NDP, Beauséjour—Petitcodiac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition contains 700 names and is from the region of Albert County, Salisbury and Petitcodiac.

The petition urges the government to take the area out of urban EI zoning and put it in rural where it should be.

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of a number of Canadians, including some from my own riding of Mississauga South, on the subject of human rights.

The petitioners would like to draw to the attention of the House that human rights abuses continue to be rampant around the world in countries such as Indonesia. They also acknowledge that Canada is recognized internationally as the champion of human rights.

Therefore they call upon parliament to continue to speak out against those who are responsible for human rights violations and also to seek to bring to justice those responsible for such abuses.

[Stéphan Tremblay, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table, today, a petition in which the petitioners express to the House their great distress that the gap between rich and poor continues to widen despite the economic growth in recent years.

Accordingly, the petitioners ask Parliament to agree to strike a parliamentary committee whose specific mandate would be to examine Canadian parliamentarians' ability to reduce the gap between rich and poor in the new context created by globalization and to propose concrete solutions.

[Nelson Riis, NDP, Kamloops, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise pursuant to Standing Order 36 with a whole stack of petitions.

The petitioners are perplexed. On the one hand the government has pointed out that it is concerned about the bulk export of freshwater from Canada, while at the same time it has entered into an agreement with the Government of the United States to look into ways and means of exporting bulk water from Canada.

I am summarizing, but basically the petitioners are perplexed.

Questions Passed As Orders For Returns

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, if Question No. 137 could be made an order for return, this return would be tabled immediately.