House of Commons Hansard #196 of the 36th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was dollar.

Topics

National Housing ActGovernment Orders

7:10 p.m.

Progressive Conservative

André Harvey Progressive Conservative Chicoutimi, QC

Mr. Speaker, the members of our party who are present vote no on this motion.

National Housing ActGovernment Orders

7:10 p.m.

Independent

John Nunziata Independent York South—Weston, ON

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the residents of York—South Weston I would vote in favour of Bill C-66 at second reading.

National Housing ActGovernment Orders

7:10 p.m.

Bloc

Réjean Lefebvre Bloc Champlain, QC

Mr. Speaker, I will be voting against the motion.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Division No. 341Government Orders

7:10 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

I declare the motion carried.

(Bill read the second time and referred to a committee)

The House resumed from March 12 consideration of the motion that Bill C-55, an act respecting advertising services supplied by foreign periodical publishers, be read the third time and passed.

Foreign Publishers Advertising Services ActGovernment Orders

7:15 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

The House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion at the third reading stage of Bill C-55.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Division No. 342Government Orders

7:25 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

I declare the motion carried.

(Bill read the third time and passed)

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Division No. 342Adjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

NDP

Louise Hardy NDP Yukon, YT

Mr. Speaker, I am going to carry on with my question to the interlocutor for the Metis about first nations housing.

More and more first nations are forced to live off reserve for social and economic reasons, but it does not matter where they live. Either on reserve or off reserve, conditions are appalling, they are disgraceful, they are dangerous, they are cold, they are unheated. They are third world conditions as confirmed by the United Nations. These are Canadian conditions if one is a native person in Canada.

The federal government has a responsibility for accessible social housing, but in particular is responsible for first nations people in this country. Our first nations people should not be dying in garbage dumps in Ontario or freezing to death on city streets. There is enough wealth in this country for everyone.

I received a letter today from the Lubicon which states that in the richest province in one of the richest countries the Lubicon live without even the necessities of life, such as running water and sewage disposal. Families of 10 to 15 people are crowded into a single, uninsulated house with no money to repair even a broken window. Tuberculosis, diabetes and cancer rates have soared. With 95% of the adults unemployed, social ills have taken an enormous toll. All the while, over $9 billion worth of resources have been extracted from Lubicon lands. This is a similar situation faced by first nations people all over the country.

This could be avoided by making the “Gathering Strength” document actually work to treat the first nations as if they are partners, not as if it is a master-servant relationship.

The booklet of the National Aboriginal Housing Association of May 1998 asks for the transfer of housing to be halted. The need for housing can be justified either as a fundamental human right recognized by international law or as an aboriginal right specific to the aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Canada is signatory to many international covenants and conventions, including the United Nations charter. It is involved in the working group which is drafting the universal declaration on indigenous rights. These covenants and conventions were fully discussed in a paper entitled “First Our Lands, Now Our Homes” in response to the urban and rural native housing cutbacks in 1993.

There is absolutely no reason that we cannot properly house the first nations people of this land. They are not in an equal situation and they need housing as a basic human right so they can attain equality in other areas.

Division No. 342Adjournment Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte Newfoundland & Labrador

Liberal

Gerry Byrne LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board

First, Mr. Speaker, let me thank the hon. member for Yukon for raising the issue of Canada's aboriginal people who live in poor conditions off reserve, which was the basic premise of the question some time ago.

Unfortunately far too many aboriginal people across Canada live in very poor conditions. We recognize that.

However, it is worth noting that our government has put in place a government-wide action plan that addresses the key challenges facing all aboriginal people whether they live on or off reserve. This action plan, known as Gathering Strength, was announced more than a year ago and includes partnerships as one of its key principles.

It recognizes that a new partnership with aboriginal people is a prerequisite if we are going to effect real change. It also recognizes the importance of involving other partners such as the provincial governments. In fact it is the provinces that are particularly important players when it comes to issues facing aboriginal people living off reserve since they have the primary responsibility here.

Having said that, it is important to stress that Gathering Strength was developed in the spirit of working together to find practical solutions.

Continuing on the theme of partnership, the federal interlocutor has actively engaged the aboriginal groups to listen to their ideas and concerns. More than ever, the interlocutor has been an effective advocate within this government for Metis and off reserve aboriginal people.

Over the past year he has met a number of times with the aboriginal organizations representing all aboriginal peoples. The interlocutor has personally met with over 20 organizations on a bilateral basis and a great number more through multilateral fora. His door has always been open to aboriginal people and it remains so.

These meetings have resulted in several key accomplishments, for example, a number of signed agreements, an aboriginal trade mission to Latin America, and the hosting of a round table discussion on urban aboriginal issues in Regina, which is a first. All participants have found these meetings to be incredibly useful and necessary if we are going to make a difference.

Division No. 342Adjournment Proceedings

7:30 p.m.

NDP

Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North Centre, MB

Mr. Speaker, I am trying to get to the bottom of why this government decided to spend $3.6 million advertising its federal budget. I raised this question after we received this information.

We were shocked and appalled as were many Canadians across this country, especially Canadians who are facing enormous difficulties gaining access to quality health care services. These are people who are in line for hip surgery, who are waiting for MRIs and for personal care homes, who are struggling to make ends meet in order to care for elderly family members and for needy children.

Today I hope Canadians will get some clarification on this very important question. I hope the parliamentary secretary is not going to simply say that this is what governments always do and it is doing a great service for Canadians. These $3.6 million ads that were taken out do not offer one iota of public service. They are sheer propaganda and speak only to the fact that this must be about political crisis management and not about worthwhile and meaningful remedies for our health care system.

Since the budget was tabled in the House there has been incredible coverage. There have been over 750 references to this budget in the major media outlets. This does not even include many of the weeklies. I am sure the tally comes up to well over 1,000 hits in the media just in terms of the health care budget alone.

Let us not forget that 10 days leading up to the budget the government decided to leak out bits and pieces of the budget so that people were inundated with news about what was in store for Canadians. We heard that there was $2.5 billion for health. Then came the big leak to Canadians about $11.5 billion. Canadians had it up to here about what was going to be in the budget and what was in the budget.

Canadians do not want to see $3.6 million spent on advertising this government's political agenda. They want to see every penny go into health care where it is absolutely needed.

What would that $3.6 million have bought? By our calculations it would have bought 150 personal home care beds. It would have paid many times over for training of emergency nurses. It would have paid for an MRI and then some. All these things are absolutely needed.

I would suggest to the minister, the parliamentary secretary and the government that they listen to the voices of Canadians on this critical issue.

I particularly want to reflect on what has happened in the province of Manitoba where the Conservative government decided to spend $500,000 advertising its so-called health care agenda.

Let me paraphrase the words of the Winnipeg Free Press and apply them to this government. The Minister of Health here in Ottawa should scrap the government's $3.6 million campaign for health care reforms. The move would show that a new firm hand is now steering health care in this country. It would show that the ruling Liberals can get their priorities straight.

That is the message Canadians send to the government. That is the message the Liberals ought to hear. It is far more important to deal with the health care needs of Canadians than to try to manage the political difficulties of this present government.

One really has to ask the last question of all which is if this budget was more about substance and less about smoke and mirrors, would this money actually have been necessary? Would we have to spend taxpayers' money to sell the news to Canadians that this government is finally moving on health care? In fact the government is merely trying to recover lost ground and put back some of the money it has taken out.

I look forward to an answer from the government on this critical issue.

Division No. 342Adjournment Proceedings

7:35 p.m.

Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte Newfoundland & Labrador

Liberal

Gerry Byrne LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for pointing out that indeed this budget has received a significant amount of media attention. In fact there have been thousands of hits as the hon. member described, thousands of placements in the media. This budget has been a very, very powerful good news message. The media has been anxious to analyse its content exactly for Canadians.

The hon. member quite rightly stood up to say that we are always interested in making sure that the money is spent wisely, that it goes to the purpose for which it was intended. I do not have any reservations in saying that $3.6 million spent on a budget of approximately $150 billion as a percentage of the actual budget is not a huge amount of money. It is very important however that it be spent wisely to make sure that all Canadians understand the details of exactly what is in the budget. This is what affects them most deeply.

The hon. member pointed out that in her opinion $3.6 million would provide approximately 150 chronic care beds. I would simply ask the member to do the calculation as to what $11.5 billion will do to the health care system in terms of providing chronic care beds, MRI and other equipment, additional nursing staff in hospitals, and additional recruitment opportunities for doctors.

That is exactly what this budget does. It provides $11.5 billion in additional health care funds to the provinces over the next five year period. That is quite a substantial amount of money. In comparison to $3.6 million, quite frankly it is a very powerful addition to the health care system. That does not include the additional funds that have been put in place for existing federal government programs.

Division No. 342Adjournment Proceedings

7:35 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7.38 p.m.)