Debates of March 17th, 1999

The Economy

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member has a problem sleeping he could read the last financial report of the Department of Finance which states that the government has paid $16 billion off market debt in the last 10 months.

We are working all the time for the benefit of Canadians to create jobs and improve the finances of the nation. I would like to tell the leader of—I do not know the name of the party—but the Leader of the Opposition that the leader of this party would never let his research bureau help a foreign government at the—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Medicine Hat.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, is he?

Thanks to high taxes and a low dollar, our standard of living is now worse than the poorest of the American deep south states. That is the government's record.

We are still better off than Mexico, but then the Prime Minister still has two years in his mandate to work on it.

According to the industry minister, if Canadians had kept pace with the Americans: “Our per capita income would have been $7,000 a year higher. For a family of four, this is a $28,000 shortfall”.

How can he brag about a record that leaves families $28,000 a year—

[The Speaker]

The hon. Minister of Finance.

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is real disposable income in Canada is up. It went up this year and was up last year.

As I said yesterday, the Reform Party is caught in a time warp. Reformers are quoting statistics over the course of a decade, most of which when the Tories were in power. The fact is we turned it around.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I guess the industry minister is caught in a time warp. Here is what he said February 18. He told the audience that our standard of living has fallen behind Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia. He said that because our productivity was so weak the average Canadian has lost $7,000 a year. That is what he said three weeks ago. I guess he is in a time warp.

Is the Prime Minister proud of a record that leaves the average Canadian $7,000 poorer?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, what the Minister of Industry was doing was in fact quoting from a series of projections that arose out of the 1980s.

Our productivity growth in the 1990s is substantially higher than what it was in the 1980s. Our manufacturing productivity in the 1990s is much higher than it was the 1980s. Last year it was higher than that of the United States. Those are the facts.

International Cultural Forums

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Canadian Heritage said, and I quote “In this party and this country, we believe in two founding peoples and two official languages and two cultures”.

In a context of cultural diversity, can the Prime Minister tell us why it is so difficult for his government, and him in particular, to admit that the Government of Quebec has an international role to play in promoting Quebec's culture?

Why is Belgium's national communities' approach impossible to imagine here?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have accommodated Quebec in the Francophonie to a considerable degree, much more so than Catalonia has been accommodated by Spain. We promote the French fact.

Yesterday, I was very pleased when Premier of New Brunswick, Mr. Thériault, who is not an anglophone and who is very proud of his French heritage, said that the Canadian government was serving the cultural interests of New Brunswick's Acadian francophones very well.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, will the Prime Minister explain, from a federalist point of view, because there is no doubt that that is where he is coming from, what is so wrong with Canada letting Quebec, the only majority francophone government in North America, represent itself on issues that interest it?

What is the reason for stubbornly refusing to allow Quebec the right to defend and to promote its culture and its identity?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this is what we are allowing them to do, but as part of the Canadian delegation.

Why are these people, who travel with Canadian passports, so insulted and why do they not want to sit beside a Canadian diplomat at a meeting of sovereign nations?

They want to behave like a sovereign nation, but on two occasions now the people of Quebec have said they want to remain in Canada, a country with two official languages, French and English.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it feels like the Prime Minister is once again on the trail of the separatists.

He is familiar with Mr. Gérin-Lajoie's contention that Quebec should speak for itself internationally in areas under its jurisdiction. This contention was put forward by a federalist and has the support of federalists in Quebec.

Could the Prime Minister explain why he finds this such a problem and why it is such a bad thing for Canada for Quebec to be in its rightful place?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member were abreast of things he would know that, on several occasions, the Quebec minister has made presentations to UNESCO on his own behalf. However, she must do it as a Quebec minister and a member of a delegation from the sovereign country of Canada.

That is how it works internationally. We encourage Quebeckers to speak out everywhere. We do it in the Francophonie, but everyone must be aware that, when we are abroad and not involved in Francophonie programs, Canada speaks and gives the floor to Quebec or New Brunswick or—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Roberval.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if there are two cultures, how can the Prime Minister explain that the Minister of Canadian Heritage allowed the Quebec minister of cultural affairs to attend the Ottawa conference last year, but without the right to speak?

I ask him whether he really thinks that, by denying the facts, by gagging us and trying to keep us from expressing ourselves, he thinks he will resolve the problem. Does he think that by blacklisting the Government of Quebec he will stop us from having a voice internationally?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, there is only one government that is not interested in Canada and that is the Government of Quebec.

I have written to the Quebec culture minister on a number of occasions to invite her to take part with Canada internationally. They have refused, because they refuse to be part of the sovereign delegation of Canada.

Employment Insurance

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the government is about to table its annual EI assessment. We do not have to wait for that report to know that the EI changes are unfair to women.

Since 1992 the percentage of women covered has been cut in half. Mothers returning to the workforce are being penalized. Will the minister use the tabling of this report as an opportunity to end discrimination against unemployed women or will we just see another self-serving report?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, I can reassure the leader of the NDP that it will not be a self-serving report. It will assess the impact on individuals and communities of our reform of the employment insurance system.

I hope very much, on the basis of this report and with the facts, we will be able to establish a healthy dialogue in the House to make sure the employment insurance system in Canada and the other programs built around it, to compliment it, continue to best serve Canadian citizens.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, when the government introduced its massive EI changes it justified them on the basis that women and youth were left out.

Apparently not enough for these Liberals. Check the numbers. In 1992, 38% of unemployed youth received benefits. Today it is down to 15%. When will the government stop this discrimination? How many reports will have to come and go before the government provides fair protection for women and youth?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP leader wants to make employment insurance easily accessible to the young. That is a mistake we as a country made 30 years ago, which explains why so many of our older workers have a hard time in the labour market today.

The best thing we can do for young Canadians is not to give them employment insurance. Is that what the leader would want for her children? That is not what she wants for her children. Why does she even conceive of it for Canadian children? We want to give the Canadian young training and access to the labour market.

National Highway System

[André Harvey, Progressive Conservative, Chicoutimi, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport.

Several months ago, the minister said in Toronto that the national highway system was a priority. Late last year, the minister tabled a study and a revised national highway policy put together by all Canada's transport ministers. The minister said that this study had been ordered because effective and integrated highways are vital to Canada's economic well-being.

When will the minister be tabling a real national highway policy?

[David Collenette, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I have already answered this question several times in the House.

It is true that we were studying a national highway system, but the hon. member knows full well that it is a question of funding, a question of fiscal priorities.

[André Harvey, Progressive Conservative, Chicoutimi, QC]

Mr. Speaker, all the provinces are now calling for a national highway infrastructure program.

Does the Minister intend in any future proposal to stick to his goal of putting in place or allowing the presence of private and public sector consortiums, and has he remembered that toll highways are out in this country, because the volume is not there?

[David Collenette, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I think most members of the House would like to see an improvement in road quality across the country. It is a question of financial priorities not only for this government but for provincial governments.

I remind the House that the provincial premiers were unanimous last August in stating that the priority for the country should be health care. Everybody on this side of the House agrees with that, and I assume most people on the other side do as well.

Money was put into health care. A question of further priorities is the subject of discussion in the next number of months. I am meeting with my colleagues, the provincial transport ministers, in Ottawa in the month of May to look at all the things the member raised including the question of tolls.

The Economy

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Liberal pollster Michael Marzolini has explained the Prime Minister's strategy now on the falling standard of living. He said that only 10% of Canadians know how badly it is falling. The Liberals pretend everything is just great even though they know it is not.

Marzolini said: “A government could be punished if it allowed the opposition to capture on this issue”. Canadians have captured on this issue. Is the Prime Minister not simply denying the facts? He knows that an informed taxpayer is an angry taxpayer.