Debates of March 9th, 1999

Employment Insurance

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Macleod.

Health

[Grant Hill, Reform, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the former health minister in France was convicted in France's tainted blood scandal. He was convicted because he allowed dirty blood to be used when safe blood was available in 1985.

How can Canada's health minister continue to not consider compensating before 1986 when other countries are actually convicting politicians in that same time frame?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the member might know that the RCMP is investigating the events of 1984, 1985 and 1986. That whole period is in question. I am certain that when the RCMP has completed its investigation, it will respond appropriately.

[Grant Hill, Reform, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the French health minister was convicted of using unsafe blood when safe blood was available in 1985. Justice Krever pointed out that exactly the same thing happened in Canada.

Is this the reason the health minister is not compensating those victims prior to 1986, because the government is running afraid of its own personal accountability in the same time frame? Is that the reason?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the member would do well to await the RCMP investigation of the events in the mid-80s.

Quebec City Airport

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Beauport—Montmorency—Orléans, QC]

Mr. Speaker, as a member from the Quebec City area, I contacted the acting manager of the Quebec City airport to discuss a matter of public interest.

This senior official told me that a directive from the office of the Minister of Transport prevented him from answering my questions on the airport.

Could the minister tell us if this is indeed the case? Did he in fact issue such a directive to his officials and to the airport manager to prevent them from answering legitimate questions from elected officials?

[David Collenette, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, I was advised there had been a misunderstanding, and we have corrected the situation. I regret the inconvenience to the hon. member.

Taxation

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, like many of my colleagues, I have fought for several years on behalf of the Canadian family. However, I will vote against the Reform motion tonight because I feel that its approach is too narrow and because the issue requires broader examination.

Will the Minister of Finance assure this House that the issue on how best to provide support and tax relief for Canadian families, whether they be single or dual income families, will get comprehensive examination and full consideration?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, we all recognize and thank the member for the commitment that he and in fact all the Liberal caucus members have shown in support of the needs of families.

The Reform Party would like us to believe that this is a simple problem with a simple solution. It is not. Therefore it is important to examine all of the tools that are available to us, whether they be tax relief or other initiatives in other areas, in order to provide needed relief for Canadian families. That is why I have asked the Commons all-party finance committee through its chairman to examine this issue and to offer its recommendations.

Nuclear Waste

[John Cummins, Reform, Delta—South Richmond, BC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the resources minister was in denial about his plan to fast track the burial of 30,000 tonnes of nuclear waste without public consultation. It gets worse. The secret cabinet memo provides government with a plan to avoid liability for the cost of cleanup should something go wrong.

Why did the minister think he could just walk away from his responsibility?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, again the premise to the question is totally misplaced. The policy framework announced by this government two or three years ago clearly acknowledged that the financial responsibility should rest properly with those who create the waste, the owners and the producers of the waste. That is where the burden should fall, not on the taxpayers of Canada.

[John Cummins, Reform, Delta—South Richmond, BC]

Mr. Speaker, let us cut to the chase on this issue. This minister took a plan to cabinet on how to avoid public consultation on the disposal of nuclear waste. He took a plan to cabinet on how to avoid liability for nuclear waste storage if something should go wrong. He took a plan to cabinet and then he forgot about it. Did this minister really think he could get away with it?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, the preamble and the allegations in the hon. gentleman's question is a crock of horse feathers. The facts of the matter are that we had a comprehensive environmental study conducted by Seaborn, we have responded in detail to that report by Seaborn, and that is based upon full, open, transparent, public consultation in the public interest.

[Rick Laliberte, NDP, Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Natural Resources has indicated that we must address the precarious issue of nuclear fuel waste. We understand that the desire of the minister is to allow industry to manage the control of nuclear fuel waste in this country. The Seaborn panel clearly stated that a waste management organization at arm's length from industry is required. Will the minister assure Canadians that the panel report will not be ignored and that an independent waste management organization will be his government's priority?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources and Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board]

Mr. Speaker, we said in response to the Seaborn recommendations that it is fully the responsibility of the utilities and the other owners and producers of the waste in Canada for the waste management organization.

We also said in our response to Seaborn that that is subject to federal oversight and regulatory provisions, including if necessary the implementation of new legislation to make absolutely sure that the waste management organization discharges its responsibilities in the public interest.

[Rick Laliberte, NDP, Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. The minister has two major responsibilities in this country, the AECB and the AECL. We are all very aware that the AECB has regulatory responsibilities that are in direct conflict with the industry proponent, AECL, a major stakeholder in the future development of nuclear waste. But Canadians are confused. Who does what?

Will the Prime Minister relieve the obvious conflict within the Ministry of Natural Resources and transfer the regulatory mandates of all nuclear waste to the Department of the Environment?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, in my judgment the system works very well, but I will look, if it is needed. At the end of the day the government will have to decide, whoever is the minister who will handle the file. At the end of the day the government will have to decide what to do. Changing one organization and sending it to another department does not relieve the government from making the final decision.

Government Expenditures

[Gilles Bernier, Progressive Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I realize that nowadays it is impossible to conduct business without a telephone. But I was astonished to learn recently that the Minister of Public Works and Government Services had bought satellite telephones for various departments at a cost of $5,000 each. It was such a good deal that he decided to buy over 200 sets, at a cost to taxpayers of over $1 million.

I wonder whether the minister could tell Canadians why the government needs to buy new telephones at $5,000 each?

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

Mr. Speaker, Canada is a country with scattered and remote areas. Often, people living in the north for example need special telephones.

To my knowledge, my department has bought only five telephones to date.

[Gilles Bernier, Progressive Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I paid $79 for the phone I have at home and I would be more than happy to give the minister the name and address of the store where I bought it.

Not only public works but foreign affairs too has paid $1.1 million for new phones and satellite time. They expect the phone system to fail on January 1, 2000 because of the Y2K bug. The only problem is that these phones are not Y2K compliant.

What is the minister going to do now that he has paid for hundreds of phones at $5,000 apiece when he may not be able to use them because they might not work?

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

Mr. Speaker, I repeat that we needed special cellular phones and those are the type we bought.

I know for example one member of this House who has such a phone. I do not know what the member is making all the fuss about.

Women's Health

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval West, QC]

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

Since this is International Women's Week, could the Minister of Health tell the House what Health Canada has done to improve the health of women in our country?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, Health Canada is working on many fronts to meet women's health needs.

For example, we have set up five centres of excellence for women's health in order to identify the best means of meeting their needs.

We are continuing our fight against breast cancer. We are also continuing our efforts to eliminate family violence, our anti-smoking campaign—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Skeena.