Debates of April 14th, 1999

Kosovo

[René Laurin, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the debate in February concerned the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

The minister is now talking about sending these soldiers on a different mission in a different location. The House was therefore never consulted on the government's new plans.

Will the Prime Minister promise, from his seat, to not send any ground troops to Kosovo or elsewhere without consulting the House and obtaining its approval as expressed in a vote?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is discussing a situation that for the moment is hypothetical only.

Year 2000

[John Williams, Reform, St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Health Canada is not monitoring our hospitals and health care facilities for the Y2K bug. Through a survey I conducted, I found that we can expect that 35% of health care facilities will not be ready in time and will need millions of dollars to fix the problem.

Why did the Minister of Health let the Liberal policy of pay more, get less health care bring us to the point where 35% of our health care facilities will not be Y2K ready on time?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the first thing we have to do is explain to the hon. member the constitutional responsibilities here. The provinces are responsible for the hospitals. If the provinces are not doing the job with the money that we just gave them to make sure that their own facilities are Y2K compliant, then the member ought to take it up with the provinces.

As far as Health Canada is concerned, the second thing the member has to understand is that his so-called survey is unscientific and unreliable. I can tell the member what the facts are. Health Canada is 93% compliant with its Y2K responsibilities.

[John Williams, Reform, St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, last week the Treasury Board said that Health Canada was dead last as far as government preparedness for Y2K is concerned. A passing the buck and head in the sand approach will not fix anything. When will the government accept its responsibility for health care in this country and ensure that the money is available so that health care will be available on January 1, 2000?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, Health Canada has consistently and continuously respected its responsibility in relation to the approval of medical devices and equipment and making sure its own systems are Y2K compliant. We are 93% of the way there.

With respect to hospitals throughout the country, we have encouraged the provinces to look after their responsibilities. I hope they do. I remind the member that in the recent budget we provided $11.5 billion to help the provinces do just that.

Kosovo

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I personally informed the government House leader of the pressing need to extend the debate on the situation in Kosovo this evening, until midnight.

I checked with the other opposition parties and they are all interested in continuing the debate, which should end with a vote on the important issue of the peace plan and the sending of troops to that region.

Is the government prepared to extend the debate and to conclude it with a clear vote of the House? This would be a very important measure under the circumstances.

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I am quite prepared to continue the debate started the other evening, under the same government order No. 23, and under the same rules and conditions as on Monday evening. I am prepared to add several hours, so as to give to as many as possible members who wish to participate in such an important debate an opportunity to do so.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the hon. member opposite is very aware of the importance of a vote in the House of Commons on this issue.

Does he agree that a vote in the House on the peace plan proposed by Germany and on the possible deployment of troops in the Kosovo region would strengthen the government's position and would allow Canada to show some leadership in this issue, something that it has not done since the beginning of these events?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member just asked a very interesting question, except that it has nothing to do with the previous suggestion to extend Monday's debate.

With regard to the first question, I already said that this side of the House would be prepared to extend the debate, so as to allow all those interested in making a speech and in providing some input regarding such an important issue to do so.

Taxation

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the government's policies Canadians are working harder and harder and falling further behind. Today Statistics Canada revealed that Canadians have seen their pre-tax incomes fall by $2,700 since 1989 and they have not gone up a single cent since this finance minister came to power five years ago.

When is the finance minister going to quit playing his little games, hinting and musing about tax relief, and actually deliver tax relief?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's numbers are wrong. Family incomes had been declining, but since this government has taken office they have stabilized. Where they have declined is in the United States.

In addition to that, we should point out, and I am delighted to say, that the number of children living in poor or low income families has declined by 100,000.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, rival, rival, pants on fire.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. I would hope that we would not make any of the words rhyme. I would ask hon. members to be very careful in their choice of words.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that pre-tax incomes are down, but taxes in Canada are up. Even taking into account what the minister has said, Canadians are far worse off today than they were when this minister came to power five years ago.

We know that the finance minister feels the pain of Canadians. Instead of just feeling their pain, when is he going to do something about his terrible record and start to cut taxes in Canada?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member spent a little less time memorizing nursery rhymes and a little more time doing his basic research what he would see, as an example, is that the average income for single income families headed by women is up by $1,000. What he would see, as a result of the child tax benefit brought in by this government, is that the situation facing low income families and single families headed by mothers has improved substantially, and his party voted against it.

Kosovo

[Benoît Sauvageau, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the peace plan proposed by Germany allows the UN and its secretary general to play a key role in the Kosovo peace process.

However, Germany is not a member of the UN security council at this time and is therefore unable to put forward its plan itself.

My question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Will Canada use its seat on the security council to sponsor a resolution to have the German peace plan for Kosovo adopted by that UN body?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, as I have already explained to the House, what we are dealing with right now is a proposition. There is no agreed plan. We hope that there will be an agreed plan, but there is no plan.

A series of propositions were discussed last weekend at the G-8 meetings, but in order to go to the security council we need the agreement of the Russians. We do not have that agreement yet. We are working on getting it. As soon as we have that agreement we will be very happy to support that resolution at the security council.

Foreign Affairs

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's Cyprus group met today with the new High Commissioner for Cyprus to Canada.

As a result of that discussion I ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs if Canada will continue to support international efforts to maintain peace in Cyprus.

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, we are very supportive of the initiative of the secretary general in Cyprus, particularly in sending a special envoy to negotiate with the two parties.

We are also pleased to note that the secretary general has now taken up the Canadian proposal, which is to initiate a de-mining program along the boundary lines as one way of building confidence between the two sides in Cyprus. We are prepared to offer concrete support for that de-mining project in Cyprus.

Justice

[Jim Abbott, Reform, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the mother of Alison Parrot quietly and with dignity expressed her thoughts on our justice system. She said: “Sadly, the justice system failed to protect Alison in the first place. There were convictions that were reduced, there was parole that was reduced and not well supervised”.

Why is it the policy of this government to release repeat, convicted, violent rapists to our streets?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, first I would like to express my sympathy to the family in this tragic situation.

I can tell my hon. colleague that over the last number of years we have made a number of improvements to the parole system, including risk assessment and the selection of board members.

[Jim Abbott, Reform, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the government has been in power now for over six years. In that period of time the problem has not been corrected. Clearly the problem has not been corrected. If anything, it is getting worse.

The words of the minister are very hollow to the victims. I ask again why the government is continuing to allow the release of convicted repeat violent rapists on to our streets.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, one death is one death too many. As I indicated to my hon. colleague, we have made a number of changes over the last number of years.

If my hon. colleague has suggestions that will improve it, he is aware that the Corrections and Conditional Release Act is before the justice committee and I would encourage him to bring his thoughts to that committee.