House of Commons Hansard #50 of the 36th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was cape.

Topics

Points Of OrderOral Question Period

3:20 p.m.

Bloc

René Laurin Bloc Joliette, QC

Mr. Speaker, if I may, I would say I think the House would benefit from your penalizing those who abuse your generosity by causing a ruckus.

If an opposition party causes a disturbance, you should intervene by taking a question away from it. If you discover that the commotion comes from the government side, they too should be penalized by having Oral Question Period extended by the amount of time they spent reacting to one of our questions.

I make this suggestion to resolve the problem in all humility.

Points Of OrderOral Question Period

3:20 p.m.

Liberal

Ovid Jackson Liberal Bruce—Grey, ON

Mr. Speaker, the human being is the only animal that when one word is used inappropriately gets into all kinds of problems. That is why we have Beauchesne's, Robert's Rules of Order and what have you.

It is important in this House when one member is speaking that other members are listening. For the most part I sit here very quietly and listen to a lot of rhetoric from all sides. It is very important for us and the Canadian people that when somebody is speaking, other people have the courtesy to be quiet.

Points Of OrderOral Question Period

3:20 p.m.

The Speaker

All of us would agree that in the last two days our question periods have not been the best that we have had in the last short while. It seems like we are all getting in a circle and we are pointing fingers. The fact of the matter is that we should just turn our fingers around and point them at ourselves.

As the Speaker I could stand up and yell for order until I am blue in the face but I am not going to do that. I am not going to try to outshout this House of Commons. I will not do it.

We have heard interventions from every party in here. We all agree that if we are going to get more questions in and hopefully more answers in, we are going to have to co-operate. I would remind you that in the last parliament when it came to question period I was forever asking you to please shorten the questions and the answers so we could get more questions in.

The House decided collectively to do something for itself. The party leaders came to me saying “We need certain questions; they mentioned a number”. I said “That is easy. We have 45 minutes and there are 60 seconds in each minute. If you multiply the two and divide by the number of questions you want to ask, you end up with 35 seconds for the question and 35 seconds for the answer”.

Everything went well. Why? Because it came from the House. It came from us collectively that we could make this House function.

When there is a question posed, what possible good can it do to heckle so we cannot even hear the question? If a person asks a question, it is surely because that person wants to hear an answer. I cannot control the quality of the question nor the answer but I can now control, thanks to you because you agree, the length of the questions.

Instead of pointing our fingers at one another, let us look at ourselves. I am not here to lecture you. God knows, I have sat on those benches and I know what it is like in question period. I know what you are trying to do. It is not as if I arrived here a couple of weeks ago.

Having said that, surely we can come to some kind of an agreement that we will be able to conduct ourselves the way we want to conduct ourselves so that the people who are asking the questions will get the answers and those who are giving answers will be heard on the other side.

You want me perhaps to take punitive measures. There are suggestions. I do not take offence when a member parliament stands and says that maybe I should try this or maybe I should try that. That is okay. It is advice. I will listen to advice. If you get a little bit frustrated, I sit in this chair day after day and hear our own members not give each other the chance to speak or be heard on the other side.

If I have been a little too lenient, perhaps I should tighten it up to the point where at least we can function a little bit better. But as your Speaker, I do not want to be be some kind of dictator or martinet. I do not want to do that. I want all of us, the 301 of us, to be able to do our work in such a fashion that we will be proud of what we do in here.

I ask all of you to review what has been said by your peers. This is not somebody from outside; this is you who have spoken in here today. Look at Hansard and look at your own conduct, and me too. Let us see if tomorrow we can do a little bit better.

I have heard the points you brought up and I am going to take them to heart. But unless and until this House collectively wants to discipline itself, I suggest that your Speaker can stand here and shout all through question period and it will not make one iota of difference until we want to make this House the place that it should be. As the hon. member from Winnipeg said, we owe each other that respect.

Once again, I ask you to respect each other as parliamentarians. Tomorrow shall we see if we can have a better day for ourselves.

Government Response To PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:25 p.m.

Scarborough—Rouge River Ontario

Liberal

Derek Lee LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to 26 petitions.

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:25 p.m.

Liberal

Lynn Myers Liberal Waterloo—Wellington, ON

Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present in both official languages the first report of the Standing Committee on Health.

Pursuant to the order of reference of Monday, November 29, 1999, your committee has considered Bill C-13, an act to establish the Canadian institutes of health research, to repeal the Medical Research Council Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts. Your committee has agreed to report it with amendments.

I also have the honour to present, in both official languages, the second report of the Standing Committee on Health pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and with regard to the study of Bill C-13, an act to establish the Canadian institutes of health research, to repeal the Medical Research Council Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts. Your committee has agreed to make the two recommendations listed in the attached report.

Sales Tax And Excise Tax Amendments Act, 1999Routine Proceedings

3:30 p.m.

Wascana Saskatchewan

Liberal

Ralph Goodale Liberalfor the Minister of Finance

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-24, an act to amend the Excise Tax Act, a related act, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, the Budget Implementation Act, 1997, the Budget Implementation Act, 1998, the Budget Implementation Act, 1999, the Canada Pension Plan, the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, the Customs Act, the Customs Tariff, the Employment Insurance Act, the Excise Act, the Income Tax Act, the Tax Court of Canada Act and the Unemployment Insurance Act.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Income Tax Amendments Act, 1999Routine Proceedings

3:30 p.m.

Willowdale Ontario

Liberal

Jim Peterson Liberalfor the Minister of Finance

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-25, an act to amend the Income Tax Act, the Excise Tax Act and the Budget Implementation Act, 1999.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Income Tax ActRoutine Proceedings

3:30 p.m.

Reform

Leon Benoit Reform Lakeland, AB

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-429, an act to amend the Income Tax Act (deduction of mechanics' tool expenses).

Madam Speaker, once again I am honoured to table a private member's bill which would allow mechanics to deduct the cost of purchasing tools under $200 or the capital cost allowance on tools valued at over $200 when it is a job requirement to purchase these tools. It is long past time when this should be implemented into law.

I am proud to introduce the bill and encourage the whole House to support it when it comes up for debate.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Canada Health ActRoutine Proceedings

3:30 p.m.

Reform

Jim Gouk Reform West Kootenay—Okanagan, BC

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-430, an act to amend the Canada Health Act (conditions for contributions).

Madam Speaker, my bill is actually a notification protocol for emergency response workers whose duties may expose them to an infectious disease without their knowledge.

Due to a concern for patient confidentiality there is currently no official procedure to notify these workers if it is discovered they were exposed. My bill is designed to provide the notification protocol urgently requested by the Canadian Association of Firefighters while still protecting that confidentiality.

The need for this protocol is urgent. Emergency response workers put their lives on the line to protect us when they are attending accidents. We in turn owe it to them, their families and their communities to take the appropriate steps to protect them by swift passage of this non-partisan bill.

I have contacted the House leaders for each of the parties requesting their support. I therefore request at this time to seek the unanimous consent of the House that the bill be adopted at second reading and sent to the Standing Committee on Health for its timely consideration. If the House agrees, the bill will be a non-partisan gift from all of us to those who put their lives at risk for our safety and protection.

Canada Health ActRoutine Proceedings

3:35 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Thibeault)

Is there agreement to proceed in such a way?

Canada Health ActRoutine Proceedings

3:35 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Canada Health ActRoutine Proceedings

3:35 p.m.

Some hon. members

No.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Indian ActRoutine Proceedings

3:35 p.m.

Reform

Leon Benoit Reform Lakeland, AB

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-431, an act to amend the Indian Act (election of chiefs and councils).

Madam Speaker, I am honoured again to table this private member's bill which would be an amendment to the Indian Act to put in place monitoring by Elections Canada of all elections of chiefs and councils.

In speaking with aboriginal peoples in my constituency and across the country one thing I have heard is that they want accountability and certainly accountability in elections will come if Elections Canada monitors all elections. We can be pretty much assured that we will have fair elections. That is what the bill is about. I cannot imagine anyone not supporting it.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Raoul Wallenberg Day ActRoutine Proceedings

February 16th, 2000 / 3:35 p.m.

Liberal

Clifford Lincoln Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-432 entitled an act respecting Raoul Wallenberg Day.

Madam Speaker, I have the honour to present a bill to celebrate the life of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish citizen who could have taken advantage of the fact that his country was a neutral country during the war and led a very quiet life. Instead, he almost lost it.

He risked his life to save more than 100,000 Hungarian Jews.

Indeed he saved more Jews during the war from the Holocaust than many countries of the world. The intent of my bill is to proclaim January 17 as Raoul Wallenberg Day.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Income Tax Conventions Implementation Act, 1999Routine Proceedings

3:35 p.m.

Willowdale Ontario

Liberal

Jim Peterson Liberalfor the Minister of Finance

moved that Bill S-3, an act to implement an agreement, conventions and protocols between Canada and Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Algeria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Japan and Luxembourg for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income, be read the first time.

(Motion agreed to and bill read the first time)

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

Raymond Lavigne Liberal Verdun—Saint-Henri, QC

Madam Speaker, with leave of the House, I move that the first report of the Standing Joint Committee on the Library of Parliament, tabled in the House on December 16, 1999, be concurred in.

This report establishes the mandate of the committee, its quorum and its entitlement to sit during sittings of the Senate.

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Thibeault)

Does the hon. member have unanimous consent to move his motion?

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Some hon. members

No.

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Reform

Gurmant Grewal Reform Surrey Central, BC

Madam Speaker, I move that the first report of the Standing Joint Committee on the Scrutiny of Regulations be concurred in.

This is the organizational report of the committee and its content is the same as it has been at the beginning of every session in this and the previous parliament, so the motion may be deemed adopted.

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Bloc

Suzanne Tremblay Bloc Rimouski—Mitis, QC

Madam Speaker, we are opposed to this motion. There is a quorum restricting groups, etc., and we oppose this proposal.

We would like the Chair to ask if there is unanimous consent on this motion, so we can voice our opposition to it.

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Thibeault)

The hon. member for Surrey Central moved a motion. We are now on debate, questions and comments.

However, if no one rises to debate the motion, I can put it to the House. Does anyone want to carry on the debate?

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Some hon. members

No.

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Thibeault)

Is the House ready for the question?

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3:40 p.m.

Some hon. members

Question.