Debates of March 20th, 2000

The Atlantic Groundfish Strategy

[George Baker, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, the auditor general's report is very clear concerning grants and loans given out by the federal government. It is this: both the auditor general and the public accounts show very clearly that there were two years in which there were a lot of mistakes made. Those were in the years 1991 and 1992 when such assistance programs started. Who was in power at that time? I do not want to embarrass the hon. member. Mr. Speaker, you tell him who was in power.

[Jason Kenney, Reform, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Veterans Affairs has embarrassed himself because the audit I hold in my hand speaks of the TAGS program coming into effect on May 16, 1994. It seems to me that his was the party in power.

When did that minister become aware of this special internal audit? When did the government decide to do something about it? Or, did it decide, like the HRDC grants scandal, to just sweep it under the rug?

[George Baker, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency)]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. gentleman is on a fishing expedition. The TAGS program, the compensation program for fishermen on the east coast, started under the Tory government, as announced by the hon. John Crosbie.

When we look at the auditor general's report on all of these programs we find that the worst violations were under the Tory administration. It singled out the massive expenditure, the millions of dollars, on a road to nowhere. That is exactly where this hon. member's party is today.

Health

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Speaker, in Alberta, Ralph Klein has proposed bill 11 to privatize hospitals. In Nova Scotia, John Hamm is suggesting user fees. In New Brunswick, Bernard Lord is wondering which is the best way to go.

My question is for the Minister of Health. Will he stop this hemorrhage and put money into the health system by next week, before his meeting with his provincial counterparts?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that the status quo is unacceptable. I have clearly said so.

We need two things: first, a long term plan to improve the quality and accessibility of health care; second, more money. We are prepared to invest more money to help develop a plan to change and improve our system.

That is the goal of the meeting with my counterparts later this month.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the question still remains: What is the minister prepared to do to stop bill 11? He has inferred that somehow the bill will fail on its own and he can sit on his hands and do nothing.

I have to tell the minister that less than an hour ago the Alberta health minister was reported as saying that he now expects the private hospital legislation to pass without any interference from the federal government, and he considers this a very important development.

The minister is failing to answer the question. What is the federal government going to do to stand up to bill 11, to stop it and to save medicare? What is the answer?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I have not been at all shy in expressing this government's position that bill 11 will not help solve the problems we face in medicare. It will lengthen, not shorten, waiting lists. It will increase, not reduce, costs.

It is a draft bill. Last week the premier was talking about possible amendments. Is the member prepared to assure the House, is the Government of Alberta prepared to assure the House that it will not make further amendments?

The bill may be amended. We have not yet seen the regulations. At the appropriate time we will express our position with respect to the Canada Health Act.

Aboriginal Affairs

[Gerald Keddy, Progressive Conservative, South Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the Eskasoni and Acadian bands in Nova Scotia have both been accused of not being accountable for their federal funding.

Can the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development tell us how he knows this when his own department has been criticized for lack of accountability, deficient monitoring systems and no regional management performance reports?

[Bob Nault, Liberal, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very clear to the hon. member, as I have to other members, that the department which I head up is the most audited department in the entire government. Every first nation that we do business with as a partner has to submit an audit every year. We use that audit to look at the financial health of the community. With that audit we look at whether we need a management plan to help it with its capacity.

I can tell the House that every first nation in Atlantic Canada has submitted those audits as per our requirements.

[Gerald Keddy, Progressive Conservative, South Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear the minister say that his department is accountable to the taxpayer of Canada. However, some of the bands do have accountability problems. It was only recently that the Eskasoni Band submitted its complete and full audit to this very minister.

Can the minister tell us if the rest of the bands in Atlantic Canada have submitted full and accountable audits to the minister?

[Bob Nault, Liberal, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should not have rehearsed his second question until he heard the answer.

I have made it very clear to all members of the House that they have submitted all of their audits and everything is according to standard as we know it.

Amateur Sport

[Guy St-Julien, Liberal, Abitibi, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport.

We often hear about our Canadian and Quebec athletes living below the poverty line and leaving the country because of the lack of financial support.

What does the Government of Canada plan to do in this Olympic and Paralympic year to ensure that our athletes are prepared to compete to their full potential?

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Secretary of State (Amateur Sport)]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have this question from this side of the House, since it appears not to be among the priorities of the opposition side.

I am pleased to announce today that we are aware of this problem and are responding to it. I have announced close to $60,000 in additional direction assistance to nearly 1,300 carded athletes, an increase of $5.4 million.

I have also announced an 80% increase to the funding of the national sports centres, which provide essential services to athletes and coaches. This represents an increase of $1.5 million.

Finally, we want to increase—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Lethbridge.

The Atlantic Groundfish Strategy

[Rick Casson, Reform, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the problem of Liberal mismanagement is nothing new. In fact, back in April 1999 an audit by HRDC was conducted on the funds for the TAGS program. This report highlighted the problems with HRDC grants and contributions. The response to this report was that HRDC was already taking steps to ensure better monitoring.

Why is it that six months later the minister of HRDC said she knew nothing about the mismanagement of taxpayers' dollars?

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, I said that I was unable to answer the question at that time. I now have found the facts.

The auditor general's report we took very seriously. The lessons we learned were used in the design of the successor program to TAGS, the fisheries restructuring adjustment measures.

We also used the result of that particular audit to start a new audit on grants and contributions. It was what we learned in that first audit which alerted us to the possibility of auditing other programs.

We took those audit results and implemented the recommendations. The auditor general has the proof of our implementation.

Cinar

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Verchères, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last fall, when we were criticizing the use of other people's names in the audio-visual industry in relation to CINAR, François Macerola, the head of Telefilm Canada, tried to trivialize the whole business by dismissing our comments as urban legend. Telefilm had been kept abreast of CINAR's activities since August 1993.

How can the Minister of Canadian Heritage have let Mr. Macerola lie in describing as an urban legend what he knew to be a serious misappropriation of funds?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, nobody lied. As soon as the initial allegations were brought to the attention of the House, I personally referred them to the RCMP. I hope that, if there are other allegations, they will be referred directly to the RCMP.

Rail Transportation

[Bev Desjarlais, NDP, Churchill, MB]

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

The Liberal government has slashed VIA Rail funding by over $600 million. These cuts have hurt Canadian communities and destroyed jobs. They have jeopardized affordable rail service. They have hurt northern communities that are dependent on VIA.

Now we find that the Liberal government has secretly loaned $1 billion to Amtrak, the American passenger rail service.

Why is the Liberal government supporting American trains while abandoning VIA Rail?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to be clear on the fact that the EDC loans money to foreign companies all the time when they agree to buy Canadian goods.

Every important government in the world conducts its business this way. The money invested in EDC has helped Canadians sell more than $300 billion worth of goods distributed around the world in the last few years.

Fisheries

[Mark Muise, Progressive Conservative, West Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, last fall the minister of fisheries promised that he would have a plan in place by the spring to regulate the Atlantic fishery.

Today, the first day of spring, what is the plan? Does it enforce one season for all fishermen and does it address the controversial food fishery?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to answer this question. It is the first one I have had in this millennium from the hon. member.

We are working very hard. We have federal representatives meeting with first nations bands. In fact, we have already signed agreements with two of the bands. We will continue to make sure that as the fishing season starts we take every opportunity to have agreements so that we can have an orderly and regulated fishery with conservation being our priority.

International Trade

[Walt Lastewka, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned over the inability of Canadian winemakers to export to some parts of United States.

Despite the free trade deal with the United States, Canadian wines do not have access to American markets.

Could the Minister for International Trade tell us why Canadian worldclass wines do not have access to these markets? What is being done to rectify these conditions?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree with my colleague. Canadian wine producers are indeed making worldclass wines.

Like Canadian provinces, United States' states have their own rules and regulations governing the import by individuals and these sales have gained a lot of importance with the advent of Internet shopping.

There are no states of which we are aware that prohibit all wines from entering from outside their borders, but some states do maintain restrictive market access regimes for commercial importation. Therefore, we have pressed the United States to bring its federal and state—

[The Speaker]

That will bring to a close our question period for today.