Debates of Nov. 22nd, 2001

Agriculture

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, some months ago I asked the department to evaluate how research was balanced within our department, and we are in the process of rebalancing the research. One of the groups that brought that to my attention was the pulse industry. I have met and discussed this with them on a number of occasions in the past.

The answer to the hon. member's question is, yes. We are and will be paying more attention to research in areas such as pulse.

[Howard Hilstrom, Canadian Alliance, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Speaker, we will take that as a guaranteed promise of $31 million. I also have a question for the health minister.

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency allows chemical companies to charge western pulse growers twice as much for some pesticides as Ontario farmers. These same regulations even make it illegal to move these chemicals across provincial borders.

Why does the health minister continue to allow this disastrous agency the ability to restrict trade between provinces and to deny our farm families a chance to have the lowest input cost possible?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the pest management agency works with the advice of the community, the industry and farmers and producers to provide good, balanced protection for the health of Canadians while assisting people who produce food for our tables. I am proud of the work it does.

As to the detailed question the member asked, I will take it under consideration and provide him with a response when I have the details available.

Terrorism

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the number of accidents involving scatter bombs in Afghanistan is growing, and it is civilians, children, who are being killed or mutilated by unexploded munitions, which constitute an on-going threat to the population.

Will the Minister of National Defence make a commitment to include scatter bombs in the Treaty on Anti-Personnel Landmines and to pressure the American government to get their soldiers to recover unexploded ordnance from scatter bombs, in order to make the Afghan territory safe?

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, cleaning up any unexploded ordinates after a bombing is certainly something to which Canada subscribes. With respect to the bombing that is going on, every effort is being made to avoid civilians. Unfortunately civilians are hurt or killed in times such as this, but I know every effort is being made by our allies who are conducting the bombing, which we of course are not, to avoid civilian populations and to attack only the military, the Taliban and the al-Qaeda.

Fisheries

[Shawn Murphy, Liberal, Hillsborough, PE]

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans with respect to the conservation and management of highly migratory fish stocks in the high seas. What is the status? I am speaking about both ratification and implementation of the United Nations fisheries agreement on these issues.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member because it is difficult to get a fisheries question these days.

I am happy to report to the House on something that we have been working on since 1995. We have learned that the 30th country has signed the United Nations fisheries agreement to make it effective December 11.

Those of us who worked on this know what a tremendous achievement this is for Canada and the international community to ensure that we can manage our fish stocks in international waters with conservation and rules and regulations that we can abide by. This is a great success for all Canadians.

Anti-Terrorism Legislation

[Jay Hill, Canadian Alliance, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, under Bill C-36 persons who believe they should not be on the terrorist list must ask the solicitor general to remove their names. If the solicitor general does not make a decision within 60 days, people must apply to the courts for redress.

Could the solicitor general assure the House that he will make his decision within 60 days so that innocent, wrongfully accused or wrongfully listed Canadians are not required to go to court to have their names removed?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure my hon. colleague that I would evaluate the situation and a decision would be made promptly.

Housing

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister responsible for housing says that he is going to honour his commitment in the red book on housing. He should turn the page because those commitments will not come even close to the 30,000 units that are needed each year. One critical need is with respect to the conditions in housing facing aboriginal people in the country.

Will the minister commit to a fully funded and reactivated urban aboriginal housing program and a self-management proposal that has been requested repeatedly by aboriginal organizations?

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

Mr. Speaker, the government has committed of $80 million to address remote housing in the country. I am working with my colleague, the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, to develop a program specific to aboriginal people.

Trois-Pistoles Wharf

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Kamouraska—Rivière-Du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on October 19, the Minister of Public Works and Government Services told the community and economic stakeholders of the Basques area that the reconstruction of the wharf in Trois-Pistoles had to be classified as a priority by Transport Canada, and that he would inform his counterpart from Transport Canada of this fact within the next two weeks.

Can the minister assure the people of les Basques and the forty or so municipalities in the area that the reconstruction of the wharf will be announced shortly in order to guarantee the ferry service between Trois-Pistoles and Les Escoumins?

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

Mr. Speaker, yes, I have discussed this issue with my colleague, the transport minister. Of course, given the circumstances, we will announce the results as soon as possible.

Agriculture

[David Anderson, Canadian Alliance, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I had someone approach me who had the opportunity to make an international sale of barley. He approached the Canadian Wheat Board and was told by the board that it could not and would not supply him with the grain.

He then phoned an Ontario producer to buy the grain from him and was told he could buy it until the seller asked where he was from. When he said Saskatchewan he was told “I cannot not sell it to you because of the Canadian Wheat Board”. This person lost the sale. The barley remains in Canada and agriculture suffers again.

Could the Canadian Wheat Board minister tell us when this ridiculous discrimination and unfairness faced by western Canadian producers will end?

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

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. gentleman knows, the Canadian Wheat Board is controlled by a 15 member board of directors, 10 of which are duly elected by western Canadian farmers themselves. The future of the Canadian Wheat Board is therefore in the hands of western Canadian farmers.

If the hon. gentleman wishes to refer the facts of this case to the Canadian Wheat Board, I will ensure that he gets a prompt reply. Every time we have traced down some of these mythical stories before, we have found they are in fact not true.

Presence in Gallery

[The Speaker]

I draw the attention of hon. members to the presence in the gallery of the Hon. Pat Duncan, Premier of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, Minister of the Executive Council Office (responsible for Land Claims and Devolution) and Minister of Finance.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

[The Speaker]

I would also like to draw the attention of hon. members to the presence in the gallery of His Excellency Pandeli Majko, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Albania.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

Points of Order

[Myron Thompson, Canadian Alliance, Wild Rose, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. On behalf of you and all parliamentarians I extend to our American friends and in some cases relatives a happy and peaceful Thanksgiving Day, which happens to be today.

God bless America. May its freedom bell forever ring.

Business of the House

[Cheryl Gallant, Canadian Alliance, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it being Thursday, I will ask what the House business is for the rest of today and next week.

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

Mr. Speaker, as hon. members know, the House will not sit tomorrow as is the usual courtesy to a political party holding a national convention, in this case the New Democratic Party.

Our business for next week is fairly straightforward. First, we will deal with report stage and third reading of Bill C-36, the anti-terrorism legislation. When this is completed we will turn to second reading of the public safety bill that was introduced earlier this day by the Minister of Transport.

On any days next week, particularly in the early part of the week, should the debate on any of these items end earlier in the day, it would be my intention, then, on Monday to call for report stage and third reading of Bill C-27, the nuclear safety bill and, if time permits, second reading of Bill C-43, the technical legislative amendments bill which I introduced earlier this day.

If debate collapses on or after Tuesday, it would also be my intention to add to the list that I have just made Bill C-35, the foreign missions bill, at third reading.

Points of Order

[Peter MacKay, Progressive Conservative, Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The hon. government House leader has just confirmed that the government will be calling Bill C-36 at report stage. It has come to my attention that the transcripts from the justice committee are not available.

This is of serious concern in that other members of the House, including members of the government who are not members of that committee, have no ability to review and potentially prepare amendments to the bill. In fact the Chair will know that the deadline for the submission of amendments to the bill is 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Further adding to the difficulty is that the bill, as reported with amendment, is not currently available. In fact we are in the perverse situation where government officials have called opposition members' offices looking for the amendments so that they might have an opportunity to review these amendments.

This is an important issue for parliament. It is an important ability that all members of the House have in terms of their ability to prepare and amend government legislation. This bill, as the Chair and everyone here knows, is an extremely important piece of legislation. It is a bill to which the government itself presented over 100 amendments.

The evidence that was taken by the justice committee is currently not available to Canadians. Nor is it available to some members of the House. Until the evidence is published by the House, Canadians cannot find out the basis for which important decisions are being made. The people were represented but unable to make informed decisions or recommendations through their members of parliament when votes are to be taken on the bill.

I am asking the government House leader to agree to delay consideration of Bill C-36 until all the committee evidence is published or until it is made available to some. Certainly the bill, which is now placed on the table, should be available to all members of the House. Until it is, one can only be left with the conclusion that this bill, this process and this House of Commons is secret on an important piece of legislation involving anti-terrorism.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am in a difficult position here. I cannot respond on behalf of the Chair or the clerks of committees in terms of preparing the documents. I trust that every effort will be made from the House side.

The Speaker is doing his job, with respect, as is the clerk.

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh.