Debates of Nov. 5th, 2001

Public Works and Government Services

[Deborah Grey, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of public works is trying to gag the conflict of interest code again. The code states:

A public office holder shall not accord preferential treatment in relation to any official matter to family members or friends or to organizations in which they, family members or friends, have an interest.

The latest in a string of friends, Mr. Creuso, received contracts with Canada Post and CMHC. Why does the Prime Minister keep allowing this minister to crack the code?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this is another accusation that is based on nothing. If the member has some real proof that something wrong has been done, she has to table that. She is always making large accusations and she has always been proven wrong.

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

Mr. Speaker, the public works minister has connections to an Italian adviser and an agent with a shady past. His Pisan on the payroll is the latest in a long list of unaccountable Liberal lapses in ethical judgment. Mr. Maurizio Creuso, a longtime friend and travel companion of the minister, was awarded two government contracts with CMHC and Canada Post, despite having a conviction for fraud and allegations of corruption in Italy.

Will the Prime Minister immediately refer this highly questionable ministerial action to the ethics counsellor, or is that report already written?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, another accusation by the party that, when it was in government, had about 10 ministers resign because of conflict of interest. That is something that has not happened in this government in the last eight years.

Immigration

[Paul Forseth, Canadian Alliance, New Westminster—Coquitlam—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, last week the minister of immigration dismissed Jack Manion, one of Canada's most distinguished public servants, as just some retired, old civil servant. In that crass remark she revealed a petty defensiveness over legitimate criticism of the immigration system. Mr. Manion has 30 years of experience and holds the Order of Canada. He deserves a lot better than that. The minister dismissed Mr. Manion because she cannot handle the truth about national security.

Will the minister stand and just simply apologize for her intemperate remarks?

[Elinor Caplan, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I am very aware that there are many who hold different views than I do. In fact there are many who would agree with me that the existing systems that we have in place need changes. That is why we brought in Bill C-11, the new immigration and refugee protection act, which is a fundamental change in how we approach immigration and refugee determination matters.

[Paul Forseth, Canadian Alliance, New Westminster—Coquitlam—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the distinguished former ambassador, Martin Collacott, has also stepped forward to raise the alarm. He says the government has completely lost control of who is coming into our country, both in numbers and who they really are. He too has 30 years of experience.

Is this two year minister going to completely dismiss Ambassador Collacott as well?

[Elinor Caplan, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I too read the article that was in the Ottawa Citizen this weekend. I was shocked by how inaccurate it was. It said that the majority of people coming into Canada are family class, when in fact it is in the United States where 72% of the immigration comes from family class. In Canada it is only 29%.

There were gross inaccuracies, including the fact that people could sponsor parents who were ill. That is just not true. If people want to bring their parents to this country, they would have to pass medical exams; if they do not, then they are inadmissible.

Employment Insurance

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

Mr. Speaker, the Coalition chômage Gaspésie--Îles-de-la Madeleine has criticized the Liberal MP for its part of the country, saying that, for a man who said last year that he would work to improve the EI program, his hands are remarkably clean of any signs of work.

How can the government be ignoring today the formal commitments made by Liberal ministers during the campaign to the effect that, once elected, they would make changes to the employment insurance program so that it would really meet the needs of workers in the regions of Quebec?

[Jane Stewart, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, the government does appreciate it and in fact has been responsive to the concerns of seasonal workers. Indeed, we eliminated the intensity rule in Bill C-2 when we made changes to the clawback provision to make it fairer.

I would remind the hon. member that the fundamental change from a weeks based system to an hours based system has directly benefited seasonal workers by increasing the length of their entitlement. He would be interested to know that their average weekly benefits are about 8% higher than those of other claimants.

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

Mr. Speaker, a unanimous report by the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development goes further than the few changes proposed in Bill C-2. If the Liberal MPs have passed it, this is because the amendments proposed are really in line with the campaign commitments.

How can the Minister of Human Resource Development ignore the campaign commitments made by her fellow ministers in all regions of Quebec, commitments so firm they convinced even the Liberal MPs?

[Jane Stewart, Liberal, Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, indeed we have not ignored the work of the committee. That is why we are making the small weeks provisions permanent. That is why we have made changes to the undeclared earnings provisions of the act.

In addition to providing income support through the employment insurance system, our members of parliament are on the ground in their communities working with community organizations to help increase and diversify the economies in their parts of Canada. I only wish the hon. member would do the same thing.

Immigration

[Randy White, Canadian Alliance, Langley—Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, let me quote the immigration minister here last Friday:

It is my goal to deport those who pose any security risk to Canada as quickly as possible.

Samir Mohamed is a terrorist. He was a failed refugee applicant in 1997. He has been associated with known terrorists, guns, credit card fraud and robbery over the last four years and he is still here in Canada.

Is this the minister's idea of as quickly as possible? Maybe she does not think he poses a risk. Which would it be?

[Elinor Caplan, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I have told the member opposite on a number of occasions that I am happy to share with him all information that I can legally.

He also knows that we have streamlined procedures because we know that it does take too long. However, whenever anyone poses a security risk to Canada, we do not hesitate to detain them. We are going to keep them in detention until we are able to remove them from the country.

[Randy White, Canadian Alliance, Langley—Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know if Elinor Van Winkle over there has been sleeping but it took four years to detain this person.

I would like to know, since the government is once again giving another hearing to this individual, why it is after four years he is getting another hearing and has not been detained. Why?

[The Speaker]

I am not sure whom the hon. member was referring to. I assume, giving him the benefit of the doubt, that it was not the minister because had he been referring to the minister, I am sure he would have used her proper title.

[Elinor Caplan, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, the facts in the member's preamble are incorrect.

I cannot discuss the details of this case. What I can tell him is that in this country we have the rule of law. The federal court reviews all decisions that are made in judicial review. We do respect the federal court even though we do not always agree with its decisions. One of the goals of the new immigration and refugee protection act is to make decisions that will be respected by the federal court so that we will be able to get decisions and remove people more quickly.

Canadian Economy

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last Friday, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance admitted that Quebec had brought down a good budget, with a number of dynamic measures to support a faltering economy.

Now that the way has been laid, will the Minister of Finance follow the lead of Ms. Marois in Quebec City and meet the demands of all economic stakeholders, who want targeted interventions to stimulate the Canadian economy, exactly as the Bloc Quebecois plan suggests?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, every government, be it the Government of Canada or a provincial government, must make choices as required by circumstances. That is what Ms. Marois did.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in his last budget, the Minister kept a $3 billion contingency fund for emergencies.

I ask him today how much of this $3 billion has been used to date, and for what purposes?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the member knows that according to the figures released, our surplus in mid-summer stood at approximately $11 billion.

She is well aware that this surplus will now drop, depending on the impact of September 11.

Rcmp

[Kevin Sorenson, Canadian Alliance, Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the solicitor general.

If the RCMP has a full complement of staff, why has a high-ranking United States embassy official revealed that an unprecedented number of FBI agents have been sent to Canada to help the RCMP do its job?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I have indicated to my hon. colleague a number of times that the RCMP and the FBI work hand in hand. There are some officers from CSIS and the RCMP in Washington and there are some of their officers in this country.

[Kevin Sorenson, Canadian Alliance, Crowfoot, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad we are working together but it is an unprecedented number.

For once without divulging sensitive security classified information, will the solicitor general tell us why FBI agents are in Canada in record numbers if the RCMP is not lacking the resources to do a thorough investigation?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure my hon. colleague is not questioning the word of the commissioner of the RCMP. He has indicated quite clearly that he has the funds to fulfill his mandate.

In fact what is going on is what has gone on for a long period of time. We co-operate with our American partners to make sure that we have the safest countries in the world and we will continue to do so.