Debates of Nov. 6th, 2001

Remembrance Day

[Rose-Marie Ur, Liberal, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this coming Sunday is Remembrance Day. Each year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month Canadians take a moment to remember those who fought and defended Canada in many battles to ensure our security and freedom.

We remember the battles in World War I, World War II, the Korean and gulf wars, and countless other battles and peacekeeping missions in which our military and navy personnel took part. Our veterans fought to ensure our protection and liberty. This came at a cost of thousands of lives in the process.

This Remembrance Day is especially meaningful as our troops prepare and leave to join the war in Afghanistan to ensure once again our freedom and security.

In the wake of the attacks on the United States we are reminded of how important our military and navy personnel are during these times. It is important to recognize the efforts of veterans who fought in past wars and to take a moment to reflect on how their hard work has improved the quality of life of all Canadians.

That is why we stop on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to remember the cost of freedom and to honour those who have paid the price.

Down Syndrome

[André Bachand, Progressive Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow is the last day of the 2001 Down Syndrome Awareness Week.

Each year, the Canadian Down Syndrome Society, in co-operation with its affiliates in every part of the country, organizes a series of public awareness events to make people aware of the plight of those who suffer from this chromosomal disorder.

If some day we want to eliminate the biases relating to this syndrome which, for a long time, was not properly understood, we must support these awareness campaigns and stress the contribution that individuals with Down syndrome make to their community.

We are very appreciative of the efforts of the organizers of this event and, on behalf of all the members of this House, I thank them for their dedication.

I also congratulate them for the 2001 awareness week, and I wish them success in the years to come.

Teknion Corporation

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Teknion Corporation, a company in my riding of York West. Teknion is an international leader in the design and manufacture of office systems and furniture. On September 24 Teknion was bestowed with the prestigious exporter of the year award.

Teknion has become a true Canadian success story. It leads the contract office furniture industry in almost every performance measurement and its annual sales growth more than quadruples the industry average.

One in every three jobs in Canada depends on trade with other countries and Teknion's outstanding achievement is an indicator of its enormous contribution to the Canadian economy.

Teknion's dedication to people and partnerships has proven an unbeatable strategy in the international marketplace. I ask fellow colleagues to join me in recognizing Teknion's commitment to excellence.

Supplementary Estimates

[John Williams, Canadian Alliance, St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the supplementary estimates were tabled last Thursday and the government wants to spend more and more and still more. In fact it wants to spend $7 billion more.

Where is it going?

There is $225 million going to Canada Customs and Revenue Agency to pursue revenue generation. That is code for squeezing taxpayers until they squeak.

There is $2.5 million going to Communications Canada, the propaganda machine of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services who was reported in the paper yesterday to have given contracts to all his friends. Now we know why he needs a propaganda machine.

Another $114 million will go to the gun registration program. Members will recall it was only supposed to cost $85 million in total.

Finally, another $9.7 million will go to celebrate the millennium. That was two years ago and we are still paying taxpayer money on a celebration that went bust.

Softwood Lumber

[Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, for months before April 1 when the softwood lumber agreement was coming to an end, we warned the government there would be thousands of jobs lost. It had no position. A month ago in the area of linking softwood lumber to the oil and gas issue, the government said it did not have a position on linkage. Yesterday the Prime Minister sounded tough here and said there was linkage between oil and gas and maybe the Americans could just burn wood.

I would like to ask the Prime Minister this. What is the position of the government today? Is it the same as yesterday? Will he do something to communicate that position to the president and to the oil and gas industry whose taps he is going to shut off?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have free trade. We signed a free trade agreement with the United States which was approved by the House of Commons. The free trade agreement was not only about oil and gas. It was about wood too. That is what I tell the Americans all the time. It is what the minister said to Mr. Racicot at lunch, and that is what I will tell him when I meet him later today.

[Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, it would be disastrous to cut our energy exports to the U.S. We should, however, ensure that the softwood lumber problem is settled before considering a new energy pact. We know that the Americans want a new Canada-U.S.-Mexico energy pact.

Is the Prime Minister going to tell President Bush that he will not negotiate a new North American energy pact before obtaining a softwood agreement?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we are not in the process of negotiating an energy pact with the United States and Mexico. At the present time, we have a free trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This includes energy as well as softwood lumber. That is exactly what we are saying today, what we said this past spring, and what I tell the President every time I talk to him by phone or in person.

[Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, in fact that is not what he said yesterday and it is not what he said a month ago.

Maybe the Prime Minister would be taken more seriously in Washington on the softwood lumber issue, if he would get very serious and very specific on the issue of our border, on the issue of joint immigration standards, on the issue of joint visas and on the issue of detaining, deporting and extraditing fraud refugee claimants. The Prime Minister refuses to be specific and he refuses to be strong.

Will he communicate these specifics to the president and let him know that we are serious about a common secure border to protect our citizens and our trade with the United States?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this is exactly what we are doing at this time. We have passed the legislation on immigration and it received royal assent a few days ago. It is always part of the discussions we are having with the Americans.

I said and I will repeat, listening to the Leader of the Opposition it seems that he is already willing to have the Americans running everything in Canada and that is not what this side of the House wants to do.

National Security

[Grant Hill, Canadian Alliance, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, last week we asked the government to take even the most modest of steps to assure Canadians and Americans on the issue of continental security. Yesterday at a meeting with a U.S. congressman a practical suggestion came up and I would like to propose it to the government.

The suggestion was that we have a harmonized list of countries where both the U.S. and Canada would look for visas. Would the government look at that very practical suggestion and accept something that would improve continental security? Yes or no.

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our information on the subject is always available to the Americans when they need it and they give us the information we need too. We have done that for a long time. They recognize that they have great collaboration between the different departments of Canada and the American departments because we have the same interest. We do not want terrorists either in Canada or in the United States.

[Grant Hill, Canadian Alliance, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, how are these real concerns about Canada-U.S. security treated by this government? The foreign affairs minister in fact tries to blame the media for the concerns and then he takes a fictional program The West Wing and says it is responsible for this unusual reaction in the U.S.

The government has not acted on combined passenger lists. It has not acted on combined visas. It has not acted on detaining bogus refugees. I would like to know what exactly has it acted on?

[John Manley, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, is that not pathetic? If we are not trying to fight the perceptions that exist which are wrong in the United States, how will we ever build our case for what is right about the Canada-U.S. relationship?

It is time to say to important decision makers in the United States that there are some urban legends out there, I must say some of which have been perpetuated by the opposition, that are simply wrong. We have an important economic relationship and the work that we have going on with the U.S. administration will make things better for both of our economies.

Softwood Lumber

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government stepped things up a notch yesterday in preparation for the continuation of discussions on softwood lumber. The Minister of International Trade promised to tell President Bush's envoy exactly where we stand on this issue.

The Prime Minister promised to telephone the U.S. president and remind him that free trade had to apply to lumber too.

On the subject of notches, at his meeting today, did the Minister of International Trade get out his big stick and make it very clear to the Americans that their protectionism is creating a lot of annoyance in Quebec and Canada? Otherwise, will the Prime Minister deliver this message to President Bush?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader of the Bloc Quebecois for giving me an opportunity to inform the House about the lunch I had with Mr. Racicot yesterday at the home of the U.S. ambassador.

I can assure you that what we have said here and what will be said, I feel, during the emergency debate we will be having a little later, have been expressed directly and very clearly to Mr. Racicot.

Mr. Racicot appeared to be a man who listened, who is honest, who wants to understand the issue and who has the mandate from his president—a positive signal—to find a way to come up with a long term solution in this issue, which has been going on for years.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in August, I toured Quebec, and, in the various regions, there was strong resentment against the Americans over what they were preparing to do in connection with softwood lumber.

Since they have taken the measures, the mood of Quebecers has not improved.

Will the government finally decide to run a campaign in Canada, Quebec and the United States against American protectionism, in other words, an advertising campaign to show Americans that we will not accept this decision and to convince American consumers that it is in their interest to return to total free trade?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the best way to resolve the problem is to speak directly and firmly with the Americans.

I am sure they understand our problem and there are administrative difficulties. We realize the American system may be different from ours. The President appears to have less direct influence over things than the Canadian government.

In any case, I am very confident that, in the end, we will reach an agreement or find an appropriate solution to the problem.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, contrary to what the Minister for International Trade said yesterday, many stakeholders, including the Free Trade Lumber Council and the Canadian Lumber Remanufacturers Alliance, and not just two or three stakeholders as he said, are calling for a summit meeting.

In the wake of last week's events, and now that the Minister for International Trade has met with the U.S. trade envoy, would he not finally agree that a meeting of all stakeholders in the softwood lumber industry is called for?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, we are in constant close communication with the industry in all regions of the country. We are working closely with it. We are involved in discussions with the United States, to which provincial governments, which are also at the table, are contributing, because they are the ones with responsibility for sorting out natural resources problems and for managing practices.

I can assure the House of one thing and that is that, starting November 12, other agreements will be reached. We are fully committed along with the entire industry, and we are making progress on this issue.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, so far, the talks, which will continue in Washington on November 12, have all been one way. The provinces have made proposals concerning their forestry management system. But the periodic shortages of softwood lumber in the United States are the crux of the problem.

Will the minister ensure that future discussions will also address U.S. practices?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, it so happens that at noon today, we had an opportunity to tell Mr. Racicot that it is very important that we have a better understanding of what Americans expect in a long-term solution.

For the time being, it is true that we have looked at what could be done in terms of provincial practices, especially in British Columbia and in Quebec. Alberta and Ontario are doing likewise.

But it is vital that we also know what the United States expects, so that we can finally have free trade for softwood lumber.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the trade minister as well. The softwood lumber crisis has already cost 16,000 jobs in British Columbia alone. Today Tembec has announced the second mill closing in a week.

The trade minister rants and raves a lot, he shakes his hair a lot, but the question is whether the government is prepared to back its rhetoric with action. Is this trade minister prepared to pull our energy trade from the table and turn out the lights in California?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I do not like these sexist statements. Indeed the minister has been working extremely well for a long time to make sure that we find an adequate solution to this problem.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, if I had a head of hair like that I would shake it a lot too. Let me say, on a very serious note, that Americans are playing games with Canada, games in which the rules change to suit their needs. Canadians want to know whether the Prime Minister is playing games.

Let the Prime Minister today clarify his comments. Is he really ready this winter to pull our energy trade and let the Americans burn wood?