Debates of March 20th, 2001

Agriculture

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, over the last three years we have substantially increased the contribution the government has made toward the farming community. We increased it substantially last week. Of course everybody wishes we could have done more.

I note that since we came to the House of Commons the question of the aid has not been raised by the leaders of those parties. Perhaps the member raised it once or twice. It was a members from this side of the House of Commons who put the pressure on that led to the increase of $500 million.

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

Mr. Speaker, clearly I reject the premises of the Prime Minister. The Leader of the Opposition has been up asking questions on agriculture. In fact he was the only opposition leader to do it for several weeks. I also—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. It is clear we are having trouble with the premises on both sides of the House, but we want some order in the House so we can hear the question and its premises.

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. Does he not believe that there is still an ongoing farm income crisis when Canadian farmers, many in the grains and oilseeds sectors, will have an income of $10,000 or less and when many will lose money? Does he not believe that this additional $400 million, which is a minimum required, should be given today?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it was because we believed there were problems that we decided to invest more money on top of the money we invested a year ago and the year before.

Three years in a row we have increased the contribution of the federal government to this problem. We are very proud of it because we know there is a problem.

Some would like us to do more than that but we are doing much more than what they do in New Zealand and Australia. There is a war between the United States and the Europeans. We said a long time ago that Canada could not afford to go as far as the Americans in terms of subsidies.

Colombia

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in January 2001 the Vector Aerospace company of Newfoundland proudly announced that it had won a contract worth $6.5 million to sell military helicopter parts to Colombia.

According to Amnesty International, the Colombian armed forces and paramilitaries have killed 20,000 civilians since 1996. This situation, under Canadian policy, should prohibit this export.

How does the minister explain his department's permitting the violation of its own guidelines?

[David Kilgour, Liberal, Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa)]

Mr. Speaker, up to now, and I imagine this will continue to apply, we have not approved a permit for Vector to export helicopters to Colombia. That is the answer.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister allows them to operate, but he does not allow them to be there.

The Minister for International Trade justifies Cuba's exclusion by the fact that the FTAA would create a sort of close relationship between Canada and its various partners, different from that with China, for example.

How then are we to explain his agreeing to promote such a close relationship with Colombia, a country with more than 1,000 political assassinations a year and where human rights offences are no longer counted?

[David Kilgour, Liberal, Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa)]

Mr. Speaker, once again, until now Vector's involvement concerns civilian planes. There are no helicopters for military purposes. So the same response applies.

Agriculture

[Larry Spencer, Canadian Alliance, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Speaker, five provincial governments have publicly called upon the Liberal government to deliver at least $900 million in emergency aid to farmers this year. This is the absolute minimum farmers need.

In today's Regina Leader Post the Saskatchewan minister of agriculture stated:

The $500 million in aid announced recently by the federal government to address the current problems in the industry is clearly an inadequate response given the emergency situation facing the industry.

Will the minister listen to his provincial counterparts and commit the additional $400 million being called for today?

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

Mr. Speaker, I remind the hon. member, in reference to the province of Saskatchewan, that the federal contribution to NISA crop insurance and companion programs is $175 million this year.

The Canadian farm income protection program is estimated by its officials and ours to be $200 million this year. When it puts its 40% with the announcement that the government made two weeks ago, it will be another $200 million. That is close to $600 million for Saskatchewan alone this year.

[Larry Spencer, Canadian Alliance, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the agriculture minister is more concerned about fighting with provincial governments to force his own programs upon everybody rather than allowing some provincial discretion.

Is the minister trying to tell the House that the governments of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are wrong in saying that at least $900 million is needed from the government?

Only the current agriculture minister could unite two Conservative governments and two NDP governments with the separatist government of Quebec. Why does the minister continue to ignore the advice of governments and—

[The Speaker]

The hon. the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

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

Mr. Speaker, I find it very interesting and quite sad that the province of Saskatchewan, for example, did not offer to put in any more money until the federal government was there. It did not offer any.

With the combination of all of us it is over $600 million. In the spirit of negotiating and discussion I remind the hon. member that those five minister walked out of a meeting rather than stay and discuss it. I stayed there. I had a press conference. They walked out of the meeting.

The Environment

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade. U.S. political leaders in industry say that our forest management system subsidizes our industry and hurts the environment. Is this an accurate assessment? Is it true that the U.S. system offers stronger environmental protection?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, our forest practices absolutely do not unfairly subsidize our industry. We are actually much better than the United States in protecting our environment.

Canada protects its forests from depletion. For every tree that is harvested, two new ones are planted. We only harvest one-half of one per cent of our commercial forests each year. Ninety-four per cent of Canada's forests are publicly owned and strictly regulated. By comparison, 90% of U.S. timber comes from private lands. It has virtually no regulations on forest management.

Agriculture

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

Mr. Speaker, agriculture has been a priority for the Canadian Alliance all winter, but it appears that the Prime Minister does not particularly care if farmers can even plant their crops this spring.

The government spends money advertising government rhetoric rather than giving emergency money directly to farmers who need assistance. Why will the government not make agriculture a priority and deliver the additional $400 million needed by farmers?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is wonderful what cold weather will do. It must have been shock treatment. The Alliance Party finally got interested in agriculture. It is nice that it was interested this winter. It was the first one.

Adding to what I commented on a few minutes ago, the government increased interest free loans for farmers this year two and a half times what they were last year, up to $50,000 per farmer. We estimate that farmers will borrow interest free over $700 million to help put their crops in the ground this year.

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

Mr. Speaker, the minister may not have heard or answered the questions but we have been asking them. The backbench member for Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey repeatedly states that the $500 million aid package is not nearly enough to avert the farm crisis. He promises to continue his lobbying efforts to the Prime Minister and the minister of agriculture.

Since the Prime Minister refuses to acknowledge the depth of the crisis and get the needed resources out to farmers, will he at least allow his backbenchers to vote freely for the additional $400 million?

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

Mr. Speaker, the lobby for this from outside the House approached cabinet, approached me and approached the Prime Minister, and as a result of this lobby, the government has done something.

National Defence

[Claude Bachand, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the chief of the land staff, Lieutenant General Mike Jeffery, has announced that given the budget available to him he is getting ready to make staff cuts that could number in the thousands.

Will the Minister of National Defence explain this contradiction to us? On the one hand, the Minister of National Defence is arguing in favour of increased recruitment and, on the other, the chief of the land staff is threatening to make deep cuts. Which will it be? Increase, cut or stabilize military personnel?

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has not correctly characterized what General Jeffery said, but let me say that General Jeffery, as is the government, is determined to implement the 1994 white paper defence policy. We are determined to make sure that our troops get the resources they need.

In addition to considering additional resources, we have to look at making sure the existing resources we have are used in the most efficient and effective way possible. That is all of what General Jeffery and the army are attempting to do at this point. There is no decision on any cutting of troops.

Presence In Gallery

[The Speaker]

I draw the attention of hon. members to the presence in the gallery of Mr. Bjorn Bjarnason, Minister of Culture and Science of Iceland

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.