House of Commons Hansard #70 of the 37th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was community.
Derek Lee LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the 23rd report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the membership of the special committee on non-medical use of drugs.
Mr. Speaker, I also have the honour to present the 24th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the membership of the Standing Joint Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations.
Bob Kilger Liberal Stormont—Dundas—Charlottenburgh, ON
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the report of the Special Committee on the Modernization and Improvement of the Procedures of the House of Commons.
Like the notion of modernization itself, the House of Commons is a work in progress. We hope that this report will be one contribution to the evolution of our procedures and practice in this 37th Parliament.
My committee colleagues decided to seek unanimity. While it was relatively easy to agree on certain issues, we had to find reasonable compromises on others. Some issues could not be solved. Therefore, it will be up to other members, within other frameworks, to continue the work that was begun here.
I would like to thank my colleagues on the committee for their candour and the generous, open-minded spirit of co-operation they brought to our work. I also want to thank their staff as well as staff in procedural services for their technical assistance. I want to recognize the contribution and the grace under pressure of our Library of Parliament researcher, James Robertson, and to thank the clerks of the committee, Audrey O'Brien and Diane Diotte.
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-356, an act to amend the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal Act (Book of Remembrance for peacekeepers).
Mr. Speaker, the enactment of the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal Act requires that the minister establish a book of remembrance for Canadians who have died during an international peacekeeping mission.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-357, an act to protect personal privacy by restricting the use of social insurance numbers.
Mr. Speaker, this enactment establishes that no person would be required to disclose his or her social insurance number except where that disclosure is specifically required by law.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-358, an act to amend the Competition Act (vertically integrated gasoline suppliers).
Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the bill is to address the fact that vertically integrated gasoline suppliers that manufacture more than a certain percentage should not be able to act as suppliers as well as retailers at the same time.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-359, an act to establish the office of Oil and Gas Ombudsman to investigate complaints relating to the business practices of suppliers of oil or gas.
Mr. Speaker, this enactment establishes the office of the oil and gas ombudsman which would receive and investigate complaints about the business practices of oil and gasoline suppliers, as well as producers.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-360, an act to amend the Income Tax Act (tax credit for mental or physical impairment).
Mr. Speaker, the bill would allow people who suffer from a physical or mental impairment that prevents them from performing housekeeping activities to use the Income Tax Act for the purpose of deductions for themselves or their families.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-361, an act to amend the Income Tax Act (to provide for the deduction of funeral expenses).
Mr. Speaker, the bill would allow a tax deduction of up to $10,000 for a taxpayer who has paid the funeral expenses of a person who has been buried in Canada. Taxpayers eligible for the tax deduction include the taxpayer who has died, the legal representative of the taxpayer who has died or any other taxpayer who has paid the funeral expenses of the person who has died.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-362, an act to amend the Canadian Bill of Rights (right to education).
Mr. Speaker, the bill would ensure that a child or a youth have free and reasonable access to education without any financial burden or other barriers.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-363, an act to Prevent Deficit Budgets.
Mr. Speaker, the enactment of this bill would provide that there must be no deficit either budgeted or incurred in any fiscal year. It would require a contingency reserve to be included in the estimates of expenditures for each year. If that contingency reserve is not fully expended, the balance must be used to pay down the debt.
Deficits caused by natural disasters, war or unusual collapse of revenues are excluded by such special deficit but must be recovered in the following three year budgets.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill-364, an act to require Crown corporations and departments of government to have annual internal audits the reports of which are to be submitted to the Auditor General of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this enactment would be to require crown corporations and departments to complete an annual internal audit, an audit report, using internal or external auditors who ought to be qualified as prescribed by the auditor general. The internal audit report is then to be submitted to the head of the corporation or minister for the department and to the auditor general. Either of them may require a further examination of records. This would secure a greater involvement and commitment by crown corporations and departments in their own financial regulation and would assist the auditor general in the timely fulfilment of the duties required under the Auditor General Act.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-365, an act to amend the Canadian Bill of Rights (right of literacy).
Mr. Speaker, the enactment to amend the Canadian Bill of Rights would include the right of an individual to adequate training to develop the individual's full literacy potential free from reasonable financial or other barriers.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-366, an act respecting seat belts in federal vehicles and school buses.
Mr. Speaker, the bill would require that all vehicles under federal jurisdiction, including military vehicles, must be equipped with seat belts for the driver and passengers if they are operated on a public highway. The design of the seat belt must comply with the regulations and the laws of the province in which the vehicles are used. There is a power to exempt vehicles in special cases but not for vehicles that regularly transport students.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Mac Harb Liberal Ottawa Centre, ON
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-367, an act respecting the release of credit information.
Mr. Speaker, the bill would require federally regulated financial institutions, such as banks, federally incorporated corporations and credit bureaus, which intend to give credit record information to credit grantors or credit bureaus, to first advise the individual who it affects.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present today.
The first petition is signed by many people in my riding who call upon the government to eliminate the right of landing fee of $975, otherwise known as the immigration head tax. The petitioners feel strongly that this is a barrier to immigration and that there is no room for this type of thing in a democracy that seeks to attract new Canadians.
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Mr. Speaker, the second petition is signed by many Canadians from right across the country who call upon the government to intervene and call upon Bell Canada to stop subcontracting its work to American subcontractors. The petitioners cite that this is motivated by corporate greed and costs Canadians jobs. Many Canadian operators are being laid off and Bell Canada services are now being provided by American subcontractors in the United States.
John Williams Canadian Alliance St. Albert, AB
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition signed primarily by people in my riding who are concerned about increasing religious intolerance against Christians throughout the world today and here in Canada.
They call upon parliament to speak out more forcefully against atrocities being committed against Christian minorities around the world and specifically in China.
Murray Calder Liberal Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey, ON
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of the citizens of Ontario and Alberta, as well as members of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the RCAFWDs who call upon parliament to preserve the Rockcliffe station and keep it in the public domain.
The petitioners hope that the federal government will make Rockcliffe station a living memorial to the important contribution the men and women of the RCAF made to the history of Canada.
Maurice Vellacott Canadian Alliance Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, SK
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to introduce the signatures of 349 petitioners in support of Bill C-246, an act to amend the criminal code to prohibit coercion in medical procedures that offend a person's religion or belief that human life is inviolable.
The petitioners want to ensure that health care providers will never be forced to participate against their wills in procedures such as abortions or acts of euthanasia. They note that Canada has a long history of recognizing the rights of freedom of religion and conscience. They lament the fact that health care workers and those seeking to be educated for our health care system often have been denied those rights in medical facilities and educational institutions. Some have even been wrongfully dismissed.
The petitioners affirm Bill C-246 because it would make these conscience rights explicit in law and would safeguard health care workers' fundamental human rights.
Derek Lee LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill S-24, an act to implement an agreement between the Mohawks of Kanesatake and Her Majesty in right of Canada respecting governance of certain lands by the Mohawks of Kanesatake and to amend an Act in consequence, be read the third time and passed.
Gerald Keddy Progressive Conservative South Shore, NS
Mr. Speaker, I will conclude my remarks on Bill S-24 on an extremely important aspect of the bill and one that we should try to introduce into future pieces of legislation as we hand political and economic responsibilities over to first nations in Canada, and that is, the ability to pass laws for the first nations.
The bill would give the Mohawks of Kanesatake the power to make laws in a number of areas that were formerly made at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. It must be pointed out that the laws made by the Mohawks of Kanesatake could not be less stringent than existing municipal and provincial laws.
I was the critic for Indian affairs and northern development in the 36th parliament. This issue came up time and again in various legislation, especially in municipal legislation, in the Mi'kmaq Education Act and in the First Nations Land Management Act.
Each and every one of those times that aspect of those bills was refuted or ignored by critics of those bills. We cannot ignore that. We cannot give people rights and privileges without according them the powers to implement those rights and privileges.
What is important here, and it was extremely important in other pieces of legislation as well, is that the reins of political responsibility are being handed over to the Mohawks of Kanesatake. It ensures that the rights of individuals in the Mohawk nation are protected because the laws that will be passed in the areas over which they have jurisdiction will be no less protective of those areas than existing laws.
That does not preclude the Mohawks of Kanesatake from passing laws that are superior to existing laws, that are more protective of the environment, that are more protective of peace, good order and good government. However it guarantees a base from which they must start.
This is an extremely important part of this piece of legislation and others we have passed in the House. It is with pleasure that I stand on behalf of the Progressive Conservative Party to support this legislation.
Kanesatake Interim Land Base Governance ActGovernment Orders
The Deputy Speaker
Is the House ready for the question?