Debates of Nov. 7th, 2002

Queen's Jubilee Medals

[Werner Schmidt, Canadian Alliance, Kelowna, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it was my privilege and pleasure to participate recently in a moving ceremony which awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal to members of the community of Kelowna.

The recipients are: Albert Baldeo, Cathy Comben, Herb Comben, Mark Chambers, Kristy Coueffin, Alan Dolman, Shelly Gilbeau, Ben Lee, Lil Moller, Bill Pollard, the late Dudley Pritchard, Alex Recsky, Marion Sallenbach, Lois Serwa, Tim Schroeder, Paul Stapley, Judy Stephens, Dick Stewart, Ursula Surtees and Bren Witt.

I wish to thank them for their exemplary commitment to the well-being of the people of Kelowna.

Education

[Beth Phinney, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, last week the Hamilton Training Advisory Board hosted Tech 2002: Women at Work. The forum on skilled trades and technologies is designed to encourage young women to enter non-traditional trades. This initiative brings together established women in the field with high school students considering entering a skilled trade.

The Hamilton Training Advisory Board was formed in 1996 and works to build partnerships within the City of Hamilton to promote and meet the city's skills and training needs. The advisory board is partially funded by Human Resources Development Canada and is just one more example of how the government is working to develop the skills of our future workforce.

National Defence

[Stephen Harper, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the government has been in office nine years yet it had to delay the recall of Parliament until October to come up with an agenda.

Now we have been here for over five weeks and the House has virtually no new legislation.

Let us take national defence. The U.S. mid-terms are over and the possibility of military intervention in Iraq grows, yet the government's ultimate position is unknown. Two reports have told us that the military is declining rapidly. For nine years the government has delayed decisions on equipment purchases, including helicopters.

When will the Prime Minister and the government put forward a concrete plan on national defence to revitalize our military?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, we conducted a defence update over the course of the summer during which I met literally dozens of outside experts, and we have heard reports from parliamentary committees and from many others. I will be making a submission to the government and, as is normal in our country, I think the results in terms of budget will come out at the time of the budget.

Kyoto Protocol

[Stephen Harper, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Of course, Mr. Speaker, the government also delayed the budget for several months.

Nine years ago, the government first committed to a treaty on climate change, at Rio. Five years ago, the government put forward the Kyoto commitments. We have been in session for six weeks, yet Canadians, the provinces and businesses do not know what action the government is going to take to meet these commitments.

When will the government put forward a full implementation plan, a plan on the targets, the costs and the policies necessary to put the Kyoto accord into effect?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, what we intend to do has been laid out a number of times. I will repeat it for the benefit of the hon. member.

We had a meeting on October 28 with the provinces. The meeting discussed a draft plan that we had put forward the previous week. We received comments from the provinces and territories. We are incorporating those comments into the draft plan that we put forward. On November 21 we will have another meeting with the provinces and territories on the plan, with their suggested improvements.

Justice

[Stephen Harper, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, there is not a single person who is not sitting over there who thinks the government has a plan.

The government has known about the clear need for certain criminal justice reform and yet again it has done absolutely nothing. The government has allowed the artistic merit escape clause for child porn to stand for months, and by its silence it appears to endorse voting rights for hardened criminals. The government has delayed dealing with age of consent legislation, giving a bizarre explanation of social and cultural considerations.

When is the government going to act on these criminal justice matters?

[Martin Cauchon, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that the Solicitor General and I have been involved in a federal-provincial-territorial meeting. The spirit around the table was great and very positive. It was three days of discussion that were positive not only for me in terms of being justice minister but very positive for our Canadian society.

We talked about the question of child pornography. I was able to give them broadly the structure of the reforms that we would like to start before Christmas.

Coast Guard

[John M. Cummins, Canadian Alliance, Delta—South Richmond, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Coast Guard in Newfoundland has been told to keep its ships tied up because the government cannot afford the fuel. To add insult to potential injury, the fisheries minister has asked the Coast Guard not to move them unless it has to.

The Coast Guard is not a cruise line. It is a search and rescue operation. Why are the Liberals not providing it with the necessary resources to do the job?

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the House that the Coast Guard has the resources needed to do its job. It is available for all search and rescue operations.

Fuel prices have increased. To save money, to make sure we use the resources the best available way, we have asked them to curtail or slow down all unnecessary movements. I think it is a logical way of using the Canadian taxpayers' resources responsibly.

[John M. Cummins, Canadian Alliance, Delta—South Richmond, BC]

Mr. Speaker, its responsibility suggests that it put the Coast Guard on the ocean, doing the job that is expected of it.

The Coast Guard in Newfoundland and Labrador responds to about 600 calls a year, half of them from fishermen. Along with protecting lives, the Coast Guard is our main line of defence against foreign overfishing.

Who does the minister think will patrol 20,000 kilometres of coastline in Labrador and Newfoundland if it is not the Coast Guard?

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I would like to point out that he should have said that those rescues were 97% successful, one of the most effective Coast Guard operations in the world. As for fisheries patrols, the Coast Guard does carry out fisheries patrols. We use military aircraft and our own aircraft, satellite technology and all the modern technologies that are affordable and available to us and they do an outstanding job.

Government Contracts

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, evidence is piling up in the case of the former Secretary of State for Amateur Sport. Following a meeting between an official and the secretary of state's chief of staff, an e-mail dated March 17, 2000 confirmed that the secretary of state wanted to hire Everest to organize his tour.

On April 10, 2000, we learned that a meeting was held with the secretary of state's chief of staff, his director of communications, departmental officials and Everest to organize the tour.

Do these events not confirm that the decision to hire Everest for the secretary of state's tour was made seven weeks before the contract was signed?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

No, Mr. Speaker,

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, how could the former secretary of state say he did not influence the hiring of Everest, Claude Boulay's firm, to organize his tour, when it has now been proven that his executive assistant and director of communications took part in an organizational meeting for the minister's tour seven weeks before the contract was signed?

Is this not proof that everything had already been decided?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

No, Mr. Speaker.

[Robert Lanctôt, Bloc, Châteauguay, QC]

Mr. Speaker, such arrogance is unbelievable.

The minutes of the April 10, 2000 working session confirm that the purpose of the meeting was to establish initial contact between the key players and to set out the role of each in preparing the communications plan for the regional conferences.

How can the Minister of Public Works and Government Services claim everything was done according to procedure when, as early as April 10, 2000, Everest was identified as one of the key players, even though it had not yet signed any contract?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the government would undertake no liability and make no commitment whatsoever until the requisition was properly acted on, and that occurred on May 30.

[Robert Lanctôt, Bloc, Châteauguay, QC]

Mr. Speaker, how can the Minister of Public Works and Government Services deny that, from the moment Everest was identified as one of the key players at the April 10, 2000 meeting, that is seven weeks before it officially obtained the contract, Everest had already started work? It was a done deal; the die had already been cast.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, I just answered that question. The fact is that if individuals anticipating doing business with the Government of Canada undertake some activity prior to the existence of a contract, they do so entirely within their own responsibility and at their own risk.

Criminal Code

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, today the Minister of Justice responded to the report of the standing committee on justice with respect to the need for corporate criminal liability legislation. I want to begin by saying how disappointed we are in the quality of the government's response and in the lack of any specific timetable for when exactly it will bring in this legislation. It seems designed more to assure directors than to assure workers, who are dying at the rate of 900 a year in this country.

I want to ask the Minister of Justice if he could tell us why the report is designed in this way and why there is no specific commitment to bring in legislation early in 2003.

[Martin Cauchon, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, first of all I would like to thank the committee for its wonderful work and report.

The justice department has given the committee its full cooperation. We have prepared a discussion paper and today we have tabled our answer. We are proposing to proceed with amendments to the Criminal Code. We must have a look at the question of corporate liability based on the Criminal Code, as well as the common law definition. We know that maybe we will have to broaden the doctrine of the directing mind. This will be done pretty shortly.

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the committee called for legislation having to do with the liability of directors and officers. This is precisely what the government has not recommended. Not only that, the government, it seems to me, has taken a very cavalier attitude toward deaths in the workplace. It reads “...injury and loss of life at work occurred generally in the corporate workplace”. There is not even a sentence following this sense of regret that this is the case or a commitment to do anything about it.

In the spirit of democracy, which seems to be breaking out over there, why not respect the recommendations of the committee and bring in something having to do with directors and officers?

[Martin Cauchon, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, that question is not as simple as the member thinks it is. The question of corporate liability is indeed a very complex question. We are facing the Criminal Code as well as the criminal definition and the directing mind doctrine.

We have checked as well what takes place in other countries and other jurisdictions. There is no perfect model. We would like to draft an amendment to the Criminal Code to ensure the best protection possible to employees.

Government Contracts

[Joe Clark, Progressive Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, on May 26, 2000, a Heritage Canada official, Roger Farley, sent an e-mail asking that a clause be added to the Groupe Everest contract. He did not send that e-mail to the Department of Public Works, which formally approved the contract five days later. He sent it to Patrick Doyon, director of communications for the then Secretary of State for Amateur Sport.

The government claims the then secretary of state had nothing to do with this contract. Why then was his director of communications involved in contract negotiations?