Debates of Dec. 10th, 2002

Softwood Lumber

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

Mr. Speaker, since the beginning of the softwood lumber crisis, the Bloc Quebecois has proposed that the companies affected be given assistance in the form of loan guarantees. The government promised a two-phase plan, but the second phase has been a very long time in coming.

Is the Minister of Industry planning on taking care of his portfolio, instead of commenting on all kinds of issues in an attempt to further his leadership bid? And when will he be launching phase two of his assistance plan to help save the softwood lumber industry?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, as we have already specified, we announced some $110 million for communities that have been affected by the softwood lumber crisis.

In the coming days, we will be announcing details about this program to diversify the economies of local communities and help out the people affected.

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

Mr. Speaker, his colleague, the Minister of Natural Resources, told us that he would be assessing the situation in four or five months to see if other measures might be needed to support workers in the industry. We were expecting these measures for Christmas. Now, we are left wondering if they will be in place for Easter.

Does the minister understand that time is of the essence and that support measures are needed, and needed now?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, when we announced the $240 million package, we said that it is extremely important for Canada and the U.S. to resolve this issue and we did not want anything to jeopardize that. We still feel there is a window of opportunity.

As I said earlier, the loan guarantee and other programs are still being considered. If we do not get an agreement with the U.S., which we hope there will be, we will ensure that we support the workers and industry. That door is still open and both those instruments are still on the table for us to make sure we do everything we can to protect the industry and the workers in the forest sector.

Firearms Registry

[Garry Breitkreuz, Canadian Alliance, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, last week the Auditor General's report did not tell us what are the big costs still to come in the gun registry, namely, enforcement costs, court costs, economic costs, and annual maintenance costs.

Parliament and the public have been misled for seven years. Will the minister now come clean and tell us how much it will cost to complete the registry and how much it will cost to maintain it?

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

Mr. Speaker, it is clear in my mind and it is clear from the Auditor General's report as well that all the numbers have been reported and all the numbers have been approved by Parliament.

If we look at the recommendations of the Auditor General, which we have accepted, the question is the consolidated report that we have to table. The question is the way we should be accountable and to what extent we have to be accountable. We will answer those recommendations. On this side of the House we will be transparent. We will keep proceeding with the gun registry because we believe in public--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Yorkton--Melville.

[Garry Breitkreuz, Canadian Alliance, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, that answer is irrelevant. I have to conclude that the minister does not know the answer.

Last week the Ontario Police Association said that the $1 billion that has been wasted on the gun registry would have been better invested in front line policing.

Today's newspaper reports that the minister's claimed drop in firearms deaths predated the gun registry by a decade. Also, the 20-year-old gun licensing system that was supposedly producing these results cost less than half of the present system to operate.

How much will it cost to register all the guns and--

[The Speaker]

The hon. Minister of Justice.

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

Mr. Speaker, safety is not irrelevant to us. We believe in safety. We will proceed with the program. It is a good program. We are starting to see the benefits of the program as a society as well.

I have said that I have accepted the recommendations. We will fix the problems.

Veterinary Colleges

[Diane St-Jacques, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have just attended an important announcement concerning the future of Canada's colleges of veterinary medicine. This is the outcome of intensive political pressure by members of the Liberal caucus over the past few months. I am asking the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to inform the House of what the Government of Canada intends to do to help the colleges of veterinary medicine retain their accreditation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Shefford and all the caucus members for the support and encouragement that they have given and the facts that they have pointed out of the importance of all the veterinary colleges across Canada. This has led to the announcement by the government just a few minutes ago of $113 million to retain their accreditation.

Health

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, on November 28, the same day that the Romanow commission called for the inclusion of diagnostic services under the Canada Health Act, the Canadian armed forces announced a new deal with a for profit, investor owned MRI clinic in Halifax so that its members could jump the queue for medically necessary scans.

Given that the armed forces are directly under the control of the federal government and since the Romanow commission has clearly indicated the threat to public health care posed by for profit diagnostic clinics, will the government move as quickly as possible to terminate the agreement and bring all government controlled practices in line with the Romanow commission's recommendations?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the armed forces are presently not covered under the Canada Health Act. As the hon. member is probably aware, there are a number of groups that were grandfathered when the act was put in place. Those groups include the Canadian armed forces, provincial workers compensation plans and some others.

National Security

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, our Coast Guard is in a shambles. Our military is severely underfunded. Our customs officers do not have the tools to do their job. The defence minister and the foreign affairs minister signed, without parliamentary consent or without parliamentary due, a $35 million two year deal with the Americans on further integration which we fear is going to be the slippery slope to the loss of our sovereignty.

In fact the defence minister said yesterday that we control that slope.

I would like to ask the defence minister, prior to the further integration with the U.S. on the security deal, will he please bring those people before Parliament--

[The Speaker]

The hon. Minister of National Defence.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, it is true that I said yesterday that I was not in favour of this argument about slippery slopes when we indeed control the slope.

As for parliamentary participation, the House defence committee did recommend we consult with the Americans on this project some time ago. We did so. I spoke to the committee on November 27 on the matter and said that negotiations were near complete. Not one opposition member asked a single question, and so we have done it.

Middle East

[Bill Casey, Progressive Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, after advising the Minister of Foreign Affairs, last week I met with Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz and Iraq's former ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Nizar Hamdoon. These two officials have now agreed to come to Canada to make a presentation and answer questions of our foreign affairs committee, if invited.

If the committee extends the invitation, will the Department of Foreign Affairs and the minister assist by providing the necessary visas and documents in a timely manner?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, far be it from me to interfere in the committee's work. I would assume that the committee would take a responsible look at any suggestion and ways in which we could advance the desire of all people to have peace in the Middle East.

However, at the moment this is in the hands of the United Nations. It is under the Security Council. I do not believe Canadians would want to be in any way interfering or stepping between what is being successfully pursued at the Security Council at this time.

[Bill Casey, Progressive Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very clear that we in this party are totally in support of the UN resolution 1441 but we feel that we are making all this effort for a military conflict and are making no diplomatic effort, and we ask that this be done.

If Canada is prepared to send our military into a potential conflict in Iraq, we have an obligation to explore every possible diplomatic opportunity and we have not done that. Members of the committee may have ideas that could help defuse the situation.

Would the minister help make it possible for these officials to meet with our parliamentarians?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, clearly it would be premature for me to speak about anything before the committee has made a decision on this matter. However I totally reject the premise of the member's question that we have been doing nothing on the diplomatic front to advance peace in the area.

The Prime Minister spoke to the president personally about this matter. I have met on many occasions with Secretary Powell. We have worked through G-8. We have worked through every conceivable format we know to ensure that this matter is handled through the Security Council in a way which guarantees the maximum opportunity for us to have a peaceful resolution of this matter.

Terrorism

[Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we are hearing today that the Liberals may be responding, not on principle but to political pressure, and may have actually worked up the nerve to ban Hezbollah. Now this would come a full year after passing the anti-terrorism laws, long after banning less dangerous groups and long after CSIS warned the Liberals that Hezbollah was dangerously active in Canada.

In what year did CSIS first warn the Liberals about Hezbollah activity in Canada and why have the Liberals given this terrorist group so much special attention?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, listing entities is a very serious issue. It requires serious thought and serious research. I would hope that no one, not even the hon. member opposite, would play politics with this issue, and that is what he seems to be doing.

Haste is not what is required here. It is analysis that is based on fact and on criminal and security intelligence information, and we will make a decision on future entities soon.

[Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Mr. Speaker, he talks about haste. Hezbollah has been killing people on three continents for two decades. Now it has warned that it is attacking the rest of the free world.

While the liberals say that we should dialogue with these terrorists rather than shut them down, Hezbollah has been openly raising money and recruiting in Canada for a long time.

What is the Liberal estimate of how many Canadian dollars have been raised in Canada to support Hezbollah terrorist activities while the Liberals have dialogued with them?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, much of the member's allegation is just nonsense. The fact of the matter is the military wing of Hezbollah was listed under Canada's suppression of terrorism regulations in 2001. We did our work.

In terms of looking at entities and bringing them forward to the list, we will only do it on the basis of sound criminal and security intelligence information. We will not play politics with this issue.