House of Commons Hansard #45 of the 37th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was board.
Larry Spencer Canadian Alliance Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Mr. Speaker, the justice minister has refused to listen to police and parents. He insists on allowing pedophiles the legal opportunity to prey on 14 year old and 15 year old children. The government has been unable to defend its position and its failure to raise the age of consent.
How can the minister justify keeping this legal loophole open to criminals and to pedophiles?
Paul MacKlin LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, we have reviewed this matter fully and we have met with the provinces and territories. We have debated the issue to the end that we believed was acceptable.
The acceptable end is that we are going to attack those who would prey upon our children and other vulnerable people. That is the legislation we brought forward. We are going to protect our children and vulnerable people. Children are a priority for this government.
Art Hanger Canadian Alliance Calgary Northeast, AB
Mr. Speaker, children are so much a priority for the government that it refuses to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16. It fails to do that and to protect our children all the way down the line. It has kept the law open for criminals to entice children who are too young to make mature decisions.
Our children must be protected from all adults whose intention it is to inflict harm, not just those in a place of trust and authority. My question for the minister is, one more time, before Christmas, why will he not raise the age of sexual consent to 16 to protect our children?
Paul MacKlin LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, as we have said in the House, we have canvassed the provinces, we have canvassed the territories, we have consulted, we have reviewed, and we have brought before the House a piece of legislation that we believe is important.
We believe this piece of legislation does attack those who are preying upon our children.
When we go through the process within the House, of course we will listen to others. We will listen to what the opposition has in debate and we will listen at committee, but in fact we believe we have brought forward a solid piece of legislation that deals with the issue, and that is protection of our children.
Julian Reed Liberal Halton, ON
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the member for Yukon, I have the honour to ask his traditional year end question of the hon. government House leader.
Would the House leader please outline what the government has accomplished since September of this year?
Don Boudria LiberalMinister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to answer this very serendipitous--
Government of CanadaOral Question Period
An hon. member
He couldn't possibly do that in 35 seconds.
Government of CanadaOral Question Period
The Speaker
Order. Hon. members I am sure will want to hear the answer that the government House leader is giving to this question. It is Christmastime after all.
The hon. government House leader.
Don Boudria Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Mr. Speaker, not only have we had six days of debate on the throne speech, we have had: the successful Kyoto resolution, which was adopted by the other place yesterday, I might add; the implementation of the Prime Minister's ethics package, by a draft bill, of the independent ethics commissioner; a code of conduct for parliamentarians; the Romanow commission report; the passing of Bill C-8 on pest control; the passing of Bill C-13 on human reproduction, as we did yesterday; and the Species at Risk Act having royal assent.
Mr. Speaker, no doubt you will recognize a supplementary so I can add to this.
Svend Robinson NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Well, that's turkey, Mr. Speaker.
Svend Robinson NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Over two years ago the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, renounced its armed struggle for the rights of the Kurdish people and committed itself to peace and democratization.
Despite this decision, this week the government announced, in response to pressure from the U.S. and Turkey, that it is adding the PKK to its list of terrorist organizations.
Why is the government now criminalizing Canadians who want to support the peaceful struggle of the Kurds for justice and human rights, for respect for their language and culture, and for an end to the jailing of Kurdish MPs like Leyla Zana? Why this shameful decision?
Wayne Easter LiberalSolicitor General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, as I have said quite a number of times in the House, the listing of entities is done in a process whereby we believe that those entities have knowingly participated in or been associated with terrorist activities.
It is done on the basis of criminal and security intelligence information. I feel confident that the decisions that we have made and the listings that we have done have been strictly based on the facts, and for the right reason: to protect the security of Canada.
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NS
Mr. Speaker, thousands of caregivers are struggling under the choices they must make between caring for loved ones under palliative care or end of life situation, and having to leave their place of work to provide that type of care.
I would like to ask the human resources minister, being the Christmas season, can she assure that these thousands of caregivers and their families will see some kind of federal program early in the new year to alleviate the financial stress of these caregivers?
On behalf of all of us in the NDP I want to wish the minister a happy Christmas and to ensure that this program--
Social ProgramsOral Question Period
The Speaker
The hon. Minister of Human Resources Development.
Jane Stewart LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows that in the last Speech from the Throne the government committed to working with Canadians so that they do not have the moral dilemma of leaving work to care for a gravely ill child or family member.
I would note in last night's debate in this place that there seems to be broad support for such an initiative from all parties. I look forward to working with the House to deliver on the government's Speech from the Throne commitment.
Loyola Hearn Progressive Conservative St. John's West, NL
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are certainly poor managers of our resources.
I would ask the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, while he is contemplating the closure of the Atlantic cod fishery to deal with declining stocks, is he also planning to deal with the growth of the seal herds, foreign overfishing, and gear types that have a detrimental effect on these stocks? If he is not, why is he bothering to close the fishery at all?
Robert Thibault LiberalMinister of Fisheries and Oceans
Mr. Speaker, the member will know that no decisions have been taken on the question of the three cod stocks in question, two in the gulf and one off Newfoundland and Labrador.
He will also know that last year I made a decision to increase the amount of seals being harvested by establishing some flexible management practices. For only the second time in 25 years did we reach the quota. I also permitted an extension of the quota of some 30,000 animals and injected some $30 million to those affected communities, that was well received last year.
We have worked very hard with the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization to ensure that rules are better respected and we will continue to do so.
Bill Casey Progressive Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
Mr. Speaker, not only are the Liberals bad managers but they do not even make changes when they know they should make them. At least the Conservatives made changes that we knew had to be made in 1984 when we inherited a $32 billion deficit from the Liberals. We brought in the GST and free trade, that the Liberals fought against the whole time. The Liberals are the Enron of Canadian managers and Canadian government.
A recent access to information request revealed that Revenue Canada and the finance department discussed legislative changes to shut down the GST fraud, but nobody made any changes. Nobody brought forward the required legislation, even know they knew there was a problem.
Why did neither of the two departments that acknowledged the problem was there bring forth the legislation? Or do they just not bother to manage?
Elinor Caplan LiberalMinister of National Revenue
Mr. Speaker, I have been very clear in saying that the amount of GST fraud over the past six years was $25.6 million and it has resulted in 57 years of jail time, plus $13.3 million in fines.
We review how the program is working all the time and what actions can be taken to deter these kind of fraudulent activities, but we know that there are those who will always try to defraud, those who will try to evade, and that is why we have such an effective enforcement capacity at CCRA.
Andy Burton Canadian Alliance Skeena, BC
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal sex offender registry is a fraud. It will utterly fail to protect Canadian children. If the registry is not retroactive, it will be launched as a blank piece of paper, without a single name on it.
What good is a sex offender registry if it does not include any known sexual predators such as Karla Homolka?
Paul MacKlin LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, the sex offender registry was set up in consultation with the provinces and territories. It was unanimously agreed that they did not want retroactivity. However, there has been a movement to deal with the province of Ontario because in fact it does have an existing sex offender registry. In that case we will work with the province to incorporate it within the existing registry as proposed.
Cheryl Gallant Canadian Alliance Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence wants to throw out 60 years of experience in training first responders for emergency preparedness by closing the Arnprior college. As an economist he should know that the estimate of $1.9 million to temporarily relocate the college to a site rejected by every other federal government department is gun registry math.
The minister has said he will allow stakeholders to put forth a proposal, but why is the minister compromising the safety and security of Canadians by disrupting the training with a move?
John McCallum LiberalMinister of National Defence
Mr. Speaker, as was pointed out by my hon. colleague from Hull—Aylmer yesterday, the member across seems to show little respect for the use of the French language in her householder, let alone for Canada's basic linguistic duality.
I would like to answer in French. The problem is that since September 11, there has been a significant increase in the number of people who need first-responder training in the event of terrorist attacks. The problem in Arnprior is that there is not enough space. It would cost $20 million—
Richard Marceau Bloc Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Speaker, the day before yesterday, the members of the National Assembly of Quebec unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Government of Canada to stop using the EI fund to pay down the federal debt and to make a transfer payment to Quebec for labour market development.
The National Assembly of Quebec would like to see an additional agreement reached that would put an end to the overlap in funding Quebec initiatives in labour market development.
Does the Minister of Human Resources Development not think the time has come to sit down with her counterpart in Quebec to negotiate this agreement, which would help develop the labour market by putting an end to these unnecessary overlaps?