House of Commons Hansard #40 of the 37th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was firearms.
Jeannot Castonguay LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to inform the House that the provincial health ministers are meting today in Toronto with the federal Minister of Health.
In a spirit of collaboration and cooperation, they will be examining ways to develop and improve a health care system that will meet the needs of Canadians and reflect the contents of the very significant reports available to us, namely the Romanow, Kirby and Clair reports—
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, QC
Mr. Speaker, in order to ensure control over the funding it provides to the first nations, the government requires 168 reports of them, and nothing is done with them. Yet the government insists on enforcing a reporting process for health expenditures, when the public knows very well that it is the one that has the last word on this.
Does the minister not agree that the only real accountability is when governments go to the people?
Jeannot Castonguay LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health
Mr. Speaker, our reception of the Auditor General report was highly positive. It is always a pleasure to receive her reports. It is, in the end, this information that will enable us to work together to improve the situation of all Canadians.
We are well aware of the point my colleague is raising. We are equally aware of the fact that there is room for improvement when it comes to the reporting required of these people. This is why we wish to sit down with representatives of the various departments in order to ensure—
HealthOral Question Period
The Deputy Speaker
The hon. member for Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam.
James Moore Canadian Alliance Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC
Mr. Speaker, an illegal Russian immigrant is charged with using three privately owned automatic teller machines to steal more than $1.2 million, but there is a twist. He did not steal the money from the machines. He owned the machines.
He used the ATMs to gather bank information and PIN numbers from unsuspecting customers and robbed their accounts later. These machines were authorized by the federal Competition Tribunal but because they are not operated by a chartered bank, they are unregulated.
When will the government act to protect both consumers and legitimate owners of private ATMs?
Bryon Wilfert LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, if someone is defrauding the banks' customers from ATM machines, he or she is subject to prosecution by the law. Obviously they will go to court and they will be dealt with.
Now if there is in fact a widespread problem in this particular industry, it will be reviewed by the government and appropriate actions would be taken.
Dick Harris Canadian Alliance Prince George—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, the problem is that no one really regulates these white label ATMs and as a result consumers are not protected from fraud artists. The federal laws that govern the same operations of ATMs of the financial institutions do not apply to white label ATMs.
We have to ask the question, why is the government making it so easy for ATM fraud artists to operate in Canada?
Bryon Wilfert LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, of course we are not making it easy. First, it is a Criminal Code offence and it will be dealt with. If someone steals something, whether it is from a bank or a store, the same principle applies under the Criminal Code.
Sometimes in the House props might be useful, in this case to draw the member a picture: Criminal Code, people steal, they get prosecuted and go to court, and we will deal with it.
Sarkis Assadourian Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, the employment figure for the month of November has just been released. It is not 4,000, it is not 14,000, it is not 40,000, but 42,300 new jobs.
Could the Minister of Finance give us any new information on the employment front for the year 2002?
Bryon Wilfert LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, first let me point out that the unemployment rate for this month is down to 7.5%. Most of the 42,000 new jobs are in the manufacturing sector.
The total for the year, and I will say this very slowly, is 502,000 new jobs, of which almost 100,000 were created among young Canadians. What is important is that this shows that the prudent policies of the government have created the economic climate for this type of job growth.
Wendy Lill NDP Dartmouth, NS
Mr. Speaker, the government likes to pat itself on the back on the improvement of jobs situation.
The fact is persons with disabilities have a 50% unemployment rate in this country and the government is about to let expire a very important disability support and wage subsidy program for vulnerable Canadians. The employment assistance for persons with disabilities program is said to expire in March. The current recipients need to know if the program will be renewed.
Will the government let that $193 million per year program continue into 2003-04 or should these groups--
Persons with DisabilitiesOral Question Period
The Deputy Speaker
I have tried to be very generous, but the hon. Minister of Human Resources Development.
Jane Stewart LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development
Mr. Speaker, this is a very timely question and I thank the hon. member for her interest in this file.
Indeed last week I met with the ministers of social services and we talked about expediting the new replacement program for employment assistance for people with disabilities.
I can tell the hon. member that I was most optimistic coming out of that meeting. Ministers right across the country want to work with the Government of Canada to ensure that these moneys, $193 million today, will continue to flow for the benefit of Canadians with disabilities.
Wendy Lill NDP Dartmouth, NS
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the minister's comments.
The government has promised a labour market strategy for the one in six Canadians with a disability in the last two throne speeches. It still has not happened and we still see the largest employment support program getting ready to expire.
I appreciate the minister's sentiment but I need to know as well as the groups that are working in this area, when will it happen? Will it happen before March, does the anxiety continue forever, or will we know ASAP?
Jane Stewart LiberalMinister of Human Resources Development
Mr. Speaker, I can tell the hon. member that provincial ministers and myself have agreed on a framework of action that deals with the question of employability, supply and demand. We want to ensure that EAPD moneys are reflected against that framework and can be leveraged with existing provincial moneys.
The hon. member can rest assured that the government is committed to ensuring that Canadians with disabilities can exercise their full rights as citizens in this country.
Rick Borotsik Progressive Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Mr. Speaker, we know that the ratification of the Kyoto protocol will adversely affect agriculture. All agriculture stakeholders have said emphatically that carbon sink credits must be given to the owner of the property. The federal government has been somewhat reluctant to agree to that.
Will the Minister of Agriculture stand today and tell us that agricultural carbon sink credits will go to agricultural landowners?
David Anderson LiberalMinister of the Environment
Mr. Speaker, the first correction needed is in the first words of the hon. member's preamble to his question.
The fact is if we do not act on climate change agriculture in Canada will be dramatically and negatively impacted. We will see large areas, particularly areas that depend upon the eastern slope of the Rockies for their water supplies, literally disappearing as agricultural sectors for the Canadian economy.
That is why it is so important for the agricultural community, and in particular the agricultural community in Alberta, to understand that we must have measures to reduce the impact of climate change on the agricultural industry.
Joe Clark Progressive Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, last week, the Secretary of State responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec confirmed in this House that he had met with stakeholders in the matter of the Agropur plant in Chambord. He assured them that the federal government would provide financial support for the local consortium that wants to reopen the plant.
What is the nature and amount of the federal assistance, and when can the consortium expect to receive a cheque?
Claude Drouin LiberalSecretary of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec)
Mr. Speaker, when I met with the people from the plant in Chambord last Monday, along with our candidate, Gilbert Tremblay, who is doing an excellent job in supporting people, we indicated that we were prepared to work together with them on a feasibility study.
However, the hon. member should understand that we need to see the plans before we can determine how much money will be granted.
We assured them we would work in cooperation with them, and that is what we will do.
Howard Hilstrom Canadian Alliance Selkirk—Interlake, MB
Mr. Speaker, the government is blindly stampeding the Canadian economy over a financial cliff to sure disaster if it ratifies the Kyoto agreement. On Tuesday, the agriculture department's assistant deputy minister for research said that his bureau still has not done a cost benefit analysis of the impact Kyoto will have on agriculture.
Why has this research not been done?
David Anderson LiberalMinister of the Environment
Mr. Speaker, we have done extensive research on the major sectors of the Canadian economy.
The issue for the hon. member who comes from Alberta is why he is not recognizing the importance of dealing with a long term problem which will literally eliminate the type of agriculture we now have on the areas of the prairies dependent upon the eastern slope of the Rockies for the flow of water, particularly the flows in the summer times.
It is really incredible that this party has not understood the impact that climate change could have on prairie agriculture.
David Anderson Canadian Alliance Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Mr. Speaker, the member who asked the question is from Manitoba, and agriculture was not one of the sectors studied. In fact the government's modelling was so bad that we were told that one of its main assumptions was that petroleum producers could not even pass their costs onto farmers.
In 1998 a study conducted by our largest trading partner, the U.S., determined that implementing Kyoto would increase farm expenses by 32%, diminish agricultural exports, and put farmers out of business. They called the Kyoto protocol “the single biggest public policy threat to the agricultural community today”.
Is it not true that the reason the government has hidden its results from farmers is because its conclusions confirm the results of the U.S. study?
Kyoto ProtocolOral Question Period
December 6th, 2002 / 11:45 a.m.
Prince Edward—Hastings Ontario
Liberal
Lyle Vanclief LiberalMinister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Mr. Speaker, I think what is true is that this party, as it always has been on so many issues, is behind the times.
The hon. member said himself that it was a 1998 study, one which many other studies and all other studies have said was not done well and in fact is not relevant to the situation today.
The specific question that the head of research in Agriculture Canada was asked the other day was if there were specific projects in research in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the individual said no. However the policy and the overall review has been done and I will be informing--
Kyoto ProtocolOral Question Period
The Deputy Speaker
The hon. member for Terrebonne--Blainville.