Debates of May 1st, 2002

Leadership Campaigns

[James Rajotte, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister of Industry is about his travelling staffer, Mr. Thiara. This individual worked for the minister when he was in the health portfolio. Could the minister explain exactly what he did for taxpayers at Health Canada? Could he explain exactly what he does for the minister now in industry? Is he really doing something for taxpayers on these trips to Manitoba or is he in fact working on the minister's unofficial leadership campaign?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, the member invites a repetition of the salient facts and they are these. All disclosure has been made when I have been asked for disclosure in accordance with the treasury board guidelines, the Prime Minister's directive and the Access to Information Act. Most important of all, any expenses that were claimed were claimed for business done for the public and any expenses other than that were incurred were not claimed.

[James Rajotte, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, here are the salient facts. The Minister of Industry has a person in his office doing departmental work in Manitoba. At least that is the official story. However there is no expense record or no official documents that show any departmental work being accomplished. There is $5,200 worth of plane rides coinciding with Manitoba Liberal fundraising and organizing events.

Would the minister reveal the truth about the spending of these taxpayer dollars to further his own leadership ambitions?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, those are the facts and he will have to be content with reality. Their fevered imaginations are running away with them. They have been spending so much time on leaderships that it is distracting them from the business of the nation.

The fact is any expenses that were incurred on public business were claimed. Other expenses were not. Disclosure was made when asked for, all in accordance with the law.

Canada Labour Code

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Canada Labour Code does not provide adequate protection to workers who are on strike or locked out. Cargill workers in Baie-Comeau have been locked out for two years and are currently being replaced by scabs. As for Radio-Canada, it is using foreign companies to fill the void created by its locked out workers.

Does the Minister of Labour not think that it is urgent to amend the Canada Labour Code to ban the use of scabs, as her government wanted to do as early as in 1990, and thus restore some balance in employer employee relations?

[Claudette Bradshaw, Liberal, Minister of Labour and Secretary of State (Multiculturalism) (Status of Women)]

Mr. Speaker, the review of part I of the Canada Labour Code was completed after eight years of work with employees and employers.

The Canada Labour Code belongs to these two groups. The issues that were put in the Canada Labour Code were included by employers and employees, based on their needs, not our needs.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we still do not have anti-scab legislation at the federal level.

By not including specific provisions to allow female workers to get paid in cases of preventive withdrawal, the Canada Labour Code creates two categories of pregnant workers in Quebec.

Will the minister finally make good on her promises and amend the Canada Labour Code, so that Quebec female workers who come under federal jurisdiction will stop being penalized?

[Claudette Bradshaw, Liberal, Minister of Labour and Secretary of State (Multiculturalism) (Status of Women)]

Mr. Speaker, as the Bloc Quebecois member knows—and we have had several discussions on this issue—we are now looking at part III of the Canada Labour Code, which deals with standards. As promised to the Bloc Quebecois member, employees and employers will discuss this issue.They will decide what should be included in the code.

Our government wants to ensure that the Canada Labour Code belongs to employers and employees, not to politicians.

Leadership Campaigns

[Betty Hinton, Canadian Alliance, Kamloops, Thompson And Highland Valleys, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it seems the Minister of Canadian Heritage is not above mixing government business with partisan activity at taxpayer expense. The minister needs to explain why her fundraiser and long time organizer, Joe Thornley, was under contract to her department at the same time he was collecting cash for her leadership campaign.

Why did the minister think it was acceptable to put her fundraiser on the public payroll? Was the conflict of interest not apparent to her?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

As a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, it is that kind of allegation that is absolutely below even responding to because the fact is that the communications advice which has been given to me by Mr. Thornley over a period of a number of years has been given because he is an excellent adviser.

I have never made a link between any work that he might do as a volunteer in the Liberal Party in the same way as members opposite who have people working for them as volunteers should be accused of such a thing. It is absolutely despicable.

[Betty Hinton, Canadian Alliance, Kamloops, Thompson And Highland Valleys, BC]

Mr. Speaker, there is a pattern of deceit and sleaze in the way that leadership aspirants use government money, tax money, to fund their efforts to replace the Prime Minister.

We know about the heritage minister's cozy relationship with certain individuals and organizations. She gives $1 million dollars to a Toronto organization and, voila, its chairman pledges to raise $7 million for her campaign.

Is it any wonder that so many Canadians think that the government is corrupt?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, there is one thing that people have in politics and that is their good name. I have not spent over 20 years in public life to have my name smeared by somebody who does not know the facts.

I would invite the hon. member to make the statement that she just made in the House outside and she will be seeking the appropriate advice from her libel and slander lawyer.

Government Expenditures

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this morning's National Post suggests that the replacement Challengers contain some new multimillion dollar defence suite straight out of a Hollywood movie.

Could the Minister of Public Works and Government Services confirm this and give us some details about the suite?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, although I certainly cannot go into specific details on security measures for the Challenger fleet, I can assure the hon. member that the contracts provide for equipment similar to the one we had in the other plane. To be more precise, this does not include any type of new defence system such as the one suggested erroneously by the media.

Nuclear Waste

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—St. Clair, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Bush government is pushing ahead with plans for the shipping of nuclear waste for disposal at its Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada.

As part of this ill-conceived plan, it intends, within the next decade, to ship thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste by barge on Lake Michigan. This will put communities, like mine in Windsor, and tens of millions of people in the Great Lakes basin at risk.

Have any consultations gone on between this government and the U.S. with regard to this ill-advised plan?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. government has made no representation to us with regard to the movement of radioactive material. However I can assure the member that this would require consultation with the Canadian government.

We also have an international joint commission, on which the former Deputy Prime Minister is a member, to assure that any movement will require full consultation and approval by the Canadian government.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—St. Clair, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the department, which studied this plan, showed that 108,000 shipments of radioactive waste will be made to that facility. It has proposed that there will be at least 50 to 300 accidents. This will have a direct effect on the drinking water of 30 million people in the Great Lakes area.

Will the Prime Minister ask the U.S. president to cease this plan, express our opposition and tell us what steps he will take to protect this country?

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, we have not been approached by the U.S. government. If it does approach us, it will be required to get approval from the Canadian government, the appropriate regulatory approval, and the Canadian government must be consulted fully before a decision on this is made.

However we have had no request and there is no proposal before us. Until we have the full plan we do not know. If a request does come forward the appropriate review will take place.

Terrorism

[Inky Mark, Canadian Alliance, Dauphin—Swan River, MB]

Mr. Speaker, since September 11 Canada has been focused on keeping our country safe and secure from terrorists, yet yesterday the immigration minister tabled a report which indicated that ministerial permits were signed to allow 11 terrorists into this country in the last year.

These permits were given to those who had been engaged in terrorism. Why does the minister of immigration allow terrorists to enter into Canada?

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, we did indeed table the report on special permits yesterday.

Incidentally, all the members of this House submit special requests asking that we show compassion in certain cases.

We are here to ensure public safety. We definitely do not want to let terrorists enter our country.

National Defence

[Elsie Wayne, Progressive Conservative, Saint John, NB]

Mr. Speaker, it seems that with each passing week the Minister of National Defence is forced to confirm further problems with his bargain basement used subs.

Last week he would not comment on the possibility of problems with the hull valves, yet yesterday his officials confirmed that we were correct.

The question we now ask again concerns metal fatigue. Can or will the minister confirm that one or more of these used submarines is currently plagued with metal fatigue? Can or will the minister advise the House of all the problems currently known to his department with respect--

[The Speaker]

The hon. Minister of National Defence.

[Art Eggleton, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of mental fatigue coming from that end of the Chamber.

It is like having a car. If the car has a couple of problems under the hood, what do we do? We do not write it off, we get it fixed. If it happens to be covered by warranty, we cover it by warranty, put it back out on the road and operate it. That is what we will do with these submarines.

Ethics Counsellor

[James Moore, Canadian Alliance, Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, with so much evidence of scandal before us, it is time the government made a firm commitment to end it.

The Prime Minister could simply do what we have been asking him to do, which would fulfill the promise he made to Canadians, to have the ethics counsellor report directly to parliament. Why can the Prime Minister not keep that simple promise?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, there was no ethics counsellor before we formed the government. When we introduced this concept it was approved by the opposition. An individual's name was sent to the leader of the Alliance, the Reform Party at that time, and the name was approved. The individual was praised by the member of parliament who was the critic and he was praised by Mr. Bouchard who was the leader of the opposition at that time. It was understood that the ethics counsellor would advise ministers, members of parliament and appear before committees to reply to all questions. This is accountability. If he gave advice to me, he gave advice to me. If he gave advice to a minister, he gave advice--