Debates of May 28th, 2002

Government Appointments

[John Manley, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Crown Corporations]

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member must have a very good understanding of funny business. He has had plenty of experience.

It must, however, be acknowledged that, in this case, the Prime Minister was recognizing the service an individual had provided to the public for a number of years.

There is also the fact that, here in the House and in the committees of the House, the hon. member can ask any question he wishes on what interests him.

Health

[Janko Peric, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health. With the current pace of life and rising demands on workers in our knowledge based economy, mental illness is expected to rise sharply.

What is the minister doing to bolster mental health research and treatment efforts?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, indeed the Government of Canada considers issues surrounding mental health as very important, not only to individual Canadians but to their families and their communities.

Health Canada works across this country to promote mental health, working at the grassroots level developing tools, programs and resources. We also support the CIHR which has funded recently to the tune of close to some $10 million 55 projects in communities of all sizes to learn more about the causes of mental illness and how we, our families and communities can deal with the challenges of mental illness.

Government Contracts

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

Mr. Speaker, in 1997, the minister of immigration stayed at a luxury condo owned by Claude Boulay, the president of Groupe Everest. First, he said that he never stayed at Mr. Boulay's condo, but his story changed. Now, he tells us that he spent several weeks in this luxury accommodation.

My question for the minister is a simple one: Why did he change his story? Why?

[John Manley, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Crown Corporations]

Mr. Speaker, his explanation was that he had not clearly understood the question in English. In any event, this question has been asked several times today, and the answer is the same.

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

Mr. Speaker, the purpose of question period is to try to hold the government accountable. It is hard to do that when ministers do not stand up and answer questions that are asked of them.

We asked the solicitor general a simple yes or no question, but he cannot summon the will to stand up and answer yes or no to a simple question. We asked the minister of immigration simple questions. He cannot stand in his place and answer the questions. We tried to ask questions of Mr. Gagliano but the Liberals hid him over in an embassy.

I ask again a simple question of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. If he is worth his income as a minister he will stand up and answer it. Why did he change his story about staying at the luxury condo? Why did he change it?

[John Manley, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Crown Corporations]

Mr. Speaker, I encourage you to deal with that issue as a matter of a point of order because the rules of the House are quite clear. The minister of immigration has no obligation to stand in the House to answer questions about what he did when he was a backbench member of parliament.

If the member has any question to do with his responsibilities as minister of immigration, if he can think of one, why does he not ask it and the minister will respond?

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, as parliamentarians, we are entitled to know who at amateur sport awarded the contract to Everest.

I have a simple question for the minister of heritage—we are told that she is the one. Did she authorize the contract, what were the criteria, and did she know that the president of the company was a close friend of her minister responsible for amateur sport? That is a clear and simple question. Can she answer?

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

Mr. Speaker, let me try to be quite clear. The contract in question was awarded by the Department of Canadian Heritage. It was not the secretary of state's office. All Government of Canada procedures for acquiring communications services were followed.

The specific choice of Groupe Everest was made by officials in the Department of Public Works and Government Services on the basis of the agency's standing offer with that department.

Renewable Energy Sources

[Gérard Binet, Liberal, Frontenac—Mégantic, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Natural Resources.

Renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar energy, are gaining more and more interest throughout the world.

In addition to reducing our dependance on oil and gas, these energy sources also provide a solution to the pressing problem confronting Canadians: the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other atmospheric emissions from energy production and consumption.

Can the Minister of Natural Resources explain to the House of Commons how the government—

[The Speaker]

The hon. Minister of Natural Resources.

[Herb Dhaliwal, Liberal, Minister of Natural Resources]

Mr. Speaker, renewable energy is extremely important for all members of the House. Last week I launched in North Cape in Prince Edward Island the wind power production incentive, a $260 million initiative, to develop wind energy across the country.

This new Government of Canada program will help increase the amount of wind energy available across Canada by 500%. This is a substantial improvement and I know all members of the House will support the program.

Agriculture

[Howard Hilstrom, Canadian Alliance, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Speaker, a bombshell was dropped on the cattle industry over the weekend when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency revealed it downgraded Manitoba's tuberculosis free status five years ago. The Liberals neglected to inform the cattle producers, the Manitoba government and the House of Commons of the change in Manitoba's tuberculosis status.

In question period on March 15, in response to my questions, the minister of agriculture stated that all of Canada was TB free. This is clearly not true.

Did the minister not know of Manitoba's change in status or did he just simply mislead the House?

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

Mr. Speaker, the status of Manitoba is one that does not affect provincial movement of cattle, livestock, interprovincial movement of cattle or international movement of cattle. It has TB free accreditation but is not designated as totally TB free. The Canadian animal health consultative committee and the province of Manitoba has been aware of that.

Government Contracts

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we now know that it is the minister of heritage who awarded the contract. Since it is her department, she has the responsibility.

My question for her has to do with the criteria she used. Did she know that Groupe Everest belonged to a personal friend of the minister responsible for amateur sport? Did she discuss this with the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport before awarding the contract?

Could she tell us what process she followed, since she is responsible for awarding this contract?

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

Mr. Speaker, again let me be clear. The contract was awarded by the Department of Canadian Heritage not by the minister. The choice of Groupe Everest was made by officials in the Department of Public Works and Government Services at the time on the basis of the agency's standing offer with that department and that standing offer was the result of a fully competitive process.

Taxation

[Lorne Nystrom, NDP, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance. It is a question on tax policy. Deaf and hard of hearing people, including students, now are issued tax bills for funds they receive to hire a sign language interpreter or a captioner. This taxation imposes an unfair financial burden and hardship, in particular on students, forcing many to discontinue their studies.

Will the minister do the right thing now and stop issuing tax bills for services that help to provide a level playing field for students and all Canadians who have hearing difficulties?

[Paul Martin, Liberal, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows, in the last budget, and in fact in the budget prior to that as well, we substantially improved the tax credits for people with disabilities. It is the government's intention to continue to do this.

I will certainly examine the issue the member has raised.

Government Contracts

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister. Is it the government's position that ministers have no authority over the issuing of advertising or sponsorship contracts?

[John Manley, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Crown Corporations]

Mr. Speaker, the minister of public works has explained what process was followed with respect to that contract. I hope that clarified any confusion the hon. member found in my earlier response in French.

Presence in Gallery

[The Speaker]

I draw the attention of hon. members to the presence in the gallery of His Excellency Ahmad Humaid Al Tayer, who is the Minister of Communications of the United Arab Emirates and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Emirates Post.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

Points of Order

[Jim Abbott, Canadian Alliance, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it has been the practice of the House during question period that the opposition can only ask questions of the ministers and their area of ministerial responsibility. We have always been precluded from asking a question about the minister's responsibility with respect to province or other responsibilities that the Prime Minister has given to him.

The solicitor general, in a response to one of the questions today, made it very clear that he, as solicitor general, also had ministerial responsibility for the province of Prince Edward Island.

I would therefore ask if this does not make the case that in future the official opposition and others will be able to ask the ministers questions about their provincial responsibilities along with their other assigned responsibilities?

[Don Boudria, Liberal, Minister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Kootenay--Columbia just raised a point stating that he considered it would be appropriate for someone to answer questions about regional responsibilities or responsibilities outside of the minister's administrative function.

I draw to the attention of the House page 426 of Marleau and Montpetit, which says very clearly that a question must lie within the administrative responsibility of the government or the individual minister addressed. The footnote refers to an intervention by the then speaker, the hon. John Bosley, in reference to Sinclair Stevens where at the time Mr. Stevens was asked a question regarding his personal behaviour and something having nothing to do with his department.

At the time the Speaker ruled that the question was out of order on the ground that it did not pertain to Mr. Stevens' responsibility as the minister. He further clarified that questions of a purely personal nature or otherwise were out of order, even if the borderline between what was personal and what was ministerial was not always evident. That was on May 8, 1986, pages 13081 and 13082 of Hansard .

[Jim Abbott, Canadian Alliance, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the House leader has read us something that is irrelevant to my point. It is irrelevant in that the quotation that he read had to do with the fact that the question related to the personal business of Mr. Stevens. This issue does not have anything to do with the personal business of the solicitor general or certainly should not have.

My point is that the solicitor general in my judgment, and I am looking for your wisdom on this, Mr. Speaker, has clearly opened the door. As a minister that has been assigned responsibility for Prince Edward Island by the Prime Minister of Canada, he has reaffirmed in the House that he has responsibility for Prince Edward Island.

I put it to you, Mr. Speaker, that I should also be able to ask, for example, of the Minister of Natural Resources, who is the political minister for the province of British Columbia as assigned by the Prime Minister and does administrative functions on behalf of the Prime Minister with respect to that provincial responsibility, questions about what is going on in the province of British Columbia as they relate to any spending related to WED or anything of that nature in that province.

I think the solicitor general has opened the door and I would like to drive my car through it.