Debates of June 21st, 2002

Government of Canada

[Art Hanger, Canadian Alliance, Calgary Northeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, why should Canadians buy that garbage? How many times have they heard it before? Facts are irrelevant to the government and it avoids the truth. Is it any wonder that the latest poll shows that more than half of Canadians do not trust the government.

Here is another suggestion for improving its rating. Instead of damage control, stage management and public relations, why not be completely open about cleaning up the corruption in the ad and sponsorship programs with a full independent public judicial inquiry now?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the auditor general was asked to move in at the request of the opposition, now it wants something else.

What I would like everybody to note is that we are trying to set up a committee to establish guidelines and standards for members of parliament and the Alliance Party has refused to participate in an endeavour to make sure that we have guidelines that apply to all members of parliament and all members of the Senate.

International Criminal Court

[Antoine Dubé, Bloc, Lévis-Et-Chutes-De-La-Chaudière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the United States is opposed to the authority of the future International Criminal Court extending to American military on peace missions. Not only does this attitude threaten the role of the court, but also the very existence of future peace missions that may be organized under the auspices of the UN.

Does the Prime Minister, who will meet with the U.S. president during the G-8 summit, intend to express his opposition, and strongly urge the president to modify his attitude?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians were among the first to work on this issue. We are pleased to have made so much progress. This is another initiative of the Government of Canada with other countries.

We would obviously like the Americans to participate, but they do not want to. We deeply regret this and I have already had the opportunity to say so to the U.S. authorities.

[Antoine Dubé, Bloc, Lévis-Et-Chutes-De-La-Chaudière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in view of the rigidity of the U.S. position, does the government plan to suspend sending Canadian troops on any mission under foreign command, and will he make a commitment to no longer send troops unless they are under the auspices of the UN?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, these are situations that must be assessed on a case by case basis. Sometimes it is impossible to get UN consent, because certain members have a veto on the security council.

However, on some occasions in the past, when it was necessary to protect the lives of civilians and there was no consent from the United Nations, Canada has joined peacekeeping missions, even without the explicit authorization of the United Nations, when one or two members of the security council had refused to support the initiative.

The Media

[Cheryl Gallant, Canadian Alliance, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, despite the denials there are still plenty of suspicions that the Prime Minister was somehow involved in the firing of the prominent journalist who was critical of his leadership.

Those suspicions received new fuel today with the news that another prominent person has felt the sting of the Prime Minister's Office for criticizing the Prime Minister and, worse yet, supporting his chief rival.

Raymond Garneau, a Quebecer with very strong credentials, was punted from the Bank of Canada board following his suggestion that the Prime Minister resign.

Who is next on the Prime Minister's hit list?

[John Manley, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, that is an interesting question. I assume I am being asked to take this as being a representation on the part of the member as to who should be on the board of directors of the Bank of Canada. I will take it as that. Of course I am sure she will agree that the independence of the bank is a very important prerequisite for the credibility of the monitoring policy of the government. That has been the tradition and that will continue to be respected.

[Cheryl Gallant, Canadian Alliance, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the government offers excuses just like it did with the firing of Russell Mills from the Ottawa Citizen. However Canadians still have their suspicions.

The Prime Minister has a pretty long reach given his concentration of power in that office, and there is ample evidence that he likes to use that power to advance his personal agenda. We also know he is not above pulling the levers of power to thwart the former finance minister's efforts to replace him.

Why is the government sending a not so subtle message that no one can say anything critical about the Prime Minister without the fear of job repercussions?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, some years ago, when there was another owner, Joan Fraser, Peter Calamai and Jim Travers lost their jobs. Warren Kinsella lost his job as a writer for the same group. There were no interventions. The owners of this corporation make their own decisions as did the previous owners and the owners before them. We have nothing to do with that. If I were to control the press, there would be a few mornings when some things would not appear in some of the newspapers.

Canadian Heritage

[Bob Speller, Liberal, Haldimand—Norfolk—Brant, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

The minister must be aware now of the silly goings on in the United States capital where the U.S. house of representatives passed a motion claiming that somebody other than Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

I am wondering if the minister will take the time to inform the U.S. congress that indeed yes, Virginia, Alexander Graham Bell did invent the telephone.

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, this is one planted question that will bear fruit.

The member for Haldimand--Norfolk--Brant has raised a very important point. It has also been raised by my colleague from Brantford and by members on all sides of the House.

I am very pleased to report that right after question period I hope we will be able to table a unanimous resolution of all members of the House recognizing the fact that the real inventor of the telephone was indeed Alexander Graham Bell.

Agriculture

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

On the farm question, George Bush has put up 100% of the money for American farmers, not the states of Montana and North Dakota.

Our Liberal government wants to put up 60% of the money and the provinces the rest, which discriminates again some of the smaller provinces that do not have the same fiscal capacity as some of the larger ones.

Our federal government is sitting on an $8 billion surplus today. International trade is under federal jurisdiction. Because of those facts, will the Prime Minister now do the right thing and make sure the federal government pays 100% of the cost to the farmers of this country?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have a responsibility to give our share. It has been that way for a long time and it will continue to be that way.

When there has been a problem of joint jurisdiction, like this one, both governments have contributed. We hope all governments will do the same at this time. That has been the case in the past and we hope it will be the case in the future.

However we have moved first. Yesterday the leaders in the agricultural community praised the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the government for the action we have taken.

National Defence

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

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of National Defence.

The government is in contractual talks with Tibbett & Britten of England to privatize the supply chain of our military.

Over 1,600 public service workers and over 3,000 businesses are very concerned that there has been no security, no savings and no scrutiny of this contract.

Will the defence minister assure all parliamentarians and all Canadians that no contract will be signed until the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs and the auditor general have a thorough review of this project?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his steadfast support of the military which has taken his party in new and very welcome directions.

As for the supply chain, he said that there was no security. As I explained in the House a while ago, not only are all the workers guaranteed their jobs at full wages, but they get seven years job security which, as I indicated before, is a lot more than those of us sitting on this front bench.

The Environment

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

Mr. Speaker, I hope I get a better answer than that.

About a year ago I raised the question about Isle Haute, a pristine island in the Bay of Fundy, two and a half kilometres long, which is exactly the same as it was about 10,000 years ago.

I asked the Minister of the Environment if he would designate this a wilderness preserve. He seemed to be inclined to do that. Has he made any progress on this designation?

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to give a report for the hon. member. The hon. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans responsible for Nova Scotia and myself have been working on this. We recognize the historic importance of the island and its environmental importance.

We expect to transfer it from DFO to Environment Canada this year. We hope shortly thereafter to include it in our national wildlife area as soon as possible.

I will certainly be keeping the hon. member informed so that he can attend the ceremony when it takes place.

National Defence

[Peter MacKay, Progressive Conservative, Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the resource starved Department of National Defence will spend tens of millions of dollars on obsolete analogue foreign communications equipment from France to upgrade the Aurora aircraft. It could have purchased high quality, high tech digital technology from a firm right here at home.

Kanata based DRS Technologies Canada supplies the U.S. navy. It could have handled this upgrade with the state of the art equipment for our soldiers.

Could the Minister of National Defence assure the House that the purchase is the best deal in the interest of Canadians, not in the interest of the Liberal Party?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I will look into this particular case and report back to the hon. member.

In general, what my department does is it puts these contracts out to tender. There are bids made and we go by a combination of the lowest price and the best technical performance. I have every reason to expect that this was done in this case, but I will look into it.

Africa

[Rahim Jaffer, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is staking a lot of his legacy on what he can accomplish at the G-8 meeting in Kananaskis.

Since he will be doing it on the backs of Canadian taxpayers, we need a clear response on his African agenda, especially in light of his weak reaction to democratic violations by Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

What assurance can he give Canadians that their hard-earned tax dollars will flow only to those nations which clearly embrace democracy, the rule of law and human rights for all their citizens?

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member will appreciate the exciting prospect that the Prime Minister has initiated with the G-8 by working with NEPAD. It is precisely to enable us to work with our African partners to encourage better democracy. This is exactly what the NEPAD initiative will do.

What is interesting about it, and where the Prime Minister has shown great leadership, is this will allow African nations themselves to be engaged in the process of judging themselves. That is exactly what we did with the Commonwealth. We are confident this will happen with Mr. Mugabe in Zimbabwe as well.

[Rahim Jaffer, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this is the exact problem. The Canadian Alliance and the Canadian people actually are in favour of providing support to people in desperate need. What we do not support is sending the money over there without the safeguards and assurances that it will get to the people who in fact need it.

The Prime Minister seems to be willing to rely on people like Robert Mugabe to distribute Canadian aid. Members of his caucus have voted down an Alliance request for a closer examination of these expenditures.

Will the Prime Minister agree today to an independent public audit of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid spending to ensure the money gets to those who need it?

[Susan Whelan, Liberal, Minister for International Cooperation]

Mr. Speaker, we constantly and regularly audit internally and outside what goes on at CIDA on how our dollars are delivered. We ensure that our dollars are delivered to those people in need. We work with reputable international and Canadian organizations to make sure the dollars and the food go where they need to be and to the people who need them.

We are not working with the government of Zimbabwe right now. That is a well known fact. We are working with international organizations. We will be making a number of decisions in the coming days about how those dollars get to where they need to be.

Official Languages

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs says that almost everything his official languages action plan will contain comes under provincial jurisdiction.

That being the case, does the minister intend to take any steps to ensure that other Canadian provinces provide their minorities with services similar to those which Quebec is providing for its anglophone minority?