House of Commons Hansard #50 of the 37th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was retirement.

Topics

FundraisingOral Question Period

11:35 a.m.

Canadian Alliance

Philip Mayfield Canadian Alliance Cariboo—Chilcotin, BC

Mr. Speaker, the proof is in the Hill Times . I have a copy of it right here.

FundraisingOral Question Period

11:35 a.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh.

FundraisingOral Question Period

11:35 a.m.

The Deputy Speaker

Order, please. We can all catch up on our reading a little later. In the meantime, let us get the question, then the answer.

FundraisingOral Question Period

11:35 a.m.

Canadian Alliance

Philip Mayfield Canadian Alliance Cariboo—Chilcotin, BC

Mr. Speaker, it is an ad and the number is 232-5952. The rules are very clear. Even finance ministers must not use their ministerial offices or resources to raise campaign funds or to sell party memberships.

Will the Prime Minister instruct his second in command, the Minister of Finance, to disallow corporations from purchasing tickets to this $1,500 a plate fundraiser?

FundraisingOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Don Valley East Ontario

Liberal

David Collenette LiberalMinister of Transport

Mr. Speaker, now that the hon. member has revealed his very credible source, it just reinforces my earlier answer.

AgricultureOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

Yolande Thibeault Liberal Saint-Lambert, QC

Mr. Speaker, farmers have expressed some concerns about the development of business risk management programs.

Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food explain to this House how he intends to alleviate these concerns?

AgricultureOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Portneuf Québec

Liberal

Claude Duplain LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

Mr. Speaker, for a year and a half now, the Minister of Agriculture has been working on developing an agriculture policy framework with risk management programs that will provide very effective coverage for farmers. We have consulted all the industry representatives, producers and members of the Standing Committee on Agriculture who asked for amendments, which were noted and even added.

Again I repeat, the Minister of Agriculture is currently in Toronto with his provincial and territorial counterparts to continue examining the policy framework.

HealthOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

NDP

Alexa McDonough NDP Halifax, NS

Mr. Speaker, in Nova Scotia today, unless at death's door, people are forced to wait up to 10 months for MRIs. In Ontario, the provincial government is entertaining 107 bids from health privatizers for MRIs and CAT scans.

As we head into the first ministers meetings on the Romanow blueprint, where is the federal leadership on moving forward with health care that is public and non-profit?

HealthOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Saint-Laurent—Cartierville Québec

Liberal

Stéphane Dion LiberalPresident of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs

Mr. Speaker, I have now the opportunity to say something about what the Premier of Ontario said. He has said that the additional money from the federal government will be to replace the actual money he is giving. He is saying that he is spending $25.8 billion for health care.

Every penny that we will give to the provinces next Wednesday will be to top up this money.

HealthOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

NDP

Alexa McDonough NDP Halifax, NS

Mr. Speaker, when will the government decide that it is not just about money. A for-profit MRI clinic is now operating in my riding and my constituents do not care whether it is there because the Alliance wants it or because the Liberals will not stop it.

What will the government put on the table at the first ministers meeting next week to ensure that Canadians have publicly funded diagnostic services that they desperately need, and which were specifically recommended in the Romanow blueprint?

HealthOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Madawaska—Restigouche New Brunswick

Liberal

Jeannot Castonguay LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health

Mr. Speaker, this is an interesting and important question. It is interesting to see that in certain situations, there are people here who would not want us to work with the provinces, to work together towards the same goals, but would prefer that we simply send money to the provinces and let them do what they want.

Still others say that maybe we should make sure that the money being sent to the provinces is used for access to healthcare. That is exactly what we want to do. That is what the minister said earlier, that together with the provinces, in a spirit of cooperation, we want to set goals—

HealthOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

The Deputy Speaker

The hon. member for St. John's West.

Equalization PaymentsOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Progressive Conservative

Loyola Hearn Progressive Conservative St. John's West, NL

Mr. Speaker, for quite some time we have been talking about the equalization clawback arrangements with the provinces. The former minister of finance has said, and is still saying, that it is very difficult to tamper with the equalization formula. The best way to help provinces is by dealing with project by project.

Does the government agree with this, and if so, will it help the province of Newfoundland develop the clean energy project at Lower Churchill?

Equalization PaymentsOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Vaughan—King—Aurora Ontario

Liberal

Maurizio Bevilacqua LiberalSecretary of State (International Financial Institutions)

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member will know that one of the hallmarks of the government has been the excellent relationship we have with provinces. In the area of equalization, he will also know that we have increased equalization payments by 27%. This to me is an amount of money that Canadians feel is quite reasonable.

FisheriesOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Progressive Conservative

Loyola Hearn Progressive Conservative St. John's West, NL

Mr. Speaker, let me see if I can have more success with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans says that he has no jurisdiction over overfishing, that it is a problem for NAFO. The minister does have jurisdiction over the rapidly growing seal herds. What is his plan to deal with this serious source of predation?

FisheriesOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

West Nova Nova Scotia

Liberal

Robert Thibault LiberalMinister of Fisheries and Oceans

Mr. Speaker, as the member would know, I will be making announcements very shortly on multi-year plan for the seal hunt which will respect the size of the resource and the importance in the communities. It will be flexible, much as we did last year where for the first time in 25 years we reached the quota. We even surpassed it.

We held a forum in Newfoundland with over 100 participants who expressed their views, both harvesters and conservation groups, on how we should manage, and we will be responding to those concerns.

Firearms RegistryOral Question Period

January 31st, 2003 / 11:45 a.m.

Canadian Alliance

Garry Breitkreuz Canadian Alliance Yorkton—Melville, SK

Mr. Speaker, this week the RCMP sent me documents that show five million guns in the billion dollar registry still have not been verified; that is most of the guns. This has become one of the most expensive garbage collection systems in the country.

I remind the justice minister that accuracy was one of the conditions of support for the Canadian Police Association. Would the minister tell Parliament how much it will cost to go back and verify these five million firearms? Will this be the second billion that will be flushed?

Firearms RegistryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Malpeque P.E.I.

Liberal

Wayne Easter LiberalSolicitor General of Canada

Mr. Speaker, I really believe it is time that this member turn the page and start to work with Canadians so that we have a safe and secure society.

The Minister of Justice has indicated that he will accept the recommendations of the Auditor General. There comes a time to move on and maybe it would be better for society if that member, instead of undermining the system constantly, tried to work with us to improve it.

Firearms RegistryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Canadian Alliance

Darrel Stinson Canadian Alliance Okanagan—Shuswap, BC

Mr. Speaker, the firearms program involves the use of highly sensitive personal information, yet the privacy commissioner states that bags containing personal information collected by the gun registry were found in a dumpster. These documents originated with a private company, BDP, hired by the government.

When the system is breached by police personnel they are either charged, fired or disciplined in some way. Therefore what is this justice minister going to do to BDP for breaching our privacy rights?

Firearms RegistryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Malpeque P.E.I.

Liberal

Wayne Easter LiberalSolicitor General of Canada

Mr. Speaker, we appreciate the concerns expressed by the privacy commissioner. When the privacy commissioner raises some concerns, we constantly try to accommodate those concerns and work with them. That is what we are doing in this case.

Oil and Gas IndustryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Bloc

Jocelyne Girard-Bujold Bloc Jonquière, QC

Mr. Speaker, the huge oil and gas industry profits announced today once again demonstrate the effects of the lack of regulation and the vertical integration of the industry. The companies' control is virtually total, from the well head to the pump.

What is the government waiting for before it regulates the oil and gas industry, putting an end among other things to vertical integration, which runs counter to the normal rules of competition?

Oil and Gas IndustryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Vancouver South—Burnaby B.C.

Liberal

Herb Dhaliwal LiberalMinister of Natural Resources

Mr. Speaker, we believe that we need a dynamic industry and we are working with it to ensure that happens. We think that a strong industry is very important for energy and for our exports.

We export $58 billion. That helps Canada. As a federal government we get $9 billion of revenue. Is the hon. member saying that we should not be collecting that? Is the hon. member saying that we should not have a competitive industry because if she is, then she is wrong.

Oil and Gas IndustryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Bloc

Jocelyne Girard-Bujold Bloc Jonquière, QC

Mr. Speaker, not only are consumers being strangled by the oil and gas companies, they also have to deal with the effects of a 1.5 cent a litre federal gas tax, which is unwarranted and yet has been in effect since 1998.

What is keeping the federal government from transferring this tax to the provinces to fund public transit?

Oil and Gas IndustryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Vancouver South—Burnaby B.C.

Liberal

Herb Dhaliwal LiberalMinister of Natural Resources

In fact, Mr. Speaker, those in the oil and gas industry are not eligible for the recent reduction in the corporate taxes that we introduced. Every other industry has and they have made representations saying that they should also be able to get a reduction on their corporate taxes, from 28% to the 23%, to which we are now moving.

The hon. member, if she would do her research, would actually understand that the oil and gas, and mining industries actually have not benefited from the tax reductions announced--

Oil and Gas IndustryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

The Deputy Speaker

The hon. member for Prince Albert.